NEWS AND VIEWS: School of Ukrainian Studies marks half century of service (09/19/99)

NEWS AND VIEWS

School of Ukrainian Studies marks half century of service

by Anisa Handzia Sawyckyj

For half a century the School of Ukrainian Studies, sponsored by the Self Reliance Association in New York, has been a mirror of the Ukrainian American community it serves. In its academic program, its students' extracurricular activities and in the nature and activities of its faculty, the Saturday day school reflects the evolution, within two generations, of Ukrainian Americans from the status of political émigrés, to full participants in the social, political and economic life of the United States.

A study of the archives of the school from 1949 to the present clearly shows the gradual changes that occured in Ukrainian American society in New York during the 50 years, changes that can be roughly divided by decade.

The 1950s: looking back

The memoirs of students of the 1950s illustrate that the school was a refuge for the children of the political émigrés of the post-World War II era who founded the school, a place where students could find comfort and familiarity in the still "foreign" American society and be with other children who had shared the trauma of the war and post-war years.

For faculty, too, the school provided a sense of continuity with the past, a place where they could promote the concept of Ukrainian nationhood, where they could reflect on the lost hopes of the 1940s, and indeed of the 20th century.

The program of the school in the 1950s was full of assemblies commemorating significant, often tragic, events in Ukrainian history. Not only were students expected to create and participate in the school program on these themes at Saturday assemblies but, according to the school director's memos to parents, they were also expected to participate in community-wide "akademii" commemorating these events held on Sundays.

Reflecting a more religious society, in the 1950s liturgies were frequently held in the first hour of school, followed by "panakhydy" (requiem services) for fallen political heroes. Other liturgies were services celebrated in honor of various religious feast days.

"Loyalty parades" were also an important feature of Ukrainian American life in the 1950s. The students were expected to participate with their parishes or youth organizations.

The 1960s: search for new directions

As those born in the United States became members of the student body of the 1960s, we see changes occurring.

The students of the "1960s generation" began to compare Ukrainian school to the American educational system and they found Ukrainian school wanting. There are frequent references in the principal's memos of complaints by students that "teachers don't understand the American way of life." The faculty was aging and youth was becoming more Americanized and less docile.

In 1967, the school principal worried that "Our youth is endangered. We are living midst America's Hippie-land."

The concept of "roots" and ethnic pride that began in American society in the 1960s had not yet seeped into the Ukrainian American community and Ukrainian youth was rebelling against its ethnic heritage.

It is an interesting fact that of all the 50 years we studied, the school archives, otherwise quite rich, are the most meager for the 1960s. (In the school's 50th anniversary commemorative book, for which memoirs were actively solicited from all alumni, the decade of the 1960s is the least well represented.)

The 1970s: a celebration of heritage

As the 1960s turned into the 1970s, the dissatisfaction apparent among the students had affected the parents as well. To try to better understand their children's grievances, the parents organized panel discussions by older youths at which the students voiced their complaints about Ukrainian school and Ukrainian American society, and parents listened. In the records of the Parents' Committee, we find dissatisfaction with teachers and their teaching methods, which the parents claimed were outmoded and unsuitable for modern youth.

The 1970s were a transitional decade for the school's faculty, with many of the older teachers, educated in Ukraine, beginning to retire, replaced ever more frequently by recent college graduates educated in the United States.

In spite of lingering dissatisfaction, the 1970s, when seen from a distance, appeared to be a decade of hope, of renewed ethnic pride in the Ukrainian American community in New York, among students, faculty and parents. Indeed, the 1970s were a decade when American society saw an ethnic revival among many of its "hyphenated" communities.

The revival of the Ukrainian American community in the 1970s was spurred by the residual effect of the cultural revival in Ukraine by the "Shestydesiatnyky" (The Sixties Generation) - a group of writers, academics and other cultural and intellectual figures.

Their writings were immediately added to the studies of Ukrainian literature and culture at the school.

Ukrainian studies became established as a "legitimate" program of study at various universities (the Harvard University chair and summer school classes being prime examples). In the late 1970s, the New York State Board of Regents first offered an elective standardized test in Ukrainian language. American society at large was beginning to validate the rationale for attending a school devoted to Ukrainian studies.

The 1980s: the halls of power

In the 1980s, the Ukrainian American community became aware of its ability to effect change in Washington and in other centers of political power. This was the decade of lobbying. Ukrainian Americans had learned the political ropes, some had already achieved positions of influence in Washington, and the students in the School of Ukrainian Studies knew how to write letters, and whom to write to.

In the school archives we find copies of letters written by the students to the President about the Ukrainian Famine commission bill in 1984, and letters requesting support from Washington for Ukrainian human rights activists incarcerated in the Mordovian (Siberia) camp for political prisoners. There are letters to the New York State Education Department demanding the inclusion of The Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine in the state's publication on genocide.

Perhaps most moving are the students' letters in which they plead with the White House to come to the aid of the Ukrainian people devastated by the Chornobyl accident in 1986.

In the 1980s we see the trend toward the suburbanization of New York's Ukrainian American community, as young families began to leave Manhattan for the outer boroughs, New Jersey, the northern suburbs of New York, Long Island and Connecticut. Remarkably some continued to commute from as far away as Albany, N.Y., Philadelphia and even Rhode Island, surely earning for New York's School of Ukrainian Studies the label of "magnet school."

