A Simple Critic toward Makarenko’s masterpiece; “The Pedagogical Poem”
Anton Semenovych Makarenko was a Russian educator and writer who spend much of his life to train criminal teenagers and to illustrate a true definition of pedagogy which seems to be practical and effective. In this difficult and endless way he severely rejected many educational theories which were the head of education system and tried to invent practical theories, as he claimed that “how many books were written, how much paper was consumed, what honors were achieved! But all of them was empty and absurd, all of them doesn’t worth, and no one can say how to treat with a scoundrel teenager.” (The Pedagogical Poem I. chapter 14) Moreover, he demonstrated more than a decade of his personal experiences and observations toward education, especially of the criminal teenagers, in his masterpiece, The Pedagogical Poem, which is a triplet sections book. This book became a torch for the blind pedagogues and teachers of the soviet Russia who had no positive thinking and hope toward pedagogic performance in a politically, economically, and socially disordered society of the time.
The beginning of “The Pedagogical Poem” portrayed the horrible chaos of the society in general and of the education system specifically. The education department admitted the responsibility of an institution for training criminal teenagers, lately was named institution of Maxim Gorky in his honor, to Anton Semenovych Makarenko as an experienced pedagogue. However, the reality was too much far from signed paper and commitments of the public education office, and this institution was nothing more than a bare store building with broken windows and doors, terrified cold weather, and just one bad tempered old pedagogue and all this disorganized set paddled in a tragic poverty. As Makarenko expressed the reason of pupils’ scape from institution this poverty; “It’s unpleasant to confess that he (the runaway boy) went in search of a better life, as I know myself this disastrous poverty setbacks the pupils.” (The Pedagogical Poem I. Chapter 7) Otherwise, these barriers didn’t stop Makarenko’s excessive hope and positive thinking toward future. He decided to destroy all the blocks of real education and he started with the primitive one, poverty. As he found no external help, he managed internal elements, pupils and teachers, to up lift their state and through this difficult process he introduced the concept of productive labor into the educational system which raised the opposition of unrealistic pedagogues and theorists who imagined that education occur just through paying attention to all aspects of students’ convenience. Anton Semenovych and his pupils had no way to reach food and necessary instruments of life except producing them themselves, so they tried agronomy on an unfruitfulness occupied land, husbandry with borrowed pets of public labor’s office, carpentry with useless woods of windows and doors. Unbelievably, they reached to the productive state in the whole city and also assisted neighbors and other peasants in their works by mending their carriages, milling their wheat, and manufacturing their agriculture’s tools. All this image became possible through an organized and strict labor system which was invented by the pupils, themselves as gradually they understood the significance of endeavor for survival and life and somehow reached a kind of epiphany toward their low position of life, actually they found out they should make change and save themselves.
Unless the natural and economical cruelty to Maxim Gorky institution and its members, Anton Semenovych faced a greater obstacle and that was the pupils themselves and their uncontrollable nature. They are the children in a very optimistic side of the spectrum who lived in poor families and started working as they were very young, some of them were orphans or owned criminal and imprisoned parents, most of them were street pickpockets, sots, or night burglars and in the pessimistic side of the spectrum professional thieves or even naïve murderers. Even by providing them enough opportunities and life supplements, it seemed impossible to blur and deconstruct their established habits and behaviors which followed them as a stubborn shadow. Some of them promised to give up their habits such as robbery, but they didn’t insist for a long term on their decisions and encountered Anton Semenovych to the flood of neighbors, farmers, and the city council’s protest. They complained of loss of their milk jar, laundry clothes in the yards, watermelons of farms and also being blockaded on the village road by his boys. This circumstances leaded Anton Semenovych from overt reactions to find proper solutions as he refused the theory of putting pupils under revisions and reformation, he claimed that they should be relearned, instead. He also added the teachers should completely ignore pupils’ background and not search them, though he threw away all pupils’ dossiers and outlawed using negative language, for instance the terms “crime”, “detestable”, “dossier”, or “revision”. Constructing this attitude in pedagogues and pupils took a huge assert of time and energy, so he murmured the absence of competent instructors; “From where human can be found for this damnable job? A real human! This damnable job wasn’t so simple!”(The Pedagogical Poem I. chapter 26). Through changing attitudes, he insisted on the communication of pupils with the world outside of the Maxim Gorky institution which was less interesting in other’s point of view. He himself confessed at the first days; “The first members of institution were brought up in a way to only know the rule and order in the most primitive of its level, but the newcomers generally were strange to order and disobeyed all kinds of rules.” (The Pedagogical Poem I. chapter 8) Therefore, he found the only solution in establishing a severe organized system which was called “Military Pedagogy” by his opponents. In this organized system each individual is a member of a crowd with a definite leader and those crowd were controlled by the groups of commanders. The leaders were exchange periodically according to their capabilities and all the responsibilities were written in notebooks under the observation of Anton Semenovych. In contrast to the beliefs of public education office, this organization seemed to be affective as the main core of it was pupils themselves and more mature ones had the opportunity to support younger ones and felt responsibility. These movement contributed to the economic progress and also cultural. The major example of these cultural actions was theater; “Suddenly, we understood that isn’t just the means of entertainment and fun for us, but it is our duty and social tax whom we cannot quail paying it.” (The Pedagogical Poem II. Chapter4)
After managing students and lightening motivation sparks inside them, the significance of teachers and pedagogues’ role should be considered in this book. Anton Semenovych Makarenko, under being experienced by the troubles of education in many years, practiced what he learned inside of himself. He believed that a teacher should learn to restrain himself, plant the seeds of common healthy spirit instead of being a moral preacher or rushing out intensive anxious. Patience and hope are the two main attributes of Anton Semenovych Makarenko as a real teacher; “Though, I was an incredible optimistic man, always see myself as close as one step to the success, and finally this attribute caused me the achievement.” (The Pedagogical Poem I. Chapter8) Another characteristic which raises admiration toward him is diligence. “There were only one points we never doubt it which is our determined will to never give up the work and reach to an end, even that end would inevitably be failure.” (The Pedagogical Poem I. Chapter10) Although in his inner struggle and practice situations came which was dominant to him as once he threw the chair to one pupil’s face who was opposed Jewish and a racist, he described that event; “Suddenly, the ground of education sunk under my feet with a horrible sound such as an explosion.” (The Pedagogical Poem I. Chapter13) In the conclusion Makarenko was a pioneer of streams of revolutions in the education system of Russia and the world. He presented a more definition of pedagogue and pupil beyond the boundaries of dictionaries, as he in the word of his friends became martyr in the way of pedagogy. His book “The Pedagogical Poem” and his others works should be the guideline of all teachers and education managers.