Beating pupils is not a method, but sometime hitting in order to stop impudence is normal among men.
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«Physical punishment was not practiced in the colony.» It’s true, the discipline was great, it was just not necessary. The background was a respectful attitude towards each colonist, not only hitting, pushing each other between the colonists was forbidden. Background — yes. And the elements were completely acceptable. Actually, without these elements it would not have been possible later to create such a background. And what are the elements? Question: could Makarenko ever leave a colonist without food if he did not want to work? Answer: Easy. Could the colonist say to his face clearly and convincingly that he is a “bastard”? — Yes.
I quote:
“… He tried, tried, but this Jesus could not change his nature. They caught him on all sorts of nasty things: either he would start up some rumor, then he would slowly say nasty things to the girls. Finally, he left for one of the southern universities, and I could not be calm that a man would come out of him. And when he came to say goodbye to me, I changed my pedagogical tact and said: «You were a bastard, you are a bastard, and you will remain a bastard.»
He later came to visit me and said: “How much you messed around with me and couldn’t do anything with me, but here’s what you told me: you were a bastard, you will be a bastard, I can’t forget that. And I won’t be a bastard.» And this explosion: what I told him, he cannot forget” (“Communist Education and Behavior”).
Well, the fact that Makarenko once beat Zadorov was a lot of noise at one time. He himself wrote about it this way:
“One winter morning, I suggested to Zadorov that he go and get firewood for the kitchen. Heard the usual perky-cheerful answer:
— Go on your own, there are a lot of you here!
This was the first time I was addressed with «you».
In a state of anger and resentment, driven to despair and frenzy by all the previous months, I swung and hit Zadorov on the cheek. He hit hard, he could not stay on his feet and fell on the stove. I hit him a second time, grabbed him by the collar, lifted him up and hit him a third time.
I suddenly saw that he was terribly frightened. Pale, with trembling hands, he hurried to put on his cap, then took it off and put it on again. I would probably still beat him, but he whispered softly and with a groan:
— Excuse me, Anton Semenovich …
My anger was so wild and immoderate that I felt: if someone said a word against me, I would throw myself at everyone, I would strive to kill, to destroy this pack of bandits. I had an iron poker in my hands. All five pupils stood silently by their beds, Burun was in a hurry to fix something in his suit.
I turned to them and tapped the poker on the headboard.
— Or everyone immediately go to the forest, to work, or get out of the colony to hell!
And he left the bedroom.
… In the field of discipline, the case of Zadorov was a turning point. I must tell the truth, I was not tormented by remorse. Yes, I beat the pupil. I experienced all the pedagogical absurdity, all the legal legitimacy of this case, but at the same time I saw that the purity of my pedagogical hands was a secondary matter in comparison with the task before me. I firmly decided that I would be a dictator if I did not master another method ”(“ Pedagogical Poem ”).
Once again: life in the colony did not consist of these things at all, relations there were much more civilized than in most modern good families. But this life was like that because Makarenko could afford anything. He could be a Silovik, and not just Dushka.
And today it is forbidden.
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