Creative learning
Coral Wilson
The world was talking about it, but their teachers weren’t. Three
Huntington Beach students created a Web site about the rights and
responsibilities of women in the Middle East for their Orange County
History Day project because they wanted to know more.
Mesa View Middle School students, Allison Dutcher, 12, Lorena
Bennett, 13 and Allison (Alli) Lairson, 13, entered the Web site in
the history day competition, sponsored by the Orange County
Department of Education. “We didn’t know much about the subject, we
never really learned about it in school,” said Alli. “It was helpful
for us to understand everything going on in the world.”
While they did not leave the competition with any prizes, the
girls agreed that they had learned a lot about another part of the
world.
Some discoveries were surprising in contrast to the freedom
experienced by most women in the United States, they said.
The page focused the treatment of women in Iran, Jordan and
Afghanistan, listing atrocities such as stoning, “honor killing” and
the sale of women as brides.
But they also learned of some misconceptions they had.
“I had learned [Middle Eastern women] couldn’t show their faces at
all and couldn’t get jobs, they just had to stay at home and take
care of the kids,” Lorena said. “But some of that wasn’t true.”
They learned that rules that may seem restrictive from an American
perspective are the result of a different set of values and beliefs.
“A lot of people think there are no rights,” Allison said. “They
have rights, but it is limited.”
Their study has made them less selfish and appreciative of what
they have, the girls said.
“It was humbling because [American women] have all the rights men
have,” Allison said. “I think about how many [rights] we have and how
many they don’t have.”
Libraries lacked a lot of updated information, the girls said and
they were unable to interview any primary sources about the current
situation. So, they depended on the Internet and other Web sites for
the majority of their research.
Although Web sites are not permitted in the national competition,
as such entries are still not judged by some states, the girls
entered the site anyway.
They embraced the opportunity to build a Web site because the
chance doesn’t come along very often, they said. But another big
reason was their tight budget. They said building their site was
practically free.
They used the Pagebuilder program because it was labeled, “easy”
and posted the site using Geocities. It laid out every detail step by
step, Allison said.
They were pleased with the results until they checked out their
competition.
“We just sat there in awe,” Allison said.
Other Web sites had graphics, music and even movies, she said.
“But we were still glad we could do it by ourselves for the first
time,” Alli said. “We were real proud of ourselves anyway.”
While Japanese Internment, the Berlin Wall and Women’s Rights in
America were popular topics, their site stood out as unique and
newsworthy. They said their research has given them insight into
world events and they have made a first step in educating themselves
on a vast and controversial subject.
“Being a kid our age, it is kind of hard to have big opinions,”
Alli said.
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