I’m All for Honesty!

I’m all for honesty, sincerity, and transparency— because it really works.

Let me prove it with an example from high school in the U.S.

In many of the so-called ‘mandatory’ classes here

US Government,
Math,
English,

teachers straight up tell the class: ‘This topic is boring.’ They don’t yell, they don’t try to convince everyone how ‘fundamentally important’ it is, and they don’t lie to themselves or the students. Instead, they find the simplest and most effective way to explain the material and then move on to something more engaging.

I can feel for myself that this is way more productive than what usually happens in Russia. No matter how much someone tries to prove otherwise, I still believe I don’t need to memorize every single article of the Labor Code, recognize all of Michelangelo’s works by heart, or know the exact ruling years of every Romanov.

A huge part of the tension between teachers and students back home comes exactly from this effort to force importance onto things that aren’t really interesting—or necessary. Not to mention, memorizing random facts is way less useful than learning how to search for information and figure out what’s real and what’s fake.

In the U.S., they don’t make you memorize the Constitution word for word. Instead, they introduce you to the method of Critical Thinking. The same amount of classroom time is spent in both systems, but the difference in how useful that knowledge becomes later is massive.

Honestly, if my school back home had even a bit of this ‘truth policy,’ I think everyone’s motivation to learn would skyrocket

Try describing your own school experience and imagine what it would be like if honesty and critical thinking were the main focus. Maybe you’re the next exchange student who’ll share this kind of story!