It’s opening day, and the celebration is being duplicated for 1 million school children in 4,000 schools from the Black Sea on the east to the Yugoslavia border on the west.

Music is playing. Parents have filled the arms of teachers with food and flowers. First graders stand in front of the crowd. The other students, parents and teachers are neatly assembled in a large u-shaped area before us.

There are speeches. Dramatic and musical performances by students. “Mickey Mouse” and Paul Anka’s Diana. Traditional Bulgarian songs. “I’m a daughter of Bulgaria; a free land, a mighty tribe. I love our green mountains. These are grand times,” recites a seven-year-old.

I, too, love the green mountains. Bulgaria could be a tourist’s paradise. “Grand times” may be a stretch. But the vision, the possibility, is clearly found in the beat of the music, the brisk step on Sofia’s streets, and our conversations with Bulgaria’s youth.

As the slightly self-conscious first graders march into School 150 for the first time, water is poured before them. “May your school days be as smooth as water.” (No one slipped!)

A large load of bread is passed among us. We are to take a small piece and dip it in an herbal mix. It’s a Bulgarian custom of welcome – with an aura of communion.

This was no Iowa City ice cream social (much as I love them). It was ceremonial evidence of the solemnity and seriousness of Bulgaria’s commitment to education.

The response to magnet schools, and open enrollment, confirms that ambitious youth see the direct relationship between school grades and future success. In the past a passport to countries offering greater opportunity. (The population has declined from 8 million to 6 million.)

Today they have more hope for a future in Bulgaria. But resources are limited. A shortage of school buildings makes two-shift schools common: 8 to 1, and 1 to 6. Supplies are scarce.

Computers are almost non-existent. Buildings need repair.

And teachers salaries! The joy surrounding this year’s school openings was dampened by a “silent” teachers’ strike in some communities. Starting pay is $70 a month. Experienced teachers get more: top pay of $92 a month.

Expenses are somewhat cheaper in Bulgaria than Iowa City – but not that much cheaper! Most teachers have to supplement their income. But the “striking” teachers (who continued teaching) weren’t protesting the meager pay. They had gone for four months with no pay at all!

Given the handicaps, the educational results are stunning. Bulgaria has 99 percent literacy. Students must take three science courses per year for four years. Tenth graders study college-level organic chemistry. Parents are involved. Homework is expected.

Bulgarian students’ test scores rank fifth in the world in science, 11th in math.

One high school’s graduates average SAT scores higher than Harvard’s entering class.

Over 80 percent choose to study English. The results can be heard – from clerks as well as professionals.

The stress is on academics, not sports or orchestras. Those are the responsibility of other community organizations.

Mary and I participated in a number of meetings at the invitation of USIA/USIS. National teachers’ union leadership (it’s pushing “civic education”). The top quality American College (high school) and American University Bulgaria. The Open Education Centre seminar. And a Koprevshetsa group creating a regional school board.

The lessons for our school district? Many.

A Bulgarian expression translates, “America is loved and hated, but often imitated.” One of my tasks was to explain (with regard to media coverage of elections) which of our practices might better not be imitated. The caution goes the other way as well.

We cannot expect to copy, in every detail, the educational accomplishments of 200 or more countries – or even the 15,000 school districts in the U.S.

But neither should we be so insular and arrogant as to assume that we have nothing to learn from others.

As Churchill might have said of Bulgarian education, “Never have so few done so much with so little.”

Without dedicated teachers, involved parents and ambitious students, there is little that the most generous budgets and facilities can accomplish.

With them there are few, if any, limits.

Nicholas Johnson is a member of the Iowa City School Board.