The Holistic Educator

Millions of teachers around the world have heard of the ‘School of Joy’. This is what Vasyl Sukhomlynsky called an informal preschool class that he ran to prepare children for school. The School of Joy was conducted under the open sky, and involved lots of walking, observation of nature, talking, making up stories, drawing, games, caring for plants and animals, meeting new people, and learning to read and write along the way.

Sukhomlynsky describes how he started the School of Joy in the first part of his most famous book, My Heart I Give to Children. We have made the first part of that book available for free as a separate publication. You can download it for free in pdf, .epub or .mobi format from the links at the bottom of this page, or follow the links to major online retailers where it is listed for free or at minimal cost in either Kindle or ePub format.