What Nick Wrote - Taking the Wheel

Apologies to my very few readers - that I took most of the summer off from writing in this blog. I've been working hard on a number of projects and posting pics and updates on my Facebook Page.

As school is getting ready to start again next Monday, I thought it appropriate to post an essay written by an incredible student: Nicolai Mitiș (Meeteesh) - who will be starting the 11th grade next week. Nick wrote this essay as part of the work I regularly give him. He won a Peace Corps writing competition in the 9th grade and last year took 3rd place in the Moldovan Olympiada for the English Language for the 10th grade. This kid is ON FIRE and is currently writing a short story - Cat on the Edge of the Universe - in English based on a photo I sent him, and a novel-length prequel of Silent Hill in Romanian. Look for him to be the next great writer on the world stage.

The amazing Nick Mitiș.

Taking the Wheel – Student Responsibility

Recently I was travelling by trolleybus in Moldova’s capital city of Chişinău. As a Moldovan I take our public transportation very seriously and it takes me wherever I want to go in our small country. Ignoring the scrimmage of rush hour, I gazed at the driver - - he was smoking while driving his enormous machine and also talking on his cell phone. I grew resentful, then angry. How could one be so unconcerned about his responsibilities? What if we had crashed because of his mumbling on the cell phone?! My fears vanished however as I got off, and faced my own responsibilities - - I was heading to school.

 Frankly, my school is a mess. It was built in the Soviet Union’s glory days, somewhere between 1950-’60, and by now it has almost collapsed. Unfortunately, many schools in Moldova are in such a plight. But you should see with what exuberance our parents try to redress the situation! They  invest a great deal of money (money which in Moldova is not so easy to come by, as Moldova is the poorest country in Eastern Europe) in order to ensure the most comfortable conditions for studying. There are schools which were fully rebuilt from parents’ foundation money. So, you see how important education is for our parents. But what about us? Do we – the students - care?

            The budget of our country is considered to be one of the poorest in the world. Still, every year, it assigns 6,300 lei (equal to 500 USD) per student. Considering the fact that in the Republic of Moldova we have 412,000 students, it may be some money to spend. Do we care? For many students – it’s merely numbers, vain endeavors that just don’t matter.

 Isn’t our duty to meet the expectations of those who assured us our high-quality education? Meeting expectations doesn’t have to mean blindly following another’s dogma, but it does mean owning up to our responsibilities toward what we are doing, toward our status and toward those who have raised us to our current position.

 In order to reduce the unawareness of responsibilities here in Moldova, we have special classes in which the teacher speaks about the rights and responsibilities of a student and of a citizen. The purpose of such classes is “to raise a conscientious generation,” as stated by the Ministry of Education.  But, what about you, America? I must confess to you that the educational system in the USA is often stereotyped in the minds of our teenagers. Due to the influence of the media, high school is viewed as a time of continuous partying and easy classes. Is this true, America? What responsibilities do your students have in the creation of their own education?

            To Moldovan students, American schools are viewed as an archetype of wealth and prosperity. You would consider it odd, but a well-equipped biology class is a rarity in Moldova. Many schools aren’t properly heated in winter and so are closed for the season. There are no school buses and the kids are obligated to walk miles in order to reach their schools. Poverty isn’t actually an issue, our people say, it is the normal order of things here in Moldova. But you have all of this, you have school buses, your schools are properly heated, you have well-equipped classes! What do you do with all these amenities?

 As most of our teachers were born and raised in the Soviet Union with all its obscure beliefs and credos, each of them remodels their behaviors and methods to ensure a modern education. The generation gap is the issue, some may say, but you should see with what perseverance the Soviet Union’s progeny shifts into the new, democratic system. We also have teachers from abroad (some from the Peace Corps) who dedicate their lives to the tough job of modeling a strong, responsible personality of the 21st century.

 Bottom line it, students have the ultimate responsibility for their own education, regardless of how many teachers, dollars, buses or textbooks are thrown into the mix. So the question is, when do we, as students (Moldovan or US), own up to our responsibilities? When do we decide whether to drive the trolleybus of our education with a clear view of the future, rather than driving with a proverbial cigarette in one hand, while talking on a cell phone with the other? 

- Nicolai Mitiș - Ialoveni, Moldova