Out for a ride with time to think

The morning sun shines into my room, and birds are chirping. The two-month holiday at the language school where I’m working has just started. It’s a bit difficult to believe that the time for the last entry for this blog has already come. I still have lots of thoughts to share with our readers!

Lately I’ve been riding my bike in the countryside in the evenings – it’s a good chance to relax after a very full year and to improve my skills in photography. Along the way, I think a lot about the enormous difference between rural and urban areas in my country, and between their inhabitants’ mentalities. What’s difficult to explain is that many Russians would like to move outside the city and buy nice houses there, but most villagers prefer the idea of finding a job in the city (or at least sending their children to get educated there). Of course that’s due to the financial divide between these areas, but we need to make this division less extreme.

Apart from modernizing infrastructure and offering programs aimed at stimulating young teachers to work in village schools (or small towns) by offering them additional money for several month stays and providing them with accommodation, we also need to promote studying abroad. But at least when it comes to my own pupils, I have been really glad to talk to them and discover that practically all of them think globally.

A toast to the first year of my friends' start-up

What are my expectations for the future? As I said in the very beginning, I’m the kind of person who embraces change. I’d like to try something new – not as a hobby, but as a job. Now a couple of my friends and I are working on an Internet-based project which will try to encourage people to waste less time online. Like Kathrin mentioned, the Internet can be great for learning, but it also presents plenty of distractions. I guess that as technology develops, we’re bound to see more edutainment (a combination of education and entertainment) in this sphere.

When we started the blog, I never would have thought how interesting it would turn out to be. I got impressions of educational systems in other countries, got to know my fellow bloggers more and got somehow inspired by what they discussed. It’s a pity there are regions that prevent citizens’ voices from being heard (as in Hellgurd’s case). However, youth can be an enormous force for change. I do hope there will be chances to work together with Hellgurd, Maria, Emmy and Kathrin on other projects – why not on our own?

Does education suffer far from the urban centers and elite universities?

This week I expect to get my diploma – one more step in my higher education which began in 2006. I’ve been thinking a lot about what these years have meant, especially in terms of my decision to leave my original university and study somewhere else.

Several weeks ago I read an interesting column in a daily business newspaper where famous and respected economist Konstantin Sonin touched upon university ratings. The professor’s argument astonished me because he compared the Russian higher education system with its foreign counterparts and went on to say ranking Russian universities at all has basically no point! The reason, he said, is that in our country most university departments offer students a strictly fixed number of courses and disciplines, while there is more variety available to students in other countries. Those models let students adapt their studies to their interests, for example, and it can help them make the transition to working life more smoothly. Kathrin also talked about how this kind of flexibility is important to young people here.

If I hadn’t changed my university in 2008, the article probably wouldn’t have caught my eye. But even 3.5 years later, I remember others asking me: “Why did you do that?” or “Aren’t you dissatisfied with what you find in Smolensk?”

The same old questions suggesting I had made the wrong decision got annoying, and my typical answer was, “You may be right – but what are you doing beyond complaining and trying to frighten others?” I mean, on the one hand, I was seriously dissatisfied, but that can also be a great source of motivation. Either you take the mess and sluggishness that we face here (for instance, rules in most regional universities require high attendance records, which leaves fewer opportunities for flexibility, regardless of whether it’s a lecture that could just as well be followed online or a project discussion where your presence is actually vital) – or you demand a new educational model. I proposed one here.

A question for me - where will my path take me next?

A new, more open approach to education shouldn’t just be applied to schools. It could also be beneficial to cultural, social and economic life generally in Russia and may help us get rid of some stereotypes. As things stand now, we are too dismissive of people with certain issues. For example, I have a friend Nadin, who is a popular beauty-blogger. She writes about fashion and make-up; she adores communicating with people from different countries and trading insight. Using a wheelchair as she does, however, causes a wide reaction of sympathy – hidden or evident – which I find totally wrong and stupid! I’ll try to explain with a simple example: imagine seeing a person carrying a huge pile of books and approaching a closed door. What’s the better move – to stand there feeling sorry for them for having to carry such a heavy load or to open the door and get a thank-you-smile?

Another way to help reduce stereotypes is by studying abroad or popularizing universities in your country with foreign students. This is something Emmy discussed in this entry. The benefits of doing so are often underestimated.

These stereotypes about other countries or ethnicities and about people with disabilities remind me of Francis Bacon’s theory about idols. I believe the more educated a nation is, the fewer “idols” it has. By removing these seemingly fixed ideas, it helps create more opportunities for sustainable development and prosperity.

We need action on the ground, not high-flying abstractions

As Maria noted in her last entry, she believes the social dialogue in Argentina is heading the wrong way – and it seems that every country faces such points in its development. As I look back on my university years, I agree with her.

Sometimes there is too much talking and not enough real action (I don’t just mean the educational sphere only; it can be noticed in all of Russian economic or political life). With all due respect to the talented and brilliant professors and teachers of previous generations who helped several Russian geniuses (mathematician Grigori Perelman, for example) to reveal their potential, I would like to see changes in educational life. What’s quite interesting is that many of my fellow students feel the same; the demand for a new model is in the air. At the same time, those in charge of social institutions are a bit puzzled about the future – as a result, society moves both forward and backward. It reminds me of a fable where three animals have to make enormous efforts to move a carriage, but the carriage remains stuck in one place because they couldn’t come to an agreement.

