Review Article

Sukhomlinsky’s Practical Innovation and Enlightenment to School Labor Education

Jingyi Shen*

College of Teacher Education, Huzhou University, Huzhou, China

Submission: August 21, 2023; Published: September 06, 2023

*Corresponding author: College of Teacher Education, Huzhou University, Huzhou, China. Email id: jingyishen44@163.com

How to cite this article: Jingyi S. Sukhomlinsky’s Practical Innovation and Enlightenment to School Labor Education. Ann Rev Resear. 2023; 10(1): 555776. DOI: 10.19080/ARR.2023.10.555776

Abstract

Read Sukhomlinsky’s articles on labor and labor education, consult his important discussion on the status, value and organization of labor education, and find that Sukhomlinsky put forward in the teaching practice of labor education in primary and secondary schools that education should be combined with all-round development, that students should be promoted in collective labor, that long-term extracurricular group activities should be carried out, and that professional teachers should be equipped. At present, labor education in primary and secondary schools in China can learn from the practical enlightenment of Sukhomlinsky, such as labor education should be combined with production and all-round development, pay attention to collective, long-term and according to local conditions, and pay attention to multi-channel specialization to promote the construction of teachers. Sukhomlinsky’s exploration in labor education has the role of leading labor education practice, in the new era of China’s primary and secondary school labor education, seriously study Sukhomlinsky’s labor education thought content, China’s primary and secondary school labor education is still of practical significance.

Keywords: Sukhomlinski; Labour education; Primary and Secondary schools

Introduction

At present, labor education is carried out in primary and secondary schools in China, and a review of history can find that Sukhomlinsky’s practice in school labor education has great reference significance. Sukhomlinsky carried out long-term labor education practice in Pavresh Middle School, so that students learned to plant, learned to use excavators and other equipment, so that students could learn to use their brains to improve technology and transform equipment while mastering these labor skills. Sukhomlinsky’s labor education practice has certain significance and reference value for labor education in primary and secondary schools in China.

Practice of labor education in the Sukhomlinsky School

The importance of labor education is obvious, and the key lies in how to implement it in schools, which requires innovation in labor education concepts and labor education methods, and Sukhomlinsky’s exploration deserves attention. In his long-term labor education practice, Sukhomlinsky concluded that labor education should be integrated with other four educations, that it is necessary to attach importance to the guiding role of the collective, that long-term labor education practice should be carried out, and that teachers should be built in multiple dimensions.

Attach importance to giving play to the role of labor education in all-round human development

Sukhomlinsky felt that labor can become an educational force only when it enriches the intellectual life of the individual and collective, enriches intellectual and creative interests, completes morality and enhances beauty. [1] In his educational thought, labor education has an important position, and it influences and interacts with moral, intellectual, sports, and aesthetic education to jointly promote the all-round development of people [2]. Labor is integrated with and interacts with other four educations, and the role of labor on moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic is as follows:

First of all, Sukhomlinsky believes that the first thing in labor is the moral factor, that is, “moral education”, to let students love labor at the moral level, and the combination of labor and all-round development is to make labor a spiritual pursuit of man. In labor aimed at the development of spiritual strength, skills and techniques should not become the ultimate goal, but should be the means to achieve social ends and create ends [3]. Therefore, we should make students love labor on a moral level and feel the moral joy of labor. Secondly, the combination of labor and intellectual education refers to the combination of labor and cognitive courses, in which students learn to observe and have a deeper understanding of what they have learned, including students solving problems in labor and exercising their brains.

Only after learning to think about labor and thinking about labor processes will students acquire the skills to think about labor and analyze labor processes only after learning to think about them for a long time in the process of workmanship, acting on objects with their hands, and designing and manufacturing models commemoratively [4]. Therefore, labor and learning complement and promote each other, and students learn to think and enhance their hands-on ability in labor, which helps students learn book knowledge. Third, labor and sports are combined, labor not only exercises students’ thinking, but also consumes students’ physical strength and improves students’ physical fitness. Finally, labor can allow children to create beauty, let children have the eyes to discover beauty, use labor to beautify a corner of life, and transform the environment in labor, which is the integration of labor and aesthetic education.

Emphasis is placed on labour education in collectives

When students participate in collective labor, what they learn is not only the combination of knowledge learning and production labor, that is, the combination of teaching and labor for students’ “intellectual education”, but also the sense of collectivist responsibility generated by labor. Labor education should be carried out in collectives, which is conducive to promoting the improvement of the moral level of young people, to tempering students’ abilities, and to enabling students to have a strong sense of collectivity and work for the collective. If, as a result of the experience of labor, this emotion of each child is developed and deepened, then, in the process of collective labor, the child will set himself a new goal: to do the collective thing better than he originally intended [5]. This illustrates the necessity of combining student collectivity and labor. The first point is that students can do better in collective labor, because in collective labor, students pursue benefits because of the sense of collective honor, rather than simply working without gain, creating more economic value for the collective, and making students understand that labor is not simple play; The second point is that labor can make students more concerned about collective causes, and when the fruits of their labor are part of the results of collective labor, students will develop a spirit of collectivism and spontaneously compete.

