Education

Education

Jan 18 - 24, 2017
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Gulf Weekly Education

Working in international schools opens your eyes to different cultures, traditions and religions on a daily basis. 

Children quickly understand, accept and learn from each other and are often very proud to share stories and culture from their countries of origin which is a rich vein for teachers to tap into.

I remember watching two Year 6 teachers expertly teaching this concept in a creative way that helped children to understand national identity in a way that went far beyond the standard flag drawing and food tasting lessons that this type of learning can often become.

Announcing to their classes that they were going to create a new country from scratch initially met with little enthusiasm. But once they explained that they would have total control of their country’s name and what went on there, the children began to show decidedly more interest.

First they began to identify their own countries and other countries around the world including what gave them their identity: food, flags, anthems, exports, governments and religions etc.

They learned how climate played a large part in defining trade opportunities and quickly started to understand a lot more about their home countries. The two classes then went their separate ways and each one was split into departments of trade, the environment, education, justice and tourism to create their own country.

Each class set about developing campaigns to promote their country or develop its legal and social systems. The results were magnificent. Over a long afternoon, the children began to think and work like a team with pride in their new country quickly developing.

The project ran for half a term and incorporated writing, maths, PE, (the children made up their own national sport) geography, social studies and RE.

After four weeks, the two classes met their neighboring country (the other Year 6 class). One class had opted for a tropical environment, so their principal export was tropical fruits. The other class had opted for a European environment and offered potatoes and root vegetables.

Each class agreed to trade sack-for-sack and an economic environment was born. At the end of the project, the children discussed their learning as a year group. Their passion was palpable.

They had elected leaders, built systems of social care, composed national anthems and shaken hands with those from the ‘other country’ in a declaration of unity. In a multi-cultural country like Bahrain, a learning experience like this can help children to understand their own countries of origin in more depth by putting them into the context of a world community rather than just focusing on their languages and flags. 

As the world gets smaller through the internet and social media, taking a moment to help children understand what actually makes a country tick is the first step in helping them to make sense of the ever-changing world around them. 

In time, it can help them to question some of the world’s many problems and could encourage them to consider how some of those problems could be solved.







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