The Training Course for Teachers of Armenian Language and History and Organizers of Education (part of the “Diaspora” Summer School Program of the RA Ministry of Diaspora) creates a wonderful environment that gathers Armenian teachers who understand each problem facing the Armenian Diaspora, live for solving those problems and have a feel for each problem. They have come to the homeland to learn the right paths to take to solve those problems. The problems of the Armenian Diaspora vary in all countries. They are either local problems or global problems, are similar and yet very different. In this case, a teacher becomes the first and the most sensitive person who feels the depth of the problems and undertakes the difficult duty to solve and eliminate those issues. The world is moving forward day after day, the main perceptions of space and distance are changing, time is turning into a social reality, and local languages and national belonging are becoming more and more secondary.

In this case, the task of a Diaspora Armenian teacher becomes a mission, and suspension or deceleration of “retreat” from the national identity is mainly dependent on that. Great Armenian figures were sounding the alarm about that “retreat” back in the 1930s when oblivion of the language was becoming the main signal for assimilation. This is very current today, but as I see the motivation of the teachers participating in the “Diaspora” Summer School Program and their willingness to create something new, it is safe to say that Armenians will continue to preserve their national identity abroad.

A lesson within all meanings of the word “lesson”

Last year, through the summer school program, I was lucky to meet Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, devoted pedagogue and patriot, Mrs. Julieta Gyulamiryan. Each of her lessons served as a real opportunity for the participating teachers to gain new knowledge, skills and great experience, and this year was no exception. I don’t know any other lecturer who works with the class with such pleasure and who is such a great professional. The participating teachers become her students for a moment, and she has to teach and educate them constantly.

The chick told the sparrow mother:

It will snow, it got cold.

Why don’t we fly to a warm land

Like others?

The teachers read Liparit Sargsyan’s poem “Your Home”. They must reread this poem for their students later, but today they are also students. They are reading and sharing their feelings and experiences. Russia-based Armenian teacher Irina Gevorgyan recalled her home, yard and her desire to stay, overcome the cold and not leave.

“How can I say it,” the mother felt sad,

“The world is wide and large,

But our race is used to

Living only in the place they were born.

To tolerate the winds and snow during the winter,

But not leave the old nest.”

The atmosphere in the classroom becomes more of an atmosphere of longing, Armenianness and the feeling of being Armenian, becoming more than a lesson, or better yet, it becomes a lesson within all meanings of the word. Today they are here in the old nest, and they must first and foremost take with them the spirit and fill their souls with patriotism. One can feel this by looking into the eyes of each of the teachers.

Besides learning the compound grammatical and syntactical structures in Armenian, they also have to give the Armenian spirit of their students “wings” to fly. Today their spirit is “flying” since a short poem has turned into a unique description of their past, longing for the homeland and the pain of being at a distance. As they read every quatrain, their voices shiver, and those voices mix in with the voices heard in the nature of their homeland. With teaching methods, tricks and words of encouragement, Gyulamiryan builds the lesson in a way to convey the feeling to each teacher and to make sure each teacher transmits all that to his or her student, who might not have seen Armenia and doesn’t know Armenian well, but is attached to the homeland with invisible and inseparable strings. The teacher must not only tell the student about the homeland, but also create an environment in which the student will close his eyes and feel that homeland.

“Encourage your students to think freely, be independent and unique,” Gyulamiryan said, adding: “I never say I have five years of experience and there is nothing more to learn. I have to keep up with the rapidly changing times.” Her advice will serve as the pillars for the teachers’ careers in the future. Her words of advice serve as formulas that help see windows in glasses, not mirrors.

You are still little, you will grow up

And understand what I am saying.

When you tolerate the cold at home,

The home becomes sweeter.

The Diaspora Armenian teachers will leave with new feelings and experiences, as well as with new skills, methods and knowledge that will help them teach more effectively. The homeland that has become sweeter will wait for them, following the example of the forest bird that tours the world, but never forgets its small nest in the forest.

Amalya Karapetyan