Cairo/The Bronx

For the past five months, I've been teaching 9th grade Civics/U.S. Government in the Bronx. If you had walked into my classroom at any time over the last five months, you would have heard terms like limited government, democracy, dictator and popular consent. Many of my students see these as just words in a book or on a worksheet they were given in class. Like many of us, they hear terms like "democracy" but not really being sure what that means. Something that comes as a result of hearing but not necessarily thinking about it.

Today my 9th graders (all 90 of 'em!) and I were able to see these terms in action and it was one of best days in my three years of teaching.

The events unfolding in Egypt over the past two and a half weeks have been a microcosm of what I've been teaching this school year. My students have learned about different systems of government, created a government for a fictional nation and discussed the role that government should play in the lives of people (or more importantly, the role that people play in a government).

Today, in a whirlwind of timing and technology, I was able to take my students to Cairo, where what they have been learning this year was coming to life. As my students entered the room, the Al Jazeera coverage from Tahrir Square was playing on the board. We watched for a little bit and then moved into our lesson which reviewed the events of the last two weeks, as well as an analysis of photographs of the protesters in Cairo. We had a chance to use events that were happening in real time to assess their knowledge of democracy and government. During my 3rd period class,as students were completing their exit slips, we watched as President Mubarak officially resigned. With my last period class, we were able to watch President Obama's statement. In the latter case, I was able to sit down and watch it with them.

Today was a great day to be a social studies teacher. Too often, we are teachers of the past; today we were able to be teachers of the present. Now I can't guarantee that my students are sitting at home on a Friday night talking about what's next for Egypt but I do know that during the three hours that I spent with them today, they got to watch what they have learned in my class happen right in front of them. That is a wonderful thing.