USA vs Russia – SCHOOLS (plus my Russian school tour)

Your old school looks amazing!! Russia needs talented people like you, i hope you get a chance to go back and help your country one day.

Teachers change because they are paid so little. American government does not care about its citizens because it relies on the illusion of wealth to attract professionals from the world. Look at our physicians- it costs 400k to go to med school and salary when you get out is 100k. Hence we import physicians.

I wonder if the social life in schools being so static is why Russians are supposedly more loyal friends than Americans. I only have one friend I still talk to from High School. What is this called? A Gesellshaft society if I remember right. It fits people who would rather have a whole house to themselves when they get home. The only reason to go and deal with people is to come home and be alone. Shit, my neighbor with 4 kids and a wife mows his lawn that takes 15 minutes to mow, almost everyday for 2 hours. It's his way to get some alone time...

One thing I have noticed about Russians... I do believe as a group they tend to focus more on the past: old Russian literature, old wars, history, being first in space, etc. Americans tend to spend more time - in general, not always - focusing on the future. But as a real stupid smart kid, I skipped so much school and still wondered why our schools were teaching so slow. Book smart, socially awkward, little shithead trouble maker I was.

Holy horse tits and skunk ass! That school looks like they were planning on building a gas station and decided to build a prison next to the gas pumps instead.

Nowadays they teach kids to hate their country.

When I grew up in the 70s it was much better.

Some people can't read at a 2nd grade level when they graduate.

Teacher's unions rule everything.

Mixing classes also decreases fights of classes. Kids all over the school get to know each other better and make friends and bridges with other classes too.

I graduated from a parochial school in 1969. In other words, AGES ago! From Kindergarten to 8th grade I went to school with the same people like you. It's only when I went to high school that we were mixed up. I had a home room and the students in that "class" stayed the same for our four years, but all that happened in home room was that our "teacher" took attendance in the morning and that was it. It's hard in our HSs cause different students take different courses of study. We had core courses that we had to take if we wanted an academic diploma, but there was plenty of room to take other courses. And then there were those who didn't go for an academic diploma. They studied trades etc.

I went to school in upstate ny and my school was preschool-highschool in one building

Бутифале видеос

Я, конечно, всë понимаю, но... МАГАЗИН В ШКОЛЕ?!

Russian education system is quite similar to that of the Indian one but both American and Russian education system have their own merits and demerits

I think in school I read several books, which we read together in class. I will say this, as an adult, many people read the latest authors. I don't remember reading the classics in school. It's very rare to hear of anybody, in school or out, reading the classics of literature. However, as an adult, I have read Robin Cook, Ted Dekker, and science fiction authors. Although, as of late, I find myself reading non-fiction. I find that those of my friends who like to read, prefer reading non-fiction. Just something that I have observed throughout my decades on this earth. However, I want to add, I remember reading a Russian story titled Nose. Also, I am trying to learn Russian, and would love to learn enough to read a short story in Russian. Русский язык очень красивый.

Love your videos! About literature, the first thing to understand is that there's no such thing as "American education." What is taught, how it's taught and the competence of students/teachers varies significantly from state to state and district to district (not taking into account private schools). I was fortunate to attend a good school with great literature teachers . . . and became a literature teacher myself. During the 80s, the outlook on teaching literature began to change. In general, the humanities were downgraded as inessential to producing workers and many students complained that they had no interest in reading "dead white men."

I don't agree with separate levels. It differentiates. Juniors must learn from seniors. This is also needed. It is up to someone whether he follows prohibited things or not. I think it comes from his or her family culture. They must be trained at home about it.

I support school uniform. As you say that younger age is much about exploring things, but it is not true to all the countries. In our country three different classes of people are there, rich, middle class and lower class. Schools and universities implement dress code so as not to put those in awkward situation, who can't afford.

Russian education sounds like a much more "classical" education than the American version. I've worked in US public schools now for almost 23 years (not a teacher thank goodness) and I have to say that US education is of exceptionally low quality. And I say this as an immigrant. This is a result of many factors. Some are. US education was always set up to turn out people who could just go get a job on the factory floor. So aspirations towards intellectual prowess were never valued as much as European countries. Next since the liberal hijacking of the US education system in the 70's it has become significantly politicised to the point where the traditional things you mentioned such as an emphasis on literature, skills in mathamatics, physics, geography etc are considered too "old fashioned" not to mention downright elitist in many cases. Also there is a corresponding complete breakdown and lack of discipline in US classrooms. This is not just the fault of the schools but society as a whole. When you can't discipline the kids you can't teach them anything because you spend over half your time as a teacher just trying to control the riot in your classroom. Some schools will be better than others depending on the area they are in but in general this holds true for public schools in the US. There is no discipline, therefore no ability to apply rigor therefore no persuit of excellence and therfore a poor quality education.

