History, 19th and 20th century, Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Rural Areas, Modernization, Volksschulen, Schooling, Teachers.

Studie se zabývá obecným školstvím na Valašsku, tedy v jednom z nejodlehlejších a nejzaostalejších moravských regionů, zhruba v posledních čtyřech desetiletích před první světovou válkou. Je postavena na archivních materiálech vzniklých působením okresních školních rad, okresních úřadů a jednotlivých škol (kroniky). Školy a učitele považuje za jedny z nejdůležitějších činitelů modernizace rurálního prostředí. Sleduje postupné zhušťování sítě škol, boj učitelů i státních úřadů s vysokou absencí ve vyučování (i důvody této absence), školskou i mimoškolskou aktivitu učitelů a konfliktní plochy vzniklé činností učitelů (konflikty s částí rodičovstva neposílajícího děti řádně do školy, respektive s konzervativními faráři o vůdčí intelektuální postavení ve vesnici a o konzervativní či pokrokářský výklad světa).

This analysis of the development of municipal schools in the Vsetín and Valašské Meziříčí districts shows the state’s great efforts in ensuring literacy amongst the population, and securing it with the knowledge necessary to improve the quality of life in this region with its difficult socioeconomic conditions. It demonstrates an improving situation (expansion of the network of schools, improvements in their facilities, improving school attendance), as well as teachers’ and state authorities’ difficult struggle with alcoholism, the refusal of some parents to involve their children, and in some villages the still inappropriate condition of school buildings and classroom facilities, as well as what would today be considered a very high rate of excused and non-excused absenteeism. Absence was mainly a result of parents’ negative relationship to education and children having to work, as well as sometimes poor school accessibility (and at the start of the period investigated, also their lack of capacity) and pupils’ insufficient outer wear and boots during winter. The archive materials demonstrate the expected marked engagement of teachers in clubs and social and political life, something generally the result of their education and perspective, which marked them out against the local population. It shows that conflicts between teachers and parents, and sometimes even members of municipal councils, were if not frequent, certainly not rare. This negative relationship to teachers was the result of their disciplinary role – they forced parents to make their children attend school, and demanded discipline from the children. It should be said that it would be misleading to think it was merely parental ignorance responsible for anyone not sending children to school. In very poor areas, older children in particular were part of the workforce and they were very important in helping at the family farm, often bringing extra income to the family budget. As such, parents might consid