This is the first day of our last week of teaching, and I am finding it hard to keep myself together. Last year was our first year teaching and I felt like I kept myself distanced. I wasn't sure what would happen in the next year of my life and if I would come back to Morocco. I didn't want to fall in love and not be able to return to see the kids. I thought I would do better if I kept a safe emotional distance.
Now I am here again, seeing old students and meeting new students. Listening to their stories, seeing their enthusiasm, expanding their minds. The passion these children have for learning English blows me away. They are here, at school, on their summer break, taking classes, during Ramadan, fasting and learning. They are extraordinary.
They face such large challenges, every day, to survive. Nearly every parent we meet is thrilled to have their child learning English, as it is a way out of poverty. These children will care for and support their entire families. After working at an American school and seeing great teachers and education taken for granted, I am refreshed by our Moroccan students attitudes.
I cannot blame the students in the US. I did not value my education when I was in high school. I feel like the value is only recognized when one is being saved by education. Education is commonplace in the West. Teachers are not treated as the heroes they are, but as lowly civil servants. Many American children do not see education as a solution to problems. It is not what we are taught.
The solutions to mainstream American problems are fame, fortune, political blame and lawsuits. Success is shown to come from athletic prowess, physical beauty, and drama. High school dropouts with teenage pregnancies drive nice cars and grace the front pages of magazines, while researchers in labs curing diseases go faceless and nameless. Ignorant people blame their illnesses, stupidity and lack of common sense on large corporations and receive settlements to last a lifetime, while our youth's educators work multiple jobs and careen towards burnout.
I don't know where the problems started, or how our society can fix them, but the reality is that the majority of our youth would rather be YouTube stars than increase their intelligence. Why work hard when you can become an internet sensation?
