Valuable view of the quality of education
Culture is the environment that grows the personality.
P. Florensky
Any pedagogy is rooted in the culture corresponding to its time and seeks to pass on to the next generations the accumulated stock of knowledge and skills. But then, should a new term be introduced, if, by and large, no other pedagogy, except for cultural-historical, simply cannot exist?
Meanwhile, the banal recognition that education is conditional on the achieved level of science and culture, as well as the recently fashionable demand for the connection of school with life, only obscures the problem. The delicate delicate sphere of education is sensitive to spiritual and ideological shifts and directly depends on the socio-political situation. There is no doubt that the pedagogy of the Third Reich, literally connected to death to death, was both anti-cultural and anti-historical. On the other hand, the Pythagorean theorem is also the Pythagorean theorem in Africa, and it is quite possible to transfer positive knowledge, developing the child’s intellect, outside the framework of the dominant ideology, while maintaining autonomy from any political regime. But pedagogy has never been reduced to a cold transmission of positive information, but on the contrary, it has sought to touch the deep layers of the personality, to form a person as a whole. Today, more than ever, the solution of this fundamental pedagogical task is hindered not only by all kinds of spiritual distortions and disruptions, but by the very movement of modern civilization, its rapid, intensive development in breadth. In extreme conditions, when cognitive-information pedagogy claims more and more rights to the child, the task of achieving pedagogical integrity is exacerbated. It is this circumstance that explains the need to isolate the very subject of cultural-historical pedagogy, to designate its specific special place in pedagogical theory and practice, to identify the basic foundations necessary for its origin and development. To understand the place and role of cultural-historical pedagogy, it is necessary to formulate, at least in the most general form, the ultimate goal of education. Obviously, any definition cannot claim to be exhaustive, but in this case it is necessary as a working tool, a kind of initial axiom that does not need proof.
So, the goal of education is to pass on the values of culture to the next generations and teach them how to live in a rapidly changing world..
Of course, both tasks are intertwined both in theory and in practice; to try to tear one from the other means to damage the living fabric of the pedagogical process. Where, at what point in the lesson, the teacher broadcasts the values of culture, and where he teaches to navigate in an avalanche-like array of information, one can only say conditionally.
Modern culture has such a complex, branched topology that often, in order to get to the desired value, it is necessary to already have a fair amount of skills and abilities, to have serious information accumulations. And the values themselves are largely variables. Often in history it turned out that yesterday’s toy, a trifle, an attraction, rapidly turned into an intrinsically valuable cultural phenomenon. (An example of this is the history of cinema.) Today, as we enter the global networks of the Internet, we are faced with a similar situation, far beyond the narrowly applied problem of information support, but inevitably affecting the deep layers of human consciousness with remote, not always predictable consequences.
Nevertheless, with all the blurring of the boundaries within the formulated goal of education, we will try, at least in the most general terms, to identify the specifics of each of the tasks set.
It is obvious that the complex and responsible goal — to teach a young person to live in a rapidly changing world, affecting mainly the cognitive-informational sphere of personality development — is mostly of an adaptive nature..
Within the framework of solving this applied problem, the actions of relatively autonomous cognitive-informational pedagogy are justified, which are responsible for the transfer of knowledge, the formulation of methods of mental and practical activity in the widest range: from mastering a computer to driving a car, mastering foreign languages and getting to know modern technological processes, etc. .P. Ultimately, the goal of cognitive-information pedagogy is to train a «skillful and mobile person» who is able to relatively painlessly fit into the context of modern civilizational processes.
However, even when performing utilitarian pedagogical tasks, we again encounter blurred boundaries within the dual goal of education. So, for example, the last feature of the so-called pragmatic pedagogy is the creative sphere of education, which involves the development of the creative abilities of the individual, non-standard thinking. The recent Soviet experience of opening and closing (for ideological reasons) elite physics and mathematics schools, whose graduates almost in equal proportions joined the ranks of intelligence officers and dissidents, clearly demonstrated the futility of attempts to develop talent in any one sphere, in this case necessary for a totalitarian state. Life and fate of A.D. Sakharov is convincing proof of this.
