Representation of Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi’s Pedagogical Views in Artistic and Documentary Literature

Abstract

The article analyzes artistic and documentary works dedicated to Vasyl Sukhomlynskyi. Over 100 works of various genres created by authors in different years and through different forms of art highlight the educator’s image and views on education and child upbringing. The study focuses on two artistic documentary works: Ivan Tsiupa’s novella The Kind Deed Maker (1971) and Ivan Drach’s dramatic poem A Thought About the Teacher (1976). These works depict the life events of the Pavlysh teacher and explore pedagogical themes. Each of the two authors’ works is analyzed separately, with an emphasis on pedagogical issues such as the role of the Teacher’s personality in the educational process – both pedagogically and socially; the teacher’s and educator’s attitude toward troublesome children – those who are pedagogically or socially neglected; the question of school-family cooperation in education; the idea of free upbringing; humanism and treating every child as a unique individual; and the cultivation of emotional sensitivity among youth. Both works devote significant attention to the contrast between official academic perspectives and those of Sukhomlynskyi regarding the direction of pedagogy, the methods of influencing a student’s personality, and the importance of the children’s collective. Both authors compare Sukhomlynskyi’s figure and ideas to those of classical educators – from Skovoroda and Pestalozzi to Korczak. The study concludes that pedagogical readings and re-readings of artistic and documentary literature are both meaningful and necessary. They reveal the image of the Teacher – regardless of name – through emotional and aesthetic means, as well as the significance and role of the Child and the Pupil in the flow of time.