I forgot to say in my earlier posts, that one thing I did NOT like about the educational system was that it was almost all rote memorization. In the literature class, for example, they would read a book and then spend class time constructing an essay, giving the Cliff Notes version of the plot with all the relevant details. There was no discussion of themes or subtext, or any interpretive stuff, just the facts. They constructed such an essay for every book read. For the final, the teacher picked a certain number of books, and they had to reproduce the essay from memory. Any deviations from the class production were counted off. In addition, grading depended a lot of what your previous grades were, and where your parents worked (the class thing again.)
I met a lot of bright, talented, intelligent kids, but they all had a hard time with ambiguity, and were sure that there was only one right answer to any question. To me, that seemed to be a relic of Communism, and a flaw in the educational system.
Might not really be a relic of Communism, strictly speaking. From what I know of general European history, I would hazard a guess that Slovakia’s educational system was very similar to what you’re describing under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. (Just at WAG, no cite.)
Not a bad guess! I’m actually impresed that you know Slovakia was in the A-HE. However, there really wasn’t an educational system in Slovakia at that time. Slovakia was “Upper Hungary,” but not ethnic Hungarian, and was pretty much a backwater. Many pensioners told me with pride that they were the first in their family to go to school, and that the communists had brought teachers to the villages. (There were obviously schools in the larger towns.)
I remember reading that Lenin’s wife, Natalya Krupskaya, was a teacher and had ideas about “modern education,” but Stalin didn’t like her, so he imposed the Soviet educational system everywhere in the Soviet block. I don’t remember all the details, however, so someone beetter informed can fill in.
OK, but in those parts of the AH-E that had educational systems, wasn’t it a lot like what you described – rote-memorization of plain uncontroverted “facts”? I understand that was the norm in 19th Century Europe.
And the test at age 11 – placing the student into one of three life-defining educational tracks – is the norm throughout Europe even today, I believe. Or at least it used to be until quite recently. Can any Eurodopers fill in the details?
For a while there, the USSR funded what’s generally acknowledged as the pinnacle of Yiddish theater and other arts. That was before anti-Semites really took over again in Moscow.
The Russian economy has been in a dramatic freefall since the collapse of the USSR and transfer to a market economy; male life expectancy has actually dropped more than 3 years in the past decade, which is shocking.
Are there really still otherwise rational people who still believe that the US hasn’t overthrown governments before during and since the Cold War? :rolleyes:
You can find an upside to just about anything I suppose.
I’m currently dating a woman who grew up in the USSR, I’ll pose this question for her and post her reponse…