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Show Brian Schiller, Fulbright scholar, returns from Indian summer by Nan Chalat Out of thousands of applicants, appli-cants, Treasure Mountain Middle School Principal Brian Schiller was one of a handful of United States educators chosen to receive a Fulbright scholarship this summer. The prestigious award gave Schiller the opportunity to travel through India with 14 other scholars while studying various var-ious facets of Indian culture. After two months of intensive inten-sive study, Schiller arrived home Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning he was busy preparing for the coming school year at the Treasure Mountain Middle School. "I wouldn't have minded staying another two months; it is an incredible country. But I'm glad to be back and I am looking forward to the coming school year," said Schiller. The Fulbright scholarship program was proposed by Senator William J. Fulbright of Arkansas in 1945 to help bridge some of the gaps among different cultures and nations which had become much greater as a result of World War II. The federally-funded program sends American students, teachers and scholars abroad to study, teach, lecture and conduct research re-search in foreign countries and it makes it possible for educators in other countries to study in the United States. St I i ? 'f7 ' i I : - '--v. ! t ' I ' 1 if mwH -jkft 3 mill (mMMi -life mm m m mm mmm Ik all 111 "The experience pointed out so clearly to me that we are first citizens of the world and second Americans. We have tremendous common bonds with the people of other nations," Schiller said. "We in the U.S. are particularly ethnocentric. I found that we know much less about India than they know about us and I don't think we can continue to live as citizens of the world without understanding other cultures. I feel a strong responsibility to help our school kids understand this." Schiller applied for the scholarship last fall, "but I didn't anticipate success... I was very surprised when I heard that I had been selected." He received word last March. that he was one of 15 picked for the "History and Culture of India program." The news came about the same time he heard that his contract at the Middle School had been renewed, he remembered. The participants had to adhere to a rigorous schedule. sched-ule. First there were two weeks of lectures in New Delhi and then three-and-a-' half weeks of travel to study different aspects of the culture first hand. The group visited 10 cities and toured numerous schools. "We met with some or the most prominent people in India," said Schiller, who added that one of the high points of the trip was a one Brian Schiller hour and ten minute audience au-dience with Indira Gandhi. "It is interesting to note that while the Prime Minister Minis-ter spent more than an hour with us, the U.S. ambassador ambassa-dor granted us only a reluctant 10 minutes," Schiller Schil-ler said. "We also met J.R.D. Tata, one of the wealthiest industrialists in the world and with several leading social scientists." In the city of Bombay, Schiller said he could stand on the 30th floor of the most modern hotel and look down onto shantytowns with no plumbing or electricity. The group visited the government-run schools for the shantytown children. "It is pholo by Nan Chalat amazing how eager the students were to learn and how dedicated the teachers were," he said. The caste system, although al-though outlawed, was still very prevalent, he observed. "It is a lot like the U.S. Social status follows color and economics tend to follow status. I realized that here was a country with 750 million people which was trying to become a developed de-veloped nation and they needed our help and understanding." under-standing." Once his 1,300 slides are developed, Schiller hopes to share some of his experiences ex-periences with his students and interested members of the community. |
