“To evoke love in a child’s heart”

“This book can be read in a row, in one gulp, you can open it on a random page. One way or another, you will return to it to once again hear the voice of the author, his intonation: not a teacher, but a man who has suffered his knowledge. The book contains articles by Simon Soloveitchik, first published in the 70s and 80s. This name was then cult, many raised children “according to Soloveichik.” But even today, each page is able to turn our ideas about relationships with a child and make us look at ourselves in a new way.

There are at least two reasons for this relevance. A long life is usually destined for books in which great questions are posed. They argue about the origin of life on Earth, but “almost no one is interested in a secret similar in mystery and importance – the secret of the birth of love in the human heart …” In the matter of raising a child, this seemingly idle question takes on an unexpectedly practical meaning, without which one cannot take a step. It would seem that for a successful upbringing, it is enough to love a child. But no, says Soloveichik, “it is not the one who is loved who is brought up, but the one who loves.” However, how to evoke love in a child’s heart? About this book.

And one more thing: “the concept of education … is created so early that our own pedagogical ideas seem to us almost innate.” But as life changes, pedagogy also changes. At the same time, a change in pedagogical views is more difficult than a change in worldview. Every now and then we fall into traps, from infancy we begin not to educate, but to re-educate, or, on the contrary, we are seduced by the child’s obedience, we confuse anger and irritability, we don’t know whether to pamper our son or accustom him to discipline, we believe in the carrot and stick method, at best – by the power of the word. But … “one literary hero from childhood had a prescription hanging before his eyes:” Do not lie, obey your elders and carry virtue in your heart. And Chichikov grew up.

There are no number of such traps, created from prejudice, and an adult falls into them daily. Soloveichik does not miss any of these traps, explains the nature of the error, shows the logic of the way out, and, with the innocence of a person who made a discovery before our eyes, adds: everything is simple, it turns out this way, but it doesn’t.