A word regarding the title of my blog

Some readers may be wondering why the title of my blog is "My Fulbright Scholarship at EUNU - Luhansk, Ukraine" when I am no longer at V. Dahl East Ukrainian National University.

I thought about changing the title of my blog to reflect my current location in Vinnytsia, but I ultimately decided keep the current title, because my work here is a continuation of my work in Luhansk.  I would not be in Vinnytsia today, if it had not been for Olga's ambitious and important project at V. Dahl EUNU.

Secondly, I am leaving title intact as a tribute to the wonderful students and professors in Luhansk.  Sadly, V. Dahl EUNU no longer exists.  The war put an end to that great university, and this is my small way of honoring the hard work and incredible successes of Olga and her colleagues who made it possible for deaf and hard of hearing students to attend the university for the very first time in 2011.  I don't want the university or their pioneering work to be forgotten. 

Gorky Park Revisited

In an earlier post (Gorky Park), I related a sad conversation I had with a dear friend born during the reign of Josef Stalin.  She mentioned that thousands people had been murdered and then buried in an area that is now Gorky Park.  Reading Bloodlands, an exceptional but very sad book by Timothy Snyder, I have since learned that the Soviet NKVD (secret police) dug at a minimum 87 mass graves in and around Vinnytsia.  My mind cannot fathom that deed, and I would like to remind readers that this figure is only for Vinnytsia.  The NKVD did it's murderous work in many, many cities throughout Ukraine and the Soviet Union.

Special Education in Ukraine

In Ukraine, formal higher education programs for individuals who wish to teach children with disabilities do not exist.  Teachers are drawn from general education teacher training programs.  They receive no specialized training or guidance in the education of children who are deaf, blind, have cognitive disabilities, autism, etc.  In many ways and through no fault of their own, these teachers do their jobs blindly and inefficiently.  I am sure most of them do sincerely care about their students, and they want to be effective educators, but they are forced to learn as they go, a rather inefficient and ineffectual way to teach.  

In the United States young college and university students who have decided to become teachers can choose whatever field they wish to study and then enroll in the appropriate teacher education program.   There are programs for students who want to teach children who are blind, deaf or have multiple disabilities.  The University of Kansas has an outstanding autism spectrum disorders program, for example, while Minot State University has an excellent early childhood special education program.  A wide variety of high quality special education programs like these are available throughout the United States for perspective teachers.  Students here in Ukraine do not have the same options, much to the detriment of children with disabilities. 

While easily viewed as a weakness, the lack of special education programs at Ukrainian universities is also a strength in the form of potential, incredible potential.  It is my hope that over the next school year, I will be able to impress upon professors and university administrators the need to develop and implement a high quality program for preparing special education teachers in Ukraine.  Program development in higher education is a long, taxing and arduous process, but if only we could get the process started now, get the ball rolling and once it is rolling, it will develop its own unstoppable momentum, so that the development of a teacher education program can’t help but come to eventual fruition. 

Books and Resources for my Project

I have gathered the following books and materials for my project at Vinnitsya Institute of Economics and Social Sciences.  One might be surprised to see Dewey and Rousseau on this list, but I have found that they are critical for a thorough understanding of the foundations of special education, and these two profoundly important thinkers are very insightful and practical.  Their ideas can easily be translated into effective practices in our schools.  From my perspective and experiences, Dewey and Rousseau are neglected in teacher education programs, and whenever I add them to my course reading list, my undergraduate and graduate students are absolutely amazed at just how relevant their ideas are within the field of special education. 

The Turnbull book is also critical, in my professional opinion, as much work still needs to be done in Ukraine in the area of law and special education, particularly equal rights and educational opportunities for all children.

·       Reading and Deafness: Theory, Research, and Practice, Trezek, Paul, and Wang

·       Language Across the Curriculum When Students Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Luetke-Stahlman

·       Language Issues in Deaf Education, Luetke-Stahlman

·       Deaf Students can be Great Readers!, Luetke-Stahlman & Nielsen

·       Emile, Jean-Jacques Rousseau

·       Democracy and Education, John Dewey

·       Educating Deaf Students, Marschark, Lang, Albertini

·       Effectively Educating Students With Hearing Impairments, Luetke-Stahlman and Luckner

·       The Week the World Heard Gallaudet, Gannon.

·       A Place of Their Own: Creating the Deaf Community in America, Van Cleve & Crouch

·       Inside Deaf Culture, Padden & Humphries

·       Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture, Padden and Humphries

·       American Sign Language, Sternberg

·       The Joy of Signing, Lottie Riekehof

·       Signing Naturally, Smith

·       Learning American Sign Language - DVD-, Humphries & Padden

·       Signing Exact English, Gustason & Zawolkow

·       Literacy Assessment, Cooper & Kiger

·       Free and Appropriate Public Education: The Law & Children with Disabilities, Turnbull & Turnbull

·       Through Deaf Eyes – DVD - PBS

·       When the Mind Hears, Lane.

·       Introduction to American Deaf Culture, Holcomb

·      The Deaf Community in America, Nomeland and Nomeland

·       Hearing and Deafness: An Introduction for Health and Education Professionals, Paul and Whitelaw

·       Starting with Assessment: A Developmental Approach to Deaf Children’s Literacy, French

·       Helping Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children to Use Spoken Language:  A Guide for Educators and Families, Easterbrooks and Estes

The Ukrainian-Russian Gas Dispute

For those Americans who pay attention to the news, they have heard quite a bit about a gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine.  The dispute is actually quite serious.  It concerns payments to Russia for gas, and the two governments cannot agree on a price.  Russia is actually demanding artificially high fees.  In April, Russia raised the price of gas 81%, which Ukraine cannot afford to pay, and Putin knows this. 

