The root of the doctrine is bitter, but its fruit. “The root of the doctrine is bitter, but its fruit is sweet

// Composition-reasoning according to the proverb "The root of the doctrine is bitter, but its fruit is sweet"

How many opportunities open up for a person in the study of sciences, how many platforms for future discoveries and unopened doors that beckon with their obscurity. To do this, you need to decide for yourself what you want to do in this life and invest all your perseverance and purposefully in this direction.

If you have chosen literature, then the search for knowledge begins at school. You begin to study the biographies of poets and writers, comprehend the centuries and time periods, understand the style of the work and be able to make an analysis. Participation in literary competitions, writing poems and reading them at school holidays. The most high reward, both for the student and for the teacher - this is a high score on the exam. It is on this exam that you can show all the knowledge gained.

Together with the result obtained, you continue to conquer the literary pedestal and enter the pedagogical university. Sleepless nights, memorization of material, verbatim retelling - all this lies ahead on the difficult path of learning. Moreover, this is not just the knowledge and experience gained, but the opportunity to reconsider your profession and do what you love. And in the future, you will not study, but you will teach the same passionate students for learning, as you were many years ago.

It takes many years for a person to master the subject of his curiosity. A lot of time and effort, fighting laziness, sleepless nights and rebuilding your usual perception. But what a reward! Be an expert on the subject! Besides the fact that you will be an ace in a certain field of knowledge, you will also expand your horizons.

All sciences and knowledge are interconnected: history, literature, geography, social science. Yes, and being an interesting and intelligent person who knows how to support a conversation, express his opinion and argue it is also an excellent skill.

When, after ten years, you receive recognition from society, you are appreciated, everyone is happy for you - isn't that sweet taste victory?

Such deep meaning is embedded in the proverb: "The root of the doctrine is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." The root is the base of the tree, it is ugly in appearance, unsightly, branchy, and the fruit, towering above the root, is attractive and sweet, so it is in teaching. The beginning is always difficult, full of tasks and difficulties, and victory over oneself is like the sweet fruit of that tree. No wonder the everyday proverbs that have come down to us from the distant past are still relevant.

Get familiar with the topics.

Perform analytical tasks based on the text.

Read the suggested materials for Creative Assignment #1 and

complete this task in your workbook.

TOPIC 2. Teaching the rules of disposition (4 hours).

· The concept of disposition and compositional organization of textual material.

· Description, narration as structural models of the text. Modeling of the text in the given conditions.

· Reasoning as a structural model of the text.

· Strict and free hriya, artificial hriya.

Features of the structure of speech-reasoning: attack, paraphrase, reason, contrary, similarity, example, evidence, conclusion

· Modeling of the text of reasoning in the given conditions.

Analytical tasks based on text.

Text No. 1

“The arrangement is the combination of invented ideas in a decent order ... The rules on invention and decoration govern the consideration and analysis of ideas; the leadership of reasoning is about the disposition of the doctrine; which is very useful and indispensable to seekers of eloquence, for what is the use of a great variety of different ideas if they are not properly arranged?

The art of a brave leader consists in the choice of good and courageous warriors, but it also depends no less on the decent organization of the regiments. And if in the human body which member goes crazy, then it does not have such power as it acts in its place ”(M.V. Lomonosov. A Brief Guide to Eloquence.)

Questions to the text

1. Why do you think, when speaking about this procedure of the rhetorical canon, M. V. Lomonosov uses comparison with the art of war? Justify your answer.

2. How would you comment on the last paragraph of the text from the point of view of modern general rhetoric?

Text No. 2

The root of the doctrine is bitter, but its fruits are sweet

This saying, which has become a proverb, belongs to Isocrates, who worked hard for the benefit of science and education and verified what was said with his own experience.

The thought of Isocrates is expressed figuratively. He compares the teaching with a fruit tree, meaning the beginning of the teaching under the root, and the acquired knowledge or art under the fruits. So, whoever strives for knowledge, must, according to Isocrates, endure the bitterness of labor and the burden of fatigue; having overcome all this, he acquires the desired benefits and advantages.

