Choosing a school is an incredibly difficult and responsible task. The further you dive into your search, the more convinced you become that the ideal school most likely does not exist. Where there are attentive and professional teachers, there will definitely be unbearable canteen food, and in a school with excellent repairs and healthy food, you may not find a single good teacher. It seems that this is an impossible task, but in fact there are several criteria that need to be guided first of all, and then the choice will be much easier.
For those preparing for the main school exam
What is happening with modern schools, how to build a child’s educational trajectory, what to look for when choosing an educational institution - this is not a complete list of questions that are spinning in the heads of the parents of a future first-grader. And each of the participants in the educational process (the well-known trio - student-parent-teacher) will answer it in their own way. But the optimal option will be the one where all three opinions coincide: only complete mutual understanding guarantees a prosperous environment for the child.
At the first discussion " Education Experts Club”, which became the starting point for a whole series of similar meetings, discussed the current topic of spring: “Child’s education: how to choose who to trust?” Each of the Club experts took the position of one of this trinity: the director of the Letovo school Mikhail Mokrinsky - the position of a “person from the system”, the director of the Center for psychological support of education “Point PSI” Marina Bityanova - the position of a parent, and the director of Smart Course Timur Zhabbarov - a student. "Mel" followed the discussion and collected the most important thoughts of its participants, which are impossible not to listen to if you are faced with a difficult choice of school.
1. What is missing in a modern school, what exactly should change in the school and how quickly should these processes occur?
Marina Bityanova
From the position of a parent, I can definitely say that I am not ready for the school to change dramatically. I have to know in advance how many years I am sending my child there, how everything works there. Parents, of course, need to be carefully informed that the old school is dying. But you can’t quickly change the format for the sake of them. Several generations of children will be unhappy because their parents will be unhappy. Imagine: there are no lessons, no classes - a new education begins.
From my position, I understand that there is no genius of Kamensky’s level yet. There is nothing to replace the classroom-lesson system. But school, as it exists today, pulls us back as much as anything else does. The class-lesson system is a disgrace of today.
Mikhail Mokrinsky
The good and terrible thing about school is that you can’t throw anything out of it. Remove it from family life and many other forms of education remain. For example, homemade. You can try them all and hope that you haven't ruined your child's life by not giving him the opportunity to live part of his life at school.
The trouble with our school is not that it is conservative, but that it does not know where it is. Teachers work in conditions of information deficiency, but teach children living in conditions of excess information. Therefore, today teachers are simply not able to provide “knowledge” in the required volume - there is already too much information. But the concept of “competencies,” which most schools have not yet understood, can significantly help in the formation of a new standard. Competencies are a synthesis of culture and professionalism. Thanks to them, the child moves along the steps of development. And if the teacher himself does not stand on the top step to which the student moves, then the question of the survival of the school arises. There are only two ways: change, overtaking progress, or continue to resist it.
The school must have two standards. One is the official one, which can be measured. The second standard is not about whether the child meets expectations, but about whether the teaching staff meets the child’s capabilities. And here the question is whether the composition of teachers is slowing down or not, whether they know how to use what is not included in the papers. Most of today's educational organizations, as well as businesses, are hampered by the lack of a clear understanding of the meanings and goals of internal work. And this, in turn, leads to a lack of quality competition between ideas and people. If there is no such practice inside the school, then it is not ready for competition outside, it has nothing to teach the child.
2. Is it possible to identify a single criterion that allows choosing an educational environment for a child?
Timur Zhabbarov
How a child chooses a school is minimally related to learning. This is due to age-related tasks and the environment: how attractive it is for him, how much it calls to him. This is the role of the key criterion. Moreover, the criterion of comfort for a child is not always an effective selection criterion. The environment can be comfortable, but it does not provoke development at all.
Marina Bityanova
I can't imagine a parent telling their child that the school smells bad, but the teachers are good, so that's why we go there. Or the school teaches terribly and does not respect students, but there is an excellent canteen. No. When parents choose an educational institution for a child, they choose, first of all, a lifestyle that the child would learn and that would make him successful.
Mikhail Mokrinsky
Whether the school teaches children to make choices and be responsible for them is the very sign that can tell you what kind of school is in front of you and whether it is worth getting involved with. The school has learned well how to make choices for the child. And everything around requires that the child be a conscious participant in the choice. If a school has made “choice” the basis for moving forward, this is an indicator of the quality of its future work.
If all the teachers as a whole are “nothing”, and one of the teachers is “not very good”, then this is a cause for alarm. Whether the school is doing everything possible for my child is something the parent must find out, ask questions and get clear answers. Search and find something that is not yet in the school, but is everywhere in the world, not in space, but is in time - and offer it to the school. The goal of any education is to be able to understand at what level it is going to protect its child. The school should help the child learn to organize himself.
3. Have parents become hostages of the new, unformed education system? Children at school are given a choice, and parents study, because children cannot cope without them.
Marina Bityanova
And I like it. What's bad about it? In my opinion, in the process of education, a child always needs support. It can be different. This is not necessarily doing homework for the child. It is sometimes, on the contrary, to “hide in the closet” and say: “I’m not there, do it yourself.” But at this moment I only think about the child.
During the years when a child is in the process of his education, there is nothing more important for parents than to be included there. But not to study for him, but to help. And change ourselves. The process of children's education cannot take place separately from the development of parents. And the school hasn’t changed very much. And this is a problem, because we have changed. We are no longer ready to look at school the way our parents did. Previously, it never occurred to anyone not to get up on Saturday at seven in the morning to get their child ready for school. And today we grumble and sometimes even allow our children to be late, because we ourselves don’t want to get up with them. The school is far behind how the world is changing.
4. The school seems more closed than before. She does not want to build a dialogue with her parents. She does not respond to parental suggestions and does not communicate well with her parents. Why is that?
