Iakob Gogebashvili and his Deda Ena
The path trodden by you will survive intact and whoever strays from
this path will never lay a claim to being a Georgian.
AKAKI TSERETELI
Jesus Christ, our Saviour, is twice referred to as a teacher in the
Gospel. Christ was the greatest rabbi ever to walk the face of the
earth. Whether before or after the birth of Christ, all civilized
nations revered and held teachers in high esteem. Alexander of Macedon
once said "It was my father who gave me life. But it was Aristotle who
taught me to live".
There is a general recognition that Iakob Gogebashvili was Georgia's
foremost teacher. This article will revolve around his life and
activities. Below are some facts 
that put him in a more generalized context:
- Georgians pride themselves on four paramount books: the Bible,
Vepkhistkaosani (The Knight in the Panther's Skin), Kartlis Tskhovreba
(The Georgian Chronicles) and Deda Ena (The Mother Tongue) - written by
Iakob Gogebashvili.
- There is a monument for the Mother Tongue in Tbilisi - history knows
no other precedent of the nation giving the manual such an elevated
status.
- Iakob is usually referred to by his first name in Georgia, which is
the surest indication of people's adoration for him.
- In 1940, on the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, Iakob's
remains were reburied at the Mtatsminda Pantheon of Writers and Public
Figures - an honor reserved for only a limited number of illustrious
names and characters.
- Iakob was the founder of the modern Georgian school and philosophy of
education. He pioneered the pedagogial approach of scientific teaching
in Georgia.
- His concept of an ideal Georgia was a European country inhabited by
Georgians with an altered state of consciousness. He even developed a
model of Georgian consciousness and set the school the task of
following and strengthening this model.
- Iakob gave renewed impetus to the Georgians' long- upheld idea that
freedom is the means rather than the goal and that freedom can only
take on its real meaning when matched with two other notions (reason
and morality) - all his books offer a way to propagate this trinity.
Iakob Gogebashvili's personality seems to hold the answer to who can be
a pedagogue and what is implied in teaching. Confucius' definition of
the prerequisite for being a teacher is the ability to "review the past
and recognize the new". All tragedies originate from the fragmentation
of time when the past, present and the future come apart; people lose
their spiritual support and turn against one another. Teacher, in this
context, takes on a particular role acting as a bridge between various
dimensions of time. It is a teacher's primary function to gain insight,
treasure and impart knowledge and moral values to the younger
generation. It is a teacher who gives a clue to the meaning of a fact,
event or someone's behavior. Acts of heroism, unexpected discoveries or
truly ingenious inventions are often shelved to gather dust without
someone evaluating their importance, recording them either in books or
in memory and thus making them part of collective consciousness. It is
when a concrete fact is shaped into a value, Iakob bequeathed many such
values to Georgia.
Nothing unites a nation and a state so much as a language, Iakob
Gogebashvili's Deda Ena (Mother Tongue) and its opening words "Ai ia"
(Here's a violet) have stamped themselves in all Georgians'
consciousness as indelibly as the voice of mother or teacher. This book
has always been and still remains an all-important factor in cementing
the complex tapestry of Georgian characters into a single identity. In
this context, Iakob follows the trail blazed by Grigol Khandzteli,
Giorgi Atoneli and Sulkhan Saba Orbeliani. It takes only a second to
pronounce Ai ia but this second comes for all Georgians and continues
to reverberate throughout their lives. Georgians may doubt the truth of
everything with the exception of Deda Ena's opening words.
Why is Ai ia thought to be a stroke of genius? Why do Georgians
regard this combination of two simple words as a pillar of education
for their children? There are at least ten reasons for this:
1.
Harmony of divine symmetry. Symmetry gives a child an early indication
of the order of the universe and the need to live in peace with this
harmony.
2. Mirror Principle. Ai "sees" ia as its reflected duplication in the
mirror. It is the oldest way to squeeze the world into one's own self.
The general belief many centuries ago was that the one who really knows
himself also truly understands the world around him. An inscription at
the entrance of the Delphos temple says the same: "Know yourself and
you will know the Universe".
3. The book starts with an idea. Ai ia is a phrase, Iakob uses a
fully formulated idea rather than a letter or a word to usher a child
into the world of education. The other important aspect of the phrase
is that it involves action and is dynamic, indicating not only
perception but also attitude (more than one attitude!).
4. Object perception as a main principle. With the very first sentence,
a child attains awareness of a perceivable representation of the
universe.
5. Identification of object by name provides food for thought. Ai ia
translates as "here's something called a violet". Identification is the
capability to capture the essence of what the object or fact is all
about.
6. Perception intertwines with beauty. Synthesis of reason and emotion
translates into an experience of perceiving the world. It begets
"perception aesthetics" - a concept of "wise heart" attributed to
Rustaveli, which is an ideal aspect of any pedagogical system.
7. Joy of discovery coded. "Look what's here! It's a violet!" From the
very beginning the book makes a child aware of the fact that reading
requires efforts but these efforts are richly rewarded by the joy it
brings.
8. The book awakens us to the music of Georgian speech. The perfect
harmony of four vowels produces an incredibly impressive sound.
9. Outstanding graphic depiction of Georgian script. Both letters "A"
and "I" consist of a perfectly curved line resembling a circle.
10. Vivid portrayal of the creation, evolution and the end of the
universe. The Book of Revelation reads that God is the Alpha and Omega,
the first and the last. The universe takes its origin from God and ends
at the original beginning. Ai ia symbolically crystallizes the
history of the universe (this phrase is a palindrome yielding the same
text when read forwards and backwards and symbolizes the eternal return
when something begins anew as soon as it ends).
Based on the above-said (or not-said), Iakob Gogebashvili and his
Mother Tongue (and other books too) convey the essence of education in
Georgia. "Ganatleba" - the Georgian word for education does not just
point to the process of obtaining knowledge. It is rather a way to
achieve spiritual enlightenment. The name (it is symbolically important
that la figures in this name too) means a follower. Based on the Bible,
Jacob was the second-born of twin sons. Later, Jacob came to indicate a
disciple of the teachings of God.
"Ai ia" is the Georgians' chosen path to God and to Georgia. This
masterpiece, so elegantly simple, figures perhaps most prominently in
the history of Georgian consciousness.
Gia Murghulia
Doctor of Philology