Meeting of Two Worlds
Every person carries a piece of the landscape they live in within themselves, and when they travel to a foreign country where it looks different, they may experience it as a meeting of two worlds, their own and the one they are visiting. At school Mohylová, we were visited by three teachers from Malta, who brought with them in their hearts the hot southern sun, the roar of the sea, and the rocky cliffs surrounding their island like a secure fortress. They entered our world, illuminated by the colours of autumn and even in the midst of raindrops. They showed the fourth graders Malta on the map and talked in English about their world of hot sandy beaches. In return, the fourth graders invited them on an English tour of the school, showing them the school garden with animals and vegetable beds, various classrooms, and the school canteen, where they explained how they pick up their lunch at noon and where they return the used dishes afterward.
The teachers from the Mediterranean island were also interested in working with the youngest children, so they enjoyed observing both writing and mathematics lessons in the first grades, marveling at our school world, where wrists are trained by writing waves in the air to music on an interactive whiteboard and drawing balls of yarn and arches on a giant sheet of paper during the recitation of rhythmic poems. "Six-year-old children in Malta would benefit from this as well, but these activities are done with four-year-olds in kindergarten there, while we already have to practice small letters in lined notebooks. I wish we could borrow a piece of this creative world of yours for ourselves!"
The visitors from the island were right; our school world is actually a kind of island too, where people come from the ocean of a restless time. Not only during lessons. The teachers also got acquainted with special education teachers, assistants, caregivers, and cooks. Because in our school world, the staff is one team that sticks together. At the end of a busy school morning, the lovely Maltese ladies appreciated the work of the cooks directly in the school canteen, where they tasted typically Czech roasted pork with spinach and potato dumplings. They recalled the morning tour of the school, during which the fourth graders showed them how to pick up food at the canteen window. Happy and content, full of pleasant experiences, the teachers from Malta said goodbye to us and headed into the colourful world of a Prague autumn housing estate, enjoying the falling leaves and raindrops, which are so rare in their Maltese world.