Abroad

When the hemispheres argue Disharmony between the right and left hemispheres is expressed in internal contradiction, which can be expressed by the question: what will be best for us? In such conflicts, the left hemisphere usually wins, since it is responsible for the daily

Chapter 1. Upside down. The shock of the meeting In terms of the intensity of various experiences and the degree of concentration on the main task, the first month of life with a child is reminiscent of the landing of a spaceship on an unfamiliar planet, where the crew needs to explore new land,

Our information about how it is customary to raise children in other countries is usually extremely scarce. Often, when we learn this or that fact about education abroad, we immediately begin to be surprised and often envy: it’s a pity that they don’t do that here! But we perceive these facts separately; in order to correctly evaluate them, we need to have an idea of ​​the entire education system as a whole. Therefore, in this article you can find information about how children are raised in some countries. Let’s focus on three – Germany, the USA and Japan.

Germany

In Germany, it is customary to start a family before thirty, but Germans, as a rule, are in no hurry to have a child. The Germans have several reasons for doing this. Firstly, everyone understands that no one will just help their family, which means that mom and dad must earn good money in order to provide the child with everything they need. Secondly, there are very few kindergartens in Germany, and even those that exist are only open in the first half of the day. But in this country, unplanned and unwanted children are very rarely born.

The Germans think very carefully about everything even before conceiving a child - which pediatrician to choose, how best to arrange his room.

There can be no talk of any kindergartens if the child is not yet three years old, unlike in our country, where children are enrolled in kindergarten from the age of one. After three years, according to German parents, the child should already learn to communicate with peers, so he is taken to a special children's group, where he simply plays with the children. Later the child is sent to kindergarten.

Children are in kindergarten only in the first half of the day, and have lunch at home - this tradition, according to the Germans, is very important for family cohesion. Unfortunately, in our country, joint lunches and dinners are becoming a rarity.

A German child's readiness for school is determined, as a rule, by only one parameter - his ability to communicate with other children. This is at a time when in Russia a huge number of tests are carried out on children before school. Undoubtedly, in our country this issue is treated somewhat more responsibly.

USA
In the United States, young people rarely get married before the age of thirty. They believe that they first need to take care of a well-paid job, make a payment on a house, and then start a family. Moreover, more often than not, Americans live in civil marriages.

When a family is ready to have children, as a rule, parents have two or three children in a row. They believe that this way children will constantly have meaningful communication.

In the USA there is a tradition of taking children with us everywhere. For example, young parents can take their child to a party if there is no one to leave him with. Most cafes and restaurants have rooms where a child can be fed and changed; almost everywhere there are children's rooms where kids can play and draw.

This attachment to children is due to the fact that it is not customary in the United States to leave babies with grandparents, and nanny services are not cheap.

In addition, in America there is a law according to which children under twelve years old cannot be left at home alone.

The Japanese model of education often seems surprising and incomprehensible to Europeans: in Japan, a child under five years old is allowed to do whatever he wants, no one will scold or reprimand him, no matter what he does. The Japanese themselves say that things are not quite as they seem.

They really will never scold children in public - this is considered bad form. What concerns the family should remain in the family. The child can be reprimanded later, one on one. However, they will never shout at him, much less raise their hand. This rule contrasts greatly with the habit of our Russian young mothers of throwing tantrums in crowded places and beating their children in front of passers-by.

In primary school, teachers are always close to children - children eat lunch in the classroom with the teacher. In Japanese schools there are no parent-teacher meetings; parents and teachers communicate using special diaries, and once a week the teacher gives each parent fifteen minutes for a personal conversation.

However, there are also very ambiguous points in this system. When moving to secondary school, the child begins to feel a very harsh attitude, both from the school and from the parents. The school clearly regulates not only behavior, but also appearance, and most importantly, students are forced to be in a state of constant competition. If in Russia children with different abilities study together, then in Japan children are divided by ability and forced to constantly compete with each other. Such relationships are not conducive to friendship.

As you can see, there are many educational systems, and all of them are somewhat different from ours. But each of them has its own pros and cons.

Library and Information Faculty

Specialty: information systems manager

Full-time department

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ABSTRACT

"Pedagogy"

“Home education abroad.

Story. Traditions. Prospects"

Completed:

Saint Petersburg

Family characteristics

¥ Family and marriage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

¥ Traditions of family education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

History of pedagogy as a science. Home education in the Ancient World

¥ On the question of sources of study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

¥ The origin of education as a special type of activity. The emergence of a family. Raising children in a family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

¥ Education and training in the conditions of the civilizations of the ancient East: general and specific in the genesis of education and school. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

¥ Education in Ancient Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

¥ Education in Ancient India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

¥ Education in Ancient Rome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

In custody

¥ Foreign experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

¥ Modern approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

List of used literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FAMILY, TRENDS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT

FAMILY AND MARRIAGE

The family, according to scientists, is one of the greatest values ​​created by humanity in the entire history of its existence. Not a single nation, not a single cultural community can do without a family. Society and the state are interested in its positive development, preservation, and strengthening; every person, regardless of age, needs a strong, reliable family.

In modern science there is no single definition of family, although attempts to do this were made by great thinkers many centuries ago (Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, etc.). Many signs of a family have been identified, but how to combine them, highlighting the most significant ones? Most often, the family is spoken of as the basic unit of society, which is directly involved in the biological and social reproduction of society. In recent years, the family has increasingly been called a specific small socio-psychological group, thereby emphasizing that it is characterized by a special system of interpersonal relationships, which are governed to a greater or lesser extent by laws, moral norms, and traditions. A family also has such characteristics as cohabitation of its members and a common household.

So, family is a small socio-psychological group, the members of which are connected by marriage or kinship relations, a common life and mutual moral responsibility, and the social need for which is determined by the need of society for the physical and spiritual reproduction of the population.

From this definition it is clear that within a family there are two main types of relationships - matrimony (marital relations between husband and wife) and kinship (kinship relations between parents and children, between children; relatives).

In the lives of specific people, the family has many faces, since interpersonal relationships have many variations and a wide range of manifestations. For some, the family is a stronghold, a reliable emotional support, a center of mutual concerns and joy; for others, it is a kind of battlefield, where all its members fight for their own interests, hurting each other with careless words and uncontrolled behavior. However Most people living on earth associate the concept of happiness primarily with family: He who is happy in his home considers himself happy. It turns out that people who, according to their own assessments, have a good family live longer, get sick less, work more productively, endure life's adversities more steadfastly, are more sociable and friendly compared to those who were unable to create a normal family, save it from disintegration, or are a confirmed bachelor. This is evidenced by the results of sociological studies conducted in different countries.

The family, as a unique community of people, as a social institution, influences all aspects of social life; all social processes are directly or indirectly connected with it. At the same time, the family has relative autonomy from socio-economic relations, being one of the most traditional and stable social institutions.

