In the mid-60s, at Moscow State University and many other universities in the country, there were many forms of work with schoolchildren interested in mathematics. However, they were mainly adapted for schoolchildren in large cities. To help thousands of schoolchildren from remote villages and cities find their way to mathematics, awaken their interest in classes, and teach them how to work with a book, a new form of work was required. This form has become correspondence, or as they say now, distance learning.
VZMSH became the first correspondence school in our country.
Initially, the school was a math school. Gradually it expanded, departments of biology, physics, philology, chemistry, economics, history and law arose. This is precisely the reason for the change in the name of the school. From a mathematical school it turned into a multi-subject school, receiving the name Open Lyceum “All-Russian Correspondence Multi-Subject School”.
VZMSH is a worthy child of the Khrushchev thaw of the 60s. It was created not for show in reports, but for children. It was created by the initiative, work and talent of extraordinary people of its time, enthusiasts and high-class professionals. It is to these people that the school owes its spirit of enthusiasm and initiative, optimism and vitality.
Among the modest people who moved and are moving this great cause, one cannot fail to mention the permanent director of the VZMSH Vladimir Fedorovich Ovchinnikov, members of the scientific council Elena Georgievna Glagoleva, Mikhail Borisovich Berkinblit, the first head teacher Polina Iosifovna Masarskaya.
There are no bells or children's voices heard in this school. There are no classrooms with blackboards and chalk. Instead of all this, a small room in one of the buildings of Moscow State University, filled with tables and littered with mountains of letters and parcels. Teachers, children and their parents who come to us are amazed at how the VZMS staff navigate all this. And yet, this is a real school with its own program and teachers
It is clear that the correspondence school required manuals adapted specifically for such training (for more details, see the manuals). Israel Moiseevich Gelfand managed to assemble an excellent team of mathematicians and teachers. Among the first authors were A.A. Kirillov (now a world-famous scientist), N.H. Rozov (now dean of the Faculty of Pedagogical Education of Moscow State University, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Education) E.G. Glagoleva (candidate of pedagogical sciences, Scientific Secretary of the Scientific Council of the All-Russian Medical School, still actively working).
And to ensure mass enrollment of students, many teachers were required. For these purposes, students, graduate students and young scientists from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, and then from other universities, were involved.
The first competitive enrollment for students from 10 regions nearby Moscow was announced in the spring of 1964. The result exceeded all expectations: more than 6,000 works were sent to the 1st course. About one and a half thousand lucky people were enrolled. In the early 70s, more than 15000 works from different parts of the USSR.
Currently, children study at the school not only from Russia, but also from the CIS countries and abroad. Someone once aptly called VZMSH a school without walls.
Almost from the first year of work, great opportunities inherent in this method of training began to open up. The great interest aroused by the correspondence school among school teachers led to the emergence and implementation of the idea " Collective student"- a school club working under the guidance of a teacher according to the same programs as individual students. (see Collective student)
The successful idea was quickly picked up, and soon dozens of correspondence schools were operating in the country, including branches of VZMSH.
Unlike the well-known physics and mathematics boarding school, created a little earlier in Moscow for out-of-town students, the correspondence form of education did not involve separating students from their family, familiar environment, and friends, but it provided the opportunity to try their hand and reasonably decide how serious their passion for a particular subject is.
This form of education undoubtedly serves as a powerful means of equalizing the starting opportunities of children, regardless of where and in what environment they grow up. Thus, the school was initially focused on the provinces, which, of course, did not prevent schoolchildren from large cities from studying there.
Many children who experienced difficulties in the first year of study later reached a fairly high level, which helped them decide on their future profession and enter a university.
Now the position of the school has practically not changed, but the school provides the opportunity to study there for Moscow schoolchildren. I would like to note that against the backdrop of many textbooks and programs, VZMSH manuals attract the attention of even Moscow teachers. Remarkable fact!
The correspondence form of education, compared to others, is more flexible. The goal here is not to work only with gifted children; strict specialization is not assumed and the future fate of children is not predetermined. Although for many thousands of schoolchildren, studying at VZMSH helped them decide on their choice of profession. (see reviews)
The main thing during distance learning is to instill in the student the ability to work independently with a book, to accustom him to systematic mental work. It is impossible not to mention one more very important aspect of distance learning. Since this form of learning requires written presentation, it helps the student develop a culture of thinking and speech.
Over the more than 40-year history of work at VZMSH, a set of teaching aids has been created and carefully tested, and a system of special control tasks has been developed. Many of our manuals have been repeatedly published in mass circulation (including abroad) and are currently being republished. However, the correspondence school does not stop in its development. In recent years, many new manuals have been written and published, the authors of which are graduates of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics and other faculties of Moscow State University.
