Chekhov

CHEKHOV:  HIS  LAMENT FOR POOR TEACHERS

By Stephen Wilson

Please don't whistle, Masha. How can you ? {pause.} It is being at school all

day and then teaching in the evenings that gives me those constant headaches

and makes me feel like an old woman. And these four years that I have been

teaching at the school I really have felt my youth and strength draining out of

me, drop by drop .And my one dream growing stronger all the time ' laments the

school teacher Olga in Chekhov's play 'The Three Sisters'. And in another play,

The Seagull, the schoolmaster Semyon Medvedenko states, 'I have a much

harder life than you. I earn a miserable twenty-three rubles a month before

superannuation is deducted.' In many of Chekhov's plays and some short

stories, Chekhov depicts the life of Russian teachers before the revolution as

one of not only  relentless poverty, misery, and ill health, but a largely thankless

job where he is constantly anxious about losing his job. He has no job security and

can be dismissed on a whim. Despite some misleading impressions that

Chekhov's plays expressed a sentimental yearning for a golden rural way of

life, his works are a subtle satire on the constant boredom, meaningless and

lack of purpose which ran through the villages even among the Gentry.

I asked a teacher if there was a patron saint of teachers that they appealed to .

In an instant, my colleague conjured up an icon from her bag and thrust it on me

saying that Saint Sergei of Radonezhki is their saint. He defends teachers. But

why not also Chekhov? If anyone deserves to qualify as a patron saint of teachers

it ought to be Chekhov. Chekhov was a passionate and ardent advocate of better

conditions for the Russian school teacher. He thought that the way teachers were

treated in Russia was a sheer disgrace. One only needs to quote a memoir of Maxim

Gorky when he listened to Chekhov ranting on about the plight of teachers and even

kindly listening to one who visited him. Chekhov told Gorky:

"If I had lots of money I would build a sanatorium here for sick village teachers. A

building full of light, you know, very light, with big windows and high ceilings. I'd

have a splendid library, all sorts of musical instruments, an apiary, a vegetable

garden, an orchard. I'd have lectures on agronomy, meteorology, and so on .

Teachers ought to know everything, old man, everything . If you only knew the

absolute necessity for the Russian countryside of good, clever , educated teachers.

In Russia we have simply got to create exceptional conditions for teachers, and

that as soon as possible, since we realize that unless the people get an all-round

education the state will collapse like a house built from insufficiently baked bricks.'

He further adds that "Our teachers are navies , half educated individuals who go

to the village to teach children as willingly as they would go into exile.They are

famished, down trodden, they live in perpetual fear of losing their livelihood......

It is absurd to pay a niggardly pittance to one who is called upon to educate the

people. It is intolerable that such a one should go about in rags, shiver in a damp,

dilapidated school, be poisoned by fumes from badly ventilated stoves and by the

age of thirty be a mass of disease, laryngitis, rheumatism , tuberculosis. It is a

disgrace to us!  For nine or ten months in the year our teachers live the lives of

hermits, without a soul to speak to, they grow stupid, from loneliness, without

books or amusements......... All this is quite disgusting... a kind of mockery of

human beings doing a great and terribly important work. I tell you, when I meet

a teacher I feel quite awkward in front of him - for his timidity, and for his shabbiness.

I feel as if I myself were somehow to blame for the teacher's wretched state - I do

really."

It is striking to compare the acute empathy and humility of Chekhov to how many

present day Russian officials, parents, and the wider public view see teachers. In

a word, there is no comparison. Somethings never change. The poverty of many

rural teachers is met with much contempt. Despite the rash claim that the prestige

of school teachers has increased due to salary increase to 105,000 rubles a month,

in Moscow, the conditions of rural teachers still remain abysmal. Just like in

Chekhov's time, they have no real job security and constantly worry about losing

their posts. They also tend to be so overworked they need someone like Chekhov

to build them a sanatorium.

Chekhov did not just lament but lived out his words. He never quite gave up his

job as a doctor. Despite suffering from illness , Chekhov decided to embark on

a special tour to Sakhalin where he would investigate the conditions of Russian

prisoners, and write a report to draw attention to the urgent need for reform. On

the island, Chekhov interviewed thousands of prisoners working 18 hours a day.

