There is now a specific answer to the question of whether Ukraine will one day have its own Silicon Valley. It was given by the physics teacher Lidia Kushnir from the village of Balanivka, Bershadsky raion. She also told us the story of her twin brothers Leonid and Mykola Tuzenko. These youths are incredibly talented; they have won numerous international competitions in Physics and Mathematics. They may become Nobel Prize winners one day. Kushnir is very proud of them and regrets that they have left Ukraine.
We recently visited the Tuzenkos’ cozy house in Balanivka. That day only the head of the household was present — his wife went to Kyiv to meet their sons, who were supposed to come for a vacation. Dmytro Tuzenko turned out to be a very friendly person and an interesting interlocutor.
The brothers Leonid and Mykola Tuzenko began their scientific career starting from their village school.
In the spring of 2007 the eight-graders Leonid and Mykola Tuzenko became the finalists of the European Mathematics Competition, notably excelling in the logical task solving section. The local media then asked the people to help the boys go to France. Twenty-five thousand hryvnias were needed. Their father Dmytro, a builder, and their mother Vira, a shop-assistant, didn’t have such money. They thought that they would have to give up on the trip, but their teachers insisted, as few people have such an opportunity in their lives. So, the money was raised through common effort, and with the help of sponsors. The boys literally “won” Paris as they took the first place in the competition. The organizers even had to urgently find a second medal as nobody expected that two brothers would win.
That was their first victory, but not their last one. After graduation the boys entered the Physics and Mathematics lyceum at the National Taras Shevchenko University and won various international competitions in Croatia, Mexico and Kazakhstan… It’s interesting that all their awards, medals and prizes are of the same value to them.
When we asked their father about the “Tuzenko brothers’ phenomenon,” he listed the following components: first, God’s gift; the teachers’ efforts (first of all, Lidia Kushnir’s and Lidia Dziubenko’s) who saw this gift and developed it; and the boys’ diligence.
Certainly, one should not forget about the parents who raised these children and created the conditions for them to optimally develop their gift:
“If we had ignored the invitations to various competitions and hadn’t let them go, it would have been a parental crime,” says Dmytro Tuzenko. “Even with the sponsors’ help it’s been quite tough for us. However, the boys understand this.”
From their earliest years Leonid and Mykola didn’t differ from other children: they grazed the cow (their parents even bought a second one because the boys asked them to), played football, dreamed of becoming football players, and are very sociable and friendly guys. However, they had several rare features — they took everything very seriously, whether it was helping their parents around the house, studying or playing football.
“The boys are very thrifty, they wouldn’t spend an extra penny, and they take care of their clothes and things. We are very happy that they don’t have any bad habits,” says Dmytro Tuzenko. “When one of their classmates in the lyceum was threatened with expulsion because of her problems in Physics and Mathematics, they helped her in these disciplines. They also learned to speak very good English, on top of everything else.”
The twins have always been ahead and have always received prestigious awards not only for the subjects in which they compete. For example, they have won The Ukrainian Pride competition, and received awards from presidents Viktor Yushchenko and Leonid Kuchma, they have received the scholarship from Sviatoslav Vakarchuk. In their room at their parents’ house there’s a football from Andrii Shevchenko, and lots of other memorabilia.
Their father is proud to show quite a large folder with articles about his sons. However, he is confident that his boys will not succumb to “star fever” as they are comfortable with the media’s attention. They understand that everything’s up to them.
…A few days later we met the boys who, by the way, turned 18 on March 11.
During the conversation the young prodigies asked us not to mention where they study.
“We have to study, and not give interviews,” said the boys in unison. “If journalists find out where we study, they won’t leave us alone and let us study. Do we need the extra attention?”
The Tuzenko brothers study at a very prestigious institute of higher education abroad. They are utterly devoted to their studies, and picked their school from among the offers they received while still at the lyceum (from which they graduated with honors).
Here are a couple of thoughts after the conversation. The greatest acquisition of any society is its intellectual potential. It’s a resource that allows one to develop in any conditions. Japan is an example of such development. Without any significant natural resources this country managed to create a highly developed economy, owing to social organization and scientific advances.
The development of science and technology should become a priority for Ukraine. The current government is actively declaring these intentions and they are well-founded and understandable. However, do they correspond to reality? The situation reminds one of the old joke: “In our country everything’s done for the people, and we know those people.” The officials promise to build an analogue of the Silicon Valley in Ukraine. Some company will get a contract to build this center, and then the scientific community will have some physical infrastructure. However, the most important part of this project is in scientific manpower, not the buildings.
And scientific manpower is the result of the educational process.
The public debate, held by The Day, and other media outlets concerning the educational reform, doesn’t seem to influence the government’s plans and actions. Probably, the main reason for this is the officials’ absolute alienation from the real situation in educational institutions, the misunderstanding of the goal and tasks faced by the educational process. Teachers complain that needless paperwork is consuming the bulk of their energy using up time better spent with the kids. All practicing teachers say this, but the officials don’t hear them. Moreover, in order to produce future geniuses, it is not the amount of brute information that matters, but rather the ability to teach the children how to learn and think creatively. Yet somehow this truth falls deaf on the ears of those in charge of educational policy.
