What do parents first of all pay attention to when choosing a school for their child? On the level of training of subject teachers, the admission of graduates to universities, the advancement of educational technologies and methods. The secular school today is increasingly aware of itself as an institution that provides (including for a fee) educational services, and does not think too much about education.
The position of Orthodox schools is quite different.

Goals are clear
Orthodox schools, the oldest of which arose more than ten years ago, by definition cannot abandon the educational task: after all, they were created to protect children from an atheistic upbringing. But can the school educate and how exactly should it do it? Or maybe education is really a purely family matter?

Now only in Moscow operates. We will turn to the experience of five authoritative and oldest ones: the Radonezh Gymnasium, the St. Vladimir School, the Traditional Gymnasium, the Saburovo Center for Continuing Education, the Classical Gymnasium under the Greek-Latin Cabinet of Yu.A. Shichalin. Let me note in brackets that none of their leaders - and we spoke with the directors and confessors - does not deny the desire for the quality of education. Some even resolutely call the position "Let's create a pious environment for children, and education - somehow" a childhood disease of the Orthodox school. Nevertheless, this school sets itself the educational goal first of all. So let's put aside the conversation about subjects, programs and grades and talk about ideals.

Or rather, about the ideal student. With a natural and common desire for all Orthodox schools to educate a good Christian and a patriot of their Fatherland, the details are interesting here. The highest wording was proposed by the director of the Traditional Gymnasium, Fr. Andrei Posternak: "The more our school produces holy people, the sooner it will achieve the goals that it sets for itself." With such a lofty goal, simpler things also coexist: the ideal student is, first of all, the one who successfully graduated from school. And a step higher: this is a person who sincerely rushes to the church, regularly takes communion and, after graduating from school, will not lose touch with the parish and will be able to apply his strength in the church sphere.

And yet, according to the director of the Classical Gymnasium at the Greek-Latin Cabinet, Elena Fedorovna Shichalina, "he is a kind, decent and well-educated person who has the habit of working seriously and independently." And, adds the director of the Saburovo gymnasium, Tatyana Ivanovna Leshcheva, "he must find his place in society and choose his future profession - not as beneficial to him, but as useful for him for salvation, taking into account who he is and what his purpose is" .

Are you able to fulfill these noble tasks? According to teachers, not in every case, but here's what's interesting. According to the employees of one of the Orthodox gymnasiums, one day the inspectors who came to some school-wide event were surprised: why are there no high school students? They are shown - here is the 11th grade. "Is this the eleventh? Somehow they look unadulterated..." Indeed, even in high school students there remains childishness, which means purity.

TV, phone, gun
The most interesting thing, of course, is how they are brought up. "A school - and even an Orthodox school - can only create boundaries, you know, like a river flows in its banks. Build very strong embankments and direct the flow of the stream," a teacher from one of the above-mentioned gymnasiums reflects. Have you already understood? Let's talk about prohibitions.

“Any educational system should be based on a combination of a certain freedom of students and a system of absolute prohibitions,” says the director of the Traditional Gymnasium, Fr Andrey Posternak. “There should be greater clarity in education: children should understand very clearly what is good and what is evil. to tell a child, for example, that smoking is generally bad, but if you smoke a couple of times, nothing bad will happen, the education system cannot be based on such statements.

The system of prohibitions and rules in Orthodox schools differs in details, but is united in spirit. In the Traditional Gymnasium - a strict ban on watching TV and computer games ("some students, of course, violate this requirement, but the fruits are always visible - the child's attention is dulled, he begins to think in vulgar categories of mass culture"); in Svyato-Vladimirskaya, nicknames and nicknames are prohibited, visits to video salons, night bars, etc. are not allowed, mobile phones are not allowed, a special clause of the charter prohibits gambling or selling toys, things or books to each other; in the Classical Gymnasium - electronic games and players are banned; in "Radonezh" toys are prohibited, for example, all kinds of pistols - water and others. Everywhere it is strictly forbidden to smoke, drink, use foul language, the most serious offense - to bring to school a magazine, film or game of immoral content.

It is clear that some of the prohibitions (pistols, mobile phones) are explained by a simple desire to maintain order. The meaning of others, more important ones, is to protect them from mass culture and all kinds of dirt that the modern world is filled with. And here is one of the obvious features of the Orthodox school: opposition to the spirit of the times. When I asked the heads of schools how close the situation was in this regard to combat, the answer was: as on the front line. But it’s easy to ban, but how to enforce the bans? Besides, the forbidden fruit is known to be sweet. What is more fruitful - if possible, isolate the child from harmful influences or explain why this or that is bad? There is no unanimity among Orthodox educators about this. Apparently, because the problem is really complicated: if it is possible to create an "Orthodox ghetto", then it remains to be seen whether this will be a boon.

Here the remarks of my interlocutors-directors themselves line up in a discussion:

T. I. Leshcheva, director of the gymnasium "Saburovo": "It can be banned, but there are a lot of temptations, and now the child does not watch TV at home, but when he comes to visit, he reaches for the TV and watches everything non-stop. Prohibiting is unproductive. It is necessary to control what children watch, advise them, instill in them a taste And everything that concerns prohibitions should be decided by the confessor of the family - because all children are very different. "

: "But, on the other hand, without fencing off from the outside world, without preventing this world from entering your educational institution, it is impossible to raise a child well. You cannot allow some things that are actually unacceptable. This can also manifest itself in something external. Some may disagree with me, but, for example, Orthodox girls still have to go in a dress, not trousers, and if you allow trousers to be worn in an Orthodox school, then you won’t bring up normal Orthodox girls, because cosmetics will go after trousers, and for cosmetics - a completely different line of education.

