Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Battle tales find way to Russian classroom Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 17:35:41 EST Message-ID: \SE B;LIFE;THE CIVIL WAR \HD Battle tales find way to Russian classroom Nadya Kuchuk is an English-language teacher in the Siberian city of Omsk. A Washington Times reader and student of the Civil War, Franklin E. Williams of Herndon, became acquainted as a pen pal and met her later while touring Russia. He has furnished her with materials about the war, and this newspaper's weekly Civil War page, for use in her teaching. This is a letter to The Times from her. An editorial aside might wonder how many American students today are memorizing the "Gettysburg Address," or anything else. Siberia. Winter. Yet it's warm in my classroom. It's warm and bright because there is a golden light shining from my students' eyes. What are they doing? They are passing from one warm palm into another a real bullet. A bullet that is said to have been fired on the Bull Run battlefield. I'm explaining to my kids that there is no way to establish whether it was from the 1861 or 1862 battle. It doesn't appear to have been fired; however, it is possible that it was and just hit some soft earth . . . How exciting it is to imagine the stories this bullet might have told us! But I dare say there has never been any story to match the one I'm going to deliver. This bullet, one of many destined to solve the conflict between the Northerners and the Southerners, is sure to never have thought it would get into the hands of Russians. It's all the more remarkable when you consider that it was passed along by a common American to Russians. Former enemies. Recent friends. A bullet - to friends. Yes, there is no gainsaying that we received the bullet from our friend. And not only with just a bullet did Mr. Williams . . . share his love, his inspiration, his deep knowledge of the subject of the Civil War with us. He did it through many exciting things, including sending us real Confederate currency and reproductions of Confederate coins. This currency was helpful in our getting acquainted with different personalities of that time period. Mr. Williams also sent us a tape of homespun songs of the C.S.A. by Bobby Horton. Currently, we are rendering them into Russian. The song "Rose of Alabama" has been sung and recorded by our boys. There's also the wonderful movie "The Blue and the Gray," which helped to rehumanize the past, and, of course, "Glory." One cannot help admiring the valor displayed by the first black regiment raised in the North. We also liked the photos featuring Mr. Williams serving as a "re-enactor" in simulated battles and his serving as a volunteer at the Manassas National Battlefield Park. We also wanted to experience what it must have been like in those days, and thus we staged two performances. One is about a Southern spy, Rose Greenhow. (The kids were thrilled and overjoyed to use the same code that she had used, at least they believed so.) The other is "Brother Against Brother" (a play by Nancy J. Valentine, Rose Hill Elementary School), which, of course, is relevant today in this country with its own Civil War on its boundaries. Our class has enjoyed amazing books such as "The Battle Cry of Freedom" by J.M. McPherson and "Civil War" by W.H. Price, and a wall calendar of the war. It was quite natural and not at all surprising that my students decided to learn more about the prehistory of the Civil War. The following books were of great help: "We the People" by G.I. Clark and R.U. Remini, "A History of the United States," "The Presidents," "The Book of States," "Students Booklet" and "Teacher's Guide" on the Civil War era. It was great for the kids who had already gotten used to thinking in black and white under the Soviet regime to add gray hue to their thinking when discussing the problem of slavery. They learned that individual responses to slavery varied greatly during the Civil War era. All the students were involved in researching the lives of famous people. They studied Lee/Grant documents, and, of course, material about President Lincoln, including "Abraham Lincoln: The Photobiography" that won the prestigious Newbery award for children's literature in 1988. They also liked a video film on him by J. McPherson. The students learned by heart Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address," listened to Mr. Williams' voice when he recorded that address; looked at the pictures taken by him at Gettysburg today and the poster featuring the 16th American president. Then they had a competition in better rendering this gem of American literature into Russian. The winners received "golden medallions" (chocolate inside), which were given to us by Mr. Williams. Furthermore, they were inspired by the book "Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in Translation" (30 languages). We treated ourselves to fun and relaxation and even tasted beef salted and dried (beef jerky), using the same instructions when preparing it as those used by soldiers during the Civil War. I could go on and on, but the main thing is not to give you a list of things we received but to give you an idea of how much one person keen on the Civil War can do, how much the study of the Civil War changed our lives, made them full. Sharing his interest in the Civil War with us, Mr. Williams put us where we all need to be from time to time - "in the troubled cradle where Blue and Gray gave birth to the America of today." It is the research of this troubled period in the history of your now-prosperous country that helps us to look into our own future with hope. Now when the cult of your country is in full swing here, it is good that the students can realize that with America, too, were all the unresolved society problems arising from the demise of slavery, but they respect your desire to understand these problems and to solve them. It is a good way to learn to solve ours. That is why we are looking forward so much to the visit to Omsk of Mr. Williams and his wife next year. I know he is an excellent storyteller since we met in Moscow last August. History was "favorable" to him, I guess, for his visit occurred during the days of the attempted coup. I would also like to point out that there is no such [formal] course as the study of the Civil War era in our curriculum. All classes take place after regular classes. And believe me, not a single student missed a single discussion of the topic of the Civil War. A teacher of the English language at one of the Siberian schools in the city of Omsk, Nadya Kuchuk This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM