Saturday, September 25, 2010

Raindrops Were Fallin’ On My Head

The other morning, during the first few days of our first week of classes, all of a sudden I noticed the strangest thing for September in Jordan: there were raindrops fallin’ on my head! You have to understand—this is my fourth September in Jordan, and I had never seen a raindrop in September! Everyone I saw that morning remarked about the rain, and the common response was incredulity and joy!

Now you may be far too young to remember that 1970 monster pop song hit “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, but boy, oh, boy, that B.J. Thomas crooner is lodged somewhere in the back of my head, very near the episodes of "Bewitched," and I remember plunking it out on the piano not too long after my recital debut of “The Big Cowboy and the Little Cowboy.” I remember these lyrics also seemed to be a mixture of excitement and thrills, not unlike our incredulity and joy we experienced the other day during this hot September.

But it might be that incredulity and joy were just simply the watchwords for the first week back to school at KA in 2010—for many of us, the beginning of the school year is like New Years’ Eve mixed in with a little Thanksgiving with the whole family. It was a long week, and it was more than just a week. It was 11 days straight of hard work of full faculty orientation and meetings and student orientation and classes at full tilt. So it was a little like the Bataan Death March, but with the enthusiasm of New Years’ Eve and the gratitude of Thanksgiving (and the whole family).

But back to the incredulity and joy. It was everywhere! First of all, I live in the dormitory we call Nihal House. The dormitories/houses on campus at KA are all named after constellations enjoyed by Arab astronomers a thousand years ago. The dorm/house where I live now for the fourth year has had the reputation of the “bad boy dorm.” Yes, that would certainly be where all of you would hope/expect me to reside! But for example, last year, some adult thought it would be wise/interesting to put many, many bad boys on one hallway. The desired result? They would help reform each other…

Stop chuckling. It wasn’t funny—it was insane!

But this year we have extraordinary proctors (role model leaders to help manage the chaos) and it was an unbelievable week in Nihal House. It was quiet. Civility reigned. The adults were incredulous at the new spirit in the residence. We don’t have boring boys in our residence—we simply have young men with a sense of honor and duty and respect. Seriously. Right now it is lights out on Saturday night, and you can hear a pin drop (or keyboard keys clack). I’m not finished! More incredulity! Arthur, our excellent House Head, decided we should have a “Greeting” in the morning at 7:30 a.m. with all the young men in the residence court yard to greet the day (and of course, to make sure all the sleepy heads are up and dressed). There was a little resistance, natch, but they are there—all the young men have gotten there—and then have time, for a change, for breakfast. Arthur led the greeting the first few days, and on the day when it looked overcast (overcast? In September? In Jordan???) Arthur asked if anyone knew the weather report in Jordan. Some bright young scholar offered, “hot,” and Arthur replied,
”Well I saw that it’s a great day to be a student at KA!” This corniest line in the world was met with laughter and real joy. The next day, Hani, a veteran of that infamous hallway from last year, won an inter-dorm award for his helpful behavior the previous night. My, my. Incredulity for sure. Joy for real.

In my classes there was also incredulity and joy. I have a class—oh, boy, this is the Lotto Winner for teachers—a class of 15 students that all of them I have taught before. I made that as a pre-requisite to be in the class, so we could pick up where we left off last spring. Many of us have been together since the school opened. I taught them during the era I defined as “Scratch” oh so long ago in 2007, and then AP World History, and then AP Art History. This is like that “Unlimited Chocolate Mousse Bar” Chuck and I discovered in London back in 1993…wow…

So last Saturday, on the first day of classes, I gave them the preface to the autobiography by Stefan Zweig to read and respond to for the following day. This is not simple reading. Stefan Zweig was a bon vivant of the 1920s cafĂ© society in Vienna, and his writing is florid and dense. The following day in class you would have mistaken them for a college level seminar…seriously, they were tearing apart his great word choices, and understanding it like the effective scholars they have become. It is hard to reach a state of joy more palpable than teaching this group.

And the new art historians are settling in to their awe-inspiring task of exploring and embracing 5,000 years of art history. We practiced playing with art works and themes for three days, making sure that wonder and curiosity drive this train through the millennia, and then we buckled our seat belts to go back to the pre-historic era and move forward to the dawn of the 21st century. The crown prince is in one of the sections of art history, and he has been wonderfully engaged in class, offering comments and maintaining steady eye contact. After one class he noted a small detail to me in a painting and asked about it, and we talked about how that little detail offers another whole new way of enjoying the art work. But I will not be covering Hussein’s progress in class. His family has always wanted him to be seen as any other student and so it seems disrespectful to their wishes that I use him for some kind of cool factor or something at which we might gawk. It will be exciting to track each of these four dozen art historians’ progress.

One of the things I needed to hammer home early in the week is that there is a change in the order of AP exams in May. The College Board has flipped the order and Art History is 13 days earlier than last year! And, due to our scheduling around Ramadan this fall, the school year began later. So I announced to the class that I needed to have them meet 10 Saturdays in the year so we have enough class time. I explained that we would have our monthly tests on these Saturdays and I gave them the dates for the year. No one balked! Now that is some incredulity on my part as I witnessed their acceptance and understanding.

Actually, the word incredulity might be the wrong choice here to represent this last week at KA. Technically, incredulity means disbelief and/or skepticism. Hmm…yes, there was incredulity on my part about the raindrops last week fallin’ on my head. And there was joy at that handful of raindrops. But as I look back on last week, incredulity is an unfair word choice for these new seniors, and frankly the bulk of our student body. While the new mood in the dorms may surprise us, it is not skepticism, or a lack of belief in these students. They have risen to the challenge of our institution, they have become what we have expected them to be. They have begun the year with style and with a flair that I can only say has yielded a great joy.

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