“Fellow passengers,
I know that living and learning in the ark for such a long time is uncomfortable,” says Noah our captain when we complain about our living circumstances.
Our cabin is tight for the five of us. Most days we are all in the cabin, working and studying from it. We exit for only short intervals to stretch and breathe some fresh air.
No doubt that learning in the ark is tough for students, parents and teachers alike.
In the ark, our daughters have seen their schooling as they knew it B.C. (Before Corona) deconstruct. In its place they have seen a new arising.
The old was known and familiar and since it was the only schooling they knew, it felt solid and secure.
Our two younger daughters study in the 8th and 10th grade respectively.
It’s been a few months since they have last been physically at school with their classmates and teachers. From time to time they meet them in person in volunteering projects in the ark-neighborhood. They distribute learning materials to the elderly or garden in different gardens around the “ark-city.”
Mostly they study online via zoom, from the cabin, often from their beds. At times they sit before a computer in the cabin’s dining room, and interact with their peers and teachers on screen. They complain they’ve had enough with screen time and can’t take it any longer. That’s when they take the liberty of selectively joining classes they enjoy and skipping all the rest.
Do I have a say on this? Does their father?
When we see them engage in something constructive we let them do their thing.
The good news is that the two of them persuaded us in buying them an app which teaches them how to play the guitar.
One day last week, the youngest came through singing and playing a song on the guitar. Her learning was contagious. The following week the middle one had broken her barrier too. Now they were playing together. On weekends when our eldest gets to come home, they teach her the guitar. Witnessing her younger sisters’ rapid progress on the guitar, she felt like going back to playing the cello.
During this last year in the ark, they have made a transition from passive learning to proactive learning.
Some free time, some down time, some flexible time where a student can be allowed to pursue her calling within school hours, is not a bad idea, I have come to realize, as it fosters personalized and proactive learning.
This is a teaching I got to learn while in the ark. Still, our daughters miss going to school, leaving the cabin, and meeting up with friends and teachers in the good old way.
No doubt we are all queezed into the ship’s belly together. The rough sea is shaking us all up, undoing our known, and solid living and learning ways.
As the waves hit the ark, and we sense their force pushing against the ship, captain Noah gets out on the deck to reassure us we will make it to the shore. Sensing our collective insecurity, he picks his words diligently.
I hear him say “Now that the waves are rough, let us watch out for each other. Those of you who feel calm, collected, and balanced, please make sure that the children and grandparents in our midst are safe and well.”
From Jerusalem with love,
Yvette Nahmia-Messinas