book review: i am malala

If you don’t already know the story of Malala, you MUST look it up!

She is amazing! I knew a little of her story, but absolutely loved reading the whole thing! I also read the children's story when I was babysitting and loved that as well! Especially the illustrations. You can find it here.

Since I am a teacher, a lot of her words deeply touched me. I even shared her story with my students because I was constantly in awe at how much she valued education insomuch that she would have given her life for it. Because she lived, she now has more power to make a difference in the lives of others and to provide them with education. We take so much for granted here in America where we have endless materials, books, desks, and teachers whereas in many places around the world only boys can go to school or they have to walk such far distances or don't have the proper materials to learn.

I hope that we can all have an attitude like Malala where we cherish the opportunities that are given to us and are grateful even for homework because it is a sign that we are gaining an education. When her family was taken from their home, she couldn't even imagine a world where she couldn't take her books.

She did an interview on The Ellen Show that I loved here

In the interview, Malala talks about how going to school really allows you to learn about yourself and opens your eyes to what talents you have, your strengths and weaknesses, and how you can then go on to bless your community.

I wholeheartedly believe in this! Brigham Young University's motto is:

I feel so grateful to have gone to a school that embodies this as well! The things we learn really do influence who we become and the influence we have on the world. We can be such a force for good if we remember what we have learned and share that with anyone that crosses our path.

Our discussion during book club revolved a lot around education in all forms. As a room full of GIRLS that are all college graduates, the life that Malala lives seems  so far distant from anything we have ever experienced, but we talked about how there are those who earn a college degree to get a piece of paper and don't do a lot of learning and there are those that earn a college degree and come away with an education.

However, education can take on many different forms. It is not just sitting in a lecture hall taking notes about economics or writing papers about personal philosophies of psychology.

Education can be
-reading good books
-traveling and seeing different cultures
-having conversations with others
-going to museums and admiring art
-taking art or cooking classes
-trying something new
-hiking a mountain
-going on tours of government buildings

The list could go on and on! There are so many valuable skills we can acquire! I think it really is more about being open to new ideas and using what we learn that really qualifies someone for being educated. And sometimes learning from life can teach us far more than a formal degree ever could.

I think it is important for us all to be advocates for education and to support our government in allowing its people to become educated, as well as taking opportunities for ourselves, and inspiring our children to do the same.

Having an education is by far the greatest asset any of us can have as we use our knowledge to further our success and character, as well as contribute to society.

As a side note, there was also a political side to this book. I find that it is just as important as the education part because the government was the reason for Malala's fight for education. The law restricted girls from attending school.

When I was in Jerusalem, I grew such a love for the people there and for their commitment to their religions. However, I know that in other parts of the Middle East, there is no freedom. I was very humbled as I read Malala's side of what was happening in her world as the War on Terror ensued. I saw that America didn't always do that right thing and that even though their end goal was justified, they way they went about it was not right. The people in Pakistan had nothing to do with Sadam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, yet their world was being turned upside down, their cities destroyed, their houses abandoned as our country fought so violently to have these men destroyed. Majority of the people in these Middle Eastern countries were completely innocent bystanders. People who loved their country, the lives, families, and even their culture despite some of the restrictions based on gender.

I just hope that we can see people for who they are and to focus more on individuals, rather than clump whole races of people together and claim that they all believe the same things and would act radically. Mostly, we just need to L O V E and come together as we fight for things that really do matter in this world.

last day of school

It's still kind of surreal, but I finished my very last undergrad class at BYU. It has been an INSANE spring/summer. Lots of blood, sweat, and tears. Literally. But it's been good. I like being busy. Even though the stress was a bit much, I DID IT.

My semester was a little bit unique because it was a continuous spring/summer, not individual terms. I was taking 18 credits during spring because I had to finish my last TELL class and then it dropped to 16 for the rest of the summer. On top of class, during the month of May we had to finish our second practicum where I was teaching 3rd grade at the school I teach at now. And then the rest of the summer we had to set up our own classrooms. It was crazy.

I've been reflecting a lot on my experience at BYU over the past 4 years. It has been amazing. I have been involved with a lot of different things, met some amazing people, enjoyed almost all of my classes, and have grown in so many ways. BYU is an incredible place to be. It is unlike any other place on earth. We have the unique opportunity to gain a secular and spiritual education. I will cherish all those lessons where we got to connect the gospel to teaching, or science, or human development, or stats. There really are connections everywhere you look. I have spent countless hours on that campus taking in the beauty of it all. It truly was everything I could ask for. I'll probably do a post on BYU itself later on, but today called for a celebration. It feels great to be done. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me the next nine months, but I am so excited to be in my very own classroom!!

ENTER TO LEARN, GO FORTH TO SERVE

BYU MOTTO

classes and finals

I realized that I never even wrote about all of my classes and now here we are at finals week. I can't believe that two months has already flown by! And I can't believe how many amazing, wonderful things I have learned! It has definitely been information overload. Sister Allred described it like drinking from a fire hose and that's quite accurate. I love to learn though so it's been a blast. I knew that coming here it would be the perfect combination because of my love for history and religion and cultures but I didn't know how much I would come to enjoy the archaeology and the integrated methods of learning about other religions in depth and having hands on experiences and on site majority of the time to really grasp these concepts. It has been indescribable. The motto, the world is our campus, definitely rings true here. We are adventurers and pilgrims and students, and most importantly children of a loving Heavenly Father. I've not only learned the names and functions of the 5 pillars of Islam and the story of Gideon in the Bible, but also about tolerance, about love, and about dedication to the Lord.

