Religious literary works for children in the teaching process

Abstract

"The present article reiterates our older concerns about the literature studied in public kindergartens and schools. Romania is a country that was declared orthodox in an overwhelming proportion (according to the 2011 Census, 86.45% of the population declared themselves Orthodox, of which 59% pray frequently). However, it also has many other praying Christians, 96% of the Romanians having declared that they believe in God, so we consider that the research we carry out on the religious literature for children is justified. We also point out that the concept of religious literature for children involves certain dynamics. We operate a taxonomy within this field of children's literature and discuss each identified category in terms of the opportunity of its institutionalized study. We pay special attention to the psalms. Without overlapping with the school subjects of Religion or Communication in Romanian / Romanian language and literature, the independent study of Psalms by children can be appropriately oriented directed by a teacher (teacher for primary education and / or teacher of Romanian language and literature / religion), both in selecting the texts, and especially in aiming at the understanding of contents, often loaded with meanings in the depth structure of the writing and, sometimes, with figures of speech. At the same time, we present the framework for which a teacher (in preschool and primary education) can use religious literature as a didactic support of the activities, as long as he / she is not specialized in teaching religion. Specification: The number specified for each Psalm corresponds to the Romanian numbering. When we took over the translation of certain psalms, we specified that number."