ATO or “Hell is empty. All the devils are here”

I`ve heard about the horror of war only from the books of Ukrainian history and documentaries watching TV. Unfortunately, now war is as never close to me – merely 1000 kilometres from the east of Ukraine.

“Hell is empty. All the devils are here”, William Shakespeare wrote. It seems that such situation has been existing since the war broke out in Luhansk and Donetsk regions. It wasn`t declared and has caused havoc where just two years ago EURO 2012 was held. In order to avoid the situation with the Crimean peninsula our government took the situation seriously and decided to send peacekeeping forces there. Men, bound to military service, were mobilized and started a piece campaign in the east.

The fundamental part of the military was made up of 30-40-year-old men. Still, all defenders keep an opened fire in order not to lose a war. It is said that if the separatists lay down their guns, the war will be finished, if we stop a fire, Ukraine will come to the end. Besides the fierce fighting with weapons and military operations a great number of voluntary organizations continue providing their volunteer assistance.

I am convinced that we must stand up for the Ukrainian independence and tolerate all diverse provocations. A good example of such power is cyborgs from the Donetsk airport taken prisoners. Despite the “march of shame”, their brothers are ready to put up a heroic fight against the terrorists.

Ukrainians believe that the war will have a huge effect on their lives, it should connect them into one flourishing nation. In the meantime, our heroes continue to defend all residents even those who chanted “Donbass is Russia”…

A letter to Victoria

Dear Victoria,

How are you? How are your brother and parents? I hope you remember me, a boy from Austria-Hungary in 1916. I`m writing to you to give a lot of thanks.

I really appreciate everything you did because it helped me to get accustomed to life in America. My family has to flee from the ruined life in our native country and get away from Vienna in order not to be discriminated and seek refuge overseas. We found a ship and a few days later docked in New York.

Before it we disembarked on Ellis Island to be examined for different illnesses. As you had said, it was a simple checking whether migrants were healthy. Frankly speaking, I had no desire to have the examination and I felt some animosity towards a doctor called “eye man”.

A few days later, as I`ve mentioned, we came to New York. My life was considerably changed and I had nostalgia to my home. Moving to another place was an enormous culture shock for me. One thing that helped to overcome my fear was that we met a lot of people of different ethnic groups that were uprooted during the World War I.

We wanted to find a budget accommodation but for the first time it was a dream. However, your advice helped us and we got an apartment in the Lower East Side (an immigrant neighborhood in New Your City) that had only kitchen, bedroom and parlor. It seemed that we were able to live at peace with other people but there was a social competition.  We needed to buy chairs, stove, bed and mattress, but everything cost a lot. That is why instead of admiring cobbled streets and stunning parks our family worked a lot. Sometimes I played stickball as your brother did. We restored our kitchen a bit and divide the household chores (laundry, getting a coal, cooking, sweeping and mopping). I wanted to get away from it all and live off the beaten track, but diverse and rich life wasn`t for us.

My family retained some photos of that period of my life. If you are reading this letter, know that I am very grateful to you for your help.

Best wishes,

Marcus

News travels fast

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Wisdom comes during the pleasure, not suffering

Is the self-organization a force for behaving a thirst for knowledge? Why is it effective to individualize teaching and learning? This and other questions I would like to discuss with you in today`s post.

The issue about education appears every time when we meet amateurs in the positions of professionals. Sometimes natural talent is the most remarkable and helpful thing that makes somebody a quick learner. However, if you want to achieve a success during the educational process, get full marks, pass exams with flying colours or become graduated from the university with “full head” but have a lack of abilities, you need to have an individualized approach when you are completing the course. Sirken Robinson takes the view that attributing a very high status to the teaching profession and individualizing learning we can force student`s creativity and help them to put their thinking cap on.  He subscribes to the theory that the arts, humanities and physical education should receive equal quality of time to be learned. Giving an example of a Finland educational system Robinson points out that disciplines that are in the process of learning must not be obsessive. I honestly think that it is better to give freedom in the choice of subjects for the students than to stifle their desire for studying by excessive study load.

Let`s imagine one situation. You are having a crash course that demands to hit the books and burn the midnight oil. You are not a teacher`s pet, but you want to pass all exams and take a diploma.  This is obviously the ideal time to show your self-organization. As Saguta Mitra says collaboration and encouragement are extremely important for learning. He emphasizes that learning at the same time is “a product of educational self-organization”. My firm conviction is that if we are able to organize our educational process, find the source of self-motivation, we can easily learn vocabulary by heart, brainstorm new ideas or even open our own mental agility.

Finally, I take the view that leading authorities in the field of educational system will improve the way that students are taught especially increasing the level of self-motivation. We should bear in mind that studying is for us, not for teachers: wisdom comes during the pleasure, not suffering.