Will astronomy be introduced at school. Star Wars: how and why to return astronomy to Russian schools

In Russian schools, the subject "astronomy" has actually been outlawed since 2008 - under the pretext that none of the current astronomy textbooks has been allowed and approved for use in schools. And the rule now is - there is no authorized textbook, therefore, this subject cannot be taught. Apparently, officials from the Ministry of Education and Science considered that knowledge of the Universe and cosmic laws is completely unnecessary for our children.

There is no direct ban on studying astronomy in schools, in some schools astronomy is still taught as special courses, but none of the recently written textbooks has the stamp of the Ministry of Education recommending the use of a textbook in the educational process. And teachers who can teach astronomy in high school are sorely lacking.

Let me remind you that, paradoxically, the elimination of astronomy as a compulsory subject in Russian schools took place just on the eve of 2009, declared by the UN General Assembly the International Year of Astronomy. In words, constantly declaring its desire to become part of the international community, declaring its desire to join the WTO, in fact, Russia ignored the UN resolution. Such inadequate behavior of education officials caused a strong reaction from many teachers, university professors and the scientific community.

In 2009, Russian astronomers asked the authorities to “return the teaching of astronomy to schools, restore astronomical training in pedagogical universities, and provide state support for the popularization of this science,” the text of the conference resolution adopted as the basis says. The statement of Russian scientists said: “The elimination of astronomy in secondary schools inevitably creates fertile ground for the widespread dissemination of pseudoscientific ideas about the world, astrology, magic, witchcraft, in conditions when popular science literature is not available to the general population due to high prices. We believe that the need for universal astronomical education is due to the importance of the contribution of astronomy to the creation of a scientific picture of the world and the formation of the scientific worldview of modern people. Natural science is part of a single universal culture and natural science knowledge should become the property of any educated person. At present, astronomy and space exploration are rapidly developing in the world, but in Russia, graduates of general educational institutions are "doomed to astronomical illiteracy"

This initiative was supported by the rector of Moscow State University Viktor Sadovnichy. “Astronomy should be reintroduced as a compulsory school subject,” he said, “and universities need to revive the training of astronomy teachers. A person, looking at the sky, should have elementary ideas about what it is. Astronomy is a culture, it is knowledge that every cultured person should have. What are stars, what are planets, what is matter, what is space, why is it infinite.

So why should schools study astronomy?

For thousands of years, the foundations of astronomical knowledge - the foundations of ideas about the Universe - have been part of the training system for the younger generations. Even in the monastic schools of the Middle Ages, astronomy, along with arithmetic, geometry and music, was part of the "quadrivium" - the highest level of the seven free arts, mandatory for the study of subjects. From here, this scheme was transferred to the first universities that arose in the 12th-13th centuries.

In the gymnasiums of Russia there was a compulsory course of descriptive astronomy - cosmography. Astronomy, as a compulsory subject, was also included in the curricula of the Soviet secondary school. However, there were also attempts in those years to remove astronomy from the secondary school curriculum. Shortly before the start of the Great Patriotic War, some "wise men" from the then Narkompros tried to remove astronomy from the curricula of secondary schools. Then the leading astronomers of the country turned to Academician A. A. Blagonravov, who was then the President of the Academy of Artillery Sciences (there was such an academy at one time), and he had the right to directly address I. V. Stalin. And now one phone call from Blagonravov to Stalin was enough - and the issue of restoring astronomy at school was immediately resolved.

Why is it so important to study astronomy in high school? This is necessary for a modern educated person because of those important social functions that astronomy performs throughout the history of mankind and to which the modern era introduces new facets. The first of these functions is applied. This is the development of methods of orientation in time and space, which is a necessary condition for the production activity of a person, his social existence and his daily life. The second function is general cultural: it is the determination of the place and role of man in the structure of the Universe. The astronomical picture of the world for thousands of years has been and is an integral part of the scientific picture of the world as a whole; that part of it that gives a person an idea of ​​the spatio-temporal structure of the world in which he lives and acts. Here we should also emphasize the fact that, with all its close ties with physics, astronomy is an independent holistic science with its own specific object and method of research.

And in general, what needs to be proved, if we were the first to create spaceships, the first to overcome the earth's gravity! We were the first to conquer space! We were the first to go into outer space! It is our Proton rockets that put satellites of any countries into orbit! Russia trains cosmonauts of any countries! Astronautics is one of the few areas of science where we still maintain a leading position in the world.

