UNESCO singled out only four teachers who determined the way of pedagogical thinking in the twentieth century. Among them is Anton Makarenko, author of the “Pedagogical Poem”, known for his work with difficult children. It was he who proposed his own system of education and successfully put his theory into practice.

The book includes the most important and significant of the vast pedagogical heritage of A. S. Makarenko. Anyone interested in the problems of raising the younger generation will find in this book answers to a wide variety of questions: how to gain parental authority, how to create harmony in the family, how to develop determination, how to promote the comprehensive development of a child, how to raise a happy person, and much more.

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The social pedagogue has accumulated some experience working with children from disadvantaged families.

Conversation program:

Program mottos: 1. “We are human as long as we want to be better”; 2. Don't forget that every person is looking for joy in life. And to return this joy, to instill optimism in the child’s soul is the task of a social teacher at school.

Conversation one: “Happy is he who is happy in the family” (for grades 5-7)

Are you happy in your family? What do you like and what do you dislike?

The conversation is based on specific facts (without naming the student’s last name), after tests and questionnaires about the family, which include questions such as: Who is the head of your family? What are the traditions? How do you spend your leisure time? What do you like? What kind of family do you dream of? What kind of family do you want to create yourself (yourself)? How should you prepare yourself from childhood for family life? And etc.

After discussing the final conclusions from tests and questionnaires, we create and play out various situations (in high school). For example: 1. At the time of a family quarrel, guests came to you. Your actions. 2. My husband returned from work, the apartment was not cleaned, there was no lunch. My wife was late at work. A quarrel broke out. How to find a way out? And etc.

These mock conversations are of interest to high school students. Such classes are held in the form of a young family club, where the main idea is emphasized that family is not pleasure, but a lot of work. Family is the first school of love. A person does not choose when to be born, in which family to live, but he can create a family of joy in the future. It's his choice.

Conversation two: “Are you comfortable at school” (for grades 5-7)

Can you say: school is your home? The main goal: to find out what prevents the student from feeling comfortable in the classroom, i.e. has he adapted?

The conversation takes place in the form of a dialogue:

1. Where does the Motherland begin? From the path to school, from friends and comrades in the schoolyard.

2. What new things has school brought into your life?

3. How do you understand the motto: one for all, and all for one?

4. Which classmate can you call your friend (girlfriend) and why?

5. What's the difference between a friend and a comrade? We read T. Bulba’s speech about partnership. Let's analyze this text.

What rules should children live by in the classroom? Brainstorming is carried out. Children propose the following rules and wishes:

1. Boys should respect girls.

2. Carry out the instructions given to them by their class leaders or class leader.

3. Don't give nicknames.

4. Don't be rude, don't call people names.

5. Be friendly, etc.

Conclusion and appeal: let's be mutually polite, cultured and attentive. The call is accepted and the rules appear in the classroom corner.

Conversation three: “It all starts from childhood.” (for grades 5-7)

The purpose of this conversation is to awaken in students the desire to be better tomorrow than yesterday, to think about their behavior, about their daily routine, to think about a responsible attitude towards learning, because there are no trifles in life:

It's sad to think

That youth was given to us in vain,

That they cheated on her all the time,

That she deceived us...

(A.S. Pushkin)

We discuss the poet’s thought: childhood is the most wonderful time in a person’s life, but it quickly passes. The basic qualities of a person are laid down from childhood. If you are used to doing all your homework on your own, never being late, never lying, never being rude, you always understand that you were born human.

A survey is carried out in advance:

a) How do you imagine a real person, what qualities do you put in first place?

b) Do you know the rules of conduct? Why do they need to be done?

c) Have there been any cases of vandalism against objects or school property in your life?

d) Honestly admit, have you ever had a barbaric attitude towards animals and plants in your life?

e) If you were the Minister of Justice, how would you combat the manifestation of barbaric attitude towards city property?