In everyday ideas, and even in specialized literature, the concept of “family” is often identified with the concept of “marriage”. In fact, these concepts, which essentially have something in common, are not synonymous.

Marriage - these are historically developed various mechanisms of social regulation (taboo, custom, religion, law, morality) of sexual relations between a man and a woman, aimed at maintaining the continuity of life. The purpose of marriage is to create a family and produce children, therefore marriage establishes conjugal and parental rights and responsibilities.

It should be kept in mind that

Marriage and family arose in different historical periods;

A family is a more complex system of relationships than a marriage, since it, as a rule, unites not only spouses, but also their children, other relatives, or simply those close to the spouses and the people they need.

TRADITIONS OF FAMILY EDUCATION

Modern scientists include among the important subjective conditions that have a noticeable impact on the characteristics of home education: family traditions.

The word “tradition” (from Latin tratitio - transfer) means historycustoms that are well established and passed down from generation to generation,orders, rules of conduct. The family, like other social institutions, exists by reproducing traditions, following certain patterns of activity, without which its very development is unthinkable. If we analyze the different spheres of family life, the conclusion is obvious: they are built in accordance with different types of patterns that are reproduced by each new generation of the family and regulate the creation of a new family, marital and parental relationships, housekeeping, leisure activities, etc. And since both the family itself and its values ​​are a product of culture, almost any pattern of material and spiritual activity can serve as the basis for the emergence of traditions in the family. For example, many families have developed traditions of planting a tree in honor of a newborn baby or newlyweds, celebrating the day a child enters school, passing from father to son the first book he read independently, maintaining a family photo chronicle (and today - video chronicle), etc. Passed on from generation to generation, traditions, adapting to the conditions of modern life, do not remain frozen, given once and for all. Their purpose in human society remains unchanged: they are designed to serve to strengthen family ties and relationships that function as mechanisms for transmitting such personally and socially valuable human qualities as love, kindness, compassion, mutual understanding, readiness to help a loved one.

In specialized literature, as well as in the practice of education, the concepts of “tradition” and “custom” are often used as synonyms. The answer to the question of how legitimate this identification is is given in the study of I.V. Sukhanov. The “kinship” of traditions and customs has been revealed, namely: their common social functions, according to which they serve as a means of stabilizing relations established in society and carry out the reproduction of these relations in the lives of new generations. But customs and traditions carry out these functions in different ways. Customs directly, through detailed prescriptions of certain actions in specific situations, stabilize certain links in family relationships and reproduce them in the life of new generations. These are, for example, the customs of caring for children, behavior in a public place, receiving guests, keeping a ledger of family expenses and income, and many others. Each custom, naturally, has its own meaning, but it is not expressed in the form of an ideal. Custom prescribes in great detail what should or should not be done in a given situation, and does not indicate how one should be.

Traditions, on the contrary, are always based on the value of family, which determines the meaning of traditional behavior. Therefore, the tradition does not provide detailed regulation of the action; it does not have a specific “link” to a specific situation. For example, the tradition of hospitality, which many modern families adhere to, is embodied in different ways: some focus on food, while for others the main thing is communication with the guest, the need to find emotional support in him or provide him with such, and the table is set according to the principle “The richer you are, the happier you are.”

Due to the above differences that exist between traditions and customs, scientists emphasize their unequal importance in the family upbringing of a child. Customs form mainly simple habits - stereotypically repeated actions, which are characterized by a certain amount of automatism (for example, the custom of a lullaby, the custom of wishing good morning, bon appetit, the wonderful custom of rural residents - to greet any person, including a stranger).

Customs, being mass simple habits, regulate those social relations that are already firmly established, repeating from generation to generation. But in new, changing situations, customs as a means of education are not effective enough. Another thing is traditions, which are distinguished by greater dynamism due to the fact that they respond more quickly to the demands of modern life than customs. The developmental potential of traditions is much higher, since they form complex habits and contribute to the formation of a certain direction of the child’s behavior, within the framework of which he is free to choose ways of performing a specific act. Complex habits provide the opportunity to improvise behavior. Representing massive complex habits, traditions guide the child’s behavior not only in established relationships, but also in those new options that arise unexpectedly and differ from the situations that were in his experience. If, for example, a child is brought up in the traditions of humane treatment of others, then he not only shows compassion, respect, and kindness in communicating with family members, but also feels in his heart the misfortune of other people (“Why is the boy crying? Let’s help him!”), and animals. (“Poor cat - she’s homeless, give her my milk”), literary heroes (“Carlson is not the Kid’s friend at all: The Kid gets hurt all the time because of Carlson”).

Thus, traditions and customs are two channels of child socialization, and traditions function on the basis of customs. Family traditions are multifunctional, specific, and emotionally rich, therefore, against their background, the child’s social development is more successful.

Traditions and customs reflect the ethnic, cultural, religious characteristics of the family, and the professional affiliation of its members. Tradition is always based on some idea, value, norm, or family experience. As multifunctional are the norms and values ​​of each specific family, so are the traditions varied in their educational essence. Depending on the values ​​and family norms that are implemented in a particular tradition, we can talk about creative and destructive, constructive and non-constructive, stereotypical and non-stereotypical, true and imaginary traditions.

In one family, for example, the tradition of celebrating a child’s birthday is realized in a children’s party with congratulations, wishes, gifts, fun games, singing, dancing, the joyful memory of which will remain for many years not only for the hero of the occasion, but also for everyone present. And in another family, a child’s birthday is an occasion for another adult feast with copious libations, drunken showdowns, during which the child, his holiday, his need for joy are completely forgotten. Such “celebration” will leave the child with bitterness and resentment towards those closest to him for a long time. In the first example, tradition is the basis of present and future joys, it encourages goodness, stimulates elements of creativity; in the second, it is the cause of many of today’s and tomorrow’s troubles and upheavals of the child, clear evidence of the gap between him and his parents, through the prism of which the entire world around him seems hostile and cruel.

Enriching the content of family traditions contributes to the full organization of the life of the family as a social institution, ensures an increase in mutual understanding between its members, especially between parents and children, and helps improve the process of home education. Despite the hustle and bustle of modern life, many families have preserved the tradition of family meals, which make up for the lack of constant live contacts between family members, confirm its integrity and the interest of everyone in the family. Current news is exchanged, family matters are discussed that concern all or any of the family members. The tradition of family meals, while maintaining its value, is a kind of symbol of nepotism.

Currently, we are studying traditions that have developed for centuries in domestic families, and in the post-revolutionary period, being recognized by the official ideology as outdated, petty-bourgeois, and unprincipled, they turned out to be severely deformed or completely lost. These are the traditions of family reading, singing, handicrafts and other joint work and creativity, games of adults and children, epistolary culture, compiling a family tree, home theater, collecting flowers, leaves in herbariums, stones and other materials and creating a children’s museum on their basis and many other. Some of these traditions are beginning to be revived. Thus, modern families have developed an interest in their roots, which is expressed in traditions associated with an excursion into the ancestry of their family (collecting and storing family heirlooms, creating “My Pedigree” photo albums, visiting places memorable for ancestors, etc.) . Leisure traditions are becoming more diverse: traveling, Sunday trips out of town, visiting museums, home concerts, national games, sports entertainment, etc. On the other hand, such generally accepted family traditions need to be enriched in content, and, consequently, to strengthen the developmental influence, like celebrating the New Year and birthdays of family members, and, of course, first of all children. As research results show, these traditions are the most common in the modern family. However, unfortunately, the main attention in them is paid to the order of actions (purchasing a Christmas tree, gifts, treats, inviting guests in a timely manner, cleaning and decorating the apartment, etc.). Much more educationally valuable is organizing the activities of children and adults, initiating the activity and creativity of children. Here, for example, is the most striking ritual moment of the New Year's holiday in the family - the Christmas tree, its installation, decoration. For very young children, the effect of colorfulness, unusualness, and integrity from the perception of a decorated Christmas tree is important. Therefore, they are shown a Christmas tree already decorated by adults, and then day after day they look at the toys with them, arousing emotional admiration and admiration. From 4-5 years old, children take part in installing and decorating the Christmas tree. Decorating a Christmas tree is a whole ritual of enormous complex influence on the mind, feelings, and will of a child. For him, every Christmas tree toy is an old friend with whom so many pleasant memories are associated, and now it’s time to find out its history. It turns out that Christmas tree decorations, despite their fragility, “live” in the family for quite a long time, and some become family heirlooms. The child is interested to know that the small green ball, slightly faded with time, long ago belonged to great-great-great-grandmother Alexandra, and grandfather Sasha bought a cardboard elephant with money saved from school lunches when he was in first grade, and under the tree stands Santa Claus, inside which was a gift that dad received at his first Kremlin Christmas tree celebration. And this bright red cone, so carefully wrapped in cotton wool, is Grandma Tanya’s favorite Christmas tree toy, but when dad was little, he dropped it and then glued the cracks together with special glue. Well, after such interesting family legends, how can you not be careful, careful, so as not to damage the toys, which, it turns out, are dear to your loved ones, loved by you!

So, family traditions are the main means of transmitting socio-cultural values, family norms, establishing its connections with objects that are included in the sphere of its life activity.

ON THE QUESTION OF SOURCES OF STUDYPRIMITIVE EDUCATION

It is quite difficult to imagine the process of education in a primitive society due to the lack of significant written evidence about it. The picture of the childhood of human civilization, the origins of education can be restored by studying the monuments of material and spiritual culture, language, and folklore.

Interesting information is contained in the works of scientists and travelers of the 13th - early 19th centuries, who described the life of the aborigines of Australia, Africa, Polynesia, Siberia, South and North America, who at that time were at the stage of primitive development.

Ethnographic data about the life of a few tribes that have preserved the features of primitiveness - rare communities not affected by modern civilization - help to reconstruct the elements of education of the primitive era. Evidence includes archaeological finds (primitive tools and household items, children's toys, rock carvings, etc.), folklore (folk games, rituals, entertainment), the roots of which go back centuries, as well as the metaphorical level of language (sayings, proverbs, epics, etc.)

World science offers several concepts of the origin of education. Traditional theories include two: evolutionary-biological (C. Letourneau, J. Simpson, A. Espinas) and psychological (P. Monroe). Representatives of the evolutionary biological theory likened the educational activity of primitive people to the instinctive care for offspring inherent in higher animals. P. Monroe explained the origin of education by the manifestation in children of unconscious instincts of imitation of adults. These theories are united by the statement that primitive education arose as a process of gradual adaptation of children to the then existing order of things. In this regard, P. Monroe wrote that “the world of primitive man is concentrated in the present. He has almost no consciousness of the past and future. His upbringing is only an adaptation to the environment.”

Some modern researchers, supporting the thesis of continuity between the forms of rational activity of some higher animals and humans, focus on the qualitative social characteristics that distinguished the initial stage of human education as a special type of activity.

THE ORIGIN OF EDUCATIONAS A SPECIAL TYPE OF ACTIVITY

Many millennia separate us from the time when man of the modern physical type appeared on Earth. The origin of education as a special type of human activity also dates back to this period (35 - 40 thousand years ago).

The meaning of existence of primitive man was predetermined by his worldview: the surrounding world was perceived as something living, endowed with consciousness. Therefore, the spontaneously arose goals of education involved preparation for the simplest form of existence and awareness of the world as an animistic phenomenon. The rudiments of pedagogical thought developed only at the level of everyday consciousness as a reflection of the practice of education, manifesting itself in traditions and folk art.

Education originated in an integrative, syncretic form and contributed to the physical, mental and moral-emotional maturation of primitive man. The content and methods of education became more complex as social experience enriched and consciousness developed. Without performing any special function, it accompanied the entire process of transferring life experience. Education in this form arose 2 - 3 million years ago, during the era of the separation of man from the animal world, which was accompanied by a transition to the conscious transfer of the experience of gathering and hunting. It was vital for human ancestors to have a good knowledge of edible plants, the terrain, the habits of animals, and to be strong and hardy. Speech, which emerged as a communication tool, served as a powerful aid in the transfer of such experience. Gradually, education as a process of transferring experience acquired the features of a special type of activity and was focused primarily on the everyday struggle for survival.

A prerequisite and significant factor in the development of education as a type of activity was the evolution of material connections between people of the primitive era, the need to maintain and develop such connections through the transfer of experience from person to person, from generation to generation. Education arose from the need of people for communication as a consequence of the evolution of forms of primitive labor, since the gradual complication of production experience required a certain organization of its assimilation.

The main condition for the existence of primitive people was the production and use of tools. The elders had to pass on the relevant experience to the children. Therefore, the role of adults in organizing children’s education became more and more significant as work and tools became more complex.

Such training marked the beginning of education in primitive society.

At the dawn of human history, the basis of education was the group, collective principle. The gender and age of children in primitive society were practically the only indicators for differentiation of education.

Primitive education prepared everyone equally for everyday life, since it stemmed from a communal way of life, nourishing and cementing such a way of life. However, such an existence was primarily a consequence of the entire life of primitive man and only partly the result of special pedagogical influence.

With the advent of a person of a modern physical type, a new stage began in the genesis of education.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE FAMILY. RAISING CHILDREN IN THE FAMILY

In 9-8 millennia BC. e. in a number of regions of the world, in particular in Asia Minor, Western and Central Asia, there is a social and property stratification of primitive society. The family becomes the main social unit. Such processes have qualitatively changed the meaning and content of education.

