Theory of evolution for children. Why do children know so little about human origins. "From Tyrannosaurus Rex to Rooster! The Big Book of Animal Evolution"

Here is a real situation that I witnessed a couple of years ago. Ordinary village. The village father, a graduate of the history department, read with interest my book Myths about Human Evolution and recommended it to the library of the Theological Academy. An educated priest, imagine, accepts evolution, respects Darwin, believes that the Universe came into being as a result of the Big Bang.

A physics teacher at a school in the same village read a lot of creationist pamphlets. She tells the children that there was no evolution, the Earth arose 6 thousand years ago, the first people were Adam and Eve. The village priest, having learned about this, is horrified and tries to reason with the creationist. But in vain - after all, the pamphlets brought from Moscow do not lie! Russia, XXI century. Upside down world. Who in this situation poses a greater threat to children's minds - the village priest or the village teacher? ..

The school was and remains a place where a huge number of people receive scientific information for the only time in their lives. Of course, the school as a source of knowledge for the child has now largely lost its significance - it has to compete with TV and the Internet.

It is doubly important that, at least at school, students receive reliable information about the structure of the world around them from the standpoint of modern science. And, in particular, about the origin of man.

The origin of man is not only a subject of scientists' attention, but also a question, the answer to which actually forms our worldview. The topic is acute, almost scandalous. It seems to me that in the modern Russian school there are six key problems associated with the teaching of anthropogenesis.

1. Outdated textbooks

I acted very simply: I compared two school textbooks on the "History of the Ancient World": Korovkin F.P. (1962) and Goder G.I. (2010).

There is almost half a century between the two textbooks. The list of the most important discoveries made by anthropologists and archaeologists during this time will take several pages. How many species are described! A skilled man, a Rudolf man, a working man, a Georgian man; Australopithecus Afar, Anamsky, Harry, Bahrelgazalsky, sediba; paranthropus boysa and Ethiopian. At the turn of the century, anthropologists found the remains of the most ancient hominids - Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, Ardipithecus, due to which the continuous evolutionary chain of our ancestors was doubled - up to 7 million years. Incredible hobbits from the island of Flores discovered in 2004. The African ancestral home of humanity was finally substantiated by geneticists (1988).

Let's see what the textbooks say about ancient people:

“The most ancient people, who lived 700-600 thousand years ago, were significantly different from people of our time. They looked like big monkeys. Their foreheads were low and sloping. When walking, people leaned forward strongly, and their hands hung below their knees.

“The most ancient people lived in hot countries where there are no frosts and cold winters. For example, in East Africa. Archaeologists find here during excavations the bones of people who lived more than 2 million years ago. Based on these finds, it is possible to restore the appearance of our most distant ancestors. The earliest man was very much like a monkey. He had a rough face with a broad, flattened nose, a heavy lower jaw without a chin, and a receding forehead. Above the eyebrows was a roller, under which the eyes were hidden, as if under a canopy. The gait of people was still not quite straight, jumping; long arms hung below the knees.

Probably, the 2010 version reflected information about the discovery of a skilled man in East Africa - let me remind you that this happened in 1964. Otherwise, the meaning has not changed. The story of the long arms of the most ancient people hanging below the knees was an anachronism already in 1962 - this is how our ancestors were represented in accordance with the first reconstructions of the Neanderthals of the early 20th century. We have known for many decades that even Australopithecus, the early ancestors of man, did not have hands to the knees, more than 3 million years ago.

Surprisingly, both textbooks do not say a word about where people came from in the first place. Fell from the sky? Grow like mushrooms? The idea of ​​origin from a monkey is bashfully hushed up by the authors. Nothing is said about Australopithecus and other hominids. Why did our ancestors stand on two legs? Why did their brains get bigger? Where did the wool go? The young reader will not find answers in the textbook. But children asked me questions on these important topics many times. Students will probably ask the teacher - and what will he answer them? It's better for us not to know...

The description of the life of ancient people in the modern textbook has not only changed little over the past half century, but almost does not differ from the text from the textbook by R.Yu. Wipper 1913 (!) - I'm not kidding. The story about hunting and gathering, about making fire, about the appearance of art is very similar. True, Wipper's description is more interesting from a literary point of view. Compare:

Wipper, 1913: “He spoke little and abruptly; celestial phenomena did not interest him. He did not distinguish between good and evil deeds, did not think about a punishing deity, did not ask himself the question of where everything around him comes from, who rules the world he sees. He could only rejoice noisily when there was good luck, and moan hard when misfortune befell him.

Korovkin, 1962: “People made only a few staccato sounds. With these sounds they expressed anger and fear, called for help and warned each other of danger.

A more acceptable presentation of human evolution in a biology textbook for grades 10-11 (V.I. Sivoglazov et al., 2010). At least Australopithecus, a skilled man, Neanderthals are mentioned here; talking about ape-like ancestors. However, the textbook is still dominated by the stage concept, according to which human evolution took place through successive stages: archanthropes - paleoanthropes - neoanthropes. This beautiful scheme was relevant 40-50 years ago, but now it looks like an obvious anachronism.

