Walking through an international terminal at any major airport is like being in a candy store. You could fly to Dar es Salaam, Beijing, Tehran, Buenos Aires, Windhoek, Rome - nearly any major city on the planet - including...Rabat! And it’s not just the locations that fascinate me. Just now I passed a family of Orthodox Jews praying, Muslim women sporting a variety of headscarf styles, and Senegalese men wearing traditional clothing. Our group of teachers may be less interesting to observe, but is incredible nonetheless.
This is the group at the Paris airport after a nearly 9-hour flight from Atlanta. A couple members of our cohort got thwarted by weather and are meeting us in Morocco.So, why am I going to Morocco? As one of my fellow teachers said when I asked him how he was explaining our adventure, that depends on the audience. To non-teachers, I might say I am a citizen-diplomat, spreading goodwill and a positive image of Americans. To teachers and administrators, I could say that I am collaborating with American and Moroccan teachers, trying to establish relationships and understand different ways of educating young people. To a student audience, I might mention my intention to better understand Islam - a subject I frequently include in curriculum - and the culture of Moroccan teens. But none of this really gets to the heart of what I’ve always loved about living, teaching, and traveling abroad. I’m fascinated by the different ways people live and learn, and seek to understand WHY we live and learn the way we do. How does our culture affect the way we educate our young people? Why do some places prioritize conformity and obedience while others focus on critical thinking and developing an opinion, for example, and what does that illustrate about a place and mean for the future of a people? I’m not sure how deep I’ll get to dig during my two weeks in Morocco, but I’m psyched to begin the adventure!
