PROPOSAL

PA Fellowship Proposal (by James F)

Coming Full Circle as a Teacher

PROPOSAL

I propose to use the generosity of the Parent Association Fellowship to journey back to the village in Nepal where I served as a Peace Corps volunteer as a young teacher more than 30 years ago. I propose to document the changes in education in the mountain village of Sisuwa and to help connect Buckley’s faculty and students with a country where few are literate, have phones or internet, and few have access to the world outside their village except through education. The school at which I taught sits at an altitude of 3,000 feet at the foot of the Himalayas and could reasonably stand in as a representative of the global village with which The Buckley School might partner as we strive to make global connections. Reaching out from a private school such as ours to make contact with a third-world village school where I once taught has far-reaching implications for both schools and might result in sister-school status that would demonstrate Buckley’s commitment to internationalization. John F. Kennedy set the Third Goal of the Peace Corps: to “strengthen Americans’ understanding about the world and its peoples.” The awarding of this PA Fellowship will help promote that goal of bringing global awareness back home.

SERVICE

Coming full circle as a teacher of English, I will share my personal and emotional journey back to my first, uncertain years in the classroom as I reflect on my evolution as an educator. The awarding of the PA Fellowship will have both a practical aspect and a motivational one, inspiring teachers and students who have come to take literacy and education for granted, but never should. Finally, our students especially need to understand how people in other parts of the world live. Community Service—serving one’s community and the global community—is a requirement for Buckley students, but my experience of multi-year service may help them understand what motivates a young college graduate to help those who need more than we do. My own story can illustrate for students the motivation and value of volunteerism, which must remain important after they graduate from Buckley, especially in a globalized world.

CLASSROOM

The PA Fellowship will have relevance in my classroom, as well. While I served in Nepal, I wrote down the words to hundreds of Nepalese folk songs and translated them; they were published in the Journal of South Asian Literature upon my return. In teaching World Literature to seniors, I teach a unit on the art of translation and its difficulties, using examples from Kafka, Baudelaire, but, only in passing, my own experience as a translator. Today’s students tend to read translated works as if they were written in English and would benefit from a deep understanding of reading literature in translation; my return to Nepal can provide the impetus to revisit, revitalize, and retool my lessons on the art of translation and of reading works in translation that I can share with my students more deeply.

MULTICULTURALISM

World cultures can act as a stark counterpart to our own lives in L.A. As we prepare seniors for life beyond Buckley, we teach World Literature, but they need more—an understanding of other cultures, like the one in Nepal, where illiteracy is still around 50%, where only 15% of the population have phones, where only 2% have access to the internet, where per capita income is less than $1.25 per day, and where infant mortality remains high, meaning that almost every mother loses one child. A deeper knowledge of the diversity of world populations can move students from their self-absorbed college-preparatory world to a greater capacity for empathy.

PLANNING

Once a near-native speaker of Nepalese (the language I taught in), I will seek a local tutor to brush up my Nepalese language skills so that when I arrive I can interview the school faculty, students, and villagers in their native language. Planned activities in preparation for the project include the following: planning in detail every phase of the trip, because travel in such a country should not be haphazard; contacting the school through letters (there is no internet or electricity in the village) to pave the way for my visit there; reading as much as possible about the last few decades in Nepal; studying statistics about changes in customs, life expectancy, health, the economy, the Maoist insurgency; reviewing my rusty command of Nepalese by study and locating a native speaker in Los Angeles who can tutor me; rereading and in some cases typing up my journals from that time; revisiting my translations of Nepalese folksongs and making digital copies of old, magnetic tape recordings; acquiring preventative vaccinations necessary for travel in such a place; starting a blog documenting my preparations for the Fellowship which I will continue during (from internet cafes in the cities) and after my trip; contacting the Peace Corps, which after six years of insurgency in Nepal is finally returning again to Nepal to have volunteers serve there; and (if possible) interviewing some of the new Peace Corps volunteers to document their attitudes toward service. I will consult with Ms. Cherilyn Parsons, a non-profit development consultant, who is on the board of directors of a school for girls in Kathmandu and has local knowledge of how to effectively support education from afar.

My best friend visits my vilalge

JOURNEY

On my journey, I plan to fly from LAX to Kathmandu then take the day-long bus ride to Pokhara from where I will walk or cycle to the village where I once taught. There I will make a series of video recordings of the school, the village and my interviews with villagers and teachers. I will use videotape to document the conditions there and will ask questions about the impact of Peace Corps volunteerism and about their education system over time. I will visit classes and observe today’s teaching compared to my memories of education in the past. I will write about my experiences and impressions and whenever possible post those writings to my blog. I will try to locate former students to interview about their memories of Peace Corps volunteers and the role they played in their education.

RETURN

On my return to Buckley, I look forward to sharing my new insights through 1) an article for The Community, 2) discussion with faculty, and 3) in a presentation to the full Buckley faculty and staff. During the annual Peace Corps Week in the spring of 2013, I will invite interested students to hear me speak about the Peace Corps and to ask questions about my experience, the philosophy behind the Peace Corps, and the spirit of America helping other countries. After my return, I will continue my blog, reflecting on the implications for the role of education in a world that is flat and global, and will reflect on my journey, analyzing what has changed for me and for the country I served in. I will bring home video, stories, pictures and also internet and email addresses (if available!) to re-open and maintain channels of connection with the other side of the world. I will also seek out alumni who have served as volunteers after graduation and start a dialogue about volunteerism after Buckley.