Another Bit About Jordan

There are a few things I left out from my visit with Sam and her class to the school in Jordan. Part of the trip involved whitewashing a wall in the schoolyard. I made sure to take a turn at this since I’d spent so much of the fall painting my deck at home. I even got a complement from one of the teachers. It’s good to know that if this whole “learning Arabic / studying the Middle East” thing doesn’t work out I can always paint houses.

What I wanted to note though were the slogans that one of Sam’s teachers painted on the wall after we finished covering it in white. The first read “God, Country, the King” and the other “Jordan First.” Between them the teacher painted the rear silhouette of a transport plane flying over a stand of palm trees, dropping what looked like paratroopers. I don’t mean to analyze these slogans here; I simply want to share them as a look into what children in another country learn as they go through school, and to view how other countries express nationalism. I remember reciting the pledge of allegiance in Kindergarten and I’ve never really thought about kids in other countries doing similar things, reciting their own pledges and their own mottoes. The first slogan did remind of one that is popular my college: “God, Country, Notre Dame.”