Marina Bityanova
I will answer as a psychologist. Yes, schools are “closing,” especially Moscow ones. This is because schools are scared. The school doesn't always have anything to say to overly competent parents with Harvard under their belt. Schools are afraid of everything. Parents began to complain about everything. And, of course, it’s better to hide. This is a neurotic reaction. It's sad that the teacher has become so timid. It's right when a school is open to teaming up with something promising.
However, not everything is so bad: if you pay attention to the regions, then it is there that the school is gradually ceasing to be closed, separate from the community, and is regaining its “zemsky” format.
Mikhail Mokrinsky
Teachers are afraid of being incompetent and afraid of knowing how to really teach. And most parents are familiar with the concept that is so necessary for modern schools — Knowledge Based Management, because they constantly use it in their work. They intuitively try to find it at school, and conflicts arise because this concept has not yet reached there.
The school is becoming more complex and it is becoming increasingly difficult for it to convey to parents what it is doing. A culture of optimizing information without losing meaning is something that is sorely lacking in modern education.
5. What to do if parents invested a lot of money in preparing their child for university, but he did not enter, and now they are forced to pay expensive tuition?
Mikhail Mokrinsky
Why invest in a child if he most likely will not live up to expectations? Because everyone should have diplomas? Or out of fear: “What will people think?” Modern education is built for the child; in this situation, the task of parents is to understand what is happening and offer adequate tools.
Instead of output
Mikhail Mokrinsky
I have two news for you, both good. Although the first one does not immediately look like this: we are now entering a long period of multiple identities, when we will be forced to understand not only about others, but also about ourselves. This will break the minds of many, however, this is for the better. The second is this: everything is heading towards the fact that the school of the near future will strive to kindly solve problems that arise. And our task is to meet, develop, insist, publish, discuss. And even if we end up developing five different ways to solve one problem and implement them all, in the end we can still bring them to a common denominator.
Marina Bityanova
It is very important on whose territory to negotiate. This must be done in the child’s territory. There was a time when school dictated. Now parents dictate. We must choose the child as the basis for the agreement. Develop criteria and words for talking about the child together with the child about him.
Timur Zhabbarov
The most correct reaction to everything that is happening today is to ask the question: what can I personally do? Without aggression, accusations and panic.
Why do children feel unwanted at school, why are teachers afraid to talk about democracy and why the most reasonable thing now...
Lyudmila Petranovskaya explained why children feel unwanted at school, why teachers are afraid to talk about democracy, and why the most sensible thing now is to take officials’ hands off the education system and give the school the opportunity to develop on its own.
- We live in amazing times, there are so many changes around! Recently it was explained to me that it is wrong to talk about a scientific and technological revolution now, because this is a scientific and technological explosion.
When parents sit with me, concerned about their children’s school success, I say:
“Listen, be aware that 80% of children will work in a specialty that we do not know now. What are you seriously worried about?
This is true, but at the same time notice what happens. We have a fantastic rate of change, we are about to learn to grow ears, legs, I keep dreaming that we can grow teeth too. Our life expectancy will lengthen, its quality will improve, we will most likely fly to Mars, and the Internet will be found under every baobab tree.
But at the same time, there is an increase in emotional disorders, depression is being diagnosed more and more often, we have great victories in the civilized world: victory over crime, less family violence, less street violence, but suicide attempts are on the rise.
More and more children who have received an excellent education, by the age of 16-17, are locked in a room, lying on the sofa, want nothing, do not study, do not work, are content with the bare minimum and do not communicate with peers.
That is, on the one hand, we have a rapid growth in science, technology and new technologies, and on the other hand, people remain just as vulnerable.
Remember the expression from the Gospel: “What good is it if you gain the whole world, but harm your soul?” So this can be rephrased: “What’s the point if you have all the technology, but you don’t want to live, you can’t cope with your feelings and you can’t build relationships? If you can't recover from failure?
This is a very serious problem.We think a lot about the content of education and methodology, but, strangely enough, we think little about children.
Our school is a big anachronism in the modern world. Some random surviving mastodon who, poor thing, walks the streets and dodges Teslas.
The school - the one that exists now - was created for the era of industrialization, where success depended on how coherently huge systems with a large number of both metal and human cogs would work. How accurately will they carry out the algorithms prescribed to them?
And then the school coped with this task brilliantly; it trained scientific and technical personnel well for industrialization, workers for the assembly line. The world has changed and this is no longer necessary.
Before we even have time to blink an eye, everything that can be standardized and algorithmized will be transferred to our metal brothers. And you and I will have nothing to do with it.
The idea “be a good boy, girl, learn algorithms, be conscientious, reliable and you will find a place where they will tell you: “You work here!”” will no longer be relevant. This is an ambush.
Finding such a job is already a big problem. No one will prepare a workplace for our children with job descriptions, where just come, do what they say, and everything will be fine.
In the modern world, you have to create a workplace yourself, come up with a product yourself that you will sell, and until you come up with it and convince everyone of what you need, no one is going to pay you a salary.
“The problem is that teachers love Leo Tolstoy more than children”
Oddly enough, those countries and educational systems that had merit find themselves in a less favorable situation.
Reforming the education system of small and compact Estonia is a difficult, but solvable task. But doing this in the countries of the former USSR or Germany is not easy.
There are merits here, older teaching staff who say: “We have done this all our lives, and everything worked out. Why would it be different now?
By the way, and with a big request from the parents: “Do it as it was. “We were raised as human beings, do with our children as it was with us.”
The task is global. Do not use children to invest knowledge in them, but finally start teaching them.No matter how funny it sounds.
How was the industrial school built? We take an array of knowledge: Leo Tolstoy, integrals, benzene molecules, transfer it and transplant it into the heads of the next generation.
Who's the child here? A means, a vessel so that our Leo Tolstoy does not fade away. And children feel it very much.