So, the poor kids get very outdated information at school.

2. Misconceptions and errors in textbooks

The impression I got while reading the textbooks is that their compilers did not bother to study the subject thoroughly. This is not surprising - experts in anthropogenesis in the country can be counted on the fingers. However, the author of the textbook could at least correctly retell the scientific sources. Unfortunately, this does not happen in practice.

Here are a couple of examples from a 2010 textbook. Next to the reconstruction of Sinanthropus is the signature “a man who lived about a million years ago” (in fact, half a million). It turns out that people needed stone tools to “cut down clubs” and “grind digging sticks”. On the next page we see an image of a club... In fact, there are no archaeological finds of clubs, nor ethnographic analogues of this virtual "tool of the ancients". Does the author of the textbook know about this?

Ideas about a "caveman armed with a club" come from the popular literature of the 19th century, stories about a human herd and a tribal community - apparently from the works of Friedrich Engels.

In the 21st century, I would like to change the record. But it seems that the authors have neither the desire nor the ability to rework the text.

3. Boring!

The modern schoolboy was brought up on bright cartoons, on movies with fantastic special effects, on TV shows where something is sure to explode; on cool pictures from VKontakte, on YouTube videos that try to capture your attention from the first second. What does the textbook suggest? Faded reproductions of Burian. Boredom!

Is it any wonder that when talking about an ancient man, a teenager recalls a cartoon about the Flintstones or monkey-like characters from the movie Night at the Museum, and not a school lesson at all?

In theory, teachers who are responsible for their work should use additional materials in the classroom in addition to the textbook. Watching films? But I have not heard of popular science films on anthropogenesis aimed at children. Publications from the Internet? You know their quality.

A good option is to organize an excursion to the museum for children. Only in what museum outside of Moscow will schoolchildren be able to see an exposition on anthropogenesis? Even in St. Petersburg, there is nothing like this in museums. The joint exhibition "Anthropogenesis.Ru" and the State Biological Museum is now traveling around the country, but this is a drop in the ocean.

And in order to give children something beyond the textbook, teachers must have a desire and understanding of the importance of this topic.

4. Attitude of teachers

And what is the attitude of teachers - it is clear from the example with which I began this article. If the teacher himself "does not believe in Darwin's theory" - and this, alas, is a common thing - it is foolish to expect zeal from him. So it turns out that the teacher tells the children (almost a quote): “Scientists once claimed that man descended from a monkey. You and I understand that this is nonsense, but according to the program, I am obliged to tell you this.

Another noble-minded teacher invites students to discuss which theory of human origins seems more convincing to them - "religious, biological, or extraterrestrial."

11-year-old boys and girls should make up their opinion on the most difficult scientific topic within 10 minutes ...

But perhaps the most common phenomenon is the usual teacher indifference. I encountered this problem recently: in Nizhny Novgorod, a "round table" was held on the topic of the problems of teaching the theory of evolution at school. Although invitations were sent out to local schools, no teachers showed up for the event.

But one psycho and several high school students came.

Schoolchildren shared their misfortune: they have introduced in their school, however, as an additional subject “Problem questions of history” (I can’t vouch for the exact name). What do children learn within the framework of a new subject? Well, for example, they get acquainted with the "new chronology" of Fomenko. And the teacher tells unsuspecting listeners about Veles's book. When I said that the Book of Veles was a well-known forgery, this was news to schoolchildren.

Thus we come to the next problem.

5. Teacher gag

There are almost one and a half million teachers in Russia. In the capitals and in the outback, in large cities and in small rural schools ... A huge army! Huge and poorly managed. Is it possible to ensure that the teacher expounds the topic of anthropogenesis at least in accordance with the program? And in private schools, the program can change in general as you like.

And no one guarantees that your child will not learn biology in the 10th grade according to Vertyanov’s textbook “on an Orthodox basis”, will not hear enough stories about the global flood and the fall or about the origin of man from the Atlanteans-Lemurians, as the crazy ophthalmologist Muldashev teaches.

Why not? Teachers and school directors are real people, they also read blogs and watch REN TV.

Above, I criticized textbooks, but, to be honest, it seems to me that it’s better for a teacher to tell children “like in a textbook” than to gag! The textbook, however outdated, at least does not contain explicit pseudoscience. But what if the teacher at school firmly stands on anti-scientific positions? What should students do? This question has been asked to me many times by listeners. Unfortunately I don't have a good answer. Transfer to another school? To complain? Silently endure and rely on home education?

6. Methodological problem

“At school, they painted a simple and harmonious picture for us,” the reader complains. - And after many years I learned that in fact everything is complicated and confusing. So, it turns out that the teachers lied to me? Stop. Let's figure it out. Above, we considered a textbook of the history of the ancient world. Friends, this is the 5th grade. Children learn about the Stone Age and the origin of man at the age of 11, along with fractions and natural numbers.

