Boarding school with the soul: memories, revelations and inspiration of the director
There are people who are supposedly destined to choose one or another profession. You meet such a person and understand - she is in her place. This is the "aura" of the heroine of our interview today - Olena Olehivna Lagoshna, who has been the director of the Chereshen Lyceum-Boarding School for 16 years and facilitates the difficult and sometimes even tragic everyday life of her wards. Olena Olehivna sometimes spoke with tears in her eyes about the difficulties of her profession, painful stories and incredible school traditions.
Olena Olehivna, please tell us where your path as a teacher began and do you remember your first working days at the Chereshen Lyceum? Your impressions, emotional state?
With this question you take me back to the times when I decided to choose the profession of a teacher. I myself am a student of the Chereshen boarding school, but I grew up in a wonderful family: my mother is a teacher, my father is a carpenter. But because there was no high school nearby, I finished grades 10-11 at a boarding school.
Then - years of study at Chernihiv Pedagogical University. From the 3rd year I moved to the correspondence department of the university and started working as a teacher-organizer in my home school. So, it was within the walls of the Chereshen boarding school that my pedagogical activity began. I later became an educator, deputy director of educational work, and in November 2004, I, a 28-year-old girl, was appointed director of a boarding school in connection with the transfer of the previous director of the institution to another job. On the day of the appointment, when the OBLUON representatives left the school, I just went home because I was scared.
I headed the team of my former teachers. But since I was a graduate of this institution, it was breathtaking. So, I gathered the team in the old club and emotionally told them how friendly we should be and how wonderful we will live in the future (this report of the former girl director, written in calligraphy in a notebook in a cell, I keep to this day). Did everything work out in that notebook report? Of course, that’s not all… But the emotional state when I told my teachers how to work and how we will work - I can not describe. I clearly remember that state of mind, even though it was 16 years ago.
I still remember this case: my grandfather came to his granddaughter, our pupil, and I was running down the corridor, my hair gathered in a ponytail. And he asks me: "Girl, how to get to the director?". After this incident, I tried to be stern and serious (although now, I understand how wrong it is!).
And what is the Chereshen Lyceum now: infrastructure, students, pedagogical staff?
Over the years, from the time of the boarding school to the present day, the name of our institution has changed many times. We were a specialized boarding school with in-depth study of individual subjects and courses. Our students studied Ukrainian language, history and physical culture in depth. But times have changed, the requirements for such institutions have changed, and today we are a lyceum.
There were 127 students out of 250. My teachers went on a well-deserved vacation, and teachers with "tails" and teachers with "disobedient foreheads" became respected teachers who have the highest category and title of teacher-methodologist. Today the teaching staff has 32 teachers and educators, our average age is 43 years.
Tell us about your traditions? How do you organize leisure and holidays for children?
Children are the ones we work for. It is for their sake that we want to make our institution as good as possible, and living conditions closer to home. But we do not live by one teaching! So, just like children who live at home, our pets definitely have holidays. This is also the day of St. Nicholas, when we always put a small gift under the pillow, and to whom, maybe, a knife. This is the New Year with fabulous illumination on the street, painted windows of school corridors and bedrooms. Easter! We definitely invite the father, and he consecrates the painted Easter eggs and Easter cakes, which the children bake the day before with their mentors. And then the whole family we go to the holiday table.
But once the children asked, "What is a barbecue?" I was very ashamed. It turns out that the basic things for our children are unknown. So, after May, wearing caps and shorts, we went to Desna (good thing she’s there). And since then, every year the children prepare a fire, string the meat prepared in the dining room and fry kebabs. At this moment, not only the breath is filled with the aromas that fill the air, but also the children’s eyes - there are many things: admiration, surprise and… childhood - like everyone else. And on makeshift tablecloths there are many different delicacies: and illicit Coca-Cola, and overseas fruit, ice cream and much more. And most importantly - close friends, classmates, and you - an ordinary boy or girl.
Childhood… How eagerly you look forward to a birthday when mom kisses, congratulates. Unfortunately, our children do not have this. So, every year we traditionally set holiday tables for the whole school. Congratulations, games, competitions…
You have a very interesting and cozy format of living for children - family-type houses. Tell us about this initiative, what do they represent?
After the opening of the preschool group (we call the kindergarten), in the institution where children from 2 years old are brought up, I proposed to create family-type houses (in the regions of Ukraine this has already been practiced). The idea was for the children to be from the same family or to be relatives and live together. At that time we had many children from large families. Initially, one house was created, and when I saw the advantage of a family group over an educational group with 20 children and one educator, I really wanted to create at least one more such family group.
