OK, so how much do you know about Egypt? The Pyramids? The Suez Canal? 44 years ago, I started teaching at a 6 year junior high/high school, in Ardsley-on-Hudson, NY. I had to teach a ninth grade social studies course, called "Non-Western World", or at least that's what I remember it was called. I had majored in American Studies for my B.A., with a double major in History and English, and my M.A. was in Chinese History - guess that qualified me to teach this course!
In other words, I knew next to nothing about the Middle East, Egypt, and Africa, sub-Saharan or otherwise. I did know a little bit about India, having taken a year long course about Modern India, and a handful of courses about non-Chinese Asian history, too. How would I teach about Africa? How would I handle Egypt? The books I was provided for in the course were really elementary. This was before the internet - as my students of today always say, "what do you mean, before the internet?" as if no one could possibly be that old! How was I going to supplement the materials and help the students if I didn't have any background?
In hindsight, my solution was pretty cool - for those of you who don't live in NYC - or even for those of you who do. I did live in NYC, and I opened the phone book, and found out where all the Consulates of some of these nations were, and preceded by a call, I went to gather materials. Just think! There was no security in those days. I was in my early 20s, and pretty naive. Of course, I realized these materials might be very biased, but really, you should have seen the maps and posters I was able to get, all for free. I spent afternoons and Saturdays traveling to these consulates for the first month of my teaching, and then planned around the materials.
The greatest "gift" for my teaching came from the Egyptian Consulate. Mostly, they gave me beautiful travel posters. But they also provided a map of the Middle East that did not include Israel at all. What a fantastic teaching opportunity, as I put their map and the classroom map of the Middle East side by side on the wall and had the students figure out how and why the maps were different. I like to think that they learned a lot from that exercise, but who knows.
I don't know what else my students learned about Egypt that year, but they did learn about how who is telling the story makes a huge difference. This experience came back to me this week, watching Egypt experience such unprecedented upheaval. Will we learn more about Egypt, beyond the Pyramids, beyond the Suez Canal, more about what the real "back story" might be? I feel like I am watching the "shifting sands" of a desert as I watch newscasters and others trying to explain what is going on. Maybe if we all knew more about Egypt, we would understand more about what's happening, and who is telling the story - beyond the Suez Canal.
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