THE FAMILY IS THE CENTER OF SPIRITUAL UPBRINGING OF YOUNG PEOPLE

THE FAMILY IS THE CENTER OF SPIRITUAL UPBRINGING OF YOUNG PEOPLE

The article raises the issue of spiritual education of young people, the center of which is the family. It is shown that the understanding of the role of the family as a factor in the spiritual security of the nation is due to its important role in preserving cultural continuity and spiritual development of the individual.
Keywords: spiritual education, youth, role of family, cultural continuity.

Nikulina V.
is a third (educational and scientific) level of higher education applicant
of the Department of Education and Innovative Pedagogy,
H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

10.34142//2708-4809.SIUTY.2022.111

The problem of spiritual security is one of the most important for a person, family, public institutions, states, humanity and the world as a whole. The significance of spiritual security is clearly revealed in the National Security Strategy of Ukraine “Ukraine in a Changing World”, which was approved by the Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 389/2012 [6].

The oldest institution of child upbringing and development is the family. What a child acquires in the family, he or she retains throughout the rest of his or her life. The family is the cradle of a child’s spiritual development. The family is a collective that plays a fundamental, long-term and most important role in upbringing. It is one of the traditional institutions in which self-knowledge and satisfaction of the child’s need for love, care, affection, respect and communication take place [4, p. 4].

The loss of the universal value family, which is based on the highest spiritual and moral absolutes, is one of the reasons for the threat of self-destruction of society. Under these conditions, protecting the highest spiritual values of society from destruction becomes a matter of national security for Ukraine [3].

A lot has been written about spiritual development and spiritual culture, but so far pedagogical science has not properly addressed the problems of forming spiritual values, the problems of spirituality as a value formation of the individual, the causes of spiritual impoverishment of modern youth, the development of a long-term strategy for the spiritual development of families, children, school and student youth [7, p. 241].

In this context, the works of academicians B. Astafiev, I. Aleksandrov, V. Bekh, S. Bondyrieva, M. Honcharenko, V. Kaznacheiev, D. Kolesov, I. Ilyichova, N. Maslova, L. Petiushenko, T. Tiurina, H. Shevchenko and other scholars are quite interesting.

M. Boryshevsky, considering spirituality as one of the essential characteristics of a personality, defines it as a multidimensional system, the components of which are formations in the structure of consciousness and self-awareness of a person, which reflect his or her most relevant morally relevant needs, interests, views, attitudes to the surrounding reality, to other people, to oneself, which have become subjectively significant regulators of activity. The scientist considers value orientations to be the unit of measurement of spirituality.

The system of values in the context of which spirituality functions includes moral, aesthetic, intellectual, environmental, worldview, valeological, civic and other values [2].

Thus, spirituality is interpreted as the highest level of personal development, a purely human trait associated with the ascent of the individual to the highest human values on the way to establishing the moral principles of Goodness, Truth, Beauty, Wisdom and Love [5].

It should be noted that parents have always been the first and most important educators of a child. This factor should not be overlooked, as the child’s activity, both moral and social, is born in the family. This, in turn, requires the formation of conscious parenting, which, according to G. Belenka, is the key to the success of creating a favorable social and psychological atmosphere in the relationship between parents and children:

“Conscious parenting involves a deep understanding of one’s capabilities and responsibilities in shaping the child’s integral personality as one’s own responsibility to humanity” [1, p. 203].

It is important that the spiritual life of the family is filled with cordiality, sensitivity, compassion, mutual understanding, and love. The child is a mirror of the spiritual and moral life of the parents. The family not only lays the basic foundations, but also sharpens the facets of the personality through consistent involvement in eternally living and enduring spiritual values, which in turn expands opportunities for moral education and upbringing, shaping the person’s worldview and enriching the inner world. It is here that a teenager first enters social life, learns its values, norms of behavior, ways of thinking, and language.

In other words, the family is a school of upbringing, transferring life experience and worldly wisdom. Unlike other educational institutions, the family is able to influence and, as a rule, does influence all aspects and facets of a person throughout his or her life. That is why it is no exaggeration to say that only the state has a future in which the family is surrounded by attention and care and is considered the highest primary value of the state. Conversely, where the family is neglected, where it plays a secondary role among other social institutions, that state has no future and cannot have a future, and its people have no prospects for their well-being and prosperity.

Any disrespectful attitude towards the family leads not only to a decrease in its prestige, but also, as a result, to the loss of spiritual and moral traditions, the formation of selfish consciousness, a consumerist attitude towards the world, and the destruction of the humanitarian sphere of national education. Unfortunately, all of this is a sad reality of our reality.

Further strengthening of the educational capabilities of the family is one of the most important ways to improve the spiritual and moral climate in the country.

The requirement to fully present the real state of the family’s educational potential, to see it in dynamics, in all its complexities and contradictions, will allow us to more accurately determine ways to further improve it, to turn the huge untapped reserves that lie in the family into actively working factors. Therefore, it is important not only to understand how the family functions in the context of the transformation of Ukrainian society, but also to see how the general principles of such functioning manifest themselves in different types of family relationships. In this regard, the question of the relationship between the specific problems of the modern family and the formation of the adolescent’s personality, and the general characteristics of family education, methodology and methods of studying its effectiveness in the context of the formation of the spiritual and moral foundations of the adolescent’s personality, becomes particularly relevant.

