“Pity does not bring back to life and does not motivate”: a teacher of “Superheroes School” said about education of children in hospitals

Halyna Luchyk joined the teacher team of “Superheroes School” in Kyiv in autumn 2021; she started to teach chemistry, ecology, biology and natural history. During the war Halyna charged herself with coordination of Kyiv school, communication with teachers, and educational process. Currently, tuition was resumed in Ohmatdyt in Kyiv; more than 30 small patients study here every month.

Halyna decided to follow the call of her soul and chose to be a hospital teacher despite her degree certificate in banking and a successful university teaching career. Her choice is not accidental as she graduated from a secondary school while staying in hospital and she knows about problems of children torn away from education by an illness from personal experience.

Nataliia Moseichuk, a news presenter of 1+1 TV channel and nationwide marathon “United news”, a YouTube blogger, is a project monitor of “Superheroes School”.

“I know for sure that the light of hope is shining in their small hearts”

Why did you decide to be a teacher and to work in “Superheroes School”?

It is from my childhood. I dreamt to be a physician when I was about ten years old as I have spent a lot of time in hospital as a patient. My grandmother was a scrub nurse and I wanted to be a surgeon. However, severe illness dramatically changed my plans for life when I was 15 years old. I was educated as a banker and after graduation I continued to teach accounting at the Department. That was a start of my scientific and pedagogical activities and my work with students. Later, I decided to bring myself to the subjects I was interested in during my school years, but the illness changed my plans at that time. This is how I became biology and chemistry teacher. In 2018, I found a post from “Superheroes School” in a social media. That day during the class with students, we started to discuss what the difference between a dream and life aim was. Then, I said that I had a dream to be a hospital teacher. I wrote a letter to the school and we started a collaboration. Currently, I have health problems as it was during all my conscious life. I believe that I know exactly what these children feel and I know for sure that light of hope is shining in their small hearts.

Do you have your personal experience of schooling in a hospital?

I was a patient many times during my childhood and my adult life. When I was ill I attended not a single lesson in 10th and 11th grades. I had the right for self-education. But only the teacher of Ukrainian language and my mom schooled me, and no other teacher helped me to master the material. It was difficult to return to the society; you lose your social skills when noone communicates with you, when you don’t eat as others, when you don’t drink as others. Education is when you communicate, learn something new and prove your point. Schooling means you are a personality. I was so ashamed because I skipped two years of studying, I tried to hide it. I think it is surprising for people who know me now. I’ve just learned to move on. Today, I try to be a motivator, a friend and an example for children in “Ohmatdyt” to help them to move on. It probably sounds dramatic, but that’s the way it is.

How did people around feel about your decision to switch to hospital teaching?

Rather, they discouraged me. For some reason, people know better… According to them, hospital teacher certainly experiences psychological difficulties, negative emotions, fear and stress. In fact, it is not true. Children always expect that hospital teacher will give them positive emotions during classes and new knowledge.

Children should be accepted by society as they are

Many teachers avoid working with pupils in hospitals because it is emotionally hard. The most common first reaction is a pity and tears

We should understand that sick children with difficult diagnoses or chronic diseases don’t need our sorrow. Many people asked me how I work, whether I am not sorry for them. They claim they would not be able to work as hospital teacher as they are sorry for children and that’s all. Just imagine that everyone is sorry for you because you are ill. My student Oleksii, with whom I work individually, is already a part of my life, my close person. But at the beginning of our work, he felt very sorry for himself, and it was hard to motivate him to resume the learning process. Children in a hospital need our motivation, our support, a feeling of life, not just existence. They are longing to be accepted by the society and to be provided with equal rights, for education first of all. Despite everything they should evolve as personalities being competent. Pity is not an incitement, it doesn’t bring back to life and doesn’t motivate.

Have you experienced any cases of pupil’s death in your practice?

Luckily, I’ve experienced no cases of pupil’s death. But during my first year of work, one of my students who had severe illness passed away. I didn’t know about his disease, I saw that he visited classes rarely and he used crutches, but I had no idea that it was so serious. Today, I blame myself that I didn’t score him with a number of points sufficient for the excellent grade at examination, as the exam was conducted by another teacher, not by me.

Teaching practice helps to invent your own methods. What teaching life hacks do you have?

The main rule is to come for a lesson to children or students with smile, nobody should know about your mood and feelings. So, all schoolers work and discover a world of new knowledge being positive.

What do you admire about children at classes?

Once at a financial literacy lesson, we were planning a personal budget and, unfortunately, all children made “an envelope for medicines” as expected expenses. Maybe, at first sight, this situation is sad, but we successfully turned it into motivating one. All of them understood that it is necessary to manage income appropriately to ensure your necessary treatment and have the strength to continue to work, to develop and to achieve success.

What innovations would you like to introduce to the educational service system in hospitals?

I would like to implement my mum’s pedagogical practices regarding a block ranking system and knowledge control. My mum is my pedagogical role model, my mentor, obviously, I have to grow for a long time to reach her level. She has implemented her format of this system and she has been successfully using it for several decades to teach chemistry in a school. Recently, I have finally come up how it can be adapted to hospital conditions. Usually when people hear about such scientific terms, they believe that these pedagogical solutions may be used only for strong students, but it is not true.

What are your plans and ambitions, how will you develop in your profession? 

There are two actual directions I am working on – the author’s course of financial literacy and the author’s course of environmental culture for children. The new generation provokes new challenges, new vision and perception, it all starts with everyone of us. And maybe PhD thesis defense, it was prepared and it has been waiting long for its own time

The article primary source is TSN.ua