By and large, the creative state is poorly compatible with naked pragmatism, because it captures a person as a whole, giving a feeling of the fullness of being as a reward. Meanwhile the achievement of the completeness and integrity of the worldview goes far beyond the framework of pragmatic cognitive-informational pedagogy, figuratively speaking, responsible for the development in breadth, following the rapid development of civilization, but not providing the necessary personal growth. Therefore, when evaluating its results, it is more appropriate to talk about the quality of education than to assess the quality of education as a whole.
Needless to say, today’s most complex information, technological, financial and other systems for their successful functioning require skill, speed of reactions, well-trainedness and accuracy. However, upon closer examination, it turns out that in the end, even pragmatic prowess is based on deep value foundations, without which, with any training, we risk a lot — up to technological disasters like Chernobyl, because the elementary irresponsibility that leads to them is nothing more than a signal , speaking about the unformed value bases of the individual.
Meanwhile, the affecting the value foundations of education, we inevitably enter the field of cultural and historical pedagogy, which bears full responsibility for the integrity and value of education, performing synthesizing and meaning-forming functions.
Dealing with fundamental, essential, and ultimately ideological issues, cultural-historical pedagogy seeks to supplement the child’s rapid development in breadth with quiet development inward, trying to transform a “skillful person” into a “spiritual person”, which, in turn, is impossible without mastering the values culture. Mastering the values of culture does not mean, as the leader called in a well-known speech: «enrich your mind with all the riches that humanity has accumulated.» It is much more important to pass these riches through the heart, to help a young person to feel culture as a whole, to teach them to ask “last questions” and suffer from them. Approaching the solution of these problems will make it possible to supplement the cognitive-informational paradigm of education with semantic and culturological ones. The need for such an approach is obvious.
More L.S. Vygotsky and his followers convincingly proved the cultural and historical conditionality of the maturation of the higher mental functions of a person. (“Education runs ahead of development.”) This is how cultural-historical psychology was born more than half a century ago. But to an even greater extent, this regularity extends to the spiritual growth of the individual, to promote which is perhaps the most important pedagogical task, the fulfillment of which testifies to the true quality of education. In all other cases, as mentioned above, we fix only the quality of training.
It’s easy to say: to help the child feel the culture as a whole. How can this be achieved when the teacher, being a prisoner of his own fragmentary, substantive training, often does not even see this grandiose pedagogical task? No one has ever demanded such a quality of education from him. The current state of affairs only means that contrary to stereotypes and habitual attitudes, the central figure of cultural-historical pedagogy for many years becomes not a child, but a teacher, because in the spiritual sphere you cannot convey what you do not own yourself.
With all the general cultural and psychological difficulties, the very formulation of the problem of the integrity and value of education, the teacher’s awareness of its innermost pedagogical meaning is the first and necessary step towards mastering cultural-historical pedagogy.
To feel culture as a living whole means to part with the cozy mythologem of linear progress, which, due to professional psychology, is more difficult for a teacher to do than anyone else. In other words, it is necessary to accept and convey to the child the understanding that, with any civilizational achievements, we cannot feel dialectical Socrates, more integral than Plato and more moral than Seraphim of Sarov. Of course, the list of constant values in culture can be extended, but the essence is not in the list, but in the rejection of the view of culture as an antiquities shop, where beautiful, but long-used material is stored.
It follows from this that not a single significant phenomenon in culture can be exhausted to the end, not a single dispute, even though it began millennia ago, has not been completed to this day.
All this, it would seem, is quite obvious, but, unfortunately, in real pedagogical practice, the problems of deep successive ties in culture are poorly represented. At best, the student’s memory is loaded, his erudition increases, but the most important thing does not happen: the real inclusion of a young person in the context of culture, as a result of which existence outside this rich atmosphere becomes unthinkable, inferior, and flawed. It will take a lot of painstaking work to rework the content of education and retrain teachers before we can get closer to solving this problem. Dialogues lasting for centuries on the fundamental issues of human existence create a tense field that draws each new generation into discussions. It is the feeling of the integrity and continuity of culture that gives the intellectual and moral right to enter into a worthy dispute with statements and truths that seem to be forever engraved on the tablets of history. So, for example, every cultured person should know the ten commandments of Moses, but, as the French religious scholar Michel Malherbe rightly asserts:
“Jesus Christ was able to refrain from writing anything — an absolutely necessary precaution — thanks to which His teaching retained sufficient flexibility and adaptability through the centuries. He showed humanity an example of behavior oriented towards Love for each of the people: and therefore every Christian should use his freedom and his conscience to consciously adapt his behavior to specific life situations, inspired by the example of Jesus Christ..