There are teachers who really love literature, Leo Tolstoy, they know and understand everything about him. The problem is that they love Leo Tolstoy more than children. And they are offended by the students because they do not love him as much as they do.
Children feel that they are not the main ones, that school is not for them, they are only a means to educate workers, preserve culture, and pass the Unified State Exam.
Nowadays children are becoming more sensitive because the atmosphere in the family is softening, they are getting hit on the head less in the literal sense.
The child wants to be talked to, to have a teacher go to school for him, to talk to him about him, so that he can use his potential.
He has no interest in being a vehicle for the school's exam performance.
What we can do? A person must become his own master in order to live the 120 years promised by science, and not kill himself in the first 15-16.
The most valuable thing he has is his subjectivity, the ability to rely on himself, manage his emotions, build relationships, and work in a team. No amount of achievement can console a person if he does not have a sense of team.
Look how the school we got is organized. Recently I had a performance in Moscow, the filming ended up on the Internet, I said: “90% of what school teaches is not needed in real life.” All the teachers were terribly offended by me.
Unfortunately it's true. This is not to say that children don’t need to know what the earth revolves around, it’s about the fact that, oddly enough, this is exactly what they don’t know when they leave school.
We conducted a survey among elementary school teachers, almost half said that winter and summer happen because the earth’s orbit is elongated, so it either flies far from the sun or flies closer to it. At the same time, they teach a natural history course.
And there are many such examples. My husband teaches mathematics to journalists and philologists, and he is no longer surprised by anything. Students do not understand why the sum does not change when the terms are changed; they all passed the Unified State Exam with four points, but they do not understand the basics. Therefore, even the 10% that the school gives, unfortunately, is also not needed.
“The most sensible thing would be to take your hands off the school and give it the opportunity to differentiate itself”
It is not in the interests of the child that the industrial school concept teaches everyone and everything the same.
We fill their heads with some kind of chaos and do not allow a person to go his own way, to feel the call to which your heart responds.
Because everything is drowning in a huge amount of unprocessed, unthought, and misunderstood knowledge.
This is when we talk about content, when it comes to social skills, then this is also a guard.
Our entire education is structured vertically; no team activities are provided for. If children start whispering, then immediately: “Don’t look, don’t talk, don’t copy.”
What is team work like? Only if it is an imitation in an open lesson in front of a committee, where we show the elements of the game.
In reality, children are not allowed to work together on anything serious. All interactions are only vertical through the teacher.
Do we pay attention to the child's growth? The school compares children to a certain standard.
Remember, there was entertainment in the parks: they cut out the silhouette of a girl from plywood and compared whose figure matched the most. It’s the same with a child to whom we say: “You didn’t do well here, you’re not doing it right.”
And all his mistakes are clearly interpreted as guilt, and not as an opportunity to develop. This greatly slows growth and prevents any development. If a person does not make mistakes, it means he is doing what he already knows how to do. That is, at this moment he is not studying, but doing something else. The attitude towards error is one of the big problems of our school.
As for motivation. Childrenmust want to learn, everyone already laughs when they talk about it, because it’s something unreal.
For some reason, it is believed that motivation should only be through feelings of duty. This is some kind of general conspiracy of lies.
The teacher writes: “The child is not working in class, take action!” Parents have read this, what should they do? Any ideas? I especially like "talk to him".
What would mom do if she wasn't told about this? This thought did not occur to her, fortunately, they told her about it, now everything will definitely be fine.
This is a huge amount of lies. When everyone pretends that they are solving a problem, but in fact they know that it is not being solved in this place. Mom is called to school, asked to talk, she says, he nods and nothing changes.
Motivation is a complicated thing. We are just beginning to begin to understand how it works.
How to work if you can't? What to do if you don’t want to do your homework? How to help yourself? These are more important questions than how much 2+2 is.
All this, unfortunately, does not sound here. The problem is also to teach a child to be his own master, to set goals, to overcome his mistakes; the teacher must be able to do this himself. This is often a big problem.
Swedish colleagues said: their task is how to combine knowledge and democracy, and the Russian school is trying to solve another problem - how to pretend that we are giving knowledge without even thinking about democracy in children.
And this is difficult, because children only think about this, they want freedom, change, justice, they have questions: “Why can’t I go to the rally?”
The school cannot answer this, it is horrified: “Just don’t talk about it, shut up. May this never be associated with our school. Can we talk about this in general terms, without going into your specific opinions?”
When teachers feel humiliated, powerless, when they do not have an independent trade union, what can they teach children? They themselves do not have the technology to defend their subjectivity.
When I was working at a newspaper, I came across an article from 1913 about the teachers’ congress, and I couldn’t tear myself away - what passions were boiling there! How people fought for their ideas!
Teachers were perceived as the most active, changing, motivated part of society who defended their rights. Therefore, the big question now is teachers and their condition.
I think it's all a matter of time. The fact that you are in this room, talking about it, thinking about it, is the beginning of a process that cannot be stopped. The fact that we want to help our children is already half the battle,” Lyudmila Petranovskaya ended her speech with these words.
- What can I, as a mother of a first-grader, do for my child right now? It’s very difficult to leave school in Belarus,” came a question from the audience.
The school itself, as an idea, is not something that needs to be abandoned. Being able to work in a peer group and interact with teachers is cool in itself, so I don't think the answer to everything is to take your child out of school.
Another question: we are faced with the task of changing the school. Do you have any ideas on how to change an organism that has fallen behind reality and needs a huge leap in adaptation?
Usually there are two options: either you give freedom and give the opportunity to adapt, or you yourself tighten up this adaptation process.
The second option is good for a small country. But when you have a large country, this is most likely impossible.
Then the most reasonable thing would be to remove your hands and allow the school to differentiate itself. Give the opportunity to create different schools and try. And somehow the school would adapt in contact with parents.published . If you have any questions about this topic, ask them to the experts and readers of our project .
P.S. And remember, just by changing your consciousness, we are changing the world together! © econet
14 Sep 3 863
Interview with Oleg Makarenko to St. Petersburg Internet television:
There is nothing more disgusting and demotivating than the school grading system.
Essentially, what is a school grade? If, for example, I participate in a swimming competition among other schoolchildren, I swim 100 meters in the freestyle and receive third place and a certificate. This letter says something. She says that I took part in the competition and took third place, or she says that I can swim the distance in such and such a time.
This is an understandable thing to be proud of. What does the “five” grade given by the teacher say? She says that I, a slave, was given some kind of task, a lesson. I completed this lesson, and the overseer gave me sugar and praised me: “Well done, good boy, you completed the task.”
It's disgusting! The assessment does not show real achievements; instead of real achievements, it shows obedience...
Roman Romanov: Fritz, the “Smart School” forum was held, essentially an informal All-Russian Teachers’ Council, were you there – what was your general impression of this event?
Oleg Makarenko: I was very surprised by the simple teachers. That is, ordinary teachers were called to the teachers’ council, and I’m used to such honored ryaks who sit in their presidium chairs and broadcast those things that I have already heard a thousand times and which have already set my teeth on edge: “Soviet education is the best in the world.” , “The Unified State Exam is fooling,” “Russia is perishing,” “Satellites are falling,” all that nonsense.
And here there were real, living teachers who did not speak from a piece of paper and said really smart things: that we need to give more freedom to school principals, that we need to somehow evaluate teachers, that we need to somehow think more about the students themselves, about the children themselves. And by and large, what they talked about their problems, put forward their proposals, I would subscribe to 80% of what they talked about. There were 200 teachers there, and Tina Kandelaki gathered 200 of the best teachers from all over Russia.
And these, yes, are sane, adequate people for the most part. And what is typical is that the less this teacher has a position, the more adequate he is. That is, well, let’s put it this way, ordinary teachers were completely adequate, school directors were less adequate, and various functionaries, well, I won’t speak badly about them.
R.R.: What problems were discussed at the All-Russian Pedagogical Council?
O.M.: There they discussed the vision of the main problem of school education - the teacher’s lack of any free maneuver, even minimal. The teacher must act on instructions “from above,” follow these instructions, fill out endless pieces of paper, and so on. The teacher cannot, he has to choose: either he acts according to the instructions, and then everything turns out very badly, or he does what he considers necessary, somehow tries to teach the children, but then he violates these instructions. The main demand that was voiced was to give teachers and school principals more freedom so that they could teach the way they can teach.
R.R.: Do you agree with this formulation of the question and with the demands of the teachers you talk about?
O.M.: Well, let's put it this way: I agree with her, but I think that it is too narrow. Because the real problem of schools is not only the lack of freedom, the real problem of schools is the class-lesson system, which was invented by Mr. Comenius back in the 17th century, and since then, since the 17th century, it has not fundamentally changed. I believe that as long as we have a class-lesson system, all other school reforms can be considered only in one single aspect, as steps towards the abolition of this class-lesson system.
Because now the school is de facto a prison. With all the ensuing consequences. Those children who study at school are de facto prisoners. Their only option is to go to an external program. And moreover, this is even much worse than being in prison, because a person who is in prison can at least think about what he considers necessary. The student is deprived of freedom of thought. If he sits in a literature lesson, he must think about literature and think about something of his own, or about chemistry, about physics, or about girls, he cannot. He must think about what the teacher tells him to think about.
R.R.: Is that bad?
O.M.: Well, this is the highest degree of slavery, when you cannot control your thoughts. If we want to make a slave out of a person, we must control his thoughts. It should be noted that the school succeeds in this in principle. We have quite a lot of children leaving school with dull eyes, absolutely weak-willed, lacking initiative, who cannot do anything without a command from above. This is who our school educates.
R.R.: Don’t you think that discipline, including school discipline, is necessary for a person to be able to achieve goals? Without discipline, thinking is impossible. Without discipline, a person cannot set goals and move towards them step by step. And this is necessary. Even though you tighten nuts at a factory, even if you manage projects. No?
O.M.: Regarding discipline - it exists. The school really teaches schoolchildren to obey the orders of the overseer in a disciplined manner, not to argue with him, to fawn, to be hypocritical, to observe subordination, that is, it makes such obedient, trained slaves out of children. Well, ideally. Of course, man is a durable creature, and not all schoolchildren can be spoiled. But the school turns some part into disciplined people, if that word is appropriate here. As for the ability to think, this is a myth! Who checked what school really teaches you to think? This is a fairytale! School does not teach you to think; school teaches you the exact opposite. School teaches you not to think, but to stupidly carry out some orders without thinking. School teaches you not to think.
R.R.: Do I understand you correctly that, in your opinion, school does not provide either real knowledge or any practical skills?
O.M.: That’s not the problem. The problem is that school completely kills any desire to learn in children. Children have a natural curiosity. If we take a seven-year-old child, his eyes light up and he smiles. You tell him: “Do you want to know what a globe is?” Child: “Yes, I want to! Come on, show me what it is!” You show: “Here is Africa, here is Europe” - he is interested in everything.
If you ask a similar question to a 16-year-old student, maybe adjusted for age: “Do you want to know the structure of a car?”, let’s say, he will look at you like Prince Myshkin and say, “Fuck you!” I want to watch TV, I have some other interests.” That is, the percentage of children who are interested in something is very small. Because curiosity is killed by this violence, this constant boredom. After all, what does the class-lesson system mean? Why do you systematically, every day, six times a day, break your will?
You have some kind of curiosity, interest in something, they tell you:
"No! We don't care what you want now. You go and study biology.” Okay, okay, you sit down to study biology. You have a good, talented teacher, which is rare, but it does happen - he captivates you, after 10 minutes you are already interested, you listen carefully about these trees, how they grow, how they get nutrients from the ground - great, you are interested, Great! Then the bell rings.
That's all! Go, that's it, biology is no longer interesting to you, turn off this consciousness, go, now there will be 15 minutes of rest, and in 15 minutes you will be interested in literature. That is, this consistent interest in learning is discouraged over and over again.
R.R.: You know, there is another question: you talk a lot about how school discourages motivation and the desire to learn, but I know from teachers that parents and schoolchildren most often do not have this motivation, this desire. Because teachers complain that parents often teach their children for the sake of a grade: “Give my child a good grade!” and for the sake of this assessment she is ready to die. Whether the child knows them or not, he doesn’t care! Here's the rating! What should we do about this?
O.M.: There is nothing more disgusting and demotivating than the school grading system. Essentially, what is a school grade? If, for example, I participate in a swimming competition among other schoolchildren, I swim 100 meters in the freestyle and receive third place and a certificate. This letter says something. She says that I took part in the competition and took third place, or she says that I can swim the distance in such and such a time.
This is an understandable thing to be proud of. What does the “five” grade given by the teacher say? She says that I, a slave, was given some kind of task, a lesson. I completed this lesson, and the overseer gave me sugar and praised me: “Well done, good boy, you completed the task.” It's disgusting! The assessment does not show real achievements; instead of real achievements, it shows obedience. It shows that the student has approximately completed what the teacher asked him. Teachers are not such monsters as they seem.
Of course, teachers undergo monstrous psychological deformation in the process of work. And a lot of teachers, especially primary school teachers, are really sick people who belong not in retirement, but in a hospital. But still, they are not monsters, and even a bad teacher will still try to do something good to the best of his ability, as far as his illness allows him. Understand that they are trying to teach something, but the problem is that the system breaks down both the students who are trying to learn something and the teachers who are trying to teach something. Because they have this stupid grading system: we need to go through this material and give the child a grade.
The child needs this grade to present to his parents, and the parents need this grade, so that eventually all these grades will add up to a certificate, the child will go on to college and receive a diploma. This whole system, like a wheel, grinds any attempts by students and teachers to do what school is, in theory, for: to gain knowledge, for some kind of development of the child.
R.R.: Your project “Cyber School” - tell us a little about it. And tell me, is this some kind of real already working project or is it just some ideal model that you are writing about?
O.M.: This is a real project. And perhaps I would have opened it myself, but the problem is that my “Cyber School” contradicts the law, our law “On Education”. Because it at least assumes that children who do not want to learn chemistry (a very interesting subject, but many children do not want to learn it), so these children, they will not learn this chemistry.
But no one will evaluate a school by the number of brilliant mathematicians, no one will evaluate a school by the number of healthy children who left school maintaining normal mental health. The school will be stupidly assessed by the number of children who passed all exams equally poorly. Mediocre.
R.R.: Let's describe, quite succinctly, what the essence of the Cyberschool project is?
O.M.: Let me say right away that this is a project, at least in Russia, of the distant future. But in other countries, people are already actively launching such projects, and I regularly receive news that something similar is already being done in one country or another.
What's the point?
International corporations that deal with computer games invest billions of dollars in developing motivation. And in reality, if we look at the same Lineage or World of Warcraft, we will see that children and teenagers do complex, tedious things that require enormous concentration, both patience and willpower and some kind of absolutely voluntary reaction.
Because they are interested. If children studied with the same diligence as they play these games, they would achieve amazing results. Because becoming a level 85 elf is, frankly, more difficult than learning the school curriculum on the same mathematics. In reality, this requires more effort, more time and, dare I say it, more talent. So, if we make a school according to this reverse model.
What it will look like: a child comes to school in the first grade, his level is zero. How can he raise this level? Approach some character who gives him a quest. For example, he approaches a teacher, it turns out to be a mathematics teacher, and he will give him a quest: “Solve these ten examples for me.” The child takes a sheet of paper with examples, goes, decides, goes back to the teacher, gets some gaming experience and improves his skill. At certain periods, a child can pass an exam and raise his level to the next one, from the first to the second.
At the same time, as the level increases, new goodies appear. Let's say, having received the 4th level in mathematics, he can go further into specialization and start studying physics. Or, say, having won some school championship, which is held in the Russian language, the child receives the right to go on an excursion, which is interesting for students of the Russian language, to one of our many museums, or, as an option, to visit some famous writer. Well, this is exactly what happens. The child can then receive so-called “achievements.” A child who solves 100 quadratic equations can earn the Quadratic Equation Master badge.
Well, how does “Orc Killing Master” happen after killing a hundred orcs. We are talking to you now, it’s all simple and clear to us, and you already, I see in your eyes, understand how it will work. The trouble is that now the people who are developing these standards are people of the older generation, who are 40-50-60 years old. These are smart, experienced people. But the trouble is that for them this proposal sounds like wild heresy.
For them, games are Tetris, changing cards, and they are not able to understand what we are talking about. Therefore, in order for my system to somehow start working, it is necessary for the generation of directors to physically change. And I, looking at things realistically, think that either I will do it all myself, or I will have to wait 10 years until it all appears.
R.R.: You know, last year I interviewed quite a few school principals and school psychologists, and they all complained (from completely different schools) that children not only became less assiduous, they lost the ability to form deep judgments, to look at things deeply and from different angles.
Yes, they have a broad outlook, but this is a clip consciousness, a clip thinking, this is an inability to delve into any problem. And modern teachers are somehow trying to teach children this ability, they are trying to develop it in children. Apparently, there really is such a problem. What should we do about this?
O.M.: First, children have now objectively become less smart and talented. Because in our country, at least from St. Petersburg, a lot of Jews left in the 90s. This is a fact that we still have to come to terms with. If we look at elite schools, at least 239, or any other, there has always been a very large percentage of Jewish children. Now some Jews remain, but many have left again.
R.R.: Can't there be brains and talent without Jews?
