Education Activities of the Modern School: Challenges and Opportunities for Religious Upbringing

U ovome članku polazi se od problemskih pitanja vezanih uz promjene koje se događaju u školskim odgojno-obrazovnim sustavima u Europi, osobito u Hrvatskoj. Tema odgoja posvuda je aktualna. Mnogi upozoravaju na opću krizu odgoja i vrijednosti na kojima se temelji suvremeno društvo i koja se u velikoj mjeri odražava na krizu odgoja unutar školskog sustava. U prvom dijelu članka, ističući temeljnu ulogu obrazovanja u osobnom i društvenom životu, definiraju se dva temeljna smjera razvoja suvremene škole, koji se naziru u pozadini rasprava o školi u Hrvatskoj. U drugome dijelu formulirana su neka relevantna problemska pitanja koja utječu na odgojnu djelatnost škole. Posebno se naglašava važnost cjelovitog odgoja, osobito odgoja koji promiče duhovni i moralni razvoj. U trećemu se dijelu problematizira pitanje vrijednosti i odgojnih ciljeva suvremene škole. Polazeći od najnovijih hrvatskih dokumenata, predlažu su i elaboriraju neki temeljni odgojni ciljevi. U definiranju tih ciljeva ističu se izazovi i mogućnosti koje ta odgojna djelatnost škole pruža religioznom odgoju.This article starts with a problematic issue related to changes occurring in educational institutions in Europe, particularly in Croatia. In the past few decades the majority of European countries have developed and changed their education systems. In Croatia too, intensive work is being invested in advancing the quality of the education system and harmonising them to European standards. One of the key issues of these changes is the question of education and values. Many are warning of a general crisis in education and values upon which modem society rests and which largely reflect the education crisis with the school system. The first part of the article stresses the fundamental role of education on personal and social life. It defines two fundamental directions of developing contemporary schools that seem to be emerging in various debates about schools in Croatia. Special attention is being given to knowledge as a value that is highlighted as one of the main resources for development in the 21st century. The significance of knowledge is undoubted however it is worth knowing that knowledge itself need not necessarily influence the value system or individual behaviour. The second part of the article formulates some relevant problematic issues that affect the educational activities of schools. It is not possible to ignore the question of the relations between two fundamental components of the teaching process, these being up-bringing and education. Contemporary thought about schools often stress the problems of upbringing as one of the most important and most difficult tasks that teachers are faced with every day. At the same time there is a significant level of ignoring the aspect of upbringing at the expense of educating. The question of upbringing is observed in the context of the crisis in educational institutions. We are faced with a special general crisis, a crisis of the process of education of socialisation in general. The mechanisms of transferring values in traditional education media lose their effect. Special emphasis is placed on the wholeness of education, particularly upbringing which promotes spiritual and moral development. The third part deals with the problematic question of objectives of values and upbringing in contemporary schools. Starting for the latest Croatian documents some fundamental objectives of upbringing are being highlighted and debated: promoting mutual introduction, valuing and dialogue; promoting the person, each person; promoting ethics of responsibility; promoting patriotism, cultural and national spirit; developing critical attitudes; promoting a spiritual dimension to formation. When defining these objectives, challenges and opportunities are highlighted that education activities in schools offer through Religious Instructions. Religious Instructions include the need to become familiar with the issue of religion which is a constitutional part of a true process of upbringing and part of correctly comprehending school programmes. The dimension of upbringing in Religious Instructions is expressed in the contribution that subject has in complete development of the personality of the student. The contribution of that promotion of fundamental values like human dignity, justice, patriotism, solidarity, peace and so on is undoubted. It furthe rpresents the important focal point of co-existence and dialogue in a contemporary, plural society in which people of various religions, cultures and nationalities exist side by side