Sarah Winkle

EDTE 304

Algorithm Project

 

The man I interviewed, I'll call him TM, was born in Asmara, Eritrea, Africa.  He was the only child of his mother and father, but his mother died when he was 2 years old.  In his culture, he is given a first name and his last name is the first name of his father; he also has another last name, which is his father's father's first name.  TM said that he grew up in middle class social status.  His father worked very hard so that his son could have many things.  His father raised him until he was 16 years old and then his father remarried.  Out of that marriage, his father had 1 son and 2 daughters.  I learned a lot about the history of Eritrea by interviewing TM.  He said that Eritrea was once an Italian colony and then Great Britain gained control over it.  Following Great Britain's control, Ethiopia took it over and remained in control until 1991 when the people of Eritrea fought for their independence with war and won.  He said that the people of Eritrea are very proud people and felt that independence was worth fighting and dying for.  The Italians heavily influenced the education system in Eritrea.  Most of the schools are public schools.  TM went to an Italian government subsidized school in Eritrea, so he learned in Italian until the sixth grade, when all curriculum switches to the English language.  TM is fluent in Tgrigna (one of Eritrea's native languages), Italian, and English.  The Italian schools were generally for the Italian children still in Eritrea; fortunately for TM, his father knew some of the people at the school and was able to get him into the school.

 

TM fled Eritrea in 1974 because of persecution.  He went to Italy where he studied for a few months before moving to Libya.  During the next five years, he kept moving back and forth between Italy and Libya for his job.  In 1981, he was part of the first group of people the U.S. allowed to come from his area.  He moved to Oakland, California and met his wife, who is also from Eritrea there.  She was over here studying at a university.  They currently live in Oakland and have one son who is 15 years old and a freshman at one of the high schools in Oakland.

 

When we discussed education, TM emphasized how important education was to his country and it was not something that you wasted time doing.  He started attending school when he was 7 years old.  The school system is like ours in that each grade level is one-year long.  He went through the Italian school through the twelfth grade and then studied at the University for 2 years.  After that, he left because of the war- most of the funding was taken away.  He said that Math is taught much like it is over here.  They used textbooks and the teacher taught directly to the students chapter by chapter.  They used worksheets to practice the math and took closed book tests.   He could not remember the order in which he learned math, although he emphasized that each concept was taught gradually.  He also said that fractions were not taught until addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division had been mastered.  The philosophy of teaching over there he called disciplinarian.  He said that if you distract classmates, clown around, miss turning in homework assignments, you are kicked out of the school.  It is not a one-day suspension type of thing...it meant you were out for good.  Education is taken very seriously.  Recently; however, they have required parents to send their children through elementary school and it is all free for the families.  When is father was in school, the apartheid was fully employed (around the 1930's) and because of that his father was not allowed to continue past the 4th grade.

 

Currently, TM works as a designer for Brown & Caldwell Environmental Engineering Firm.  He still lives in Oakland and commutes into Walnut Creek for his job.  Since coming to the United States, TM has gone back to visit his family and friends in Eritrea once, back in 1996.  He went back in 1996 because it was the first time in his lifetime, that war was not happening in his country.  Many of his family and friends still live there.

 

I really enjoyed doing this interview.  It was interesting to learn about a culture from a country that I had rarely even heard about.  TM was very kind to explain to me his background and his country's education system.