Valentina Kuryliw Honoured for Work in Education

By Oksana Zakydalsky

TORONTO – It is a custom in Ontario for Members of the Provincial Parliament to present Community Recognition Awards at their New Year’s levees. At Etobicoke Centre MPP Donna Cansfield’s levee on January 17, Valentina Kuryliw received a Community Recognition Award “for outstanding volunteer service.” In her presentation, Ms. Cansfield paid tribute to Ms. Kuryliw’s services to education, both in Canada and in Ukraine, and spoke about her work in helping to develop a Holodomor curriculum and spearheading its introduction into Toronto public schools.

Before retiring in 2001, Valentina Kuryliw taught history and was department head  in a Toronto school. In 1993, along with other educators, she was invited to Ukraine to develop a program for instructing Ukrainian history teachers on how to use critical teaching skills. In 2003, she published a textbook – “Metodyka vykladannia istorii” (Methods of Teaching History) which was officially endorsed by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine. As the 75^th anniversary of the Holodomor Famine Genocide in Ukraine approached, Ms. Kuryliw took on the task of ensuring that the Holodomor would be taught in Toronto public schools.

In the spring of 2008, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) created a genocide course but the Holodomor was not included in the curriculum (the core curriculum modules covered the Holocaust, the Armenian and the Rwandan genocides). In response, the Holodomor Education Team (HET) was formed under the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Toronto Branch and, currently, its membership includes: Valentina Kuryliw and Eugene Yakovitch (as co-chairs), Andrew Melnyk, Alex Chumak, Marika Szkambara, Roman Kordiuk and Halya Dmytryshyn. All are active members of the Ukrainian community and include former teachers. Andrew Melnyk served as school principal for twenty years and Alex Chumak was a school trustee for the TDSB and is a social worker.

HET mounted a careful and well-thought out strategy to have the Holodomor acknowledged and taught in Toronto public schools. In spite of initial opposition and seeming lack of interest, the TDSB finally agreed to have the fourth Friday in November designated Holodomor Memorial Day in all schools, and directed the preparation of a curriculum on the Holodomor. In the summer of 2009, a TDSB Writing Team on the curriculum was created. Valentina Kuryliw worked as a consultant, providing expertise and resources, such as a Holodomor Teaching Kit: “The Unknown Genocide – Ukrainian Holodomor 1932-1933”. The kit includes copies of original documents and a workbook for teachers and students. It is available on the website www.faminegenocide.com. Two curriculum teaching units on the Holodomor were developed and were designated for two courses – Grade 12 World History and World Politics.

An announcement to recognise Holodomor Memorial Day on November 27, 2009 was sent out to all schools by the Superintendent of Education one week before the event. But it is up to individual schools to decide which directives they will announce and Ms. Kuryliw said that HET has not been receiving enough feedback about the implementation of the Holodomor Memorial Day. It is certain that only three schools observed it and that is because of the interest of individual teachers within those schools.

By the end of 2009, all TDSB secondary schools and history departments had received the Holodomor curriculum. However, Ms. Kuryliw stresses that it is not enough to have a Holodomor curriculum which is only one of many elective topics from which teachers make their own choices of what they teach in their history courses. Thus, HET has taken on the task of making educators aware of materials available on the Holodomor through presentations at schools and conferences, through in-service training and the distribution of the Holodomor Teaching Kits. HET has also established contact with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board where Ms. Kuryliw was invited to give a workshop on teaching the Holodomor and twenty-two teachers and administrators received the Teaching Kits.

HET is now taking the issue of the Holodomor curriculum one step higher: now it is developing a presentation to the Ministry of Education’s Curriculum Branch - Review Committee to have both the Internment of Canadians during World War I and the Holodomor taught in all Ontario schools. Such a curriculum review by the Province is usually done only once in ten years, and the deadline for submissions is March 2010. The inclusion of the Holodomor and the Internment into the Ministry of Education’s Ontario Curriculum and guidelines would ensure that these topics will be taught in all schools in Ontario and written about in future textbooks. Their inclusion in the Curriculum is a vital step towards teaching and awareness of these topics as all school boards must comply with Ministry requirements.

Valentina Kuryliw has been appointed National Chair of the Holodomor Education Committee of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. She will set up a committee of representatives from across Canada to help coordinate the teaching of the Holodomor in all provinces and territories.