There are days when I walk home from school wondering how to better inspire my students to work harder, reach farther, dream bigger. Leading up to the elections, I had several discussions with my students about the Ukrainian government, the Presidential candidates, and the electoral system in Ukraine. The immediate reaction from my students, and from many adult Ukrainians, when you ask them what they think about their government is that it’s stupid, it’s not worth discussing, it’s corrupt. The end. I asked my students what they thought would happen in the election and they told me that whichever candidate had put the most money in the most pockets would be the winner (though international observers declared this election free and fare, many Ukrainians told me about the corruption they were sure was still occurring in some locations that included bribing pensioners votes with bags of flour or sugar, going to the homes of voters with special dispensation to vote at home and forcing them to vote for a specific candidate or falsify those peoples votes.) I asked who they supported, most said that they didn’t care because what would it matter anyway, in essence all of the candidates would do the same thing, increase the size of their bank accounts while in office. I asked them if they ever thought the system could change. The immediate answer was a resounding no then a few said well maybe in many, many years something could be a tiny bit better, but not in their lifetime. I asked if they ever thought that their generation could improve their country, if they could take responsibility and turn Ukraine in a new direction. The answer was again no. Yes, they believed that there were people in their generation who would want to make such a change, but no one with access to power would ever do such a thing. I asked if they had ever wanted to be in the government, to be a part of a force that could help their country. None of them had ever wanted that. I realized I was sitting there, fishing for one student, any student, to tell me that they aspired to reach a position in their lives from which they could better their country, that they cared and that they were willing to work to make a difference. But no one did. The bell rang, the students filed out, and I was left saddened by what Ukraine’s future had told me.
January, after a 2 round election, Ukraine elected Victor Yanukovich as its next President. A man with a criminal record and falsified masters and doctorate degrees who misspelled the word professor in Russian when he was filling out his candidacy forms. The guy that I would have voted for, Arseny Yatsenyuk, who ran an Obama-esque campaign appealing to the people, setting up campaign tents in cities, towns, and villages across the country, promoting his “Front of Change,” was lost in the wind. And my students were proven right, they’re complete disinterest in even considering the alternative to pursuing the status quo justified, the harsh reality of this country, it’s corruption and its antiquated Soviet tendencies shoved in my face once again.
The longer that I am away from America, the more I identify my values, ideals, and notions of how to go about life as distinctly American. Part of my work in Ukraine from my lessons, to day-to-day conversations, to camp curriculum development is to encourage students to think about the problems in their schools, communities, and country and about the things that they can do to help solve these problems. But there are days on my walk home from school, when this task seems close to futile.
Dale said,
March 21, 2010 @ 12:08 pm
You will never know which of those students you are inspiring. It will come to him or her years later. You may not be the drop that causes the bucket to overflow, but your drop is just as important as all the others.