A Steady Evolution of the Tribal Paradigm

When Ian attended his first Russian Math class in September of 2010, he was a bit stunned by the demographics of his class.  For general reference, "Russian Math" is a method for teaching math, in small private classes after school hours, much like Singapore Math or Kumon.  The classes and curriculum are intensive, and the teachers are intense.   The program is based on the methodology used for teaching math in the Soviet Union, and then in present-day Russia.  Yes - the Cold War-era Soviets really did do something much better than we know how to do even now  - probably a number of things, but math stands out as a Soviet/Russian export that some American parents pay for (a fair bit of money, at that), and drive their children significant distances after school hours to "consume," in order  to give them an intellectual or academic advantage.

In spite of the word "Russian" in the movement's moniker, although the teachers and administrators mostly do come from Russia, in our experience a good number of the students, at present, come from India.  There are students from East Asian backgrounds as well, but there are very few Russian students in the classes, and in fact children of the entire European diaspora, so to speak - children of both Eastern and Western European stock - are in the minority, and I would guess that an outright majority of students in Ian's classes are Indian.  This was certainly the case in his first class, and the lad did not know what to make of that fact.  He had never been in a minority before - aside from the time that I took him and the other two to African mass at a Roman Catholic church in a somewhat East African section of Manchester (New Hampshire).  On that occasion, Ian was similarly intimidated.

As a city boy, from Boston, I had no sympathy.  We "Euros" are overwhelmingly in the minority in the world at large, and it is a useful experience to get a good taste of that fact early in life, rather than later, not just to develop an empathy for minorities in American society, but also just as a reality check.  It is helpful to realize, as early as possible, that, on the planet overall, there are no outright demographic majorities (admittedly, aside from women vis-a-vis men, by a small margin).   So I encouraged Young Ian to get used to this alternate angle on things.

Anyhow...

Last night at the mall, while Daniel and I were in the play area, Amy was going through stores with Ian and Madeleine, and in one store, and they encountered a man and his son, and Ian immediately went over to the boy and started talking, quite openly and enthusiastically.  Amy said that both she and the boy's father presumed that they must all have some kind of biographical connection.  So they went through their geographic and institutional checklists, and nothing registered.  They didn't live in our town, but three towns away.  But Amy was still feeling like there had to be some kind of link, since the boys got along so famously.

One thing worth understanding, is that we're New Englanders, and New Englanders are not friendly people.  (New Yorkers and New Jerseyites can probably relate, as well...)  Our regional "culture" is not neighborly-friendly like the South, or mellow-friendly like the West, or hardy-friendly like the Midwest and most of Canada.  We don't chat with strangers.  In fact, the only real communication we tend to have with strangers is in traffic, and not using verbal speech, but more through a primitive kind of sign-language with mostly a single "idiom."  Of course, Ian is no typical New Englander in this regard, but it is rare that someone else - even a child - rises to the occasion of his gregariousness on the first encounter in a commercial space.

So when Amy was finally alone with Ian, she asked him what it was that made him hit it off so well with this boy that he had never seen before.  Ian said, "He looked like he might go to Russian Math.  Ian had recognized, and instantly connected with, "his own kind," so to speak, and, needless to say, the boy was Indian.

(December 23, 2012)