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21 Years Later: The Rose Revolution Through GZAAT's Eyes



In 2003, GZAAT, at that time still on Chavchavadze Avenue, had only just been established, however, it had already introduced a level of education completely unfamiliar to post-Soviet Georgia. Not only was the school one of the first private schools in the country, but it incorporated the Harkness method, a method of teaching completely foreign to a country that had just left a 70-year-long totalitarian reign, had a computer lab, an extraordinary library, and Harvard-educated teachers. The school stood in contrast to the rest of the country, full of corruption and crime. However, as students of the first generation entered their Junior year, the Georgian society demanded a change.This November marks the 21st anniversary of the Rose Revolution, a pivotal moment that reshaped the course of modern Georgian history. Over the years, perspectives on the revolution have evolved, but its significance remains undeniable: it marked a turning point in the country's political and social trajectory.


To commemorate the revolution, the Gazette created an account of GZAAT’s perspective on the events that unfolded in 2003.




Simon Janashia, who was a History teacher at the time, remembers the revolution as a “very exciting moment because, at that time, the country was in very bad shape, especially the educational system.” Siko Mas specifically highlighted the problems that existed within the educational sphere: “It was full of corruption: universities were taking bribes, teachers weren't getting their salaries, kids weren't getting textbooks, there was no heat, electricity, etc.” Despite the excitement for change, there was still fear seeded into society: “Many were afraid that there would be clashes in the street, there would be something similar to the beginning of the 90s, so war could break out. However, many were hopeful, and that's why not only teachers but also students participated in the demonstrations a lot.”


Young Levan Ghambashidze waving at the camera amidst the revolution

The founding director of the school, Donald Thomas, also shares a similar sentiment: “We were originally, I think, very hopeful, and Saakashvili did some very good things with the roads and development. I remember before Saakashvili, we used to get routinely stopped in traffic by the police for bribes, and Saakashvili eliminated all that and put them in patrol cars.” Mr. Thomas explained that he did not have to deal with the government a lot as the director of a school, and a foreigner therefore, he does not remember many details regarding the situation at the time. However, he recalled certain incidents that occurred with the Shevardnadze administration: “We didn't deal with the government, except when they took our money. certain funds would suddenly disappear, and so I would have to go down and talk to them and say, "Give us back our money”, which they did.”


Mariam Khidesheli, a freshman at the school in 2003, does not remember the revolution as positively as Siko Mas and Mr. Thomas do: “It's actually a little weird for me to talk about it because I remember that I was pretty negative about it.” While Mariam Mas was opposed to the previous regime, she still recalls a feeling of uneasiness that followed the protests: “
I just remembered that it was very hectic [...] I remember that I had some arguments with my classmates because everyone (and I think that it's a Georgian problem, partially) saw that kind of a messiah in Saakashvili, and I didn't share that as much. It did seem very artificial.”




As for the school environment itself, Siko Mas described it as quite tense and stressful: “There was a lot of anxiety at the school, and there were heated debates between the teachers, less with the students, but still there were some debates going on whether it was worse to try to oust the government or not. It was intense.” He recalls having particular difficulty in managing the classroom at that time: “Obviously, kids wanted to talk about the current events more than about past events, and I was teaching history at the time, and so it was not easy to divert attention to ancient Rome and Mesopotamia when something similar was going on.” However, instead of ignoring the political situation in class, Siko Mas found it more useful to use a part of class time to discuss the news, in a way that allowed all students to express their views on it: “There is no person who can be apolitical in general. I mean, the other thing is whether you are actively expressing your views or not, that's different. But every person is a part of politics. My general approach to teaching was not to tell students what I thought was right or wrong, not only about politics, not about religion or anything. When I teach, I usually ask questions instead of giving students answers. So the main challenge in these times is to allow people to express their thoughts, even if they are wrongfully expressed or maybe their arguments are not formulated well. So what I was trying to do at that time was to help the students articulate their views and to develop their views instead of asking them to adopt a certain view.”