Note the methodological issue. We comprehend mathematics, moving from simple to complex. First - the multiplication table, then - fractions, then - quadratic equations. Not so in history. Is the history of the ancient world simpler than modern history? Not at all. However, the Ancient World is passed along with fractions, and the newest history - in the 9th grade, with quadratic equations and progressions. If you have forgotten what the level of presentation of information to a fifth grader is, here is an excerpt from a methodological guide for teachers (1988, Goder G.I.):

"Read how much (approximately) years ago, the most ancient people lived on Earth,” the teacher says and writes on the blackboard: “2,000,000 years ago.” The task draws attention to the great age of mankind and at the same time encourages students to independently name the date. Having received the answer, it is useful to check whether the expression “so many years ago” is understood by the fifth graders. Addressing individual students, the teacher asks: “How many years ago were you born? went to school?" (p. 8)”.

The teacher must make sure that the children understand the phrase "2 million years ago." This is the level of students the program is designed for.

Will someone, being in their right mind, load fifth graders with Latin names of ancient hominids, archaeological terms, features of radiocarbon analysis?

Five years pass, and the topic of the origin of man pops up again, this time as part of biology lessons. Now the students are old enough, but is it too late? The lessons of 5 years ago have long been out of my head - they have been replaced by TV, movies, computer games. The worldview of a 16-year-old teenager has already been formed - if they wanted to brainwash him with religion or the occult, then the deed has already been done ...

What to do?

As I said, I do not have a good and simple answer to the question of how to save children from a person with a diploma from a teacher's institute, carrying anti-scientific nonsense in the classroom. In my opinion, it is worth taking matters into your own hands, not counting on high-quality teaching at school (I now turn primarily to parents). There are few books on the origin of man for children, but they do exist - a brief review of them was recently published on our website. A good school encyclopedia edited by Konstantin Zadorozhny “From Monkey to Man” was published in collaboration with Anthropogenesis.Ru, though in Ukraine, but in Russian. The materials of the site "Anthropogenesis.Ru", of course, are intended for adults, but we have published answers to children's questions several times and even organized a competition for the best children's question. So any child can write to me - and I will try to provide answers from real scientists. I promise that every question will be given attention.

In addition to books, I would like to recommend popular science films ... I would like to, but the choice here is extremely poor. Perhaps the BBC series "Walking with a Caveman" is not bad. True, the film is by no means aimed at children, so parents and children should watch it together.

Above, I have already talked about visiting museums and exhibitions. Unfortunately, in Russia, expositions on the topic of anthropogenesis are actually only in Moscow. Muscovites can choose between the Darwin, Paleontological and Biological museums, and in autumn our traveling exhibition “17 Skulls and a Tooth” will be added to this list. I had the opportunity to observe how children react to the exhibits? It was nice to see burning eyes, and at some exhibits young visitors hung out for a long time.

And one more observation - the questions asked by children at the exhibition differ little from those sent to me by adult, respectable, educated uncles and aunts.

There is another possibility of obtaining knowledge from a source that is alternative to school. I share my impressions in hot pursuit. I am writing this article while on an archaeological expedition. For some time now, local kids began to visit the excavation. They stood in silence and watched the work of archaeologists. Finally, two girls of 10 years old asked to help. The head of the expedition, a kind man, did not refuse, especially since assistants at excavations are always needed! A few days under the supervision of adults - and the girls were already working in the excavation on an equal basis with everyone else. And at the same time they listened to stories about the Neanderthals who inhabited these places 30 thousand years ago. Asked naive, but sensible questions. And they received detailed answers not from a rural teacher, but from specialists from the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Both young "diggers" said that when they grow up, they will definitely become archaeologists.

Do you want to teach your children anthropogenesis? Take them with you on an archaeological expedition!

Cheri Fields

It was the summer of 2012. I had just started writing a book about children and creationism, when all of a sudden a well-known 'pundits' said in the media that it is impossible to be a scientist who does not believe in evolution. I couldn't wait to answer him and knew exactly who to interview. My brother was an engineer. He has been homeschooled since childhood. I just had to call him and collect the necessary evidence.

However, before dialing the number, my heart sank with fear: a few years ago, my brother chose the priorities and standards of this world, and not God.

What if he now believes in evolution? Anyway, I had to ask him. Predictably, he became a theistic evolutionist. My brother believed in Jesus as his Savior and in evolution as part of His creation. He cautiously hinted to me that his views did not change in college. It happened in his teens, after he read an interesting article in a popular science magazine.

Good intentions, but...

My parents started teaching us at home in 1982, but they had few good sources in their arsenal. We used the only program we knew and were quite happy.

I remember being told about Lamarck's acquired traits that no one else believes in and the inaccuracy of the moth story, but that was all the parents could tell us about evolution.

Later, we found a new program that included a lot of amazing medical and scientific facts, but it said nothing at all about Creation and evolution.

This was done intentionally. The idea was that the children would be taught the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and that when they heard a lie, they could immediately recognize it. It sounded quite reasonable. But all too often this approach has been a disaster.

Many young people who grew up in Christian homes, where they were taught only those things that they were supposed to accept as the truth, subsequently easily accepted worldly things on faith.

