/ 
The Importance of Saints' Image in the Shaping of Spiritual and Moral Outlook of a Child
DOI of the paper: 10.15382/sturIV201642.36-44
Abstract
The article focuses on the problem of spiritual and moral education of a child in modern world. The authors analyze the phenomenon of deheroization and its eff ect on the development of spiritual and moral outlook of a child. According to the authors the root of the problem can be seen in the oversaturation of our life with media images that undermine the traditional perception of the moral ideal and the system of values. Throughout history universal values were established in culture through the life stories of heroes — personalities that embody outstanding personal qualities, a hero was an example to follow. That ideal reached its greatest height in the images of Russian saints. In the 20th century the phenomenon of so-called “deheroization” appears. It’s the destruction of all essential heroic features and their replacement with pseudo-heroic — an image of a false hero that establishes sinful human nature as normal and ideal. Meanwhile, the perception of true essence of the person and his spiritual mission is lost. So, through “deheroization” the process of dehumanization takes place. Calamitous aftereffects of that process for humanity, society and human culture are evident. The problem should be tackled urgently on the early stages of character development. The article presents a number of reasons, according to which neither parents’ efforts nor noble ideas of preschool educational centers do not bring substantial results. The authors emphasize the importance of purposive, step-by-step replacement of false heroes’ images with those of real heroes that influence a child’s perception of a real human being, the way he was designed by God. As a trustworthy remedy for spiritual life of a family and child we off er to turn to the tradition of children education that sets the lives of the saints as examples. Their lives allow the child to comprehend the principles of Christian anthropology and see the power of true spiritual life of a human being — personality of high moral standards, citizen and patriot of his Motherland. The article introduces specific experience of teaching the subject “The Lives of the Saints” to preschoolers in the Orthodox family center “The Seed of Faith” (Krasnodar). The article includes the structure of work program. It concludes that principles of Christian pedagogy are indispensable in the process of children education.
Keywords
spiritual and moral education, raising preschoolers, preschool education, Christian pedagogy, Christian anthropology, deheroization, un-humanization, Christian values, the lives of the saints, moral health, spiritual personality.
References
1. Babenko O. A. Obraz geroja v literature. Avtoref. … kand. filos. nauk (Hero Image in Literature. Dissertation Abstract), Rostov na Donu, 1999.
2. Kiprian (Jashhenko), igumen. Vospitanie dobrodeteli. Svjatootecheskoe uchenie o dobrodeteljah — osnova duhovno-nravstvennogo stanovlenija lichnosti: Lekcii i interv'ju, vospominanija (Education of Virtue. Patristic Teaching about Virtues — Basics of Spiritual-Moral Formation of Person. Lectures and Interviews, Memoires), M., 2014.
3. Kravcova M. Deti i Bog: Mysli o detskoj vere (Children and God: Thoughts about Children Faith), Moscow, 2009.
4. Maslov N. V. Duhovnye i nravstvennye osnovy obrazovanija i vospitanija (Spiritual and Moral Grounds of Education and Learning), Moscow, 2013, vol. 1.
5. Ostapenko A. A., Hagurov T. A. Chelovek ischezajushhij: Istoricheskie predposylki i sut' antropologicheskogo krizisa sovremennogo obrazovanija (Disappearing Human: Historical Premises and Nature of Anthopological Crisis of Modern Education), Krasnodar, 2012.
6. Skljarova T. V. 2007 “Vozrastnye osobennosti razvitija detej i vosprijatija materiala duhovno-nravstvennogo soderzhanija” (Age Features of Children Development and of Perception of Material of Spiritual-Moral Content), in Vestnik PSTGU. Ser. IV: Pedagogika. Psihologija, 2007, vol. 4/7, pp. 20–40.
7. Shestun E., prot. Pravoslavnaja pedagogika: Ucheb. posobie (Orthodox Pedagogics: Textbook), Moscow, 2002.