I made a depressing acquaintance with MAN “Intelligence of the Future” and their wonderful website “thanks” to my gullible mother.
In those distant times, she still had the misfortune of working as a school teacher, receiving pennies for it, and spending it to the last crumb on her professional life - educational and methodological literature, which is by no means cheap, modern equipment (she taught music), audio CDs and cassettes, etc.
One fine day, it seemed to her that this was not enough and she decided from her own funds to pay for the participation of her student in one of the competitions announced by this damn MAN. I was immediately alarmed by the exceptional cost of all school and pedagogical pleasures offered by this organization, and for a long time I tried to convince her not to send money there, and in general, as they say, “not to get involved.”
“I’ll pay for everything myself, just register me on this site, I don’t ask you for anything else,” was her last killer argument. Because she, as a person of the old Soviet school, is categorically not friendly with either the computer or the Internet. Well, who would deny his beloved mother such a little thing?
Alas for me, I registered an account for her on this site (this was mandatory), and the “soap” there indicated my “live” one, which I constantly use. A lot was promised - the issuance of a certificate of participation in the competition, notification by e-mail about the results of the competition, and a lot more in case of victory.
However, the silence that followed the payment of money was deafening and quite long. We never saw any notifications, much less evidence. I visited the site several times to find out the results of the competition. But - alas and ah, they are not there to this day (five years have passed, no less), information about the competition has disappeared from the site, a lot of other “tempting” offers have appeared, for which it is proposed to pay by bank transfers.
But if the story ended there, I would be happy. However, MAN "Intelligence of the Future", after being silent on the air for two months, decided that the money received from my mother was not enough for him, and began to literally flood my email with offers. I remember exactly that when registering, I did not subscribe to their newsletter. Moreover, it is impossible to unsubscribe from it. There is no corresponding link in the letters (such as “unsubscribe from mailing list”). There is no such option in the account either. When I wrote them a letter asking them to unsubscribe me from this pseudo-pedagogical Internet trash, they answered me and asked me to clarify the address that I want to remove from the mailing list (!!!). A classic spammer trick... Now they send me letters with the same content twice. And such behavior is not only exceptional impudence, but also a violation of the law.

Thank you if you read my review to the end! Briefly, unfortunately, it didn’t work out.
I'm going to sue these freaks.

The future depends on you!

Region: Kaluga region

Locality: Obninsk

Year of foundation: 1985

Number of students: more than 100,000 annually

Latest Discussions

The history of the development of all animal species shows an example of how changes in living conditions on Earth or in a particular region led to changes in animals and to the emergence of new species capable of surviving in a changed world. Moreover, the more adapted the animal was to changes, the more viable it turned out to be. Man is part of nature. And the ability to cope with changed living conditions also determines its resilience.

So much has changed in recent years: socialism has returned to the capitalist way of life; The Internet has entered the life of almost every family, everyone has the widest access to any information posted on the Internet, and the number of digitized documents and books increases many times over every day. But, despite this, the school education system has remained the same: the teacher - as the main source of knowledge in the lesson, the textbook - a weak reflection of what modern science has in this area - as a guide in the sequence of studying the fundamentals of this science, students as trained listeners. In the current situation, each of these “elements” turned out to be functionally unsuitable. A teacher cannot compete in depth and breadth of knowledge with a computer, which is ready to offer hundreds and thousands of the latest scientific and popular articles on any problem that interests you, as well as videos, trainings, etc. Moreover, the textbook becomes outdated by leaps and bounds. Especially in the field of chemistry, biology, and information technology.

What distinguishes a gifted child from ordinary children?

Demonstration of own activity, ability to take responsibility;
- Possession of self-development mechanisms;
- Ability for high concentration;
- Systems thinking, the ability to build connections between existing knowledge, methods of activity and new knowledge;
- Passion and hard work.

Oddly enough, it is the last two qualities that turn out to be decisive; it is not for nothing that there is a saying “Talent is 99 percent of work and one percent of luck.” If we analyze accomplished scientists, only a small part of them were recognized as gifted children in childhood. For the most part, we are talking about passion - for chemistry, physics, biology, sometimes not for the subject itself, but for the person who taught this subject. And one more feature: such a bright hobby occurred more often outside the walls of school, in the system of additional education.Teachers and experts of the Small Academy of Sciences adhere to the position that every healthy child is potentially gifted, and the task of teachers is to “capture”, “ignite”, “give a dream” and give the “tools” of talented thinking to realize it.