And all this because astronomy, taught in schools, revealed to children the beautiful and mysterious world of the Universe! It was from former schoolchildren who fell in love with the starry sky that talented designers and astronauts came out! International scientists! And it's a shame that right now, when the rest of the civilized world has become interested in astronomy, we have stopped teaching it at school.

Although, following the logic of our rulers, why should our children know the laws of the universe, have a scientific understanding of the world? Enough for them computer games-shooters on the theme of "Star Wars", fantastic films about aliens like "Skyline" and the course of God's law ... Yes, "Star Factory" ... As a result, now few of today's youth can answer the simplest questions: who is Tsiolkovsky, how planets differ from stars and why solar eclipses happen...

In 2009 The world celebrated the 400th anniversary of the observation of the starry sky with the help of telescopes. In 1609 Galileo Galilei directed the telescope he created towards the Moon, the Sun, stars and planets and discovered that there are mountains on the Moon, and spots on the Sun, that Jupiter has satellites, Saturn has rings, and the Milky Way consists of stars. Astronomy is currently undergoing another revolution. Today it is one of the most rapidly developing sciences, where discoveries follow one after another. In Russia, since the time of Peter I, astronomy has been a compulsory subject in schools and colleges. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was the interest in astronomy that led Friedrich Zander to design an interplanetary jet aircraft. In the 60s. XX century it was impossible to imagine that astronomy would be expelled from the curriculum of secondary education. Then the spacecraft created by our scientists opened up new knowledge about the Moon, Venus, Mars for all mankind. Today, alas, other countries are engaged in fundamental space research: Europe, the USA, Japan, China, India, and in Russia, officials believe that we have had enough space transportation for money and space tourism for money ....

The UN General Assembly in its resolution noted that astronomy is one of the oldest fundamental sciences, that it has a serious impact on the development of other sciences, applied research, culture, philosophy, etc., that astronomy is an absolutely necessary science that should be studied, starting from childhood.

And the demise of the study of astronomy in Russian schools goes hand in hand with Russia's withdrawal from the field of fundamental sciences and from high-tech areas such as space. In words, the authorities stand up for the innovative development of Russia, but in reality they are engaged in the destruction of fundamental education, removing astronomy from schools and universities and replacing the theory of evolution with delusional myths about the seven days of creation. It is especially significant that this is happening right now, during the years of a grandiose scientific breakthrough in the field of astronomy and space physics of the leading countries of the world...

Will the number of hours allotted for astronomy somehow affect the quality of teaching, why a physicist is not suitable for teaching astronomy, and how thoughtful was the decision to return astronomy lessons to school?

Today, the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Olga Vasilyeva is talking about the return of astronomy to high school. Removed six years ago, the item will appear in the program from September. However, this will take place in a “saving mode”: physics teachers will conduct astronomy, and no additional hours will be allocated for it.

“Let me remind you that starting from this year, a course in astronomy is being introduced into the school curriculum. There is nothing surprising in this, astronomy was taught in the course of physics, we have textbooks, they were always on the federal list, physics teachers are ready for the fact that they will teach this course no longer within the framework of the subject "Physics", but within the framework of separate astronomy . There are no hourly changes,” the minister said.

Earlier, the ministry developed amendments to the federal state educational standard (FSES) of secondary general education, which, in particular, proposed to introduce a list of requirements for what schoolchildren should learn in astronomy lessons. So, at the basic level, according to the project, students must understand for themselves the structure of the solar system, the evolution of stars and the universe, and know the basic astronomical terms. At an in-depth level, students should understand the connection between physical laws discovered on earth and phenomena in the Universe.

the site interviewed astronomers, physics teachers and school leaders and found out what they think about this measure.

Georgy Arabuli, physics teacher at the Second School Lyceum (Moscow):

“When astronomy classes were canceled a few years ago, it was a big tragedy. The Olympic movement remains, but the object seems to be gone. And the children are engaged only in circles, and in the lessons astronomy only surfaced in a few physics lessons - in examples. Because the news of her return is good.

But there are pitfalls here, because a physics teacher must teach. It's like MHC (world artistic culture, - site note) taught by a teacher of literature, who is not perfectly versed in the MHC. Astronomy should be taught by an astronomer, not a physicist. There is an astronomer in my school, there is someone to direct and lead. But in most schools, this will be a big problem.

Yes, and the idea of ​​taking a clock from physics is quite sad. In Soviet times, physics was allocated four lessons a week, and based on this, the program was built. Now the program has remained the same, but the time has been reduced to two hours a week. There is nowhere to take hours away from physics.”

