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DEVELOPMENT
OF SPIRITUAL AND MORAL VALUES BY MEANS OF KARA-KALPAK FOLK DASTANS
А. Т. Tilegenov
Returning to our roots, awareness of the depth and greatness of the cultural and spiritual heritage of our great ancestors, who made a huge contribution to the achievements of the world culture, upbringing in every generation of careful attitude to one’s past, noble national and religious traditions, and at the same time a clear understanding of the need to familiarize oneself with the values of modern civilization and spirituality - these are the specific grounds, on which our policy of renewal and improvement of national consciousness is built, as well as the political maturity and activity of the population. Kara-Kalpak culture as a whole, including the pedagogical theory and practice, has historical roots going back centuries. Pedagogic ideas have for a long time been absorbing and reflecting the deep essence of the social processes specific to a particular historical period. The works of thinkers of Central Asia contain wise sayings on the issues of education and training. They include a clear reflection of the main trend of the scientific investigations of these thinkers - the desire to give their own, rationalized foundation of goals and means of the intellectual, moral, labor, aesthetic and physical education of a person.
Today, Kara-Kalpak scholars and teachers explore the educational opportunities of Kara-Kalpak dastans1, the number of which is nowadays more than a hundred. They are used as a means of spiritual education in lifelong education. Many readers long ago received the opportunity to get to know the Kara-Kalpak heroic epic named “Forty Girls”, which was translated into Russian and other languages. Appreciation of its historical and artistic value was given by prominent scientists - the academics E. Bertels and S.Tolstov, and the prominent French writer Louis Aragon, compared the heroes of this epic piece with the heroes of the famous “Song of Roland”. Among the largest and most original works of Kara-Kalpak folk poetry, there is a fabulously romantic poem named “Sharyar”. The “Sharyar” epic was recorded in 1939 by our famous writer Amet Schamuratov in the Kungrad Region of the Karakalpakstan Republic, according to the oral information provided by the narrator Kulemet-zhyrau. The main characters of the poem - a young hero Sharyar and his courageous sister Anzhim - embody the features of the authentic folk heroes: courage, loyalty, justice, and spiritual nobility. The vast wealth of images and poetic methods, sophisticated psychology, and fascinating development of the fairytale story, make the epic about Sharyar one of the greatest monuments to ancient oriental folk poetry.
Human personality is formed and developed as a result of the impact of multiple factors: objective and subjective ones, natural and social ones, internal and external ones, acting spontaneously or according to the specific objectives. At the same time, a person is not considered as a passive creature, who
1 Dastan (a Persian word) - a story, an epical piece in the folklore or literature.
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photographically reflects external influences. He or she acts as a subject of his or her own formation and development. In the spiritual life and activity of a person, there is a continuous struggle between ordinary and scientific consciousness. Therefore, one of the eternal problems of pedagogy is to achieve maximize improvement of the efficiency of deliberate, targeted educational effects on a human being. Comprehensive development of a person is a measurement standard of lifelong education. Dastans is a unique value of people, who have educational opportunities in the formation of moral values of young people in lifelong education. So, we have come to the following conclusions: (1) to take into account the educational opportunity of the folk dastans in lifelong education; (2) to disclose methods of spiritual and moral education of youth by means of folk dastans in lifelong education; (3) to organize lessons to study folk dastans.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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