Teacher's Lounge Back to topic index Topic: History is indispensable in business and life (T7) 7/29/02 A.S., business executive, California I'm originally from the Fiji Islands and came to the U.S. about 10 years. I have a college-level education in Fiji and more education from U.S. colleges. Although the level of education offered in Fiji (similar to India, China) is actually good if one wants to understand math, science, English etc, it is severely limited if one needs to be "well-rounded" as kids are in the U.S. I realize there is a perception that many third-world countries produce smart, technologically- savvy and medically proficient people, but these folks actually find it very difficult to integrate into Western cultures. My husband is from India, and similar to myself, he did not receive exposure to events that shaped this world! I have a 9-year-old son that knows more about Western civilization than my husband at this point. I'm currently a business and Information Technology project manager working for a large financial services company in California. During my meetings and dinner interactions with people, I always lacked knowledge of world history, philosophy, art, sports, music, and psychology...and most conversations flowed around such topics. So my IT background was useless 70% of my working and social life. Knowing it was either whine or learn, I set up self-study, took classes, read books to tried and "catch up" to simply co-exist with my peers. The knowledge gleaned from your work (the Student's Friend ) was immensely powerful. I've forwarded your website to several friends as a "refresher" and you will be happy to know we have started several conversations on world events. I definitely feel much more confident in social settings and have experienced strong personal growth. Good luck with your program.

...........© 2001 - 2007 michael g. maxwell - maxwell learning l.l.c.

navigation Home Purpose Teaching history & geography The Student's Friend Teacher's aids Feedback & collaboration Store background For more reasons to study history, see the Uses of History. You don't have to be a teacher to participate in this discussion. © 2001-2006 Michael G. Maxwell

Back to topic index Topic: History is indispensable in business and life (T7) 7/29/02 A.S., business executive, California I'm originally from the Fiji Islands and came to the U.S. about 10 years. I have a college-level education in Fiji and more education from U.S. colleges. Although the level of education offered in Fiji (similar to India, China) is actually good if one wants to understand math, science, English etc, it is severely limited if one needs to be "well-rounded" as kids are in the U.S. I realize there is a perception that many third-world countries produce smart, technologically- savvy and medically proficient people, but these folks actually find it very difficult to integrate into Western cultures. My husband is from India, and similar to myself, he did not receive exposure to events that shaped this world! I have a 9-year-old son that knows more about Western civilization than my husband at this point. I'm currently a business and Information Technology project manager working for a large financial services company in California. During my meetings and dinner interactions with people, I always lacked knowledge of world history, philosophy, art, sports, music, and psychology...and most conversations flowed around such topics. So my IT background was useless 70% of my working and social life. Knowing it was either whine or learn, I set up self-study, took classes, read books to tried and "catch up" to simply co-exist with my peers. The knowledge gleaned from your work (the Student's Friend ) was immensely powerful. I've forwarded your website to several friends as a "refresher" and you will be happy to know we have started several conversations on world events. I definitely feel much more confident in social settings and have experienced strong personal growth. Good luck with your program.