Activities of the Pedagogical Institute of Social Education, Normal and Defective Child at the Psychoneurological Academy (1920s)

Abstract

The activity of the Pedagogical Institute of Social Education, Normal and Defective Child at the Psychoneurological Academy in the context of the problem of «morally defective childhood» is described in the article.
It was found that the aim of organizing the Institute in 1921 was to train educational staff in children’s institutions for normal and defective children, in the development of methods for the study of children’s personality, the development of diagnostic criteria and determining
the degree and depth of damage, as well as the development of teaching and training methods for different types
and degrees of defectiveness. The Institute’s ideological slogan was: «Studying the personality of a child – we educate the citizen and improve the society». The institute had government funding and support.
In 1921, the Institute had two faculties, and in 1923 there were already four faculties: the Main Faculty, the Faculty of Pedology (Pedagogical and Physical Education Departments), the Faculty of Psychology and Reflexology and the Faculty of Children’s Defectiveness. In 1923 the number of students was more than 700 people.
The educational program offered by the Institute was different from the existing programs at that time and much
attention was paid to the labor element of education; priority was given to practical classes over theoretical ones.
In the context of the problem of morally defective childhood, it was found that a large-scale extracurricular work was carried out at the Institute: a voluntary children’s inspection worked here, so called a team to
fight with homelessness; a circle of children’s criminology; a seminar with the ethical defectiveness of the child;
a circle for the study of child psychopathology.
In October 1924, the Institute was reorganized in the Institute of Pedology and Defectology, and in June 1925 it was liquidated as an independent organization and included in the A. I. Herzen Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute.
It has been proved that the activity of the Pedagogical Institute of Social Education, Normal and Defective
Child is a valuable experience in combination of theoretical and applied research in the context of the experimental pedagogy of the 1920s in terms of raising «difficult» («morally defective») children.