A child in an orphanage. How do children live in orphanages? Children from the orphanage in the school

The theme of "a child in an orphanage" is very difficult and requires the most serious attention. The problem is often not fully understood by society. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of orphanages in our country every year more and more. Statistics say that the number of street children in Russia now reaches two million. And the number of inmates of orphanages is increasing by about 170,000 people a year.

Only in the last decade there have been three times as many such institutions as before. Not only actual orphans live in them, but also small invalids abandoned by parents, selected from alcoholics, drug addicts and convicts. There are special closed institutions for those who were born with congenital malformations, or a form such as a boarding school for mentally retarded children. The conditions of life and content are not advertised there, and society prefers to close their eyes to it.

How children live in orphanages

What is happening in such a closed space, according to eyewitness accounts, little resembles normal human conditions. Organizations, sponsors and simply caring people are trying to do everything in their power to help such children. They collect money, finance trips, organize charity concerts, purchase furniture and household appliances for orphanages. But all these, undoubtedly, good deeds are aimed at improving the external conditions for the existence of orphans.

Meanwhile, the problem of children in orphanages is much more serious, deeper, and lies in the fact that by creating human conditions for such pupils, feeding, heating and washing, we will not solve the main problems - lack of love and personal individual communication with mother and others Relatives, close people.

State education - guarantees and problems

Solve this problem only money is impossible. As you know, the children left without parents in our country fall under the custody of the state. In Russia, the form of education for orphans mainly exists in the form of state large orphanages, each of which is designed for a number of people living from 100 to 200. The advantage of the state security system is, mainly, in social guarantees - obtaining their own housing after reaching the age of majority, Education and so on. This is a definite plus. But if we talk about the cause of upbringing, then, by and large, the state can not do it.

The inexorable statistics testifies - no more than a tenth of graduates of orphanages become adults, find themselves a worthy place in the society and lead a normal life. Almost half (about 40%) become alcoholics and drug addicts, as many commit crimes, and about 10% of graduates attempt suicide. Why such terrible statistics? It seems that the whole matter is in serious flaws in the system of state education of orphans.

Children's home - the age of children and the transition through the chain

Such a system is built on the principle of a conveyor. If the kid was left without parents, he was destined to travel along the chain, moving consistently to a number of institutions. Until three or four years, small orphans are kept in the children's homes, then they are sent to an orphanage, and upon reaching the age of seven, the boarding school becomes the place of permanent residence of the pupil. This institution differs from the orphanage in the presence of its own educational institution.

In the latter, too, there is often a division into a junior school and a senior class. Both of them have their teachers and educators, they are located in different buildings. As a result, during the life of orphanage children at least three or four times changing teams, educators and peers. They get used to the fact that the surrounding adults - a temporary phenomenon, and soon there will be others.

According to the staff standards for 10 children there is only one educational rate, in the summer - one person for 15 children. Of course, there is no real supervision or attention given to the child in the orphanage.

About everyday life

Another problem and characteristic feature is the isolation of the world of orphans. How do children live in orphanages? And they learn, and they communicate, cooking around the clock in the midst of the same destitute. In summer, usually the collective is sent to rest, where children will have to contact with the same as they themselves, representatives of other public institutions. As a result, the child does not see peers from normal well-off families and has no idea how to communicate in the real world.

Children from the orphanage do not get used to work from infancy, as it happens in normal families. They have no one to teach and explain the need to take care of themselves and their loved ones, as a result they can not and do not want to work. They know that the state is obliged to take care that the wards are dressed and fed. Necessity in own service is not present. Moreover, any work (for example, help in the kitchen) is banned, regulated by the rules of hygiene and safety.

The lack of basic household skills (cooking food, cleaning the room, sewing clothes) generates a very real dependency. And it's not even a banal laziness. This vicious practice has a disastrous effect on the formation of the individual and the ability to solve problems on his own.

About independence

Limited, to the extent strictly regulated communication with adults in a group does not stimulate the development of the child in the orphanage in terms of independence. The presence of an obligatory firm schedule of the day and control by adults cuts off any need for self-discipline and planning by the child of their own actions. Children from infancy are accustomed only to follow other people's instructions.

As a result, graduates of state institutions are not adapted to life in any way. Having received housing, they do not know how to live alone, to take care of themselves in their own way. These children do not have the skill of buying food, cooking, and spending money properly. A normal family life for them is a mystery with seven seals. In people, such graduates do not understand at all, and as a result very, very often fall into criminal structures or simply get drunk.

Sad result

Even in outwardly safe children's homes, where discipline is maintained, there are no flagrant cases of ill-treatment, there is no one to instill moral ideals for children and to give at least some elementary notions about life in society. Such a situation, unfortunately, is generated by the very system of centralized state education of orphans.

