Cheburashka on the selector
Characters: head of the city methodological center (RGMC), head of the education department (RDO), school director (DS)
RGMC: Dear colleagues, this is an absolutely wonderful assignment - to bring the Cheburashka product. And either the whole family made this “Cheburashka” product at home, or the whole family was looking for this “Cheburashka”. And every child knows that Cheburashka lives in a box of oranges. So I think there is some problem. If this product is made in school, then why do we carry it back and forth? RDO: Alexander Yakovlevich! DS: Yes, Isaac Iosifovich! RDO: What is your attitude towards this kind of homework? DS: Isaac Iosifovich, well, after March 10, we prepared an order after things like this... when they appear in electronic magazines from some teachers to bring something. And every teacher was familiarized with it. And in our country there is a general ban on bringing anything into your homework. But at some point, of course, this is not egregious, but... we are not allowed, in general. Control over monitoring and logs by the administration was weakened. And, in general, they will, of course, receive punishment there, but we, of course, are against it. In general, I am against bringing it at all. The school itself must provide all the connecting materials... RDO: But I’m wondering how many days are given to an unfortunate family to complete such a task? Or they wrote this in the evening, and in the morning... RGMC: It happens that you write it in the evening, but have to bring it back tomorrow morning... Maximum two or three days. RDO: Alexander Yakovlevich, do you have a lot of Cheburashkas at home? Personally? DS: None. RDO: Not a single one! And you say, this is not a flagrant violation! DS: Flagrant violation. RDO: A! Blatant! DS: Yes. RDO: Well, you said you have a ban. Your employee violated your prohibition. Your decision? DS: Well, that means the head teacher, he was reprimanded. The employee was also reprimanded, as was the teacher. Well, ultimately, there will be another... pedagogical council, and this will be announced. Well, in general, we will reach out to every teacher that this is a very serious violation. RDO (sighs heavily): Alexander Yakovlevich, if a ban can be violated with virtually impunity, then who will consider it a ban? So I understand that it says on the box: “Don’t get in! He will kill!”, and a skull and crossbones are drawn. Everyone understands that this is a ban, that you cannot touch electrical wires. Because he will kill. This is a ban. And this is how it is with you... We tried it, violated it, nothing happened - that’s it, the ban was lifted. You can cancel, Alexander Yakovlevich. DS: (nods his head down). RDO: If the ban can be violated with impunity, then the ban must be lifted urgently. And write: “I was wrong. Everyone is allowed to wear Cheburashkas and crocodiles...” It’s good that they didn’t write: “Bring a crocodile,” and even without quotation marks. Is this our Northeast? Is the inspector here? So, tell the curator that I am waiting for decisions on the director. Petr Sarukhanov / “Novaya”Teachers have been discussing a video about Cheburashka every day. And even, scary to say, they are discussing whether to write an open letter to the Great and Terrible Head of the Moscow Department of Education, Mr. Kalina, that it is impossible to behave like that with people.
In fact: everyone who has ever watched the broadcast of meetings in the Department of Education, Isaac Iosifovich Kalina’s style of communication with his subordinates is painfully familiar. It is reminiscent of Stalin’s manner of communication with the People’s Commissars. The boss asks questions to which only he himself knows the answers, the subordinate stutters, blushes, mumbles, those present try to blend in with the surrounding environment.
The Moscow education system - and not only Moscow's - is built on the vertical of fear. Everyone is afraid of everyone. Everything you do at school, you do before the first parent who decides to complain about you: whether he doesn’t like the amount of homework or the wording of the essay topic.
It's not easy for parents of schoolchildren. When at eleven o’clock at night your child suddenly remembers that tomorrow he needs to bring to school a month’s diary of nature observations, a presentation on the topic “Inhabitants of the Forest-Steppes” or a soft toy “little fox,” parents go wild. They become wild even if the child is asked to choose which poem about nature he himself would like to learn by heart, and if he needs to bring a compass to school tomorrow. They are tired of learning for their children. Buy crafts with them (didn’t you know? There’s a whole black market for crafts made from natural materials to start with!). Draw outline maps for them, make presentations (nobody in their right mind thinks that an 8-year-old child is capable of making a Power Point presentation on his own, right?).
All year my parents were moaning: what the hell are acorns and chestnuts when it’s been snowing for three weeks? Will we give birth to them, or what? Why does the teacher give a bad mark for not having a protractor? Is it really not possible to give everyone a protractor during class?
These screams reached the right ears. Retribution has overtaken the perpetrators. Now teachers in many Moscow schools are strictly forbidden to write the word “bring” in the “homework” column, even if they are required to bring a compass to a math lesson. Just “don’t forget the compass.”