Many believe that after such an isolated environment, the child can no longer adapt normally, turns out to be defenseless against the outside world and becomes a victim of the very first temptations that come across. But this is absolutely not true. Because if certain life attitudes are formed in a child, then he will not be afraid of anything around him. These attitudes will be a kind of inoculation against the outside world."

Father Alexey Uminsky, confessor of the St. Vladimir Orthodox School: "Our system of prohibitions, although very clear, is not a fundamental principle of education. It is a kind of insurance moment. We, for example, do not have such a principle not to watch TV. We solve this problem in a different way. Last year we had for high school students cinema club - they brought their cassettes, and we discussed the films they were watching, or I brought and showed them films that I myself loved in childhood. After all, children still violate prohibitions. They have their own system of aesthetic values, they have not matured even before our system Educators should at least know what our children are doing, what they like If we just forbid we will never know It is very important for us to talk to children about whatever topics they care about Give them the opportunity to ask any questions and find in us, teachers, interlocutors.Let's say we have gymnasium liturgies, and after the liturgy we come to the gymnasium and we have a meal and a conversation here. three hours I answer all kinds of questions - from the most spiritual and complex to the simplest. "Why do you need to pay in transport, what books to read, why you can't read about Harry Potter, what can you watch on TV, what music should you listen to?" In these conversations, sometimes I ask the senior students themselves to answer some questions for those who are younger. In this way, we are trying to prepare them for the fact that they will have to answer these questions themselves.

Elena Fedorovna Shichalina, Director of the Classical Gymnasium: "I believe that it is necessary to protect children from the influence of mass culture, without a doubt. I would be happy to protect adults from it, but it's not in my power. As far as possible, this should be avoided. But you can't just ban watching television, because it immediately turns into a forbidden and therefore attractive fruit.On television, for example, you can choose English films about birds or animals, which are beautifully filmed and which are interesting and useful to watch.And if parents allow you to watch all kinds of thrillers, then this It's another conversation."

O. Alexei Sysoev, director and confessor of the gymnasium "Radonezh": “We show TV when necessary - educational films. Of course, we don’t put TVs in the corridors for entertainment, and in general we don’t have a culture of entertainment. It’s not good for a person when everyone entertains him, then it’s just very bad for him, because he quickly gets sated, and everything becomes boring for him, and he is already attracted to drugs, crimes, etc. Therefore, we load children so much, that they don’t have much time and don’t have it, God forbid to cope with the lessons, God forbid to breathe, take a walk. And at school - as many events as possible, all communication, the whole world should be separate. "

The main educational tool
It's nice that in the Orthodox school there is a place for concepts that seem to be long gone from our daily life. For example, "honor". “Valuing his honor, the student also values ​​the honor of his school, his class, and therefore must abstain himself and keep his comrades both within the walls of the gymnasium and outside it from all kinds of bad deeds,” says the charter of the St. Vladimir School. This charter in its present form took shape after five or six years of the life of the school. But the school continues to discuss it to this day.

Father Alexei Uminsky, confessor of St. Vladimir's School: "It is important to teach the child inner integrity, and that this integrity is not just declared and imposed by the school, but chosen by the student himself. Therefore, every year we adopt the charter anew - we gather all the children and discuss with them: is there their own will to to live that way. Ideally, a school is what children love. What they build with us."

And here we are again returning to the very high educational task of the school. "Teachers, students, parents ... consider their work in the gymnasium, first of all, as church obedience, the fulfillment of which brings not only solid knowledge, but, most importantly, spiritually builds a person, improves him, unites him with Christ," - it is said in the same charter. That is, the life of the Orthodox school is seen as a kind of church service. And this life is the main means, the instrument of education.

O. Andrei Posternak, Director of the Traditional Gymnasium: "To educate an Orthodox Christian, you need to show him an example of real Christian life. Every teacher should be such an example - this is the main part of the educational work of any school. From the introduction of additional theological disciplines - for example, the study of the Old and New Testaments, the Church Slavonic language - in a student, maybe knowledge will increase, but this will not make him a good Christian. There must be a certain atmosphere - an atmosphere of Christian love, a church environment, a church spirit that children should live in. This requires teachers, in particular, to work hard on themselves. "

What is important here is a special unity, which is achievable only in the Church.

O. Andrey Posternak: "The key to the success of educational work is the unity between teachers, parents and confessors of children. In a sense, there must be a team of like-minded people, which is wider than the school itself. In the conditions of modern Russia, such an atmosphere can be created by the parish. It is the church parish that should be the core that unites parents and teachers and priests.

O. Alexey Uminsky: "What does an ordinary school do? The fact that certain barriers have been created between everyone, and everyone lives on their own side of the barricade. The teacher perceives the student as his enemy, opponent. And vice versa: if the student does not oppose the teacher, then in the eyes of other students he is some then a "nerd". The same thing - a teacher with parents: he constantly presses them to achieve something from their child, and they fight back. We also have all this - mutual claims, etc., but we try in a different way solve these problems. In the Church, there are no such barriers between us. And there is a system of Christian virtues to which we strive: obedience, repentance, patience, faith, mercy, meekness, and much more. We accept the family into this system of relations. If parents are included into it and begin to build a school together with us, it turns out very well. It turns out such a pedagogical effect that you will never achieve anywhere. If the parents begin to contradict, then it is much harder. "

Internal enemy
And what generally happens if the views of parents disagree with the principles of one or another Orthodox school? This situation is quite dramatic for all participants. Marina Leonidovna Kondyurina, Director of St. Vladimir's School: "There is only one way to educate - every day to be close to children and show them your example of Christian life, piety. And so that they see the same thing at home. The child should always be in the same environment - both at school and at home ". O. Andrei Posternak, Director of the Traditional Gymnasium: "It is the atmosphere of the family that forms the personality. The school is completely powerless in a situation where parents want to achieve something differently. There are examples of this, in such cases there are very serious conflicts, and in the end the parents win."