I'm cuban and it's honestly embarrasing to see that a communist 3er wolrd country has better education than U.S, YES U.S education sucks and it's at the bottom in mathclasses. My parents studied in Russia in 1980's and they say that not only Russians have a bigger brain also Schools are better and tough. If you want a good education for your kids in 2022, avoid US schools at all cost or pay for a private tutor but still it may not be worth it.

I have known many students who were in my school briefly, from one to five years due to their parents working nearby. If a better job opportunity came along somewhere else, thousands of kilometers in another city, the whole family goes to their new town. Maybe only 100 of us began the first grade at age 6 graduating from high school 11 years later. And then maybe 20 of us went to the nearest two year community college. And so we knew each other very well, and had many successful reunions, a banquet on Saturday night, once every five years, and a huge picnic for all alumni on Sunday afternoon. But my wife's experience was much different. She was pulled from one high school and transferred to another, due to the exploding population. By the time, they had reunions, they were not successful. My wife lost interest in going to her own reunions, which often never took place.

I really liked your school's cafeteria/eating area. Super clean! The quality of food in U.S. schools is going to depend on the school district and their level of funding (which often comes from property taxes). As a military family, we move around every 2-4 years, and we've seen quite a few differences between school systems. My family once lived near Omaha, Nebraska, and my daughter described their school lunches as amazing. When we re-located near Nashville, Tennessee, she said that the school's food quality was terrible. Regarding building plans, K-12 schools can be found in some small towns, but, in general, most states split class groups between elementary, middle, and high school buildings. In the Mojave Desert in California, some schools have an interesting arrangement of buildings, courtyards, and outdoor structures instead of just one single building (it's actually really neat).

Daria, regarding literature and geography teaching in schools, this depends on the school system. I attended school in Missouri, and we learned geography quite extensively. But this was in the 1980s-1990s, at a time when we had our own globes, and well before Google Earth. Today, I can ask my son about any country on the planet (i.e., Azerbaijan), and he can show me where it is, and give me a brief history lesson. Unfortunately, you are going encounter people who don't know the difference between a country and a continent. As for literature, this also depends on the school system, but I would estimate that your are correct (though I don't speak for everyone). Thank you for these videos! We really appreciate your perspective.

Beautiful family and beautifully decorated home for Christmas!

I don’t know about Colorado but I have not used checks since the early 90’s . I am sure Russian schools are superior to USA schools. Yes the food snd groceries are awful. Compared to anywhere else in the world. If I was this miserable in Colorado I would consider moving back to Russia. I don’t want to sound mean but it gets tiring to hear how awful we are

Hi Daria,
Your observations about Americans not recognizing historical writers and poets is spot on. Most Americans do not read classical literature unless it is assigned to them.

Computers started to be more commonplace in school as of around 1983, so you need to get a much older person from the US to know more about literature without having gone to college. So around 55yo and older.

As for geography, I learned more outside schooling than in school. Generally it wasn't needed or drilled in so people forget.

I think it's often best to have teachers that are best suited to an age group. Like a kindergarten teacher isn't ready to teach 3rd and higher.

Junior highs seem to be only in areas of a population boom, that they needed more room in the elementary school and probably needed a bigger high school too.

I would like to make a few comments for you, Daria, in my area where I lived there was kindergarten on its own, and there was a first through 6th grade combined. Each had a homeroom, and then they were farmed out to various English and math classes according to their ability and then once a week, there was a history, class and a science class, and they music the class, combining several grades together. Then once seventh and eighth grade started, there was no home class. You just had a list of classes that you bounced around the school with and then the same thing happened in high school. I only got the equivalent of approximately six months in geography my entire time in school. also, I had the equivalent of only two years in literature space I was only required to take English classes, and I never took a foreign language that was obliged. Suffice it to say that I was dissatisfied with what was offered to me over the 12 years of school.

I like k-6 and then 7-12. Putting 7 and 8 together is too many hormones in the same place

Interesting, I am Russian from St-Petersburg and I work in a Year 6 class in an English primary school. In England children start school at 4 years old. So in Year 6 they are 10-11 years old. I know what you mean about developing deeper connections when you teach children all through the primary (you call it elementary) school. I am not sure now which way I would prefer it to be. In England, we do it the same way as in America. I often get attached to my class and feel sad that the following year, I will not be working with them. However, sometimes I can't wait for some of them to go. I am not sure if it's deemed a good thing to get too attached to each other over here. It's just a different cultural outlook on things.