The basis of spiritual and moral education is the spiritual culture of society, the family and the educational institution – the environment in which the child lives, where his or her formation and development takes place. The spirit that reigns in the family and kindergarten, which is shared by parents and educators – people who make up the child’s immediate social environment – is crucial in shaping the child’s inner world.

Spiritual and moral education as a condition for the development of basic (human) abilities: moral (distinguishing between good and evil), aesthetic (distinguishing between beauty and ugliness) and religious (distinguishing between true and false) is the main means of overcoming the disunity between adults and children in the family, between children in children’s society, between the family and an educational institution, between a person (both small and adult: child, parent, teacher) and traditional culture. In spiritual and moral education, as well as in education in general, the stereotype that the activation of the family’s position is carried out only by informing parents about the child’s successes and problems, at best, through psychological and pedagogical education of parents by the educational institution, no longer works.

The adoption of a new pedagogical paradigm (active upbringing and developmental education, the paradigm of raising the professionalism of teachers and increasing the pedagogical potential of the family) requires a transition from the model of upbringing as an informative and instructive influence:

— to the model of development of active moral consciousness, feelings, behavior of children and adults;
— to the model of development of communicative, cultural, ethical and spiritual competence of children, teachers and parents;
— a model for the development of psychological and pedagogical competence of teachers and parents, equipping them with socio-cultural technologies of interpersonal, intra-family and inter-family interaction, which will allow solving urgent problems of child development and upbringing, their education and socialization.

It is possible to formulate general strategic principles that should form the basis of programmatic and methodological support for spiritual and moral education that can actually work in modern conditions:

— The traditional, well-known principle of age-appropriate and individualized approach to childrearing;
— The principle of systemicity, based on the unification of national traditions of family and social upbringing into a holistic process based on common socio-cultural values and technologies of effective interaction; the principle of interactivity, which involves the use of personality-oriented approaches, forms of upbringing and education of children and parents (pedagogical support of the family as a whole), taking into account the real situation and needs of the family
— The principle of cultural relevance, which can contribute to ensuring the continuity of national socio-cultural traditions, their establishment as the main spiritual and moral support and the main value guidelines in the perspective of personal and civilizational development
— The principle of mastering by teachers, parents and children the leading value orientations inherent in the national way of life;
— The principle of socio-cultural and psychological adaptability of the content of educational programs and programs of interaction between educational institutions and families, which implies that the program content meets the needs of families of educational institutions as participants in the educational process.

The content of the spiritual and moral education of both children and parents is oriented toward the sphere of Orthodox culture, which is not limited to faith-based moments, but is nourished by the truly Christian Spirit.

So, in our time, Ukraine is going through one of the most difficult historical periods, and the greatest danger that our society faces today is not the collapse of the economy, not the change of the political system, but the destruction of the individual. Today, material values dominate over spiritual values, so children have distorted ideas about kindness, mercy, generosity, justice, civility and patriotism. The high level of juvenile delinquency is caused by a general increase in aggression and cruelty in society. Children are characterized by emotional, volitional and spiritual immaturity. The destruction of the family institution continues, and so-called “sex education” leads children to develop extramarital relationships, anti-parental and anti-family attitudes. All of this indicates a crisis in national education and upbringing.

The question of the role of the family in the moral and spiritual upbringing of children and youth requires a set of thorough studies of the educational potential of the family: its universal culture, spiritual and religious feelings, national and domestic traditions, family heritage of respect for the unity and authority of different generations. Understanding the role of the family as a factor in the spiritual security of the nation is due to its important role in preserving cultural continuity and spiritual development of the individual.

List of references

1. Belenka G.V., Bohinich O.L., Mashovets M.A. Child’s health – from the family. Kyiv: Bogdanova A.M. SPD, 2006. 220 с.
2. Spiritual values in the formation of a personality-citizen. Pedagogy and psychology. 1997. № 1. С. 144-150.
3. Horlynsky V. V. Spiritual coordinates of the security of society URL: http://www.niisp.gov.ua/vydanna/panorama/issue.php?s=prnb1&issue=2006_1 (accessed on 10.11.22).
4. Kononko O. Spirituality, spirituality, morality… Preschool education. 2004. № 4. С. 4.
5. Matushkin S.E. Problems of spiritual and moral education URL: http://www.lib.csu.ru/vch/5/2001_01/001.pdf. (accessed November 10, 22).
6. The National Security Strategy of Ukraine “Ukraine in a Changing World”, approved by the President of Ukraine on November 8, 2012. Decree of the President of Ukraine of June 8, 2012, No. 389/2012. Official website of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. URL: http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/389/2012 (accessed on 10.11.22).
7. Shevchenko H. P. Problems of human spirituality of the XXI century. Spirituality of the individual: methodology, theory and practice. Sievierodonetsk: Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University, 2012. Issue 5 (52). C. 241-250.