Позитивные изменения. Образование. Школа будущего. Тематический выпуск, 2022 / Positive changes. Education. The school of the future. Special issue, 2022

СПИСОК ИСТОЧНИКОВ

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Москва: Форум, ИНФРА-М.

2. Амонашвили, Ш. (2017). Как любить детей. Опыт самоанализа. Москва: Свет.

3. Амонашвили, Ш. (2014). Педагогические притчи. Москва: Амрита.

4. Аникеева, Н. (2020). Главное о воспитании ребенка. М. Монтессори, Я. Корчак, Л. Выготский, А. Макаренко, Э. Эриксон. Москва: Питер.

5. Соловейчик, С. (2018). Педагогика для всех. Москва: АСТ.

6. Тубельский, А. (2012). Школа будущего, построенная вместе с детьми. Москва: Первое сентября.

Humane Pedagogy 2.0: From Anton Makarenko to Lyudmila Petranovskaya and Dima Zitser

Close-to-life education, personalized approach to the child, having fun while learning instead of being scared to go to school – these are just a few ideas of humane pedagogy. Alexey Semyonichev, alternative education researcher, discusses how humane pedagogy can help build the education of the future.

Alexey Semyonichev

Founder of the "Alternative Education in Russia" project, author of books on family education, writer, publicist

What do I see the pedagogy of the future like? Humane. I believe that the education of the 21st century will be largely based on the ideas of Anton Makarenko, Janusz Korczak, Genrikh Altshuller, Shalva Amonashvili and other innovative teachers. I will try to outline in general terms and name the main directions education will follow in the near future.

AN INNOVATOR AND A DEMOCRAT

Let’s start with the well-known, yet little-read Anton Makarenko. Everyone heard the name at least once. He opened a school for homeless children, ran it for a long time, wrote many books based on the experience of his school and personal reflections.

In 1921, in the first year of the school’s existence, it was named after Maxim Gorky. In 1927, Makarenko joined the Dzerzhinsky Labor Commune. In the same year, Nadezhda Krupskaya criticized his approach to the education of homeless children. Admittedly, many of our teachers, who supported reforms in education, did not have particularly good relations with the state, as we will see later. But gradually they managed to get along with the authorities.

Makarenko, for one, would make peace with Krupskaya later, and would happily deliver lectures, write books, and live in the famous Writers’ House in Lavrushinsky Lane, Moscow. His ideas received development, and other commune schools began to open in the USSR. The most renowned of them, the Bolshevo Labor Commune named after Genrikh Yagoda, worked near Moscow.

In 1939, at the age of 51, Makarenko died of a heart attack while on a train. The legacy he left is so important that even now, a hundred years later, he is considered one of the most prominent teachers of the 20th century.

Curiously, Makarenko never wrote in his books about how to teach mathematics or literature. His main ideas were how to create an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual understanding between teachers and students at school. It is a great challenge, but with homeless children, the task becomes even more challenging. Makarenko talks about things that sound terribly strange for the Soviet government – about self-governance, about fair elections (the school had a governing board elected by voting), about the need to listen to the students’ opinions. Through these generally simple mechanisms, a scenario is created when school becomes not only a place for a child to gain knowledge, but also a place of emotional well-being, where the child could fulfill oneself. It is interesting that, according to Makarenko, teachers are not dictators who exercise their right of the strongest, but rather people you can and should negotiate and argue with. Makarenko says that the environment, the positive atmosphere at school, the team (for him this is the most important thing) influence the child’s education and upbringing.

Makarenko’s students mastered many specialties. School workshops made products which were in high demand in the country. They even made photo cameras. This is an important point: it’s not just making something to present it to parents later so they would feel good; not just banging things with a hammer at arts and crafts lessons. It’s actual work that brings real benefits and motivates us to refine ourselves.