When we talk about the “tools” of talented thinking, we are talking about the so-called “skills of the future”, key competencies, having mastered which, a child can think the way a talented person thinks. So, for example, psychologists claim that if a person has compiled at least 100 mental maps according to all the rules, then some “turning point” occurs in thinking, it becomes systemic, deep, associative. The same effect can be observed when mastering the technologies of eidetics (imaginative thinking). In classes to develop creative abilities, high school students who memorized no more than 12 numbers or figures in the first lesson, after three months of classes, reconstructed sequences of 100 numbers and the location of more than 50 figures. From the point of view of ordinary psychology, this is a completely extraordinary result, one of the signs of talent.

Modern pedagogy has in its arsenal so many technologies for personal development that with their skillful use it is possible to repeatedly increase the number of children whose talents will be revealed. Teaching and raising a talented child within the walls of a school, precisely because he, like no one else, does not accept templates and is sensitive to the perception of new things, is difficult. More often, such a child finds “shelter” in informal associations.

In this sense, the system of scientific societies of students, which arose in the sixties of the 20th century, became a model of what our education could be in order, on the one hand, to support and develop talented children, to create for those with various “gifts” a completely unique, built for them environment, to give the opportunity to realize oneself in socially significant activities, in a community of like-minded adults and children. On the other hand, scientific associations of students, the basis of which are passionate teachers and researchers, are at the same time a place where “potential” talents, whose abilities were hidden, “find” themselves.

One more important detail.In scientific associations of students, both talented children and “ordinary” children work completely on an equal footing, without singling out: this is a talent, and this is an average one. This approach is psychologically very correct. A talented child does not have a constant fear that he will do something wrong and will no longer be considered special. Here he is treated “evenly”, with respect for the work done, and not for “potential opportunities”. The ability to work at 99 percent, which will become the basis for success, is laid down in non-state educational institutions. Here the first principle is implemented - the manifestation of one’s own activity, the willingness to take responsibility, since to conduct research work one needs to identify a problem (social or technical), find ways to solve it and get a result.

Scientific associations of students are able to satisfy the high activity (cognitive, personal manifestation) of children, provide them with a wide range of directions and types of activities, as well as freedom of choice; teach how to plan work, find optimal solutions (including, for example, giving TRIZ technologies). It is here that children have the right to make mistakes, to change activities multiple times, to stop and think about themselves, about life.

Of course, only highly qualified teachers who are passionate about their work, most of whom are also researchers, and therefore understand the needs of children, who know how to support and, if necessary, protect their “peculiarity”, uniqueness of thinking, manifestation in society.

In schools, the main emphasis is on the transfer of knowledge. In any textbook we will find a description of what happened before. Even a modern history textbook examines events that took place not today, but some time ago. The student is not a participant in current events, is not personally responsible for what is happening now, and cannot influence what will happen in the near future. If we consider the position of the student, then passive forms clearly predominate - “take” what is given, teach what is required. Your opinion is welcomed in the essay as a mandatory formal element, because nothing depends on this opinion.

The student’s position can be assessed as dependent, with elements of freedom. To compensate for the lack of freedom and activity, and for gifted children these parameters are key, it is possible to the greatest extent in scientific associations of students. The main thing is that the child himself chooses whether he will study astronomy or literary criticism, he determines and decides with which of the proposed teachers he will cooperate. The work initially assumes that, having studied on a chosen topic what has been done previously by other researchers, the student, together with his mentor, studies how this phenomenon (social, physical or other) manifests itself now, makes assumptions, puts forward hypotheses - how much more , which is not at school! And so on until the end, when the work is completed, hypotheses are tested, conclusions and assumptions are made, recommendations are given on how to use the results obtained, and reflection is carried out on one’s own activities.

There is a whole chain of very important points here:

Independent choice of direction and scientific supervisor;

Choosing an actual problem, the solution of which will determine the improvement of something in the world around us;

Active, conscious (because it is necessary to solve an important problem!) study of certain knowledge acquired by others, search for one’s own path;

Planning your activities, optimization, systematic analysis of the results obtained;

Reflexive analysis of one’s activities, ways of achieving goals, effectiveness;

Planning further work based on the results obtained, the methods of activity mastered, and the research experience acquired.

At school there are educational tasks, and only the student’s personal success—the grade—depends on whether you solve them or not. For a gifted child, assessment as such is in most cases not important; he works “for the idea.” In research work, achieving a goal (for example, developing filters for water purification, restoring the names of river tributaries, determining the influence of the color design of a school on vision, etc.) is initially important not only for the researcher himself, but also for other people, therefore such activity is the most attractive to him.

