Проблема сиротства в России.(на англ. языке)

Introduction
§ 1. Orphanage as a social problem
§ 2. Special features of development of orphan children
§ 3. Educational system of children’s home
Conclusion
List of sources

Проблема сиротства в России.(на англ. языке)

In conditions of continuing instability of socio-economic, political life of the country the number of children, who got into extremely difficult situation, continue increasing. Among them are socially disadapted children and young criminals, children-invalids, refugee children, forced migrants, children who live in unfavorable ecologic condition.
The most significant feature of recent years has become the dramatic growth of social orphanage, emergence of its new characteristics. The qualitative new phenomenon emerged – so called “concealed” social orphanage, which is spreading under the influence of deterioration of life conditions of many families, decline of moral principles of family, that cause changes in attitude toward children, right up to their exclusion from family, homelessness of huge number of children and teenagers.
§ 2. Special features of development of orphan children
The forms of placement of orphan children in our country can be divided into 4 categories: family (guardianship, tutelage, adoption); state (children’s homes, board schools of different type); state-social, which combine elements of family bringing up with preservation of some tutelary obligations of state (foster homes, (family children’s homes), patronage families, children communities, orphan’s homes, social hotels); non-state (private, church children’s homes, orphan’s homes etc.).
Children’s home is a state custodial educational institution for children from infantile age to 18 who have no parents. There are children’s homes of early, preschool, school and combined type.
All researches consider the situation when child is in children’s home to be stressful and tragic situation, which leaves a deep trace in child’s destiny. The attitude toward orphans in most works is determined by idea of initial “deficiency” of child, who is deprived of extremely important component of normal growth and development – the complete parent family.
In works of Russian and foreign psychologists it is shown, that in conditions of children’s board school, unlike the conditions of family bringing up, the totally different type of child’s personality is forming7.
The following Russian scientists devoted their works to the special features of orphans’ personality development: L.I. Bozhovich, I.V. Dubrovina, M.I. Lisina, V.S. Mukhina, A.M. Prikhozhan, E.A. Strebeleva, N.N. Tolstyh. The ecommon idea of these scientists is the idea of “deficiency” of child’s development resulted from different kinds of deprivation. In their works they conclude the results of long-term researches, conducted by authors in children’s homes and boarding schools of different types.
During the research of intellectual development of pupils the following features were discovered: the poorly formed world view; increasingly situational character of thinking; decrease of verbal-logical thinking. The most difficulties and deviations from normal personality development is observed by all researches in the emotional and volitional sphere. These deviations are manifesting by increased anxiety, emotional tension, psychical tiredness, emotional stress, heightened sensibility to the obstacles of different kind, absence of readiness to overcome the difficulties, conformism, decreased need for achievements and success, heightened aggressiveness, distrustfulness, irascibility, intemperance, extreme impulsive activity, emotional coldness, restraint, increase of restraint, depression, diffidence, decrease of self-organization, purposefulness, insufficient development of independence, inadequate self-estimation. The deficiency of emotional life in children’s institutions is the cause why such children have different psychic disorders in older age and break of social adaptation: for ones it is a tendency toward decrease of activity, which leads to apathy bigger interest in things rather than in people, and, for others – hyperactivity with asocial and criminal activity; in many cases they observe a tendency toward provoking behavior in public in order to attract attention in combination with inability to create lasting emotional affections8.
The researches of communications sphere, conducted by academician V.S. Mukhina, showed that a child who is growing in conditions of boarding school, as rule doesn’t develop the skills of productive communication. Aloofness, break of emotional contacts with surrounding people right up to complete absence of tendency to cooperate, absence of communication skills are not all possible deviations in development. Characterizing business contacts between children and adults, V.S. Mukhina points out that they emerge late and proceed in primitive form. Children do not possess activity in cooperation, longing and ability to do something with adults. Contacts with coevals are also poor in content and in emotional aspect. Orphan children are not able to play on their own. The little number of children has permanent affection toward coevals.
V.S. Mukhina draws our attention to the serious distortions of orphan children’s self-consciousness structure. The results of these distortions are negative attitude to one’s own personality; impossibility of comparison of present oneself with past of future oneself; problems of sexual identification that appear in vague and perverted notion of future sexual role, in difficult formation of sexual role models and behaviour stereotypes. Realization of claims on recognition often tales place through physical strength between coevals and sometimes through asocial forms of behaviour.
Also scientists pay attention to the serious problems of moral development of inmates of Children's Homes, which show up in thefts, irresponsibility, suppression and insulting of weaker ones, decrease of empathy, and in general insufficient understanding or rejection of moral norms, rules and restrictions.
Among most actual problems of development of children’s homes’ inmates scientists name difficulties of socialization. L.V. Baiborodova, L.G. Zhedunova, O.N. Posysoev, M.I. Rozhkov determine the difficulty of socialization as “a complex of difficulties a child face while mastering one or another social role”9. They see the reasons in “inconsistency between requirements to the child in the process of his interrelations with the society and readiness of child to these relations”. The social situation of child’s development in children’s home in absence of normal contacts (family, friends, neighbors) leads to the situation, when the notion of role is created on the basis of contradictory information, which orphan child receives from different sources. As a result very often the wrong notions of social roes are forming and the wrong concept of own social role as an orphan is created. This role is often being realized by person during all his or her life. The difficulties of socialization result in low level of social adaptation, autonomism, social activity, social competency of children’s homes’ inmates, and maturity of social values.
Negative tendencies in personality development of children’s home’s inmates remain in all age group and in older age group these reasons manifest themselves by decrease of aptitude for many kinds of professional activity, especially connected with intellectual activity and social interactions, and by inability to create and maintain the family.
The reasons, determining negative features in children’s home’s inmates’ development can be characterized as following10:
Wrong organization of communication between adults and children, invalidity of its forms that prevail in children’s establishments, especially in children’s homes and preschool children’s homes;
