And the world remembered. ..

Immediately after school, Vitalik usually played for about twenty minutes on the violin. He loved this instrument, was engaged willingly, and the fact that in the hours of rest the violin was always with him in the foreground, pleased Nadezhda Nikolaevna, Vitalik's mother.

However, today, hardly stepping over the threshold and glancing at the instrument already prepared by the mother's caring hands, the son said:

- Mom, there's no time to play. I have to run to the newsagent. Give me, please, money.

- To the kiosk? Why? "- Nadezhda Nikolaevna was surprised." I'll go to the store after lunch and look in there. "What do you need?

- Komsomolskaya Pravda needs to be bought. Today we learned from the senior counselor that the appeal of the Soviet youth to the American president was published there. We decided - let everyone sign the appeal and send it to America. The leader said that this will be our contribution to the struggle for peace.

Vitalik spoke hotly, loudly, as if he was not at home right now, but at least at his squad's meeting. This is not too excited Nadezhda Nikolaevna has never seen him, and maybe because of this she resolutely interrupted her son:

- All right, calm down, baby. Your president will not go anywhere. Nothing will happen if you do not send him your message. It's better to eat first and sit down for the music.

- Mom, but I really need a newspaper. Highly! And postage stamps for thirty kopecks.

- It turns out that even the brands will have to spend money. Are they superfluous with us? Undress and sit down at the table. Do you hear what I'm saying? "Nadezhda Nikolaevna raised her voice, as the son was not going to change his intentions.

- Mom, but I have to. ..

- You do not owe anything to anyone. And if he should, then sit down at the table, after - the violin. Do you think your study at a music school is cheap for us?

Vitalik had tears in his eyes.

- If I do not buy a newspaper now, then it will be too late. What will I tell the guys?

- Nothing to say. They will not demand a report from you. Sit down at the table!

Vitalik wilted. Head down, went out into the hallway. ..

Dear Mom and Dad, how would you react to such a request of your son? With serious understanding? With mocking condescension? With indifference?

This question was asked by us not by chance. Talking with the guys in many schools, we were convinced that the position of some parents very often resembles the one that Vitalik's mother took. Stressing the words "some parents", we nevertheless note that behind them there is in general an impressive figure. And this in itself, I think, is a sad fact.

In sociopolitical terms, every schoolchild is informed relatively well today. Newspapers, radio, television daily bring to our house a lot of facts about the events in the world. Someone is more detailed, some are worse, but everyone knows: the tense situation in the Middle East. In Lebanon, bloody skirmishes continue. Shots are heard on the streets of the city, blood is pouring, people are dying, including children. It is also troubling in faraway Nicaragua, where sent mercenaries from abroad are sowing death, destruction.

This type of information the schoolboy, however, perceives in his own way. But it does penetrate into his consciousness. And imagine that for the time being many real pictures, born of information messages, lived for him in a separate, isolated life, which in no way intertwines with his own, does not prevent him from still riding a bicycle, memorizing an excerpt from a poem, preparingto writing, to go on an excursion. .. The images of that distant reality and the personal life of our child existed as if in isolation, in different planes, without touching even in small with each other. At the gathering of the detachment the senior pioneer leader managed to find words to combine these planes. And the boy suddenly discovered a piercing truth about the complexities of today's world: automatic firefights, burning houses, the death of children and a peaceful bicycle ride exist, it turns out, at the same time. On the same Earth. In his time! In his life! On his Earth!

The main culprit of this whole tragedy, the counselor explained, is American imperialism. And then the boy together with his classmates warmly supports the proposal to send his protest voice to the American president. On this day, maybe for the first time in his life, he saw himself in a completely different way, as if from the side he had never come to. I hurried home with my head held high. The feeling of wingedness, involvement in something big, important would have survived tomorrow, but. ..

That's how sometimes we, parents, go wrong. Moreover, unforgivable, fraught with the most undesirable consequences, if we are talking about the formation of the children of the basis of citizenship, feelings of patriotism and internationalism.

Pioneer laws( we used to live by them!) Teach our sons and daughters to bravely defend the truth, to seek justice, to be loyal, reliable friends to all the working people of the world, all oppressed, deprived. And the whole system of our life educates the guys in the conviction that a Soviet person never and never leaves friends in need of trouble, the Soviet person most directly concerns everything that is happening in the world, he is invariably in the forefront of fighters for peace, for freedom,as in years of war already far away. It is no coincidence that our person, the song is sung, "remembers the saved world". ..