It was difficult. Funding from the state was meager. The requirements for such groups were high: the house must have household items: washing machine, refrigerator, kitchen, where children could learn the basics of self-care. There were no funds for all this. But the world is not without good people. And the advantage of our institution is that when guests come to us, they always come back. So, one of them, now friends of our children, from Kyiv, a countrywoman who helped us a lot, brought her acquaintances and friends to us.
Together we created another family group. A group that is not like the usual educational group of an institution like ours. This is a home where after coming home from school, the child can be alone in the room, teach lessons, learn to use the washing machine, microwave, cook something delicious with the teacher in a cozy kitchen and in the evening brew a cup of fragrant tea and look in the fridge for something delicious. And on the weekend the child may lie in bed a little longer than usual. I think this routine is very important.
Many children with difficult destinies live in your school. Can you tell a life-affirming story about your pets? About those with whom you keep in touch?
Children’s destinies… During the years of work so many of them touched my soul, called pain in my heart… I want to remember the story of one family. Five children, the youngest girls as preschoolers came to our institution. It was this family that became the pupils of the newly formed family group. The eldest, Marinka, has a birthday of 17 years. We are waiting for the guests, the "godmother", the same woman from Kyiv: a holiday bustle, we set the table for the celebration, a big cake with candles on the table. Marina is crying…
“Marinko, why are you crying? Today we should be happy! ”I say. "I’ve never had a birthday like this and probably never will," she says.
Years have passed. Today Marina is a wife, a caring mother who loves her little son more than anything else in the world. And what about the mother of Marina, her brothers and sisters, who still study with us? "Mother" lives a quiet life without seeing her children grow up, and without much pain agrees to have her children taken away from her. Today, the case of deprivation of parental rights of the grief-stricken mother is pending in court.
You see many sad and even tragic stories. Is it difficult to be an empathetic leader and let these emotions pass through you?
Every child’s destiny is unique, and all our children are very different. The only thing that unites them is that they do not live with their parents, in a family circle, but in an institution like ours. And by this they are deprived, traumatized, and therefore very, very vulnerable. As a director, I have a great responsibility. The older I get, the more doubts creep into my soul: have I always been fair, or have I always made the right decisions? Because it often happened to make decisions for children. So I ask myself, have I used all the resources given to me to form and become a child?
A very important goal for me is to create in the "state" institution, with a difficult, painful name dormitory, living conditions close to home. It can be a curtain on the window or a rug on the floor, because it is a coziness… And definitely a sofa in every dormitory (it would seem, such an everyday accessory for us). Because all the necessary things that must be in life for the physiological development of the child (bed, bedside table, chair) - it was in a room for 10-12 people. And there was no comfort. The children lived in a boarding school, rejoiced in what they considered to be the norm… And after graduating from school, they went to ANOTHER life, a life they did not know.
Do I miss tragic children’s stories because of myself? Yes of course. Is it difficult to be an empathetic leader? This is a necessary feature for any specialist, not just a manager. The ability to empathize, to put yourself in the place of another person… This is the key to a strong team, it is a high result in achieving a common goal.
Share your views on the adoption and custody of children in Ukraine. Do you often make such a request? What is your attitude to the adoption procedure for foreigners and citizens of our country?
During the years of work as a headmaster, not many status children of our school were adopted. Children were adopted abroad: in Italy, America, France. No children have been adopted by Ukrainian families. Why so? It is possible that there were no small children with status in our institution, and Ukrainian adoptive parents usually want a young child… Foster families and family-type homes have become very fashionable today. It was from our school that a large number of children were taken into care. Is it good? I do not know. Just as it is impossible to say about institutions like ours that they are all good or bad, so it is impossible to say about foster families. It’s all individual.
How often do you provide charitable assistance to your school? What are the priority needs of the lyceum now?
Our institution is geographically located far from the capital and the regional center. This has its advantages and disadvantages: it is difficult to find permanent sponsors for such a remote institution. French philanthropists made a very powerful contribution at the time. This includes internal toilets, renovated and redesigned bath, replaced windows, new furniture. This includes the rehabilitation of children of privileged categories and much more. But, lately, due to the pandemic, we have not received any assistance for the institution. For several years in a row, I have been knocking on every door to help replace water pipes, radiators, and floor tiles on the ground floor of the school building. As always, we need clothes and shoes for children, hygiene products, stationery. We will always be happy to help.
