Author: Alan Cockerill

Alan is a NAATI certified translator from Russian to English. He received his Ph.D. for a study of the educational legacy of Vasily Sukhomlinsky, and is involved in a project to translate and publish some of Sukhomlinsky's major works. He also undertakes translation from Russian to English of documents required for immigration purposes.

Book Launch of New Publication

Front cover of "Our School in Pavlysh"
Book Launch at the Avid Reader bookshop
in Brisbane, Australia
Monday 20 December 2021
6.30 pm – 7.30 pm (Brisbane time)
7.30 pm – 8.30 pm (NSW and Victoria)
8.30 am – 9.30 am (UK time)

Our School in Pavlysh: A Holistic Approach to Education, by Vasyl Sukhomlynsky (Vasily Sukhomlinsky in transliteration from Russian), describes the inspirational work carried out at Pavlysh Secondary School in central Ukraine during the 1960s. For Sukhomlynsky’s readership of teachers and school principals, the word ‘Pavlysh’ stood for creative thought, inspiration, and the hope of finding answers to troubling questions. Raising his school from the ashes of World War Two, Sukhomlynsky created a system of education that was deeply embedded in the natural environment and that fostered the qualities of curiosity, empathy and creativity. One of the thousands of visitors to Pavlysh, a school principal from Armenia, wrote:

‘I have spent only one day in this remarkable school where so much is happening, but I have gained as much as I did in four years at the institute.’

Another visiting principal wrote:

‘Pavlysh Secondary School should be renamed a university! We say this quite responsibly: here a feeling of wonder and admiration comes over anyone with the slightest love for children and schools.’

Students enrolling in Sukhomlynsky’s school became part of a vibrant learning community in which teachers, parents, community members, and the students themselves all played a role in educating each other. Dozens of clubs operated after school, most attended by children of varying ages, and the older children played a significant role in educating younger children. These informal, extracurricular activities were extremely important in developing children’s talents, building their self-esteem, and providing an experiential background for formal studies. In this environment students became autonomous, lifelong learners.

Sukhomlynsky’s approach can still offer inspiration to educators in the twenty-first century, as we face the challenges of the Anthropocene. This new translation provides an excellent complement to Alan Cockerill’s earlier translation of Sukhomlynsky’s My Heart I Give to Children.

Our expanding publishing business

In June 2019 we released eight new publications: four Sudoku puzzle books and four cryptogram puzzle books. These are in addition to our successful series of Sukhomlynsky publications: My heart I give to children, Each one must shine and Tales from Pavlysh: a world of beauty. A world of beauty has now been published in five languages: English, Russian, Ukrainian, Japanese and Chinese. Please visit our publications page for more details.

As our publications are now more widely available, we are closing the Holistic Education Books online store.

During the course of 2016 our publications have gradually been made available to a wider market, by utilising print on demand services offered by Ingram Spark. This has ensured that our publications are available worldwide via major online retailers. We have also entered into an agreement with a local bookstore, The Really Good Book Shop, to stock our current English language publications.

In the light of these developments, it is no longer necessary for us to retain our own online store Holistic Education Books, and it will be closed as of 24 December, 2016. We would like to thank all the customers who have shown trust in us, and hope they will find the new retail outlets just as convenient.

We would like to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!

Alan and Hiroko Cockerill
Directors, EJR Language Service Pty. Ltd.

We hope you like our new website

At the beginning of this year it was pointed out to me that our website was not mobile responsive. This situation is being rectified by the construction of new WordPress sites to host our pages about EJR Language Service Pty. Ltd. and other associated pages. You should now be able to view our website on mobile devices. If you are aware of any issues with our new site, please email the webmaster at ejr.cockerill@gmail.com.