From universal, equal, community-controlled education, education turned into class-family education. Children were raised primarily by the example of their parents. The education of representatives of various strata - leaders, priests, warriors, and other members of the community - acquired noticeable differences. In elite families, the length of childhood has increased and, accordingly, the educational impact on the younger generation has increased.

Children, according to their parents, perceived the experience and information of their predecessors by imitation. The experience was judged to be mysterious and magical. That is why actions related to education were given a magical meaning. Among the Hottentots, for example, mothers cast witchcraft spells over their children so that he would grow up to be a strong and dexterous hunter. Magical meaning was attached to the moral edifications of parents. So, among the Australian natives, a child was lightly hit on the leg with a fried centipede and said: “Be kind, don’t take someone else’s.”

THE APPEARANCE OF ORGANIZEDFORMS OF EDUCATION

People of the primitive era used certain didactic techniques when transferring experience. The techniques were developed under the influence of living conditions, and therefore the initial forms and methods of education were primitive, unconscious in nature. The children were shown what and how to do: how to wield a stick, tan the skins of killed animals, find and collect edible plants, etc. The main method of emotional and psychological influence of adults on younger ones was mechanical repetition.

Time passed, and man increasingly moved from adapting to nature to influencing the world around him. As his life became more complex, the tasks and methods of conveying social experience changed. The beginnings of organized forms of education appear, which are gradually concentrated in the hands of specially appointed For this person.

In primitive communities of hunters and gatherers, the period of childhood and upbringing was very short (nine to eleven years). The youngest boys and girls were placed under the supervision of women, who taught them the first skills of work: children spent a lot of time in games in which they imitated the lives of adults. At the same time, the elders and clergy made sure that the children did not violate the prohibitions established by the community.

Growing up, boys spent more time with men and learned to hunt, fish, etc. Women taught teenage girls how to run a household.

In the early primitive era, the impact of education was minimal. Small members of the community were given considerable freedom in behavior. The punishments were not cruel. In the worst case, this could include spanking or threats of physical punishment (for example, hitting a child with a stick in his presence). But primitive upbringing was not and could not be idyllic, since people lived in complex, difficult conditions of struggle for survival.

Subsequently, the situation changes. The stratification of the community and the strengthening of social antagonism made it tougher. Physical punishment began to be used frequently.

The collective tradition of education at the end of the primitive communal period led to the emergence of peculiar housesyouth for children and teenagers. In fact, these were the predecessors of the school, organized to educate a “social” person, teaching him certain work skills, abilities, and knowledge of rituals. The main form of education was joint games and activities. The nature of activities, the composition of pupils and mentors in youth homes gradually changed. In matriarchy, up to the age of 7-8 years, boys and girls were raised together under the leadership of women, and at older ages - separately. Under a patriarchal clan system, youth houses for girls and boys become separate. The upbringing of boys passes entirely to the elders and priests. As wealth stratifies, separate youth houses appear - for the poor and for wealthy members of the community. They existed, for example, among the Aztec and Mayan tribes (America), the Majori tribe (New Zealand) at the stage of decomposition of the patriarchal community.

All adolescents of both sexes who reached the age of 10-15 years passed initiation- the procedure for initiation into adults. For boys, it was longer and more complex: work, moral and physical preparation were tested. Initiation was carried out in the form of a religious ceremony, accompanied by traditional chants, ritual dances, and magic spells. Mysterious powers were attributed to her.

The initiation preparation program for boys included the acquisition of knowledge and practical skills necessary for a hunter, farmer, warrior, etc.; the program for girls included training in housekeeping. Memorizing instructions and consolidating certain skills were accompanied by a painful sensation from a blow, pinch, or injection from the mentor.

EDUCATION AND TRAININGIN THE CONDITIONS OF THE CIVILIZATIONS OF THE ANCIENT EAST

The territorial and temporal boundaries of the Ancient World are enormous. It existed for more than five thousand years (5 thousand BC - 5th century AD) and covered four continents - Europe, Africa, Asia, America. Ancient civilizations left humanity the first invaluable legacy of organized education and training. In addition to the ancient civilizations of the East (Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China), such experience was accumulated in the ancient world of the Mediterranean, where the traditions of Greco-Roman culture dominated.

GENERAL AND SPECIFIC IN THE GENESIS OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOL

The beginning of the history of school and education as special spheres of social activity goes back to the era of the civilizations of the Ancient East, the origin of which dates back to the 5th millennium BC.

Already in the late Neolithic era, the first symptoms of the decomposition of the primitive formation began to appear in various regions of the world. This process was centuries-long, historically long. The different times in which new social structures emerged led to the fact that, along with new ways of socializing the younger generation, old forms of education were preserved. In the most ancient states that replaced archaic tribal unions, education and training were carried out primarily in the family. In the transitional era from the communal-tribal to the slave-owning system in the ancient civilizations of the East, the previous traditions of family education were preserved and modified. The pedagogical prerogatives of the patriarchal family were already enshrined in such literary monuments of the Ancient East as the Laws of the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1750 BC), the book of Proverbs of the Jewish king Solomon (beginning of the 1st millennium BC), the Indian Bhagavad Gita (mid 1st millennium BC) etc.

Thus, in Proverbs we read: “Listen, children, to your father’s instructions and pay attention, so that you may learn understanding.” The main pedagogical idea of ​​"Proverbs" is the calling of the father to be a mentor, honoring parents: "A wise son makes his father happy, but a foolish man neglects his mother."

Simultaneously with the strengthening of public state structures for the special training of officials, priests, and warriors, a new social institution gradually began to take shape - the school.

School and education in the states of the Ancient East developed under the influence of various economic, social, cultural, ethnic, geographical and other factors. Although the existence of these civilizations did not coincide chronologically, they nevertheless had similar structures, including education and training. Such commonality is an objective consequence of the fact that the emergence of the school occurred in a transitional era - from a communal-tribal system to a socially differentiated society. This typology is confirmed by the fact that ancient civilizations had fundamentally common things in the field of education and training, despite the fact that they existed in isolation from each other.

A convincing argument in favor of this typology is the history of the ancient civilizations of South America, which arose in the 3rd - 2nd millennia BC. e. Not being connected with the rest of the world, they nevertheless developed an experience of learning and education similar to the experience of the ancient civilizations of the Ancient East.

Education began to be determined mainly by a person’s social and property status, that is, it lost its uniform character. It became increasingly detached from the immediate interests and needs of children, gradually turning into preparation for future adult life. This, on the one hand, strengthened children’s opposition to the world of adults, and on the other, upbringing began to take on a tougher, authoritarian character.

The transition period, when the first human civilizations arose, was characterized by profound changes in the practice of education and training: the methods of transmitting the cultural heritage of ancestors from adults to children changed qualitatively. Special educational structures emerged to educate the younger generation.

In this era, it was as if the pre-literate period of history was ending, when speech and pictographic (picture) writing as the main methods of transmitting information from approximately the 3rd millennium BC. e. began to be partially replaced by writing itself - cuneiform and hieroglyphic.

The emergence and development of writing is an important factor and concomitant of the genesis of the school. In the transition from pictographic writing to logography, which conveyed not only the general meaning of speech, but also division into individual expressions and words (Egyptian and Chinese hieroglyphs, Sumerian cuneiform), writing becomes technically more complex and requires special training. The further development of writing, associated with the emergence of first syllabic (in ancient Assyria) and then phonetic (in ancient Phenicia) writing, led to the simplification and ease of teaching literacy, which increased the “productive capabilities” of the school.

The separation of mental labor from physical labor, which began at the end of primitive history, gave rise to the emergence of a new specialty - a teacher.

School and education in the states of the Ancient East developed in the logic of the evolution of specific historical cultural, moral, and ideological values. Man was formed within the framework of strict social regulations, responsibilities and personal dependence. The idea of ​​human individuality was extremely poorly developed. The personality seemed to dissolve in the family, caste, social stratum. Hence the reliance on rigid forms and methods of education.

It is natural that the first educational institutions owe their existence to clergy, for religion was the bearer of the ideals of education and training. At the same time, ultimately, the emergence of schools responded to certain economic, cultural, and political needs of society. As social development progressed, such demands changed, and with them the scope, content, methods of education and training.

The focus of education and upbringing of the most ancient eastern civilizations was the family, church and state. Since the family was unable to provide society with a sufficient number of people knowledgeable in reading, writing, and laws, educational institutions created by secular authorities and clergy began to train them to fill the class of officials.

Training and education for a very long time were extremely routine. Due to the difficulties of writing, the process of learning to read and write was long and painful. The content of education seemed extremely meager and highly specialized; it fixed a person within the strict framework of a certain social position.

By the 1st millennium BC. e. in the Ancient East, the development of crafts, trade, the increasingly complex nature of work, and the growth of the urban population contributed to a slight expansion of the circle of people who had access to schooling and education. In addition to representatives of the aristocracy and clergy, children of wealthy artisans and merchants studied in the schools. However, the vast majority of the population still got by with family upbringing and education.

Having emerged as a definite result of social development, the school acquired relative independence and began to play the role of a stimulator of progress. Thus, the school of writing, consolidating the results of the transfer of experience of generations, in turn, allowed society to move forward without significant losses from what had been accumulated in the past, which was inevitable before the advent of writing and school.

The school and education of the Ancient East should be considered as something relatively integral and at the same time as a consequence of the specific development of each of the ancient Eastern civilizations, which had stable characteristics.

EDUCATION IN ANCIENT EGYPT

The first information about schooling among the ancient Egyptians dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. e. School and education in Ancient Egypt were designed to transfer a child, teenager, young man into the world of adults.

Over the course of thousands of years, a certain psychological personality type has developed in the Nile Valley. The ideal of the ancient Egyptian was considered a man of few words, resistant to hardships and blows of fate. Training and education proceeded according to the logic of this ideal.

In Ancient Egypt, family upbringing and education reflected the nature of the relationship between a woman and a man, which in the family was built on an equal basis. Therefore, equal attention was paid to the education of boys and girls.

Only belonging to a privileged minority provided access to knowledge, which, as the ancient source said, had to be “tied into a single knot” (which is why the words “knowledge”, “teaching” and “knot” were depicted by the same hieroglyph).

Judging by the ancient Egyptian papyri, children were given special attention, since, according to the beliefs of the Egyptians, sons and daughters could give their parents a new life by performing a funeral rite. By fulfilling the parental duty of a mentor, the Egyptians believed that they were acting righteously and ensuring a happy existence for their ancestors in the afterlife. As the Egyptians believed, the gods, weighing the soul of the deceased, put the soul on one side of the scale, and a “code of conduct” on the other. (maat). If the cups were balanced, the deceased could begin a new life in the afterlife. In the spirit of preparation for the afterlife, teachings addressed to children were also compiled, which served as a stimulus for the formation of morality and reflected the idea of ​​​​the extreme importance of education and training: “The ignoramus who was not taught by his father is like a stone idol.”

The pedagogical methods and techniques adopted in Ancient Egypt corresponded to the goals and ideals of education and training. The student had to first of all learn to listen and obey. There was an aphorism in circulation: “Obedience is the best thing a person can do.” The teacher usually addressed the student with the following words: “Be attentive and listen to my speech; do not forget anything that I tell you.” The most effective methods for achieving such obedience were physical punishment, which was considered natural and necessary. The student was constantly being hit. The school motto was the words written down in one of the ancient papyri: “The child carries his ear on his back, you need to beat him so that he hears.”

The unconditional and absolute authority of the father, the mentor, was sanctified by centuries-old traditions. An adherent of such traditions, the author of the “Teachings of the King of Heracleopolis” (XIII century BC) wrote: “Always follow your fathers and ancestors.” Closely connected with these traditions was the custom of passing on a profession by inheritance - from father to children. For example, one of the papyri lists 25 generations of builders who belonged to the same family.

But no matter how strong the conservatism of ancient Egyptian civilization was, its ideals and goals of education were gradually revised.

EDUCATION IN ANCIENT INDIA

Caste left a specific imprint on the development of education and training in Ancient India.

Another equally important factor in the genesis of upbringing and education was religious ideology: Brahmanism (Hinduism) in the Dravidian-Aryan era, Buddhism and neo-Brahmanism in the subsequent period.

In the Dravidian-Aryan era, fairly stable ideas emerged about what education and training should be like. They were based on the idea that everyone should develop his moral, mental and physical qualities so as to become an organic member of his caste. Among the Brahmanas, intellectual virtues were considered the leading qualities, among the Kshatriyas - strength and courage, among the Vaishyas - hard work and patience, among the Shudras - humility.

A view of ideal upbringing (only the highest castes could lay claim to it) was also formed, according to which a person was born for rich happy life. Education included mental development (clarity of judgment and rational behavior), spirituality (the ability to self-knowledge), physical perfection (hardening, mastery of one’s own body), love of nature and beauty, self-control and restraint. The highest manifestation of moral behavior was considered to be promotion of the common good.

The content of training for representatives of the three upper castes was not the same. So, for brahmanas, the initiation period was 8 years of age, for kshatriyas - 11 years, for vaishyas - 12 years. The Brahmin education program was more comprehensive. The Kshatriyas and Vaishyas had a less intense program, but it was professionally oriented. Kshatriyas were trained in the art of war, Vaishyas - in agricultural work and crafts. The duration of training usually did not exceed eight years. But in exceptional cases it was extended for another 3-4 years.

