Teaching in Ostroh, my corner of Ukraine (09/22/02)

Teaching in Ostroh, my corner of Ukraine

by Myron B. Kuropas, Ph.D.

OSTROH, Ukraine - My corner of Ukraine is in Volyni, home of the National University of Ostroh Academy. Today, this university is fast resurrecting its historic position as a premier institution of higher education in Ukraine. Located in the Rivne Oblast, one of the most "Ukrainian" regions of Ukraine, birthplace of the famed Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), Ostroh has been described by one visitor as perhaps the most "un-Soviet" institution in Ukraine.

For the third time in six years, I had an opportunity to teach in Ukraine. The first two times I taught social foundations of education and the history of American education at Ostroh Academy, recently recognized by President Leonid Kuchma as a "national university." Part of a Eurasia grant that ultimately brought Ostroh teachers to Northern Illinois University to study for a master of science in education (M.S.Ed) degree, the classes represented the first six-hour requirement in a 30-hour-plus thesis sequence at NIU. Four Ostroh instructors eventually traveled to DeKalb, Ill., and earned their degrees at NIU.

This past summer I was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach American history to juniors and seniors at Ostroh. I was also invited to serve as a "trainer" for two workshops at an intensive American Studies Summer School session being conducted at the university in cooperation with the Embassy of the United States. A total of 48 English language teachers from Luhansk to Ivano-Frankivsk participated in 20 workshops offered by some 15 trainers from the United States and Ukraine.

I also had an opportunity to lecture to future English language teachers at the Kremenets Pedagogical College, the Volodymyr-Volynsky Institute of Pedagogy and Ivan Franko National University in Lviv.

All of my experiences in this regard were highly positive, especially in Ostroh. I noticed a significant difference between Ostroh students in 2002 and 1996. The students I taught this year were more outgoing, focused and engaged. They maintained eye contact and asked questions, participated in discussions and were generally open-minded on issues.

On the first day of the course I distributed a list of 18 attributes (ranging from arrogant to self-centered and asked the students to anonymously circle the five attributes which they believed best described Americans, Russians and Ukrainians. In order of frequency, students circled patriotic, hard-working and extroverted (tie), materialistic, self-centered and demanding (tie) for Americans; religious, hard-working, extroverted, compassionate and musically inclined for Ukrainians; and self-centered, lazy, arrogant, extroverted and introverted for Russians.

At the end of the course, I required the students to write an essay on the three things they found to be most surprising about the history of the United States.

There were many fascinating responses, including the following, rendered here exactly as written:

"I was impressed with American rich people who donate lots of money to the state, libraries, concerns, schools, etc. but not less with ordinary people: everything is based on volunteering, donations ... and trust. For Ukrainians it is very difficult to understand and accept."
"There were some facts that surprised me ... I found a logical explanation why Americans used atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was very important to me ... Was it right? Was it false? Nobody knows. But the truth is very important."
"The last but not least American phenomenon is American patriotism. The country went through many difficult and painful experiences, such as wars but it always preserved the sense of patriotism. It was the sense of native country that led people through suffering and sorrows. It becomes even more surprising if we consider that most of the Americans are immigrants, people with different ethnic backgrounds. How does it happen that 'I am an American' stands for their national identity?"

Students were also impressed with such historical developments as the underground railroad that led slaves to freedom in the north, Americans' ongoing concern with social problems, our ability to compromise when necessary on American Cold War fears vis-à-vis the USSR, the existence of a still active Ukrainian American community within the larger American context, and the way Americans understand freedom and responsibility.

A question that was asked time and again by students related to the quality of our television and movie industry. Unfortunately, television shows and films that portray gratuitous sex and violence are the ones seen most often in Ukraine. I tried to explain that productions such as these are hardly representative of the United States.

I was surprised and somewhat disappointed when discussion with the students turned to the criminal behavior of Bolshevik leaders during Soviet times. I raised the question of trials for crimes against humanity but our discussion went nowhere. "They're too old now to be prosecuted," the students said. "Let divine justice prevail."

My time with teachers was equally fascinating. All spoke Ukrainian and all seemed interested in the pluses and minuses of American education (especially what I consider the horrors perpetrated by the progressive education movement) and the amazing resilience of the Ukrainian American community for over 100 years.

