To be successful

The 21st century requires fundamental changes in the system of preparing young people for life. The shaping of a personality that would attain high results in life and would know how to quickly react to the changeable situation and constantly change oneself according to times is the goal of cutting-edge education.

The real revolution in education was demonstrated by the All-Ukrainian forum of acmeological general education institutions called “Acmeology, the science of the 21st century: theoretical and practical aspects.” The forum was held on the initiative of the Ukrainian Liberal Arts Lyceum attached to Shevchenko Kyiv National University. In an attempt to reach the acme in modernizing education, the forum united 300 participants from 14 oblasts of Ukraine, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and six foreign delegations.

“The most important thing for an educational establishment is to create a situation of success, help students believe in themselves, and teach them to ascend to the peak in their chosen sphere of life, forestall failures, and get back on their feet after falls,” says Halyna Syzonenko, Ph.D. in pedagogical sciences, director of the Ukrainian humanities lyceum, and people’s teacher of Ukraine.

Ukrainian acmeology is less than 10 years old, and the lyceum has been doing research in this sphere since 1998. Then Syzonenko happened to adopt the experience of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Acmeology. The principles underpinning the new type of pedagogy were laid by Mykola Rybnykov in 1928 in acmeology — a science that studies the laws of high achievements. In the educational sphere, it deals with achievements in personal development of an individual by means of self-development of individualism that is capable of self-realization.

“Accepting children to our lyceum, we do different tests to see everyone’s skills and understand how a given personality can be taken to the top of success. This happens by means of combining several components: the content of education and the formation of multiple intellects through activation of memory and attention. Gifted children can be educated only by gifted teachers, which is why we train teachers on the basis of professionalism, courage, and, of course, success. Teachers should realize their dignity, rather than grumble about life.

“The most important factor in forming a successful personality, which, according to our calculation, accounts for 45 percent in achieving success, is acme-space. Children, in fact, live in the lyceum; that is why we do everything to help them feel psychologically comfortable. This is a place where a high level of enlightenment can be laid, i.e., the knowledge children could use in their life. The quality of knowledge corresponds to the quality of life.”

The lyceum has developed an entire system for reaching set goals. It includes, for example, a cooperative technology that teaches a student to work in a team and a modeling function that presupposes modeling different situations in educational process in order to get certain experience. During such lessons business games are played that simulate real life. For example, to have better understanding of political system of a country, students are offered a program of one of the parties; they present its interests during the lesson and defend precisely these political views. Innovations include problem-search education, i.e., successive and step-by-step solving of problems. The new type of education also teaches one to do independent work under the guidance of a teacher-tutor, i.e., someone who passes on experience rather than knowledge.

During the forum the lyceum students derived their own formula of success: a goal raised to the power of persistence and multiplied by abilities and further multiplied by work. The leaders of the student self-government consider constant work on oneself a characteristic feature of reaching success. Everyone could get into the so-called work group that learned about success by becoming a student. In one of them, Liudmyla Halitsyna, editor in chief of the newspaper Upravlinnia osvity (Education Management), taught the main law of success — the principles of successful communication.

“A person can be only in two states: the state of defense (and it’s a quite natural state) or openness. The former says, ‘World, I fear you; I’m closed for you,’ while the latter says, ‘World, I’m ready to cooperate with you,’” says Halitsyna. “The main function of a person is communication; the main function of a leader is successful communication; and the function of a successful person is efficient communication.”

Demonstrating different versions of introducing a person — open, closed, and lost — Halitsyna convinced her audience that a closed person doesn’t believe in himself, so he cannot expect others to believe in him. According to her words, a person perceives only 30 percent of verbal information, while the rest is perceived through our body language: facial expressions and gestures. During the training everyone was able to come to believe in one’s power by making a list of one’s advantages and skills.

“In order to achieve something in life, one should have at least three components: set a specific goal and make a plan how to reach it, or tell it to somebody who will make you reach what you have planned. For example, let parents tell children that they dream of a world tour, and the children will make them do it. Second, you should be surrounded by people who influence you positively and support you. Finally, don’t listen to advice of people who know nothing in the sphere you chose or failed in it. For example, be cautious with mother’s advice regarding marriage if her personal life wasn’t successful,” said Olesia Orobets as she shared her laws of success as a parliamentarian. Accidentally, she is a graduate of the lyceum.

According to Orobets, an important constituent of success is an ability to communicate skillfully in different languages; here the parliamentarian especially insisted on studying Ukrainian and English.

“Today nobody, not even parents, teaches how to use money reasonably, but it is almost the main factor of welfare: not only earning, but successful investing,” says Orobets. “One more factor of success is an ability to use one’s time. Strangely, the busier one is, the more one manages to do.”

In order to build on the results of the forum, the All-Ukrainian Acmeology Center will be established in the Ukrainian Liberal Arts Lyceum. Its doors will be open to all those who want to learn success.