This article brings the results of an inquiry Into the activities of 30 Prague Pioneor Sections and their Clubs.
On the basis of Makarenko’s teaching about the basic collective the author illuminates the function of Clubs in the educatiomil work of the Pioneer Organisation and points out their characteristic features. She seeks for the causes and effects of the fact that some of these characteristic features are not being paid due attention to in practice.
Then she goes on to analyse the tasks ¿ind the position of the Pioneer — the Club leader. She demands that the Club leader be given greater attention and that the importance of his role be emphasised by including him among the members of the Section Committee. This demand is accounted for historically and psychologically.
In the second part of the article the author describes her own experimental work with Pioneer Clubs in the Section of the 4th grade bf the Basic Nine-Year School in Prague 1, and draws some conclusions from it.
She shows how the very act of dividing the children into individual Clubs can be used for stressing the personality of the Club leader and the relationship of the other Pioneers to him. She asks the question to what extent the younger Pioneers c&n do independent work on the Section Committee; she outlines the methods and tasks of the Section leader in encouraging Independent work of the Section Committee members.
She further describes the educational value and uses of a long-term competition for the best Club, which has become a directing force on shaping the Clubs’ activities.
In this connection the author points out some problems regarding the motivation of the Pioneers’ activities, draws conclusions about the younger Pioneers activities, and the necessity for independent and guided activities in their clubs to percolate each other.