The world knows how to package their ideas in an attractive, practical and bright package. Children who do not have the means to recognize and counter lies are in grave danger.

Now I myself teach my children at home. I know I can't always protect them from the tsunami of godless thinking and worldly assumptions. How can I prepare them for this onslaught? That's what I think. Hebrews 5:13-14 says: « Whoever feeds on milk is ignorant of the word of truth, because he is a child; solid food is characteristic of the perfect, in whom the senses are accustomed by skill to distinguish between good and evil» .

Our ability to recognize the truth is similar to our immune system's ability to recognize foreign invaders.

Just as we train our bodies, I train my children: I show them what they will face so they know how to neutralize the danger. This method slowly and carefully helps them build up the spiritual muscles that are necessary to discern good and evil.

When we educate children, we want them to know a lot more than evolutionists would like.

Of course, at 2-3 years old we do not teach our children about the features of the structure of feathered dinosaurs, but we study other programs filled with more subtle ideas that begin at a later age.

We are talking about it. When we educate children, we want them to know a lot more than evolutionists would like. If children know in advance the assumptions scientists make, they are less likely to take them at their word.

One of my sons is just now beginning to study the history of the world. We use textbooks that children are taught in all schools. When the textbook says that humans lived over 10,000 years ago, I quickly talk about the carbon dating method. The next time we see such a huge number in a textbook, I ask my son how scientists “know” that it was so long ago, and what the Bible says about it.

(By the way, when we read about how people could "invent" farming, metallurgy, music, etc., I like to refer to the opening chapters of Genesis. We don't have to guess how the world does it, but we trust a simple description history that God has preserved for us!)

freeimages.com/samlevan

Recently, my children and I started studying geography. On two pages of a textbook on the subject, a timeline of life was drawn, beginning with the "first cells." Here we stopped and went down into history much deeper. Evolutionists don't want to educate their children on such subtleties. We talked about Spontaneous Generation, renamed today to abiogenesis. We then discussed that the appearance of each new type of organism is based on the order in which they were buried.

My two older children are now studying anatomy and biology. This is a good time to introduce them to mutations, the only mechanism by which evolution "creates" new traits. And, of course, one cannot fail to mention natural selection.

Not a single textbook for children that I have ever seen explains why its authors believe in what they teach. They simply draw final conclusions as if they were hard facts. The same can be said for most adult material. In fact, in order to find the basis of scientific claims, we often have to turn to scientific articles and papers written specifically for scientists - dedicated people who reliably protect the fragile secrets of their assumptions.

The last topic we cover in our classes concerns the implications of evolutionary thinking for worldview. Like any other philosophy, evolutionism and creationism must answer basic questions about life:

1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. Where am I going?
4. What really matters in life?

The Bible is replete with answers to these questions. Evolutionists also have them, but they are usually not talked about much because these answers are not very attractive. Look at them:

1. Random collection of matter
2. There is no reason (or just to pass on your DNA, which doesn't make sense anyway)
3. Going nowhere
4. Nothing

It is hard to imagine a person who would choose the emptiness of naturalism, unless he is bound by sin and pride. Most Christian children have not sunk to that level—yet.

Does this guarantee that my children will hold fast to the Lord all their lives? No, but I'm not afraid for them. My job is to pray for them, live in dedication to Jesus, and invite them to join their Father and me in His kingdom.

No man can change the heart. This is the work of God. I want to give the Holy Spirit the tools to change my children.

“Even so, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones perish.”(Matthew 18:14).

PS: Did you find that your children encountered the topic of evolution at school? The same principles can help here. Grab a textbook and study the next few chapters. Focus on the thinking behind your conclusions. Teach your children more than evolutionists would like. Finally, teach your children how to be witnesses in the world.

Very often in parent-child communities there are questions about what to do with unruly and completely naughty children. Nothing affects them at all.

Many parents are faced with teenage uncontrollability, with the inability to influence a child of 13-17 years old. He doesn't listen to anything.

And finally, there are adults who are completely uncontrollable (from the side of society). They are most often referred to as criminals, but this is also an interesting problem.

All three problems from the point of view of psychophysiology are connected. All these are different degrees of the same thing. It's just that difficult children do not always become difficult teenagers, and even less often turn into delinquents.

Most safely pass such a period in childhood or puberty, and in adulthood become reasonable and prosperous citizens. However, not all. Sometimes there are people who were quite obedient in childhood or even in adolescence, and then turned into uncontrollable. It rarely happens, but it does happen.

What it is?

First of all, it is too high a threshold of frustration.

It is best for parents of difficult children to understand this topic so as not to fight disobedience in various wild and harmful (that is, aggravating the problem) ways, like a belt. It is all the more stupid to punish teenagers (depriving them of walks and taking away gadgets). For an ordinary child in a difficult period, this is just insulting and creates discord with the parent (and the desire to hide more from him and run away from home early). And for a really difficult one, this raises the threshold of frustration even more, hardens, turns on and makes the parent a target for struggle.

