Last November, Paul Salopek visited our school, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (SCH) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Speaking to 3rd and 5th graders, Paul pointed out that they were just the right age to follow his entire seven-year walk. By the time he reached Patagonia, they’d be on their way to college, setting out on their own life’s journey. Our students were enthralled.
Having covered over 50 countries during decades as a foreign correspondent, Paul warned SCH students that the world can be a dangerous place. Yet even in its roughest corners, the world is also welcoming. He described the many times that people — complete strangers — offered him shelter, food, and even put their lives at risk to protect him. He expects that most people along his journey will treat him with kindness.
The Out of Eden Walk has a distinct sense of purpose, and Paul wants it to illuminate some of the historic challenges our next generation will face: hunger, resource depletion, population growth, climate change, and the disparity between rich and poor.
As you can imagine, Paul made quite an impression at SCH. Since his visit, our excellent faculty and students have become enthusiastic scholars in the global classroom created by Paul’s journey. The Out of Eden Walk has inspired our school, as the students quoted below can tell you. Here are a few things we’ve done to turn Paul’s project into a classroom learning experience.
One of our 5th grade classes reached Paul by satellite phone after reading his dispatch The Things They Leave Behind. Paul’s text describes the trail of clothes, backpacks, and refuse left behind by migrants moving through Ethiopia. One of its most powerful images is “a broken flip-flop really worn down from walking,” says Noel Forrest, age 12. His friend Marco Goldberg, 11, adds that many people live as refugees, migrating either because of war or to earn money. “Around the world, people often go through harder things than we do,” he says.
“There are stateless people and those who are very poor,” says Forrest. “They’re unable to earn enough money to make a living and send their children to school.”
Their teacher, Lauren Vanin, said the class initially planned to Skype with Paul, but the signal was blocked and they wound up talking by satellite phone. That sparked a classroom discussion about repression and isolation, as students began to understand the dangers of Paul’s Walk. He’s often in places so remote, or tightly controlled, that Skype is blocked and communication to the outside world is very limited. Vanin’s students also follow Paul’s social media feed using their class Twitter handle, @SCH5thGrade.
Paul Salopek presents the Out of Eden Walk to students at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.
Rahilla Zafar
Paul’s work covers many subjects, so Vanin does extensive preparation to make his beautifully written dispatches understandable to her students. Beyond sharing an appreciation for the poetry of Paul’s language, “I try to expose them to as many cultures as possible, so they see that learning about other parts of the world, and how people live, is really important,” she says. Following the Walk means that her students read Paul’s dispatches, write reflective essays, and learn about the science, history, and geography of the regions he’s traveling through.
“One of the things that’s really cool about Paul’s walk is that he’s doing something our ancestors did a really long time ago,” says Forrest. “He’s bringing it all back to our generation. After this walk, a lot of people are going to remember it.”
Another of Vanin’s students, 12-year-old Rick Flyner, said Paul “really helps me understand how different the world is outside of this country.” Oliver Peck, 11, has learned a lot about the value of a community by following the Walk. “People often have to depend on each other to survive and work very hard for every meal,” he says.
Rene deBerardinis’ 8th grade class has turned its Walk studies into a collaboration with students from the American International School in Riyadh (AIS-R), where Paul recently spoke. Students there are helping to plan his upcoming trek along the Red Sea coast.
After learning more about his counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Chris Alleyne, 14, was struck by how much they have in common. “They’re on a whole different side of the world, but they enjoy the same activities that we do, like listening to music and reading poetry.” His classmate, 13-year-old Noah Shoup, notes that people in the United States “may look at those who live in Saudi Arabia differently. We can help them realize that they aren’t that different.”
DeBerardinis is using the learning platform Haiku to help students build a website that connects the Walk to their daily lives. “I’m trying to expand their world, get them to know other cultures and countries, but on a platform that’s familiar to them,” she explains. She assigns her students to analyze their favorite websites for features that work best, then program them into the website about Paul’s journey. Topics of 8th grade interest include Effat University, a women’s school in Jeddah. Before this project, 14-year-old Jack Lamb “wasn’t sure if Saudi women even went to school. I thought they were covered up in robes and just stayed home.”
A 3rd grade student at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy wrote this letter after Paul Salopek visited the school in November.
