Back in Business...I hope

It has been over two years since my last post, an announcement that Cori and I would not be returning to Hungary to teach. However, there is now a chance that we will. Or, at least we may travel somewhere abroad to teach.

Last week I completed my application to the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program. As a teacher of world history and economics I may be limited by the number of possible exchanges, but Cori and I have our collective fingers crossed.

I should find out sometime in November if I have been selected for an interview. The interviews normally take place in December. Then, if approved for an exchange, I would be notified sometime around February. At that point I would have the right to accept or decline the placement. If accepted, Cori and I would move abroad for the 2009-2010 school year!

My top three country choices (there are only 5 countries that are accepting social studies teachers) are 1. Czech Republic, 2. Hungary, and 3. Ghana. Also possible are Switzerland (high cost of living) and the United Kingdom (cost of living and lacking the cultural complexities we're looking for). Two other countries looking for teachers, but not of the social studies variety, that I wish I could go to are India and Turkey. Oh well, I'd probably settle for any of the five listed above.

The program requires that an applicant be in at least his third year of teaching at his current institution, which I am. If approved, I would essentially trade places with a foreign teacher who would teach my classes at Germantown. My principal and district administrator are fully supportive of this opportunity! In fact, my administrator is a former Fulbright teacher himself, having participated in an exchange to Romania a few years ago.

The application was fairly extensive, with a personal essay being the most daunting component. Here's what I ended up writing. I hope they like it!

Instructions:

On no more than two additional pages, please write one essay addressing both A and B below:

A. Provide a narrative picture of yourself. The essay should deal with your personal history, focusing on influences on your intellectual development, the educational and cultural opportunities (or lack of them) to which you have been exposed, and the ways in which these experiences have affected you. Also include your special interests and abilities.

B. Describe your future career goals and plans, especially ways you plan to use your experience abroad in your professional work in this country and to enhance international education in your school/college and community.

During an era of rapid economic, political, and technological globalization, the need for cross-cultural education, tolerance and, in the end, acceptance, could not be more pressing. Nearly 90 years ago, H.G. Wells authored The Outline of History, in which he insightfully noted,

The weaving of mankind into one community does not imply the creation of a homogeneous community, but rather the reverse; The community to which we may be moving will be more mixed (which does not necessarily mean more interbred), more various and more interesting than any existing community. Communities all to one pattern, like boxes of toy soldiers, are things of the past rather than the future.

More recently, we have famously been told that “The World Is Flat.” This characterization may be apt. However, the world’s citizens surely do not appear to be equipped to contend with its natural consequence: that cultures will increasingly be pressed into challenging and potentially contentious encounters with each other. The potential outcomes of this situation present a stark contrast: peaceful coexistence, or mass conflict risking possible extinction. I believe education will be the difference-maker.

My own educational experience has motivated me to change the way we teach. I had been labeled an “underachiever” by my teachers and parents. My natural intellect was offset by poor academic performance. I muddled through high school, unsure of the relevance of what was being taught. My parents urged, “Work hard and earn good grades so you can attend a good college.”

“But, to what end?” I often wondered. “To get a job that pays well?” Though satisfying to many, this notion failed to motivate me. School seemed unfulfilling at best, irrelevant at worst.

Midway through my freshman year of college I had an “awakening” of sorts. For weeks I had considered dropping out. I had only enrolled in college out of a sense of duty, to fulfill the expectations of those around me. I lacked direction and purpose. Desperate for answers I started examining the lives of other students. It was a group of music majors that caught my attention. These students spent their free time on nights and weekends enjoying the subject they were working so hard to master during the day. They were studying something they loved to do! My mind started racing. In a matter of days I met with my advisor and changed my major from mathematics to geography and economics, topics that had fascinated me since childhood. As a young boy I would sneak a flashlight under the covers late at night, not to read comic books or Sports Illustrated, but to “read” the world atlas. I would trace the rivers and railroads from place to place. I sailed along the Nile, rode trains across Siberia, journeyed deep into the rainforests of Brazil, and peeked behind the Iron Curtain. A decade later, with childlike wonder, I finally “owned” my education. I was finally going to school because I wanted to learn.

Fifteen years have passed since then. That time has been marked by moments of realization, many inspired by considering the world from an alternate perspective.