The historian of religion is echoed by the psychologist W. Frankl:
“In an age when the Ten Commandments seem to have already lost their power for many, a person must be prepared to accept 10 commandments contained in 000 situations that life confronts him with. Then not only life itself will seem meaningful to him, that means, filled with deeds, but he will also acquire immunity against conformism and totalitarianism — these two consequences of an existential vacuum. After all, only a vigilant conscience gives a person the ability to resist, not to succumb to conformism and not to bow before totalitarianism..
Indeed: abortion, surrogate motherhood, cloning are relatively new civilizational problems that our great predecessors had no idea about. Parting, of necessity, with the illusion of linear progress, we come to the realization of history as a chain of increasingly complex moral tasks, which, nevertheless, must be solved based on the past. Cultural-historical pedagogy is cultural because it passes on to the next generations the constant values of culture, and historical, because it shows their living pulsation in real civilizational circumstances. Then, with this approach, a reverent attitude towards eternal values does not interfere with their incessant rethinking.
In principle, existence in culture is nothing but an ongoing dialogue with those who lived and worked before you. At the same time, a respectful, dignified and open-minded attitude towards culture is possible only under one necessary condition. And here we come to the core of cultural-historical pedagogy. The fact, that its basis, core, essence and at the same time the most important condition is the spiritual freedom of the individual. Outside of spiritual freedom, at best, we are dealing with cognitive-information pedagogy, which adapts the child to the environment.
Having devoted many years to the problem of adaptation, I not I’ll take back a single word, but adaptation is not a sacred cow. And it was not in vain that L.S. Vygotsky argued that a child ideally adapted to the environment will not develop. A S.I. Hessen noted that: “the human individual exists, as it were, in four planes of being, to which four planes of education correspond: the individual as a psychophysical organism, as a social personality, as a person included in the cultural tradition, and as a member of the “Kingdom of Spiritual Beings””3.
It is only in relation to the first two planes of being that it is appropriate and necessary to speak of adaptation, but the «pedagogy of culture» faces other, much more subtle problems. Genuine development requires not only a certain comfort, but also constructive stresses, including those resulting from moral conflicts.
To live in peace with oneself is no less important than to adapt to certain circumstances. Unfortunately, inner peace and social well-being are often antipodes. The very realization of this immutable fact is quite dramatic, but it testifies to the living mastering of the lessons of culture — from Socrates to the present day:
The drama of cultural-historical pedagogy, colored by the sentiments of heroic stoicism, lies in the fact that it consciously encourages such dilemmas. Therefore, it is not worth hiding that in this capacity it is at least anti-adaptive, because sometimes it gives rise to reactions and actions that are poorly consistent even with common sense and the instinct of self-preservation, but it solves the most important moral problem of preserving and increasing the dignity of a person, unthinkable without all the same spiritual freedom. The last thing I would like is for the pathos of cultural-historical pedagogy to be perceived in exceptionally gloomy and even tragic tones. Inner peace, moral balance, the ability to rise above the bustle of everyday, routine existence, getting satisfaction from the contemplation of nature, works of art, communication with subtle people — aren’t these the components of true happiness? But, all the same, there is something extremely false in the orientation of the teacher exclusively towards the school of joy. It is not in vain that it has been said from time immemorial: “… in much wisdom there is much sorrow; and whoever increases knowledge, increases sorrow” (Ecclesiastes 1:18). The constant fragile balance between the natural desire for well-being, comfort, security and dissatisfaction with what has been achieved, the desire to break out of the usual, established circle of things is the eternal problem of human existence. Brought to its limit — each of these lines leads either to the disintegration or to the leveling of the personality, which is essentially the same thing. In the end, everyone has the right to decide for themselves where, when, how and at what cost to upset this balance, weighing all the pros and cons, making a painful, but their own free choice, without which a responsible attitude to life is not formed. The famous Hamlet question is pedagogically valuable in itself already in its formulation, regardless of the strategy of behavior chosen in the future. Being unable to foresee in advance the path of life, the field of our pupils, to determine the measure of their spiritual and moral strength, we, in the context of cultural-historical pedagogy, can only strive to maximize their spiritual panorama, without asking an idle question about the long-term consequences of pedagogical influences. It is important that, revealing the plurality of worlds and meanings, we thereby oppose the automatism of existence, no matter what ideological, social and other mechanisms it is determined by, and therefore we defend the spiritual freedom of the individual. This is the hidden existential-pedagogical essence of cultural-historical pedagogy. In a broader general civilizational plan, the demand for pedagogy of values and meanings is obvious even from a pragmatic standpoint, because the entire experience of mankind has proved that issues of “contemptible benefit” are successfully resolved where there are reliable grounds that are by no means of a material nature. Thus, the West owes its prosperity to Roman law and Protestant ethics.