Recently, in connection with changes in the programs of secondary schools, ideas have arisen to use the vast experience and developed infrastructure of correspondence schools to help secondary schools, especially in rural areas and small ones, in setting up specialized and specialized courses. In this regard, the rich experience of the VZMSH can provide enormous assistance to public education authorities. Our school plans to introduce new interactive technologies in the very near future.
The correspondence school has always taken and continues to take an active part in all areas of life in Russian secondary education. Close contacts have always existed with the university boarding school. A.N. Kolmogorov.
For a number of years, VZMSH employees were members of the methodological commission in mathematics and the jury of the All-Union Olympiad for Schoolchildren.
The cooperation between the OL VZMSH and the Moscow Center for Continuing Mathematical Education is fruitful (for more details, see contacts).
The list is easy to continue, but the main thing is clear - OL VZMSH has firmly fit into the Russian secondary education system, in fact founded and implemented a new direction in it, found its rightful place in it, won recognition as an advanced pedagogical community.
Department of Mathematics: Past. The present. Future
The mathematics department at the Lyceum is the oldest. The history of the school began with him more than 40 years ago. The Scientific Council of the Correspondence Mathematical School (as it was then called) was headed by the largest Russian mathematician Israel Moiseevich Gelfand. The Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, now the Russian Academy of Education, undertook to finance the school. The Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University provided, albeit more than modest, premises, and most importantly, teachers and students.
The creators of the correspondence school understood that its future fate would largely depend on the quality of benefits that the first students received.
In the shortest possible time, I.M. Gelfand managed to organize a mass edition of the first two correspondence school manuals.
These are the now widely known books “Coordinate Method” (authors I.M. Gelfand, E.G. Glagoleva, A.A. Kirillov) and “Functions and Graphs” (authors I.M. Gelfand, E.G. Glagoleva, E. .E.Shnol). These books opened the series of manuals "Library of the Physics and Mathematics School", published in the Main Editorial Office of Physics and Mathematics Literature of the Nauka Publishing House.
The first book to be published was “The Coordinate Method”. Of course, 40 years ago the authors did not yet know how to write books for such a school. But as Elena Georgievna Glagoleva said, the first “damn” did not come out lumpy and for many years these manuals (now in a revised form) have been used in the VZMSH program.
This book has been translated into English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic and other languages. When the authors wrote this book, they tried to make schoolchildren forget that all this has been known for a long time, and look at familiar and sometimes boring things with a fresh look.
The books in this outstanding series are permanent aids to the mathematics department. Written “in one breath”, after many years they are perceived by schoolchildren with the same interest.
So, in 1964, the first enrollment was announced, and parcels with the completed introductory work poured into a small room at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics. I can’t help but remember the huge transition from the main building of Moscow State University to the dormitory building, all filled with bags of mail. In the early 70s, during the admissions campaign, about 16 thousand works from different parts of the USSR had to be sorted by address and carefully checked. Teachers and students all worked together to sort mail. Then students and graduate students, under the guidance of full-time ZMSH teachers, had to check all the notebooks, assign scores and select about one and a half thousand lucky students who passed the competition. It is clear that such a number of children interested in mathematics could only be thanks to state policy aimed at increasing the level of scientific and technical education of young people.
A year after the opening of the VZMSH, there were 16 thousand schoolchildren, including those who began to study in the “Collective Student” group under the guidance of their own mathematics teacher. There is no need to prove that leading such a group is a real form of professional development for a teacher.
In those years, about one and a half thousand schoolchildren’s works came to the ZMSH every month to check them. A tiny full-time team naturally could not check such a huge number of notebooks. This is where students from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, and then from the newly formed Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University, came to the rescue. Students united in teams (now this name sounds strange, but let’s not forget what years these were) of 6-7 people, among them a foreman was elected, who came to the ZMSH to get notebooks for his inspectors, and also monitored the quality of checking the work. But the students, yesterday’s schoolchildren themselves, needed guidance. Therefore, one of the most important tasks of the ZMS teachers was to teach students to check and review the work of schoolchildren. What the students lacked in experience, they made up for with enthusiasm and a desire to be useful. A few years after the founding of the VZMSH, student teachers were often themselves graduates of the correspondence school and knew its specifics.
For students, correspondence with schoolchildren has become an excellent pedagogical practice. The first mentors of the students were P.I. Masarskaya, G.B. Yusina, N.Yu. Vaisman, who came together with their director Vladimir Fedorovich Ovchinnikov from the famous 2nd Moscow School of Physics and Mathematics.
Vladimir Fedorovich still heads both of these unique schools. An innovative teacher, he always, without caring about his own convenience, is actively involved in practical work to implement progressive ideas.
