Jack Slattery
President, FOI
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George Nepert, editor of our FOI Newsletter,
chose as a theme for this May 2007 issue "a walk down memory lane." This fits nicely with some "history" I wish to pass on. We know how the India Peace Corps experience changed our lives but there are outcomes, such as on our children and the many people we have met and worked with in our lives. When we share our experiences and ideas we have an impact. And, who knows what a first grader you are tutoring, a high school or college student you are teaching, or a granddaughter you are helping will be doing a few years down the road? And such contact can also work on older people too! Anyway here is one of the "India stories." Some of you may remember Paul Zimmerman, who was the Regional Director of Peace Corps/ South India in Bangalore in the mid-sixties. Paul writes:
Jack: In the recent edition of the Friends of India newsletter, you asked readers to submit information about (among others) younger family members who have served in the Peace Corps.
Alice and you remember our son, Jonathan, as a five-year old in Bangalore when you and I were PC/South India staff members. Even though he was so young when we lived there, the India experience remained embedded in his mind. When he was in high school, he told us that he wanted to be a Peace Corps volunteer in India
When Jon graduated from Columbia in 1983, he fulfilled his ambition to become a volunteer. However, there was no longer a Peace Corps in India, so he chose the nearest possibility: Nepal. He served from 1983-86 as a teacher, in a very rural part of western Nepal. In addition, together with another volunteer, he devised a teacher training curriculum. Needless to say it was an extraordinary experience for him. The experience became the basis for his future work career. He loved teaching, and determined that his future lay in that field.
After teaching in an inner city school in Baltimore, Jon was awarded a Javits Fellowship, which paid for his Masters and PhD studies at Johns Hopkins. He lives in Philadelphia, with his wife, Susan-an infections disease physician at the Childrens Hospital, University of Pennsylvania-and their two daughters. He is now forty-six years old, and a full professor at New York University. His specialty is the history of education, which he both teaches and studies. He has published three books in his field, and, as I sit here at the computer, I'm sure he is working on another book. An excerpt from his most recent book "Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century" is in the Spring, 2007 edition of the national Peace Corps Association's publication, "Worldview."
Jon is a tireless worker, which stood him in excellent stead in Nepal, and still does, at NYU. Pardon my overwhelming pride in Jon. It usually goes with the parental territory. Best regards, Paul
Paul, thanks for sharing this.
Please see inside for information on
Project India Program: Opportunity to inform their 100 alumni of FOI charity activities
National Public Radio (NPR) India Ganges River series
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Namascaram,
Jack Slattery
Email: FOIndiaSlattery@aol.com
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