In such a situation, there is only one way out - to change the school. Of course, the reason for exclusion is really serious misconduct that happens to Orthodox children. O. Andrey Posternak: "Believe me that lately we are faced with almost all the problems that any secular school faces. Do not think that we have angels who only pray and walk in headscarves." Anything can happen: children lie, and snitch, and cheat, and steal something from each other, and fight, and call names - like all children. In one of the schools faced with the use of drugs ...

Sometimes such offenses are perceived as a crime against the school, almost like an enemy attack. “There are children, they can even be excellent students, who do not need all this Orthodox life at all, and this excellent student smiles at you, but in fact he is doing his underground work among children,” the words of one of the teachers of the Traditional Gymnasium. This attitude confuses the outside observer, but it has its reasons. Here is how the leaders of St. Vladimir's School explain it: "Let's say someone brought an obscene magazine or stole things from pockets. Indeed, this is an act at the level of the enemy. It is like a time bomb that a child brings to school, knowing that it is bad , - of course, this is a position that is clearly opposed to the good that we are trying to teach here. “When a child comes to us from a different system of relations, where everyone poked him as an Orthodox, because he was in the minority, then here it turns out that he is a fine fellow among the sheep,” says Fr. Alexei Uminsky, “And he begins to assert himself against the background these sheep, whom no one offended, did not entice to smoke or drink beer. And they, as if to the pipe of a pied-catcher, instantly, with their mouths open, go somewhere after such a guy, not being able to oppose anything to him. In this sense, it is very similar that the enemy comes along with this child. Although not this child himself, of course, the enemy. And not every such case is a reason for exception. Here the main criterion is the readiness of the family to change something, cooperating with the school. "It happens that there are difficulties with some boy, but you talk to your mother and you can see that they are fighting for this boy at home, mom sees all the problems and tries to do something. And it happens that you talk to your parents, and your parents lie. T .e. they pretend that they live an Orthodox life and just cover the child," the teachers admit. With difficult children, the school can work hard, showing considerable patience, because an exception is in any case an admission of pedagogical defeat. But on the other side of the scale are other children who need to be saved. O. Alexey Uminsky: "The only thing for which we expel immediately and always are actions associated with immorality. Because here the issue of infection is already the issue of saving other children is in the first place."

Interesting life
Drama and conflict are certainly not at the core of school life. Orthodox teachers, speaking about what the atmosphere of the school brings up first of all, make a lot of efforts to make the school an interesting place for children - to build this very school life, fill it with events, traditions, holidays, excursions, pilgrimages, tea parties and even balls. Sports are very popular in the Traditional Gymnasium - volleyball and other competitions; performances are staged every year at Christmas and at the last bell, and the geography of school trips extends quite far - this summer, for example, we went to Yekaterinburg. Academicism is not alien here either: the gymnasium arranges student scientific conferences. St. Vladimir's School publishes two of its own magazines ("Krasno Solnyshko" for juniors, "Gymnasist" for seniors) and the newspaper Alma mater, which discusses topical and controversial issues for schoolchildren. Children from "Saburovo" during the holidays are engaged in archaeological excavations, clearing and equipping old abandoned rural cemeteries, practice biology at a research station on the White Sea, and once went to the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve to look at bison. Children's scientific conferences are organized in the Classical Gymnasium, performances are staged at the end of each semester. For 9 years, the students visited about 50 Russian cities, went to study practice in the history and history of art in Pskov and St. Petersburg, visited an Orthodox camp in Greece. A tourist club has been operating in "Radonezh" for three years already, there is an art studio where, in addition to schoolchildren, their parents and parishioners of the gymnasium church in general can study. Many probably know the tented children's camp "Radonezh" near Optina Hermitage - over the 10 years of its existence, hundreds of children have been there, and not only from the gymnasium itself. In general, there are enough exciting things to do. Immediately, two of the directors complained to me that after the lessons the children could not be expelled from school ...

As for the skeptics' doubts about whether the school is capable of "educating a true Christian," I would like to remind you that the difficulty of the task does not mean that it should be abandoned altogether. I personally found the words of Fr. Aleksey Sysoev: “Of course, we may not fulfill what is destined. But we know for sure that we do not do everything. And the Lord did not give us low tasks, if we remember how it is written: “Be holy, for I am holy.” Here "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." Try hiding somewhere in the shade after that!"

Gymnasium "Radonezh"
STORY. The oldest of the Orthodox gymnasiums in Moscow (opened in 1990), while from the very beginning it was not a parish, but an open school. There were 9 editions. Now it occupies the building of a former kindergarten in Yasenevo.

CHILDREN. They accept children only from churched families. The recommendation of a family confessor is desirable, but not required. Parents of all applicants are interviewed by the confessor of the gymnasium. Children are admitted to senior classes with a trial period of at least two months - to find out if the child will pull the local academic load.

Now there are about 210 students in the school, there are all classes, mostly two classes in parallel.

CHURCH. Since 1993, a house church has been opened at the gymnasium in the name of St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. In all classes, the Law of God is taught once a week. Every day - a school-wide prayer before classes, whether to pray before each lesson - depends on the class curator. On Mondays - a prayer service for St. Sergius. Starting from the 4th grade, there is a liturgical practice twice a year: children sing, read and serve in the church, and everyone confesses and takes communion.

EDUCATION. Competition for admission to the 1st grade - 1.5-2 people per place. Humanitarian orientation of education, in-depth study of languages, including ancient ones, with an emphasis on comparative grammatical analysis.