Frustration threshold is a difficult topic for non-specialists. I'll try to explain as simply as possible.

Children are born different, each with its own peculiar nervous organization. Children become even more different when a unique developmental experience is added to the nervous organization.

Once an excellent scientist Lev Gumilyov investigated the problem of passionarity (and passionarity in many cases is just such a complete uncontrollability and insubordination) and came to the conclusion that passionarity may depend on special flares on the Sun. Among social factors, Gumilyov singled out such a factor as the intersection of ethnic groups, not so much different genes, but radically different cultures.

Modern research tends to the same point of view. Mutations, genetic features, and a special social environment, in which there is a gap between moral meanings, are involved in the appearance of such a nervous organization.

In itself, Gumilyov considered passionarity to be a very important and necessary phenomenon for mankind, but noted that if it was misdirected and used, it could turn into a disaster. A pronounced passionary does not stop at any obstacles, any obstacle only stimulates him more to be active and to strive for a goal. Even if the goal is good, such a person can be dangerous (especially since good is relative). What if the goal is not the common good? It is terrible to imagine what such a monster is capable of, obsessed with the idea of ​​​​remaking the world according to his plan. And why pretend? You can read history.

Gumilyov also singled out as a separate type - subpassionaries (people whose energy is aimed at self-destruction, self-destruction) and harmonious (people who live normally, calmly and fit well into the social framework). All this is rather conditional. There may be a harmonious person with the features of a passionary or, conversely, a subpassionary, and sometimes at different periods of life.

From the point of view of psychophysiology, subpassionaries can be attributed to people with a very low frustration threshold, harmonious people - to those whose frustration threshold is normal, but passionaries are people with a very high, sometimes abnormally high frustration threshold.

The concept of frustration is misunderstood by many, even by some psychologists.

Frustration is not aggression that occurs when a person's needs collide with an obstacle. No. Aggression is just one of the forms of reaction to frustration, moreover, Kurt Lewin considered frustration accompanied by aggression to be incomplete. Because aggression is an additional energy that is released in an attempt to overcome an obstacle. You ran into a barrier and in a rage tried to break it. You are not completely frustrated because you are still trying to keep moving towards the goal, albeit in such a destructive way.

Real frustration is when a person stops moving when faced with an obstacle, gives up, cannot direct the same energy to anything constructive. He simply suppresses it, extinguishes or directs aggression inward.

An ordinary person, whose strong need is faced with an obstacle, first tries to overcome this obstacle, then looks for workarounds, and realizing that the obstacle is insurmountable, part of the need frustrates (extinguishes), and part tries to redirect somewhere (does not frustrate). This is a socially adequate being. Ideally, a small part should be extinguished, and a large part should be redirected. This is a well-adapted and stress-resistant personality.

A pronounced passionary is a person whose need knows no barriers at all. He will never give up on his goal. He will either die or head-butt the barrier (and yes, most do die, of course). In extreme cases, he will come up with a way to get around this wall, but not in a roundabout way and will not wait long, because he is seething with passion. Passionarity is a strong passion (passion = passion).

Do you understand what a frustration threshold is? This is such a conditional threshold, which depends on the qualities of the psyche and personality, having reached which a person believes that the barrier is too great and it is pointless to spend his energy further. A normal person sees the objective “no”, “impossible”, “it will cost too much” and retreats. Passionary begins to rush forward with a vengeance. Yes, barriers only turn on a real passionary. If a person's frustration threshold is very, very high, there is no such barrier that he would consider impassable for himself.

From the point of view of psychophysiology, this is a pathology, since such people are rather poorly adapted to life in the environment, and even more so in society, they often die. However, if we do not take extremes, that is, do not consider the prohibitively high threshold of frustration, but simply consider it elevated, then we see a very purposeful person, perhaps a hero, and possibly a criminal, but the personality is quite strong (until she was physically broken or killed) .

Too low a threshold of frustration - the same pathology. Such a person gives in from any difficulty, he is ready to accept any external rule as a law and will not try to circumvent it, and, having met any resistance on the way, will immediately give in. The norm is always in the middle, but the peculiarity of people lies in the fact that some normal people have a lower frustration threshold, some have an increased one, and all of them need (and can) learn to live happily.

Now imagine a small child. Your difficult and completely unmanageable.

He is physiologically made differently than his peers with whom you compare him. What's the point of beating him up? If this is from helplessness and anger, okay (better drink a sedative), but if this is a conscious method of education, then you are fools, not parents.

Most uncontrollable children, bypassing the crisis of 3 years of age (after about 4 years), become quite manageable. But (!) If the parents had not already ruined their relationship with them, while they were beating and tormenting them during the three-year crisis. During this time, you can become the enemy of the child, especially if you have a real passionary.

What is the difference between an unruly child and an obedient and quiet one?

Obedient is more sensitive, emotionally responsive, impressionable, anxious, so his frustration threshold is much lower. Mom just looked sadly, shook her head, and his desire to climb over there on that high shelf disappeared. The external "no" has become a sufficient barrier, because his frustration threshold is very low, almost any barrier is enough for him to retreat. You see that a child who is too obedient is also not very good, right? Any external "no" immediately becomes his internal law, he is suggestible, he is completely controllable. Everything is good in moderation.

