Relevant education:

ABRAHAM'S VISION Graduation Day! film

Thursday, 14 October 2010

 

Too many young people are being taught to give up their dreams

before they have any experience attempting to pursue them.  

            -- Robert Fritz

"Education is simply the soul of a society

as it passes from one generation to another."

            -- Gilbert K. Chesterton  (1874-1936)

"Education is the transmission of civilization."

            -- Will Durant (1885-1981)

     On some campuses worldwide, alienated students of diverse cultures are stuck in their "campus wars" without mentors or tools to successfully communicate with the "other".
     Uncivilized, unprepared, and languishing, young women and men await educators who teach not only "about" conflict transformation but provide experiences "of" mature engagement -- relevant education.
     Successful engagement, communication, and learning together is here.
     Now irrelevant is the conversation about "some day" and "waiting for the future."
     See two inspiring examples of modern educators and students -- heroes of relevant education.
     Transmitting civilization.
   
                        - L&L



RELEVANT EDUCATION
East Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Oberlin
college students

      This 2010 year, a group of Palestinian, Israeli, and U.S. university professors and students are cooperating.
      In Spring, with a common source book and common syllabus, their students studied American democracy -- it's strengths, weaknesses, and future challenges.
     Online discussion forums, as well as Skype and video-conferencing, produced excellent communication and common ground  between students at the different schools.
     The professors and students created meaningful education despite surrounding challenges -- public pessimism, violence, boycotts, perpetual political failures.
     The exemplary professors are:

 

Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, Founder and Director of the American Studies Institute

Al-Quds University

mohddajani@americanstudiespalestine.org  and mohddajani@hotmail.com

 

Michael Zakim, Professor of History

Tel Aviv University

Zakim@post.tau.ac.il

 

Carol Lasser and Gary Kornblith, Professors of History (and married)

Oberlin College

Carol.Lasser@oberlin.edu and Gary.Kornblith@oberlin.edu

 

     During summer, 40 of the Palestinian, Israeli, and U.S. students finally met face to face at Oberlin College in Ohio to further explore their multi-cultural future and learn together.
     READ more:

 

Palestinian and Israeli students share cultural exchange

at Oberlin in American Democracy seminar

Oberlin News - 23 July 2010

http://new.oberlin.edu/home/news-media/detail.dot?id=2295629

By bridging Jewish and Arab cultures,

a pair of Oberlin historians hope to shape history

The Plain Dealer - Thursday, 05 August 2010

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/08/by_bridging_jewish_and_arab_cu.html


RELEVANT EDUCATION
California
high school students

     ABRAHAM'S VISION Graduation Day! is a new October 2010 film.
     On Sunday June 13, 2010, The University of San Francisco hosted Muslim and Jewish high school students graduating from the year-long Unity Program of Abraham's Vision.
     These 39 courageous teens had successfully learned together about Muslims, Jews, Islam, and Judaism, while strengthening relationships among themselves and with their own communities and religious traditions.
     In the Unity Program -- http://www.abrahamsvision.org/unity-program/unity-program/course-summary.html -- they also awakened to an expanded  understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli relationship.
     This hard-earned celebration in San Francisco gave voice to their dedicated faculty and to the students themselves whose lives changed by learning together.
     Graduation Day opened with  the co-directors -- a Jew and a Muslim -- introducing. . .one another. 
     VIEW the film online:

 

ABRAHAM'S VISION Graduation Day!

Muslim & Jewish youth learning together - 2010 

40 min documentary video

http://vimeo.com/15811594


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These and hundreds of other success stories are preserved at http://traubman.igc.org/messages.htm