Framingham Public Schools
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Live lessons By Charlie Breitrose/ Daily News Staff Wednesday, February 8, 2006 FRAMINGHAM -- Rather than turning the pages of a book to learn about life in Africa, students at Fuller Middle School got a lesson straight from the source. Elizabeth Siwo-Okundi, a 26-year-old Kenyan, visited sixth-graders at Fuller last week to share her knowledge and experiences with them. "I try to connect in ways with students that they can understand and appreciate, and not feel bogged down with a history lesson," Siwo-Okundi said. She told the students about what life is like in Kondu Bay, a rural part of Kenya where she grew up -- the food people eat, the customs, the stories and even the music. Siwo-Okundi delighted the students by flipping on one of the latest hits from Kenya, and showing them how folks cut a rug in her country. She invited the students to join her and had a couple dozen boys and girls boogie-ing in the front of the auditorium. Siwo-Okundi moved to the Bay State from Kenya to get her master’s degree from the School of Theology at Boston University. Now she spends some of her time speaking to groups about her native land, and the rest of the continent. "My intent has always been for people here to understand how large Africa is and that it is not one little place that is all alike," Siwo-Okundi said. "I want to show people how many similar experiences we have." The money Siwo-Okundi receives for speaking, and other work she does, goes to the Homa Bay Children’s Home, an orphanage she worked for in Kenya. Last year, Fuller students saw a performance by Masai dancers from Kenya. The visitors were a hit, said district social studies coordinator Karen Waldstein, and one of them was a teacher so the school started a pen-pal exchange with some of his students. This year, instead of having a performance of traditional dances, Amy Trompeter, a sixth-grade social studies teacher at Fuller, decided students might learn more from a typical Kenyan. She got the idea after taking a course this fall at Boston University with African studies professor Barbara Brown, who has a list of people who visit schools. Trompeter got together with teachers from Walsh and Cameron middle schools in Framingham to bring in a series of speakers to the schools. The teachers applied to the Framingham Education Foundation for money, and received the first-ever grant from the Irving August Fund, which was founded by a Framingham resident who wanted to build ties between the town and other countries. Besides Siwo-Okundi’s visit, Fuller students will be visited by a man from Benin, and later this year other Africans will visit Cameron and Walsh, Trompeter said. "The kids are studying Africa, so this is a great connection," Trompeter said. "It’s important (for them) to hear the perspective from someone who is from the country, and is not a presenter (for a certain cause)." Life for children in Kenya can be quite different than the typical American childhood, Siwo-Okundi said. "How many of you had to go to the stream to draw water for a bath? How may many of you had to take the cows out to graze? How many of you had to milk the cows, all before going to school?" Siwo-Okundi asked. "These are some of the things students of your age have to do in Kenya." Coming to the United States has taught Siwo-Okundi a few things too. Sometimes people she meets in America will ask her strange questions, and after a while she figures out the source of such weird notions. "People asked me once, ’Do you have an elephant as a pet?’ or ’Do you have giraffes in your back yard?’" Siwo-Okundi said. "I thought ’How absurd.’" The first time Siwo-Okundi saw a giraffe was in 2001 when she visited a zoo in the United States. "Then I found out that these were thing people see on TV," Siwo-Okundi said. "Oftentimes, mistakes we make are from something we see on TV, and assume everything on TV is true." In the Kenyan school system, students are not guaranteed access to higher levels of education, even high school. Only those who score well on tests will move to higher levels, Siwo-Okundi said. Schools are free, but not in the same way that American public schools operate. There is no charge for school, Siwo-Okundi said, but uniforms are required and sometimes a family cannot afford the proper clothing. She encouraged the Fuller students to go as far as they can. "If you have the opportunity to go to school and get an education for free, I hope you take advantage of that," Siwo-Okundi said. |
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