That Sort of Work

Abstract

Recently, critics of children's literature have been paying close attention to the images of teachers, which, naturally, are constantly appearing in books for children. We sometimes hear rather curious complaints: Why, people ask, couldn't this or that author have portrayed the educator as a worthy and attractive person in order to inculcate the children with the proper respect for him and, consequently, the school as well? (See, for example, N. Kuzin's article "The Hero Teacher" [Geroiuchitel'], which was printed in Nash sovremennik, 1985, no. 2.) It simply has to be stated, in fact, that children's writers attempt with rare unanimity to convince schoolchildren that, despite the many shortcomings of which any young schoolchild is supremely aware, the schools are still doing something good and useful, and the teacher's work deserves the highest degree of gratitude. Not every teacher's work, to be sure, and it would be ridiculous to claim the opposite.