Circular time

On June 11, the editorial office of the First September newspaper announced its closure. “We cannot continue to work in the current conditions, when it is necessary to admit that the worst in a person has prevailed,” the editorial on the newspaper’s website says. The last, 1629th issue will be released on June 30th.

This newspaper was created by my teacher, Simon Lvovich Soloveichik. It so happened that we came with him to Uchitelskaya Gazeta on the same day in 1986, and then for ten years until his death he was the most important in my pedagogical, scientific and journalistic life. The "Teacher's Newspaper" of the 1980s was the spiritual leader of the teachers. The editor-in-chief Vladimir Matveev and his friend Simon Soloveichik made a publication with a million copies out of a supernumerary departmental newspaper, every issue was awaited by all the teachers of the country. Officials were also waiting, with fear and panic opening a newspaper with sharp and harsh materials. And in the end, it was gracefully closed in 1989 - it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the chief was changed and all the most active authors were expelled. It was then that the idea of ​​​​our own newspaper, which was not subject to anyone, arose. Newspapers that would become a place of free debate and a refuge for talented writers and journalists. With great torment, through lack of money and the wandering of the editors in the corners, but in 1992 the newspaper "First of September" began to appear regularly. And it was an incredible adventure! Newspaper about the school, and not departmental - private!

Simon Soloveichik passed away in 1996, but the newspaper continued to appear and for 18 (!) years remained largely his newspaper, both in content and style. And now, after 22 years of existence, the “First of September” closes.

I am sure that if Artem Soloveichik, the head of the First September publishing house, and the editor-in-chief Elena Biryukova made such a decision, then they could not do it differently.

„

“We have no right to change the essence of the newspaper, to turn it into an active side of the confrontation, which today invisibly splits families and friendships”

”

I think a lot of things are intertwined here: financial problems, a small subscription, but most importantly, the changed climate around the school. The cold weather has come - the time for innovation, search, creativity, support for teachers' searches and the flowering of freedom in education is over.

Reports, inspections, circulars, certificates, requests, percentages, special operations, threats of punishment, fear filled the entire space of school life. In educational policy - the destruction of diversity, variability, choice. Uniform textbooks, monopolism, thoughtless reduction of everything and everything to a common denominator and subordination of the school to high political goals and objectives.

If we add to this that the First September publishing house is engaged in entrepreneurial activities, which means that it is looking for partners and depends on regional and federal authorities, then the slightest dissatisfaction of the chiefs with the newspaper will also affect income.

I understand what editor-in-chief Elena Biryukova means when she explains her decision to readers: “We cannot be silent and must write about things and events that do not directly relate to pedagogy and school. But we do not have the right to change the essence of the newspaper, to turn it into an active side of the confrontation, which today invisibly splits families and friendships, forcing everyone to decide at their own peril and risk who they are and with whom ... "

And yet I cannot accept her decision to suspend the release of The First of September. Because at such times Soloveichik's newspaper is just what is needed. After all, you need to rely on someone ...