– What, in your opinion, can be a way out of this situation if Alice’s parents do not agree to the conditions offered by Moscow State University?
– If we are talking about the legislative field, then within the framework of the law, Moscow State University accepted Alice for training, realizing that the girl is 9 years old and that the child’s psychologist training program will raise many questions. And when they signed the order for her enrollment, they were aware that some kind of individual accompaniment of Alice was required. Intuitively, we understand that Alice’s rights can be violated.
– Do you think that studying a 9-year-old girl at Moscow State University is normal for a child?
– The story with Alice made me collect information about all the guys who had the same success and entered universities at a young age. In fact, this is what happens. But not at such an early age. And definitely not at the Faculty of Psychology … I can’t give my assessment about Alice, because the fact that for one child is a pleasure, a gift from God and it comes easily to him, for another – daily hellish work! There are people who study by doing homework in 15 minutes or for a break and get an “A”. And someone sits for hours in order to have “five”. The teacher cannot evaluate the contribution of the child to his learning, he does not have such a meter, he evaluates the fact.
– Alice passed the exam at the age of 8 – does this mean that if you study according to some special method, then other children can?
– I immediately saw this situation, as a former director of the school, as a threat to the exam. Because now everyone will say: why do we need to teach children for 11 years? The school assesses subject education, that is, Alice is assessed for the subject. Where should this item be placed? When we open the Federal State Educational Standard (new federal educational standard), it is clearly written there that the student’s personal achievements come first. In second place are skills – interdisciplinary connections, the ability to use them. And only in third place is the subject. The USE has existed for many years, and, of course, it would have to be transformed in such a way that it strengthens what will help the child to reveal these first two points – personal and interdisciplinary. And if now the portfolio covers this deficit, then it will be much easier for us to evaluate such young talents.
Alice’s father is going to send his other children at the same early age to the university. Perhaps there should be some restrictions?
– Now a group of experts is working, which includes representatives of Rosobrnadzor, leading teachers and psychologists, commissioners for children’s rights. I would not like to put any age restrictions. I want the child’s maturity to be as measurable as it should be in the Federal State Educational Standards, and would include not only the area of subject knowledge, but the area of personal development, emotional intelligence. Now completely different children are born, they think differently. And we, adult uncles and aunts, will take some restrictive measures and then we will limit our children precisely by age? We need to meaningfully change history, and not chop it down with ages. All children are different.
The story of Alisa Teplyakova forced everyone to engage in legislative activities in relation to gifted children. Take, for example, children with disabilities, here the algorithm has been worked out clearly: where the family should go, how to move, what rights there are. Isn’t a gifted child a child with a special development? After all, the Teplyakovs went to the Central Psychological-Medical-Pedagogical Commission of Moscow, but they were told there: wait, what do we have to do with it? We only work with children with disabilities. But a gifted child also requires individual accompaniment. The Teplyakovs’ children are in family education, therefore, an external assessment of Alice’s abilities has never been given. The family does nothing. But family education, if you look, needs to be improved. I propose to talk about children who show some outstanding academic success, but at the same time these families solve their problems themselves, the system does not support them.
– But you understand that the father turned everyone against him by his behavior.
I don’t support him in this. We are in touch with him. Take his last statement, when he estimated Alice’s services at 50,000 rubles. per academic hour. I understand that, of course, Alice will not provide any services. Moreover, this is not his humor, as many thought, but such a defense tactic. I think that he needs to solve the issue of studying at Moscow State University.
– Moscow State University offered from the very beginning to provide a tutor to Alice, but her parents themselves wanted to accompany her; Is the university supposed to do whatever the pope wants?
– They had to conclude an agreement and write all this in it. Here we are all thinking about how to change the laws, but every university has its own charter. Yes, you write in the charter of the university that we can accept a child at the physics and mathematics faculty at the age of 12, and we can accept a child at the psychological faculty only from the age of 16.
I am very worried about all the negativity that pours out on the family. I want to tell all the commentators that the information trail will still remain, and all the children of the Teplyakovs will read it later. It hurts children. Save the kids. Alice is having a hard time. Now you can hear calls: “Take away their children!” Listen, what are you? How is it: children are trained, well-groomed, loved, father, mother love and are attached to them … They talk about some kind of nervous tics in the girl … This is all a superficial opinion. In fact, the Teplyakovs need help, which should have been provided much earlier. When Alice graduated from primary and secondary school as an external student, it was then that it was necessary to draw up an individual routing for the child, and not now, when everything had already flared up. Then it was necessary to work with this family, and maybe this situation would not have happened.