So I could go on forever about the differences in schools, students and teachers in Russia compared to the US. But there is one I would like to focus on. One that I like better in Russia than at home. Here it is okay to talk about religious things in school.
Well I don't know what came over me yesterday but I ended up sharing the complete salvation message with one of my students. He is in 2nd grade and is what we call a native speaker. He has Russian parents but has had a British nanny his whole life, so his English is great. We work mainly on grammar. Well yesterday was an abnormal lesson for us. He was upset because he had just gotten in trouble for fighting. So after we discussed this I asked him some questions. He had told me several times that he goes to church on Sunday's. I assumed it was probably a Russian Orthodox church. So I decided to ask him what he learns about in church. He told me that all they do is learn how to pray. I explained how at my church there is a class for children where they learn stories from the Bible and learn about Jesus. Well he had no idea what the Bible or Jesus was. Now he may know these words in Russian and just not in English. So we went on to have a lengthy discussion about the Bible, Jesus, God, the reason for Christmas, pretty much everything.
I don't really know where that came from. Its not like me to just blurt that stuff out all the time. But it was one of those moments and I didn't think I should pass it up. Some of the other girls on the team have some stuff on salvation that is easy for kids to understand and has pictures. So maybe on Monday we will read that for our reading part of the lesson. Who knows. But at least some seeds were planted.
It was a great lesson.
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