Pedagogical tasks in orphanages are most often reduced to lack of state of emergency and wide publicity. Orphaned high school students explain the rights of the child in the orphanage and on getting out of it (housing, allowances, free education). But this process only leads to the fact that they forget about any duties and remember only that they all have everything - from the state to the nearest environment.

Many children from the orphanage, who grew up without a spiritual and moral core, are prone to selfishness and degradation. It is practically impossible for them to become full members of society.

The alternative is ...

The conclusions are sad: a large state orphanage as a form of education for orphans has fully and completely proved its inefficiency. But what can you offer in return? Among specialists it is believed that only adoption can be optimal for such children. Since only the family can give what the child in the orphanage is deprived of in the state environment.

Those who know firsthand about life in foster families are firmly convinced of the need for state aid to people who have decided to promote the upbringing of another orphaned child. Such parents need the support of the state, society and the church, since foster parents with their hard responsibilities always have a lot of problems and complex issues.

There are foster families that can replace an orphanage. In this case, the state pays the parents a salary, and there is no secret of adoption - the orphan knows who he is and where. In other respects, such a pupil is a full member of the family.

Another option

Another form of organizing the life of orphans is a family orphanage. In this way, non-governmental institutions of this type often go. The living quarters there can be divided into separate apartments, "families" consist of 6-8 children, a mother officially appointed to this position, and her assistants. Children are all together and take turns buying food, cooking and all the necessary household chores. A child in a children's home of this type feels like a member of a large, friendly family.

Also interesting is the experience of the children's villages of SOS, in the device of which the model of educating a teacher from Austria is implemented. In our country there are three such villages. Their goal is also to bring the living conditions of the pupils closer to the family.

In addition, there are children's homes of low-standard type. They are arranged in the image and likeness of an ordinary state institution, but the number of children there is much less - sometimes no more than 20 or 30 people. On such a scale, the situation is much easier to make a home than in a huge boarding school. A child in an orphanage of this type visits a regular school and communicates with peers from normal families.

Will the Orthodox Church save?

Many educators and public figures believe that representatives of the church should be involved in work in state children's institutions, because each person needs food for the soul, the presence of moral ideals and the formation of moral principles. Orphans deprived of parental warmth, this is doubly necessary.

That is why orthodox children's homes could be an island of salvation for such children in the modern world of lack of spirituality and the absence of any landmarks. Created in the temple, a similar institution of education has another important advantage - the church community in some way is able to replace the orphanage absent family. In the parish, the pupils have friends, strengthen spiritual and social ties.

Not so simple

Why is this form, like an orthodox children's home, still not widely spread? The problem is that there are a lot of complexities of a very different nature - legal, material, shortage of educators. Financial problems - first of all, in the absence of necessary premises. Even the most modest shelter will require a separate building or a part of it.

Philanthropists are also not very willing to provide funding for such projects. But even if the sponsors are there, the bureaucratic difficulties in registering such shelters are almost insurmountable. Numerous commissions, on whose decision the authorization is dependent, find fault with the slightest deviations from existing formal instructions, despite the fact that most state-funded large orphanages exist against a background of a great many serious violations, including legal ones.

It turns out that the church children's shelter is possible only in conditions of illegal existence. The state does not provide any legal acts that can regulate the upbringing of orphans by the church, and, accordingly, it does not allocate money for this. Without centralized funding (only with sponsors' money) it is difficult to have an orphanage - it is almost impossible.

On the money issue

Only state institutions are financed in our country, in which, according to the Law on Education, education should be secular. That is, the installation of temples under the ban, teaching children of faith is not allowed.

How cost-effective are children's homes? The maintenance of children in a state institution flies in penny. No family spends on children's education the amount that is allocated to it in the orphanage. It is about 60,000 rubles. annually. Practice shows that this money is not being spent very effectively. In the same patronage family, where this figure is three times smaller, the children receive everything they need and, in addition, the care and care of foster parents that they need so much.

On the moral and ethical side of the matter

Another serious problem of orphanages is the lack of qualified and responsible educators. Such work requires the expenditure of a huge amount of mental and physical strength. It literally means selfless service, because the salaries of teachers are simply ridiculous.

Often, random children go to children's homes, by and large. They do not have any love for the wards, nor the reserve of patience so necessary in working with the destitute orphans. Impunity of caregivers in the closed orphanage system leads to the temptation to command uncontrollably, reveling in their own power. Sometimes it comes to extreme cases, which, from time to time, go to the press and the media.

A very complex issue of corporal punishment, which is under official prohibition, but their existence and, moreover, the wide practice of application in fact - is not a secret for anyone. However, this problem is not unique to children's homes - it is a headache of the whole modern educational system.