Our last school visit in Morocco took us to the Rabat American School. Principal Sean Goudie was a most welcoming and gracious host. The school is brand new and located in a spacious campus by the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. They accommodate 450 pre-k to 12th grade students who come from 44 different countries. The majority, however, are American and Moroccan.
This year’s AASA International Seminar is special. The delegation includes current AASA President Deb Kerr, President-elect Kristi Sandvik and Past-presidents Pat Neudecker, Amy Sichel and Gail Pletnick.
The Berberes are the oldest inhabitants of Morocco. Their language, along with Arabic, is the official language of the country.
We visited the Kchait Primary School in the outskirts of Ait-Ben-Haddou. We traveled across the High Atlas Mountains, the highest point in Morocco, to get there.
Every year at this time, the AASA International Seminar takes superintendents and other interested parties to other parts of the world. The intent is to learn about the educational systems and cultures in the places we visit. These trips never fail to make an impression on the participants.
This year’s trip to Morocco is no exception. It’s an hour bus ride through arid, desolate land to our first school visit to a tribal school in the remote hills outside of Marrakech. A brown landscape is sprinkled with the occasional green of scrub vegetation.
We learn from our guide that the school is very excited about our visit and that they have been preparing for it for days. This will not be a typical school visit. We are in a remote area that is home to one of the many isolated tribes that have occupied the territory for hundreds of years.
