Home – Home – Jornals – "Philosophy of Education" 2017 number 1

The article considers the problem of education as the personality formation, which presupposes attainment of the person as personality, attainment and comprehension of one’s own spiritual tradition, and, finally, finding of the person as a part of the people and nation. Education needs to return to its initial meaning: ascension of the person to the Image, likening of the person to God-Creator through comprehension of the spiritual foundations of domestic culture and civilization. This circumstance demands comprehension of domestic educational tradition as an ontological phenomenon. The authenticity of tradition has to be determined by the vitality in spiritual sense. The Orthodox spirituality is ontological in its essence. The need of return of education to Christ-centeredness is postulated today also in the works of the famous European philosophers and theologians (H. Yannaras, A. Milano, J. (Panteleymon) Manussakis, T. Shpidlik, etc.).The education system assumes constant interrelation of the teacher and pupil. The meaning of the designated interrelation is discovered in the Russian spiritual tradition which is going back to patristical heritage and continuing in the Russian religious philosophy. In the article, the attention is paid to the concept of integral personality, having complete mind and capable to live-cognition: unseparable perception of life, knowledge and faith. The integration of the mature persons is shown in the nation, culture, civilization; therefore, the problem of personality formation inevitably brings us to the problem of sobornost. Today Russia urgently needs the appearance of the nationally focused teacher. In the center of education is the personality (the teacher, the pupil), the process of education is the formation of the personality (both the pupil and the teacher). The teacher is introduced to eternity already in empirism, directly in his/her work, in its results, in contemplation and action; here is the main evidence of ontological character of the tradition, its rootedness in the life itself. As long as the tradition is alive, teacher's work and education in general can neither depreciate nor become meaningless. At the heart of the Orthodox educational practice is love to the child (as the initial principle and the means of educational influence). The domestic tradition of education includes the spiritual methodology forming a way of thinking and, finally, self-realization of the personality in being. Formation of the integral person (personality) has to become the meaning and purpose of education. As a result of personality formation, there takes place attainment and realization by the person of his/her being in Being.