Ed: The following is the previously unpublished story of when I went to the First New Schools Festival of the Soviet Union in August 1991, leaving the day before the coup that ended the Soviet Union. On my last day there I was in Yeltsin’s White House and stood exactly where he faced down the tanks while I was on the train back to England. It is remarkable how much things have changed and how much they have stayed the same.
THE FIRST FESTIVAL OF NEW SCHOOLS, CRIMEA, USSR, AUGUST, l991On August 15, three days before the coup in the USSR, I was a guest at the Russian Supreme Soviet, Boris Yeltsin’s “White House,” celebrating the completion of what may have been the most radical expression of democracy and free speech to that point, the USSR’s First New Schools Festival. During my stay in the USSR I came to realize that the people there have seized upon the ideas of democracy and freedom, perhaps in a way hardly known in the United States any more. One day after leaving the Soviet Union, I heard about the coup when I arrived by train in England. As shocked and dismayed as I was, it was impossible for me to believe that the people I had just left would put up with such a reversal.
The organizers of the Festival, from August 6-13 in the Crimea, were quite aware that their activities might not have the support of the government for long. They knew they were racing against time, with Gorbachev seemingly moving toward the hard-liners. While we were there, rumors raced around about whether Progressive Russian Education Minister Edward Dnieprov was about to be fired and replaced with a conservative. Uta Roehl, Netherlands organizer of the educators from outside the USSR said, when the logistics were getting difficult, “We must support them now and make sure that this conference happens before it is too late.”
The Festival was the most powerful and unusual I have ever attended. We had seven intense days of information exchange, searching discussions of democracy in education, presentations by different alternative school groups, punctuated by singing, dancing, and midnight swims in the Black Sea.
On the second day of the Festival I was one of three keynote speakers. At first one interpreter had trouble with my American accent, having been trained in “English” English. But another took over, and had no trouble. In my speech I said, in part:
“Why did I come to the USSR? I think that this might be one of the most important educational conferences held in the world. Just like the Berlin Wall, the educational establishment in the West is behind a great, self protecting wall, protecting a system that isn’t working any more. I came here because the world educational revolution must start some place outside that establishment. That place could be here.”
There was a big response, and for two hours after the talk, Russian alternative educators came up to me to exchange information.
Throughout the Festival there was a feeling of urgency, as if seven days would not be long enough to get our work done. I had several conversations with Sasha Adamski, who edits the education section of Democratic Russia , one of the most important new publications with a run of over 200,000. His section is called “Change”, but in Russian it has the double meaning of “break”. He is the Vice President of the Creative Teachers Union which sponsored the Festival but told us, “I have written a letter of resignation because I need to be free of any organization to report objectively.” He is also the director of the Eureka Free University, which has a comprehensive alternative education teacher training program, something the United States does not yet have. We agreed to a regular FAX exchange of the latest information on alternative education in our countries.
Tim, a fifteen year old student at the new Humanity Center School, spoke to us in very good English, and attended all presentations and videos. He said “I’ve learned much of my English by listening to Voice of America.” In discussing his ideas about alternative education he said, “Here in Russia we’ve had 70 years of following orders and not being allowed to express ourselves. It’s new to us and not easy. Sometimes I get scared when I say what I really feel. It’s been programmed into us.”
Alexander Tubelski, Director of the Experimental School N 134 in Moscow, the “School of Self-Determination,” spoke to the whole group. He said that one change that must be made in the schools is from “totalitarianism and authoritarian approaches to democracy in the educational process.” He has over 1000 students in his school, several of whom came to the conference.
Maxim, a thirteen year old student at Tubelski’s school, was very interested in knowing more about American Indians, having read Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans. He was disappointed to find that most Indians no longer lived in the woods, but wanted to know what they were like today. All of this was communicated despite the fact that we hardly spoke each other’s language
Early in the conference, a young woman named Elaine came up to me, and asked me about my religion. I did not tell her right away that I was Jewish. Later, she told me that she was Jewish, and had guessed that I might be. She is from Kharkov, in the Ukraine, where my grandmother was born. “60,000 Jews have left in the last two years. Most of my family has gone to the United States. They think I’m crazy to stay, but I am deeply committed to the changes here.” She told me that many of the leaders of the alternative education movement here are Jewish. Sitting with Elaine and her friends in a small cafe, a bond was established that went beyond language, beyond philosophy.
I was asked to join the “Stork Family School” (Vinnitza) in performing a political satire based on a Russian folk tale. This school was organized when a group of parents were determined that a particularly wonderful teacher be able to continue to teach their children. In order to do this they formed a private school (almost unheard of), rented space, found another teacher to help, and volunteered their own services in the school. Their school is democratic, has a strong emphasis on learning with music, movement, drama and artistic expression. The students, from 6 to 14, also speak very good English. In a handout, they said, “The school is the family, where everybody loves children.” The Stork School said I was now part of their family. In the skit I got a tremendous response when I delivered my last line in newly-learned Russian.
Albert Lamb, an American, was representing Summerhill School, in England, where he now teaches. He said, “I think we Americans have more in common with the Russians than the Europeans. There’s more passion, more openness. I think the Europeans look down their noses at both of us.”
At the end of the conference I was privileged to be asked to deliver the English version of the final declaration of the Festival, celebrating “free teachers and free students in a free society. Let everybody be inspired by the brotherhood created at the festival. It will help us in changing ourselves and the world.”
After the Festival the Western group was taken back to Moscow. Because of the significance with which the Russian officials viewed the Festival, they hastily set up a final ceremony and banquet, to be held in Yeltsin’s “White House”, with a possibility that Yeltsin would attend (it turned out that he was out of Moscow).
We met Elaine and her friends again when we returned to Moscow. They brought a precious bottle of vodka to give as a present. Like other things in Russia, the vodka is not expensive, but requires standing on long lines. It’s the strangest economy. Bread is only 40 kopecks, about a half a cent. But the average monthly salary is only 400 rubles a month, about $12. And cheese wasn’t seen in Moscow for about six months.
Meanwhile, I had discovered that I could not get my train ticket booked out of the USSR. Even though I had an open ticket, the sleeper (they only have sleepers on the international train) had to be reserved separately. It could not be done from the US, London, or even from the Crimea, another indication of the logistical and communication difficulties in the USSR. When I went into the agency in Moscow, they said it was “impossible” (a favorite Russian word) to get a booking before September. But my unchangeable flight date from England was August 20th. Returning early the next morning to wait in a long line hoping for cancelations, there were none. We asked to speak to the supervisor who said it was “impossible”. We told him we would call him later, from the Russian Supreme Soviet.
We went by taxi to the meeting at the Supreme Soviet. A number of speeches were delivered confirming agreements that had been made at the Festival concerning Western help in teacher training, regular exchanges of information, the creation of new schools, etc.
Yeltsin’s representative at the meeting was Vladimir Kuznetzov, head of the Supreme Soviet’s Education Committee. In a surprisingly fiery speech, three days before the abortive coup, he said:
“The Parliament of Russia is very interested in creating alternative education in the Soviet Union. There are old problems with Russian education. A totalitarian regime cannot have free schools. For example, when Hitler came to power, he immediately closed down all Waldorf Schools. There is a difficult situation in our country now. I know you like Gorbachev, but Gorbechev now represents a totalitarian approach. Be open to another point of view. Yeltsin started this new education committee, His first priority was to develop alternative education in Russia. There is now a power struggle between the overall Soviet Union as it is now and Russia and the Russian Parliament. Russia is going to go from a totalitarian regime to one of freedom in education and freedom in life.”
After the meeting, a call was made from Yeltsin’s office to the railroad superintendent. Suddenly, he had tickets. “What day do you want to leave?” he said. I hope no one was thrown off the train. We had to get them right away. Kuznetzov provided a car and driver, and in short order we had our tickets, and thanks to Yeltsin’s office, our freedom to leave.