Students had to learn not only to find errors in solutions, but to briefly and clearly explain to their distant students the mistakes made during the solution, and learn to praise for successes, even the most modest ones. Among the students checking the work of schoolchildren were such future famous mathematicians and teachers as Joseph Mikhailovich Rabbot, Viktor Lvovich Gutenmacher, Andrei Leonovich Toom, Nikolai Borisovich Vasiliev. A graduate of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, a mathematics teacher at Moscow School No. 710, and now a well-known deputy of the Moscow City Duma, Evgeniy Bunimovich was also once a ZMSH teacher.
Note that in those years, a quarter of those entering the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at Moscow State University were graduates of the correspondence school, and the VZMSH diploma was highly valued by the admissions committees of universities.
Constant work was carried out with the teachers of the correspondence school: the authors of manuals and activists, and often “I.M. Gelfand himself,” gathered teachers of all “ranks” for detailed instructions. At such seminars, the main ideas contained in this or that manual, the basic principles of their implementation, typical mistakes of schoolchildren and ways to find and comment on them were discussed.
It is difficult to tell on a small website page about everyone who started and continues to work at VZMSH. You can see more detailed information in the section "authors of VZMSH".
The mathematics department remains faithful to the traditions laid down by its founders to this day.
Of course, over the forty years of existence, changes have occurred in the structure and organization of the educational process. First of all, this is the earlier and earlier enrollment of children in distance learning in mathematics.
So in 1972, three-year education was introduced, then in 1997 the opportunity to study for four years became available. But this turned out to be not enough. Requests from teachers and parents led us to the fact that since 2004, 7th grade students could enroll in our department, so the full cycle is now five years.
However, for those who for some reason learned about the existence of VZMS later, the opportunity to study under an accelerated program is provided. Students are admitted to four-year, three-year, etc. respectively. up to one year of study inclusive. At the same time, students in an accelerated program study all the main topics of the course.
In the introductory test published in the press, it is indicated which classes students must solve this or that problem.
It turned out that the idea of a correspondence school was unusually viable: despite the difficult living conditions in the absence of funding from the state and forced measures to introduce partial payment for additional educational services in the 90s, the number of people wishing to study mathematics has been growing since the mid-90s. Currently, each year there are about 1000 students in individual training in the Moscow group and approximately 200-300 in “Collective Student” groups.
The teaching staff also gradually changed. For a number of years, the course leaders were the now famous authors of manuals S.L. Tabachnikov and S.M. Lvovsky. Along with such experienced teachers as N.E. Sokhor, N.V. Antonova, E.Z. Skvortsova, young graduates of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University E.E. Pushkar and E.A. Bernstein work. They also became the authors of several VZMSH manuals, successfully used in our program.
Currently, in the context of a possible transition to specialized education in high school, correspondence school in the broad sense of the word can play an active role in the life of a comprehensive school.
First of all, we see great prospects in helping rural schools, which are currently experiencing a shortage of qualified teaching staff.
Since the 1970s, a correspondence school has been operating in Moscow, in which high school students from different regions of the country study mathematics, biology and some other subjects by correspondence. They are sent short manuals and interesting tasks, which they complete and send to Moscow, where they are checked by MSU students and other employees of the Correspondence School. In the first four graduations, 12 thousand students graduated from the school. In the fifth year of operation (1969/1970 academic year), there were about 10 thousand students, and in the tenth year - 19 thousand.
One of those who stood at the origins of this school was Mikhail Borisovich Berkinblit, employee of the Institute of Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In his memoirs, he talks about how it all began.
Recently it was 50 years since the creation of the All-Union Correspondence Mathematical School. This is a good reason to remember how it was created and the people who created it.
But I will start a little from afar to talk about how my family became involved in the creation of the Correspondence School.
How my wife and I met Israel Moiseevich Gelfand
The idea of creating a correspondence mathematical school belongs to the outstanding mathematician and biologist - Israel Moiseevich Gelfand. I'll tell you how we met him.
After graduating from the pedagogical institute, I worked at school 362. He taught physics, astronomy, logic and psychology there (the school once had such subjects). But in 1960 our school suddenly became a seven-year school, and I had to leave it. I got a job at the psychology department of the institute from which I myself graduated.
The changes in work have been extreme. At school I had a heavy workload (30–36 hours a week), and at the department I had to help carry out experiments for graduate students, who did not carry out these experiments every day. Then, on my own initiative, I began to conduct classes with graduate students on the topic “Statistical methods for processing experimental results.” These classes were attended not only by graduate students from the Department of Psychology, but also by some graduate students from the Department of Physiology. Among them was Yuri Ilyich Arshavsky, who later became my friend and colleague. Yura invited his friend Mark Lvovich Shik to the next lesson. And the next time Yura and Mark invited me to a seminar led by Israel Moiseevich Gelfand and Mikhail Lvovich Tsetlin (with the participation of Viktor Semenovich Gurfinkel). This is how I met Israel Moiseevich, which changed my life.
