Was born in Krasnovishersk, Perm region. Graduated from Perm State Pedagogical University as teacher of physics and astronomy. Founder of school with advanced study of physics and mathematics on the basis of school #3 in Berezniki, Perm region. Teacher of physics and astronomy. Honorable citizen of Berezniki.
Quotes
- In order to solve tasks, you need to solve tasks. There is no other way.
- Smart children should be taught by smart teachers.
- When person starts working, you see who is creative and who can only work mechanically. The latter also needs some effort, of course. But you won't get far enough without creativity.
My story
If we go back to childhood, there were so many things. I was interested in lots of stuff, physics happened in my life in quite an experimental way. There were dumps of metal where you could find almost every detail you needed. So in seventh grade using my schoolbook I made internal combustion engine. Later, at high school, I already was repairing radios for the whole township. My schoolteacher of physics Nikolay Timofeevich Belykh, maybe, was not so brilliant in theory but at our times teachers and pupils knew more about the practical part of the program, and I am grateful to him that he showed us things. Nowadays experiments are rare in school, everything is on the screen, on the computer.
It was a long journey to creation of the school specializing in physics and mathematics. I enjoyed teaching gifted children but numerous efforts to organize something like a specialized class were never supported by the city government. In the 90's situation changed, also because of the achievements our school was showing; we had many pupils showing good results at the national Olympiads, for example, in 1990, our student Sergei Shenkevich won silver medal at the international competition.
Yet, my initiative wasn't enough. Great that we had a very strong ensemble of teachers back then, we worked with a pure enthusiasm, especially for the first 5-10 years. Frankly speaking, there was always lack in good teachers. Sometimes you invited person, and he said, «No, I won't come, one has to work his guts out at your school.» I was motivated by the results in physics, but also by the results of school overall. School's reputation meant a lot to me. There were offers to leave, by regional physics-mathematical school, by the PSTU lyceum. I declined them. Maybe, I wanted something of my own.
It is not so important to give knowledge as to interest students in the subject. And children have to work a lot, of course. Maybe, it is not as rough as sportsmen have it, but you have to work. Success, as always, does not depend only on skills and talent.
I keep in touch with those students I worked the most with, with the olympionics. They are scattered now all over Russia and world. My dream, I guess, is to train one more international champion, participant of the international Olympiad in physics. Here comes one of the candidates, by the way.
When choosing university, it is better to overestimate yourself rather than to underestimate. It is easy to give up on the path and make a wrong turn if it would be too easy to study. And of course, it is better to choose highly-demanded professions instead of trendy ones so you will have a work place after the university.