Little ZINNOBERS
As far as the District Department of People’s Education (DDPE) is concerned, our school is the pride of the District, a blissful little show island of window-dressing. As far as our school’s administration is concerned, the DDPE equals the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: they send numerous foreign delegations to us, and we receive them with due honour. As they are led through the classrooms, the educational process is demonstrated to them. We got used to it long ago. The door would open and B.G. enters with a knowing smile. A Russian smile. A thin stream of about twenty people oozes in behind him, smiling foreign smiles. The lesson wasn’t interrupted. The strangers were given the chance to study Soviet school children in their natural habitat, and that ‘natural habitat’ was
