At least 10 teachers and the principal of School No. 12 in the Urals city of Perm resigned following pro-war activists’ accusations that they were undermining a patriotic course called “Important Conversations,” which was introduced in Russian schools shortly after the invasion of Ukraine last year.
To avoid the issues with the new history syllabus, my kids decided not to pick history or social studies as options for the Unified State Exam. We decided instead to study 20th-century history at home, looking at different views on historical events and how our ancestors lived in that period.
We’ll study history at home using Tamara Eidelman’s lectures or Maxim Kats’s Youtube videos.
I went to a meeting for parents in the spring and realized that I couldn’t send my children to that school. My husband and I decided to homeschool them. We enrolled our children in an online school, where there are no “Important Conversations” lessons — they’re just provided with real educational material.