The regular education program consisted primarily of retelling the Vedas and teaching reading and writing. Few young men received advanced education. The advanced education program included: poetry and literature, grammar and philosophy, mathematics, astronomy. The content of advanced education was very complex for that time. Suffice it to say that in Ancient India, zero and counting were first introduced using ten signs, which were later borrowed by Arabs and Europeans.

The order of education in the teacher's house was largely based on the type of family relationships: the student was considered a member of the teacher's family and, in addition to acquiring an education, mastered the rules of human society.

There were no special premises for training sessions at that time. The training took place outdoors. Peculiar family schools, where men taught youth, passing on knowledge orally. Students listened, memorized and analyzed texts.

The teachers did not receive any remuneration at first. The gifts had rather symbolic value. The main way to compensate for tuition was for students to help the teacher's family with housework.

Young men who acquired advanced education attended a teacher known for his knowledge - guru(honored, worthy) or participated in disputes and meetings of learned men.

Near cities, so-called forestnew schools, where their faithful disciples gathered around the hermit gurus.

EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ROME

Home schooling and upbringing played a leading role in shaping the personality of the young Roman. In the so-called During the era of the kings (VIII - VI centuries BC), strong traditions of the family-home had already developed as a unit of society and education.

Here the children received religious education. The girls were under the supervision of their mother until marriage. Boys up to the age of 16, under the supervision of their father, studied housework and field work and mastered the art of wielding weapons. All this time they were supposed to wear long hair.

The atmosphere in the family was often far from idyllic. Often mothers confided their secret hobbies and infidelities to their daughters. In front of their children, fathers committed cruel reprisals against slaves and took part in obscene drinking bouts.

Throughout Roman history, family education played a greater or lesser role, but the family was always responsible for the moral and civic development of young people. During the heyday of the Roman Empire, the family noticeably lost its position to the state education system. But in Roman civilization, home education is once again becoming leading in the preparation of the younger generation. “All science comes from the home” - this is how Bishop Sidonius (5th century AD) wrote about the educational role of the family.

According to the Roman historian of Libya, the first attempts to create educational institutions date back to 449 BC. e. Classes were taught by private individuals in the forum, a public gathering place for Romans. By the 3rd century. BC e. the profession of a mentor appears. His role was performed by slaves. Slave nannies looked after children up to 4 - 5 years old. Slave teachers taught boys reading and arithmetic. Slave nannies and teachers were maintained by wealthy citizens. The rest of the Romans sent their children to study in the forum. The profession of a teacher was considered humiliating in Roman society for free citizens.

Already at the dawn of Roman history, Greek education was revered as a standard. The Roman philosopher and politician Cicero writes about the childhood of the king of Ancient Rome, Servius Tullius (578-534 BC), that he was given “an excellent education according to Greek models.”

From the 2nd century BC e. The organization of schooling was greatly influenced by the tradition of the ancient world.

At the same time, the Roman system of education and upbringing never lost its originality. While maintaining the prominent role of family education and the presence of private educational institutions along with public ones, it had a more practical orientation: the preparation of strong, strong-willed, disciplined citizens. The fine arts - music and singing - were mercilessly excluded from the educational program, because, as many Romans believed, they “encourage you to dream more than to act.” The motto "use" can be called the alpha and omega of Roman education and training, the main goal of which was to ensure a certain career, be it military affairs or the political art of oratory.

In the first centuries of our era, a stable and outwardly uniform canon of content, forms and methods of education was established in the Roman Empire. In the 1st century Nine school disciplines were considered the main ones: grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, medicine and architecture. By the 5th century Medicine and architecture were excluded from this list. Thus it took shape seven liberal arts program with two-part division by trivium(grammar, rhetoric, dialectics) and quadrivium(arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music).

The lowest level of education for free citizens was trivial schools. The duration of training did not exceed two years. Boys and girls studied from approximately the age of seven. The range of disciplines included Latin literacy (sometimes Greek), general acquaintance with literature, and rudiments of numeracy. During arithmetic classes, they systematically used a special counting board - the abacus, and were taught to count on their fingers. The teacher taught each student separately. Schools were located in premises not suitable for classes. Physical punishment with whips and canes was widely practiced, and incentives were used for high achievers.

Private grammar schools were educational institutions of an advanced type. Teenagers from 12 to 16 years old were usually educated here after home training. Compared to trivial ones, grammar schools were located in more comfortable premises and offered a wide program. In addition to the subjects usually studied in a trivial school, Greek, the basics of Roman law (12 tables), Latin grammar, and rhetoric were compulsory. The number of students is limited, training is mainly individual. In a later period, attempts were made to divide students into groups (classes), In a number of private schools, in addition to the specified program For children of wealthy parents were given physical training classes. The schools did not teach either music or dance. The youth underwent military training in military formations - legions.

In the 4th century. appeared rhetoric schools according to the Greek model. Here they studied Greek and Roman literature, the basics of mathematics, astronomy, law and, quite intensively, philosophy. In the latter case, disputes in the spirit of sophistry, not of the best kind, were often practiced. The topics of such disputes have reached us, for example, the glorification of flies or bald spots. Rhetorical schools fulfilled a certain social order - they trained lawyers for the growing bureaucratic state machine of the Roman Empire.

PEDAGOGICAL IDEAS OF ANCIENT ROME

The formation of philosophical thought, in the depths of which pedagogical ideas developed, occurred under the strong influence of the Hellenic tradition. This tradition was the starting point for its critics and supporters.

One of the first representatives of the Roman enlightenment was Cato the Elder(234 - 149 BC). Being an Hellinophobe, he nevertheless relied on the Greek canons when composing Roman rhetoric. Catoi especially insisted on preserving the Roman tradition of home education. He himself taught his son literacy, laws, and gymnastics. Although Cato owned an educated slave who could be entrusted with teaching his son, he did not resort to his services (“it is not proper for a slave to scold my son”) In the presence of a child, Cato avoided obscene expressions. He willingly played with children.

The traditions of Roman and Greek education were reflected in the views of the thinker and politician Cicero(106 - 43 BC) Few are worthy of a full education, said Cicero; most Romans need, first of all, “bread and circuses.” Influenced by the Greek philosophical tradition, Cicero viewed the human mental life as a complex stream of changing states. A person is driven to death by temper, greed, lust, and clouding of the mind. But there are forces that give hope and prevent his death: this is all-conquering reason and a sense of prudence. The family should, first of all, encourage the development of such forces, Cicero believed.

Roman philosophy and pedagogical thought reached their peak in the 1st and 2nd centuries. And. e.

One of its representatives Seneca(4 BC - 65 AD), criticized the formalism of the school system, which educates “the mind, but not the soul.” He believed that education should form, first of all, an independent personality (“let him [the student] speak for himself, and not his memory”).

The problems of moral education are set out by Seneca in “Letters on Moral Themes” and “Moral Letters to Lucilius.”

