Lessons, school, gymnasium - all this evokes memories of childhood. Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky in the fifth grade experienced a sharp, rude, unjust exclusion from school, since he was the son of a washerwoman. He still hoped that he would remain a schoolboy, but in front of all his classmates, the silver coat of arms of the gymnasium was stripped from his cap. The boy was humiliated to the limit for being poor. The book "Silver Coat of Arms" teaches you not to give up under any circumstances and always feel like a person, not a slave.
Remembering childhood
Being already a wise man, the writer returned to his cherished memories. He wanted readers to recognize and love his proud mother, friend Timosha, history teacher Ivan Mitrofanovich, nicknamed Finti-Monti, and hated the director of the Burgmeister Gymnasium and his sneaks. Description of these people gives the story "Silver Coat of Arms". Chukovsky wrote 26 chapters with an epilogue about them.
Grammar schools existed only for the elite
In the lesson of the Law of God, our young hero and his neighbor were very bored. They came up with innocent fun - to count for the priest, how many times he will say during the lesson his parasite words "yes, yes, yes." On this and caught. Moreover, the neighbor looked like a repentant sinner, and Kolya honestly told what he was doing. This caused the wrath of Father Melentius. Kolya was summoned to the headmaster of the Burgmeister. There was already one sufferer who buried his diary with poor grades. But the diary was found, and now the director threatened the "criminal" for a long time and tediously. And then the Burgmeister set to Kolya. And he remembered the leprosy that happened two years ago, and most importantly, accused him of the fact that he had learned to bury the diary.
It was a shameless lie, but the director was implacable. He said that Kolya was expelled from the gymnasium. Kolya, in horror, realized that he would be deprived of both the opportunity to become an educated person and the silver coat of arms. Chukovsky tells about all the torments of a boy who could not understand why he was accused of what he did not, and how he would tell everything to his mother at home.
Mom and friends
The whole drama was that the beautiful, bold, proud mother of Kolya had a dream that her son would receive an education. He will never do dirty work, which takes away all the strength and ability to think from a person. Only studying at the gymnasium and then at the university allowed the poor boy to enter the world of free, wealthy people. The symbol of this was the schoolboy cap and its silver coat of arms. Chukovsky tells how Kolya suffered for three days and could not decide to upset his mother, whom he loved very much. Friends came up with different plans to help him return to school, but it was all impossible. Together with Kolya, the beloved history teacher Ivan Mitrofanovich was fired from the gymnasium.
It was he who late at night explained to the child that his fault was only that his mother had neither a restaurant, nor a grocery store, nor a factory, but only tireless, blood-worn hands that wash other people's dirty clothes at night. Rich people were determined to keep the whole people in the dark so that they could not think about how the world was unfairly organized, to unite and destroy the existing order. About all this, Kolya, crying, told his mother, but promised that he would not quit studying, but that he would go through the gymnasium program himself, while working and helping his mother.
Lomonosov not trample
And Kolya began to work. First on the roof - he scraped away rust and last year's paint with a spatula, and painters worked after him. When winter came, he and his older sister Marusya worked as a tutor. Thanks to the money they earned, they allowed mom to quit the laundry and start embroidering. Mom was a real embroidery artist. Her work was gradually recognized by the whole city, and she had many interesting orders. Kolya learned not only the program of the gymnasium, but also the English language by the self-instruction manual. Now in the original, he could read Dickens, Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Edgar Allan Poe. These are the dramatic and lyrical events that took place in the story “Silver Coat of Arms”. Chukovsky later tells how difficult it was for the son of the laundress to pass exams at the gymnasium and obtain a certificate. But the third time, Nikolai received it.
So childhood ended
Kolya bought himself a second-hand student cap at the flea market. Mom, black-browed and stately, had not left the yard before, but now she began to walk everywhere with her son and proudly said to everyone: “My son is a student.” Soon a phrase appeared in her conversations that she liked even more: "My son is now a writer."
This is a short but entertaining story about the honor and dignity of a person who finds himself in difficult, seemingly hopeless circumstances. The story of the anxieties and victories of a teenager is the “Silver Coat of Arms”. Chukovsky summarized his childhood in an easy, clear language and with great humor.