Український 
English (UK) Ivan Dmytrovych Bekh, Doctor of Sciences in Psychology, Professor, Full member (Academician) of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Director of the Institute of Problems on Education of the NAES of Ukraine.
Talk at the XXIII International Forum on May 27, 2023.
The national anthem of Ukraine has just been played. "God great and one, save Ukraine for us..." Protecting our country means protecting the people, giving them a spiritual perspective, a perspective of a dignified life. However, although God is in every heart, unfortunately, not every heart is with Him, as the apostle said. What should we do? Deep, serious, constant education is needed.
I want to draw your attention to education at a higher level, the psychological level, which allows you to think more deeply about the practice of education. The fact is that in the current conditions, the upbringing of the young generation is an extremely difficult matter, namely the upbringing of spirituality. After all, we are talking, first of all, about higher, as mountain values say, such as justice, loyalty, sacrifice, devotion, unconditional care for others and many others. And all this is framed with great love. Without love, we will not raise any personality. I specify that spiritual values are needed for a decent life, and moral values for our activity, for all its varieties.
Secondly, all these values should be nurtured at the level of consciousness, self-awareness and extremely strong feelings. And the beginning of these feelings is positive emotions, because a person also has a lot of negative emotions, but we must rely on positive ones. Therefore, it is extremely difficult, and sometimes almost impossible, for both parents and current average teachers-educators to solve this problem at such a level. In addition, the very spirituality of a person is still far from being known to modern science, first of all psychology, the theory of education, not to mention the relevant methods and technologies. One wise man said: "Just as it is impossible to count the hairs on the head, so it is impossible to count all the movements of the human soul." This is the complexity of our problem. And that is why a superficial view does not pass here, and we often cultivate it. So when we talk about a highly spiritual and conscious person, we are talking not only about a law-abiding person, but precisely about this higher development of him.
Currently, two scientific approaches can be distinguished in the view of human nature. What are they? The first approach - a person is initially benevolent from birth, that is, directed to good, and he acquires mental defects as a result of external negative influences. Hence the task of immersing it in a morally healthy environment, which should be created to divert it from the morally distorted. This is the position. We are inclined to the fact that a person has predispositions for both good and evil - this is the second approach. Based on this approach, we conduct extensive experimental research based on humanistic methods and technologies. And believe me, we have high and encouraging results.
So, the main foundations are charitable. This is, first of all, compassion, a tendency to sympathize and share joy. By the way, we still know how to empathize, but it is quite difficult to rejoice. So, I put compassion first, mercy second, and humility last.
What are the prerequisites for malevolence, that is, for evil? The central, root is human pride. It in itself makes a person arrogant, contemptuous of others. And also as a root, pride gives rise to arrogance, selfishness, glory, lust for power, ambition that seeks all kinds of honors, envy, hatred, malice, etc. These are spiritually negative formations, they hinder our progress towards spirituality. In religion they are called passions. They can be quite emotionally strong.
This is the background that is inherited and with which we must work, taking it into account. The thing is that personally positive and personally negative predispositions can be in different proportions. For example, strong and widespread benevolent and weak malevolent. Then such people are benefactors by nature. Such were in history, for example, the teacher Pestalozzi, the English entrepreneur Robert Owen, the Russian doctor Haaz, who visited hospitals and treated the sick, in our country - patrons of Khanenka and many other people. People with hereditary evil orientation, especially when it is strong enough, are difficult to give in to educational influences, both directed and undirected. Therefore, they are often violators of all kinds of social norms up to the point of isolation from society. It is difficult, if not impossible, to work with such people.
Therefore, there are two strategies regarding the education process. The first is restraining, it is various kinds of prohibitions. Hence the restraining morality, the morality of prohibition. And the second strategy is active. Hence the morality of conscious spiritual orientation. A personality brought up in restraining morality will not do evil in principle, since prohibitions were present all the time. But tell me, is she ready for good? Not always. Such a person will not set fire to a house, but he will not rush into a burning house to save someone. This is the negative of the restraining strategy, restraining morality. Therefore, our efforts should be focused on actively transforming morality, on a gradual ascent to spiritual values. We simply have no other way.
