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many times and knew both alphabets, they could catch the English word with their eyes and immediately trans late it into Ukrainian. Q: Why did you use this method? A: Because it underscored the Ukrainian language and immediately stimulated individual initiative to translate, thereby creating an on-the-spot dictionary. Through this method, the children began to learn two languages on a parallel level, with emphasis on Ukrainian. Q: Was this also done with a purpose in mind? A: Same reason. Psychologically they felt stronger in the Ukrainian language. Later, as students, they were able to use a lot of reference information from Ukrainian sources. Q: Did you also use this method pertaining to school? A: Yes, it is very important that the grade level is higher in Ukrainian school. What it means is that children should start Ukrainian studies school before they start regular school. The phonetic language and the ability to absorb facts allows children to develop faster. In addi tion, there is a sense of pride in a child in being in higher grade in Ukrainian school in comparison to the regular school. Q: What about supervising homework? A: Homework was the responsibility of the children. Perhaps for a few months, from time to time I asked them about this. But I never checked up on them, never helped them, unless they asked about something spe cific. Neither in one school nor in the other did we help the children with their homework. Q: It payed off. Both are in Ivy League colleges. What about sports and television? A: As far as television was concerned, we decided that we would not allow the children to become lazy and loose their gift of concentration by frequent TV watch ing. We only had one set and that was in our bedroom. We controlled it. We used to watch it as a family unit, maximum time about 3 hours a week. Q: Did this continue throughout their childhood? A: Yes. We choose programs which were suited for children and then we all watched them. This made us close as a family and set an example for the children. Only at times when a good film was on were they allowed to watch it with us in addition to the children’s programs. Q: Was this like a quota system? A: Yes. We watched TV to relax, but only after all chores and responsibilites were satisfied — and this always include reading in two languages. We had a quota to read at least one book a week in both languages. Q: Did you adhere to this? A: Almost always. Q: What about sports? A: The children had the opportunity to become familiar with all sports — in school. They also participated in sports in the evening, but never during the sessions on one school or the other. Parents should respect each school and not give children time off from school to par ticipate in other activities. Q: Was sport for you secondary? A: Yes. We were aware of the fact that our children have to receive firm foundation for life as to how to be Ukrainians (what they do with this depends on them). But to be sportmen all their lives is not for them, there fore we chose Ukrainian school and youth organization activities over sports. Q: How much time did your children spend in the var ious activities in Ukrainian school? A: I don’t know. It was their responsibility to study and graduate. We only gave them accessibility to certain sources, to books which we bought and spoke about and read ourselves. Q: Did your children feel apart from their friends in reg ular school? A: Yes. Not only in regular school, but in Ukrainian school as well. But we consciously did not want them to be like all others, we did not want them to be average. Children raised with the two langauge system have the oportunity to be exceptional, more developed. Q: How so? A: Its like choosing to go to college. Besides developing one’s potential and satisfying one’s intellectual curios ity, a person learns a profession and by that token chooses to be different from the average. Q: What do you mean? A: Until recently less that 50% of the population went to college. Choosing a field of study already set a person apart from others. If a person continued with a Master’s or a Ph.D., it further separated him or her. There are not many people in this category. This is a conciously chosen path to be different, in order to be oneself. Q: What does it mean to be oneself? A: It means to decide for oneself what is good for me, my family, my community. The habbit of "copying the Jones” is slowly disappearing in America. Q: One more question: What advice would you give yong women who are on the threshold of motherhood or to mothers, concerning the raising of their children to become aware of their national heritage? A: Sit down and decide what they want to give to their children, how they want them to grow up and then pro ceed logically and consequently in that direction. Once the dicision is made and after a few initial hesitations, ther are no more problems. It is important, for instance, if it is decided that children should learn a pure lan ’’HALUE ЖИТТЯ”, ЖОВТЕНЬ 1987 23
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