It is September 1 today, the knowledge day. And this means, that
thousandas of armenians, after their summer holidays, will go to school
again.
A question comes out: why do they go to school: for studying, for
making contacts, for showing their new dresses and mobile phones bought
in summer to the public, for “teasing” or just for killing the time?
Most of the people can not answer to this question after the country
got independence. In 90s many school children left the schools and made
stands in the streets to sell goods. The explanations of their parents
were very pragmatic: “they learn what to do. What can we do in case
that we are educated? Nothing!” There were also more amazing answers:
“my son is a businessman now”. We will reap the fruit somehow (of
course if we don’t do that now). But the times changed, and now the
children of Armenia, which has run over “South Korea” with its
economical growth, go to school: they go to school to learn “who gave
them “a chance” for this kind of happy life”.
It is clutter in Armenia now. The parents don’t know what to buy
first. The books, which in many cases will not be open during the whole
year? Writing-materials, which they will buy during the year for
several times? Or the dressings, which the children ask to buy first?
The teachers now are going to have a chance for more “deals”. Now they
wander about the pupils parents working places and their neighbourhood.
Just several days later some children’s parents will be informed, that
their children “don’t do well” and they have to take private lessons.
And God forbid, if someone can’t pay (and this is met often nowadays).
In one month the children will do not only bad, but also “will become a
moron”. But the real morons, whose parents understand the hints of the
teachers very clear, every day get excellent marks and show to their
parents.
Now we can say: “don’t worry, be happy”. Kind of they have made
their best efforts to study for ten years, and now they have to study
two years more. Gentlemen, not everything that is originally frech is
good! Our education system is better than their for sure. This is
neither spray water nor “a Legion of Honour” to try to adopt so fastly
and without thinking.
Actually there is another school too, which is called “a life
school”. Our generation passed a very cruel and meanwhile very meaty
“life school”. Watching our MPs, we understood, what really
“Torichelian emptiness” means, and that the “attractive power” of the
minister chair is stronger than the attractive power of the earth
(probably no apples fell on the head of our ministers in their
childhood in difference with Newton, probably they fell down from their
chairs a lot in their childhood), and that our oligarchs got rich
faster than the “velocity of light”. And till now they are sure, that
Clomb is not a physicist but the pendent on the necks of their
beautiful women (these words are prononced in the same way in spoken
Armenian), that titan is not an element of Mendeleev chart, but a cover
for mobile phones, that Tumanyan or Saryan are not fomaus armenian
poets, but streets.
Anyway, everone misses the school and university years. This is
more connected with that they miss not the school or the university,
but their childhood or youth, which is lost and will not come back any
more. And I wish our children not only remember their youth and
childhood with pleasure, but also due to the knowledge they could live
good always, though concerning the knowledge, I agree with those, who
say, that “it is never late to study”. In connection with this I agree
even with Lenin.
Armen Kocharyan,
Who has no relationship with Lenin concerning other things, but still is optimist.