Abstract
In October 1990, the author was invited by a consortium of edu cators in Nizhni Novgorod to give a series of lectures on education in the United States. In return, he was to have a free hand in gathering information on the changes in Soviet education since the advent of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev as head of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
For 70 years Nizhni Novgorod has been a closed city. The writer was the first American educator to gain entry. Even under perestroika (reconstruction) and glasnost (openness), a bit of residual censorship remains; and one of the conditions was that those who provided information need not give their names or titles for publication.
After two days in Moscow, the writer spent two weeks in Nizhi Novgorod, in a round of early-morning to late-at-night talks, interviews, briefings, and question-and-answer sessions with principals, professors of pedagogy, teachers, parents, and gov ernment officials. Below is a distillation of what he learned.
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