My Year as an American School Girl

Te Ao Hou, December 1962, Page 21

Marama Paewai, who writes here about her experiences as an American Field Scholar, is one of a number of Maori secondary school pupils who, along with pakeha pupils, have spent a year studying in American schools. Two others who have visited America under the scheme recently are Ngapera Kaa of Te Kaha, and Timothy Te Heu Heu, whose photograph is on the next page. My Year as an American School Girl by Marama Paewai Ten months at High School in Des Moines, Iowa, a month-long tour of the Eastern States, and a long vacation in Sausalito, California, all add up to the most wonderful experience a school girl of seventeen could have. I left Hukarere Maori Girls' School in August 1961, and took this trip under the auspices of the American Field Service Exchange Programme. I visited many places, and the two traits of the American people that impressed me most were firstly, their great and unselfish hospitality, and secondly, the students' awareness of life. They seem to realize that there is a future to be prepared for, politically, economically and socially. As teenagers in a democracy, they are remarkably aware of the workings of their government and recognize their rights to the full.