Teaching is a gift. I don't mean it is a talent. As much as it benefits students, it is a gift for the teacher. I feel so blessed to be able to be in the classroom with my adult students. Some of my favorite moments have taken place with my English classes.
Our adult education program began it's second 10 week term on April 1st. During the first term, we had approximately 40 students within the 4 classes. Now we have 110 students, 7 classes and 5 teachers. I had to divide the program into two sessions- 5:00- 7:00 and 7:00 -9:00. Each class has at least 15 students. The majority of the students are Sudanese, but we also have students from Egypt, Algeria, Burundi, and Iraq. It's remarkable how the school has grown in such a small time. I can only hope that it continues when I leave.
I started teaching "Level 3." This is not the first time I have taught to sessions, but I forgot how exhausting it can be sometimes. I think it's more exhausting because I teach the kids during the day and then come back to the school in evening. However, the most tiring thing is trying to teach English creatively to those who lost their creative abilities with their childhoods during the war. They haven't been in classrooms for years, making it difficult to teach those who haven't been taught since being in their home country.
However, I find it so eacy to teach my advanced class. I'm teaching something that is so familiar in American classrooms, but so far removed in classes in the Middle East: The Holocaust. Not only is this tragedy not taught, but if it is mentioned, it is to teach that it didn't happen. While I was out to dinner with an Egyptian who is a doctor, he asked me if the Holocaust really happened. He is one of the most educated people who I have met in Egypt, but he didn't know about the Holocaust.
I've had a few lessons and the students are really interested. We are reading the book, The Cage, and they have had great insights. On the front cover is a picture of the main character, a skinny girl with a shaved head and sorrow on her face. On of my students remarked, "She looks Sudanese, but only with white skin." This profound statement is exactly what I want to teach- the comparison between the Holocaust and what is currently happening in Sudan today. I will keep you updated as I work on this lesson. I hope that it will be eye-opening for everyone.
Other than the Holocaust, I will also be teaching modal verbs, algebra and anatomy.
Please pray for the school and all of its students.
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3 comments:
Wow: I think that is the most interesting course load I've ever seen: modal verbs, algebra, anatomy, and the Holocaust!!
Sometimes when I read about what happened in Sudan, I can't help but think of all the refugees who wandered around Europe at the end of WWII. This may be another comparison your students will draw. And maybe it can give them hope about the future of their countries.
Recently I read this quote from Evelyn Waugh: "There is no room for tourists in a world of displaced persons...The very young, perhaps, may set out like the Wandervogels of the Weimar period; lean, lawless, aimless couples with rucksacks, joining the great army of men and women without papers, without official existence, the refugees and deserters, who drift everywhere today between the barbed wire." At first I thought it was referring to Europe but it actually refers to parts of Africa (Ethiopia, the Congo) and South America in the 20s and 30s. It is from Waugh's book "When the Going was Good" but I came across it in the introduction to a book by Charlie Pye-Smith called "The Other Nile," which recounts his journey (as a tourist of sorts) following the Nile from Alexandria to Juba in the 1980s, and in which he reflects on the same trip he had taken ten years before, and the changes he observed.
Reading the introduction to this book in my office this week, I couldn't help but think of you and your Angels, especially when he reflected, "Some of the [Sudanese] refugees became genuine friends, and all of them taught me a great deal." And reading your post today, I couldn't help but think of this book, which I happened to bring home from work this evening.
I was happy to read your post tonight and see your dedication, creativity, and optimism, despite all the obstacles you must work around and try to resolve.
Indeed,...teaching is a gift because when you teach, you learn...(much better than being a tourist!)
SHUKRI OPNION
i am intersted in this course becouse my nice teaher is inspired me by many waies .
she is my inespiratin espacially in how to learn and teach athers,also she gives us hopes in the coming times by her teaching our servived children.
the hope came from the book wich she gave it in our second term(the cage)when i was reading the book I feel I am one of the jewsh at that time becouse i was in the same situtions when i was in sudan before even here in cairo too , becouse there is now real schools ,now jobs .
I have many things to say but i cant express it becouse of my fair langouge skills (writting).
i would like to say THANK YOU FOR EVER TO MY FOVERITE TEACHER BOBBIE.
god bless you and good luck.
"Jimmy; I can give my right hand for a person who can help me learn Mathematics and Science" my voice was flared with anger as I spoke to a newly met friend.
"Oh; they are registering for Adult Education Program at Gugu Center, and they say there could be some Math" Jimmy calmly said a sentence that opened a closed door to refugees in Egypt that was only to be reached within the horizon of long dry roads of dreaming.
This was the time when I was BADLY STRUGGLING with my auto mechanic training to the point of giving up. Our teacher talked a lot about the physics, numbers and laws of blah blah blah that make the car run, and I was not less puzzled and aggrieved in this than Moses when he was standing at the summit of Mount Jordania and a voice telling him "that is the promised land but you'll never set foot in it!"
Then again; with Adult Education program we pick up from forgotten ashes, travel the space with Homer Hickam, learn from "THE CAGE" of Riva that the world has for long been twisted with injustice but you can stand up, dream and fight for what you believe in. And why not since 3(p - 7)+4y+2(p - 25)+ -7 has an answer!
Well; learning Algebra is not a picnic...... but our class has just enough prodigy to keep everyone hypnotized.
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