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.