Another feature of the work of scientific societies - team interaction - can help gifted children. A scientific society of students or a small academy of sciences is a special type of public children's organization, the main goal of which is to introduce children to scientific research work, involve them in scientific schools, and focus on the values ​​of the scientific community. There are initially higher moral criteria and requirements for dedication, independence and activity. The desire to do something differently than is accepted does not cause rejection, but is accepted as natural. In a community of enthusiastic children and adults, it is difficult to become a “black sheep”, since everyone here is different, and this feature is welcomed.

Members of the scientific society of students are united by traditions, rituals, certain forms of cooperation, common goals and perspectives. All these characteristics are inherent in the team. This is precisely what organizations are becoming that have been engaged in research work with schoolchildren for many years. Such associations include the Young Astronomers Club of Krasnoturinsk, scientific societies of students of Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Murmansk, the Small Academy of Sciences of Ufa, Chernogolovka. Gifted children are welcome here, just like everyone else, including those whose talents we can help discover and develop.
The position of students in scientific associations has a clear bias towards activity and freedom. Moreover, no matter what kind of teacher there is at school, what elements he introduces into teaching, the system itself forces you to be within certain limits. And, conversely, in scientific associations, even a novice teacher or university representative is “doomed” to co-creation with children, since for each topic of scientific research there is no known result in advance. The teacher can only show the research algorithm, and then, together with the child, receive new knowledge that has not yet been described in any textbook, is relevant at the present time and solves the problems of the next few years. The student is already involved in solving real problems of today and in building the foundations of tomorrow.

The personal potential of a gifted child, by definition, is quite high: as a result of self-development and optimally mastered self-improvement technologies, he possesses a large amount of knowledge and ways of transforming and applying it.
The presence of basic knowledge determines the level of possible social activity, but is not the only and necessary condition for the fact that knowledge will be aimed at solving the “global problems” of humanity, which is why its level reflects only the potential ability of an individual to make a contribution to the development of science, culture, social political structures of society. The scientific communities of students themselves can be considered as a space, and research activities as a way of social realization of the internal potential of gifted children.

Let's consider the types of research activities. First - educational and research activities. The goal is to introduce the child to intellectual and creative activity, show the research algorithm, introduce the structure of research work, scientific methods of research and analysis of the results obtained. The most important thing is for the child to “fire up” so that an internal motivation to engage in research activities appears. At this first stage, all activities are aimed at the child himself: at his improvement through research work, through resolving emerging contradictions. And the novelty of the results obtained in this case is subjective: for the student this topic is new, the research results are new, any technique is used for the first time, and so on. It becomes clear that this kind of work, which is very important, especially from the point of view of a child’s entry into science, lies in the plane of developing personal potential. It is this stage that can serve to “reveal” hidden talents, or to determine the area of ​​application of already manifested talent. It is fundamentally important that a gifted child may not be afraid of mistakes, there are no grades in non-state educational institutions, you can change types of activities, use the most modern techniques, even creating your own.

Second type - research activities. A young researcher initially sets a goal to solve a specific social or technical problem that does not have a ready-made “control” answer. The emphasis is changing: from “doing work to improve yourself as an individual” to “using your potential to solve an important social (technical) problem.” The child sees a problem, transforms it into a research goal, sets tasks, puts forward hypotheses, decides on research methods, carries out the necessary work, obtains results, analyzes and interprets them. The result is obtaining new knowledge, theoretically and/or practically significant results. For gifted children, one of the main characteristics is activity, and directing it towards socially significant matters is an important pedagogical task. Research activities are multifaceted and multifunctional, where many competencies are in demand, including key, supra-subject ones. This is exactly what can attract a gifted child who is prone to systematic thinking and deep immersion in the chosen topic.

Currently, a decision has been made to compulsorily introduce project and research activities in schools. This is a very necessary, promising and truly bold, innovative solution. But the “infrastructure” is not yet ready at all: teachers are en masse not ready to take on the leadership of research activities - understandable, because they themselves have never conducted scientific work; there is no research base - neither technical nor methodological; there are no laws stipulating the possibility of children working at research institutes and scientists working within schools; there are no criteria for assessing the activities of teachers and schools involved in organizing research activities. A lot of things are missing, but the main thing has been done: research and project activities are declared to be a full-fledged part of the school curriculum.

At one time, the pioneer organization moved from the additional education system to school. A big plus was the massive coverage of children by this socially significant movement. It all ended when the formal side of the life of an amateur pioneer organization completely overshadowed the live work.

The transfer of children's scientific associations to school is an undoubted benefit, but one must keep in mind that very formal side that can “kill” any living activity. An important problem arises - how to ensure that scientific associations are in demand by society, so that they are perceived by them as a resource for training socially active young people. After all, it is scientific associations of students that provide the opportunity to “give back”, to realize personal potential, showing their social activity, for example, performing research work and solving a certain problem, while the activity is aimed at the surrounding reality.

