Where in the world is Mrs. Maroudi's class?

Barnhart kids teach, learn about cultures, customs

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by EMILY BARNES C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School first-grade teacher, Nicole Maroudi, right, points out Lagos, Nigeria, where the Lasiende sister,s Bolu, 6, left, and Mimi, 7, lived before moving to the U.S. in October 2008. Maroudi's first-grade class held multicultural day April 3. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo o accent her lesson on her husband's home country, Maroudi wore jeweled babouche, slippers worn in Morocco. Click here to enlarge this photo Mimi and Bolu passed around photographs of their family — including one of their mother and grandmother — taken in Nigeria. Click here to enlarge this photo Tyler Smith,7, left, and Kyle Agbobli, 6, try couscous prepared by Maroudi, center, during multicultural day. Later, the kids filled up on candy during an Easter party. Click here to enlarge this photo Walter Martinez told his classmates about El Salvador, the country his parents are from. Click here to enlarge this photo culture_i040809 Staff photo by EMILY BARNES 4/03/09 First grader Eyiwunmi Lasiende 7, circles Lagos, Nigeria, during the class's Multicultural Day, at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School in Waldorf, MD, April 3, 2009. The Lasiende family came to the area from Lagos, Nigeria in October. Click here to enlarge this photo culture_i040809 Staff photo by EMILY BARNES 4/03/09 Teacher Nicole Maroudi (right) listens as first graders Bolu Lasiende (left), 6, and her sister Eyiwunmi (center), 7, show the class photographs of their life in Nigeria, during the class's Multicultural Day, at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School in Waldorf, MD, April 3, 2009. The Lasiende family came to the area from Lagos, Nigeria in October.

When Nicole Maroudi looked over the list of students' names that she would have in her first-grade class at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School, it read like a United Nations roster.

Bolu Lasiende moved with her family from Nigeria in October; Walter Martinez's parents are from El Salvador; Vivian Nguyen's family is from Vietnam; Anthony Clark is a St. Croix transplant; Natasha Tomasek's mom is from the Philippines; Quelinda Matos-Joaquin's family is from the Dominican Republic.

Maroudi — whose husband Wadii, is from Morocco — recently put together a multicultural day, inviting parents and students to talk about their different backgrounds, share customs and dress, food and music.

"I looked at my class list and thought, ‘Everyone is from everywhere,'" Maroudi remembered.

Bolu and her older sister, Mimi, a Barnhart third-grader, spoke in lilting, accented English about living in Lagos, Nigeria.

They passed around photographs of their family, which includes their 3-year-old brother, Gbenga.

While Mimi dressed in the American standard of jeans and a T-shirt, Bolu wore a traditional Nigerian dress.

Her classmates loved it.

"This morning [the kids] were saying, ‘Wow, Bolu, you look so beautiful,'" Maroudi said. "At this age they don't really notice their differences."

Barnhart's parent liaison and mother of one of Maroudi's students, Khoryn, Bonita Gatewood said she'd like to see the program expand to include the entire school.

It just so happened that this year, Maroudi's classroom was dotted with students who come from all over the globe. And at their age — 6, 6-and-the-ever-important-half and 7 — the students are more than eager to hear about the lives of kids in far-off places.

To accent her lesson on on her husband's native Morocco, Maroudi wore an outfit she purchased in a market during one of her trips to the Northeastern African country to visit her in-laws.

She called on two students — Anthony Clark and Sean Brown— to model traditional men's hats that are worn in Morocco.

Later, she spooned out couscous for the students to try. Some scooped it up, asking for seconds, others tasted it and shrugged.

The reactions summed up the lesson of the day.

Broadening horizons, even culinary, is the first step to becoming citizens of the world.

staylor@somdnews.com