Siko Mas also recalled a story of personal significance from the time of the revolution: “Ketka Mas was going to give an interview right before the revolution started, it was the spring of 2003, and the revolution started in November. A bit earlier, Ketka called me and said she was sick and couldn't give the interview and asked me to replace her. The interview was about the corruption in the education system and the reforms that needed to happen.” The article became a major hit, even being reprinted at the end of the year as the best interview of 2003. In the spring of the following year, Siko Mas was approached by a visitor at the annual open house of the school: “The guy said, ‘I’ve seen your interview, and I know that you've received a good education, so come to the ministry of education and do whatever you were talking about.’ He approached me and Lasha Kokilashvili. At first, I told him that I wasn't interested, because I had a good job, and salary, and was in the right place.” Both Siko and Lasha Mas were offered to work on the national curriculum of Georgia, but both refused the initial offer. However, the ministry did not stop in their attempts to recruit them: “After the first refusal, he came back and told me that I would never be able to criticize the government if I didn't take the opportunity and try to change something myself. I finally accepted.” Thus, Siko Mas became the advisor of the Minister of Education in Georgia. He listed off a few of the fundamental changes made in the educational system at that time, such as making the curriculum more student-centric, rather than the traditional Soviet teacher-centric format that existed before, giving public schools more autonomy over their inner affairs, introducing the centralized examination system (ეროვნულები) for universities to eliminate bribes, etc.




Mariam Khidesheli also offered some commentary on the changes that occurred at the time, both in the education sphere and outside of it. While she firmly believes that the overall effect of these changes was positive, she criticized them for being too rapid, and almost drowning out Georgian culture: “We have a problem understanding that if you acquire something from another culture, it doesn't have to be you actually assimilating. You can preserve something of your own and take what you like. The reason that I didn't like [what was happening] was that it was a very radical change for me. Changing the names of the streets, for example, is something that I remember right away; if we're talking about the educational system, moving in the direction of standardized tests, but it's not even a Georgian type of thing. It's so complicated. 
[...] it seemed to me that it pushed us in the direction that everything Georgian is negative, and you always have to look at the West.” Mariam Mas believes that the lack of appreciation toward our own culture is a problem that is still prevalent today: “I saw very clearly that most Georgians, especially the older generation, had this attitude that the US or the West is good. And I kept asking questions like what does it matter whether we are slaves of the West or slaves of Russia? 
And that is something that I think we still haven't figured out [...] I mean, I've never seen students until I came [to the school as a teacher] that lived in Georgia for their entire lives, and they still have a hard time reading or talking in Georgian, and they are taking GSL classes. This is crazy, in my opinion. This is unbelievable. And I see in the halls, students talking in English, and I don't understand why.” But even if she found certain changes quite radical, Mariam Mas mentioned some things that she believes were significant improvements from the past government: “The fact that we buckle up in cars now is very important. I remember my own father being very offended by it, but, [I was confused on] why it shouldn’t be like that.”



Donald Thomas mentioned that the changes seeded some hope for the future in the students: “I think that there was, there was optimism that with the new administration and so forth and so, I think people were encouraged and excited about the new possibilities.” Siko Mas also shared the same sentiment: “Yes, there was a lot of hope, but at the time of the revolution, it was not yet clear how the country would develop, would it be a regime change or would it be just a substitution of one group? But it was the general conception that it’s really hard to ruin anything that’s already nothing. Especially at our school, we knew it was possible to create something better because we had done it ourselves. So our school was like an oasis. People at our school were quite inspired, especially teachers who had the experience of meeting with Guivy and having gone through deep conversations with him. We knew that if you really tried, you could achieve something. He was the guy who could inspire anyone, wouldn't back off, and I think, yes, we were really hopeful.” While Mariam Mas also saw that people around her became more hopeful for the future, she also believes that their expectations weren’t necessarily fulfilled: “There was constantly this narrative from the teachers, and from older people that, we would get an education abroad, and we would rebuild the country, which, in my opinion, also appeared to be a lie. And not because someone lied to us, I mean, our teachers or something, they believed in that. But, I see what is happening today, and I see that we lost it. 
My parents' generation was the lost generation, but I think that we're also part of this lost generation.”


