Friday, November 27, 2009

Indiakids: Are we "Third Culture Kids"?

I was spending time recalling the many boarding schools in Mussoorie (Waverly, Wynberg-Allen, Woodstock, Mussoorie-Modern just to name a few) and came across this term on Wikipedia: "Third Culture Kid"

Third Culture Kids or Trans-Culture Kids, (abbreviated TCKs or 3CKs,) whom are sometimes also called Global Nomads, "refers to someone who, as a child, has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture".[1]
Since the term was coined by sociologist Ruth Hill Useem in the 1960s, TCKs have become a heavily studied global subculture. TCKs tend to have more in common with one another, regardless of nationality, than they do with non-TCKs from their own country.


The article is not fully supported by citations, but has a lot of bibliography and footnotes at the bottom of the page.

Do Indiakids fit into the Third Culture Kid population?

Here's an excerpt, that makes some sense, but also reads more as opinion than data:
TCKs are often multilingual and highly accepting of other cultures. Moving from country to country often becomes an easy thing for these individuals.

Many TCKs take years to readjust to their passport countries. They often suffer a reverse culture shock upon their return, and are constantly homesick for their adopted country. Many Third Culture Kids face an identity crisis: they don't know where they come from. It would be typical for a TCK to say that he or she is a citizen of a country but with nothing beyond their passport to define that identification for them. They usually find it difficult to answer the question, "Where are you from?" Compared to their peers who have lived their entire lives in a single culture, TCKs have a globalized culture. Others can have difficulty relating to them. It is hard for TCKs to present themselves as a single cultured person, which makes it hard for others who have not had similar experiences to accept them for who they are. They know bits and pieces of at least two cultures, yet most of them have not fully experienced any one culture making them feel incomplete or left out by other children who have not lived overseas. They often build social networks among themselves and prefer to socialize with other TCKs.


What do you all think? Is this something you think would be helpful in describing your present situation in life, and when describing upbringing? I think the main difference is that we did not have our parents, as many TCK's did have. But, it's important to note that there were the American Embassy kids at Woodstock boarding school in Mussoorie too.

Friday, November 13, 2009

A brief summary of the India program

The boarding schools I went to were GNFC school in Mussoorie and GRD Academy in Dehra Dun. At first GNFC was the school all the parents collectively sent us to, until about 1989. It was a traditional Sikh boarding school that had a British influence, and had separate campuses for boys and girls. The majority of the students were Indian Sikhs, with some Thai Namtari Sikhs, and us American 3HO Sikhs. The majority of faculty and staff were Indian, and there were about a half-dozen American "guides" with us (incuding the notorious Nanak Dev Singh), and out of those, three were actual teachers and the rest were sort of just assigned to watch over us. One of the guides was made head-nurse by GNFC, and became in charge of the infirmary.

Then there arose a conflict between the 3HO organizers of the India "program" (they were called Sikh Dharma Foreign Education or SDFE) and GNFC. The rumor I got was that SDFE was stiffing GNFC on the bills, and GNFC gave us the boot. SDFE told us however that GNFC was scamming us. I'm really not sure what the real story was, but in 1989 SDFE began constructing its own school in Dehra Dun, called GRD Academy, and was to be structured a lot closer to Yogi Bhajan's idea of a proper school, and was also co-ed. From then on it became a quest of theirs to form a school in their own ideals (or as they said "to have a school of our own").

GRD Academy was funded by a man named Raja Singh who was a rich sikh from Delhi. The school was constructed from the ground up, and we attended class and lived in the dorms all during construction. Food supply was often short, and class was often haphazardly organized. Some of the "guides" who were with us at GNFC stayed along for GRD and played more important roles in the shaping of the school, and many more young adults were brought in from the US, some of whom had attended GNFC and graduated from there. Our Principal, Mr. Waryam, was recruited from GNFC as well. He was a nasty drunk.

There were two guides with US Military backgrounds, and they were brought in to teach us military style drills, something that Yogi Bhajan was particularly fond of at the time. For some reason, the Indian students at GRD were exempt from the military training. The 3HO children were to remain at GRD only for a couple of years, and I really don't know why it didn't work out, because I was back home by then, attending a new experiment for 3HO youth, the New Mexico Military Institute, which also did not last much more than three years. Also in the time of the last years of GNFC and GRD, a state-side school in Albuquerque, NM was founded, called Amritsar Academy, and where Nanak Dev ended up after leaving GNFC in 1986, which also shut down sometime in the early nineties,.

When Punjab became more peaceful and opened up to visitors, SDFE took on the task of moving all the 3HO children to another new, privately owned, and purely 3HO school environment, and that is what Miri Piri Academy is today. MPA is owned by Sikh Dharma-3HO. I never attended MPA, and never visited either. It appears to be more focused on Sikhism and Sikh Culture, and less focused on academics. I know that it still operates the same way that SDFE organized sending guides over: very low pay, in exchange for room and board. They recruit individuals with no knowledge about childcare, or experience with teaching. They plunk these people in positions of authority over many children, and have no business being there. Some teachers or guides at MPA simply graduated from GNFC, GRD or MPA, and went straight into these positions, with no training or higher education, and certainly no education about childhood development or education. I'm unaware of the statistics for graduates of MPA who pursue higher education. My guess is that it's relatively similar to my own generation. The majority of youth who pursue higher education ultimately gain critical thinking skills and independent thought, and pursue their own lives outside the realm of 3HO.

We were beat and slapped by the Indian teachers and guides at GNFC, and were also made to do lots of bizarre corporal punishments, that had lots to do with awkward positioning and endurance. At GRD, the beating was not non-existent, however was rare. The corporal punishment remained about the same as GNFC, and was often inflicted by the guides, and the Indian teachers at GRD rarely ordered punishments. Amritsar Academy had it's own "seva" style, or "karma-yoga" type discipline. I don't know first-hand what the disciplinary style of the staff and teachers is at MPA, and I'm not comfortable talking about the various rumors that circulate, because I have no way of verifying them. Please comment below if you have a first-hand account.