Professor Lev D. Tarasov on the Teaching of Ancient Languages in the Italian Secondary Classical School

The aim of the work is to study the origins of pedagogical skills of a great scholar Lev D. Tarasov, his views on the problems of classical philology that were formed largely under the influence of the European school of classical philologists, which allows drawing attention to the problem of the place of antiquity in modern Russian education. Tarasov was a bright person, a famous classical philologist, a specialist in Roman satire, a talented translator, who taught Latin and ancient literature at Tomsk State University from 1949 to 1962. Tarasov was a pansophically educated person, knew Latin and Greek well, was fluent in French, German and English, knew Italian, Hebrew and Slavic languages. Tarasov's lectures were full of great factual material and fascinating in form and thus were perceived with genuine interest by students who adored him. The work was done on the basis of Tarasov's information and analytical report at the First All-Russian Congress of Teachers of Ancient Languages (St. Petersburg, December 1911): “Ancient Languages in the Italian Classical Secondary School”. Tarasov graduated from the Classical Department of St. Petersburg Historical and Philological Institute, and in 1911 he was sent on a long trip abroad (Germany, France, Italy) through the Ministry of Public Education to prepare for the academic title of the master. During June and July 1911, he visited many cities in Italy (Milan, Bologna, Florence, Naples, Ravenna, Verona, Padua, Venice) studying the methods of teaching ancient languages in classical male schools in Italy. The report presents curricula with tables, calculations, the list of Greek and Latin authors, ministry and author programs. Tarasov's report represents not only a detailed analysis of the organization of classical education in Italy, but also the opinion of still a young teacher at that time, who has already completed a one-year scientific internship in Europe, on the situation in Russian education. He highly praises the Italian school system, where the emphasis is on the humanitarian significance of studying antiquity. Many aspects of teaching ancient disciplines, its role and organization discussed in Tarasov's report are still relevant for modern education. In addition to a number of issues of methods of teaching ancient languages, the subject of the discussion is the instructional and educational value of the classical school, which primarily forms the personality of the student. Tarasov's report leads to a conclusion that the origin of the crisis of the Russian educational system refers to the beginning of the 20th century. For example, limiting the teaching of Greek, and even the rejection of it, is the result of the misunderstanding of its importance for Russian culture, no less, and probably even more than that of Latin. It seems that the Russian educational system will eventually find a place for antiquity, so that young people in Russia could become familiar with the basics of the common European culture and thus more deeply understand the native language with its Greek-Latin connections and native literature in its history.

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