From the Other Side - An Intern's Global Classroom Experience

By: Nachiket Udupa, Global Classroom Intern and Global Guide

I came to New York City in Fall 2008 to join a program in Education Leadership Studies, which is kind of like a combination of economics, policy and management of education. So when I came across the Global Guide training for One to World’s Global Classroom program, I jumped at it. Reading theory about the education is one thing, but actually seeing it firsthand is quite something else. I knew that Global Classroom would give me a chance to experience New York City public schools and give me a more practical insight of what I had otherwise only been reading in books. And what an experience it has been!

My work with the Global Classroom program has been an immense learning opportunity. First as a Global Guide in the Fall semester and later as an Intern in the Spring, I’ve taken part in many workshops in several different classrooms in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. This experience has given me the unique chance to meet different international students from across the world and understand what schools are like in their countries. There is also something new I can take away from each visit to a New York City classroom apart from the sheer joy of spending time with students.

What amazes me the most is how insightful students are, and interacting with them can be an absolute delight. Being in classrooms takes me back to my days in school. The insight and curiosity that students have has surprised me more than once. I have often tried discussing topics that one might typically think to be too advanced for them and have always been amazed at how perceptive the students are in New York City. In sharing different perspectives and imparting new knowledge, Global Classroom not only helps students grow to become global citizens but also makes me a better person.

I particularly remember one experience I had with a class of 5^th graders in Staten Island where I was talking to them about the unity in diversity in India. A ten year old girl asked me if India was fighting any wars. I replied to her that India and Pakistan had fought wars in the past. She then asked me why they were fighting. The innocence with which she asked the question and the look in her eyes made it hard for me to explain to her that the two countries were fighting over an artificial line that man had drawn dividing the two lands. I felt then that if all human beings could experience what I was experiencing at that moment, there would be no more wars.

Ariel and Will Durant once said, “Education is the transmission of civilizations.” Classrooms are a microcosm of the society they are set in and, personally, I think the best way to get to know a city or a culture is to visit its schools. I am not a fan of sight-seeing and believe more in getting to know the people and traditions of the place that I am visiting. My experiences in public school classrooms have taught me a lot more about America and New York City than visiting any landmark would have.