The root, that is, the beginning of the skill, is fraught with some troubles, because:

1. the beginner's abilities have not yet unfolded: the mind is not used to grasping quickly and correctly, and the memory is not accustomed to holding firmly and firmly what is being taught; the will is still powerless to concentrate and stop attention on a given subject until it is grasped and assimilated;

2. the student deals with elements of science or art, which consist of trifles and details, for the most part uninteresting, often without application to his current life, and require unremitting diligence, hard work, frequent repetitions and prolonged exercises in mastering;

3. The student does not yet understand the usefulness of elementary information and treats the teaching not with all diligence, not with proper accuracy and patience.

Whoever overcomes these insignificant troubles will be convinced that the fruits, that is, the consequences of the teaching, are pleasant, for:

1. knowledge, skills, education, by themselves, without any application to practical, everyday life, give the person who owns them great pleasure: they enlighten his view of the world, broaden his horizons, put him in a proper relationship with people, the state, society;

2. provide him with material benefits and advantages in society and the state.

He who does not want to be subjected to restrictions, who does not have the patience to overcome the difficulties of learning, without which it is impossible to acquire education and achieve solid knowledge, he does not dare to count on the advantages and benefits accruing to learning, art and education as a reward for work.

Look at the farmer: how much hard work and effort he spends on getting a harvest from his field! And the harder his work, the more pleasure and joy he collects the fruits; the more carefully he cultivates his field, the more plentiful the harvest will be. The benefits of education are subject to the same conditions. They are acquired only after a series of continuous efforts leads the consciousness to the conviction that by honest work and vigilant diligence all obstacles encountered have been overcome.

We find many examples in history of the consequences of diligent, conscientious pursuits. Here is the tongue-tied, obscure Greek Demosthenes, who acquired by teaching the high gift of oratory and immortal glory; and here is our ingenious converter Great Peter, who himself had previously passed the road along which he later led his subjects!

Hesiod says the same thing as Isocrates, arguing that the road to virtue is rocky and steep at first, but when you reach the top, it is pleasant to go along it. “Science shortens us the experiences of fast-flowing life” (Pushkin)

Oh, you, whom the fatherland expects from its bowels! ... dare ... "by your zeal, show that the Russian land can give birth to its own Platons and quick-witted Newtons" (Lomonosov).

Stylistic tasks for the gymnasium at the Historical and Philological Institute of St. Petersburg (compiled by I. Gavrilov. - 1874)

One ordinary, boring evening, after the course, two brothers Vasya and Anton were sitting in armchairs and reading books on cynology. The fact is that the brothers want to become veterinarians and study at the veterinary institute, and now they are preparing for tomorrow's exam (they need to learn the structure of dogs).
- Vasya, let's not teach, but just write a cheat sheet, just like at school! Anton suddenly said.
- Well, I don’t know ... how risky it is, what if they spot it? Vasya doubted. - And besides, it's all you need to know! We will only make things worse for ourselves.
- Come on! They won't notice! Just once, please! Anton insisted.
- Eh, what to do with you, - Vasya finally gave up, - but only once, and if anything, you will be to blame!
"Great," Anton smiled. The dog Michael ran up to him, jumped on the sofa and lay down next to him. - Good dog!
The next day, the guys, as planned, wrote cheat sheets, took them out and wrote off. Everything went well and no one noticed anything.
And when it was necessary to learn the material again, the brothers again wrote cheat sheets, then again, and again ... The account was already lost. They did not learn anything and did not even think about it, until one day, the following happened:
The brothers, as usual, returned from the course, prepared food for themselves and Michael.
- Mike, go eat! Vasya called the dog, but he did not come. Then, he tried again, "Michael!" Go to eat!
In response, silence. The brothers found Michael in the hallway in front of the door, he was lying on the rug and breathing heavily.
- Michael, how are you? Anton asked. The dog looked up at its owner.
The brothers immediately determined what was happening to him: they had recently gone through this illness, but the brothers do not remember anything, and they did not teach ... What to do now?
Fortunately, their teacher, Anatoly Evgenievich, lived in the next apartment. He was very kind and always helped if Michael had problems. So the guys decided to call him.
- Hello, Anatoly Evgenievich! - Anton went on this mission, and Vasily stayed with the patient.
- Hello Anton! What are the fates for me? the teacher asked.
- We have Michael ill, could you help us?
- Of course - the teacher also remembered that they went through this disease and then asked how they passed if they did not teach? Then the brothers told Anatoly Evgenievich how they wrote cribs. He forgave them, but told them to learn everything and retake it later. A week later, the dog was already healthy, ran down the street and walked around the apartment, and the brothers learned all the material and came to retake. Henceforth, they always taught everything.
- Remember, - said Anatoly Evgenievich, - the root of the doctrine is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. And I think you yourself have seen this.

