From: Redyarrow@aol.com
Date sent: Sun, 8 Dec 1996 18:12:52 -0500
Subject: Collectivism: part 3

Competition between class collectives helps collectives to organize and each individual member to assume responsibilities. Success depends on the performance of each and every member and has a positive moral effect upon the individual and the group. The performance of each class collective is supervised by the school collective which rewards the class collective which in turn rewards its most active members.

Starting with the third grade the class council deals with inappropriate behaviour. If the undesired behaviour continues the council with members of the parent council goes to the child's house and after that to the father's union. The school has a pedagogical council which makes decisions on the expulsion of students after all the corrective measures have failed.

The school's self-government, a model of a democratic forum, provides for representation, responsibility, and development for leadership roles. Student government begins at the fourth grade and assumes responsibility for order and discipline through a system of monitors and a council. If a child behaves inappropriately in school he has to face up to the criticism of his peers. Self-criticism is practised at the Council meetings. Punishment ranges from reproof and reprimands to expulsion from school. All punishment is entered in the pupil's record. Suspension from the Pioneer organization is a great disgrace. Peers frequently take over the disciplining of misbehaviours. The meeting discusses individual shortcomings, erroneous behaviour, and reminds the member of his social duties and collective responsibilities. If the child lags behind in school work, peers will coach him. Cold shouldering and ridicule often have an effect when gentle persuasion has failed. Should the inappropriate behaviour continue the student council may turn to the principal for help. Public reprimand, criticism and ridicule are used as powerful techniques of behavioural intervention. The council and the peers are on the side of order and cooperate with the teachers. Teachers may use argument and quiet persuasion. For juvenile delinquents the treatment is reeducation.

Positive reinforcement is not lacking. The Ministry of Education classifies rewards under four main headings: written or oral praise by the teacher or director, writ-ten or oral praise in front of the class or general assembly, prizes, and testimonials. A written testimonial of good conduct is published in the school newspaper.

Class leaders are given detailed instructions on how to plan the moral education program for each class for the school year and summer vacations. Older children participate in drawing, up the program. A general meeting of pupils and teachers before the beginning of the school year elects monitors and explains the school rules and makes plans for the smooth functioning of the school.

The student collective is divided into smaller units: classes, age groups, departments, boarding homes, youth clubs and organizations, student circles, work brigades and other permanent or temporary sub-divisions. All schools offer a variety of activities which help students develop independence and personality in mixed age-group settings which make cooperation between younger and older pupils possible. Within the school collectives, smaller collectives become a link in the larger collective, providing a psychological link between the individual and the school collective.

'The class, the primary collective in the school, through continuous contact develops familiar feelings, trust, and friendship among its members. Communication plays a key role: discussion of problems, events, collective plans and results, development of individual and collective criteria, philosophical perspective, value system and norms. Often this communication involves smaller parts of the class collective: friends, work group or a temporary incidental group.

Teachers develop a program of extracurricular activities with moral objectives for each pupil. The love of working is emphasized by the school collective. "Love of work is a moral quality that can only be fostered within the collective. The more powerful the collective's respect for man, the more effective the character moulding of each school child" .

Extracurricular activities are very closely interwoven with the various youth organizations. They aid the work of the school and train children in skills and recreation as well as develop civic virtues and a communist morality. The communist children and youth collectives.-The Pioneer and Komsomol organizations are special collectives with the primary function of aiding children to develop an ideological basis for citizenship in a socialist society (the growing child finds many opportunities to practice good citizenship, to participate in the life of society and to solve problems collectively). Children spend their free time together, help each other with academic tasks, participate in activities of mutual interest and link up with society through socially useful activities, such as helping adults, caring for younger children or the aged, taking part in beautification projects on school grounds and in their community.

The school alone could not offer all these opportunities to the students. Primary age children may belong to the Octobrist organization which prepares them for entry into the Pioneer Organization at age 10. A child who studies well and behaves well may gain admission to the Octobrist group. It teaches self-organization. The Young Pioneer Organizations, established in 1922, involves children between 10 and 15 yr. and aims to help the school and teachers to improve discipline, to develop intellectual curiosity, diligence, love for physical labour, independence, persistence and good work habits, good health and recreation. Each school has a Pioneer brigade subdivided into detachments, usually one class, which in turn is subdivided into links.

