Today and always, the meaning of education is orientation to the child’s personality as the highest value and meaning of pedagogical activity, recognition and respect for his ability of self-determination and self-development. The article reveals the following approaches to the process of education: humanistic (creating conditions for the development and self-development of a child’s personality), activity-based (education requires not just activity, but joint activity of children with adults, where participants can show their subjective qualities), co-existential (education in a coexistential child-adult community) hermeneutical (transition from “knowledge” attitude of the teacher to “understanding” one, when the teacher seeks to understand the meaning of a particular action of a child, to comprehend the inner meaning), systemic (logic of research in education).