Another missing piece

When I was in graduate school a few years ago, I noticed a dearth of information about other countries in my courses. Despite being recognized as one of the top social work schools in the nation, there were no outlets or classes that dealt with social work in other nations. As someone who is very interested in developing economies, I was extremely disappointed that there were no courses that taught me about these countries. So, I did the best I could to focus my paper topics on those that interested me, but this was no subsitute for learning from a well-informed professor. In fact, I never even found rich sources for research from other regions of the world, a fact that could have been remedied by a knowledgeable teacher.

MB, at 11:00 am EDT on May 22, 2008

Sad but no surprise

The basic problem is that most people in the US, including most educators, don’t have any meaningful foreign experience and — as a result? — don’t really believe that we have anything to learn from other countries.

As a professor of foreign language I have always supported study abroad, and on campus my department provided many opportunities for students to not merely learn a foreign language but USE it: in their research, in their internships, and in their co-curricular lives.

But my department and I were up against a host of resisters. Sure, there were apathetic and close-minded students. But they were reinforced by faculty who actively counselled students against spending time abroad, ignored research beyond US borders, and focused in their courses on US issues and examples. And then there was an indifferent administration that talked “internationalization” but meant by that mainly recruiting foreign students who’d pay full tuition.

I once spent an afternoon reading the essays of students from 2-year and 4-year colleges who had spent a summer in Madrid. The essays mainly reflected surprise at what a good time they had had with their Spanish peers; and utter amazement that one could live very well in an environment very different from what they were accustomed to.

I wish more US citizens could experience that kind of surprise and amazement. It might pave the way to genuine intellectual curiosity and cross-cultural respect — two things sadly lacking on campuses now.

Beatrice, at 2:25 pm EDT on May 22, 2008

Got It In One

“And then there was an indifferent administration that talked “internationalization” but meant by that mainly recruiting foreign students...”

And that, folks, is what it’s all about. We all know that the opportunities for domestic growth in education are few, and frankly American business will only hire American workers (even in America) if they’re absolutely forced to. Let’s face it, we really aren’t even remotely interested in teaching smart American kids — sometimes even if they’re paying through the nose for our tutelage.

This strategy has already cost America trillions. Soon it will cost America its businesses, its property, its ability to compete, and its resources. Emigrate while you still can.

Scrawed, at 4:40 am EDT on May 27, 2008