Oleg Ugolnikov, Senior Researcher at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Deputy Chairman of the Central Subject-Methodological Commission on Astronomy of the All-Russian Olympiad for School Students:

“Unfortunately, I did not participate in the process of returning astronomy to school. I'm not sure the accepted scheme will be viable. In our opinion, astronomy should have been introduced as a separate course for a year and no later than in grades 7-8. And it is returned as an application to physics in the 11th, in absolutely the same form as in the last years of the Soviet Union. And all the problems will repeat. Teachers will use this hour for additional physics classes, and the children will completely agree with them, because the problems they face are completely different.”

Evgeny Yamburg, director of Education Center No. 109 (Moscow):

“Personally, I don’t see any threat or danger here, a normal measure. And as for the fact that teachers consider it half-hearted, that not enough hours are allocated for astronomy ... Each subject student is such a tunneller, to use a metaphor. Give me three hundred hours of history! Three hundred hours of physics! I'll tell you more: I have a whole division - children who are being treated, with oncology, with kidneys on hemodialysis. There is a very strict medical protocol, they cannot be overloaded. Nevertheless, they successfully pass the GIA, the Unified State Examination, and enter universities. So, it's not about the number of hours, but about the technology of teaching.

But at the same time, you need to have a basic understanding of astronomy. Otherwise, according to sociological research, almost 60% of us believe that the Sun revolves around the Earth. But there are general cultural ideas, and there are subtleties that are needed by those who decide to link their fate with this specialty.

Sergey Popov, astrophysicist, popularizer of science, leading researcher at the State Astronomical Institute named after P.K. Sternberg:

“This is too much of a cavalry charge for the question. Such a decisive measure as the introduction of a compulsory subject in school requires serious preparation. In this case, it seems to me, it was not, the decision looks ill-conceived. Therefore, I think that in the vast majority of schools it will be a sham. And one more thing: it is not yet known in which class astronomy will be, it is difficult to comment. But, if it is in the senior class, I remain opposed to such a measure.

Sergey Danilov, teacher of physics and astronomy (St. Petersburg):

“It is still not very clear to me where the hours and teachers will come from. They say they will be retrained. Again the question is who. And one more important question: the textbook. Vorontsov-Velyaminov? So even in our time, more than a hundred errors were found in it.

State Corporation "Roscosmos" appealed to the Ministry of Education and Science with a request to return astronomy, as a separate subject, to Russian schools. This initiative was supported by Russian planetariums and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. And then a miracle happened, the Ministry of Education and Science officially announced that from September 1, 2017, a new subject will appear in schools - astronomy.

In the early 1990s, astronomy was no longer taught in Russian schools. And although the Ministry of Education and Science denies the fact of the exclusion of the course of astronomy from compulsory school curriculum(According to the employees of the department, astronomy has become an integral part of the disciplines "Physics" and "World around"), in fact, schoolchildren had to look for and study information about celestial bodies and related phenomena on their own. As a result, the level of astronomical literacy among the population has fallen below nowhere - for example, more than a third of Russians do not know that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa.

Such astronomical illiteracy in the 21st century, the century of space discoveries, and in the country that launched the first satellites, is unacceptable. That is why the State Corporation "Roscosmos" appealed to the Ministry of Education and Science with a request to return astronomy, as a separate subject, to Russian schools. This initiative was supported by Russian planetariums and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. And then a miracle happened, the Ministry of Education and Science officially announced that from September 1, 2017, a new subject will appear in schools - astronomy.

Why did astronomy disappear from school curricula?

Among the reasons that leveled astronomy as a school subject is the apocalypse of the USSR - there was no time for education when the country was falling apart. But this is not the most important factor that destroyed the possibility of obtaining scientific ideas about the world around us. There were other reasons, no less objective.

The history of teaching the subject in Russia as a natural science has more than a hundred years. From the elite science, cosmography (astronomy) became accessible in the early 20s of the last century, and in connection with the education reform of the thirties of the last century, astronomy received the status of a separate school subject, and until 1991, 35 hours were allotted for its study in the graduating class of a general education school .

The second half of the year for graduates is a hot time, preparation for exams, so physics teachers, they are also teachers of astronomy, canceled astronomy lessons in favor of preparing for the final exam in physics. And the lessons of astronomy became two times less - even less than the cosmic bodies in the solar system, about which it would be desirable to give students at least a superficial idea.

