Soviet School Principal Paves Way for Visit by S.D. Students

If the students at Moscow School No. 45 reflect even a little bit the sense of humor of its principal, Leonid Milgram, their pen pals from La Jolla and San Diego high schools are in for an unusually good time during a precedent-setting visit to the Soviet Union next month.

“We’re not going to try to make Marxists out of them, for sure,” Milgram said, laughing, during an interview Tuesday in San Diego. “From my experience, kids are kids, and those from both countries will find much more in common than they have in differences.”

And the 20 sophomores and juniors from the two San Diego high schools, whom Milgram met Sunday at one of their homes, will have few problems understanding their colleagues from school No. 45, which specializes in foreign language instruction, especially English.

“I think the only person in the entire school who doesn’t speak English is me,” the expansive Milgram said with a smile as he spoke through an interpreter. “But I do know one phrase,” he added, lapsing into English: “I love you, baby.”

Not that there isn’t a serious, contemplative side that the 67-year-old Moscow native, who has headed the school for 30 years, mixes in with his ready wit and willingness to poke fun at himself.

“What is happening between my school and (those) in San Diego is like a tiny drop that symbolizes what is happening in the world between our two countries,” he said. “I’m an old man, I’ve seen different relationships between our two nations, from the World War II when I ate American canned food and drove bombs and army supplies in a Studebaker, to the Churchill speech (talking of an Iron Curtain) and the Cold War.

“And now the climate is changing again, getting warmer, getting close to the California climate,” he said, laughing and wiping a bead of sweat from his brow as he good-naturedly talked of San Diego’s temperatures and arched his eyebrows in disbelief when told that residents find the current weather a bit cool.

Milgram’s school is considered one of the better facilities in Moscow. Its 700 students range from 7 to 17 years old and attend classes from first through 10th grade in a typical Soviet-style school arrangement.

School No. 45 earlier this year became a sister school to La Jolla High through the efforts of La Jolla High literature teacher Gloria McMillan, who was the California finalist in the NASA Teacher in Space program. McMillan visited the Moscow school a couple of years ago, and Milgram credits her with “being the initiator, the charge that let everything go forward.”

McMillan set up the Spacebridge Project among interested students, which has featured extensive letter-writing between La Jolla and Moscow students, as well as a live satellite teleconference between the two student bodies this spring.

The three-week stay in Soviet homes by the La Jolla and San Diego students from Aug. 11 to Sept. 1 is the culmination of first-stage plans, which administrators from both countries hope will lead to a lasting relationship.

Milgram was in San Diego earlier this week for a workshop on computers and education at UC San Diego. The visit gave him a chance to visit with La Jolla High Principal J. M. Tarvin and meet with the students selected for the trip.

“My impression is that the kids will get along well--the (Spacebridge) student president Chris (Swan) is so handsome that all the girls in the Soviet Union are going to fall in love with him,” Milgram said.

“But I did find that the kids haven’t really got a clue to what Moscow or the Soviet Union is like, at least from the questions they asked of me, about whether you can wear shorts or miniskirts, for example . . . but I liked them a lot.” (His answer was yes.)

Meeting Went Terrifically

The meeting with the students went terrifically, said Jan de la Vega, one of the parents going on the trip. “Knowing the principal is such a key, just like the students at La Jolla are comfortable because they have (a rapport) with their own principal,” De la Vega said. “And I think they really enjoyed Milgram and look forward to the trip even more.”

Milgram hopes, of course, that the San Diego students learn much about the complexities of the Soviet people and of Soviet society, but said that depends on their emotional and intellectual level.

“I hope that prejudices about the Soviet Union will vanish, because, despite what one thinks, the Soviet people only think good things about American people. We may not like the President or the actions of some President, but always we have felt good about the American people.

“And I think the kids will see that the Russian people have had a hard time since World War II and had and still have their own really big problems about which we now can finally speak aloud because of Gorbachev.

“And, if they will come to know about these problems, then they will understand us better and understand that the idea of peace is really prevalent in the hearts of Russians.”

Milgram’s references to peace and his World War II experiences made a strong impression on La Jolla principal Tarvin.

“He really feels that students must know about the terrible destruction during World War II to understand why the world is the way it is today and why the memories of (what happened) must not be allowed to be forgotten,” Tarvin said, comparing Milgram’s use of WWII veterans to talk to Moscow students to the recollections of World War II concentration-camp survivors who relate Holocaust memories to San Diego-area classes.

Tarvin, who hopes to visit Moscow next year with a second group of students, said he was impressed with Milgram’s grasp of educational issues and the potential for the international exchange.

Tarvin also found Milgram well-versed on the nuts and bolts of how schools are run and eager to learn some practical, manipulative methods to try back in Moscow.

Level of Technology

“He wanted to know how we set up our teachers’ schedules, how we do course descriptions, how we use computers, how we develop materials, all of those things,” Tarvin said.

Milgram said he “can only dream” of having the level of technology he saw at La Jolla High, with its computers, modern classrooms and related equipment. “I’m sort of jealous,” he said. Tarvin arranged for the high school’s foundation to buy a VCR for Milgram to take back to his school.

At the same time, Milgram is aware of the debate in the United States about the quality of schools and the comparisons made with Japanese education.

“So do we (compare ourselves to Japan),” Milgram said. Although he used to think that British and Soviet education were superior to that in the United States, Milgram believes that American schools have improved since the launching of Sputnik in 1957.

“I think America has invested more in education, and I can see how the level has increased through seeing the kids,” Milgram said.