Eighth graders are also gathering information for Paul on Saudi Arabia’s massive solar energy projects and multibillion-dollar investments in new industrial cities. Learning about such topics and engaging with local students helps normalize views of the region, says deBerardinis. “The Middle East is not only things you hear on the news such as violence, devastation, and corruption. It’s contemporary, modern, innovative, and full of technology. Kids and adults sometimes think everyone in the world models themselves after the U.S. Our students are learning that we have a lot to learn from other countries and cultures as well,” she says.
Leena Khan, 12, a 6th grader at AIS-R, is learning about the changes in Saudi Arabia from her new friends in America. “The new economic cities that students in Philadelphia are studying seem very interesting,” she says. “I also want to know what Saudi is doing to help jobless people. I’m living here and can see the development right in front of me. Bridges are being built everywhere, roads are being constructed, and a lot more people know English than a decade ago.”
Introduced to Paul’s journey by SCH, AIS-R middle school principal Jerri Myer sees the long-term educational benefits of following the Walk. Her school’s student body is made up of 54 different nationalities, she says, most of them representing countries Paul will visit. As he passes through each one, Myer’s school will engage in “rich discussions of the things he sees. I hope it’ll help us become closer as a learning community.”
Back in Philadelphia, Noah Shoup, an 8th grader, thinks it’s very cool that Paul is doing the journey on foot. “No one really walks anywhere anymore. But he’s walking and he’s getting to see every little thing that you might not get to see if you fly over it or drive by it. He’s going to see those little villages and specific people to understand their problems and their lives.”
As Paul’s journey comes to a close in 2020, the 5th grade class at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy will be trying on caps and gowns, preparing to graduate from high school. They’ve already invited him to come back and speak at their graduation. In the meantime, they plan to follow every step of his Walk.
“It’s a seven-year journey around the world,” says 11-year-old Trevor Meyer. “There isn’t anything boring about that.”
Rahilla Zafar is the Director of Outreach and Partnerships at the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia. She previously worked for international development agencies and has reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Colombia and from across the Middle East. You can follow her @rahilla.
A 3rd grade student at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy wrote this letter after Paul Salopek visited the school in November.
Eighth graders are also gathering information for Paul on Saudi Arabia’s massive solar energy projects and multibillion-dollar investments in new industrial cities. Learning about such topics and engaging with local students helps normalize views of the region, says deBerardinis. “The Middle East is not only things you hear on the news such as violence, devastation, and corruption. It’s contemporary, modern, innovative, and full of technology. Kids and adults sometimes think everyone in the world models themselves after the U.S. Our students are learning that we have a lot to learn from other countries and cultures as well,” she says.
Leena Khan, 12, a 6th grader at AIS-R, is learning about the changes in Saudi Arabia from her new friends in America. “The new economic cities that students in Philadelphia are studying seem very interesting,” she says. “I also want to know what Saudi is doing to help jobless people. I’m living here and can see the development right in front of me. Bridges are being built everywhere, roads are being constructed, and a lot more people know English than a decade ago.”
Introduced to Paul’s journey by SCH, AIS-R middle school principal Jerri Myer sees the long-term educational benefits of following the Walk. Her school’s student body is made up of 54 different nationalities, she says, most of them representing countries Paul will visit. As he passes through each one, Myer’s school will engage in “rich discussions of the things he sees. I hope it’ll help us become closer as a learning community.”
Back in Philadelphia, Noah Shoup, an 8th grader, thinks it’s very cool that Paul is doing the journey on foot. “No one really walks anywhere anymore. But he’s walking and he’s getting to see every little thing that you might not get to see if you fly over it or drive by it. He’s going to see those little villages and specific people to understand their problems and their lives.”
As Paul’s journey comes to a close in 2020, the 5th grade class at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy will be trying on caps and gowns, preparing to graduate from high school. They’ve already invited him to come back and speak at their graduation. In the meantime, they plan to follow every step of his Walk.
“It’s a seven-year journey around the world,” says 11-year-old Trevor Meyer. “There isn’t anything boring about that.”
Rahilla Zafar is the Director of Outreach and Partnerships at the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia. She previously worked for international development agencies and has reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Colombia and from across the Middle East. You can follow her @rahilla.