langobard in Life after the mainstream writes:

“The essence of the most interesting and almost the main question for any modern social philosophy and philosophy of education, I think, will be cut through by any person who is far from education. Why did it happen that the radical facilitation of access to any information gave rise to general illiteracy, and not universal literacy?

I have the simplest answer to this question. Overcoming barriers in the movement towards knowledge (from searching for information on a given issue in a thick book to elementary preparation for an exam) leaves something in the minds. There are no barriers - nothing remains. That's the way man is made. Without staying in a problematic (= barrier) situation, one does not change. You don't study."

Here I fully agree with langobard "om.

In this regard, it is interesting to note that the Holy Grail is sometimes described as Book, "fell from the sky." In Russian spiritual verses, it is called the "Pigeon (sometimes: Deep) Book". The latter is also called the "Animal Book" (that is, the "book of life"). As the poet Nikolai Zabolotsky wrote:

Only far away on the ocean-sea,
On a white stone, in the middle of the waters,
Shining book in golden dress,
Beams resting on the sky.
That book fell out of some formidable cloud -
All the letters in it sprouted with flowers ...
And in it is written by a mighty hand
All the truth of the hidden earth.

So, all the legends about the Holy Grail are a description searches this wonderful book. These difficult the quest sometimes leads seekers of the Holy Grail to the devil. But it is interesting that all these temptations are, as it were, "inscribed", "encrusted" into the very "shell" of the Holy Grail. Just like that, "anyhow", it's impossible to find it. The Grail can be given into the hands of only the most sophisticated, who have gone through "fire, water and copper pipes". That is, those who devoted themselves entirely to his search, dedicated. In principle, this difficult and dangerous quest for the Holy Grail is no different from initiatory trials in traditional societies.

There is a well-known Latin saying Per aspera ad astra (" Through hardship to the stars"). Why does the path to the stars go through "thorns"? Is it possible to do without "thorns" somehow? Somehow easier, without tension, without problems ... Obviously, it is impossible. The fact is that along with evolution, there is also involution. If something is not used and consumed for a long time, it will atrophy, as unnecessary. As an example of involutional loss of signs, we can cite helminths - these, as we know, have neither arms nor legs. But at the stage of embryo formation, all this is present in them, and then disappears. A helminth is a helminth!

Basically, and human mind in the same way it can atrophy if it is not exercised, if it is not given food for the mind. The cases of "Mowgli" indicate that the mind is not at all inherent in a person from birth, like, say, hands or feet. People can live without a mind. History knows numerous cases of degradation both of individual representatives of the human race (sometimes even crowned ones), and of entire human societies.

The Indian Vedas claim that many of the former people began to eat the meat of their relatives, which was not the case before: the first people, according to legend, ate amrita - the drink of the gods. Some of them got into the habit of eating others at the site of the duel, which they staged because of the desire for superiority. And because of the clashes with their foreheads, these people stuffed bumps, which in some then began to branch and turned into horns. Their toes grew together and formed hard hooves, so that it was easier for them to run and jump on the ground. The brain lost the ability to reason, but the spinal cord continued beyond the length of the body, so they had a tail.

Interestingly, the devils are invariably presented with horns, hooves and a tail.

