Ndonyo Wasin Partnership

Kindergartners spend a portion of the year building a classroom community and learning about their classmates’ lives. As the focus shifts from the individual to the collective Packer community, students are introduced to the Ndonyo Wasin Primary School and read books created by members of the Packer and Ndonyo Wasin communities. The essential questions are, "How is the Packer community similar or different from the Ndonyo Wasin school community?", "How would you describe the life of a Ndonyo Wasin student?" and "How would you describe your own experience?" Using facts about both schools, children develop a general understanding about students within both communities. Children notice the differences in student demographics, skin color, clothing, and home/boarding life. They also notice games, TV programs, and instructional methods shared by the two places. These explorations support the curricula in the older grades.

Following a comprehensive study of the local community, First Graders take a meaningful look at the Ndonyo Wasin community, drawing comparisons and making connections between the two.  Important understandings include learning that Ndonyo Wasin is a rural community in Kenya, a country in Africa.  Like Brooklyn Heights, the Ndonyo Wasin community has a school, a medical center, a church, a weekly market, a preschool, and a small group of permanent homes.  Through readings, class discussions, and first hand accounts derived from faculty interviews, the students learn that the Samburu people who live and work in Ndonyo Wasin have their own ways of meeting their needs and wants just like we do in our own community.  Some of those ways are the same, and some are different.

Second Graders examine how geography — what an environment does and does not provide — has impacted the development of New York City, as well as the lives of its citizens. They then look at how the arid environment of northwestern Kenya has shaped the nomadic lifestyle of the Samburu. Through this comparative study, students develop a definition of culture that underscores the impact of the natural environment. Every child then chooses an aspect of Samburu life to study in depth: dress, food, family roles, livestock, and shelter. Finally, in small groups, students build smaller versions of Samburu nkajis — traditional semi-permanent dwellings that suit their nomadic way of life — in a project combining science, art, and architecture.

In previous years, the Third Graders discovered links between the Samburu way of life and the ways of the Lenape, particularly in the structural comparison of the enkajis to the wigwam.  Additionally, the legends and myths of the Samburu were compared to the myths, folktales, and legends of the Lenape. This year, the Third Grade team will develop new ways to deepen their connection to the life and people in the Ndonyo Wasin community.

In the Fourth Grade, the students’ approach to Ndonyo Wasin is supported by discussions about national identities and human rights stemming from their US history/social studies curriculum. In these discussions, students consider the right to education and consider different forms of education, formal and informal, represented in the lives of both Packer students and Ndonyo Wasin students. Packer students learn that the Samburu value and depend on many forms of education, in and out of school.

Middle School students connect with Ndonyo Wasin students through the exchange of pen pal letters. Under the guidance of their advisors, students are encouraged to make inferences about their pen pals individually and the Samburu culture in general. From there, students consider their own reactions to the letters they receive and craft responses with an eye toward deepening these established relationships. As the pen pal program continues and these relationships grow, students have the opportunity to take a thoughtful look at the cultural differences between their worlds, while at the same time celebrating the many similarities.