The Sitting of the Teachers’ Council.

Situation. Teachers and other members of school personnel have gathered to discuss Oleg Ratnikov’s behaviour. Oleg Ratnikov, a 14-year-old youth is a pupil of the 7^th form. He is not only notorious in his school, but his name is also known to many people in the district where he lives. Oleg always has his own way, resents any advice. Talks back. Fights. Can tell lies. Seems to have lots of interest in school. Quarrels with many classmates. Seems to be always to blame. The members of the teachers’ council should decide whether suspention from school is the only solution or whether there are other alternatives. Ratnikov’s parents are invited.

NOTE. The group of students is divided into two teams, each of which performs the same role play. While discussing Oleg’s problems, try to understand each other’s point of view, ask questions. Try and find the reasons for Oleg’s behaviour. Disagree with some of the participants of the council sitting, support others’ points of view, defend your opinion. Complain about some of Oleg’s actions. At the end you should come to the conclusion as to whether or not to suspend Oleg from school. Comments from the class on each team’s performance and the value of the different arguments are invited.

Characters.

1) Peter Ratnikov, Oleg’s father, aged 45, an engineer. Spends all his spare time inventing. Always busy. Rather clever, full of sarcasm. No real contact with his son. Thinks that the problems of bringing up children are for school to solve. The only method of communication with his son is his belt and raised voice. Demands absolute obedience.

2) Anna Ratnikova, Oleg’s mother, aged 40, a librarian. Lives in some imaginary world of her favourite fictional characters. Very shy, with a mild character, a bit afraid of her husband, is under his thumb. Adores her son. Exaggerates his positive features (kindness, love for animals, ability to imagine, eagerness to help). Thinks all the rest are in the wrong.

3) Elena Plavskaya, aged 26, teacher of Russian Literature. Hates the boy. He is always “a pain in the neck”, a real trouble-maker. His language is awful. Sometimes you can barely understand what he says. His opinions are ridiculous. He makes fun of everybody, teachers included. Elena thinks it is necessary to isolate Oleg, to prevent spreading his bad influence (shoulder-length hair, weird clothes, misbehaviour, etc.) on other pupils. Insists on Oleg’s suspension from school.

4) Rita Izmailovna, aged 50, teacher of History, dislikes the boy’s behaviour and attitude towards school, her subject and his classmates. Is irritated by his lack of discipline, responsibility and manners. Tries to analyze his feelings and to find explanation for such behaviour. Is not quite sure but thinks that Oleg’s suspension from school and further practical training will do more good for the boy than his staying on at school.

5) Andrey Pavlov, aged 45, a teacher of Biology, school Head Teacher. Has seen many cases of the type. Rather likes the boy, his devotion to his lessons, the interesting questions he asks. Thinks that Oleg is passing through a difficult period of his life. Is sure that he will get over it. Certainly he often behaves strangely, his moods are always changing. It irritates both adults and classmates. In A. Pavlov’s opinion Oleg needs more contact with his father. Thinks that Oleg has ambitions. Isn’t it possible to give him some real responsibility? Oleg may rise to it.

6) Olga Zubina, aged 22, a psychologist, a university graduate having just begun working. Thinks that parents and teachers must remember that Oleg is “shedding the dependence of childhood and entering into adulthood”, where he has to be on his own. The thing to do is just to do nothing. You’ll find that very difficult indeed, it requires a lot of will-power and tolerance. Make Oleg feel that you are behind him not after him. He certainly needs your presence, but doesn’t want you to live his life for him. Help him – but stay in his background. Suspension from school is out of the question.

UNIT 5. FRIENDS AND FRIENDSHIP

TOPICAL VOCABULARY

-faith; -trust; -belief; -faithful; -faithless; recover; -recovery; -fortune; -misfortune; -fortune-teller; -fortunate; -(un)fortunately; -share; -shareholder; -value; -evaluate;

-estimate; -(un)conscious; -subconscious; -consciousness; -break; -commitment; -to run out of steam; -to break smb’s heart; -to be on a par; -to root for smb; -to become equal; -it (never) hurts to; -to put some distance between smb; -in the long run; -it pays off;

Which is the odd word out?

a) angry, indignant, irate, acute, furious, acrimonious, wrathful, infuriated;

b) reach, achieve, gain, win, lead, succeed, attain, get;

c) occurrence, event, case, incident, happening, accident, episode;

Translate into English using the vocabulary of the lesson.