What is a very naughty child? Oh, he can't hear you at all. For him, your op is just noise, like the sound of the sea. His excitement from desire (nervous, physiological, his psyche is so arranged) is so strong that you can even kill yourself, but he will climb where he has planned. If the frustration threshold is very high, you can beat him with mortal combat, he will cry, but still climb. No suffering will stop him, because fear is nothing compared to his need. I repeat once again, most likely (9 out of 10) it will outgrow this period, it will become adequate, but so far it is like that. Just accept this fact, for starters.

You think in vain that an obedient child is more reasonable and good, his need simply does not have such an energy force. He's not that passionate. His need is weaker, it is easily removed by prohibition. And your terrible child has strong and powerful desires. He is a typhoon. Here's the one you got.

What do parents do when they beat and punish such children?

They can turn them from possible heroes into possible criminals. Yes, let's not be afraid of big words, it's something like this happens. Not always, fortunately, but often.

What is the difference between a hero and a criminal? The first wants to do something for the benefit of society, the second is anti-social and wants to rob others. The second can be considered a psychopath, and passionaries who were beaten in childhood often turn into psychopaths. Imagine for yourself, their need has incredible energy power, they cannot cope with it, there are no mental reserves. And on the part of society (which is personified by parents and teachers), beatings and punishments come all the time. What is left for the children? Firstly, learn to lie and pretend (for self-defense), and secondly, to hate society as the main enemy, looking for means of struggle and revenge. (This must be understood not for the sake of justifying criminals, but for the sake of reducing their number).

The percentage of real passionaries is very small. Great heroes and true villains are rare. Most unruly children will later normalize their frustration threshold and become perfectly normal and law-abiding citizens. But it is not necessary during periods of their riots to spoil relations with them and set them against themselves and society, complicating their lives and their social adaptation.

And what can be done, I'll tell you now.

Now I can’t say what to do with children with a real conduct disorder (who even at the age of 8-10 destroy everything, behave aggressively and do not respect the minimum rules) and how to correct adolescent psychopaths, this is too complicated a problem (although interesting and lots of research and experimentation is going on now). But I can tell you what to do with young children with a high threshold of frustration, those who do not want to obey, are very stubborn, insist on their own, lie (because they are punished) and violate all prohibitions.

It is very difficult or impossible to frustrate their energy, sometimes it is easier for them to break all the bones than to prohibit wanting something and climbing somewhere. But their energy can be redirected by suggesting another goal or several goals. And this is the ONLY way. Do you understand? It is almost impossible to ban, stop, intimidate, prove. You can redirect your attention. This is the only option. And it is better to occupy their attention BEFORE they choose a destructive goal for themselves, otherwise it will be difficult to distract. You need to get their attention first. There will be a wasteland, they will fill it themselves and in a way that you will not like it.

Parents should understand very well that the main enemy of such children is BOREDOM.

From boredom, such children are ready not only to violate parental prohibitions, but to jump out the window and this is not a joke. Understand that people's minds are different. And the unformed children's psyche is especially bizarre. Anxious children tolerate boredom much better, but such children cannot at all, boredom kills them and blows their minds. They experience a real torment, the strongest torment of hell, when you make them just sit or do something boring, useful, but uninteresting. They need emotions, they are emotional gluttons from birth. They will grow up and learn self-regulation, but for now it is very difficult for them to live in your boring adult world.

Who turned out to be so attentive and smart that he immediately realized that the scourge of his difficult child (which all the nannies, gardens refused, and even the mother agreed to refuse) was boredom. He becomes very aggressive out of boredom (and there is most likely a genetic feature, because his father is the same), and in an interesting game - he is very adequate, quick-witted, responsive, a normal child.

Never put such children in a corner, do not punish them with boredom and sitting on a chair, do not act like stupid monsters, they can’t stand boredom anyway, and you torment them even more. If you beat such children, you not only create the image of adult enemies in them, but also raise, harden their pain threshold, and soon they begin to love to fight, love even physical punishment, love blood and beatings (inflict and receive, yes) . It's hard to imagine, but it's true. This is very typical for passionaries: in emotional heat they do not feel and are not afraid of pain. And if the pain threshold has been trained since childhood, then even more so they love to fight. Boredom is so unbearable for such children that any pain and danger becomes a boon for them. And you additionally accustom them to pain, make pain habitual or even pleasant for them. What for? It is better to let their pain threshold remain lower, then reverence, a barrier will remain before pain, and they will risk their health less in their lives. Pain has a protective function, it is not necessary to abolish it, it is very dangerous.

The only way to deal with such children is to keep them constantly in a state of some kind of passion, some interesting tasks. Oh yes, it's hard, but it's the only way. As soon as they get bored, they begin to violate your prohibitions, do everything that is impossible, rush to dangers and adventures. Do not think that their goal is to drive you crazy, but for them it is better than just sitting in unbearable four walls in an endless stretch of time. Time for such a child is stretched so that every five minutes turn into five weeks. Imagine that you have to sit and stare at a wall for five weeks. You want to smash your head against that wall, don't you? This is exactly what your child wants.

