Gray Areas

“We don’t learn so much by our successes as we learn by failures- our own and others, especially if we see the failures properly corrected”- Frank Lloyd Wright Coming from a closed off perspective of a black and white society it is hard to see the gray areas in other communities. Whether it is in the classroom with students, a government system, or an old religion that is new to me it is essential to assess the gray areas.

            In Morocco we have seen the gray areas largely played out in the government system along the lines of how they perceive everything to be beautiful but than we found out the amount of money a person gets paid. For example in our last home visit we talked with Fatimazahra mother Rabiee about what she does for a living, she told us that she works as a house cleaner for three houses. She works from 9 in the morning until 6 in the evening and in the middle she comes home to cook lunch for her kids. At this point in the discussion we asked her about rent and how much it was and she told us that it is 300DH a month. She only gets paid 150DH a month. After this we were all wondering how she makes this work and with very little detail she described to us that some how she finds a way to make it work every month. That made us realize one of the first gray areas in the government. The fact that a mother that cleans 3 houses a day is only paid 150DH a month and has no help from Grandma seems tremendously hard to live on to most people. Another case where we have heard this is from one of our translators Ikbal who has a Masters Degree and has worked extremely hard at her education still only gets paid 150DH a day which is not easy to live on. We have seen that the government in Morocco tries to cover things up by showing people the nice buildings and all the different types of things that they know will push peoples mind away from the problems.

            In the classroom, there is the risk of focusing more on the advanced or less advanced kids and than forgetting about the kids in the middle. In this situation these kids might not be focused on as much because they are quiet and don’t ask for help. For example in my class there is a girl name Sal Sabbil, who is very quiet but she is one of the kindest and humblest people there. Sal Sabbil from the start has always been quiet until one day when I got to pull her aside and do more one on one teaching with her and she broke out of her shell and unleashed her full potential. We soon found her amazing ability to pick up the new things extremely quickly and her desire to learn. From that point on Sarah and I have focused on really pushing our selves to make that extra effort to reach out to the quiet kids or the more reserved kids. Another gray area in education is the fact that some kids don’t have the strong family to push them towards their goal and support them but those kids still find the push and motivation to go to school everyday and grow as a learner. However this is a very rare case with most of the family I have experienced. For example on my home visit with Nicole and Karlie to Fatimazahra’s house the mom and grandma couldn’t have been more proud their little girl. They were endlessly saying that they would do anything to help Fatimazahra reach her dream. I think that the gray areas of education have been clearing up and being properly fixed because of the new king who has made all education free including 4 year of university at any school. I think this has helped kids and families want more for their kids because they know that they will don’t have to worry about the money side of things with the kids.  

            Last but not least the religion. The religion of Islam is a gray area to many people that have not experienced the culture of the Muslim people first hand. Most of the time in America we just see the negative side of cultures through the media.  Especially the Islamic culture because the media focuses on is ISIS or the dreadful things they are doing to people. However once you get past the black and white side of the situation and really dive in to the culture and religion you see the beautiful side of Islam, which includes welcoming everyone with open arms, forgiving people, and not judging other cultures.  Everyday we see images in the media depicting Muslims or the Islamic culture in a negative manner. Everyday the images I see first hand couldn’t be farther from that depiction of the Muslim people.

            In every country, culture, and religion there are gray areas that you would never be able to see looking from the outside in. However, as our group digs deeper into Morocco’s government, education, and religion, details we are slowly finding out how it is either growing for the better or covering more things up. Although we all wish everything was black and white in order to understand it better there will always the areas that will get lost along the way.