Every person has a tendency to hide their flaws and replace them with some merits. It is difficult to tell a person about myself that I am evil, dishonest, vindictive, etc. Therefore, pride, as the main negative quality, is replaced by magnanimity, and theft by mental strength, excessive luxury by wealth. This is how a person hides his essence, his cultural "nature", but not everything is so bad, because the peculiarity of positive and spiritually negative formations is that they are still quite soft in early and preschool age, that is, they have not yet established themselves. The main thing is that they have not yet been generalized, but are manifested situationally: in some conditions they may manifest, but not in others. Therefore, directed education should start from early periods.
But do parents know how to do it, or do they want to do it? That's the problem. All these negative manifestations should be blocked and the positive ones I mentioned should be raised in every possible way. How to properly educate? On the basis of mercy, you can cultivate love for your neighbor, for another person. And on the basis of compassion - caring for a person, sensitivity, loyalty. On the basis of the humility that was discussed, it is possible to cultivate tolerance, which is so lacking in our society, peacefulness. We must do everything so that parents are full-fledged subjects of education, without them it is almost impossible for a teacher to educate such a level of spirituality, because they are carriers of blood relations. The word of the father can prevail over the word of the teacher, that's the point. And then the retraining of teachers as educators. We should all make education educational. Reason, which we so often emphasize, is necessary, but reason without spirituality is a great defect. So I am sharpening this question. Raising a growing personality will be successful if parents and teachers use three universal regularities.
The first regularity is the ability to understand students. The ability to understand a pupil, especially a modern one, who has distanced himself from the parental and pedagogical environment since preschool age. In order for the process of adults' understanding of children to be generally effective, they must master such qualities. The first quality is the ability to perceive and psychologically adequately interpret the child's behavior. The second is to understand why this child behaves the way he does. It is not just to state the fact, but to find the reason, it is always there, but hidden. However, with an empathetic attitude, the child can open up. Next, record changes in the child's feelings and actions. It is changes, because a child is a growing personality, and therefore yesterday's act will be different from today's act. We must record and take this into account. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out deep parental education so that there is a unity of views between parents and teachers.
The second regularity is the ability to recognize (to admit) a student. Recognition is primarily the child's right to be himself. No one should take away this right, because she is an individual who has her own position regarding certain phenomena and situations, especially modern children, who are affected by a lot of information. The requirements for recognition of the child are based on the belief in its capabilities. Give the child the perspective of development and formation, and therefore self-improvement: positive self-improvement, not negative. Such an attitude will direct adults to activate the personal experiences of pupils. A child is a bearer of experiences, he cannot be indifferent. Therefore, the upbringing of a child by adults should not only be strictly limited, such that it is determined only by its interests, situational aspirations, but there are also promising aspirations. Such recognition takes into account, first of all, her personal direction, which is different for everyone.
The third regularity is acceptance of the child. Such an education means an unconditional positive attitude towards the child, regardless of whether he pleases the adults or not. If adults accept a pet, they also accept its shortcomings. Adults are able not only to accept, but also to show by example that it is necessary and important. Therefore, the acceptance of a pet by adults does not imply condescension, but patience, because the child is not always positive. In this case, when accepting a child, we condemn his actions - this is the golden rule - and not him. If you judge a child, you judge his "I". This "I" has great power and significance, so there is no need to insult it. The child will then engage in ethical work herself and return from this act to her spiritual "I". This is the way in which a child will not take offense at an adult. In communication with adults who accept the child, he receives a stimulus for development, reveals his best features. Therefore, acceptance is the credo of an adult - I am with you, I am for you.
There are three fundamental positions, on the basis of which all humanistic educational technologies are built. In this case, the scientists of the Institute of Educational Problems, who deal with this problem in the perspective that I present.
I would like to raise this extremely difficult issue once again. Not all teachers are able to cope with it. Modern teachers are given little relevant in-depth knowledge, so they work only as methodologists, as carriers of educational technologies. And spirituality - what a peak it is! How much is still unknown here, how subtle the mental technology should be, how intimate personal communication should be: soul to soul, eye to eye. This is the kind of communication, in such relationships, when I, as a teacher, a bearer of higher spirituality, ignite a child with spirituality.