The result was his great work 'The Island of Sakhalin', !893-4.' It has been argued

that Chekhov's powerful and moving description of corporal punishment in prisons

played a part in the abolition of it for female prisoners in 1897 and then male ones

in 1904. Chekhov's motives for his mission were clear. He wrote with a note of

sarcasm that: "From the books I have read, it is clear that we have allowed

millions of people to rot in prisons, to rot  for no purpose, without any care, and

in a barbarous way. All of us are guilty, but none of this has anything to do with

us, it is not just interesting." But the plight of the rural teacher and prisoner was

of keen interest to Chekhov. And Chekhov deserves our gratitude!

World War I

CENTENARY OF THE END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

AWAITING WORLD WAR THREE

By Jim Vail

I was asked to read out the at Assembly on November 11 the names of

the old boys of my school who had died in two world wars. It was a

small school, but the list was so long that I was treated for a sore throat.

Something had clearly gone on , I thought, something almost literary

unspeakable. When the history teacher, so forthcoming on the Corn

Laws and the Stuarts, came to the subject of the Great War, he seemed

to struggle for breath; he shook his head sadly and seemed in a hurry to

move on.

Sebastian Faulks, author of Birdsong

The Second World War was, in large part, a repeat performance of the

first.

A.J.P. Taylor, an English historian writing about 'The Origins of the

Second World War.

It is difficult to grasp!  A century has passed since the time of the

armistice agreed on November 11th, 1918. Yet I can still vividly

recall my grandmother speaking about how the war had killed the

flower of our youth and that wicked shameless scoundrel the Kaiser

sought to seize the British thrown. Her  brother Alan "had been

killed by a German sniper when he went out for a breath of fresh air"

and a much younger brother had only just avoided perishing. He

had lied about his age and been sent to France. His father, seeing

the growing casualty lists endlessly complained to the war office

that his son had illegally entered the army and should be ejected.

By the time he had won his case it was too late. The war had lasted

so long that his son had grown into an adult. Due to his age as well

as conscription, he could not be discharged. By some miracle he

survived as the rest of his regiment was entirely decimated. I have

a photo of him dressed in a kilt in our Moscow apartment.

There is something about that World War One which deeply disturbs

people. Two years ago my brother visited my Grand Uncle Alan's

grave on the battlefield of the Somme. What staggered him was

the vast sea of white crosses which stretched endlessly on and on.

Where I lived, the biggest landmark of the town in Bearsden is

the enormous war memorial of an angel carrying a dead soldier

to the next world. Just drive around Scotland and you can't help

noting World War One memorials are everywhere. They are inescapable.

They surpass the number of Second World War memorials.

I saw many gravestones of soldiers. What confused me was that some

dates put the World War from 1914-18, but a lot of them extended it to 1919.

I kept wondering "Have they made a mistake ? "  And " Are our history

books wrong? " Then as I studied more intensively I could grasp why

the war may have truly ended in 1919. The Armistice was only a

provisional ceasefire and that the war would be renewed against Germany

unless she agreed to the Allied Forces' terms. Since the British and French

soldiers were exhausted, the British could only continue the war by using

a cruel naval blockade where imported food was prevented from entering

Germany. Thousands of children were dying from starvation during this

blockade. A.J.P.  Taylor stated: 'The military superiority of the allies had

compelled the Germans to sue for an armistice .Now this superiority

was wasting away by demobilization with every day which passed. If

negotiations dragged on long enough , the Germans might reappear

as equals, not as the defeated. The allies had one remaining weapon -

the blockade against Germany which was still being enforced'. Even

British commanders and their men protested against this blockade and

began to share their food with German children. It was only with the

signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919 that the war formally

ended. But this treaty was so hard on the Germans that it fostered

a revenge psychology where peace represented only a pause to prepare

for another war. The war led to the collapse of four great empires as well as

acting as an impetus to rapidly growing Industrialization.It also gave birth to

three fascist regimes bent on asserting their authority in Europe.

