Lessons about me: what is wrong with the modern school

Course «About the most important»

Sometimes it seems that an alien came up with the school curriculum. Well, tell me, someone, not being a chemist by profession, remembers what alkenes are and how they differ from alkanes and alkynes? Will a non-biologist explain what vaccination is, or a non-physicist — why, if the ball is hit from the side, it will only rotate and not accelerate much, although according to Newton’s law it should? When asked why, then, the child needs to learn all this and waste precious life time, many school teachers will think one thing (“Why will I get paid?”), They will say something else: that this is a common culture and the study of signs of divisibility develops thinking, and the rule the right hand contributes to the idea of ​​​​the structure of nature around us.

If a schoolboy could, he would ask: “Where are the lessons about the most important thing — about me? Really, before my birth, no knowledge about the human soul was accumulated? Indeed, why don’t they teach the most important thing in school — the art of living? Live in peace with yourself and with loved ones. After all, you must admit that it is important for everyone to understand who he is, how to think about the meaning of life and what it is in general (not biologically, but spiritually), how to deal with fears and overcome envy.

It is generally accepted that a personality is developed by the humanities — primarily literature. But let’s take the poem «Eugene Onegin». Are there many teachers who can answer why Pushkin «read Apuleius willingly, but did not read Cicero»? (Now Apuleius’ Golden Ass would probably be labeled «18+».) Or will it turn the problem of envy from the «super-dense packaging» of the play «Mozart and Salieri»?

Motivation and psychology

I asked about thirty «advanced» teachers of literature to quote in meaning the very famous phrase with which «Anna Karenina» begins. Almost everyone answered: “All happy families are equally happy, but unhappy ones …” The teachers answered the question: “Do you yourself believe that families are equally happy?”: “Of course not, the reasons for happiness are always different.”

In fact, the classic wrote: «All happy families are alike, but unhappy families are unhappy in their own way.» Agree, this is a different theorem and much closer to real life. So, do the teachers themselves not believe Tolstoy? Most likely, they did not think about the meaning of this phrase. For them, literature is separate, and life is in itself. Yes, they can teach literature, but with its help they can teach something — no. It’s good if literature itself teaches, and parents help, but the school only teaches you to take school exams.

Of course, there are units of strong and smart teachers. They will answer any questions and help you understand the characters and what motivated them. But what if we try to include the course “About the most important” in the school curriculum and help children think about their problems, motivation, happiness, harmony with themselves and the world? At least show what you can think about it. Then there will be respect for learning at school — after all, «here they help me solve my real problems.»

Do they talk about emotions in school?

Is it possible to motivate a child to learn what he does not need at all? Imagine that a teacher who has been reading Hegel all his life is trying to motivate you to read him too: they say that this will help you in five or ten years in your life, and in general, it develops the brain. You open the “Phenomenology of Spirit” and see: “Knowledge, first of all or directly constituting our subject, can only be direct knowledge, knowledge of the immediate or existing …”

Now about motivation. The chief psychiatrist of the Ministry of Health, Zurab Kekelidze, writes: “There is chemical doping, which everyone has heard of, and there is mental or psychological doping. What does «motivate» mean? It means psychological influence. To what extent can a teenager be motivated? Will he survive? One can and the other can’t. The personality structure is different. These are all very serious questions.»

Any school historian shudders nervously at the word «logarithm», and the physicist does not remember what cruciferous plants are remarkable for. Will such a school inspire respect for learning and science? But this is the main feeling that a child must endure from school. He will have to constantly study — otherwise success will not be achieved.

In order to arouse interest in a school subject, it is necessary to explain how this subject is connected with the student’s life. Let’s take math. Do you know why people speak so loudly in public places? Because the neighbors are talking loudly. Why not negotiate and speak quietly? Does not work. For the same reason, why it is impossible to agree on disarmament, on environmental problems… This is called the «prisoner’s dilemma» in mathematics. Why not start high school math with her? It will help you understand why the classroom is noisy without a teacher, why the entrance is not as clean as at home, and why it can be difficult to negotiate…

Many more interesting and useful «entrances» to mathematics can be cited. At school, it is the “entrances” that are needed. The future engineer will then understand how to solve logarithmic inequalities, and the one who becomes a lawyer or manager will at least leave school with respect for this science. And physics can be taught in the same way, but today physics and mathematics cause nothing but boredom for the majority. And as adults, the majority recalls school lessons with a shudder and rejoices that it is no longer necessary to solve problems about a body hanging on a system of blocks, and answer the question why the Moon does not fall to Earth, but “a body thrown at an angle to the horizon”, in all tasks it still lands.

Do they talk about emotions in school?

By the way, is boredom an emotion? What do they say about emotions in school? I don’t remember something. About the similarity of triangles, medians — I remember, they say a lot. Although everyone experiences emotions many times a day, it is much less common with medians. Experiments with test tubes and copper coils were all carried out. But I don’t remember conducting psychological experiments.

Here, for example, is an experience that is useful in everyday life and does not require any equipment. If we artificially evoke the external manifestations of feeling, the feeling itself will not be slow to appear. Try, getting up in the morning, to “turn on” melancholy: speak in a low voice, do not raise your eyes, sigh, slouch — and by the evening longing will surely take possession of you.

Can emotions be controlled? If so, how? Is it possible to use their energy? If emotions are the elements, the wind, then maybe the mind is a sail? And under sail, as you know, you can sail against the wind. Isn’t it worth it at school to begin to understand what fear, joy, envy are and how to live with them? Shouldn’t it be explained as early as possible that fear and cowardice are different things? And the victory over fear is courage. The ancient Greeks considered envy to be the engine of society. Hesiod said: «Labor is born of envy,» but noted its two sides. Why do we hesitate to acknowledge this feeling in ourselves? If you do not recognize envy, can you deal with it? All the same Pushkin’s Salieri lied to himself and came to a crime. They didn’t teach him at school what kind of feeling one should have for a more talented one. I would have been engaged in introspection since childhood, I would have caught myself in bad emotions, I would have kept a diary of observations — you see, and Mozart would have survived. (But, by the way, Salieri himself was quite a worthy person and did not poison Mozart.)

Maybe, nevertheless, envy is, like fear, a normal feeling, and you can learn to process it, turn it into a desire to do something or be happy for another? Psychology lessons are needed, in which children could be taught ways to think about themselves, about their problems. To give the initial tools for thinking about the psyche, about yourself, about others. The very understanding of the fact that everyone is somehow concerned about personal intimate questions, that there are general methods, a technique for thinking about oneself and one’s problems, is valuable.

Perhaps a course for parents is also needed — on how to talk about “damned questions”: who am I, what is the meaning of life, about the fear of death. By the way, you can talk about the meaning of life in different ways: for example, say that we are all looking for an answer — and you are connected. You are only at the beginning of the journey, and your life will be part of our common response. Or suggest thinking that a unit of life is something more than one person.

I think that everyone will agree: a psychology course would be useful. It remains only to understand who will write this course and whether our student has the resource of time and energy to learn something else. It is important that the course is not about psychology, but about how to solve the «tasks of life» with its help. And the current school curriculum was invented, of course, not by aliens, but by people of the nineteenth century before last. And we somehow have no time to think about WHAT to teach. Let’s talk about how to do it…