Working with difficult children and A.S. Makarenko’s pedagogical system

Abstract

This article talks about working with difficult children and about A.S. Makarenko’s system methodology (there collective labor combined with the formation of personality, prone to rapid reactions to changing conditions and circumstances).  We dare to comment on his concept. As it is known, A.S. Makarenko taught difficult teenagers in the field of corrective labor institutions (for example, the Gorky Colony). At that time, the problem of difficult adolescents (connected with the problems of homelessness and juvenile delinquency) reached a truly grand scale in the country. The children's colony, led by Makarenko, did not have a sufficient number of personnel who would be busy with the function of maintaining order.  Of course, the Makarenko method was formed in the specific social conditions of the end of the Civil War in Russia, which was characterized by mass crime and homelessness in children. Pupils of children's colonies were sometimes very dangerous material and were in very difficult material conditions. In this regard, labor education and the primacy of the collective dominated in the educational method of Makarenko.  However, it cannot be argued that labor and collective upbringing developed absolutely due to individual development. On the contrary, a very specific approach by Makarenko (the features of which were outlined above) could lead to the formation of a personality prone to very rapid reactions to changing conditions and circumstances.