A new reform of education to develop the erudition and intelligence of the child

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

I am almost 80 years old and I would like to see my achievements in the field of education, described in several of my books on new pedagogy, to be used after me. And to all my proposals sent to educational structures, they answered: "Reforms are in full swing." But the fact of the matter is that they follow the form, and not the content, in which the main pain point is the relationship between teachers and students, i.e. pedagogical ethics.

I remember, during perestroika, a very important point was recorded in the school reform project: “Knowledge is not the goal of learning, but a by-product. This is information for the maximum, effective achievement of personal and public benefit goals.

Learning should only lay the foundations for self-learning and lifelong development. On my own I will add: Not only the basics, but also skills, and the need for self-improvement, in all respects. And most importantly, skills for work and creativity. And where are they now, these good intentions? Even what was destroyed.

At that time I worked as a teacher of maritime affairs at the Inter-school training and production plant. Taking advantage of my pre-retirement age, and most importantly, the fact that education officials then “pinned their ears”, worrying about their jobs, I was able to carry out such a reform in my profile. When I conducted an anonymous survey, the majority answered the question: “Why do you go to school?”: “Hang out and learn something interesting”. The goals of teachers are almost exactly the opposite: to maintain discipline and provide boring information within the framework of the program. But the discipline, based on the fear of punishment, now not only does not work, but even creates the basis for the accomplishment of color revolutions. Any violence compresses a spring, which at any moment can unclench and sweep away everything in its path, including the one using violence. An example is the Chinese Cultural Revolution. You need to cultivate self-discipline of responsibility for your life. Therefore, I started by bringing together the goals of the students and the teacher, using my know-how - "energy psychology". Its brief essence is as follows. Any desire has (energy) power, and power has a direction vector. According to the parallelogram of forces, their resultant increases as they approach. In the opposite direction, i.e. opposition of forces, they are destroyed. Therefore, our education is stalled.

My second know-how is the replacement of the credo of authoritarian pedagogy "should", with "want", which turns into a continuous cycle of self-improvement: "I want, I know, I can." In children, the driving energy of the "ego" prevails, which is ignored by authoritarian pedagogy. They are taught to learn not for themselves, but for their parents and teachers, i.e. for marks. Therefore, I often conducted philosophical conversations, revealing to them the laws of life, in particular, the law of cause-and-effect relationships, which is given to us in the proverbs: "What you sow, you reap", "As it comes around, it will respond." They educate the ability: to take responsibility for everything. And, of course, he talked about the purpose and meaning of life. The goal is the constant improvement of one's consciousness, and the meaning is the happiness of creativity, not only external, but also internal, i.e. changes in your way of thinking.

In addition, I developed criteria for the marks that they set themselves. (Interestingly, most even underestimated them). This immediately removed the confrontation between students and teacher, a source of perceived and obvious injustice, improving trust. Keeping in mind that children learn better from teachers who are respected, I began to cultivate four types of trust (respect):

1. Trust in the teacher, which is gained by teaching ethics.

2. Trust in the subject, due to the love for the subject of the teacher himself.

3. Trust in the team - achieved with the help of psychological trainings for friendship and trips to nature.

4. The student's confidence in himself. The latter is a white spot in authoritarian pedagogy, which is why it educates infantiles: cogs, not individuals, consumers, and not creators.

In anonymous questionnaires, to the question: "What do you dislike most about school?", The majority answered: "We are not respected." Children are insulted not only by words, but also by mistrust. The teacher often seeks out not knowledge, but what the student does not know. Punished with marks not only for ignorance, but also non-standard (not according to the textbook) answers. The inconsistency of education has already grown into jokes: "Marya Ivanovna, you say that you learn from mistakes, and you yourself give two marks for them." Indeed, how can you learn without making mistakes? Therefore, I canceled the notorious average grade, displaying quarter marks for the latter. And he cultivated competitions in knitting not with each other, which give rise to base feelings, but with himself, setting personal records, which he backed up with excellent marks, for their desire to improve.

I used all my methods with one main goal - the development of creative independence, the ability to take responsibility for my life, for my health, happiness and success on myself, and not shift it onto my parents, medicine, the state, etc. Only such a person will be able to identify himself with the Motherland, and at the right time will come to its defense in the same way as the Siberians defended Moscow. During the war, I lived in the village of the Kirov region. No one forced me to work, but no one hindered me, and I carried hay on horseback. There was no light then, no radio. I learned to read from the newspapers and reported to the old men reports from the front. And despite the hunger, I was happy and I think not only I, seeing how women, working in the field from dawn to dawn, not only to work, but also from work, went with a song. And all because they believed in the promised victory. They had goals and one main, strategic one - building a bright future. Therefore, in the then society, romantics - creators, and not pragmatists - consumers, prevailed. A consumer society, as history shows, is not viable, since life is a movement and only creators can support it.