“For if God, whose finger the Puritan sees in all the circumstances of his life, provides any chance for profit, then he does it, guided by well-defined intentions. And a believing Christian must follow this instruction from above and use the opportunity given to him. If God shows you this path, following which you can, without damage to your soul and without harming others, in a legal way (our detente. — E.Ya.) earn more than on any other path, and you reject it and choose … a less profitable way, then you thereby impede the implementation of one of the goals of your calling (calling), you refuse to be the manager (steward) of God and accept his gifts in order to be able to use them for the benefit of Him when He so desires. Not for the pleasures of the flesh and sinful joys, but for God you should work and grow rich.” Wealth is condemned only insofar as it conceals the temptation to indulge in laziness, inactivity and sinful worldly pleasures, and the desire for wealth is only if it is caused by the hope of a carefree and cheerful life. As a consequence of the fulfillment of professional duty, wealth is not only morally justified, but even prescribed..
The secret of the rapid modernization of the Far Eastern economic leaders is largely due to the traditions of pluralism of the Far Eastern culture, which has never been mono-confessional: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism coexisted and complemented each other. Hence the ability to surprise the world, while retaining its national identity, to accept other people’s innovations.
Finally, it suffices to conduct a comparative analysis of the economic efficiency of collective labor in the Tolstoyan communities of Russia, Israeli kibbutzim and state farms, to be convinced of the need for voluntariness and spirituality in order to achieve decent practical results. The absence of enlightening, consolidating ideas immediately leads to «devastation in the heads», followed by the collapse of completely material structures. What can I say, even if the staunch pragmatist E. Gaidar was recently forced to admit: «the market without morality turns into a nightmare.» There can be no civilized market without disinterested policemen, tax inspectors and judges. Their highest principle should be duty, not profit. Even for a businessman, profit is not always an unconditional motive in the conditions of well-established cultural and economic relations.
The civilizational responsibility of cultural and historical pedagogy lies in the realization of the immutable fact of the primacy of the spiritual over the material.. It is enough to see this and start implementing it in your applied pedagogical activity for everything to fall into place. Then the need to oppose the “handy man” to the “spiritual man,” the prose of everyday life, to the high states of the soul completely disappears; performance — creativity, etc. I would like to dwell on the latter in more detail.
One of the perestroika myths that formed the basis of attempts to reform Russian education was that Soviet authoritarian pedagogy trained obliging performers, deliberately limiting the task of the child’s creative development, which is only partly true. Hence, in subsequent years, the emphasis was deliberately shifted to the development of the creative abilities of students, often to the detriment of developing skills and abilities. The results were immediate. Meanwhile, however paradoxical it may seem, things have always been somewhat better with creativity in the vastness of our fatherland than with performance.
Deep philosopher and great poet R.M. Rilke, whose fate intersected with the culture of Russia, somehow subtly remarked:
“Approximately, the essence is this: a Russian person showed me through many examples that enslavement and oppression, even for a long time suppressing all the forces of human resistance, by no means necessarily lead to the death of the soul. Here, at least for the Slavic soul, there is a degree of humility that fully deserves to be called perfect, because even under the heaviest and most burdensome pressure, it creates something like a secret play space, a kind of fourth dimension of its being, in which, no matter how humiliating the circumstances, a new, infinite and truly independent freedom opens up for the soul..
