President George Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev may be the two most important spokesmen for their countries, but they`re not the only reps doing a dialogue.
Not by a long shot.
Even before Bush and Gorbachev met in the Mediterranean last fall, members of the Soviet studies class and Cosmopolitan Club at Hinsdale South High School in Darien and students in Provideniya, a small town at the northeastern tip of Siberia, were communicating with each other via computer.
Their messages may lack the sophistication of those traded by their leaders, but they are proof that young people in both countries share an interest in sports, dress modes, grades, climate and hobbies, as well as a healthy curiosity about each others` customs.
Two unrelated fellows named Davis, who have never met, are responsible for this getting-to-know-you tool.
One of them is Hinsdale South`s Bill Davis, who teaches English as a second language to some 70 foreign-speaking students from Korea, Japan, Poland, France, Norway, India and the Phillipines. He`s also sponsor of the school`s 100-member Cosmopolitan Club, which he founded four years ago in the interest of having South`s students explore and discuss other cultures. Davis is avidly interested in computer programming.
The other Davis is Joe, who teaches English to Eskimos in Nome, Alaska, and has been a guest English teacher in Provideniya, a relatively short hop across the Bering Sea. A librarian, he, too, is interested in computer communication.
The story of how the two pioneered their outreach program is one of creative effort, communication, cooperation and friendship. Bill Davis tells it.
”One day last summer I leaned over to pick up something I`d dropped and my back went out. It was nothing new. I was injured during my wrestling days, but the pain is always the same: excruciating.”
Anyone who has back problems or who watched actor William Hurt writhe in agony in ”The Accidental Tourist” can relate to Davis` words. The difference in the latter case is that Hurt slept off his pain in Paris; Davis was awake in Arkansas, his family`s vacation getaway spot.
”Actually, my doctor had me so doped up with painkillers I was only half awake, which was probably just as well, because I was spending my days in a glaze in front of the tube, drifting in and out of the soaps and game shows, stuff I don`t normally watch.
”Finally my wife couldn`t stand it any longer. She told me I looked even worse than a couch potato, and that was the impetus I needed to get moving. I cut down on the painkillers, stopped feeling sorry for myself, got up off the couch and began mapping the computer program that had been rolling around in my mind for months.”
Using his Apple IIGS computer, Bill Davis wrote a font program that converts the standard English alphabet keyboard to Russian Cyrillic characters.
”Initially, I kicked it around simply as a matter of my own interest,”
Davis said. ”Then I got to thinking it might be helpful for Cosmopolitan Club members and Soviet studies kids. Thirty or so of them are going to Russia during spring break with my associate Howard Wright.”
He completed the program in just three days, named it RUSSKEYS and offered it, free of charge, to Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Apple in turn made it available to other computer buffs through its National AppleWorks Users Group.
That`s how Nome`s Joe Davis happened to run across RUSSKEYS.
His computer message thanking Bill Davis for developing a program helpful in his work with Provideniya`s youngsters opened communication between the two Americans, who began exploring possibilities for a computer hookup between the Russians and Hinsdale South students.
”Joe hustled, pressured, manipulated, whatever, until he finally got permission from Moscow to set up the Apple IIGS system he had begged from the manufacturer for Provideniya students,” said South`s Davis, who earned a bachelor`s degree in Slavic languages and a master`s in linguistics/reading from the University of Chicago.
”We had a wonderful assist with our project from Tom Busch, general manager of radio station WNOM in Nome.”
Busch and a few other Alaskans began laying the groundwork for people-to- people exchanges a few years ago. Last July, Busch and 10 other parents took a field trip to Provideniya with their Cub Scout sons, the first visit ever by ordinary citizens.
There was one glitch in the American-Russian computer communications program. System incompatibilities prevented a direct hookup between schools, and Joe Davis had to return to his home school before he could remedy the situation. Davis and Davis are working on the problem and hope to solve it soon.
In the meantime, students are exchanging information via modem to the Crystal Net Bulletin Board, a computer message service in Nome, and the General Electric Network for Information.
Far from disappointing was the students` reaction to the new communications opportunity. Indeed, Americans and Russians alike have been eager for a friendly trade of information, according to Bill Davis.
Jeans-clad Hinsdale South students have learned that Provideniya`s 7th-grade to girls wear blue or brown dresses, black aprons, white lace collars and white cuffs; boys dress in blue suits and white, blue or green shirts. Dances are held on Saturday nights, clubs meet on Sundays, grades are on a scale of 5 to 1 and winter sports are popular. A Soviet 7th grader would be roughly a year older than an American 7th grader.
”We want to . . . exhange (sic) opinions. We want to learn much about you and your life,” said Olga, Yana, Ira, Oksana, Ira, Genya and Maxim, to name a few of the Russian writers.
”Hello Dear Friends,” wrote 8th graders Natasha, Inna, Slava, Vladimir, Sveta, Olesya and Tanya. ”Spiking of you tawn . . . Then you like do? What musik do you prefer?”
Not surprisingly, Provideniya`s 11th graders and Hinsdale South teens agree that Bon Jovi, Motley Crue and Twisted Sister are among their favorite groups.
South`s students responded at length, discussing Darien, driving, the mix of nationalities that makes America, favorite foods, high school courses and the grading system.
Bill Davis said he recently received a videotape from the Russian students. ”It`s great to watch. The kids are so nervous. They`re just like our kids. We haven`t gotten around to responding yet, but we definitely will.”
The Hinsdale South teacher is pleased that his RUSSKEYS computer program has opened the door to a student exchange. He echoed the words of Tom Busch when he said, ”Perhaps we have truly discovered that friendship and love can transcend political borders.”