This seminar was unusual. Although this was a physiology seminar, its participants included mathematicians, physicists, biologists and doctors. But the seminar (in which I very soon became a secretary) requires a separate story.
Here we need to make one more digression. The events described took place in the 1960s, in the middle of the Khrushchev Thaw. The late 1950s and early 1960s were a wonderful time. Hopes for a new life after liberation from the oppression and hypnosis of the cult of personality, the shock of Solzhenitsyn’s first story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, Okudzhava’s first songs, for the public performance of which in some research institute, however, it was still necessary to seek permission from the party committee, trade union committee and other coms, the emergence of such theaters as Sovremennik and the Taganka Theater, heated debates about the ways of development of society - the entire social climate was favorable for a variety of social endeavors. This atmosphere extended to the field of science. In the USSR, cybernetics was suddenly allowed, which until recently was the “corrupt girl of imperialism,” etc.
One of the ideas that appeared in science at this time was the idea of developing interdisciplinary research. Israel Moiseevich and Misha Tsetlin thought about the interaction of mathematics and biology. Israel Moiseevich was going to create a new scientific interdisciplinary laboratory, and he was looking for future employees among the seminar participants.
And on March 3, 1961, after the end of the seminar meeting, Israel Moiseevich left several people and said that an order had been signed to organize a Theoretical Department at the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The department will have two laboratories: biological and mathematical.
Someone said that it would be nice to celebrate this event, but it is not clear where. It was inconvenient at the Institute of Neurosurgery (where the seminar was held). Then I offered to go to my home. We called my wife Lena, warned her and went. Along the way we bought bread, sausage and vodka. Viktor Semenovich asked one of the doctors he knew for a bottle of alcohol, but he didn’t need it. If Lena and I later remembered correctly, we then had I. M. Gelfand, M. L. Tsetlin, V. S. Gurfinkel, Mark Shik, Yura Arshavsky, Inna Keder, Vanya Rodionov, Seryozha Kovalev, Leva Chailakhyan and Igor Sergeevich Balakhovsky.
This is how my wife, Elena Georgievna Glagoleva, met Israel Moiseevich.
Misha Tsetlin suggested not talking about science, but reading poetry and singing songs. The poems were read mainly by himself and mainly by Korzhavin. And many different songs were sung. Mainly Okudzhava. But Viktor Semyonovich sang “A pub opened on Deribasovskaya,” Seryozha, Lyova and Vanya sang “Once upon a time there were three thugs.” They also sang “Brigantine”. It turned out to be a non-standard celebration of the creation of the department.
But some scientific conversations did arise. We talked mainly about biology. Only Israel Moiseevich and Elena were talking about a completely different topic. Israel Moiseevich asked her where she worked. She said that she is currently working at the department of higher mathematics at the Moscow Aviation Technology Institute, and before that she worked for a long time in the mathematics laboratory of NIISIMO APN (NIISIMO is the Research Institute of Content and Teaching Methods of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences). Israel Moiseevich said that this is very interesting, since he is just thinking about teaching mathematics at school and even teaches mathematics himself in a Moscow school. This was the famous “Second School”. Israel Moiseevich said that he really likes this school, that he really likes its teachers (and not only in mathematics, but also in literature) and students, as well as the director Vladimir Fedorovich Ovchinnikov. Elena and Israel Moiseevich agreed that she would go to school for his lectures, as well as seminar classes taught by Moscow State University students.
Thus began the preparation of materials for the Correspondence School, although it was officially opened only three years later.
Creation of ZMSH
This is how Israel Moiseevich himself spoke about the emergence of the Correspondence School at a meeting with teachers who participated in its work.
“I wanted to explain why I took up Correspondence School. The impetus was my conversation in 1963 with my great friend Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky, rector of Moscow State University. Ivan Georgievich persuaded me to join Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, who was then organizing a boarding school for out-of-town students at Moscow State University.
The idea of helping talented and interested children from different parts of our country in mathematics was close to me. Nevertheless, after reflection, I refused to work at the boarding school, but in return I offered to Ivan Georgievich to organize a correspondence mathematical school with his help.
I suggested that Ivan Georgievich, with his help, organize a correspondence mathematics school to give children from different parts of our country, living in places where there are no qualified people, the opportunity to rise to a high level. This idea is especially close to me, since in those years when I developed as a mathematician, I spent in a remote province where, apart from two or three books and the kind attitude of teachers, I had no other support. The only books I could get on mathematics were from my teacher, to whom I still feel indebted to this day. I understand how difficult it is to work in those conditions and how many truly talented people we are losing because of this, which our country so needs now. It seems to me that this need for capable and efficient people is so great that a boarding school cannot satisfy it. A boarding school can admit a hundred schoolchildren, and a correspondence school can admit at least an order of magnitude more.”