The tragedy of the First World War lies not only in the deaths of ten million

soldiers and 20 million wounded, but the fact its outcome was used as

a pretext for yet another senseless World War. Those wars mean different

things to different people. Should you call it World War One, The First World

War or The Great War? Should you spell the words in full capital letters?

I have read many books on this war yet can't find consistent punctuation!

Some spell it in capital letters, some do not! It is as if the very war mocks

our impotent words violating the rules of grammar. Linguists are at a loss!

For the Russians , they don't have many First World War memorials to visit. The

biggest First World War graveyard in Moscow was decimated. Only a few

gravestones have been preserved or rather recently installed. Dead Russian

soldiers and nurses are forgotten heroes. Nobody sings their songs.

Now, at present, many of my Russian students tell me that they are

expecting a Third World war. They believe it is imminent in Syria where

American and Russian armed forces have already clashed. There is even

a current slogan among some Russians boasting "We won the Great Patriotic

War and we can win another World War." Those people have no real idea of

how horrific war can be. If those people lent an ear to the voice of refugees

then they might well be humbled. People shed tears for the dead, but who will

weep for the dying?

Jackson Potter

Is CORE Founder Jackson Potter's Power Starting to Fade?
By Jim Vail

Is Jackson Potter still in control?

The Coalition of Rank & File Educators or CORE took the country by storm in 2010 when they became the new leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union and then led an historic teachers strike two years later.

The CTU red inspired teachers all across the country to also go on strike. 

While CTU President Karen Lewis was the face of the union that rose to national prominence - there was another individual who the public knew little about but also played a very big role.

Jackson Potter is the architect, founder and inspirational leader of CORE who made all this possible. And he did it by keeping his name off the front pages.

He appears more comfortable operating behind closed doors even though he along with other early CORE members were a headache at Chicago Board of Education meetings by speaking out against Mayor Richard Daley's privatization plan called Ren 2010 to close public schools and open charters.

"You're giving me a choice," Potter said at one board meeting, ridiculing the idea of school choice. "I can either cut off my right hand, or my left foot."

His eloquence and brilliant mind on display during the board meetings resulted in former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Chief Arne Duncan, who later became Obama's education secretary, to remark that he wanted Potter to work for him.

Nobody worked harder than Potter to make CORE the leader of the CTU today. He began passing out flyers, organizing meetings and perhaps most importantly, understanding the role politics would play to inspire teachers to fight for a new union.

He was supposed to be the first CORE vice president candidate in the historic 2010 CTU election where five teacher caucuses ran. However, the UPC challenged his candidacy due to a teacher sabbatical he had taken and he was forced off the ticket.

But he still ran the show behind the scenes.

CORE won the election because the UPC was split after president Marilyn Stewart fired her vice president Ted Dallas, who formed his own caucus and split the vote. CORE won in a runoff because former CTU president Debbie Lynch backed CORE.

Potter became the union's chief of staff - though he called himself a staff coordinator - which sounds like a regular employee. But he along with the officers were calling the shots.

CTU politics today have been molded by the hands of Jackson Potter.

He first hired his mother and her law firm to handle union work. While his mother is considered a brilliant legal mind, the raw nepotism of hiring family members was never challenged until recently when newly formed caucus Members First started questioning this at delegates meetings.

While many protests were organized by the union, culminating in the historic teachers strike in 2012, Potter balanced this social justice unionism by forming a very pragmatic political alliance with the city machine.

The CTU was able to beat its chest loud and clear in the murky world of politics when it sold the Fewkes Tower for about $50 million a few years ago. The union then purchased its current headquarters at Damen & Carroll for about $8.5 million, and the rest of the money was put into a foundation.

While the foundation is controlled by the CTU officers, it is not under the control of the CTU delegates who must vote on a union budget each June. The money has been used to renovate the building, and pay union employees, as well as finance a political agenda closely aligned to the Chicago political machine.

(One inside source said CTU President Jesse Sharkey acknowledged giving House Speaker Mike Madigan $50,000 recently because he asked for it, and said that's how things get done.)

But this murkey world of foundation money, financing political candidates unbeknownst to the members and other behind-the-scenes deals have finally caught up to the architect of it all - Jackson Potter.

One former UPC operative said CORE could
never win and take over a $25 million operation. Surprise!

In what was hailed by insiders as a heroic move to deal with CTU budget woes that resulted in overspending $5 million, Potter agreed to move from the union back to the schools and is now teaching at Back of the Yards High School. 

While his move may have been hailed as saving the union perhaps more than $150,000 in compensation - including salary, benefits and pension - his power within the union was to continue. 

However, the CORE star and founder is suddenly under attack. His first challenge was when he presented himself as a candidate to become a CTU trustee on the CORE ticket. He was defeated by CORE member and high school math teacher Drew Heiserman, who was presented as the CORE-endorsed candidate who delegates voted in favor of.

This perhaps was the first official setback for Potter.

This was definitely a big political upset.

Potter then had a close call to become CORE's high school functional vice president to serve on the CTU Executive Board. He beat Francine Reizen in a close vote with 71 votes (56%) to Reizen's 56 votes (44%).

The man who organized and led numerous social justice marches, including getting arrested when protesting a car dealership getting TIF money while schools budgets were slashed, is suddenly losing control of the ship he built and captained for the past decade.

To understand the power of Potter - think of it this way. There is President Obama, and there are the people who put him in power because of their money and expertise. These are the people who really run the show.

Karen Lewis and Jesse Sharkey were put into power courtesy of Potter. He invited Lewis to join his caucus and made sure she got elected to the steering committee to run it. He gave his blessing for Sharkey to serve as Karen's running mate, and eventually replace her as CTU president.

He also began his political plan by naming former colleague Stacy Davis Gates as head of the political department. She is now the union's vice president.

So why now the sudden shift in winds?

As many say, it's all political. The anger many have felt about the union's inside deals being engineered by Potter and others resulted in the formation of a competitor to run the union - Members First.

Members First and its president Therese Boyle have been questioning the CTU's murkey finances, namely the Foundation spending. The $5 million budget shortfall was perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back. 

Halloween

HALLOWEEN IN RUSSIA

CALLS TO BAN HALLOWEEN AGAIN

By Stephen Wilson

"The worship of the dark mystical force Satan and the glorification of the

dark Celtic death tradition .... Halloween has all the characteristics of a

religion aimed at destroying traditional values." This opinion is not that

of some fanatical sect or psychiatric patient expressing delusions but a

member of the Russian Duma who has recently requested that the Minister

of Education, Olga Vasilyevoi, do everything in her power to prevent the

celebration of Halloween in school by taking disciplinary measures.

For the past twenty years calls for banning Halloween in Russia have

fallen on deaf ears. There is currently no legislative project or document

being drafted by members of the Russian parliament to ban Halloween.

The Russian Minister of Education has not at present the power to enforce a ban

on how Russian schools choose to confront  Halloween.

You would have to specify concretely what 'celebrating' Halloween amounts

to! Russian English teachers often include lessons not only about the

English language but the customs and traditions associated with it. Just

because a teacher offers a talk about Halloween does not mean he is

promoting or preaching some dark religion. In fact, Halloween does not

have the characteristics of a dark religion. Unfortunately, extreme Russian

politicians fail to make a distinction between celebrate and preach, or

acting out a role and worshiping something.

Is Halloween actually widely celebrated in Russia? And what exactly

is Halloween? The vast majority of Folklorists trace back the origins of

Halloween to the Scots and the Irish Celts. In England, it was only largely

celebrated during the 19th century. It took off in America mainly due to

the influence of Irish and Scottish Immigrants. The Scottish poet Robert

Burns wrote a poem titled Halloween in the late 18th century.

