To see the results of his work, a teacher must live a long time

I will take the liberty to disagree with the great poet and diplomat. Strangely enough, doubts about the absolute truth of his formula were sown by the elections just held in the capital. I’m walking around the school building. There are not many voters, since the majority express their will remotely. An elderly woman approaches me.

— Thank you very much, Evgeniy Alexandrovich!

– ?

— My daughter, who graduated from your school 40 years ago, is a Doctor of Science, and my granddaughter defended her diploma with honors at Moscow State University. They both entered and studied without any tutors, thanks to the knowledge they received at school.

After a while, a gray-haired man approached.

— Say thank you to the historian Tatyana Petrovna. Thanks to her lessons, I became an archaeologist.

That day there were many such unexpected meetings with gratitude to various subject specialists.

But sometimes it happens that news about the long-term consequences of our influence comes unexpectedly, from where you do not expect. It would seem that a school theater performance is entertainment in your free time from lessons. But it turns out that participation in it can save a human life.

How often do we have to use the sacramental phrase: “Years have passed since one of our graduates graduated from school.” But what can you do if this is really the case? The nightmare of the first Chechen war began. Seryozha was a brilliant actor in the school theater. One of the performances of this theater was staged based on the story “The Golden Cloud Spent the Night” by Anatoly Pristavkin. The story about the tragic fate of Russian and Chechen boys who found themselves in the hell of deportation.

The story was published in the late 1980s. In gratitude to Anatoly Pristavkin, a museum named after him was created in Grozny. There were large photographs of that very memorable performance hanging in the museum. Among the main characters was Sergei Brilev. A school graduate, he became a regular correspondent for Vesti in “hot spots”. One day, militants captured the film crew. But some of them recognized Sergei from photographs of the performance hung in the museum. It’s hard to believe, but the journalist and his cameraman Dmitry Britikov were released! So an old school play saved his life. Sergei himself spoke about this incident in an interview with Career magazine.

However, one should not naively assume that the lives of all school graduates, without exception, were cloudless and successful in terms of their career and personal growth. It doesn’t happen that way.

That guy, a graduate of the dashing nineties, was from a so-called difficult family: fatherless, alcoholic mother.

Such children, unlike others who are spoiled by the love and care of their parents, are sensitive to the slightest attention from teachers. You put your hand on his shoulder – he will remember it all his life. In this particular case, the school did not allow him to be sent to a boarding school. History teacher and head teacher of the school Lyudmila Sergeevna Omelchuk brought him clothes. The guy was terribly proud of the vest that came from the shoulder of Lyudmila Sergeevna’s son, a tank officer.

What can I say: influence is often not in words. For a long time I was amazed at the results of the work of one class teacher. He was not famous for any high-profile events.

The most difficult class, from which the whole school groans. There are many children from socially disadvantaged families in the class. Most of them are boys who grow up without fathers. Among them, the informal leader stands out: the most aggressive teenager, with whom none of the teachers can find a common language. Except for one thing – his class teacher. A middle-aged man, silent, reserved, unhurried, not noticed in innovative activities, not recognized with prestigious awards. But six months later the class was put in complete order, and its chieftain stopped his subversive activities. The whole school breathed a sigh of relief.

“Reveal your pedagogical secret,” I ask the teacher. -What did you do to the class? How did they win their leader over to their side?

– Nothing special.

– But still.

– Well I do not know. I took him to the cinema a couple of times on Sunday. You see, the guy grows up without a father. I called him, he agreed. We arrived at the cinema half an hour before. Let’s go to the buffet. I took two sandwiches, a bottle of beer for myself, and water for him. We watched the movie and returned home on foot. That’s all.

– That’s all? You probably talked about something on the way?

– Yes, we chatted about this and that.

When the door closed behind him, I thought. The poems of B. Okudzhava came to mind.

Power, homeland, country, fatherland and state –

This is not what we cherish in our souls and will take with us to the grave.

And a quiet glance and a kiss, love’s tender deceit,

Krivoarbatsky Lane and quiet chatter about this and that.

The wise teacher did not spend an “educational moment” by luring the teenager to the cinema, but, speaking in high style, restored the harmony of relationships lost by the guy, replacing the father who was absent from his life. This quiet chatter without any ulterior motive is the highest pedagogical aerobatics, giving an immeasurably greater educational effect than any moral maxims and teachings. What about the selection of drinks purchased at the buffet? This is also pedagogy of the highest standard. Beer for yourself, water for him. I don’t doubt for a minute that the guy has already tried not only beer, but something stronger. But that doesn’t count. From the very beginning, a boundary is drawn between the teacher and the teenager. I’m an adult, and I can have beer, but you, until you grow up, will be content with water. This is not discussed, but is silently presented to the guy as a given and an immutable law of life. Although, I’m afraid that today, with our overwhelming hypocrisy, a teacher would lose his job for this bottle of beer for himself…

But let’s return to that guy in the officer’s vest. After school, he eventually ended up in places not so remote and served his sentence. But one day a wedding cortege arrived at the school yard. This guy decided to introduce his bride to the director of his school. I had to give them a civil blessing.

By the way, about the girl who became a doctor of sciences. Her tenacious pedagogical memory retained an episode from her early childhood: a winter evening in kindergarten. And suddenly the child began to cry. When the teacher asked what happened, the girl replied that she saw her dad in the window. “But he will walk around the kindergarten, enter the door and be here any minute, he’s not a bird,” said the teacher.

“Yes,” the girl answered after thinking, “my dad is not an eagle.”

To summarize what has been said. Colleagues, if you want to see the results of your work, live long! This is my holiday wish for you.