The Manana Youth Educational Cultural Center has had a long journey. It is a platform which has lived through many years (you could even say through many time zones), which unites children and teenagers and teaches self-expression through journalism, cinema, photography and animation.

The idea of founding a creative center for teenagers emerged in the 1990s, when schools were not functioning properly, there were no extracurricular groups, and in general life was in an incomprehensible and turning point phase.

Ruzanna Baghdasaryan decided to invent different things to do for her three children and their friends. “We used to make newspapers, take photos, write articles. Then I saw that the number of children started growing and that there was a demand to create a center,” she says.

And so, in 1995, Manana was born.

“Everyone was referring to the war and the dark and cold years, saying that we needed to be patient, but I saw that the childhood of my children and their generation was ending, and they needed knowledge,” says Ruzanna.  

Technology and the transformations of the new generation of teenagers forces Manana to set different priorities. Now they are regional programs.

In 2014, the Armenian Young Reporters regional network and the 17.am website were created, where 14-24 year old youths publish their materials on various topics that concern them including education, emigration, unemployment, freetime, issues in their hometowns, simple people, basically everything that surrounds them.

Creating a universal story on the basis of one’s own experience is the most difficult task, and it requires skill. Ruzanna Baghdasaryan is sure that the construction, that is to say the script, is the most important starting point.

In Manana, groups and classes are often called “creative workshops.” How do they take place?

We try to teach the children self expression and they do that via media. First of all, they write, whether it be a script, an article or a fictional text.

Even if you are taking pictures, you need to know what you want to get and be able to formulate it, either with pictures or words.

We don’t teach any computer program and say, well go make use of it. With us, knowledge is gained through discussions, artistic, documentary film, or while filming social advertisements, in media camps etc..

That is, learning is a process, in the same way art is. We want the children to create products and learn in the process of creation.

I believe, that you can achieve everything if you begin to change children’s mindset. Adults usually have fixed perceptions, and it is difficult for them to refuse them, while children are quick to free themselves from stereotypes.

There are many journalistic schools in Armenia, there are departments in almost all universities, as well as private centers. Is it a trend or is there really that much demand?

Almost all organizations and universities have departments tied to media and give classes, but our goals are not to prepare journalists.

I think that journalism is not a profession that is “clear cut” and separate from the world. It can be combined with for example, animation or film. Ultimately, the knowledge (let’s say, about journalistic genres) are easy to gain.

It’s more important for the child to see, understand, evaluate and value their surroundings. In short, to come out of the mold.

Often children say, but, there’s nothing to write about, nothing is happening. And when you push them to think a little bit, to see that there are different interesting people living around them, there are a lot of things flowing and changing, they immediately get inspired.

Seeing, evaluating and analyzing are qualities that all professionals need. Over the course of 23 years, many children have come to our center, and regardless of what profession they choose, they stand out. Their way of thinking is non-standard.

Many journalism schools provide some courses and give certificates.  Perhaps people like television and think that they can become a TV series star or a famous TV host.

I don’t know what they can teach children. How to write news? And then assure them that they are already journalists because they know how to write news?

For example, we tell all of our children, don’t write news, since we don’t publish news on principle. If the news concerns you, then write an analysis regarding the news, felieton, take an interview, etc..

We encourage that the center of the piece should be the “little people,” who would never be the heroes in the media. We also tell our reporters and readers to write “about real stories of real people about real issues.”

Our children do not write about childish issues at all, the basis of their materials are real life experiences.

For example, recently a girl wrote about her relationship with her father, and although the subject was about working abroad, the issue was more personal and deep than could have been imagined.

The 16 year old child calculated that she had seen her father for only 2 years, 4 months and that 90% of her father’s life was work, and 10%, family. And that 10% is divided between herself and her mother. But her mother, understanding how much she missed her father, would spare her percentage of attention to her.

Life, presented in such a graph, hints at very subtle things: childhood, a woman’s sacrifice, the new model of a family crumbling etc..

The modern school has many problems, but perhaps the most important is that the school doesn’t prepare children to be independent thinkers and analyzing individuals.

We are trying to change exactly that. The testing system that offers only three options, yes, no, I don’t know, makes children fit a mold. The school may force them to choose the correct option, when there are many correct options, and the question of “why,” the inclination to analyze dies in the child.

And to be honest, I find that the root of all evil in our society is that. Changes do not take place as long as we are still being led by instructions and orders. Unfortunately, when you get used to not thinking, you lose much more.

To think, in the first place, means to break all molds and to make independent conclusions.

Maybe then, the student won’t take the teacher seriously.

I assure you that the child will better accept the format of finding the answer together, even for the simple fact that they are not being lied to. It’s very important to gain authority without lying.  

Unfortunately, it is easier to work from the top to bottom and bottom up when you get directions. That is, they give teachers formats with which they have to work. This makes things easier for both the bottom and the top.

There are very few teachers who can say to their students, I don’t even know the answer, let’s find out together.

Do you find the military-patriotic propaganda which is carried out in school worrisome? I think that it doesn’t leave space in the field of thought in the minds of children to think about life and death, about open roads.

Military-patriotic propaganda is a state decision. For example, how in Sparta they preached about self-defence at the expense of one’s own life.

Perhaps they think that the propaganda is inspirational, but the opposite is taking place, it is tiring.

I think that patriotism shouldn’t be spoken about, it should occur naturally.

One girl sends us materials that she wants to become a sniper and go to the border. She said, if she must, she would give her life. I asked her of course, I understand that you want to write about big things, but why do you think that being a good teacher or even a good mother is less patriotic?

There is no mother in this world who dreams of giving birth to a child so that it can turn into a soldier at war. Mothers dream that their children will become painters, scientists, doctors. During the well-known “atamahatik” ceremony, no one places a weapon among all the various items.

The character of the deceased freedom fighter has become a role model for children, and the belief that you only need to die for your country, since that is a privilege. By the way, Erdogan said the same thing, when he was trying to convince a young girl how important it was to become a martyr for your nation.

In my opinion, we first need to learn how to live for our nation.

Children are guided by their own behavior models, what they see is what they learn. If you show them the bad, the fake, they will accept it as a rule.

Have the lies increased?

It has always existed. I believe that not only children, but also adults have become tired of falsities.

They talk about the most grandiose things from the podium, but they live in a totally different way. And as a witness to that, the audience no longer believes them.

Ideology is effective in cases where there are no countermeasures.

The media is generally a very effective tool. For example, many girls under the influence of tv series want to go to live in India, without having the slightest idea as to what the country is like.

What can be the counter-propaganda to the propaganda?

I remember in 1988 when I asked my 3 year old daughter to watch her baby brother, until I did the laundry. The television was turned on. I came back and saw my frightened daughter, with a pale face, tightly hugging her brother on the verge of tears. She said, we want to become Russians.

It turns out that they were watching a film, about how the Turks were killing Armenians… From that day on, it became clear that ideology clearly affects children first of all. It affects, it frightens and it forces them to find solutions which, in a different situation, would be entirely different.

When you leave a child alone with an ideology, they get lost. Without a guide, the child will not be able to differentiate the wet from the dry, to understand what to believe and how to react.

You have to teach them how to question. And that will be their companion, be that in school, at home with their family or in any organization. Ultimately, when a child begins to walk, we hold their hand so they don’t fall down and get hurt.

Similarly it is important to teach media literacy skills.

Interview by Nune Hakhverdyan