Excerpt from Persians Find their Place: How Iranians in the East Bay hold their heritage.

By Maggie Fazeli Fard

Nowhere in the East Bay is the Iranian-American “melt” more apparent than at 1808 5th St. in Berkeley, the home of Golestan Kids.

Golestan, named after the Farsi word for “garden,” is a full-immersion Iranian language and culture program, offering full-day pre-school and after-school classes based on Waldorf and Montessori teaching methods. While Farsi language classes have been offered in the East Bay at locations like Nima Farsi School in Albany and the Andeesheh School at Oakland’s Islamic Cultural Center, Golestan is the first school to offer a daily program of not just language instruction but also science, math, nature, art, music, dance, cooking, gardening, and even yoga—all in Farsi.

Launched in 2005 as a playgroup for Iranian-American children and their parents, Golestan is the brainchild of those parents, including founder and executive director Yalda Modabber, whose sons Manu and Kian currently attend the school.

“Manu and Kian only speak Farsi to each other; they even fight in Farsi,” she says. This is a challenge for her husband, an American who doesn’t know Farsi, and Modabber often finds herself playing the part of translator. But it’s a small price to pay, she says. “If it weren’t for Golestan, my boys wouldn’t know Farsi. I’m sure of it.”

Like her own children, most of the students at Golestan are of mixed heritage, says Modabber. “Except for one, who has no Iranian in him at all. Both his parents are American, but they really just loved the program.”

“Being Iranian means something different to everyone,” says Modabber, who left Iran with her family in 1979, when she was 9 years old. “There is the poetry, the music, the language. But there is also a warmth and generosity of our culture. There is a fear that when our kids enter American schools, they will lose that. We want to teach them to love their Iranian heritage.”

For full story, please click here.

I am passionate-borderline obsessed- with food. My philosophy: if you can make it, why buy it? I jump fences to pick lemons, I make my own apple cider vinegar, I own nine aprons, and I’ve been known to swoon over the vibrant leaves of my garden’s purple potatoes. I’m stubborn in my ways of healthy eating and I (used to) think white rice is akin to a bowl of sugar. However, in the past several months, I’ve learned not only how to tame my convictions, but that above all else, food is celebratory.

To read full article on Iranian.com, please click here.

Front Page News:

Golestan Kids
By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday July 02, 2009

By Riya Bhattacharjee

Iran is always on the minds of students and teachers at Berkeley’s Golestan Kids, but more so than usual in recent weeks. The adults at this Iranian culture, language and education program—perhaps the only one of its kind in the country—are busy teaching preschoolers about Iranian culture during the day and anxiously monitoring the news from Iran at night.

Ever since protesters took to the streets of Tehran June 12 to protest the outcome of the Iranian presidential election, their relatives all over the world, including those in the Bay Area, have lost much sleep while compulsively checking YouTube, Facebook and Twitter posts, their peace shattered by images and reports of violence half a world away.

“If you look at all the parents and the teachers, we all have dark circles under our eyes,” said Yalda Modabber, who co-founded the program in 2005 and helped to get it incorporated into Golestan Kids last September. “We all put our children to bed, and we just go to the computer and look at the news.”

Modabber, who moved from Iran to the United States with her parents after the revolution of 1979, said that, although the organization was completely apolitical and secular and did not adhere to any religious or political affiliation, concern was natural.

“I came here when I was 9—the reserves of my childhood memory for that period of my life, from the age of 10 to 14, is very blurry, but from 6 to 9 is very, very sharp,” she said. “I can give you directions from one place to the other in Tehran. I remember the revolution very clearly—it was very similar to what’s going on right now. People were screaming and chanting and there were curfews. I never went back, for no reason other than it hasn’t worked out, but that doesn’t mean I am not worried.”

A young working mother, Modabber placed an ad on the Berkeley Parents Network website three years ago searching for a nanny or a preschool for her son.

“I was alone in Berkeley and didn’t have any family here,” she said. “I didn’t want my son to grow up without other people speaking Farsi.”