Therefore, how to make students work in the collective? Sukhomlinsky believed that teachers should encourage students to complete the kind of labor tasks that need to spend a lot of time and physical strength, beyond personal interests and personal abilities, which can enable students to work in the collective. This kind of labor plays a collective power, concentrates on doing major things, and is universal and social [6]. Therefore, we should combine teaching with production. Teachers and workers should try their best to help students collectively prepare for real labor in the future, so students collectively should join in to experience labor as soon as possible. As Sukhomlinsky said: Working for the collective, creating material wealth for the collective, serving the collective - these are all very important factors in the collective ‘s interrelationship in labor, without which it is impossible to carry out labor that loves the collective [7].

Layered to create long-term extracurricular group activities in the form of labor education

Stratified labor education is carried out according to the grade of students. Different grades have different labor intensity and difficulty, and labor is long-term. In Pavresh middle school, labor education is carried out in the form of extracurricular group activities. Sukhomlinsky ‘s labor education in Pavresh middle school is as follows: labor education classes are available in every grade, even the youngest students have labor education classes. Generally speaking, students become extracurricular group members in grade 3 or 4, and each student participates in one or two extracurricular group activities. In this way, the extracurricular group activities of labor education, which run from primary school to middle school for nearly seven years, and even more than ten years, are long-term. This long-term extracurricular group activity helps to cultivate students ‘ interest in labor, and also helps students to learn a certain kind of labor for a long time, turning ‘ hobbies ‘ into ‘ majors ‘ in the future. Education is a longterm cultivation, and labor education also needs time to wait, need time to verify the correctness of labor education, so labor education must be a long-term and persistent education. After graduating from grade 7, some students have great enthusiasm for labor, continue to participate in extracurricular group activities, and begin to serve as extracurricular group instructors. This makes the labor education curriculum and activities can be divided according to age, according to the ability of different age levels to distribute labor, which is the result of Sukhomlinsky ‘s teaching practice.

Strengthen the construction of labor education teachers and the participation of off-campus professionals

Pay attention to labor education teachers, use professional talents to carry out teaching activities for students, not just schoolteachers. Combining specialized teachers with social professional talents for teaching. At the beginning, the extracurricular group instructor was a teacher who was familiar with labor. Later, with the addition of compulsory courses in labor education, labor education instructors increased extracurricular teachers, such as fitters, breeders, engineers, etc. At the beginning, only those who are very familiar with the labor business, agricultural machinery and the most capable teachers of joinery and fitter work as extracurricular group instructors... With the passage of time, excellent spinners, fitters, agricultural technicians, breeders, engineers, mechanics, combine harvesters, and seeders all served as instructors for students ‘ extracurricular groups [8].

Strengthening the construction of labor education teachers and the participation of off-campus professionals is conducive to the cultivation of students. First, it is equipped with professional teachers because only professional teachers can have professional teaching and cultivate students with professional labor literacy.

Secondly, inviting outside professionals to participate in students ‘ labor education can make labor education courses more professional and enrich the content of labor education courses, enable students to master more labor skills, expand students ‘ horizons, and make students ‘ labor education courses not limited to simple physical repetition, not limited to the small field of the school. Suhomlinsky believes that children have a special nature, that is, they always want to exchange, alternate and combine two or three kinds of labor activities with different operation methods and working skills and different characteristics [9]. This shows that different labor education courses are needed to satisfy their curiosity and the nature of pursuing the freshness of things. At present, there is a lack of professional labor education teachers in primary and secondary schools in China, and there is a shortage of labor education curriculum teachers.

The Enlightenment of Suhomlinsky’s labor education practice

Labor education should be combined with production

Suhomlinsky believes that education should be combined with production. The combination of labor education and production means that education should also pay attention to students ‘ labor efficiency and pay attention to students ‘ output results. It is not only feasible to have labor, but also needs a corresponding evaluation mechanism. Su believes that the evaluation mechanism can carry out corresponding competitions for students. At present, some primary and secondary schools in China do not have a good understanding of the role of labor education in primary and secondary school students. Many primary and secondary schools choose not to carry out labor education courses or very perfunctory labor education, and turn labor education courses into formal existence, not to mention labor education in the form of competition. As the research report of Zhejiang Province in 2019 shows, there are still many schools that do not know enough about labor education regulations or do not actually implement them. For these problems, according to Suhomlinsky’s discussion, it is concluded that the school ‘s behavior is mainly a lack of strategic understanding. Labor education needs corresponding evaluation mechanism. Without good evaluation mechanism, it is difficult to carry out good labor education.

Labor education should be combined with comprehensive development

Society’s understanding of labor education is one-sided. It believes that labor education is only a simple repetition of some manual labor and does not see the significance and internal meaning of labor education. As Suhomlinsky said, labor education is the actual training for the young generation to participate in social production, but also an important factor in moral, intellectual and aesthetic education [10]. If the school recognizes the importance of labor education, if it recognizes that labor education can be “ five-education integration, “ then the students we educate will be students with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor, rather than students who can only do questions. On the moral level, students will develop the spirit of labor dedication; the combination of labor and cognitive activities helps students master and consolidate knowledge learning.

