Self-development is an ability of secondary school students to shape oneself, harmonizing one’s vision of the world with the cultural context. In order to create a situation in which the discourse of self-development can be brought to practice, a certain aspect of the art of living, namely self-fostering, is actualized. Self-fostering is a philosophic discipline which is based on the assumption that to develop oneself, a person is ought to tend to his/her spiritual values (one should read, write, speak truth and contemplate death every day, and, at the end of that day, analyse things that have changed) and physical body (relating this care to the idea that excessiveness is harmful). By actualizing self-fostering, the personality of a secondary school student develops one’s own self-development discourse, personally choosing the language he/she actualizes in verbal self-development, as well as signs that characterize one’s visual image’s relation to a certain cultural tradition. In the 21st century, the processes of education and self-development in schools are subject to a problem which is based on the heterogeneity of modern society. On the one hand, the viewpoint of the consumer society, described by Jean Baudrillard, is being actualized; on the other hand, starting from the 1990s, the change in cultural paradigm, as described by R. Lifton and J. Rifkin, is taking its place. Thus, the following questions arise: Which characteristics of the self-development discourse of secondary school students are being actualized during the Latvian language and literature lessons? How to create an environment that would enable the self-development discourse of secondary school students to foster during the Latvian language and literature lessons? language and literature