Documents for senior year research in linguistics

What do I mean by “backward?” All of the red tape and bureaucracy is one example. It’s especially apparent when students prepare their final year research projects. But those pushing forward are stronger. It makes me glad to hear when people are doing things not for bureaucratic abstractions but for concrete goals, like when friends of mine say they are doing something for particular people (working as a tutor or launching their own projects, for example). That is a lot better than hearing they are working for abstract things like “customers” or “corporations.”

I hope the conference devoted to education – Global Media Forum, which is taking place in Germany this week and where my fellow bloggers are in attendance – will result in significant action (especially with the many participants from other continents in attendance). And I hope it will prompt people or small organizations working in education to promote learning and to encourage others to be not just another face in the crowd but to stand out with their own ideas and goals.

It’s like playing chess where you learn to think ahead in order not to lose. Once you adapt the strategy of chess to real life – you’ll benefit!

Libraries have organized discussions for teachers - but none about their rights

Reading Maria’s entry where a teachers’ strike was discussed made me think about dissatisfaction with the Russian education system – both from teachers and others.

What surprises and worries me most is that our teachers never organize strikes or try to make their voices be heard. It happens neither in small cities nor in big ones. I know that most of our university professors do some tutoring or give private lessons throughout the year to earn additional money (for example, before high school students enter a university, their parents often find somebody to give a term-training course to prepare a teenager for the entrance examination). I think a collective demand for better salaries or modern equipment is reasonable – it might result in improving the situation in the whole region (or even several regions), and it is not about giving benefits to any single teacher.
But let’s take a step back – to high school. Several years ago, the process of examination was modernized: Pupils used to take final school exams in June and university entrance exams in July. It meant they had to spend at least 2 months with nerves on end both intellectually and emotionally. Moreover, it seemed to give more dangerous possibilities for corruption: the more links in a chain there are, the more complicated the system is. That makes it easier to find a hole and turn it to one’s advantage.

Forms for the new Unified State Exams

After the so-called reform, the standard pattern of final exams – the Unified State Exam (USE) – was introduced, and the results one earns have replaced the old entrance exams. The government claimed that the new exam would provide students from provinces with more opportunities to study in well-known universities; also, it was supposed to eliminate corruption as the exam marks are not given directly by your teacher but are sent to a special committee that releases its grades only after several days have passed. However, the USE is designed as a set of tests of different types. It is obvious that tests are not enough to discover a student’s creative potential; in fact, they actually obscure creative skills. What about those who want to dive into studying music or arts?

In spite of concerns like these and parents’ complaints, the USE was instated. Recently, there has been a rumor that it may be divided into different levels – from easier to more difficult. I’m afraid it’ll bring back fertile ground for corruption – who on Earth doesn’t want to say they’ve gotten high marks..?

I believe teachers will make their voices heard on the issues relating to the USE. And since we live in a civil society, citizens’ voices on the whole need to be heard. But the question for me is: How much time will it all take?

People need the right environment in order to thrive

Emmy’s entry caught my attention because she talked about something I’ve faced myself – a lack of teachers combined with too many pupils in a class. It usually results in the following: Those who understand and are eager to learn do so, while those who have no intention to learn either sit quietly throughout the term or become obstacles to the teacher. Generally, these types of pupils just aim at getting a “satisfactory” mark. As one of my teachers used to say, it’s a mark that shows nothing – neither your skills in a particular sphere, nor your interests. But still, it’s over the level needed to pass an exam, so you are considered an educated person! There’s a danger when students graduate with most marks just at the satisfactory level. They are de jure qualified enough to work in the area they studied. But, de facto, they are almost incompetent. In reality, they seldom pursue a career in what they studied.
I remember talking to one of my teenage pupils who was surprised to find out that I was going to get a second college degree. He brought up an acquaintance who had two degrees but was working as a shop assistant. Cases like that are exceptions. But there is a real issue concerning the value of education and what it’s good for. I’d like to go into more detail on that.

There are university departments that impart the skills demanded in modern society – the IT sphere is a typical example. But the question of migration, which I touched on in my last entry, comes up here. High salaries are easier to get when working on big projects in big companies – in big cities, so many talented people leave their native cities as bigger places have many more opportunities.

There are also departments that offer majors that are well-known in Europe or America but still underestimated in my country. Medicine is one example. A good specialist in our region earns about $550 a month, but the skills they possess deserve more. That explains why some people I know who were offered a 2-3-year-contract abroad eventually agreed to do it. Many professionals have to find a part-time job to be a proper breadwinner.

There are professions that are vital for a country’s sustainable development but that seem to have been made into a fetish. For example, when I finished school, pursuing a major in economics or law was quite popular because it brought a person closer to finding a well-paid job. However, when I look around now, I have to wonder: Where are all of these qualified lawyers and economists? Have they all become shop assistants?

What I’m driving at is that human nature is a complicated system. Being “successful” is not equal to “having a lot of money.” The right preconditions also often need to be in place for success, like being in an environment that’s friendly and promotes happiness. A friendly atmosphere in schools involves building a community where discrimination against developing certain skills will not be tolerated.