Socio-Political Crisis And Education

Abstract

At the heart of modern socio-political crises and "colour" revolutions is the violation of the balance of stability and variability in the sphere of social relations. Stagnation in public life, lack of expected changes, loss of prospects - this is what excites the spirit of people, leads to social explosions and colour revolutions. The lack of changes in public consciousness is most often associated with the need to change leaders to those who can generate new ideas and goals. The public demand for true leaders is not being met by the modern education system. True leaders, passionaries are expressed people of the spirit world, they live in the material world, but this part of life is auxiliary for them. The world of the spirit is embodied in the processes of development and change. The analysis of learning objectives showed an obvious tilt of the modern education system towards the study, mastering and improvement of technologies to the detriment of the study of fundamental sciences and the synthesis of new models. While the ability to create and apply models is the hallmark of a true leader. In the educational process, it is necessary to return those learning goals that are associated with the skills and aspirations to create all types of models, as well as develop training courses aimed at training specialists who can create and use models of all types.

Keywords: Crisis, learning goals, models, balance

Introduction

A socio-political crisis, such as the one that began in Belarus in the fall of 2020, at first glance, is weakly connected with education problems. However, we will show that such a connection exists and its role is significant.

What caused the social crisis in the Republic of Belarus? The standard of living is relatively high. The distribution of benefits is stable and sufficiently comprehensive. There is no pronounced oligarchy, which provides a reasonable gap in the wealth of the population, so the idea of "dividing everything up" is not so urgent. What makes the masses of the people take to the streets, risk their prosperity, entrusting their fate and the fate of their children to people who are obviously not ready for any constructive development of this society?

The reason is to be found in the imbalance between stability and change. Lack of changes, prospects, stagnation in development - that is what excites the spirit of people (Voskanyan & Bychkova, 2020). And we are not talking about banal changes for the better in the distribution of benefits.

No! The indignant spirit shouts: “I'm tired! Nothing changes. One and the same leader. No new ideas. "

The discontent underlying colour revolutions is associated with the desire for change. With the inclusion of the expectation of new hopes (Mikhalev & Baranov, 2017).

History shows that the resilience of a world of injustice is ultimately highly volatile. In the process of normal development of society, a balance of stability and variability is maintained. The imbalance leads to fermentation in society. An indignant spirit all over the world requires changes and satisfaction.

Problem Statement

Global discontent (Foa et al., 2020) is questions hanging in the air: “Where are the true leaders? Why aren't they doing anything? What is the development? Where are we going?" These questions are addressed to scientists, ideologists, cultural Figures, although formally they are addressed to the authorities. But the authorities themselves cannot answer these questions.

Enlightened and convinced personalities, true leaders, passionaries are the expressed people of the spirit world (Gumilev, 2006). Yes, they live in the material world and cannot exist without its fruits, but this part of life is auxiliary for them. Unlike the material world, which is realized in consumption and satisfaction of urgent needs, the world of the spirit is embodied in development and change.

Once again, a situation has arisen when "the upper classes cannot, but the lower classes do not want." The upper classes cannot bring about changes, because they do not have sufficient spirit, and the lower classes do not want, because even good distribution is not enough for them. Trillions of dollars and euros have been printed and distributed, but discontent is only growing. Degraded rulers do not understand what these people need, what they want to change, why they are unhappy with current events, by any means of fighting the epidemic, by any means of saving the economy (Obichkina, 2019).

The lack of a sufficient number of true leaders in an era of discontent is another complaint about the education system.

Research Questions

Why did the problem of stagnation in social life and the problem of educational defects become relevant today?

Let us not go too far into the past. Let us start with the post-war period. By 1960, the wounds inflicted by World War II had largely healed.

Let us look at Western Europe (Kruchinina, 2018). What are the prospects for changes?

Firstly, it is the prospect of creating a powerful association - the European Union. From such a perspective, one can expect a significant increase in well-being, protection, competitiveness, influence, etc. The NATO bloc has already been created and the prospect of the European Union does not seem fantastic.

The second perspective is the scientific and technological revolution and the corresponding scientific and technological progress. Everything is changing before the eyes of people: computers, new types of weapons, new technologies, goods, space exploration appear. It seems that this revolution has no barriers and boundaries that it would not overcome with the emergence of new ideas. Science fiction is flourishing in literature. Everybody dreams! Every day really brings something new. Scientific talents capable of proposing new ideas are in great demand. They are well appreciated and well paid. In these conditions, the balance of stability and development is ensured.

