11th Grade Girls in India Have Questions for Us — Please Answer One!

About me, I’m 46, about the age of most of you I was fully absorbed with reading and learning anything I could. While I’m decades older then most of you, I can share some comments from the point of view of a ‘Geographer’. Many sub-discipline’s have been created from the studies of Geography, including Sociology, Psychology, ect., just to name a few. So, I’ll try to simply add a few comments on the questions that you should consider as ‘generalizations’ of US society as a whole. Keep in mind that the US is changing and something’s are different from place to place. The US has at least 7 basic regions, each one is like the difference’s between Nepal, to India, to Sri Lanka. Then from here these cultures vary because of different people’s beliefs and ways of doing things. Two main political parties, smaller parties mixed in. Different groups with in these that have different beliefs and idea’s on who’s more important then whom. The biggest difference between India and the U.S. is that India’s caste system has a lot to do with one’s birth. In the US, there is some similarities; but, it is easier for one to escape their caste in the US, easier for some then others.

1. School days vary from region to region. Each State has some role in determining the length of a school day as well as the days of the year school is attended. In the past, school was organized around ‘farming’ season’s and were almost identicle across the country. Today, this varies. In the past only one parent needed to work and thus a mother was home with children so they did not spend as much time in school. But, do to the greed of the upper caste’s, most families do not see much of each other during the year since both parents now have to work everyday to buy food and pay bills. So, as a result, some schools have extended breaks through out the year and spend more time in school since many farms have been forced out of business in the US. Most people no longer grow their own food.

2. Uniforms is something that has become more common. In some ways it’s a good idea because it keeps some children from making fun of other children. It’s like a caste system inside schools where some kids are mean to others because their parents can not afford fancy fashion to show off in school. Otherwise, until recently, only children sent to military schools and children that attended private schools wore uniforms. I attended both kinds of schools, public and private. When we wore uniforms, we established ourselves in sports and academic’s, not who had the most expensive clothes. I discovered that there was a lot more anger and more of a caste system in schools where some people wore rich clothes to school and were mean to those who could not afford fancy clothes and that in anger the kids who couldn’t afford fancy clothes sometimes physically hurt the rich one’s because they got tired of being treated like dirt.

4. Some of this answer is above. People in the US do not exactly believe they are creating a caste system; but, a caste system is very much in effect in the US. As I said above, it is a bit easier in the US to move from one caste to another. At one time in the US, most people were farmers; but, today, most of the 350 million people in the US would not know how to grow rice and would die from hunger if it was not provided for them to buy in a store (market). Sadly, a caste system is forming about politic’s as well as one which still treat’s African American’s as a sub-human species. Typically in the US the way a caste system forms is who lives where or goes to which schools. Later in life, by what kind of a job one has.

For example, I have 164 college credits, several pieces of paper, lot’s more studies not credited formally, a Congressional Award. I’ve written shorts that have been turned into movie’s, half a dozen to a dozen fiction books have been written by other’s based on my idea’s and working with them. In the early 1980′s I did a lot of writing on a story line that another producer was inspired by and created Avatar from a story line I had written and did a beautiful job with his creativity to re-create a world I created with his own vision.

Yet, because I am a ‘truck-driver’, I am treated like a dirty filty person by most people who meet me when they learn I am a truck driver.

People here are as racist and bias as they are anywhere else and look for reason’s to make themselves feel superior to others, it helps them justify to themselves the mean things they do to others. And they usually try to find ways to justify it based on religious beliefs as well.

So, while they don’t call it a caste system here and they will deny it when asked, it does exists. It is a basic wrong about human nature and how people sometimes treat others.

5. Child Labor happens everywhere. But, in the US, for the most part, it is forbidden for children under certain age’s to work. And, children of parents who run their own small business sometimes have very strict limits on how many hours a week their children can work in the family business. Even when those children want to work more hours a week. Some children find work to do because their families need the money; but, for the most part, even if children want to work they usually can not or their parents will be punished by the government. In the end, it ultimately protects the children and allows them to have to their 18th birthday to go to school. Usually around 16 years, some, a small portion will get part time jobs and start to learn responsibility.

Cheap labor, even child labor is why so many US companies have left the US and gone to foreign countries. These other countries do not have laws protecting children or mothers and fathers from being treated like slave labor and the US government looks the other way often enough when these former US companies import goods made with child labor into the US. If the US really wanted to help children in other countries, they would ban products made by children forced into child slavery and hard labor and ban products from coming to the US unless US rules that protect people from greedy upper caste’s were applied to those goods.

6. The cheapest meal in the US? The best and cheapest meals in the US are one’s that people make themselves; but, few people actually know how to make meals anymore. Usually they buy meals that come in boxes and containers and all they have to do is make it got in a special oven called a microwave. An intense high burst of energy that makes food very hot very fast.

10 year’s ago, the cheapest meals were fast food, like McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Panda house foods (chinese) ect. But, as the caste system people who work on Wall Street have gotten more evil and greedy, they exert pressure on companies to raise prices and earn them higher profits. The best resturant’s in the US cost about $20.00 a meal. This has only changed a little, with prices from $20.00 to $50.00 a meal for good food.

Cheap and poorly made food dinners not bought in a grocery store cost $12.00 to $15.00 and are made with poor quality food. And then all the fast food places like Kentucky Fried chicken, McD’s meals, ect, cost $5-$6 to $8.00 per person.

Grocery store meals cost from $3.00 to $7.00 a person.

The cheapest and best food is that which a few of us still shop for piece by piece then we make our own meals. Done right, a dinner for a family of 5 can cost under $20.00 and there is still food left over for breakfast the next day or as a lunch.

7. This is a very hard question to answer. Not everyone makes the same amount of money. Some cities like NY City are very very expensive; but, because it is so expensive, people usually make a lot more money in those cities. Someone living in a small city in South Carolina might only make 1/4 of the money a person in NY City makes; but, have a bigger home, own more land, eat better food. But even this is changing because very mean caste people at the top are trying to control food prices and they find out how much the most expensive city is and then charge people in the poorest cities the same price as they charge rich people. (This is called price fixing, it’s supposed to be illegal but one gang of people control one political party and they use that power to make bad things ok so that they can force more people into lower caste’s, get richer and make things like the US Constitution cease to exist so that they can own everything and people again.

8. Place’s worth visiting. There are so many places to go, things to do, things to see that it really depends on what you really like to do. Of course, there are a lot of fun things to do that children love. And tens of thousands of things to do as they grow up and find things that interest them.

NY City might be interesting because it is an example of the best and the worst in some ways that the US has to offer. But, being in the big city is like being an ant walking in a trench, narrow passages surrounded by very high buildings. But there are so many things to do, especially if one likes art and theater. Florida has many beach’s and places to play in the sun. It has Disney World and other parks based on entertainment and fun rides. Miami, like some other places in Florida, has a night life where anyone can find places to go with friends, here there are places to go for all people, not just a rich upper caste. Although, the richness of the place depends on how much money a person has. (It is like this for many cities in the US; but, because some places don’t have lots of different kinds of people, away from the big cities it is harder for different people to find some things to do where they might feel comfortable and safe. Somewhere in the US, from all my travels, there are many places to be found which are similar to many places I’ve traveled all over the world. The mountains in upstate NY remind me of traveling in Bavaria and the Alps, for example. There are vast plains of rolling hills almost as big as India. (We once had mountain’s many hundred’s of millions of years ago that make the Himilaya’s look small, but now days, they are eroded down to hills some no higher then 3000 feet.) And we have the Rockies. Desert’s where you will freeze at night and in the winter and deserts where you will be cooked if you are outside for too long.

The US geographically runs from a bit above the equator to very near the north pole.

So, where you want to go and what you want to visit depends very much on what interest’s you. I spend a lot of time traveling these days around the US so I see many different kinds of places.

9. With some limitation’s, in the US, it’s possible to get a lot of things. Some products are banned in the US. Mostly, and unfortunately, many of the things to be bought today cost too much money and are made very cheaply by corporations who hope it will break so you will have to spend more money to buy a new one. Getting something of quality, especially beautiful items such as some of my hand made tables from India, are hard to find. 10 years ago there was a lot more variety so one could pick out something more special to them when they bought it. These days, most stores you go in sell the same things but put a different lable on it and charge you more money for ‘special’ names on products.

I miss the time in our past when I could go to this store or that store and get well made and hand made items from different countries that made me proud. Machine’s make a lot of things sold in the US these days and I like buying things made by machines, more machines working means less people working and that means more people being pushed into the lower caste’s instead of the way it used to be in here and that was finding a way to make sure every child got a good education, no matter what color their skin or if they were a boy or girl and could get a good job. Long ago, Doctor’s didn’t think they were better then a man who built a ship. Each worked hard all day every day, a doctor made a few extra dollars and had an eaiser job. And in the past, that was the reward for being a good student, you still got paid similar to other kinds of workers…but, you had an easier job. It was easier to count beans in a bank then rivit ships together. But, a banker and a welder still got paid similar for the same hours of work. Both could afford homes, both could feed their kids and buy them nice things. Now days, that’s not possible anymore.