“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us”

- Socrates

In 2005 while enrolled in school to earn a teaching license, an advisor mentioned the opportunity to student teach in one of two foreign countries: Costa Rica and Hungary. Costa Rica in springtime would be beautiful, but Hungary captured my imagination. My father’s family emigrated from Russia in the early 20^th century and I had always been interested in the Soviet Bloc. A few emails and one lovingly selfless decision by my wife later, I was heading somewhere I hadn’t been since those late nights under the covers with a flashlight.

A teacher met me at the airport in Budapest and drove me to Szolnok, a mid-sized city located about 100 kilometers from the capital. Suffering from jet lag and culture shock, I had little to say. A short time later, Juliana dropped me off at my new home: a communist-era block flat. I was alone, very alone. Loneliness and fear washed over me. I did not speak the language. I had no phone or Internet. I had no real idea where I was. I felt completely vulnerable.

Shortly, I began to notice countless tiny details. Hungary smelled different. The aluminum foil was really thin. People drank pear juice. Tables did not carry salt and pepper shakers, rather salt and paprika shakers. Hungary was certainly different, but with each new experience, I learned to cope, adapt, and embrace. I worked hard to learn Hungarian words and phrases. The people were so appreciative when they heard an American make an effort to speak their unique language. They would smile and warmed to me. I learned to communicate using hand gestures, pictures, and facial expressions. Sometimes, when the message couldn’t be transmitted, I learned something much more important: patience and humility. Never again would I frustratingly sigh when a non-English speaker in line ahead of me struggled to find correct change. I was quickly becoming comfortable living in a foreign land.

Among my goals while in Hungary was to explore people’s views on international issues. No one made a greater impact on me than Attila. A 26-year-old public defender with university degrees in law, economics, and public policy, Attila was clearly well educated and intelligent. He had spent a year attending high school in California, which he enjoyed, but he said the school was not very challenging and the students seemed immature to him. But when I asked him if he hoped to return to the United States one day work, his response staggered me.

“No," he stated, "I would never lend my intellectual capabilities to a nation with a foreign policy such as yours."

I was too stunned to be offended. Attila explained why he felt this way: he viewed the American government as conceited, brash, and reckless. He described the United States as a global empire set on economic and military expansion. Although, he was quick to note, he really appreciated all the American people he had met. Naiveté can only begin to describe how I felt after our conversation. This was a perspective with which I was vaguely familiar, but one that had been roundly demonized by the American pundits whom I read. In the following weeks, I spoke with other Hungarians, along with Slovenes, Slovaks, and Czechs. Nearly all shared Attila’s opinion: The American people seemed very generous and friendly, but their government had become a global bully.

Socrates was speaking to me.

"When you don't understand you will fear and when you fear you will destroy."

- Chief Dan George

During my second year teaching World History at Germantown High School, I asked a student if she would speak to my class. She was one of two hijab-wearing Muslim students in the school. In fact, she was one of only a small handful of Muslim students in the school. My class was studying the origins of Islam and had been asking many cultural questions that I couldn’t answer. Rabia agreed to join us, though on the day of the talk she was very nervous. She explained the pillars of Islam, the tradition of the hijab, and her experience moving to the United States from Pakistan as a little girl. She described how scared she felt on 9/11: for her country, America, and for her people, Muslims. I could tell the students had many questions, but were afraid to ask. After a few minutes everyone started to open up. Students began to ask about dating, playing sports, wearing shorts, and listening to music. To the student’s surprise, Rabia’s answers were quite like any other teenager’s might have been: She liked soccer, she loved talking on the phone, she had a ton of songs on her i-pod, and she even laughed when a student asked if her parents had already pick out a husband for her.

The next day my students told me it was one of the greatest experiences they had ever had in school. Many of the girls said they thought Rabia was “cool” and that they wished they had talked to her sooner. Everyone seemed surprised she was so “normal.”

Chief Dan George’s words speak volumes about the desparate need for meaningful, authentic, cross-cultural education in this “flattened” world.

In recent months I have talked with my administration about creating an international travel course that would allow students to explore the effects of more than four decades of communism on Central and Eastern European culture and perspective. At the same time I expressed my interest in applying for a Fulbright Teaching Exchange grant. They were excited about both. I believe spending a full year teaching in Central Europe will afford me the opportunity to build relationships and lay a foundation necessary to create a meaningful, authentic, cross-cultural opportunity for American students to travel abroad in the years to come, with the goal of providing them with the same access to unique perspectives that I have been so fortunate to experience.