The most interesting answers are read out and discussed. Students, as a rule, actively discuss these negative phenomena in society. They draw unexpected conclusions: You need to skillfully and with interest organize your leisure time and play sports.

Why do children often end up on the street among teenagers prone to crime? It’s a herd feeling – where everyone goes, so do I. Childhood inexperience. The media brings enormous harm: only crime is published. Where is the media leading the younger generation? What do militants teach? Violence. Violence and the desire to get rich by any means are promoted on television, but we have four armies: “Conscience, honor, duty and dignity.” This needs to be taken into account.

Conversation four: “On tolerance” (for grades 5-7)

“Me, you, he, she – together the whole country!” “We are all sisters and brothers.” “If we are united, we are invincible”...

Goal: To cultivate respect for each other, tolerance, the desire to perceive people of other nationalities as equals in society, having the same rights and responsibilities.

Conversation five: “There is no limit to perfection” (for 10-11 grades)

“If the Earth knew about the actions of its inhabitants,

That’s right, I would be amazed: what did we spend our minds on?”

Goal: to make students think about the fact that a person is born to explore the world, to create, to be able to overcome various difficulties and trials of fate, one cannot destroy, suppress another, humiliate someone’s dignity, do not give preference to physical pleasures and needs, because a person is born for in order to advance yourself and your family to perfection at least a little.

Strive, people, only for heights.

What is beauty? It will remain and pass away,

And the craving for beauty will not let you down!

Conversation six: “Who is who?” (for 10-11 grades)

Class hour “Who is who?” is held separately for girls and boys.

Target. During the period of maturation, boys and girls strive to find a mate. Help them not to make a mistake, to be guided not only by emotions, but also to listen to the right choice.

Thesis: A family grows from love, lives by love, children are born in love. When creating a family, young people choose the path they want to follow together. Will the person walking this difficult road overcome it? (For every 1000 marriages we have 800 divorces) Why?

Questionnaires of young men indicate that they would like to see a wife who is smart, conscientious, honest, loving, faithful and devoted, sincere, able to maintain a sense of her dignity, improve her character with sedateness, and be cheerful and hospitable.

A girl is a future mother, and a mother is a difficult mission: you must have the ability for self-sacrifice, incredible patience and tolerance, because loving a specific person can be unbearably difficult. He has his own habits and does not always give in in quarrels or arguments. A girl-wife should be a hundred times wiser than her husband-boy. Humanity exists because there is maternal love.

How does a girl want her husband to look? He must earn good money, love his wife devotedly and faithfully, love children, understand his wife, take into account her opinion, be able to understand her, be a good person, help his wife, have a calm and restrained character.

Does a young man always come to the rescue of a girl when she is offended, does he show chivalrous qualities, does he go in for sports in order to be strong and justify the concept of “being a man”. “Being a man” means taking on an equal share of care for the family, a share of labor, being able to preserve what surrounds you, multiplying only the good in the family, living for your family, preserving it like God - for happy is the one who is happy in family.

Our socio-psychological service is in a creative search for methods and means to help form the socialization of a student’s personal qualities, understanding that each of us is a “product” of the degree of social development of the individual. We need to help students who are registered at school to find their place in life, teach them the ability to live in a team, society and be happy.

Anton Semenovich Makarenko

Dealing with difficult children

Bestselling Child Psychology Books
UNESCO singled out only four teachers who determined the way of pedagogical thinking in the twentieth century. Among them is Anton Makarenko, author of the “Pedagogical Poem”, known for his work with difficult children. It was he who proposed his own system of education and successfully put his theory into practice.

The book includes the most important and significant of the vast pedagogical heritage of A. S. Makarenko. Anyone interested in the problems of raising the younger generation will find in this book answers to a wide variety of questions: how to gain parental authority, how to create harmony in the family, how to develop determination, how to promote the comprehensive development of a child, how to raise a happy person, and much more.

