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Are you a school student and you having a blog? I know that many of my friends (bloggers) are collage or university students, but I don’t know of any school bloggers, do you? (And by school I mean students who are 18 years old or less).

Why I’m asking is because of the following email which I received from an American teachers who is looking to “bridge” the gap between her students and our students (in other words, between East and West). Let’s read it to get the idea:

From: Julia Kidd [projectknow@hotmail.com]
Date: Feb 15, 2007 12:18 AM
Subject: American teachers would like advice
To: [haitham.sabbah@gmail.com]

2/14/07

Mr. Sabbah,

My name is Julia Kidd. I’m a teacher in a small town in Colorado, in the USA. My co-teacher, Josh Egedy and I are starting a unit with our 7th (12-13 years old) grade world history class about Middle Eastern cultures, religion, history and geography. We are pretty isolated where we live, and I’m unsure if any of our students have ever been in contact with a Muslim person. We are concerned, as educators that all the students know about the Middle East is what they get from the slanted US media coverage. We are concerned about the stereotypes they are developing and would like our students to get a better understanding of Islam, and Middle Eastern cultures. We would like to set up a blog with a school with a predominately Muslim population. The students could talk to each other about the current issues, and learn from each other. Do you have any ideas or contacts with schools? Thank you for your time and thought.

Julia Kidd

Unfortunately I don’t have any contact with schools or teachers (maybe I do if any of the bloggers I know is a teacher and I didn’t know that ).

All right, probably this is one of the most interesting ideas I’ve heard this year. Now, please consider this as an appeal for teachers and students in the Arab World (Muslims and Christians) to raise their hands up and join this initiative. I told Julia that I will publish her email to spread the word and she welcomed the idea. It is not easy to find a way to talk-to-others and getting your and their voices heard, specially when we know the truth behind the media and the noble cause these teachers are going after. Having said that, it would also be great idea if we build such bridges not only with the West, but even with Israel school students.

One problem we might face is the Internet connection and PC availability in the Arab world schools in general. I know for a fact that some classrooms in the Arab world don’t even have chairs, but better try than never.

It will be great to see this initiative sponsored by official or non-official organizations or at worst by independent activists. Personally, I will do whatever it takes to help in setting up the blog for this project if required and promoting it too. However, I know that for such a project to work on big scale it needs good investment (not necessary money, might be some of your time only!). So, if anyone has good ideas to get this initiative workable, we like to hear from you.

Let’s spread the word: If you have a brother, sister, son, daughter, etc in school, it will be great if you can encourage him/her to do this. If you are a teacher with or without experiences in blogging and need help to start, please don’t hesitate to ask. Let’s help or at least try to build a better future for our youngsters by building and supporting bridges between children’s of the world to talk and share knowledge.

Please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment following this post or writing to me here. Also don’t hesitate to contact Julia Kidd e-mail:projectknow@hotmail.com.

Good luck and hope to hear positive feedback.

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