School of Shchetinin. Here a new Russia is born

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The first thing that prompted me to go to Te-kos was that, according to the results of 2001, Academician Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin was recognized as "Person of the Year", along with the President of Russia V. V. Putin. This immediately interested me. What kind of person is this who was put on a par with the President? What is so outstanding about him? He became interested, questioning his acquaintances who had already visited his school in Tecos. It was a revelation for me that none of the people I interviewed spoke indifferently - either they were laudatory and enthusiastic statements (“Wonderful!”, “Excellent!”, “New!”, “Brilliant!”), Or openly negative ("Shchetinin has created a new sect!"

So what is the essence of this phenomenon - M. P. Shchetinin, about which no one can talk indifferently? I tried to figure it out.

I began to look for articles on the methods of teaching and upbringing at M. P. Shchetinin. But a strange thing. I could not find analytical material anywhere, and newspaper articles about this school were the same as the statements of people - cardinal in their judgments. Either sharply - "Yes!", Or categorically - "No!"

Then I decided - “Come what may, but I have to go to Tekos, see everything myself and, if God permits, talk to Mikhail Petrovich,” especially since it’s not far away …

The first thing that caught my eye when we arrived at Tecos was the school building. It is impossible to believe that all this beauty was created by children's hands. Not every architect, master builder could create such a thing, but here - children … Immediately breathed something incomprehensible and incomprehensible, which even more interested and intrigued me.

While I was waiting for the administrator on duty to come out, I watched everything that was happening around. I have not met so many beautiful and soulful children's faces, perhaps, in my entire life. They seem to glow from the inside. To me, a complete stranger, everyone passing by said "Hello!" And always a kind, open smile towards you. All publications about this school and its children, which I happened to read, also noted this feature. Bright, soulful faces, open and joyfully meeting everything new, kind-heartedly and cheerfully wishing everyone - "Hello!"

We often run past each other for our vain concerns, sometimes not noticing, not having time to say hello to loved ones, not just to the first ones we meet, but here to say to the first person we meet, even a stranger - "Hello!" - turned out to be the norm. And it pleasantly surprised me.

When the attendant took me to the school grounds, I saw that everywhere in groups of 5-7 children were sitting with books and notebooks. They write something, read something, tell each other. I didn’t see that bustle, hustle and bustle and "Brownian movement" of children across the territory, which is inherent in an ordinary school. And silence. Only the trees rustle and the birds sing.

I asked the attendant: "Where are your classes in which you study?" She raised her eyebrows in surprise and replied: “We don't have classes. We do not need them.”And then I realized that I had much more questions than the answers I wanted to get after being here.

When we approached and the attendant introduced me to Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin, I saw a man in front of me, whose gaze seemed like an X-ray to see my whole soul, my thoughts. But at the same time it was a kind and bright look. Before me stood the TEACHER, white as a harrier, but with laughing eyes. This is exactly how I imagined a real TEACHER.

We sat down on a bench and started talking.

First of all, I was not interested in the methodology of teaching subjects in his school. This is a separate and rather serious professional conversation among teachers. And the question of education, and spiritual education. What is the core of any methodology in the pedagogical process.

Mikhail Petrovich has his own point of view on education and his own philosophical view of things.

“Love, truth, will, family, conscience, honor, life, father, child, child, child are the key words of my life.

A child is a cosmic phenomenon, a product of the universal labor of many, many of his ancestors. And it is necessary to treat it exactly as a cosmic phenomenon.

We distinguish between the concepts - "child", "child" and "child". These are three aspects of an integral personality. A child is one who looks in detail at every detail of life. The child very easily switches: now to this, now to that. He is mobile, he looks with interest at everything that is happening. Here a drop of rain fell - he was interested, here the bird began to sing - it was interesting for him, here someone knocked - he came up, here something began to stir - he looked in there too. It seems to us that he always switches, he cannot concentrate. This is a child within a person.

And there is a child. Child is when I affirm love, the whole world. In the Old Russian language "cha" is boundless love. She is not burdened with worries. And "cha yes" is to give confirmation. I affirm cha, love. Or the whole whole world. This is "I and the world are one" - as Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy once said.

And then there is a child. We are Russians, the child is the grandfather. A grandfather and a child are like one and the same thing. My grandfather and my son are heirs from each other. My grandfather is my son. Child. Grandpa. That is, we emphasize by this that there is still a third component in a person in order for him to be a person to the fullest - this is his duty. It is he - like a family flowing from century to century. I do not start, say, 50 years ago, I continue the path of my father, and my father continues the path of his father, and that father … That is, hen is an egg, a hen is an egg, a hen is an egg. How old is the egg? The question is incorrect. Because the course of the causes of this egg goes far back centuries. There may be infinity, there - eternity. Therefore, the child is eternity itself. A child is a detail of eternity. And the child is the whole world, as a whole, where everything is interconnected in full mutual agreement. This idea of a person as a child who carries the ancestral memory lies at the heart of our entire educational system, which we are trying to establish here. It is important to look at the child as a child and a child, and not just as a child.

Our school is "Ancestral School". Yes. Those. we look at a person as a kind. He is a genus. And when I look into his eyes and see his eternity, then I see him. When I subordinate him to some of my thoughts and do not listen to him for eternity, then I interfere with him. Therefore, it is very important in order to understand us, to understand that we do not look at the child as a small creature that does not understand anything yet. It carries the memory of the family."

