World Monitor Magazine WM_November_2019_web | Page 54

EXPERT OPINION
else). And that’s all. After 10 weeks, we
can conduct testing and check what
they remember, and after a while they
will completely forget everything the
heard about Plato. They do not care
and do not need it. They want to do
finance, and here is Plato, who thought
such and such. So what? but it is important for us that they
think and reflect. I do not want them to
ignore what is happening around them.
Therefore, we give Plato to read, not
because he is famous but because we
want them to think about important
issues. And this is what we do all year,
reading different and serious works.
Our approach is different. We think
differently. Why have people been
reading Plato for more than 2500
years? Probably because there are
some ideas in his works. It cannot be
that they read him only because they
have been compelled to all these years.
There is some reason. To understand
why, you must read it yourself and think.
To read a compendium is nonsense, so
we give them the primary sources and
make them read with the professor.
We organize discussions. What topic
is important, why is it important, how
can it be applied to modern life, does
this apply to my life or not? It doesn’t
matter for us whether or not they know
what year Plato was born or died. I talked with teachers some time
ago who give students Tolstoy’s The
Death of Ivan Ilyich to read. The text is
interesting, especially for 17-year-old
girls and boys who most likely never
thought about death. So why give it to
17-year- olds? Let them think about how
they live, why they live, that life is not
eternal. They don’t not need abstracts
or paraphrases, they must read and
comprehend for themselves. Where
are the arguments for or against? How
did you get this opinion? I work with
teachers so that they can also provide
clear arguments and reasons why they
have this or that opinion.
As an example, we let our students
read the Allegory of the Cave, not for
them to think about materialism, this
is not the point. But there is a moment
when a person has gone outside and
realized that everything he knew in the
cave was a shadow or reality and not
reality itself, and he wonders, should
I return there and convince those who
stayed that everything they see is not
true, or should I move on with my new
knowledge? This is a very interesting
question for our students who have
ended up in a good university, no matter
whether they come from the village or
from the city. They learned and then
went to work in another country. Now
do they owe something to their country
or not? Should they come back? Should
they share knowledge with relatives
and friends? It does not matter to us
what how they answer these questions,
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About our students, I must say that
not everyone can read these kinds of
works. It’s difficult to take some text
and extract meaning or ideas from it.
All that young people are reading now
fits on the size of one screen, however,
reading more and varied works is a
useful skill, which is not just about
literature or philosophy but can also
apply to interpretation in painting and
art as well as much more.
Now going back to the discipline of
‘Finance’ and how to apply all these
skills to the financial sector. If you are
a financier, you must be able to argue
why you made this or that decision, on
what your judgments are based. You
must be able to defend your opinion,
as others will question it. If we can
teach students on abstract material
the first year, then learning and making
decisions on concrete material is much
easier. However, if you don’t have such
skills, you will not be able to do this.
Therefore, I believe that the first year
is the most important.
When looking at the history of
Kazakhstan, it doesn’t matter to me
that they remember the dates when
certain events occurred, but rather
that they know what a source is,
whether it is reliable, how historians
look for information, and how to look
for information in general. So, we give
them a brilliant task to learn this – they
should write an essay at the end of the
module about what happened on my
birthday. There is no ready answer here
for what happened, say, on December
29, 1991 so students should search
the library or they can find something
on the Internet, highlighting what they
think is the important information
from this and understanding why
this information is important and
some other is not. As a result, they
each write an essay. Considering the
problem of cheating, there is no such
problem because the dates of birth
are different for everyone. Even if it
matches, then there will be completely
different essays, because what seems
important to me may not matter to you
in principle.
We can give such an education, but this
education is not like school. At school,
when history is taught, reference is
made to facts and unfortunately, or
fortunately, no one will understand
what the historian has done, why and
how he does it.
How do modern technologies affect
the learning process?
Technology makes things easy. For
example, I teach art history. Technology
makes some things so easy! When I
was studying, there were slides, and
you had to go to the library, look for
them, and watch each of them. Now