I distributed the same attribute questionnaire to the teachers as I had used with the students. In order of frequency, Americans were described as patriotic, materialistic, hard-working, casual, self-centered. Ukrainians were viewed as religious, hard-working, musically inclined, extroverted, compassionate. Russians were perceived as lazy, patriotic, extroverted, materialistic and anti-Semitic.

I also discovered that the National University of Ostroh Academy is the home of a military lyceum for secondary school students who are orphans. The university provides room and board, while the Ukrainian military is responsible for their education.

The spirit at the university is unique. One feels at home and the students appear to treat each other as family. When students pass by, there is always a greeting - "good morning," "good day," etc.

This climate of pride and mutual respect was obvious during the graduation ceremonies, which began with a sports competition in the newly erected stadium on one day and ended with a formal graduation ceremony the next.

All four departments - law, economics, philology and humanities - had team uniforms and competed in a variety of amateur events, including sack races, hurdle races, sprints, long distance runs, blindfolded "kasha eating," weightlifting, arm wrestling and the like. Boys and girls were part of the same teams. Song and dance groups performed between events.

The graduation ceremony on the following day also was impressive. Roman Vasylyshyn, governor of the Rivne Oblast, as well as Taras Pustovid, the newly elected and dynamic mayor of Ostroh - both strong supporters of the academy - offered brief remarks. The event ended with the rector, Dr. Ihor Pasichnyk, leading the graduates in a hand-in-hand, snake-like procession through the halls of the academy for their last time. It was a moment for laughter and tears.

The National University of Ostroh Academy has come a long way since its founding in 1576 by Prince Konstiantyn Ostrozky (1526-1608) as a bastion of Orthodox scholarship. One of the most powerful Ukrainian magnates in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Prince Ostrozky defended Ukrainian political rights and was the defacto leader of Ukraine during political discussions that led to the Union of Lublin. He insisted that Ukraine be treated as an equal partner during the negotiations.

A staunch supporter of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Prince Ostrozky was appalled by the inroads being made by the better educated Roman Catholic Jesuits in Ukraine during this time of Ukrainian history. Although in principle he supported the unification of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, he organized and led the opposition to the Brest Union of 1596. Since the union involved only clerics and did not take into account the views of the laity, Prince Ostrozky argued that it could not be honored.

Prince Ostrozky established his academy as a center of Orthodox learning that could compete with the Jesuits. The first rector was Herasym Smotrytsky, a learned Orthodox polemicist and one of the publishers of the Ostroh Bible, the first full Church Slavonic edition of the canonical Old and New Testaments, published in 1580.

The school curriculum was similar to the liberal arts curriculum of the West grammar, logic, rhetoric, astronomy and mathematics, as well as Latin, Greek, Church Slavonic, theology, medicine, philosophy and natural science.

Although the original academy ceased to exist by 1636, it provided a model for many of the Orthodox brotherhood schools that emerged later in Lviv, Lutsk, Volodymyr Volynsky, Vilnius and Brest.

The Ostroh Academy was not formally resurrected until 1994, when President Leonid Kravchuk recognized the academy as an accredited, Level III institution of higher learning. More recently, President Leonid Kuchma elevated Ostroh to the highest, Level IV, status as a "national university." The first and only rector is Dr. Pasichnyk, a psychology professor from Rivne, who is most responsible for making the university what it is today.

As in the past, the university has set very high requirements for acceptance. There are usually 10 applicants for every vacancy and the entrance exams are machine scored with no opportunity for payoffs. Students who do not qualify are offered yearlong remedial courses to better prepare them for the stringent exams. Students from rural areas, who are usually ill-prepared, are offered the same remedial opportunities. Outstanding students who qualify are also offered scholarships.

Readers who wish to assist indigent students with scholarships or who simply wish to make a donation to this very worthwhile institution can do so by writing a check to: UNA Foundation/Ostroh Fund and mailing it to: Myron B. Kuropas, 107 Ilehamwood Drive, DeKalb, IL 60115-1856. All donations are income tax-deductible.

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Plans are being finalized for Rector Pasichnyk and Natalia Lominska for presentations in Minneapolis (October 27), Cleveland (November 1), Pittsburgh (November 3). Dates for Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami and Washington will be announced.

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