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City People

From Blake High to Burma

She went to Southeast Asia to teach interned Burmese teachers about democracy and came home with new knowledge.

By ELISABETH DYER
Published December 16, 2005

DOWNTOWN - Last month, Blake High School social studies teacher Jennifer Morley took her lessons to the other side of the world.

In October, Morley flew to Thailand to teach an ethnic minority group from military-controlled Burma. She came back with an even greater appreciation for her work.

"You realize how important social studies education is and how important history is," Morley said.

For a week, Morley, 46, trained teachers from Burma, who live in internment camps in the mountains and crossed the border into Thailand to meet the educators. The Burmese group had been forced from their homes by the occupying military.

Morley and Cheryl Teare, a trainer for the American Federation of Teachers, worked with the teachers in the Thai town of Mae Sot on the Burmese border. The federation sponsors teacher trips to different countries, paid for with U.S. federal grants. Morley was chosen because of her passion for civics.

"Their hope is that Burma will become democratic," Morley said. These teachers "will go back and teach the new generation about democracy."

Through an interpreter, Morley and Teare taught democracy to the 30 Burmese men and women, who slept on the floor of a modest Thai house that housed the teaching sessions.

One walked 10 nights to get there. Another, who spoke passionately for change, was imprisoned six years under a death sentence before being released. The teachers spoke of another colleague who was kidnapped from a camp and his students were sold.

Morley and Teare spent one day talking about the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Each Burmese teacher had a translated copy, which they had to memorize because they couldn't be caught with them in their native country. The document dates to World War II after the discovery of concentration camps.

The teachers had not heard of concentration camps and were amazed. For Morley, it reinforced the importance of learning from history.

Her time abroad had several sobering moments. During a day trip, Morley saw people living on the banks of a river between the border of Thailand and Burma who had been banned from entering either country.

"They're people without a country and they're living in plastic bag tents," she said.

When she returned to Blake in November, she shared her experiences and impressed her students with a photo of her riding an elephant.

In her African-American history class last week, students presented reports on civil rights during the 1960s here at home. They talked of the Black Panthers, Malcolm X and the Ku Klux Klan.

"There are always parallels in history," Morley said.

Last week, her class had a special guest: School Board member Doretha Edgecomb. Students had written Edgecomb to commend her for voting to stick with the proposed nonreligious calendar and she responded with a visit.

Edgecomb, the board's only black member, spoke to the class about her experiences growing up in Tampa during the Civil Rights Movement. She also talked about achieving goals.

Engaging students in current events is what Morley does best, said Dennis Holt, supervisor of secondary social studies.

By writing the letters, "The kids saw that they really do have a voice," he said. "Jennifer teaches that they have a responsibility to participate in our government."

Outside the classroom, Morley is involved nationally with social studies issues.

"She's a jewel at Blake and she's a jewel for the district, too," said Holt, who recommended Morley for the trip to Thailand.

A fluke brought Morley to Blake.

She started teaching five years ago at Bloomingdale High School. Two years ago, as she was going to a meeting at another school, a woman in the parking lot complimented her haircut.

During the meeting, she found out the woman was Jacqueline Haynes, principal at Blake. Morley praised Blake's technology and told Haynes she might someday like to transfer there. Turns out, there was an opening. Days later, she had the job.

- Elisabeth Dyer can be reached at edyer@sptimes.com or 813 226-3321.

AGE: 46

HOME: Brandon

JOB: Teacher at Blake High School and University of South Florida

FORMER JOBS: Athletic club manager and personal trainer for 15 years; teacher at Bloomingdale High School and Tampa Bay Technical School

HONORS: Named Hillsborough County's 2005 High School Social Studies Teacher of the Year and chosen by the American Federation of Teachers to teach civics to Burmese educators

POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT: Delegate for the Florida Democratic Convention

SEEKING: Doctorate in interdisciplinary curriculum and instruction from the University of South Florida

WHILE ABROAD: Drank only bottled water in Thailand and made a pact with her friend not to ask the origins of the food served.

BROUGHT HOME: Thai money and gave a student 20 baht, the equivalent of about 50 cents.

[Last modified December 15, 2005, 10:05:12]