Of Students and Seminar

Every Thursday morning, our students participate in Seminars.

On Wednesdays, students are given a copy of a current event story of global concern from a newspaper or magazine article, or from the internet. They are supposed to take it home, show it to their parents, the parents read it, the student may read it himself, and there might possibly be some discussion between the parent and the child regarding the article. Ideally, the student returns to school Thursday morning with the article, prepared in some way to participate in a classroom discussion on the topic. If they don’t read the article at home, which happens often, they’ll hear it again in the classroom. The teacher asks some questions that probe their understanding of the event, and help them to make connections between their classroom and what is going on in the world, how it impacts the world in general, how it impacts our country, and how it impacts them personally as children with a future to prepare for.

So far, we have covered topics like the significance of discovering ice on Mars and why we as people of Earth are interested in Mars; the implications of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating destruction on the Gulf Coast, our nation as whole, and the world; how higher gas prices affect their families; and the possible results and implications of making the lottery legal in North Carolina. Last week, the article that went home with them was concerning the Avian flu virus, and its potential threat to our populations throughout the world, and the need to isolate and contain the virus should an outbreak occur.

I don’t assume that the kids have read the articles we send home, for usually, they have not read it. I make extra copies for them to follow along while I read out loud, and I give them each a highlighter pen to highlight points they find interesting, or main ideas in each paragraph, or some other reading comprehension concept they need to practice. As I read, I will stop and ask them to paraphrase a sentence or paragraph I had just read. Usually two or three students will be listening and comprehending well enough to raise their hands in response to the questions, and the others will be raising their hands to ask their own questions.

I like Seminars on Thursday mornings. It gives the teachers and students a chance to share global news, to talk about it, to respond to it some way. It gives us a chance to think and talk about what it means, and why it’s such a concern. Why should an elementary student be concerned about what goes on in the world across the ocean? Why would they want to know about things they don’t understand just yet? Heck, they don’t even know where India is, or Thailand, or Texas for that matter! Well, some kids know where Texas is, but the fact is they don’t have a good sense of where they are in the world at this age. Why even bother discussing things so far from home that do not involve them?

That is precisely why we should talk about it and show them where these countries are as we talk about them, and ask them to think about why they should be concerned. Why should they be concerned that Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi? Aside from the human compassion issue, should we bother them with the details of water pollution, dead bodies, destroyed homes and lives, and the controversy over rebuilding a city that sets below sea level? Why should they be interested in a planet that is millions of miles away from earth at any given time? So what if there is ice on it? And why does our government pour billions of dollars into space exploration and the International Space Station?

These are the kinds of questions our kids raise, or teachers raise, when such discussion worthy topics come up during Seminar. It is good for them to consider the pros and cons of worldly events and decisions. It is good for them to think about other people around the world who more than likely experience a different culture from ours, but who are no less important in this world, and no less responsible for making it a better place in which to live. It is good for them to learn of the wealth of our own country in comparison to the rest of the world, and to gain a perspective that such privilege brings with it a greater responsibly to care for the environment.

The interest we generate in them with such topics as these stimulates their thinking. We ask them questions, and you’d be surprised what they think about when given such a topic. Don’t think that kids who play video games in their spare time have no concerns for their world. They do, but often they don’t have the organizational skills to express their thoughts in a logical manner. Seminaring, as I see it, is one opportunity for them to do just that. They will ask the questions, and in asking the questions, even the ones we can’t answer, are lead to discovery and learning.

In the classroom, we attempt to equip the students with ways to tap into their own thinking skills, their own abilities to figure things out. Sometimes there is laughter during a seminar as ignorance or preconceptions about people and events are brought into light, and clarifications are made. Misunderstanding is what leads to distrust and arrogance.

For some, taking part in a discussion is something they are not familiar with, but in the safety of their classroom, among other classmates they are willing to take the risk in saying something that may not come out right or make sense. I didn’t realize how difficult it is for some kids to speak coherently before I became a teacher! I thought I was the stupid one growing up because I had trouble doing that myself. As a child in a classroom setting, I experienced repeatedly the inability to come up with the right order of words to speak what was clearly in my mind. God bless my patient teachers, the wait time they gave me, and the prompting and rephrasing of questions!