Throughout the 1980s, Ukrainian American families, including the students, had been traveling to Ukraine. They had seen the cultural revival there, the changing socio-political landscape. They sensed that great change was imminent, indeed, as did the leadership of the Soviet Union.

The 1990s: the dream fulfilled

The 1990s can be called the decade of the dream fulfilled. The school was reinvigorated by the emergence of Ukraine on the world scene. The euphoria felt by the Ukrainian American community in New York following Ukraine's bloodless declaration of independence was palpable at the school. A joyful school assembly was organized to celebrate Ukraine's independence.

Ukraine's Ambassador to the United Nations Viktor Batiuk enrolled his grandson at the school. Parents organized a field trip to the newly opened Consulate General of Ukraine in New York. Distinguished academics, cultural and political figures visited the school. In 1998 the children assembled to meet visiting Ukrainian astronauts Leonid Kadeniuk and Yaroslav Pustovyi.

The graduates of the 1970s and 1980s became the greatest beneficiaries of the political change in Ukraine. A number of the students parlay their expertise in Ukrainian language and culture into fast-track career moves in private- and public-sector jobs in Ukraine, where they enjoyed a distinct advantage over their non-Ukrainian colleagues.

In the 1990s the school was buoyed by a new wave of immigration from Ukraine, the so-called "fourth wave." Their children boosted the enrollment in the school by some 20 to 25 percent, and the children's Ukrainian chatter in the school hallways during recess is a heartening sound. The "fourth wave" also became a valuable new source of teachers for the school, and constituted the bulk of the faculty by the late 1990s.

As the decade progressed, the euphoria over Ukrainian independence subsided, and reality set in. True, Ukraine is now independent, but definitions have changed. It becomes painfully obvious that the image of Ukraine held by Ukrainian Americans and taught in Ukrainian school, is not consistent with reality. This was not the kind of independent Ukraine that was expected; this was not the kind of leadership that independent Ukraine was supposed to have. These and other sobering issues preoccupy the school at the close of the millennium.

And yet, these are heady years.

Finally, the dream of centuries has become reality: Ukraine is free and there is a feeling that there is no turning back. The aspirations of the school's founders and the first generation of parents have been fulfilled. There is a sense of closure, but also a sense of new beginnings.

* * *

In examining the evolution of the school over a period of half a century, one is struck by the changes that have occurred but, even more so, by the ways in which the school, paradoxically, has remained essentially the same.

What has remained constant is the intense commitment by faculty and parents to transmit to their children Ukrainian language, history and culture, despite the fact that most of the parents are now Americans by birth; the relatively constant enrollment levels in the school for 50 years; the relatively high academic level of the school, much higher than one might expect after half a century and two, almost three, generations of students.

Traditional teaching methods and programs continue to prevail at the school and the tradition of "matura" (cumulative final exams) continues. As they did in 1949, students and parents alike place a strong value on the social ties created among children that often last a lifetime.

Notable, too, is the commitment by the school and by parents to the Ukrainian Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, as evidenced by the fact that the school has always sought out clergy or religion teachers of both Churches to provide religious instruction as part of the school's curriculum.

Sadly, though, perhaps the most striking similarity between the school of the 1950s and today is the lack of ongoing support for the school by the Ukrainian American community in the New York Metropolitan area.

This is all the more astonishing when contrasted with the vast amounts of funds collected by the community for various other projects over the years. This apparent indifference is a fascinating topic that merits a separate discussion, since the New York school is probably not the only school of Ukrainian studies to suffer this fate.

The lack of support by the larger Ukrainian American community is a great contrast to the tradition of extraordinary generosity shown by Ukrainians both in western Ukraine and abroad in the decades prior to World War II toward "Ridna Shkola," the network of private schools in Ukraine, of which the New York school is a descendant.

There is a glimmer of hope that this dismal situation may be changing for the New York school. In the last two years, the Parents' Committee has made efforts to raise funds from the community for various school projects, with good results, but a long-term solution is needed.

As a repository of the hopes and dreams of its founders and several generations of parents, and as a mirror of the Ukrainian American community in New York, it is hoped that in its next half-century the School of Ukrainian Studies in New York will yet come to enjoy the community support which it so richly deserves.

This article is an edited excerpt from the forthcoming book "Zolota Knyha Shkoly Ukrainoznavstva, OUA, Samopomich u Niu Yorku, 1949-1999" (The Golden Book of the School of Ukrainian Studies, Self Reliance Association in New York, 1949-1999), which will be released on the eve of the school's 50th anniversary celebration on October 2. The book's publisher is the 50th Anniversary Committee, headed by Luba Labunka. The chief editor of the book is Anisa Handzia Sawyckyj.

To defray the considerable publication costs of the 368-page commemorative book, which is dedicated to the 178 teachers who taught at the school during the past 50 years, donations from former students and friends of the school are appreciated. Tax-deductible contributions, which will be acknowledged in a special insert in the book, may be made to Self Reliance Association Parents' Committee, c/o Oksana Andersen, 66-46 Gray St., Middle Village, NY 11379; telephone, (718) 326-4319.

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