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p There is no other example of education in practice which I have come to respect and admire as much as the work of Anton Makarenko. For thirty-two years I have been working in schools and for thirty-two years I have been analysing the theoretical conclusions he drew from his work as a teacher and educator. His passionate rejection of idle talk and phrasemongering enthralled me as did the boldness of his teaching theory. I admire him for his true, uncompromising humanity, for his profound faith in his fellow-men. I admire the way he saved hundreds of children in those difficult years when new Soviet schools were being organised. His activities demonstrated that the Soviet teaching theory is a truly humane one. For me he was not some unattainable example, but a friend and helper in the struggle to uphold the rights of man, which, since the moment the first shots were fired on board the battleship Aurora, has been going on for over fifty years now. (28)

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p In Makarenko’s books I sought the true guiding principles of which I was deeply in need. All my modest teaching experience represents the fruit of those searchings. If, over the years, in addition to those true principles I also encountered ideas in Makarenko’s system which today appear perhaps not beyond criticism, such after all is the dialectic of teaching. (28}

p Fostering the collective spirit among schoolchildren involves first and foremost creating a primary collective within individual classes and fostering positive relationships between individual pupils and the class collective. (/, 17)

p Makarenko pointed out that within our education system there is only a small number of well-organised school collectives. Careful study of work in schools and our own experience here in Pavlysh have convinced me that the reasons for this should be sought not so much in the inclination of the class collective “to remain detached from the overall school collective within the framework of its individual school-class interests”, as in the lack of positive primary collectives in most classes. (1, 18)

p In order to foster communist convictions, particularly on moral subjects, it is essential that the individual’s moral experience at each stage of his development should correspond to 267 the mental capacities he has come to possess. This potential manifests itself only in activity. Communist children’s organisations—Pioneer and Komsomol units—play a very important role in this connection. The expression of principles in action is the basic condition without which concrete forms of work undertaken by organisations for small children and teenagers cannot foster communist convictions, forge young people’s will and determination and mould character. (7, 168)

p Many teachers complain that pupils’ collectives show little initiative and have to be spurred before they undertake or accomplish anything. Yet true initiative has to be nurtured. To this end it is essential first of all that interesting joint activity be arranged, so that the children gain experience in the effort to attain a common goal, and also in the subordination of personal interests to those of a collective. (1, 100)

p In Class 8 the pupils at our school set up the first Komsomol organisation within the framework of a single class. Great excitement accompanied these preparations. Indeed most of the activities of the young Pioneer’s detachment had been for all intents and purposes preparation for enrolment in this organisation, which the pupils of 14 upwards came to regard as an adult organisation. It was essential that each member found his own path to the Komsomol and was led there by his own mature convictions. (12, 234)

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p The teachers at our school went out of their way to see that no pupil joined the Komsomol without attaining the necessary degree of social awareness and political maturity. In this context the pupil’s individual experience of social work was very important. I did my best to ensure that in my class every pupil experienced the joy of being needed by others and of working for the collective. (12, 234)

p It became a tradition at the school that the Pioneer detachment on completion of its activities in that capacity would hand down its red ties to those Octoberites about to join the young Pioneers. The girls and boys concerned would take off their Pioneer ties and knot them round their young friends’ necks. Each pupil would give his particular tie to a boy or girl with whom he had previously made friends. Some of the pupils in Class 8 would have brothers or sisters in Class 3 to whom they would pass on this most precious of family heirlooms.

p On receiving the red ties the children would make the solemn pledge of young Leninists. ... To mark the day he joined the young Pioneer organisation each child would be given a present, namely a book about the life and achievement of some great man or woman.