I did not think it would be difficult to give an interview, many moments we stopped at caused tears ...
Author Ksenia Annyuk
Photo by the author
Read also: Blood donation: how it was affected by the pandemic and whether it is possible to improve the situation
Olena Olehivna, please tell us where your path as a teacher began and do you remember your first working days at the Chereshen Lyceum? Your impressions, emotional state?
With this question you take me back to the times when I decided to choose the profession of a teacher. I myself am a student of the Chereshen boarding school, but I grew up in a wonderful family: my mother is a teacher, my father is a carpenter. But because there was no high school nearby, I finished grades 10-11 at a boarding school. Then - years of study at Chernihiv Pedagogical University. From the 3rd year I moved to the correspondence department of the university and started working as a teacher-organizer in my home school. So, it was within the walls of the Chereshen boarding school that my pedagogical activity began. I later became an educator, deputy director of educational work, and in November 2004, I, a 28-year-old girl, was appointed director of a boarding school in connection with the transfer of the previous director of the institution to another job. On the day of the appointment, when the OBLUON representatives left the school, I just went home because I was scared.
I headed the team of my former teachers. But since I was a graduate of this institution, it was breathtaking. So, I gathered the team in the old club and emotionally told them how friendly we should be and how wonderful we will live in the future (this report of the former girl director, written in calligraphy in a notebook in a cell, I keep to this day). Did everything work out in that notebook report? Of course, that’s not all… But the emotional state when I told my teachers how to work and how we will work - I can not describe. I clearly remember that state of mind, even though it was 16 years ago.
I still remember this case: my grandfather came to his granddaughter, our pupil, and I was running down the corridor, my hair gathered in a ponytail. And he asks me: "Girl, how to get to the director?". After this incident, I tried to be stern and serious (although now, I understand how wrong it is!).
And what is the Chereshen Lyceum now: infrastructure, students, pedagogical staff?
Over the years, from the time of the boarding school to the present day, the name of our institution has changed many times. We were a specialized boarding school with in-depth study of individual subjects and courses. Our students studied Ukrainian language, history and physical culture in depth. But times have changed, the requirements for such institutions have changed, and today we are a lyceum.
There were 127 students out of 250. My teachers went on a well-deserved vacation, and teachers with "tails" and teachers with "disobedient foreheads" became respected teachers who have the highest category and title of teacher-methodologist. Today the teaching staff has 32 teachers and educators, our average age is 43 years.
Tell us about your traditions? How do you organize leisure and holidays for children? Children are the ones we work for. It is for their sake that we want to make our institution as good as possible, and living conditions closer to home. But we do not live by one teaching! So, just like children who live at home, our pets definitely have holidays. This is also the day of St. Nicholas, when we always put a small gift under the pillow, and to whom, maybe, a knife. This is the New Year with fabulous illumination on the street, painted windows of school corridors and bedrooms. Easter! We definitely invite the father, and he consecrates the painted Easter eggs and Easter cakes, which the children bake the day before with their mentors. And then the whole family we go to the holiday table.
But once the children asked, "What is a barbecue?" I was very ashamed. It turns out that the basic things for our children are unknown. So, after May, wearing caps and shorts, we went to Desna (good thing she’s there). And since then, every year the children prepare a fire, string the meat prepared in the dining room and fry kebabs. At this moment, not only the breath is filled with the aromas that fill the air, but also the children’s eyes - there are many things: admiration, surprise and… childhood - like everyone else. And on makeshift tablecloths there are many different delicacies: and illicit Coca-Cola, and overseas fruit, ice cream and much more. And most importantly - close friends, classmates, and you - an ordinary boy or girl.
Childhood… How eagerly you look forward to a birthday when mom kisses, congratulates. Unfortunately, our children do not have this. So, every year we traditionally set holiday tables for the whole school. Congratulations, games, competitions…
You have a very interesting and cozy format of living for children - family-type houses. Tell us about this initiative, what do they represent?
After the opening of the preschool group (we call the kindergarten), in the institution where children from 2 years old are brought up, I proposed to create family-type houses (in the regions of Ukraine this has already been practiced). The idea was for the children to be from the same family or to be relatives and live together. At that time we had many children from large families. Initially, one house was created, and when I saw the advantage of a family group over an educational group with 20 children and one educator, I really wanted to create at least one more such family group.