Palestine
This class is about the start of Islam and the Muslim culture. We learned all about Muhammad and about which religions influenced Islam and how they practice their religion and about gender and art and architecture. Towards the end of the semester we focused on Palestine as a nation and their history since Israel became a nation and the wars and contention and peace treaties and intifadas and leaders associated with that. It's a bit complicated. Our professor, Bashir Bashir was passionate to say the least. It was always a roller coaster ride sitting in his class, but he liked to call it a party. We also had what he called "the blue bible" and we did so much reading that we started making groups and reading it together and discussing because there were so many pages.

Israel
This class focused on Judaism and the state of Israel. We started by defining Judaism as a people, a culture, a religion, a nation. Clearly this side is a bit complicated too. We talked about the Torah and the synagogue and the promises made to the children of Israel by God. We learned about Zionism and the establishment of the state of Israel and the wars that came along with that as well. Our professor Ophir Yarden is more calm than Bashir in his teaching but is still very opinionated. That was the most interesting thing about these two classes is that we were getting two completely different sides of the story as then we had to kind of decide what we believe and support based on what we were learning and we actually encouraged to remain more neutral while we're here.

Old Testament
A class that is supposed to be covered in 8 months, we covered in 2. I think that might be called insanity. It was fascinating though! It was nice to get a refresher because the last time I really studied the Old Testament was in 9th grade seminary and then briefly on my mission. It's probably the book of scripture I'm the least familiar with but also really enjoy learning about! And now, I feel very confident in my knowledge of it and can't wait to teach it in some way when I come home. There is some good stuff in there. Our emphasis was on what our teacher liked to call the plot. Our Heavenly Father's plan for his children to return to Him which is centered on the family. Take a look. You'll find examples of it EVERYWHERE in the Old Testament. As we learned about the scattering of the tribes of Israel which I had a basic idea of, we also learned about pretty much every single king that existed in both Israel and Judah after the kingdoms split. Holy cow, talk about a lot to keep straight! Dr. Allred is the head of the religion department at BYU-I and he is phenomenal! He would give us the history and the details that we needed but he always took the time to apply it to us and invited the spirit into every class. We love him!

Hebrew
This was the chill class of the semester. We learned the very basics of Hebrew and it definitely sparked my interest. We learned the whole alphabet in both block (what you see in books and street signs) and script (how you write) letters and the vowels and how to read. This was done by practicing English words in Hebrew. It was quite hilarious to listen in class because we sounded like 1st graders sounding out words haha! Our teacher also taught us Hebrew expressions so we can carry out short conversations in the city and she also taught us a lot about the culture through related items like the shofar or menorah. There have been quite a few Jewish holidays since we've been here so we got to learn a lot about them from Mrs. Goldman. She also taught us songs!

Near Eastern Studies
Dr. Chadwick's class is basically a culmination of everything we are learning. He gives us cultural context for things we are doing, he prepares us for field trips and most of all he teaches us the archaeological, historical, and spiritual significance of the places we are going and learning about in our other classes. He gives us his midterm in 5 question increments each week #blessings. He informed us that he is always working in our behalf. He has been teaching for 23 semesters here and has been involved over here for longer than that so he's really familiar with the program and has figured out exactly what works. That man is so smart! He makes everything sound intriguing and really does make learning fun because of his enthusiasm for it. He loves what he does and he's good at it. Did I mention he's a real archaeologist? That has been the most amazing thing about this educational experience is that each one of our professors is world-renowned. They know their stuff and they truly are scholars of this holy land.

Field Trips
Mostly every Monday we go on field trips. They are always a blast! We make sure we have our headsets and our 2 liter water bottles and off we go out in the wilderness, usually to look at rocks. It is fabulous! We go out with our religion class so we get taught by our religion teacher and then Dr. Whitchurch and Dr. Chadwick switch off being with our class as well. We also have a field trip manual which gives you lots of information about each place we visit and a few questions to answer which check comprehension.

 

Are you exhausted from reading all about it yet? It's a lot to take in. Trust me, I know. Above is the stack of books we've read in just the past two months. We truly are feasting after this knowledge. Since it's been finals week, I have never studied so much in my entire life. The one I spent the most amount of time on was Old Testament. A grand total of 10 hours. Wow. It sounds kind of crazy to spend so much time with your nose stuck in the scriptures (I mean it's not the most popular activity among young adults I'm sure) but it's also quite remarkable that we are gaining this knowledge and do enjoy becoming so well educated in such an important subject. Being unique is definitely a good thing in this case. We just kind of took our tests day by day and spent a fair amount of time reviewing and quizzing each other. I think we did an awful lot to prepare for this week and that we all have taken our education very seriously. It makes for a fun environment where we're all studying the same things and are willing to help each other and have the same dedication to being successful. It's been quite the whirlwind, but it's been so worth it!

 

Starting next week we just have Chadwick's class and then we start New Testament. And of course we'll still be going on plenty of field trips :)