Don't compare your child to others. The other has a different psyche, he endures boredom better, he can focus on a book or a toy for an hour (too low a threshold of frustration is also bad, I repeat, healthy children should be restless up to a certain age), but yours is like this, he is unbearable in ordinary conditions, he needs constant action, a constant game, a constant change of events, a constant load, mental and physical.

Your task is not only to feed him and put him to bed, but also to provide him with an adequate level of load, impressions and incentives. If there are too few of them, he will languish and rage, howl and climb the walls. He will blow your mind. Or destroy everything around.

Hold on. If you survive this crisis period with honor (usually a crisis lasts a year or two), you will get an adequate, but energetic son or daughter, and you will also thank him or her that they are just like that. Almost all features of the psyche (healthy) have their drawbacks and their advantages.

I’ll tell you about difficult teenagers separately. There are nuances (drugs, alcohol, sex, bad company, etc.). In the meantime, let's talk about difficult kids. Do you have similar experience? How and how can you captivate such a child with minimal time, effort and money? This is difficult, but not any. Do not sadden the parents of difficult children with completely banal ideas.

Marveling at the beauty and diversity of the world around us, people have been wondering for centuries: how it appeared, how the planets formed, how life originated, why earthly life is based on carbon and uses four types of links in DNA, and in the end how it arose from cosmic dust the same, the first, living cell?

Of course, all these questions excite young minds. Now, perhaps, there is not a single first-grader who would not be interested in the theme of the emergence of the world and man. Moreover, even preschool children ask similar questions. Naturally, publishers cannot ignore their interest. And today in the children's literature market there are many high-quality children's books on such topics as: "The Origin of the Earth", "Human Evolution" and "The Origin of Life".

It is about them that we will talk today.

"History of life. My first book about evolution"

The book is fully consistent with its title, it is really an introductory course into the wonderful and so bewitching world of nature and evolution. With a childish approach, it tells the story of how life developed on our planet. A period of more than 4 billion years is described, the beginning of which is chaos, volcanic ash and hot lava, and the result is the birth of something very amazing and so necessary for all of us.

Strikingly light, logical text that transforms into independent thoughts. Everything is laid out on the shelves, it is clear what follows from what and why one is replaced by another. Despite the fact that a huge piece of history is covered, after reading the whole process will inevitably become clear.

In addition to the content, I want to draw your attention to the design of the book. It's really a child's play. The manner of narration, presentation, illustrations - everything is designed for children of senior preschool and primary school age. In addition, the book will be of interest to younger readers, who will be able to look at the colorful illustrations and for the first time think about how the world around them came into being.

Age: 4+

More 

"History of life. From the primordial broth to the present day"

A Brief History of the Universe. Just think of a brief-history-of-the-universe! That is, the history of our planet is a little over 13.5 billion years long, from the time of the Big Bang to the present day.

The narrative of the book begins with the distant Catarchean, a period that lasted about half a billion years and began about 4.5 billion years ago.

It was then that the formation of a solid earth's surface, similar to what we observe today, occurs. Also during this period, the atmosphere and hydrosphere are formed.

Further Archaea - the origin of life; Ediacaran - the first algae and animals; The Cambrian period is the era of trilobites; Ordovician period - the first plants, jellyfish, sponges and echinoderms; Silurian period - landfall, development of coral species; Devonian period - a layer of fertile soil, the first sharks and amphibians; Carboniferous period - the first reptiles; Permian period - fish and ammonites, pangolins; Triassic period - the first dinosaurs, the division of Pangea and the mass extinctions of amphibians; Jurassic - the era of giants and the first mammals; Cretaceous - further division of Gondwana, first flowers, insects and birds; Eocene - division of Laurasia, adaptation to a new climate; Pleistocene - a sharp cooling, ice age, mammoths and saber-toothed cats; The Holocene is the modern period, covering the period from 11,700 years ago to the present day.

In addition to periodicals and stages of development and formation of life on earth, the reader will learn from this book: why the ancient centipede grew up to a meter long, how fast the tyrannosaurus ran, what is common between a whale and a deer or a crow and a dinosaur, what is oil, who are Australopithecus, why does a plant need flowers and fruits, and about other interesting facts described in the footnotes "curious monkey"

Age: 5+

More 

"From Tyrannosaurus Rex to Rooster! The Big Book of Animal Evolution"

I will make a reservation right away that "From a tyrannosaurus rex to a rooster" is not a book about "dinosaurs". This is their parents, who know a little more about prehistoric animals than just their names. Here, the process of evolution lasting several million years is considered, and its course is analyzed using the example of several animal species.

Whether it is a huge tyrannosaurus rex (the largest of the theropods), which somehow magically turned into a poultry, a meganeura with a wingspan of 65 cm and devouring everyone and everything, but becoming a completely harmless (at least for humans) dragonfly, or dorudon (he is also a modern whale), which lost all its teeth, but retained its fins and impressive size, after some 100-150 million years!

