Pedagogical system of A.S. Makarenko

Makarenko is a brilliant teacher. International recognition of A. S. Makarenko was evidenced by the well-known decision of UNESCO (1988), concerning only four teachers who determined the way of pedagogical thinking in the XNUMXth century. These are John Dewey, Georg Kershensteiner, Maria Montessori and Anton Makarenko.

A.S. Makarenko is known for organizing and leading colonies for juvenile delinquents and street children. Children came to Makarenko who were already so spoiled that they could not live in a normal society: thieves, hooligans, prostitute girls. Parents brought their children when they themselves could not cope with them. But Makarenko could. He achieved such mastery in raising children that he could confidently say: «Education is an easy thing.» It became so easy for Makarenko that in the colony. Dzerzhinsky, he completely abandoned educators, and 600 former offenders turned out to be in his care. There were teachers at the school, engineers at the factory, but the children’s team of 500-600 people lived to a certain extent independently. Makarenko was sure that the children would get out of bed on time on a signal, put themselves and all the premises of the commune in order. The commune never had cleaners. The pupils cleaned everything themselves, moreover, in such a way that everything had to shine, because 3-4 delegations a day came to the commune. Cleanliness was checked with a white handkerchief.

Today, today, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, only 10% of graduates of Russian state orphanages and boarding schools adapt to life, 40% commit crimes, another 40% of graduates become alcoholics and drug addicts, 10% commit suicide.

From the report of the Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Children from Orphanages and Boarding Schools in Moscow, V.Sh. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia conducted a study … how did the fate of graduates of orphanages. The statistics were shocking. Forty percent went to prison almost immediately, another forty went into crime, ten percent committed suicide, and only one tenth was able to settle down in life, find a normal job, start a family.” Link. The same figures were repeatedly cited in his speeches by the State Duma deputy from the Communist Party Smolin O.N.

For comparison, we recall that among the almost 3000 pupils of the teams under the arm. A. S. Makarenko is not aware of a single relapse, and many researchers of the fate of these graduates note that «they were happy people.» Similar achievements were achieved by the students and successors of the approaches of A. S. Makarenko Semyon Kalabalin and his wife Galina Konstantinovna (only teams under their leadership released about 7000 people), A. G. Yavlinsky and others.

​​​​​​​For all his pedagogical successes, A.S. Makarenko was not recognized as official pedagogy of that time, one of his ardent opponents was N.K. Krupskaya. Despite the fact that they could not cope with homelessness, in 1928 the Makarenko method was banned for use. The resolution sounded like a sentence: «The proposed system of the educational process is not a Soviet system.» The colony was defended with the help of Maxim Gorky, who came to meet with the pupils of the colony. M. Gorky. Gorky’s review of the colony and Makarenko: “He is stern in appearance, laconic, with a big nose, with intelligent and keen eyes. Looks like a military man. He keeps pace everywhere, sees everything, knows each of the colonists, who give a strange impression of being well-bred. It was Maxim Gorky, using his influence among the leadership of the OGPU, who saved Makarenko, making him a full-time employee of the GPU and giving him to a new colony, now theirs. Dzerzhinsky. The new commune received practically nothing from the state during its existence. The Chekists helped the commune, giving part of their salary, but this was only enough for half of the needs. In the early years, the commune experienced a very great need. There were times when they ate one bread during the day. But already after 3 years, the commune refused the help of the Chekists, and with its own money began to build a power tool factory, the first in the country.

How did A.S. achieve all this? Makarenko? Outlining his credo, among the most important points, Anton Semenovich insisted on the development of technologies for educational influence. He wrote:

“Our pedagogical production has never been built according to technological logic, but always according to the logic of moral preaching. And the more I thought, the more I found similarities between the processes of education and the usual processes in material production, and there was no particularly terrible mechanistic nature in this similarity. The human person in my mind continued to be a human person with all its complexity, richness and beauty, but it seemed to me that it was precisely for this reason that it needed to be approached with more accurate meters, with more responsibility and with more science, and not in the order of simple dark hysterics. The very deep analogy between production and education not only did not offend my idea of ​​a person, but, on the contrary, infected me with a special respect for him, because one cannot disrespect even a good complex machine.

In any case, it was clear to me that very many details in the human personality and in human behavior could be made on presses, simply stamped in the standard manner, but this requires especially delicate work of the stamps themselves, requiring scrupulous care and precision. Other details required, on the contrary, individual processing in the hands of a highly skilled craftsman, a man with golden hands and a sharp eye. For many details, complex special devices were needed, requiring great ingenuity and the flight of human genius. And for all the details and for the entire work of the educator, a special science is needed. Why do we study the resistance of materials in technical universities, while in pedagogical universities we do not study the resistance of the individual when they begin to educate it? But it’s not a secret for everyone that such resistance takes place. Why, finally, do we not have a control department that could say to various pedagogical partners: “You, my dears, have ninety percent of marriage. You have not turned out to be a communist personality, but downright rubbish, a drunkard, a couch potato and a self-seeker. Pay, please, out of your salary.» “Why don’t we have any science about raw materials, and no one really knows what should be made from this material — a box of matches or an airplane?”

