Education

My work in Romania is to help set up educational presentations and occasionally be the presenter.  The purpose is to provide English outreach to average Romanian high school students; provide them an opportunity to listen to a native English speaker and encourage them to have an open dialogue.  It benefits me, giving a limited, firsthand experience into the Romanian educational system.  It benefits the students, giving them confidence in their language abilities (by speaking to a stranger) and providing a way for them to gather knowledge on American lifestyle and educational system.

I have presented on two different topics for high schools: the high school life of American students and volunteerism.  The first touched on many aspects that students find interesting because it provides them the opportunity to compare their own high school experience with that of an average American student.  The second’s purpose is to reintroduce the concept of volunteering to Romanian students and challenge them to lend a hand.  Having been involved in the development and delivery of both presentations, I learned many interesting points from these students.

 Students seemed shocked by the amount of activities and sports available to U.S. students.  In the U.S., student participation helps run the school, establishing social events like prom, homecoming and pep rallies.  Students regularly attend sporting events, displaying school spirit.  This pride grows with victory at the regional, state and national levels.  Connected to sports, extra-curricular activities are boundless.  These activities encourage positive ways for students to grow and discover themselves and keep out of trouble.  An effective school in the U.S. integrates traditional education with spirit, extra-curricular activities and encourages students to come together, work together and support each other.  This is why cutting school budgets is always a concern in the U.S. -- the first things to be cut often are the activities that provide students the opportunities of self discovery. Undermining a part threatens the whole philosophy of these schools.

This is not to say that all American high schools are perfect or run like this, but their goals seek this style of education.  The Romanian students gave the impression that school spirit didn’t exist.  (Though I venture to guess it does in the top high schools.)  Some sports were played (basketball or football) and some activities existed (usually theater or drama club) but generally students hung out after school.  Teachers later commented it was common for their students to smoke and drink.  This was easily confirmed walking out of one school where four students sat by the door smoking.  (This is not to imply that all students smoke and drink, but that it is the general impression passed forward by teachers and some students.)  How different our two nations view smoking and drinking.  Here in Romania, and I have seen this first hand, it appears no one particularly cares who buys beer or cigarettes.  It reminds me of stories my father told growing up in 1950s America; a period when laws were lenient on drinking and were nonexistent on smoking.  But a larger use of extra-curricular activities could help curb these bad habits.  Do all kids in debate club refrain from smoking? Absolutely not.  However, most students involved in other activities don’t. If more schools gave the opportunities to students to participate in different activities, to talk with like minded people and diversify their social circles, then at least the students would be given a fuller understanding of the world and its expectations of them.

I was also surprised by the disinterest of the students with their general classes (though many seemed to point to one or two classes they particularly enjoyed).  Now, no matter where you go there will always be students who don’t want to be in school, Romanian, American, that’s normal.  But these students spoke of how memorization is the key to graduation; not the practical use of information, just knowing it.  This seems a throwback to the days of communism.  What good is knowing information if you can not apply it?  This question is asked by many teachers.  Need a formula? Either use it a lot so it’s memorized or look it up when needed.  But can you actually use the formula to build something?  The Romanian students seemed fascinated by this concept, as did their teachers.  The students seemed very interested in critical thinking skills and I could see in some of their eyes that they wished for that opportunity; to learn, not to be lectured.  I imagine that the education system has gone through some great changes since the end of communism.  Newer teachers must be taking different approaches to education, but it takes a long time for a complete change to occur.

One topic in both kinds of presentations I gave was volunteering.  Seems many Romanian students do not spend much time, if any, volunteering.  Though how much of that is a reaction to the forced “volunteering” their elders and parents had to undergo from Ceaușescu?  However, there were several students who had done some volunteering.  They spoke highly of their experiences and would do it again.  It is not a lost cause here, just one that needs extra support.

Students here are interested in the concept of volunteering.  Questions of, “Why do it?” to, “Where can I volunteer to work with animals?” to, “Would they take me with no experience?”  The topic quickly brought many students into the conversation and after one visit students stayed after the presentation and continued to ask questions.  Volunteering may be very American but the concept is not owned by or even purely American.  Prior to the dark communist days Romania had a large spirit of giving and volunteering.  Even today, in the year of European Volunteering, Romanians rank in the top ten of European states that volunteer.  Older Romanians have spoken to me about how this is not a Romanian idea or even understood by the youth of today.  I say, give them the information, remind them of the importance of doing it, provide them the resources and assistance to find a good place to volunteer and push them to make a difference.  Do that and the spirit will come, slow at first but strong in the end.  Grassroots campaigns take time to reach a level of maturity but with support, patience and gentle reminders, they do work!

