The wisdom of youth

After a brief and most wonderful weekend Safari with Ethan and some friends I was able to visit a few schools. I started the day at Saint Constantine’s International, where a new American friend teaches six year olds. It is one of three International schools in Arusha, and used to be the Greek school. The school starts at infancy and goes up to A levels. Their school being the least expensive of the three schools means that there is greater diversity of people and more accessibility for Tanzanians. Ms. Sophia, the children’s teacher has told me about her group over the weekend and I quickly notice them in the schoolyard early in the morning. They welcome me into their classroom, all with sweet, six-year-old openness and polite English.

Sophia runs her classroom in an American way, engaging the students in classroom discussion, group work and student-led presentations. Her kids have quite obviously thrived in the environment. They are also six and need to be free. During a math quiz the other day one of her students, an overt dreamer, raised his hand and asked permission to dance. Ms. Sophia allowed him. This makes me smile, aware that there are so many teachers that would not give their blessing to this kind of request.

The class commenced with a word on diversity. What is it? Sophia asked. A few hands were raised and some very apt responses ensued. Then we all introduced ourselves. There are fourteen children in this class and seven countries of origin represented; Chad, Indian, Lebanon, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and their teacher from America. Christianity, Islam and Hindus. And though an obvious range of capacity, they work so beautifully together. They are not yet at the age when they discriminate or taunt each other.

This year Ms. Sophia had introduced the topic of genocide, or tribe, I’m not sure which one came first in their conversation – but the two go hand in hand. The students were highly interested in the issue and an active discussion took place. She found it interesting that some students were aware of their specific ethnic group, while others had no idea. The three girls from Rwanda were not aware of their tribe, which, as you may know is of high consequence in their country – where there has been a tragic genocide of over 500,000 people, largely Tutsis, by predominantly Hutu supporters of the government. This historical mass is highly complicated and colored by the Belgian colonies, who, upon leaving, declared the slightly creamier skinned Tutsis as the Governing force. Ms. Sophia didn’t go into specifics about this genocide or others, keeping it simple enough for her young ears. However, upon returning home, all three of her Rwandan girls asked their families from which tribe they were. One of their family members approached Sophia with force, telling her that ‘'We are Rwandan’ and not to engage such topics as ‘tribalism.’ The other girls couldn’t remember what their parents had told them by the time they reached school.

Teaching matters of genocide, social justice and diversity is a highly imperative matter for our era. We cannot avoid these topics. Yet, we must learn how to approach them, slowly and with support of our administrators. It shouldn’t be a topic that is suddenly introduced when students are ‘old’ enough. These difficult themes must become part of the dialogue at a young age so that later on students are able to think meta-cognitively about such critical subjects. I do recognize and try to understand that it is also difficult to approach themes that engage words like, ‘tribe.’ I learned in many of my African studies courses that this word, in its historical legacy has gained negative connotations related to colonialism. Yet, it’s hard to teach when carefully stepping around words and themes that could be offensive to someone. We can only learn history in its depths and engage in dialogue without fear or pride, so we might move toward competency in dealing with diversity – I don’t know the answer, or the way. But one thing I know is that we all have something to learn from the compassion and aptitude of a six year old.

Also, it should be noted that there are over 120 tribes in Tanzania, with equal proportions of Muslims and Christians as well as those with animist beliefs - However, I have still never been in such a nondiscriminatory place, with a history and general feeling of peace and cooperation.