AUTHORITARIAN AND HUMANE PEDAGOGY

Assuming that school is an instrument for the development of the human spirit, in general, we should also assume that it is an area of ​​love, respect and support. A place where the human spirit, regardless of its age, feels free, joyful and inspired to develop. A place where learning outcomes, achievements and victories go hand in hand with the development of free spirit, creativity and intellectual challenges.

Probably every teacher has thought about what kind of a teacher they want to be - a rigorous one who can achieve good discipline in class and make students fear, stand still, execute commands and instructions without question, have no voice or choice and obey him completely. Or just the opposite - an understanding, humane person who does not punish, because for him, punishment is a humiliation of the individual. Who sees you as an individual, respects you as a person, is interested in your opinion, listens to your thoughts, seeks your advice to improve the learning process, manages to motivate you with the methods of persuasion so that you yourself want to do something because he believes that you are a unique phenomenon with limitless possibilities that can be developed comprehensively. A teacher who inspires you for victories and successes because he is inspired by his work.

The first type of teacher is traditional, conservative and represents authoritative pedagogy, generally speaking, in which the teacher is an active adult with unlimited authority and the student is a passive element who has virtually no choice and who must do what adults decide is good for him.

Authoritarian pedagogy is based on commands, instructions, coercion and punishment. These are known to pain situations in which an adult instructs, commands, orders, coerces, punishes. And the child protests with disobedience because it wants to be heard, understood, respected as a person, but not punished. When you are commanded or the teacher is shouting at you, you can hardly listen to timid and rare motivational speeches by the same person.

Being a student is not easy. Because you are totally dependent on the adult world, your teachers. Your voice is not important, they make decisions for you and you just have to hope that their decisions are right, honest and in your interest. Very often the classroom is like a battlefield, in which the teacher and the students explain themselves loudly, they raise their tone, they shout, mutually accuse each other of lack of understanding, creating an atmosphere in which the creative process that needs to fill the space of the lesson, it becomes a torturous process in which angry words fly in the air and inspiration shyly waits for the heated atmosphere outside to calm down, but sometimes this does not happen. Unfortunately, this is a very common scenario that can be seen in every school in every country in the human world. What kind of personality brings up that kind of atmosphere and pedagogy? Angry and disrespectful, who do not respect other people? It is possible. It can also nurture indifference to learning, to hatred of the school, because it becomes a place that makes you feel restless, guilty, constantly deserving of punishment.

The second type of teacher is a very rare occurrence because of the simple fact that getting to the truth that children have also personalities who live their lives now and not prepare for the future means that you respect them, listen to them, learn from them and you are inspired by them. It means that you continue to develop yourself spiritually as a person free from limitations and control, who does not see the learning process as a form of control. Teachers of this type, although rare, are also representatives of so-called 'humane pedagogy' (according to Shalva Amonashvili). This type of pedagogy and teacher-student relationship relies on the individual approach to each child, the child's only desire to do something, their inner self-motivation, their inspiration, their desire to understand the need to take responsibility and to learn gradually it does so, not through coercion, but through free choice and will, supported by an adult who believes in his potential.

The school today is increasingly a place that cultivates a competitive environment, an environment in which exams and exam results stand before the development of human qualities that will prepare them for life outside of school. In almost every country, consumer spirit is prevalent today. The consumer society gives birth to consumers. Consumers are the kind of people who feel fulfilled only when with their purchase they can feel a sense of happiness, prestige, self-affirmation. Unfortunately, it is cultivated in schools today, so it is in the so-called Western societies, and everyone else imitates it. Only with the help of humane pedagogy can the focus of the consumer society be shifted and from a very early age cultivated the spiritual trappings needed by people who are learning to create and feel the happiness and joy of life regardless of consumption.

The school of the future should increasingly strive not so much to find the golden mean between authoritarian and humane pedagogy, but to limit the influence of authoritarian pedagogy in general at the expense of more teachers who profess the ideas of humane pedagogy, spiritually developed as well as individuals. Authoritarian pedagogy has evolved over the centuries and has become widespread throughout the world because it is easier to apply. She professes the philosophy that the teacher has absolute authority, and the student has only the right to obey the teacher without fail in everything. If he refuses to obey or follow the instructions, he will be punished, criticised for bad discipline.

Both 'Authoritarian pedagogy' and 'Humane pedagogy' are fundamentally opposite approaches in the learning process.

Authoritarianism means "power," and pedagogy based on one-person authority is an anti-democratic form of governing with elements of a one-person dictatorship.

These are the main distinguishing features of authoritarian and humanistic pedagogy (according to Shalva Amonashvili's Manifesto for Humane Pedagogy):

1. Authoritarian pedagogy prepares children for life someday. It is believed that they, as children, are not at the perfect stage of their development, which will happen one day when they grow up. Therefore, they treat children with condescension, as with people who are inferior and not fully developed yet.

Humane pedagogy believes that children are not preparing for life but that they are already living. This radically changes the attitude towards them, which builds on the principles of respect for the child's personality, equality and partnership dialogue.

2. Authoritarian pedagogy builds relationships with children on the basis of encouragement and punishment

Humane pedagogy proceeds from the ideas of the spiritual community, cooperation, co-creation, coming from the heart of the teacher and going into the heart of the student.

3. Authoritarian pedagogy is oriented towards the formation of knowledge, skills and habits and elevates the educational process in the cult.
Humane pedagogy is aimed at enriching the child's heart and mind, and knowledge is the way and the occasion to achieve it.