Last week, as I said earlier, our topic was the potential pandemic threat of the bird flu. Two of the kids in my Seminar group had not even heard about it despite the fact that they were supposed to have shown the article to their parents. Two had brought the article home, said they had shown it to their parents, but had not had a discussion with them about it. None of them had heard anything on the news about it.

So it seemed it was my job to make them aware of the potential danger of bird flu, and to read the article out loud to them, and to lead them into exploring the potential scenario facing our world leaders and health care people.

I wanted them to really understand the seriousness of it without frightening them, and I didn’t have very much information on hand beyond the article that was given them. Fortunately, I had a current National Geographic magazine with a picture of a medical person outfitted in disease prevention gear and many photos inside from Thailand and Viet Nam of people who had battled and survived avian flu.

As I read the article, I checked their faces for understanding. I asked them to paraphrase for me a passage. I drew pictures on the board (a man, a chicken), and I wrote the virus name, H5N1, on the board. We talked about how it wasn’t yet contagious person to person, but how the virus could mutate, and how that could be disastrous for the human population. I asked them the questions, what did “potentially” mean in that sentence? What did it mean that it may be necessary to “isolate and quarantine” a country? How could that be done? There were others. They were interested, they asked good questions, and then one of them said something that worried me.

He said, “I’m not going to eat chicken anymore.”

With only a couple minutes left for this class, I knew I had to dispel their fears. I didn’t want them to go home and tell their parents that I said that eating chicken would give them the bird flu, and that they could die. I didn’t want them to think they had the bird flu if they got the flu. Hadn’t we talked about the meaning of potential? And hadn’t I made it clear that this was affecting people who were exposed to chickens, turkeys, ducks, who raised them, bred them, handled them in far parts of the world?

I told them the chicken they buy in the grocery store was inspected before it got to the stores, and that they would not be eating infected chicken in this country. However, if they were to travel to the southeast of Asia, perhaps they would want to avoid eating in the less frequented restaurants. “It’s safe to eat chicken in your home, and in our restaurants, and in school. It’s not in the chickens in our country.” (Yet, I thought to myself, and hope it stays that way.)

The next day, one of my Seminar students sat down at his desk and said, “I got sick last night. I threw up.”

“Why? Was it something you ate?” I asked because he didn’t look sick sitting there in front of me.

He nodded. “Yeah, after dinner. We had chicken. I told my mom I didn’t want to eat chicken. I couldn’t stop thinking about that bird flu.” He paused, the other kids listening attentively.

“Remember, it's okay to eat your mother’s chicken,” I said.

“I know,” he said, “But I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. It made me sick.”

After explaining one more time that the bird flu was infecting birds thousands of miles away, and that right now there is no avian flu outbreak, we moved on to division by two digit numbers.

Yes, I like the time we spend in Seminar on Thursday mornings. I just need to get a handle on the topic, and anticipate their questions and fears before I walk into the room so I’ll have something more sustaining to say, something more reassuring. I guess I'll be watching the news more since I don't get the newspaper.

Still, I think it is okay for them to experience these thoughts, and have these concerns. It is my hope that this will open the dialogue between them and their parents, and that it will motivate them to watch the news, to attempt to understand some small or great part of what is going on in the world. And even if they don’t understand, which they very often won’t since there is a lot I don’t understand even now, at least they will be aware of some world and national events, and they will have some words to carry home with them, words they can speak, words they are comfortable with, rolling from their mouths, impressing their family and friends with their opinion on a world event.

Perhaps someday one of them will find a cure for some life-threatening disease, or be an influential leader in the cause for world peace, or influence someone who is a leader dedicated to environmental health. In our midst could be someone, or several someones, who will someday be part of something very important to the well-being of our world and of our people. Even if not in such a high position of power, but most likely in a personal way, they will grow up to be involved in community matters, helping to make improvements within their families, neighborhoods, schools, towns, or states. This too will affect the whole country, and the world.