Studying the structure of outer space with its laws remained a dream, which was fueled by screenwriters and directors of science fiction films about extraterrestrial civilizations, flights to the constellation Canis Major and so on. Horoscopes and astrological forecasts were added to the film scripts about space as a pseudo-scientific didactic material, which bred in all printed publications and on central television channels - as if on purpose someone shook off the dust of centuries from ancient human ideas about the universe, and replicated them in a country that met from space his Gagarin.

But the study of astronomy, as natural science, in addition to expanding knowledge in the field of natural sciences, affects the formation of the worldview of schoolchildren. But since 1991, this niche has been filled with pseudoscientific knowledge, imperceptibly leading new generations into the medieval jungle of ignorance.

The availability of the study of astronomy, which was provided by the Soviet education system, reached the highest crisis point and disappeared along with the state, which was the first to launch a satellite and send a man into space - "... a genius is a friend of paradoxes," as the great Russian poet said. Who benefited from the disappearance of the USSR and the elimination of the subject of astronomy from the compulsory school curriculum is a topic for study in the lessons of history and social science.

Is astronomy necessary in school?

Today Russia in the field of space research and space exploration competes only with the United States. So far, the first satellite, the first cosmonaut, the first man to go into outer space is our superiority, and so far, without Russian launch vehicles, Americans could look into space only with the help of telescopes. Everything in the world is interconnected. Much on Earth depends on success in the study and exploration of outer space. We can say with absolute certainty: the stronger is the one who is smarter, and the power is in knowledge.

Experts believe that studying astronomy at school necessary. If only because the science of the universe will help students broaden their horizons and satisfy their natural curiosity. Will the students be interested in the new subject? The very knowledge of space, of course, will be of interest to the children, say the workers of planetariums and astro-complexes. But how interesting the course of astronomy at school will be, largely depends on the teachers.

Individual representatives of the authorities also speak about the need to study astronomy at school. For example, Senator Lyudmila Bokova answered our question: “Astronomy used to be a full-fledged subject and was studied in high school. Its necessity is obvious, there is even an Olympiad movement in this subject area. Public activists and teachers have repeatedly advocated the return of this discipline. In my opinion, it is not advisable to introduce a separate subject to the detriment of others, but it is possible to prepare an integrated physics program, including topics related to astronomy. This will require additions to physics textbooks."

By the way

Representatives of BRAINLY Sp. z o.o. Together with the site Znanija.com, they took it upon themselves to conduct a "completely disinterested" sociological study on the topic, do schoolchildren in Russia want to study astronomy? It turned out that they almost did not want to! Detailed results of this survey can be found on the specified site, but they are not the point.

Where and why did the company appear in our country, and why is it concerned about the desire or unwillingness of children to study astronomy? Any research requires considerable material costs - and they were not sorry! Children do not like milk and semolina, they are afraid of vaccinations, they dream that the holidays last nine months a year, and the school year - three. It would be possible to conduct a poll on this topic.

Readers will draw their own conclusions about such an interest in the Russian educational system.

Astronomy is back in school. Who will teach and how?

Now about the most important. The official website of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation published an order dated June 20, 2017 "On the organization of the study subject"Astronomy" with the application of guidelines for the introduction of this discipline as a compulsory course.

The methodological recommendations state that "in order to organize effective (!) work ..." a compulsory, at the level of secondary general education, the subject is given at least 35 hours (!) "in two years of study." Again, as in the Soviet school, the inclusion of astronomy in the number of subjects for the Unified State Examination is not planned, even on a voluntary basis. True, this time, questions on astronomy are planned to be included in the materials of the state exam in physics. Training and retraining of personnel, the creation of textbooks, material and technical base - in the planning and development stage.

"Orphan" was returned to the temple of knowledge, but again put in a corner. Yes, not everyone will become astrophysicists, because astronomy is a very complex and multicomponent science, and the country needs scientists in this field, and not a huge staff of ordinary technicians. But, perhaps, with a more serious approach to the study subject at school, would it be possible over time to grow qualified teachers of astronomy who would be able to instill interest in science, explain its significance to future generations? Nobody says that you should not learn the rules of the road if you are not going to drive a car.

Yes, the amount of knowledge today is such that it causes reasonable concern about the high psycho-emotional and educational load of children, and it is not known where to "insert" an additional hour of the old-new subject. But astronomy can also be part of geography or natural science, it fits well into the sections of other natural sciences. Science is developing rapidly, and it will be even more difficult to study further.

