Tag / education

by Fadi Zaghmout

Writing and reading are my new math and physics.


It is weird how time changes us and I am not talking about aging damage here. I was reading “The Help” yesterday in my bed before going to sleep, fighting my sleepy self and trying to get over as many pages as I can. The language of the book didn’t help either. I don’t like it. It feels weird and I have much difficulties understanding that an “at” is an “at” when it is written missing a “t”! In-spite that, I still intend to read it all, even-though it didn’t hooked me yet. Maybe it has to do with a recommendation of a friend who said that this book is amazing, along with the fact that it has been a best seller in the past months and was made into a movie.

The minute I put the book down, it hit me how much I enjoy reading novels now in comparison to my old school days. Back then, language was even a bigger barrier to me but it was not the only reason I hated that part of the English curriculum. I guess that at that age I failed to see the beauty words alone can carry. I failed to see  the art of putting words next to each other to form a story of another imaginary world that carries many of the emotions I face in my daily life in those few lines.

In class, we used to do a simultaneous readings. One in turn to read several paragraphs with stops in between for a short explanation by the teacher, or a question from her to generate a discussion about the issue presented in that part. I always shied of participating in these discussions as it wasn’t my thing. I focused more in trying to keep track of which line they stopped at so that I can pick up from there if my turn to read comes next and save myself the humiliation. Well, I kind of enjoyed the moments of hearing my voice read for I thought that I was fairly good at it and thus it would be a fair enough participation from my side in the class.

Continue reading →

by Fadi Zaghmout

What part of ‘Speed kills you’ you don’t understand?


What part of ‘Speed kills you’ that our youth don’t seem to understand? Really? With over 18 people dying in this Eid holiday in car accidents, isn’t it time for us to stop and question the causes of this phenomena?

This is not new news, every couple of months we hear about tragedies of young people dying on our streets. Road pumps, despite being everywhere, didn’t manage to stop it. Advertisment campaigns to increase awarnace of the risks of speed didn’t help either. Parents don’t seem to be able to have control over their teenage children of limiting the usage of cars for transportation (that is partially understandable due to the lack of proper public transportation in the country).

The bottom line is, there is a culture of high speed admiration that dominates the mind of our young men. I remember my late teenage and early twenties and how hard was it for me trying to manage my choices of getting into a car with some other friends driving. Most young men believe subconsciously that as a driver, they have to impress their friends with their driving abilities. The high speed driving is attached subconsciously with what our societies suffers from at large – worshipping masculinity. Smoking, fighting, and high speed are all forms of masculinity showing that is an essential requirement for a young man to achieve a high ranking in our lost youth communities.

With a lack on emphasis of the responsibility aspect of manhood in our schools. Lack of proper social programs that build on the energy and enthusiams of young people, and the lack of proper methods of expression. Our young men resort to high speed as their choice to inflate social pressure.

It is time to re-assess our education methods. The solution starts at our schools.