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- Title
Lituanistinis švietimas emigracijoje.
- Authors
KARČIAUSKAITĖ, Indrė
- Abstract
The purpose of this article is to throw light on the efforts of Lithuanians to organize Li- thuanian-oriented education in the diaspora throughout the last century. For practical reasons our survey is restricted to the North American emigration. There four periods of Lithuanian education may be distinguished. The first is constituted by the efforts of first- wave (economic) emigrants to gain an edu- cation themselves and concurrently to teach their children Lithuanian. In this period a crucial role was played by Lithuanian Catho- lic parishes and the grammar schools they set up. The second period saw the often chaotic endeavors in the Displaced Persons' camps in Germany to set up a school system at all three levels, a system that was later (but just parti- ally) transferred to the United States. In the third period young Lithuanian-Americans were being educated in the Saturday school network. This period was marked by intense, heated debates about Lithuanianeness, eth- nic culture, and Lithuanian-oriented schoo- Ii ng. Finally, the present-day situation, which began after the fall of the Iron Curtain, may be regarded as the fourth period. In all cases, changes in the way emigrants saw themselves were accompanied by changes in what they took the goals of Lithuanian-oriented educa- tion to be. If the objective of the Lithuanian schools of the first wave was to integrate pe- ople into American society without losing their ethnic identity, then the goal of Lithu- anian Saturday schools was not American integration but conservation of Lithuanian national identity. The organization of the diaspora school network proceeded rather spontaneously through the voluntary ende- avors of enthusiastic individuals who had no political influence in the receiving country nor extensive financial resources. Thus this article focuses on the efforts of people in their communities to create good conditions for their children's identitities to develop.
- Subjects
LITHUANIA; LITHUANIANS; DIASPORA; EMIGRATION &; immigration; PUBLIC schools
- Publication
Oikos: Lithuanian Migration & Diaspora Studies, 2008, Vol 2008, Issue 6, p117
- ISSN
1822-5152
- Publication type
Article