Good that astronomy back to school. If only not to step on the "old rake"! The past must aspire to the future, and this needs to be thought about, this time - seriously and irrevocably.

Image sources: tvc.ru, sibmama.ru, newsland.com, inruza.ru

MOSCOW, 22 September. /TASS/. Russian science is able to quickly fill the shortage of astronomy teachers after the return of this discipline to schools, Alexander Zakharov, scientific secretary of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes. His opponent, the director of the Novosibirsk Planetarium, Sergey Maslikov, believes that this idea of ​​the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation can be implemented only in a few years.

Minister Olga Vasilyeva said on Wednesday about the need to return astronomy to the school curriculum. “Earlier, in schools, this subject was an hour a week. There is no doubt that this hour should return,” Vasilyeva said.

Who can teach?

The director of the Novosibirsk Planetarium believes that the idea of ​​returning astronomy to the school curriculum can be implemented no sooner than in five years. This will be seriously hampered by the lack of teachers, Maslikov told TASS.

The initiative is certainly good. I'm only afraid that it will remain unrealized. Just like that, the hour of astronomy will not appear, because now there are no teachers in schools who could teach it. It takes at least 5 years to train teachers

Sergey Maslikov

Director of the Novosibirsk Planetarium

“The initiative, of course, is good. I’m only afraid that it will remain unrealized. It’s just that the hour of astronomy will not appear, because now there are no teachers in schools who could teach it. At least 5 years are needed to learn teachers,” he expressed his Maslikov's opinion.

He noted that the retraining of physics teachers will not solve the problem, since "physics will still remain." "Who will teach astronomy? Now this is a big question, because it is always easier to break than to restore later," the agency's interlocutor added.

The potential is already there

Russian science is able to quickly fill the shortage of astronomy teachers after the return of this discipline to schools. Such an opinion today in an interview with the correspondent. TASS was told by the Scientific Secretary of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI RAS), Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Alexander Zakharov.

"We have students, researchers who can serve this cause, and we have the potential to solve the shortage of personnel for astronomy teachers," Zakharov said.

He is also convinced that in order to popularize astronomy, it is necessary to publish new textbooks with an astronomical bias. "This should be done without any doubt, whether there is astronomy in schools or not," the scientist noted.

The Ministry of Education and Science, Zakharov believes, should abandon the Soviet experience in building observatories at schools. "There is no need to build special observatories, because now you can buy a telescope with which schoolchildren will study the night sky. In addition, there are various centers where there are telescopes - they cooperate with educational institutions," the agency's interlocutor explained.

You can't become a writer without astronomy

The Council of Chief Designers of the Sverdlovsk Region (a coordinating body created by decision of the governor of the region - TASS note) also strongly supports the idea of ​​returning astronomy to schools. Leonid Shalimov, chairman of the council, noted that schoolchildren should have this subject if society wants to "educate versatile people."

In his opinion, without astronomy a person is deprived of one of his fundamental components - the expansion of the horizons of knowledge, he is less likely to acquire a philosophical mindset, without which "a normal engineer and writer is impossible."

At the moment, there are about 60 astronomical observatories in Russia, 10 universities with astronomical departments, about a thousand professional astronomers, as well as thousands of amateur astronomers who are passionate about the sky.

Background

Almost ten years ago, the subject of astronomy was excluded from the school curriculum. At the same time, the study of the Universe with the help of spacecraft has received the most modern and unique opportunities and is constantly developing. Suffice it to recall the successful ESA mission "Rosetta" to land a probe on the nucleus of the flying comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko - this unique operation was carried out at a distance of half a billion km from the Earth.

Experts note that children's interest in the sky increases at the age of 10-13. Then, if this knowledge is not developed, it simply disappears. This is especially true for megacities, where the starry sky is practically invisible and there is a lot of "mundane" civilization.

Even 15 years ago, schools had as many as four textbooks to choose from for the final class in astronomy: two of them provided elementary knowledge, the other two were more in-depth.

When the question is raised about the need to teach astronomy at school, opponents, most often from the "leadership", in an intimate tone ask a deadly counter question: "Why would a simple hard worker need astronomy in his practical life? ... Well, there, navigation, orientation , orienteering by the stars ... but this is done by a very small number of people who are specially trained for this! So let them study astronomy!”

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the need for teaching astronomy at school

When the question is raised about the need to teach astronomy at school, opponents, most often from the "leadership", in an intimate tone ask a deadly counter question: "Why would a simple hard worker need astronomy in his practical life? ... Well, there, navigation, orientation , orienteering by the stars ... but this is done by a very small number of people who are specially trained for this! So let them study astronomy!”