But now the European Union has been created and the first euphoria has passed. People got used to the opportunities they had and even noticed some of the shortcomings associated with this idea. The European Union as a prospect has ceased to exist.

What about the scientific and technological revolution? She suddenly began to decline (Krivopalov, 2016). New ideas appear less and less, and instead of them technological improvements, improvements. Genuine breakthroughs are replaced by the polishing of what has already been achieved. Now good technologies have taken the place of new ideas.

Finally, the long-predicted Higgs boson was found. In literature, science fiction began to be replaced by fantasy, and new ideas in art are less and less frequent in the minds of creative individuals. And everything seems to be going forward somehow, but we are no longer waiting with trepidation for stunning breakthroughs. Our bright prospects look more and more commonplace: more memory, higher speed, less fuel consumption, etc. Our development every day is less and less based on the knowledge of the world, on the discovery of new entities and the creation of new scientific ideas, and more and more on the creation or hone technology.

This is the case in the United States. Only the idea of the European Union was replaced there by the idea of world hegemony. The United States achieved hegemony, and it turned out that this goal, in addition to pluses, contains a huge number of minuses.

As for China, the idea of a great Celestial Empire is still alive there. But this disease will pass, and the continuation is unknown. There are no fountains of ideas, no breakthroughs into the future. There is a sea of borrowed technologies and, at best, their improvement.

And what about Russia? Here the problems manifested themselves with greater speed, since the officials who took leading positions managed to ruthlessly destroy all types of passionaries (Secrets of the National Policy of the Central Committee of the RCP, 1992). Churches were closed, true communists were destroyed, and leaders of science were hidden in sharashkas. With the loss of the Union, Russia demonstrated the fastest loss of the future and the degradation of the education system.

Purpose of the Study

The onset of the nineties of the twentieth century was characterized by a global crisis of lack of spirituality and lack of ideas. The world has again risen to the edge of the abyss of spiritual emptiness.

Technologies, as servants of distribution of goods and consumption, have become the dominant feature of socio-economic progress. But what is wrong with technology after all? And why is the number of ideas dwindling? After all, the border of the unknown, the unknown, with the development of science only increases.

Maybe the values of social development have changed and the system of goals in education has been violated?

Research Methods

The first line in cognition is located between nature and cognizing consciousness. The result of overcoming it is a model. It can be a physical model, expressed in the formulas of open laws, a model of social phenomena, etc. Models are the result of science (Bordovskaya & Rean, 2001). They form the model of the world of humanity and the individual. Fundamental science usually deals with the formation of models.

The second line in cognition is the transition from formed models to technologies. In other words, with the help of what we have learned, we form ways of getting what we want. Models allow us to make predictions and choose the ones that match our desires. The simplest type of technology is an algorithm of actions: if the symptoms are such, then the disease should be treated like this. If this does not help, then you need to try this, etc. Of course, technologies may look much more complicated, but they always have a way to get what you want, based on some models.

Finally, there is a third line, which consists in the transition from technology to its implementation, for example, the digital economy, nanoindustry, etc.

In accordance with these lines of knowledge, people can be divided into scientists, engineers and technicians. Scientists learn about the world and create models, engineers use models to develop technologies, and technicians apply these technologies to obtain the desired result.

It remains to agree on the goals of training and the structure of the education system.

In the 1950s, professor of pedagogy at the University of Chicago, Benjamin Bloom, proposed a system of learning goals, which he outlined in the book Taxonomy of Educational Goals. Despite the well-known objections and discussions, this hierarchy of educational goals was adopted by the world education system (Figure 1) and remains relevant to this day (Bloom et al., 1956).

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Bloom et al. (1956) identified six levels of educational goals, arranged in a hierarchical order. Each level is aimed at developing certain thinking skills.

Let us fill each of the selected levels with semantics.

The first level (KNOWLEDGE) begins with storing and reproducing the information received. The goal of this level is achieved by the following actions: define, name, remember, arrange, list, learn, find, indicate, write down, select.