Links are usually based on friendships. Each brigade is led by a brigade council elected by the Pioneers of the school. Each detachment has its council and chairperson, elected by the detachment and the links are led by link leaders. Admission to the Pioneer organization is an important event and is considered an honour. Each child has to apply and is admitted by the detachment or brigade council. They are usually admitted one at a time at a special ceremony. A "solemn promise" is recited and the three-cornered red scarf is tied around the neck. This scarf symbolizes the unity of the Pioneers, Komsomols and Communists. It is also a symbol of the Pioneer honour and regarded as a part of the Red Banner. The new Pioneer members also receive a Pioneer pin. The Pioneer badge bears the motto "Vsegda gotov" ("always ready"). Similar to the Western Girl Guide and Scout organizations, children are expected to train for tests within the organization. They are expected to be good students and their behaviour a model for other children. Socially useful work teaches them to be active members of the community and work for the common good. Each pioneer is required to take three steps, each progressively more difficult, which teach him some practical skills and civic attitudes. The emphasis is on collective work and achievement. In the summer time children may go to Pioneer camps. Some are very elaborate like the Artek camp on the Black Sea. Pioneer leaders are usually student teachers doing part of their practicum in summer camps.

At age 15 the students are eligible to become candidates for the Komsomol (Young Communist League). The candidate must be recommended by two members of the Komsomol and one Party member who are held responsible for their recommendation. The structure of the Komsomol is modelled on the organization of the Communist Party. Each primary organization is led by secretaries. At the district level a bureau is elected. The congress is the highest organ which elects a central committee. At universities and institutes the Komsomol committee sends a representation to every administrative committee. Each faculty has a Komsomol branch. The Komsomol representative keeps a record of social behaviour of the student while the teacher records academic achievement, Extracurricular, vacation and socially useful activities are also planned by the Komsomol. The Congress can serve as a forum for the discussion of general educational issues whereas the Komsomol provides a forum for social and political activities. The Komsomol aims at motivating students to learn good study habits, practise self-discipline, cooperate with peers and adults and participate in useful social activities within the school and the community. During the school years, members of the Komsomol are often leaders of interest circles, and in the summer they combine recreation with work on a collective farm. Over ten million secondary students spend their summer holidays working for the state. Each Komsomol unit forms part of a bigger whole; eventually the Lenin Komsomol unites all members in a nationwide organization. The Communist youth leagues (Kornsomols) have won recognition as active participating forces in the creation of the new Soviet man.

Interest club Collectives-Technical and artistic clubs which operate within or outside of the school, also fill an important role. 'These collectives are small, specific associations which function independently within the framework of the school, Pioneer Palaces, children's sections of Trade unions, Palaces of culture, and children's libraries. Circles or clubs are organized on every conceivable subject. Children whose marks are not too low are free to participate. 'The leaders might be the regular teachers, special teachers, or youth leaders who work in close contact with the schools. The Leningrad Pioneer Palace, the former Anchikov Palace, for example, serves as many as 2,000 children per day, has about 700 rooms and approximately 12,000 children belong to its various circles and groups. The range of activities is unlimited. Young biologists, naturalists, sportsmen, photographers, painters, musicians, artists, astronomers, space explorers, woodworkers, mechanics, physicists, chemists, linguists, historians, electricians, writers, radio or TV builders, chess players, and many others spend many hours to perfect their skills and to pursue their interests.

City, republic and nation-wide competitions are used to win distinction for circles. These circles serve a serious purpose with respect to education and personality development. The children have self-government through an elected council which plans the program for each week. Every year all-Union reviews the work of young technicians and inventors. Amateur song-and-dance performers and competitions of young experimenters are held. The Young Pioneer palaces and technical hobby centres are the first rung on the ladder for future scientists, musicians, and men of letters. (The Young Pioneer palace in Tula has by the entrance a long list of clubs catering to young biologists, philatelists, history enthusiasts, chess players, aircraft model builders, space travel fans, dance groups, drama, and choir. All are free of charge (Malkova, 1982). Children's railroads form another type of cooperative activity where children take over the running of a special section of the passenger service.

These collectives play an important role in the organization of the students' free time and offer opportunities for field trips, movies, theatres, meeting famous people, concerts, etc. Shared interests strengthen friendly relationships among children.

Tasks of teachers.-Soviet educators place great stress upon the development of socialist personality (individuality develops only in society). It is the duty of the teacher to develop a collective sense in each pupil. Makareako has warned that "lecturing and exhortation are the least effective means for exerting influence." Teachers therefore use praise and admonition in the presence of peers as an effective method in moral education while deliberately setting desirable example with their own behaviour to establish the habits they would like the students to acquire.

