St Philaret's Institute Discusses the Contemporary Experience of Bringing Up and Educating Children and Teens

“I greet you all warmly and am very glad that our Institute is hosting such a Christian-pedagogical conference. I have been involved in pedagogy almost my entire life, but unfortunately have worked very little with children,” said the Rector of the St. Philaret’s Institute, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences Alexander Kopirovsky, in his greeting to conference participants.  “Working with children is becoming increasingly important today. We have already developed some expertise in Christian pedagogy for adults and university students, yet unfortunately still have rather limited experience when it comes to children.”

“You all know very well that in ancient times the word ‘pedagogue’ meant something completely different from what it does today. A pedagogue, or ‘child-leader,’ was usually a slave who took the children of wealthy parents to school. They probably talked along the way, but this could hardly be considered serious education,” continued Kopirovsky.  “Today’s pedagogue is a child-leader in a much deeper sense. At the same time, the modern child is not the child of antiquity. Contemporary children may sometimes even surpass adults in areas such as navigating the sea of information, for example. Yet they remain children. And if they fall into the sins of adult society, it is then much harder for them to escape.  Thank God, many clergy are taking part in our conference. We all bear very great responsibility in this matter. Great too is the reward from the Lord and His Church, for all that you will accomplish, for all that you will contribute both to yourselves and to others, as part of our common church treasury.”

On the first day of the conference, participants took part in a practical workshop called “The Principles of Organizing a Camp for Teens as a Space for Growing in Christian Faith.” The workshop was led by Fr Evgeny Neklyudov, rector of the Holy Trinity Church in the village of Bolshaya Ucha (Udmurtia), together with Olga Sinitsyna, a teacher, historian, and director of the Transfiguration Centre for Children and Youth. The workshop was moderated by Valery Larionov, an Honoured Worker of General Education in the Russian Federation.

The conference continued with a seminar on “The Secret of Success in Year-Round Church Programmes for Children and Teens (Sunday Schools and Groups): What Really Matters?”. The seminar was moderated by psychologist and primary school teacher Olga Gavrilova.  Translator and youth group leader Dmitry Doroshko gave a presentation entitled “The Core Principles of Christian Upbringing: The Experience of the Transfiguration Brotherhood.”

Youth group leader Igor Liskov gave a presentation entitled “The Personal Responsibility of Adolescents as the Driving Force for Year-Round Church Life.”

The first day of the conference concluded with a masterclass on “The Practical Aspects of Applying Digital Ethics in Christian Upbringing.”  The expert leading the session was Elena Bakhadova, Candidate of Psychology and Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology and Educational Pedagogy at the L. S. Vygotsky Institute of Psychology of the Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU).

The conference's second day featured a roundtable discussion on “Christian Upbringing in Orthodox Schools: Possibilities and Limits.”  This roundtable brought together representatives of Orthodox gymnasia and family schools from various regions of Russia, including:

• Fr Alexander Volkov, Rector of the Church of St Sergius of Radonezh in Solntsevo and spiritual father/confessor to that church’s Otrok Varfolomey Gymnasium;
• Inga Lisovskaya, Deputy Director for Educational Work at the Smolensk Orthodox Gymnasium;
• various heads of family-organized schools in both Moscow and Tver.

The roundtable participants discussed pressing issues of Christian upbringing in Orthodox schools, including:

• Which events in school life hold particular significance for the Christian upbringing of children?
• How is a Christian attitude to knowledge and learning cultivated?
• How should schools and families interact? What principles are established during this interaction? How does interaction with the school affect the pupil’s family?

 “Dear conference participants, fathers, brothers and sisters! As the organiser of the conference, I would first like to thank the Lord God. This is the first conference we have held. We were anxious about whether we would manage to create a single space for fellowship, given that people with very different experiences in different schools and parishes are taking part. Remarkably, as the participants themselves have testified, it all worked out. The proof of this is the inspiration, joy and warm fellowship we all felt both yesterday and today,” said Olga Sinitsyna, in summing up the conference.  “The subject of our discussion was Christian upbringing. One can argue about opinions, but when we speak about children, the proof will be in the fruit, quite irrespective of various arguments. The words and reflections we have heard here were all about real children and real families, and this is extremely valuable. The most important thing is that we have reached mutual understanding while discussing different realities, conditions, particularities and difficulties. We have all been enriched: we have heard one another’s experience and seen ourselves more clearly. I would like to support Alexander Kopirovsky’s proposal that this conference should become an annual event.”

The conference concluded with a tour of a photo exhibition on Orthodox expeditions for teenagers, which was guided by the young people themselves.