Tuesday, February 5, 2002

Nikki got an e-mail from one of her students today asking her how she liked Bangladesh. Hmmm.... perhaps a few more geography lessons are in order. In truth, last night in a conversation I said Albania instead of Armenia -- or was that just a senior moment?

The bulk of today was spent in workshops where Americans who work publishing materials related to civic education presented sample lessons. There were two choices in the morning. I went to one where we discussed how the US should respond to the conflict between individual rights and national security during this "crisis of terrorism." We were given descriptions about how Germany and Italy had dealt with terrorists in the seventies and broader descriptions of how England and Israel have dealt with terrorism. Then were were divided into five "Congressional committees" and asked to consider a piece of proposed legislation. For that session I worked with two Armenian women (the English speakers) on what should be done to secure the airlines and whether we should follow the Israeli model. At the end of the lesson we discussed the pedagogy that was presented. My favorite part was a heated discussion between a woman from Azerbaijan and one from Ukraine about whether visas are an invasion of freedom or a necessary part of an orderly society. In the large group we have simultaneous translation with wireless headsets, so a lively conversation can really be lively.

And just in case you wondered, we say Ukraine, like Brooklyn, Not THE Ukraine, like THE Bronx. The latter was a term used in the former Soviet Union, but Ukraine by itself is used for the newly independent state.

Over lunch I went for a walk with an American woman named Gabi who has been working in various NIS (newly independent states) for the past ten years. Her perspective is quite interesting. She was talking about going to graduate school but I told her I thought she would find it dull and outdated compared to her current experiences working with immediate political and pedagogical issues. Well, I never was one to hold back on my opinions.

This afternoon I was in a session where we were divided into two groups, one was for military intervention, and I was in the peacenik group called "A Farewell to Arms." We were to decide how to address an imaginary crisis where a dictator took over a democratic Central American government in the 1930s, one in which the US had great investments. The problem was complicated by setting the date as 1933 -- the depression, Hitler in power, etc. It was so much to think about. The other group had an easier time -- go for it. In the review of the lesson, the presenters agreed that the lesson needed work because of its historical complexity.

The best part of the day was the last session. We had a chance to hear from three of the NIS states about issues of education in their countries. Even though we were without headphones (in small groups) we enjoyed the more intimate contact. I learned that both Kazakstan and Azerbaijahn have changed back to the Latin alphabet from the Cyrillic, but Ukraine has not (they are Slav, they explained -- it isn't a Russian alphabet, after all). I got a fascinating answer from the Ukraine team when I asked why civic education was taught for one period a week rather than being integrated into other history and social studies courses. The answer was that while they would like eventually to integrate the material, it would be impossible to train all the history and geography teachers in the country in using interactive teaching methods, and they did not want to have civics turned into some rote memorization of a list of "things the citizen should do." Polina, one of the Ukrainians, gave me a great history poster which I will hang at Poly to greet our Ukrainian guests when they arrive Feb. 27.

What else? The swimming pool is gorgeous, if a little cold, the Internet is fast and free, and with eight computers, it's not difficult getting on one (or staying on long enough to write this). The sun shone today and just four blocks from here are a field with horses and a farm with a small conestoga wagon. It looks in use, but I can't quite figure out what for. Tomorrow we will be spending the afternoon in Budapest -- don't count on too many souvenirs, folks.