The culprits are publicly flogged to discourage others. Has justice triumphed? Yes, exactly.
A teacher I know writes: “I have no right to take fifteen-year-old students to the park without a second chaperone and without written permission from the parents. I don’t have the right to show them a movie of my choice in class because some of the parents will probably not like my choice and they will complain.”
The parents were so tired of being afraid of the school that they rebelled, and now the school is afraid of them.
And for school, being afraid is a common way of doing things.
When I was a child, school was ruled by fear. A call to the director, a call to the teachers' council, a review of personal matters at a Komsomol meeting - they were afraid of all this. At one time it seemed that it was not worth keeping the population in constant fear, that they could try to relieve the fear. But if you remove the fear, then you have to take people into account, talk, and this is difficult, because they are unreasonable and make noise in different voices.
Everyone who has been at a parent-teacher meeting has probably at least once been tempted to shoot a blank into the air as a warning when Petya’s mother once again asks if it’s possible to wear a light gray T-shirt instead of a white one for physical education. And then it seems that the most effective way to manage this confusion is to frighten everyone to such an extent that they stand in line against the wall and are afraid to cough.
The bullshit is that when you stand toe-to-toe against the wall and are afraid to cough, it’s impossible to study. And it is also impossible to teach. At least according to the Federal State Educational Standards, or at least the old fashioned way. Cognitive activity is a capricious thing: it wakes up only when a person does not experience anxiety, when he trusts the one who leads him through a new world further into the unknown.
But today’s schools don’t know how to teach without fear and manage without fear. She doesn't have such methods. And there are none in the state; Before they had time to work on it, they again decided to take it out of fear. And what to do when they try to control you with the help of fear, teachers also don’t know.
...No one at the department meeting stood up and said, like Alice at the trial: “You’re just cards.”
Nobody even tried. Scary.
We are actually very brave, honestly. But I will also bravely sign this text with a pseudonym. Not because I’m afraid of Isaac Iosifovich and the entire Department of Education taken together. Although I really don’t like it when they shout at me, and I can even cry.
It's simple: I didn't build this school. I'm not the one running it. I'll put in my ten hours a week and leave. I will finish this year and can quit, they will find a new teacher in my place - and the school will remain. We all saw what can be done with the school in the process of reorganizing schools into large complexes.
Isaac Kalina. Photo: RIA Novosti We know: the school can be decapitated because of Cheburashka. This is within the limits of the law. The school can be completely destroyed, and we also saw this.
And my individual courage, which costs me nothing, in general, because I’m not risking anything except one of several jobs, will turn into the destruction of someone’s life’s work.
It is difficult for a teacher to be brave - he always has hostages. And it’s difficult for him to teach him to be brave: well, he will leave school under the power of the tyrant director, as in “Dead Poets Society,” but the children will remain. Is it the teacher's responsibility or irresponsibility?
No matter how they try to convince us that our work is pure technology, it still comes down to ethics. And no technology works without ethics. And no car drives for long on pure fear. And if it goes, then it falls apart. Saltykov-Shchedrin has it all written down.
Anna Gamalova,
for "Novaya"
The prospect that the Internet will be replaced in Russia by its own information system, code-named "Cheburashka", causes more fears than skepticism among experts.
The initiative was taken by Federation Council Senator Maxim Kavdzharadze. He proposed creating in Russia “its own internal Russian information system”, closed to the EU and the USA. The senator representing the Lipetsk Regional Council of Deputies in the Federation Council suggested calling it not too seriously - “Crocodile Gena” or, at worst, “Cheburashka”.
The senator’s words could easily be taken as a joke, if not for one “but.”
On the direct line, President Vladimir Putin gave his assessment of the Internet, saying that the World Wide Web was created as a special project of the US CIA. The guarantor also promised that domestic Internet companies will soon receive support from the authorities. These statements suggest that Senator Kavjaradze's initiative can count on the highest support.
Is the idea of creating a separate Internet network realistic? Can it become a reality in the current political conditions?
Novaya asked experts about what kind of animal is actually hidden behind the figure of the furry creature.
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Part of the transcript of a conference call at which senior education officials discussed a topic related to Cheburashka and the crocodile Gena.
"Characters: Head of the city methodological center (RGMC), Head of the Department of Education (RDO), School Director (DS)
RGMC: Dear colleagues, this is an absolutely wonderful order - to bring the “Cheburashka” product. And either the whole family made this “Cheburashka” product at home, or the whole family was looking for this “Cheburashka”. And every child knows that Cheburashka lives in a box of oranges. So I think there is some problem. If this product is made in school, then why do we carry it back and forth?
RDO: Alexander Yakovlevich!
DS: Yes, Isaac Iosifovich!
