Today was the last day in Casablanca.  I went to the high school with Mohammed in the morning and was able to observe a couple more classes.  The first was an English class.  It’s amazing what I don’t know about my own language.  The lesson was about past tense.  Left to my own devices I might have figured the easy part on my own: you add –ed.   I talked, I walked, etc.  Just as I was thinking how easy English verbs are to conjugate (the past tense is apparently independent of subject), I began to stumble: We eat-ed?  We go-ed?  I am-ed?  I bring-ed?   Argh, everywhere you look, irregular verbs!  The teacher was making the same point.  He was telling the class that they would need to memorize a list of 75 common irregular English verbs – “just learn five every day.”  A girl gave me a mean look. 
            My next thought was that it is a wonder that anyone becomes fluent in a second language.  I guess I was rationalizing my poor French (which nonetheless has served me well these last two weeks  - thank you Madame Bowman).  But after class I asked some students to do brief video interviews.  I gave them a choice of languages.  Once again I was blown away by their skills.  Some chose Spanish, some English, some French.  The best was a girl who spoke amazingly fluent English with an American accent.  When I asked her where she learned she said, “Oh I haven’t taken any lessons, but I like to watch American movies.”  That’s it, just watch some movies, no problem.

Then I attended a math class where students were doing more calculus. (Feel free to skip this paragraph if you haven’t suffered through precalc BC yet).  I was holding my own until the teacher put what was, admittedly, a pretty tough integration problem on the board.  In case you care, it was the integral of cos(x)^3.  I tried one method, and then another, but was not making much headway.  The teacher looked at my scribbles, took pity on me, and suggested representing cos(x) as ½(e^ix + e^-ix).  Distant memories stirred of doing this when I was taking graduate level math classes, but definitely not in high school.  I love complex exponents!
            That being said, I have observed that this same class does not do as well when given out-of-the-blue questions, which are my favorite.  There is a lot more memorization in Moroccan education, but less emphasis on problem solving and synthesizing ideas.  You need both skills really.  If you could blend the best of American and Moroccan education you’d have some pretty formidable students.
           

After morning classes I took the train from Casablanca to Rabat. Total cost $3, but for an extra $2 I upgraded to first class.  Probably the only chance I’ll ever have.  Along the way the lyrics “Take the train from Casablanca go in style…” floated through my mind.  (A reference that may escape those of you under 40).  Somehow the train covered a 3-hour bus trip in under an hour, or at least the first class did. 
            And now I am in Rabat awaiting the arrival of my American colleagues.   It is time to find a café for some serious relaxation.  Until tomorrow…

 

    Today I followed a class through the morning.  I should mention that, unlike American schools, students here are grouped by major.  The class I was with was a physics class.  That means that they are destined to major in a physics-related topic at a university once they finish this year.  The entire class follows the same schedule throughout the day.  Altogether they take 8 different courses, but their schedule varies depending on the day of the week.  Today I sat in on a French class, a math class, and an English class. 
    The French class was not so different from what I've experienced in IHS, except this was the students' 6th year of French and they speak it every day, so they're pretty fluent.  Today they were studying a Moliere Play, "Le Bourgeois Gentil Homme."  The teacher showed a video of one particular scene and the students were discussing the use of humor.  (Side note: the school has exactly one computer projector; the teacher had to schedule its use well in advance.)
    The math class was taught in Arabic.  The good news is that I understood the math portion, which was integration by parts.  It was brought home to me that most of the world, including us, uses Arabic numerals (shhh, don't tell homeland security), so that part was easy.  The students were extremely competent.  They don't have calculators so they're pretty fast with their calculations (is that a paradox?).  For most of the class the teacher called students to the board and then, as far as I could tell, yelled at them in Arabic while they did really hard math.  It looked like a lot of fun.  Arabic is a really cool language, I just want to say.  It's written from right to left, so that means that as the students move from one class to another they alternate from writing right to left, to left to right.  I'm convinced that has to be good for your brain.
    The English class was amazing.  They never actually got to the lesson, which was infinitives vs, gerunds -- just as well, I was terrified of being called upon to explain the difference.  Instead they started with a discussion of drugs (bad).  Then they said that someone who uses drugs wouldn't go to heaven.  Then they wondered about people who aren't Muslims: do they not go to heaven if they use drugs?  Do they go to heaven even if they don't use drugs?  This lead to a discussion of sin, and whether only Muslims have sins or whether there are universal sins.  This road carried us to sex (of course, drugs and sex, the ubiquitous adolescent topics).  A discussion of adultery versus prostitution ensued (which is worse? and what about male prostitution?), and finally, is it okay to take pleasure from sex? 
    I kept waiting for class to break down into snickers and giggles, but amazingly they just kept going.  The teacher, my host, Mohammed, occasionally asked for clarification, but mostly he just facilitated.  I guess what most amazed me -- in addition to the fact that this conversation was going on in English, their 3rd language -- was their open-mindedness and maturity.   Their perspective was: these things are forbidden for Muslims, but are they inherently bad?
    Anyhow, it was a pretty humbling day.  I would have had a hard time competing in any of these classes.  They don't have a lot of technology here, but they definitely have the discipline and the brains.  Here's a link to a very brief VIDEO clip.  Unfortunately I was so entranced by the English discussion I failed to record it.  You just get French and math.

    So part of the point of this journey is for me to interact with my Moroccan teacher counterparts.  I have been hosted by Mohammed, a teacher in Casablanca, and  today we visited his school and observed some classes.
    In some ways the Moroccan education system is similar to that of the U.S., but there are also some striking differences.  Students here attend classes 6 days of the week.  School goes from 8:00 to noon, then has a two hour break for lunch, and afterwards reconvenes from 2:00 to 6:00.  The system here is based on the European model; there are national exams in every subject at the end of each year, culminating in baccalaureate exams, which determine whether a student will get into a university.
    Classes are about the same size as IHS, but the school has far fewer resources.  There are no honors classes, however students are separated according to subject emphasis.  So some students are in the science track, some are in the humanities track, etc.  Once you are in a designated track your classes are pretty much prescribed and you travel with the same peers all day.  Everyone takes classes in Arabic (the language of instruction), English and French, as well as Islamic studies, sciences, "maths" as it called social studies and technology.  As you might expect, students are unfailingly polite.  Everyone is well dressed and attentive.  Students sit in pairs and it is common for them to greet each other upon entering the classroom by kissing both cheeks, ie. boys kiss boys, and girls kiss girls.  Picture that in IHS.
    One of Morocco's greatest educational challenges is that many students (45%) drop out before they finish high school.  In contrast to "No Child Left Behind" America, Morocco has more of a Sink or Swim attitude.  Although I observed several excellent teachers today, I noticed that none of them called on students by name, but rather relied upon volunteers.  At no point did I see a student ask a question on their own initiative.  Students sit where they wish, so in the back of every classroom there is a collection of students who do little work, don't really understand what's going on, don't get called on, and are not encouraged to ask for help.  These are next year's drop outs. 
    At the front of the room are the best and brightest, and they are extremely bright.  Today I heard discussions on human rights, the role of the United Nations, and the pros and cons of global education.  In one particularly poignant exchange a girl discussed her desire to study medicine in France, but said it was important to her to be allowed to wear a headscarf.  (I have not seen any full burqas, but about half the girls do wear head scarves, known as hijabs.  These are now banned in France.)  She made a pretty strong case, citing right to education, freedom of movement, freedom of expression and religious freedom.