Russian School Leaders bring lessons to Toledo

November 8, 2003

A group of Waite High School students already knew Russia used to be apart of the Soviet Union, that ballet is an important art form there, and that the country is a long way from Toledo, But yesterday, as part of a weeklong visit of two Russian school principals to northwest Ohio, the students in Tom Sorosiak's American Government class learned lot more.

Among the lessons: Russia is more moving closer to democracy, the country's history is much older that the United States' and studied closely by most people, and one ruble is worth about three cents.

"They're an extremely different culture from what i thought they were," sophomore Ed Pezzino said after class. "I should know people be fore I judge them."

The principals' visit is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. They visited Bowling Green State University Thursday, Waite and other Toledo Public schools sites yesterday, and planned to spend the weekend bowling , sightseeing in Toledo and relaxing said Don Haddox, Toledo Public Schools director of professional personnel.

Next week will bring more schools visits as the host and visitors work on increasing understanding of each other's governmental and economic systems, he said. Mr. Haddox and Mr. Sorosiak, a social studies teacher at Waite, were invited to participate in the international exchange project. They will travel to Russia in the Spring.

"I have to see how involved students are with regard to civic understanding, that they're understanding the differences between duty and responsibilities in local context," Mr. Sorosiak said. "I'm hoping to have a bit more interaction with the students and teach some lessons."

In the firts part of the exchange this week, they hosted Irina Goreva, who works at a school for gifted students, and Nicholai Markov, who works at a school for troubled students. Both live in Novouralsk, about 675 miles from Moscow.

Mr. Markov pointed on Mr. Sorosiak's classroom map so the students could see his home's location in cnetral Russsia's Ural Mountains. The chain is the continental divide, he told them. "I can have a right foot step on Europe and a left foot step on Asia," he demonstarted.

Yesterday's lesson also covered the constitution of both countries. The highlights were the similarities. Mr. Sorosiak gave his students copies of the American and Russian constitutions to compare.

By Sandra Svoboda--Toledo Blade staff writer

School of Teaching and Learning * College of Education and Human Development