I would also like to note the sections from the book devoted to the comparison of "those" and "these", for example, comparative drawings of Archeopteryx and a modern rooster (yes, the one that is the closest relative of the tyrannosaurus rex). Or here's another - explaining why and why the horse lost its fingers, instead receiving no less useful hooves. Or how it happened that although ostriches are birds, they do not know how to fly ... It seems to me that it is very informative, and not only for children.

Age: 6+

More

"In the darkness of time. Dinosaurs and other prehistoric inhabitants"

The author of the book, Sergey Yuryevich Afonkin, together with his wife Elena Yuryevna, published several dozen books and brochures, mainly about nature and man.

As for this book, it included a maximum of necessary information. There are no bare facts and figures here. But there is consistency and the ability to convey the meaning to young readers.

Andreev's illustrations amaze the imagination. Here the artist's imagination was clearly unlimited. After all, until now, no one knows exactly how these toothy and winged lizards looked like.

The book includes several sections. The reader is first met by an enchanting introduction, after which you can no longer stop and, drugged by what you hear, you read on, swallowing the information like ... a dinosaur. Instead of a conclusion - a geochronological scale: from Archean to Cenozoic. Which, oddly enough, is not so common in such books. But this is the foundation of the foundations.

Age: 6+

More 

"The Origin of Life" and "The Origin of Man" (School Guides)

From these books, young readers will learn about existing hypotheses and assumptions, about theories and facts related to the emergence of life on planet Earth, about distant human relatives who lived on it many thousands of years ago.

Books from the "Know the World" series will help preschoolers and primary schoolchildren understand not only the origin of life and man, but will also allow them to better understand and imagine what the first forms of life were like, how they lived their short life, and what they did...

Age: 6+

More and 

"The Riddle of Life and the Dirty Socks of Jos Grotjes of Dril"

What are the seashells doing on the top of the mountain? Why did the giant deer become extinct? Why are women getting more beautiful and men not? Why do some animals want to die? How to become a quadruped from a fish? Why do we write in fossils at school? How to find an amphibian, or fish phobia? Finally, what does dirty socks have to do with it?

The well-known Dutch popularizer of science, Jan Paul Schütten, does not leave any of these questions unanswered. Answering them, he talks about the most difficult things in an accessible way. For example, about how the Universe came into being, what the Big Bang is, how life on Earth began, and even what aliens will look like when we finally find them. He is assisted by the witty and ironic artist Floor Ryder, whose drawings perfectly complement this exciting story.

Age: 12+

More 

"Imprints of life. 25 steps of evolution and the whole history of the planet"

Best-selling author, paleontologist Donald Protheroe, has turned the scientific description of twenty-five famous, well-preserved fossils into a fascinating one. The twenty-five fossils discussed in this book demonstrate life in all its evolutionary splendor, showing how one species evolves into another.

We will see the whole variety of extinct plants and animals - from microscopic to gigantic sizes. We will read about fantastic land and sea creatures that have no analogues in modern nature: the first trilobites, giant sharks, huge marine reptiles and feathered dinosaurs, the first birds, walking whales, giant hornless rhinoceros and Australopithecus "Lucy".

Age: 12+

More 

"Pulling Link. Book One. Monkeys and All-All-All" and "Pulling Link. Book Two. People"

The theory of human evolution is called anthropogenesis. It is to her that the books of the biologist and popularizer of science Stanislav Drobyshevsky are dedicated. By the titles of the volumes - "Monkeys and All-All-All" and "People" it immediately becomes clear who the main characters are in them.

The beauty of sci-fi is that it is written for inexperienced readers. The author of this book very quickly manages to bring the unprepared up to date and, largely thanks to the easy and metaphorical language, constantly maintains an interest in reading. Especially abstruse places can be skipped, then there will even be time to sleep.

Sergei Kumysh, in an article on Posta Magazine, compared The Retrieving Link with The Lord of the Rings in terms of volume and fascination, assigning not the last place to hobbits in Drobyshevsky's book - a very high assessment of the book's artistic merits.

Age: 12+
More 

"Question of Life"

The author of the book is Nick Lane, an English biochemist and researcher in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and the Environment at University College London.

Billions of years ago, during the Hadean period, our planet lived a normal life for a relatively recently appeared celestial body. It was a relatively calm water world with rare islands, and not a fiery hell with constantly erupting volcanoes, as artists like to portray.

And suddenly something happened that radically changed the entire further history of the planet. It had life. What was it: a random coincidence of a million different factors or the inevitable course of events? What was the first cell? How did it change, develop, become more complex, and how, as a result, did all the variety of living organisms that we can observe around us arise: from humans and plants, to bacteria and viruses? What secrets does our DNA hold? Why do genetic diseases appear? Are we alone in the universe? Nick Lane offers a revolutionary and completely unexpected look at the origin of life.

Age: 14+

More 

Cover photo: