Implacability, vengeance and evil are serious political tools in Armenia. And this bad example is best assimilated by the most assimilated group of the society – the children. To say that the government of the country is so because they didn’t get to own a bike in their childhood would sound very romantic. At any rate, childhood gives answers to many questions. Do you remember how a 9th grade student of #67 school after Charents Sos Melkonyan was recently stabbed. This 16-year old boy was killed by the stabs of a kitchen knife by another kid of his age as a response to the offence made by the victim. The interesting thing is that the murderer wasn’t sorry for what he’d done and was instead trying to justify his behavior. This is exactly what they do in the political elite. The director of Mkhitar Sebastatsi education complex Ashot Bleyan and the head of the department of medical psychology of Yerevan’s medical university after Heratsi Khachik Gasparyan agree that in our lives there are all the negative prerequisites for cruelty and aggression. And it’s first of all the children that are under the impact of that.
L.A. – Mr. Bleyan, key political processes are currently taking place in schools. During elections schools serve as election commissions; the principals actively participate in the fraudulence process and actively advocate for the governmental candidates among the parents. And the children see all this. It means that the school has turned into a place, where a parent sends the child with certain worries. In this environment an unprotected child may become cruel and aggressive.
A.B. – Indeed. We think that the children are our wishes. We think that if we wish our child to be this way, he/she turns out to be like that. If you have noticed during toasts the adults bring up those allegations. As a matter of fact the child carries the influence of the reality by all means. And how can this reality give any other products? And finally the stronger the child is the stronger the impact is. The children today live in quite narrow conditions, which he is obligated to live in. The life may sometimes have disfigured expressions. The Russians say, “Anything can be seen in life.”
L.A. – But does the child really live in narrow conditions? Only the internet opens the whole world to the child, not to mention the TV. Today via TV and internet little kids can get such information, which the older generation may just learn at the dusk of life.
K.G. – I think they are creating a value system for children, which implies numerous perils. For example, the television passes them on such models of behavior, where vendetta is important, where a person can be killed with no problem. We have done a research. We have prepared a list of national heroes after the World War II and Karabakh war. Those were people, who were officially considered heroes; received certain heroic medals. We have given this list to students of several universities. The students were supposed to mark, who they know. It turned out that everybody knew Soghomon Tehleryan, Andranik; they knew only a few from the Second World War and they almost didn’t know the heroes of Karabakh war. Only 20-25 of 200 respondents knew Monte. Instead of passing on these values to our families the Armenian television preaches to the children unique relations, which can end in murder. I remembered another kid, who attempted to commit a suicide after watching soap-operas.
A.B. – I think the children get a stronger negative impact from the futureless present of the adults, this uncertainty. If a candid camera filmed the lifestyle of an average Armenian family, the problems, uncertainty… The child unconsciously or directly carries on this tension. This child goes to school from home. Try to imagine the school life and the tension. And then the kid goes out to the street. Mr. Gasparyan, you said, you had conducted a survey. I’d do another survey to find out whether children listen to Mozart.
K.G. Or national music.
A.B. – Let it me national music, Komitas. I don’t know anything more national than Mozart created for children. I mean the world that can positive influence on children.
L.A. – You have mentioned that if the lifestyle and family of average Armenian families were filmed we’d have a sad picture. But the teachers, who work in those schools, are coming from such families.
A.B. – I don’t use the expression “for children” any more. I say with children. If something is not with children it cannot be for children because the child will later not appreciate what had been done because his/her role wasn’t there. And then we may blame them of being ungrateful and demand more. In our education complex we are trying to do everything with children.
K.G. – Aren’t there acts of aggression in your school?
A.B. – As a psychologist you will perhaps agree with me that each case demands a special examination. Quite possibly it may not be the fault of the school but the family of the child, who did the wrong thing. It’s another question whether the school carries an environment of aggression and negativity.
L.A. – We are stipulating the aggressiveness of children with the Armenian reality, bad soap operas but in the European countries, the United States some student or school pupil periodically busts into the school with a gun and shoots the children and teachers. And then he kills himself.
K.G. – We know that the human being and animals have certain storage of innate aggression, which is necessary in a good meaning. For example, at the end of the day you have to take transportation and if you don’t show aggression you may be stuck at the bus-stop till the end of the day. This is a positive aggression, which we need for survival.
L.A. – But aggression is positive for someone, who takes a fixed-line bus but for someone, who got pushed by the person to get in is not normal at all.
K.G. – Nevertheless, you need certain initiatives, more energy to overcome difficulty. For example, in certain states of the US it is allowed to bear a gun for self-protection purposes. Let us remember Stanislavsky. If in the performance there is a rifle hung over the wall it should be fired. We are speaking about a phenomenon, which wasn’t as frequent in the past as it is today. Several days ago I was informed that in Vanadzor a 16-year old boy was stabbed with a knife. We are looking for reasons everywhere but one thing is clear for sure. We don’t have a clear national ideology. I, as a university professor, don’t know on what ideology to rely in order to teach others. How do we feed our young generation today? I think that the received messages carry aggressive and negative characters.
A.B. – I am sorry; we were just speaking about heroes. What hero are we talking about? The one, who was arrested for 8 years? Are we speaking about Sasun Mikaelyan? We read every day that his health is in a bad shape and that he needs urgent operation and we show how we can act with cruelty in relation to a hero. What can a person understand in this embarrassment?
K.G. – what you are saying doesn’t contradict to what I am saying.
A.B. – For a child the hero is his grandfather, his father, a concrete person, who he/she knows. In this mixture the hero and anti-hero are shifted quite rapidly.
L.A. – During the recent years this anti-hero is lauded by the media, he is granted lots of medals of honor. This anti-hero is not changed; remains the same. He is either an oligarch or a politician. Only knowing the license plate numbers and the names of the bodyguards of this oligarch is just enough to enter a university.
A.B. – Yes, it comes to the school.
L.A. – It takes a serious consciousness to be protected from meaningless information and a few of the school-age children can succeed in this. There are diagnoses, which can prompt the parents that something is wrong with the child.
K.G. – One of the syndromes if the abrupt change of the mood of the child; degrading elements in the behavior of the child; another syndrome is the violation of the sleeping routine and introversion.
A.B. – They set standards that the child should know this or that. We are forgetting that in pedagogy the key question is how to do these things. The treeless capital of this country has turned into Bangladesh. All this cannot skip having influence on children. Years ago I had health problems. I was in the hospital for several days and if I hadn’t had listened to classical music I would have had big problems with the recovery process. Mozart saved me. As you know the school curriculum is aimed at providing children with knowledge in portions. Fill knowledge in the head of the child and in ten years he/she will grow up a good person and will be happy. It is not so. The music is ousted from the curriculum of schools. They pass music till the 4th grade. During the teenage years the child remains without Mozart (I mention Mozart only conditionally). The way of thinking and taste of the child remains incomplete. Today the school is just an activity, noise without culture, music and musical culture.
K.G. – I believe that we have a rational part in our society. The value system that we are passing on to our generations is quite incomplete and we have a lot to do especially in the national education sector. You have spoken of Mozart. In psychology there is the term “Mozart effect.” This is a method of musical therapy, which is applied for the cases when the words and medicine don’t help. Our society needs such an effect, which will help us revive.
A.B. – Read Tumanyan’s tales for children; spend more time with them; talk to them. Tell them about your problems and involve them in your activities. Our children lust for simple human communication.