Kuzino, St Cyril and a Cell-Free Zone

Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Kuzino Russia, Vologda, Russian Federation
No, despite the title, not a monk's cell. 

Judging from what we saw of the monastery, St Cyril -- or Kirill -- had plenty of those in what sounds like a pretty strict monastic regime .

I mean a far more rare and highly desirable phenomenon.

A cell-phone-free school.  

Shock, horror! 

But first things first.

Waking after another one of those restless and weirdly endless twilight/dawn 'white nights', we found we'd left Lake Onega and were now sailing down the Volga-Baltic waterway.

Again-- more idyllic pastoral scenery -- before docking at the little town of Kuzino.

This stop had two parts: a school visit and a tour of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, founded by an ancient white-bearded sage now known as St Kirill.

The monastery was impressive with its massive fortifications - though I never really discovered who the monks were being protected FROM ...and a lake right alongside, populated by attractive locals sunbathing. 

One topless sunbather, lying on her front, was clearly praying to St Cyril that the playful dog which had suddenly appeared gambolling around her, would shove off before she was forced to retrieve her top in full view of all 200 tourists. 

Luckily her prayers were answered, in the guise of one gallant but actually totally oblivious Richard Duval who distracted it long enough for her to recover her dignity. 

But the really impressive part of this stop was Kirillov school and the few students we met there.

After all, it was summer holidays and these kids turned up to show us around, give us a commentary in English about the school and, poor things, answer our probably incomprehensible questions, as well as putting on a bit of a show. 

Painfully embarrassing as it was for a couple of them, twirling their wooden instruments, they did a great job and were superb ambassadors for their school .

The building itself was not particularly glamorous but functional in the way of most state schools practically anywhere. It did remind me a lot though, of Hougang Secondary School (HS) in Singapore -- a bit depressing, that.

The staff lounge looked fairly basic, as was the canteen. Very different from the comfy sofas and polished wooden walls at St George's in Ascot - again, more on the Houngang end of the school building spectrum.

It was interesting to see students' work on every landing -- all connected to the 70th WW2 celebrations - with the focus on past students who'd actually taken part -- and mostly killed.

The classroom where we sat for the Q&A session was equipped about the same as HS but did have functioning curtains which were a plus.

We asked about the graduation rate, numbers going to uni etc and were told that they had a very high rate of tertiary enrolments and the school had a very good reputation

Not bad for a school with little in IT equipment, fancy libraries or 'media suites'.

Remembering our problems in Singapore, with kids forever attached to their phones and other devices, I wondered if they had the same problem here. 

Oh, no! Phones aren't allowed, was the short answer. 

Interesting that. Mobiles banned yet the kids looked both psychologicially and physically undamaged.

In fact, they looked and sounded pretty damned terrific!

If we tried to do that in OUR schools (or Singapore) you'd have a riot on your hands akin to the current riots going on in one Melbourne prison because of smoking bans.
 
Now, Kirill it seems loved nothing more than sitting alone, thinly-clad, in his cold cell, fasting and keeping a low profile.

He would definitely have approved of kids being stripped of their phones at Kirillov.


 

Comments

Sue Wakeford
2015-07-10

Having been to St. Petersburg and Moscow it has been super to re-live the experience via your blog. The cruise has added an extra dimension to the Russian visit. Your blogs have inspired me to visit Russia again and include the cruise this time. We have really enjoyed reading them all. They are a superb record of your visit.

2025-02-07

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