Ideas of K. D. Ushinsky on the psychological preparation of a teacher and the understanding of human personality as a value in the present-day educational situation of Russia

The article presents the arguments which make it possible to understand the role of K. D. Ushinsky in the development of new ideas and principles which influenced many schools of research and directions of Russian psychology and pedagogics. It shows that in his fundamental works he not only interpreted the problems of upbringing and education in a specific way, but also actively introduced them in the educational institutions of his time. The work assesses K. D. Ushinsky’s input into the theory of education and upbringing, national upbringing, national pedagogics, family pedagogics and psychology, sex education, psychology of a teacher and the specific nature of their preparation, understanding of upbringing ideal, school discipline, matters of behavior regulation and activity of an individual, content of pedagogic education. The author comes to the conclusion that K. D. Ushinsky’s belief that the psychological study of a human makes it possible to expand the possibilities of controlling his mental development and aids the removal of all kinds of routine from upbringing, helping to turn it into a rational and conscious matter, is still relevant today. The author gives a high assessment of K. D. Ushinsky’s ideas on the goals of upbringing. The goal of upbringing was viewed by him as upbringing the soul, which must be provided, to the greatest possible extent, with full, wide, absorbing activity.