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The Making of a Citizen in the United States: An Eye Witness Account
Thirty six months ago when I arrived in the United States on my maiden trip, I had in my
mind, a vision of imperial grandeur of the world’s richest and most powerful nation. Grandeur fuelled
by the Sears Tower, the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty and Walt Disney and sustained with
liberal doses of McMasala burgers, Diet Coke and Pepsodent toothpaste. But what made this nation
what it is today? Three years of high school in Athens Drive High School in Raleigh, North Carolina
in the United States gave me a bird’s eye view of what makes this nation great.
The efforts at developing an individual character, dovetailing it into a national character
which, in turn, becomes the source of national pride, is the centre piece of American democracy.
While aberrations are bound to co-exist in any nation, the imposition of good as a conscious measure
of educational policy is central to educating a junior citizen. If World and US histories taught me the
basics of the evolution of civilization, Law and Justice showed how such civilization was sustained. If
I were indoctrinated in the virtues of a free market economy, environment science fearlessly trained
me of the ill effects of unbridled development. If the protruding ribs of Kolkata’s hand rickshaw
pullers were projected on our class screen, India’s strides in biotechnology, missile and rocket
technology and GDP growth were not papered over either. In fact, there is a popular course on South
Asia in high school and the number of students is appreciable. Both sides of the coin were thus
displayed adding to our knowledge.
It was not as if I were left to learn by rote. Presentations on themes taught in class ranged
from L’Morte de Arthur, the Inquisition and Enlightenment to the gangsterism in the era of
Prohibition – the effect was telling. We were exposed to both the brighter and seamier sides of
American life. If civics taught me that 200 ultra rich families controlled the nation’s polity and
economy, sociology and history exposed me to the atrocities committed upon native Indians as the
nation grew and the indignities heaped upon Afro-Americans. Similarly, the murderous excesses of
the Unabomber were matched by the grimness of conditions of prison inmates. A visit to the Hoover
Dam was matched by a visit to the State Penitentiary, to present students with both the glamour and
sleaze of America. It was left to us to use our knowledge and skills to carve an opinion of what was
right or wrong. Counselors moderated discussions on water boarding at Guantanmo Bay, the excesses
of the Vietnam War and the reintroduction of nuclear energy as a power source, testimony to the
freedom of opinion in American campuses. Documentary movies in class that showed starving
millions against a nation of overweight and unhealthy people, the after effects of Agent Orange in
Vietnam, the erudition of Jawaharlal Nehru vis-à-vis the ignorance of a recent US President, the
nation was not afraid to show its dark and soft underbelly. The ability to distinguish between right and
wrong and form one’s individual opinion was thus ingrained in me.
However, education and citizenship classes did not end here. The local police station had an
information counter for kids that gave out attractive literature and memorabilia on observing traffic
rules; traffic officers would brief us regularly with tips on safe driving. The local SWAT team would
visit us in school and train us to react to a terrorist strike by observing a lockdown procedure. The
state departments of archaeology not only exhibited its single Egyptian mummy collection, but also
gave us a CD on the efforts at deciphering the Harappan script and let us try our hands at deciphering
it using computers. The local hospitals and ambulance units taught us to administer CPR and operate
defibrillators. Banks got us to open kiddy savings accounts while the state department of
transportation kept a close eye on those of us who were eligible for driving licenses at age fourteen.
Counselors followed up each of these regularly with mock sessions. I was on my way to becoming a
good citizen of this world.

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Education followed me on vacation, shopping, reading newspapers, and borrowing public
libraries, even on the highway. While on vacation in Washington DC, the National Archives and
Records Administration taught me the basic preservation of records. The controlled temperature and
light enclosure of the Declaration of Independence was most impressive. A visit to the Federal
Supreme Court’s Central Hall with images of the justices projected onto every chair and projected
collages of the evolution of the Rule of Law that emanated from Justice John Marshall in 1803 from
this epochal and august hall bridged the divide between the theory and practice of the Constitution. A
visit to the Houses of Congress and meetings with Congressmen gave flesh and blood to our academic
knowledge. In public libraries, posters showing salary increases from school to terminal degree
exhorted students to spend more time on their education. Newspapers routinely carried descriptions of
university programmes and courses, education fairs, Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine training
summer camps, etc.
The observance of the rule of law is the hallmark of all civilized societies. If I bunked class,
the school server would call up my folks and tell them exactly which classes I had missed on that day.
Ensuring accountability, the server would also ask my parents to send a letter explaining such
absence. A late arrival in school landed me in the pound as I was asked to skip lunch and attend an
extra class. Needless to add, I was on time on every morning, come rain, snow or shine. Leave for a
doctor’s appointment was allowed only if the doctor gave a certificate that I had visited him with
hours specified in the form. Accountability stretched to delayed submission of assignments, fines for
late return of library books or even for littering in the school premises. Failure in State-held
competency tests in math, computers and English would hold up a student’s graduation even if he had
an ‘A’ grade in his high school curriculum. The system is geared to provide liberal facilities to
students, ensure they use them fully and penalize them for misuse. Honesty begets honesty,
dishonesty, punishment. Hard work is recognized and rewarded, politeness and empathy, promptitude
and responsibility the hallmarks of a citizen’s life. What better lesson in citizenship could I have
learnt?
I would have failed in my duty if I did not dwell upon the use of technology for the public
good. Privacy laws in the United States do not permit disclosure of a student’s grades to other than
himself or the school or governments. Instead Internet-based secure portals provide grades, library
borrowings, time tables, assignments and fines, appointments with the school doctor and reports and
special events. Textbooks, lecture notes, the doctor’s report and library holdings and submission of
assignments, Internet printing is all online. Facilities in the classrooms include computers, LCD
screens, multimedia projectors and a mini TV broadcasting studio inside the school! For the less
academically gifted, the school provided vocational training in carpentry, electronics, bakery, sewing,
paramedic training, et al. Car driving, gymnastic, archery, baseball and basketball – classes started
with electronic simulators before moving into the open. The school is also housed in an intelligent
building for over three decades now. I graduated from a twin finger to a twin hand keyboarder in less
than three months, producing my own assignments, presentations and stories.
Knowledge, opportunity irrespective of station in life, rights and obligations, dignity of
labour, observance of the law and accountability enforced not only by the State but by the vast
majority of citizens and passed on to future generations are some of the ingredients that make for a
powerful nation. The evolution of national character generates national pride and endows a nation
with an unparalleled strength. Its ability to train and integrate people from 170 countries of the world
almost seamlessly is the greatest tribute to the innate strength of American democracy. The
preservation of the nation, notwithstanding 9/11, gives America the resilience to prosper and grow.
Being a part of this process was my singular pleasure. If they can, why can’t we?