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CLEMSON - Debra King is bringing American education to Russia using a very popular method - teaching with toys.
The executive director of Clemson's Littlejohn Community Center recently returned from a trip to Russia.
"I went with a group called Partners to Russia," King said. "They've been going to Russia for 15 years."
The group participates in a three-week summer camp for students in Russia every year.
King worked with English teachers, but she didn't travel alone - she brought with her an innovative way to teach both English and history.
"What I wanted to do ... was to introduce to them a project I've been working, on the American Girls Club," King said.
The club, which meets at Littlejohn, is based on the American Girls historical doll collection, King said.
"It covers time periods in American history from the 1700s up to the 1970s," she said. "I talked to them about the American Girls program, using this as an American Girls program."
The dolls come with a series of storybooks that discuss the significant events of that character's time period, King said.
Dolls taking the trip include an American Indian, someone from World War II, a former slave, a pioneer person, and someone from the Great Depression.
The idea of using dolls to teach history isn't unique to American, King said.
After King's presentation, a Russian teacher went to her own classroom and returned with a Russian doll.
"Part of a collection that looks at Russian history, some aspect of Russian history," she said.
King will be helping Russian teachers come up with their own dolls club program to teach their students.
This year marks the 200th anniversary since American Founding Father John Hancock traveled to Russian as the first Russian ambassador, King said.
"I said maybe we can make it a little more manageable by looking at 200 years of Russian history," King said.
King's students ranged from age 10 to 18.
Her students were very interested in King's chosen field - psychology, she said.
"When they found out I was in psychology, before I left the States, they were interested in topics related to American hobbies, what teenagers do in American, social ills, because many of those are the same in Russia," she said.
King taught her students how psychologists do assessments, how they look at many different factors as they form a diagnosis.
"I showed them how the ink blot test is done," she said. "I had them create version of the ink blot test, how they're analyzed. They kept asking 'What does it mean? What does it mean?'"
King plans to return to Russia.
"I'm ready to go back," she said. "They value education. They want to learn English.
They're interested in what's going on in America. All eyes are on America."
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