Moral aspects of sex education of children in family in the pedagogical heritage of N.E. Rumyantsev and his contemporaries

This article studies the problem of sex education of children in the family in the writings of a famous teacher of the end of the 19th early 20th centuries N.E. Rumyantsev and his contemporaries V.N. Zhuk, E.N. Vodovozova, K.V. Sidorovich, G. Zorengfrey, E. Lozinsky, B.N. Lieberman, O.B. Feltsman, P.P. Blonsky. The main works of the scholars on the subject are analyzed. The social-cultural and ethical context of the problem of sex education of children in the Russian pedagogy is considered. The relevance of sex education in Russian pedagogy of the threshold of the 19th 20th centuries is compared with the state of the problem in the modern period. The researchers identify key priorities of the concept of sex education, which correspond to the essence of the ethical and humanistic approach in family education pedagogy of the specified historical period. Russian educators consider the formation of moral culture of children in the family as a key priority of sex education. Such education involves teaching children chaste attitude to their bodily and emotional expression, based on the hierarchy of moral values. In the works of Russian scientists the most harmonic family education is determined by means of proper parenting. Such education enables children to overcome "premature awakening of the sexual instinct'', to form the best human qualities: will, diligence, integrity, sense of honor, chivalrous respect for women, etc. At the same time teachers advise parents to occupy some free time of their child with a moral duty: help the needy neighbors, patients, relatives, aesthetic observation of the natural world, needlework, housework, etc. And in this case, the atmosphere at home, deep pure love and mutual understanding between father and mother, the moral example of the warm relations that parents show their children are very important. The author concludes that the legacy of Russian pedagogical thought is highly in demand in today's practice of family and school education. It particularly concerns the problem of sex education of the younger generation. The author emphasizes the fact that the Russian psychological and pedagogical thought, having examined a large number of foreign scientific works of that time on issues of sexual development of the person, the place of sexuality in the mental and social behavior of people (works of Z. Freud and others), rejected the Freudian view that Eros and Thanatos control the processes of human behavior. Russian teachers were so far from the thought of having to tell the children about the sex lives of adults.

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