Woah--Final Project.

In a rare moment of decisiveness, I have chosen a final project!

Having been through many, many programs, schools, and trips that aimed to educate me about Israel's history, the history of the surrounding lands, and about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general, I feel that I have a solid sense of what's out there. I know the books favored by different types of Jewish educators, I know the techniques used to equip students like me with the tools necessary to think critically yet supportively about our Homeland (as we were taught to call it and as I still see it today), I know the stated goals of several different types of educational programs and the methods that are seen as most effective in achieving those goals. Participating in these programs and learning from these different types of teachers has also given me insight into ways that this sort of education could be greatly improved and could produce better educated people who are more able to empathize with people from different backgrounds and opinions about this conflict.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I believe in the cheesy cliche that "the children are our future". If we invest time educating Israeli and palestinian students of all ages (it's never too soon to learn about cooperation and peace), we'll be nurturing a new generation of empathetic, moderate, rational people who will be able to look past the fundamentalism, radicalism, or extremism of their parents' generation and come up with a peace plan that is fair to all and that will last.

So you're probably wondering where I'm going with this. I want to research effective ways of bridging cultural and religious gaps and create curriculum for Israeli and Palestinian youth so we can get this educational movement rolling! I've always been chastised for being a relentless optimist, so instead of growing older and "wiser" and more jaded, I'm just becoming more proactive about my high hopes.

This research will include looking at the question of normalization--how far can we take multicultural education without running the risk of dodging or dismissing the Occupation question? How can we challenge the Occupation while also acknowledging Israel's right to exist along with the right of the Palestinians to a state of their own?

Who knows what shape this will take; I might do an essay, I might make a few notebooks full of curriculum material (separate material for Israelis and Palestinians because each needs to be appealed to in different ways), I might to a mix of both.