Teenagers do not know the history of their country and worship one-day idols. They easily cope with new technology, but give in to life's difficulties, says Mansur Yumagulov.
Create an atmosphere
Guzel Ibragimova, "AiF-Bashkortostan": Mansur Anverovich, where did the idea of the thematic camp come from?
Mansur Yumagulov: I am a former pioneer, as a child I visited "Artek" and "Orlyonok", worked as a counselor in different camps in the country and abroad. You can consider me a romantic … The atmosphere of childhood, friendship, dreams and dreams, first discoveries and revelations still lives in me and, probably, will not disappear anywhere. My mentors were Sergei Kuzmin and Ekaterina Temnova, who were the first in Bashkiria to organize not only recreation for children, but also gave them knowledge in the field of theater, ecology and ethnography. I was with them as a child, and I liked to immerse myself in a certain topic of the race.
Now I have a camp with the study of English, about 400 children have a rest over the summer. It takes several months to prepare and develop the concept before the opening of the first shift.
- Who works as a counselor for you?
- Mostly students of the faculties of foreign languages of the Belarusian State University and Belarusian State Pedagogical University, who undergo teaching practice. We train them for several months, organizing the School of counselors. We also hire foreigners who do not speak Russian for volunteer work. Usually they are replaced by 2-3 people, mainly from India, China, Brazil and African countries, very rarely "come across" from Europe. By the way, unlike ours, they do not receive a salary, they come on educational and exchange programs. Our students receive 12 thousand rubles in two weeks.
- What should they be able to do?
- Know English, master teaching methods, script writing, conducting various master classes, for example, tree climbing, football, beading, chess, sewing, etc. They are also required to control themselves in stressful situations and extreme conditions. Working with children is not only games, fun pastime, revelations around the fire, but also super responsibility for the health and lives of children. But lately I've noticed: guys aged 18-19 are real children! I remember myself, my peers, we were more mature, more serious, or something … And the current level of infantilism and carelessness just goes off scale! A generation of consumers is growing. Therefore, we filter out many at the initial stage. But there are real nuggets for whom working with children is a vocation.
The atmosphere of the camp is created not by expensive curtains in the bedrooms, not by a menu from an eminent chef and by the presence of a bathroom in the building. Whether it will be interesting, useful and rich depends entirely on the counselor.
I would also like to advise students to go for an internship at children's camps abroad. This is a colossal experience for a future teacher.
Collected "white crows"
- Your children are learning English. How does it go?
- We divide children according to the level of knowledge: primary, middle and high. Lessons of 60 minutes are playful, fun, no homework. Many admit that it is not as dull and boring as in school. We even introduced special technologies for those who were unlucky with the teacher, removing a certain barrier in the perception of the subject. The main thing is that the guys understand that knowledge of foreign languages is a degree of freedom, a whole world opens up for them, which mainly speaks English. Foreigners are very helpful in this.
- Who rests in the camp?
- Who wanted to. We do not select anyone on purpose. On each shift there are many "oldies", those who come for the 12th time in a row. There are also "white crows" - guys who are not accepted at school, in the yard. Alternatives come together: goths, rockers, anime (laughs). We do not force anyone to walk in formation. We do not have pauses and time for idleness, everyone is busy with something. And no gadgets. If you want to sit on the phone, you can only in a quiet hour, without disturbing anyone.
- What advice would you give to parents?
- Love your children, you can see disliked children right away. Communicate with them, share experiences and life skills. Tell us what you were like as a child, what you read, made, what games you played. Remember the best moments of helping each other. We all fight for attention, this is inherent in us by nature. And children need him like no one else. Ask any teacher who he remembers from the graduates? That's right, excellent students and poor students, and hardly "quiet" average students. There are enough of these among adolescents. Irresponsibility to the health of their babies also oppresses. We have organized healthy meals. But on parent's day, children are poisoned with chips and Coca-Cola. This is absolutely unacceptable to me. At the same time, I bow before the courage of those who for the first time decided to send a child to an alien environment for him, in the care of unfamiliar adults.
- What makes you happy in children and, on the contrary, depressing?
- They cause delight! They are easily versed in gadgets, high technologies, they have a different level of thinking and perception. They grab everything on the fly, come up with ingenious things, are open, inquisitive, but not attentive and not assiduous. And, unfortunately, the best that was in the ideals of the pioneers, on which several generations were brought up, is alien to them. Some have such idols as Olga Buzova, a kind of pop phenomenon. Others have dummies from the Internet. Many do not know the history of their country and are not interested in it. The time has come when we adults need to understand what is in the heads of our children? Where we go, we strive, or, alas, we roll down an incline.
We have excessive bureaucratization
- You talked about working abroad …
- It was a children's camp in the United States, near Chicago, owned by wealthy citizens of the Jewish community. The majority of Russian children's centers never dreamed of such a material and technical base. Tennis courts, canoes, golf course, stables. With the head of the camp and mentors, although observing the chain of command, the children communicated on equal terms. But with all the wealth, the children lived in Spartan conditions, inconspicuous wooden houses without TVs. Even the bathrooms were not in the main buildings. Most importantly, no one attached any importance to this, for them it was absolutely natural. And here some parents compare the camp with a four-star hotel.
- How difficult is it to keep the camp?
- We do not have our own base, for several years we have been renting a building in a sanatorium near Ufa. It is in excellent condition. Many colleagues do this. Because various checks from fire services, Rospotrebnadzor, Rosgvardia, the Ministry of Emergencies, the department for combating terrorism and extremism and other departments greatly distract from teaching activities. I think that we have excessive bureaucratization. And the general level of infantilism comes from the pyramidal structure of management. Officials are lacking in initiative, they have no normal reaction to appeals, only replies, and nothing is decided. New ideas and proposals coming from citizens are perceived by them as a kind of threat. Therefore, it is necessary to educate the new generation so that they do not invent difficulties for themselves from scratch.
