What if We All Wore Name Tags

Teaching Children

This morning I was a guest teacher in a Pre-K class at a school I had never been to. It was me, their teacher, and 23 4-year-olds. Our lesson was my favorite book of the moment, The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems, followed by a very nice lesson in personal hygiene-- the stuff that Pk kids go nuts for! A song about bath time, that kind of thing.

I brought name tags with me of the HELLO MY NAME IS variety. Some had pigeons on them, some had the man from the book on them. I called each kid one by one, had them come over by me. I told them my name, and asked what their name was. Then I gave them each a name tag (23 scotch tape circles made up in the 5 minute prep time I had before they arrived). I called them by name whenever I could during the hour. Their teacher said "You already know their names!" (I was reading them, but I think the effect was the same. We all like to hear our names).

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Teaching Adults

This afternoon we had lesson two of the new classes we are offering refugees. The first class was a small one and I tried to take note of their names, but I had a hard time remembering them. When the second group came two hours later, I had a great idea.

I pulled out the name tags that were leftover from the morning. One by one I asked them "Do you want to be a man or a pigeon?" and then I asked them their names and put them on the tags (tape circles prepared, of course, only 7 this time). I had a name tag on myself (pigeon). Most of them wanted to be a man (the 4-year-olds wanted to be pigeons). For one guy, I insisted that he be a pigeon, mostly because he really resembled the pigeon in the story (but I didn't tell him this). He had the same funny expression. I said. "You ARE a pigeon!" He laughed and said "Uccello! Bird!" He is learning Italian, too.

We had our lesson in the Kitchen. Cooking and baking are great activities for getting to know each other, making a group and dealing with the problem of different language levels. Everyone learns in the kitchen. We teachers learn, too.

We made chocolate chip cookies.

Two groups-- two VERY different batches of chocolate chip cookies.

Group one: They opted for less chocolate than the recipe called for. Big Cookies. They used an ice cream scoop to make theirs perfectly round. They were enormous, fluffy. They were Delicious.

Group two: Creamed their dough forever. Even less chocolate! Put their small cookies very close together. They became one big flat cookie. They tasted like my mom's cookies. They were Delicious.

We declared that we had made the best Pakistani-American cookies ever known to humanity.

It was a blast. They had fun, Jason and I (we are teaching together) learned some Pashto (No problem! Thank you! My name is Karoline! Nice to meet you!). We became a group of friends just hanging out.

The people chosen to attend these classes are highly motivated and are taking other classes as well. They want to speak English and Italian. They want to work humble jobs in restaurants. Their expectations are low -- they are positive, driven, and thankful.

In the kitchen, they told us about their trips over. Coming to Italy took one month.  They crossed 7 countries to get here. They walked and were trafficked in a container with 67 other people. They were all arrested upon arrival in Europe. The day they were fingerprinted however, was the day the cowntdown began towards being in Europe long enough to have the family come. Most of them have been here for 11 months, in another 9 they may be able to see their children again.

In the classroom, I asked about why they left.

Their region is close to Afghanistan. They had escaped because the Taliban had taken control of the main highway going through their region to Afghanistan, interrupting services, transportation, deliveries. They now controlled everything. They were given a choice: stay and be killed, or leave the household and their belongings. They left, just like I would have done in their position.

Four of them left wives and children behind because the trip would be too difficult for the children (I can't stop thinking about them). Once they are in the country long enough their families should be able to join them in a safer and more humane way. In the meantime they told me they worry every day about their safety.

I asked the second group, the advanced ones, if they worked in their home country. They did. There was a tailor, a grocer, a real estate agent, a marketer for Coca Cola, a cashier in a clothing store, and a pharmacist.

Jason asked them their specialty in the Kitchen.

"Tea" they said. "Tomorrow, we make you tea!"

Then they took off their name tags to go home and I thought about how nice it would be if we all went out into the world wearing name tags.