O.M.: Maybe. Why? But still there is more of it with Jews. This is our problem. It's far from sugary in Israel right now. And maybe we should think about how to bring back our compatriots who want to leave Israel? Maybe create some kind of program, maybe distribute apartments. But this is a separate big question. Doesn't matter. Secondly, the school by and large encourages this kind of clip-based thinking. In fact, an excellent student in school is a person who has absolutely superficial thinking that does not delve deeply into anything.
Because as soon as an excellent student delves deeply into something, he immediately comes into conflict with the teacher and can no longer be a normal student. I had excellent math teachers who put up with me. But I precisely understood that they tolerated me. And they tolerated me precisely because I was ahead of the mathematics program in some areas, and in some areas because I felt self-confident and did not listen to them; on the contrary, I lagged behind. And this, unfortunately, is the fate of all schoolchildren who have a deep understanding of some subject. They can't walk at class speed.
R.R.: Well, okay, we talked to you about some basic problems, we have practically drawn an ideal model, but in reality - where will the modern Russian school move? Your opinion?
O.M.: Now Tina Kandelaki has begun to do a very big thing, which, if it succeeds, and I hope that it will succeed, can revolutionize the entire education system in Russia. After the end of the forum, she presented the website - “http://smartschool.rf/”, on which the law “On Education” is actually posted, on which anyone, including me, who is not a teacher, can go and say that: “ I don’t like this article of the law. I want to see it in this edition.”
Then I can vote for these edits, I can tell my friends to vote, I can see what other edits are proposed. And in reality, we can edit the Law “On Education” in the manner of Wikipedia. After which serious men in jackets and ties will look at these laws and then somehow discuss them and vote. That is, now the public, parents and teachers can actually make the law “On Education” that they consider necessary. This is good! The second thing I expect in terms of changes is some kind of legalization of homeschoolers.
We now have a two trillion budget for education. I don’t know how it is divided between schoolchildren, vocational school students and students, but it still turns out to be about 10 thousand rubles per month per student. And if this money is paid to parents as compensation, it will be possible to provide the child with an excellent education. And home education is not a new thing. It exists both in Russia and in many other countries. And in the same States, homeschoolers consistently take first place in all tests and Olympiads. Children who study at home.
If there are more homeschoolers, the movement will begin to expand, and some special institutes and institutions will appear for homeschoolers. I mean “institutes” in the sense that some classes where a parent can come and read a lesson to five interested children, some kind of infrastructure will appear for them. This can also change our school greatly. Once again, it may seem that I hate school, teachers, and so on, but this is not entirely true, or, more precisely, not at all true.
SimilarAlexandra Savina
Everyone reacts differently to September 1st: Some people remember school with warmth, while others are happy every time that everything is finally in the past. But absolutely everyone has at least once wondered whether the knowledge that we are given at school is necessary: is it really important to remember in what order rulers succeeded each other during the era of palace coups and how exactly photosynthesis occurs? But many would like to be taught truly useful things at school (instead of algebra, many of us would like to master budgeting, for example) - we decided to think about what would be worth adding to the school curriculum.
Sex education
We have already talked more than once about why sex education is in schools and why it is, and we are ready to repeat this endlessly. If at school we were taught about the principle of consent, boundaries, sexual integrity, body image, pregnancy, contraception and sexually transmitted infections, many problems (at least the HIV epidemic in the country and the huge number of abortions as a means of “contraception”) can it would be avoidable.
Financial literacy
Yes, there are economics lessons at school - but sometimes it seems that they only helped those who later entered the economics department. And if we still understand the difference between macro- and microeconomics, then what to do with our own finances is a mystery for most of us (can you understand the news about the reorganization of Otkritie Bank without a cheat sheet?). If school had taught us how to manage a family budget, take care of our own savings, and which bank to choose in order to receive benefits and not lose what we had saved, perhaps we would have lived sooner.
Fighting bureaucracy
Sometimes it seems that fighting bureaucracy is a lesson that you will have to spend your whole life learning, but it would be great if we left school somewhat ready for battle. How to take meter readings (and what to do if you have forgotten to do this for several months in a row)? How to register for State Services? How to fill out the application form for a foreign passport correctly? How to understand a rent receipt, what the mysterious abbreviations HVS DPU and GVS DPU mean, and how to turn off a useless radio point? What documents are needed to get into the maternity hospital and receive a pension? You have to learn everything on your own.
Rhetoric and the Art of Debating
If you've ever been involved in a heated discussion on Facebook (read, shit), you know what we mean. Having left the school, we suddenly discover that almost no one around us knows how to argue - and instead of having a productive conversation, people prefer to assert themselves or discharge themselves emotionally, not listening to their interlocutor at all. We would all do well to learn how to participate in debates - and at the same time speak in public, so that presentations in front of colleagues do not turn into a nightmare.
Sport as pleasure
If you belong to that lucky group of people who have never had problems with sports, and every physical education lesson brought only joy, you are lucky - but, unfortunately, not everyone can boast of this. The practice of giving marks for whether you managed to jump a certain number of centimeters, run a kilometer in a certain time, or climb a rope has completely discouraged many of us from loving training. Unfortunately, no one at school says that sport is, first of all, fun and enjoyable, and it is not at all necessary to fit into the standards in order to enjoy it.
Social skills and ability to respect others
School is supposed to teach us how to interact with other people (we are in a group all the time!), but in practice we learn completely different skills - how to deal with bullying (and not become a victim of it) and how to stand out less so that the school years pass more calm. I wish that instead, the school taught us to respect the individuality and opinions of others, even if we categorically disagree with him - the lessons of “Fundamentals of Secular Ethics”, unfortunately, are not very helpful in this regard.