RDO: What is your attitude to this kind of homework?
DS: Isaac Iosifovich, well, after March 10, we prepared an order after things like this... when they appear in electronic magazines from some teachers to bring something. And every teacher was familiarized with it. And in our country there is a general ban on bringing anything into your homework. But at some point, of course, this is not egregious, but... we are not allowed, in general. Control over monitoring and logs by the administration was weakened. And, in general, they will, of course, receive punishment there, but we, of course, are against it. In general, I am against bringing it at all. The school itself must provide all the connecting materials...
RDO: But I’m wondering how many days are given to an unfortunate family to complete such a task? Or they wrote this in the evening, and in the morning...
RGMC: It happens that you write it in the evening, but have to bring it back tomorrow morning... Maximum two or three days.
RDO: Alexander Yakovlevich, do you have a lot of Cheburashkas at home? Personally?
DS: None.
RDO: Not a single one! And you say, this is not a flagrant violation!
DS: A blatant violation.
RDO: Ah! Blatant!
RDO: Well, you said that you have a ban. Your employee violated your prohibition. Your decision?
DS: Well, that means the head teacher has been reprimanded. The employee was also reprimanded, as was the teacher. Well, ultimately, there will be another... pedagogical council, and this will be announced. Well, in general, we will reach out to every teacher that this is a very serious violation.
RDO (sighs heavily): Alexander Yakovlevich, if a ban can be violated with virtually impunity, then who will consider it a ban? So I understand that on the box it says: “Don’t get in! He’ll kill you!”, and there’s a skull and crossbones drawn on it. Everyone understands that this is a ban, that you cannot touch electrical wires. Because he will kill. This is a ban. And this is how it is with you... They tried, they violated, nothing happened - that’s it, the ban was lifted. You can cancel, Alexander Yakovlevich.
DS: (nods head down).
RDO: If the ban can be violated with impunity, then the ban must be lifted urgently. And write: “I was mistaken. Everyone is allowed to wear Cheburashkas, crocodiles...” It’s good that they didn’t write: “Bring a crocodile,” and even without quotation marks.
Is this our Northeast? Is the inspector here? So, tell the curator that I’m waiting for decisions on the director.”
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About Cheburashka and more...
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- 30.04.2017
The publication of Vladimir Pogodin about Cheburashka, who cannot be asked to bring a student in Moscow, caused discussion on Facebook. A variety of opinions were expressed.
Boris Startsev:“I’ll insert my 5 cents into the topic “There are no Cheburashkas.”
Who is not in the tank - the point is that the Moscow authorities noticed the homework assignment “Bring a Cheburashka” in the electronic diary of one of the schools. At the selector meeting, the director was given a dressing down for this - he vaguely made excuses, saying that he had forbidden this, to which Kalina told him - that if it was forbidden, and the teachers do not listen, a decision will be made on your person. Well, in general, you cannot demand that you bring Cheburashkas to school, because not every family has these Cheburashkas.
The feed on the topic is completely negative, Kalina is being scolded, but I, from my selfish parent-student position, will probably support it.
From my own difficult childhood I remember two cases when I was ordered to bring something to school. The first case - for a botany lesson, the teacher demanded wild radish. This is a wild plant, a yellow flower, for which I ran all over Northern Tushino and probably also part of Southern. But I didn’t find it and therefore didn’t bring it. I don’t remember what I felt for it, but I remembered the damned radish for the rest of my life. After some time, quite by accident, on Leningradka, in the area of tank hedgehogs, where IKEA is now, I came across a whole clearing of this radish. And I thought: oh, I wish I knew it was growing here!
And the second case - I once wrote about it here - when in natural history it was necessary to make a model of a thermometer at home and bring it to school. It was required that this model have a red ribbon, which supposedly shows the temperature, so - it was necessary to bring it urgently - I had to cut my mother's pioneer tie, which she had kept since the 1950s - by local standards, a kind of family heirloom.
By the way, in my current school life, such cases have not happened to the child. Although if they had ordered to bring a Cheburashka like that, they would have run to the “European” and honestly bought it. But it's better without it. Of course, I remember a lot of nonsense from childhood and youth (the closer I get to old age, the more it seems), but these cases, when the teacher’s demand to bring something to school either turns out to be impossible for objective reasons, or is fraught with serious costs, stuck firmly in my head. Perhaps these were psychological micro-traumas, amplified by the excellent student syndrome.
So it’s better without Cheburashkas, Kalina is right.”
