Many people think that same-sex education is grossly outdated. Some, including experts at the Ministry of Education, are convinced that it is alien to our mentality. Not everyone, however, is skeptical of separate schools for boys and girls. It is no exaggeration to say that this method of education is neither traditional nor popular in this country, but this does not mean that it does not exist. The Day visited some schools in Ukraine that educate true ladies and gentlemen. We also asked experts whether children should be sent to single-sex schools.
Raising a boy is a difficult and nerve-racking task. Is there a teacher who has never written in a boy’s home-room book: “Broke a classroom window,” “Picked a fight with a classmate,” or “Pulled a girl’s pigtails?” Some specialized lyceums in Ukraine focus on military and physical training and promise to make real men out of 13 year-old boys. An awe-inspiring, dimly lit spacious hall with enormous mirrors on columns, and the atmosphere of a 50-year-long history are bound to harness, if not inspire, any boy. Ukraine has a total of 17 lyceums of this kind. The most well-known and popular is Kyiv’s Ivan Bohun Military Lyceum.
FAR AWAY FROM MOM’S SKIRT
Enrolling in the Bohun Lyceum on general principles is no easy thing. Apart from taking the usual exams in Ukrainian, one foreign language, and mathematics, schoolboys are subjected to a thorough medical checkup and a rigorous psychological and professional selection process. This is usually a prerogative of higher military educational institutions: they gauge intellectual level, and test memory, attentiveness, and imagination.
“We must see that the child is prepared for harsher conditions,” says the lyceum’s counselor Tamara Kotelia. “It may be difficult for a child who is psychologically unprepared to endure the discipline and strict daily routine. Nevertheless, this year about four boys competed for every place.”
There are actually two competitions: boys who have completed ninth grade are selected directly for the Kyiv-based lyceum, while seventh-graders are chosen for the Boyarka-based branch. Both sets of boys find that the first weeks at school are the most difficult. They are in a totally different environment, and their mothers and fathers are far away. They also have to cope with more serious knowledge requirements. The lyceum follows army-style discipline and “no talking back is permitted.” To make it easier for them to adapt to the new conditions, juniors are offered an intensive cultural program in the early autumn. Already in September the lyceum students have visited the Philharmonic, the Youth Theater, and several museums in Kyiv.
FEELING SAD? NEVER!
What does this kind of Ukrainian education offer in the way of raising boys in the spirit of the national idea? Above all, we see a healthy lifestyle and a correct organization of the teaching process: reveille at seven a.m., morning exercises that may last for an hour, then washing and cleaning the lyceum’s indoor and outdoor premises. After morning ablutions, platoon commanders check to see how the students “have done their domestic work,” i.e., whether their uniform is in order, shoulder straps and buttons sewn on well, and whether the cadet is ready for the day. Only then comes a light breakfast and classes.
Classes last until 15:40. This time span includes several lessons and two long breaks during one of which the cadets have a workout. Classes are held in specialist rooms, the seating arrangement is one per desk, and the cadets carry only copybooks and stationery with them. All manuals are handed out by the teachers. In compliance with the modern educational system, seniors can choose to major in mathematics or liberal arts, but they all have to do a compulsory six hours of physical training, not just two, like in ordinary schools. A man has to keep physically fit!
Teaching is not confined to the usual array of classes. In the two hours between the last lesson and dinner the cadets attend supplementary and optional classes, clubs, or watch sports competitions. Meanwhile, talented children play musical instruments or engage in various sports. After dinner these future officers have just half an hour in which to relax, and then they go to the Platoon Room, where they do homework in the presence of a staff monitor. Then they eat supper and attend evening roll-call. Lights-out is at 22:00, and they rise at 07:00.
To prevent the blues in an all-male milieu, the lyceum occasionally holds discotheques to which girls are invited from schools in Kyiv’s Pechersky district. Girls also visit the boys during holidays and to attend soirees. Whether they like it or not, the cadets, being true gentlemen or, to put it in simpler terms - Cossacks — cannot insult a lady. But they have already observed that modern girls do not meet Cossack standards if only because they secretly smoke in restrooms and often flout good taste.
