Changes in the school curriculum: children will be taught to give birth and fight

Maria Sokolova

The process of introducing family studies in schools is gaining momentum: recently the Public Chamber and the Ministry of Education held a meeting on the inclusion of a new subject in the educational process. The Institute for the Study of Childhood, Family and Upbringing, subordinate to the Ministry of Education, presented a methodological manual that should become the basis of a new school curriculum.

What our children will be taught in family studies

Initially, officials planned to instill traditional family values in teenagers and strengthen family ties. Taking into account the fact that according to statistics at the end of 2022, in 38% of cases children are raised by single parents, the question is quite relevant. But now the priorities have clearly changed. According to the Public Chamber, family studies lessons should solve the problem of demography. That is, to increase the birth rate. Sergey Rybalchenko, Chairman of the OP Commission on demography, protection of family, children and traditional family values, suggested that such lessons be conducted by Orthodox priests in order to «follow the path of spiritual foundations» for sure.

At one time, even classical sex education lessons, which are aimed at familiarizing adolescents with protection from unwanted diseases, including HIV, and unwanted pregnancies, caused outrage among the masses. Parents believe that such things arouse unhealthy interest, increase sexual activity, the risk of early sexual relations and pregnancies. But how not to get pregnant if the state requires giving birth? And here they are openly planning to increase the birth rate by the forces of religious organizations. Experts also express caution.

Olga Miryasova, the organizing secretary of the Teacher trade union, believes that such classes can meet serious resistance from parents.

— There are often conflicts with parents, because they can have very different worldviews: some of them believe that the school should only give knowledge and should not get involved in education, and the rest can be both radically Orthodox and radically atheists. Therefore, the teacher also has to maneuver between all these expectations of parents and their views. Many parents do not want to delve into it, focusing primarily on the child's admission to university. If the school takes on such functions more and more, and in an extremely ideologized form, then this causes opposition from parents.

Who and how will teach family studies: cross with physics and mathematics

In what form the classes will take place and how often — the question is still open. The first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on family, women and children Tatiana Butskaya believes that the basics of family studies can be included in any discipline, even in mathematics. But Olga Miryasova doesn't think it's a good idea.

— Two options have been announced so far — one of them is about trying to integrate the idea of family studies into ordinary lessons, that is, to change the Federal State Educational Standard once again. And this, of course, will be terrible — programs and textbooks change almost every year for them. The ideas of patriotic education began to be introduced there 2 years ago, but how can you introduce education into physics? Everyone adapted somehow. At one of the lessons, they say that we had great Russian physicists (about 10 minutes), and now they have also discovered something. But to introduce family studies into physics? It smacks of absurdity. Plus, when the Federal State Budget changes, we have to redo work programs, many of them are still printed on paper and this is a completely meaningless story. Another option is additional education. After all, the program is not rubber, that is, something will have to be removed, and what will they remove? Children really don't have time for new subjects. With additional education, the situation is different, it is also divided into mandatory and optional. But in any case, there is less control over it, there are no exams and grades for it, and therefore the school is more free in how to arrange all this work.

Another important question is who will teach these lessons? According to Natalia Naumova, a child and family psychologist, it is not enough just to tell how to do and how not to do. To reach teenagers, it is necessary to understand the reasons for their behavior. And for this we need professionals who themselves must understand what the real causes of problems with the institution of the family and fertility are.

— Children are becoming more and more infantile and selfish. Families become child-centered, the child is allowed a lot of things, the main emphasis is on entertainment, on pleasure. Children begin to think that maybe they don't need to start a family. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out work. Why don't children want to start their own family? It means that they have some kind of traumatization, or too high infantilization, self-obsession, or it seems that the child will somehow limit his life. Therefore, it is important first of all to teach the child conflict-free interaction with his peers, with parents, to learn to negotiate, to learn to build boundaries, that is, to see the child in the family not as a burden, but as a continuation of the family, as an opportunity to build family relationships. It is necessary to show the advantages of relationships within the family, to show that the child will be a great value in their life. But it is important that psychologists work with children, or at least teachers who have undergone psychological training and will not harm children with their intervention. Because it is important for us, after all, not to force children, but to talk about it, and so that, reasoning, they come to the conclusion that family is really a value.

However, full-time psychologists in schools, regardless of their qualifications, are not as common as we would like. By 2020, only 58,5% of educational institutions had a full-time psychologist. Their preparation then, by the way, was criticized by Anna Kuznetsova. With all the desire to assign this task to psychologists is not possible. Therefore, Boris Ilyukhin, director of the Research Center for Educational Quality Assessment and Management Systems of the RANEPA FIRO, believes that we will have to follow the Soviet path.

— At different times, this story has arisen with different names. In the 80s of the last century it was called «Fundamentals of ethics and psychology of family life». And then it was taught by history and social studies teachers. I think it will be about the same now. Maybe these hours will be taken by the deputy directors of education.

Boris Ilyukhin also notes that it is very important not to overload children and teachers with such classes.

— Children are already overloaded, so «where to get the clock» for this lesson, from which subject is an open question. On the other hand, if it becomes part of the subject of «social studies» to some extent, then why not. It is necessary to talk about this with children, it is about the formation of certain values, but the big question is to what extent and in what quantities. If it's 2-3 lessons a year, it's probably reasonable. And if an hour a week is completely redundant.

Everyone is interested in how to feed children, not how to make them

Ideally, society should get strong young families who do not postpone the birth of children. Preferably, at least three, so that the country gets out of the demographic pit. But the school is unlikely to be able to give a clear answer to the question of where to get money to feed a large family, and how to be sure of the stability of tomorrow. Therefore, Olga Miryasova is sure that the influence of such education will be almost imperceptible.

— Teachers conduct such subjects in high school in many ways formally, because they already have a lot of tasks. Everyone's workload is very high. I think that all this will lead to nothing globally, and once again I would like to remind you that people need stability, economic well-being, and then the demographic situation will improve.

Child and family psychologist Natalia Naumova also does not see an opportunity to radically change the consciousness of children within the walls of the school.

— In any case, children are not so much influenced by what they are told in society, much more influenced by what happens in the family. Therefore, you need to work with your family. If a child in the family feels valuable, accordingly, he wants to create the same family in the future.

If they don't teach how to give birth, they will teach how to kill

While everyone is dealing with family studies and its volumes, the topic of drones has already been added to the school curriculum of grades 10-11 for initial military training. This program will train teenagers not only to resist enemy drones and drones, but also tell about the combat use of UAVs, literally teach management. In the light of regular news about attempts to attack drones and drones in Moscow, their entry into the buildings of Moscow City, the effectiveness of «Geraniums» and «Lancets», it is impossible to underestimate the impact of drones on the modern battlefield. And in the near future, high school graduates will be able to control combat drones. In Soviet times, they were taught to assemble and disassemble the Kalashnikov assault rifle, now progress does not stand still. Drones have replaced the machines. Concerned about the growth of aggression of children, officials diligently urged to fight virtual slaughterhouses of computer games. The solution has been found — let them fight in real life. The schoolchildren did not live outside militarization for long.

Whatever it was, all additional training programs face the problem of oversaturation — says Olga Miryasova.

— Everyone demands from the school now at least everything: so that it advertises the interests of Russia in the field of cosmonautics, that it promotes family values, explains traffic rules and etc.

But the impact of this on children will be minimal, no matter how hard they try, the expert adds as a consolation to parents.