Anton Semenovich Makarenko

Dealing with difficult children

Introduction

Are difficult children special or not?... Methods of educational work with difficult children

Raising children is the most important area of ​​our lives. Our children are the future of our country and the world. They will make history. Our children are future fathers and mothers, they will also be educators of their children. Our children must grow up to be fine citizens, good fathers and mothers. But that’s not all: our children are our old age. Proper upbringing is our happy old age, bad upbringing is our future grief, these are our tears, this is our guilt before other people, before the whole country.

Dear parents, first of all, you must always remember the great importance of this matter, your great responsibility for it.

On the pages of this book I will talk about educational work with so-called “difficult” children. Just keep in mind that I am a worker on the practical front, and therefore there will, of course, be such a bias, somewhat practical, in my words... But I believe that practical workers make wonderful adjustments to the provisions of the sciences. It is known that labor productivity is increased not by a simple increase in the consumption of working energy, but with the help of a new approach to work, new logic, and a new arrangement of labor elements. Consequently, labor productivity increases using the method of inventions, discoveries, and discoveries.

The area of ​​our production - the area of ​​​​education - can in no way be excluded from this general movement. And in our field - I have been deeply convinced of this all my life - inventions are also necessary, even inventions in individual details, even in small things, and even more so in groups of parts, in a system, in parts of a system. And such inventions can come, of course, not from workers on the theoretical front, but from ordinary, ordinary workers, like me. Therefore, without much embarrassment, I allow myself to talk about my experience and the conclusions from the experience, believing that its significance should also be in the plane of the adjustment that a practical worker makes to certain achievements of theories.

What baggage do I have to speak to you?

Many people consider me a specialist in working with street children. It is not true. I worked for thirty-two years in total, sixteen of them at school and sixteen years with street children. True, all my life I worked at school in special conditions - in a school under constant influence from the public...

In the same way, my work with street children was by no means special work with street children. Firstly, as a working hypothesis, from the first days of my work with street children, I established that there is no need to use any special methods in relation to street children; secondly, I managed in a very short time to bring street children to a state of normalcy and continue to work with them as with normal children.

In the last period of my work with problem children, I already had a normal team, armed with a ten-year plan and striving for the usual goals that our regular school strives for. The children there, formerly homeless, were essentially no different from normal children. And if they differed, then, perhaps, for the better, since life in a work collective provided extremely many additional educational influences, even in comparison with the family. Therefore, my practical conclusions can be applied not only to difficult street children, but also to any children's team, and, consequently, to any worker on the educational front. This is the first point I ask you to take into account.

Now a few words about the very nature of my practical pedagogical logic. I came to some convictions, I did not come painlessly or quickly, but after going through several stages of rather painful doubts and errors, I came to some conclusions that will seem strange to some of you, but regarding which I have enough evidence so that, without hesitation, report them. Some of these conclusions are theoretical in nature. I will briefly list them before I begin with my own experience.

First of all, the question of the very nature of the science of education is interesting. We among pedagogical thinkers and individual organizers of our pedagogical work have the conviction that no special, separate methodology of educational work is needed, that the teaching methodology, the methodology of the educational subject must contain the entire educational thought.

I don't agree with this. I believe that the educational field - the field of pure education - is in some cases a separate field, distinct from teaching methods.

Personally, and in practice, I had to have an educational goal as the main one: since I was entrusted with the re-education of so-called delinquents, I was given, first of all, the task of educating. No one even set the task for me to educate. I was given boys and girls - delinquents, criminals, boys and girls with too bright and dangerous character traits, and first of all the goal was to remake this character.

At first it seemed that the main thing was some kind of separate educational work, especially labor education. I did not stand in this extreme position for long, but my other colleagues stood for quite a long time. Sometimes this line prevailed. It was carried out with the help of a seemingly completely acceptable statement: whoever wants can study at school, whoever doesn’t want to can’t study. In practice, it ended with no one doing anything seriously. As soon as a person suffered some kind of failure in class, he could exercise his right - not to want to study.