Another Iranian parent responded, and soon a small playgroup was formed.

“The group just grew organically—in fact it became too big,” Modabber said. “Soon we had 30 families, and within months we had to hire a teacher, and then a teacher’s aide. Now we have pregnant mothers coming and filling out applications. We already have nine applications for 2011.”

Tucked away inside Berkeley’s historic Heywood House at 1808 Fifth St., a block away from the Fourth Street shopping district, the kids at Golestan seem to be a world away from the land their parents were born in.

But it’s here that 2- to 5-year-old Iranian-American, Iranian-Asian and Afro-Cuban toddlers (families where both parents are Iranian are in the minority at Golestan) play with one another while learning to speak and write the Farsi alphabet and hearing stories from Persian classics.

“It’s a way for children to develop an identity as Iranians or Iranian-Americans, so that when they go to kindergarten they don’t feel like they are different,” Modabber said. “At least once a week I get inquiries from other parts of the country asking for advice or help on how to raise their bilingual children. Our long-term goal is to become a resource for other communities.”

On a recent Friday afternoon, about 10 students trotted into the dining room from the garden, which has its own vegetable patch complete with lemon, cilantro and tomato saplings from Iran.

“It’s going to get chaotic in a while,” Modabber said apologetically. “The kids will be coming in to eat.” The children, however, were very well behaved, pitching in to set the table, serve the lunch of saffron rice, chicken and grilled zucchini, and even carry dirty plates to the kitchen to be washed.

The program, which borrows tenets from Montessori and Waldorf philosophies, and Persian culture, has 25 children. Students can choose from classes in theater, music, nature, science, language and cooking.

Music is very important, and the children are exposed to a range of compositions, from Beethoven to old Persian folksingers.

After lunch, a small group gathered around 4-year-old Darya Massih, singing “Happy Birthday.”

“Mubarak, mubarak (congratulations)—come and blow the candles, so you’ll live for 100 years,” they sang, just as Darya’s father, Amir Massih, walked in to tell his daughter he was taking her out for an ice-cream sundae at Fenton’s.

“Ahhhhhh,” Darya screamed in delight, bursting into Farsi as she hugged her father.

Massih, who came to the United States when he was 8, described the program as a boon for Iranian parents in the Bay Area.

“There was just a sense that there was a hole in the process for our kids in getting to know what their culture was like and being able to speak in the language their parents and grandparents understood,” he said. “This program is tapping into something that wasn’t there.”

Massih, who still has aunts and uncles in Iran, said that he would like people to know that there is more to Iran than political unrest.

“I think what’s going on right now is in the back of everyone’s mind, and probably in the forefront a lot, but I would like to separate the cultural parts we are celebrating here from the political parts. We are celebrating the cultural gifts Iran has given to the world. What is happening there is a political process that is ugly—I am hesitant to have it intermingle with what’s happening here. I don’t think it has anything to do with a 4- or 5-year-old born here. These are just kids.”

Massih said that what was seen or heard on the news often distorted people’s opinion of Iran.

“That’s not all there is to it,” he said, talking about the country’s contributions in art, literature and philosophy.

“There are lots of beautiful parts to the culture. People have a great sense of humor. They don’t really take themselves or life too seriously. People like to laugh and enjoy themselves. If you were to see a picture of a party in Iran, behind closed doors, it doesn’t look much different than a party here. It’s a reflection of their desire to live a good life and to enjoy themselves in the same way that we do here. They just do it in a different language.”

In an adjacent room, filled with hand-woven rugs and Eastern furniture, head teacher Mina Moubedi was trying her best to put the toddlers to sleep. Soft notes from a santoor played in the background.

“I love how they are keeping Iranian culture alive here,” said Moubedi, who worked as an accountant at a knitting factory in Iran before the revolution. “In here, I am myself. I don’t worry about the differences of cultures. The words come from my heart.”

One teacher, who didn’t want her name used for fear of retribution against her family in Iran, helped the older children carry their storybooks to a room filled with the bright afternoon sunlight. She moved to the East Bay from Iran two years ago to join her husband. Most of her family still lives in Iran. When asked whether she was surprised by the political situation in her home country, she said “yes and no.”