“We had a class on economics in Russia, but it wasn’t that good” 😂😂

I know this wasn’t intended as a joke but I couldn’t stop laughing that’s HILARIPUS 😂😂😂😂

I wish we had the same teacher throughout school. I can see the benefit of this. Wearing a uniform is easier too then you don't have to have new clothes for school each year. Studying with the same classmates for all of your schooling is beneficial too. I think my school was different than most schools in the United States. We had lots of geography and literature and I also enjoyed reading and so I have a wide range of books that I have read on my own such as Brothers Karamazov and a few by Chekhov and of course some American classics as well. I think perhaps since families tend to move more here in the U.S. this might be part of the reason for all the differences. I rode my bicycle to school most of the time since it was only about 5km and i really didn't like the bus since it took forever to get home since it went all over the place before getting to my neighborhood. I wish it were possible to take the best from both of our societies and alter both of them to get the most benefits.

Daria, I went through Catholic school here in the US and we had the same classmates from grades 1 through 8. It was a small class. we used to have uniforms as well. This was in the 1980's though.

When it comes to clothing in the US, the best way I can describe it is that there is always a "tug-of-war" between the exercise of expressing yourself and expected conventions for attire. Immodesty and irreverence, to a point, are part and parcel of many American's attitudes. This expresses itself in many ways. Clothing aesthetic, whether immodest or pajamas, is a signal of how much one is comfortable, confident, or simply uninterested in entertaining polite convention. Americans point and snicker at each other for their choices all the time.

Bathroom humor is common, but not universally appreciated. The story of your student is an interesting one because it highlights how we are motivated to communicate. Describing the stomach issue eschews shame, which Americans generally loathe. It also manipulates the recipient of the story into having a visceral reaction, simultaneously making the story more convincing (esp if it isn't true, but not necessarily) and garnering more sympathy. This is all to justify why time is being taking off as if simply being sick is not enough and it is something to be ashamed of, which we aren't encouraged to feel. It has to affect YOU to garner your approval and be accepted.

My last response is to your point about mixing people up in school. The way Americans live and how many school districts work, a large portion of American families move frequently throughout the parent's career for various economic reasons. Depending on how populous a city or town is and how many school districts exists in a given radius of a residential address, you are either assigned to or given options to enroll in a given slot that is available at a school for a grade. This means a lot of kids gets shuffled around different schools a lot, so the school enrollment system is malleable to meet that demand.

I hope this was insightful.

I think,that you are making a big mistake. For every person the food from their country is better. For example, every 'бомж 'can say you that the food in his childhood was better.

I had a lot of geography in school. Every year we have different classes with different teachers because those classes are a specific subject and the teacher is supposedly best for teaching that subject and that age.

In middle school I took social studies instead of history which was learning all about geography and relationships of people and countries.

Unfortunately literature is left out a lot but in high school my “English” classes in high school were heavily based on world literature and philosophy and rhetoric. Reading is heavily focused with a library full of age appropriate books in each school but not literature usually. Which is a shame.

Anyways I could go on but thank you for sharing all your experiences with us so we can learn

I was homeschooled so I know geography

Here I live, we are neighbours to Russia ( I am living very far north in the North of Norway).
Many Russians are working here in my municipality. Earlier some Russians (50 players) from the district of Murmansk used to come here to our county (Finnmark, Norway) and play badminton in tournaments. Very nice people, and I miss them. Covid and war stoppet them.
I am trying to learn some Russian words and sentences so I can communicate with them next time they are here. Hopefully there will be peace, and that they will return soon.

Great sister Great work, ehum,ehum, will you convert to Islam religion madam.

Thank you for your candid view of your russian school style, you now have the best of both systems, a rich history of yourself and a new one for your children and they will grow up bilingual, always keep russian language at home they will know the english well enough with their friends and school buddies, that way they can speak with their grand when you visit with them back home.
3ric

For me in Australia we had basically one school from 1 to 10 over two buildings but 5 to 10 was in the one building :)

I love geography, literature, and languages. Thank you for reminding me to reread Sister Carrie. You are correct nobody reads at all in America. I happen to be surrounded by literature enthusiasts and language polyglots. Accurate insight.

I studied in homeschool from kindergarten through 5th grade and a private school in 6th through 12th grade, graduating in 2019, in the US. We had literature classes in both, world geography in 3rd grade in homeschool and European geography in high school. They actually had us read Crime and Punishment as extra credit for AP English class, it became one of my favorite books))) overall I think the Russian system is better, you get to stay together with classmates more and the school day is shorter. Also there was very little practical classes even in my education (and public schools are much worse), we had half a year of finance and health, but no home economics, and practically no advanced math past algebra.

Do you think it is more difficult to learn English as a native Russian or to learn Russian as a native American?

In Chicago schools, you go through a mental detector and there is a police station in the school. Some of the administrators are crack addicts (no I am NOT kidding and YES I have seen administrators in schools drunk). The students generally rule the classroom and if there is something they don't like about the teacher (like too much homework or too strict grading on tests) they report to mom and dad; mom and dad complain to the district superintendent, who then reports to the school principal, who then disciplines the offending teacher. I could go on .... but there is no point. It is only getting worse in American education.