Gurevich, P. S. The Merits and Shortcomings of Creativity in Education

Abstract: The article analyzes the liberal model of education, which now becomes a subject of acute criticism of scholars, specialists and teachers. Having appeared in the period of early capitalism, that model enthusiastically built the scheme of free and independent education. It proceeded from the idea that schools and higher institutions should train their students to democracy and freedom of behaviour. Creativity became the emblem of such education. As was believed, students did not need knowledge but the faculty of free, critical thinking. A creative approach is certainly important in education. But 􀏔irst of all it should give real knowledge. Nowadays it has become clear that the copying of European educational reforms decreases the quality of education. Methods of the problem analysis are built on historicism. As expertise shows, the liberal model of education was imposed on western countries without serious scienti􀏔ic or social research of its validity. The comparativist method was used to compare two– liberal and conservative – models of education. The novelty of the article is that a comparison of two educational models – liberal and conservative – is performed for the 􀏔irst time in Russian literature. A liberal education was beyond competition for a long time. Acute criticism of this model by K. Mannheim did not change the educational practice. But nowadays it is evident that this model is outdated, does not respond to current social reality and nevertheless it serves as the basis for reforming the system of Russian education. The author comes to the conclusion that a decrease of the quality of education results from thoughtless copying of a liberal education.

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