The integration of labor and sports is conducive to the development and improvement of students ‘ physical quality; the combination of labor and aesthetic education will enable students to have eyes that will find beauty and enhance students ‘ aesthetic taste. As far as the development status of China ‘s realistic education is concerned, it is possible and inevitable to realize the construction of education system with labor education as the mechanism to realize the comprehensive cultivation of morality, intelligence, physique, aesthetics and labor, and to realize the dialectical unity of the integration and integration of the five educations [11]. The result of the integration of five educations is the all-round and balanced development of morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor, which is the qualified workers in the new era we hope to cultivate.

Pay attention to the development of collective labor education

Carrying out collective labor education is not a simple common labor. Common physical labor, not refers to all people do the same labor, have the same amount of labor, but refers to the individual in the collective for a common physical labor and dedication. When a child ‘s labor is to bring happiness to others, he will gain valuable spiritual wealth, and this happiness is the happiness brought by collective labor. This dedication is what collective labor teaches children. This kind of collective labor is to let students love labor at the moral level, that is, to let students work in the collective, pay for the collective, and feel the happiness at the moral level. This kind of happiness is not simply the happiness after the harvest in the labor, which should be a kind of labor dedication, is for the whole collective dedication and feel happy. At present, although China ‘s labor education is educating students to love labor, we should convey a spirit of labor dedication. As Suhomlinsky said, after carrying out collective labor, students learn not only how to complete this labor task, but also how to maintain the interests of society, the public and the collective. In this way, collective labor has national and social significance and can cultivate students ‘ collectivism spirit. Cultivate the spirit of collectivism in labor education, so that students learn to work at the same time, more patriotic, love the collective.

Try to carry out long-term labor education

In the Lenin period of the Soviet Union, the labor education curriculum was carried out as a compulsory course for a long time. In addition, long-term extracurricular group activities were carried out to cultivate a large number of labor skilled talents, which played a great role in the development of the Soviet Union at that time. Suhomlinsky said: ‘ Only when the child is engaged in the kind of long-term labor that must often think and worry about it, the creative nature of labor activities will be demonstrated in front of him [12]. Based on this, there should be long-term labor education, which should run through primary and secondary schools and even colleges and universities, so that long-term educational activities can enable primary and secondary school students to learn a specific complex labor skills, so that students will have creative labor.

Long-term labor education is not only manifested in the long-term nature of national attention, but also in the cohesion and coordination of labor education activities in which students participate. Long-term labor education is worth exploring for the current situation of labor education in China. The reason is that education is a long-term activity, and the impact on students is difficult to see in the short term. Only long-term courses can cultivate students ‘ labor skills, and such long-term labor education can cultivate more vocational education talents. Therefore, it is recommended to carry out long-term labor education activities rather than short-term labor education courses.

Construction of multi-channel professional labor education teachers

The labor education project carried out by Pavrish Middle School is very rich, with multi-channel and professional labor education teachers. As Suhomlinsky said, all teachers in our school provide the material basis for students of all ages to engage in a variety of labor. The labor projects that students can engage in include mechanical design and model making, crop cultivation greenhouse, biological corner, teaching experiment garden), tree cultivation, rabbit, beekeeping, cattle, sheep, research on the structure of the internal combustion engine, agricultural machinery and electrical engineering, processing and production of wood and metal products, etc., [13]. The current labor education needs multi-channel professional teachers. In Suhomlinsky ‘s Pavresh middle school, we can see that many labor education projects are difficult to carry out in primary and secondary schools in our country, because we lack the corresponding different teachers, schoolteachers are difficult to undertake professional tasks such as mechanical design and model making. The reason why there are so many labor projects lies in the nature of children. Only labor education that conforms to children ‘s nature can be carried out, so that primary and secondary school students in China can love labor as students in Pavresh Middle School.

The rich content of labor education can be selected by students, and the multi-channel labor education teachers can give students better access to good labor education courses, so that students can choose the courses they want according to their interests. Choosing favorite courses is more conducive to cultivating students ‘ labor quality and quality and is conducive to students ‘ mastery of professional labor skills. Compared with the projects that Suhomlinsky students can engage in, combined with the reality of our country, it is found that it is difficult to carry out labor education courses in China. At present, labor education activities are mostly carried out on the basis of simple labor. This is because China lacks teachers of different majors, and multichannel promotion of professional teachers can solve the current dilemma of lack of teachers.

Conclusion

We should attach great importance to labor education and establish a correct concept of labor education. Labor produces the need for education. Labor education is one of the important components of socialist education and an important means to train a large number of qualified socialist laborers [14]. The labor education implemented in China is also to cultivate better socialist successors according to the actual situation. In today ‘s comprehensively deepening reform, labor education returns to the public view. We should be based on the “ quality “ of labor education rather than just “ physical strength “ and “ skills”. Cultivating students ‘ sense of responsibility and pride in labor is the goal of labor education in the new era. It should be the future trend to carry out labor quality education for students and carry out long-term labor education activities.

References

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