Can we create our own Silicon Valley?
Regardless of all the problems in education we still have talented students and promising youth. However, since independence Ukraine has steadily been losing valuable people due to labor migration and the so-called brain drain. The main reason for these losses is money. For some reason in our country material welfare stops at politicians and officials. That is why the main character from Lina Kostenko’s novel Diary of a Ukrainian Madman has a friend in the Californian Silicon Valley, and our friend and fellow villager from Chechelnyk has been working as a programmer in Canada for many years. Such examples, in which Ukrainian minds work for the prosperity of other countries, abound.
We are sure that in a couple of years we’ll hear about the Tuzenkos. We’ll recall that they started at a village school in the Podillia backwoods. We hope that they will continue their way in Ukraine and beyond.
COMMENTARIES
Lidia KUSHNIR, physics teacher in Balanivka secondary school, the Tuzenko brothers’ teacher:
“Villages exist as long as schools exist. They train the children’s character and form their personality. The nation will lose its spiritual foundations without them. By closing down schools the government will probably save money, but it will lose something more valuable that is hidden in the happy children’s eyes. If we preserve the schools we’ll glorify the spirit.”
Vasyl HOLODNIUK, mayor of the village Luhy in Chechelnyk raion, Vinnytsia oblast:
“The kids need high-quality knowledge regardless of their place of residence or their parents’ social status. That is why optimization is really needed. Incompetent schools, where one teacher teaches three subjects, cannot provide the necessary knowledge. But optimization that ends up closing down schools is pointless. A complex approach is needed and the process has to start with the creation of infrastructure, and not the destruction of what we already have. Without school buses and good roads the village children will be excluded from the educational process.
“The reforms have to make life better and not drive it into a corner.”
Mykola ROZDOROZHNY, director of the secondary school in the village of Nova Obodivka, Trostianets raion, Vinnytsia oblast:
“All children have the right to a high-quality education, regardless of where they live: in a village or a city. The teachers have to steer the kids in the right direction, to notice and to blow the little spark of creativity into them, and help them fully develop their talents, just like our colleagues from the neighboring Bershad raion did. Certainly, a lot depends on the parents, and I’m sure that they did right and gave the boys the opportunity to spread their wings, and supported them as best they could. We have to reflect on why the brothers left Ukraine for their further studies. I think they weighed all the pros and cons and saw the attitude to the scientific elite in our country. Time will show if they made the right choice. But I think this is a national, rather than a personal problem.
“As for optimization, it has to be reasonable. Sometimes the children and their parents go in this direction themselves. For example, last autumn almost all the students, more than 40 children, left their school in the neighboring village of Berezhanka and moved to Obodivka and Nova Obodivka. They saw that we have a higher level of education: computer classes, gyms and libraries. I don’t want to say anything bad about our colleagues from Berezhanka, but we have to care about children’s interests first. Though we had lots of problems related to this unexpected change, we managed to solve them and now the children are receiving a high-quality education. Probably, some of them will become known in Ukraine.
“In my opinion, the Tuzenko brothers’ example is important, and teachers, parents and children have to know about it. We should look for talented children everywhere, in every school, as this is our mission.”
Svitlana NYCH, teacher of Computer Science in Chechelnyk secondary school №1:
“The students and their parents have valued knowledge more since tests were introduced. The motivation for getting a high-quality education has increased. Being a teacher and the mom of two sons — university and school students, I understand that the secondary school education system has to be improved and requires changes. However, it is the children and their needs that should be at the center of this transformation, not the politicians. Constant divagations hinder the educational process.
“The education in senior high school should be specialized and one of the government’s tasks is to provide equal possibilities to receive knowledge. Specialized education is only possible in large schools that have to become centers of preparation for higher education institutions entrants. Small village schools have to provide a high-quality primary education. Such schools aren’t just educational institutions, but social ones. The teachers there are specialists, educators, psychologist and even moms and dads to some extent.”
Lilia KORCHEVSKA, former chairperson of the village of Brytavka, Chechelnyk raion, Vinnytsia oblast, teacher of Visual Arts and Music:
“The village school is a settlement’s foundation and its future. Closing down schools is a big mistake. Of course, it’s easier to close down a school where there are only 50 students than to create the necessary conditions, to build the infrastructure needed to revive the village. Village schools need a wide range of subjects as village children cannot choose between a gymnasium, lyceum or secondary school, and they have to undergo all-round development.
“I grew up in a village and became a teacher in a village school, and many times I saw that the village children have a very special type of thinking: they are kinder, more sincere, they know about traditions and culture better. If the country cared about its future it would never cut its roots.”
