San Francisco Ukrainian School: how immigrants preserve and pass on language and culture to children

The Ukrainian school in San Francisco has gained a record number of children since its inception.

Photo: facebook.com/UkrainianSchoolofSanFrancisco345

“There are approximately 40 schools of Ukrainian studies in the United States, where, thanks to the efforts of parents and teachers, children study the language, history and traditions of Ukraine once a week. One of these schools operates in San Francisco. This year there is a record number of students – 55,” says Voice of America.

On Sunday morning, work is in full swing in the assembly hall of the Ukrainian Church of St. Michael in San Francisco. Until 10:45 teachers and parents must form classes. School director Andrei Shegera shows the class where the children study. Still, according to him, they use the stage.

“We cover it with a screen, and the children study there. And there is also another room that we create with the help of partitions,” he says.

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A large church hall becomes a Ukrainian school in half an hour. Meanwhile, first-graders rush to the first lesson.

Children here learn the language, history and traditions of Ukraine. The mother of one of the students, Elena Tsymbalyuk, says that her son goes to school in order to preserve the language and gain knowledge.

“He teaches poetry here, sings, performs,” she says.

Photo: facebook.com/UkrainianSchoolofSanFrancisco345

Classes start in parallel in several classes. The preparatory group on stage is learning Ukrainian sounds. A little later, the third graders show up. At the same time, behind the screen, fifth-graders listen to the prehistoric period in Ukrainian lands.

For the little ones, parents arrange lunch. Prepare food on a volunteer basis. Marina and Alexander Senchuk prepare pasta for children: “Children all love pasta, our son especially. So we thought it would be a win-win for all the kids.” They also prepared chicken and salad, and the children will also receive an apple, carrot and cookies for dessert.

The school teaches Ukrainian language, literature, history and Bible lessons. There are also classes in stage art and culture.

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There are 12 teachers in the school, most of them have pedagogical education. Olya Zaichikova teaches Ukrainian to the younger group: “We study the sounds and letters that these sounds represent, we try to put them into syllables.”

They also read fairy tales in Ukrainian.

Director Andrei Sheger says that the school was founded by the community with the support of the church in 2014. We started with only six children.

“Everything happened collectively - an initiative from the church itself, the community itself. Later, those parents who brought their children joined. Some of them prepared lunches,” explains the school director.

Photo: facebook.com/UkrainianSchoolofSanFrancisco345

The Church of St. Michael rents the school premises for free.

“We understand that this is necessary for these children, we do not look at whether they come to church or not. We make sure that children remember their roots, where they come from. The school is open to everyone. We have no division here: whether you belong to our parish or not, whether you are Catholic or Orthodox. Everyone can come to our school,” says Father George, rector of the Orthodox Church of St. Michael in San Francisco.

Training itself is paid. However, parents call the price rather symbolic. This money goes to teachers' salaries and school maintenance. In addition to classes, the Ukrainian school organizes summer camps and holidays for children.

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