International Education Week 2000

iEARN partnered with the U.S. Department of Education on International Education Week 2000. We had a visitor from Namibia come to talk to our class on November 17 during International Education Week in November 2000. Her name is Selma. One of our classmate's and his father introduced her to our class. She is a student at Washington State University here in our city.

Selma showed us where her country is on our classroom world globe.

Selma told us about what her school days were like in Namibia. In Namibia, school starts at 7:15 a.m. in the morning and goes until 1:00 p.m.in the afternoon. Children stay after school to finish their school work.

Selma told us that the name of her tribe is Herero.The language of her tribe is Otjiherero. She taught us two words in her language: oskole which means "school" and kongondu which means "home".

She told us there were 1.7 million people in Namibia. The capital of her country is Windhoek. Her country was colonized by Germans, then by South Africa Afrikaans. In 1990, her country gained its independence. She told us that before independence the schools were segregated so that white and black children couldn't go to school together.

She told us that in her country, summer is from September to December and January. The summer temperatures are hot at 32 Celsius. Autumn is from February to April. Autumn is cool and rainy with temperatures around 15 Celsius. Winter is from April to June and July with temperatures are 10 Celsius to 2 Celsius. Spring is from July to September with temperatures around 18 Celsius.

In her country she has seen elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions in the national park. We liked making a new friend during International Education Week.

Click here to read the U.S. Department of Education Guide to International Education that was authored by iEARN educators and published during International Education Week 2000 by U.S. Department of Education Secretary Riley.

Return to Social Studies 2000 - 2001