Risto Roopenpojan ihmeellinen elämä as an elementary school classic

Authors

• Merja Sagulin Itä-Suomen yliopisto

Abstract

The article discusses pedagogical ideology of Finnish children’s book Risto Roopenpojan ihmeellinen elämä (The Marvelous Life of Risto Roopenpoika) (1911) written by elementary school teacher Siviä Heinämaa. Heinämaa’s work has been adapted from Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) to the Finnish cultural and pedagogical context. The pedagogical input of Heinämaa’s novel is based on the educational ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Friedrich Herbart and especially on those of the pedagogy of the Finnish Herbartian, Mikael Soininen. The article shows that Heinämaa’s work is written through Soininen’s views of Enlightenment’s developmental pedagogy. In the story the growth of a boy from the natural state of childhood to a socially determined adulthood is analogous to the developmental steps of humankind. In addition, the story emphasises the ideals of social education prevalent at the beginning of the 20th century Finland: obedience of the child to the authorities – parents, fatherland and God.