5 things that surprise me in America

A year ago, when I moved to Washington, I was surprised a lot. Fahrenheit, feet, acres, ounces, how many miles you can drive on one gallon of gas, very large pick-up cars, women's American football on TV, 110 volt voltages in restaurants, tacos and salsa in restaurants, prices without taxes in stores and a huge tip in restaurants where frequent guests - lobbyists. But you get used to it quickly, and the American outlet no longer seems so strange, writes Vladislav Rashkovan in a blog for publication. New time.

Фото: Depositphotos

However, there are still five things that continue to amaze me in America, or at least in our small American village near Washington.

1. Diversity (diversity)

Children from more than 50 countries who speak 25 national languages, from Mandarin to Swahili, study daughters in public high school. All of them go through the usual school curriculum. Yes, this is a result of the fact that more than 170 embassies of the world are located in Washington, but I think this is not the only thing.

On the street you can easily meet a couple in love - a Japanese woman and an Argentinean, or a gay couple - a German and a Moroccan. On my way to work, I pass a large number of churches, ranging from Ethiopian Orthodox to Korean Presbyterian. When communicating with representatives of different companies, I meet people who were educated in Cape Town, Melbourne, Yerevan, Lviv or Lima and worked in different parts of the world: from Singapore to Santiago.

All this variety is amazing. Someone may tire, but not me. I see value in such a diversity - in experience, languages, knowledge, exchange of cultures while preserving my identity. All this develops not only tolerance, but also shows how the world is complex and at the same time interesting and often unexplored. I do not know about you, but I would like to see more diversity on the Ukrainian streets and in Ukrainian companies.

2. Inclusiveness

It's not so much about people with disabilities. And it is clear that the barrier-free environment is organized almost everywhere: from supermarkets and office centers to the courts and universities. It is also clear why places for cars with special signs in the parking lot near the primary school of the son are always busy in the morning - Sasha has a girl in her first class who has cerebral palsy, and she is not alone in school.

It's not just about movement. The point is that these people are involved in the normal functioning of society. My daughter calmly treats autistic children. They are engaged in a special program, but some lessons are attended along with the rest. I'm starting to get used to the fact that we have an 3-4 employee or guest in wheelchairs with laptops in our hands at every conference, who not only outline, but usually actively participate in the discussion. I also rejoice that in our office very often there are small children - in the Foundation building, as in many organizations nearby, a care center for small children, which is still too early to go to kindergarten, has been created. Thus, young mothers and fathers are also actively involved in the activities of the company and do not sit at home on maternity leave. I’m calmly walking past the Foundation’s parking lot, which has more than 200 bikes. Their owners come from all parts of Washington or nearby towns in Maryland and Virginia and are not dependent on public transport.

However, the seven-year-old son of a neighbor, once knocked on our door with a proposal to clean the path to the garage from snow, and 88-year-old grandmother, who herself organized something like “yellow pages” among the inhabitants of our village, where she advertises everything and everything: from babysitters on the evening before carpooling for a joint trip to the church on weekends, we are still surprised. The boy, my wife wanted to drink tea soon, and my grandmother - to help bring it to her house by hand. But this was not required - my grandmother was in leggings and sneakers and just ran to another house.

I am beginning to get used to this, but I am still surprised and really want that such involvement of different people in Ukraine be more - everyone deserves equal opportunities, regardless of any additional features or age.

3. Importance of education

I don’t think that I’m going to exaggerate greatly, arguing that the level of future well-being of people in the United States depends on which elementary school they go to. Public schools are clustered here - a good high school (8-12 class) most often 2-3 has strong secondary schools and 5-7 primary schools. Each school has its own rating, and many are guided by it when choosing a place to live. For example, there are schools where the level of enrollment in colleges reaches 99%, and there are cities in which, on average, no more than 20-30% of school graduates go to college. As a result, in cities near the best schools, the value of real estate increases. The rising cost of real estate leads to an increase in taxes that go to strengthening the school - this is how it works, not vice versa.

Фото: Depositphotos

According to the World Bank, entering college and getting first job after college reduces the likelihood of family poverty throughout life to less than 2%. Therefore, the choice of school (which with a high probability leads a teenager to college) is so important, and it is so important to study well in it. In order not to be poor, people tend to college, especially the poor, and what you often see in American films is no exaggeration. Every day I see a modestly dressed, dark-skinned father who brings his children to school by bus — he realizes that a college is needed not to go to the army or to find a life partner for children.

Higher education is the way to overcome poverty, the way the US spends about 15% of its annual budget (more than on defense).

