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ball, going to Ukie school became less of a torture and something to look forward to from week to week. Even school work was not too bad although I envied those kids whose grandmothers lived with them and did all their homework. There were two types of teachers then, those who admittedly were not real teachers but were dedicated to helping us through all of this, and those who had a self inflated vision of being the only authority on any sub ject. Yet they seemed more genuinely interested in pre serving the social interaction among their students than today’s teachers whose thrust seems to be rigid scho lastic standards. We were always somewhat afraid and properly respectful of our teachers, however we did come up with creative pranks to annoy them. Today’s children don’t seem to have the incentive for creative stunts and they don’t seem to be concerned with the concept of respect. They seem basically too bored to do anything. Even today’s parents seem less supportive of tea chers than in my day. Children are confidently aware of the fact that teachers can do very little in the way of discipline and that their parents will take their side in a ny dispute. Many teachers today, do not seem to be as dedicated to teaching as they are to a paycheck or a title and it shows. Yet, they complain about the child ren’s lack of respect. It would seem that if teachers respected their students, they would earn the respect of the students. Teachers should be more creative in their presentations and not be slaves to a rigorous lesson plan developed by others outside the classroom. Today’s teachers are also facing a brand new age — the compu ter age — as different from my childhood as moving to America must have been for my teachers. But most of these teachers are oblivious to these technological and pedagogical realities and this creates a great part of the problem with keeping their students interested and involved. Little seems to have changed in forty years. Now as my children attend Ukie school, I find some of the com plaints I had about Ukrainian school are the same. Today, as in the days when I was a student, we seem to be teaching about Ukraine in a vacuum. The lessons cover separate subjects with unnecessary memorization of dates and names which can be easily looked up when needed. We are not teaching why thing happened, only what happened. What should be taught is a timeline approach to show children what was happening in the rest of the world, or the rest of Ukraine for that matter, to cause the changes which are now historical events. It is not necessary to memorize styles of archictecture, just to know them, but it is important to learn how and why the different styles appeared in Ukraine. We should be teaching all subjects together, rather than separately because they are intertwined. Children should be taught how to research and where to find information rather than be bored with useless exercises in memorization. Yet, there are some who think that just attending school on Saturdays is not painful enough so they devise ways to make it an even more miserable expe rience by demanding things that even colleges do not require. The basic function of Ukie school is to pass on language, culture, and history so that each generation can understand its roots and pass it on to the next. It is not going to make Doctoral candidates in one-day-a- week instruction — and neither should it. The dreaded Matura, the cumulative examination of everything a student should know, is the prime offender of this concept. Matura should be viewed as an extra added value rather than the primary goal of Ukie school, and it should be voluntary. The argument by some that if they had to go through it, their children should too, is as progressive as the Matura itself. Any child who spends twelve years of Saturdays to attain a non-recognizable degree, should not have to face a grueling tribunal of inquisitors in order to receive a momento of attendance. Mid-year and Final exams as in any modern school sys tem, should be enough to determine satisfactory com pletion of each grade, including the fifth year. What is needed today is a modern approach with an old fashioned touch. We need to get into the 21st cen tury without losing the student in favor of the studies. New textbooks are sadly needed. Computerized lessons and videotapes should be used more. Rather than dwel ling too long on the brief fame of the Kozaks, we need to give our children information on World War II to counter changes by those who continue to falsely con demn Ukraine’s activities. We need to stress what hap pened in the 60’s and 70’s which led to the dramatic social changes in the 80’s and finally to the independ ence of Ukraine in 1991. It is not strange to me at all that those of us who didn’t think Ukie school was worthwhile when we atten ded, are now insuring that our children attend. Ukie school, for all the perceived misery and pain, gives our children the necessary background and instills that which only Ukie schools can do — a love of our heritage and a vision of our future on the world stage. We need to modernize what is already working well and adapt to the social demands of today. As Ukraine is finding out, being dragged hastily into a new world is full of prob lems but it must be done in order to survive. Ukie schools should also be dragged into the realities of today in order to continue to do what only mey can — preserve our roots. 18 ’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ВЕРЕСЕНЬ 1995 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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