I soon came to the conviction that school is a powerful educational tool. In recent years, I have been persecuted for this principle of establishing the school as an educational means by individual workers. In recent years, I have relied on a full ten-year school and am firmly convinced that real re-education, complete re-education, guaranteeing against relapse, is possible only in a complete secondary school - nevertheless, even now I remain convinced that the methodology of educational work has its own logic, relatively independent of the logic of educational work. Both – the methods of upbringing and the methods of education, in my opinion, constitute two departments, more or less independent departments of pedagogical science. Of course, these departments must be organically connected. Of course, any work in the classroom is always educational work, but I consider it impossible to reduce educational work to education.

Now a few words about what can be taken as the basis for educational methods.

First of all, I am convinced that the methodology of educational work cannot be derived from the proposals of neighboring sciences, no matter how developed such sciences as psychology and biology are. I am convinced that we do not have the right to draw a direct conclusion to an educational remedy from the data of these sciences. These sciences should be of great importance in educational work, but not at all as a prerequisite for conclusion, but as control provisions for testing our practical achievements.

In addition, I believe that an educational remedy can only be derived from experience (and tested and approved by the provisions of such sciences as psychology, biology and others).

This statement of mine comes from the following: pedagogy, especially the theory of education, is, first of all, a science that is practically expedient. What I am firmly convinced of is that a pedagogical means cannot be derived either from psychology or from biology by deductive means, by simply syllogistic means, by formal logic. I have already said that the pedagogical means must be derived initially from our social life.

It is in the area of ​​purpose, in the area of ​​expediency, that I am convinced that pedagogical theory has erred above all. All mistakes, all deviations in our pedagogical work always occurred in the field of the logic of expediency. We will conventionally call these errors. I see three types of these errors in educational theory: these are the type of deductive statement, the type of ethical fetishism and the type of solitary means.

In my practice, I suffered a lot from struggling with such errors. Some means are taken and it is stated that the result from it will be like this; for example, take the history of the complex. The recommended remedy is a comprehensive teaching method; from this means the assertion is deduced speculatively and logically that this method of teaching leads to good results.

This consequence, that the complex method leads to good results, was established before testing by experience; but it was confirmed that the result would definitely be good; in some recesses of the psyche, a good result will be hidden somewhere.

When humble practitioners demanded: show us this good result, they objected to us: how can we open the human soul, there must be a good result, this is a complex harmony, a connection of parts. The connection between the individual parts of the lesson - it must necessarily be a positive result in the human psyche. This means that verification by experience was logically not allowed here. And the following circle turned out: a good remedy must have a good result, and if the result is good, that means a good remedy.

There were many such errors, stemming from the predominance of deductive logic, not experimental logic.

There were many mistakes and so-called ethical fetishism. Here, for example, is labor education.

And I, too, made this mistake. The word “labor” itself contains so much that is pleasant, so sacred and justified for us, that labor education seemed to us completely precise, definite and correct. And then it turned out that the word “labor” itself does not contain any single correct, complete logic. Labor was first understood as simple labor, as self-service labor, then labor as a goalless, unproductive labor process - an exercise in wasting muscular energy. And the word “work” illuminated logic so much that it seemed infallible, although at every step it was discovered that there was no real infallibility. But they believed so much in the ethical power of the term itself that logic seemed sacred. Meanwhile, my experience has shown that deriving any means from the ethical connotation of the term itself is impossible, that work as applied to education can be organized in a variety of ways and in each individual case can give a different result. In any case, work without accompanying education does not bring educational benefits; it turns out to be a neutral process. You can force a person to work as much as you like, but if at the same time you do not educate him morally, if he does not participate in public life, then this work will simply be a neutral process that does not give a positive result.

Labor as an educational means is possible only as part of a general system.

