Raghav Daga Week 16 - Roller Coaster in Circles
Today, after 8 months of deliberation, overcoming challenges, upskilling myself, and staying disciplined with my work and time, I was finally able to overcome the largest academic challenge I undertook in the 2024-25 school year: AP Language and Composition. However, my journey to get here began far before I decided to enroll in this class, starting all the way back when I learnt my ABCs in India. It is difficult to exactly encapsulate what separates the education systems in the US and India, but I think the most noticeable difference that has stood out to me would be the variance in autonomy. In India, education is quite comparable to spoon-feeding, where you have a set path that you are pushed along by your teachers, whereas in the US you get a lot more autonomy in what classes and activities you decide to take. It’s a shock when you have to make those many decisions by yourself, but it is something that makes learning in the US far more enjoyable—especially in English classes.
Learning English in India is not so disparate from the education in the US, except it also follows the same variation in autonomy. While in India, I learnt the same content, similar vocabulary, and read books just like I did in the US; it was all the same until it came to writing. I discovered very soon in the US that writing was as big a part of an English course as reading or learning vocabulary, something that is not the case in India. I discovered the concept of timed writing, as well as having my own voice when producing content rather than simply writing articles from online research. In fear of this, I took English 9 CP to hopefully not overwhelm myself—and it worked great! Taught by Ms. Roberts, the course perfectly eased me into the English education of the US and prepared me for higher level courses later on.
I went on to challenge myself with English 10H, which taught me countless rhetorical techniques. I would often compare what I studied in India to what I was learning with Mr. Howard as I dozed through his long droning lectures, recalling the funky “creative writing” style that teachers appreciated there, with students often writing without a line of reasoning, any real claim, or purpose, but instead just to put some words on paper. The knowledge of various literary techniques that I learnt from Mr. Howard’s class opened my eyes to the actual subject of English and writing.
Taking English 11AP was a stroke of bravery that came as a combination of peer pressure and genuine curiosity, as I knew I did not have the skills needed for the class, but I still wanted to push myself. From there to today, I think little has changed in my perspective on my skills, but another combination of peer pressure and curiosity has led to me registering in AP English Literature…and so the cycle repeats.
This is a very nice blog! Good work.
ReplyDeleteHello, Raghav! I really enjoyed reading your post this week! Your comparison between the Indian school system and the American one was quite enlightening. While admittedly being “spoon-fed” knowledge, as you mentioned, the Indian school system often does, can create comfort in relying on a structured assessment of one's education, I agree with you in that it often also limits the way you think. In fact, it probably minimizes your goals to only what you are exposed to. The way you mentioned developing a "voice" in writing is also something that particularly stood out to me. It is undoubtedly a tough learning curve for students who move to America, especially when coming from systems that prioritize the accuracy and breadth of knowledge you possess over a holistic approach that aims to understand who you are as a person. I wish you the best of luck on AP English Literature next year! I know your writing will only continue to grow!
ReplyDeleteHey Raghav, even though I was born in the US and received all my education here, I think by hearing stories from family members and social media I know how lucky I am to have gone through the American education system. In China, it's very similar to India, where much of what they learn is spoon fed and determined by test scores rather than allowing exploration into opportunities beyond the classroom. This can sometimes mean students are at school for almost 12 hours a day doing pure learning that all accumulate into one test that determines their fate for life. Knowing that, I probably wouldn’t have survived such straining conditions and much prefer the safety net provided by the American schooling system. While it's not perfect I believe it suits my personality a lot more, being able to have more autonomy, while still being able to challenge myself. Much like you, I didn’t take English 9H and opted for English 9 CP because I wasn’t extremely confident I could keep up, however, as we moved along I began to grow more confident taking English 10H and APENG. While I will not be joining AP Lit, I do believe that dipping your toes in it is a very beneficial experience. Thank you for sharing your blog and best of luck in AP Lit.
ReplyDeleteHi Raghav. It was very interesting reading about your perspective learning English in India. I found it really cool that the English classes in India are so similar to how they are here. I really understand how you felt taking such APENG despite it being such a difficult class. For me, English is by far my worst subject, so it was a really difficult decision to make whether to take this class or not. In the end it was decided by the advice of my English 10H teacher who gave me us bunch of reasons why we should take AP Lang.
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