The history of the pedagogical profession

It is difficult to overestimate the role of the teacher - for sure each of us remembers one or more teachers who left a bright mark in the soul. How this profession appeared and what place a teacher occupies in the life of any modern person will be discussed in our article.

The origin of pedagogy is rooted in the primitive era. In ancient times, when primitive people did not yet have a division of labor, adults and young members of the tribe participated in equal ways in obtaining food. This is what constituted the sole purpose of existence at that time. Any transfer of life experience was closely interwoven with work..

From the earliest years, young members of the community learned about the methods of hunting and gathering, mastered the necessary skills. With the improvement of the tools, it became possible not to involve the oldest in this work, they were given the duty to keep the fire and look after the kids.

That is how the first group of educators appeared, it included elders whose only task was to take care of preparing the young generation for adulthood. With the development of civilization and public consciousness, the issue of religious and moral education of children also entered the tasks of teachers. Over time, people noticed that it’s much easier to gather all the children of the community at once and conduct conversations with them on a variety of topics, than to teach them the necessary skills individually.

That is how the first school appeared in Ancient Greece - the famous scientist Pythagoras became its creator.His pedagogy taught children sports disciplines, sciences, music and medicine.

Pedagogical activity today is a profession whose goal is to create conditions for the formation of a harmonious personality. The work of a teacher is, without a doubt, hard work. However, this direction did not reach the professional level immediately.

After the first schools appeared in Greece, it became obvious that far from every adult member of the community is capable of conducting educational conversations with children, but only one who has a large store of knowledge and personal qualities that allow him to explain a particular issue, to convey information to other people. Thus, in ancient times, the first understanding that pedagogical activity should reach a professional level appeared, however, a lot of time passed from the idea to its implementation.

If we consider history as a whole, then the formation of pedagogy can be divided into several stages.

This period fell on the early stage of human development. The data that reached us indicate that pedagogical activity already then had a meaningful and diverse character. At that time, children were taught the basics of agriculture, craftwork, gathering, and the skills to use the lunar calendar.

As social relations developed, specialized training appeared - the duties of the teacher were taken on by specially trained people for whom training became the main job.

With the development of society, private property began to appear in people, this necessitated a change in public education as a family. At that time, hired educators or educated slaves took on the role of a teacher. In that era there was a development of writing, improved methods of storing and transmitting information.

This left its mark on the technique of pedagogical activity - it was isolated from the production and religious spheres of life, transformed into verbal and iconic science. In the same period, there was also a tendency to single out a separate cohort of teachers who were engaged in educational activities in specially designated institutions.

During the Middle Ages in Western and Central Europe there was a sharp rejection of the ancient heritage and the complete submission of the teaching process to Christian doctrine. This has led to a significant decrease in the overall educational level. The reason for this phenomenon is that the training fell on the shoulders of monks who did not have any pedagogical experience. In those years, there was no such thing as a lesson, and the children studied everything at once - some students memorized letters, others learned syllables, others learned to count, etc.

Gradually, society began to realize that such a system “does not work,” and education should go to a different level. That is why workshop schools began to open in the cities, and in the XII-XIII centuries. the first universities appeared, the teaching of which was carried out by the most famous scientists of that time. This, in turn, led to a shortage of teachers. There was a need for the introduction of a class-lesson system in schools, and in universities - a lecture and seminar system. This innovation provided a more rational use of teacher time and led to a significant increase in the quality of education.

With the development of society, the range of tasks of the teacher has significantly expanded. This gradually led to the allocation of individual pedagogical specialties. At this stage, there was a need to create a school for the training of teachers themselves. The 18th century is not accidentally called the Enlightenment - at that time, education and upbringing became the main social transforming factors of social development.

The professional stage in the development of pedagogy is characterized by a fairly wide coverage of people employed in this field, the convergence of the educational system with real life. The science of that time reinforced the idea of ​​universal pedagogy, during this period there is an active search for new forms of teaching, as well as raising the social status of teachers and setting more important and complex tasks for pedagogy.

Today, in preparation for the profession, teachers receive special education at various levels; they work in various pre-school, school and higher educational institutions, as well as retraining organizations.

A teacher these days is not only a profession, it is a vocation. The very word "teacher" is known to all people - from five-year-old kids to deep old men. At all times, teachers were valued, and their work was seen as responsible and noble.

The teacher performs several functions at once:

• educational - through education, the teacher influences the formation and comprehensive development of a person who is able to adapt in society and the world;
• teaching - the teacher contributes to the development of cognitive and intellectual abilities in his students, instills in them a craving for knowledge, helps to direct the knowledge gained to achieve a particular goal;
• communicative - any communication between the teacher and the student develops on the basis of trusting relationships, the teacher constantly exchanges experience with colleagues, interacts with parents;
• organizational - any teacher should plan and coordinate the educational process, his tasks include the correct conduct of training events and the involvement of his students in them;
• corrective - the teacher regularly monitors and controls the process of obtaining knowledge, evaluates intermediate results and, if necessary, adjusts the learning process.

The most famous teachers who made a huge contribution to the development of pedagogy were the following personalities.

• Jan Amos Comenius - Czech teacher of the XVII century., Who actively promoted the humanitarian theory of teaching the younger generation. It was he who promoted the ideas of universal education, the classroom-lesson form of instruction, the introduction of the concept of "school year."
• Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi - Swiss humanist of the late XVIII-early XIX centuries. A supporter of the harmonious development of physical, mental and moral capabilities in a common approach to learning.
• Janusz Korczak - A well-known Polish teacher, the founder of the doctrine that pedagogy should be based on love and full respect for the student. He promoted the principle of dissimilarity of children, which influenced the education system of children in accordance with the difference in their understanding.
• Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky - A famous teacher, who is rightly considered the father of Russian pedagogy. It was he who first in our country emphasized the need for moral education of the child. Another idea of ​​Ushinsky was the theory of the importance of maintaining national identity. In the century before last, the main language of instruction in Russia was French - it was Ushinsky who declared the need to make “Russian schools Russian”.
• Lev Semenovich Vygotsky. This scientist became the founder of correctional pedagogy; he put forward and substantiated the theory that the teacher should use the achievements of psychology in his work.
• Anton Semenovich Makarenko - The ideologist of the theory of integrative education. In accordance with his ideas, a person is not a person from birth, so he must be educated in a team where he must learn to defend his position. His doctrine formed the basis of humanistic education, requiring respect for any student as a person.