Anton Makárenko (1888–1939) was a Ukrainian-born educator, social worker, and writer. He is considered the most influential educational theorist in the Soviet Union and one of the founders of pedagogy in that nation. He is recognized as one of the great educators in the world thanks to the contributions he made in his various publications.

He stood out for promoting democratic ideas and principles within the educational sphere, as well as for introducing the concept of productive work in this system. She was also in charge of developing the theory and methodology of education in autonomous children's groups.

Makarenko is the most influential educational theorist in the Soviet Union. Source: See page for author

He was the founder of the cooperative houses for orphans by the civil war and juvenile delinquents. He is also famous for his many works, including Pedagogical Poem (1933), a three-volume book that is now included in the study plan of various educational institutions.

Biography

Early years

Anton Semenovich Makarenko was born on March 13, 1888, in the city of Bilopol, Kharkov province, which at that time was the capital of Ukraine.

He was the second son of Semyon Grigorievich Makárenko, a painter for a railway depot, who was a reserved and uncommunicative man. His mother Tatyana Mikhaylovna, the daughter of a Russian soldier, was by contrast a woman with a great sense of humor and optimism. Anton described his character as the "major tone."

Makárenko during his childhood turned out to be somewhat weak and sickly, although he had an unusual observation capacity. At the age of five he already knew how to read and write without problems and at the age of seven he entered the school of first letters.

Five years later, in 1900, the father obtained a job in Kryukov, so the family moved to this suburb of the industrial city of Kremenchug. Makárenko enrolled in the urban school of that city where he studied for six years, standing out in subjects such as philosophy, astronomy and natural sciences.

Upon leaving, he took a one-year pedagogical course and in 1905, at just seventeen, he began teaching. His early years were at the elementary school of the company his father worked for, at Dolinskaya station near Kherson.

There he began to do certain experiments with his students and one of his first conclusions was the need to understand the peculiarities of the life of each student, because knowing their personal traits it would be easier to influence them to improve their behavior.

In 1914 he enrolled at Poltava Training College which he was unable to continue. Two years later he joined the Russian army, but in March 1917 he was disbanded due to poor vision. For this reason, he resumed his studies and managed to graduate with honors.

Stage after the revolution

In 1919 he worked as a teacher in Poltava and then in Kryukov. There he would become director of the local university, but he was only there for a year because, in 1920, he was invited to direct the Poltava Colony for young criminals.

Years later, Makárenko was entrusted with the creation and management of a center, near Poltava, for children and young people who had been left homeless as a result of the Russian Revolution and who may or may not have been involved in criminal actions.

The rehabilitation settlement would become known as Colonia Gorki, in honor of the pedagogue Máximo Gorki. In it she made a couple of articles and a public report that she presented at the Ukraine Conference.

Under the influence of this pedagogue, the youth of the center became interested in the economy of the colony and dedicated themselves to working their fields and gardens. The reading Gorki, writer and godfather of the community, was transformative for the conscience of these young people.

In 1926, the students of the Gorky Colony took over another educational center with about two hundred children in Kuriazh, near Kharkov. However, the critics did not wait for the report that Makárenko had published of the Gorki colony. Seven years later, due to discrepancies with the educational authorities, he was fired, but he dedicated himself to forming other colonies with as much success as he did in Gorky.

In 1927 he was also appointed head of the Dzerzhinsky Commune near Kharkov, a penal institution for young offenders. Despite the fact that the young people who entered the orphanage were considered incorrigible, Makarenko managed to earn the respect of them and his colleagues.

In the institution he combined insistence, respect, school education and productive work. The commune had a factory for electric drills and another for Leika cameras.

Last years

He became a member of the Soviet Union of Writers from 1934. Between 1935 and 1937 he was deputy director of the workers' colonies section of the People's Commissariat for Ukraine's internal affairs. In 1936 it was assigned to another colony in Brovary, which it became an exemplary collective in just one year.

At that time he was accused of criticizing Stalin and supporting the Ukrainian opposition, for which he had to flee from Kiev and settled in Moscow. There he dedicated himself to organizing his educational programs, as well as writing and publishing on pedagogy and literature.

Already a famous educator, he gave lectures, radio programs and wrote articles for prestigious newspapers such as Pravda and Izvestia. In these years he also published three of his works, including the one he made in collaboration with his wife: Book for parents.

In early 1939 Makárenko received the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, a prestigious Soviet award. Soon after, at just 51 years old, he died of a heart attack in a suburban train car. It was the Golitsyno train station, belonging to the Moscow Railway. His body was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Pedagogical theories

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Monument to Makárenko in Kharkov. Source: Ace ^ eVg

During his career the controversy surrounded Makárenko because he considered that the educational authorities were alien to reality. He called them "pedagogical Olympus" as a way of criticizing his purely theoretical, bourgeois, traditional and western vision that they maintained around education.

