Can American children compete?

Nearly twenty years ago when I came to the United States, I came to receive an edge in the form of a graduate education in, what was then and what is still, the best educational system in the world. So did a number of my friends. As time progressed, our justifications for staying on changed: for the last few years Viji and I have said to each other that living in the U.S. gives our children an edge. I think highly of the American school system, and even though my compatriots rue the lower standards of Math education in American elementary and middle schools, I think this is more than adequately compensated for by the creativity that is fostered in students.

But, lately, I've begun to worry about the The World is Flat argument made by Thomas Friedman. If the field has been leveled for students across the globe, then, are the work ethics of our children, here in the U.S., such as to let them compete effectively with the hardworking, ambitious kids from Bangalore and Beijing?

My buddy Balan Menon has expressed this concern well:

..There is an issue brewing on the horizon. And it has to do with our children. In ten years, assuming she does a masters, Maya, our older daughter will be in the work place. In ten years, the global work place will shrink further and will make absolutely no difference whether an employee sits in Mumbai, Moscow or Madrid. I returned from India a few weeks back and had an opportunity to speak to some 12 to 15 year olds in Palakkad, Kerala. All of them (and this is the norm) attend tuition classes, after school hours, so that they can hone their competitive skills at entrance exams for admission into Engineering, Medical and other lucrative fields. While this takes away childhood as we know it, these kids in India become a bunch of lean, mean competitive machines, competing against my kids who are for the most part lost in Sponge Bob country. Our kids, growing up here, will be blissfully unaware that there is a Tsunami coming their way.

How will our children cope?

Recreating Home

I was speaking with our friend Sowjanya the other day. Sowjanya was describing how she misses India -- by this she meant not, just, her family and friends, but the whole Indian living experience. I feel the same way. I recently read Jhumpa Lahiri's novel Namesake, and I strongly empathized with the Gangulis' nostalgic longing for their roots.

I think, many emigres live with this sense of disconnect from their cultural roots. They, then, attempt to recreate the country of their memories; sometimes, funnily enough, they recreate things that are no longer in vogue in the old country. For instance, today, I was thinking back to the pre-refrigerator, pre-TV days of my childhood. Remember, the earthen pots (matkas) from which we drank the cool, fragrant water with a delicate flavor of clay, in the summers? I figured I wanted to buy some matkas for our house here. Now, who keeps earthen pots any more in urban India?

Here is an interesting story about the Shahs, a wealthy family in Mumbai. Girish Shah is a diamond merchant living in a Malabar Hill skycraper. Here's what his flat is like.

The doorbell is a thick multi-coloured cotton string attached to a hook with a tiny bell. Pull on it and a brass bell booms inside, like the temple bells in villages. Shoes remain at the door, and you step onto a brown floor made of one-inch thick cow dung spread evenly on a half inch base of clay.

Also,

... the housemaid lights a concoction of dry cow dung, dry neem leaves, a dash of homemade butter and a pinch of camphor at dusk.

As for the kids,

Sons, Tanmay and Rishabh, and daughter Dhwani attend an exclusive gurukul nearby. "I keep them away from television and movies," says Shah. "They are trained in archery, which has done wonders for their concentration and memory development."

Mr. Shah is recreating his rural roots in Mumbai (I should say, though, that he is a social and environmental activist, and this, more than nostalgia, is why he has chosen to do what he does.) For the full article, see http://www.the-week.com/25jun12/lifestyle_article1.htm

Here in the U.S., we, Indians, attempt to recreate the India of our past with our Hindu Sunday schools, weekly temple visits, our insistence on speaking our mother tongues at home. This is all well and good, and perhaps, the best one can do. But truth be told, one can hardly recreate an entire living experience through a patchwork of practices.