OUR SHORTCOMINGS OF EDUCATION

Interview with writer and publicist Vachagan Sargsyan

– You are the author of textbooks on native language. With your books our children – tomorrow’s soldiers are being brought up. What principles do you follow in the preparation of textbooks?

– Starting from childhood you need to instill in the child love for the motherland. If a child knows his country, his language, culture, he can’t not love the Motherland. For the school textbook we decided to choose some image that would serve as an example for the pupil. We gave a preference to the image of David of Sassoon, because he has all the best qualities of our nation – the courage, love to family, to homeland… Nzhdeh, Andranik, heroes of our time are also presented.

However, only by textbooks, literature, it is impossible to educate a generation. A state complex program is essential. Now you can count on the fingers those media which promote the true, universal values, and on television we witness obscene, jargon speech, thieves theme. How much you teach a child at school to speak pure Armenian language, still profane language prevails everywhere, at every step Armenian language, faith, family is being spoiled. Today we do not have enough good movies, literature, cartoons…

– By the way, what would you say about the cartoon “Anahit”?

– Beautiful cartoon, but there are drawbacks. We do not see the main idea of the fairy tale – hope only on your strength! In the cartoon king Vachagan expects help from someone else and use it to win. This is a fundamental mistake. The true meaning of the tale is lost, that’s why other advantages of the film for me are at the last place. Sorry, a lot of money is spent, a lot of efforts…

The shortcomings characteristic of our society, as well as shortcomings in the army come from our wrong cultural policy. We must realize that culture is not fun, but a powerful means of education, the foundation of morality and has a single purpose – to educate society. Each of our today’s mistakes tomorrow will lead to sad consequences, and today we are witnessing this.

Interview by ALICE ALAVERDYAN