It was difficult. Funding from the state was meager. The requirements for such groups were high: the house must have household items: washing machine, refrigerator, kitchen, where children could learn the basics of self-care. There were no funds for all this. But the world is not without good people. And the advantage of our institution is that when guests come to us, they always come back. So, one of them, now friends of our children, from Kyiv, a countrywoman who helped us a lot, brought her acquaintances and friends to us. Together we created another family group. A group that is not like the usual educational group of an institution like ours. This is a home where after coming home from school, the child can be alone in the room, teach lessons, learn to use the washing machine, microwave, cook something delicious with the teacher in a cozy kitchen and in the evening brew a cup of fragrant tea and look in the fridge for something delicious. And on the weekend the child may lie in bed a little longer than usual. I think this routine is very important.
Many children with difficult destinies live in your school. Can you tell a life-affirming story about your pets? About those with whom you keep in touch?
Children’s destinies… During the years of work so many of them touched my soul, called pain in my heart… I want to remember the story of one family. Five children, the youngest girls as preschoolers came to our institution. It was this family that became the pupils of the newly formed family group. The eldest, Marinka, has a birthday of 17 years. We are waiting for the guests, the "godmother", the same woman from Kyiv: a holiday bustle, we set the table for the celebration, a big cake with candles on the table. Marina is crying…
“Marinko, why are you crying? Today we should be happy! ”I say. "I’ve never had a birthday like this and probably never will," she says.
Years have passed. Today Marina is a wife, a caring mother who loves her little son more than anything else in the world. And what about the mother of Marina, her brothers and sisters, who still study with us? "Mother" lives a quiet life without seeing her children grow up, and without much pain agrees to have her children taken away from her. Today, the case of deprivation of parental rights of the grief-stricken mother is pending in court.
You see many sad and even tragic stories. Is it difficult to be an empathetic leader and let these emotions pass through you?
Every child’s destiny is unique, and all our children are very different. The only thing that unites them is that they do not live with their parents, in a family circle, but in an institution like ours. And by this they are deprived, traumatized, and therefore very, very vulnerable. As a director, I have a great responsibility. The older I get, the more doubts creep into my soul: have I always been fair, or have I always made the right decisions? Because it often happened to make decisions for children. So I ask myself, have I used all the resources given to me to form and become a child?
A very important goal for me is to create in the "state" institution, with a difficult, painful name dormitory, living conditions close to home. It can be a curtain on the window or a rug on the floor, because it is a coziness… And definitely a sofa in every dormitory (it would seem, such an everyday accessory for us). Because all the necessary things that must be in life for the physiological development of the child (bed, bedside table, chair) - it was in a room for 10-12 people. And there was no comfort. The children lived in a boarding school, rejoiced in what they considered to be the norm… And after graduating from school, they went to ANOTHER life, a life they did not know.
Do I miss tragic children’s stories because of myself? Yes of course. Is it difficult to be an empathetic leader? This is a necessary feature for any specialist, not just a manager. The ability to empathize, to put yourself in the place of another person… This is the key to a strong team, it is a high result in achieving a common goal.
Share your views on the adoption and custody of children in Ukraine. Do you often make such a request? What is your attitude to the adoption procedure for foreigners and citizens of our country?
During the years of work as a headmaster, not many status children of our school were adopted. Children were adopted abroad: in Italy, America, France. No children have been adopted by Ukrainian families. Why so? It is possible that there were no small children with status in our institution, and Ukrainian adoptive parents usually want a young child… Foster families and family-type homes have become very fashionable today. It was from our school that a large number of children were taken into care. Is it good? I do not know. Just as it is impossible to say about institutions like ours that they are all good or bad, so it is impossible to say about foster families. It’s all individual.
How often do you provide charitable assistance to your school? What are the priority needs of the lyceum now? Our institution is geographically located far from the capital and the regional center. This has its advantages and disadvantages: it is difficult to find permanent sponsors for such a remote institution. French philanthropists made a very powerful contribution at the time. This includes internal toilets, renovated and redesigned bath, replaced windows, new furniture. This includes the rehabilitation of children of privileged categories and much more. But, lately, due to the pandemic, we have not received any assistance for the institution. For several years in a row, I have been knocking on every door to help replace water pipes, radiators, and floor tiles on the ground floor of the school building. As always, we need clothes and shoes for children, hygiene products, stationery. We will always be happy to help.
I did not think it would be difficult to give an interview, many moments we stopped at caused tears ...
Author Ksenia Annyuk
Photo by the author
Read also: Blood donation: how it was affected by the pandemic and whether it is possible to improve the situation