GHEVOND ALISHAN’S PEDAGOGICAL VIEWS

Abstract

Throughout his pedagogical career, Ghevond Alishan consistently stood out as a skilled and knowledgeable teacher, educator, inspector, and innovator. While holding a stable and distinctive place in the fields of Armenian artistic literature and Armenology, he strove to provide his students with a national upbringing. He aimed to envelop their minds and souls with warm patriotic feelings, as the homeland for Alishan was a beloved and irreplaceable compass—regardless of its state or condition.

Emphasizing the vital role of education in enlightening the younger generation, Alishan believed that there is nothing more noble in the world than education. From an early age, it shapes a person into a virtuous individual by teaching them to obey and lead with justice. According to Alishan, knowledge adorns the human mind, but knowledge itself is adorned by virtue—without which even the brightest thoughts carry a dark soul.

Alishan supported innovation. While traveling and teaching in Europe, he encountered notable figures of his time and studied educational activities, their organization, and development. He then adapted those innovations into the Armenian educational system, never alienating national Armenian upbringing and education in the process.

Placing significant emphasis on family upbringing in shaping an individual, the great educator believed that a person’s moral character—whether good or bad—comes from their parents. If devout parents consider it a blessing and a joy to have virtuous children, then their primary concern must be to provide those children with a proper education.

Nearly all of Alishan’s literary, philological, historical, and geographical works hold great educational and pedagogical value. The majority of them have served as textbooks for teachers.