Day of Knowledge

The traditional International Day of Knowledge on September 1 is familiar to every resident of Russia and the former CIS countries The constitution of these countries gives every citizen the right to free school education Many of the post-Soviet states also guarantee the opportunity to obtain one diploma of secondary specialized and higher professional education on a budgetary basis Taking this fact for granted, not everyone thinks that free compulsory education is really not for all countries of the world This right was not available to the poor for a long time; discrimination in this matter concerned women and representatives of certain races and nationalities Realizing that today in third world countries most children do not have the opportunity to acquire knowledge, and therefore are deprived of a chance for a civilized future, it comes to the understanding that Knowledge Day is a particularly important holiday In the USSR, the date September 1, as the first day of the school year, was approved only in 1935; before that, it was recommended to admit students to school during the first autumn month Only in 1984 a decree was issued declaring September 1 a national holiday - Knowledge Day A major role in approving the new holiday date was played by the honored school teacher, director of the Krasnodar school Fedor Fedorovich Bryukhovetsky Using the example of his educational institution, Bryukhovetsky showed what heights the Soviet school system could reach Gradually, the main attributes of the celebration took shape: a school line, a dress uniform, a Peace lesson In the former post-Soviet space, the knowledge that September 1 is the beginning of the school year is firmly rooted In fact, this is not realistically true for all countries in the world So, in Germany and the USA there is no single start date for school; it can be any day in August or September Schools in Spain open for students on October 1, by which time the bulk of agricultural work in this hot country ends In Japan, the first bell is not at all associated with autumn On the contrary, small and grown-up Japanese take up their backpacks by April 1, and not because they want to joke It’s just that this is the time of cherry blossoms, and a wonderful time is considered the best symbol of fruitful and successful study Over the past few years, proposals have been appearing in Russia to move Knowledge Day from September 1 to other dates, due to differences in climate in the regions But, I would like to believe that the tradition will remain unchanged, still uniting all students of vast Russia and friendly countries in a ceremonial assembly to the sounds of the school waltz