Variability, often change of adults that bring up children;
Insufficient work in game forming, especially in preschool children ‘s homes;
Poverty of specific sensual experience of children, resulted from extreme contraction of surrounding environment;
Insufficient psychological and pedagogic preparation of teachers in children’s homes, their indifferent attitude toward children;
Lack of bringing up programs and education that do not compensate the development defects, caused by absence of family;
Undifferentiated approach to children in the process of bringing them up and teaching them: placement of children with different degree of delays in psychic development into one group.
In view of aforesaid problems in orphan children’s development the children’s homes of all kinds must include the following essential functions in addition to development, education and bringing up: correction, rehabilitation, adaptation, socialization of pupils.
§ 3. Educational system of children’s home
Despite of growing number of works devoted to the school educational systems, there are still no works concerning educational systems of children’s homes. This problem becomes not only scientifically significant, but also socially significant today, when the number of orphan children in our country is continuously growing.
Educational system of children’s homes, as that of school, performs a number of important functions11, but these functions has a specific character in conditions of boarding schools, and some of them become essential:
Developing function – in conditions of children’s homes this function is aimed at creation of conditions for overall development of pupils, at “their harmonious development” (L.N. Tolstoy), which they were deprived of in disadapted families, at stimulating positive changes in their personal development, support of processes of disclosure and self-expression of their abilities;
Compensatory function – provides the conditions in the children’s homes for compensation of consequences of various deprivations the pupils experienced from birth, and compensation of pedagogic neglect as well;
Protective function – aimed at neutralization of negative effects of disadapted families and factors of surroundings on child’s personality and child’s development, at increase of level of pupils social protection in conditions of boarding schools, in extreme conditions of disorganization and destructive tendencies in society;
Corrective function – pedagogically and psychologically purposeful correction of development, behaviour, communications of pupil, who experienced different types of deprivations, in order to influence positively on the personality development;
Regulatory function – connected with ordering of pedagogic processes and their influence on personality development of pupil, who has serious problems in personal development, on development of children’s and adults’ collective.
So, in view of special features of pupils’ personal development and establishment’s development in general, at the first stage in definition of objectives comes the creation of conditions for liquidation of deprivations consequences.
Educational system includes all activities of children’s home: children’s out-of-school cognitive activity, pupils’ activity according to their interests, game activity, labour activity, activity regarding development of children’s self-government and other types of activity. Not all these activities are equally important for inmates of children’s homes and can become systemically important.
The main types of activity in children’s home must be directed toward positive development of a child, i.e. development of his intelligence, morality, emotional and volitional development, including development of independence and physical development. Following types of activity play an essential role in this process: cognitive, activity according to the interests, labour and game activity12.
Cognitive activity has essential meaning for orphan children, who have serious problems in development of cognitive sphere. The main role in overall development of personality is played by self-cognition (cognition of one’s psychophysical abilities, special features of character, style and tactics of his/her own life), cognition and acceptance of surrounding world; positive attitude (belief that surrounding world is purposeful, harmonious, humane).
Activity according to interests: for children most of whom has an obstacle in the form of unsuccessful studies during the socialization process (it becomes the serious obstacle in child’s way toward communication with other children), the activity according the interests gives the possibility to self-affirmation, self-development in other spheres. This activity is especially important in juvenile and pre-juvenile age. Activity according to the interests for orphan children is the way of entering the world, the social relations through useful activity? Through socially acceptable forms of self-affirmation.
Labour activity: labour is the most important means of socialization for inmates of children’s homes. So the activity in children’s home must be organized in such a way that the pupils master skills in different spheres of activity: beginning with self-service and finishing with entrepreneur’s activity. The special role in mastering the labour skills is played by professional orientation and professional training of pupils – teenagers, who leave the children’s home, acquirement of one or more professions. It will help them to adapt quicker to the life outside the children’s home, increase their self-reliance.
Game activity: the most important means of developing pupils. It is especially important for children of school age and pre-school age. Their life was deprived of games and normal development. Orphan children are from the category of children, who didn’t play enough in their childhood. Orphan children almost do not know how to play. The task of psychologists and teachers of children’s homes.
An inmate of children’s home as a subject of educational system possesses a number of special features of personality development. Concepts and models of educational systems, educational programs, which are being developed in boarding schools, must take into account the specific character of these children’s personality development and must be oriented at solving their problems.
Unfortunately, the typical communication style in children’s homes is an authoritarian style on the level adult-to-child and, consequently, on the level child-to-child too. That’s why while creating humanistic educational system it is extremely important to establish really humanistic relations, teacher should address to the child’s personality, child’s inner life (humanistic personal approach). Relations in such institutions must be formed as family relations on the basis of love, care and mutual understanding. And as in a god family children must feel that hey are loved and protected.
Unlike the school the children’s home is the institution of closed type. That’s why the educational system is closed, its links with outer world are instable and short-lived. So while forming humanistic educational system of children’s home the following task should be set: the system must be made more open, the environment of pupils should be extended, the system must be integrated into the external environment and permanent and tight contacts with society should be established.
Let us consider the main stages of creating and realizing the individual-oriented programs of pupils’ personality development. Psychological analysis of problems and features of pupils’ personality development shows that the most important and basic problems are the disorders of emotional and volitional sphere, emotional condition and social adaptation13.