There is a student organization in Texas A&M University called Academy for International and Future Leaders (AIFL). One of their programs was to conduct an event under International Students Cultural Experience (ISCE). The program’s objective was to familiarize international students with American way of life. Under this program, volunteer American families were to host International Students during the spring break (vacation for a week in spring (Jan-May) semester. I was one of the students hosted. I spent eight days with my host family during the spring break.
The host family consisted of four members: parents and two kids (a boy and a girl). The mother was a history teacher in a middle school. I requested her to take me to her school. She was very gracious. She took me to the school and I was allowed to interact with students from a student organization and I was taken to a few ongoing classes. Anne (the girl from host family) and I were given an opportunity to speak to the students at the school.
2.2 Denton Middle School
Though Mrs. Miller’s (the mother in the family) school is not far from her home (less than two kilometers), she drives to the school. She teaches Texan and American history. Anne and I reached school at 12 in the afternoon. We had to meet the receptionist to be allowed to go inside the school. The receptionist was a south Indian lady. For getting visitor identification badges we had to fill details in a computer. All students and teachers had identification badges.
We had to speak in a lunch meeting. Since it was the “Irish day”, students ate potatoes for lunch. The meeting was organized in the school library. One could see a display of books in the library connected with anything Irish. Anne and I were introduced to a few teachers. I was asked to talk about my family and my experience of being hosted. I talked a bit about Rajasthan, a bit about transportation engineering, and a bit about hosting. I didn’t know my audience so it was difficult for me to know what to talk and what to omit. Anne talked about importance of doing well in high school for getting into college. Anne told me that most of these students would go to college, as they were members of National Junior Honor’s society.
After the meeting, I went to an honors history class taught by Mrs. Miller. The class changed my perception of the American education system. The American education system is not geared to produce average students, as focus is not on the average student. In India everyone had to read books meant for a hypothetical average student. The result was that most of my ‘above average’ friends were bored with the books and a lot of others had difficulty in understanding the books.
When I went to the class, a girl student was reading from the slides on a monitor for benefit of the whole class. Each slide had either a map or some other interesting thing, which would help students relate the material being taught. Mrs. Miller would stop the slides at appropriate intervals to ask questions. A few kids would raise hands for answering the questions. Student correctly answering the questions would get a sticker. The questions were directly related to the material being taught. She was asking questions from her list of pre-prepared questions. It implied that she would have invested a greater time in preparing the questions than she was spending in asking them. When I saw her the other day in house, she spent a lot of time preparing material to be taught the next day.
I asked her about the number of classes she had to teach. She taught six classes a day, each of fifty minutes duration. On this particular day, she had to go and pick-up lunch for the kids and she did not even get time to eat her lunch. Talk of a work ethic!
At the end of the class, the students had to complete a worksheet, which dealt with material taught the same day. Answers in the worksheet were given by the students. Those correctly answering questions got a sticker. The stickers could be turned in for some privilege like not having to submit one homework (12 stickers would qualify for that).
I could see the incentive system working efficiently. Three kids turned in their stickers for some privilege. She handed them passes that could be used for the particular privilege. She didn’t have to force students to get anything done. In fact, she cannot beat her students. American law does not allow her. But she was more effective than any Indian teacher I have seen in my life. There was minimal spoon feeding in the class.
The students get homework as they get in India. The only difference is that last 5-10 minutes in each period is used to go over the homework. While doing this, they can consult a teacher. The students are expected to work on the homework themselves. If Thomas (the boy in the family) is a typical example, I think students complete the assignments on their own. In Texas A&M University, for the non-group assignments, students work on their own without consulting others.
The homework was very relevant. They had to think to be able to complete the homework. Though some of the assignments were like what we get in India, others were group projects on which the students had to make reports or prepare PowerPoint presentations.
I could see that a lot of students were in football field and other games fields. I saw a class completing a two-kilometer run. When I talked to Anne and Thomas I found that more than three-fourth of the students invest a lot of time in some sports or other activity such as being part of the school band. Others complete the required credit by doing the prescribed physical exercises. I was surprised that such a large percentage of students are actively involved in an extra-curricular activity.
I assumed that Americans have an easy life. I hypothesized this because rich in India have an easy life. Since Americans are richer, I thought they had an easy life. I assumed that all that the kids did was to party in high school and have a blast in the college (Hollywood movies reinforced that view).
This is patently untrue. High school studies are pretty easy for kids who drop out and work right after high school (12th standard in India). But those who plan of going to college (most middle class students do) have to work harder than most Indian kids. The education is broad based. I would not claim that the education instills creativity, but it fosters originality. You have to do assignments on your own. Assignments are more relevant than the assignments given to students in India. Students not only take care of studies but also spend a lot of time in extra-curricular activities.
College (bachelors) is very tough (based on workload). In India, getting admissions inside colleges is tough but you can manage with minimal work once you get an admission. If you do not care for stuff such as originality or honesty even in IITs, student life is a breeze. The assignments are easy enough if you do not have qualms about coping. But in US, you get lots and lots of assignments and students (most of them) do not copy. In addition, most of the students are involved in activities (such as inviting experts in their fields for lecture series), which consumes a lot of time. The activities revolve around their major.
In the job market as well, Americans do not find it easy. Most of the good jobs are open to all the people, irrespective of nationality. Being American makes it easy to get a job, but they do not have any positive discrimination. Americans have a good work ethic. They got to work hard to maintain their lifestyle and obtain all the things they aspire for.
I assumed that they did not have a good social life
I come from a small village and I remember the fun I had with cousins, uncles, and everyone else in the extended family. I think most of the Americans do not have that privilege. But they do have a vibrant community life. It is mostly centered on their work life. People who work together spend time with each other in the evenings. They go out on picnics, eat out together, go to watch games together, play together and do a lot of other stuff. It is not like in India, but there is a community life and it is pretty productive. People work together on communal things like getting a public park built, or other stuff like that. People volunteer for community work.
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