Admission - almost 100%: Moscow State University (mainly philological and historical departments), PSTBI, Medical Academy, Pedagogical University, Moscow Architectural Institute and other universities.

QUOTE. Director and confessor of the gymnasium Fr. Alexey Sysoev: "If parents sincerely live with God, then they can see that just as they did not conceive and "blind" this child, so they cannot fully educate him and fully introduce him into this life. They must find their modest but worthy niche here. If they make a mistake, they will either be tyrants - and then the child will be crippled, or the child will be let go too much - and he will grow up to be a voluptuary or even a criminal. One must take a strict religious position here. There is such a proverb: the child is a guest in the family. In the same way and the school must find the right proportions of relationships and understand how much it dares to see a person.

Center for Continuing Education in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarovsky (gymnasium "Saburovo")
STORY. It opened 12 years ago as several Orthodox classes on the basis of a state school, then the building of the former kindergarten was transferred to the school, now its own school building is being built.

In addition to the school, the structure of the center includes an Orthodox kindergarten, a leisure center, a Sunday school and a branch of a music school.

CHILDREN. Priority for admission is given to children from nearby parishes, however, children from families who are just starting to become church members are also accepted into the school. Before admission, an interview is held first with the family, and then with the child. Parents have the opportunity to attend Sunday school, and homework according to the Law of God is given not only to the child.

Now there are 270 children in the school, there are all classes - from 1st to 11th.

CHURCH. There is no church of its own yet, but a church in the name of St. Joseph Volotsky. At the school itself, an akathist to St. Seraphim of Sarov (duty classes), prayers before and after each lesson. Once a week, a water-blessed prayer service is served. Spiritual disciplines in the program: The Law of God (1 hour per week), spiritual singing and Church Slavonic are added in elementary school. Confessor - Fr. Alexander Ivannikov (serves in the Moscow region, rector of the church under construction in the name of St. Joseph Volotsky).

EDUCATION. Competition - 3 people per place in the 1st class. Senior classes specialized (humanitarian, mathematical, natural sciences). Many graduates entered seminaries and PSTBI.

QUOTE. Director T.I. Leshcheva: "In matters of education, we attach great importance to obedience. The inability or unwillingness to obey in the future will lead to anarchy, and one who has reached a commanding position, but does not know obedience, will not be able to be a kind and skillful leader for others. The virtue of obedience most of all helps to reveal creative abilities person".

Traditional gymnasium
STORY. The gymnasium has officially existed since 1992, although already in the late 80s, the parishioners of the Nikolo-Kuznetsk Church actually created an Orthodox class in an ordinary secular school. The first release was in 1993. The gymnasium began its life in the premises of the music school. Chopin, is now located in a building specially built in 1998 in the center of Moscow.

CHILDREN. Children are accepted only from churched families, with priority given to parishioners of the Nikolo-Kuznetsk and St. Demetrius churches. Upon admission, a written recommendation is required from the confessor of the child or his parents (for babies who have not yet gone to confession). Now there are 393 students in the gymnasium, all classes (two in parallel). School uniform has been introduced since 2000.

CHURCH. Home church in the name of St. Peter, Metropolitan of Krutitsy. Gymnasium liturgies are held once a week, attendance is optional, but desirable. Gymnasium director Fr. Andrey Posternak: “We demand from students that they lead a good church life. But you can’t force them to take communion or go to church - this would be blasphemy, violence against a person’s free will. Rigid accounting here would be a kind of profanation, a formalization of church life that happened , for example, in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, when people knew the catechism well, but were completely non-church in spirit. An example of this are many of our revolutionaries who graduated from theological schools. We must try to make sure that children go to the lessons of the Law of God with joy, so that they pray sincerely, from the bottom of their hearts." The Law of God in all classes - 1 hour per week. Every day is a common prayer before the start of classes. The confessor of the gymnasium is the rector of the Nikolo-Kuznetsk Church, the rector of the PSTBI, Fr. Vladimir Vorobyov.

EDUCATION. Competition in the gymnasium - 2 people per place. There is no specialization, but physics and mathematics are taught at a high level. A special scholarship has even been established for those who are especially successful in these disciplines. Almost all graduates continued their studies at universities. About 23% of all graduates entered Moscow State University, about 22% - to PSTBI.

QUOTE. Gymnasium director Fr. Andrey Posternak: "Orthodox schools have changed and are now facing the same problems that ordinary schools are facing. This is due both to the onslaught from outside, and to the fact that Orthodox schools have passed the heroic stage of their formation, when children from very strong church families came, when these "The schools were kept on a religious impulse. Enthusiasm quickly passes. And schools are moving into a new state, when professionalism of personnel and spiritual renewal of the school are required."

St. Vladimir General Education Orthodox School
STORY. The school was founded on the initiative of the parishioners of St. Vladimir in the Old Gardens in 1991. For about seven years, it has had all classes - from 1st to 11th. It is located in the premises that once belonged to the Ivanovo Monastery. The senior and junior schools have separate buildings connected by a common courtyard.

CHILDREN. The school was created for the children of parishioners, but, according to its spiritual father, Fr. Alexei Uminsky, "long ago outgrew the parish." Only churched children are accepted (a written recommendation of the family confessor is needed, plus an interview is conducted with the school confessor). 125 students, one class per parallel.

CHURCH. There is no house church, but the school is located a stone's throw from the church of St. Vladimir in Starye Sady. The day at school begins with a common prayer, in high school - a prayer before each lesson. From the charter: "The leadership of the gymnasium does not specifically monitor whether all the gymnasium students attend the temple. But on those days when the holiday coincides with the school day, all the gymnasium students, teachers, and, if possible, parents confess and take communion in the church of St. Vladimir."

