Events in the U.S.S.R. Outpace School Curricula and Textbooks

By Debra Viadero

The dramatic changes unfolding in the Soviet Union have riveted the world's attention on a region that, in the view of many educators, has gotten uneven coverage in U.S. classrooms in recent decades.

While the number of precollegiate students enrolled in Russian language classes has increased significantly since the dawn of perestroika in the mid-1980's, the extent to which children are learning about the history and culture of the Soviet Union is much more difficult to gauge.

Educators interviewed last week said that textbooks dealing with the Soviet Union are often relics of the Cold War, with information hopelessly out of date and language reflecting the antiCommunist...