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This year our school is celebrating its 60th anniversary. The first immigrants thought
they would return to Russia, but after the Second World War they understood that they
wouldn’t. Our bishop’s Synod issued a decree to establish parish schools, where
Russian language, literature, geography, history, the law of God would be taught.
The main purpose of these schools is to give our children a Russian Orthodox upbringing.
.. I taught the law of God in two languages. ...Because kids of the 4th and the 5th generations
find it difficult to absorb some of the principles in Russian…
We study ancient Russian history of the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries. As they do not quite
understand what happened long ago, we compare it to the present times. Their notebooks have
very interesting sketches and if they can’t verbally explain how the boat is made, they
can draw it. .... They must read, I ask parents to read
to their children for 5 minutes every day. At the school there are classes for both Russian
speaking children and those who know only English.
Here they start to write in cursive handwriting earlier than in other schools. Sometimes they
may have an accent and not pronounce some of the letters correctly, for example, the
letter “R”. Any second language that one knows broadens
his perception, makes a person richer in knowledge, allows him to understand other people and
their culture. It is very important to preserve traditions, as this would signify a close
contact with the Russian culture. The building here used to be an old one. The
school has been here since 1952. Then we built a new facility with 14 classrooms. Parents
bring their children to the kindergarten at the age of 3. We have 15 teachers, including
two priests, all are very experienced and have been working at the school for many years.
I have been working here for more than 10 years.