Twice a year, during Christmas and Great Lent, all children go to confession with the confessor of the gymnasium. From the 1st to the 11th grades the Law of God is taught (1 hour per week, in the 10th and 11th grades - 2 hours per week).

EDUCATION. Those wishing to enter the first grade are usually 2-3 times more than there are places in the school. There is no specialization. Admission to universities is close to 100%: Moscow State University, Moscow Aviation Institute, Pedagogical University, Patrice Lumumba University, Energy and other Moscow universities.

QUOTE. Director M.L. Kondyurina: "Any manifestation of a child's life - relationships with comrades, with parents, with teachers, attitude to school, to study - all this is a manifestation of his spiritual dispensation. Naturally, any deviation of a child from a normal, Christian spiritual life affects everything - in study ", in relations with comrades. We have few children, and they are all in sight. Any irregularities - rivalry, envy, jealousy, greed, vanity - are visible and require our reaction. All these irregularities, again, are from the realm of sin, a wrong arrangement. If us an Orthodox school - how can we pass by this?"

Classical gymnasium at the Greek-Latin cabinet
STORY. This gymnasium was not created as a parochial school. In the early 1990s, courses of ancient languages ​​were organized by the scientific and educational organization "Greco-Latin Cabinet", from where in 1993 children were enrolled in a classical gymnasium. The first release was in 1999. Initially, children from the fifth grade were admitted to the gymnasium, there was no primary education. The elementary school was established in 1999.

At first, the gymnasium operated at the Spasskaya Church of the Zaikonospassky Monastery, where the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy was once located, and now it occupies the building of a former kindergarten not far from the Novodevichy Convent.

CHILDREN. Now there are 131 students here, there are all classes (one class per parallel). They accept not only churched children, but also those whose parents want to join the Orthodox faith. Director E.F. Shichalina: "There are children who were baptized while studying at our school."

Of all the schools we visited, this is the only one where girls are allowed to wear trousers.

CHURCH. The house church in the name of the Three Hierarchs, assigned to the church of the prophet Elijah (Ordinary), was consecrated in 2000. Participation in worship for children is not required. Mandatory presence at common prayer services at the beginning or end of the teaching. They pray before and after the meal, as well as before and after the lesson of the Law of God. As for the task of education in the faith, the director of the school, E.F. Shichalina formulates it this way: “We set the task of churching, accustoming children to the church. And as for education, faith, in my opinion, is not brought up, faith is sent by the Lord. I would say this: we have a school developing in the direction of the Orthodox school " . For the study of the Law of God, 1 hour per week is allocated for all 11 years. From the 1st to the 5th grades, schoolchildren must attend the classes of the Orthodox everyday choir. Optionally, you can practice church singing in Greek.

EDUCATION. Competition - 2-3 people per place.

The school is built on the model of a pre-revolutionary classical gymnasium: the teaching of ancient languages ​​(Latin and Ancient Greek) in a large volume, plus strong mathematics. Teaching new languages: English or French as a first language, student's choice of a second language: French, German or English.

All graduates entered universities: Moscow State University (Physics Faculty, Faculty of Biology, Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Geography, History, Philology and Economics), Russian State University for the Humanities, MGIMO, Moscow Institute of Architecture and other universities.

QUOTE. Director E.F. Shichalina: "To discuss with children the phenomena and problems of modern life, we often use ancient texts. There is a lot of wisdom in ancient texts written in Latin and Greek. In Aesop's fables, for example, in the conversations of Socrates. Everything that Socrates discussed turns out to be very relevant in our life".
Orthodox comprehensive schools in Moscow
By publishing the list, we would like to note that this is only a reference, and not advisory information. Of course, parents should choose the school for their child with all the attention and responsibility.

I was born into an Orthodox family. I am 33 years old, and my school childhood was spent under the Soviet regime. I have something to compare the current situation in school education. Was school difficult for us Orthodox children? Perhaps it was. You can even say that some of us became little confessors of the faith: we had to answer ironic (at best) questions from classmates and teachers, they tried to force us to take off our crosses in physical education classes. It must be said that not all of us passed these tests equally: I know examples when 7-year-old children openly and proudly professed their faith, but there are also cases when my peers were shy, complexed, and even renounced. But, looking back at my childhood, I see one common and main problem for us: we were forced to live in two earthly worlds. One world "home": mom, dad, brothers, Church, father. The other is "school" (after all, school life takes up almost half of a student's time): classmates, political information, the detachment's council. And between these worlds - the abyss, through which we stepped all childhood.
Someone will say: well, now, tea, not the Soviet government, no one is persecuting the Orthodox. This is a moot point, given the army of Pokémon, Spider-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Shreks and "just cute little vampires" who, along with children from an unchurched society, come to school. In my childhood, though they asked, wide-eyed: "Are you sure, ve-ru-yu-schi-e ?!" - but there were fewer vampires, and a distant rumor about drugs reached our ears only in the last classes. And now everything is different. And it turns out that the abyss between the worlds still remains.

My children have the opportunity to live in a holistic, harmonious world. What I mean? Any system of education involves a system of freedoms and prohibitions. So, when I send my children to an Orthodox school, I know that the system of freedoms and prohibitions there is the same as in my home (not to be confused with the “home atmosphere” that other gymnasiums boast of!). It is the freedom to pray with classmates and teachers before class. Freedom to go on the day of the Angel not to school, but to the temple. The freedom not to feel discomfort from one's Orthodoxy. It is a ban on watching TV. The prohibition to bring obscene magazines. Prohibition to swear. As long as the system of freedoms and prohibitions in my house and in my school is the same, I prefer the Orthodox school.