Ivan Georgievich liked the idea of a correspondence school, and he promised to help in its organization.
The Kolmogorov boarding school began operating in 1963, and the Correspondence School a year later. Her organization was required to solve many different, often unexpected problems.
For example, when the order to create a school had already appeared, it was necessary to open its bank account, but it was not opened until the bank showed the school’s round seal. And in the workshop where the seals were made, they did not want to make the seal until they were told the bank account of the organization through which their work was paid. This problem was solved by Elena Georgievna and Polina Iosifovna Masarskaya (she was a mathematics teacher at the Second School, then for many years the head teacher at ZMSH).
The other problem was more complex. Israel Moiseevich offered to become the director of the Correspondence School to Vladimir Fedorovich Ovchinnikov, the director of the Second School, and he agreed. But then it turned out that it was impossible to be the director of two schools at once; it was prohibited by law. Only the chairman of the government, A. N. Kosygin, was able to solve this problem. He issued an order that, as an exception, Vladimir Fedorovich could concurrently become the director of the Correspondence School. So later, when the “Second School” was destroyed for political and ideological reasons, and Vladimir Fedorovich was fired from there, he did not have to look for a new place of work.
Ivan Georgievich gave Elena Georgievna a position at the Department of Mathematical Analysis of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, and she moved in January 1964 from MATI to Moscow State University. There, her main task was to organize the ZMSH.
The real creation of the Correspondence School began in November 1963, when he himself, the Deputy Minister of Education of the RSFSR M.P. Kashin and Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences I.M. Gelfand met in the office of the rector of Moscow State University Petrovsky. At this conversation, during which the decision was made to organize the ZMS, those who became the direct executors of this project were also present: the dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, Professor N. V. Efimov and member of the faculty party bureau N. Kh. Rozov.
A scientific council of the school was created, headed by I.M. Gelfand. The council included Professor A. A. Kirillov (Deputy Chairman), Deputy Minister of Education of the RSFSR M. P. Kashin, Professors E. B. Dynkin, N. V. Efimov (Dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics), B. V. Shabad , as well as B. R. Weinberg and others. The secretary of the council was E. G. Glagoleva, I. M. Gelfand’s assistant for the Correspondence School.
A task was prepared that schoolchildren wishing to enroll in the Correspondence School at Moscow State University had to complete. At first they wanted to publish it in Komsomolskaya Pravda, but M.P. Kashin opposed this. He said: “And what will we do if 10 thousand works come from all over the Union?” At his suggestion, it was decided to carry out the first recruitment not in the entire republic, but in the regions: Vladimir, Kalinin, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Tambov, Smolensk, Tula, Yaroslavl and Bryansk. The introductory task was sent to the editorial offices of regional newspapers.
In addition, at the end of February 1964, M.P. Kashin convened a meeting of deputy heads of oblon (regional departments of public education) on the issue of organizing a correspondence mathematical school. A representative of each oblon of these regions was given packages with the texts of test papers and an appeal to eighth-graders about the organization of a correspondence mathematics school.
It was decided not to admit schoolchildren from Moscow, Leningrad and other big cities to the Correspondence School, and schoolchildren from villages and small remote towns and cities had an advantage in admission.
The idea of organizing a correspondence school met with local support. Regional newspapers reported in detail about the Correspondence School and advised readers to invite their children to enroll in it. In some areas, programs about the Correspondence School were organized on radio and television.
The organizers were very afraid that, despite all efforts, there would be too few people willing to study at the new school. But these fears turned out to be in vain. The school received more than 5,500 competition entries, and about 500 more entries arrived a little later than scheduled.
To check the entrance papers, teams of the best students of the faculty were organized. The first organizer and leader of the ZMS student teams at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics was B. R. Weinberg.
The school had no premises, and the work was partially occupied by the office of the dean, who walked sideways into his office and joked that the faculty was turning into a branch of the Correspondence School.
Mechanics and Mathematics students at that time did a lot of work with schoolchildren. They led mathematics clubs for schoolchildren and organized mathematical Olympiads at various levels, from school to university. Many students worked in the mathematical schools that emerged at that time. I have already said that at the Second School, after Israel Moiseevich’s lectures, a seminar on problem solving was held, led by students.
So there were enough people willing to check the entrance assignment, and then the notebooks of the admitted schoolchildren: in the best years, there were 300–400 inspectors at the Correspondence School.
Students from the Second School also took an active part in the first reception. They, like the students, did everything: from transporting bags of letters and sealing envelopes to checking the work, which was entrusted to several students.
