Anton Semyonovich Makarenko (, ; 13 March [<nowiki/>O.S. 1 March] 1888&nbsp;– 1 April 1939), was a Soviet educator, social worker and writer. He became the most influential educational theorist in the Soviet Union; along with promoting principles in educational theory and practice. As one of the founders of Soviet pedagogy, he elaborated the theory and methodology of upbringing in self-governing child collectives and introduced the concept of productive labor into the educational system. Makarenko's books have appeared in many countries.

In the aftermath of the Revolution of 1917, he established self-supporting orphanages for street children — including juvenile delinquents — left orphaned by the Russian Civil War of 1917-1923. These establishments included the Gorky Colony and later the Dzerzhinsky labor commune (where the FED camera was produced) in Kharkiv. Makarenko wrote several books, of which The Pedagogical Poem (Педагогическая поэма; published in English as The Road to Life), a fictionalized story of the Gorky Colony, became especially popular in the Soviet Union.

In 1988 UNESCO ranked Makarenko as one of four educators (along with John Dewey, Georg Kerschensteiner, and Maria Montessori) who determined the world's pedagogical thinking of the 20th century.

Biography

Early life and education

Anton Semyonovich Makarenko was born in Belopolye, Sumsky Uyezd, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire, to Semyon Grigoryevich Makarenko (Semen Hryhorovych Makarenko), who worked at a railway depot as a painter, and Tatyana Mikhaylovna (Tetiana Mykhailivna, née Dergachova), daughter of a soldier from Mykolaiv.

In September 1905, having graduated from a four-year college in Kremenchuk, Makarenko took a one-year teachers' course and at the age of seventeen, began teaching at a railway college at Dolinskaya station near Kherson where he worked from September 1911 till October 1914. In August 1912, Makarenko entered the Teachers' Institute in Poltava and in July 1917 graduated with a gold medal. After graduating from the institute, Makarenko became a teacher at the Poltava Higher Primary School, where he worked until the end of 1917. In December 1917, he moved to Kryukiv.

In August 1914 he enrolled into the Poltava Training College, but had to interrupt his education and in September 1916 joined the Russian Army, from which he was demobilized in March 1917, due to poor eyesight. The same year he graduated the college with honours.

Reception

However, 1928 saw the onset of a wave of criticism aimed at Makarenko. In March 1928 his report at the Ukrainian Pedagogical Institute concerning his work in the Gorky Colony received hostile treatment. In September of that year he was fired from the Gorky Colony, and had to concentrate on his work in Kharkiv. The correspondence between the two started in July 1925 and continued until Gorky's death. In 1928 the famous writer visited the two colonies and left much impressed; next year in an essay called "Over the Union of Soviets" he hailed Makarenko as "the new type of pedagogue." In 1936 he was appointed the head of another colony, in Brovary, and according to the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia "in less than a year turned an unruly bunch of pupils into a highly disciplined working collective." the Soviet establishment eventually came to hail his colonies as a grand success in communist education and rehabilitation. Among his key ideas were "as much exigence towards the person as possible and as much respect for him as possible", the use of positive peer pressure on the individual by the collective, and institutionalized self-government and self-management of that collective. Vladimir Sirotin (Kharkiv 1966 - Moscow 2016) described Makarenko as "the bard of punitive pedagogy" and as an ideologue of "command pedagogy", a system attempting to suppress the personality and being contrary to democratic freedoms and human rights, including the natural rights of child and parents. Makarenko's system has been faulted for giving the child collective too much power over the individual child.

This critique is not shared by some Western analysts of Makarenko's pedagogic system, who regard him as keeping a good balance between the individual personality and the welcome influence of the guided collective, seen as a link in integrating the individual into the wider society.

Selected bibliography

thumb|[[:hu:Makarenko-sakk|Makarenko chess, a chess variant developed by him during the 1920s.]]

  • Major (Мажор, 1932; play)
  • March of the 30th Year (Марш 30-го года, 1932, novella)
  • FD—1 (novella, subtitled "A sketch"; written in 1932, published posthumously)
  • The Pedagogical Poem (Педагогическая поэма, 1925–1935, three-part novel)
  • The Book for Parents (Книга для родителей, 1937; non-fiction)
  • Honour (Честь, 1937—1938; novella)
  • Flags on the Battlements (Флаги на башнях, 1938)

See also

  • Orphans in the Soviet Union
  • Krantz, Helga I. Reeducation of Juvenile Delinquents. Albuquerque, NM. Century University. 1993.

References

  • Makarenko.edu.ru Web-site dedicated to A.S. Makarenko
  • Synopsis of Road to Life (The Pedagogical Poem)
  • A profile of Makarenko by Soviet educator G. N. Filonov, published by UNESCO
  • Text of The Road to Life (An Epic of Education) and Lectures to Parents (translated into English)
  • Nicola Siciliani de Cumis, Dewey, Makarenko and the Pedagogical Poem between analogies and differences – cultureducazione.it
  • Periklis Pavlidis “Socialism, Labour and Education: from Marx to Makarenko”, International Journal of Educational Policies, Vol. 11, № 1, 2017