Teaching About the Middle East

Videos for Teaching the Middle East in the Precollegiate Classroom

Notes by Michael Fahy, CMENAS, U. of Michigan (Click here for PDF version for printing.)

This video is an excellent introduction to the Arab world especially suited for late elementary and middle school students, but it is appropriate for secondary students at well. The brief presentations of the lives of young people from five different countries-Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait, and Morocco-in and of themselves impart something of the range and variety of a region that is far more richly hued than the monochromatic images that many young viewers unfortunately receive from the commercial media to which they regularly exposed. The five biographical sketches of everyday lives are integrated into a coherent narrative that succinctly covers a number of aspects of Arab culture and society, while imparting something of the diversity and continuity that together characterize the region as a whole.

A number of young people (and, for that matter, adults) in this country are confused by the seeming overlap of the terms "Middle East," "Arab world," and "Muslim world," and this video does a very good job of distinguishing between them and clarifying their meanings at an early stage in the narrative. The centrality of the family, the range and content of religious belief and practice, the importance of friendship, different modes of personal comportment (e.g., kissing among men as a form of greeting) and something of the contrasts between generations are all represented here and provide teachers with a number of themes that can serve for class discussion.

One of the great attractions that Young Voices holds for educators, and one of its great advantages, is the biographical structure of the narrative. All cultures cherish some form of story-telling and, for better or worse, the most compelling stories in contemporary American culture (one need only consider the popularity of People magazine, the Biography channel or ubiquitous, non-clebrity "human interest" segments in the media) seem to be ones that are organized around individual lives. In Young Voices, the generic, "typical" (which often translates as "stereotypical") Arab is supplanted by intimate glimpses into the lives of young people with whom most of their American counterparts can easily identify.

For example, Mohammed, who lives in Jordan, is not only shown visiting the mosque with his father, or attending to his prayers at home, but actually afforded an opportunity in the video to explain the importance his faith holds for him in simple and personal terms to which any young American, regardless of his or her religion, can easily relate. No less importantly, his particular religious observance is depicted here as integrated into a life which, from the sports posters on the wall to playing with a friend on the computer, many young Americans will find otherwise very familiar. The leitmotif here, and throughout the film, is that "different" does not have to equate with alien.

The segment on Mohammed is immediately followed by one on Tamara, a teenage girl from Lebanon who, we learn, is not Muslim but Greek Orthodox Christian. It is one thing to point out to students the religious diversity of the Arab world-and the video discusses the shared heritage of Judaism, Christianity and Islam-but the juxtaposition of these two segments serves to give it a human face. In this segment, Tamara makes reference to the civil war that in years past brought devastation to her families home and to the country as a whole, and we are given glimpse of the damage still visible in buildings and homes. This is one of the admirable features of the video, that it acknowledges something of the travail which has been experienced by many of the people living in the Middle East. Importantly-and in contrast to what many young Americans will have been exposed to-conflict as such is not accorded the position of the exclusive representation of the region, but integrated in an honest fashion into the story of the life of a young person who, while acknowledging it, also shares many of the experiences (e.g., going to camp, liking to dance) and aspirations of American students who will view the film.

Together with three other biographical sketches in the film, these segments convey in a very compressed and eloquent way a cross-section of life in an Arab world that is characterized as much by contrast as it is by continuity. Here are the stories of Arab teenagers who live in nuclear, extended and, in one instance, single-parent families. Many of the notions of the "exotic" that young viewers may bring to the film, will yield to depictions of their counterparts in the Arab world bike-riding, roller-blading, jammin' to their Walkmans and, in some instances, shopping at supermarkets that after all don't look that different from what is familiar to most Americans. Here are stories of young people who speak directly about their experiences: holidays they love, their favorite meals, their plans and dreams for the future, the quarrels they have with their siblings and the ways in which they both love their parents and rebel against some of their ideas.

If there is a single drawback to this video, it is perhaps the extent to which the lives depicted are exclusively middle class and above-in this respect the video is not entirely representative of the realities of the Middle East. On the other hand, it does a very admirable job of portraying much of the distinctiveness of life in the Arab world and the video abounds in representations of much that is "traditional" in the region as well. . Running at approximately 30 minutes, it is fast-paced enough to hold the attention of young people, and provides a wealth of information and "educational moments" that can be used in the classroom. Teachers interested in addressing curricular standards and benchmarks will find the accompanying Teachers Guide very useful. It is hard to do better than this.

Notes by Michael Fahy, CMENAS, U. of Michigan

This video is available for loan to Northern California teachers from the Schools Program/BAGEP, WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL, 312 Sutter St., Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94108, tel 415-982-3263.
It can be ordered from: AMIDEAST, 1730 M Street NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20036-4505, Phone: 202/776-9600, Fax: 202/770-7000, Email: inquiries@amideast.org, Internet: www.amideast.org.