To attract children (gifted and potentially gifted), for the broad mass participation of teachers and educational institutions in research and creative activities, the Small Academy of Sciences “Intelligence of the Future” has developed a comprehensive program “Intellectual and Creative Potential of Russia”.

The first stage of the program is competition-olympiads for students in grades 1–11. The goal of Olympiad competitions is the mass involvement of children in intellectual and creative activities in order to identify their interests, inclinations, and preferred areas of activity. Work can be completed within a month using additional literature and Internet resources. Consultations with teachers are allowed. Some of the tasks are designed so that children involve their parents, interact with classmates, conduct experiments, learn to put forward hypotheses and analyze the results. Over the course of several years, program participants can change the types of competitions - from astronomy to philosophy, including Olympiads in basic subjects.Some competitions are aimed at developing cross-disciplinary competencies, for example, “Intellectual and Creative Marathon”, “Uma Chamber”, “Contest of Ingenuity”, “Intelligence Express”.

The second stage is carrying out research work. Those schoolchildren who have shown interest in the intellectual and creative profile are included in research activities. There are several face-to-face conferences for children of different ages. For middle school students – the “Steps into Science” conference. For high school students – Russian conference “Youth, Science, Culture”. For undergraduates and young graduate students – “Scientific Potential - XXI”. Recently (7 years ago) a project for younger schoolchildren appeared - “Christmas Festival-Conference”. Participation in the conference involves first a regional tour, and then a Russian one. But if there are no conferences held in the city, each student has the right to submit his work directly to the organizing committee of the competition for the preliminary correspondence stage. For 27 years, conferences were held annually, despite any external obstacles. This stimulated and supported not only the children, but also the teaching staff, since both of them constantly have short-term and long-term prospects - correspondence and full-time projects.

In the 2010-2011 academic year alone, more than 100,000 people from all regions of Russia took part in the program. The results of each child’s participation in competitions are monitored throughout the entire period of his inclusion in the program. They are stored in a database, and a rating system is in effect: for each achievement (project participant, Laureate, winner, etc.) rating points are awarded, and when a given number of points is reached, the competitor is awarded the next game title. Of course, this is an additional external incentive that contributes, especially in the early stages, to regular work and maintaining interest in creative and research activities. When interest is shown, an inclination towards a certain direction is revealed, or even more so talent is discovered, external stimuli fade into the background. In their reviews, the children write this:“At first I took part in the competition to win, to receive a prize, to please my mother, but now I want to find an original way to solve it, develop a task myself, involve classmates, conduct research.”

At each full-time project where students defend research papers, advanced training courses are constantly organized for teachers. Lectures, trainings, specialized research games that allow you to understand the technology of performing research work, and, to a greater extent, direct presence at the defense of works, where you can understand the requirements of experts, hear how children from different regions of Russia defend their works, see the quality of the presentations, research methods, conclusions. Many years of work in this direction have helped hundreds of teachers successfully manage research work in their school, city, or even in the region.

Centers for the development and support of intellectually gifted children and their mentors have becomeconference "Youth, Science, Culture-North", "Youth, Science, Culture - South", "Youth, science, culture - Siberia", "Youth, science, culture - Bashkortostan"and others that take place in St. Petersburg, Krasnodar Territory, Novosibirsk and Bashkiria. These conferences are held with the support of the Small Academy of Sciences “Intelligence of the Future” by representatives of the Academy’s branches. All conferences have a single methodological approach, common traditions and a single center. The Small Academy's "Intelligence of the Future" program is aimed at identifying, developing and supporting intellectually gifted children, providing all students with opportunities that will be the basis for their future success in life.

The activities of the organization are highly appreciated: in December 2011, the developers of the Program were awarded Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of education (Order of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1946-r dated November 3, 2011) "for the scientific and practical development of the System for identifying and supporting intellectually gifted children within the framework of the Intellectual and Creative Potential of Russia program."

Another high mark is the support of project participants with awards from the President of the Russian Federation (winners - 60,000 rubles and prize-winners - 30,000 rubles):

In accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Education and Science of Russia) dated October 26, 2012 N 869 “On approval of the List of Olympiads and other competitive events, based on the results of which prizes are awarded to support talented youth in 2013”, this list includes the following competitions of the All-Russian Small Academy of Sciences “Intelligence of the Future”:
All-Russian competition of student research works “Youth. The science. Culture";
All-Russian competition of scientific research works of students and students “Scientific Potential-XXI”;
All-Russian competition “Intellectual and creative potential of Russia”;
All-Russian competition on social design “Intellectual Initiative-XXI”;
All-Russian literary and creative competition “Constellation of Talents”;
All-Russian competition of teachers “Education: a look into the future.”

