American Studies Institute Ain Sukhna, EgyptJanuary 2005 Slideshow Seven: A Visit to an Egyptian School A Joint Project of Binational Fulbright Commission-Egypt and James Madison University Office of International Programs Lee Sternberger, Principal Investigator Project Directors Noha El Gindi (Fulbright) Lorie Merrow (JMU ) JMU Faculty Philip Bigler, Steve Reich Elizabeth Chew (Monticello) Mark Facknitz, Howard Lubert Fulbright Assistants Mariam Laila Hussein JMU Student Assistant Bareza Rasoul

The Ma’ady Experimental School Ma’ady, Cairo One of our participants, Shawky Allam, invited us to the school where he teaches, the Ma’ady Experimental School, which houses 1300 students from first to last year, primary through secondary school. Experimental schools are public schools at which some new ideas are tried out. They often have better funding and better teachers than regular public schools. Ma’ady is an upper middle class area of Cairo.

I visited classes in the Prep (Middle School age) and Secondary (High School age) sections. Their English was excellent. Children in all Egyptian schools start English at age 6.

Each class in this Ma’ady school has about 50 students

The students were welcoming and involved, and they asked excellent questions.

Break Time

Our participant, Shawky, on the right

A visit to the Agricultural Museum Something like a museum of Natural History with special exhibits on agriculture

Acting as tour guides, Mohamed Hanafi, (an ASI participant,) and his wife Maaly

Many interesting specimens of Egyptian wildlife, especially birds

A symbol of Egypt, the goddess of agriculture