The child and the Constitution of Russia: Conversations about important issues
Authors:   Moscow City University, Galkin Nicita A. , Pryakhina Tatyana M. ,   Moscow City University
Published: June 2023

Introduction. The presumption of knowledge of the law and laws of the state assumes that every citizen knows the necessary amount of legal information sufficient to fulfill the basic obligation to comply with the Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation. Accordingly, the study of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and basic laws is mandatory and should be integrated into educational programs at all levels. Special attention should be paid to the constitutional and legal education of children, because at this age the model of behavior, which a person will follow in the future, is laid. Theoretical analysis. The study of the Constitution of Russia in childhood and adolescence is based on the concept of meta-law, which asserts the unity of law, religion, philosophy, science, and art. In the educational paradigm of meta-law, the Constitution is perceived through spiritual and moral values, ethical, moral attitudes, confirming by legal authority the correctness of the ideas about what is due that the child has learned. The initial stage of studying the Basic Law of the country may coincide with the child’s study of the alphabet, when individual letters of the alphabet will be fixed in the child’s memory by the example of categories of constitutional law that are accessible to understanding. It is fruitful to address the content of the Constitution of Russia through the prism of elementary plots of folk tales reflecting the archetypes of popular consciousness. Through the fairy tale, the child is introduced to the national worldview, learns to recognize himself or herself as part of the multinational people of the Russian Federation, who embodied their political will in the Basic Law of the country. Folk art expresses an ideal presented in an artistic form. The Constitution legally formalizes the people’s idea. That is why legal folklore studies should be integrated into educational programs in literature, social studies, and jurisprudence. Works of children’s fiction devoted to the Basic Law of the country are the most correct form for the perception of the text of the Constitution by children aged six to eight. Serious discussions about the Constitution of Russia, the history of the constitutional idea in our country, political power and constitutional practice of the state should take place at high school age. The choice of a form of submission of constitutional and legal information is determined by mental generational characteristics of children in accordance with the information environment in which their formation and development took place. Results. The authors conclude that the theory of the Constitution should be integrated into the program of basic general education and offer the fundamentals of a specialized pedagogical strategy for studying the Constitution by children. The methodology of studying the Constitution by children determines the identity of the legal system of Russia, where moral norms, ethics, morality, culture are the co-regulators of law. The format of educational practices depends on the stages of growing up, socialization and individualization of the child.