On the possibility of using the experience of spiritual and moral education of the orthodox old believers in modern education

The article analyzes the possibilities of using the experience of spiritual and moral education of the Old Believers in education. The material for analysis is the basic principles of spiritual and moral education developed by the religious denomination, as well as the experience of representing the Old Believer culture in the educational environment of a modern pedagogical university. The most important principles of spiritual and moral education in the Old Believer community are respect for the child’s personal freedom, the absence of coercion, and the use of personal example. The knowledge about religious culture that the child receives is adapted to their age and capabilities. These approaches to education are in line with modern pedagogical approaches and technologies, making them suitable for use in modern education. However, experience in working with the confession shows that the translation of the principles of spiritual and moral education into the modern educational environment is associated with a number of problems. Among them, we can mention the change in the target audience: instead of representatives of the confession, it is made up of people who are “spiritually alien” to them. In addition, when working with a secular audience, the goal is not to integrate into the confession, but to gain knowledge about it. All of this necessitates the adaptation of existing methods and approaches to the new situation. Another problem is the long-term isolation of the denomination, which leads to the perception of the non-denominational audience as “foreign” and complicates the presentation of the culture, as was established during the attempt by representatives of the denomination to present the Old Believer culture at the exhibition-seminar “Tomsk Old Believers: History and Modernity”. However, the audience was most interested in learning about the everyday elements of the denomination, the environment in which the upbringing of the denomination takes place.

spiritual and moral education, foundations of Orthodox culture, Orthodoxy, Old Believers, and pedagogical experience