Classrooms Across Cultures

Hands-on chemistry for high school students.
In 2006 Camilla and another teacher were invited to the remote valley of Zerak for teacher training of hands-on high school chemistry. The region is so remote that they appeared to have been the first Westerners to visit. The two roads leading into the valley passed through Taliban-infested regions.

The high school served 1200 students, mostly Hazara. Girls attended school in the afternoon, boys in the mornings. Teachers were both male and female.

The elders and their families learned too!
The two teachers lived for a week in the home of village elders. During the day, they taught students and teachers; at night, they shared the lessons with the elders and their extended families. The older generation of elders and their wives could neither read nor write, but they were extremely interested in the science lessons. They supported the school whole-heartedly, saying “We don’t want our children to be illiterate like us.”

It was a community affair!
The highlight of the trip was seeing the teachers’ excitement at viewing their first actual “experiments.” Rote and book learning were all they had ever known. The lessons were so popular that students invited their parents and townfolk to attend the training seminar – which they did!