Strangers No More-KRISTIN

What: Strangers No More

Video about a school in Tel Aviv, Israel

When: March 21, 2012

The Movie, "Strangers No More"was a movie about how a school in Tel Aviv, Israel that had a population of mainly refugee and migrant workers.  It was titled "Strangers No More " simply because this school enrolled students from all over the world infusing languages, cultures and backgrounds  where each student comes to the school as a stranger with a unique story yet with the common goal of receiving an education.   Most of the children who enroll in the school have faced some sort of trauma prior to coming to the school, for example one boy fled Sudan after watching his father and mother murdered before him.  The reason why the school is so successful in educating these students is because they approach education in a therapeutic and holistic way.  In that, the teachers are caring and nurturing but push their students to succeed. They look at the whole child-they get to know their personal story, they deal with not only their education but their health, family issues, legal issues-everything.  The school created a community where each person is valued for who they are--each student has a sense of belonging.  In addition the school has a strong leader and valuable/strong educators.  

After the movie they had a speaker who worked with the school and with many organizations around Ethics to discuss the background of the school and issues around education.  The point that he made that resonated the most was that the reason why this school was successful because the set of values that the country has.  They have a sense of brotherhood, they value the good of human kind.  Although he does fear that this sense of brotherhood is leaving the country as the gap between the rich and poor widen.   

Also he stated that the reason why the school is so successful is because of their teachers.  He said the virtues of a great teacher is to 1) Be Humane 2) Have a sense of a "mission" (wanting to do better for the greater good) 3) The support from the community/staff/admin 4) A holistic approach. He said that if we don't have trust in our education then it will never be successful--and we need to trust our teachers.  

Overall, he was one of the most well rounded/educated men in the field I have listened to.  He truly understands that the issues of education in that they form around the societal issues and their values.  I never looked at it that way but after he analyzed and illustrated this it became evident that perhaps as a society our value system is off- in that we don't value one another like we should.  

Highly recommend seeing this movie to grasp the "holistic"approach to education and for a simple pick me up about how teachers truly impact the lives of their students!