4. Authoritarian pedagogy works with psychological types and portraits of the child to find a way to engage in dialogue with the child.
Humane pedagogy accepts the child as he is and does not try to put him in models.

5. Authoritarian pedagogy educates the child in order to prepare him or her for life. Humane pedagogy accepts that the child is already living life and is trying to nurture it with the help of life itself.

6. Authoritarian pedagogy seeks to adapt the child to life.
Human pedagogy seeks to educate creators of life who change the circumstances and environment around them.

7. Authoritarian pedagogy is monologic in its communication with the child.
Humane pedagogy seeks to have a constant and equal dialogue with the child.

8. The educational processes of authoritarian pedagogy are formalized and rigorously regulated, filled with a mentoring tone, teaching students and calling them to fulfill their duties, calls for full obedience. The educational processes of humane pedagogy follow the principles of cooperation, the building of spiritual communion between teacher and students, mutual understanding, trust, patience, free choice, joy, love and knowledge achieved through all this.

9. For authoritarian pedagogy, axioms are leading - evil is punished, good is promoted, laziness is reprimanded, labor is rewarded. Human pedagogy is realized through axioms - love is nurtured through examples of love, kindness is nurtured through examples of kindness, success is cultivated through examples of success, nobility is nurtured through nobility, labor is nurtured through examples of labor.

10. Authoritarian pedagogy is conservative. Humane pedagogy is innovative and creative.

11. Unconsciously or knowingly authoritarian pedagogy creates an atmosphere of criticism, discontent, irritation, shouts, condemnations, punishments, rudeness, humiliation of the dignity of children.
The atmosphere that humane pedagogy creates is therapeutic and healing, inspiring and motivating, because each child is in a state of internal consent such as free choice, a state of joy, spiritual community, love and respect.

12. Authoritarian pedagogy promotes a curriculum that must be realized at the cost of everything. Humane pedagogy emphasizes the overall development of the child through the learning process, even if they has to compromise with the learning process.

The school must be a place that is fair to both parties in the learning process. In most cases it is a place where the role of the participant, who has no voice for almost nothing, falls by inertia of the child.

It is only the teacher who can change the atmosphere and transform authoritarian pedagogy into humane. He is the conductor who sets the mood, determines the spiritual climate in the classroom, sets high ethical standards for relationships. In order to educate children with a humane awareness of relationships, teachers themselves must first be changed.

Authoritarian pedagogy ultimately educates authoritarian people, those who obey the commandments and are the only doers of the will of others. The student is judged solely by his / her performance qualities, by his / her obedience, not by his / her creative potential. If he does the will of the teacher, he is a good student, if he does not fulfill the will of the teacher, he is a bad student. As a result, in order to please the teacher, he develops qualities such as hypocrisy, agreeableness, submission.
Humane pedagogy educates people creatively, free-spirited, respectful of themselves and others, driven to change themselves and the environment in which they learn. Because such are the teachers who teach them.

Is it possible to have humane pedagogy in mainstream schools and classrooms? The answer here depends on many factors. It depends on the will and desire of the school management to embody the ideas of such pedagogy. It depends on the "quality" of the teachers, because they are the main factor that will have to materialize the ideas of humane pedagogy in the classroom. It also depends on the size of the classes - the smaller the class, the more likely it is to have quality dialogue with each student individually. The more students in the classroom, the more unmanageable and unpredictable the learning process is. It depends on the parents' desire to respond and cooperate, to support humane pedagogy, so that it can find its natural continuation in the family environment, so that it is not an isolated phenomenon only in the classroom. This will make it easier for the seeds of humane pedagogy to germinate into the soul of the child, regardless of age. Because each child is unique as a person and as a fixture and talent and should not be compared to the others, but accepted as he is.

The upbringing of positive personality traits must go hand in hand with the learning process because they are interrelated. The personality of the teacher is extremely important. How much he or she is developed as a person, as a spirituality and as an ambition to achieve academic goals, depends on the development and the level of development of the students themselves.

The school of the future needs more spiritually developed teachers and teachers with worthy personal qualities. This will make a huge difference for children to communicate in the learning process more with good role models than with technical means. Nothing can replace human presence and good communication in the learning process.
The presence of art and nature in its various manifestations must be actively used in the educational process. Regardless of the subject matter, art and nature can enrich, develop, harmonize the learning process, can pave the way for a civilized and cultivated path to knowledge. Art in its various manifestations - music, ballet, fine arts and other forms of creative expression - can be used as a tool and language for better communication with the student regardless of the subject. Known for their therapeutic power and relaxing effect on the human psyche.

The main direction of mastering humane pedagogy is this - not the teacher and the subject go to the child, but the opposite. The teacher and the child go together into the world of knowledge, also called a school subject. Understanding this fundamental difference in the directions of the movement is of great importance for laying the foundations of the ideas of humane pedagogy.
  And the most important message to teachers, principals and parents should still be - children need to be loved as they are. Still imperfect in development, full of surprises, disobedient. This moving energy must be directed with love and appropriate forms of expression must be found. This moving and sometimes disobedient energy should not be punished and suppressed, but transformed into creative.
Because the most important thing for the school is - the children should feel that they are loved and respected, and that the school is a calm place for them full of joy and inspiration, where they would love to go.

(Elena S. Lyubenova)