The paradox of the Anton Makarenko system. It was introduced all over the world, but not here

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

On March 13, 1888, a boy was born into the family of a railway workshop worker, whom UNESCO would later call “one of the four teachers who determined the way of pedagogical thinking in the XX century”. The boy was named Anton, which can be translated as "competing". Surname - Makarenko.

His official biography can only cause a monstrous yawn. An elementary railway school, one-year pedagogical courses, a teacher's institute, management of a colony for homeless children … In the interval - unsuccessful literary experiments. Several early romance stories sent Gorky, "The petrel of revolution" rolled into a thin pancake and imposed a resolution: "You will never become a writer." In other words, boredom and dullness, multiplied by the traditional dislike for teachers.

Doesn't the Motherland need?

Of course, all this is sheer nonsense. Moreover, it is unfair. Makarenko's biography consists of such quirks and paradoxes, which is even surprising how a blockbuster has not yet been shot on it. For example, the childhood of a hero. Antosha, this future "tamer of punks", was frail and short-sighted, his authority among his peers was measured in negative values: the gopniks of the city of Kryukov often beat him and squeezed out dimes in their favor. Young years. The future luminary defends a diploma on an interesting topic: "The crisis and collapse of modern pedagogy." Maturity is even more interesting. Anton Semyonovich quietly works in the NKVD apparatus, while having a relative abroad. And not some "great-grand-nephew from the side of the brother-in-law," but a brother Vitaly … Brother, by the way, lives in France and is a reference "White Guard bastard", as he served as an officer under the command Denikin … And the Soviet patriot Makarenko openly writes to his brother-white émigré: “I live among dark savages. Here is the abomination of desolation. Nothing like your life … You are in Nice - you can only dream of it! " And - no big deal, no reprisals! Moreover - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

The main paradox is that no one can understand how Makarenko managed to cope with those very "juvenile criminals." And not just manage, but somehow magically re-educate them. And, damn it, why modern teachers, who should be familiar with his works, with his theory of upbringing, do nothing like this, even if you crack?

Answers are in store in abundance. Say, in the Makarenko colony there were many homeless children from “noble” families who fell under the “tsunami” of the revolution and the Civil War: “These teenagers still retained the noble notions of justice, legality, honor and respect for work. It was they who embodied the lost paradise of their childhood in the colonies. And Makarenko's naive and helpless system has nothing to do with it. " In fact, we have to admit that it has nothing to do with this kind of fabrication. An intelligible answer was given by a German Siegfried Weitz, who was engaged in the study and implementation of the Makarenko system back in Germany: “Acquaintance with his legacy in the USSR is superficial. This is the source of all sorts of misunderstandings and simplifications that prevent the famous teacher's theory from being realized."

Labor and collective

It makes sense. The very "three pillars" of the Makarenko system - education by labor, play and education by a team - were fancifully distorted in our country. Here, say, work, or, as it is also ironically called, "occupational therapy."

It seems that many can repeat after the hero Vasily Aksyonovfrom the story "Star Ticket": "They taught us how to work at school. This is a lesson that makes you want to break everything. " Holy truth. If “labor” is such a thing where everyone sadly glues boxes or sews canvas mittens, then no “education” will come of it. By the way, Makarenko himself agreed with this: “These workshops, shoe, sewing and carpentry, were considered the alpha and omega of the pedagogical labor process. They disgusted me. I did not understand at all what they were designed for. So I closed them after a week."

Labor, and already without quotes, consisted in the fact that Makarenko trusted his juvenile criminals. And so they built two high-tech factories from scratch - for the production of electromechanical instruments (Austrian license) and the famous FED cameras (German license). The colonists mastered the most complex technologies, worked successfully and provided high-tech products of their time. It was bold to the point of insanity. Try to imagine a modern juvenile colony, which would organize the release of, say, computer games or antivirus systems. Can not be? But then it was very even!

It's the same with collectivism. If the Germans, who studied and implemented the Makarenko system, relied on labor, the Japanese really liked the combination of responsibility and creativity, as well as mutual collective responsibility. In the 1950s, Makarenko's works began to be published there in large numbers. For business leaders. And now almost all Japanese firms are being built according to the patterns of the labor colony of our teacher.

And it is doubly offensive that these very principles of Makarenko are now returning to us. In the form of "corporate events", "team building" and "teamwork skills." In the form of "educating an employee by increasing his motivation."

All this was invented and embodied by Makarenko. But - there is no prophet in his own country. We did not publish his works for a long time. By the way, the last reprint of his collected works was carried out - that's where the shame is! - one western cosmetics company. With a characteristic preface: "He has done more for the prosperity of our company than anyone else."