The Changing Attitudes Towards Spelling Mistakes in German and Russian Speaking Cultures, 19th and early 20th c.

Abstract

The article shows how stigmatization of misspelling predated modern German and Russian orthographies and how this attitude was imported to Russia from Prussia in the 19th century. Rules were difficult to learn and to teach, making mistakes inevitable. Grading based on the number of errors helped to control and discipline students and to manage teachers. The repressive nature of mass, compulsory schools was both a product of and a hindrance to modernity gaining strength internationally.

Additional information

Funding

The article was prepared within the framework of the HSE University Basic Research Program and funded by the Russian Academic Excellence Project ‘5-100'.

Notes on contributors

Kirill Levinson

Kirill Levinson, Dr. phil., is Leading Research Fellow at the Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities, HSE University, Russian Federation, Moscow. His research interest focuses on comparative study of literacy and education in Germany and Russia. He currently investigates historical and geographical concepts represented in Russian, Western European and American textbooks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.