Graduation Reflections – Spring 2006

Graduation this year was bittersweet for me as my 8th grade students graduated last week. The class was a very accomplished class, with gangly kids, foreign students, races and religions of all sorts, and bright and ambitious young people inspiring to do great things. I have had bright classes and ambitious classes before, but this one had that rare blend of both. A significant fraction of the class made it into a elite local charter school, while most of the others will be going on to Catholic college prep-schools with various honors and scholarships. It was a wonderful year and I had such eager students and supportive parents.

In contrast, students in Baghdad, Iraq recently completed final exams. For many of the 12-year-olds bent over their exams in classrooms, where the stifling heat already edged toward 117 degrees, Wednesday’s tests would signal the end of their families’ days in Iraq, with the summer holiday approaching. With the school year reaching its close, and life in Baghdad unbearable for many, some of the mothers at al-Mahaj school in north Baghdad’s Adhamiyah neighborhood began collecting the school records of their sons and daughters when calamity happened.

I will miss our lunch time conversations about our favorite books, from what we anticipate will happen in the last Harry Potter book, to how much to believe in the Da Vinci Code. We discussed how the Catholic Church leaders were upset, “Do they really think people won’t think or research for the truth? What does it say about them if they don’t want to even discuss it? It’s just fiction isn’t it?” And one of my Hindu students pointed out that she found her copy in the fiction section. Other school activities I will miss are the Anne Frank lessons, laughing over the poetry of Billy Collins and "yet another favorite poet, Miss G?", and various other literature lessons to begin anew next year.

The shooting sprawled over three neighborhoods – one Sunni Arab, one mostly Sunni, one Shiite – where busy streets form the otherwise unremarkable dividing lines. Insurgents, Shiite militias, Iraq’s overwhelmingly Shiite police, the slightly more trusted army forces – all were said to be in the fight. Residents could not be sure, or tell how it started. In the fights that roil many of Baghdad’s neighborhoods, with automatic-weapons fire heavy and explosions sounding, no one without a gun sticks his neck out to investigate.

I will miss watching their friendships continue to grow and watching them struggle to get their minds around concepts like stoiciometry in science and deconstructionism in literature, and of course, geometry. But struggle they did, and they got it. They sent packages and letters to troops overseas and sought out other ways to help in the community.

In comparison with their peers in Iraq, for whom staying alive and cool may be more important as final exams commence. School guards with AK-47 assault rifles stood watch around al-Mahaj. Fathers chatted outside, their own pistols discreetly hidden under shirts or tucked away close by in their cars: Kidnapping is rampant in wartime Baghdad. Then, sometime after 9 a.m., bullets started flying. The 12-year-olds, well into their math tests, “were terrified,” screaming and sobbing, said Um Bakir, a mother who recounted the battle that broke out in north Baghdad. Drivers on one main street turned around and sped back out, flashing their headlights to signal oncoming drivers to do likewise. Iraqi forces blocked another street as a vehicle carrying Iraqi soldiers rushed through.

It’s like the fossas (the nick name Sean gives the students from the movie Madagascar) suddenly grew up into these mature, wise, beautiful people and then they have to leave. I wish my students the best and I look forward to another year like this one. The hardest part for me of course, is showing up to work the following day to an empty classroom. No laughter in the hallways, no smiles to greet me at the door, no challenging questions, just silence and emptiness.

In the official account, provided by Col. Sami Hassan at the Interior Ministry’s operations center, insurgents had attacked an army checkpoint near the school. The insurgents then withdrew, seeking cover “inside residential structures,” Hassan said. Soldiers chased them through the area, past shops and schools. Hassan said three policemen and eight insurgents were killed in the fighting.

To the class of 2006—I will miss you—go and do the great things I know you will, and always remember your roots.

To the class of Baghdad 2006, our prayers go out to you. We wish you safe passage to family retreats, safety from bad people preying on another man’s religion and way of life, and support from your fellow students in free lands is at hand. May 2007 bring new light and learning to those who wish harm on young adults and education and experience provide a guide to things to come.

To the class of 2006!

Original Story: Fear reigns at end of Iraq school year (ELLEN KNICKMEYER and SAAD AL-IZZI, The Washington Post, Published: June 1st, 2006)