Thank you for never ending lessons

Opposition teacher, scientist teacher and reactionary teacher about rallies and elections

Moscow, center. Three schools in one area. Outwardly, they are very similar: rather old, but strong construction, well-groomed, prosperous, and their budget is approximately the same. But inside they are so different that it is difficult to imagine them not only on the same street, but also in the same country. The numbers of these schools will be of interest to a rather narrow circle of readers: the authorities will try to draw organizational conclusions, and the parents will try to transfer the child from one school to another, which is almost impossible (you can’t just get into the best school, and it makes no sense to choose between two worse schools). So it is more useful to designate educational institutions with the names of the planets: school-Mars, school-Venus, school-Pluto.

The authorities (one and the same) treat these practically identical schools also differently. Mars is given strict instructions from above on what to do and how to do it. The bosses are afraid of Venus and very, very respectful. And Pluto himself tries to guess the desires of his superiors and anticipate them by 146 percent.

All three schools are marked by serious social activity. In the school-Mars, the head teacher is a very well-known and respected lady in the protest environment - a born teacher, I must say. The Venus School is famous for its scientific environment and exceptional achievements in the liberal arts, including internationally recognized ones. And the Pluto school is famous for its aggressive conservatism, so to speak: even especially outstanding NTV stories will fade against the backdrop of the creative work of representatives of the labor collective of this educational institution. However, it is from the Pluto school that the most protesting youth eventually comes out, which is quite understandable: children are not always the flowers of life, often they are very hard nuts. The more pressure, the more resistance.

School-Mars

This is an inclusive school, that is, children with disabilities study at this school. All conditions are created: ramps, elevator, additional rates for doctors and psychologists. The children and grandchildren of well-known politicians and officials in the 90s study at the school - not many, but the names make a strong impression. But children from the most ordinary families, including those with many children, also study. Many adopted children and children under guardianship. Teachers note strong social inequality.

A conversation with the head teacher (we are “you”, we met several years ago in a paddy wagon):

• Do you organize elections at school? Or are you not allowed to vote?

• No, they don't let me take part in the elections, they don't even take me to Krymnash rallies.

• Do they take everyone? And how is it done?

• Phone call. One of Kalina's deputies (Kalina Isaak Iosifovich, Minister of the Government of Moscow, head of the city's Department of Education - O.R.) calls the director of the school and says that your school should send 30 teachers to the rally. We send the youngest teachers. You have to stay there for several hours. The Krymnash rally, the very first on Pushkinskaya, was on Sunday, and the order was received on Saturday evening.

• And what do people say?

• Yes, he doesn’t say anything, who was drunk, who was sober, came, checked himself, then faded away. Kalina, by the way, was there himself. Naturally, the director of the school went to the May Day demonstration on Red Square not of her own free will.

• Can't you say "no"?

• Theoretically, it is possible, but then at the meeting it will be said: "You want money - be so kind." And now the problem is that salaries have been cut, and the bonus fund depends personally on the director. The base includes 18 hours a week, from this comes an approximate rate of 35-40 thousand rubles, the rest is already a bonus fund if you have more hours. Moscow teachers hold on to their jobs, you can get a hundred thousand a month with us. And if anything, then there is a queue from the Moscow region for our places, people there get much less.

• Do children know that teachers are driven to rallies?

• I don't think they know, but they guess. Although children are also driven to some events for mass participation. Last year, the children went to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, they needed extras. Children take it easy, by the way. Even more teachers. Today, the director gave us some interesting information: it turns out that the Department has created a common database for all employees of all schools, with the most detailed information for each: loans, debts, offenses, salaries, all large purchases.

• So what about school elections?

• How many times I was in the elections at my school - everything was according to the rules, honestly. The director was sitting in her office, because this is her territory and controlled the situation, and the election commission came to us, our teachers are not included there. But at the Olympics, everyone controlled the situation.

• Like this?

• Last year, an order came that the school should have a security administrator on duty every day for the Olympics. That is, it was necessary to sit in an empty school for a day and watch something. Everyone was sitting - I don't know why.

• Do you think you will be fired?

• I love work. They can fire me, it will be a pity, but mentally I am ready.

Any check will still find what it wants. I don't know how they can be fired - they'll say the rate has been reduced, or bad behavior, a violation of moral character.