This is an accurate picture of the future of mankind if they give up the search for the Holy Grail. Leading a relaxed lifestyle, it degrades and turns into a caricature of itself.

Comfort and sybaritism are very dangerous because they corrupt both soul and body. In this regard, the "scoop" looked more preferable.

"The nut of knowledge is hard,
But still we are not accustomed to retreat", -

endlessly repeated in the children's film magazine "I want to know everything." Despite all the shortcomings and vices of Sovietism, there was an aspiration "to the stars" in it. I remember, as a child, the most popular reading material among my peers was science fiction. She painted pictures of other worlds, awakened the imagination, and contributed to the awakening of a romantic mood, so necessary for all kinds of searches, both scientific and spiritual.

Today there is too much "consumerism", and in this "consumerism" all the sprouts of romanticism are drowning. Therefore, romantic children are laughed at at school, calling them "nerds", "nerds". Although "nerds" are most like knights looking for the Holy Grail. The Lurkomorye website is ironic: "Botan never communicates or meets girls, in most cases he is a virgin." Well, the Holy Grail can only be found by a virgin knight. And the boy Kai is in the door Snow Queen laid out the word EWIGKEIT ("eternity") from the ice in the absence of Gerda. And he would have laid it out, and would have become immortal if Gerda had not come to him.

Nature endowed man with a mind capable of developing and cognizing, a heart that bows to good and evil, and a will that chooses goals and methods of striving. The ideas laid down in the basis of our being tell us about the high calling to which a person is assigned, and they are the main engine of all spiritual development. It would be in vain for us to speak against the fact that man is destined for something higher than his earthly life. We are unable to provide evidence sufficient for these thoughts, and if we did, our inner conviction, our heart would be against it. But the fact that we have at our disposal such abilities as no living being knows does not mean that the goals we have set can be achieved immediately. By themselves, our natural abilities, not gathered into one whole and not directed towards one, almost always lose their value and do not bring the benefit that one might expect from them. The main difficulty of spiritual development lies in the fact that from the whole mass of human aspirations and forces given to satisfy them, you need to choose only those that do not contradict moral requirements and that meet our consciousness. human dignity. The path leading to wisdom, that is, virtue combined with the mind, is difficult and long, but the more difficult this path, the more obstacles a person has overcome, the more pleasant life becomes for him, the greater rewards await him. ( Attack): This idea is perfectly expressed by the Greek rhetorician Isocrates, who, having himself experienced the difficulty of the “doctrine” and knowing its benefits, left us his saying: “The root of the doctrine is bitter, but its fruits are sweet.” It corresponded to reality so much, it was so true that in the course of time it turned directly into a proverb. The vitality of this saying depends entirely on the fact that it is unquestionably true. Why is the beginning of the teaching always fraught with such difficulties, why is the “root of the teaching” never sweet? (Part Paraphrasis absent).

(Cause): Considering this question, we must take into account that the "teaching" almost always begins with us in childhood. Our strength, with which we begin to study the original subjects, is far from corresponding to the seriousness (for a childish mind, of course) of these latter.

The student, who previously lived only with simple perceptions from the outside, without seriously processing them in his mind, now must perform the appropriate actions in the mind of the over-perceived, he must be able, when understanding the connection between given objects, to find this latter between other objects that are still unfamiliar to him. Before the beginning of learning, the child, without any damage to himself, uses mechanical memory, but at the beginning such memory no longer plays so well. big role. Here, as they say, ingenuity is needed. And this ingenuity is not enough for many children, which gives them great difficulties in learning.

But if we penetrate deeper into the psyche of a child who sits in a cramped room and with difficulty makes out the words, running his finger over the primer, then the cause of the troubles associated with the first experiences of the schoolboy will become even clearer to us. His mind, as already mentioned above, is not accustomed to thinking in own meaning this word; for any object, in order for the child to think, realize it, it is necessary, of course, to first enter the consciousness, and this “entry” is another reason for the very numerous suffering for the child. For learning, a mind is needed that can correctly grasp what is heard or read; memory is needed, it is true, and mechanical, but most of all rational, because only with the availability of the latter it is possible to thoroughly assimilate numerous sciences; finally, a will is needed that could make you sit out the right time behind a book and learn what is necessary. And what is the child's mind, what will? An adult person has the ability to force himself, to stop his attention on a known subject, to choose from it everything that is essential and remember; the child does not have such an ability, he has not yet developed those techniques that are necessary for the study of each. This insufficient development of abilities often serves as a stumbling block for primary education child. Each of us can remember more than one case from his childhood when some arithmetic rule or some problem caused us many tears and troubles for our parents.

