What I learnt in school (guest post)

Soviet poster against illiteracy and alcoholism: "The smart and the fool: one goes for the book, the other goes to the pub"


Russia’s literacy rate is close to 100 % higher than in France and in the US. Education in Russia is a big deal.

I came to Samara in November and have been teaching French in a Russian school ever since. Even though I know that this school does not represent every school in the country, I've made a lot of interesting discoveries about the Russian education culture.

I have discovered, for example, that the education system here is competitive and very elitist-- if you're not good enough, too bad! And it starts very early! When I was preparing for a New Year show, I told the teacher in charge of pre-school that not every child could say something in French (they had been learning it for 3 months). “Well, let the parents see that some of them are capable and some are not,” was her answer. We’re talking about six-year old children!

Arts and sports play a much greater role in school than they do in France. Students show what they can do during the many celebrations throughout the year: New Year, Spring Day, Women's day, Victory Day, Graduation Day (Russians like celebrating!) and the shows are always really impressive. If my camera hadn’t died from cold this winter, I would have posted pictures… you have to see it to believe it!

But what struck me the most is the way Russian teachers speak to their pupils like they are adults, even when they are only 5 or 6 years old. Children learn very early to be responsible and to respect their teachers. If they don’t, their parents are made responsible for that, so good behaviour in school becomes a matter of family honor. One day, I was teaching a song to preschool children and one of them was very noisy and made it impossible for the others to sing. I mentioned it to their Russian teacher who told this to the kid’s grandparents. At the next lesson, the boy’s grandmother came to me with a box of chocolate asking me to forgive THEM (!!) : I was speechless (but I took the chocolate!).

Something must also be said about Russian teachers; they are really devoted people who are often at the school from 8 am to 8 pm for a monthly salary of 300 dollars at best, which is difficult to survive on...even in Russia!

Those seven months have taught me one thing: teaching is never easy, particularly in a country where the education culture is different from everything you know. I'm glad I did it but I must admit: I'm also happy summer is coming!