To be honest, it was a revelation for me. Never and nowhere else, in any school, not a single teacher has expressed anything like this.

Shchetinin manages to play the role of a creator with the naturalness of a natural phenomenon. You don’t notice his dictatorship. His will is not affirmed by discipline, it is dissolved in the atmosphere. Will is one of the key concepts for Mikhail Petrovich.

When asked what is Will. Shchetinin replied that “Will is when I exist simultaneously with the world around me and am in harmony with this world. The world is around me and I am in it. And then I am free."

“There can be no pressure above a person. Man is the WILL itself. And therefore, our discipline comes from an internal understanding of the need to play our part in a common cause. Like, say, a musician in an orchestra, he plays his own melody, but coordinates it with the melody of others, so that there is a symphony. We, in general, came with this discipline, this is the way of our life. Organization and will - they have always correlated with the concept of necessity. After all, will is everything, will is all space and will is, as it were, my core, this is my fortress. We have this one concept among the Russians. Will is like an organized spirit, an organized thought, directed thought is a strong-willed person. And will is a space, it is all that has revealed itself before me. That is, when I am the will, then I am everything, I see everything and act precisely in everything, so as not to harm everything.

Knowledge in our understanding is the main meaning of man on earth. But not knowledge in order to remember, to get a diploma, a certificate of maturity, formally, but knowledge to improve life. And therefore, when I live, realizing my role, my meaning, for the sake of which I am among people, I want to understand them. Here is my knowledge. I want to understand, but how can I help them.

The question arises: "Tell me, how to connect the stream of dreams with the eternal river? With that, no pain, no suffering, so as not to cause anyone?" I want to know how I can live, how I can build my path, so that I can help other people in their understanding of all others and in their assertion of themselves on earth. In this there is an endless process of cognition.

It is very important for those who go to children to give their subject so that he understands the necessity of this subject for his life. And if a child sits and learns an object because the adults said so, and for what, he did not understand, then he will not understand this subject. He will rebel against just such an attitude towards him. We need to think about what we are bringing to the children, how to teach what we offer, so that the child will accept, so that he acts now, immediately. Therefore, we study all the subjects that we study at school as children.

Our children teach subjects. Before entering our system of the cognitive process, the child first masters the entire course of high school in one subject, but with the aim of transmission. Already this subject turns out to be necessary for him, so that he will take place among his peers, they will accept him. It's like his calling card, who he is. I am a mathematician, I am a physicist, I am a chemist, I am a biologist. And then, in order for me to enter into a relationship with children, since they offer me other items, I thereby have to accept their products, their values, which they specially prepared for me.

But their task, those who give their subject, is to do everything so that they associate their subject with the subject that their peer is passionate about, i.e. found agreement, a connection with what is close to him, what is dear to him. Then only a holistic educational space is created, and children in this space feel confident, because everything turns out to be aimed at the meaning of their own aspirations, and not contradicting them. This is the basis of the cognitive process. When he is not just as an edification, lowered from above. Like, it is necessary, when you grow up - you will understand. No, you can't do that.

At this moment, at this very second, at this very minute, the child must understand why he is doing this action. If he does not understand this, the fading of search activity occurs in him. The search for truth, search activity is, by the way, the basis of personality development and the basis of health.

We create educational space together with children, with their help. These are their thoughts, they are the authors of this educational space. Therefore, they are calm with us. But there are 400 people here. If you put a microphone here, there is a neighboring school nearby, you can already hear the Op. They scream.

It seems to me that children should not yell, because, on the contrary, they are in agreement with them. A child screams from pain, from bitterness, when something is disturbed, harmony collapses, then he starts screaming. We note this and say that, behold, he does not understand anything, and we begin to educate, punish him. He screams even harder. He usually cries out from longing, from injustice, from the disproportionality of what he carries inside himself and what is happening around him.

In our country, in fact, creating educational space, engaging in scientific activities, they realize themselves. Because the meaning of education is the search for truth, the search for harmony, the finding of the foundations of a happy life, the definition of what happiness is. We try to do everything so that they look for meaning everywhere and affirm it."

No one will argue that the educational climate is a condition for economic prosperity, it is an economic factor. But orders and decrees cannot be done from above. This can only be done by involving citizens in defining the goals and content of education. Therefore, the content of education and the goals of education are the result of negotiations, agreements between the educational community and the local community and citizens. If these agreements are possible, then the educational level will grow. After all, the educational level grows not from what marks the students have, but from what place education occupies in the minds of citizens.

You can often hear both on the radio and on television that our people, the Russian people, during the period of totalitarianism, have lost their elite, their gene pool. But only here in this school do you realize that this is not so.

Do you know how the guys answered me when I asked them - why are you studying here? "We want to serve the Motherland, Russia." And this is without false pathos and bombast.

A new Russian elite is being brought up here, a new type of leaders with a new thinking, a new worldview, which will have to bring Russia to a new level. Here they train future scientists, heads of enterprises, governors, presidents, but not officials, not clerks, but ACTORS. It is here, right now, that a new man of the 21st century is being created.

NEW RUSSIA IS BORN HERE!