1) Когда вы теряете веру в близкого друга, вы теряете все.

2) Давая совет, она была уверена, что делала это из лучших побуждений.

3) Я верю предсказателям судьбы, хотя знаю, что среди них встречаются нечестные люди.

4) Ей просто повезло, что она встретила в своей жизни такого прекрасного друга.

5) На заседании совета обсуждали права детей и стариков.

6) Она была так счастлива, что ей хотелось немедленно поделиться с кем-нибудь этой новостью.

7) Дружбу надо ценить.

8) Я не могу оценить его способности, не увидев его работу.

9) Он подписал этот документ в полном сознании.

10) Неужели он не осознает, что многие люди не хотят с ним дружить?

11) Какое-то неосознанное чувство заставило его немедленно покинуть этот дом.

12) Она долго мучила своего возлюбленного, кокетничая с другими мужчинами, и в конечном итоге разбила его сердце.

13) Порой бывает очень больно, когда близкий человек вас не понимает.

14) Они долго не общались, но потом случайно встретились снова, и это принесло плоды (увенчалось успехом).

Answer the questions.

- How and by what criteria do men (women) choose friends?

- What types of friendship do you know?

- How do the issues of power and competition effect friendship?

- Can frequent disagreements and arguments result in the break of friendship?

- Has your friendship ever been affected by financial problems?

- Do you think that men and women can be friends?

- Can people of different age be friends?

- What do you look for in a friendship?

- Do you think it’s necessary for friends to be on a par financially, professionally and otherwise?

- Could you live without friends?

- Is it wise to keep making new friends?

4. a) Read the text.

TEXT

Women are friends, I once would have said, when they totally love and support each other and bare to each other the secrets of their souls, and run to help each other, and tell harsh truths to each other when harsh truths must be told.

I once would have said that a friend is a friend all the way, but now I believe that’s a narrow point of view. For the friendships I have and friendships a see serve many different functions, meet different needs and range from those as all-the-way as the friendship of the soul sisters mentioned above to that of the most nonchalant and casual playmates.

Consider these varieties of friendship:

1) Convenience friends. These are women with whom, if our paths weren’t crossing all the time, we’d have no particular reason to be friends: a next-door neighbour, the mother of one of our children’s closest friend and so on.

Convenience friends are convenient indeed. They’ll lend us their cups and silverware for a party. They’ll drive our kids to soccer when we are sick. They’ll take us to pick up our car when we need a lift to the garage. They’ll take even our cats when we go on vacation. As we will for them. But we don’t, with convenience friends, ever come too close or tell too much; we maintain our public face and emotional distance.

2) Special-interest friends. These friendships aren’t intimate, and they needn’t involve kids or silverware or cats. Their value lies in some interest jointly shared. And so we may have an office friend or a yoga friend or a tennis friend or a friend from the women’s Democratic Club. My playmate is a shopping friend, a woman of marvelous taste, a woman who knows exactly where to buy what, and furthermore is a woman who always knows beyond a doubt what one ought to be buying.

3) Historical friends. We all have a friend who has known us since childhood. The years have gone by and we’ve gone separate ways and we’ve little in common now, but we’re still an intimate part of each other’s past.

4) Crossroads friends. Like historical friends, our crossroads friends are important for what was – for the friendship we shared at a crucial, now past, time of life. A time, perhaps, when we roomed in college together; or worked as eager young singles. Crossroads friends forge powerful links, links strong enough to endure with not much more contact than once-a-year letter at Christmas and out of respect for those crossroads years, for those dramas and dreams we once shared, we will always be friends.

5) Men who are friends – I must mention man–woman friendship too. For these friendships can be just as close and as dear as those that we form with women.

6) There are medium friends, and pretty good friends, and very good friends indeed, and these friendships are defined by their level of intimacy and what we reveal at each of these levels. Intimacy is calibrated with care.

The best of friends, I still believe, totally love and support and trust each other, and bare to each other the secrets of their souls, and run – no question asked – to help each other, and tell harsh truths to each other when they must be told. But we needn’t agree about everything to tolerate each other’s point of view. To accept without judgement. To give and to take without ever keeping score. And to be there, as I am for them and as they are for me, to comfort our sorrows, to celebrate our joys.

b) Examine the specific friendships described in categories 1-5.