School-Venus

This is a special school. State, free gymnasium, but getting there is difficult. Children study and work a lot, do it with pleasure, and the school of the decade shows the best results. The children of current politicians, officials, entrepreneurs study here. As well as children of scientists, writers, artists, and talented non-lazy children. Teachers say that they often receive calls from their superior offices and are asked to enroll the children of the “chief firefighter, chief sanitary doctor, chief policeman and military base”, and yes, they are enrolled without being singled out in any way. Here, all students are sincerely loved and appreciated - and they do not really stand on ceremony with adults.

A conversation with a teacher famous throughout the country (we also use “you” - for about the same reason as with the head teacher from the previous school).

• Have you ever been forced to vote at school?

• No. Naturally, we have a polling station and there have always been women who participated and rejoiced, because they pay extra for it. When the elections to the State Duma were held in December 2011, I came to the election commission and said: let's next time I will also be on the commission, and my other colleagues came and said - let's be there too, so as not to disgrace ourselves like that. But it turned out that they were trained in the commission, they took courses for 5 years. In general, it's impossible.

• At a neighboring school, they told me that they were receiving orders from the Department of Education for the participation of 30 teachers from the school in rallies.

• No one dares to approach us.

• Why?

• In some ways, our bosses are covering us, and on the other hand, both the district and city authorities perfectly understand everything, why mess with us.

• How are you different?

• We have always, even in Soviet times, been the flagship. They all hate us, but all their children study with us. Although our rating has recently fallen sharply - but not because we began to work worse. It turns out that a lot of points in the ranking are now received by those schools that are merged with kindergartens, but we have not merged. But they still know about us, and they want to learn from us.

• And that’s why they don’t touch you and don’t drive you to rallies?

• I think they feel our foreignness. Although I have been looking forward all the years to when our school will be offered to go to the rally. I even had a suspicion: when a letter about Crimea was sent to all schools, but we didn’t receive it, I thought that the authorities were hiding this from us.

• What is the letter about Crimea?

• In March, a manual was sent out on conducting special lessons about Crimea, and everyone asked me what you would do? I said they didn't send us anything.

• Are they complaining about you for teaching children the wrong way?

• The last time they complained about me was in 1986 that I incorrectly covered the role of the Soviet people in the Patriotic War.

• Are you lighting right now?

• Obviously yes. Although this year a woman called the secretary of the director and demanded that I be fired: she said, “Have you seen what kind of nails she has, what beads she has?” (Yellow and blue - O.R.). And the director's secretary answered her that this is the fashion now.

• And the director does not reproach you - they say, why do you “tease the geese”?

• I have been at this school for 30 years. The director once was about to quit - because of my letter, when I called on graduates to go to a rally, then we explained to her, I explained to her that the election results were distorted.

• How do you know that the voting results were faked?

• The chairman of the election commission at the elections herself said that she was very nervous.

• Is the chairman of the commission a colleague, a teacher?

• Yes. There is a certain number of people who represent parties and candidates, the rest of the seats are occupied by those who work at the school.

• Are there many party teachers now? For example, members of United Russia?

• None are known to me. If there is one, then he is probably hiding a lot.

School-Pluto

The director of this school is just a member of the United Russia party and is on the list of V.V. Putin's trustees, which he always emphasizes separately. Every year in the summer, the school does a wonderful renovation, nothing is ever collected from the parents. But the main attraction of the school is not the director, but the singing teacher - a fairly well-known character on the Internet, performing under the stage name Grandfather Dadon. The grandfather performs something like a rap of his own composition, usually in a duet with a sexy student. Here are the words:

Moscow, hello to you from the outback

What's going on with you there?

I see the pigs are moving

They want to storm the Kremlin

They shout that the elections are just an excuse

And what do you care about the result

They have a mess of hunger

They want to fight.

The people who are friendly with the head

Do not take advice with such

They have no heart, they lie with their soul,

They have no love for Russia

It was not possible to talk to a single teacher of this school - even anonymously. The academic performance of this school is quite good, and graduates graduate with strong oppositional convictions. Despite good academic performance and an excellent material and technical base, not a single descendant of a politician, official, famous businessman or artist could be found in this school.

... What is most interesting is that despite the difference in the organization of the educational and extracurricular processes, with the huge difference in the approach of teachers to politics, all three schools in the same district show similar voting results: in 2011, and in 2012, and in 2013. That is, there were serious scandals here in December 2011, in March 2012 candidate Prokhorov won at two of these three polling stations (almost won at the third), and in September 2013 candidate Navalny scored more than 30 percent.

Everyone understands everything - such a school we have.