SHILLONG: It is an experience that will certainly remain etched in the memories of a group of students of St Edmund’s school who have just returned from a USA-NASA educational tour.
The fortnight long tour started on May 2 and on their return here the students were euphoric about sharing their ‘fun time’ in the USA.
The students who met reporters here on Friday said it was ‘fantastic, fun and we got to learn a lot about the much coveted NASA.’
Students shared their own views of the trip with some of them saying the trip was an education in teamwork and patience.
Opening up further they said that people in the USA display a lot of patience and do not rush to their daily tasks, unlike in India where people push through queues even while boarding a transport.
Brother Solomon Morris, principal, St. Edmunds’ School said the entire trip took 13 days, while the students stayed in the USA for 10 days and 11 nights.
35 boys of the school from classes IV to X went on the educational tour to the USA-NASA accompanied by the teachers of the school. The students also visited some well known places in the US such as Orlando, Florida, New York and Washington DC.
Sharing vignettes about the trip principal Morris said, “We visited the Kennedy Space Centre, and Disneyland. From Florida we went to Buffalo city via Atlanta. We visited Niagara Falls, took a bus to Washington and then to New Jersey.”
He added that in Washington, they visited Lincoln Memorial Centre and Capitol Hill. The last trip was to New York and finished off at Times Square from where the team returned home to India. When asked how the trip was conceived, Morris said that it was an offshoot of an excursion trip to a certain place in India.
He came across the idea for an educational tour abroad and sought the students’ opinion which they received with great enthusiasm and proposed to their parents who also agreed wholeheartedly.
“Education should go beyond the walls of classroom. The students should be exposed to the outside world,” Morris said.
The entire expenditure of the trip was Rs 2.5 lakh per student which covers everything except for the $20 tip for the driver and students’ pocket money.
Other than the educational tour, the children treated themselves to an eclectic menu of Italian food and American breakfasts.
The students said there are a lot of differences between an advanced country like USA and a developing country like India.
Highlighting on social etiquette observed there, a student said, “People ranging from security officers at the airport to cab drivers never hesitated to say, have a nice day, sir.”
Further, the students found that people standing in queues were very disciplined and work would be done in less than a minute unlike in India where people would be scattered instead of standing in queues.
Another student observed, “America is much cleaner than India and it sets up dustbins everywhere.”
Brother Stelljas Julius who also accompanied the children on the tour, however, bemoaned the huge wastage of food in the US when compared to India.
“In India food is more varied whereas in America, everything is standardized,” he said.
Recounting a harrowing experience of accompanying 35 kids on a tour, Morris said that there was time when a student was left behind in Kolkata as he went to the washroom when everybody else had boarded the flight adding that there are times when the children would lose their boarding passes.
To deal with the situation, the teachers came up with a plan where each student was given a cap etched with numbers. The students were then divided into groups supervised by a teacher assisted by a student leader.
“We had to be mentally prepared of contingencies. There has to be a plan B in place.”
When asked whether the school will plan such trips in the future, Morris said, “Yes. Definitely more are interested to go.”
Accompanying the students were principal Morris, Brother Julius and teacher Mil Kharshandi.
