Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 27 – Most people
study foreign languages in order to learn about other countries, but a Moscow
educational official wants to change that: Russian pupils, Isaac Kalinin, says,
should study such languages not to learn about others but rather to tell others
about their own country.
Deacon Andrey Kurayev, an
independent-minded Russian commentator observes that this is the latest example
of a dangerous nativization of Russian education and even a manifestation of
the fact that the only thing the Kremlin really cares about is having young people
capable of handling a Kalashnikov (diak-kuraev.livejournal.com/1910395.html).
According to Interfax, Kalinin, the
head of the Moscow city education department, told a Duma council this past
week that courses in foreign languages should be changed from a focus on the
history and culture of others to one in which pupils would learn how to tell
foreigners “about their motherland and native region” (interfax-russia.ru/Moscow/citynews.asp?id=904173).
At the meeting,
chaired by the Irina Yarovaya, notorious for her authorship of restrictive
Russian legislation, Kalinin said that the schools of the Russian capital “had
already begun to correct the situation” by dropping materials about London in
English language courses and inserting information instead “about Moscow
without any loss of material.”
The Moscow official said it was
important to do this not only in courses where English is being taught but in
all cases where Russian students are receiving instruction in other languages
as well.
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