Comment by Ivaylo Noyzi Tsvetkov:
The sourly politicized supposedly cultural and educational debate on whether to have "religion and virtues" in schools seems to have missed the most important thing - how, what exactly and in which class it will be taught. Because it is one thing to teach a small child the Vazov prayer "Grandfather God, forgive me", and quite another, third and fourth - to explain the basis of religion and in particular the Christian virtues to a 16-year-old dangalak in the upper grades, whose only thought is to commit adultery like a madman.
Thousands of things can be said here, thousands of anthropological and methodological advice can be given, but one of the most important is not to draw direct parallels with the religious teachings in Tsarist Bulgaria, because the context in the first quarter of the 21st century has changed significantly. I understand the arguments of both sides to some extent - and "hello, where are we going without Christian virtues" - by the way, largely inherited from modern liberal democracy before its distortion - and "are you normal, they can hack entire systems at 12, you will explain to them about churching".
Let me make you laugh: An unknown genius joker a few days ago asked a great, almost anti-Tertullian question: "But how exactly will grades be given in religion, given that there is no God?"
Have you stopped laughing? Okay. Because I have a magnificent humanitarian idea - instead of specific religions, accompanied by "virtues" that are probably unclear to young minds, introduce a class on culture.
What should classes on "culture" look like?
No, not general culture in the style of quizzes and the like, but culture in the more general ancient sense of "good management", which has been passed down to us through the centuries as "ennobling the mind". And no, not high culture and the ultras-understanding that if you don't communicate with high culture, you remain simple, which is false, but the foundations of culture as the all-encompassing phenomenon of life, which has a tremendous impact on politics, citizenship, and personal destiny. I would call it a "post-cultural situation", spurred by the irreversible acceleration of today's life due to technology.
What do I mean? As a 16-year-old nerd in Classical High School, I was fortunate to come across classes in culture - mainly ancient, from mythological thinking to what exactly they ate at Trimalchio's feast to Petronius - but also basic Christian, Far Eastern, almost everything except African. That's why I suggest that the subject be called "culture", and here I will list a few basic things so that you understand me:
- history of religions, with an emphasis on Orthodoxy as our dominant religion (but also with the necessary tolerance for others);
- history of ethics, aesthetics, even everyday life;
- history of ideas/thought;
- basic good manners/etiquette;
- history of mythologies - Greco-Roman, the one of Hittite Anatolia we can skip;
- history of Christianity, obviously - without looking at "Corinthians" or "Ephesians";
- specifically the history of the idea of community.
In these hours, the specifics don't need to be scientific, there's no need to "dig" in Augustine, Origen, Plotinus or Tertullian. Regarding Christianity, for example, it's enough to know things at the level of the Creed (give, God), the Ten Commandments, turning the other cheek, the Savior's sacrifice, as well as the fact that the Resurrection - whether you believe in it or not - is a cultural phenomenon, which in an ancient context remains the greatest attempt to be good and tolerant. I don't see a problem with learning Woody Allen, who wants to move to Augustine's City of God because Manhattan is no longer livable.
In the same way, it's good to know the Five Pillars of Islam, the circular time and rebirth of samsara, as well as simple things like when Church is capitalized and when not. And an idea beyond the popular "He is truly risen" type, at least let them know that Gabriel brought the good news, and Abraham was ready to ritually slaughter his son Isaac, the future founder of Judaism.
Okay, I got a little carried away, but the culture class in question is able to serve the young mind a series of super important things, but here we also need an accessible comparative analysis - namely, tolerance, possibly the rejection of violence, not permissiveness.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church simply does not exist
So this culture class in the upper class (I don't know where you will find anthropologist teachers) seems to me the only meaningful and possibly working thing. Because "virtues" now sounds ridiculous, it looks a bit like communist education in "morality and law".
In other words (as if to the Church with a capital C), remove any indoctrination, Christian or not - on the contrary, educate, talk about the Garden of Gethsemane, and eventually they - three or four - will come to our great Orthodox ecclesia.
You, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, are gone - that's why, according to Borisov's homily, how God is "tu-tu", you are not reacting, because you have long been a business organization, an accomplice of the fat ones in politics. Jesus here is simply an "advertising face" on holidays or like in that pathetic joke, det Ganyo will buy himself a cross, and shouts: Give me that one with "gymnastics".
We don't like "gymnastics", no. We are not true Christians, as, for example, the Catholic rule over the Poles is.
So that there are no paradoxes and ridicule
Ergo, let's really introduce a class that culturally unites everything - from mythology, through religion, to etiquette.
Otherwise, we will have the following super-fun paradox: in religion classes we will learn about creationism, that God created the world and man in his image and likeness, and in biology classes it will become clear that we are just more developed monkeys... some of today's political class - not very developed.
Finally: What I propose is actually a class in anthropology, which includes anything and everything, but the ultimate goal is to "produce" a good and properly built person. But it will take a long time, while we are in the situation of "locals" - the culture of group violence, which will simply laugh at Minister Valchev's plans, if it has even heard of him.
Come on, a culture lesson, it's not that difficult.