Identity and Values
The program is about worldview issues. The main topics include personal and collective identity, epistemology, and axiology. The purpose of the program is to promote conceptual thinking, shape community-building culture, and spread the dialogue about values in Armenia and the Diaspora.
Adolescent Behavior
Human behavior in its early formation stages. The factors contributing to the eccentric adolescent behavior. Environments which have an influence on teenagers–family, school, friends’ circle, virtual world. Negative behavior being labeled at school. Group and personal work with teenagers. Are there any behavioral manifestations that are not subject to change?
- Speaker: Mariam Grigoryan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Fatherland and Diaspora
Historical peculiarities of the formation of the Armenian diaspora. The striving of the Armenian nation to find a Promised Land abroad. The necessity of more intense involvement of the Diaspora resources in the foreign policy and in the state-building. The activities of Armenian national organizations in the Diaspora. The purpose of repatriation and the policy of national state.
- Speaker: Davit Hakobyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Government, State, Fatherland
The mutilation of the notions of fatherland and nation-state in the social consciousness. The attempts of the ruling administration of being identified with the fatherland and state. The identification of the fatherland and discredited administration in the eyes of citizens. Showing civil disobedience without a harm to the state. The participation of a person and nation in the state-building, service to the fatherland.
- Speaker: Artur Atanesyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Critical Thinking
The role of critical thinking in Armenian education system. Information and knowledge, Bloom’s taxonomy. The danger of indoctrination. Sapere aude – “dare to know.” The teaching methods of independent thinking. The problem of teacher training.
- Speaker: Serob Khachatryan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Teaching Philosophy
The course of philosophy in Armenian and global education system. The separation of humanities and exact sciences from philosophy. The movement “Philosophy for children” (P4C). Philosophical meditation in adolescence, questions of identity and ontology, skepticism. The philosophical ethics and theology as a foundation for the value system, worldview, and the way of life.
- Speaker: Lilia Khachatryan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Professional Ethics
A value-based approach to professional activities. Keeping moral norms in society and its importance. Professional ethics as a moral imperative of a person. Professional oath, responsibilities to society. Common violations and the law regulations. Introducing the principles of the professional ethics to schoolchildren and university students.
- Speaker: Varduhi Petrosyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Personal Development
The stages of person’s psychosocial development. Changes occurring in childhood and adolescence and common difficulties. The levels of realization of self-identity. The formation of the value system, values education. Firming of the fundamental ideas in the consciousness of the teenager. The right opportunities for the psychological intervention in the school program.
- Speaker: Anna Arakelyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Teacher’s Mission
The education crisis in Armenia. The character of a teacher in various cultures and ages. The traditions of Mashtots’ school and Armenian pedagogy. The institute of leadership as a model of values education. Pedagogical ethics. Equal educational rights in provinces. Reformation projects of the educational system.
Speaker: Hripsime Khanzadyan
Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Trust
The fundamental importance of trust in human life. Self-confidence and its dangers.
Myths spoon-fed to society and their refutation: “Believe in yourself,” “You can be whatever you want to be,” “The existing system is trustworthy.” The motto “In God we
trust.”
- Speaker: Fr. Mesrop Aramian
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Patridognosia (Knowledge of One’s Fatherland)
Knowing the world as part of self-education. Can humans love their fatherland without knowing it? The necessity of learning foreign countries and cultures. Preserving the national identity and values through perpetual contact with the native nature and the cultural monuments of fatherland.
- Speaker: Varsenik Melkumyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
European Values
The Indo-European origin of the Armenian nation. The legendary and historical ties between Armenian and European nations. Cultural exchange between Armenia and Europe. Christianization of Armenia and the Christian West. European values.
- Speaker: Tigran Khzmalyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Knowledge and Information Streams
The difference between knowledge and information. Sources of knowledge. The misleading effect of information streams and their management. News transmission and journalism ethics. State information policy and information security.
- Speaker: Noyemi Andreasyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
The National Component of Education
The traditions of Mashtots school. State normatives of the educational program. International baccalaureate programs: Araratian Baccalaureate. Teaching methodology of the disciplines related to national identity. Selection and training of the teaching staff. Introducing the study course “Identity and Values” to high school.
- Speaker: Meri Hovsepyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
National Music
Sources and distinctiveness of Armenian music. Armenian spiritual, folk and classical music. Music from alien cultures, refinement and purification of Armenian melodies by Komitas. Formation of musical taste in society.
- Speaker: Daniel Yerazhisht
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Museum Education
Museum culture in Armenia. The methodological basis for organization of museum exhibitions and their educational significance. The integration of teachers and students into the museum environment. Museums as guardians of national identity and values. State policy in the museum sphere.
- Speaker: Alvard Grigoryan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
National Ideology
The difference between national ideology and chauvinism, nationalism and other destructive ideologies. Distinctive features of nation-state. The participation of the intellectual elite in creation of the national ideology. Garegin Nzhdeh and his Tseghakron movement. The necessity of national vision and of a long-term state plan.
- Speaker: Gagik Ginosyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
National Language
The family of world languages. The nation-preserving function of the Armenian language. Conditions of language development. Regulation mechanisms of the state and law institutions. The historical layers of Armenian—Classical Armenian, Western Armenian, and classical orthography. New teaching approaches of Armenian. Teaching of foreign languages and in foreign languages.
- Speaker: Davit Gyurjinyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Evolution of Human Thought from Enlightenment to Metamodernism
The periods of Western thought. The rationalism and freethinking of the Enlightenment. Doubts concerning the maturity of human thought and its abilities in the modern and postmodern reality. Metamodernism and AI. Dangers threatening human identity and values.
- Speaker: Aram Pakhchanyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan
Value System and Leadership
Literary masterpieces that transform human life and our worldview. “Citadelle” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Eternal values. Creation of cultures and civilizations. The leader as a teacher and shepherd. Uniting people through love. Engaging in daily work and creating something good instead of judging others and complaining.
- Speaker: Shushanik Tamrazyan
- Host: Deacon Vardan Aslanyan