Park Slope kids attend school in Russia
Clifford J. Levy’s story in this week’s New York Times Magazine is fascinating. When the Times placed him in Moscow, he and his wife had to find a school for their three kids. Rather than finding spaces for them in an international school with the kids of other foreign correspondents and dignitaries and such, Levy wanted his kids to get more out of living in Russia.
They chose Novaya Gumanitarnaya Shkola, or, the New Humanitarian School, which was all Russian, all the time. And, just like an ignorant North American might assume, the kids were ranked, with rankings displayed for the whole school to see. Why this school?
“It promised an enlightened and innovative interpretation of the classic Soviet education — all the rigor, without the suffocating conformity. Moscow progressives! Maybe the transition wouldn’t be too rocky.