“Only one thing makes the soul perfect: unshakable knowledge of good and evil,” wrote Seneca, believing that the teacher should always keep in mind the need to move towards such knowledge (the ideal moral “norm”) through edifying conversations with clear examples from life and history.

Based on his understanding of morality, Seneca did not consider the “seven liberal arts” to be the canon of education. He wrote: “You want to know what I think about the free sciences and arts. I respect none of them, I do not consider any of them good if their fruit is money... Is the road to virtue paved by explaining syllables?”

Major thinker of the same era Plutarch(c. 45 - c. 127) following Cato and Cicero, he paid special attention to issues of upbringing and education in the family. Plutarch's wife refused a nanny and nurse and fed and swaddled her children herself. Plutarch advised avoiding cruel punishments. According to him, beating a child meant “raising your hand against a sacred thing.”

The so-called treatise echoes these ideas. Pseudo-Plutarch's "On Education", which also gives advice to be gentle towards "well-behaved children", and for the mother to remain the nurse of her own children. Pseudo-Plutarch put forward the idea of ​​a comprehensively trained person in the spirit of the requirements of an educated Roman society. In essence, it was proposed to give a “fluent” knowledge of the sciences of that time, that is, to train an amateur.

A bright figure of Roman philosophical and pedagogical thought - Quintzlian(42 - approx. 118). A lawyer and orator, Quintilian drew his ideas from the Greco-Roman cultural heritage (Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Demosthenes, Cicero, etc.). Quintilian's main work is "Education of Orators". Of the 12 books of this treatise, two are the most famous: “On the Home Education of a Boy” and “On Rhetorical Education.” Quintilian advocated for universal access to education, believing that all normal children of Roman citizens deserved to receive an education. He believed in the creative possibilities of school education, believing, for example, that stupid students were the responsibility of teachers.

Quintilian considered mastering the art of an orator to be the pinnacle of education (“poets are born, but speakers become orators”). He proposed to achieve such a high result with the help of a certain training system.

Her first step was home education. It was necessary to choose a nurse with the correct pronunciation and protect her from half-knowledgeable home teachers. By the age of 7, the child had to master Latin and partially Greek grammar (it was proposed to start with a foreign language, since, according to Kvii-tilian, in this case the rules of the native language would then be better learned).

During home schooling, it is necessary to arouse interest with “praise” and “fun” so that “the child does not hate learning, observing, however, a certain measure” (“golden mean”).

The primary school curriculum included a number of subjects. In the first place were classes in grammar and style, morality, basic mathematics, and music.

An extensive program in these and other subjects was offered in the grammar and rhetoric schools. As Quintilian noted in this regard, the art of oratory requires knowledge of many sciences. At the grammar school it was proposed to study a number of academic disciplines simultaneously, without worrying about the obligatory perfect mastery of them; the main subject was grammar. In the rhetorical school, the main subject was rhetoric, which meant “the art of eloquence.”

In rhetoric classes, the teacher was recommended, for example, to read essays with obvious mistakes in style, which the students themselves had to notice and correct.

Training should be carried out inductively - from simple to complex, based on the work of memory. A number of mnemonic techniques were proposed to develop the “accuracy” of memory. This, for example, was the “topological technique” when a real or imaginary room was divided into several dozen “places for memorization.”

Reflecting on human nature, Quintiliai expressed confidence in the positive foundations of human nature, without, however, considering such properties to be the only ones (children are “naturally inclined to the worst”). Education helps overcome bad tendencies. To achieve high results in pedagogy, Quintiliai believed, it is necessary to combine a person’s natural kindness and upbringing, since these principles cannot exist separately.

Following Plutarch, Quintilian said that education should form a free person. Children are a “precious vessel” that must be treated with care and respect. Healthy family upbringing should protect the child’s psyche and prevent the presence of children in “indecent places.” When educating, one should not resort to physical punishment, because beating suppresses modesty and develops slavish qualities. In view of the importance of free upbringing, it is necessary to carefully choose a nanny for the baby, who should have worthy moral qualities. The teacher must replace the student's father and teach the student to think and act independently.

Based on the pedagogical ideas of Plutarch, Quintilian, however, emphasized the need for education useful to society. Quintilian saw the purpose of education in serious preparation for the performance of civic duties. He considered the Athenian politician Pericles to be the ideal of a human citizen.

Quintilian preferred organized schooling over home education (“the light of a good school is better than the loneliness of a family”). He, for example, argued that the spirit of competition and ambition in the learning process “is often the cause of virtues.”

FOREIGN EXPERIENCE

Scientists and the public in many countries are concerned that modern family education is not as effective and complete as it should be. In this regard, special programs are being developed aimed at improving the pedagogical culture of the family: parent education programs, pedagogical programsgogical education of parents.

The emergence of the concept of “parental education” dates back to the end of the last century, when associations emerged in America and Europe designed to provide assistance in family education. Nowadays, the concept of “parenting” has become very widespread and truly international. The essence of parental education is qualified assistance to the family in fulfilling its educational function. Over the course of the current century, through the efforts of scientists from many countries, an attempt has been made to create theory of parenting. The main concepts of this theory are “psychological and pedagogical foundations of interaction in the family”, “content and forms of parental education”.

Initially, parenting was limited to formal communication to parents of the knowledge necessary to raise children. Currently, the content of parental education has undergone significant changes: it includes a wide range of knowledge necessary for the normal functioning of the family (pedagogical, psychological, economic, medical, legal, ethnographic, ethical, etc.). To implement the knowledge program, various formal and informal activities are provided (consultations, conversations, briefings, trainings, courses and seminars, video equipment services, activities in church communities, etc.). Parental education is seen asa constant process of adult self-development based on consciousnessnom their desire to improve their personality.

Parent education programs in European countries are implemented in different models: Adlerian, educational-theoretical, sensory communication model, model based on transactional analysis, group consultation model, Christian parenting, etc. All models have their own history and are based on certain theoretical principles, and, therefore, give parents different guidelines in educational activities and guide them towards one or another practice of raising children. Common to the above models is the starting point according to which society and parents themselves can help themselves become better, and this is the most important prerequisite for successful home education.