At first glance, there is logic in this reasoning. But let's extend this approach to other disciplines of high school.

MATHEMATICS. Why study it? There are calculators that calculate more accurately than a person. Now, if a hard worker needs to calculate something, he will use a calculator, and let the specialists deal with all sorts of Newton's binomial and integrals. Is not it?

LETTER. What are typewriters for? And soon there will be those that will print directly from the voice, grammatically absolutely correct, just put the sheet in the machine. I learned to sign - and that's enough!

STORY. Well, in practical life, absolutely useless! What was, is gone and cannot be changed. And what will happen, no one knows anyway. And history itself is rewritten every few years by historians in a new way. So there is nothing to waste on it and time.

GEOGRAPHY. Also not needed! Round Earth, or flat, so the hard worker "doesn't matter", and if you need where to go, then buy a ticket, and go!

NATURAL SCIENCE. Everything that you, a hard worker, need to know, they will tell you and show on TV.

PHYSICS CHEMISTRY. Again, wherever you work, it is not your knowledge that is required of you, but the exact implementation of work and safety instructions. And in general, to become a Big man, education is useless. Alexander Danilovich Menshikov could neither read nor write, but became the most illustrious prince and the richest person, without any books! This is a worthy example!

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. This is what you need in the first place! And in order to make the work go easier, and in order to, on occasion, “give” to someone properly! And entertainment for him is simple: a TV set, if you are already very tired, at least sleep in front of it, no one will condemn, or a disco “for live communication”, well, of course, mental games, such as “goat”, cards.

And there is no need to teach such a hard worker for ten or more years, and even at the expense of the whole people; he learned to read, he knows how to sign, he pumped up his muscles - and go to work, at least from the age of ten. You don't have to teach you how to smoke and drink vodka - you'll learn it yourself!

All of the above is not an exaggeration. This kind of training, when the stadium is in the first place, can be seen in the United States, from which we are now trying to follow an example in everything from pop music, detective films and ending with school education. At the same time, they completely forget that the United States is a country of people who have abandoned their historical homelands, customs, customs, often even despising them, striving to snatch as much as possible from life in a new place and quickly, at least at the expense of health, life, even someone else's. , at least his own. While admiring the achievements of US engineers and scientists, one should not forget that a significant part of them are “written out” from European countries, including Russia, where the education of the younger generation is not so pragmatic. In our country, a law on universal compulsory secondary education was adopted, but at the same time it is full of half-educated people, not much different from the “hard workers” shown above. There are several reasons for this situation, and it is useful to recall at least some of them.

A dependent approach to education: “if there is a law, then let them teach me, but I can mess around, all the same,“ they ”must let me out, otherwise they will get it!” So the teachers suffer, pulling the “troika” to an obvious loafer (sometimes for a “bribe”!).

A purely pragmatic approach, which is found mainly among the rural population, where secondary education is the reason that distracts the teenager from peasant labor, in which every pair of hands is precious to the family. A similar view of education is found, and often among the uncultured and low-income sections of the workers, whose children strive as quickly as possible to join the life and work of adults.

The desire of the top party leadership to train mass cadres of "liberators of the world proletariat from the yoke of capitalism." These frames, of course, were supposed to be "ours"

Naturally, seeing their destiny in the world revolution, these teenagers did not at all feel the need to study the sciences, and at the same time they did not feel the need for ordinary human morality, replacing it with "class revolutionary consciousness."

One gets the impression that high-ranking leaders do not always understand, do not even realize that a simplified approach to educating the younger generation on the scale of such a large country as ours will lead in a relatively short time to a sharp stratification of society into a huge mass of poorly trained "hard workers" who know nothing but the work for which they have been instructed; people with a sharply narrowed intellect, not interested in anything, because they were brought up that way, with base customs and habits, in fact the same as the slaves of Rome and the Egyptian pharaohs, but at a higher technical level of production, and - on technocrats, engineers and scientists who were trained and educated for high pay, knowing in advance that they were preparing masters over slaves. And these gentlemen, like the caste of Egyptian priests, in their offices and laboratories will develop science, technology, which makes the labor of slaves more productive. This caste will rule over the "hard workers" - slaves, and some will be crushed to powder by the forces of a small number of master engineers without the need for the involvement of the army or police.

