Release date: June 27, 2002
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Associate Director, Media Relations,
at 404-727-0644 or dhammac@emory.edu

National Middle East Resource Centers Help Teachers Learn About Region

Understanding the political, religious and social dynamics of the Middle East is difficult enough for many adults. Imagine trying to explain it to a classroom of inquisitive kids.

Teachers across the country are getting help thanks to the U.S. Department of Education’s Middle East Resource Centers. These 15 centers, housed at Emory University, Harvard, Georgetown, the University of Michigan and others, bring the expertise of university faculty to primary and secondary schoolteachers working to close the knowledge gap on the Middle East. Community outreach is a major component of the centers, in addition to foreign language instruction, research, teaching and publications about the region.

Since becoming a National Resource Center last year, Emory has helped dozens of local educators become more prepared to teach their students about the complexities of the Middle East. Emory’s Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies has worked closely with the neighboring DeKalb County School District to develop a series of workshops examining various aspects of the Middle East.

The workshops were already in the works before Sept. 11, and since then the demand by teachers for more knowledge and information on Middle Eastern issues has only increased.

"The workshops could not have come at a better time," says Benjamin Ridgeway, curriculum coordinator for the DeKalb County School District. "The workshops have helped our teachers tremendously by providing them the information they need to deliver instruction."

Last November, social studies teachers received a crash course on the United States’ foreign policy in the Middle East. A workshop on the history of Middle Eastern writing systems in October received a capacity turnout. And, the department met the demands of teachers for information on the Koran with a two-part workshop in February. The workshops continue with a 10-hour course in August on "The Making of the Modern Middle East," and more will be offered quarterly.

Other schools housing Middle East Resource Centers include Ohio State University, Princeton University, New York University, University of Arizona, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Los Angeles, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas, University of Utah and the University of Washington.

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