Svetlana Lavrentieva:“Okay, Cheburashka... But what about those schools that still teach home economics, including cooking, as part of the subject “Material Technologies”? Products for classes are also the school’s area of responsibility? And who and when will they provide them? should I buy? As far as I know, the school must purchase absolutely everything through a tender announcement. A dozen eggs and 100 grams of vegetable oil for the lesson, too? Or will Mr. Kalina order to study cooking using an interactive whiteboard, without a stove? Why can’t the teacher ask for something? Bring what you need for the lesson, if your parents don’t mind?”
Arina Pavlova: " And if on page d it is written “Bring the text of Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin”?.. the question is still that Cheburashek cannot be used or the word “bring” cannot be used? I’m worried...”
Anatoly Shperkh:“Well, in this analysis on the selector there is no analysis of the pedagogical case. Do you understand which Cheburashka should be brought? How long is this task given?
Why did Cheburashka come into being and why should it be brought at all?
Considering such issues out of context is not only pointless, but criminal.
As a result, it turns out that the fight is not against a phenomenon (the compulsion to bring objects needed to support the educational process to school), but against the use of words. If the teacher had not written the ill-fated word “bring”, everything would have been tip-top.
But the main question, which is completely behind the scenes: what kind of strange task is this? Which Cheburashka do you mean? Doll? Craft? Book?
Not a word about this."
Comments (11)
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Status in the community: User
On the website: 8 years
Occupation: Journalist
Region of residence: Moscow, Russia
Enriching the language through borrowing is wonderful! This does not make the language worse, only richer. Each speaker has a choice of which word to use in a given situation. And having such a choice is good, not bad.
Yes, yes. Just not for the Russian language. It's funny to "enrich" the richest language. But for the primitive poor English language of the left hemisphere - this may be true.
Status in the community: User
On the website: 3 years
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Region of residence: Rostov region, Russia
https://vk.com/wall96055579_613
Status in the community: User
On the website: 8 years
Occupation: Teacher in
Region of residence: Moscow, Russia
I agree with Anatoly. The director asked what exactly the teacher meant? Maybe I needed to finish the product at home. The children did not have time for the lesson. After all, it is prohibited to detain children after school! Well, in the end, they didn’t hear a good word about this teacher. I wish I could stand up! How would I answer? I would defend the honor of the teacher! Explained what the teacher meant. Nothing to lose anyway!
Status in the community: User
On the website: 4 years
Occupation: Primary school teacher in educational organization
Region of residence: Leningrad region, Russia
How tired the word “case” is...
Status in the community: User
On the website: 2 years
Occupation: Deputy Head of organizations of additional education
Region of residence: St. Petersburg, Russia
What's the problem, gentlemen? Foul language? I understand where the roots come from.
A businessman comes to an official for permission for his business project. Receives the answer: “The price of the question is to bring one and a half lemon Cheburashkas in a case, and it’s done.”
The deputies found out about this story and began to work on regulatory legislation. The word “bring in” was unanimously condemned as an artifact of profanity. A bill was introduced that strongly recommended that the use of the jargon “bring in” be avoided, replacing it with the more neutral “bring in.” True, they did not know that their colleagues in the field of providing cultural services to society, for similar reasons, had already put forward a bill prohibiting the encoding of banknotes with Cheburashkas and the use of such anti-Russian jargon as case, instead of expressing themselves strictly within the framework of Russian cultural traditions: “give on paw."
Yesterday, meticulous activists for the modernization of education tortured me as to why I was browsing on the Pedagogical Council website, instead of just publishing an article about my educational concept. I was embarrassed to admit that before I sit down to write, I consider it necessary to clarify which aspects are worthy of the teachers’ attention and which aspects have long been known to them, which is why I communicate. But this topic has broken all records of my ideas about the current state of affairs with the standard of education.
My God! Everything has long been standardized! Right down to the case price list for various teaching aids! There is no time for questions like: at least the children were shown a cartoon on the screen, what happens to a plant planted in the soil, why is a flower pot needed and what are its advantages and disadvantages?
Now I realized that with my concept of education I turned out to be a typical knight of a sad image, who is fighting at the windmills of an already completely standardized education, in which every little thing is provided for, such as a case of flower pots. Indeed, I am an old idiot and an over-aged daydreaming Mitrofonushka with educational cases as an adjective, but not a noun, of the problem of school education!
World! Work! May! Case! Pres!! Tea!
Status in the community: User
On the website: 2 years
Occupation: Pensioner
Region of residence: Moscow, Russia
Case? It’s clear that this one has brains - wow, Amerov’s zombie!
You don’t have to listen to people like that, they’re zombies, poor fellows. If they cannot express their thoughts in Russian, this means that they no longer have their own thoughts, they are erased by “Amer slang”.
It is necessary to reduce the number of such zombies! This is one of the conditions for Russian survival.
Status in the community: User
On the website: 3 years
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Region of residence: Rostov region, Russia