Fedor Kotrelev, father of four

Julia Semenova

Which school to choose for your children? There is a choice today. Private and public schools offer in-depth study of any subjects, a variety of teaching methods, an individual approach to children, circles after school and much more. But believing parents always ask themselves the question: maybe their children will be better off in an Orthodox school?

Teaching is a big problem

It is unlikely that it will be possible to unequivocally answer this question: each of us has very different children, and there cannot be one recipe for everyone. What is good or acceptable for one child may not be suitable for another. Therefore, we, parents, will still have to decide on our own: to which particular school, Orthodox or ordinary, it is better to take our son or daughter. I will only share my thoughts, which were born as a result of numerous attempts to find a suitable educational institution for my daughter. So, until we transferred our daughter to an Orthodox gymnasium, her relationship with the school was not easy. Wherever she studied - and there were three schools in just five and a half years - there were so many problems in teaching in each of them that she had to look for another educational institution.

In the prestigious gymnasium for our city, my daughter had a hard time already in the first grade. She did not succeed in studying for one five, namely, the teacher respected and valued the children for her academic achievements. To those who did not get into excellent students, she, without stinting, put triples and deuces every day, than day by day she killed the desire to learn. The principle of its work, by the way, quite common in a modern school, was simple - to demand more. And how these requirements will be met is the concern of students and their parents. Then it became clear why most of our acquaintances use the services of tutors already in elementary school. Apparently, those who argue that a child should be led to the first grade, first of all, to a good teacher, regardless of the status of the school.

The next school was private, it was very good, but for us this "good" did not last long. In contrast to the system of education common in most schools, which can be conditionally called punitive (when every mistake is followed by punishment), here preference was given to encouragement. Children for any achievement, even a small one, were praised and given prizes. In elementary grades, this approach justified itself. But gradually the creative approach of teachers came to naught. When it became clear that there was no reason to study further in a private school, we transferred our daughter to an ordinary comprehensive school in the city center, not far from home. Problems rained down in the sixth grade.

It turned out that modern children begin to imitate adults very early. Moreover, they copy, as a rule, what is a sin for an Orthodox person. Against the background of the absence of any educational system and clear restrictions in the modern school, this trend is becoming a disaster in our world.

So, in our family, the decision gradually matured to transfer the child to an Orthodox educational institution, which we did.

In a properly colored world

What are the obvious advantages of studying in an Orthodox school?

The most important thing, in my opinion, is that in an Orthodox educational institution the child finds himself in the correct coordinate system - in the world of Christian values ​​and correctly built landmarks. Everything in his life immediately gets upside down, if before that it was the other way around.

In an Orthodox school, children at least strive to study well and treat their studies responsibly. To this they are pushed by the attitude of teachers, the general atmosphere prevailing in the educational institution. In other schools, students often form fundamentally different priorities - fashionable clothes, expensive phones, entertainment, romantic relationships. Many schoolchildren gradually and completely forget why they sit at a desk. The consequence of this is absenteeism, poor academic performance and an absolutely indifferent attitude to their own successes (or rather, their absence) in their studies. So, in the daughter's class, by the sixth year of study, there were simply no drummers left: at the age of twelve, studying well is no longer fashionable.

Another undoubted plus of studying in an Orthodox school is that children are still brought up, in any case, they try to do it. Otherwise, probably, it cannot be - then the status of an Orthodox educational institution will lose its meaning. It is clear that upbringing is not an easy process, and the result can be expected only by combining the efforts of parents and teachers. But the very understanding that a good student must also be a good person exists in the team of teachers, the same attitude towards themselves is formed in children. In an ordinary school, the entire educational process, as a rule, comes down to maintaining at least some semblance of discipline in the school. And what kind of upbringing can we talk about when all ideas about moral standards are blurred in society ...

What is also important: the Orthodox environment will save the child from that negative influence from the outside, which cannot be avoided in an ordinary school. For clarity, I will give just one example. It was difficult to explain to my daughter that you should not go to Halloween and dress up accordingly. Moreover, the teacher ordered everyone to come. But everything is saturated with such, it would seem, trifles: study, extracurricular activities, communication between children. And in an atmosphere of values ​​that are alien to an Orthodox (and simply sane) person, a child, unfortunately, develops a worldview, a taste. It is very important for a child's personality, in the circle of people with what life priorities, aesthetic predilections, it will develop. One can, of course, argue against this opinion about the dominant role of the family in education. But still, a child spends at least half a day in an educational institution, and it is still wrong to underestimate the influence of the school environment. It is here that he will acquire communication skills with peers, here his habit will be formed to act one way or another in certain situations. Among classmates, students of his school, a teenager will look for authorities, figures to follow. This is natural, as children learn something, grow up. It is only important that the authorities were real.

Of course, the child should have his own opinion, and he should be able to act in accordance with Christian values. But still, these are requirements for an already formed personality. It is very difficult to oppose oneself to the whole class, it is a heavy burden for children's shoulders.

In addition, children are often simply not able to distinguish white from black. And in our family, at some point, all life turned into an endless struggle with harmful influences. But the forces thrown into this "war" can be better spent. A joint discussion of the books read, walks is still better than, for example, constant talk about the fact that it is impossible not to prepare lessons every day simply because "no one in the class teaches them."

In my opinion, it is the opportunity to live in accordance with the church calendar that colors the life of a child in the right tone - to fast, to attend festive services on weekdays. All this is real only in an Orthodox educational institution, in an ordinary school - it is fraught with great difficulties.

Internal comfort

It is worth saying that an Orthodox child is much more comfortable among believing children, just like any person, it is more pleasant to be among like-minded people. And here you can remember about a very simple technique - to try on someone else's life for yourself. So we, adults, would like to spend many years next to people who not only do not share the values ​​and beliefs that are very important for us, but often do not even suspect their existence? Meanwhile, school years are a long period of life, very important. Is it worth it all this time to live in tension, trying to somehow adapt to an alien atmosphere?

