Tuesday 1 September 2009

Back to school



1 September is the day when the school starts in Latvia and most East European countries. Pupils gather in the class but no lectures are held, instead they just meet the teacher as well as attend an official ceremony, such as director's speech in the main hall. In Soviet times pupils also had to visit the monument of Lenin and place red flowers. Today all flowers go to teachers only.
Photos from Latinform archive, 1977

4 comments:

angella said...

Are these from your school years? Teachers where very well respected in Latvia is that still the case? The Latvians that arrived in Australia as displaced persons after WW2 surprised everyone with how educated they are.

Arnis Balcus said...

No, photos are not mine but photo agency's Latinform archive, in 1977 I wasn't born yet, just a bit later. Yet later in 1980s I still as a pupil went with flowers to see my daddy Lenin. Nowadays pupils have more freedom and less obligations, while teachers have less power and less respect.

Gabriela said...

To me, it is a little bit odd to start school in September. In Peru, as in the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, we start school in early March.
Saludos.

abdulmalikachakzai said...

Actually I love to see the old USSR buildings, When I see the sculptures of Marx, Engles, Lenin, Stalin My heart feels as I am beside them in imaginary RUSSIA ....... I love MARXISM the revolutionarry theory for the independence of Proletriates from Burgeoies...