The thematic analysis of the famous work of the Soviet pedagogue Anton S. Makarenko The Road to Life focuses on two themes: a.) the introduction of the main working methods of social education of abandoned children from the children's colony in the Soviet Union in the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century; b.) the analysis of gender relations in Makarenko’s work. The method of collective organization of children of different ages, based on the socialist values of collective education, work, and gender equality, was central to Makarenko’s work. Makarenko's method opposed the mainstream educational methods of punishing, medicalizing, and pathologizing children, and therefore faced criticism. The Road to Life was rewritten several times by Soviet censors to conform to Soviet ideology. His work must be read as an ethnography of the colony and an allegory of the new “social education” of abandoned children. In the fifties of the 20th century, the book was translated into Slovene and other Yugoslav languages. The article presents the oral history vignettes of some professors of social work in Slovenia. Their recollections prove that they knew Makarenko's work and considered his method of working with children and the fact that he was critical of labelling and pathologizing children, important. The author concludes that there are no traces of Makarenko's work in social work practice, as evidenced by graduate theses from 1957–1991 and oral histories of social work educators in Slovenia. There are some suggestions as to why this was the case.
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