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MeMyselfAndI
Nov 9th 2011, 09:12 PM
09.11.2011 | 20:36
Parents teach children life through farmwork

A couple in Yaroslavl oblast decided to raise their children away from civilisation in their deserted ancestral village, without schools or hospitals. Authorities have questions, but no cause or right to intervene.

Today Mikhail Shaidenko and Yulia Danilovskaya, who have settled with their four children in village Lageika in Yaroslavl oblast, prepare for another day in court, where they are defending their right to live with their children away from civilisation: teach them at home, do not take them to a policlinic and spend long evenings playing piano, knitting and reading.

The authorities, threatening to take away their parental rights, demand they send their children to school or, at least, teach them in accordance with accepted standards. The family maintains, taht such an approach kills the natural path toward knowledge. NTV correspondent Garri Knyagnitsky tried to investigate the issue.

In all of 16 years, Vasilisa finished two classes of school. Her brothers, 13-year old Boris, 10-year old Vladimir and 7-year old Timofei, never went to school at all. Children learn science and life on their parents' farm. The head of the family Mikhail Shaidenko explains parallel lines with the example of his vegetable patches. Other subjects are learned from books.

Yulia Danilovskaya: «We do not use textbooks. We use different books. Now we are reading Pushkin».

Yulia herself finished a special school with a focus on English language and music. She says, the children get enough knowledge, from what she can teach them.

In 2007 Mikhail and Yulia found a house in the village Lageika, 100 km out of Yaroslavl. Here, you can only drive on a tractor. There is no electricity, the family lives off nature. They eat what they grow on their farm. The authorities have wondered how comfortable such a life is for their children.

Irina Pokrovskaya, head of education department for Danilovsky region: «The Prosecutor and the Child Protection Service agreed, that a court action must be launched to terminate parental rights».

But the only cause for that can be a immideate threat to life or health of the children. which would be hard to establish as the parents, for all their eccentricity, do not drink and treat the children well, at least where our cameras could see.

Svetlana Pronina, People's Chamber of the Russian Federation: «It was not so quickly decided to strip them of their parental rights. We already have an enormous number: 70,000 children are seized from their parents every year for different causes. The system is swamped».

This is not the first time a family flees civilisation. In 2004 billionair German Sterligov moved to a village near Mozhaisk. He and his family live there still, but even he brought in teachers from Moscow for his five children. Though, Sterligov now says, his commune is ready to shelter the Shaidenko-Danilovsky family.

German Sterligov: «If the government tries to take their children, and they cannot protect them alone, they are welcome here, we do not give out anyone. We won't hand off our own children or theirs».

The authorities seem now to be backing down, saying they never wanted to take the children, but merely to get inside the house.

Irina Pokrovskaya: «When we saw, that the children were clean, healthy and happy, we of course abandoned the parental rights action right away».

The court still decided Yulia Danilovskaya must sign a contract with a school it determined, so teachers from there can check on and control the children's education. Danilovskaya disagrees and is determined to appeal this. The conflict is not yet over.



http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/244480/print/

The family
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/7315/kuznecova007.jpg

Last thing they want is for German Sterligov to get involved
http://finansmag.ru/FckFiles/image/300/16-20/16-vh-b.jpg
lol He is Old Orthodox like me, though not by birth, but conversion; and I suppose he has adapted elements of Cossack culture as well, like that shashka saber that carries around all the time and sometimes threatens liberal politicians, atheists, and abortionists with on TV.

But, he is not a bluffer. He says he can protect them, and he can. His settlement, which was just his family at first, now includes about a dozen large traditionalist clans. They are all armed to the teeth
http://www.fresher.ru/images8/v-gostyax-u-germana-sterligova/20.jpghttp://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/4305/yes06.132/0_2c622_542fda57_orighttp://ljplus.ru/img4/i/l/ilfordhp5/_MG_0937.jpg
Sterligov is, in his own words, building a "new Russian civilisation". He collects families like these. And the government does not mess with him. Not just because of the weapons, but because as a rich man, he's had the resources to also compound large dossiers of compromising information on all the powerholders in Russia, possibly even Putin himself. No, last thing the authorities want, is to bring in Mr. Sterligov :lol:

As for the original question, I think the parents should have the right to raise their children however they want, as long as they do not damage them in the process.

The Drunk Guy
Nov 10th 2011, 07:37 PM
But damage is a vague term.

Personally, as long as they can read, write, and figure math, they are fine. However, my opinion doesn't help these folks.

MeMyselfAndI
Nov 10th 2011, 11:48 PM
But damage is a vague term.

Personally, as long as they can read, write, and figure math, they are fine. However, my opinion doesn't help these folks.

