At the last bell the little first-year girl on the shoulders of the senior carried a bell, and a boy next to him told her: "Ring, it is the same bell as in Aidana's grandmother's time." It is not. It is a school bell from a shop in Talas, 120 som. The old bell from the tractor station has been lost.
But they make a tradition out of everything, which is what children do, and what history is.
This year the doctor of Sary-Say died, Toktokan Ergesh kyzy. She was 78. I wrote about her list of names in 2008. In 1989 she gave her list to a newspaper, when it was still dangerous to give anything to a newspaper, and in 2000 she gave it to my school, a copy, in a folder. It lies in the lower drawer of the history room.
I have asked the director to put it in the school museum, with a lamp over it. For the 8th class, who come on Monday: bring a pencil and one name. Learn who that person was. Write three lines.
Today is the day of memory of the Urkun. In 1916 the tsar's labour decree took the men for work behind the front; the revolt came in August; it was crushed, and thousands fled over the high passes of the Tian Shan to China, in winter, with children. Many died on the ice.
For the lesson: ask the children if anyone in the family knows a story from 1916. Every year one or two children come back with a story from the great-grandmother. Write them down. They are history too, maybe the most important history.
The decree on the districts is in force from July. For us nothing changes: Kara-Buura is Kara-Buura, the seat is Kyzyl-Adyr. A pity for those who live where the new lines go, they will stand in new queues. A teacher knows how it goes: a map changes in an hour, and a child learns the new names in a year.
Remember, children, the borders on your textbook map are drawn in the afternoon and washed out by evening, and the river stays.
Everyone in the district knows what happened this autumn to a girl from one of our villages. I will not write her name; the newspapers did not. She was strong and she escaped. The court gave a fine.
I am a history teacher. In history class I tell the children that "ala kachuu", the stealing of brides, is not our old tradition, whatever the uncles at the wedding say. It is a crime. I said this in every class this week. Some boys laughed. Some girls did not laugh, they listened.
Now young women wear white headscarves for this: Ak Jooluk. Two of my 11th class girls wore white scarves on Monday. I said nothing. I was proud.