Finally, another mistake is the type of solitary facility. Very often they say that such and such a remedy necessarily leads to such and such results. One remedy. Let us take what seems at first glance to be the most undoubted statement that has often been expressed on the pages of the pedagogical press - the question of punishment. Punishment educates a slave - this is an exact axiom that has not been subject to any doubt. This statement, of course, contained all three errors. Here there was an error of both deductive prediction and an error of ethical fetishism. In punishment, the logic began from the very coloring of this word. And finally, there was the mistake of a solitary remedy - punishment educates a slave. Meanwhile, I am convinced that no means can be considered separately from the system. No means at all, no matter what we take, can be considered either good or bad if we consider it separately from other means, from the whole system, from the whole complex of influences. Punishment can educate a slave, and sometimes it can educate a very good person, a very free and proud person. Imagine that in my practice, when the task was to cultivate human dignity and pride, I achieved this through punishment.

Then I will tell you in what cases punishment leads to the development of human dignity. Of course, such a consequence can only occur in a certain environment, that is, in a certain environment of other means and at a certain stage of development. No pedagogical means, even a generally accepted one, such as suggestion, explanation, conversation, and social influence, can always be considered absolutely useful. The best remedy in some cases will necessarily be the worst. Take even such a means as collective influence.

Sometimes it will be good, sometimes it will be bad. Take individual influence, a face-to-face conversation between a teacher and a student. Sometimes this will be useful, and sometimes it will be harmful. No remedy can be considered from the point of view of usefulness or harm, taken in isolation from the entire system of means. Finally, no system of means can be recommended as a permanent system.

I am personally convinced of the following: if we take an ordinary school, put it in the hands of good teachers, organizers, educators, and this school lives for twenty years, then during these twenty years in good pedagogical hands it should go such a wonderful way that the education system at the beginning and at the end should be very different from one another.

In general, pedagogy is the most dialectical, mobile, most complex and diverse science. This statement is the main symbol of my pedagogical faith. I’m not saying that I’ve already tested everything experimentally, not at all, and for me there are still a lot of ambiguities and inaccuracies, but I state this as a working hypothesis, which in any case needs to be tested. For me personally, it has been proven by my experience.

By the way, I am convinced that the logic of what I said does not contradict the experience of our best schools and many of our best children's and non-children's associations.

These are the general preliminary remarks that I wanted to focus on.

Chapter first

Where do difficult children come from, or How NOT to raise a difficult child?

Educational goals

Now let's move on to the most important question, the question of setting educational goals. By whom, how and when can the goals of education be established and what are the goals of education?

By the purpose of education I understand the program of the human personality, the program of human character, and in the concept of character I put the entire content of the personality, that is, the nature of external manifestations and internal conviction, and political education, and knowledge - absolutely the whole picture of the human personality; I believe that we, educators, must have a program for the human personality to which we must strive.

In my practical work I could not do without such a program. Nothing teaches a person like experience. Once I was given several hundred people, and in each of them I saw deep and dangerous aspirations of character, deep habits, I had to think: what should their character be, what should I strive for in order to raise this boy or girl? person? And when I thought about it, I saw that this question cannot be answered in a few words. Raising a good person did not show me the way. I had to arrive at a more developed program of the human personality. And, approaching the personality program, I was faced with the following question: should this personality program be the same for everyone? Well, should I drive each individual into a single program, into a standard and achieve this standard? Then I must sacrifice individual charm, originality, the special beauty of the personality, and if I don’t sacrifice, then what kind of program can I have! And I could not resolve this issue so simply, abstractly, but it was resolved for almost ten years.

I saw in my educational work that yes, there should be a general program, a “standard” one, and an individual adjustment to it. For me, the question did not arise: should my pupil emerge as a brave man, or should I raise a coward? Here I assumed the “standard” that everyone should be brave, courageous, honest, hardworking. But what to do when you approach such delicate departments of personality as talent? Sometimes in relation to talent, when you stand in front of it, you have to experience extreme doubts.

