Review of education in England

It's interesting to look at the world map. Since childhood, we are accustomed to seeing in front of us a map of the Soviet Union, with all the Soviet republics - now you won’t see such a thing. But now you can focus your attention on the map of Europe, North and South America, and Southeast Asia. For some reason I don’t want to look at a map of Africa. But still, on the world map you always want to find the familiar bends of a thin blue line gradually expanding to the north, to which numerous Siberian rivers adjoin with even thinner branches; and the countless fishy northern rivers can no longer be drawn on such maps. And only after finding our truly mighty Yenisei, you can easily find a small circle on it with the inscription “Krasnoyarsk”. This is the name of our city. We live here.

Why am I writing about this? And look at the map for yourself. And I think that only after this you will be able to quite accurately understand why my wife and I decided, as far as possible, to send our sons to study in England. After we went there ourselves, we only became stronger in our resolve.

Unfortunately, we do not live in the center of civilization. To put it more harshly, we are not even on its periphery.

We sent Ruslan to Salisbury for three summer weeks for the first time, when he was 10 years old, in 2005. And when he had to go to the sixth grade, instead of his native school, he went to study for one semester in Dover, at the wonderful Dover College. He was 11 then - we sent him to school at the age of six. We took him to England ourselves; his mother came to visit him during the holidays, and during the holidays they managed to travel around Scotland; at the end of the semester for the New Year, Ruslan himself flew home to Krasnoyarsk. I missed my family and my Krasnoyarsk classmates, so I didn’t return to Dover after the holidays, preferring to catch up with my school curriculum here.

To make the picture complete, we can add that we always took our children with us on vacations abroad: to Thailand, Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt. By the way, this is also important. Because, in our opinion, the actual knowledge that they can get in a fashionable foreign college is not so important in the education of children. Some people attach excessive importance to the fact that a child there can quickly master the English language. All this is true, and this is important. But the most important thing is that on such trips and with such training, the child develops a much broader horizon, he comes into contact with other cultures with his own skin, and understands that people live differently in this world.

Ruslan in Dover lived in the same room with one typically English boy, one curly-haired and black Englishman (there are others, he was born in London) and one Italian. In such a company I had to be friendly and independent. In the canteen, Ruslan sometimes met older Russian-speaking boys: one was from Belarus, one from Kazakhstan. Such an internationalism, albeit with a clear English predominance, took shape in the hostel; in the school itself, the overwhelming majority are English.

I believe that it is better to omit the results of the educational process with such short-term experience from consideration. It is clear that Ruslan did not acquire anything in the basic subjects in our understanding, and English did not become his native language during this time. However, we can remember one funny episode when the housemaster (the main teacher in the dorm) punished Ruslan by getting up early. When we asked Ruslan why he was punished, he replied that he had been chatting until late with Lorenzo - this same dark-skinned Londoner. Our next question was... Guess for yourself which one. And Ruslan himself could not explain to us what language they were chatting in.

You can’t gain such an experience “from the window of a tourist bus.”

The main thing is that such experience contributes to a more accurate self-identification of a young person in the increasingly globalized world around him. For some of us – parents – this problem may not seem particularly relevant now. Therefore, each family may evaluate these things differently. And if we were talking about business, then I would say that there is a certain entrepreneurial risk in organizing a child’s education abroad. Moreover, these events cost a very significant price, but you may not even feel the results. But we see a greater risk in our inaction.

The child is largely shaped by society, and even very good schools in our country are affected by the virus of aversion to learning, to self-development, the bacillus of laziness, rudeness and rudeness in the student environment. Teachers can't do anything about it. Because most parents prefer not to notice it. Do you agree with me? I wouldn't be surprised if you don't agree. Then I will not convince you, and this text, apparently, is not for you. And if you and I look at things the same way, then we have to admit that in our society today, a child can turn into a decent person only by some lucky chance. Regardless of parental efforts. In our society, even in a prosperous family, it is more natural to get an over-aged freak. And I want to increase my chances. For yourself and your children. "Paradise" Forever!