In the United States, numerous programs to assist family education are being developed and implemented, which are often called teacher education programs parents. They are characterized by complex content, since they were created by the joint efforts of teachers, psychologists, sociologists, psychotherapists and other specialists. The programs are aimed at strengthening all parts of family education, but primarily at increasing the pedagogical competence of parents. The characteristics of different groups of families are taken into account, therefore programs of differentiated pedagogical assistance to families are created. For example, for families with children with psychophysiological developmental disorders; with adopted children; for families “in unfavorable social conditions”, etc. An example of such programs is the “Head Start” project, translated as “Advanced Start”. It was conceived with the aim of providing comprehensive educational, health and social services to children from low-income families. In this case, the characteristics of the child’s family are taken into account, and special attention is paid to the full participation of the child’s family in the proposed program. Since 1965, more than 5 million children have been enrolled in the Head Start education system. Every year, about 400,000 children and almost the same number of parents are educated in 1,400 Head Start Centers (preschools). Working with parents has a number of aspects, such as: the participation of parents in planning the work of preschool institutions and the implementation of their plans; informing and training parents on modern methods of educating children applicable at home; individual counseling for parents to help solve their problems, etc. Parents are invited to participate in various educational activities with children (conducting lessons, visiting a museum, library, preparing a performance, etc.) as voluntary assistants or paid employees. Parents work with their own children under the guidance of specialists. For example, teaching mothers how to develop personal hygiene skills in their children, how to read a book, etc.

In the Head Start project, as in other teacher education programs for parents in the United States, much attention is paid to the psychological foundations of interaction in the family on the principle of equality between adults and children. Thus, parents learn to listen with interest to the opinions of their children (the “active listening” method), turn to humane methods for correcting their behavior, etc.

Many US states are developing programs to involve men in raising children, including the creation of courses where men are trained in child care, encouraging men to work as school teachers and kindergarten teachers.

MODERN APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF THE FAMILY

In recent years, attention to the study of the family as an educational institution has increased from pedagogy, psychology, sociology and other sciences. However opportunities for scientists in og researchare limited due to the fact that the family is a fairly closed unit of society, reluctant to initiate outsiders into all the secrets of life, relationships, and values ​​that it professes. It is common for a person to see himself in a better light than he actually is, so the family never “opens up” completely, letting other people into its world to the extent that this gives a more or less positive image of it. It should be taken into account the uniqueness and uniqueness of each family. Differences in educational and general cultural levels, ideals, moral-psychological attitudes, life experiences, abilities to organize children’s activities, typological characteristics of parents and other family members - all this and much more, overlapping each other, create a unique family atmosphere. Thus, scientists encounter many difficulties in studying the modern family, which limit the receipt of sufficiently objective data about the characteristics of home education.

Could the researcher be more persistent with the family in order to collect the data he is interested in? No, because he must remember the acceptable limits of “invasion” into the family. These boundaries have legal criteria: respect for human rightska, family privacy. Based on this, the parameters of the object under study are determined (what aspect of home education can be studied), and methods for carrying out the work.

Family study methods are tools thatwith the help of which data is collected, analyzed, summarized,characterizing the family, many relationships and patterns of home education are revealed. The study of the family, like any social phenomenon, requires, firstly, a set of methods, and secondly, these methods must be adequate to the essence of the subject being studied and the specific product that is predicted by the researcher. Thus, when studying family and home education, pedagogical experiment is used to a very limited extent. The fact is that the experiment is characterized by the development of a certain new pedagogical design and testing of its effectiveness in the educational process. Imagine that the experiment is organized within a family. For quite a long time, the natural course of her life is disrupted. Add to this the constant “eye” of the experimenter conducting the work, the inevitable “transparency” of life, the actions of family members, the need to constantly control oneself, which will harm the well-being of the subjects. Therefore, in studies devoted to the problem under discussion, scientists actively involve parents in experimental work, which is carried out in kindergarten and needs to be continued and reinforced in the family.

Among the methods of studying the family, sociological methods: sociological surveys, interviews and questionnaires. Interview method requires the creation of conditions conducive to the sincerity of respondents. The productivity of interviews increases if they are conducted in an informal setting; contacts between the scientist and the subjects are colored by personal sympathies.

Questionnaire method(written survey) allows you to collect a lot of data that interests the scientist. This method is characterized by a certain flexibility in the possibility of obtaining and processing the resulting material. Different types of surveys are used: contact (the researcher himself organizes the survey and collects questionnaires), correspondence (based on correspondent communications, questionnaires with instructions are sent to different respondents, and then returned to the researcher).

Depending on the tasks facing the researcher, as well as the characteristics of families (respondents), different types of questionnaires are possible: open (contains questions that the subject must answer); closed (possible answers to questions are given); mixed (possible answers are offered, and at the same time the right is given to formulate some answers in your own way, especially when they go beyond the questions).

When sociologists study families, correspondence surveys with closed-type questionnaires predominate. Teachers more often resort to face-to-face questioning and give preference to open and mixed types of questionnaires. When studying the experience of home education of specific families, questionnaires signed by respondents are more productive, but it should be taken into account that the answers may not be entirely truthful. For example, parents who frequently physically punish their children are unlikely to select the appropriate response on a closed-ended questionnaire; they are more likely to emphasize the answers “we never resort to physical punishment” or settle on the answer “we sometimes resort to physical punishment.”

The efforts of modern researchers are aimed at mobilizing the social activity of subjects, through which positive ideas are developed about various areas of family lifestyle, parenting techniques, housekeeping technology, etc.

The search for ways to objectively study families has led to the development of psychological, pedagogical, and sociological methods that deepen and expand ideas about the modern family and at the same time confront subjects with the need to understand their relationships with loved ones, make a choice in favor of the most preferable, and try new ways of interacting with them. child, etc. For example, researcher specially involves parents in joint activities with the childactivity in order to show ways to optimize emotional interaction through the use of folk games, works of folklore, theatrical games, in order to suggest ways to improve children's games. Many pedagogical and psychological studies use methods by which the pedagogical position of parents is simultaneously studied and corrected. As a result of this approach of the researcher to the respondents (parents), they consider the proposed innovations as their own contribution to the problem, and therefore try to introduce them into their own home education practice. Such cooperation between researchers and parents predetermines not only the solution of assigned tasks, but also the adoption of new norms of behavior and ways of influencing children. Thus, we can say that when studying the family, there is a tendency to transform scientific methods into methods of practical activity of specialists.

A similar role is played by such a method of family research as psychological and pedagogical training. They usually cover members of several families who sympathize with each other and have similar problems of home education. Participants are offered various tasks, the implementation and joint discussion of which helps to develop certain skills, correct views and positions, and activate reflective activity. The topics of psychological and pedagogical training can be “Do I know my child”, “How to behave with an aggressive child”, “If a child is developmentally delayed”, “How to raise a child without a father”, etc. With the skillful guidance of the researcher, the group of training participants turns into into a kind of self-help and mutual aid group. Criticism and condemnation are excluded, conditions are created for a frank discussion of the problem, exchange of experience, knowledge, and expression of experienced feelings. Meeting regularly - at least once a week - provides a sense of community and integrity of the structure. A group member must be guided by his own considerations and ideas and at the same time listen and hear the other, empathize with him, developing a sense of community, expressing his emotions non-verbally. The activities of the group are completely confidential and closed to outsiders. As a result of group meetings, participants in trainings and interviews improve their competence and communication culture, which has a beneficial effect on family education.