THE ADVANTAGES OF DISCIPLINE
This seems to be a real army, so at first glance it is hard to believe that a seventh-grader, who just a few days ago was racing down a school corridor with somebody else’s backpack, could want to attend this type of school. But look: those are cheerful, happy children, who are walking, running, and jumping along the broad corridors of the Bohun Lyceum, as though it is the most natural thing in the world to wear a uniform and enter the classroom in an orderly line.
On the way to the “tea house,” where the boys can have an ice cream or glass of juice during their breaks, counselor Kotelia occasionally picks up scraps of paper and adjusts window blinds. “A junior platoon is now on duty, you know, and they still do not fully understand that it should be clean everywhere,” Kotelia says. “In a week or two you will see that everything will be clean.” All we, civilians, can do is wonder: could it be cleaner in the corridors, where the parquet floor and stairs have just been polished and shined so carefully that you can easily slip? How do they manage to run about here? Clean premises and courtyards are also the result of the cadets’ efforts: they carry out this duty as perfectly as they study.
There is silence in the lyceum during classes and breaks because that is a part of discipline. For breaking the rules of good behavior or statutory regulations and even for poor academic progress, a cadet can be deprived of weekend leave or even left behind at the lyceum for the duration of his summer vacation: a real man should be well educated. Young men, even those with no servicemen in their families, like this army-style regimen.
The brothers Yurii and Serhii Hychko from Pochaiv completed a piano course at a music school, but they are still happy with the lyceum’s rules: they like the school’s strictness. Serhiy has only been here three weeks, but he already commands a platoon and notes that teachers here are more exacting, which means that the cadets will gain more knowledge and find it easier to apply to a higher educational institution.
Another junior, Yurii Tsekhmistr from Kyiv oblast, is sure that in childhood everyone dreams of being in the military. “My parents told me about the lyceum and, frankly speaking, I don’t regret coming here at all: I like the discipline,” Yurii says. Roman Davyskyba came from Vinnytsia oblast to apply to the lyceum because most of all he wanted to acquire solid knowledge in a certain field.
The boys who have been here only three weeks say that it is difficult at first (“During our first 15 years we lived the way we wanted to”). “You really become aware of the advantages of an education at the Bohun Lyceum after one year of study,” says Oleksandr Myhdal, a Donetsk-born graduate. This cadet is an overachiever, and he is proud of the fact that almost all the men in his family have been in the army. He could not possibly have chosen a different path.
“You get used to the regimen very quickly,” Oleksandr says. “Now I can clearly see the advantages of this upbringing: the more disciplined you are, the less time you spend fixing problems. If you have found a way out of a situation, you will act rapidly and decisively and you will almost never make a mistake.” According to senior cadets, boys at mixed schools can and must behave more freely, but the lyceum teaches many things that no ordinary school will ever teach - for example, how to manage people skillfully.
“THESE CHILDREN WILL NEVER STEAL”
The Bohun cadets are cheerful, gifted, inquisitive, and sincere. It is not difficult to work with them because these children usually know why they have come here and are trying not to lag behind in any subject. Like in ordinary schools, every lesson begins not just after the bell has rung but much earlier, maybe the previous evening or a few classes earlier. The teachers closely monitor the children’s reactions to what they are being taught and see to it that the education they provide has as few blank spots as possible.
Nina Demchenko, who teaches mathematics, has been at the lyceum for more than 40 years and is pleased with her pupils. She is convinced that young people who are raised in these conditions are incapable of wrongdoing. “You know, I would like our alumni to come to power in this country some day,” Demchenko says. “They are honest and well-bred children. They will never steal, cheat, or swindle. They really respect the honor and dignity of their lyceum and, in the future, they will show the same respect to their uniform. Our children tend to grow up to be not only well-mannered but also clever.” This teacher believes it is easier to work with boys: they may be a bit rough sometimes, “but they don’t have the streak of slyness so typical of girls.”
The Day’s correspondents saw neither sad nor vicious children at the lyceum. They looked hopeful, joyous, if not a little tired. We cannot help agreeing with their teachers’ assessments: these children have clearly disengaged themselves from crime, drugs, and the street, and in two or four years they learn how to appreciate the good in society. They learn how to be friends, come to their comrades’ rescue, and control themselves. This may be the best option for boys of this age.
