The Middle East...from the mouths of babes.

Subbing can be really boring, like when a teacher asks you to have every class do silent reading all day. Or subbing can be really fun, like when a teacher actually lets you teach something.

Recently, I had a fun subbing day. The class: 6th grade social studies. The topic: current affairs in the middle east.  Challenges included the fact that the only prior knowledge the students had about the region was about Mesopotamia and buzz words gleaned from the media, and the fact that the only history class I took that covered the middle east was from a French woman in Spain. She taught the class in Spanish with a heavy French accent, and rather than assign us a text book, she printed us off copies of various texts...in French. (Thank goodness for wikipedia and bilingual dictionaries!)

Moyen-Orient

We started by looking at a map and brainstorming: What do we already know about the Middle East? The responses regarding Mesopotamia were spot on, and the rest...less so.

"Um, well, I know terrorists are from the Middle East...but I'm not sure what terrorists are really. I think they are people who commit suicide, right?"

"Aren't we at war in Iran because they dropped a nuke on someone? Or no, we dropped it on them."

"We have troops in, like, the whole country." 
(Me: Which country?")
"The Middle East."

"Well, they have a lot of oil over there, and they're using it to, like, make nukes or something"

After our brainstorm, we read an article together outlining some of the major issues facing the region. I did my best to provide background information as necessary.  I hope it was accurate, because my French isn't that great.

Many students offered their suggestions. The following was my favorite, all the more so because he was totally serious and his classmates eagerly supported the idea:

"Ok, well, I don't entirely understand the science of it, but what if, like, we sent some astronauts into space. They could go find a big rock, what are they called, asteroids? And then they could just aim it at Afghanistan. We would save a lot of money on bombs that way, and there wouldn't be any radiation like with a nuke." (I know what you're thinking: But what if it burns up or breaks apart in the atmosphere? Don't worry, another student brought up this same concern, and the class decided they should choose an extra big asteroid just in case. If it takes out a little of Pakistan...meh).

I skipped over the "science of it" myself, but we had a discussion about the political ramifications of destroying an entire country full of innocent civilians and a governments with whom we technically are friends. We are fighting a war in Afghanistan, but not against Afghanistan? Minds were blown.

I also liked the suggestion that we bring all the troops home, but send all the police officers in America to the Middle East in their place. "That way the soldiers can get some rest, you know?"

In all seriousness, though, it was pretty easy to make a guess as to their future political affiliation based on their responses ("Well, we should just use less oil, then" vs "Why don't we just invade and take the oil that we need?")

Then, per the teacher's lesson plan, they wrote a paragraph starting with "The most important thing about the Middle East today is..." I did my best to give them a balanced, non-political, and accurate perspective, but a lot of them still wrote about the war with Iran and those pesky oil-based nukes. C'est la vie (and you thought I didn't know French!) Most of them got it though, more or less ... kind of a complicated issue for 50 minutes.

Here is a perspective from a particularly pragmatic student: "The important thing about the Middle East today is its oil. I say this because it says that more than half of our oil comes from the Middle East. They’ve also threatened to stop supplying it to us. That’s made us stop in our tracks a few times. There is no point trying to hide it, that’s the most valuable thing about the Middle East.” 

And from a more sensitive one: "The important thing about the Middle East today is for us to realize that war isn’t everything and to make it stop. I think we should just leave them be. We should try to make the Middle East our friend."


Ultimately, it was a fun lesson to lead. I wish more teachers would make an effort to keep kids up to date on current events. Or that more adults would make the same effort, for that matter.

Oh, and I might be striking it rich soon. I bet each student $100 that Obama and Romney would bring up Iran, Syria, Libya and Israel in the presidential debates...which they totally did. No one has paid up yet, but if they do I've got about $15,000 coming my way. And if they don't...well, at least it made a few of them watch the debate, and I even got a few "You were so right!" comments. For a teacher, that is priceless.