Visiting teachers
I met a couple of high school economics teachers from Ukraine last week, and it was interesting to get their perspective on matters educational and economic. They spend much of their classroom time instructing students about the country’s relatively new economic freedoms. Through an interpreter, Nataliia Zadorozhna told me that she stresses to students that they can choose their career. That was a choice that wasn’t often available before Ukraine achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The country’s entire economic model has changed since that time, the teachers said.
The teachers visited schools in Oklahoma City and Moore during their visit. The teachers noted that there are few differences between our schools and their’s. “Schools are schools?” I asked. Without waiting for the translator, Olena Zadyraka responded, “Da!”
One of their hosts, economics professor Sue Lynn Sasser of the University of Central Oklahoma, said she was worried that the women would be unable to exchange their currency for dollars when they arrived on a Sunday. Sasser made arrangements with a local bank to accommodate the women. But when they showed up, they carried dollars. The women told Sasser that all Ukrainians maintain the bulk of their savings in dollars, which is a much more stable and desirable currency.
Sasser said the women told her that very few Ukrainians use banks. The women told me that foreign banks are moving into their country and urging locals to use credit. “They say ‘Americans use credit. You should too,’” Zadryaka said.
The most remarkable feature of Oklahoma? The wind. Sasser said students sang the state song for the teachers, who nodded vigorously when they heard the translation of the lyric “Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain…”
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
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