At the end of April 1964, it became clear that the reception was a success, and the school actually already existed. In May 1964, a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR officially formalized the creation of the RZMSH - the Russian Correspondence Mathematical School at Moscow State University and the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR.
Among the 1,429 students of the first admission, there were 813 schoolchildren (57%) from villages, workers' settlements and small towns (with a population of less than 30 thousand people), 310 schoolchildren from cities with a population of 30 thousand to 100 thousand inhabitants, the remaining 306 admitted - schoolchildren from regional centers. Then several more schoolchildren were accepted, so that in total there were 1,442 people in the first intake.
ZMSH - RZMSH - VZMSH
The Correspondence School became known not only in those areas from which it was decided to recruit. The university was literally inundated with letters asking for information on the conditions for admission to the school and the text of the entrance assignment. Works were received not only from different places in the RSFSR, but from all over the Soviet Union. The texts of the introductory task were sent to everyone who sent their letters not too late. However, we promised to accept students from other regions only if there were free places at the school. The fact is that the number of places was limited by the number of students who were ready and able to check the students' work. At first there were about 150 such students. Even if each student was given 10 students, the school could accept no more than 1,500 students.
However, already at the very beginning of the organization of the Correspondence School, a new initiative arose, which opened up new opportunities for the Correspondence School to increase the number of schoolchildren it enrolled.
The Ivanovo Pedagogical Institute has always been at the forefront in the development of new forms of work with schoolchildren in mathematics, in particular, the head of the department S.V. Smirnov organized the first youth mathematics school in our country. At his suggestion, the institute organized a branch of the Correspondence Mathematical School. This branch worked according to the same manuals and tasks as the ZMS, but the work was checked by students of the institute. In the first year, 96 schoolchildren from the Ivanovo region studied at this branch. Thus, the path was laid out to make the Correspondence School truly widespread.
The emergence of branches scattered throughout different cities of the Union led to the fact that in 1972 the RZMSH was transformed into the All-Union Correspondence Mathematical School.
It seems that already in the second year of operation of the ZMSH, another new form of work arose - the “collective student”, which, like the branches, significantly increased the enrollment of schoolchildren. A collective student of the ZMS is a school mathematics club that works according to the program and tasks of the ZMS under the direct supervision of a mathematics teacher. The head of such a circle systematically receives from the ZMS literature on its program, test assignments and methodological instructions. The assignments must be worked out in the circle's classes, then each member completes a test, which is checked by the teacher and group leader. After this, the circle draws up a common “collective” work (each member of the circle, at the direction of the leader, writes down in a common notebook the solution to one or two problems from the test). This collective work is sent to the ZMS and checked by a teacher assigned to the circle, who reviews it in detail. Such classes last for two years.
Already in the 1965/1966 academic year, about 300 collective students studied at the ZMSH. This form of work was of particular importance, since it made it possible not only to increase the number of schoolchildren enrolled in the ZMS, but also to improve the level of school mathematics teachers.
We have already talked about the permanent director of the Correspondence School, Vladimir Fedorovich Ovchinnikov. It is also impossible not to mention Vladimir Fedorovich’s long-term deputy, Evgeniy Mikhailovich Rabbot, a wonderful teacher.
Manuals and books
One of the most important tasks in the initial period of the school’s work was the preparation of manuals and assignments specifically written for the purposes of distance learning.
The first such manual was the book “Coordinate Method” (authors: I. M. Gelfand, E. G. Glagoleva, A. A. Kirillov). She opened a series created specifically for ZMSH: “Library of the Physics and Mathematics School.” They wrote it in one breath, in two months, and published it “lightning” at the Nauka publishing house, where V. I. Bityutskov was then in charge of the editorial office. It’s hard to even describe how much effort this cost the publishing house’s workers. Bityutskov promised to publish the book very quickly on one condition: not to show Gelfand the proofs!
At the same time, the second book in the series was prepared - “Functions and Graphs” (authors - I. M. Gelfand, E. G. Glagoleva, E. E. Shnol). However, it was clear that in the first year of work it would not be possible to bring all tasks to this level. I had to urgently prepare assignments-leaflets, which were printed by the Moscow State University publishing house in the shortest possible time.
The books “Coordinate Method” and “Functions and Graphs” were reprinted many times and were translated into different languages (German, twice into English, Spanish, Arabic, two years ago into Japanese and many others). Young mathematicians Kolya Vasiliev (he died young of a brain tumor), Vitya Gutenmacher (now lives in Boston) and Andrey Toom (now lives in Brazil) played a large role in the preparation of new manuals for schoolchildren.
In 1966, the International Mathematical Congress was held in Moscow; The 15th section of this congress was devoted to history and teaching issues. There Elena Georgievna gave a report about the Correspondence School on her own behalf and on behalf of Israel Moiseevich.