There are unfortunately, a lot of products I wish I could still get; but, can no longer be found because it costs too much money and people don’t know how to make them anymore.

10. This is so hard, in some places, if a child is beaten or hurt and the person is caught, they spend a lot of years in a cage made for people. We try to protect our children; but, it is not always possible because people have so many different beliefs now about what is right and what is wrong. Something’s almost everyone agree’s is wrong; but, punishment varies. Some are worse then others.

We do try to protect our children from being beaten up by their parents. It can be very hard and if a person is not a child’s mother or father or their legal guardian, they are normally not allowed to punish a child. And if a parent punish’s a child too often or to harshly, the government is supposed to punish the parents.

People here are very confused over what it good behavior for children and bad, what should be punished and how. So sometimes, what happens when a child is beaten up depends on who beat the child up and why.

Some people think children need to be beaten from time to time as a form of discipline to keep them from being bad, others believe that anyone who punish’s a child should be punished for hitting a child.

Even the best judge’s in the US sometimes are not sure what to do to a child that has been very bad. One judge might put a child in a cage made for people till they are 21 if they kill a person, another might talk to the child till they are blue in the face and let the child go home for the same crime.

Two years ago, a young girl who was not very experienced driving, had an accident in a car that killed another driver. She was barely punished. Yet, another person may have a similar accident and be put in a cage made for people for 10 years to life.

Like above, while people in the US like to pretend they are not prejudice and a caste system does not exist, what happens if a child is beaten up, unfortunately, still has a lot to do on what ‘caste’ that child is from. Justice in the US is haphazard at times, …

…and this is confused at times because there are people here who have different beliefs.

The US is very confused these days, there is so much we can and could do and it’s so hard to do anything because there are some who think only certain groups should have power and wealth and everyone else should be street sweepers. It is what happens when the rule of law and justice are replaced by things people want to believe in who are willing to do anything to make what they believe be the tool they use to control others.

Some of the greatest people in US history did not rise to the top over all the other caste’s, they became great inside their groups and others looked at them and were proud of them and shamed by their own selfishness. Don’t let other’s tell you that you are less important then they are because they were born in a different family.

If you can’t be the greatest doctor in your own country for all people, then be the greatest doctor in your country for those who will accept you and welcome the others when they come to you. People suppress others so that they can feel more important, don’t let their beliefs prevent each of you from becoming great leaders of those who will follow you.

1. What is an average school day schedule like? Well I’m in college now but going back to high school, school started at 730 am and ended at 2 pm. That’s about 7 hours of school every day. While at school, every student has 6 classes, each about an hour long. We have a break for lunch around 12. Classes consisted of the required ones( science, math, english, social studies) and then the classes we got to pick.(I picked choir every semester because I love to sing.) Lunch lasted about a half an hour and we had to eat in a cafeteria and you could either bring a bagged lunch for home or you could eat there. They had a special everyday and then pizza, hamburgers, salads, and subs were available every day. At the end of the day everyone drives home or rides the bus if they didn’t have a car.
2. Do school children have uniforms? No my school did not have uniforms. We did have clothing rules however. We couldn’t wear tank tops or any shirts that showed too much skin. Skirts had to be at least as long as your finger tips when arms were down by your side. We couldn’t wear inappropriate shirts either. Nothing with reference to alcohol, drugs or sex and no bad words. Besides that we were free to express ourselves with what we wore. There is down sides to it though: There is pressure to have the “in fashion” clothes at all times in order to fit in.

4. Is there a caste system or any other basis of discrimination of people? There is no caste system here but there is definitely discrimination. Although we are free in the USA to have whatever religion we desire, the most dominant religion in christian.
6. What is the cheapest meal in the US? Going to fast food places( Mcdonalds, burgerking, etc.) BUT IT’S NOT GOOD FOR YOU.

8. What are some places worth visiting? California hawaii and florida if you like warm weather and the beach. Washington D.C for U.S history. Colorado for the mountains and snow. ( that’s wear I live)
9. Can you get any product you want in the US? Yes as long as it’s legal and you can pay for it.

All of these answers and thorough and amazing, thank you! Shreya emailed me and said that she is passing them along to the girls.