In addition to manufacturability, we would include four points among the most important points of Makarenko’s pedagogical system: Business. The core of the team. Self management. Format.

A business. The colonists had a real business, which fed them and disciplined them. At first, the colonists set up their subsistence economy just to feed themselves, later they took up serious production. Having built their own factory (in less than a year), the pupils began to produce electric drills, later they mastered the production of Leika cameras. The Leika camera is 300 parts with an accuracy of 0,001 mm, for those times it was an absolutely innovative production. Production in the commune was not just profitable, but highly profitable: the commune gave the state 4,5 million USD as its profit. in year. Pupils received a salary for which they supported themselves, younger members of the commune, paid scholarships to former communards who studied at universities, set aside money for savings books to accumulate funds by the time they left the commune, maintained an orchestra, a theater, a greenhouse of flowers, organized trips and other cultural events. And the main point is that the business shaped the personality: at the age of 16-19, children already became foremen and production managers.

The core of the team. The colonists were brought up not by a teacher in manual control mode, but by the core of the team in automatic mode. The authoritative colonists, internally accepting and professing the values ​​of the colony, as the core of the team, played the role of “sourdough”, which impregnated the newly arrived colonists, turned out to be that meat-o.e.o., which, by means intelligible to teenagers, grinded the newcomers and made them part of the system. Children conveyed to each other the new rules of life in their own language, Makarenko only restrained them so that they remained within a civilized framework.

“If this is a difficult person who does not believe me, is opposed to me, treats me distrustfully, I will not talk to him. I will gather the elders, call him and speak to him in the most official, friendly tone. What matters to me is not what I say, but how others look at it. He looks up at me, but is afraid to look at his comrades. I say: «And then the comrades will tell you.» And the comrades will tell him what I taught them earlier, and he will imagine that they themselves came up with it. (“Problems of school Soviet education”).

Units of different ages are the same move when the little ones received protection from older “comrades”, and the homies inserted new concepts for life into them.

Self management. If there is no business and there is no healthy core of the team, self-government is impossible and harmful. If the basis of the team is healthy, self-management strengthens and sharpens it, turning out to be a school of leadership and leadership.

Framework. Makarenko intensively introduced and closely followed the rules and rituals that behaviorally, through the body, built new norms of life into the colonists. Getting up on time, washing, rubbing the floor, and especially not spitting on the floor — is natural and necessary. But “Do not stand, propping up the wall — stand evenly” and “Do not push” — the thing is no longer obvious, but it is precisely such trifles that develop the inner core of the personality. The colonists quickly became accustomed to military formations, flags, horns and walking in formation. When everyone is in formation, a step is built (and this is important), and in the team everyone tunes in to everyone.

“I believe that children should not even push each other. They must move purposefully. No aimless movements. And I told my Communards: I want to run — there is a playground, you can run there. Please behave yourself here. In general, education of restraint, inhibition of movements — first of all. (from «Communist Education and Behavior»)».

Makarenko was never a humanist, he was ready to work hard, like a man, he valued order and discipline, including army orders.

At the sight of his children’s detachments, marching in step with the bugles and drums, the teachers had horror in their eyes. The technique worked amazingly effectively, but the teachers argued: “The methods are not the same!”

From the memoirs of G.K. Kalabalina: “In the evening, the duty officer reports: the day went well. Checking Kalabalina with this report pokes in the nose: it smacks of mysticism! B-l-a-g-o-oh! And finds in this «crime». Or the director gives an instruction to the pupil, he answers him: “Yes!” The inspector is already twitching all over: some kind of paramilitary community! Based on the results of these numerous checks, a verdict of the highest authority is issued: “Kalabalin should be released from his position as director of the orphanage and henceforth banned from holding positions related to working with children!↑

After the death of Semyon Kalabalin, A.S. Makarenko, who created several successful communes according to his system, Makarenko’s communes in Russia disappeared. In one form or another, Makarenko’s system still works, but at least two circumstances prevent the introduction of his system both in Russia and abroad. First, the Makarenko system assumes that children can and should work, while child labor is currently prohibited. Second: Makarenko’s system allows harsh, masculine means of influence that are not acceptable for modern humanistic pedagogy.

Nevertheless, Makarenko’s approach is being implemented today, oddly enough, in business, namely in the most advanced companies. Linking the income of employees with the overall profit of the enterprise, educating new employees and introducing them to the corporate culture through the core of the team, self-management in creative teams and format control is the golden fund of modern business.

The main works of Makarenko: «A Book for Parents» (jointly with G.S. Makarenko), 1937; «Pedagogical essays», vol. 1-8, M., 1983-1986. Here is an electronic archive of Makarenko’s works, here is the Pedagogical Museum of A.S. Makarenko