WHAT WOULD I CHANGE IN UKRAINE?
LIUBOV RUSALKINA AND HER STUDENTS
IN THE THINK, SPEAK, ACT PROGRAM
"Our children are capable not only of non-standard thinking but of such
deeds as well," Liubov Rusalkina, a journalist and teacher from Kherson,
is convinced.
The annauncement of The Day's children's essay contest on What
I Would Change In Ukraine announced had great resonance. Children, teenagers,
and 1st year students from universities and institutes from throughout
Ukraine write us. Whole classes, schools and groups write... This week
as well Kherson Regional Youth Social Services Center Director Liubov Rusalkina
who came to Kyiv on business brought to our office a batch of essays written
by students in Kherson Schools No. 15 and 30. It seems that Ms. Rusalkina's
first profession was journalism, and she not only works in the center but
also teaches in the regional lyceum of journalism, business, and jurisprudence.
Her program, Think, Speak, Act, has incorporated basic principles of sociology,
journalism, and psychology. It is meant for the new generation that wants
and can be well informed and socially involved. The program has been successfully
operating for four years, and its tangible results are repeated victories
by the lyceum students at national festivals and contests as Perlyny
Sezonu [Pearls of the Season] and Slavutych (a young journalists' competition).
Lyceum graduates successfully enter and study in various institutes in
our country. Incidentally, The Day's correspondent in Lviv Alina
Semeriakova is also a pupil of Ms. Rusalkina.
Every year in Kherson young journalists' competitions and even Zhurliandia
[Journalistland] carnivals are held, and up to 150 children reach the finals.
The students of the lyceum and two affiliated schools, No. 15 and No. 30,
regularly participate in regional radio and television broadcasting, their
articles are published in Kherson newspapers, they shoot films at the young
people's Totem studio. The students are also taught the principles of public
relations.
Young people, united by the lyceum and the Social Services Center, work
as volunteers in hospitals, clinics, and children's homes. A great deal
of the Center's activities concern help not only to poor and destitute
people but also to gifted children. Ms. Rusalkina is convinced, "They too,
need support. Oversensitive and susceptible, they need help and normal
socialization, so we teach such children to adapt themselves to society
and psychological self-defense."
Liudmyla Rusalkina as the center's director is also planning to organize
touring schools for talented rural children. And all this is under conditions
of chronic delay of payments to both lyceum and center employees. When
asked how the program manages to survive, Ms. Rusalkina said, "It's hard.
But the children and our work give us immense pleasure. To finance our
numerous projects we seek and find sponsors as well as take part in various
grant competitions." The center has already gathered a circle of people
willing to contribute their efforts and means to raising Ukraine's new
generation.
"A person that cannot get and use information is just stupid," Ms. Rusalkina
says. "The worst thing is his soul cannot develop, and this could foster
actions unacceptable to society. Our children are capable of non-standard
thinking, they can write and understand the world and the people around
them. We teach them to think positively, to be ready to act, to actively
participate in changing our life. Our graduates quickly find their place,
they know the principles of management, and everywhere they become little
centers of new thinking."
Today we publish what we consider the best essays of The Day's
friends from Kherson. Ms. Rusalkina says that our newspaper is especially
popular among young people of Kherson as something that can be not just
read but thought about.
NOT TO CHANGE BUT BUILD
For me Ukraine is my country. And above all it is my family, my school,
my teachers, and friends. I love my family, my teachers are good, and I
can tolerate my friends' practical jokes. Regardless of grown-ups' hard
life I feel their love and care, and I would not change anything here.
I think Ukraine needs not changes but good and useful actions. And it can
be done only if one is backed by friendship, friends' and relatives' help
and understanding. And, perhaps, when we all become one family we will
stop changing things and start building. For ourselves, and for the country.
That is why I think that perhaps we should change something in every one
of us. Perhaps we should try to be closer and nicer to one another.
By Oleksandr KOSTYK, 11 years old, Kherson
THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY OUT!
We should put an aim for ourselves: to contribute all our efforts to
Ukraine's development. The process is like a snail's movement upstairs,
where the snail is Ukraine and the staircase is the path of development.
To reach the top we must walk every step, doing so with great care, for
every misstep means a quick fall.
As we know, at the beginning of twentieth century Ukraine was an agricultural-industrial
state, while now industry is one of our priorities and agriculture is suffering
substantial losses. And all this is happening here, in Ukraine, a country
in a favorable geographical position, rich in the most fertile black soils
that never lack moisture. How could it happen? Because old methods of management
and obsolete technologies are used, low-grade seeds are sown, financing
is inadequate, and agricultural resources are undeveloped.
Unfortunately, industry is in no better position: many big factories
and plants come to a halt because of the crisis (for example, Petrovsky
Combine Plant and the giant shipbuilding factory in Kherson), and this
is a heavy load for Ukraine's economy. According to the figures of 1991,
our workforce is 25,000,000, and most work in industrial structures. Closing
enterprises causes unemployment, when thousands of jobless people are ready
to commit crimes to earn their meals. Do we need this?
By Svitlana PRUDYUS, ninth grade, Kherson
POWER IS A PROFITABLE BUSINESS
More and more often I hear in conversation the phrase, "The state robs
people, so why can't I steal from it?" You can answer the question as you
like. What can we expect of the state if it consists of such small and
selfish egos? And it is needless to talk of our government: buildings,
dachas, money, apartments, and Lasarenkos. Our government is a clear example
of the nation's spiritual impoverishment. I am no patriot, but I feel ashamed.
People have always wanted and will want power. Power provides money.
It is the most profitable business in our country, and no one cares how
the nation (that is, we) lives. The only thing that matters is a timely
sweet smile, campaign shows, and to keep all the skeletons in the closet
well locked.
By Svitlana SAMOILENKO, Kherson
INDEPENDENCE SHOULD BE USED PROPERLY
Ukraine has long awaited independence and finally got it. But the problem
is, we have not learned how to use independence properly. We need time.
I do believe that Ukraine will rise and be strong. And we will see gleams
of hope in the eyes of our friends and relatives.
By Yuliya BADZIAN, ninth grade, Kherson
By Natalia LIHACHOVA, The Day