I have been convinced more than once that the most correct definition of communism is "free labor, freely assembled people." Therefore, the main thing I focused on was productive, useful work. We knitted whitewash brushes from decommissioned ship ropes, sold, and used the funds for the needs of the class. And the first "lumpy pancakes" were allowed to be taken home, as a gift to parents. And when I meet former students, they no longer thank for their knowledge, but for the science of life. By the way, almost all were excellent students, and most of them went to study at maritime schools, that is, they were all romantics. And most importantly, happiness shone in my eyes, truancy disappeared, even the sick came to classes and begged not to be removed.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was not the truth, but the lie of defamation, that became fashionable. Former political workers and Komsomol leaders began to sling dirt on Stalin and the sovietism of the people, forgetting that these "scoops" fed them and are still feeding them. I stood up for my defense, although I myself, not being a member of the party, did not advance further than the senior officer. But I remember that the "misinformation" about the spikelets, for which, allegedly, they were planted for 10 years, is complete nonsense and I remember how sincerely everyone cried when Stalin died. But, it is precisely in this that I see a lack of past upbringing, leading to infantilism and the generation of “idolism”. And, exactly. in this direction it is necessary to carry out an ideological reform of education. What is needed for this, in addition to what I have outlined above?

Ideological reform of education

After perestroika, the state lost two main levers of government, without which it weakened. This is ideology and control over the media. The credo of universal human ideology is as old as the world: "Do no harm!" Therefore, she must rely on kindness and honesty. Any violence, even mental, is already mental fascism, which, under suitable conditions, quickly turns into bloody. But one school cannot solve this global problem without mass media. When I watched American comedies before, I was surprised at the primitiveness of tricks, built mainly on falls, and concluded: only a society of sadists can laugh at the suffering of others. But when I saw in our humorous video, on the Sarafan channel, a scene: one rolls up from behind, and the other pushes an old woman in the chest. She falls, and behind the stage, a thunderous laughter. But the worst thing is that these pranksters are dressed in police uniforms. And how many other scenes in which the police themselves are already ridiculed. Of course, they are invented by people who are at odds with the law and even more so with their conscience. I will not comment further, you yourself understand better than me what kind of damage to statehood such de-ideologization brings.

Of course, in order to teach children about intelligence, we need teachers who have it. The word has education, the root itself suggests that "a person is created in the image and likeness of a teacher." In other words, education should be led by example, your own and your life. It has long been known (only not in schools, to which scientific discoveries do not reach, and if they do, they are not adopted) that “only 10% of information is absorbed by ear, 50% by eye, and 90% in practice. ".

And we still focus on verbal learning, developing the left hemisphere of the brain, to the detriment of the right - figurative. It is necessary to give an order to scientists to create business games. I was lucky, being at the advanced training courses in Liepaja, at the end of perestroika, to attend such a game to train future managers. The conditions of the game were as follows: Each of the players seeks to be the first to earn a million by implementing any projects in their enterprise. Therefore, at first, everyone ignores costly functions, say, the construction of purification systems. And only when the presenter announces that all are bankrupt, because there is no one to work for them, because the rivers are poisoned, and the population left the city, the game went on a reasonable channel, with an eye to the future. But the most important thing for achieving success in upbringing and education lies, of course, in the teacher's relationship with students. And this requires adherence to pedagogical ethics.

Pedagogical ethics

The most important thing in a relationship is trust in each other. Therefore, without reaching it, it makes no sense to start learning.

Another condition for achieving success is the coincidence of goals. The unity of the goals of the teacher and the student gives rise to interest - the main stimulus for learning.

Do not confuse ends and means. Grades and discipline are means. The goal is to raise a thinking citizen responsible for his country and planet, considering it not only a common home, but also a living being, but himself, a part of it.

The learning process must be diverse and creative, and for this, the educational system needs intellectual freedom. Limitations give birth to limitation.

The teacher needs qualities such as inner freedom and self-confidence. Only such a teacher can educate a person similar to himself.

A very important quality for a teacher is the willingness to compromise. To do this, you need to develop in yourself the ability: to put yourself in someone else's place, to develop a sense of empathy, a sense of proportion and pedagogical tact.

