EDITORIAL: Saluting our grads (06/16/02)

EDITORIAL

Saluting our grads

Knowledge is man's treasure. - Ukrainian proverb

June is the month when we traditionally salute our graduates, be they from colleges, high schools, grammar schools, or, yes, even our youngest graduates - the kindergartners who are no less proud to wear their caps and gowns. It is a time for us to congratulate students on their achievements and to wish them further success.

This is also a time to honor the very special graduates of our community: the high school-age students who successfully complete the "matura" - the comprehensive written and oral exams administered by the Educational Council, the national body in the United States that oversees schools of Ukrainian studies. The matura is no small task. To earn a graduation certificate students have to demonstrate their proficiency in five subjects: language, literature, history, geography/natural history and culture. They do so by taking three days of tests before a board of examiners that includes their teachers plus representatives of the Educational Council. The matura is the culmination to a course of study pursued throughout a student's elementary and secondary school years; it is a pinnacle to be reached.

This year in the metropolitan New York area six schools of Ukrainian studies from three states - New York, New Jersey and Connecticut - held a joint graduation ceremony for their 33 students who had passed the matura. All these students have earned our admiration and respect for their hard work. That they achieved this success is all the more remarkable given the busy lives that all of us today lead. But let there be no mistake: these Ukrainian school grads did not miss out on other activities. They, too, participated in their schools' sports programs, took music lessons, achieved the highest ranks in Plast or SUM, danced in Ukrainian dance troupes and participated in community service programs. They, too, were top students in their respective high schools - many of them were members of the National Honor Society and recipients of various academic awards. What makes them even more extraordinary than their peers is the fact that they devoted so much time and effort to learn about our Ukrainian heritage and about the proud history of our nation.

No small measure of credit is due also to their parents, who saw to it that their children would complete the required course of study and were properly prepared for their final exams. To be sure, congratulations also go to the devoted teachers who shared their knowledge and gave of themselves to benefit the next generation of Ukrainians raised in this country with an awareness and appreciation of their Ukrainian roots.

These graduates from the tri-state area, and others like them across the country, are the future of our community here. We are proud of them, and we salute them all.

A POSTSCRIPT: Unfortunately, the 33 students whose graduation ceremony we attended were not in the spotlight at an event that was to be their night. We were surprised, for example, that the students were not seated in a place of honor at the graduation dinner-dance, but at tables set up on both sides of the dais among the audience. (The dais was reserved for school directors, event organizers and Educational Council officials, plus the keynote speaker.) As well, it was disconcerting to find the diploma presentation transformed into an assembly-line affair during which the graduates were quickly routed down a line of persons (teachers, as well as guests unfamiliar to the students, representatives of the Ukrainian National Association and several credit unions among them) who presented them with diplomas, gifts and monetary awards. There was no opportunity for congratulations or an exchange of feelings between student and teacher upon this momentous occasion, much less a meaningful explanation of who all these other people were and why they came bearing gifts.

As has been the tradition for nearly 25 years, one school hosted the joint celebration; however, this year's program was organized as if it were a single school's graduation, with the others simply serving as props. There was no time set aside on the program for the individual schools to have some sort of special presentation that would have marked the event as their graduation; no time even for the students to formally present gifts to their dedicated teachers.

In the end, this year's event turned out to be less than exceptional for those who truly were exceptional: the graduates.

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