Palestine

I got a call about a week ago from friend offering, as he put it, an opportunity and an adventure. Marc is a psychologist who provides training and consulting services in the non-profit world, especially to private schools. He wondered if I would accompany him to Palestine in a few weeks to give a seminar to Heads of Palestinian private schools.

AMIDEAST (American-Mideast Eductional and Training Services) is an NGO with the purpose of strengthening "mutual understanding and cooperation between Americans and people of the Mideast and North Africa." In partnership with USAID they have developed a Model Schools Network program (MSN). The current focus is on improving the quality of teaching and learning among a network of 17 private schools in the West Bank, and this summer they are beginning a program of leadership training for those 17 Palestinian principals. They contacted Marc, no doubt, because of his leadership training work through NAIS. They asked him to bring along an American private school Head.

"So, that makes sense Marc, but why me? What could I offer Heads of School in Palestine? I can imagine that I could learn a lot from them, but what advice and insight could I presume to share with a group of people working in every sense on the 'front line' of education?"

Apparently, this was just the right question. Marc had pondered a number of Heads of your typical country day school and had concluded that they might have difficulty relating to the small size and difficult circumstances of Palestinian schools, whereas I, based upon the humble beginnings of Montessori School of Beaverton, possibly could.

And so humbly, and a bit reluctantly, I said yes. And so the adventure begins.

If I had any doubts, they are quickly being allayed as I find out more about the warmth and welcoming nature of Palestinians, as long as one approaches them with respect and without arrogance. I'm sure the trip will have moments of tension and discomfort but also awe and amazement.

On a side note: The Model School Network literature states that its goal is "to introduce a student-centered, contemporary approach to teaching and learning that takes into consideration child development at the physical, cognitive, psychological and social levels." It sounds like a description of Montessori, does it not?