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The Czarist Era was not kind to teacher nor pupil. As the official study language was Russian, three years at school did not give the local children much knowledge, says director of the Estonian Pedagogical Archives and Museum, Veronika Varik.

However, the deeply religious bias of education helped preserve moral values. A child starting school was required to be able to read or at least spell. During the last decade of the 19^th century, children were not allowed to have conversations in Estonian even during breaks, or they would get a stigma on their neck, or beaten with a goat hoof.

Even though the schoolmaster started to rise above the average farmer during that era, their pay was only equal to a good farmhand. Thus the teacher often had to look for additional income and work as a chronicle for the municipality, a bookbinder, a carpenter or a shoemaker.

When the Baltic states monopolised strong liquor at the end of 1900, many teachers kissed their alphabet books good-bye and went to work as state-employed bartenders, which was a much easier job than giving classes.

Our ancestors, from not too far in the past, had a difficult journey toward education. Yet, the problems teachers faced during the Czarist era still sound familiar. The fact that we live in a free Estonia, speak Estonian and get to form our own schools and education is not happenstance. So let us think about the education we are currently designing for our future generations.

The evolution of the teacher’s profession and school itself can be found when going through the archives at the Estonian Pedagogical Archives and Museum. To look at manuscripts and books, you will still have to visit in person (Rävala pst 10, Tallinn), but photos and old educational videos can be downloaded from our .