Workshop Offers Teachers A Look At Middle East
Aworkshop on the current conflict in the Middle East, part of an award-winning

program supported by the Ford Foundation, will provide participating teachers with an insider's look at the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, with special attention to the role of the United States and the current conflict in Lebanon. Teachers will participate in six events at Queens College, to be scheduled in the late afternoon and early evening, at which leading members of the American policy community, prominent spokespeople from the Middle East, and journalists will provide up-to-date information in small group sessions. Middle Eastern food will be served in the context of this special class, called a "Learning Community," which brings together diverse Queens College students- Israelis, Palestinians, American Jews and Muslims, and others, as well as senior citizens- in an effort to promote informed, constructive discussion.

Teachers will also receive a stipend of $500 and will be required to create a unit of curriculum based on their experience in the workshop. Graduate credit or P credit may also be arranged.

As the testimony of an assistant principal and experienced teacher from Forest Hills H.S., quoted at length below, demonstrates, this program provides multiple benefits to the participating educators.

"As members of the 'Clash of Civilizations or Meeting of the Minds' program at Queens College, we have become part of a wider learning community, been taught by leaders in the field and have met with experts on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from Israel, the Palestinian territories and the United States. The readings, discussions and expert panels have informed how and what we teach about this conflict in our classrooms. We became involved with this program several years ago as a way to improve our own understanding of the history and events surrounding the conflict and we value the importance that multiple perspectives play in this program, especially when we reflect upon our own diverse classrooms. The use of the multiple perspective approach has helped us tackle this topic, and we have applied it to other topics in the curriculum. Teachers create and share resources that help us teach not only the content but also higher order thinking skills, like analysis of the media and the role of propaganda. Our students have become better at asking questions that get to the heart of an issue, even when there may be no clear cut answer. They were given the opportunity to attend sessions with representatives from both sides. By having direct contact with these people, as well as with the material derived from the program, the students were engaged, active participants in their own learning, searching for and analyzing new material to bring to the class. Our students used the material they learned as part of their response on the NYS Regents exam. All history teachers, whatever their background, would benefit from becoming members of the program."

Interested teachers should contact Professor Michael Krasner at mkrasner@sover.net.

The workshop will begin in early September.