Sukhomlynskyi Vasyl Oleksandrovych

28 September 1918 – 02 September 1970

• Biography
• Bibliography of his publications
• Full-text documents
• Photo gallery
• Pedagogical readings
• Internet resources
• Societies, associations and establishments
• Sculptures, coins and medals
• Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi awards and prizes

An outstanding Ukrainian teacher-humanist, Hero of Socialist Labor, Corresponding Member of the AES of the USSR, PhD (Education), head teacher, teacher, and children’s writer

V.O. Sukhomlynskyi was appointed head teacher of the secondary school in Pavlysh village, Kirovohrad region, in 1948, and took this position up to the end of his life. Being the head teacher of this school he had been carrying out the educational experiment for 22 years, and as a result he created his own original system of education. V.O. Sukhomlynskyi is known as a teacher-humanist and creator of the educational system in the center of which a child as a unique individual is placed. According to V.O. Sukhomlynskyi’s ideas the main aim of education is to develop creative abilities of an individual who grows up within a group of other children and on the basis of moral and aesthetic values, interests and needs aimed at creative work and self-development. From the standpoint of humanism and human values the origins of which lie in the Ukrainian spirituality, its moral imperatives and cultures, the teacher considered the education to be cognition, spirituality, and work. V.O. Sukhomlynskyi included the Ukrainian folk pedagogy into the system of various educational influence methods; he considered it to be the basis for the formation of an individual. He paid great attention to the cultivation of love for the native word. Taking this into consideration, the teacher created his own original forms and methods of teaching children at school and during out-of-school activities. In 1955 V.O. Sukhomlynskyi completed his PhD dissertation titled Dyrektor shkoly – kerivnyk navchalno-vykhovnoi roboty (Head teacher: leader of educational work). He was Corresponding Member of the AES of the Russian SFSR since 1957 and Honoured Teacher of the Ukrainian SSR since 1958. In 1968 Hero of Socialist Labour was conferred on him, and he was appointed Corresponding Member of the AES of the USSR.

V.O. Sukhomlynskyi’s diverse and multiple-aspect creative oeuvre contains 48 books, 500 scientific articles, and more than 1,500 short stories and fairy tales for children. At the beginning of the 21st century 65 works written by the teacher were published; the number of printed copies of these works amounted to about 15,000,000 items. They were translated into 59 languages.

Here are the most well-known books by V.O. Sukhomlynskyi: Sertse viddaiu ditiam (I give my heart to children) (it was translated into 32 languages and has 55 editions); Narodzhennia hromadianyna (Birth of a citizen); Pavlyska serednia shkola (Pavlysh secondary school); Yak vyhovaty spravzhniu liudynu (How to bring up a real person); Sto porad uchytelevi (One hundred pieces of advice for teachers); Rozmova z molodym dyrektorom shkoly (Conversation with a young head teacher); Knyha pro liubov (Book about love).

V.O. Sukhomlynskyi’s pedagogical heritage is deeply studied in Ukraine, Russia and many countries of the world. The well-known societies are as follows: the All-Ukrainian Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi Association (since 1991); the International Sukhomlynskyi’s Followers Society established in Marburg, Germany, in 1990, and the All-Chinese Sukhomlynskyi’s Disciples Society (since 1998).