Writer S. Mitra Kalita shared her perspective on schooling in India and the U.S. in the following recent Wall Street Journal article.
Last year, as a New Delhi mom desperate to get my daughter into an elite private school, I chose my interview outfits carefully: Boots and blazers for the schools known among the business class. Colorful salwar kameezes for the more cultural and political set. Taking no chances, we brought her artwork, copies of my first book, reviews of my husband’s art shows. We were shameless, stopping only short of outright bribery and jockeying connections–both traits as entrenched in Delhi as sequins and seekh kebabs.
Last week, we completed a whirlwind tour of some of New York City’s best public schools. We gave no thought to our appearance before each of the six tours. Who we were didn’t matter at all, and not so much our daughter either. What got us in the door was her performance on a Saturday morning earlier this year, shortly after we returned to the U.S. In what any parent will recognize as a fluke (what if she had been moody, hated the proctor, wanted eggs for breakfast instead of pancakes?), she scored high enough to qualify for a magnet school.
Since then, I’ve lingered hours over the difference in our family’s experiences with school admissions, about a year and 8,000 miles apart. It is likely just a fraction of the time that business managers in each country fret over their students’ seeming ill-equippedness for the worldly work they must do.
Read the rest of the article here.
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