The lack of spiritual strength, which causes the “bitterness” of the teaching, is accompanied by another circumstance, which, for its part, greatly increases the troubles of the first years of the child’s mental work. This is precisely the pettiness and uninterestingness of the information he received in the first school and his lack of understanding of the usefulness of the elements of science and art. That the sciences cannot be interesting for a child is evident from the fact that he cannot apply them to his life. It happens, of course, that a child is interested in some subjects at school and sits at a book, finding pleasure in his studies, but this is already an exception; what is right for a naturally talented person is not always applicable to all other people. And the one who, already at an early age, begins to study the sciences on his own, without any compulsion, can hardly realize the full benefits of assiduous work, not to mention those children who are not distinguished by anything special. How pleasant can teaching be to a child under such circumstances, when instead of fun games in the air and the caresses of the surrounding relatives, he has to cramming boring and incomprehensible rules for some unknown reason, when he is so drawn to run, frolic and leave a nasty room with difficult books and a strict mentor? Teaching inexorably demands its own: without diligence there will be no knowledge, without repetition they will be weak, without exercises in them the child will be inexperienced, without hard work he will not be able to proceed to other, more serious sciences. Many even leave the teaching because they are unable to force themselves to study. They certainly have abilities, as evidenced by their manifestation outside the school, but these children do not have diligence, they do not have the will to master themselves and force themselves to fulfill student duties. All this clearly explains why the beginning of the study is accompanied by great troubles and difficulties for the student.

But not always the doctrine delivers only one troubles. In essence, these troubles are insignificant, for they are only inherent in childhood and, if we talk about them, taking into account everything in general that a person has to experience in life, then their insignificance will become even more clear and understandable. A person who has overcome the difficulties of the beginning of the teaching and has not spent all his energy for it will eventually come to the conclusion that the “fruits of the teaching” are pleasant and useful, as the proverb we are analyzing says.

Leaving aside for the time being all the material benefits that we derive from science, let us turn our attention to that side of it which gives us inner satisfaction and is the main cause of our spiritual development. The purpose of studying the sciences and processing the information that they provide is the formation of a personality in us, that is, a set of such ideas and beliefs that would constitute an integral part of our "I". Each person is something independent and separate whole. To be whole, to be an independent unit, that is, to have one's own truly one's own is the ideal of an educated person. But to acquire convictions that would form a personality in us is possible only through a long and persistent study of the sciences. Having our own convictions, we become in a certain relationship with the people around us, with society, with the state, and this should already give us great satisfaction. Yes, besides, pure knowledge, without any use of it for the development of a world outlook, it alone serves as a source of high pleasures for a person. But science brings "sweet fruits" even to such people who, due to their short-sightedness, do not expect spiritual satisfaction from it. Many in the study of the sciences pursue only material benefits and advantages, and in their minds the achievement of a certain "education" is always connected with the achievement of material success. In this case, the "fruits of the teaching" are even more obvious. Once a person has reached a certain position in society, if he has secured a comfortable existence for himself, then the “sweet fruit” of the teaching becomes for him a direct reality. You can often meet people who, through their own fault, or simply due to bad conditions of existence, having not received a sufficient education in their youth, entered into life without any knowledge and preparation for activity as a useful member of society. These people, if they did not experience all the difficulties of the first years of teaching due to their laziness and lack of initiative, always reproach themselves and begin to "learn" already in mature years. Until they become educated, they cannot count on the benefits and benefits that other people receive after many years of labor and hardship for the sake of education.