This is one of the main reasons that cause a huge flow of pioneer letters in defense of justice on the ground, which are daily received by the editorial offices of our newspapers and magazines. When you read them, believe me, the soul rejoices: the guys do not just sympathize with something, they do not just resent it. With childish spontaneity and ardency they offer their assistance in resolving the most serious conflicts, even on a world scale.

At first glance, of course, it is naive. But the guys are absolutely sincerely convinced that they will be listened to, they want to contribute equally to adults in improving life on the whole planet. And mainly because our children, the children of the first multinational socialist country in the world, grow in an atmosphere of spiritual kinship, mutual assistance with all peoples, that they care about the destinies of other people. Is not that perfect? !Is it necessary for anyone to prove that our social order, our system of life, moral values, have brought them up like this? Such a phenomenon, none of us ever( even with the most careful search) will not meet in any capitalist state.

The social activity of our children has a deeper basis. The peak of the achievements of the educational work of the Soviet multinational society without any conventionalities can be called that the children inherit the ideas that we live in, which were confirmed by the blood and then by our fathers and grandfathers.

Many schools have clubs or clubs of international friendship. Some schools bear the names of the heroes of friendly countries and peoples. The guys meet their foreign peers in pioneer labor camps, correspond with them. All this is aimed primarily at ensuring that today's boys and girls, who in general very soon will occupy our place in various spheres of society, have already formed a world of broad, noble interests. In the process of gradual knowledge of the current turbulent reality, they are growing stronger, the understanding of a very important fact is growing: workers of all countries, irrespective of skin color and nationality, must unite the common struggle for freedom, for justice.

How do we, parents, evaluate this aspect of our children's lives? Agree, they have the right to count on our interested attitude to their civic position, to our, finally, help.

. .. The school where your son studies is going to visit representatives of Nicaraguan youth. The squad's board instructed the guys, including your son, to make souvenirs with their own hands and say a few welcome words to foreign friends. You know that his son hesitates to give his own crafts, he considers them not very successful. You know that he never had a special eloquence, but here it is required to communicate coherently, intelligently to pronounce capacious, consonant with precisely the given moment phrases. That's why your son is excited today.

How do you do in this situation? Think, please, will you get the idea that your son needs your encouragement and support in those moments? Will the boy find support in you? And will not the situation that Lena N. from Yakutsk wrote about in the "Pioneer Truth" happened?

What is disturbing about the girl? At school, children enthusiastically greet the offer to show solidarity with their foreign peers. Lena feels the same feelings, under the influence of our everyday reality, she already has such inner readiness. However, at home, from my mother, very often it is heard:

- That for the sake of we all help? What do we have, our own little worries? Everyone should think about himself now. It costs us too much. ..

The girl wants to wholeheartedly respond to what is being called at school. But why does mom say something completely different? In confusion, Lena asks the editorial board of the Pioneer newspaper to explain to her mother her wrong.

What would you say to Lena? We think it is reasonable first of all to convince both the mother of the girl and the other parents how much damage they inflict on such a suggestion, first of all, on their own authority in the eyes of their son or daughter. Today, even in the lower grades, the horizons of schoolchildren are sufficiently developed - the disciplines provided by the program, the activity of children in public life, that is, in the life of the October star, later the Pioneer, Komsomol organizations, contribute to this. The excitement of personal involvement with all that gives rise to the burning problems of the present, they hasten to share with relatives who, it would seem, should directly touch upon the same thing. Perhaps, the children are trying to get a clearer interpretation of some questions from their parents, but they suddenly run into complete indifference. Not because the popes and mothers do not understand these problems - then, the life itself confirms, the pioneer would gladly tell about what he himself learned, and his father's or mother's attention would serve him as the greatest reward - no, adults simply and understandthey do not want, they forgive them for the extreme of judgment, they are absolutely indifferent. Do I need to add, as far as zybka soil on which rests in the family respect for as yet a small citizen to such parents.

You can not underestimate the harm of another phenomenon. Unfortunately, sometimes an ill-considered phrase, heatedly uttered under the momentary mood, leaves a hard-to-erase trail in the heart of a teenager. He gradually strengthens the habit of looking for untruth in everything, growing suspicion towards everything or, even worse, cynicism.

It seems useful to emphasize with special force the indisputable seemingly thought: it is clear, durable and the inner world of children is therefore beautiful when the houses understand them, support all the best aspirations of a young patriot, an internationalist. Today our children only learn to comprehend life, the complexities of the connections of a huge, troubled world. Our duty is to help them, to strengthen the civil motives that sounded in the children's soul under the influence of the school, social work, the whole image of our life.