Folks are just folks

This year I have encouraged the introduction of a book club at Sonrise High School to promote development of English skills and overall pleasure reading for the students. The European influenced educational system in Rwanda forces the students to choose whether they will study Arts or Sciences after their 9th grade year. If they pursue Math and Sciences, which the majority do, they are never able to take a literature class. Because so many of my students love to read, I thought a book club would be a great way to further their love for reading and encourage critical thought during discussion.
For our second book club this year, I chose the classic “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Yes, I was fully aware that the central theme is racism and that I would be the lone white teacher leading the discussion amongst 10 or so African students…but that was my intention. I wanted to hear what they had to say about the matter….about discrimination between black and white, rich and poor, educated and ignorant, families and orphans, ethnic group and ethnic group. I wanted to hear their debates about prejudices in their own culture, in a country that lost a tenth of its population only 16 years ago due to this very matter. And I have to say it was one of the richer conversations I have listened to in a while. I was amazed at my students, by their maturity, depth, and sensitivity on this matter.
While we sat and discussed the matter in a very scholarly and intellectual fashion, we kept coming back to the same simple principle. Like the ten year old Scout says in the book, “I think there is just one kind of folks. Folks.” This is a point that I realize over and over again while living in Africa. That no matter how different our material possessions, education, skin color, and culture may be…..we are all just people trying to navigate through this life. We feel love and pain in the same way; we laugh and cry over the same things.
The great thing about book club, though, is that I don’t have to teach. I just participate in the discussion with all the other members. And on this day, I just sat and learned from all of my students.