Vygotsky

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This day in history (in location):
==Vygotsky wished to train as a teacher but this was not an option for Jews in Russia, before the revolution. Government sponsored schools did not accept Jewish teachers. Vygotsky therefore enrolled in medicine as this profession allowed Jews to practise outside 'the pale' of Jewish settlements. The Moscow University accepted Jewish students according to a ballot and limited entry to 5% of all students. Vygotsky was luck enough to gain a place from the ballot. ==

Educational Background:
==He studied at Moscow State University, where he graduated with a degree in law in 1917. He studied a range of topics white attending university, including sociology, linguistics, psychology and philosophy. However, his formal work in psychology did not begin until 1924 when he attended the Institute of Psychology in Moscow and began collaborating with Alexei Leontiev and Alexander Luria. ==

Family Background:
==Within the first year of his life his family moved to Gomel, a city that is in what is now the independent nation of Belorussia, about 400 miles west of Moscow. He was the second oldest of eight children. His parents were well educated Jews living in one of a few designated provinces reserved for Russians of Jewish descent. His father was a respected bank manager and his mother who had trained as a teacher was a full-time homemaker. == ==Vygotsky's parents were fluent in a number of foreign languages. As a child Vygotsky was taught by his mother to care for the other children, all of whom shared equally in household duties. The family would discuss history, literature, theatre and art, after dinner, which exposed Vygotsky to a wide range of interests. Vygotsky was taught by a private tutor, Solomon Ashpiz, a mathmatician, who had spent time in exile in Siberia for revolutionary activity. The [|life of a Jew] in Russia was limited in terms of places to live, study and work == ==

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Quotations:

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**[|Quotations] **

 * "Learning is more than the acquisition of the ability to think; it is the acquisition of many specialised abilities for thinking about a variety of things." - Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society, 1978 **


 * "Learning is more than the acquisition of the ability to think; it is the acquisition of many specialised abilities for thinking about a variety of things." - Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society, 1978v **


 * Speech plays an essential role in the organization of higher psychological functions. ~ Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society **


 * Speech and action are part of one and the same complex psychological function, directed toward the solution of the problem at hand. ~ Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society **


 * Sometimes speech becomes of such vital importance that, if not permitted to use it, young children cannot accomplish the given task. ~ Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society **


 * With the help of speech children, unlike apes, acquire the capacity to be both the subjects and objects of their own behavior. ~ Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society **


 * The specifically human capacity for language enables children to provide for auxiliary tools in the solution of difficult tasks, to overcome impulsive action, to plan a solution to a problem prior to its execution, and to master their own behavior. ~ Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society **


 * Signs and words serve children first and foremost as a means of social contact with other people. ~ Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society **