Together with those who were previously prevented from studying by external circumstances, when they begin to study, they endure all the difficulties of learning with pleasure and think together with the poet, who, “having ruined a lot of life for various amusements,” says with regret:

It's sad to think it's in vain

We were given youth!

(Part nasty absent).

(Similarity): The benefits of education can be compared to the harvest on the farmer's land. In early spring, he begins his field work and works all summer, despite the terribly exhausting heat in the field, where there is not a single tree that could hide him under his shade. But an honestly hardworking peasant expects the pleasure of rest and complete contentment for the whole year.

The sowing of the first efforts of the student is difficult and laborious, but the future harvest is so tempting, it gives so many promises that everyone should endure the “root of the doctrine” with complete patience and conscientiousness.

(Example): We can find many examples in history of how diligent work is rewarded. Booted by his fellow citizens, the tongue-tied, unpromising Greek Demosthenes, after hard work and diligence, turns into a great orator of Greece. Peter the Great, whose upbringing was not much different from the upbringing of the Muscovite tsars who preceded him, having recognized the need for "teaching", he himself first became the kind of person he wanted to make his subjects. Under him, the Russian army, having experienced the "bitterness of the doctrine" (almost all of them were killed at Narva), reaped its "sweet fruits" after the Battle of Poltava. Averse to everything foreign and unwilling to learn from others, modern China not much different from the old China, while Japan, completely given over to Europeanization, which was sometimes as difficult for its inhabitants as Peter's reforms were for the Russians, is now reaping the fruits of its teaching, developing more and more, both culturally and politically.

(Certificate): One thinker said: "Nothing in the world can have such a convincing effect as voluntarily expressed gratitude." Indeed, what proof can there be better than that, which is the saying of an authoritative person who has verified the truth of his words on his own experience.

... Many truths that are expressed in proverbs can be disputed. Of these, "the root of the doctrine is bitter, but its fruits are sweet" is the one that is least of all subject to any dispute or doubt. ( Conclusion): Hence the conclusion is one. We have great means to spiritual development; one of these means is science. “With the mind, after all, all the people are Heraclitus,” said Karamzin. It is the duty of everyone to use the powers and abilities given to him for the benefit of enlightenment and follow the call of our first philosopher and scientist Lomonosov, who 150 years ago said in inspired verses to his contemporary youth:

Dare...

Show with your care

What can own Platos

And quick-witted Newtons

Russian land to give birth!

(Published according to the edition: Mikhalskaya A.K. Fundamentals of rhetoric. M., 1996)

If the writing of hriya causes insurmountable difficulties, the student can create a reasoning text based on the following schemes of deductive and inductive proof of the chosen thesis (Lvov M.R. Rhetoric.M., 1995).

Scheme of deductive reasoning

Scheme of inductive reasoning

As an example, below are the texts constructed according to the type of reasoning, a third-year student of the Faculty of Philology of the correspondence form of education A. Gladkikh and a second-year student of the magistracy of the Faculty of Chemistry of full-time education K. Bortnik (the texts are published in the proofreading of the author of this manual).

A. Gladkikh

A lost generation is growing in our country(2004)

In the telecast of M. Shvydkoy " cultural revolution” the topic was set “A lost generation is growing in our country”. Is it true? And if so, how and when did it happen? And how can it be that all generations succeeded each other, went on as usual, and one generation was suddenly lost?

For 13 years, the current generation has not been living in the Soviet Union. The changes that took place in the country turned all ideas about life upside down, many values ​​\u200b\u200bhave lost their meaning, the thinking of a person has changed, and those who could not adapt to a new life, one might say, “left overboard”. In Russia, I venture to suggest, it has come Time of Troubles. The whole story was rethought anew, white became black, black became white.

It turned out that the revolution slowed down the development of our country (this may be true), that it would be better if the Second world war Germany won (with which I fundamentally disagree) and that the real heroes are those who drive black Mercedes with a gun in their bosoms.

Everything that was stubbornly forbidden in our state broke free. It turned out that there is still sex in our country! It filled everything: the bookshelves, the television screens, and the still immature minds of the younger generation. It turned out that people who were previously called speculators are now called businessmen, are the color of society and the heroes of our time.