Thus, there can be two ways of organizing the education of the younger generation:

universal, equal for all in its content, similar to what we had, and

· separate, according to different programs, simplified for workers, and for future technocrats with in-depth study of sciences.

The first path provides a general cadre of people who can not only consciously relate to the work entrusted to them, but also take an active part in its improvement due to their preparedness. Of these people, the most talented for further higher education are identified. At the same time, the possibility of communication of all people is preserved, since the foundation of their knowledge is the same.

The second way gives two types of personnel: those who manage, and those who perform the work, guided by strictly followed instructions. In practice, those who can take a place in the management and creation of new technology will never leave the second group. Due to the sharp difference in the training and education of these groups, mutual communication between them will be completely excluded. And the longer this system of education and training is maintained, the further these two groups will separate from one another.

One gets the impression that we are beginning to incline towards the second way of educating and educating the younger generation due to its simplicity, short duration for hard workers, and lower costs on the part of the state. But this does not take into account that sooner or later society will become the way it was shown in the "Time Machine" by G. Wells and R. Bradbury in "451 ° Fahrenheit".

If differentiated education is accepted, if the vast class of "workers" in town and countryside receive simplified education only for what is necessary for practical activity, then the level of development of society will decline to the Neolithic. Moreover, this alone will lay the foundation for a future social explosion.

It should be remembered that the complex of sciences adopted for the education of adolescents was created over many years and had as its goal ultimately to give the teenager a harmonious development not for momentary work, but for work in his future. Simplified learning, looking back at the needs of the past, cannot provide this. Education in school provides preparation for many decades to come. This is often forgotten by some of the "leaders", to whom their very position should suggest the need for far-sightedness.

Let's go back to schooling teenagers. There is one science that stands apart. It combines the accuracy and logic of mathematics, the formulation of problems characteristic of physics, chemistry, natural sciences, and sometimes itself sets tasks for these sciences or generalizes the results of their achievements in the study of the external world, which does not depend on human activity. The results of its generalizations often form the basis of philosophical generalizations and norms of morality. Because of this, in ancient times this science was considered the mother of all sciences and was called Cosmography, and now it is called Astronomy. The great Lomonosov, founding the first Russian University, put mathematics as the first science, and Astronomy as the second, which develops a person's worldview and his worldview.

Astronomy plays a very important role in the formation of a correct view of the world in a growing person, and isn’t it strange that 300 years after Lomonosov, we are “overwriting” this science by teachers of mathematics and physics who always want to allocate more to their disciplines hours, with the tacit consent of the school leadership, and sometimes not only the school. And if the school has two or three school telescopes, then they are peacefully in the closet, because for astronomical observations it is necessary to spend night time, which the teacher of physics or mathematics does not want to do at all.

On the other hand, if you come across a teacher of physics and astronomy who knows his subject not only in the volume of a textbook, tries to give his students what the program should give, then the results are quite impressive.

I will cite only one example of a teacher of physics and astronomy I know in one of the schools in Ussuriysk, Anatoly Vladimirovich Mikhailov. I immediately make a reservation that he managed to arrange the matter in such a way that he could secretly make changes to the arrangement of the hours of the program, which, of course, would not have been allowed officially. In modern terms, he worked "for the final result." Here is what he did and what were the results. During the period of a monthly workshop in physics (in physics and mathematics classes), he included the entire course of astronomy in the monthly clock grid. By this time, the course of optics had already been completed (and mathematics, respectively). The lessons were reinforced by the topic of physics that came to the rescue - the theory of relativity. For observations, five school telescopes were used, of which three were meniscus, nine were teacher's, and five theodolites were borrowed from mathematicians. For a class of 32 people, when performing individual tasks, this turned out to be quite enough. Observations were carried out on the outskirts of the city. The children received photographs of the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter with satellites, meteorite falls, photographed parts of the starry sky. Then mathematical processing was carried out and tests were submitted based on the observation materials. The children made small discoveries for themselves: determining the speed of meteorites, etc. During the summer holidays, ninth-graders camped near the Sun Service Station, where the children were entrusted with the real work of photographing the Sun, mathematical processing of the data obtained. At that time, a unique flash occurred on the Sun, which was reported to Komsomolskaya Pravda by a TASS correspondent. A couple of days later, requests began to pour in to the easternmost Ussuri station from Greenwich, Pic-du-Midi, South Africa, etc. Five station employees were in time trouble and three dozen voluntary and very conscientious assistants came to their aid. The mathematical processing of the evolution of sunspots was entrusted to three guys at the same time, who worked independently of each other, and if the results converged, then they were considered scientifically reliable. In three days everything was processed and sent. The guys also helped in translating the data into English, French, Spanish. The audit showed that the guys performed the work at the level of junior researchers and often more accurately than regular employees. Upon completion of the work, the director of the Station summed up: “If it were not for your guys, I and my staff would not have done it in a month!”

