First Day of School.

We all remember the first day in school. Mine included an assembly, the anthem, and a pep talk from the principal. I suspect the first days in the United States were similar to those in Mexico City.

The anthem, pledge, and pep talk about how we will all have a great year, how we are all here to learn, how we need to support each other, and the apparent good luck this year. On the first day of school in Russia, we had some of that and flowers for teachers, a tradition going back to Soviet times.

But it was more:

Pioneer ties, election campaigning, and dancing to Shaman to “save the soul.” September 2 became a day of aggressive propaganda in schools in the Russian Federation and occupied regions of Ukraine

Despite the law that prohibits political agitation in educational institutions, the September assemblies were accompanied by aggressive military and pseudo-patriotic propaganda. MO collected the most characteristic moments of the Day of Knowledge during the war:

✏️ The first day of school began with pseudo-patriotism lessons. The children were shown Putin’s speech about “the need to preserve the soul of the country” and had class hours dedicated to “the image of the future of Russia.”

✏️ In the occupied territories, they decided to recreate Soviet practices : in a secondary school…