How do you assess modern conditions of general education?

I center on the most important and at the same time simple idea that only such institution as school can save and preserve modern civilization. Unfortunately, it seems that world trends lead to school absence of demand. Today a person doesn’t need education. There is no need to know a quadratic equation to win bread and butter and to give birth to children, because today’s technical level let minimize human efforts. As you can notice, such tendency appeared both in the USA and Russia: pupils do not attend classes, considering that they can earn money without visiting school. However, education is the basis of civilization.

Which directions in general education transformation can you distinguish?

15 years ago within the framework of one of the forums I delivered a speech and said, that the most useful thing that we can do for children is to lock up schools, as schools bring nothing except for the harm. Do you think that my colleagues argued with me? No, they encouraged me with applause. That time we started to search for new models and mechanisms: we introduced a “full day school”, changed the education content, and reformed a class-lesson system. We ourselves learned to change school, realizing that education problems should be treated not as local but as civilized ones, typical for all the countries.

In my opinion, the first and foremost value is beauty, which is, in fact, a stimulus to civilization. In the morning we get up, come to the mirror, and groom ourselves and our planet. We build beautiful cities, cars, establish a new cloths production. The second value is emotions. We communicate, sing, feel, hear, write - in other words, demonstrate the content of our soul. And the third value is a thing that allows achieving two previous: light, warmth etc. So the education should be organized in accord with these values.

I would like to notice that in our lyceum we use a subjects rating during 15 years. Art and esthetic courses are taking a leading position, then liberal arts subjects – philosophy, literature etc follow, and only after it physics and mathematics go. In these conditions, 80% of lyceum graduates choose technical specialties, and only 10% - creative and art specialties. So we arranged a life dialectics (three main values) and the subjects. As the result, our lyceum pupils ask to stay at school during the vacations, as it is not just studying for them, it is their life.

It means that the school is occupying a central place in their lives?

Yes, it occupies a central place in their lives and in human energy implementation. What is happening? Young people do not feel that they live in this world and only, having broken a window, they realize their presence, position in this world, understand that something depends on them. And this is actually true.

Problems of general education are civilization problems. In the USA electronic course books are already being introduced. I’m not against such changes, but it should be properly guided by teachers. If the process has started, it is better to manage it by yourself. Moreover, there will be no studying rooms soon, because the technologies of quick information learning will appear. So when you have a choice – whether to sit a child in front of the computer in order to get education or to send to school, not everybody will choose school.

An institution of school will be in-demand only in case there will be interesting, if there will be socialization, a life but not a preparation to it.

What is assessed in your lyceum alongside with the subject knowledge?

Values gaining, asocial behavior patterns refusal, when a child goes to robotechnics laboratory but not to the porch.

The second result is commitment and independence. A literature club in our lyceum is the center of commitment, and a pupil is the head of this club and nobody helps her. Together with she I worked out a scheme, a model of her activity in the project. As the result a literature club has become the most popular place in school, children started to recite poems, it is considered to be interesting and prestigious.

The same happens with all the rest clubs and hobby groups in our lyceum. The most important thing that they’ve learned is to work hard. Those children, who learn and overreach themselves, get the better results, as they are constantly in the working conditions, they are tackling tasks.

Incidentally, conflicts are an important part of the learning process. I’m an opponent of non-conflict pedagogy, it’s absolutely unprofessional. Sometimes I deliberately create difficulties of a conflict nature that the children could learn how to fight such hardships.

What do you consider to be the most important in school system?

The most important thing is a worldview and values, when a visual art or physics, chemistry or physical culture preference is a manifestation of this worldview. And what we have now?

First the education fields are assessed, and then we try to find out a person, who is already not there. An education system is aimed at bringing up a person, who will just push the button, whereas the goal of our lyceum is to make him think why he or she should push the button and why this particular button should be pressed.

School is not a place where children are taught, but a place where they learn. Modern education main objective is to provide the conditions that allow children to study all by themselves. We should avoid such situations when a graduate enters the world and starts learning from the very beginning.

How do you see an ideal school?

Once, Alexander Adamskiy asked me the same question. I said that it was not worth discussing until we would not have an answer about the reason for being. I think that the reason for being is happiness. Exactly such philosophical notion should form the basis. When pupils realize that happiness is precious, that this value is eternal, that we should understand, comprehend it, a person becomes creational and happy.