E
ach September an ancient rite is repeated: pupils return to school and a whole new cohort go for the very first time. It is our first step as a solo player in life. And it can be frightening. I rather liked the way they handled it in the old Soviet Union. I observed their induction on 1st September 1977 when every school reopened in that vast Union. Each pupil carried a bunch of flowers for their teachers, who were invariably women. I cherish the memory of one rather tough looking teenager, his tie askew, smoking the remains of a cigarette in a doorway while still holding his bunch of flowers in his other hand. The Principal welcomed her pupils outside in the sunshine before the pupils entered, walking in pairs. The sense of occasion was heightened as each small new pupil went in with his hand in that of a senior pupil. He belonged.
I do not think the Soviet model was ideal in every way. They put great emphasis on the communal. Each class was divided into three rows of six, who competed with each other. If any one of the six fell behind, one of the remaining five sat with that pupil each evening seeing to it that they caught up with the rest.
In a school that specialised in English in Moscow, a rather stern vice-principal took me on a tour of the school. On our walkabout, a twelve-year-old boy reported to her. When he departed, I asked if I could guess what he had said. She was surprised when I guessed that the pupil told her that he could not understand why his teacher had dismissed him from class for he had done nothing wrong. The vice-principal laughed, knowing that I had ‘read’ the boy’s tone and expression correctly. The same excuses are tried all over the world!
The final school I visited was in Armenia, a country which was Christian for maybe two centuries before St Patrick came to Ireland, and its Christianity survived even under communism. The principal was friendly and welcoming. He entertained me lavishly to lunch. Too lavishly. I never did see much of the school. Sometimes that happened, when they were embarrassed at their lack of amenities. He revealed a real interest in educational systems, and when I asked him what he attempted to achieve in his school, he answered without hesitation that he wanted that his pupils would love each other. Each year, teachers and their pupils everywhere begin an ancient ritual that really changes little over time.