The poet, of course, is right, and the bitter paradox seen by another artist: “You are poor, / You are abundant, / You are downtrodden, / You are all-powerful, / Mother Russia! ..” that for centuries the best and most worthy people in fantasies and intuitions, insights and discoveries, in other words, in creativity, found refuge from the hardships of Russian reality, thereby defending the space of spiritual freedom. R. M. Rilke very accurately calls it playful, that is, surreal, ideal, fantasy.
Being in demand in short historical periods, the creators performed miracles on the battlefields and in civilian life, and then left for their ecological niches. So it was not from a good life that our increased creativity was formed, which still surprises the world. But everything in the world has a downside: a prosperous comfortable existence stimulates breakthroughs of the spirit to a lesser extent — but it teaches you to get satisfaction from the delicately precise execution of the task. It takes a genius to shoe a flea for the first time, but someone else has to patiently change shoes month after month as they wear out. It’s already a technology. My old friend, an academician of medicine, a specialist in childhood leukemia (blood cancer), said that Russian surgeons perform bone marrow transplantation operations no worse than their Western colleagues. Surprises, troubles and tragedies occur mostly during aftercare, where creativity is contraindicated and dangerous, but scrupulously precise execution of instructions and protocols by nursing staff is required. Performing skills, brought to virtuosity, are usually highly appreciated in music, where any false note hurts the ear. And in other spheres of human activity? So, focusing on values and meanings, cultural-historical pedagogy notbreaks off the ground, but gives a high sound to the most prosaic, routine issues of education and upbringing. In an extremely laconic form, the pathos of everyday service was expressed by S.Ya. Marshak:
There was no nail
Horseshoe Lost.
There was no horseshoe —
The horse was lame.
The horse limped —
Commander Killed.
The cavalry is broken
Army Runs.
The enemy enters the city,
Captive not sparing
Because in the forge
There was no nail.
The world does not rest solely on creativity. A significant, if not most, part of humanity is always — at all times — working in the mode of providing:
I created man for everyday worries, Quran, Sura 11 (90).
Thus, the Molotlin’s valor, ridiculed by the classicist: «moderation and accuracy» — become the subject of special concern for cultural-historical pedagogy. There is no polemic with A.S. Griboedov here. The difficult Russian context, as already noted, too rarely provided an opportunity to experience happiness from high, selfless meaningful service in everyday life. Hence the eternal: “I would be glad to serve, it’s sickening to serve!”. However, hack-work cannot be justified even by the most unfavorable social and political conditions. Like rust, corroding the soul, it imperceptibly becomes a way of life and a way of existence for entire generations, looking for the reasons for their own failure in anyone and anything but themselves. Infringed consciousness, as usual, most of all betrays itself in the language. What an explosive mixture of arrogant, elevated to a principle, irresponsibility, self-justification and envy of someone else’s success sounded in a fashionable appeal among young people in the early 80s: “Well, you are businesslike!”. Subsequently, having fully experienced the “charms” of wild capitalism, we did not draw the necessary conclusions here either, continuing by inertia to attribute everything to superficial reasons of a socio-economic and political nature, relieving ourselves of cultural and pedagogical responsibility for what is happening. As if the «suddenly» exposed crime and the complete lack of business and professional ethics are not the result of a general cultural impoverishment. It is time, finally, to understand that there are no high and low truths, and the task of a teacher is not only to stigmatize the diseases of the century, but to treat them professionally! This is the general therapeutic and socio-psychological purpose of cultural-historical pedagogy. In big and small, high and ordinary, it, asserting an unshakable hierarchy of values, seeks to help a person, speaking in the language of the Bible, climb Jacob’s ladder, on which, as the philosopher G.S. Pomerants noted, stars are visible from any step. The experience of persevering at each stage acquires exceptional pedagogical significance today. From this position, the film of the outstanding Georgian