The program of Russian literature replaced the humanitarian education. The influence of literature on the education of our children was evident. Themselves without knowing it, some parents raise their children in the fat, the other on Gorky. While we believe that we follow the advice of Dr. Spock, we confess Valdsdorfskuyu system ... It reminds me sometimes of noble upbringing of children like Oblomov, Ilya's surrounded by many servants, but with the participation and tutors - imported to Russia, French, German and English. Foreign fashion is proving to be just a cover for the two traditions of education - for the gentlemen and commoners. Both of them thrive and bear fruit in our time - a time of rapid change and post-reorganization of social stratification.

The image of the "golden child" in the works of Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was his trilogy of "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth "initiated the fashion for the genre of autobiography with a detailed description of childhood as a" golden time "in human life. Since the publication of the novel "Childhood" in 1852, this idea of childhood as a special period, the most serene and happy, it became a commonplace in Russian literature, reigned for the next 50-70 years. Up until the writing of another popular social changes in Russia, the version of childhood, the author of which was the proletarian writer Maxim Gorky. Gorky described the model of the ascetic childhood, according to which all the most interesting thing happens when a person grows up and, accordingly, all children will come in the future. If you relate these two models of childhood with just the classification of living options, we can see that the image of the golden carefree childhood variant corresponds to the "life is like a dream," and Gorky's active orientation to the future - version of "Life as a preface."

Early life Nicholas, the hero of Tolstoy's "Childhood", passed in the silence of ancestral estates surrounded by nature. The central character in all the memories he had a mother. She radiates kindness and love and always Nikolenka met a smile. Like nature, and idealized mother, recalling the two forms of pagan image of mother earth. The descriptions in the memoirs of Tolstoy and Nikolenka mother was a true angel - gentle, bright image. If you do not know, Tolstoy remembered his mother - she died when he was not yet two years old.

Completely different way the image of his father. The word "orgy" would be a very apt expression to describe his pastime. Throughout the story you will not find the father engaged in any business. Looking through the Russian psevdobiografii, Votchel curiously notes that fathers are often depicted people neprakticheskimi, idle. In rare cases, they are seriously worried about the status of the estate, but to any serious consequences of this usually does not, except as a manifestation of concern on his brow, and a lengthy conversation about the fate of the fatherland. Fathers attract children's attention, but as a rule, adult men are kept at a distance from their offspring.

If the European tradition of childhood is portrayed as a source of limitation and suffering that can be overcome with time in adult life, then in Russian literature of childhood - a source of happiness, pleasure, where the hero is willing and eager to return at any cost. Rejecting the historical ideal of the gradual improvement of life, Russian, tends to fall into childhood, serene contemplation, away from the rest of the world, retire to the quiet of his own illusions.

Austere childhood in Gorky

Suddenly, amid this stream psevdobiografy, tenderness and schegolyany his childhood years in which he saw, and a pledge of future success, and hints at special talents, there is a new, radically different version of his childhood. In 1913 (!), Maxim Gorky published his trilogy. Instead of panegyric and justify a conservative landlord lifestyle it offers a future version of the socialist ideal, which equilibrate the capabilities of all. Tolstoy blessed Gorky, pushing him to repeat his literary career. But Gorky wrote his "" Childhood "as a parody of Tolstoy's trilogy, sensing a huge difference in the circumstances of time and formed the personality and talents of writers. Bitter, not only overcame his teachers imitation, but also boldly declared virtually a new literary and cultural tradition.

Childhood of Maxim Gorky - this is not a nostalgic yearning for the past back where it was a good, happy and peaceful. On the contrary, it is a way to eliminate the past as an obstacle to another life. For Gorky was very important to rewrite virtually canonized image of the "golden child" to open a new perspective for an emerging class who sympathized with the writer and with whom he identified himself. Myth Gorky on the updated man radically altered by the pursuit of ideals, it is much more influenced by the wisdom of his contemporaries, Tolstoy than nostalgic descriptions.

Therefore, although officially been recognized and canonized by the myth of Soviet childhood, has established a strong and talented people ("Thank the party home for our happy childhood !..»), another model, the" golden child "in the nobility, had all the chances of survival. Union of aristocratic and proletarian, peasant culture has been more dramatic, and productive. An example is the family Mikhalkov, whose life was reflected in films by Nikita Mikhalkov. The drama inherent in the nature of women, noblewomen and new proletarian leaders, and their mutual interest issue crisis in both classes, looking for a new perspective for themselves and their children.

Which model of childhood we choose?

The fact that both models have survived childhood and remained, indicating the current practice of education in Russia. On the one hand, there are private schools that teach the expensive and well-educated teachers according to its own systems or on Western models. Their formation is associated with the development of free economy in our country: there were money to be converted ("konfetirovany" how to pronounce one spoiled child) to something new and exotic. Became indecent form of children without any money. And in general was improper to do anything without money.

It is also interesting that our wealthiest citizens are repeated all the mistakes and flaws aristocratic upbringing and education. One of the innovations at the beginning of the restructuring consisted in education at home. In the new and spacious homes were invited on the recommendations of the best teachers from nearby schools. Children do not have to strain to get up in the morning, dress form and rush to the morning sessions. Teachers come in handy for family time, and because the fee for training was higher than in school, and for many it was humiliating, life-saving supplement to school salary, the position of tutor was absolutely dependent and enviable.

After the "kids" growing up, they still push out in the middle or private school. Here, once it was discovered that children in the early years of home education have not learned exactly nothing, reading difficulty, writing such a way that does not bring the Lord. Figures in emphasis does not know and, more importantly, did not survive in this regard. Like their parents, who naively believed that descended upon them huge amounts of money is automatically guaranteed any education for their children and make available all there Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard.

But in the nineties was dominated by Gorky and another tradition: many parents have abandoned to the arbitrariness of their children - they say, let him go to their universities. As a result, we have a vast army of orphans (children abandoned by their parents), early drug abuse and alcoholism. With its real strength, both models of childhood are unsuitable for the country in which there are so many variables. They require a critical review. Tolstoy and Gorky's model of childhood are not so contradictory. There is in them a general radical, sad from the standpoint of a psychologist. Parents in both cases, education or non-existent, or flashed as the dismissal authority. It seems to us, and it never comes, what we should teach their children how to live.