The teacher must be firm and consistent. Aided by parent committees, the teacher makes great use of direct and indirect persuasion. The child must learn to understand himself, recognize his faults, seek ways to improve and change his conduct. The ultimate goal is the self-managed individual. The main tasks of the teacher are: to direct the process which makes children's collectives a potential educational tool; to direct the collective as a medium of mass education by organizing the activities of members through the field force of the collective, by directing the official and non-official relationships which form the collective; to direct the collective as a tool of individual development by correcting the relationship between the child and the collective in such a way that the child would occupy an important place in the system of collective relationship. Directing children's collectives is a very important theoretical and practical task.

Teachers' Collective

The educational collective is the integration of two basic units, the collective of teachers and the collective of students. The activities of both collectives are closely bound together and influence each other. Each individual teacher is an important influential factor in the process of socialist education, but the teachers' collective organizes and leads the process of education. The individual teacher influences the students with his own personality and as a representative of the body of educators. The collective of teachers sets collective criteria, serves as a model of democratic organization and of socialist-humanistic relationship for the collective of students. "The collective of teachers and students develop in close harmony and in parallel. As the teachers' collective lead and help develop the student collective they gain strength in analyzing mutual collective experiences" . "We cannot call it a process of education where the teachers do not unite in a collective, where they do not have a unified plan, collective voice, uniform and precisely defined mode of instruction of children" .

Conclusions

Man's individuality develops in a social context, his personality is socially determined and his human essence becomes fully revealed only in society. Children's collectives are valuable tools of socialization. The creation of a closely knit children's collective is one of the most important ways of developing moral character. The child learns in the collective that each member should behave according to social norms. Compliance with social norms is rewarded but breaching these norms results in social sanction. The child expresses himself to his peers, and peer approval or peer sanction helps him to shape his social behaviour. While actively learning in and about the collective the child becomes the object and subject of collective influence: he influences his peers and is also influenced by them. The aim is to reach a stage of equilibrium between his own needs and the needs of the groups. The acceptance of the needs of the group as well as his own forms the basis of collective experience and moral development.

Prosocial behaviour is carefully formed during childhood and youth. Social behavior is contingent on one's belonging to a certain community, so Personality and the collective are two united and inseparable components of socio-psychological research. Personality development is closely interrelated with collective development.

The school, the young Pioneer and the Komsomol organizations pursue one and the same goal: to instill in children a collective orientation, to teach them to share each other's joys and grief, to make the interest of the collective their own, and as members of the collective to become fighters for and builders of a new system of socioeconomic life. The close cooperation of communist children's collectives, the collectives of interest groups, and. the school collective provides guidance, motivation and control for most part of every day and for most of the child's life. The importance of the child's socialist education is reflected by the national commitment to the welfare of children. The statement is often heard "There is only one privileged class in the Soviet Unionits children." Youth is taking part in the management of the activities of the collectives at their places of work and education. The social confidence in youth is officially expressed in the Constitution of the USSR which gives the Komsomol the right to participate "in managing state and public affairs and in deciding political, economic, social, and cultural matters."

Socialist education is collective education: it aims to shape the collective man within the collective and by the collective. One of the fundamental tasks of the collective is to transfer society's influence, ideological-political and socio-psychological to the individual directly through its educational function. Within the framework of the collective the child internalizes the moral values of society and develops social, physical, and intellectual skills as well as political considerations and outlook.

In Western psychology, according to Montague the concept of the individual is stressed, but it is a right that really does not exist. The genuine condition is relatedness. The member of a human social group is a person, a personality developed under the moulding influence of social interstimulation." This bind to the social group is more clearly emphasized by psychologists and educators in socialist settings. What are the differences between the "individual" and "collective man"? Research is very scarce. Socio-psychological investigations have shown that in a collective a person demonstrates "stronger will, discipline, and persistence in attaining a goal", than when he strives for it alone. Comparative research between children educated in different systems will have to test the short and long term effects of an intensive system of socialization.

Bronfenbrenner when making a comparison between the socialization process of the Western countries with that of the socialist countries expressed his concern this way-"If the Russians have gone too far in subjecting the child and his peer group to conformity to a single set of values imposed by the adult society, perhaps we have reached a point of diminishing returns in allowing excessive autonomy and in failing to utilize the constructive potential of the peer group in developing social responsibility and considerations for others". Within communism there resides a human, a deep commitment to man's many faceted developments which is also true of Western moral education. Weerner calls attention to the possible similarity of Kohlberg's concept of justice and equality with Sukhomlinski's concept of modesty, truth, justice, and beauty, and one may discover many basic similarities of content and not merely differences in moral-values education. Researchers state that as the individual strives for independence and freedom he needs the help of others to become a person. The argument of these Soviet writers that never before in history was there a greater need for cooperation to solve practical problems is notable.