Can an American Student Survive in Pakistan?

It is common to hear of students coming to America from Pakistan for the purposes of studying abroad, but what happens when an American goes to Pakistan to study. This happened to me about ten years ago, but the experience continues to haunt me. I am a Pakistani-American, I was born in the USA, my parents came to the USA in the mid 70’s. They are originally from karachi. Being in the USA made them home-sick and they decided to move back for good in 1993 without giving a thought to how the move might affect their children, which included me and my two sisters.

We were all taken out of school, and placed in a supposedly good standard school in Karachi. At the time I was placed in the 7th grade. From the moment I walked in the class, I was hated, regarded as the American foreigner who must be made to feel out of place. Students already knew my name and where I was coming from even before I went to class. My first day they all labeled me the "American", and started asking me questions like aren’t the girls really easy over there, and how we Americans barely dress to cover ourselves(mind you these are 12-13 yr olds, amazing how much sexual knowledge they had).

So much for my first day, then the criticism began, daily I would hear "this isn’t America, over here we do it this way or that". There were certain rules one must abide by, such as beginning and ending every sentence with "may I miss, and yes miss". There was no concept of open discussion in class that I was accustomed to in the USA. In this Karachi school you were given a set of notes which you had to memorize, and that you would forget once the exam was over. There was no such thing as giving your opinion on an issue, if you wanted to be considered intelligent you would have to agree with the teachers. I was surprised to see that individuality in expression was not cherished as it is in the States. The history books had numerous passages referring to hindus as "Idol worshippers", when I would bring up the bias written in the books I was told that I was being disrespectful and that I need to study and agree with what was written.

Some of the teachers knew about me, and one particular one had a vengeance against me you would not believe. I generally love teachers, and recognize that they are important aspects of our society, but not all live up to their name. This teacher who taught us English (Funny because she could herself barely carry a conversation in English) would make sure that none of the students interacted with me, in fact when I spoke she would go out of her way to correct my English and make me say things the wrong way. She insisted that just because I was from America does not mean that I am better than her, and always graded me as a C or lower, and insisted that all the students give me a lesson or two in English usage. This was of course a blow to my ego especially since I was a straight A student in America. She went out of her way to insult/humiliate and degrade me, once even ordering me to stand in the corner for an hour because I entered the classroom without saying "May I come in Miss". I experienced this kind of treatment for the first few months, I got sick of it, and would fake illness to stay out school.

I pleaded with my parents to take us back to America, and finally they did, and so we came back at the end of 1994. When I was placed back in school in US I took the aptitude test, and it showed that my reading level was at a 6th grade level. (thats where it was before I left to Pakistan). Well after hard work, I regained my confidence and eventually picked up where I left off.

I am sure there are many Americans who went to Pakistan and had a good educational experience. But I can certainly say what I experienced was horrible. There are many intelligent students in Pakistan who are daily being told to either shut-up or aren’t being intellectually stimulated as they should be. If Pakistan had even a reasonable educational system you would not see so many students trying to go to foreign countries to study.