Published since 07.2002
Published on May 02, 2008
CHILDREN’S JOY: A CENTER IN KAPAN OFFERS NEW MODEL FOR EDUCATION
- A pre-school educational center in Kapan is unique for the genre in Armenia. It is not a nursery school, does not include meals, does not have sleeping period, typical of Armenian kindergartens. In Kapan, Syunic province, where most of the kindergartens offer the same program “Dopdopik” (pit-a-pat) offer its children more than just a regular schedule. It aims to teach children creativity and reveal individuality. That’s why some 40 parents in Kapan chose “Dopdopik” as the preferred place for their children’s development. “We don’t learn to write letters (alphabet) here,” says Karine Mkrtchyan, the founder and director of the center. “Children learn the structure of words, sentences, retell fairy tales, enrich their vocabulary. Yes they know the letters, know which word begins with which letter, but they don’t write. They’d better do that later at school. This concerns their mother tongue as well as Russian or English.” Besides Armenian and foreign languages they teach logics, math, ethics and esthetics, music, dance, handcrafts. Each subject is taught in a separate room furnished specifically for that purpose. The center was opened in 2006. Mkrtchyan says before founding Dopdopik she visited many similar schools in Yerevan, studied their work, considered their experience, defined what was a success at each of them that could be made use of. “Aren’t there cafes, entertainment places, playgrounds in Yerevan specially for children? I thought why not have an institution in Kapan,” says the director. Gohar Arakelyan, who has been taking her 5 year-old son her since September, tells that her son doesn’t like kindergarten, refuses to attend, but the mother didn’t want him to stay at home. “Because he’ll be going to school, I wanted him to learn some things. He feels very comfortable here, my son has changed both in terms of what he has learned and his behavior,” Arakelya says. Cheerful design of the classrooms equipped with everything for children attracts the little ones. The center is attended by children of 3 years and up to school age (6 years old) Children attend the center 4 or 2 days a week. Accordingly the monthly fee is 6000 AMD ($20) or 4000 (about $13). They stay at the center 2-3 hours a day. The place was rented, renovated and furnished with support of Maro Balasanyan, a woman from Syunic who besides the initial funding every now and then helps to the center. She also covered all the expenses for purchasing necessary teaching requisites: didactic materials for teaching, stationary, toys. “Of course it is impossible to maintain the school only by fees, if we didn’t have a sponsor,” Mkrtchyan says. Mary Meliqsetyan used to take her 5 year-old son to a kindergarten: “Now I think it better if he comes only here. In some places teachers say they work in accordance with their salaries, ‘we teach as much as they pay us’. But what fault is that of the children?” Four years-old Yana’s mother, Syune Hovhannisyan says that when people see how her daughter dances they ask, surprised, where she’s learned to dance: “She has also learned a lot. She used to be a very reserved child, attached to me all the time, wouldn’t go to kindergarten. I couldn’t imagine how she would manage going to school.” Mkrtchyan says that games lie in the basis of their teaching methods: “We don’t force them to say this or learn that, it’s all done through games. The child doesn’t even realize that s/he is learning. They get their information during a game.” The director has noticed that after the opening of Dopdopic some competition has been created in the town’s kindergartens: some have introduced English, Russian and dancing classes in their curricula. “When founding it my task wasn’t to attract children from other places. I am glad though that we have become a criterion for others, but it is also a matter of financial means. It’s private. And not all parents can afford bringing their children here. So others have their significance and role, we have ours.”
- Armine Avagyan
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Today in Armenian history- 1219 Death of Armenian King Levon the Second (Kingdom of Cilicia).
- 1817 General Yermolov, Commander of the Caucasian forces and Governor of the Caucasus, stops in Echmiadsin on his way to a mission in Persia.
- 1869 Death of the Armenologist Victor Langlois. He translated Armenian historical sources into French under the sponsorship of Noobar Pasha.
- 1900 Death of Hovhannes Aivazovsky (seascape artist) in Feodosia (the Ukraine). He was born in 1817.
- 1916 The "France-Armenie" committee is organized in Paris. Members of the Academy and other political figures are members.
- 1917 The First Assembly of Western Armenians opens in Yerevan under the Presidency of General Andranik.
- 1919 The Publication of Constantinople's Extraordinary Military Tribunal's decision about the perpetrators of the deportations of Booyook Dere's (Constantinople's district) Armenian population.
- 1930 Creation of the Kanaker Power Station.
- 1965 Death of Hrachia Kochar (writer and public figure). He was born in 1909.
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