Agreed. You know, it is becoming more and more common here, parents keeping their children out of schools. The rich send their children to elite private schools (including abroad, most popularly - in England), or hire expensive tutors to teach them at home; and regular people also, teach themselves or try to hire somebody. Different parents and with different reasons: atheists and secular people who object to mandatory religious classes; ultra-conservative religious who, on the other side, feel there actually aren't enough of those same religious classes and who do not want their children learning about, for example, evolution; and just normal people who do not trust the education system to properly care for their young ones.

I think the private schools, if you can afford it, is the best way. There are private schools in Russia for every taste now, for example

"Salam" in Kazan, Tatarstan: special private-owned school for Muslim girls
http://www.salam-spb.ru/uploads/images/photo/2009-2010/arab_karan_3klass/IMG_0322.JPG

For parents who want their children to receive a more militarily-oriented education, with the discipline that comes with that, there are Cadet Schools, government owned or private
http://medvedevu.ru/_nw/100/19402725.jpg
http://kazak-samara.ru/assets/image/kadet/kadet/big/DSC_0021.jpg
including Cadet Schools for girls
http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/5357/481602resize34fbd9bzd7.jpg

There are schools with a focus on sports
http://dush31.ru/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/banner.jpg

and even schools oriented on chess
http://ilook.by/components/com_adsman/images/org/main/main_1375.jpg

Government-owned or private, there is something for everyone...

As for homeschooling, it has its benefits. But, there is also a significant downside, according to psychologists: children may be trained academically on par with those who actually go to school, but they do not develop socially on the same level.

They do not play street football, the game that brings together boys in Russia like nothing else
http://www.photoline.ru/critic/picpart/1289/1289314148.jpg
http://news.vmariel.ru/uploads/posts/2010-05/1274392225_futbol-1.jpg
In most cities and towns, every school has a team, and they play against each other, this dates back to the Soviet era.

In school, children elarn important social skills. Homeschooled children, psychologists say, will not be able to properly interact with other people when they become adults, will not be able to form relationships, etc. These are the sort of things you learn at your school.

Michael
Nov 12th 2011, 08:54 AM
Wow - your school of cadets looks VERY white. That doesn't look representative or reflective of Russia's population at all. It looks like an elitist institution.

MeMyselfAndI
Nov 12th 2011, 09:25 AM
Wow - your school of cadets looks VERY white. That doesn't look representative or reflective of Russia's population at all. It looks like an elitist institution.

Well... It is mostly Slavic children that go to cadet schools. I suppose it is elitist, but that is the way it is. Frankly, as far as 'non-white' Russian families go, many Buriat children, for example, are sent to their Buddhist monasteries to study, so some chosen ones can become monks later, a big honor in that culture. Others, among the nomadic tribes, do not go to school at all, they work, help their parents with livestock and such. There is a cadet school in Buryatia, but it is full of children from local Cossack clans, not Buryats. Buryats are Buddhists, peaceful, kind people, I've met a few. They reject militarism and all that. They would not send their little ones to cadet schools. That is not to call them weak, by the way. Buryats have a great history as warriors, those Siberian divisions saved Moscow in 1941, and in 1969, they slaughtered thousands of Chinese Maoists trying to invade Soviet islands on the Amur river. They really hate Chinese, for Tibet, and Inner Mongolia, I guess. Today, Buryat Specnaz units fight in North Caucasus. They are tough, all peoples of Russia are tough, you have to be, to live here, this is not a country for the weak. Buryats just do not glorify and celebrate violence and war, like Cossacks or Chechens. They see it as a sometimes necessary duty, nothing more. And this is true for other Buddhist peoples related to Buryats, like Tyvans, Khakas, Kalmyks. So, Michael, the fact that you did not see 'non-whites' in those pictures is more due to cultural differences, not discrimination.

Michael
Nov 12th 2011, 09:47 AM
So, Michael, the fact that you did not see 'non-whites' in those pictures is more due to cultural differences, not discrimination.

Looks like the old "divide and rule" strategy to me. :shrug:

Keep the people locked up in their little cultural pockets and keep the separate from the others.

That's a classic strategy for authoritarian rule.

NickKIELCEPoland
Nov 12th 2011, 11:44 AM
The Russian presidents, or secretary-generals, or whatever they were called have always been white, haven't they? Well, Yeltsin had a Chinese look about him, but the rest - white all of them, weren't they?

MeMyselfAndI
Nov 12th 2011, 07:40 PM
The Russian presidents, or secretary-generals, or whatever they were called have always been white, haven't they? Well, Yeltsin had a Chinese look about him, but the rest - white all of them, weren't they?

Well, Stalin was Georgian, I am not sure if Georgians are "white"...