Routine classes have been suspended across Gaza since the morning of Saturday, 7 October, and we have yet to see a week where classes have resumed.
I used to believe that learning is a methodical affair, one that follows an educational system in a school, in classrooms, planned by teachers, as it has been in my modest sixteen years of experience in education, and as agreed upon by most educators in the world. But what is happening here in the Gaza Strip has changed my belief about that.
Today, both young and old learn not in a classroom but in the school of war in Gaza. Here, every day, a thousand stories are told, lived, heard, taught, and written, as a thousand wounds bleed. From our deep wounds, we have learned, and we are still learning, and we will learn what this entire world has yet to learn.
War has forced over two million three hundred thousand Gazan Palestinians to learn through experience, discovery, and practice what schools could never teach them, and what could never be read in either curricular or extracurricular textbooks.
In the Gaza Strip, you find children specialising in political analysis from a young age; they know the language of their country and it knows them. They are good at listening to their elders in their sessions in the corridors of the shelter centres and inside the classrooms, which now house hundreds of thousands of them.
They relate the history of their country to what they live in today. With experience, it is easy for them to analyse events and what is happening in the battlefield, and it is easy for them to predict what is coming. They know well how to endure crises and how to overcome difficulties. They know well that blessings do not last, and that the fluctuating living conditions gave them a quality of resilience that you rarely find in any other country except Gaza.
You find them talking about what happened and what will happen in Palestine, as history continues to repeat itself and calamities continue to befall this bereaved people, and they learn from experience and the bitter reality repeatedly thousands of times.
People in the Gaza Strip have become experts in creating alternative life plans; you can find them sometimes in luxurious palaces, other times in shelters, and sometimes in refugee tents. An unbreakable people who are good at adapting to all circumstances and situations, even the most difficult and cruel ones.
Life has made Gaza's women lionesses, its children men, and its men heroes of great courage. Its people are now icons of endurance. Even as they give countless martyrs from amongst their children and families, they love life, if only they can find a way back to it.
War has taught us how to preserve our lives in front of tanks, under warplanes, outside demolished homes, and in the heart of the ravaged streets of Gaza. It has also taught us how to escape with our children to the shores of safety, believing always that God is the best protector.
Living in the shelters has taught us patience and reliance on God. We learnt how to manage our anger, and how to console others. It has taught us to empathize with the poor, the homeless, those living in inadequate housing, and those dwelling in tents on the outskirts of camps.
Shelter life has instilled in us the discipline of facing death. Here in Gaza, we have learned through experience the famous saying: "Be resilient, for blessings do not last."
It was not a passing war, but rather days and months of our lives passed, while we were under constant bombardment by land, sea, and air. Here we learned not to bow our heads to anyone but Allah alone, and we learned how to be free in a time when it is difficult for many people to be confident of their freedom, identity, and existence.
Asmaa Ramadan Mustafa is an English language teacher who was awarded the "Global Teacher of the Year 2020" title by the AKS Education Award Foundation in India, and also recognised as the "Creative Teacher of Palestine for the year 2022" for her innovative use of eTwinning in teaching English. She has been working as a teacher in the Palestinian Ministry of Education since 2008 and is a member of the Digital Empowerment Team at the Ministry.
This article was originally published on Manhajiyat.
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