Why Soviet teacher Makarenko is not taught in Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

"Forty forty-ruble teachers can lead to complete decomposition not only of the group of street children, but also of any group." This quote is one of the most memorable, in my humble opinion, included in the book - a collection of works from 8 volumes. The author of this book is one of the most prominent Soviet educators of the 20th century. Now his system is so popular in Europe, in Asian countries, but not relevant in Russia. This is now and today we can do everything - consciously forget, erase, not accept …

Remember the last time you heard the mention of the name Makarenko? In connection with any serious article on the upbringing of the younger generation? Any public discussion about education issues? I doubt. Most likely, in an ordinary conversation in an ironic context: they say, for me too, Makarenko was found …

1988 was declared the year of Makarenko by a special decision of UNESCO in connection with his 100th anniversary. At the same time, the names of four great teachers who determined the method of pedagogical thinking of the 20th century were named - A. S. Makarenko, D. Dewey, M. Montessori and G. Kershenshteiner.

Makarenko's works have been translated into almost all languages of the peoples of the world, and his main work - "Pedagogical Poem" (1935) - is compared with the best novels of upbringing Zh. Zh. Rousseau, I. Goethe, L. N. Tolstoy. It has also been named one of the ten most significant parenting books of the 20th century. Is this not a testament to international respect and recognition of merit?

And in Russia ten years ago, on the 115th anniversary of Makarenko, 10,000 copies of the first complete edition of the "Pedagogical Poem" were published. You say, what a strange circulation for a multi-million reading country? However, publishers are still puzzling over how to market the "unsold" book.

Out of date? Not relevant? Probably, there are no unsolved problems in pedagogy, well-bred girls and boys obediently go to school, and child crime is at zero?

Almost a hundred years ago, graduating from the Poltava Teachers' Institute, Makarenko wrote a diploma on the topic "The crisis of modern pedagogy." Who will dare to say that the situation has changed radically now?

He was a strange man, this Makarenko. After working for two years in a normal school, a quiet, humble history teacher gives up everything and goes to work as the director of a colony for juvenile delinquents near Poltava. He led it from 1920 to 1928. and comprehended the pedagogy of re-education in combat conditions, like a soldier on the battlefield.

What drove this person? After all, it was obvious that with his decisive act he put an end to a calm measured life. Perhaps the same active life position that has become unfashionable to talk about lately?

At the beginning of the 20s of the last century in Russia, which survived the revolution and civil war, there were more than 7 million street children. They represented a huge social disaster and danger. In the fight against child crime and homelessness, A. S. Makarenko. The system of reeducation by useful productive labor in a team invented by him turned a bunch of juvenile delinquents into a close-knit team. There were no guards, fences, or punishment cells in the colony. The most severe punishment was boycott, which was rarely used. When another homeless child was brought under escort, he took the child and categorically refused to accept his personal file. This is the well-known Makarenko principle of advancing the good in a person! “We don't want to know bad things about you. A new life begins!"

These numbers are hard to believe, but the fact is a stubborn thing. More than 3,000 street children passed through the hands of Makarenko, and not one returned to the criminal path, everyone found their way in life, became people. No other correctional institution in the world has been able to achieve such results. It is not for nothing that he is called not only a theoretician, but also a practitioner of mass and rapid re-education.

Makarenko was sure that only labor to his liking, and not sewing mittens and gluing boxes, contributes to a successful re-education.

From 1928 to 1936, he led the Labor Commune. Dzerzhinsky and from scratch builds two factories for the production of electromechanics and FED cameras, i.e. high tech of its time. Children were able to master complex technologies, successfully worked and produced products that are in great demand. Boldly, isn't it? Imagine a juvenile delinquent colony that produces antivirus software or set-top boxes!

He was an amazing person, this Makarenko. Outright freed from military service due to poor health - congenital heart disease, terrible myopia and a whole bunch of diseases - he loved military uniform, discipline, and army order. Having a completely unpresentable appearance - round glasses with thick glasses, a large nose, a quiet hoarse voice - he was popular with beautiful women. His, laconic and sluggish, was adored by his pupils and were so jealous of him that he decided not to marry so as not to injure them. By the way, he did just that: only after leaving pedagogical work, he signed his common-law wife. He loved children, but, unfortunately, did not have his own, but raised two adopted ones. The girl, the daughter of her brother, a White Guard who managed to emigrate to France, later became the mother of the famous actress Ekaterina Vasilyeva. And he maintained a relationship with his beloved brother until 1937, when his wife, exhausted by the constant fear of arrest, demanded to stop correspondence.

He died of a heart failure at the age of 51, and it was a hard blow for the world's pedagogy.

The Makarenko system is studied and appreciated all over the world. For example, in Japan his works are reprinted in large print runs and are considered obligatory literature for business leaders. Almost all firms are built according to the patterns of Makarenko labor colonies.

But to Russia, to his homeland, his system returns in the form of foreign methods of "brainstorming", "the ability to work in a team", "team building", "increasing employee motivation." All this is diligently studied at all kinds of trainings and seminars, moreover, for a lot of money. Or maybe it's easier to go back to the original sources?

QUOTES MAKARENKO:

You cannot teach a person to be happy, but you can educate him so that he is happy.

If there is little ability, then demanding an excellent study is not only useless, but also criminal. You cannot force a student to study well. This can lead to tragic consequences.

Upbringing always happens, even when you are not at home.

Our pedagogical production has never been built according to technological logic, but always according to the logic of moral preaching. This is especially noticeable in the field of our own upbringing … Why in technical universities do we study the resistance of materials, and in pedagogical universities we do not study the resistance of the individual when they begin to educate it?

To give up risk is to give up creativity.

My work with street children was by no means a special job with street children. First, as a working hypothesis, from the very first days of my work with the homeless, I established that no special methods should be used in relation to the homeless.

Verbal education without accompanying gymnastics of behavior is the most criminal sabotage.

You can be dry with them to the last degree, demanding to the point of pickiness, you may not notice them … but if you shine with work, knowledge, luck, then calmly do not look back: they are on your side … And vice versa, no matter how affectionate you are, entertaining in conversation, kind and friendly … if your business is accompanied by failures and failures, if at every step it is clear that you do not know your business … you will never deserve anything but contempt …

From the tops of the "Olympic" cabinets, no details or parts of the work can be distinguished. From there you can see only the endless sea of a faceless childhood, and in the office itself there is a model of an abstract child made of the lightest materials: ideas, printed paper, Manilov's dreams … "Olympians" despise technology. Thanks to their dominion, pedagogical and technical thought, especially in the matter of our own upbringing, has long since withered in our pedagogical universities. In all our Soviet life, there is no more miserable technical condition than in the area of education. And therefore educational work is a handicraft business, and of the handicraft industries it is the most backward.

Books are intertwined people.

A culture of love experience is impossible without the brakes organized in childhood.

Published books by A. S. Makarenko: "Pedagogical Poem", "Pedagogical Poems: Flags on Towers", "Book for Parents" can make a useful library for raising your children.