Foreign exchange: school leaders find tangible benefits in their overseas educational study missions - Cover Story

School Administrator, Jan, 2004 by Carol Brzozowski

The first lesson we learned was that we would have no answers until we got off the bus. As we entered our hotel, we were escorted to a balcony where some of the most beautiful children in the world stood attired in traditional Vietnamese dress. The lovely young girls greeted us with fragrant leis and smiles. In many cases the warm welcome included hugs and kisses on the cheek.

The following day, we visited a fabulous kindergarten located in what had been the former home of the country's vice president. The students did not let us stand apart. They quickly involved us in fishing in their tank of plastic fish, shopping at play stores and sharing their story time. Language became no barrier as smiles connected visitor and pupil. Students presented handmade presents, and a group of American school board members sang. We were learning that getting into the same room rather than observing from above and afar made a difference in what we could see, and it changed our points of view.

We derived a similar lesson from that initially intimidating motor scooter traffic. We looked out from the bus windows to see entire families aboard one scooter. Huge boxes were strapped on and transported with seeming ease. We could see no pattern to the way the vehicles darted in and out.

Getting on the Road

It was only when we got onto the roads in pedicabs that the point from which we were viewing all of this changed. Suddenly, we realized that drivers could detect spaces just the right size for moving through the hordes. We saw how drivers varied speed to keep each scooter moving along with others and to get ahead of some. We also felt the exhilaration of being art of all of that motion and recognized that merely moving through the streets took skill--and a lot of nerve.

And all of a sudden we could see into buildings and smell the aroma of meals cooking. Structures that looked similar from afar really had their own unique characteristics. Our conversation changed based on that ride. We had new points of view about the living around us.

For four of us, an evening stroll down the main street of town altered our sense of the country and its life even further. Without bus or pedicab, we crossed the street on our own. Oh, you might say, any child--could do that. Well, it did take a child--an energetic Vietnamese boy who was trying to sell us ball caps--to explain the strategy for street crossing to us. We hesitated, trying to figure out how to cross a thoroughfare thick with motor scooters, when the teen-ager said to us, "Are you going to cross the street?" Upon hearing our answer, he emphatically stated, "Then don't stop. Keep moving." With him barking those orders beside us all the way, we stepped into the traffic and kept walking.

The key to crossing the street in Ho Chi Minh City was to be part of the motion. Because we were moving just as all the vehicles were moving, dodging and passing and going with the flow were all possible. To have stopped would have certainly meant that someone or something would have been hit because of the broken momentum. We had to be literally in--not beside or above--the action to understand. Our change in the place where we viewed that action made all the difference.