director O. Ioseliani “Leaf Fall” is of undoubted interest. The plot is deceptively simple. The young specialist is assigned to a winery. All that is required of him is to give an order that violates the technology of wine production, but ensures that the plan is overfulfilled. (It takes place in the 70s.) No one, except for connoisseurs, will notice a change in the taste of the drink. The costs of a moral nature, it would seem, are insignificant, the benefits are obvious. A small, frail, outwardly awkward intellectual, far from the picturesque images of the positive heroes of those years, who fails in everything, including love, alone opposes the System. It can be humiliated, bent, crushed, but it is impossible to break. Strictly speaking, there is no epic struggle here, the hero simply cannot do otherwise, as they say, according to the composition of the blood. Professional ethics, which assumes the responsibility of the master, is fused with the dignity of the individual and is imprinted almost at the genetic level: it is not for nothing that five generations of wine-making ancestors are behind him … In an era of confusion of minds and general looseness of the foundations, cultural-historical pedagogy is called upon to pay special attention to the development of taboos and restrictions , to form in young people a sense of the last line, which should never be crossed under any circumstances. Otherwise, the collapse of the individual is inevitable. The thinnest line between freedom and willfulness lies in the fact that true freedom presupposes internal self-restraint. Only being not free from moral maxims, a person, like the hero of a film, is able to freely, naturally, to the best of his ability to resist the corrupting influence of the environment, preserving himself as a sovereign personality. All of the above emphasizes the non-elitist nature of cultural-historical pedagogy. Not everyone is able to come close to comprehending the spiritual metaphysical foundations of being, but everyday practice is replete with examples when an unmistakable moral choice is made by people who are far from professional studies in philosophy and axiology, but who have absorbed decency with mother’s milk. Figuratively speaking, cultural-historical pedagogy seeks to nourish the younger generation with such milk, while not excluding the use of other, more refined drinks for those who like them.
- The object of cultural-historical pedagogy is the spiritual sphere of the individual.
- Its subject should be considered the process of transferring cultural values to the next generations.
- At the same time, the goal, foundation and most important condition for the existence of cultural-historical pedagogy is spiritual freedom, without which meaningful movements in culture are impossible.
- Perceiving culture as a single living whole, cultural-historical pedagogy performs a special synthesizing function: the synthesis of cultures, scientific knowledge and the spiritual experience of mankind.
- In the context of cultural-historical pedagogy, the cognitive-informational line is preserved, but refined, deepened and rethought.
- The result of this rethinking is the gradual expansion of the sphere of influence of cultural-historical pedagogy of values and meanings, not only on the selection of the content of education, but also on the methods, methods and conditions for the transmission of culture.
- Without ignoring the importance of working out adaptation mechanisms that allow a young person to integrate into a turbulent civilizational process with the least losses and in a short time, cultural and historical pedagogy, following psychology, but already at a philosophical and cultural level, insists on the productivity of spiritual and moral crises that transform a personality. .
- Cultural-historical pedagogy focuses not only on the heights of the human spirit, but seeks to strengthen the foundations of a decent everyday human existence.
- The fundamental position of cultural-historical pedagogy is the realization that the habits, way of thinking and culture of the people brought up over the centuries have no less influence on material production than the economy on the spiritual sphere. As a result, it affirms the primacy of the spiritual over the material.
- Carrying out the process of transferring imperishable values in the context of deep civilizational processes taking place in the world, cultural-historical pedagogy expands and strengthens its foundations, existing at the intersection of philosophical anthropology and cultural studies, without ignoring the experience of insight and intuition accumulated by mankind.
