"Are you having brain problems?" How teachers create the fuel for protests

The teacher threatens to stick a sign on the student's forehead, put him at a separate dining table and says that no one will ever take him seriously in his life.

Julia Suntsova

The audio recording yesterday, February 19, was posted on the Facebook page by the former coordinator of Navalny's headquarters in Kostroma, Alexander Zykov. On it, the director of school No. 5 in Kostroma, Anna Smirnova, scolds one of the students for his political views. In her heated monologue, the teacher is not shy about epithets. Calls the student “unreasonable”, “laughingstock”, “clown” and “buffoon” and says that some mysterious persons are asking to convey: the undersized person is “getting into trouble”.

In addition, more than once during the conversation she points out to the student not his non-Russian origin and reminds him that no one invited him to this school, and if you don’t like something, you can look for another.

Novye Izvestia provides a complete transcript of the available record:

“I'm listening. Your political platform. I have mine, you have yours. Which one? Why are you silent? You know how to do something wrong, and how to answer as a man. I have not had a single Eastern man here in the class, a guy who would behave this way - disgusting, cowardly. And oriental men are always brave. What does Mr. Navalny have to do with the French company Yves Rocher? You know about it? Say "Yes" or "No". Do not you know?! How did you come out to protect [him]? Do you know that he put his hands in the French company? Do not you know? Well, what does he have to do with Kirovles? Do you know about this? And why did you go out for this yours due to the ideological considerations and don't know this? Okay, where does Navalny's daughter study, you know? Of course, abroad. And where were all the leaders of the unauthorized rally that day, do you know? They were abroad.

I would understand, if you were in the 11th grade, you would have some convictions. But why did you go? Why are you standing, got your tail dowm? Talk, talk, bird, sing, bird, while it is singing. What can you get us with? Mind? No, no, you don't make an impression here in class. With mind you cannot take it, with the intellect you cannot take it. Do you know the situation well, you know everything, huh? You're well-read, huh?

Tell me, well-read? Not. And you're still spreading your fingers. You are a buffoon! The buffoon is a clown. If you’re smart enough for that, I’m sorry for you. You see, people laugh at clowns. You will never be taken seriously by anyone in your life if you don't change. Unreasonable, don't have your head. And this is our main oppositionist - I'll stick a sign on your forehead. Are you having brain problems? Yes or no? Why are you clapping your eyes? Come on, just as you always do it.

So, from today every day, starting from Monday, you will prepare for me in front of the class, answer. Non-Russian, you will learn the history of our country. Do you know what Navalny said about the veteran of the Great Patriotic War? Don't you know it, don't you know? Well, he told about him like that - shit, to put it mildly. We have a very soft country, very mild. Look at the face. And these three are pinned - heroes, comedian! Jester! Clown!

So, in the dining room, sit not together with others. So, you will sit at my first table, do you understand me? If you don't like it - there are a lot of schools. There are a lot of schools, nobody invited you here. People even told me: "He will get in trouble". I say: “Yes, and thank God, let him get in trouble. Let it be". My husband is working with FSB officers. You know this organization. Yes? He asked me to tell you - now and yesterday on TV, it's not a secret: a new action is being prepared. Now how it is... How to lure the children? How to entice them? one time - make videos, now - turn on the flashlights. We talked to you, undersized, because you are not yet mature. Look, what kind of a man you are? You don't know what happened in the nineties. People didn’t receive their salaries for three months, what kind of war it was going on in Chechnya....

The special correspondent of Novye Izvestia failed to contact the director of the Secondary School No. 5 of Kostroma. The receptionist answered that Anna Alexandrovna was on sick leave and offered to call back "somewhere on the 24th".

Psychologists and experts on child development characterize the methods of influencing the pupil, at least, non-pedagogical. In general, they agree that such working over, pressure and humiliation of students cause them serious harm.

Chairman of the Standing Commission on Science and Education of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, the Head of the Department of Personality Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Doctor of Psychology Alexander Asmolov:

“The headmaster in this situation is very similar to the authoritarian portrait of the headmaster in Rolan Bykov's wonderful film “Scarecrow”. She dishonored another person.

Such a director's position, even if it is based on the best state intentions, leads to humiliation of the dignity of the individual, and this is unacceptable under any circumstances. This communication is nothing more than psychological aggression towards the student, and can lead to severe psychosomatic disorders and risks of transformation of the student's mental health.

Moreover, such statements only strengthen the protest potential of schoolchildren as future participants in mass actions. The director belongs to the group of teachers who cannot find a common language with children and schoolchildren. Such teachers have no understanding that children of the 21st century are already completely different children, and a dialogue with them can be built only on trust and mutual understanding, and not on commanding intonations, all the more degrading a person's personality. I believe that this kind of communication should be regarded as theft of human dignity. Undoubtedly, it is necessary to consider the issue of the professional suitability of this teacher - both for the high title of a teacher and for the position of director”.

Child psychologist yelena Lagunova:

The goal of any teacher is to bring up a child in the best possible way. The means that this particular director chooses in the monologue do not work for this purpose at all. Labels - "buffoon", humiliation - "are you mentally retarded?", for example, do not work for this purpose.

Will the child's psyche be harmed? This question cannot be answered unequivocally. It depends on many factors. First, on the duration of exposure. If the director does everything that she threatened, there will be harm. Secondly, depending on the characteristics of the character of the child himself, the consequences will be different. There are children who are sensitive and susceptible to criticism; such teachers can significantly harm their psychological health. And there are adolescents who, by the time they reach the senior grades, have already acquired a "shell" for such an influence from adults. Such a child can forget about this episode, they say, the dog barks - the wind carries, but in this situation, a problem also arises: the thicker the "shell", the less trust in adults in general, and in a really serious life situation such a child will not turn to his elders for the help you need. There are those who heroize the struggle - such episodes will even provoke them”.

From the editor:

It is obvious that the teacher carried out the orders and instructions of the senior comrades in the fight against the "young navalnists". Video of this kind is not unique, such videos come from various places of our vast homeland. But it is just as obvious that the result of the narrow-minded "pedagogy" will be the exactly opposite of what was expected - instead of calming down the youth protest, we'll get embittered children who are ready "for anything". As they say, make the fool pray to God - he will break his forehead...