Posted on 10/19/2001 6:36:39 AM PDT by SJackson
ALL they wanted was to host a German foreign exchange student. Is that so Wrong?
Harry and Brenda Greene of tiny Buchanan, Georgia volunteered their hospitality to 15-year-old German student, Stefan Sipemann. The 40-year-old security guard and his wife even went to the expense of buying a new box spring and mattress. The couple looked forward to meeting Stefan, they thought the experience of hosting the boy would be "enlightening."
The meeting was not to be. Hours before the Greenes were to meet young Stefan at the airport, they were contacted by the agency and told that the boy could not stay with them because their home was a single-wide trailer. The company explained that in Europe mobile homes are considered "holiday homes" and not permanent housing. The Greenes have since told reporters that the agency treated them like "trailer trash."
Apparently, the agency feared that living in a trailer park could expose the student to more than he bargained for.
Someone failed to explain to the Greenes that foreign exchange programs are designed for Upper-Middle-Class suburbanites -- doctors, lawyers and such -- who want to feel good about themselves by telling their golfing buddies "You know, Carol and I are hosting a foreign exchange student this fall."
So rich spoiled brats from other countries come and live with rich people in this country and they compare the quality of the two countries video games.
Meanwhile, Harry and Brenda Greene, oblivious to the socio-economic underpinnings of the process, rode their Hush Puppies into an office and said they'd like to host a student from another country. Seemed logical to them.
The agent looked at them, then looked at their car, figured it would never happen but gave them an application anyway, hoping they would skip the part about filling it out and bringing it back. The Greenes did fill out the application and they did return it. But then, they didn't know they were up against a rigid caste system.
At the last minute someone at the agency bothered to read the Greenes' application and realized they lived in a trailer park; panic ensued, "We can't have some German kid living in a trailer park!... my G-d, when he gets home with a shaved head and 'N.W.A.' tattood on his neck his parents will sue us!"
The decision to reject the Greenes is contrary to the true spirit of a student exchange program; an actual cultural exchange. Taking a kid from Germany and plunking him down in a trailer park in Georgia --- that is an EXCHANGE! A space alien who crashed landed in the trailer park would feel no more out of place than the teutonic teen.
Does the average foreign exchange student get to eat possum? Does he get to marry a girl named Amber, sire a child and get divorced, all in one semester, back at Dusseldorf High? Do teenagers in Germany sneak beer into tractor pulls then shoot street signs on the way home?
It is, but everyone is speaking in code.
No kidding.
That said, I do think that, however unfairly, most Americans look down their noses at those who live in trailers and/or trailer parks. Whether there is more of that attitude in places where there are trailer parks or, as in my community, where they simply don't exist, I cannot speculate. Given the fact of that discrimination -- again without saying it's right -- I don't think putting an exchange student in a lower middle/working class familiy (e.g. security guard) living in a trailer is going to give the student a representative taste of typical American middle class life or have a high probability of making the student a strong friend of America.
I'm not very pleased with the article's back-handed slams either. They really missed a chance to expound on the virtues of rural America, where the concepts of God, guns, and country are taken seriously all the time, and not just flown from their Lexus SUV window after a tragedy befalls the nation. Instead, the author used it as a platform for pithy comments about WWF and cornpone.
This middle aged couple sound exactly like what I would want represented to other countries; that hard work doesn't guarantee the Ritz, but can guarantee the opportunity to extract some happiness from their own slice of the American Pie. No wonder the Europeans hate us, and desire to stay socialist, when all they see is what the propagandists tell them, a bunch of lazy classists, who are more worried about their stock portfolio than what is happening to the Constitution. Show them what our working class is about, and why it strives to better itself, and how it still can, instead of the spoiled and pampered elites.
Our rural neighborhood and others in the Texas hill country is nothing but single wides and double wides on 2-5 acres each. The vast majority of the people living in our neighborhood make in excess of $75,000/yr. Our yards are manicured to perfection, beautiful decks, hot tubs, the works...no trailer trash here, just honest hard working people that prefer the country life. If it is houses you prefer, there is the slum area down by the lake where all the drug addicts live. Get a life.
Was the girl supposed to be a student in high school or an employee? When our children were small, we had several au pair girls from Europe, but they were all paid under the program we used. Nice girls, some had better work ethics than other, some were better educated than others, some got a great deal out of their year in the US, others less. We included them in all familiy activities and vacations on an equal footing, as the concept au pair dictates. In several cases we met their parents or other relatives who visited. Overall, a wonderful experience.
If she was supposed to be a student, I should think your view of her as an upaid au pair was unreasonable and denigrating. If you went to Europe expecting to be a student, taking part in typical student activities and spending your time (when not studying) with other students, I'm sure you'd be surly if treated as an employee and put to work.
French personal hygiene habits vary, I have met Frenchmen and women whose habits are similar to those you describe, but also Frenchmen and women whose hygiene would satisfy the most fastidious.
Better yet, perhaps he should purchase a double-wide and learn what he's talking about. I will put my Chopin up against any non-concert pianist, but that doesn't make me better than you. But I would damned sure prefer having you as a neighbor and friend than him.
Only if the trailer is in W.Va. and Amber is his sister.
An important issue here is the agency apparently hadn't either. If they checked this family out, they knew all about the living conditions, so did Stefan.
CatoRenasci I do think that, however unfairly, most Americans look down their noses at those who live in trailers
Urban dwellers and media, yes. Most other Americans, probably not. Many find that particular attitude kind of funny. Living in a "trailer" or prefab home doesn't automatically qualify you as "trailer trash". If it wasn't for the construction unions, we'd see far more of these in northern urban areas.
I don't think putting an exchange student in a lower middle/working class familiy (e.g. security guard) living in a trailer is going to give the student a representative taste of typical American middle class life or have a high probability of making the student a strong friend of America.
Quite typical, normal Americans, teachers, policemen, firemen, live in manufactured housing. But often not the people these programs are looking for. I think you have to recognize that are typically marketed to middle and upper class families, and that's where the families want their kids placed. It's not the Peace Corps. They are certainly beneficial, but they aren't really about learning about "middle class life" anywhere but in the brochures.
Isn't there a large city near you? Next time you move, get a contractor from there, some union tradesman. Have them stick build the same home for you for twice as much. You'll help the economy.
It's still not clear from your post whether the girl you had was supposed to be an employee or student. Was the program a true student exchange (such as American Field Service) or was it one of the au pair progams where the students know they are expected to work and are paid a small stipend for pocket money? I do think the expectations for the two are very different. That said, it sounds like you got a real lemon. We never had a French girl, our were all Norwegian, Danish or German.
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