Kusakin
Ilya V. Executive Director and co-owner of the International Expert
Company
When I was 12 years old,
my parents sent me to England
to study at "Greenfields" school, and I want to tell you now how it
has affected my life.
Before this school I was
a pudgy, unsportsmanlike, offensive boy.
Sometimes I was beaten
up at school. In the 7th form I already smoked cigarettes and drank beer with
those "friends" who beat me up. I wanted to match their
"toughness", wanted them to respect me so sometimes I was involved
with their "hold-ups", after all it is a shame to cadge money for beer
and a cigarette from parents - even though my father was already a successful
businessman.
In the Lycée school
where I studied in Russia,
I got basically “four” in my marks. But year by year my marks at the Russian
school became worse, and by the 7th form the desire to study had disappeared
completely, and I even began to avoid school more often. By luck at that
moment my father got an offer from his friend, whose children went to Greenfields School
in England,
to send me there for studying. As my daddy had already given up (concerning my
study), he made the decision instantly.
And so I arrived
in England.
The first thing that struck me was the great politeness of the school personnel,
teachers and the general relationship between everybody. I felt like a VIP
in this place - that was the level of respect I was welcomed with. The simple
point is that teachers there do not have the arrogance which is inherent in 80%
of Russian teachers. There was nobody who made me feel small, as in Russian Lycée
- on the contrary everyone gave me the greatest help in all school
subjects.
At Greenfields School
I started to take part in sports that resulted in my becoming the candidate for
the sports prize (twice) - in track and field athletics and football.
There I have learned
what the true friendship is, and now I have friends from more than 20
countries.
Due to the way duties
were organized at the school, each pupil got his own responsibility and I
learned to be a part of the team and I became used to being self-reliant with
extremely increased self-discipline.
At the school I became
an honest, hardworking, sane person and really found myself.
As one of the great
thinkers Herbert Spenser said: "The Prime goal of education is not
knowledge, but action."
At Greenfields School
the goal of teachers is not to hammer textbook knowledge into pupils' heads and
not to create "robots" who just record subjects in a mechanical way.
The product they want is children prepared for adult, independent life as much
as possible, who are able to DO instead of just having lots of theoretical
knowledge.
And here I am now. I am
25 years old, I have been married to a beautiful and intelligent girl Alyona
for 4 years. We have a half-year-old son Platon Ilich, and, by the way I have
no doubts, where he will study. Also I served 2 years in the Army where I
managed to become the senior sergeant, with 117 soldiers entrusted to me.
Also I am the co-owner of the company Business Forward which has more than 200
staff today.
I can say with all my
heart that my parents' decision to send me to this school for studying became a
vital and key factor of my success.
If these words have
helped others then I am pleased!
Kusakin Ilya V.