A teacher who shouts is not focused and ineffective. Moreover, it speaks of his uncertainty.

The best remedy is kindness. Coercion breeds weak-willed opportunists, not responsible citizens.

A wise teacher does not build his authority on the principle: "He is afraid, then he respects." This personal selfishness affects the achievement of the main goal: the upbringing of a courageous person capable of withstanding the difficulties of life. A wise teacher, on the other hand, encourages someone else's success. State consciousness, and not selfishness, should be a means of education and self-improvement.

Only when all other possibilities have been exhausted should we act energetically and immediately, but only on matters of fundamental importance. But do not delude yourself with victory. The bacillus of violence gives rise to an abscess of rebellion. For each force, there is a response force, "equal in magnitude and opposite in direction."

Feel free to experiment. Sincerity and fairness, all mistakes are forgiven.

Where can we find authoritative teachers?

This is the most difficult question. And if you postpone its decision, then after a dozen years, it will be really impossible to solve it. To a greater extent, it rests against funding. When I offered to increase teachers' salaries several times, I was told that, in the majority, they were not worthy. I do not argue. But they will be quickly replaced by the worthy ones when the competition arises. We have already missed one moment, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when we stopped funding the army. Japan acted differently, after the war, it threw a quarter of its budget on education (we had 7% in our best years). The result is now on the face. Statistics say that every second worker is an innovator or inventor, while in our country it is one in a thousand. The main thing is that they have adopted psychology, and we still have it in the corral. And in the Cold War, the main weapon should be the ability to think independently. If you do not learn to control yourself, then you will be controlled by others. The brain is a biocomputer and it works according to the principle: "what is at the input, then the output." It is necessary to learn to install an anti-virus program for yourself from childhood. Before you start giving knowledge, you need to prepare your brain to receive it, develop the desire and ability to learn, consolidating the habit of self-education, teaching rational reading.

Another example, literally ten years ago, was given by Finland. She solved the financial issue in a very original and radical way, cutting off all officials from education and dividing the freed up funds among teachers. As a result, a competition was created, including in pedagogical institutes. And what is most interesting, there was an influx of men into schools, which is crucial for the upbringing of boys. The teachers who passed the competition were given freedom of pedagogical creativity. The term of the contract is established, after which, after the end of which, by the method of anonymous questioning of students, human qualities are revealed, and by the parent committee - pedagogical. Reduced officials also have the right, on a general basis, to participate in the competition. In terms of the content of education, a lot was taken from Waldorf schools, in particular, for the development of the right hemisphere, arts and crafts were included.

About four years ago I visited the Waldorf school in St. Petersburg. They do not depend on GUNO, they have their own programs and do not even have a director, they are governed by a board of trustees. But the percentage of graduates entering universities is higher than in ordinary schools. On my own behalf, I would add the following. Subjects such as history, literature, geography, biology can be transferred to independent study, but only after textbooks appear that would be read with interest, like a detective story. In addition, to allow people who do not have a pedagogical education, but who love children who have logical and causal thinking, those for whom the cause is more important than the effect, the content is more important than the form, the quality is more important than the quantity, the process is more important than the result, and who is sure that consciousness is primary. … There are few such people, but if you throw a cry: "Hello, we are looking for talents!", Maybe we will find someone.

Our society is imperceptibly turning into an unviable consumer society, replacing high public goals with low, personal ones. Such a society imperceptibly creeps into immorality. In connection with the created catastrophic, spiritually unspiritual state of the people, and it is from these positions that we must now approach to solve pressing problems, it is necessary to pay the utmost and priority attention to preschool education. For it is at this age that the basic life outlook is laid. Scientists claim that the brain is filled with vital knowledge by the age of 5, more than 80%. And this most important link needs to be strengthened with the best cadres, motivating them better than professors. So that everyone, even nannies, have a higher psychological education.

Reform of education in terms of content should become a national idea, and the media should launch this process as the beginning of a humanitarian ideological revolution. It should not become another, fleeting campaign, but be a permanent, state doctrine of increasing the spirituality of the people, written in the constitution. The economic crisis is an external indicator of the internal spiritual stagnation of society. It can be eliminated only by mobilizing the people for new ideas. Striving for stability leads to stagnation and collapse. This is the dialectic. This is the only way we can resist the Dulles plan, the disintegration of the country through the youth. In addition, even some wise economists argue that investing funds in a person is ten times more profitable, in all respects, than investing them in any production.