Increased Enrollments article

[Janey Haynes]

I have been teaching Russian at McGavock High School in Nashville, TN, since 1986, and it's interesting the way the enrollment's gone.  Back then, with the Cold War still on, it was the language of choice by the "alternative" kids, many of them "Goth", many of them brilliant and troubled at the same time.  Then, down came the curtain, and enrollment dropped to a mere trickle.  I've always had one Russian class, a combination class with up to four levels in the same classroom at the same time (one-room schoolhouse!), with first year getting the lion's share of attention and levels 3 & 4 never more than 3-4 students each.  Because of declining enrollment our assistant principal in charge of scheduling took it upon herself to delete first year Russian from the schedule last year, so while I had a handful of second year and four brilliant third year students, I had nothing to build on.  Fortunately she retired and the new assistant principal allowed me to recruit.  She let me speak to 
the incoming freshmen before they registered about the five languages offered at our school and to give the pros for each one.  I know that put Russian back on the map for some.  But the biggest and best boost we got was from the Open House in the spring, where parents can come in to look at our programs.  My Russian two kids did a bang-up job advertising Russian, so that this year I have 31 first year students and 3 third years.  The first quarter I had 1/3 make A's in Russian 1--and when that was compared to the number of A's in the other foreign languages taught here, it brought gasps of amazement. The kids love it.  They feel special, and many of them have already expressed the desire to go three, even four years with it.  Word of mouth, people.  It's the BEST advertisement!

Janey Haynes
Nashville, TN

-------------- Original message from Josh Wilson <jwilson at SRAS.ORG>: -------------- 


> Another two cents, 
> 
> I don't think that a drop in Russia's perceived threat is to blame. The US 
> does see Russia as threat - Alina Israeli's comments show this, as does 
> nearly all journalism in the States, as does the current politics in Central 
> Asia. Take Georgia, for instance. Georgia is right now our one way of 
> "safely" getting oil out of Central Asia - Russia wants control there 
> because with Georgia in its sphere, it can route all the oil and gas heading 
> for the West through Russian pipelines, thus boosting Russian economic and 
> political power. While the news will have you believe that Iran and 
> "terrorists" are our biggest threats - that title more properly rests with 
> China and Russia - who are increasingly gaining the ability to challenge us 
> militarily and, more importantly, economically. Thus, we are supporting 
> Georgia's current government while Russia is supporting its opposition. 
> 
> Also, Russia is still seen by businesses as a source of major profits. The 
> consumer boom, petrodollars, etc. means that, according to a study by Ernst 
> and Young that says that 90% of business invested here plan to expand in 
> 2008. Many more companies (mostly smaller, like Campbell's Soup, Starbucks, 
> Berlitz - but also a few major companies like Disney) - are now planning or 
> recently made market entries or major investments. And foreign investment is 
> still in the billions every year. Intel recently opened a fairly expensive 
> R&D facility in Nizhny Novgorod. Pepsi is planning a brand new factory in 
> southern Russia. Coca-Cola is following through with plans to invest 1.5 
> billion dollars (yes, billion) in Russia over the next few years. And that's 
> just what I recall off the top of my head. 
> 
> I would offer that the slump in interest is simply one of style. Russia was 
> cool in the 80s and early 90s. Now, it's out of fashion. China's the new 
> Russia, so to say. Maybe in several years, it will be Russia's turn again - 
> or maybe students will be studying Portuguese to head down to Brazil. Hard 
> to say. 
> 
> A major PR campaign (or major world event) would likely help - something to 
> drive home that Russia is a major destination for investment - and is very 
> important to international diplomacy. But that would take the media 
> reporting on Russia with something other than hopelessness - and likely 
> politicians doing the same. I don't think this is likely in the near future. 
> Maybe we could get Paris Hilton and Ksenia Sobchuk to do some public service 
> announcements? ;) (kidding, of course). 
> 
> But this doesn't mean that increased grass-roots efforts that we can do 
> won't help. For folks hoping to build the attractiveness of their programs 
> on campus, SRAS offers http://www.sras.org/educators (see "Classroom 
> Materials and Advocacy). We'd love to hear what you think - and if you have 
> success (or failure) with our ideas. 
> 
> Best, 
> 
> 
> 
> Josh Wilson 
> Asst. Director 
> The School of Russian and Asian Studies 
> Editor-in-Chief 
> Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies 
> www.sras.org 
> jwilson at sras.org 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list 
> [mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Alina Israeli 
> Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 1:27 AM 
> To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU 
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Increased Enrollments article 
> 
> On Nov 14, 2007, at 3:31 PM, Inna Caron wrote: 
> 
> > Russia is no longer perceived as a major threat to national 
> > security and/or 
> > the principle competitor for the world dominance. 
> 
> 
> 1. Russian is one of top four urgently needed (that is speakers of, 
> pardon my fractured syntax) on the State Dept. and US Army lists. 
> 
> 2. That's what makes so many Russians upset and they are trying their 
> darnest to make sure that Americans (and others) perceive them that way. 
> 
> 
> 
> Alina Israeli 
> LFS, American University 
> 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW 
> Washington DC. 20016 
> (202) 885-2387 
> fax (202) 885-1076 
> aisrael at american.edu 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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