DOUBLE EXPOSURE: An apple for the Ukrainian school teacher (09/28/03)

DOUBLE EXPOSURE

by Khristina Lew

An apple for the Ukrainian school teacher

A friend of mine in Kyiv, a Ukrainian American expatriate from New York, recently asked me a provocative question: In this day and age, is Ukrainian school in North America still necessary? She was recounting the visit of her nephew, a Ukrainian school graduate, to Kyiv, and his difficulty in understanding and communicating with the Ukrainians there.

The answer, it seems, is yes - but not for the reasons you might expect. When asked, most people say that Ukrainian Saturday school helps keep the Ukrainian community in America together and facilitates lifelong friendships among Ukrainian American children. "Ukrainian school solidifies friendships, solidifies our cultural and political identity, solidifies the Ukrainian identity in the United States," said Roksolana Stojko-Lozynskyj, mother of Maksym, 5, and Kyra, 3, of Manhattan.

Areta Kohout of Lake Forest, Ill., mother of Matthew, 8, and Anastazia, 5, says Ukrainian school, like Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization, the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM) or Ukrainian dance lessons, is another part of the "Ukrainian experience."

The late Bohdan Yasinsky, a longtime director of Ridna Shkola, or the School of Ukrainian Studies, in Washington, maintained that the most important thing a student could take away from Ukrainian school was knowledge of Ukrainian history, so you could speak intelligently about Ukraine and its people.

Dr. Eugene Fedorenko, head of the Educational Council of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, the body that coordinates the work of 35 Ukrainian studies schools across the country, says that the value of Ukrainian school is threefold: to maintain the Ukrainian identity and heritage, to help with future careers in diplomacy or business, and to count toward language credits at colleges and universities.

Are we ignoring the obvious, the reason we went to Ukrainian school: to learn the Ukrainian language? Or is the focus changing?

Dr. Fedorenko says that most of the 2,600 students in Ukrainian schools last year understand Ukrainian better than they speak it. Lubodar Olesnycky, PTA president for Ridna Shkola of Morris County, in New Jersey, says that most of the 160 students at his school understand Ukrainian, "25 percent to 40 percent speak it fairly well, and the rest cripple it."

Dr. Fedorenko is not surprised by such statistics. "With 33 Saturdays in a year and some children not speaking Ukrainian at home, what do you expect?" he said.

Mrs. Kohout's goal for her son, Matthew, is that he learn to speak and read Ukrainian at Ukrainian school. But last year she became frustrated with her son's teacher at the Ridna Shkola of Chicago, which has over 500 students. "Matthew's teacher expected an hour's worth of homework a night - reading, writing. It became busywork instead of learning. He no longer felt confident about what he learned, and as a result he shut down in class." Mrs. Kohout says she has spent much time trying to re-teach her son last year's lessons.

Can we expect Ukrainian school to teach our children the Ukrainian language? Taras Szmagala Jr., a 30-something attorney in Cleveland, isn't so sure. He didn't learn to speak Ukrainian until after law school. "My grandparents came over to America and the family assimilated into American life. We didn't speak Ukrainian at home - my family was politically involved, not linguistically. I did go to Ukrainian school for a while, but you don't learn a language in four hours on a Saturday," he said.

Mr. Szmagala studied Ukrainian at a diplomatic language services school in Washington, before moving to Kyiv for a year-and-a-half stint. "Ukrainian school has to adapt to the needs of the community," he said. "When I was growing up, the goal of Ukrainian school was to teach Ukrainian culture and history. Most kids came equipped with the language to learn that, but I didn't."

Mr. Olesnycky, father of Olenka, 10, Gregory, 9, and Nadia, 7, says "any exposure children get to the Ukrainian language for three-four hours a week, plus the work of diligent parents, will leave them better off than not."

True, but what about the case of Mr. Szmagala, whose parents didn't speak Ukrainian at home? Mrs. Kohout, whose husband is not Ukrainian, says that peer interaction at Ukrainian school is very important for her son. "It's hard to speak Ukrainian at home 24 hours a day because my husband is non-Ukrainian. Ukrainian school helps kids realize that they are not the only ones, that there are other kids out there who speak Ukrainian."

Tamara Gallo Olexy, director of the New York Office of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and a former Ukrainian school teacher in Washington, says Ukrainian school provides a foundation for learning the Ukrainian language. "Since traveling to Ukraine, our Ukrainian vocabulary has expanded, but we got the basis for the language at Ukrainian school."

So my dear friend in Kyiv, for all these reasons, the answer is: yes.

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