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| What's an English teacher doing at a "French-language
school"?
I teach English as a second foreign language. One advantage we have is that our boys learn more than one language other than their mother tongue, French and English, and by the time they finish high school they're quite adequate in both. English is a second foreign language, but it is quite advanced, not low level. In languages, we set our own curriculum; it's up to the language teacher. It's different from science or math, where the government sets the curriculum. With languages we try to find out what is best for the boys, and we don't necessarily teach by the book. Teaching languages takes practice so that students become able to express themselves in this language, to describe whatever they see, to say what they think about, to express opinions. What are your students like?I teach junior high, ages 14-15, and I believe these boys should behave in a fairly manly manner. At such an age they are certainly teenagers, but still one sees a bit of the child. So we try to help them through our teaching here to know how to express themselves, to develop opinions. We want to change them a little bit, to have the boy feel that to a certain extent he is on his own. This happens gradually, but at age 15 he should be able to form an opinion of his own regardless of that of his teacher. His teacher guides him there, but he should understand that he should have an independent opinion. What kind of atmosphere do you find at Sainte-Famille?A great benefit at this school is the leadership: it's run by the Jesuits, which is something that helps the boys very much. It's admirable the way they look upon the boys as individuals, in spite of the large numbers, and work to help them as individuals. One of the things they try to do is to know each and every boy individually and, if there is a problem of any kind, to solve it together with the staff. We also maintain discipline--not always an easy thing. On this point we fight against a lot of factors, society in general. And we are trying to teach the boy to be as organized as he should be; well you must understand the difficulties I'm talking about--just take our traffic, for example! Unfortunately, there are certain things that the boys see around them, and to be able to adjust to that is not easy. But what we do does work. When our students start university studies it's remarkable how quickly they're entified as Jesuit graduates; they are very distinguished among other students. Later, when they take jobs, they find that employers, especially in foreign companies, prefer a Jesuit graduate. Your students come from a variety of religious backgrounds; does this cause any problems?Not here. Boys enter this school at age three or four or five, and they quickly learn how to deal with other students and the teachers, no matter what their religion might be. We don't even bring that subject up at that age; we don't focus on it. I'm a Christian, but I have never even noticed who is my Muslim student and who is my Christian student. I've never felt any discrimination here on this point at all, neither between teachers and the staff nor between the students; I don't think the boys feel it either. I think they feel they are one. One very good thing too is that each can respect his own religion and the religion of the other. As a teacher I'd know if students felt this tension. You can find Muslims here whose best friends are Christians and the other way around. The matter of religion here is neither an obstacle nor a disadvantage. On the other hand--and maybe this is why I like it here--one doesn't feel the struggle that might be found somewhere else. I don't know about other places but I'm assuming that this could be found in any other organization in the country. Here, no; we have never felt it, which is really beautiful. It sounds like you enjoy teaching at Sainte-Famille.Teaching is such a hectic job, you sometimes feel that all you are doing is going into thin air and you feel it's useless because the boys don't respond to you as quickly as you want them to. But more than once it's happened that I've been able to reach out to some student who needed help, needed a friend, needed someone who understood how to approach him. It's a very important role that a teacher should play. It's beautiful to see how your students turn out. And as a teacher I know that sometimes just by standing by a student's side I can do miracles. And later it's beautiful to see how they turn out. But in the long run you know you've definitely done something to help these boys. In Egypt in general, the teacher's profession is not considered one
of the major professions. Doctors and engineers come first. Unless
teachers really love teaching and take it as a mission, they don't stay
too long; it doesn't pay that much. But for those who like it, the
gratification is high. There are teachers here at Sainte-Famille who've
been here as long as I have, fifteen years. It's a good indication that
we've found something.
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Sainte-Famille
in Cairo is officially a French-language school. This reflects its
history as a project of French Jesuits in the late 1800s and the fact
that all the students learn French as their first foreign language. In
this interview, Mrs. Nabila Makram-Ebeid, who has taught English at
Sainte-Famille for fifteen years, talks about her school.
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Philippe Zikri Qui n'a pas connu Mr. Zikri, notre professeur des beaux arts, avec les idées toujours avant-gardistes. |