Halloween or Samhain, which takes place on the 31st of October, marks

the beginning of the Celtic New Year. At this time, the thin walls between

the living and the dead broke down and all kinds of ghosts and spirits in

limbo surfaced in the world of the living. While the living were obliged to

be hospitable to the dead by inviting them to their homes for a meal,

precautions had to be taken against embittered evil spirits who could

inflict harm on the living. As one Irish storyteller told the folklorist Eddie

Lenihan: " Everyone knows that there are two kinds of spirits. Those

who simply want you to light candles for them in church and your prayers

and those who were blamed for the plane disasters experienced by the

most careful pilots." But Halloween was largely a time for remembering and

commemorating the dead. It is not about worshiping evil spirits or Satan.

In any case, we don't know very much about the Celts own religion other

than the odd fragments such as they located the soul in the head, cut off

the heads of their enemies as a sign of respect as well as a trophy and

had priests called Druids of whose beliefs we have scant evidence of. We

have such limited  knowledge of their religion it is impossible to reconstruct

it. The New Age belief about the Druids is predominantly a modern invention

constructed from many kinds of religions. Of course, the Catholic religion

celebrates All Saints Day on the 1st of November followed by All Souls Day

on the 2nd of November. Is there any harm in remembering the dead souls

of your friends and family on such days? Even the Orthodox religion has

one day of the week set aside for remembering the dead which is Saturday.

Is the Orthodox church going to ban this very day?

Now, Halloween, instead of remembrance of the dead seems to have become

trivialized and reduced as a carnival where people indulge in fancy dress

parties, carving pumpkin lanterns with faces and going around houses singing

'trick or treat '. People also tend to watch horror movies and tell ghost stories.

In 2012, a Russian survey found only one in twenty celebrated Halloween.

However, due to the rising influence of social networks the number of people

celebrating Halloween may have mushroomed. Yet the popularity is largely

confined to young people. Yes, some schools encourage the celebration of

Halloween to encourage lively interest in their students of English. But they

are not preaching or encouraging people to become evil. At those fancy dress

parties, a favorite costume is not a witch but of marvel comic heroes such as

Batman or Spider man. I was asked to have a talk on Halloween at an

English language company Cherry Lane. One student Yelena told me her

five year son likes to dress up in a skeleton suit and thinks that Halloween

may have become popular over the past five years.

If Halloween is popular among restaurants and cafes it is not motivated

by worshiping the Devil or evil spirits but more likely, money. Halloween

represents a convenient time to sell fancy dress costumes or some exotic

gifts such as brooms or odd hats. Restaurants can do lucrative business.

This is far cry from the time, when in late 19th century, in parts of Ireland,

the  Irish storyteller Lenihan told me that, "People were terrified of going out

of  their houses during Halloween in case they were preyed upon by evil

spirits".

Perhaps the most redeeming aspect of Halloween is the storytelling which

comes with it. People often adore telling or  listening to a great story especially

if it is told by a brilliant storyteller. Storytelling encourages children to be

brave and adventurous with new words and not be afraid of playing with them

in novel ways. I was invited to a storytelling session at a bookshop in Moscow

called Locus Solus, where the theme was 'An Evening of Horror Stories'.

One of the audience , a young girl , was dawning the costume of a witch

similar to the film 'The Wizard of Oz '. At this session, guests took turns in

singing songs , poems or narrating ghost stories. Anna Kogeteva told stories

about strange experiences during her youth, Svetlana Shamanina recalled how

her grandmother's dacha was haunted by a noisy spirit which disturbed their

peace by making the room very cold or opening doors all the time. A very

accomplished storyteller called Igor told a very scary story about how a Russian

murdered his wife and was tormented by her spirit after her death. He was so

disturbed by her spirit that he went to the Russian police to confess the murder.

Igor assured us that it was a real story. He later sang an old English Folk song

Scarborough Fair and offered an intriguing interpretation of the song which sounds

more like a horror story than just a pleasant melody.

Halloween is most likely to rise in popularity simply because Russians are fascinated

by monsters, and horror stories about vampires and ghosts. They also take a deep

interest in death and the afterlife. Just read Joseph Brodsky's poetry and you find

that he was obsessed with death. And people can mark Halloween in different

ways such as fancy dress parties, games, cooking meals and storytelling. But

it should be viewed as a predominantly innocuous activity. It is mainly without

malice.

