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OUR LIFE Monthly, published by Ukrainian National Women’s League of America VOL. XXXIX APRIL 1982 EDITED BY A. H. Sawyckyj CHRYSTOS VOSKRES! CHRIST IS RISEN! With this joyful Christian greeting, Ukrainian people the world over welcome each other in the season of Christ’s Resurrection. The message of Easter is love, faith and the victory of the spirit over death, cruelty and op pression. Easter is a time to begin anew, with fresh hopes, dreams and aspirations. We send our members joyful greetings for a season and a year in which their personal and organizational dreams and goals will be fulfilled. With love for our Maker, for each other, and for all mankind, let us reach out in Easter’s spirit of love and self-renewal. The National Board of UNWLA Viewpoint _____________________ _ UKRAINIAN SCHOOL FOSTERS CHILD’S UKRAINIAN IDENTITY by Halyna Kutko There are many factors that come into play in forming our children’s sense of ‘being Ukrainian.’ Their Ukrainian identity is fostered through the family, through Ukrainian schools, through the Ukrainian church, and through Ukrainian youth organizations. All of these factors are important. But here I shall limit myself to discussing the role of Ukrainian schools in nourishing our children’s Ukrainian identity. First, by way of introduction, let me say that by school age, a child raised in a Ukrainian family should not only speak fluent Ukrainian, but should also have been taught religious and moral principles, respect for their Ukrainian culture and tradition, and pride in their ancestry. To achieve this result, parents should inculcate a love of the Ukrainian language in their children — they should sing Ukrainian songs to them, tell them Ukrainian stories, read them books with attractive folkloric illus trations. A child raised in this spirit gladly goes to a Ukrainian kindergarten or school. And parents should at all cost enroll their children in Ukrainian schools, where the children will develop their store of Ukrainian knowledge built up in the family. As a Ukrainian Saturday school teacher, I am painfully aware that the children who come to Ukrainian schools are not all the same. There are those who speak Ukrainian well, recite poems, sing songs, know how to express themselves. And then there are those who barely speak Ukrainian, whose parents sent them to Ukrainian school to pick up all the Ukrainianism that was absent in the family. A child who is raised in an exclusively American environment, who has only American friends, who spends hours in front of the TV can’t possibly master the Ukrainian language if her parents do not speak to her in that language. We cannot let our children be only “Saturday Ukrainians,” because this is a losing proposition! Our children are assimilating rapidly. This is not a negative statement, it’s simply a fact of life. They were born here, live in an American environment, go to American schools. In the U. S., it’s easier to be an American than a Ukrainian. To be a Ukrainian takes special effort, time and great enthusiasm. Usually the enthusiasm is exclu sively the parents’ — the children often do not share it. “Why do we have to do all this extra studying?” they ask. They don’t understand the need for it, and probably won’t appreciate it until they have matured. The aim of the Ukrainian school is an ambitious one, sometimes impossible to fulfill. If a child comes to school with a Ukrainian foundation built by the family, then the teacher can begin to systematically work with the child and increase her knowledge year by year. But if a child comes to the school with no firm foundation, then she’s a hard nut to crack. Knowledge about Ukrainian community life, history, geography, culture and literature builds a child’s strong 20 "НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, КВІТЕНЬ 1982 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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