I had such a case when a boy graduated from ten years old. His last name is Terentyuk. He studied very well - got straight A's - and then he wanted to go to a technological university. I discovered in him a great artistic talent before that, and the talent of a very rare full-bodied comedian, extremely subtle, witty, with excellent vocal cords, rich facial expressions, such an intelligent comedian. I saw that it was in the field of acting that he could give great results, but in a technological school he would be an average student. But then there was such a passion, all my “boys” wanted to be engineers. And if you start talking about becoming a teacher, they laugh right in your face: “How is it possible to deliberately, on purpose, become a teacher?” - “Well, go become an actor.” - “What are you saying, what kind of job does an actor have?” And so he went to the Institute of Technology with my deepest conviction that we were losing a wonderful actor. I gave up, I don’t have the right to make such a withdrawal after all...

But here I couldn’t resist. He studied for six months and participated in our drama club. I thought and thought and decided - I called him to a meeting, I said that I was filing a complaint against Terentyuk: he did not obey discipline and went to a technological university. At a general meeting they say: “Shame on you, they tell you, but you don’t obey.” They decided: “He should be expelled from the Technological Institute and sent to a theater technical school.” He walked around very sad, but he could not disobey the collective - he received a scholarship, a dormitory in the collective. And now he is a wonderful actor, already playing in one of the best Far Eastern theaters, in two years he has traveled the path that people do in ten years. And now he is very grateful to me.

They are called difficult children. This term is not entirely correct, because in teenagers such difficult behavior is often temporary, everything is explained by a riot of hormones that force young people to react very sharply to the surrounding reality. However, if there is a difficult child in the family, this manifests itself much earlier. Problems with raising such children become urgent at a very early age. How to live with a difficult child without damaging anyone's psyche?

First, let's define some terminology. Toddlers and older children, whose personality needs, according to experts, adjustment, are called difficult children in psychology. This is in no way a diagnosis or a sentence. Such a definition should be considered as a personal characteristic, especially since the manifestations of “difficulty” can be very different. In some children it results in excessive anxiety and aggressiveness. Others develop a strategy of disobedience to spite their parents. In still others, it can even be expressed in destructive behavior, often completely unconsciously.

Why?

The reason for this peculiarity of the child’s personality lies, sadly, in the very family where he grows up. That is why people from orphanages are often called difficult children. After all, the environment in which they grow up contributes to the incorrect formation of the psyche, habits and behavior. However, sometimes such a child can grow up in a complete, seemingly prosperous family. The reason why children become “difficult” is the microclimate. Perhaps the family experiences quarrels between parents, assault, and a tense atmosphere. Or perhaps the child's wishes and needs for some reason remain unheard by his father and mother.

Then "difficult" behavior is a way to get attention. And a very small percentage of children are considered such due to congenital or acquired problems with the nervous system. However, even with such a personality trait, a child can grow up to be a developed and integrated person into society.

What is the work of parents?

First, if you want to change the status quo, start by finding the cause and eliminating it, or at least mitigating it. As soon as the child stops being under constant pressure, he will be able to reconsider his behavior and independently learn to behave correctly. Secondly, don't scold your children. Don't make too many restrictions. The strategy of connivance in relation to the child bears fruit if everything is within reason. That is, actions that obviously endanger the life and health of a child should be limited.

However, not with a simple ban, but with a detailed and calm explanation of why this should not be done. And leave disobedience and whims as they are. At first, the child will be surprised at this permission to do everything. And then, when he gets used to the fact that he is not limited by prohibitions, firstly, those actions that are carried out in spite of parental demands will disappear, and secondly, it will be possible to proceed to the second step of education.

Next stage

The second step is communication with difficult children. That is, you need to talk to any child. And difficult children require much more communication. They need to talk through every situation in which they behaved incorrectly. And at the same time, you need to talk about it in such a way as not to slide into blaming the child for what he did. We need to talk about the consequences of his action and its negative impact on the world around him. Then the child will be able to understand that his actions caused pain, trouble and inconvenience to someone or something, but will not develop a guilt complex. Well, the most important thing you need when dealing with difficult children is patience and boundless love on the part of the parents.