"Literature from the Modern Middle East: Making a Living Connection"

Reading Allen's English Journal article, "Literature from the Modern Middle East: Making a Living Connection," really got me thinking about my own experiences in my education regarding the Middle East and the Middle Eastern culture. I find that I am always so impressed by the incorporation of this topic into middle school and high school curriculum, as I've found that this is something that was very much lacking in my pre-college education.

I was just starting eighth grade when 9-11 occured. That being said, there were five whole years of middle and high school for which my teachers could have included the Middle East into their curriculums after that, not to mention the many years beforehand as well. Even so, I can only recall one unit where we really studied it, which was in my eighth grade geography class. Mainly, we covered the physical geography of what the Middle East entailed-- to be expected given that it was a geography class after all. However, even as long ago as this was, I still remember learning about what it was like there-- in particular what it was like to be a woman in the Middle East. I remember watching a movie about a woman and her daughter in the Middle East, and the ideas from it intrigued me substantially and stuck with me to this very day. I only wish I could remember the title of it!

With all the many examples of media and text that can be used to incorporate the Middle East into lessons and units that Allen provides in his article, I can only imagine how much of an impact could be made for students. Even if they're not immediately drawn to the subject, I can imagine that at least one of these sources would grasp their attention and inspire them to want to learn more about it all, just as that one film grasped my attention when I was fourteen years old!

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