First of all value grounds are important for any project we talk about: the country’s future, success of undertaking, coming-to-be of a person. If there are none of them a deed is doomed to a failure or abortive antihumanitarian form. No economic growth and intelligent resource of the country will be able to take us away from description of reality only in money parameters. It is so. And that’s why the Church institution asserts its right so violently to be considered as the only source of spirituality. But is that all?
Our conversation with the honoured worker of culture, pedagogue Ekaterina Lonshakova is about things that give face and dignity to a person. And it becomes clear that quadriga harnessed with Kin, Enlightenment, Culture, Motherland is the very fond crosier belonging to everybody on the path to spiritual search.
The word “education” primordially meant “image creation”, a person individuality creation. Does the Russian system of education answer this purpose? Or what other institutions must solve this problem? Where and how is a young man taught the method of cognition of himself, the way of spiritual ascension?
The school had to have been such an institution. Its real mission is to assist a person’s spiritual self-determination. I find its comprehension and admission of its significance in N. Danilevsky’s position formulated on basis of Peter the First Epoch in the 19th century: “One should have developed something that gives strength and power, that is enlightenment… it shouldn’t be propagated from outside but it should be developed on the inside. It would be slower but righter and more productive”. Danilevsky was first who noticed the destruction process of the national culture followed progressive state reforms. Russia has been trying to realize Western models of education for three centuries. They are pragmatic and do not focus on humanitarian essence of the person. They are directed only towards getting knowledge, ability and skills by the simplest teaching way of sciences retelling. We have adoption of Western consumer mentality as a corollary.
It was our mistake. Nevertheless, we have wonderful heritage of Russian philosophic thought. I’d like to give an example of Ivan Ilin. In his works we find a national Russian idea that is topical today. The present President formulated it in his message of April 27, 2007 after the Russian thinker of the beginning of the 20th century. It means that times connection begins to be renewed.
Guided by the heritage of
The meaning of the school we found is laid in the Education Law proclaiming “protection and development of national cultures and regional cultural traditions by the system of education”. We create the instrument of this principal realization. Our country has neither suitable trained basis nor systems and programs, nor normative-legal basis. In 1993 in Surgut the non-standard educational institution “The School of Russian Culture” was founded on basis of the oldest musical school in the Ob North (since 1921). This school had already worked in the innovation direction. Researches and positions of Hungarian scientists and pedagogues Zolton Kodai and Bel Bartok are close to me. They devoted their lives to collecting of all tradition of folk culture and art of singing existed in their time. We began formation of a new school model with the preschool department following their ideas that spiritual sources are born in the child from “the spirit of the family and kin” and it means that according to Kodai one should begin the upbringing of the child “nine months prior to his mother’s birth”. Having taken on children of 3-4 years old in the musical school without any testing we set a task of tradition renewal of knowledge imparting about our culture at family level. It is easy to do with small children because they possess properties to regenerate missing blocks of cultural memory. Not only children but also their families were engaged in cultural and educational environment with teaching and play, folk festivals, the school of traditional fancy-work. This experience showed us the ways of formation of positive attitude and interest in national culture. Here the mother sews and embroiders a shirt for her child. She embroiders cuffs, a collar and hem concerning the traditional decorative culture directly and understanding what and why she needs to do it: of course to warm her child with her hands and to protect it in this difficult urbanized world.
Thus, making amulets and dresses for festivals and everyday life together with children, playing and learning songs gradually modern families, parents of our pupils began to share our principles and approaches to a person upbringing. Certainly, the national system of education should not be understood at the level of archaic culture and a peasant tradition. Besides traditional culture in all its directions we taught classic musical art, theater, philosophy foundations for the child can gradually make the integral picture of real alive world, can see himself and his creative origin in this world.
As I have already said since 1993 having the support of Surgut Mayor and the city administration we introduced subjects of general education into the curriculum for grown up kids could enter the first form. And we were taking one from per year for 11 years until the school grew into the comprehensive school. But a set of subjects was broader than in the mass school. And the atmosphere of the school relations with its pupils and their parents was kept in the course of nationally oriented upbringing. It seems to me the school model that we created works successfully and gives its results. The school grew into the College of Russian Culture, an accredited state educational institution of secondary vocational training. We began to train personnel for educational institutions like ours. It is not important what professional way our pupils will choose here they have got an engrafting that won’t let them go astray. The existent expansion of the worst patterns of the Western culture and values can be more terrible than war aggression. It was said not without reason during the Second World War that “Russian people can be conquered only on the inside”. Now everybody understands it.
Spheres of culture and education are disconnected today and it is wrong. Culture is contents of education. It is difficult to understand for many people. But it is more difficult to change this situation, wipe this unnatural frontier. And first of all, here it is not a question of programs but of teachers.
- In Russia there are more and more families with oriental traditions as a result of migratory processes. The aboriginal population lost sensible ties with Christianity for objective reasons during the Soviet power. More over, now the young generation has the possibility to work not only within their country but abroad where they fall into another cultural environment of Protestant, Catholic, Moslem or Buddhist countries. Perhaps, the necessity of teaching the inter-cultural communication has come to a head?
- Russia has the unique experience historically: as many nations it received as many it kept. That’s why complementarity to different cultures is genetically put in our people. Globalization, indeed, carries definite problems but I would connect them not with “interpretation difficulties” but with dissolving of national peculiar properties. The language the nation culture speaks is firstly hard hit. That’s why the president’s attention to the problems of national culture keeping and admission of the necessity to restrain negative consequences following migratory processes seems very timely to me.
Understanding of one’s own national culture must be laid in the foundation of successful inter-cultural communication. One can enter naturally into the world space through it and find a worthy place there. I would say very strictly: our problem is not in understanding of others but in keeping of ourselves as a nation. If we do not care about it we are not far from the day when Russia will be the federation without the Russian. And the national education model (that we advance) with teaching of Russian and regional tradition is in the subject of inter-cultural communication.
Yes, now in schools there are children from families having different cultural backgrounds. In order to keep and transmit this experience national communities exist. And the sphere of culture must help. People mustn’t forget their language. Town libraries must have national literature of nations living in this territory. Sunday schools are necessary. It is great when one creates real national concert groups and not pseudo-folk that can be seen at the stage of the House of Culture.
The course acquainting children with world cultures and their foundation – world religions is necessary in mass school. Every traditional culture is based on Faith. School mustn’t bring a child to the Church, it is a family question without doubt. But to engraft cultural wealth formulated by Moses prophet and commandments as the main moral law of a person’s life is an important task, of course. But it is beyond our strength so far. This knowledge has not come to a usual school yet. There is no trained staff for it, institute programs that could train them. We are on the path to spiritual coming-to-be.