And the fact that 99% of the time you see black bus drivers, plumbers, mail carriers, store clerks, as well as Hispanic construction workers or lawn mowers is a clear result of the fact that unless you receive a quality education, breaking through your glass ceiling in life will be almost impossible. impossible. I did not expect such a clear manifestation of “educational” stratification, and it surprises me, especially in the age of information technology, when almost everyone has access to open educational courses.

4. Sportiness

After the first physical education lesson in school, my daughter was taken aback, saying that she would not have to pass any standards to school. In physical education classes, she will be taught three things. First, sportiness - not to become masters of sports, but to love sports, to understand the importance of being sports. Secondly, the command is to be able to respect the team members and opponents, to understand the feeling of elbow, the dependence of the overall result on the contribution of each. And the third is to be able to win and lose: winning, respecting the opponent without lifting your nose; losing - do not lose heart and move on.

I don’t know if this is fruitful in society, but everyone is running here, in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, instead of a lunch lunch. All parents are constantly thinking about how to use an extra hour of free time for children's sports - there are a huge number of possibilities for this - cycling tracks, tennis courts, skating rinks, basketball courts, baseball fields - almost all are public, many are free.

Фото: Depositphotos

I don’t know if this brings results in school, but there are teams in the gym for winning victories in state and national competitions over the past 20 years. Also on the wall are individually marked individual athletes - US champions in various sports: from wrestling and athletics to hockey and diving. During the state school basketball championship match, the entire hall was full of fans who supported both teams, and after the match my son could check all the match statistics for each teen basketball player, noting those athletes who would like to follow the progress. I am sure that there were agents of some universities looking after players in their team in the hall.

I don’t know if this will make our family a sportswear, but my daughter plays softball, volleyball, cycling, squash, and her son doesn’t part with a tennis racket, chess and basketball, all the time, also dreaming of playing in a school team. Days of physical education - one of the most beloved of the week. And it is still very surprising, and my beloved Odessa and Kiev would like to wish for more sportiness and new sports arenas, and not just tasteless high rises. Yes, and fans in the school stands (do we have such?) I also want to wish.

5. Self-organization

One of my favorite books of youth was “Airport” of the master of production novels by Arthur Haley. The novel takes place in the United States, at the fictional international airport to them. Lincoln. One of the branches of the storyline of the book is a protest of the residents of the nearby town of Meadowvud, who are annoyed by the noise of airplanes. Activists want to change the routes of airliners so that they do not fly over their houses. I sincerely believed that this is impossible in reality. But in the same advertising booklet, which carries 88-year-old neighbor-activist, it is written about the progress of the initiative group, who advocated changing the routes of the aircraft heading to the already quite real airport to them. Reagan in Washington by our village. I can’t say that I’m somehow worried about the sound of airplanes (after all, the airport is far enough), but the neighbors believe that this reduces the cost of their homes, and they are ready to fight for their rights. This causes respect.

People are not only engaged in their family or their home. They not only talk about the pros and cons of the president of their country. They independently go all the way from their home to the office of the president. Decorate your yard for all sorts of holidays and independently engaged in ennobling the street. And now a neighbor tells me how to properly sort the garbage, seeing as I put glass and cardboard in one tank. Residents of the town together and constantly discuss the future of their children's schools and actively participate in their management. And now the parent committee invites us, as new ones, to a buffet in the house of one of the parents, where the “experienced” share some of the secrets of the life of the community. Other neighbors take care of coexistence within our village, supporting the elderly or the sick. Go to church together. Indeed, sincere thanks to the villagers for the nomination to the government, first the village, then the town or state. Support. Agitate. Vote. And others are being called, unobtrusively, but appealing to their constitutional rights and obligations. And then just go to the discussion level of the state.

Notice that I have not said anything, that the state does and should do for citizens, and the neighbors do not particularly discuss this. John, a neighbor on the contrary, once told me that there is the police, there is a fair trial, and there is an army - he doesn’t need anything more from the state. To be honest, I don’t need anything more from the state. It is surprising only why in Ukraine the state wants for people to be much larger, while not always performing their basic functions perfectly well.

As a summary of the first year: education is important, as is equal access to it, regardless of skin color, nationality, language, sexual orientation, wealth or disability. At the same time, the state will not be able to provide you with all the benefits, even spending a large part of the state budget - much depends on the citizens themselves, on their self-organization and involvement, including taking care of their body, their home, their street, their village, state, state . And the presence of all this together in one place at one time is positively surprising the most so far.

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