Upbringing

My wife swears like a trooper all the time, all day long. The matter is our son. It seems to her, that I am a bad tutor. Of course, I am a poor tutor. But how can I bring him up right? My son used to come home with a “two”. Well, I used to scold him, or whip or push into the corner. M wife says over and over again that this is not the proper way of upbringing. I wonder what way it should be done.
One day I came home tired after my working day.
“That will do!” my wife says. “Don’t take your coat off. Just go to the school to the parent’s committee meeting. Why is it only me who goes there?”
There was nothing I could do. So I went to the school. To tell the truth, I was in no mood for going there. I went without dinner.
There is my son’s school, like all other schools. Well, schoolboyish behavior and tricks… but I hardly expected that my son’s class monitor was such a beauty.
“Darling”, I said. “I apologize for my blockhead son who gets “two’s”” .
“Sorry, but I am not “darling” at all. I am Tankhlu Fazilovna”.
I was embarrassed. For all that I have done to bring m son up, though I myself am certainly not a well brought up man, I offered apologies once more: my blockhead son wasn’t brought up by any educational system, like Makarenko’s. He was brought up only from time to time…
“Don’t worry”, Tankhlu Fazilovna says and smiles. “Your son is gifted. But, you see, he is unorganized. You and I both have to bring him up”.
She characterized my son so precisely that I was astonished. She seemed to know him much better than I. After that I started educational process in exactly the way Tankhlu Fazilovna recommended. And the result followed. In just one day my son got a “four”. I rushed to the school, although my wife insisted on my not going there.
“You have had some success”, says Tankhlu Fazilovna. “You are a natural teacher”. Is there anyone who dislikes being praised? I continued eagerly. I bought many books on pedagogy. I became more attentive to the children playing in the yard. What if they will be brought up more skillfully? My son and I began to go to the cinema and museums, to folk art exhibitions. Tankhlu Fazilovna took part in all these cultural events.
Oh, yes, that was a good time. We use to go to the countryside. We spent time in the open air. We studied ecology and other subjects about nature.
Once Tankhlu Fazilovna and I were sitting together, embracing each other.
“My darling”, I say. “I’m so grateful to you for your sincere devotion to pedagogy. When you witness a person being brought up…”
“Come on, sweetheart”, Tankhlu Fazilovna replies. “It is your pedagogical talent that stimulates the child cognitive capabilities”.
And we are smiling. We are happy to have the same views and interests. Here is my son, standing nearby. He is staring at us; his eyes sparkling. Because of admiration, I think.
Everything was so perfect. Until one day my wife appeared in front of us.
“Is that the way you study pedagogy?!” she cried. And she took the boy home.
My wife doesn’t understand the educational process at all. Only I and Tankhlu Fazilovna. There is so much pleasure for people who are deeply involved.

By Marsel Salimov,
Ufa,Bashkortostan