On the whole, cultural-historical pedagogy outlines the paths for the cultural and civilizational upbringing of the young generation of Russia in the post-communist period. Having considered the main parameters of cultural-historical pedagogy, we can approach the problem of the quality of education more meaningfully. This has already been partly discussed above, but only now it becomes obvious that the quality of education is determined by its ideological orientation and the strengthening of the educational function of education. The deep penetration of cultural-historical pedagogy into the ideological sphere is both its generic feature and the main obstacle to rapid implementation. A sober analysis of the subjective and objective difficulties that lie in wait for a teacher who dares to master the pedagogy of values and meanings is needed. The first thing that catches your eye is the difficulty of fixing the achieved results, because, thank God, no one has yet been able to measure the spiritual growth of a person. However, in real life, when meeting people, we quickly understand who we are dealing with. There is a fairly large range of indirect signs that define a subtle intelligent person: range of interests, demeanor — especially in conflict situations, when the covers fly off and the essence of the personality is instantly exposed, the style of polemics, the ability to empathize, finally, responsibility, conscientiousness, delicacy … It is pointless to try list all the external manifestations of a truly developed personality. It is important to remember something else: just like in medicine, pedagogical diagnostics has never been based solely on objective verified data, but has always assumed patient thoughtful observation. Another thing is that observations do not report on the work done. Consequently, in the context of cultural-historical pedagogy, school management must also change, inevitably acquiring a value character. Under the value management of education, we mean the process of gradual patient rethinking of the goals of education by all subjects of the pedagogical process, followed by the development of a common spiritual culture for the entire school team, which allows teachers to evaluate their activities not only be guided by the traditional criteria for learning children, but carefully record the stages of their personal growth that is taking place. as the child masters the hierarchy of values. But this is another topic that requires a separate detailed discussion. The next difficulty lies in the unpredictability and remoteness of the results of subtle pedagogical influences. But it was not in vain that it was said: “It is not given to us to predict how our word will respond.” And here the teacher is not much different from any creator who always sows for the future. In this sense, the teacher is even happier than the artist, because he has the opportunity to directly observe the dynamics of the spiritual growth of pupils, to see the intermediate results of his activity: a teenager can stand for hours at one picture, a girl selflessly studies complex non-program material, high school students, having previously bought tickets, invite the teacher to a symphony concert — all this is quite real, tangible evidence of the usefulness of our efforts. More serious things happen in the long run. For example, I was fortunate to be a witness to how longtime graduates allocated a lot of money for the publication of a book by an author whose self-published work we discussed with them a decade ago. Agree — such mediation in culture, with all the routine and monotony of pedagogical everyday life, cannot but raise the spirit of the teacher himself. I am far from trying to draw pedagogical idylls. Of course, in a real school, ups and downs are always accompanied by breakdowns and falls, but only I thereby emphasize the special inspiring role of cultural-historical pedagogy, which gives a true meaning and high sound to our modest daily work. Thus, the uncalculability and unpredictability of the results of the pedagogy of values and meanings are quite surmountable obstacles. Something else is much more serious: too little time has passed since the time when the deepening of the ideological orientation of teaching and the strengthening of the upbringing function of teaching meant the total planting of the “only true” teaching. Therefore, the progressive part of the teaching staff, bruised by mono-ideology, fearing to inadvertently step into the same muddy water (and such a danger exists), consciously or semi-consciously pushes worldview problems away from itself, retreating (hiding) into honest unspiritual pragmatism: a neutral transfer of positive knowledge. Hence the expansion of cognitive-informational pedagogy. Others, being unable to endure uncertainty for a long time, having not learned to live at the crossroads of open questions, are rapidly sliding down to demonized, perverted spirituality in its sovereign, national and other forms, dragging the youth with them into the beaten field of the same mono-ideology. Both escapes: unspiritual pragmatism and demonized spirituality come from the same root. At the core is the most serious bleeding problem of loss of identity, which is especially difficult for a teacher to bear due to the specific nature of his activity. The simultaneous collapse of utopia and empire at the “East-West” civilizational crossroads in the new historical conditions mercilessly exposed Pasternak’s question:
But who are we and where are we from
When from all those years
There are gossip
And we are not in the world.
Indeed, we are no longer in our former capacity, which until recently was called a new historical community of people — the Soviet people, and gossip continues against the backdrop of acute social neurosis caused by the distorted course of Russian reforms that hit the teacher as well. Is it appropriate in our circumstances to talk about a new quality of education in the context of cultural-historical pedagogy? But is there any other way of rebirth, other than acquiring a cultural and civilizational identity that allows one to break out of the framework of superficial judgments (gossip and rumors), overcome confusion in the heads and hearts, and only then in the material sphere. Finally, the quality of education not an end in itself, but a way to achieve a decent human life.
Footnotes
1Malherbe M. Religions of mankind. M.- SPb., Universitetskaya kniga, 1997. S.
2Frankl B. Man in search of meaning. M., 1990. S. 39.
3Hessen S. On the contradictions and unity of upbringing. Persona-list pedagogy. Lviv — Warsaw, 1939. S. 236.
4Weber M. Selected Works. M., 1990. S.190-191.
5Cit. Quoted from: Holthusen Hans Egon. R.M. Rilke. Ural 1LD, 1998. S. 25.