Before we left the next day, we took a walk down Arbot Street, which is where tourists shop for everything from strings of amber to those famous hand-painted dolls within dolls. The street was crowded with vendors, those new entrepreneurs of the free market. One man came up to me with a string of amber to sell for 150 rubles (about $5). Another vender got very mad at him because it was undercutting his price, and he tried to buy it from him, but my guide, a Bulgarian teacher who had attended the Festival, told me to wait, for she understood the Russian. She always made sure I didn’t buy anything she thought was over priced. In the end, I was able to buy the necklace. I also bought one of those famous Russian dolls-within-dolls, with a series of Russian rulers each inside the other, with Lenin in the middle. But this one was unusual: Yeltsin was on the outside, with Gorbachev inside, reflecting a turn of events that was still a week away.
On every corner it seemed there was a speaker with a crowd standing around, denouncing Gorbachev. I wondered how long Gorbachev could survive without support, but even then it was clear to me that they were angry at him not for initiating change, but because they felt he was now holding them back. I believe that it was the kind of anger adolescents may have for their parents. That’s where the coup leaders made their biggest mistake. They didn’t understand the underlying love that the people had for their new freedom, and perhaps for the man who made it possible.
As I was trying to figure out how I would get to the train, Helen, one of the people who had been helping with the conference said that she and her husband, Sasha, would drive us there in their old car. Sasha had badly cut his arm at the conference and could only drive with one hand, but they insisted on helping us. They even brought food for the train.
We got to the station early. Helen stood on a line to get some pastries, but they ran out before getting to her. I got some Soviet Pepsi Cola for about two cents a bottle.
After hugs and fond goodbyes, we left Moscow by train on the 16th. The next morning we were at the border in Brest, White Russia. Incredibly, they change the wheels on the entire train at Brest, so it can continue on its journey toward the West on the differently gauged track. It is said that Stalin had the gauge of the track widened to keep potential Western invaders out. It seems now that the Soviet Union is trying to change the wheels of its whole system.
For a fleeting moment, when I heard the news of the coup upon arriving in England, I wondered whether the Festival had been the last hurrah, a final expression of democracy and freedom in a doomed society. But I couldn’t believe that the people I had just left would be willing to give up. They didn’t. The coup leaders didn’t understand the intensity of their people’s new love of freedom. I
n a recent phone call from Elaine in Kharkov, the Ukraine, I was told that Central Television had already aired their first show about the Festival, and was planning a second. “You were very good,” she said, “and Sasha has already done a story in his newspaper about real alternative education.” They asked me to come back in March to do an alternative teacher training session for the Eureka Free University at the Black Sea. How could I refuse?
EXCERPTS FROM SPEECH TO THE FIRST FESTIVAL OF NEW SCHOOLS, CRIMEA, USSR, AUGUST 7, l991, by Jerry Mintz
Why did I come to the USSR? I think that this might be one of the most important educational conferences held in the world. Just like the Berlin Wall, the educational establishment in the West is behind a great, self protecting wall, protecting a system that isn’t working any more. I came here because the world educational revolution must start some place outside that establishment. That place could be here.
There are many people around the world in the alternative education movement. But they are in parallel universes, those of Montessori Schools, Waldorf Schools, public or state alternatives, private alternative or community schools, home education, etc. Generally, they don’t talk to each other. We all need to be in communication. We need to realize that this is a very big movement, and we have to organize ourselves first.
A hundred years ago it may have been possible to present to students a set body of knowledge, tell them to memorize it, and they would be set for life. But today everybody knows that approach doesn’t work. Modern brain research has shown that the brain is naturally aggressive. It wants to learn. Children don’t have to be motivated to learn. In fact, in many ways the institution we call school drastically slows down the natural need to learn that children have. Education today must help the child retain confidence in their own ability to learn, and to teach themselves, because the world’s information is changing every year, even every day. What they are taught is not as important as the process of learning, and that the student stays open to learning.
Also the student must have control of their own education, and feel that they have that control. The schools that I am talking about are democratic, with each student having a vote. Many of them, like Summerhill in England, do not force student to attend classes they are not interested in. Some have no set curriculum but are “organic”, built on the interest of the learner, changing every day according to changing needs. Yet standardized tests show that students in these schools often learn at three times the the rate of students in traditional schools. Today, all of the graduates of the school that I founded on these principals are either working full-time in a field of their choice, or in college.
I am amazed at the innovations and the interest in changing education that I have seen here in the USSR. I would be happy to help you in any way as we all work to create an educational process that is humane, relevant, and empowering of all participants.