At the second stage (UNDERSTANDING), understanding and awareness occurs. The goal of this level is achieved by the following actions: define, explain, characterize, interpret, compare, summarize, correlate, extract, give an example, paraphrase.

The purpose of the third stage (APPLICATION) is to learn how to use the knowledge gained in specific situations. The goal of this level is achieved by the following actions: decide, distribute, show, explain, apply, calculate, research, conduct an experiment, find, choose.

At the fourth level (ANALYSIS), the goal is to understand the structure of the material and be able to divide it into related parts. The goal of this level is achieved by the following actions: analyse, highlight, build, find out, explain, organize, invent, build, contrast, divide, draw a conclusion.

The goal of the fifth level (SYNTHESIS) - can generalize and combine their knowledge. This goal is achieved by the following actions: compose, develop, group, combine, establish, plan, summarize, check, propose, formulate.

At the highest, sixth level (EVALUATION), the goal is for the student to be able to assess statements using criteria that they can formulate themselves or with the help of a teacher. This goal is achieved by the following actions: evaluate, argue, defend, state, measure, discuss, check, justify, confirm, predict.

These goals should be sought both within a specific lesson or lecture, and in the results of the learning cycle (Cassidy, 2011).

Findings

It was the above considerations about the levels of knowledge that formed the basis of the classical education system.

Higher education corresponded to the level of synthesis of models. The goal of higher education was to create a model of the world for the student in the chosen subject area.

Technical education aimed to provide knowledge about technology in a particular area.

Finally, vocational training trained people to use technology for one purpose or another.

The graduate school system was designed to form people using models, people capable of creating models, that is, to train scientists.

Note that for the authorities, the owners of a good model of the world are not very comfortable personalities. This type of personality gravitates towards passionaries, admires them and at any time can go into their camp. He is inclined to argue, want to change something in accordance with his ideas. He does not honor incumbents simply because he knows other options, creating technology as needed. For a consumer society, and even more so for a society of bureaucratic capital, he is an undesirable subject.

But what is to be done? A true leader must be tolerated, because someone needs to fight, heal, teach, etc.

Is it possible to get rid of such a potential true leader?

This is possible if, instead of a model of the world, education is given only technologies of action. Then the bearer of such an education will be able to perform social functions, but will not be able to change them, since he does not own the models that generate these technologies.

It is enough to move the steps of education down one step.

It is not known who first came up with this idea, and how conscious it was, but the fact that it was widely dispersed across the planet leads to some reflections.

If you investigate the curriculum of any university, you will find there, practically, only courses on technology. Many small courses on various technologies. There are almost no lectures in them because there is no need to form models. Today lectures are intended only to guide the student how to master a particular technology. You will not find in these programs solid courses that are designed for 2-4 semesters and shape the student's worldview.

The fetish of modern education is competence, that is, what as a result the learner should be able to do. Reasons? They are simple. The graduate must come to work and immediately start doing something concrete. The initial stage of adaptation is not expected. Therefore, specialists with a wide profile are not needed. We need those who already have the relevant skills, that is, competencies. All of this is furnished with a very grandiose, but destructive in essence.

However, the school is not lagging either. To form a model of the world requires incomparably more efforts from both the student and the teacher, compared to the task of training a student to pass the Unified State Exam. But by increasing the degree of social justice, we also lower the starting creative potential of university entrants. To check the quality of the individual model of the world, you need to talk to the applicant, and not look at his USE scores.

Conclusion

One should not think that the technological bias is only a problem of Russian education. The shortage of people with models is growing in the world every day. Finding them becomes good business.

The consequences of the problem caused by the INTENTIONAL degradation of education are just beginning to manifest themselves. The slowdown of the scientific and technological revolution is only one of the consequences. Already today it is almost impossible to return everything back, since the teaching staff has also degraded.

If in the days of Peter the Great it was possible to hire true leaders with models from Europe, now this problem cannot be easily solved: the West has the same problems.

But even this is not the worst thing. The worst thing is that the rebellious youth, those who should criticize the current state of society, absolutely agree that the most important thing is to master as much technology as possible, and the problem is that they are either given insufficient technology or are not given the most recent.

It is obvious that the emergence and overcoming of crises is directly related to the presence of true leaders in society, the quantity and quality of which is the main result of the education system.

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