Abstract

Pedagogical reflection is accompanied from the start by the conviction that upbringing is an art and requires a particular kind of sensitivity, innovativity in action and creative engagement. Upbringing today is upbringing in a society that is diverse, wavering, full of tension, and in which there are many opportunities for choice, great personal responsibility, with life chances, but also with many dangers. This is why an authentic upbringing requires, above all, a closeness and trust which brings love, a first and fundamental experience which is, or at least which ought to be, the love of a child by its parents. The upbringer, thus, stands in a relationship to the upbringee as with a person, and not a material which may be freely formed. The upbringing itself is aiming towards the future positive development of the child such that s/he will be able to realize his/her “potential”, shape his/her will and develop as an “inimitable person” both in the individual and social senses. The “realisation of the individual” which takes place during upbringing leaves space for hope. In the promise and hope the future interacts with the human life even now, and by the same token shows the sense behind upbringing. Whereas, from the perspective of “Christian realism”, it is emphasised that the individual always finds finds him or herself in a certain “existential situation”. And so upbringing is not merely a dialogue and a relationship between people, but it is also a real relationship with God. It is God who comes to meet the individual in history and who gives him the unfailing promise of total fulfilment (joy, a sense of life). In this view the sign of hope is also the building of a future (a community) through respecting the natural laws and fundamental freedoms of people and nations.