Close Encounters of the Immersion Kind Promote Cross-Cultural Learning Exchanges by Carolyn Cosmos ìThe best part of the trip was seeing the culture [of the Middle East] not as a place where everywhere thereís war, but as a place where thereís peace and people get along,î said seventh-grader Kony Serrano of her 10-day trip to Jordan and Qatar with 16 of her fellow students. The seventh- and eighth-grade students at Rock Creek International School in Washington, D.C., were greeted by English-speaking students their own age in both countries and stayed with the host studentsí families in Qatar. The educational trip, which combined student meetings, participatory learning, touring and entertainment, illustrates the way such immersion encounters can foster learning and counter cultural stereotypes. It is also one of the many innovative school programs that aim to shed light on international affairs and issues by directly exposing students to other nations and cultures. We took a look at three unique examples of Washington-area schools that recently gave students a firsthand look at the world beyond the nationís capital. Mini-Ambassadors to Middle East The Rock Creek students flew first to the city of Doha in Qatar, where they stayed with families from the Qatar Academy, including members of Qatarís royal family. They then traveled to Amman, Jordan, where they visited the Aaliyah School for Girls, museums, archeological sites and other attractions. The students were accompanied by three teachers, a parent, and administrator and trip organizer Carole Al-Kahouaji, director of Rock Creekís primary and middle school. The students had ìan immediate rapport with one another. No one expected it,î said Al-Kahouaji. Explained eighth-grader Jessica Fuentes: ìWhen we first got off the plane, everybody felt timid and shy.î However, Jessica, her fellow student and their 16-year-old student host, Ghada Al- Khater, ìconnected when we first got in the carî at the airport, Jessica said. ìWe started to talk and laugh right away. We wanted to know why do you wear the headscarf, what do you guys like to do for fun, what kind of music do you like? And the host family we went home toóI loved them! Iím a Latino and saw many similarities in the cultural traditions and the [family] rules. ìFor example,î Jessica continued, ìthey said they have to be over a certain age to have a boyfriend, and itís the same in my family, with its Latino traditions and rules. And they wear jeans, wear sneakers, listen to the same music we do. It was a surprise to know that.î Rock Creek seventh-grader Nick Jones told a similar tale: ìWhen we got off the plane, we were all very nervousóor at least I was. We didnít know what was going to happen.î But student host Firas El- Baba ìwas really welcoming. We hung out and played on the computer together. He showed me a game on the Internet thatís pretty big here [in the United States], RuneScape. Everybody there was into it, and a lot of my friends here are into it too. I didnít expect that,î Nick said. Over a period of four days, the students also played soccer together and went to a shopping mall. ìI learned not to stereotype and learned to try new things,î Nick said, noting that his fears about safety in the Middle East vanished. ìWhen we got there, there was nothing wrong. And [unlike here in Washington], they kept their doors unlocked all the time.î Trip organizer Al-Kahouaji explained that the host students in Qatar all attend Qatar Academy, which is part of a still-expanding educational complex created by the wife of the emir of Qatar. The head of the academyís parent-teacher association, Sheikha Amna, invited the visitors to a gala event with tents, sword dancers and gifts for everyone. Each student from the United States was given a costume and could participate in the dancingóand some took part in a little bridal drama. ìThe costumes were really cool,î said Rock Creek student Kony Serrano. ìWe did a wedding demonstration and walked behind the ëbride.íî Konyís host student, Noor Al Thani, also took her to a birthday party, where they had ìtraditional food and traditional musicóno guys allowed,î Kony recalled. ìThey wouldnít even let a guy waiter in. All her friends were there and they made us feel really welcome. Noor was wonderful, and we became good friends.î Touring, participatory learning, and becoming acquainted with students from Qatar and Jordan were deliberately intertwined throughout the 10-day trip. In Qatar, the American students visited a history museum in the desert, were given a lesson in falconry, and visited a traditional fishing village. They also visited an innovative school sponsored by the emirís wife, a facility for children with autism that was set up in part to emphasize that families need not be ashamed of children with disabilities. Until the school was created, there were few educational opportunities for autistic children and no formal provisions for them in Qatar, Al- Kahouaji explained. In contrast to Qatarís desert environment, ìJordan was very green, very lushî during the springtime visit, said eighth-grader Alessandra Koengeter. Many of the students said they were impressed by the diversity they saw in Jordan and by Ammanís multicultural mingling and multiple religious traditions. ìWe saw Mount Nebo, where Moses saw the Promised Land,î Alessandra said. She learned that Jordan is a center for many religions, and she also observed an unexpected diversity in Islamic practices: ìIn a country where most people are Islamic, you can see that some people are more traditional, and some are not, just as it is hereî in the United States. ìIt was like being at home.î Eighth-grader Bernardo Alvarez also commented on the mingling of traditions: ìThereís a meeting between religions there. Jesus was born in Jordan. We saw a mosque and a church together. Most of the time you get the impression that [world] religions are separate, but not in Jordan. It was very interesting,î he said. ìThe students saw that Amman was economically diverseóa city with a great variety of people, including refugees, Bedouin, Israelis and Christians,î said Al-Kahouaji. The students visited the Aaliyah School for Girls in Amman, which serves children from kindergarten through grade 12. There, the Aaliyah students ìtalked about a world where every individual is valued, where there is respect for different beliefs,î Al-Kahouaji said. Students from both countries discovered they ìhad the same aspirations and values,î and by the end, ìeverybody was crying.î As part of the educational component of the trip, each Rock Creek student kept a journal and gave presentations on their return. For example, seventh-grader Aaron Hollinger wrote poetry inspired by his travels and gave a presentation on the city of Petra, which he found ìreally cool.