From Oxford and America Back to Prague: Milan Babík on Czech education, Havel and today's politics
After almost thirty years spent studying and teaching in the United States and Britain, political scientist and writer Milan Babík has returned to Prague. In an interview for Czechast, he speaks about adapting to life back in Czechia, the strengths and weaknesses of Czech education, the troubled future of the Václav Havel Library and why he still finds hope in ordinary human relationships.
When Milan Babík left his Moravian hometown of Šumperk in the mid-1990s on a scholarship to an American boarding school, he had little idea where the journey would lead. It eventually took him through Colby College in Maine, the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford before an academic career in North America. Today, after nearly thirty years abroad, he teaches international relations at Prague's Anglo-American University and has published his first novel in Czech. Looking back, Milan says the path only makes sense in hindsight.
"It only makes sense as a journey with some kind of logic in retrospect, in the rear-view mirror."
Despite living in several countries, he does not identify a single place as home.
"I'm at home wherever I am... I am at home in Midcoast Maine. I am at home in Oxford. I'm at home in London. I'm at home now in Prague." At the same time, he admits that every move has also left him feeling partly like an outsider.
Why Czech schools should encourage curiosity
Drawing on decades of experience in the Czech Republic, Britain and the United States, Milan argues that Czech education still relies too heavily on centrally prescribed curricula instead of encouraging students to pursue their interests.
According to him, many Czech pupils learn facts without understanding why they matter.
"It's very top down, it's very tied up, it's very constricted with rules and curricula that do not cater to individual interests of students."
By contrast, he recalls that his American education was built around curiosity.
"The first question is what it is that you want to study. What is it that interests you?... I found that interest in anything in the subject matter is the most powerful motivating force." Although he acknowledges that Czech schools are gradually changing, he believes the system still has considerable room for improvement.
A painful experience at the Václav Havel Library
One of the most personal parts of the interview concerns Milan's short tenure as director of the Václav Havel Library. He says he accepted the position believing he could help preserve and develop Havel's democratic legacy after years of promoting the former Czech president's ideas in the United States.
Instead, he encountered what he describes as deep internal problems. Asked why he left after only a short period, he answers candidly:
"I literally do not know to this day," he says he quickly realised the institution faced serious internal difficulties and believes its future remains uncertain.
Reflecting on his experience, he adds:"For me, it was a deeply sobering, sad and professionally humiliating experience." He also questions whether everyone involved in the institution has been united primarily by Václav Havel's legacy, suggesting that other interests sometimes took precedence.
Democracy under pressure
The interview also turns to the state of democracy in both the United States and Czechia. Having spent most of his professional life in America, Milan sees today's political climate as fundamentally different from previous periods of political turbulence. While history may repeat itself, he argues that today's technological revolution has transformed public debate in unprecedented ways.
"We can't even tell anymore what is real and what is not real and what is reality, because it is mediated so many times over." He also believes Europe must prepare for a future in which it can rely less on the United States for its security.
Finding hope close to home
Despite discussing political polarisation, disinformation and international tensions, Milan ends on a notably optimistic note. Rather than looking to politicians for reassurance, he says hope lies much closer to home.
"What gives me hope is my ordinary human relations with my children, my family, my friends." He believes that strengthening local communities and working together on practical problems matters more than endlessly arguing online.
"We all have enough energy... to do things that are important for perhaps not Czechia as a country or the United States as a country, but the small slice of civil society that's around us." So, for Milan Babík, that everyday cooperation—not political slogans—is ultimately what keeps democracy alive.
Listen to the full interview in the latest episode of Czechast.
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Czechast, Radio Prague International
Czechast is a regular RPI podcast about Czech and Moravian culture, history, and economy.
