How a Soviet schoolboy "overtook" America

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In 1958, he participated in an experiment organized by Life magazine. For a month, the newspaper's reporters watched the life of two schoolchildren - from the USA and the USSR - in order to find out whose education system is better.

In 1958, Life magazine decided to find out which educational system is better - American or Soviet. The reason for the experiment was the launch by the USSR in October 1957 of the world's first artificial Earth satellite. For the Americans, this event was a real shock. Some in the United States saw the reason that the Americans failed to be the first to launch a satellite into space, in the insufficient quality of the American education system.

For a month, a team of 12 reporters watched the lives of two schoolchildren. In the United States, Stephen Lapekas from a Chicago school became a participant in the experiment. In the USSR, journalists chose Alexei Kutskov, a student of the 10th grade "B" of school number 49 in Moscow. Both were then 16 years old. As a result, the Soviet schoolchild became the winner, and in the United States they were forced to admit the shortcomings of the American education system and take a number of measures to improve its quality.

The journalists wanted ordinary schoolchildren to become the heroes of their report. They asked several schools to provide them with photographs of their students. Stephen Lapekas was selected from over 700 candidates. In the USSR, the choice fell on Alexei Kutskov. Together with reporters and photographers, they had to behave in the same way as in ordinary life. The schoolchildren were not told about the details. The Soviet and American schoolchildren learned that another experiment of the same kind was being carried out on another continent after they were handed the issue of the magazine.

An article about Alexei Kutskov and Stephen Lapekas was published in Life in March 1958. It was titled "Crisis in Education". The article began as follows: “In the ascetic atmosphere of Moscow's 49th school, Alexei Kutskov spends 6 days a week at school, intensively studying a huge number of subjects. Among them are Russian literature, English, physics, chemistry, labor, mathematics, drawing and astronomy. More than half of Alexei's study time is spent on studying subjects related to science."

Journalists accompanied schoolchildren not only at school, but also outside the educational institution, observed how much time they spend on communication with peers and entertainment. The representatives of the publication tried to find out what Alexey and Stephen are fond of, what books they read, what kind of sports they go in for. To the surprise of the Americans, outside school, Alexei showed the same diligence, spending a lot of time reading books. Several photographs were published in the magazine, in which a Soviet schoolchild was depicted at lessons, playing volleyball and chess, and reading Dreiser's novel "Sister Carrie" in the original.

Comparing how Alexey Kutskov and Stephen Lapekas spend their time, journalists note that the latter meets with his girlfriend Penny Donahue for a long time every day, and the rest of his day is spent aimlessly. The part of the article devoted to Stephen Lapekas was titled "Slowing Up". In general, the American schoolboy was not presented in the most pleasant light. Later, offended by the journalists, he in every possible way refused to communicate with the press. Life writes: "After 10 minutes late, he walked into the typewriter class, tapped his fingers on a large electric typewriter, and another pleasant school day began." Journalists described Stephen's life in two words: typing and dancing.

For activities that required mental effort, Stephen did not show much zeal. Thus, while studying English, American students did not bother studying textbooks. Instead, they leafed through comics, in which the essence of a particular book was briefly stated. I must say that Stephen, like Alexey, was fond of sports. He played basketball, was the champion of the swimming school. Stephen Lapekas was considered a leader among students, but he had little time to study, the material said. In an article published after the report on Kutskov and Lapekas, the following data were given: “Only 12% of American schoolchildren study mathematics and only 25% - physics. Less than 15% of pupils study foreign languages ”.

Alexey Kutskov and Stephen Lapekas did not have a chance to communicate with each other. Moreover, they never even corresponded. When, after the collapse of the USSR, Kutskov wanted to meet with Lapekas, the latter refused. For both, life developed in different ways, but there was something in common in their fate - aviation. Alexey Kutskov graduated from the Moscow Aviation Technical Institute. In 1970, he was selected to the cosmonaut corps, but the meeting with space did not take place. For some time he worked at Gosavianadzor, investigated the causes of air crashes, and later held a high position at Norilsk Airlines. Stephen Lapekas has also had a successful career. He graduated from the University of Illinois, attended a military college, then became a pilot, fought in Vietnam. Then he worked for a long time as a pilot at Trans World Airlines.