1982_04 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper April 1982

              April 1982
Hye Sharzhoom
Page 5
MY PERSONAL JOURNEY: ARMENIANS IN UTAH
This is the first part of My Personal
Journey a book length narrative by
Michael Garabedian of a trip from California to New York by car and a series of
essays about Armenian life in the diaspora
and Armenian national problems. Like
the other parts of the work which Hye
Sharzhoom hopes to publish in serial
form, it was written and researched while
traveling. In the long introduction Mr.
Garabedian explains his search for America, its broad unknown expanses, and
within that his own Armenian identity. He
repeats his amazement at finding so much
unknown or little known Armenian history in states—Utah, Nevada, Minnesota—which are seldom associated with
Armenian life.
MichaelGarabedian is an international
lawyer who formerly worked for California State Secretary Rose Ann Vuich. Now
living and writing in New York he has
become a quiet activist in Armenian affairs
while working for the Sierra Club. He
became closely associated with Hye Sharzhoom and the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State in September 1981
during the now famous, but badly reported, Berkeley Conference "Armenians
in the 1980's" sponsored by the Armenian
Assembly. Shortly afterward he visited
Fresno and spent time discussing issues
with a student who had gone to the Berkeley Conference. Before leaving on his
journey he discussed aspects of it with
students and Dr. Kouymjian and left
armed with names and addresses.
We are pleased that his travels were so
fruitful and his search so intense and
productive.
By Michael Garabedian
Shadows of a dying people
There's a shadow of my father
A shadow of my mother
And they're leaning towards each other
Hands gripped in pain
from a B. J. Sarkissian song,
Shadows on the Stones
It is a song about love and injustice
and about pomegranates getting ripe.
In other words, about the important things
in life.
William Saroyan quoted in
Passage to Ararat by Michael Arlen
As Robert Gagosian wrote in his diary,
a Mormon Church started in the town of
Zara, State of Sivas on October 6, 1888.
Before the work of Mormon missionaries
was ended due to the events of World War
I, one can infer that a fair number ol
Armenians were converted to the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints.
Robert Zeidner, in a chapter on Middle
Eastern immigration to Utah in the book
Utah's Peoples (edited by Helen Papanik-
olas, 1976) indicates that his survey of
Utah telephone listings found "slightly
over one hundred Armenian surnames
and that "slightly over one-half of all the
Armenians identified in Utah by the author
are Latter-day Saints."
Gagosian was baptized by the Mormon
Church against the wishes of his wife in
the river Zara in 1894. Three years later
after a torturous journey he arrived in Salt
Lake City on the 50th anniversary of the
arrival of the Mormons in Utah, who then
directed him back to the old country for
12 years "to buy land in Jerusalem on
which to colonize the Armenian Mor-*
mons." Gagosian was in Salt Lake City
again for the 100th anniversary of his
church in 1947, five years before his death.
Robert Gagosian was one of the first
Armenians in Utah. One of the most
recent to arrive is the first Armenian I had
ever heard of in Utah other than myself. I
learned of B.J. Sarkissian when I saw his
name on the program of the November 14,
1981, Stop MX Rally to Halt the Arms
Race in Salt Lake City. B.J. was introduced as a member of an ethnic group
"that knows the meaning of persecution"
by M.C. civic leader and rancher, and my
friend, Cecil Garland.
B. J. has composed a number of moving
songs. My favorite that I heard that day
was one about people, peace, and the relationship of all of us to the land. The lyric
quoted at the beginning of this essay is
from a song that chronicles the events on
August 6, 1945, from early morning until
the story teller leaves Hiroshima to visit
people in Nagasaki. Sarkissian has been
approached by a group of Armenians living in Utah, but he has not made contact
with them. He is a state employee.
While I had no intention of looking into
Armenian culture so close to my home in
Califorinia, 1 seemed destined to have a
critical part of the Utah story laid in my
lap. Before 1 left Cecil Garland's home, he
gave me his copy of the June 1978 issue of
National Geographic which has the article
"The Proud Armenians." I learned of this
article for the first time, I am ashamed to
say, from Cecil on a winter evening as we
sat in his cozy farm house. He insisted that
I take the magazine with me on mv travels.
Then I spent an evening with friends
from California who moved back to Utah.
