Book for Parents

Our children bloom on the living trunk of our lives, they are not a bouquet, they are a beautiful apple orchard. It is difficult, of course, not to admire such an orchard, hard not to rejoice in it, but even... harder not to work in such an orchard. Please, be kind, engage in this work..., — with sharp candor the great educator begins his Book for Parents. How and when does a teenager take the wrong path and who is to blame for it — himself, the bad influence of friends, or parental mistakes? Is it too late to correct a stumbled child — or on the contrary, is it necessary to extend a helping hand? And how to make him want to correct himself? Makarenko was not free from the clichés and mistakes of his time, — however, his deep, passionate concern for the fates of children and the revolutionary idea of a personal approach to education, with mandatory consideration of the interests of the one being educated, makes his system highly relevant even today.