Skills that will help you survive
Of course, this point has nothing to do with academic knowledge - but it is definitely needed for later life, even if you do not plan to leave the city. You never know when you will suddenly need to make a fire or provide first aid - and it’s good if in life safety lessons they explained to you at least how arterial bleeding differs from venous bleeding. From school lessons we only remember that moss grows on the north side of a tree - but what to do with this knowledge is completely unclear. That's how we live.
Self-defense
We really want self-defense skills to never be useful to anyone, but, unfortunately, life often turns out differently. A couple of self-defense or Krav Maga lessons instead of regular physical education would not hurt anyone - if only to simply feel more confident.
Basic knowledge of psychology
If we have learned about our body and health with grief (although sometimes we try to treat with miracle remedies), then with psychological health everything is more complicated. Psychological disorders are still stigmatized, so many are afraid to talk about their experiences with depression, bipolar disorder, and other problems. It would be great if the next generation treated this issue differently and understood that turning to a psychotherapist is not shameful or scary - we all need help from time to time.
Time management
It was easier to cope with the flow of things at school - even if you were used to staying up late with classes, you could be sure that at least during the day there was certainty in life: a clear schedule and a certain number of lessons at a strictly allotted time for them. With age, it became more difficult: the schedule ended and the working day had to be divided into blocks independently. It would be nice if we were taught this earlier.
Understand the political situation
Of course, we had social studies lessons and we imagine that there are three branches of government in the country - but even now it sounds as boring as it did in school. It would be much better if we were taught to navigate the political situation and critically evaluate the government and its candidates - perhaps we would then vote more responsibly.
Programming
In 2017, it became finally clear that without knowledge of coding today it’s about the same as without knowledge of English: theoretically it’s possible, but it’s better to know at least something, even if you’re not a programmer or a translator. At a time when the bulk of our editorial team was graduating from school, in computer science lessons you could only learn the basics of QBasic (to be honest, not the most useful knowledge) and how to use Word - everything that is newer, you have to learn on your own.
Study
The notorious “learning to learn” is probably the most useful skill that we should take away from school, but for some reason we don’t. In the era of Google, it seems that we can easily find anything - but we are completely lost when the necessary information is not available on the Internet, and we do not take a critical view of what is available. On the first of September, we wish you to master these skills on your own - even after school or in spite of it.
What is not taught at school?
Like every parent, going to school with your child is both happiness and trouble. On the one hand, the child needs to be “prepared” for school - buy a backpack, a suit, shoes, notebooks, pens and many other supplies. Parents are happy that the child will finally take the first steps towards his future, towards his career and happiness. After all, it is school that provides the minimum basic knowledge that a child needs.
The school teaches music, mathematics, literature and much more. But what does this give a child in life? Of course, a diligent student will know the moral of Krylov's fables, will be able to add and multiply, and will gain knowledge of musical notation. But will it be useful to him in life?
The sad truth is that 95% of all educational material that is given to a child during the learning process is completely unapplicable in life. Moreover, having studied this material, in adult life all knowledge will be forgotten, because it will lose relevance. Indeed, why does a first-class mechanic need to know musical notation? And it is absolutely not necessary for a middle manager to read The Master and Margarita.
Real knowledge that will be useful to a person regardless of his life path is not taught in our schools. Many teachers are absolutely indifferent to what the child will know and what not. The main thing for them is to report the required amount of material, receive their modest salary, and then continue to “spread” children with outright information garbage.
Many respected people around the world have repeatedly emphasized in their writings the lack of importance of secondary education for achieving success in life. For example, the famous investor and entrepreneur Robert T. Kiyosaki wrote his bestseller, which sold millions of copies around the world. This bestseller was called “If you want to be rich and happy, don’t go to school.”
Here are just some quotes from the book:
1. Traditional education is based on rewarding students who are recognized as capable of systematically “weeding”, i.e. "stupid" students. It is not a system aimed at educating everyone who comes into it. It is aimed at selecting the “most capable” and training them. That's why there are tests, grades, gifted programs, handicapped programs, and labels. It is a system of classification, discrimination and separation.
2. We must rediscover all truths for ourselves, and not simply accept their imposition from the outside.
3. Children are interested in grades, not knowledge. Our education system teaches that being right is more important than true knowledge. She rewards correct answers and punishes mistakes.
4. The only reason why I am happy in my life and never worry about money is because I have learned to lose. This is why I was able to achieve success in life.
Robert knows what he's talking about. If this were said by a person who has achieved nothing in life, one would think that the person is delusional. However, Robert is not the only successful person who argued that secondary education spoils children more than it benefits them.
Studying in a modern high school, a child learns to be a robot, to look at the world through the eyes of a teacher and not form his own opinion. After graduating from school, a teenager faces an important question - choosing a future profession. And here the most interesting thing begins - when choosing a specialty at the university, the child begins to get lost and doubt. The reason for these doubts is that the child does not know his place in life, does not know his preferences. But shouldn't school teach this? Naturally, I should. In fact, nothing like this happens. And all the troubles don’t end there.
When a child at the university begins to be asked about an important figure or event that goes beyond the scope of the school curriculum, he remains silent. This reminds me of a robot to tears - if the robot found the answer in the database, it gave it out, but if it didn’t find it, it’s not far from the transistors burning out. And the school curriculum in our schools, frankly speaking, leaves much to be desired.
So what doesn't school teach?
1. The ability to find mutual understanding with others. At school they teach algorithms, but not a single algorithm is capable of fully describing human behavior and perception. As a result, many school graduates are not able to communicate with other people and find mutual understanding with them. Yes, some teachers teach children: “Treat other people the way you would like to be treated!” Just bravo! Over the years of teaching practice, Dale Carnegie’s book was read.
Everything in this phrase is true, but in practice such an attitude towards people does not produce results. The reason is that this is not the only way to build relationships with others. You should listen carefully to the person, respect his interests, not discuss the person, accept him as he is, be sincere and honest, and always keep his word. And so on, and so on... The school should teach the child all this. Teaches? The question is rhetorical.
