Introduction. Without hope, there is no motivation, no desire to live, suffering becomes stronger, and there are less chances for recovery. Hope plays a major role in treating a patient both mentally and physically.

The Objective of the study is to find answers to the most important questions concerning the gist of the notion of "hope": What is hope? What can we do to help hope live?

Procedure. The author believes that hope is more than just a feeling; he regards it as an existential act. Our activity is in the fact that we remain active, we take a firm position that will not shatter when one is unhappy, miserable, suffering fron a disease, or being institutiolisedia, etc. The ontological approach shows that hope means something that has not happened yet cannot be to exclude, i.e. hope is not self-deception and not a defense mechanism, it gives a chance to whatever events to happen. The following issues are revealed: the connection of hope with the attitude to the values of life, hope as a meaningful concept and deals with transcendence, the opposite of hope resignation (rejecting value, giving the things the free rein, losing ties with the events happening) causes desperation and despair. The so-called “false hope” is also highlighted, its positive and negative sides are shown and tips how to treat it correctly are given.

Conclusion. Hope means treating something as valuable. Hope is realistic as the forthcoming future can never be predetermined entirely. Hope is paradoxical: it makes you do something where nothing can be done. Therefore, hope has great potential for resilience. False hope is regarded as a defense reaction of the human psyche, but since it performs a certain function in this way, you should not simply take it away from a person. Where there is hope, there is meaning, hopelessness means loss of meaning.

The paper deals with the degree of satisfaction of kindergarten teachers with their financial situation, the nature of the preferences of the different values of life and confidence in successful future. This work is based on the data obtained during the survey of kindergarten teachers in the city of Moscow, Russia, which was conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Education. Analyzing the results obtained, the authors try to evaluate the significance of educators and social stratification factors, such as teaching experience, age, level of education, level of material security. The data obtained are compared to the results of their earlier survey of kindergarten teachers, which makes it possible to identify certain trends, changing the social well-being in this group.

Finally, a structural analysis, which allows to compare the characteristics of different interconnections are compared to the values and perspectives at different stages of professional kindergarten career. The analysis showed that in the course of professional development, the structure of life orientation of an educator undergoes a kind of transition stages related to change in values and resolution of crisis situations. The data provided in the paper are important since the change of educator‘s life orientation largely determines the nature of the education process in kindergarten, where the implementation of the educational program is reverberated through the eduacor’s system of values.