p I am convinced that the most important features of an educator, and hence of the calling itself, are civic responsibility, culture, humanism, and professionalism.

p Such a teacher is a true citizen, who responds to the concerns of his class, his district, his country and those of the entire human race. I fully agree with the often repeated idea that he is a citizen who has the gift of hearing his age. To this I would add an ability to discern the echoes of the past and voices of the future, and selfless service to the noble ideas of a world order based on justice.

p It was this kind of civic responsibility, which no techniques can replace, that I strove to develop as I read pedagogical classics.

p In one of his essays Makarenko described the teacher of literature Mefody Nesterov, who could exert a powerful influence on his students. He was a simple old man and children associated his appearance with that of Russia’s passionately patriotic revolutionary democrats—Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Nikolai Dobrolyubov, and Nikolai Nekrasov. In describing heroic 52 events he used simple and precise words and seldom turned to explicitly emotional phraseology. Yet, there was so much feeling, truth and intelligence in his expressive face, and so much pent up inner force, that the children could not take their eyes away from his face, on which more than once they could see the tears of emotion. And they valued his sincerity and their faith in him was infinite.

p There are many teaching methods in didactical science. But what system of means can describe a teacher’s surge of emotion which influences what is best in children? What psychological teachings can explain and recommend as a method that spark of common impulse and convergence of views that can be observed in relations between adults and children and that may play the most important role in the moral development of both?

p Far from being specific cases in teaching practice, such phenomena constitute those essential particles through which one can see the main thing—the teacher’s ideological conviction, his patriotism, and the effectiveness of his style in communicating with children, working, teaching, and expressing his feelings. Children respond to the teacher’s sincerity when he addresses them not only as adults but also as citizens of their country. And it is this—the teacher’s sincerity and open expression of feelings—that constitutes the inner core of an effective style of communicating with children.

p There are teachers who advocate such sincerity in all situations and are categorically opposed to a reliance on teaching techniques. Natural feelings of this type are juxtaposed to “ unnatural” ones restrained by reason, culture, and adopted rules of behaviour.

p Yet, when we refer to "culture of feelings" we emphasize precisely the point that our natural emotions are placed in the frame of ethical norms which have been developed by the history of civilization, and which are assimilated by individuals in the course of their development. In the case of teachers, this also includes an ability to apply specific professional techniques in expressing their emotions.

p In short, the problem of two alternative approaches to creativity—the use of techniques versus the natural manifestation of feeling—does not exist. The problem is rather to determine their relative proportions in the manner of Denis Diderot with respect to the theatrical arts in his famous Paradoxe sur le comedien.

p Of course the actor and the teacher use different techniques. 53 While the actor relies on various forms of “reincarnation” when playing some other person, the teacher has no choice; he cannot hide from children his real face, his own self. For with the help of knowledge, emotions, and actions the teacher guides and regulates the social behaviour of his charges. Moreover, it is precisely his emotions that best bring out his value orientations, needs and motivations, desires and expectations and make visible the passion and devotion underlying his work and search for more knowledge. To say, of course, that a teacher must always be himself, that he must always sincerely share the joys and griefs of his charges without ever substituting techniques for emotions, is very attractive.

p Yet both teachers and parents will agree that when facing conflict situations they must carefully consider their behaviour. Teachers must first “enter” into such situations and distinguish the essential components before defining their own line of behaviour. In such a context it is useful to recall similar situations in the experience of the given collective or examples described in pedagogical literature. In short, it is vital that one weigh and consider carefully one’s words and actions. In addition it is important to consider how the class collective’s resources may be organized to resolve the conflict; the children’s idea of what is moral, their hatred of injustice, their propensity for action and their love of truth.

p This occasionally requires a clear organization of one’s self, including one’s style in addressing children, raising one’s voice, etc. Pedagogical techniques refer to corresponding forms of organization.

It should be stressed that when facing tense conflict situations experienced teachers apply such professional techniques in ways that at first appear to be spontaneous, because they are helped by both habit and acquired skills. But one should keep in mind that the dynamic character of conflict and the concrete situation may also call for an instantaneous change in the chosen techniques. This, too, will depend on the teacher’s experience.