"I am going to sue the school of my son"

Amherst, ITD House, Massachusetts 17.6.2018

Finally at the ITD House in Amherst. I arrived early morning at 1.30 am. There are seven time zones between Amherst and home in Finland! Early in the morning I can hear the other participants here in this House, but I have not seen anyone. Quite an extraordinary feeling to start a new adventure here! There are 10 participants from all over the world sharing this colonial style old house. Other 10 participants share another house. 

It was a long journey to get here. First with a car from Kouvola to Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Then intercontinental long distance flight from Helsinki to Chicago (almost 9 hours). Flight from Chicago to Hartford was only 2 more hours. From Hartford I was picked up by Alejandro and his wife. I had 20 hours of travel in total. But I had it easy compared to Anthony traveling 40 hours from Australia! Even though I was a bit worried beforehand, it was easy to get through security controls, customs and passport control everywhere. I have a special J-1 visa for scholars. To get the visa I needed to go for an interview in the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki beforehand. Here in the border control they just asked my passport and visa. No other questions at all! Chicago airport was very crowded. It seemed like a big mess, but with the chaos, they somehow managed to do it well. I even got my luggage in Hartford!

Crossing the Atlantic I started talking with a man, John, sitting next to me. John offered me very interesting points to understand the education in the U.S. He is actually going to sue the school of his son! I never met a person beforehand who is going to sue a school... Sounded absolutely very strange to me. I asked carefully for the reasons. It is because of the lack of decent breaks during the schooldays. He wanted the pupils to have good breaks between the classes and go out and play. Nowadays most of the breaks at the school last for three minutes. Pupils are not allowed to wear backbags in the school. They need to run to lockers to change the books and hurry to next classroom in a very short time. I wonder how it will be, will he sue the school and will it change the system? 

John has a high position in his career. He is responsible for teachers pension funds here in the U.S There are huge amounts of money to invest in those funds. He is one of those great American investors! In Europe he had traveled Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and Finland to meet lucrative and safe investments. He very much appreciated our global firms and economy. What a life story John had!  He was born in Sweden, then moved to Norway with his parents as a young child. After junior high he started to study engineering at the university in Norway. He decided to move to U.S to finish his studies and continued studying economics in the U.S. As he said, "I arrived U.S with two suitcases and my brains. I have really made my dreams to come true." He had worked his way all the way from bottom of the society to the top in 30 years! Nowadays he has a 13-years-old son. For the university education of his son he has saved 200 000 euros. I could not afford to educate four children here in the U.S.

What a way to cross the Atlantic and change your mind to study U.S society!