î The relationships established during the trip are continuing as the students stay in touch. Said Nick of his new friend Firas, ìHeís on instant messaging and we talk on that a lot, and we e-mail. We just talk about how itís going in Qatar and here.î Similarly, Jessica and host student Ghada keep in touch through e-mail and instant messaging, and Jessica has told her parents she would like to visit Ghada in Qatar again as a ìsweet 16î birthday present. ìIím still working on it,î she said. ìI learned about Islam and Islamic countries in school but didnít get the big picture until I went there,î Alessandra said. Fellow student Heidi Silverberg agreed: ìI learned a lot about the history of these countries and the peopleÖ. I thought they would be so different. Itís been wonderful to find out how alike we all are.î Afghan Lion Visits Mount Pleasant Ariana Caulkerís mother is a teacher at the bilingual Rosemount Center, a multicultural nonprofit based in the Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Mount Pleasant that serves the infants and pre-school children of immigrant families from many countries. Ariana, who is nearly 5, is enjoying a new book that the center is using to teach reading and thinking skills. Called ìThe Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water,î it features a lion from an ancient Afghan story that sees his reflection and is afraid of it, but learns to overcome his fears. The book, which is published by California-based Hoopoe Books, is written in both Spanish and English and comes with a bilingual audio CD. Ariana likes to hear the story in both Spanish and English, her mother Christiana said. ìItís a good book for letter and sound recognition, for vocabulary work,î she said, and it also helps Ariana think ahead and predict what will happen next. While Ariana just likes the lion and the other animals depic ted in the book, her mother, along with Rosemountís curriculum education manager Amy Donahue, are excited about something else. The lion book is part of an innovative pilot project designed to teach literacy skills to these pre-school childrenóand itís using ancient folk tales from Afghanistan and other traditional tales from Central Asia and the Middle East to do the job. Idries Shah, author of ìThe Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water,î collected the stories herself. They address universal themes such as building self-esteem, persistence when facing adversity, and careful thinking. Largely unknown in the West until the last few years, they were described by renowned psychologist Robert Ornstein as teaching treasures when he visited the Library of Congress in 2002. Neuro-psychiatrist Ornstein, author of ìThe Amazing Brainî and more than 20 other books, explained that the ancient stories, which appear to be little more than fairytales, were in fact designed to teach and nurtureóthrough their characters, plots, imagery, patterns and relationshipsóa part of the mind unreachable in a more direct way. He said such stories enhance understanding, breadth of vision, and the ability to think critically. Ornstein pointed out that the tales have been used for these purposes in many cultures for centuries and are especially widely used in Afghanistan. A version of Shahís lion story was told by 13th-century Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi. ìAs a teacher, I see that the children like the stories and respond to them,î Arianaís mother said, adding that her daughter asks a lot of questions about the story and relates it to her experiences of seeing animals at the National Zoo. ìThe story is beautiful and this book and the other Hoopoe books and teaching materials in the series are filled with vibrant colors. We have children from Vietnam, from China, from Ethiopia, and from many countries in Central and South America. These stores are moral folk tales common in many cultures and are very relevant,î Donahue said. The innovative teaching program was introduced at the center at the end of May and includes a visual guide for parents that shows helpful parental behavior and interesting family activities. Next fall, Rosemount children will receive a bilingual book and CD of another Hoopoe title from the same Afghan tradition. Ambassadors Become Teachers for a Day European Union Ambassador John Bruton, a former Irish prime minister, has made outreach to high school students part of his work. On May 9, he visited Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Va., to teach a class on the European Union. The visit was in celebration of the May 9, 1950, anniversary when the idea of the European Union was first introduced. On that day, Ambassador Bruton told the students, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman called on France, Germany and other countries to pool together coal and steel production as ìthe first concrete foundation of a European federation.î As part of the Europe Day celebrations, Bruton also arranged for the ambassadors of 12 other EU member countries to visit private and public schools throughout Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia to teach similar classes. The Bruton-inspired outreach effort was designed to offer a brief history of the European Unionís evolution from Schumanís declaration to the present union of 450 million people in 25 member states who share a single currency and ìcore objectives of peace and prosperity.î The outreach provided each of the visited schools with pertinent classroom materials, including maps of the newly enlarged European Union and online resources geared specifically toward youth. An EU Web site (www.eurunion.org/infores/teaching/teaching.htm) provides additional teaching and learning resources, including free and downloadable brochures for instructor use, an index of EU Web sites useful in teaching and research projects, information for young people on traveling in Europe, and links to student friendly games, comic books, posters and clip art. Ambassador Bruton, who said he ìreally enjoys contact with students and sees each and every one as a potential U.S. member of Congress or even president,î taught a class in an Advanced Placement European history course. Washington-Lee students asked him questions about the euro and the dollar, inquired about EU expansion plans, mentioning Turkey, and discussed oil prices, common language issues, and European birth rates. Ambassadors from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Slovenia also participated in the classroom visits. Later in the day, Ambassador Bruton hosted a Europe Day reception at his residence, where he and his wife welcomed Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, to conclude the dayís celebrations. Carolyn Cosmos is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.