In 1967 there was the first graduation from the Correspondence School.
More than 600 of the schoolchildren from this graduating class received school completion certificates. Most of them entered various universities, including 87 people at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University (this is a quarter of all nonresident first-year students). More than 60 people entered other universities, 24 people entered the Moscow Higher Technical School. Bauman, 16 people - to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, etc.
Problems
Everything seemed to be going well at the Correspondence School. Everyone worked with enthusiasm. Many interesting new benefits have appeared. In the fifth year of operation (1969/1970 academic year) of the school, about 10 thousand people studied there, of which 2,500 individual students in the ZMS itself and the same number in branches, and about 5 thousand schoolchildren studied in the “Collective Student” groups. The school had 400 student inspectors and 9 full-time employees. In particular, a special employee appeared at ZMSH who was responsible for interaction with branches. For many years, such an employee was Nina Yuryevna Vaisman.
But just at this time, the Correspondence School had a conflict with the party committee of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics. If in the initial period of the school’s work the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics enthusiastically supported it, then after a few years the party organization of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics had various complaints about the school. The main one was that the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics demanded that admission be carried out on a social basis. The Mekhmat Party Committee demanded that the majority of accepted students be children of workers and collective farmers, regardless of how they performed the introductory work. And the employees of the Correspondence School argued that the children of a teacher, salesman or engineer are no worse than the children of a mechanic or collective farmer. It was not possible to agree on this matter. ZMSH was accused of lacking a class approach. However, some employees of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics would like to take control of other aspects of the work of the ZMS.
The dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics was replaced (N.V. Efimov’s place was taken by P.M. Ogibalov) and the dean’s office also sought to take control of the ZMSH. For example, the decisions of the dean’s office put forward demands that the scientific council of the ZMSH include employees of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics and people recommended by the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, that the selection committee include representatives of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics and, in particular, its party committee, etc.
The dean's office tried to turn the ZMS into a kind of course to prepare children of workers and collective farmers for admission to the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics. For example, he decided that only children of workers and collective farmers, etc., could be invited to summer full-time classes.
Ivan Georgievich Petrovsky could not protect the ZMSH from the party organization, which at that time had enormous power. And he had a difficult relationship with the new dean’s office.
Here we must return to the beginning of my story. As I already wrote, for some time I worked at the psychology department of the Pedagogical Institute. There I met the teacher of the department, Artur Vladimirovich Petrovsky. He invited me to take part in writing a book on the psychology of imagination. We wrote this book, it was called “Fantasy and Reality,” and during this time we became friends. My wife and I often visited Artur Vladimirovich at home. And so, when we once again came to visit him and told him about the problems of the Correspondence School, he put forward an unexpected idea. What if we make the Correspondence School an experimental school of the APN (Academy of Pedagogical Sciences)?
At that moment, Artur Vladimirovich worked as the head of the psychology department at the Pedagogical Institute and had good connections in the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. He later became president of the RAO (Russian Academy of Education).
This idea was realized, and the Correspondence School became an experimental school at the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, its employees began to be included in the staff of this academy, and funding also began to go through the APN. Mehmat lost the opportunity to put pressure on the Correspondence School, and it worked quietly for another ten years.
Not only mathematics
Ten years after the start of the Correspondence School, I envied the mathematicians and came to Izrail Moiseevich with a proposal to organize an experimental biological department at the VZMSH. The idea of a connection between mathematics and biology was still relevant. In 1966, Israel Moiseevich organized a new laboratory at Moscow State University - the laboratory of mathematical methods in biology. By the way, Elena Georgievna also went to work there. She joked: “Israel Moiseevich and I are like Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin (heroes of detective novels by Rex Stout). He, of course, is the brilliant Nero Wolfe, and I am Archie Goodwin. But Israel Moisevich has one significant difference from Nero Wolfe. He was a lazy person and had to be forced to work, but Israel Moiseevich himself works all the time and inspires others.”
An experimental biology department was created, and it had unexpected and serious consequences. A number of new directions have appeared at the Correspondence School, for example, philology. If at the beginning of its work the abbreviation VZMSH stood for “All-Union Correspondence Mathematical School,” then it later began to stand for “All-Union (later All-Russian) Correspondence Multi-Subject School.”
A few more words about the Kolmogorov boarding school. The boarding school developed successfully and at some point (later than VZMSH) also became multi-disciplinary. Biological classes also arose in it. (By the way, our son Seryozha Glagolev gives lectures there.) In addition, the boarding school has its own correspondence school. So VZMSH and the boarding school remain close relatives. By the way, I was told that the current director of the boarding school, Kirill Vladimirovich Semyonov, actively checked the work of students at the Correspondence School during his student years.
