Growth, Dreams and Education

CAROLINA HERGERT MOST UNWILLINGLY chose this time of poverty and need to return to the village to live with her brother. Her husband, the Russian tutor Alexander Ormulov, had died of yellow fever that he had contracted, having accompanied a war party into Turkish territory, leaving her widowed. She felt very uncomfortable being unmarried and the lone German woman at the huge Vorontzov estate.

Never leaving things to fate, she mapped out a course for her life before she returned. She came at the right time, a time of need. Norka had experienced an extraordinary time of physical growth. Many children born to the young settlers were now in desperate need of schooling. Carolina was a person, one of few, who would be able to teach reading, writing and the logic of mathematics. Already there were ready-made classes of six-, seven- and eight-year-olds who had never seen a book or heard of a cipher, unless their parents had taken precious time and oil to teach them at night. From the beginning it was understood that teaching would commence with the onset of frost, when the children were not needed in the fields. That, however, did not mean that they did not have other chores to do, chores that were never finished.

To begin with, education would take place in the church, until the Norka colony could build a schoolhouse. Carolina was afire to begin; teaching in a church building presented no obstacle to her desire to teach. Pastor Hergert supported her endeavor to the fullest. He believed a good servant of God needed sharpened wits, the ability to read and understand the Bible well. Had not Martin Luther risked his life for the purpose of educating Christians? Had he not furthered their understanding of the gospel by translating the Bible so that every German should be able to read God’s word in his mother tongue? Therefore Hergert advised the men to look for good slate when they were about the countryside. Slate was needed because it had properties suitable for writing tablets. Also a search for fine textured chalk began, which could be cut to pencil size.

The big question arose over the recompense for the teachers. There were those who cared nothing for book learning and would have been content to let their offspring remain unlettered. Fortunately for the young of the village, Pastor Hergert and Carolina proved to be a potent, persuasive force combined with those who advocated schooling. In the end, a special tithe, paid in food items and money, provided sufficient resources for Carolina and her family to exist.