Once again about the school museum…

Abstract

One of the most numerous museum institutions, the school museum, is once again in the sphere of interest of the state and society as an instrument of education, upbringing, and formation of an active life position through the inclusion of students in independent search and creative work on the basis of museums organized in educational institutions. The article concisely identifies the origins of this phenomenon, the time of appearance and transformation of the tasks that are set for school museums. The proto-museum form of the school museum was formed in Russia already in the 18th century. But the intensity of the growth of school museums has a spasmodic character, which is due not only to political and economic factors, but also to the involvement in this process of forming a network of school museums of the state, the manifestation of personal initiative, the comprehension of tasks by the pedagogical and museum community. The article discusses the principles proposed by teachers and organizers of the museum business, which should be incorporated into the activities of the school museum. The basic principles of specialized training of students for their future profession within the framework of a practice-oriented approach in the 18th — first half 19th centuries are implemented through the use of authentic objects and models (technical, artistic, copies of artifacts), which became the basis for the formation of the first collections of school museums. This activity subsequently receives theoretical justification as one of the basic approaches in the education system — the visibility of learning, which allows to educate an independent and creative personality. The focus of local lore, declared at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, continues to be understood in the first half of the 20th century. These positions, without disappearing into the functionality of modern school museums, are adjusted by the inclusion of school education in the civil educational order of the state. School museums, as part of the country’s general museum space, require the unification of a number of organizational issues, which is reflected in regulatory documents. But at the same time, the organizers of school museums should also take into account the need for a creative approach to defining the profile of their activities. The possibility of profile orientation of school museums is considered and, as an example, the development of a network of variable school literary museums (since the second half of the 20th century). The article discusses the issues that were identified when working on the block “School Literary Museum” for the encyclopedia “Literary Museums of Russia”: definition, functionality, origins, changes in the tasks facing an educational institution in organizing a school museum, the emergence of a profile group “school literary museum”, the normative consolidation of this profile group in the network of school museums.