“It can happen after each voting, because people don’t like the government,” she said. “If they are against something they don’t like, they will find a way to show their feelings.”

Another teacher, who also didn’t want her name used out of concern for her family, teaches art and dance at Golestan. She was born in the United States but lived in Iran for 14 years after the revolution. She said this is the dawn of a new era for all Iranians.

“I am very upset about it, because many innocents are getting killed. But at the same time I am happy Iranians are getting united for democracy, women’s rights and freedom of speech,” she said. “That’s really fantastic. They actually waited too long—30 years. Unfortunately, like any revolution, many have to perish for the major changes to happen, but I am hoping this is one of those changes.”

The 35-year-old teacher, who describes herself as “neither completely American nor completely Iranian,” recalled her life in Iran after the Shah was overthrown, a time she compared to the “dark ages of Europe.”

“When I went to school, every single day there were these women from the government who would check us and say ‘Oh, your pants are too short or too tight,’” she said. “They would check our nails for nail polish and whether we were wearing any makeup. But the funny thing is, all the girls who would cover themselves up at the front door would get into the university and put back their lipstick or open their hair. It’s kind of living in a duality. You try to look right for the government, but behind them you are having all these dance parties. But really, it’s not fun to live in that duality. In the street you have that fear, the fear of government.”

Describing herself as “a child of revolution,” she said that when she was living in Iran, she wasn’t fully aware of the lack of freedom.

“Sometimes when you live there and you haven’t been anywhere else, you adapt to it,” she said. “When you get out of there, you get to zoom out, and you realize that you have no freedom at all. It’s really sad.”

Her parents, she said, stayed in Iran after the revolution in hope of getting a “good democracy. Many people didn’t know it was going to turn out to be that bad,” she said. “Things gradually got worse, and nobody could say anything, because the government would put you in prison.”

When the pre-K class gathered around their teachers for “circle time,” the teacher announced that the theme of the week was heroism.

“It’s because of what’s going on in Iran,” she said, reading aloud from the famous Farsi poet Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, which chronicles the struggles and victories of Iran’s heroes. “It will help them to know about it—that people there are striving for human rights.”

Source: http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-07-02/article/33242?headline=Golestan-Kids

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20081009/ai_n30902860

Berkeley mothers start Farsi-immersion preschool

Oakland Tribune ,  Oct 9, 2008   by Katy Murphy

BERKELEY — Yalda Modabber’s parents didn’t understand, at first, why their daughter insisted on speaking to her children in Farsi.

“They said, ‘Why don’t you speak French to them? Farsi’s a useless language,’” Modabber said.

The Berkeley mother doesn’t think so. Neither do her Iranian- American friends — many of whom came to the United States as young children in the late 1970s. They want their children to embrace a language and culture that isn’t well understood in the West, she said.

About two years ago, Modabber and other like-minded mothers, including Ladan Sobhani and Yasi Massih, began meeting in the park for informal Farsi playgroups. Knowing that their kids might lose interest in the Persian language the moment they attended an English- speaking preschool, they started a preschool of their own: Golestan Kids.

Most of the children who attend the Farsi-immersion preschool or its after-school program are of mixed ethnicity, with just one Iranian-American parent.

“My wife is Persian, so we’re trying to keep the language and culture alive for the next generation,” said Chris Harrelson, who brought his daughter, Hanna, to school by bicycle.

One morning last week, the children started the day as they always do: with “circle time.” The toddlers sang songs and clapped their hands on one rug, while the older ones gathered in another room to recite the Persian alphabet, count to 10 (in Farsi, Spanish and English), and play vocabulary games.

Mid-morning, all of the children and their teachers sat around a long table for a snack of carrots, celery, and avocado and pear slices.

One of the teachers, Hengameh Chamanpardaz, greeted the kids cheerfully from the head of the table.

“Salam,” she said.

Even the small meal mimics an important element of traditional Iranian family life, with people of all ages eating together and sharing conversation, said teacher Samira Sharif.

