Friday, March 14, 2008

“I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille...”

Last week at this time a story about KA aired on ABC News. It was actually a piece filmed last October, but I imagine they ran the feature story last week since His Majesty had just spent the week in New York and Washington talking about what seems to be his two favorite topics—the possibility of a Palestinian state, and the possibilities of what his new school here in Madaba-Manja holds for children of this region. We didn’t know the story would air last Friday, or I would have alerted all of you to watch the show! Just after the news my Uncle Jack called my dad, figuring he had just seen his son’s new school on the airwaves. Alas, my father was glued to Katie Couric instead. But through the miracle of the internet, I can provide you the link if you want to see the story:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4411243

I found out about the news story with an email from my wonderful Aunt Dot which read in part:
“There we were Friday at 6:30 p.m. watching the ABC national newscast with George Stephanopolis substituting for Charlie Gibson when—flash, there was Deerfield Academy and the King of Jordan when he played in sports in high school there—then, flash to Jordan where we saw Hannah, a student talking about how great King’s Academy was and then a classroom and Suzanne Hannay a Deerfield transplant telling us all about the school and we shouted, “John, John, Where is Johnny?” It was sooooo exciting.” Aunt Dot ended her exciting email with the line, “This has got to be the most exciting experiment you could ever be a part of.”

I am very conscious this week of the “experiment” we are doing here, not just from the media exposure, but reminders from a deluge of visitors from the United States right now (remember, it is Spring Break in the United States) and all these excited friends and family wanting to know about what it is like here now, what the last eight months have been like, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera… questions ranging from the adjustments to the Middle East, the water, the culture, the food, to really interesting queries about how we cultivate more effective study habits, interest them in the world, and mold them into the global citizens the King hopes to send out into the world.

While I was not visibly in the story aired by ABC News, BBC News visited our campus in the last few days, and I got interviewed, and a camera crew came to my classroom to record about 30 minutes of a class discussion. I was alerted that they may come to class, but when the crew of four came in, and started roaming around the room, it did ramp up the energy in class a notch or two.

In the last two weeks my class has been working on a project involving a pretend murder of Philip II of Spain. I created the scenario of the murder scene, planted 10 clues at the murder scene in his palace, and gave the classes a list of potential suspects. They each had to research one of the suspects, explain the relevant biography and the connection to Philip, and then present to the classes about the likelihood of that suspect acting in a conspiracy. Just because I am now so technologically advanced (hush! Quiet down that laughter! I do use Powerpoint now, you know! I am almost caught up to the late 1990s in technology!) I put the project on-line so the students could click on the suspect reports as they devise their conspiracy theories this weekend. In case you are dying to read about the murder, here is the hyperlink:
http://whokilledtheking.wikispaces.com/

Two web links in the same blog entry? Is this the same technologically naïve teacher who for years carried around his 6,000 art slides like leaden ballast from a 17th century galleon? Hmmm…

Anyway—back to the camera crew in my room!! I wanted to telescope our discussion about Philip and Spain into a larger arena, so we had some documents to play with, some documents looking at the world-wide silver economy circa 1600-1700 (it is more exciting than you might think—don’t doze off, pay attention Steve!) dealing with how the silver mines of Spanish colonial America affected Japan and China, besides the Spanish empire.

The students are engaging with the documents quite well—one student compared the importance of silver in 1700 to that of oil in today’s world—how’s that for a bright young scholar! But all the time we are discussing how the silver affects these nation-states, the camera guys are closing in on a few people. At one point the camera guy whispers to a student, “Do you mind to make it look like you’re writing something down?” Very interesting! He might have chosen one of the dozen students actually taking some notes in class, but he asked a particularly handsome student to fake taking notes!

It is as if these camera guys have no zoom-lens: they physically go up to students and are right in their faces, or down on their notes, or their book-bags, as we have a discussion about what this silver does to the economies of Spain, Japan, and China. As I asked students to project what might happen next in the kind of events of world history, Rob piped up, “Well my guess is that all these kingdoms forced to pay all these taxes in silver, there may be a shortage someday, and then they may have real economic and social problems, and then I’ll bet a revolution. Maybe many of them!” While Rob offered his prescient prediction for the 18th century (and the next two weeks of lessons), the camera guy came right up to me, and put the camera right by my face, and just stayed there. He was maybe a couple of inches from my left cheek. He must have stayed there for at least five minutes.

Now if you have ever watched me teach, I am not prone to stay in one place for very long. I move about the room—or as one friend said once, “you work the room.” But since the camera was there, and this was my close-up, I kinda just stayed put. It took all my energy to focus on the historical themes, the documents, and the actual lesson, and not just turn to the camera and smile! As I was moving the discussion along, I saw my students watching the cameraman out of the corners of their eyes, but remarkably, they stayed focused and on task. Could you imagine, back in the days of Scratch what this scenario would have been like???

Big surprise: it was a kick to be on camera!

Later I was interviewed by the BBC about how I envisioned the study of History fitting into the mission of the school. As I explained how I hoped to turn them into students who could think like historians, they asked me what that meant. All right, Mr. DeMille—the legendary Hollywood director—I am ready!

As a quick aside—today is Friday, typically “Family Day,” in Jordan. I rarely see Jordanian colleagues on Fridays since they gather with their families and eat and visit. But Reem, one of my colleagues in the Admissions Office, invited a group of us to her home today to host a brunch for the father of the Director of Admissions.

I walked into Reem’s exquisite home, saw the table elegantly set with our buffet, and I realized, “Ahhh…Reem is so much like the delightful friend Cristina in New York. Her home could not have been more tastefully decorated, just like Cristina’s. She could not have offered a more beautiful display of sumptuous treats, just like Cristina. She could not have been a more gracious hostess, just like Cristina.” We walked around Reem’s yard, the spring flowers just beginning to nose their way through the earth, and it was a marvelous close-up of Jordanian hospitality and Jordanian social life. I wish I had brought my camera to capture the magic of this brunch and friendly gathering.

“I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille...”

If you have not seen the glorious 1950 film, Sunset Blvd., you may not recognize those words. As the demented actress Norma Desmond descends into madness, she hopes that her former director, Cecil B. DeMille, is there to capture her every mood. It is one of those great moments in cinematic history, watching this gorgon lose touch with the world.

I hope I am not demented. Don’t think I am. But I am enjoying the close-ups of life this experiment, as Aunt Dot deemed it, has provided. In fact, I may be more connected to the world, with the world, than ever before. While the news reports are indeed fun to watch and savor, it is these experiments in teaching and learning that are transforming my living.

3 comments:

Jane & Judy said...

WOW! You've come a long way, baby, since our Hollywood debut with Whoopie in the blockbuster hit, "Eddie." A l--o--n--g way!

John said...

Did I tell you that recently that movie was on here in Jordan? I scanned the crowd in the scene when Whoopy (Whoopie?) worked the crowd--still didn't see us. I guess that was 1995 or thereabouts when we were extras and laughed all day together! And there was no close-up then!

Love you Enszers!

Adam S. Kahn said...

Is there a phone number I can reach you at while you're in the US?