EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IN THE EDUCATION OF NATIONAL TEACHERS IN ZADAR

In this article the author studies extracurricular activities in the normal schools in Zadar. The work of normal schools can be divided into two periods: the first period encompasses the establishment of the normal school for men in Arbanasi in 1866 to its forced closure in 1921, when the students along with the teachers moved first to Dubrovnik, and then later to Sibenik; the second period of activity of the normal school covers the years 1945 to 1965. The general law of education enacted in 1958 decreed that the normal school had to become a pedagogical Gymnasium. The life of future teachers in the normal school for men in Arbanasi was of the type common in boarding schools for secondary education. Along with walks, church attendance and visiting primary schools, the students read books on pedagogy, completed lessons and studied language. Analysis of the educational programme reveals that the normal schools stressed the learning of music. The teachers, as well as all the personnel at the normal school, encouraged students to spend their free time in the school gardens. Future teachers had to become acquainted with agricultural work in order that they would be able to enlighten the villages around Zadar where they would eventually go to teach with their knowledge. The second period of the education of teachers begins when the committee for the national liberation of Dalmatia in the region of Zadar began to hold courses for future teachers before the end of the Second World War. Alongside their normal curriculum, the students took courses in which they prepared theatrical presentations to be held in surrounding villages and even the National Theatre in Zadar. At the end of the Second World War, the Secretariat for National Youth and the Committee for Cultural Education in the city of Zadar organized culture and sporting life. All the youth had to participate in creating mass cultural and sporting manifestations and consequently various artistic, cultural, and sporting associations were established. The students of the normal school were preparing to organize the cultural life in the villages. The August Cesarec society was active in the normal school and it was divided into sections: literary, dramatic, puppet show, folklore and choral and musical groups. Note is made of dramatic and puppet shows held by the students of the normal school and by students who utilized the exercise room of the normal school. The work of the various sections was performed in joint evening sessions which the students held in the environs of Zadar. Amateur performances in theatres, concert halls and sporting stadiums died down at about the same time that the normal school was transformed in the pedagogical gymnasium.