Occupied Minds

June 16, 2009

We met a young man today who may well change the world, at least this area of the world. He spent 10 years trying to make a difference through political activism, but became disillusioned with inept and corrupt decisions by self-seeking politicians. He decided that what was really needed was not just new leaders with the same baseless ideas, but a new generation that would understand what it means to generate evidence and make strategic, evidence-based decisions, not just political decisions in response to political favors. He is an engineer with a passion for teaching young children about the wonder and joys of critical thinking. He is so committed to this passion that he left a comfortable position in the high tech world to create an NGO with a mission to unfold the world of science for children. With the crisis in Israeli education, and the Israeli entrepreneurial talent and drive, this story might not be surprising, might even be expected.

However, he is not Israeli, he is Palestinian. Aref Husseini is the founder and president of Alnayzak, which means meteor. He picked us up at the main entrance to Hebrew University, because there is no public transportation that goes to his office on the Mt. of Olives. He apologized for being 20 minutes late; the Israeli authorities had slowed the flow of traffic through the checkpoint on the highway from Ramallah to Jerusalem. We drove along the road passing Augusta Victoria Hospital, a road that was in need of paving for 30 years, but it was not until the Pope's recent visit, that the job managed to get done. We entered the home of his program to find about 20 pre-teen girls and boys scattered on the floor or at work tables, actively and cooperatively struggling away on different puzzles that develop critical thinking skills. He led us into his office where we were entertained and inspired as he described his goals for Palestine and how he arrived where he is today.

Make no mistake about his political position. He said to us what he said at a lecture on Palestinian education at Hebrew University the day before, when asked if he was advocating for Israel to implement various strategies to improve educational outcomes. “End the occupation. We (the Palestinians) will figure it out for ourselves. I am not asking Israel for anything.” A discussion of what he means by “occupation,’ that is, the territories of Judea and Sumaria or Tel Aviv was left for another day. He had to deal with the checkpoint because he was returning from a meeting with the Palestinian education ministry about incorporating the enrichment programs that he has developed into the curriculum itself. “I have to start at the beginning, each time I meet with them, “he lamented. His strategy to address the huge gaps in Palestinian society (between rich and poor, Palestinians and other Arabs, Palestinians and Jews, Arabs in Palestine and Arabs in Israel) is to develop the one resource that Palestine has, human capital. “We have no oil, we do not control our natural resources, we only have our brains.”

East Jerusalem is especially perplexing with regard to educational policy and programs. Annexed by Israel in 1980, the Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem rejected Israeli citizenship. They have Israeli identity cards and Jordanian passports. As described in an earlier post, no Palestinians participate in the governance of the municipality because to do so would suggest to them that they are part of a political entity which they do not accept.

Aref finally convinced the Palestinian authorities to permit some of his programs in schools in the West Bank, not because they were convinced that they were effective (he doubted they were capable of assessing that), but because he brought money to the table from his international sponsors such as UNICEF and the Ford Foundation. He brings everything to the 25 schools he is working with—supplies, computers, training for the teachers—and there seems to be most uptake and interest in the periphery, rather than the cities. He bemoaned the tunnel vision, donor-driven funding with which he must contend. “ They all want coexistence, or gender, or peace, they don’t think science is important.” “We are not capable of managing a country. We have to teach the next generation how to think.” Religious indoctrination and rote learning are the opposite of critical thinking. “God isn’t the explanation for why something falls to the ground. There is something called gravity.”

His critique of the absence of thinking extended well beyond Palestinians. “Do you think we want to be Syria or Egypt? I prefer occupation. Palestine is the most democratic place in the Arab world.” “The salaries for my staff are all at the recommended level. My programs are not full of corruption.”

He was quite vocal about the separation that he has made between the world of politics and the world of science education where he has invested himself. He has refused to seek or accept the approval of Hamas or Fatah or any other faction, but working with Israel or Israelis would simply not be possible. His guiding star is the scientific method.

As we entered his car after our meeting (he was on the way to meet with Ford Foundation representatives), he pointed to the green and white banner, about the size of two license plates, extending from the lamp post nearby. “I have to deal with the religious authorities more and more. The sign is about religious rule…” and his voiced tailed off in dismay. I’d like to meet with him again to talk about politics, about threats to the existence of Israel, about rockets, about suicide bombers, but his passion for young people deserves attention and respect. It has almost become trite to advocate for education to improve the world, but Aref not only believes that that is the answer, but if you give him the time and the funding, he’ll prove it to you. There will still be political disagreements, even political disagreements that seem irresolvable--painful disagreements. If we have more people like Aref, however, not just teaching young people, but insisting that they immerse themselves in critical thinking and the use of evidence, expecting them to reject feeble analysis, at least we may be able to come to a point when we are arguing with each other and not at each other.