I suspect most Americans are not aware that because a pricing agreement was not reached, Russia shut off the gas in June of this year.  It is important to note that Ukraine receives half of its necessary gas supplies from Russia. Ukraine is currently getting gas from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova, but it will not be enough this winter.  Right now, besides the reverse gas flows, Ukraine is using its stored reserves, and they cannot last indefinitely. 

Putin is playing hardball...deadly hardball.  He is fully aware that Poland has been sharing its gas with Ukraine, so this week he reduced gas flow to Poland by 44%.  When Polish energy officials questioned the Russians regarding the sudden drop in gas supplies, Putin steadfastly denied the allegations, claiming that gas flow to Poland had not decreased at all (he is famous for also denying that Russian troops, tanks, rockets and weapons have crossed into Ukraine.).  Putin is drastically reducing gas flow to punish Poland for helping its long suffering next door neighbor.

If Russia, i.e., Putin, refuses to resume gas shipments, the results will be tragically devastating for Ukraine.  There is not enough gas for both industry and the citizens of Ukraine.  If Ukraine runs out of gas, the economy will be severely crippled and people will go without heat.  The last time Russia shut off the gas (Does anyone remember this?) people in Ukraine literally froze to death in their flats.  Ukraine is a northern European country (think North Dakota).  It is brutally cold and snowy here in the winter, so the stakes are quite high.

Winter is just around the corner, and unless Putin turns the gas back on, Ukraine is on a crash course toward utter disaster.  Without a doubt, Putin's goal is to bring Ukraine to its knees, and his strategy just might work.

Gorky Park

Yesterday, an old friend took me for a short tour around Vinnytsia.  One of the places she showed me was the city park, named Gorky Park after the Soviet writer Maxim Gorky.  It was built during Soviet times.  As far as parks go, it is rather simple and quite unremarkable, except for one distinct feature.  Lying below the nearby buildings, trees, grass and feet of passersby rest the bones of 60,000 people - 30,000 who were executed by the Nazis and 30,000 by the Communists. She said for years during the days of Soviet Union, young people would come to the park to enjoy concerts, dance and frolic and have no idea of the thousands of people under their feet, innocent Ukrainians who had been murdered and then buried there. For her, the park is not a place for recreation or play, but serves only as a place to sit and quietly reflect.

I do not know the specifics of these statistics, or how accurate the figures are.  I only know the fear and sadness in her eyes as she told this story, one of many that describe the utterly tragic history of the Ukrainian nation.  She told me this story in a hushed voice, glancing around furtively to be certain no onewas overhearing her.  She is a pensioner and having come of age during the height of the U.S.S.R., still keeps old habits of maintaining the highest levels of discretion.  Some habits die hard.

 

 Entrance to Gorky Park

 

Gorky Park



A return to Vinnytsia

I am now back in Ukraine, but because of the war, Dr. Olga Krsek and I are unable to continue our work at Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University in Luhansk, so I am teaching at Vinnytsia Institute of Economics and Social Sciences in Vinnytsia.  I previously worked here with Dr. Fedir Sokhatsky and his colleagues for two days in May, 2011, so the return is bittersweet.  It is wonderful to see my old friends and colleagues again, but it is also very sad, because I am here as a result of the ravages of war, a war that the loving and peaceful Ukrainian people do not need and did not start.

More about Vinnytsia later.  For the moment, I want to add a postscript, or rather an update, to my previous entries from 2011.  I would like to encourage readers to visit (or revisit) the pages about Luhansk, as well as the page "Ukrainian History, Life and Culture."  As you look at the pictures of people (many of them children) and places, please be aware that their lives and homes are forever changed.  The settlement Parkhomenko (Пархоменко) and the village of Stanitsa Luganskaya (Станица Луганская) are no longer idyllic places.  These two Ukrainian Cossack communities sit on the border between Russia and Ukraine.  These old, historic villages are now in the middle of a war zone, the sites of fierce and bloody battles between Ukrainian and Russian soldiers.  I have no idea what these villages look like now.  Have the homes and historic museums been leveled?  Where are the residents, and how many been killed?

The same questions haunt me about Luhansk.  Is my university still standing?  What about the school for the deaf where I spent so many hours teaching English to the children?  And my apartment building adjacent the Eastern Market?  More frightening:  what are the fates of my colleagues, neighbors, young deaf students and the young students at the Medical High School where Victor invited me to speak to his classes?  How many of them have lost their lives, and who has managed to flee?  How many are still huddled in cellars without food, water, power and no way to get word out to family members in other parts of Ukraine?  As you look at the photos, be aware that there is a very good chance that some of these innocent people may have been killed, while others have been lucky enough to escape, but all of them have had their lives forever altered and not for the better.  And the buildings?  Whether they be apartment blocks, schools, churches, museums, hospitals, historic sites, theatres, or businesses, odds are many of them (or most?) are damaged or destroyed. 

On a slightly positive note, Olga and her family are safe and staying near Kyiv, but I don't know about her beautiful and adored white cats.  I am told Sasha, Masha, and Svetlana are safe, but I have no clue about Victor and his family, Omar and his family, the decorated WWII veteran Gregory, and countless other friends, neighbors, students, colleagues, and passersby. 

Keep Ukraine in your thoughts and prayers.