These are brief comments and advices from BRS parents:
Dmitry Budker
Associate Professor of Physics
University of California at Berkeley
We have three children, ages 14, 8, and 4. Our oldest son has attended the Berkeley Russian School for 7 years and the two younger children are currently studying there. It is largely due to the heroic efforts of the teachers, and particularly of the School's organizer, director and "soul", Yelena Glikman, that all of our children are quite fluent in Russian. They also maintain a strong connection to the extremely rich Russian cultural heritage - not just language and literature, but also history, music, fine arts, and theater. All of these are integral parts of the Russian School Experience.
The Berkeley Russian School is growing with our children. I am grateful for it being an important part of our lives.
Yulia Golubovskaya
author of this Web site
If you are looking for joining a Russian community you won't find a better place than BRS. Born from home-style education the School still keeps a very high ratio of parents-teachers and works as a small and friendly Russian club. BRS follows many Russian traditions concerning life style and education. Children learn poems, play word games, listen to classical music and perform a lot. They get assignments in Russian, math and music, parents are expected to help doing these assignments because they are really challenging. There is another nice detail about the school - hot meals for children - a bowl of Russian soup made by some of the parents and served before classes.
Ivan Kuzmenko
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
When moving from Israel, where we spent almost 8 years, to America we were quite concerned and worried about what is going to happen to our daughter whose two native languages (Russian and Hebrew) that we thought to maintain. Although we speak Russian at home it is certainly insufficient as it comes to reading, writing, rich vocabulary etc. In Israel the situation was easier in this respect. Due to a big Russian community many Russian after-schools and even day-schools became available. But what is going to happen here?
Fortunately, after coming to California and settling on a verge of Berkeley we managed to find solutions to both of our language concerns - Berkeley Russian School as it comes to Russian and Tehiyah day school for Hebrew. This sounds almost miraculous, considering how few places in America provide such opportunities. Berkeley Russian School headed by Yelena Glikman is a fine choice for Russian kids living in the area. But the school is not just helping to maintain the native language. The impact is much beyond that. Various lessons including art, geography, mathematics, plays in Russian and just communication provide integrity of Russian education in the way it should be. To get some impression about the school and its atmosphere we would recommend to visit one of the concerts where student present Russian poetry, songs and plays - the output is quite remarkable. And what also not to be omitted - our daughter Dina is very happy to go to the school spending time with teachers and other Russian kids - this place really keeps her in a good mood!
Tatiana Eberman
Three years ago I was very glad to find a Russian school in Berkeley. Now my second child (3 y.o.) started at the school and my five year old goes to the school three days a week. She can read and write in Russian. The Berkeley Russian School is a wonderful, warm and very family-oriented place, and I love it very much.
Igor & Helen
The Berkeley Russian School is a wonderful resource for families in the Bay area. The teachers provide dedicated, skilled instruction in art, drama, music and language which each semester culminates in a performance by the students. Our son has attended since he was 3, and now at age 7 is fluent in both written and spoken Russian even though he has never been to Russia and only has 1 Russian speaking parent. Best of all-- he has a wonderful group of friends from the school with whom he speaks and plays in Russian