Thirty five years of teaching literature on four continents has given me a unique perspective on international education. With the international Baccalaureate Diploma Program my students have gone onto universities all over the world and keep me up to date on the lives through FaceBook. Over the years it has been a pleasure and a challenge to choose world literature for my curriculum from the IB List of works. Works in translation, original language of English, poetry, drama, prose non-fiction and novels have given me the opportunity to open insights into the cultures and experiences of authors and my international students in India, Switzerland, Greece, England, Rome and Uruguay. It has been quite a journey and an incredible adventure.
These days I find I am reading less, writing more and still missing the frisson of a classroom of fifteen students who represent ten nationalities and are fluent in three or more languages. Many were what is now labeled "Third Culture Kids", or students studying in an international school in a foreign country having never really lived in their own country or been educated in their home language. As a result, many are destined to always be "strangers in a strange land." The adjustments and struggle for identity and belonging eclipses the usual teen-aged angst of the search for self.
In Montevideo, Uruguay I was charged with counseling juniors and seniors in making choices about university. These international students are worldly wise, but naive and vulnerable in many ways. I felt conflicted about suggesting the USA option for higher education. It was far more costly for the families who were on a diplomat's or local's salary and I felt compelled to warn my students about the traditions of American universities in terms of drinking and "Greek Life" on campus. I tended to steer them toward the UK where the cost was less than half and the degree earned in three years. It was a qualifying degree, at that. Four years in an American university is a stepping stone to a graduate program of another three years and added loans. Still, no guarantee of a job at the end. Indeed, many universities in Germany, Spain and The Netherlands are free and offer studies in English! Moreover, Europeans have a more circumspect view of alcohol and many teens learn that wine and beer are meant to be part of a meal; to be inebriated is considered ridiculous! In Rome, where I taught at St. Stephen's School for seven years, the only students who seemed to go overboard with drink were the visiting students coming from private schools in new England for a semester to study classics.
Now, I cannot imagine what it must be like for educators in the time of COVID-19. Is it
on-line learning or risking the in class room option? I am pleased not to have to make that choice and feel deep sympathy for teachers and students alike in the pandemic.
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