My father’s name is Socrates P. He emigrated from India almost 12 years ago and arrived in the United States.. He had his childhood education there, but has also come here and had some education, such as for a drivers’ license or his real estate agent test. Thus, he has had education of some sort from both places. He always talks about his life in India but rarely about his school career, therefore shown below are some of the questions that I asked him and the answers that he gave me.

How much do you value education for yourself and why?
I think education is THE most important thing in my life that helped me to succeed so far and I think it will continue to.

How has education impacted your life?
Without the education probably I would be working in a small store or may be a successful businessman in India but not definitely where I am now.

Did you enjoy going through your childhood education?
Certainly I enjoyed my childhood education as a successful student.

What have you learned, formally or otherwise, after coming to the United States?
I had attended lot of training classes like Project Management and Real Estate sales person licensing.

How have your educational habits changed once you came here?
My change in habits is due to the advancement of technology rather than change in place. I don’t think that

What have you noticed about the change in the instructors’ teaching methods between here and India?
My instructors teaching method is conceptually different. Indian teaching method is theory/book based. Knowledge is based on what is said in the book at least until high school. Here it is based on real life examples and experiences. In India we stopped it at the theory level. Here theory meets the real life inside and outside of the class room from early childhood.

Which teaching method do you prefer and why?
I prefer the method here as it is more realistic and helps to apply the theory in real life and gives a meaning to the education. It stimulates the creativeness and makes the students to think beyond the limits.

What advantages does learning in India have over learning here, or vice versa?
The technology in the United States is far easier to use by far and being a computer engineer this has helped me greatly. In India the syllabus for school was hard but I learned a lot so that also helped me.


Hypothetically, how would you improve a certain component of your childhood education?
I think that I would have liked to learn how to use computers during my childhood because that would have made it easier to use computers now.

Do you feel that you have finished your learning?
I would add lots of practical labs in exploring every part of my childhood education for which I never had opportunity. I don’t think I finished learning. It is a never ending process. I achieved probably 30% of what I have studied.

If not, what would you pursue further academically?
I don’t believe that anyone ever stops learning. Given an opportunity, I want to become a research scholar in business administration.

Lastly, do you think that academics has helped you achieve all that you have done, and by how much?
Lot more to be accomplished. I think that I have achieved much of what I did because of how well I studied and I believe that if I keep studying I can achieve even more.

Did you have a plan to achieve what you wanted in life and was it easy to stay with this plan?
My path to success is “Hard work never fails. If I am better at something, why not in others as long as I want to do the “others”? So I don’t give up easily.
My success so far was never an easy thing and never will it be. Ready to face the rough road ahead of me.
What advice would you give for children who want to achieve something in life?
Dream big. Stay focused. Spend every minute to achieve your dream.