In the Search for Truth

In the literal sense, this song, which accompanies The Adventures of the Elusive, reflects a surprising Russian phenomenon: to always live according to the "true path", to strive for a single goal with the crazed look in one's eyes so often described in Russian literature. Truths alternate with one another, means are confused with ends, and only their commonality for all remains unchangeable.
What is frightening is not the changeability of our fellow countrymen's passions, the easiness with which they go from "building communism" to "Khalyavshchikov and Partners", but their surprising gullibility. We were once told "Save your money in a state savings bank!", and we faithfully lined up at the teller's window with our hard-earned kopeks clutched tight in our fists. Now they frighten us with "You're living under constant stress!", and we clutch at our hearts. "You're victims of an economic cataclysm!", and we become discouraged. Many others say something else, and we believe it all. If some evangelist faith healer told us to hold hands and quietly jump off a cliff, how many of us do you think would be saved by our instinct for self-preservation?
The trouble is that we all share only one system of values on which our goals in life are formulated, and our relationship to the world around us. Fortunately, there are exceptions. You are about to meet two such people, who live according to their own rules.
Lena Vorobeva and Andrei Novikov have been leading a "Harmonious Development" group in one Moscow school for several years. In recent years, there has been an eruption of various overblown discussion groups and departments with similar titles on the body of Russian educational institutions. We will note at once that the radical difference between Lena and Andrei's group and the multitude of others lies in the fact that its first priority is not wringing every last penny from the parents' pockets; it's not even the second or the third. Thus, the first miracle is the absence of commercial interest. True, judging from the salaries of state educators, they too cannot be reproached for mercenary motives. But the poverty of teachers is compelled, and determined only by the paucity of the government budget. Lena and Andrei work with children on a completely voluntary basis, for two hours twice a week and an open period of time on the weekends. They are motivated only by a sense of professional duty; this is the second miracle. One can say that Russian history (though not the most recent) is full of examples of progressiveness; for instance, the enlighteners of the common people were volunteers who carried the torch of knowledge to the masses with total selflessness. But this brilliant assemblage was motivated by a yearning to improve the lot of a struggling humanity. Lena and Andrei are not. Perhaps they want to lower the number of juvenile delinquents and drug addicts, and therefore frolic with our children? Wrong again! What then does motivate them? We began our talk with this question.

Before you reveal the secret of the magic wand that you use to transform your young clients into happy, inspired artists, tell us why you began working with children.

Lena: We ourselves belong to a yoga group, and we have our own master. Sometimes people bring their children with them to the sessions. And when someone has to take care of the children, one person says that they're afraid to, that they don't know what to do; others say that they can't stand all the noise children make...

Andrei: ...and a third refuses because they're professionals. They say "We're always taking care of children; now we want to take a break from them".

Lena: Then the master advised us to try and find a common language with the children. That's how it all got started for us.

Andrei: We weren't starting from scratch; before this, our predecessors had organized some work with the children. They were holding lessons, and we helped as "student teachers". However, the people who began and established this program began to leave it. It turned out this way because our predecessors virtually were compelled to perform their professional duties both at work and away from it. In the end, it started to overwhelm them, and then Lena and I grabbed the baton...

Lena: We decided not to organize our lessons along prepared scenarios, as professional teachers do. We also chose a different tactic for conducting them. Teachers work according to a fixed program, and must teach everything the program covers. Because of this they're always nervous, ordering the children to sit still and pay attention, and silencing them.

Andrei: Besides this, a child in school works within a grading system; so the teacher's attitude towards him is based largely on his grades. Therefore, a child learns to speak with the aim of getting a good grade, even if he doesn't agree with what he's saying. We want everything to come from deep down inside, without any second thoughts.

Lena: School programs children, turning them into little robots. But they're all different: one child might be a bit slow, another a bit quicker, and a third can't sit still at all. If you force them all to behave identically and to sit at attention, then they'll become something that they're not at all. After their social processing, there is little left of what the children had naturally from birth. What we're trying to do is preserve the children's individuality and their natural temperament. We never restrain the children; on the contrary, we work according to what they want. Our task is to catch, kindle and keep their interest.

Andrei: At the same time, we try to preserve the integrity of the lesson, without turning it over entirely to the children.

Is this your personal position, or your pedagogical program?