Having chosen an Orthodox gymnasium for our daughter, we have never regretted it yet. There was a feeling that our girl was finally in her place.

Of course, if a child needs in-depth knowledge in certain subjects, then I admit that it is better to get them in a specialized educational institution. Although, if possible, in high school, you can always use the services of tutors to prepare for entering a university. In the meantime, in my opinion, it is much more important to give the child basic knowledge and at the same time orient him correctly, instill elementary ideas about what is good and what is bad, what you need to strive for in life, and what is better to run from like from fire. To do this, it is important that he learns in an environment appropriate to these goals. And I really want the children to become imbued with the life of the Church during the years of study (and for this they also have an additional opportunity - the boys serve the altar, the girls sing on the kliros) and truly love her.

Wherever our children are educated by our choice, we as parents always have the opportunity to raise them as Christians. But in some circumstances it is more difficult to do, and in others a little easier. And an Orthodox educational institution, in my opinion, is a very good way to open the vast world of Orthodoxy for a child and, at the same time, save yourself and him from unnecessary difficulties.

Where can a child get a good secondary education today? Are there any advantages for Orthodox schools and boarding schools over general education ones? Is there a need to teach the Law of God in schools and how should it be taught? These and other questions of Pravda.Ru were answered by the mother of eleven children, candidate of political sciences, member of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church, chairman of the board of the Orthodox Charitable Foundation I Want to Believe, coordinator of the Orthodox Product project, author and host of programs on the Orthodox radio station Radonezh Yulia Pavlyuchenkova.

- Religious worldview, it seems to me, can be Orthodox, for someone Muslim, maybe Jewish, but this is a Domostroy approach to the family. That is, the family is a small temple, a small church. In a family, in some way, parents not only reproduced, reproduced themselves, but also laid something in their children - they grow like flowers grow in a garden, and you are responsible for them before the Lord.

- I'll focus. In order for the trees to grow well, you need to put trellises, tie their branches to the strings on these trellises so that they grow well and bear good fruit, you need to graft them, you need to look after the garden very seriously and carefully, and this is often a very painful operation for plants. .

- One of the journalists said that education is always violence against a natural elemental personality, because it is in some way an embodiment in an image. Education is from the word "image" and you are responsible for it.

- Today's school does not continue to educate, the school a few years ago abandoned the functions of education and headed for education. Today's school is a place where children spend time, which is very convenient for busy parents, where children learn something, often it is not very clear what. Because you and I studied completely different things and in completely different years, and there were other classes.

I have always tried to ensure that all my children study in Orthodox schools. I really appreciate, I really love all those schools with which life has crossed, the fate of our family is Pleskov, this is the school at the St. "Alekseevskaya Hermitage" with Father Peter, God grant him health, patience, many years.

And all these schools are schools that enriched me, which gave me an opportunity, which gave me a shoulder, and in which my children studied at different times. I know with horror what is happening in general education schools, although there are good schools, there are schools that have very high-quality teachers, but we must remember that the kingdom of heaven is earned, and do not expect that you will even bring your child to an Orthodox school, and in 10-11 years they will give you an angel. It won't.

No matter how wonderful the school may be, do not write off the influence of parents and family. And, probably, it is wrong to expect from a school that by sending a child there for upbringing, because a child often spends at school five days a week from morning to evening, then we will get a person who will live in Orthodox traditions, who will support these Orthodox traditions, pass them on.

In general, I am a supporter of the formation of closed schools, that is, boarding schools. I'll explain why. If we are talking about the transfer of traditions, if we are talking about the quality of education, then immersion in educational and project activities, which are now relevant and interesting just in schools, is possible with a full load of the child. That is, I am in favor of at least a full-time school, so that there are circles, so that there is semantic content for the child, because this is how you can convey information and qualitatively check its comprehensibility.

- It looks like a cadet corps, if I understand correctly.

— To some extent, yes. It is enough that a child over the age of 12 will appear at home on Saturday-Sunday, participate in worship with their parents and family. In my opinion, boys from the age of 11-12 are certainly able to learn, to receive science in this format.

- L The liberal comrades attacked our new Minister of Education, Olga Vasilyeva, with their fists for the two imperatives she gave in her first speech, in an open lecture. Firstly, she advocated rehabilitating what was good in Soviet times, and not indiscriminately judging everything, she recalled that patriotism as such appeared in general in Soviet times. And secondly, she emphasized Orthodox education at school, that it is necessary as a spirit. How would you comment on this?

- I consider the Soviet period an excellent period in our history: there were pioneer organizations, and Komsomol organizations, and the participation of pioneers in social problems, and lightning, and campaigns, and many things that were in pioneer organizations. I know that many will say, it was even earlier, with the scouts, but we are born in the USSR, and one cannot say that this childhood was bad. It is not true. My childhood was great. And today I am a product of the USSR, so to speak, because it was the pioneer organization that taught and accustomed me to responsibility, to seriousness. It is clear that parents and everything else played a role, but so did the pioneer organization.

– Now, having already a very difficult and extensive experience in relations with the system of the Ministry of Education, I will say that I have learned to pass on the Orthodox tradition to children, both mine and others, not only through teaching the Law of God. I know that a huge number of subjects, for example, the Russian language, natural history, natural science, chemistry, physics, geography, can be used to talk about God, because there are six days, because there is the creation of the world, and we can together with children every day to observe a huge number of phenomena, a huge number of natural moments that confirm every day, every moment the presence of God in our history, in our life.

