DHAHRAN, 27 August 2004 — The first week of school is over for students at the Dhahran Elementary/Middle School (DEMS), part of the International Schools Group. The students ended the week with some fun, participating in a Watermelon Feed and a Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest. Wednesday certainly was the perfect day for watermelon, with temperatures over 45 degrees C at noon when the festivities began.
First served from the trays of cool, sweet watermelon were the cutest students of course. All dressed up in their watermelon hats, the preschool class dived right in to the slices of ripe red delight. They had juice dripping from their chins and running down their elbows. When you’re four years old, eating watermelon is seriously messy business.
The preschool class was very busy all week. According to Hana, her dancing braids punctuating every sentence, the preschool students painted and sang and played all week. They baked cheese and zatar bread, too, and learned about the letter “A” and the number “1.” Lucy interrupted Hana to say that they now know how to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Mohammed reminded everyone that they also played computer. Gabriel piped up and added that he “needed more watermelon.” Justin was a bit quiet and finally commented that he liked the summer vacation better than preschool. Justin said that during the summer vacation he went to Oman with his family and they saw dolphins there. He thought the dolphins were very smart and friendly and he wished he could see them everyday.
There were some other students, too, who weren’t so happy that the vacation was over. A few first graders were subdued while munching their melon. According to Lawrence, 6-1/2 years old, this week at school was tough.
“We had to work really hard,” said Lawrence. “The teacher made us read a lot and study a lot. It was even worse than in kindergarten! I’m already tired of school. I need a vacation.”
Thomas, 6-1/2, agreed with Lawrence that First Grade was challenging.
“They do make us work hard, but the good thing is that they let us have a nice lunch and snacks,” he said. “I need that lunch because after working so hard I get hungry.”
Six-year-old Christopher had a different point of view.
“School was very good this week,” Chris said. “It was so easy. I liked the vacation but I like school too. I have lots of fun here. I take my time and I learn a lot. This week the most interesting thing we learned about was manners. Everybody should have good manners. I learned to say please and thank you and excuse me. Manners are important. People like you more when you use good manners.”
Marya, 6-1/2 years old, explained that people also like you when you have good handwriting. Marya said that she can already write many words and she hopes to be able to write pages and pages very soon.
The first grade played their first football matches this week. Emad and Jeruel demonstrated a few football moves. However, they advised that the sport really should be called soccer — not football. According to the boys, football and soccer are not the same at all. They also advised that everybody wants to win at soccer but that’s not possible. So students have to know how to be polite even when their team doesn’t score.
While the youngest students at DEMS are focused only on their immediate situation, the older ones are working toward more long-term goals. Fariha, 13, was really glad to come back to school. She claimed that her summer was pretty boring.
“I went to the US and I had fun but I enjoy school more,” said Seventh Grader Fariha. “I’ve been here 8 years and all my friends are here. I don’t think this year will be too hard because our education system here builds up our skills little by little. I hope to do better in math this year.”
When asked if boys are better at math than girls, Fariha indignantly replied, “That’s not true! Girls can do very well in math if they pay attention in class and study. I plan to be a pediatrician and that is definitely a career that needs math. This year I hope I get high honors in my math class.”
Ahmed, also 13 years old, was a little disappointed to be back at school. He stated that as of yet not all the students had arrived and some of his friends were still on vacation. He only has 11 students in his class so far.
“The teacher said that more students are coming next week,” Ahmed remarked. “I wish I could have been one of those who stayed on vacation longer. I’m not that excited about the regular subjects at school. I like electives that I choose myself best. This year my electives are drama, technology and French. I hope those classes will be good. Anyway, I’ll have to work hard because I want to make high honor role. I went to Jordan this summer and had some fun with my relatives but that’s over, and now I have to study.”
Brother and sister Mahrouz, 11-3/4 years and Meshaal, 9 years old, disagreed on whether school was better than vacation or vice versa.
“School was fun the first week, but I know it will get harder. I’m not worried. I can handle it,” said Mahrouz. “I like to learn new things especially in science. I am looking forward to do experiments. It’s fun to use the equipment in the labs.”
“I liked summer vacation better than school,” claimed Meshaal. “We played video games and computer all day, every day. Now I have school and it’s a lot of work. It is good though to see my friends.”
The watermelon festivities were an unqualified success. After the last slice had been gulped down and the seed-spitting contest judged, Bruce Hudson, principal, DEMS had time to chat.
“We’re up and running and more students are arriving daily,” he said. “We don’t expect to have our full number of students present until mid-September due to variances in families’ vacations. Only two families with students at DEMS were directly affected by the US Embassy’s order not to allow families of US State Department employees to return to Saudi Arabia. Almost all our staff that had committed to returning did do so. We had only one teacher resign during the summer vacation.”
DEMS is an accredited school offering an American curriculum for multinational expatriate students from Kindergarten through Grade 8. Over the summer months there had been rumors, consistently denied, that the school would not reopen. Not only did the school reopen on time, but Hudson added that they are offering a full program of studies and extracurricular activities, plus planning for two new initiatives that will be made available to students in the second semester of this school year.
“We have just completed construction of a climbing wall, which I believe is the best available in the Eastern Province,” Hudson said. “We are also in the final planning stage for our new design technology program. These are both hands on programs that will help our students build self-esteem and I am very excited to be moving forward with these new offerings, which I am certain will be very popular with DEMS students.”
It was wonderful to be surrounded by students so obviously excited to be learning. Leaving the school, I glanced through the door of a Seventh Grade math class. On the wall was a poster that read, “When you come to the end of your rope, make a knot and hang on!” DEMS is not just “hanging on” in the new academic year. This school and its students are clearly climbing toward continuing success.