Regarding the protests themselves, Siko Mas mentioned that both students and teachers actively participated: “At that time in 2003, we didn't have the senior year, and mostly juniors were attending but also some sophomores. One of the students is even documented in the photos of the Revolution and some of them are now also still in politics, unfortunately.” Being a Freshman at the time, Mariam Mas was left with a different impression:  “I didn't participate in the Rose revolution, to be honest. I don't really remember most people my age actually participating. My mom was not participating, for sure, my father was not here, but mostly the older generation was active.”


Donald Thomas also commented on Shevardnadze’s and Guivy’s relationship and how that affected the school before and after the revolution: “Shevardnadze was given an honorary degree by Boston University, and that's when Guivy Zaldastani came in and proposed the idea of the school. When Guivy and I first came to Georgia in 1993 for a week, we ended up meeting with Shevardnadze, exchanging gifts, and so he was pretty supportive. Shevardnadze also came to the opening of the school so no, we didn’t feel any pressure from outside.” Mr. Thomas explained that the situation in Georgia was horrible at the time, however, he still remembers the visit as pleasant: “It was an extremely positive experience for me. I mean, it was so different. Of course, Tbilisi was destroyed, and we were going to build the school behind school N1, which was later destroyed. I mean, there was no heat, no electricity, and you sat around Kerosene lamps and overcoats discussing a new school. But the Georgians were very excited about it.”



Furthermore, both Siko Mas and Mariam Mas found some similarities between the Rose Revolution and the current political climate in Georgia. Siko Mas believes that the general incentive of both protests is the same, however due to how Georgia has changed over the years, it is expressed differently: “There are many similarities, and now in these tough times, it was this similar problem that the government had been in power for a long time, people were exhausted, and many protests were organized by the younger generation, just like it is now. Although there is a huge difference between those protests and now. For example, why were people standing outside for so long in 2003, and would people do the same now? At that time, it was colder to stay at home! Most people didn't have heating and obviously didn't have jobs that they cared enough about, so they had nothing to lose. Now it's a little bit different; some people come right after work to participate in the protests, and life is really, really different. And now there's also an alternative. At that time, you couldn't just say, okay, if this doesn't work, I can just leave the country. Today, if many people just decide that life isn’t going to change in the way they want, they will just take off and try to live somewhere else. This is a huge difference.”





He also identifies some significant changes in the social structure of the school: “Last year, we saw that people from our school were not just participating, they were not basic participants. They started actively self-organizing and then trying to contribute to the protests as well. We saw the alumni and students working together, gathering resources, which in 2003 was not the case. And also what is different this time around, is that students in the first three generations were more connected to the elite, but there were no students that were direct children of those who were protesting, and they were also not children of government officials. Now we have in the school, this mix of kids that represent families of both sides. So the distribution is very tricky.” However, Mariam Mas’ observations were less optimistic: “It makes me very, very sad. It's very painful to watch this because you're still going through the same cycle, and I have to witness that we're going back to the starting point, and nothing has changed. I came for the exact same reason to this country, and I came to this school specifically, because I thought that that was the right thing to do, that it was something to give back to this country and to the school. And witnessing these kinds of tendencies is really, really hard. It's also traumatic.”



While the legacy of the Rose Revolution remains a complex topic that evokes mixed feelings in many, 21 years later, its relevance only continues to increase as time goes on. The revolution continues to serve as a reminder of the impact civic engagement and collective action can have. As Siko Mas aptly put it, "There is no person who is apolitical."


Edited By: Tasia Kurdghelia

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