- Հայ
- Рус
- Eng
Today was a celebration at Basic School #57 of the Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU) as the first graders of the “Astghikner” (Little Stars) class participated in a culmination ceremony during which they showed that they recognize the letters of the Armenian alphabet, and the event began at “Zvartnots” International Airport (the children “having arrived in the homeland” from Moscow, New York, Paris and Frankfurt, who are from the same class, are in Armenia to take part in the scientific conference under the title “The language of Armenians is Armenian, and the home is Armenia”).
“My grandmother would say that Armenians living in foreign countries love our Ararat the most. Let’s talk about Ararat. It seems as they don’t understand; in this case, how can there be a scientific conference when they don’t even know Armenian? If they are Armenian, why don’t they speak in Armenian and don’t understand Armenian? Is there such an Armenian?” the children said with amazement and sadly noted that they live outside of Armenia, in a foreign environment and speak in foreign languages.
But the children of the Basic School decided not to feel depressed; the Armenian children must definitely speak in Armenian because language and faith are what help maintain the nation and bring the people of the nation together, right?
The children of the first grade had decided to help the little ones from the Armenian Diaspora recognize letters through the Armenian alphabet book, but they were disappointed when they saw that the letters of the alphabet had disappeared. “I created the Armenian letters so that Armenians could have schools, so that they wouldn’t become assimilated with foreigners, so that they could create and live on. However, you, dear children, have started loving foreign languages more than your own, you have started worshipping the alphabets of foreign languages and have forgotten your native language. So, you no longer need the Armenian letters. I decided to take away my letters from you,” the children heard the voice of Mashtots in their ears.
When the pupils asked what they have to do, where they can find the Armenian letters and how they can bring them home, the first teacher of Armenians guided them to the peaks of the majestic mountains, the pure sources of rivers and the cities with Armenian names. He also urged them to return to their roots and ‘convince’ the Armenian letters that they are needed.
The little ones realized that it’s not easy to make Armenian, but due to their great desire, they succeeded in ‘convincing’ the rivers, mountains and cities to return the letters and promised that they won’t speak in foreign languages, will not betray the mother language and the native home, will preserve the language, will make it pure and will not become a slave to foreign words. “The Armenian alphabet is the key to the magical door, and if we open that door, we will start walking on the path leading to our big dream. We will restore our big home, our whole homeland, the Great Hayk,” the representatives of the ASPU remarked at the end.
Director of ASPU Basic School #57 Naira Toghanyan congratulated the pupils on recognizing the letters of the Armenian alphabet, and congratulated the class teacher for organizing this event. In terms of loving the Armenian language and homeland, Naira Toghanyan attached importance to and highly appreciated the role of class teacher Tatevik Abrahamyan, who, through her career, tries to instill patriotism in the children. “We are dealing with a sanctity — our alphabet is sacred, and we need to take it with us. Starting today, the children of our school are becoming the ones completing this difficult task, and our devoted class teachers play an extremely big role in this. Thanks to them, it seems that, by a miracle, the children are becoming literate in a short period of time.”
Merited pedagogue Tatevik Abrahamyan notes that the “Farewell to the Alphabet” celebration is a celebration for the elders and children alike. The children rejoice that they have become literate and can read and write on their own, while the elders become like children, remembering their years in school and their first textbook. “By bidding the Armenian alphabet ‘farewell’, we express the commitment to keep the Armenian language pure and eliminate foreign words as much as possible — the foreign words that, unfortunately, we use a lot. We call on all Armenians around the world to never forget that Armenian is the language of Armenians,” the class teacher concluded.
