In the explanatory note to the program of the elementary course on the Law of God for primary schools, it is said, among other things: “In the first year of study, it is expected to go through daily prayers. There are few prayers listed. The requirement to know a large number of prayers by heart would be burdensome for children entering school illiterate, and would be inappropriate from a religious and pedagogical point of view. Since prayers express Christian beliefs, feelings and aspirations, a child, having studied them with an understanding accessible to his age, will receive the first elementary knowledge of the Christian faith in full, although not extensive.”
“When studying prayers, the teacher should try not only to ensure that children solidify the words of the prayer and understand their external, so to speak, meaning, but also to evoke from the hearts of the children those prayerful dispositions for which the words of the prayer serve as an expression. It is desirable that the explanation of prayers should not even have the appearance of a lesson, but should be a pastoral conversation with children about their spiritual needs, aspirations, and beliefs, which find their most natural expression in prayer.”
1. “When explaining prayers, the teacher will inform the children the most general concepts about God, the Creator of the world, about His omnipresence, omnipotence, wisdom and goodness, about His loving Providence over all creation, about Angels, the human soul created in the image of God, about conscience, the fall of people and their destruction, will tell them about God the Son, our Savior, about God the Holy Spirit, sanctifying the souls of people who believe in Christ, about our need to pray to God in all circumstances of life, about external signs of prayer, especially the sign of the cross, about prayer at home before icons and in church, about prayers to the Mother of God and the saints, for the living and the dead.”
2. “Each explained prayer should be preceded by a conversation with the teacher, which would introduce the child to the inner content of the prayer, so that the explained prayer follows from this conversation as a natural consequence. The subject of such a conversation can be either an everyday story from the life of children and families, or a narration from Sacred history and the life of the holy saints of God.”
3. “When studying each prayer separately, it is proposed to follow the following order: 1) reading the entire prayer, of course, meaningful and felt; 2) an indication of the main thoughts contained in the prayer, an explanation of the incomprehensible words and expressions found in it; 3) translation or possibly a short and close to the text paraphrase of the prayer; 4) asking students again using leading questions that are in close logical connection with each other, relating not only to the words of the prayer, but also to the subject of the introductory conversation; 5) gradual generalization of questions and 6) learning the prayer by heart - in the first half of the year from the words of the teacher, and in the second with the help of a book” [*].
In relation to this, the proposed explanation of church prayers has been compiled, which, I believe, can be useful to a teacher of the law who begins to study in public schools.
S.I.A.
[*] The program for teaching the Law of God in rural two-year schools, compiled by the Ministry of Public Education and approved by the Holy Synod on September 24, 1869, says: each new prayer should be preceded by a conversation with children about the content of this prayer, so that the prayer itself emerges as a result of this conversation; it must be said in Russian, and only then translated into Church Slavonic; children must learn it in class from the words of a teacher of the law.