March 7 is Teacher's Day in Kosovo. I began the day noticing dark clouds and feeling a bit chilly. Wasn't all that psyched to go to the class today, but then Paitim and Arber pulled out of their bags two roses and gave them to me. "Today is Teacher's Day and we want to give you a flower." Enough to make any cloud not so dark and to make the sunshine warm on your face. For the past three Wednesdays, the Serbian students from this class have not shown up for various reasons - protests, school obligations . . . whatever. Normally they arrive fifteen minutes before 1.00, but today, when the little blue van rolled up at five past one, I was ready to give them a hard time for making me worry. That was squelched by a pink potted plant and a bottle of some spray perfume. The sun became even warmer.
The past couple of weeks have been really tough with the kids. Not for anything they did, but for the political and social situations that exist in Kosovo. I have made sure to stay away from discussing these during the class for fear of tensions getting too high and discussions turning into arguments. The problem is that the kids can't help but bring with them all of the events and emotions they have outside of the classroom, especially the Serbian kids. Politically, they are losing right now. All day long they are hearing parents, teachers and political representatives tell them that there will never be an independent Kosovo, Kosovo belongs to Serbia, Albanians are bad and the US/UN are the evil ones helping them. Generally they don't express these thoughts and feelings in the class, which is good. What they do, however, is wear symbols and flags that, to Albanians all over Kosovo, represent the blood, murder and rape that the Milosevic regime carried out during ethnic cleansing of Albanians in the 1990s. The Serbian cross is the quintessential example. It's meaning to the Albanians is the equivalent to a Nazi swastika and Serbian students are wearing it to class on t-shirts and scarves. The Albanian students expressed how bad this symbol makes them feel, but only to me. As the teacher, what can I do?
As I said, politically the Serbs are losing right now. They are on the defensive and the political message they are getting from their communities is Serbian pride, unity and nationalism. For me to refuse to allow these students to wear their symbols of pride to class would be refusing them the one thing their people are holding on to. Yet to allow them to wear them to class makes their classmates feel uncomfortable and insulted. My solution was a lesson on symbolism. I discussed the importance of symbols, non-political ones at first, and how they make us feel when we see them. From the golden arches to the black and white yin-yang we talked about what these symbols represent and the emotions they evoke. Then I showed them the confederate flag and explain the emotions this evokes for different ethnic groups in the US and how it can literally divide a community in half and make enemies out of friends.
At that point I had 6 national symbols very recognizable in Kosovo - two of them Albanian, two Serbian plus the US flag and the symbol of NATO. As I show each symbol, the kids are to write down three sentences:
When I see this symbol I feel . . . because . . .
This symbol makes me want to . . . because . . .
This symbol reminds me of . . . because . . .
At the beginning of every class I put students randomly into heterogeneous groups for the activities I plan because if I left it up their choice, it would be "them" and "us" every day. On this day during this activity I told them they could sit wherever they wanted so they could use their own language to figure out the right English words. Each student had their own cards to write their answers, I told them they were private and anonymous and they should be honest. Now, a week later, I am still trying to figure out the reason for the results.
The answers students gave were generally predictable. A lot of them wrote words like hate, proud, enemy, neighbor, killer and war. I could tell whether the answers were written by Albanians or Serbs simply by the words they used for the given symbol. The surprising part was how differently my two classes carried out the exercise. The class that I meet here in Pristina instantly divided themselves for the exercise - Serbians on one side, Albanians on the other. They collaborated with their friends, occasionally glancing over to the table of "others" to size them up. Their answers on a whole got quite extreme as well, with the Serbian kids being the harshest. Even the symbol of a white hat generally worn by older Albanian men reminded the Serbs of, "killers because people who wear them kill," When writing about the US flag, the Serbian students checked with me first to see if I would get offended if they were honest. It was clear the "them" and "us" divide ran deep with these kids. The Albanian students answered with honesty, but much less hate. Their words for the Serbian symbols were "ultranationalist" "death" and "war" but almost no references to hate for a greater, "them."
The results from the other class that I meet in a smaller community outside of Pristina were recognizably different. When I gave them the option to change seats, the answer was a very matter-of-fact look of, "there's no reason to change." So, in their heterogeneous groups they chose to sit in, they carried out the same exercise. There was talking and collaborating amongst friends of the same ethnicity, but in this class there was also collaboration between ethnicities, clarifying meanings and origins of the symbols of the "other." The overall tone was noticeably less "us and them" and much more curiosity and confusion. Yes, the words of hate, war and death came up as well, but equally so the words "confusion," "understanding," and "friends" came up with this group.
I've been sharing these results with Serbs, Albanians, internationals, government officials and they are all equally fascinated and confused. The nationalistic views are not surprising to most. It's where the students showed glimpses compassion and understanding that was the most fascinating. It's there and it exists with some of them. What I need to figure out is how to tap into and focus on that. What makes it difficult are the few whose nationalist pride runs deep. A couple of them continue to wear the Serbian cross to class and even break out into nationalist songs. It's those provocations that could destroy the class. It's strong students willing to work through these things and myself figuring out what to focus on and how that will keep it all going.
The week after all of this "us vs. them" activity that accentuated their differences, both Serbian and Albanian students came to class on a dreary day and handed me flowers, plants and perfume. On one hand, these kids have their own cultural symbols with political weight that they value greatly, yet evoke feelings of hate and reminders of war. On the other hand they share cultural traditions with personal weight like teacher's day and mother's day that evoke feelings of love and reminders of good times. Will it ever be possible for the second hand to weigh more?!
