Textbook Case #1

I have in front of me a brand new copy of the textbook Russian History, XX - XXI Centuries (Danilov, 2009). It's for 9th graders.

Since it's my second semester here, I had more latitude in designing my weekly schedule. Five hours of grammar and five hours of conversation weren't negotiable (though my grammar instruction this term will be one-on-one). After that, I asked for two hours of literature, two hours of phonetics and six hours of history. Over the summer I only had two hours of history a week; I asked for more because 1) it was the course that required the least amount of preparation, and 2) I would also be able to meet with the history professor one-on-one, which would hopefully mean we would get to explore some interesting topics in-depth.

I thought this plan was even more clever because the director informed me that of my six hours of history I would only need to meet with the professor for two - the rest could be "independent study" in the library. This I understood as tacit consent to leave the institute and ask people about World War Two at a bar (they beat the fascists, by the way, in case you haven't talked to a Russian in EVER).

This plan was not clever. The history professor decided that I should pick a topic and write a 25 page paper over the course of the semester, which I have to assume he meant in Russian since he doesn't speak English. Woe.

Then he asked me for ideas. Luckily I had just read an article from the Moscow Times in which it was written: "President Dmitry Medvedev called for the introduction of a single history textbook to prevent schoolchildren’s minds from being turned into kasha."

So I suggested that I look at different Russian history textbooks to see the differences, particularly at sections describing Russian-American relations. He clearly liked this idea, because he didn't shoot it down like my first 20 ideas which I haven't listed here out of time constraints.

Here's a sample. The aforementioned textbook has a section in the last four pages which describes recent events in American/world history:

The situation in the world sharply changed after the terror acts of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington. President Putin was the first foreign leader to call George Bush and offer his sympathies. After these events a Russian-American group was formed, the main task of which was the struggle with terrorism. Russia agreed with the actions of the U.S. and the mission against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, charged with supporting international terrorism. Greater understanding in the west began to great the actions of Russia in Chechnya.

And on the next page:

President George Bush repeatedly expressed his concern with "the rolling back of democracy and free press in Russia." V.V. Putin answered that "we will never allow anyone to twist Russia's arm, which with every year year is growing stronger." In 2003 Russia, Germany and France formed the so-called European Trio and objected to the military actions of the U.S. in Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Russia insisted on the involvement of the U.N. in deciding the Iraq problem.