Views on children parenting in the family in the pedagogical heritage of the Westerners and Slavophiles (the works of V.G. Belinsky and A.S. Khomiakov)

We study parenting as a philosophical-historical phenomenon in the domestic educational thought of the Westerners and Slavophiles. We discuss the concepts of parenting in the writings of the ideologist of the Western way of life, a famous Russian literary critic V. Belinsky and one of the founders of the Russian Slavophiles, philosopher, poet А. Khomiakov. In the centre of pedagogy by Belinsky is the idea about the education of a "real person''. Philosophical and pedagogical views of the scientist are deeply anthropocentric, people and their welfare in this world for him is the measure of all things. In his work "On Education of Children and the Children's book" Belinsky examines parental education as labour and art, seeing the purpose of education of children in the development of the sense of "humanity''. The basic values of parenting for Belinsky include: parental love, spiritual relationship of parents and children, responsibility of parents for the physical, moral and spiritual development, attention to the inner world of children, following the individual inclinations of their nature, careful introduction of children to the adult world. A.S. Khomiakov sets out his views on education of children in the family in the article "On Public Education in Russia''. It also attaches great importance to a parent raising children, believing that the former is a fundamental tool for the formation of the child. Reflecting on parenting, A.S. Khomiakov considers its value basis: Orthodox faith, love, collegiality, education, national traditions, integrity (education of the person as a whole combining faith, intellect, will, and moral and spiritual responsibility for the fate of their parents their children). A.S. Khomiakov promotes the idea that the Russian people can not be viewed outside family and community life, its specifically spiritual integrity. In fact, he writes about the unity of the family and religious spheres in the Russian national consciousness. The author concludes that the differences in the understanding of the essence of parenting children in the works of Belinsky and Khomiakov come from their different views on the person as the subject of education. If for Belinsky people are free persons made by the Creator, blessed with intelligence, will, feelings, destined to continuous improvement, for Khomiakov people are a unity of spirit, soul and body, designed to regain their integrity in God. Thus, Belinsky's opinion on parenting is close to the European humanistic view of people, their development as free and creative personalities, while the position of Khomiakov on parenthood comes from a deep national tradition of religious understanding of the meaning of existence. Consequently, the position of Belinsky can be called anthropocentric. Khomiakov's view is theocentric. In fact, it corresponds to the most important points of the ideological "differences" between the Westerners and Slavophiles.

Keywords

Authors

References