Lena: We don't have any program; we try to sense the children's mood and catch the basic theme. We begin each lesson with either a game, or exercises, or massage... We never repeat ourselves; we improvise during each lesson and think of something new, and the teaching occurs simultaneously with the games and exercises. For example, today we talked about how our skeletons are built, and why we sometimes hurt. We did exercises with our joints, while at the same time explaining what a joint is, where they're located, what we need the exercises for, and why people get old. We want children to learn how to see and notice things, to think about them, ask questions, look for answers... We also try to teach the children how to love... Nature, other people, everything around them. Not abstractly, as many people do, but concretely, through giving. We say "If you take care of the flower that grows on the window-sill in your bedroom, that means that you'll love it. If you don't even notice it, and don't water it, then you don't love it". It is the same in your relations with all that surrounds you.

Your children are lucky; but a great many other children do not have the opportunity to study in such a group. Are you planning to extend your activities, or are you going to limit yourselves to what you have today?

Lena: We don't pose the question in that way. When a person reaches a certain level of development, he becomes a teacher. When a person has accumulated a great store of knowledge, he feels a need to share his experiences with someone; he acquires students. Everything happens in its own time.

Andrei: By the way, one cannot say that we are working with a carefully defined group of children. Of course, there's a permanent core of kids, and the overall number remains pretty much the same. But there's always a renewal taking place within the group.

Lena: And this is normal; we don't have any required subjects. Some children occupy themselves with music or dance, while the others come to us.

On what principles is your relationship with the children built? Is there any kind of hierarchy?

Lena: None at all. For our kids, we're friends; they address us the same way they'd address anybody else. In school, on the street, at home, they're continually being restricted: "Don't do that! Behave yourselves! Don't bother anyone with your talking!" With us, if you want to talk, go ahead. If you don't want to, you don't have to. If you want to do somersaults, tumble or play, go ahead. You can do anything you want! But there are also certain rules: you can't bother anyone else, you must ask permission...

Andrei: Our relationship with the children resembles our relationship with the community. In today's civilized society, children and adults are virtually alienated from one another; teaching and rearing children are the jobs of kindergartens and schools. In a real community, this is a natural process which cuts across permanent relations with adults, and across contemporary work and leisure. We, then, relax with the children, and we learn from one another.

Lena: Teachers often complain that children tire them. In our classes, no one ever gets tired, since we have a continuous exchange of energy. Our instruction, and physical and creative exercises are directed toward the development of intuition, or as they say, the "third eye". We all have this capacity, and children especially so since the dark powers of greed, envy and hatred are still alien to them. So in essence, our games are really quite serious affairs.

Does the school give you any assistance?

Lena: The school gives us a green light, and provides the premises free of charge. For the school, the effect that group lessons have on the children is more visible than it is in us. For example, children who at the beginning may have had difficulty in getting along with others become more gregarious, their language is free of offensive vocabulary... The school's director and psychologist noticed that the personalities of certain kids from our group have changed for the better.

People who are involved in educational problems, as a rule, first create for themselves a mission. How would you define the mission of your team?

Lena: Simply that when you've acquired a sufficient volume of knowledge, you want to share it. When I was involved in tourism for example, I took a course on piloting a boat. Along with my basic area of specialization--architecture--I'm also a designer, a model-maker, and a photo artist. Andrei has his own life's work. In working with the kids we use everything we know, and give them the capital of our accumulated experience. Creativity holds a special place with us. It won't resemble the traditional drawings of the cubists when you explain what the shade or halfshade should be, and so on... We're not perfecting technique, we're broadening the limits of creativity. We tell which materials and methods you can use to create a work of art; and the kids, with their own multiple capabilities, bring to life their unique visions of the world. we do our best to see that they're good and bright. Our kids live under a continuous assault of films that depict shooting, violence and aggression, which convinces them that there's only one way to protect themselves--by fighting, attacking others and shooting, which only provokes new evil. We teach children not to submit to these provocations; after all, what we believe eventually comes true. In one lesson, we made a city of the future, and imagined that our city would be clean and green, that it would be populated by happy people, beautiful birds, tame squirrels and gentle elk; and that we would free our planet from harmful industries. The more people who see the future in such a light, the more certain we'll be that there will be such a future.

Lena and Andrei were interviewed by Julia Kachalova


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