LIFE HERE

LAFAYETTE AND CHEBOKSARY

From October 14-October 31, I participated in the TEA Program (Teacher Excellence Award) sponsored by the American Councils for International Education. I was chosen as one of 29 teachers from the U.S. to serve as a public ambassador to one of the Newly Independent States (NIS). I traveled to Cheboksary, Russia. I am from Lafayette, Indiana, in the U.S.A. I am the founder and executive director of a small independent (private) school in our town. In addition, I am currently teaching physics and chemistry at a Catholic High School.
I visited School No. 44 in Cheboksary, located in the Republic of Chuvashia. My host teacher was Nina Korosteleva. The director of the school is Konstantin Gavirovich Sinev.

During the week and one half I had for visiting, I spent time in English classes, physics classes, math classes, and a chemistry class, observing the teaching and interaction of the teachers and students. I also walked in and out of elementary, art, and music classrooms. School No. 44 has the top rating of all schools in the Chuvash republic, and the reasons for this status quickly became clear. Students were focused, engaged, and disciplined. The school’s director explained to me that it took ten years to get their school to this level. He explained his philosophy that discipline must be brought and taught from the adults with firm expectations for compliance until the student learns to be self-disciplined. He indicated his school was not always this way.

The result, from what I observed first-hand, indicated a high level of learning. In an eleventh form English class, students were challenged to think critically about their views of the main character, Holden, in the American novel by J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye. The students were led through an interactive analysis of the book by one of their classmates. They were asked whether they felt that Holden’s personal quest during his journey through adolescence was universal for all teenagers or unique to the American way of life. They included me in their discussion to provide American views.

During visits to three physics classes, I observed an enthusiastic and animated teacher who was passionate about his subject. He interspersed the Socratic method of moving his students forward through questions, with a strong sense of humor. At one point as my host teacher was translating his lesson to me, he stopped and responded, “We have a Russian teacher who doesn’t know physics and an physics teacher who doesn’t know Russian.” In addition, students were called to the board to demonstrate their knowledge to their peers. On a collegial level, this teacher expressed interest in offering to share a textbook he has written by translating it so we can begin international efforts to help the U.S. reach a performance level in physics commensurate with Russia and to help American students prepere for participation in world scientific Olympiads.

In addition to visiting School No. 44, I had the opportunity to visit School No. 15, which is a magnet school for special needs students. Here I witnessed another first place school in Russia for its success in preparing students for productive adult lives outside the standard academic approach. Each student is led to find/discover his or her passion. This includes the finest training in the arts, sports, and vocational trades, including cuisenaire art and horticulture. Having taught in a U.S. school for students who were expelled and wards of the court, I highly valued what I saw because of my own experience of often seeing highly artistic students reach the legal system. I shared with the director of School 15, Valeryi Grigoriev, of the books of poetry I’ve read written by people from prison, and of the beautiful wood duck my husband had purchased from a “prison store” we visited on a trip through Maine.

With both schools and their directors and teachers, I experienced common philosophical beliefs regarding teaching methods and our own personal beliefs in God being our strength and guide in our efforts to bring out the best in our students.

Another visit outside of the realm of education made a huge impression from my visit to Cheboksary. My host teacher’s husband is a surgeon at one of the five hospitals in Cheboksary. Since I had spent 16 years as a medical technologist in the clinical laboratory of hospitals prior to becoming a teacher, I asked if it was possible to visit the hospital where Seregey practices medicine. I was given a tour, including what I assume was the emergency room. I found little available for these doctors to work with; indeed, anything and everything they have is antiquated. The doctors asked me to inquire about the possibility of locating a source of scrub suits, but also indicated a need for pharmaceuticals, especially antibiotics and insulin. As I observed patients lying in conditions far less than even what the poorest of U.S. patients would experience, my heart and soul were unsettled.

On our last night in Moscow, we visited the Kremlin Theatre Ballet and I saw such beautiful costumes and facilities and contrasted this with that hospital and the schools in Cheboksary. The contrast made no sense to me. I struggled with the dichotomy. And yet the people of Cheboksary presented a foretaste of what heaven must be like with their care and love. What Seregey could not give to the patients under his care, he gave to me in love. When he thought that I was cold because of my being used to 25 degree (Celsius) temperatures, he came home one night with a pair of “Russian super shoes for Julie.” From teachers and superintendents to the Mayor of Cheboksary and the first assistant to the President and administrator for foreign affairs for the Chuvash Republic—all are interested and positive about working to find ways Lafayette and Cheboksary could become sister cities and that the Republic of Chuvashia and the State of Indiana can find common grounds for exchange. But the connections went beyond “the politics.” My 82-year-old mother and mother-in-law wrote letters to Nina’s 76-year-old mother, who, in turn, sent a letter back to these ladies. They shared their experiences growing up 7000 miles apart. The third grade students from St. Lawrence Elementary School in Lafayette sent the students from School 44 letters. School 44 students returned letters and art work. As facilitator for these exchanges of personal histories, I noticed common threads. Indeed, my own and Nina’s thinking and philosophies were very similar, leaving us with a goal for a proposal for a project involving the two schools to answer the question, “Have our cultural pasts influenced our development of beliefs and values?”

I see many exciting possibilities and beneficial growth for all. Each school, city, and state/province stands to gain from exchanging ideas and help for one another. I thank the American Councils for this opportunity for putting our cities on one another’s maps and to bridge the 7000 mile distance between us.

Julie A. Conlon Lafayette, Indiana