Robin Brut's mother was a well known
Utah writer, and it was Robin who handed
me a copy of Utah's Peoples in which I
was startled to learn that half or more of
the Armenians in Utah may be Mormons:
While even 50 Armenian-Mormons is
only a small handful of our people, somehow it seemed to me at first that my confidence in the nature of our church participation was shaken. But several days
onto the road out of Utah and after
reflecting on the diverse nature of our
Apostolic, Protestant Congregational and
Presbyterian, and Catholic churches, 1
realized that 1 was troubled not by the
beliefs of these brothers and sisters of
mine, but by the fact that most of what the
See Utah, p. 14
Michael Garabedian   pttoto: D xwiymiiM
BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL EDUCATION
HOW TWO SCHOOLS DO IT
By Susan W. Morrison
While controversy over bilingual-bicul-
tural education rages in this country, individual schools strive to meet the needs
that bilingual-bicultural programs address: How do we best educate students
not of Anglo-American background?
What should these students be taught? In
what languages should they be taught?
How do we ease the stress a student feels
in learning a language and culture alien to
his or her own? How can we most effectively help non-English speaking students
"catch up" to their Anglo-American peers?
H ow do we encourage student self-esteem
through pride in one's own language and
cultural heritage?
The Armenian Community School of
Fresno and the Huron Elementary School
in Huron, California are two kindergarten
through sixth grade schools with full bilingual programs, the latter Spanish-English. The needs they address are similar.
Most students in both schools are not of
Anglo-American ethnic or language background. But the schools themselves and
their bilingual programs are quite different.
COMPARING THE TWO SCHOOLS
The Armenian Community School
(about 50 students) is much smaller than
Huron School (about 625 students). Class
size at Armenian Community School is
about 17 students per teacher. Huron
School's classrooms have about 30 students each.
Most of Armenian Community School's
students are of Armenian descent, and
many spoke Armenian and another language (such as Arabic or Turkish) prior to
entering the school. 97 percent of Huron
School's students are from families originating in Mexico. Well over half spoke
only Spanish when they entered the school
(65 percent of the 1981-82 kindergarten
class, for example). Families at both
schools range from welfare recipients to
millionaires.
The Armenian Community School is a
private school charging tuition of $450 to
$650 per child per year depending on family size. Attendance is voluntary and
costly. Tuition income accounts for 10 to
15 percent of the school's budget. The
remaining funds come from donations by
individuals, corporations and Armenian
organizations. The school is answerable
to the people it serves: a nine-member
school board, an Education Steering
Committee appointed by the board, and
the Parent-Teacher Committee whose bimonthly meetings are attended by the
majority of parents.
Huron School is a free public school
receiving about $1,250,000 per year in
regular state funds plus about $550,000
annually from state and federal categorical aid programs. Attendance is compulsory, and the isolated, rural setting of the
school makes attendance at other schools
difficult. Huron School is directed by the
five-member Board of Trustees of the
Coalinga-Huron Unified School District
and by several parent advisory committees which oversee the school's use of
categorical aid funds. Both the board and
the parent advisory committees are constrained to follow numerous state and
federal laws, rules and regulations. Thus
the school's basic policies are decided by
lawmakers and bureaucrats in Sacramento
and Washington rather than by the people
living in the community that the school
serves. The community does have a voice
in making more detailed policy decisions
within state and federal guidelines, but
community members and teachers do not
make full use of their opportunities.
Attendance at school board and parent
advisory committee meetings is usually
low.
All teachers at both schools are fully
credentialed according to state standards.
All of Armenian Community School's
four teachers are Armenian and speak
both Armenian and English. Its two half-
time aides are not Armenian and speak
English only. Huron School has 24
teachers, 18 of whom are bilingual in English and Spanish. Each teacher is helped
by a full-time bilingual aide. Half of the
Huron teachers and all but two of the
aides are of Mexican descent. Teacher
fluency in Armenian and Spanish respectively varies at the two schools.
ARMENIAN COMMUNITY SCHOOL
The bilingual-bicultural program at
Armenian Community School has the following goals for each student:
1. Achievement in English that equals
or exceeds state and national norms.
2. Fluency in Armenian (speaking,
reading, and writing).
3. Knowledge of and pride in Armenian
heritage (history, culture, and religion).
Armenian Community School attempts
to meet its English achievement goals by
having all students study mostly academic
subjects (see Appendix) in English in the
homeroom for 3.9 hours daily. This is
about the same amount of time as many
public schools devote to academic subjects. Homeroom teachers speak Armenian to non-English speakers only when it
is absolutely necessary. Students are tested
and put in different groups according to
their abilities in reading and mathematics.
Non-English speakers who are old enough
to read are placed in first or second grade
English reading books upon entering the
school and are moved to higher level
books as quickly as possible. For subjects
other than reading and mathematics, the
entire class is usually treated as a single
group, all students receiving identical
instruction. Student-teacher instruction is
enhanced by small class sizes.
See Bilingual Education, p. 12