When writing these memoirs, I relied not only on my own memory, but also on the materials collected by my wife, Elena Georgievna Glagoleva (she died on July 20, 2015), so she should rightfully be considered a co-author of this text.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to Nadezhda Sergeevna Glagoleva for her help in preparing the text and drawings.
All-Russian correspondence multi-subject school - Open Lyceum VZMSH at Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov announces the next, 27th intake to the Biological Department. Admission is based on the results of the introductory work. Students who are studying in the 8th or 9th grade this academic year, regardless of their place of residence, can take part in the competition. Training is conducted in Russian. Circles can also participate in the competition - they need to send the collectively completed work and a stamped list of members of the circle indicating the last name, first name and patronymic of the leader and the name of the organization under which the circle operates. VZMS sends its students manuals and assignments on various sections of biology and checks their work. Education for eighth-graders lasts 3 years, for ninth-graders - 2 years.
ENTRY TASK OF THE BIOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT OF VZMSH
1. What adaptations help different living organisms live in conditions of water deficiency?
2. Propose an action plan to restore the original state of a river polluted as a result of human activities. Of course, actions depend on which river and what kind of pollution has suffered. Therefore, the plan should begin with a river survey, and subsequent actions should be determined by its results. Which of the measures you proposed “trigger” certain mechanisms of self-healing of natural communities?
3. Make a list of examples of symbiotic relationships between two species of animals in such a way that all pairs in the list remain different when replacing the names of the species with the names of the classes to which the species belong. Try to include as many examples as possible in your list. For each example, provide an explanation of why it can be considered a symbiosis.
4. Here is a list of mammals: muskrat, sperm whale, koala, rabbit, wild ass, llama, walrus, guinea pig, anteater, saiga, sable, platypus, long-eared bat, human. Offer as many criteria as possible by which they can be divided into two groups. For each criterion, indicate which animals will fall into which group.
5. Retired lieutenant Cheburkov, having discovered a sunflower seed in his duffel bag, planted it in the garden. The harvest exceeded all expectations: none of Cheburkov’s neighbors managed to get so many seeds from one plant. The enthusiastic lieutenant encourages his neighbors to throw away their supplies and buy seed from him. But is the available data sufficient to make such a decision? What information do you think needs to be obtained before proceeding with the widespread cultivation of descendants of this unique sunflower?
6. The likelihood that a person will get a certain disease depends on his constitution (individual anatomical and physiological characteristics) and lifestyle. Here is a list of heroes from N.V. Gogol’s “Dead Souls”: Chichikov, Manilov, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Korobochka, Plyushkin. For each of them, indicate which diseases he is more likely to get sick with than other characters, and which ones he is less likely to get. Justify your answers.
7. List the various characteristics according to which human hormones can be divided into several groups. For each of the resulting groups, indicate the hormones included in it. Try to create determinants that classify human hormones (or at least some of them): a) by molecular structure; b) by physiological action.
8. You are tasked with experimentally establishing the mechanisms that provide the sensations of hunger and thirst in different animals. What fundamentally possible hypotheses about these mechanisms can you offer? What experiments should be performed to test your hypotheses?
Students of 8th grades need to solve problems 1-5, 9th grades - problems 1, 2 and 6-8. You can use facts found in the literature and your own ideas in your answers. For information gleaned from books, please provide links to sources.
The work should be completed in a notebook: on the cover, indicate your last name, first name, patronymic, full home address with zip code, school number and class in which you study. Along with your work, send a stamped envelope with your address written on it (to send you the decision of the admissions committee).
The work must be sent no later than April 15, 2000 (by postmark). Our address: 117 234, Moscow, Vorobyovy Gory, Moscow State University, OL VZMSH - Biology, competition.
Form of study: correspondence
The open Lyceum “All-Russian Correspondence Multi-Subject School” (OL VZMSH) is the largest and oldest center of additional education, widely known in Russia. The founders of this state institution are the Russian Academy of Education (RAE) and the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU). For more than 40 years, we have been providing additional distance education to schoolchildren from different regions of Russia and the CIS.
More than 100 thousand schoolchildren have graduated from our lyceum. Many of them entered Moscow State University and other universities and universities. From the ranks of our students came a whole generation of scientists, researchers, and teachers. Studying at VZMSH helped many people better navigate in life, set big goals for themselves and achieve their plans.
Teachers of the OL VZMSH have written a whole library of unique teaching aids and created methods that allow distance learning (correspondence) to be conducted at a good modern level. We are looking, first of all, for those students and teachers who want to know BEYOND THAT, beyond the school curriculum and acquire additional knowledge in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, philology, economics, law, history, and computer science. Our distance learning methodology helps many students and teachers expand their education, regardless of where they live (in a large city or small village) - if only they have the desire to study seriously.