The question is what is required of people capable of teaching the Law of God. The way it is done today does not always and everywhere correspond to the correct, from my point of view, teaching. The question is who will teach? The question is, what values ​​will this teacher carry, will he share the values ​​himself, or will it make no difference for him whether he reprimands the Law of God or reprimands the foundations of some other religion? Will this woman, most often a teacher we have today a woman, share the positions that Orthodox Christianity promotes?

I know parents who refused to teach their children the Law of God in school, knowing who would teach. I understand that they take full responsibility for themselves, for their families. Thank God, these are Orthodox, strong, good families, but we are talking about the total number of people. I will support such an undertaking, because we do not know where the child will meet God, we cannot say what place the Lord will choose for the first meeting, and I will admit that it is something told, even if not by an ideal teacher, that will interest the child and sow a grain of Orthodoxy in his heart.

Prepared for publication by Maria Snytkova

Interviewed by Alexander Artamonov

"Comprehensive schools in Russia cause

Students from wealthy families are uncomfortable at the same desk with difficult teenagers

The issue of introducing compulsory lessons in religion is a matter of fierce controversy. Many believe that education should be secular, and to immerse in the Law of God, one should attend Sunday schools or send the child to an Orthodox educational institution.

More and more Orthodox schools are opening in the capital - about 30 in total. What these institutions are, how, what and who they teach in our time, the MK correspondent found out.

“We simply ran away from an Orthodox school to an ordinary district school,” says Olga, mother of a 6th grader. - Our whole family is deeply religious people, which is why we decided to send the child to an Orthodox educational institution. Perhaps we were unlucky, but it was simply impossible to get a normal education in our school. Among the students in the class there were a lot of difficult teenagers who literally disrupted the lessons, and the teachers in the main subjects were very weak, mathematicians were generally invited to lead the church watchman. Now we study in a regular school and attend Sunday school, in my opinion, this is better than sending the child to an Orthodox institution and being left without a normal secondary education.

At the moment, all Orthodox schools in Moscow are private educational institutions. If the school is accredited, then it must receive funding from the state. But for Orthodox schools, the old standards still apply. Despite the fact that in 2012 a new version of the Federal Law “On Education” came into effect, which guarantees budget funding for private preschool, primary and secondary educational institutions, Moscow officials are in no hurry to allocate additional subsidies to support Orthodox schools.

“Today, the amount of funding for Orthodox schools is minimal compared to state schools,” explains Father Dimitry Konyukhov, director of the Orthodox school in Biryulyovo. “Moreover, funds for repairs, utilities and the purchase of equipment are not allocated at all. At the same time, Orthodox schools fully comply with the state order, and funding should be allocated to the student, regardless of the organizational and legal form of the school in which he studies. Moreover, many children from low-income families, orphans and the disabled study in Orthodox schools. But in reality, it turns out that if the school does not have a specific benefactor, then its financial situation is extremely constrained.

At the moment, the Moscow Department of Education annually allocates about 123,000 rubles for each student in an ordinary public school, and about 60,000 rubles per student in an Orthodox educational institution. A number of Orthodox schools also receive part of the money from donations from parents, but in most cases these amounts are not large. In addition to the lack of funding, the work of the Orthodox school is also complicated by the special contingent of children studying in them. Almost half of the students in Orthodox schools are children whose education in ordinary schools is undesirable for various reasons. Orthodox schools have cooperation agreements with orphanages and juvenile shelters. You have to work with difficult children according to individual plans, they often disrupt lessons and prevent more successful students from learning.

“Indeed, there is a tendency to send children to Orthodox schools for whom education in public schools is undesirable for one reason or another,” explains Konyukhov. - The number of such children can sometimes reach half of the total number of students. In our schools, the class size is less - and there is an opportunity to study with such students according to individual plans, although ideally the goal is to bring them to the general level in order to successfully pass the final certification. Many Orthodox schools have cooperation agreements with orphanages and juvenile shelters. It is obvious that the level of training of such children is lower than that of children from complete families. According to Dimitry Konyukhov, despite various difficulties and problems, the level of teaching and preparation of students in Orthodox schools has been increasing in recent years.

“Orthodox schools strive not only to meet state standards, but also to be at the forefront of the pedagogical process,” Father Dimitry explains. “Schools are trying to hire high-quality experienced teachers, but due to lack of funding, they cannot always offer them a high level of wages. In terms of education, Orthodox schools differ in their approach to teaching a number of subjects. For example, in biology lessons, we remind children about the creation of the world by God, and show other points of view and concepts as hypotheses, which they are. Humanitarian disciplines are taught in more depth: history, literature. In our educational institution, along with Church Slavonic, Greek, and English, we have been studying Chinese in depth for several years. In addition, educational work is carried out with students in Orthodox schools. The goal is not just to fill children with knowledge, but to educate the human personality, which is immortal and indestructible. As a result of learning, children should ask themselves the main question: “Why do I live?” - and, of course, answer it, that is, students should think about the meaning of their lives.

However, not all Orthodox schools are so rosy. Some of these establishments are a real sharashkin office under the guise of Orthodoxy.

“Orthodox schools in the capital are very different, for example, I came across an institution that was a natural sharaga under the guise of Orthodoxy,” says Svetlana Fefilaktova, who worked as a teacher of Russian and literature in one of the Orthodox schools in the south of Moscow. - By and large, our school resembled a correctional institution because of the large number of difficult students. With faith, the situation at the school was also strange, I know that many high school students of this institution preached the teachings of Krishna. Yes, and the priest who led the school, many accused of hypocrisy and pride. I was almost immediately asked to work at the school as the head teacher, although I did not have any experience in such activities. Fortunately, at the moment this school has been closed, but in general, parents need to be very careful in choosing an educational institution if they want to send their child to an Orthodox school.

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