All history Soviet period“dug up” and reconsidered with an unblinded look. There are many dark spots and tragic events. Personalities who were previously recognized as great were immediately thrown off their pedestals.

And a whole generation grew up in this chaos! When the whole country was busy digging into its past and deciding which way to go and under whose leadership, it saw it all. What was it supposed to be like if the state forgot about it? It's as if children don't exist in our country...

What do we see when we change TV channels? G. Yavlinsky once remarked: "It's scary to leave a child alone with a TV." If a child from an early age watches how adults, quite nice uncles drink and praise beer, then we, as a result, by the age of 16-17, most likely, can get a young alcoholic. Beer alcoholism is worse than vodka. It is enough to get to some youth holiday to notice that every second person cannot do without a bottle of beer.

Y. Entin once said: “I realized a long time ago that there are no children in our country. Their childhood ends at the age of 10-11. They don't need my poems, they prefer poems like “yum-yum-yum-yum, buy Mikoyan”.

child from the very early childhood must see what surrounds him beautiful world. So where did our beautiful and kind cartoons go? Why, including the FOXKIDS channel, do we see terrible freaks with faces distorted with anger? Where to get away from the dominance of the Americans? Sometimes it seems that they want to destroy us, slowly and covertly influencing our minds from childhood, forcing us to watch such entertaining garbage. "Adventures of Electronics" and "Guest from the Future" no longer captivate our children. Harry Potter is a hero!

Our television screens are filled with third-rate American action films whose heroes are mentally ill people who are completely devoid of a sense of self-preservation. What can you learn from watching these films? That human life is worth nothing? That it is very easy to kill a person, that if you kill, then you are a hero?

We are lost as a nation, we have stopped telling our children that we live in a great country. We look with delight at American life, completely rejecting and vilifying his own. And the Americans naively believe that they defeated the Nazis ... But our younger generation (hopefully, a smaller part of it) no longer knows that there was a war and, most importantly, that this war was won by its ancestors. Many modern young people do not know what Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Babi Yar are... Have we really given birth to Ivanovs who do not remember kinship? In pursuit of money, prosperity, we taught them to value only material goods. But what about the soul? Morality, spirituality, honesty - have these concepts lost their value?

Having traced our path of development (or perhaps spiritual degradation?) after 1991, do we really come to the disappointing conclusion that today's generation is really lost?

Recently, Ksenia Sobchak spoke in defense of her generation, saying that now young people have more chances to break through in life, to reach any heights. One can agree with this, but the whole problem lies in the fact that, apart from the above, young people do not need anything else. After all, speaking about the fact that a lost generation is growing in Russia, we mean by this not that it has nowhere to go, but that it has lost its spiritual orientation in this life, has forgotten its roots.

In his tetralogy “Brothers and Sisters”, F. Abramov said: “A person builds the main house in his soul. And this house does not burn in fire, nor does it sink in water. Stronger than all bricks and diamonds.

It is impossible to move forward by breaking all ties with the past. We are connected to our ancestors, we move forward through their conquests, victories, defeats and mistakes. A lost generation is growing in Russia. But how to find it? It has already formed its own outlook on life under the influence of external factors. But as much as I would not like it to turn into a mankurt son, to whom his mother shouted: “Whose are you? How your name? Remember your name! .. "

K. Bortnik

We are not a lost generation! (2009)

Dozens of programs and articles scream that a lost generation has grown up in Russia. If it were not for the age of the people who talk about this, I would have decided that this is a new fashion trend - to convict young people of immorality, idleness, stupidity and other vices. Although no, this is not fashion, this is a good old tradition. It just so happened that the older generation blasphemes the younger generation, without seeing it, without delving into its problems, not trying to help, but diligently spreading its hands and repeating: "They are lost." Gentlemen, maybe it's you who got lost?

