5 ms·
> What definitely exists in Russia (or at least some big cities) is a system of free after-school classe I've been studying in a "respected" Soviet / early pos
by lotusmars 5y ago
> What definitely exists in Russia (or at least some big cities) is a system of free after-school classe
I've been studying in a "respected" Soviet / early post-Soviet school.
These classes were super elitist and had a huge disconnect in their level from what you were taught in regular classes.
I was a straight A student and was shut off very quickly. The problems were enormous in their difficulty and teachers had zero interest in helping or educating you.
Those classes were either for 0,1% genius olympiadniks to be later recruited for Soviet science or defense, or for 0,1% elite (Soviet nomenclature) kids whose parents could afford private education.
Along with other naive/poor kids I was quite quickly reminded that I'm not welcome in the circle.
Just a reminder that Soviet system had very entrenched elites and huge discrepancy in access to education, medicine and goods.
- please-reread 5y agosorry to hear you were not oplymiadniks material :(
- lotusmars 5y agoI know you're trolling yet this approach turned off not only me but lots of talented kids from math and technology for years. We thought we were "bad at math" when in reality our parents couldn't afford to buy teachers' unofficial private time. Education (or diplomas and connections to be exact) was a huge status symbol in USSR.
- varjag 5y agoYeah same. Our town had a "smart kids" school and a dozen of ordinary ones. I once won the town's informatics Olympiad in my age cohort, so to prepare for the regional stage they dispatched me over to that school's auspices for training. The teacher literally ignored my presence; so in the next competition I had to use both IBM PC and Pascal for the first time in my life. Scored something like 12th out of 40, but the teacher gloated on the way back. I seriously think the "no child left behind" type education so derided here produces better general outcome. Holding up resources for a few select students is quite the opposite of meritocracy.
- aj3 5y agoEh, I've studied in a "respected" post-Soviet school as well and can't related to this at all. Teachers were awesome and passionate, had really thorough understanding of math (and physics, and chemistry), without any hint of elitism. It's almost as if there are good and bad math teachers (in all countries).
- przemub 5y agoHaha, exactly the same experience, but more recent, and in Poland. In Eastern Europe this is exactly what a "respected" school means. Olympiadnikas and nomenclature in particular bring back a lot of memories.