Based on the ideas of Vasily Sukhomlinsky, an educator in Ukraine in the 1950s and 60s, our kindergarten will be a school of joy. His philosophy informs many aspects of our classroom. Here is a short list:

• Nature: Sukhomlinsky taught, “The world surrounding the child is first of all the world of nature with its unlimited wealth of phenomena and inexhaustible beauty. Here, in nature, lies the eternal source of the child’s intellect.”

• Work: Sukhomlinsky believed that intellectual work is essential in helping children become creative and find satisfaction in learning. Physical work, especially work that is meaningful to the child and brings joy to others is also integral. It teaches children to overcome difficulties and develop a sense of purpose.

• Music: “Music educates the soul, makes human the feelings.” He introduced music with purpose and forethought. “In the minutes when it is enjoying music, the child feels that it is really a person… Childhood is just as impossible without music as it is without games or fairy tales… Music opens up people’s hearts. Listening to a melody, experiencing and admiring its beauty, teacher and student draw closer together, cease to be strangers.”

• Art: “Children think creatively, vividly, in images saturated with emotion. For the child to become intelligent and bright, it must be given the happiness of the artistic vision of the world in early childhood.”

• Morality and Goodness: “The moral cast of personality depends, in the final analysis, on the kinds of sources from which the person drew his or her joys during the years of childhood. If the joys were thoughtless and selfish, if the child did not learn what grief, offense, and suffering are, it will grow up to be an egoist, deaf to other people. It is very important that every child learn the highest joy–the joy of the exciting experience aroused by caring for another person.”

• Books: “A real teacher loves books: that is the golden rule governing the lives of our staff, which has become a tradition. This atmosphere of love for books, respect for books, reverence for books is the essence of a school and educational work. A school can have everything, but if it does not have the books necessary to support the holistic development of young people and enrich their spiritual lives, or if people do not love books and are indifferent to them, then it  is not a school.”