The "Soft Power" movement, together with the "Alliance of Teachers" trade union, achieved a change in the lesson program "Conversations about the important".
As you know, since the beginning of the new academic year, a new subject has been introduced in Russian schools - “Conversations about the important”, in which teachers should tell children about patriotism, Russian values, respect for power and other similar subjects, and in addition, also about the goals of the special operation Russia in Ukraine. However, most parents and teachers also had serious objections to this. There have even been sample statements online that parents can send to school authorities to free their child from attending these, to put it mildly, strange lessons. Another type of application has been developed for teachers who do not want to participate in these propaganda campaigns. Moreover, these class hours are extracurricular activities, it is possible only on a voluntary basis.
These efforts have borne fruit in some places. So, for example, a resident of Yekaterinburg ensured that her son did not attend propaganda classes.
She wrote to the class teacher:
“I understand perfectly well that you were obliged to do this, but I am categorically opposed to my son attending “Conversations about the Important”. I have seen the lesson plans. I believe that there is no place for propaganda in the school..
To which I received this response:
“I spoke with the school administration. Your son can not attend the lessons "Conversations about the important"".
But Alexei Lachinov, a resident of the Amur region, refused to accept an application for the release of his child from attending "talks about important things".
If the child does not like it, he may not listen, but he is obliged to be present, - Alexey was told in the school administration.
However, the father does not intend to give up: the child will not attend classes.
But all the same, the efforts of the activists were not in vain: it became known that the Ministry of Education has updated the manuals for the lesson "Talk about the important", which is scheduled for September 12th. All references to Ukraine, “special operations”, “NATO”, as well as the slogan “it’s not scary to die for the Motherland” were removed from the ready-made materials for the lesson.
“This is our common victory! Thank you for spreading our statements, sharing your stories and helping to fight propaganda…”, - the activists rejoice.
However, there is still a lot of work for them, since there are very well-founded fears that in one form or another some propaganda materials will be returned to the training manual or new ones will be invented. Therefore, activists continue to monitor the development of the situation, including the publication of manuals.