I do not know by what measure we are measured, but the fact is obvious to me. Our generation is not judged by the mass of normal people who value culture, respect the memory of their ancestors, pay tribute to perseverance and work, with the help of which you can achieve something in life. They want to see in us and see only a vulgar gray goo that does not understand anything, ordinary herbivores, simply existing without landmarks, without roots, without morality, but with glamor ... “Vulgarity is militant, it is more noticeable,” wrote the classic (Chekhov), Yes, is there really a desire to see spools in this gray liquid? Young successful, smart, talented people- This, apparently, is not about us. They prove to us that we are the worst.

I am not opposed to criticism, not at all, but I do not like lies and averaging. This is not the cry of my youthful maximalism, because every day I see dozens of smart, interesting and worthy people around me. We know our history, perhaps not in dates, but generally accurate; we are connected to our roots, family is important to us; we love art; we know how to distinguish American tripe from the same American masterpieces; we did not lose moral guidelines and morality. Mentioning our terrible generation, they forget to say about young scientists, athletes, talented artists, but simply about those young people who live nearby, for whom you don’t have to blush and believe that the future with such people will definitely be no worse than our present. Our dignity detracts, raking everyone under the same brush.

Do you know who won All-Russian Olympics in the natural sciences? Do you know what "Student Theater Spring" is? Have you heard about the success of our juniors? Have you heard the names and achievements of young scientists? You can ask a hundred such questions, and the answers to them can only be found on the outskirts of the ubiquitous Internet.

Believe me, we are not empty-headed omnivores and we are tired of being told the opposite. Teenagers and my peers have not watched the “box” for a long time, because there is nothing interesting there. I am sure that children would be happy to watch Soviet fairy tales, and cartoons, and Yeralash, but today it is not popular (so serious people decided), this is the reason why Harry Potter is an idol. This was not due to a fascination with foreignness, it was just that a wizard boy appeared on the TV screen in the midst of the carnage with one old truth on new way: good conquers evil. We are fed all kinds of nonsense of domestic and foreign production: books, films. A real masterpiece Russian cinema for many years, such a deep, meaningful film by Pavel Lungin was shown twice and both times for some reason late at night ... And there are many such examples.

But on the other hand, inquiries about the younger generation in search engines can be read: “the army of the Bazarovs”, “loafers”, “they don’t need anything” and so on, so on, so on. Undoubtedly, even the loudest voice in support of the young will be smothered by a barrage of negativity.

It is pointless to list what we are - we need to be seen, and looked without prejudice. It is much easier to judge an entire generation by watching a gang of underage alcoholics at a stall or lazybones that their parents don't and never cared about; it is easier to read crime reports and be horrified than to go out into the street and look around; The facts of faceless statistics sound much more convincing than the actions of people.

VIPs who are concerned about the problems of youth are two-faced, because behind the discussions and debates about our lost destiny, they are not ready and do not want to solve these very problems. But they really are and there are much more of them than voiced! At one time, the “parents” turned a blind eye to censorship, reforms of culture and education, then they did not sound the alarm, but now, when we reap the fruits of such connivance, we are told that we are mediocrity. Apparently, it is necessary to fight the causes of dullness only now, when "the generation is lost." Paradox, in a word. And what has been done to ensure that we do not become what they see us, do not absorb meaningless video products, do not read stupid books, do not listen to what “men don’t know about”? I am afraid of the answer to this question. The worst thing is that "things are still there."

In this situation, I am reminded of Turgenev's wonderful work "Fathers and Sons": "Real clashes are those in which both sides are right to a certain extent." Why? Because Turgenev expressed one of the most remarkable truths: there are no generations of good and bad, but there is an inability of the principled and authoritative (and sometimes blinkered, conservative) Kirsanovs to understand the young, hot Bazarovs, who are ultimately not nihilists, but simply people with different views.

I sincerely want to believe that one day our “self-withdrawn parents” will take off the blinders from their eyes, take out their earplugs and see in their children, who so far send SOS to nowhere, comrades-in-arms, and not experimental material and mold. Maybe then there will be no lost children and no parents who have lost them. Only then will another problem arise: the ally will be ready to help, will be ready to act, the main thing is not to be deceived, the main thing is to real action our fathers have grown up.