2. To ask questions. Every child is born inquisitive. His mom and dad don’t have time to count the number of questions they were asked: “How?”, “Why?” and why?". But, having gone to school, the child suddenly loses the desire to ask questions. Why is this happening? The fact is that the child knows that if I ask a question, either a rude refusal or a “f” awaits me. Thus, the child prefers to remain silent.
How does this manifest itself in adult life? Let’s say that at an enterprise where a former high school student works, they conduct safety training. At the end, the instructor asks the question: “Does everyone understand everything?” The answer is silence. Well, silence is a sign of consent. And so, due to the fault of the employee, an accident occurs. He wanted to ask a question, because not everything was clear, however, “thanks” to the school, the question was never asked.
Instead of punishing students for asking questions, teachers should encourage them.
3. Make decisions and take full responsibility for them. This perhaps most important quality is blatantly forgotten by the school. As a result, in adult life a person misses a thousand wonderful opportunities, simply by being afraid to take responsibility at the right time and make the right decision. Another aspect of the lack of this quality is that a person makes a decision that turns out to be wrong and leads to losses for the company. What does a person do next - admit his mistake and try to correct it? No matter how it is. He is trying to find the last one to shift the blame onto him. At school this act may go unpunished, but in adult life such behavior is severely punished. Either the person who was framed will take revenge on the offender, or fate will punish him, and one day they will do the same to him.
4. Hard work. In life, every person should love what he does - this is the only way success can be achieved. He shouldn’t think: “Well, wow, we need to do this again...”, but do his job with pleasure. Work ennobles a person.
What does the school think about this? But nothing - no one cares what the child likes and what he doesn’t. There is a general education program, and it must be followed. Whether you like chemistry or not, whether you understand it or not, if you don’t do your homework, you’ll get a “failure.” When a child tries to master a subject but fails, he needs the help of a teacher. However, he does not receive this help. As a result, after another unsatisfactory assessment, the student’s self-esteem suffers - there is no time for hard work.
The same is true for excellent students - you have done your homework, and you know that you will get an “A”. Nothing else matters. Why learn anything new, why strive for something? This will not be noticed or encouraged by the teacher in any way.
5. The ability to defend one’s position and what is right. From the very first grades, children are taught that the teacher is always right. And if the teacher is wrong, look above. As a result, the teacher may speak outright heresy, and the student may know about it, but he will remain silent. How come?? Watching the teacher? Yes, in front of you is Seneca in a skirt! By the way, who Seneca is is not taught in school.
Every person must be able to defend his rightness if something very important to him is at stake. Otherwise, the person turns from a leader into a follower. It will be possible to instill in him any opinion that does not resonate with his opinion. In the end, at work they will push all the responsibilities onto him, since he is the quietest and never objects.
6. Ability to be flexible. Here school education is a complete failure. We can start with the fact that the school curriculum itself in our countries is not flexible - all over the world we need high technology and scientific discoveries, but in our schools they prefer to teach a history lesson instead.
Second. Children are not taught to be flexible and adapt to a changing environment. If 30 years ago the fate of those who graduated from school was predetermined - they knew who and where they would work, today many opportunities are open to a person. But life is very changeable, and the profession that was popular a year ago may be unclaimed in a week. A person must be able to change his priorities, learn something new, and comprehend what has not been comprehended before. But he doesn't.
To the question “Why did you choose a career as a translator?” many answer “Well, I don’t know... it’s probably prestigious...”. Ideally, schools should teach children to understand what skills are important and what can be useful in the future. But she doesn't. It's a pity.
7. To be independent. Not a single school subject teaches a child that one needs to be independent, that only freedom can give real satisfaction. As a result, after graduating from school, a person becomes dependent on everyone - on parents, on boss, on friends, etc.
8. Ability to resolve conflicts. For the first time, many people learn about this quality in the subject “Conflict Studies” at the university. And even then only those who teach this subject. The ability to resolve conflicts is an excellent ability that distinguishes a truly adult and responsible person from a child. If you do not know how to resolve conflicts, you are constantly in stressful situations and talk to no one - you have either already quarreled with everyone or are avoiding this sad prospect.
You can’t avoid communicating with people just because you don’t know how to resolve conflicts. This is not taught in textbooks - the ability to resolve conflict situations is developed in practice, and therefore such a subject should be introduced in every school, but... alas, it does not exist and is not expected in the near future.
9. The ability to bring something started to completion. It’s not enough to start a business; what’s more important is to bring what you started to its logical conclusion. Many people don't know how to do this - they weren't taught this at school. This is why they have acquired a reputation as irresponsible people who cannot be relied upon.
10. Ability to cope with difficulties, stress and depression. Many children who have completed their schooling are susceptible to depression - they do not know which path to choose, which leads to a decline in mood and an unwillingness to change anything in their lives. Depression can often lead to addiction to alcohol and even suicide. But all this would not have happened if the school had taught children to cope with any difficult situation and not give up at the first failure. In addition, depression and stress can also be managed, but if anywhere you can learn this, it’s obviously not at a school desk.
Despite the fact that the list of skills that are not taught in school is far from complete, we will dwell on this. After all, it is already clear that important life knowledge and skills cannot be obtained at school.
The question arises - where to get this knowledge? Naturally, the main role in this is given to parents. After all, it is unlikely that a child will find an advertisement in the newspaper about training courses and attend them.
It is parents who, from an early age, should teach their child to take responsibility for their words and actions, develop teamwork skills, teach the child to cope with troubles with their head held high, develop critical thinking in the child, teach him to stand up for himself, and much more. However, most parents take their child to school and believe that they will teach him everything there. They have their own work - they devote all their time and attention to it.
Stop, you can't do this! Understand that without your active participation, the school will turn your child into a robot who can only do monotonous work. If you wish your child happiness, take an active part in his development, and he will repay you with his successes.