“When everyone’s at the table, you’re not supposed to get up until everyone is finished,” she explained.

That’s important to Sobhani. She wants her kids to learn respect for elders, and to understand — though not necessarily practice — such cultural traditions as “taarof,” a form of courtesy in which a guest is expected to refuse food or tea, for example, several times before accepting it. (Likewise, the host is expected to make the offer as many times.)

“My husband’s American,” Sobhani said. “They’re only getting Iranian culture from me and my side of the family.”

Massih and her husband were born in Iran and moved to the United States when they were young. But most of their friends are not Iranian, she said, and they have to make a concerted effort to speak Farsi with one another at home, in front of their children.

“We’ve both grown up in America,” she said. “It’s easier to speak English together.”

Modabber said she was raised speaking French and that she might not have taught herself Farsi and embraced Iranian culture had she been immediately accepted by her American classmates in suburban Massachusetts.

Modabber moved to the United States with her family in the late 1970s, about the time when Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took dozens of American diplomats hostage for more than a year. Her fifth-grade classmates didn’t like how she dressed or how she spoke, not to mention her nationality, she recalled.

“These kids were brutal,” she said. “I shed a few tears and a few drops of blood.”

Years later, at a school reunion, some of Modabber’s former classmates apologized for her mistreatment. In retrospect, she said, she is grateful.

Now, Modabber wants her two young sons, Kian and Manu, to discover what she has grown to love about traditional Iranian culture — its poetry, its hospitality, its respect for elders.

At some point, she said, “They’re going to leave Berkeley. When they go out in the world, I want them to be proud of being Iranian.”

Reach Katy Murphy at 510-208-6424 or kmurphy@bayareanewsgroup.com. Read her Oakland schools blog and post comments at www.ibabuzz.com/education.

September 17, 2008

Golestan Center for Language Immersion and Cultural Education opened the doors to its new home on September 2 in the historic Heywood House located at 1808 5th Street, just one block from 4th Street shops and restaurants, in Berkeley California.

What began three years ago as a playgroup among Iranian-American mothers wanting to teach their children their language is known today as the successful language immersion program, Golestan Kids. Currently serving children ages 18 months and up, Golestan Kids is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help children become confident, caring, and empathetic individuals who are fluent in Farsi/Persian and proud of Iranian culture.

Golestan Kids provides an education that rivals the best progressive programs in the San Francisco Bay Area, while offering a fully immersed environment where children do not feel self-conscious about speaking a different language. As a result, they grow up with a sense of confidence and a respect for others and Iranian culture at a time when it is often misunderstood.

While there are a few weekend and after-school classes in Persian/Farsi, Golestan Kids provides the only daily program with full language immersion in the Bay Area – a region with an estimated 100,000 Iranians and Iranian-Americans. Recognizing the challenge of raising bilingual children and the quality of Golestan’s programs, families commute to Berkeley for up to 75 miles each way to enroll their children. While many of Golestan’s students have at least one Iranian parent, they are also of American, German, Chinese, Cuban, Costa Rican, and Peruvian heritage. Over 30% of these children are trilingual.

For some Iranian-American parents, Golestan provides the only hope of teaching their children a language in which they themselves are not fluent. Parent Ladan Sobhani reflects, “Having left Iran at the age of four, I never learned to read and write in my native tongue. When my first daughter was born four years ago, I wasn’t very optimistic that I would actually be able to teach her my language. Because of Golestan, not only have I been successful in teaching Darya Persian, but my American husband and I both learn new words from her every day.”

At a time when the continuing threat of war against Iran weakens the already strained political relations between the two countries, Golestan provides a sense of community and cultural pride not only to its children, but to the diverse community of Bay Area residents.

Golestan Kids currently has limited enrollment available in the daily toddler (18 months -3 yrs) preschool (3yrs- pre-K) and after school (pre-K – grade 1) programs. The organization is actively fundraising to support its operations.

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In January 2008, we received a $4000 grant from the PARSA foundation and were mentioned in SF Gate.