There are many points I could continue to talk about but some general observations should be made.  First, for average high schools these students spoke English excellently.  At a technical school I was warned the language ability was not so strong, but these students showed great control of a foreign language and even grasped its humor.  A feat I have never accomplished!  Second, the students are interested during these presentations, actively participating, asking questions, following up on points they want more info on. Overall, the students here show great intelligence.  I hope that with the right opportunities they will proceed down a road that makes them happy and allows them a little jingle in their pocket.

A Philosophical Amble?

Photo: Camino Filosofico by Lorenzo Maddalena
@ http://goo.gl/hxKAD

My departure from the U.S. to Romania has left me slightly out of kilter.  As a student of history, I recognize the importance to understand the events of the past as well as the players in those events.  But myself and others in the U.S. still are confused about what happened and how life was during the communist period of Nicolae Ceaușescu.

I should begin with why I was confused.  I thought Romania a Slavic state and a former Soviet satellite; a buffer for the protection of Mother Russia.  With these assumptions, it seemed natural that Russian would have been an imposed second language and that Russification would be imposed, too.  Further, these assumptions conjured up forced repression with horrible periods lacking necessities; periods of no toilet paper, no bread, no basic items of survival; a run-down, poor state with little life left in it, prior to the revolution.  These false impressions existed because of my own experiences in former Soviet states, but also because of the lack of information that is conveyed between different states of the former Soviet buffer zone.  In essence, Romania was lumped into the Warsaw Pact states in my mind and no teacher ever pointed out the total falsity of such absurdities.  It was always understood Yugoslavia resisted Stalin, but Romania seems continuously the object of misinformation.  Even telling people today I live in Bucharest, a look of fear appears on their faces.  “Isn’t it dangerous?”  “Don’t they lack basic amenities for living?”  “Why there?”  “What do they have to offer?”

Befriending and working with Romanians who are open and honest about their experiences has shown me how grossly misinformed I was.  Now it is clear to me that Romania is not a Slavic state and it seems fair to say one of the good things Ceaușescu did was ensure the departure of Soviet troops from its soil.  I discovered Romania, to a degree, was open to the idea of Western influences and not shackled to the Comintern.  With my basic assumptions completely blown out of the water, why would I think other thoughts held any validity?  Questions led to realizations: Ceaușescu worked to foster ties with both the U.S. and Soviet Russia, recognized both Israel and the PLO, befriended China (whose only other ally was Albania), condemned the Soviet squashing of the Prague Spring, stopped participation in the Warsaw Pact, and borrowed billions of dollars from Western partners to create infrastructure to develop the nation.  Cheery and cheeky or purposely devilish to take advantage of Western hopes and fears?: Ceaușescu played a game that dangled hope for the West and provided grave suffering and tears for his people.

However, the picture does not stay rosy, as you well know.  The famines that came in the 1980s and violent revolution that overthrew a dictator, who had robbed a country of its light and joy, these were the final events of a dying regime.  I have read a book, The Land of Green Plums, by Herta Müller; a quasi-autobiographical account of life under a dictator.  One particular line stood out, “Our heads may have left home, but our feet are standing in a different village.   No cities can grow in a dictatorship, because everything stays small when it’s being watched.”1 How true this statement seems; Romania was deprived of infrastructure and locked into a medieval style of life that perpetuates into the 21st Century.  This essence of standing still still rings true today in the world, however Romania is free and no longer watched!  The fear and anguish that must have existed at that time is unimaginable to outsiders.  Trust no one, for Captain Pjele watches.2  The use of a single hair to ensure a letter undisturbed does not survive the scrutiny of an all-watching state.3  The dream of returning home no longer matters because no one is left waiting there anyway.4  Constant supervision drains the life and joys from people.  An unchanging government will slowly sink into eternal paranoia and back-track on all plausibly good intentions it may once have had.  And such a corrupt system will alter the acceptability of ethical rights, producing horrid atrocities to survive, to constant petty theft to fit in.5 Corruption from the top creates an illness in the society that takes decades to remove.  Can the corrupted lead in a new system?  Or do they continue the plague?

But today, as twenty years ago, I see hope, hope to challenge these dictatorial regimes and bring change forward.  The problem with change is as much as it is desired its outcome is never assured.  How many people here look back on the Ceaușescu days and wish for their return?  “When we don’t speak…we become unbearable, and when we do, we make fools of ourselves.”6  Change is similar.  The promise of something better is hard-pressed to live up to expectations in a quick and timely fashion.  Moving forward is difficult and challenging, but not moving at all is paddling in place.  My assumptions of Romania have all been proven wrong and I am happy to know more of the truth.  I imagine Romanians, those that lived the change, must see the revolutions occurring in the Middle East and think back to the days of their own -- the hope and the promise, maybe a realization that change has come, and though not as quickly as hoped, or as planned, that it came from the people, and it shall be continued by the people.  Let your experiences and history stand as an example of how to move forward and seek a better life; a better working life, a better living life, a better political life.