By EMILIE PHELPS Daily Press Staff Writer
Santa Monica — Chon Lee wanted to bring South African literature to his eighth grade English class at Lincoln Middle School, but it wasn’t enough to bring it from the library — he went straight to the source.
Lee, 28, recently returned from a six-week educator abroad program entitled, “South Africa: Continuity and Change.” In his fourth year at Lincoln Middle School and his seventh year of teaching, Lee was looking to incorporate multicultural material into his teaching.
Having lived in Santa Monica since high school, Lee knew he could-n’t authentically teach his students about South African literature without having some life experience to connect with the stories.
Lee chose the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) program.
“This one seemed to be a combination of history and literature, you study all the literary figures and how it connects with the politics and the economics and the government, and I thought that I could use that most effectively for the classroom, he said.
“The whole point is that NEH wants you to go to these seminars and sort of immerse yourself in the culture and then bring back whatever you can for your classroom.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 21, 2006. Read the original PDF.