THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511090140
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Kaliningrad, Russia, is half a world away but the miles and differences that separate that Baltic seaport from Hampton Roads have begun to fade, thanks to a month-long visit from a dozen Russian educators and 14 of their students.
The visitors were participants in an exchange program between six high schools in Portsmouth, Norfolk and Chesapeake and six high schools in Kaliningrad.
Funded by a grant from the U.S. Information Agency, the program is administered by John E. Turner, associate professor of education at Old Dominion University.
Next April a delegation of 12 teachers and 14 students from Hampton Roads will fly to Kaliningrad for a month's visit with the folks they have hosted here.
``Each day our world gets smaller and exchanges like this make us realize that we are all one family,'' Raymond Lowther said. Lowther is an instructional specialist and the Russian exchange coordinator for Portsmouth. He was also host to one of the Russian educators, Boris Beinenson.
``With this exchange a very remote country has become very close and familiar to us,'' Zoya Murashentzeva, an educational specialist in Kaliningrad, said through Beinenson's interpretation. ``We have gotten acquainted with your educational institutions, historic sites, but most importantly the people who are very open-minded and hospitable.''
During their month here, four of the educators and three of the students focused their attention on Portsmouth with two of the students attending Wilson High School and one attending Churchland.
Kaliningrad, Norfolk's sister city, shares a number of similarities with Hampton Roads cities. Situated on a northwest tip of Russia, the city borders on the Baltic Sea and is heavily dependent on a military presence and its shipbuilding industry.
Since both the Russian navy and shipyards are downsizing there too, the city has an urgent concern with finding new employment opportunities.
Kaliningrad, a former Prussian capital until 1945 when the city was awarded to Russia, has a population of just over 400,000 with 500,000 more residents in the surrounding region. Tourism, especially from other European countries, is an important local industry.
Kaliningrad, like some parts of Tidewater, also has problems with the quality and quantity of its water supply.
Among the impressions of the Russian visitors included the following:
Russian high schools are much more academically targeted that those in Hampton Roads. In Kaliningrad students who wish to pursue extracurricular interests in sports, music or other arts attend after-school centers where they are taught by professionals in their specific field.
Hampton Roads students are remarkably well-behaved. ``We admire their sense of dignity, freedom and self-esteem,'' Beinenson said.
Local schools seem to be lagging behind Russian schools where students graduate after only 11 grades. ``I am studying a more difficult program in Kaliningrad than here,'' Olga Lobanova said of her classes at Churchland. ``I found the classes here to be two or three years behind what I have already had at home.''
Olga will start her university studies next fall, but is already studying math and science with university professors.
Shopping in Hampton Roads was a mind-boggling experience, especially for the female students. ``We have big stores in Kaliningrad, but nothing like the malls here,'' Olga said. ``They had our minds spinning.''
The grant for the exchange also will provide a computer to each of the six partner schools in Kaliningrad, allowing the exchange students and educators from both countries to stay in touch via E-mail.
For the 1996-97 school year Turner and some of the other educators are planning joint projects where the students from both countries will be partnered to work on joint projects via computer. The one-on-one projects will be focused on environmental concerns, agricultural science, language, enterprise/tourist promotion, and the fine arts. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Raymond Lowther, a Portsmouth schools administrator, left, observes
as Russian teachers Zvetlana Gilmanova, Boris Beinenson and Tamara
Kozhevnikove chat with student Ricky Burgess, 9, at Highland
Biltmore Elementary School.
by CNB