Week 3 Of Teaching In Laquia: School Trips

Last week, during my Hebrew lessons at the junior high school in Laqiya, we talked about the election. At the time, I could not even begin to imagine that the parents of my students, along with their entire families, would rush to the polling stations and wait for hours just to exercise their right to vote in a democratic election in Israel. I was delighted to see the long lines and to learn that the Arab parties had won 19 seats and would finally be able to make a difference and work to address the injustices that the Arab community has suffered for so long, especially during the last four years under the Netanyahu government.

I cannot say that I noticed anything different at the school yesterday, but I personally felt very proud to be teaching in a community of citizens who had decided to take a stand.

During the lessons, the students didn’t talk about the election, and their Hebrew is still weak, if not virtually nonexistent. I would like to believe that their passive vocabulary is quite extensive and that one day they will choose to express themselves in Hebrew. So far, that hasn’t happened.

Since this is the season for school trips, we, the volunteers, were given teaching materials related to excursions: a vocabulary bank, key words, and flashcards with pictures related to trips. However, when I asked the students about their upcoming trip to the Dead Sea this coming Thursday, I learned that they were looking forward to playing with their phones on the bus (phones are not allowed at school). They also said that they would listen to their favorite music on their phones. One student said that she was looking forward to chatting with her friends on the bus (not on the phone), while another said that she would bring her drawing notebook.

I checked our list of key words and noticed that the word phone was missing:-) One of the girls told me earnestly, “We, the Bedouin, don’t care about trips, walking, and nature. We love shopping and going to the mall.” I assured her that this was not something unique to the Bedouin community but rather had to do with age and being an adolescent. She seemed to like my answer. I then asked whether their parents enjoyed walking and being in nature, and one of the students said that her mother went for a walk every evening.

After the school day was over, another volunteer and I drove out to enjoy the beautiful natural surroundings not far from Laqiya. We had a wonderful time seeing the flowers near Yeruham, and the water flowing through the wadis in the Big Crater. We even saw children on school trips playing in the natural pools that had formed in the canyon after the recent rains. I am sure my students would have loved playing in the water, too.

I hope they enjoy their trip to the Dead Sea!