My Most Important Lesson

My most important lesson--but first some context. The educational system for the 33 million people in Morocco is incredibly centralized. A teacher should literally be on the same page doing the same lesson on the same day as every other teacher in the country for the any given subject. The leaders of twelve regional academies oversee this process. Even something as simple as a school visit or a teacher reassignment needs to go through the central educational ministry (thank French imperialism for this Byzantine system). 

Yesterday I gave a short talk on a typical day in the life of a student at Saint Stephen's to an eager English class. I didn't know that I was being filmed live on Facebook. The regional education director was in the capital at a gathering of the national education ministers. He saw the live streaming and showed it to everyone in the room, using it as an example of innovative activities that can be used in the classroom.

That is how a simple talk about my son John and my school became part of a national educational policy discussion.