Many years have passed since then. These guys have grown up a long time ago. There were nine PhDs from that issue (this data is about six to seven years old), all at the forefront of science: biophysics, cryogenics, solid state physics, biochemistry, genetic engineering, astrophysics ...

Astronomers have a mighty latent reserve, these are amateurs. There are quite a lot of them and they spontaneously arise when a person looks at the sky and thinks about what he sees. Unlike mathematics, geography, for example, where amateurs deepen their fundamental knowledge, an astronomy lover can be the one who first looked at the sky with an interested look, and the one who studied some section of astronomy in depth, and the one who independently makes astronomical instruments. They are all equal and everyone will understand each other. And often an astronomy amateur differs from a professional only in the level of mathematical training, and even the ability to distribute his time regardless of the rigid plan of regular work.

It is known that the detection of comets and new stars is often done by amateurs, and only after them is the baton picked up by professionals with their precise instruments and methods of observation. Astronomy enthusiasts are also known, who built instruments, the size and quality of which are often surprised by professionals. And there were many cases when an amateur became a professional, whom not a single specialist could reproach for superficiality, for amateurishness.

If amateurs unite in clubs, then with good leadership they often create very interesting, sometimes unique designs, as can be seen, for example, from the work of the D.D. Maksutov club in Novosibirsk, under the leadership of L.L. Sikoruk. By the way, D. D. Maksutov himself, an outstanding optician, not only a practitioner, but also a theorist, began as an amateur. And it is much easier to attract people, moreover, of all ages, to astronomy than, for example, to mathematics (remember your school circles)!

When in November 1973 L.L. Sikoruk spoke on Novosibirsk television with a story about the upcoming passage of the Kohoutek comet, showed a 100 mm refractor and promised to help those who wished to build a telescope, 400 people responded to his proposal. Is this not an indicator of people's underlying craving for astronomy! (see "Earth and the Universe" No. 1/81).

The Science of Astronomy will not suffer from our neglect of it, the future of Mankind will suffer, and possibly its further existence.

The following follows from what has been said.

Everyone should have the opportunity to receive a secondary school education. The document on education should reflect the completeness of the assimilation of a single program, even if by different methods.

Astronomy should be taught in two cycles, in elementary and middle grades, according to programs of varying complexity. Teaching should be given attention as one of the leading disciplines. At the same time, the program should be revised, with emphasis on explaining the physical nature of astronomical phenomena and, above all, those that occur daily and regularly, clearly distinguish between their causes and effects, and link astronomy with other sciences.

Include obligatory students to carry out independent laboratory work and astronomical observations. At the same time, create conditions that encourage teachers to conduct night observations with students.

Joining the opinion of a colleague, I want to give a few examples from my practice as a teacher of physics and, once, astronomy. When I taught astronomy at school 25 years ago, it was everyone's favorite subject. Astronomy was studied in the 11th grade, it was included in the list of elective exams. In the final classes they went to study in order to enter the university. Everyone who had “stadium” goals in life has already gone to vocational schools and safely cut the “loot” or drank too much. And the remaining successful children enthusiastically studied the foundations of the Universe, regardless of the profile of the class - humanitarian or physics and mathematics. They successfully passed the exam, as they already knew a lot from the course of mathematics, physics, biology, geography. Astronomy generalized and united disparate knowledge into a single picture of the World. My very busy guys went to night observations at the Planetarium, the Pulkovo Observatory. They competed at the Olympics. We went to night observations on the ground, learned to navigate by the stars. It was helpful and very romantic, which is important for teenagers. And how much new they learned about the calendar and time counting system! None of this was even mentioned. Several people even went to the Aerospace Academy! When the subject of astronomy was excluded from the Federal component, at the end of grade 11, several lessons on astronomy were introduced. Science just torn to pieces! Phys-Math. classes at this time are loaded with the Unified State Examination, and galloping across Europe is a complete profanation. But you can introduce students to astronomy at least as part of a physics program.

All the basic questions of astronomy can and should be considered at least within the framework of physics. Questions of cosmogony and cosmology remain outside the scope of physics, but they can easily find a place within those few hours that are given for astronomy in the 11th grade.