Krasnoyarsk Summer School

Russian acronym "KLSh'' stands for Krasnoyarsk Summer School (referred to as "the School'' further). Every summer the School hosts up to about 200 high-school students from Krasnoyarsk Territory and other parts of Russia who meet for 3 weeks in a summer camp outside the city of Krasnoyarsk.

The School was pioneered held in 1976 by a group of young professors of the Krasnoyarsk University who came up with an idea of direct educational and cultural influence of scientists and research students on high school kids. The idea has eventually grown into a whole alternative to the official Soviet era pedagogical concept, although it has never been called so at that time. An amazing fact about the School is that it has always had an official status and funding from Krasnoyarsk University and the city budget and remained virtually insensitive to a specific political regime in the country.

At present, KLSh is headed by professional teachers of Krasnoyarsk Experimental School ``UNIVERS''. The latter has been launched in 1986 by Dr. Isak Frumin, one of the founders of KLSh. The KLSh Directorate are responsible for the organization process, which starts right after the previous School has been finished. The actual content of the School is prepared and implemented by some 40 professors and students of Krasnoyarsk University, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and Moscow State and Novosibirsk universities. Many of them are former KLSh students.

Admission to the School is highly competitive for both the students and staff. The kids are supposed to demonstrate proficiency in basic high school level math, science and/or humanities through a written test and interview. The selection process is tougher for the prospective staff members. To be admitted to work at the School an applicant is required to be a successful college or graduate student or an accomplished professional and an educated person in general. Staff members are expected to work for about 16 hours a day just because they enjoy working with kids: the School funds are usually not enough to provide for salaries.

At present, the School has 9 subject departments: Physics and Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Medical Science, Computer Science, Economics, Linguistics, Psychology, and Law. Each student is expected to choose one department in which he or she takes one or two major courses. Each course includes 7 to 8 lectures presented to the entire department or its significant fraction. Lectures alternate with the same number of recitation sessions, for which students are divided into small groups of 5 to 7 people. The lectures and recitations within one course consistently cover a subject from a high-school science or humanities program but at a level higher than it normally happens in the high school. It often is a topic that is not discussed in a regular high school at all.

Besides the major courses, the academic part of the program includes optional courses open to all students regardless of their department. These courses offer small research projects, e.g. computer simulation of a physics process, design and assembly of a simple electronic device, environment monitoring using methods of analytical chemistry, economic games, etc.

KLSh students live together in teams of about 10 people. Each team is supervised by 2 to 3 staff members called the leaders who are personally responsible for all aspects of their team students' life in the School. Leaders are the same people who teach courses. The teams, however, usually do not match the departments so that everyone has a chance to interact with many more people than one team during the School.

Life in the School is not limited to academic instruction, of course. Students and leaders compete in science and sports tournaments, enjoy lots of chances to learn more about literature, arts, and music or even express themselves in those areas, explore the beautiful Siberian nature. KLSh is supposed to teach students not just specific pieces of science. It demonstrates an intense and intelligent way of life and work. It creates a very special friendly atmosphere which is quite different from the outside world. Even though the School lasts for only three weeks, it gives some of our students a hard time while adjusting back to their ``normal'' life. There is no solution to that unless a person realizes that the world is hard to change, and the best way out of it is to concentrate on changing him or herself. KLSh is a convincing example of how one could pursue this goal.

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