Makarenko does not turn a school for homeless children into a prison but makes the school a part of life. And it is very important. Because in the 21st century, the isolation of schools from the real world is one of the biggest problems in education. Makarenko tries to make sure that his students, when leaving school, get to know the world they live in, see its real problems. This approach directly contradicts what will happen to school education afterwards – fences, guards, strict discipline, no step back, or, even worse, no step forward.

Curiously, Makarenko never wrote in his books about how to teach mathematics or literature. His main ideas were how to create an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual understanding.

While Makarenko works with homeless children, his books contain a lot about the fact that upbringing and education are not only the responsibility of the state, but also of parents. Surprisingly, even now, after a hundred years, the discussion persists. Some people argue that the state should be the one to bring up and educate children.

So, to sum it up: the team and the environment affect learning. Democratic governing bodies have a positive effect on educational and upbringing processes. Education should be as close to real life as possible. Upbringing and education are largely the responsibility of parents.

THE INVENTOR

Genrikh Altshuller, the founder of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TIPS), an important direction in pedagogy, is less known to the public, though he gained popularity as a science fiction writer. He made his first invention when he was in the 10th grade. He served time in labor camps: arrested in 1950, rehabilitated in 1954. After his release from prison, his relations with the Soviet government developed quite tolerably.

Altshuller is among Soviet scientists and teachers known outside Russia. His TIPS helped turn discoveries into regularities instead of treating them as random variables and was popular in the USSR. Even today, the theory has many followers all over the world.

To sum it up: inventing can be creative. Both can be taught, which means that everyone can be made talented and unique.

THE LEGENDARY TEACHER OF OUR TIME

And now let’s talk about probably our most famous teacher, loved by many people in our country, and rightly so. Shalva Amonashvili is the founder of humane pedagogy.

In the 1970s, he was criticized by the official academic community. Vasily Davydov (an author of the Elkonin-Davydov System), helped him a lot then. But here is the main thing: Amonashvili has been able to maintain his humane pedagogy to this day. In fairness, we must say that the only school in Moscow that openly promoted Amonashvili’s ideas closed 10 years ago, and there is no other yet. Amonashvili has many supporters and followers among teachers and parents, he regularly holds seminars, meetings, educational schools, festivals, conferences in Georgia and Russia. His lifework lives and wins.

What is the main message of humane pedagogy? A child is a unique being, he must be nurtured and cherished, protected from evil and led to good. "Parents, you are lucky, you have an angel born, so be proud and take care of him/ her – this is your chance,” humane pedagogy tells us. Before Amonashvili, Janusz Korczak delivered the same message. And many of the recognized teachers said that children should be loved. It sounds corny, but there are nuances.

Already at the turn of the XX and XXI centuries, Amonashvili implements his idea of a "humane school.” First off, this is a school the child is not afraid of going to. Instead of a red pen, the teachers use a blue one, instead of "You may sit down” – "Thank you for the answer, dear Olya.” Lessons are full of emotions: if your answer is poor – "sad,” if good – "happy.” There are no grades in elementary school. Amonashvili’s school is a school of high spirits. Both teachers and students extensively use such words as "good,” "sincere,” "thoughtful,” "happy.” They take pleasure in being here. It is joyful to be here.

The idea that children are unique and amazing was not so obvious in the 20th century in our country. It took a very long time for the society to recognize their independence and freedom, and there are still big problems with this in many schools around the world, and in Russia, too. Children used to be perceived as unreasonable beings and therefore requiring persistent attention and care from adults.

First Janusz Korczak, and then Shalva Amonashvili, promoted the idea of the uniqueness of the child’s inner world, of caring for him/her. It is not enough to "shove” knowledge into children. They need emotional support and love (by the way, Dima Zitser is going in approximately the same direction today. At each meeting, he says that a child should be treated like a small adult).

Both Korczak and Amonashvili remind us that children have rights. Although they are small and do not know much yet, this does not mean that you may insult, humiliate them, disrespect their interests and needs. You should see personalities in them. Do you remember Makarenko with his school boards, students’ rights, respect between teachers and students? All this is a way to realize this individuality, uniqueness, the child’s right to respect and personal freedoms.

To sum it up: each and every child is unique and must be protected. School must preserve personal freedoms of a child. Instead of fear and violence – a respectful attitude. When there is no fear, there is freedom.

INTERESTING AND FAST LEARNING

Here we come to the idea of putting personal freedoms into practice as one of the main values of the school in the 21st century. But first we need to talk about one more person many people might know – Viktor Shatalov. He lived a very long and interesting life. His first experiments with teaching methods date back to the 1950s.

But in Soviet times, his discoveries were not widely applied, although they were highly effective.

Shatalov had many accomplishments, but I will focus on the best known ones.

Reference signals – visual aids, formulas and notes make learning faster, more engaging and efficient.

A differentiated approach to home assignments (or any assignment, for that matter) – the assignment must match the child’s level. Let’s say, give them a hundred sums to do and praise for any sum done. Again, it is emotions that matter! The child should feel strong, smart and handsome (remember Amonashvili?)

To sum it up: learning doesn't have to be hard. Learning without violence is possible: it is enough to explain correctly, help to remember, make arrangements for joint study and ask kindly. An individual approach is our everything.

HIGHS AND LOWS

Now, let’s move on to the most controversial part. Soviet education. There are lots and lots of opinions about it. Some scold it, some praise it, some want to abandon it completely, and some still teach children using Soviet textbooks. I will express my own opinion. Anyone is free to challenge it.

Pedagogy is not in a thing in itself. Like everything around us, it depends on the inner workings of the society. In Russia, as in Europe and America, its development was determined by two interdependent directions: the arms race and the formation of a consumer society. The world could notice it by the growth of the anti-war movement and in the work of Andy Warhol. In the USSR, this development was marked by the number of trials against black marketeers and the ban of Kino, the music band. The confrontation between the capitalist and socialist worlds largely determined the main developments in education.

It is hard to dispute the Soviet Union’s success in physics, mathematics and chemistry. This leadership, by the way, remains to this day. Biology was less fortunate. In the late 1940s, the USSR fell behind the world’s pace and never caught up. In other words, the industries the military-industrial complex depended on were unequivocally successful. Accordingly, teaching the respective disciplines at schools and universities was honed to perfection. Here, the pressure of ideology was completely absent (or almost absent), everyone understood that pressure was not the best way to develop science above the average level. No wonder the intelligentsia became the basis of free thinking (just remember the books by the Strugatsky brothers, the songs and poems by Bulat Okudzhava, or read the biographies of Pyotr Kapitsa and Lev Landau). In line with these interests of the state, working with talented children, teaching physics, chemistry and mathematics at school, opening special physics and mathematics schools and study groups at Palaces of Pioneers became an actively developing direction. Academic competitions in physics, mathematics, chemistry and astronomy (given the achievements of all opposing sides in astronautics) were held. In these subject areas, you can notice what I just talked about earlier: a creative approach to solving technical problems, unique equal and respectful relationships between teachers and students, the absence of fear and pressure, work on real cases and problems. Can we be proud of these achievements? Sure we can.

While Makarenko works with homeless children, his books contain a lot about the fact that upbringing and education are not only the responsibility of the state, but also of parents.

The humanities are quite a different story though. From the very first years of the Soviet Union, ideological pressure and censorship have been hard here. It is hard to imagine the development of literature or history under strong pressure and isolation from the outside world. Exactly the same thing happens at school. In the "country that reads the most,” there was no opportunity to read and discuss books outside the system of socialist realism. Even the cultural critic Yuri Lotman, the author of immortal broadcasts on Russian history, who was definitely no threat to the state, was forced to develop his structural analysis in Tartu, Estonia, as in Moscow his work would be subject to censorship.