Sarah
Winkle
EDTE 304
Algorithm
Project
The man I
interviewed, I'll call him TM, was born in Asmara, Eritrea, Africa. He
was the only child of his mother and father, but his mother died when he
was 2 years old. In his culture, he is given a first name and his last
name is the first name of his father; he also has another last name,
which is his father's father's first name. TM said that he grew up in
middle class social status. His father worked very hard so that his son
could have many things. His father raised him until he was 16 years old
and then his father remarried. Out of that marriage, his father had 1
son and 2 daughters. I learned a lot about the history of Eritrea by
interviewing TM. He said that Eritrea was once an Italian colony and
then Great Britain gained control over it. Following Great Britain's
control, Ethiopia took it over and remained in control until 1991 when
the people of Eritrea fought for their independence with war and won.
He said that the people of Eritrea are very proud people and felt that
independence was worth fighting and dying for. The Italians heavily
influenced the education system in Eritrea. Most of the schools are
public schools. TM went to an Italian government subsidized school in
Eritrea, so he learned in Italian until the sixth grade, when all
curriculum switches to the English language. TM is fluent in Tgrigna
(one of Eritrea's native languages), Italian, and English. The Italian
schools were generally for the Italian children still in Eritrea;
fortunately for TM, his father knew some of the people at the school and
was able to get him into the school.
TM fled
Eritrea in 1974 because of persecution. He went to Italy where he
studied for a few months before moving to Libya. During the next five
years, he kept moving back and forth between Italy and Libya for his
job. In 1981, he was part of the first group of people the U.S. allowed
to come from his area. He moved to Oakland, California and met his
wife, who is also from Eritrea there. She was over here studying at a
university. They currently live in Oakland and have one son who is 15
years old and a freshman at one of the high schools in Oakland.
When we
discussed education, TM emphasized how important education was to his
country and it was not something that you wasted time doing. He started
attending school when he was 7 years old. The school system is like
ours in that each grade level is one-year long. He went through the
Italian school through the twelfth grade and then studied at the
University for 2 years. After that, he left because of the war- most of
the funding was taken away. He said that Math is taught much like it is
over here. They used textbooks and the teacher taught directly to the
students chapter by chapter. They used worksheets to practice the math
and took closed book tests. He could not remember the order in which
he learned math, although he emphasized that each concept was taught
gradually. He also said that fractions were not taught until addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division had been mastered. The
philosophy of teaching over there he called disciplinarian. He said
that if you distract classmates, clown around, miss turning in homework
assignments, you are kicked out of the school. It is not a one-day
suspension type of thing...it meant you were out for good. Education is
taken very seriously. Recently; however, they have required parents to
send their children through elementary school and it is all free for the
families. When is father was in school, the apartheid was fully
employed (around the 1930's) and because of that his father was not
allowed to continue past the 4th grade.
Currently,
TM works as a designer for Brown & Caldwell Environmental Engineering
Firm. He still lives in Oakland and commutes into Walnut Creek for his
job. Since coming to the United States, TM has gone back to visit his
family and friends in Eritrea once, back in 1996. He went back in 1996
because it was the first time in his lifetime, that war was not
happening in his country. Many of his family and friends still live
there.
I really
enjoyed doing this interview. It was interesting to learn about a
culture from a country that I had rarely even heard about. TM was very
kind to explain to me his background and his country's education system.