The Small Academy of Sciences "Intelligence of the Future" became a kind of "cradle of talents", the place of their formation, the space for practical implementation. Over 28 years, thousands of gifted schoolchildren have grown up here. Growing up, they turn into good specialists who diverge into different fields of activity and, most importantly, some of them come to science. Thus, the Small Academy “Intelligence of the Future” has become one of the pillars of Russian science, its “human resource”.

Tatiana LYASHKO,

director of educational programs

Small Academy of Sciences "Intelligence of the Future"

The difference between an educated and an uneducated person is the same as between a living and a dead one.

Aristotle

"Youth. Science. Culture", "Cognition and Creativity", "Steps into Science"...

Our conferences and Olympiads, competitions and festivals, games and tournaments begin a passion for science and creativity for tens of thousands of Russian children.

By participating in them, the guys determine their future profession, and, possibly, their whole lives.

What are we working for?

It is a rare modern Russian school that does not participate in various olympiads and competitive Russian and pseudo-international (there are only a few actual international participations, at least in our city) events. This seems to give rise to the prestige of the school among other schools; teachers receive some points towards stimhara (incentive payments). As an honored aunt and a professional with documented and reasonably certified high qualifications, I am also periodically involved in competitive and olympiad tasks.

So, when my eldest niece was in elementary school, from the first grade the teacher began to strongly encourage parents to participate in the Obninsk Olympiads - competitions organized by the All-Russian Academy of Sciences "Intelligence of the Future", branch - the competition "Cognition and Creativity". Why did the offer go to the parents? Because participation in one Olympiad at that time cost about 500 rubles (something was cheaper). In general, in the first grade we somehow managed to dodge (I just looked on the website, there are competitions for preschoolers there too), but in the second grade this honorable mission of participating in the all-Russian credit competition “Cognition and Creativity” did not pass us by. We downloaded the assignments and let my niece solve them. There wasn’t much enthusiasm noted, but she decided, and she solved a lot of things without asking for help. From the first time, the questions were even more in terms of the task - she clarified how to do it. Subsequent times there were no more questions.

In general, after the tasks were solved, they prepared it all in printed computer form and sent it off, paying money. In the end, all the tasks were completed correctly, but there was no space. On the one hand, this is understandable - tasks in Cognition and Creativity are age-appropriate and feasible. Therefore, there is a sea of ​​children who perform correctly. And there are few places. On the other hand, how can you win then?

What to do? I started researching the issue and found somewhere that you can get extra points for the quality of the design. What we did in the next participation - wherever possible, we substantiated the answers with dictionary entries indicating the source (I forced the second-grader to rummage through dictionaries and online dictionaries), added pictures (I remember working with some word like “magnificent”, inserted them there and a film with the picture "Peter the Magnificent" and something else). In general, the second-grader did an excellent job, which the child himself would never have done in terms of design (links, justification for even the most trivial answer), because this was the first experience of such design and no one teaches them this yet. The result is a winner's diploma, second place. All the answers are correct, but Petya the Magnificent was not enough. And there is a huge ugly residue in my pedagogical soul from the unscrupulous ripping off and hypocritical nature of the process of participation in Cognition and creativity - the right answers are not enough, tear what you can, make a show out of the work. In general, other times I managed to avoid participating in the Olympiads - when I feel like it, I download the assignments and give them to my niece to solve, she does an excellent job. Albeit without enthusiasm.

Now I was rummaging around on the website of the Cognition and Creativity competition and found a page about the reward system. Organizations receive all sorts of incentives in the form of diplomas, discounts and even a grant of 20,000 rubles. Coordinators receive awards, medals, certificates. Teachers receive certificates and awards. Participants who received the Grand Prix receive a bonus. And then I remembered my colleague. She has two schoolchildren. She is a very smart girl and an excellent professional who works efficiently. And in her free time from her boss’s assignments, she did Olympiad work for her children. The dog ate this one. So her son was the winner of the Grand Prix of Cognition and Creativity.

And I don't like all this. I prefer competitions in which the child receives rewards for knowledge, rather than pictures and links inserted into them (I have never met a first-grader or even a second-grader who knows how to properly format a text document with the correct links; moreover, not every adult has such a skill).

So Knowledge and creativity will have to somehow manage without us, although they will lose a little. The main thing is that we will not lose, and we cannot gain anything from them except bewilderment and an unpleasant aftertaste.