p That rally made an indelible impression on the hearts and minds of my pupils. On the solemn occasion of the young Pioneers’ enrolment the most important factor was that the red ties were handed down from one 269 generation of young Leninists to the next. A red tie —the symbol of revolutionary struggle— cannot be bought or sold in shops, it is handed directly to the new young Pioneer at school and then carefully looked after by him. It is not worn every day but only on special occasions, at functions or pioneer rallies—such is the tradition that has gone down in our young Pioneer unit. (10, 234)

p Interest in academic work should not be the only interest in the life of a schoolchild. Children should be united by sharing all the interests that are important to them. Those teachers who try and foster a collective spirit based on nothing but shared academic activities are bound to fail....

p It should be borne in mind that a collective spirit is stimulated not only through satisfaction stemming from overcoming obstacles, but also through joy stemming from joint diversions and play. (1, 23)

p Work carried out over a period of several months by the members of a collective becomes a traditional activity: it enhances childhood as an unforgettable experience and implants a sense of duty to the collective in a child’s mind. (1, 23)

p Encouraging pupils to work for the sake of the collective and make such work a central factor of their thinking lives is the most difficult task of all, but at the same time the most important that faces the teacher. (1, 24)

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p Pupils from the youngest classes should not be set general long-term goals such as successful completion of the academic year, moving up into the next class, etc., since that does not necessarily lead children to become active members of the collective. If it is possible at all to introduce long-term perspective into the life of a collective of young pupils, then it should always be linked with some very colourful, exciting and joyful event. ...(/, 25)

p Some skilled educators are able to create an atmosphere in which children look forward excitedly not to some celebration, but the most ordinary of everyday happenings such as the collection of scrap-metal or tree planting. (1, 25)

p Children should be brought to realise that after attaining a goal or carrying out some piece of work or other they become more worthwhile people and their lives will become more interesting. The main result of what they accomplished should be the sense of moral satisfaction and pride experienced by the collective as a whole. (1, 46)

p Initially an objective put before a collective should provide as many as possible opportunities for individual, personal work on the part of the pupils, and in addition the results of the efforts made by each one of them should be fairly concrete. (1, 48)

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p The potential of any working collective is measured by the development of the individual capacities of each individual member. (2, 31)

p Attention and concern shown by the teacher to the pupil leave an indelible impression on the latter. This applies still more so to attention and concern shown him by the collective. The teacher’s task is to see that every pupil should experience a sense of gratitude to the collective for attention shown him and help afforded at a difficult moment. (5, 54).

p A magnanimous person is distinguished first and foremost by his love for his fellow-men. This love is the source of his devotion and loyalty to the common cause .... We try here to mould relationships within the class collectives in such a way that the bulk of each pupil’s effort be directed to concern for other people —friends, parents and all those who are in need of help and support. Moral experience which is gleaned in the context of such relationships is an inexhaustible source of moral dignity, disinterested kindness, sincere concern and responsiveness. (5, 55)

p If a pupil has not done anything for other people, albeit for the period of a month, this means that something has gone wrong with his education. (5, 56)

p Gentleness, kindness and amiability on the part of a collective is a tremendously powerful 272 force, which like a rapid torrent of water carries all along with it, even the most indifferent. (10, 50)

p After teaching children to help the others in their own class a teacher should gradually make the transition to people who are not directly connected with the school—old people, invalids and others. Education based on high moral principles is inconceivable without such help being encouraged. It represents the most concrete expression of socialist relations among Soviet men and women most easily understood by small children. (/, 246)

p In some cases helping other people proves the decisive force linking the pupil with the collective. This applies first and foremost to young orphans.... Even the slightest indifference shown such children, which might have gone unnoticed by a child with parents, is seen by orphans to be highly unjust and makes them turn away from the collective which they start to distrust and suspect. (1, 246)

p Responsibility to the collective should not be nurtured with words, but actions. The more a collective does for a pupil the keener the pupil’s sense of gratitude for the help afforded him and the more deeply he will feel the links that bind him to his comrades and his responsibilities towards them.

A teacher who tries to foster pupils’ sense of duty to the collective through criticism or 273 “dressing down" is not going to succeed. Criticism from teachers or fellow pupils that is not backed up by concern and assistance often serves merely to embitter a pupil. (1, 243)