He maintains that the purpose of education is "the formation of a 'new man', endowed with the historically essential knowledge, values, skills and attitudes to build and defend Soviet society."

Makárenko suggested that education should form individuals who enjoyed the following characteristics:

-Responsibility for the objectives of the Soviet Society.

-Spirit of collaboration.

-Solidarity and camaraderie.

-Disciplined personality.

-Sense of duty.

-Focus on the interests of the community over individuals.

-Fight against the submission and exploitation of man by man.

-Political training.

-Being a convinced communist, as well as a propagandist of action and word.

Collectivity and work

Among the contributions that Makárenko made to pedagogical theories, two key concepts stand out: collectivity and work.

The first factor, the community, is both an end and a means of education. Within it, it is the educator who creates and organizes the community, that is, the social environment in which students develop.

Hence the emphasis that Makárenko gives to the community, creating it in its strongest sense, cohesive, organized, with clear goals and discipline. This allows you to develop an incredible capacity for self-management. Although the working models were proposed from above, it was the members of the commune who functioned as the governing body.

Collective education could not be carried out only through the primary community, but through a larger community that transcends compadrazgo and presents a deeper social synthesis.

The second factor was work, but one of a productive nature and with a social sense, not a mere training device. This also implied the cultivation of willpower for what is also considered a pedagogy of effort.

He considered that work was essential for children and young people to develop intellectually and morally. To do this, he suggested that everyone should be assigned tasks that required work, as well as given responsibilities with which they could learn the limits of their individual rights and privileges.

The communes in their beginnings received official aid for their operation but later they went on to self-finance and obtain profits for the State. The settlers were in charge of all the services of the commune and additionally dedicated four hours to productive work and five to instruction. These two elements were totally autonomous and unrelated.

Other contributions to pedagogy

The pedagogical technique that Makárenko was pursuing transcended the teaching of certain knowledge and skills, as he sought to train entire personalities. In this case, it was the communist personality that could be shaped by directly providing them with an ideological and political framework.

For Makárenko, the educator had to have pedagogical mastery, which was not an innate quality or a talent, but a “know-how” that could be taught and learned. This pedagogical mastery meant knowing how to act and relate to the child or young person, knowing when to hold back, knowing how to express ideas or feelings well, knowing how to read the student's face.

Makarensian institutions

His theory was formed by trial and error, through daily practice, from which several conclusions emerge. One of them was the need to integrate detachments of different ages, with young and old, because it was the ideal and most effective way of training.

He also temporarily formed mixed detachments to carry out specific tasks. All the members had to have the experience of managing their teammates at some point.

In the Makarensian institutions the militaristic elements stand out in their operation. Also artistic activities, such as music, theater and literature, had a formative meaning. Finally, discipline was a key factor, but not conceived as a means but as a result of his technique.

A fundamental methodological element of his theory was to ignore, destroy or lock up the criminal records of some of his students. This complete ignorance of the boy's past was essential for the reeducation of offenders and allowed the teacher to act in the most pedagogical and objective way.

Plays

Phrases

- "The maximum possible demands with the maximum possible respect".

- "Education is not at the service of individuality, but designed for the community, the person at the service of the common good."

- "It is necessary to show the students that their work and life are a part of the work and life of the country."

- "A character can be formed only through prolonged participation in the life of a well-organized, disciplined, forged and proud community"

- “At each moment of our influence on the personality, this action must also influence the community. And vice versa: each contact of ours with the community must also necessarily be a moment of education for each individual integrated into the community "

- "Discipline is not a method, an educational procedure, but a result."

- "Children and young people need the greatest attention and training to be able to be good men in the future."

- "Family and school education is the most important thing for human beings."

- "The child is neither good nor bad by nature, but it is education that decides this aspect."

- “The education of children is the transcendental sphere of our life. They are the future citizens of the country and the world. They are called to make history, they are the parents of tomorrow who will also have to educate their children.

Hence the great responsibility that is acquired by being a father and the great importance and delicate afternoon of educating children ”.

References

Bernet, JT, García, EC, Molins, MP, Fairstein, GA, Fernández, JAF, Monteagudo, JG,… & Illera, JLR (2001). The pedagogical legacy of the twentieth century for the school of the twenty-first century (Vol. 159). Graó.
"Makárenko, Anton Semyonovich". The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Recovered from com
Encyclopædia Britannica (2019, March 28). Anton Makarenko. Recovered from britannica.com
Anton Makárenko. (2019, October 22). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from es.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia contributors. (2019, September 12). Anton Makarenko. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org
Anton Makarenko. (sf) Recovered from biografiasyvidas.com
Carbonell, J. (2019, January 16). On the centenary of the Russian revolution. And 2. AS Makarenko, the power of the community. Recovered eldiariodelaeducacion.com

ANTÓN MAKÁRENKO: BIOGRAPHY, PEDAGOGICAL THEORIES, CONTRIBUTIONS, WORKS - ARTE - 2024