THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411080112
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
AS HE HAS seen firsthand how other countries educate their young people, Thomas B. Lockamy Jr., Norfolk's assistant superintendent of school governance, can't help feeling troubled.
While America often seems locked in endless debate over education reform and standards and values, other industrial nations around the world have produced school systems and students that threaten this nation's competitive edge, Lockamy said.
He returned from a recent weeklong trip to Russia convinced that the United States must get more serious about public education.
``If we in America don't get our heads straightened out about what education is all about and place more of a value on it, the countries that I've visited - Russia, Japan and China - are going to pass us by,'' Lockamy said. ``They're more serious about education.''
Lockamy, who has been heavily involved in the school system's sister-city foreign exchange program, was joined on the Russia trip by Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr., foreign languages coordinator Ann Rolbin - a Moscow native - and several Norfolk school administrators.
Norfolk can learn a lot from Moscow's education system, Lockamy said.
``I didn't anticipate the level and quality of schooling they have,'' he said.
The Russian city's emphasis on early childhood education was especially impressive, Lockamy said.
Children enter kindergarten when they're 3 years old and remain until they begin first grade at 6. Some schools provide room and board for students during the week while others operate from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Primary and secondary classes are offered on the same campus, meaning that a child will enter first grade and graduate from the same school. There are advantages to kids attending one school instead of having to be uprooted and moved to another school every few years, Lockamy said.
In the primary grades, classrooms contain 20 to 22 students and are taught by two licensed teachers. The city also offers schools of choice that focus on various educational themes, including English-language schools, Lockamy said.
Rolbin said her dream is to import Moscow's emphasis on languages to Norfolk. Her goal is to provide foreign language instruction at all levels of schooling, beginning in the elementary grades. Only three of the city's 37 elementary schools now offer a foreign language - Spanish at Chesterfield, French at Monroe and Japanese at Larchmont, she said.
``It's very successful because kids learn foreign languages the same way they learn their native language - they don't translate or analyze, they just accept it,'' Rolbin said.
In today's global economy, it's important to teach students to have a greater appreciation of other countries and cultures, she said.
``Through foreign languages, a student learns a foreign culture and customs and so develops tolerance, awareness and then understanding,'' Rolbin said. ``This is very important for the times we're living in, especially for business.''
For about $30,000, Lockamy said, Norfolk schools could duplicate a foreign language reading lab that formed a key element of Moscow's language program.
Nichols said he was impressed with parental involvement in their children's education. For instance, since there are no school buses in Moscow, the parents are responsible for taking their children to and from school, Nichols said.
But Moscow has problems of its own. After meeting with the Moscow police's youth services division to discuss school safety and security issues, the group learned that the Russian city faces urban problems such as gangs, graffiti and kids with weapons, Nichols said.
In the spring, Norfolk teachers will visit Kalingrad, Norfolk's sister city in Russia, to learn more about its educational system.
Nichols and Lockamy said that participants in the recent trip used vacation time and paid their own expenses. Public funds were not used to reimburse any of the travel costs, they said.
The teachers who visit next spring also will be expected to pay their own way, Lockamy said.
``It gave us flexibility to do things that you really couldn't justify using public funds to do, like visit museums,'' Lockamy said. ILLUSTRATION: File photo
Thomas B. Lockamy Jr., Norfolk's assistant superintendent of school
governance, recently returned from a weeklong trip to Russia.
by CNB