Private School wants Imminent Domain?

Lincoln Square homeowner’s fight against city continues

By Jim Vail

Inside Booster

The battle of homeowner Raminder Chadha vs. North Park Elementary School over who has the right to the property he purchased continues.

Chadha purchased his home in Lincoln Square in 2008 and was ready to rehab his property when suddenly North Park, a private school located at 2017 W. Montrose, decided it wanted to expand and got the city to issue an imminent domain to seize his property.

Chadha said the city didn’t offer enough money for him to be able to sell and buy another house in the area that has seen house prices skyrocket over the years. He has been locked in a court battle ever since.

“It all started because I wanted to give our kids an education in the neighborhood,” Chadha told Hard Lens Media on Youtube. “So we found Lincoln Square/North Park and the school Coonley Elementary. At the time the house had fire damage, and was salvageable. We bought it, lost money, but wanted to rehab it. The school then wanted to purchase the property. If we sold we wanted to buy in the neighborhood and our kids could still go to the neighborhood school. Then we saw the school was collaborating with the City of Chicago to put violation after violation on our building to force us to sell.”

Chadha only found out about the violations from discovery in his lawsuit to hold onto his house. Those violations included accusing him of having a demolished garage that blighted the community, and weeds that were an inch or so above the city limit.

“They wanted the property and I didn’t want to sell it to them for the price (they offered),” he said. “So then (the school) started racketeering with the city with the violations.”

He also found out from the lawsuit discovery a series of emails from Chicago Board of Education members, who are handpicked by the mayor, saying they need to put this affair to rest before the owner finds out what they’ve been doing the past four months.

He paid the fines and thought everything would be according to the law. He said he didn’t know “the Chicago way.”

“I didn’t talk to (my alderman),” he said. “I thought I was doing everything honestly.”

This reminded me of my cousin’s problem with his house on the north side of Montrose on Campbell Ave. where my father grew up. He told me that a developer bought his neighbor’s house to rehab it. The developer was working round the clock keeping him up at night, the construction resulted in water and debris flooding his backyard and a giant fan was blowing dust into his house.

My cousin called his alderman’s office (Ald. Gene Schulter) to complain. When city workers showed up the next day, he was ready to explain in detail the problems resulting from the construction. Instead, the workers issued my cousin violations, including an illegal rehab of the attic completed more than 50 years ago. When he spoke further with the alderman’s office, he found out the developer had contributed to the alderman’s campaign and did not even have a proper city permit to perform the work. The office worker told him that most construction in the city is illegal.

Today, Ald. Ameya Pawar (47^th Ward) is backing the private school’s interest over Chadha, he said. Chadha said the alderman even blocked him on Twitter and ordered the ACLU to investigate Chadha, he said.

“The funny thing is the current alderman who is a Pritzker fellow at the U of C now is also supportive of the school as detailed by his giving them approvate to build a massive structure at the current site,” Chadha told News-Star in an email. “As for my interactions with the alderman, he has blocked me on Twitter even though I am a constituent and have not said anything derogatory to him.”

Because the city forced Chadha to demolish his house, his tax bill went from $8,000 per year had he been able to just rehab it, to $21,000 because it is new construction, he said.

“They didn’t allow me to rehab,” he said. “They were able to work with the alderman’s office and city building dept. to force me to demolish the house, so you make it new construction to build a new house and then you’re liable for new taxes.”

He said the city sued him for lead poisoning even though a report was never filed with the EPA. The EPA told him the city has much higher levels of lead than what they were accusing him of having. The city issued him a temporary restraining order, with the intent to stop him and force a sale, he said.

Chadha said he’s been in litigation for over four years and is running out of funds. The private school has deeper pockets and have worked with the alderman’s office and the city to “sell at a price I did not feel comfortable with.”

Another twist to the saga – North Park school – which is a private school that is tax-exempt but using the city to force the sale of property it wants to buy – got zoning approval from Ald. Pawar, “but the neighbors physically behind the school bandied together to hire a zoning attorney to fight the approval.”

Inside Booster contacted the alderman’s office and is waiting for his reply.