Pechersk School International Probed in Scandal Over Hitler Infantilization

Pechersk School International, an elite English-speaking institution attended by President Yushchenko’s two younger daughters, has become the epicenter of a scandal.

What attracted public attention is the controversial role-playing assignment given in a history class. The object of the assignment was to generate the tyrannic profile of Hitler and to grasp the mechanics behind the Nazi election campaign. For several days, students experimented with Nazi propaganda by drawing paintings of Hitler and replicating the slogans of the Third Reich.

Initially, the PTA defended the assignment as one that in no way makes Nazism itself part of the official school policy, which, on the contrary, includes school trips to Holocaust museums.

However, at least one family protested the assignment and withdrew their child from the school attended by the offspring of Kyiv’s diplomatic corps and expat community.

In the face of the looming ethical quagmire, a spokesperson for First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko issued the following statement:

Kateryna Yushchenko is convinced that placing demands on adolescents to recreate fascist symbols is absolutely unacceptable, regardless of all educational designs. It is particularly unacceptable in a country that suffered most from the horror of fascism and communism.

Even though the children of the Yushchenko family, who study at lower grades, did not attend this class, Kateryna Yushchenko is categorically against their viewing of posters depicting any totalitarian symbols.

The First Lady makes good sense. In a country that lost 7 million lives to the Third Reich — unlike any Western country — Hitler must not be approached with a detached attitude. The fathers of both Viktor and Kateryna Yushchenko went through Nazi concentration camps. Role-playing games can be an effective vehicle for learning, unless they equip the mindset of a young person with a carefree picture of crimes against humanity.

The state of the world makes the study of history crucial to the survival of humankind. The study of history, in turn, requires a high degree of sensitivity. A school assignment that brings together kids of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds should have sensitivity factored into it. What Student/Parent A finds acceptable, Student/Parent B may not.

Indeed, one’s freedom stops where someone else’s begins. And it appears that the ethical concerns in this assignment do outweigh, if not rule out, the pedagogical value of the assignment.

Kateryna Yushchenko’s statement can be viewed as an attempt to seize the initiative and thus cushion some of the media flak the Yushchenko family drew in an earlier episode involving Pechersk School International

In the Slisarenko scandal of three months ago, The Kyiv Post published an editorial chiding President Yushchenko for shipping his children off to an elite school rather than taking on the severely underfinanced public school system.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Education has launched a probe into the present incident. According to Ukrayinska Pravda (Ukr), based on the results of the inquiry, Minister Stanislav Nikolaenko may urge Kyiv authorities to revoke the license of PSI. Here’s what he said:

Students were tasked with finding out how in Germany, in a democratic state, a tyrant could come to power. The Director believes that the teacher’s goal was to denounce fascism. The commission’s probe is pending.

In case the fact of fascist propaganda in a history class at Pechersk School International is confirmed, I will contact the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a request that the history teacher be deported from the country.

In all likelihood, to accuse the teacher of propaganda is to turn the issue on its head. What happened was an unfortunate ethical misstep that should supply the material for a case study.

The first report on the incident was published in Segodnya (Today), allegedly controlled by Rinat Akhmetov, a member of the Party of Regions opposed to the Orange Coalition.

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/12/5/67885.htm
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/12/4/67775.htm
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/12/4/67833.htm
http://www.segodnya.ua/news/721229.html
Photos courtesy of Segodnya

Backbiting or Backsliding? News Host Claims Being Forced to Resign Over Report on Yushchenko's Schooling Expenses

"Дочка президента Ющенка, Христина, сьогодні мала піти в 1 клас Міжнародної Печерської школи у столиці. Там уже в другому класі вчиться її старша сестра Софія, а молодший брат Тарас піде в дитсадок при цій школі".

"Як повідомляє агентство УНІАН, подружжя Ющенків обрало саме цю школу, оскільки там викладають багато іноземних мов, а також існують "європейські стандарти".

"Платити за такі європейські стандарти президентському подружжю доводиться чимало - 12 тисяч доларів на рік за одну дитину. І це без врахування харчування, яке привозять з французького ресторану, та підручників".

President Yushchenko’s daughter, Khrystyna, was today to enter first grade at Pechersk School International in Kyiv. Already studying there in second grade is her older sister Sophia, while her younger brother, Taras, will be entering the school’s kindergarten.

According to a UNIAN report, the Yushchenkos picked this school because it offers a wide choice of foreign language instruction, and is also a haven of “European living standards.”

The price tag for such European standards does not come cheap for the President’s family: $12,000 per child, annually. Note that this figure does not cover lunches, which are supplied by a French restaurant, and textbook expenses.

This is an excerpt from a newscast by Ihor Slisarenko, then a Channel 5 host, who claims to have been coerced into leaving the company, following an angry call from the Secretariat of the President.

According to Slisarenko, after his semi-editorial hit the airwaves, management demanded a written explanation, and then pressed for his resignation. Oleksandr Narodetsky, Slisarenko’s superior, maintains that the employee quit of his own free will. The Secretariat has also denied role.

Now, the million dollar question: Is this a case of backbiting by a disgruntled employee or, worse yet, backsliding toward censorship? One of the first to report the story, Ukrayinska Pravda is watching closely.

Is Channel 5 — held in high esteem as the ice-breaker of the Orange Revolution, in what was then a tightly knit ensemble of Big Brother media — reversing course? If any of that happens to be true, then, in the name of George Orwell, we shouldn’t wait until the end of this campaign. Let’s establish a “Journalist-Beater of the Year” award right away.

P.S. As I was about to post this, I learned that the Channel 5 board has decided to retain Slisarenko, and instead has reprimanded him for breach of editorial policy.

It turns out that the board has found him guilty of bias and misquoting. Well, makes you wonder what the policy says about newsworthiness and the public’s right to know. And finally, how does it square with the previous statement that Slisarenko left “of his own free will?”