To compare Russian and English schools is not easy. In some subjects your pupils achieve much more: for example in the study of foreign languages and - possibly - mathematics. When I think of the Russian schools I have observed, two differences stand out. First, most Russian children go to the same school from age 7 to age 17. This can make for a very friendly atmosphere, but it does not give the teenagers the same opportunity to develop as teenagers. They are caught in a more childlike atmosphere. Secondly, the fact that almost all teachers are women gives your schools a specific feminised atmosphere: more motherly, more cautious and orthodox, more inclined to encourage agreement and conformity to the standard. These are stereotypes and I am suspicious of stereotypes. In any case, sometimes it is better to be a child for longer; sometimes our teenagers grow up too fast. But on the other hand, it is absolutely obvious, observing your schools, that girls and boys need male teachers, too - to challenge and mock and excite and be a bit crazy in a different way from women. And the motherliness which is fine for little children cannot be so good for older children, for teenagers, who need to take responsibility for themselves.
In Russia since the end of the Soviet Union you have had a debate on whether religious education should be included in the school curriculum, and if so, how it should be taught. The experience of other countries seems to accord with their history rather than their contemporary attitudes. France and the United Slates of America both forbid any teaching or expression of religious beliefs in their schools on the basis of laws made during their revolutionary origins. Now France is a notably secular country but the USA has an astonishingly high proportion of religious believers in the early twenty-firsts century.
In Britain, our great Education Act of 1944 made daily school assemblies of collective Christian worship and religious lessons twice a week compulsory - although parents had the right to withdraw their children if they did not wish them to listen. (At the time of its introduction this meant that a very few Jewish children left the class for those lessons.) The lessons were based closely on Bible stories and on discussion of these stories according to Protestant tradition. In their teenage years older children were able to discuss other religions than Christianity, but lessons were not very systematic. In fact the whole syllabus was very confused; the hour was often used as an excuse for catching up on other work or for class discussions about honesty, responsibility, and so forth. Research shows that Religious Education (RE) was and is extremely unpopular among school children so it is hardly the best introduction to religion!
In the 1970s, as more immigrants entered our schools, head teachers realised that other religions could not be ignored, and that they must develop lessons based on comparing faiths or in finding topics common to all faiths. RE also became more secularised in order not to upset children from different backgrounds. Although such changes were based on commonsense and on what was actually happening in our classrooms, such schools were and are in effect breaking the law which was re-affirmed in 1988 and 1998. Governments do not want to change the law because they are reluctant to appear not to care about religion. However, recently a group of MPs pointed out that not only over-16s (who are legally adults) but also under-16s should be allowed to opt out of RE classes if they disagree with their content. They warn that the Government could be breaching younger pupils' rights to freedom of thought, conscience and belief, as defined in the European Convention on Human Rights, by denying them the choice to attend or withdraw from acts of worship and religious lessons. [This is a good example of the way that European Codes of Law have an impact on our common law. See Part 5, Chapter 3.]
The other big debate in recent years has been about 'faith schools'. 'Faith schools' are - very strangely - state schools which teach a particular religion (Church of England, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish) and which give RE a larger place in the curriculum. Such schools appeal to parents who want their children to be educated within a certain religious ethos. These schools are also controversial. Educationalists and many parents ask whether it is wise to educate certain groups of children separately from the rest: if they study only with the children of families who think like their families, will they not develop into isolated teenagers, suspicious of others in the local community? The experience of Northern Ireland with its Protestant and Catholic schools and its divided community demonstrates that 'faith schools' can increase intolerance of other people. So although some parents welcome the idea that their children should be educated according to their own religious beliefs, both political and educational worries about the effects of faith schools on social cohesion within communities are such that these schools are unlikely to increase in number. Historically the fact that the state supports them at all (in almost all other countries they would be private schools) is an anomaly.
You are eighteen years old. You are about to take your A-level exams over the next two or three weeks. You do not have an exam every day, but for three weeks you are struggling to revise between the first exam and the last. After the exams you will celebrate with parties and farewells and promises to-meet-again-in-ten-years-time. And then a new adventure beckons: entry into university. In order to learn about our universities, turn to the next chapter.
Chapter 5. Our Universities: Students, Scholars and Controversy
Some terminology will be useful before you read this chapter, because not only do the British and Russians use some words differently, but Americans use them differently from either of us. In this chapter I am, naturally, using British terminology.
(1) Student means anyone studying for any course which is at a more advanced level than school courses. (In fact, 'school student' is now quite common for older school children. So you can be a student between the ages of 15 and 95!)
(2) Undergraduate means a student working for his or her first degree. This usually takes three years of full-time study in England and successful students are normally awarded either a B.A. or a B.Sc. (Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science). There are other, less common, types of first degree.
(3) Degree means a qualification awarded by a university which is widely recognised and is, in some sense, similar to other degrees with the same title, even if the courses are quite different. Despite this official explanation, we know very well that a degree from a high-ranking university will not be the same as a degree from a low-ranking university.
(4) A post-graduate is someone studying for a second or further degree.
(5) A university teacher is usually called a 'lecturer'. More experienced teachers may be promoted to 'senior lecturer'. We have no assistant or associate professors as in America -for us, a Professor is a Professor and you have to be both good and experienced to become one. We have no special professorial degree like your 'doktorat'.