BALTIMORE — TESOL 2016 started out Tuesday evening with a bang when opening keynote speaker Aziz Abu Sarah gave a moving and inspirational speech about the importance of breaking down barriers as educators.
Sarah describes himself as an explorer, cultural educator, peace builder and entrepreneur. He has traveled to about 40 countries working on bringing people together and finding ways to really communicate with one another.
His incredible life journey all started because of one teacher, and Sarah wanted TESOL 2016 attendees to revisit it with him. Why? Because educators are explorers — it's what they do. They inspire students to explore the world, to connect people together, to care, to make a difference.
He began by discussing how he was raised in an area that was the complete opposite of peace and communication: a Palestinian neighborhood about two miles outside of Jerusalem.
"Growing up in a conflict zone, you don't trust anybody who is different than you," he said. "Everything that is different is dangerous."
His first real introduction to the conflict came when he was watching the news one day and saw people throwing rocks at soldiers' cars. He and his friends decided they were going to join in the fun. Not knowing that they were supposed to throw them at Israeli cars, they ended up damaging their neighbors' cars.
"Your neighbors don't like you stoning their cars," Sarah said. He then understood what the conflict was about, but things only got worse as time went on.
As one of seven children, Aziz relied on his older brother Tasir as his educator — the one who took him to school, and the one who taught him about life. When Aziz was 9, Tasir was 18 and was arrested for suspicion of throwing rocks. When he refused to confess, he was taken into custody and beaten until he eventually would confess.
Just under a year later, Tasir was released from prison, but with severe consequences to his health from internal injuries. Eventually, he was hospitalized and died a few days after a surgery.
"This was one of the worst moments of my life," Sarah said. "Imagine yourself being 10 years old, watching your brother dying. Not because of natural reasons, but because somebody killed him."
Aziz Abu Sarah delivers a TED Talk in 2015 with a photo of him with his brother, Tasir, in the background. (Image: WordPress)
Sarah was enraged, and the only thing he could think about was revenge on the soldiers who arrested his brother. They were the enemy. For the next eight years of his life, his main focus was revenge and disgust toward the other side.
"In high school I was required to learn Hebrew, but I refused to learn it because I saw it as the language of the enemy," he said.
After graduating high school, Sarah realized he needed to learn Hebrew to receive a job, go to college or basically do anything in his town. So he took matters into his own hands and found a center where he could study the language.
His first class was a shock because he was the only Palestinian in the room. Sarah had never met anyone from the other side, so the stereotype he had been living with was still in his mind. The class changed his life completely. He realized how divided everyone truly was.
Sarah described the physical wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians, but then he mentioned another important, invisible wall.
"It is not that physical wall. It's much more in our minds and our hearts," he said. "It's a wall of anger, a wall of fear, a wall of hatred, a wall of ignorance."
His class was the change he needed in his life to break down those barriers, and that is what educators are doing every day.
Sarah's teacher did so by talking about things most educators are encouraged not to discuss — politics and religion — but not in a confrontational way. She did it in a way to open their minds up to what is different. And it worked. They not only started communicating with each other, but they also began to care for one another.
Sarah said it's the job of educators "to get people to know each other, to get people to learn about each other, to get people to understand each other." But how do you begin?
He discussed three ways educators can step out of their comfort zone — stretching the imagination a little bit more:
1. Learn about each other: Show the students it is not "us and them." The world is not that small, and there's so much more we can know and learn. Educators not only teach a language, words, information, "we're teaching the emotional, heart aspect — how to sympathize, feel and care, how to bring people together."
2. Challenge stereotypes: We have so many stereotypes when we don't know each other. Cross the border, meet others and sympathize with what they go through. Learn everything you can to truly understand the other person.
3. Experiential education: Take students out of their normal life and have them learn things like photography. Expose them to something outside the classroom.
Because once you experience and bring all of these things together, "I believe that's how we can revolutionize education in our days."
