Teacher Bound for a Month of Study in India

Students in John Hoj’s world history class at Nordhoff High School will soon be seeing the Republic of India through the eyes of one who’s been there.

The Rotary Club of Ojai has chosen the 27-year-old Hoj, a social studies teacher from Ojai, to join three other educators on a monthlong vocational exchange to India beginning Dec. 15.

The teachers, along with team leader Mary Beth Wolford, a former superintendent of the Simi Valley Unified School District, will live with families in eight cities in southeast India and learn about the culture and history of the republic, whose 930 million people live in an area one-third the size of the United States.

“As an educator, I think it is important that we will be able to share with our students and our colleagues the knowledge of and an understanding about another culture,” Wolford said.

The team, which includes three Santa Barbara County teachers, will not be casual observers by day who retreat to their hotel rooms at night. Instead, they will soak up knowledge and understanding through day-to-day contact with the Indian people.

“We’re not going to be in hotels. We’re going to be with families and we’ll be seeing life through their eyes,” Hoj said.

“This is a great opportunity for our school. I would have been interested in going anywhere, but it was ironic that I was chosen because we’ve been trying to build an India unit into the curriculum.”

Hoj, who has been teaching world and U.S. history at Nordhoff High for four years, is most interested in studying India’s colonial period leading to Mahatma Gandhi’s rise to power after World War I. “And I’m also fascinated by the religion of the region and how it developed,” he said. He admits to also being intrigued by the nation’s tigers and elephants.

Hoj teaches his students about India through books and other materials, but he’s looking forward to sharing firsthand accounts of the economy, health-care system and political process.

“The elections are so bitterly contested between the parties, but when the elections are over, things go back to normal,” Hoj said.

The students also want to hear how the haves mingle with the have-nots.

“The caste system fascinates the students,” Hoj said.

“They just can’t believe how the people are divided so dramatically from class to class--the poverty of the country as well as the wealth.”

And while Hoj admits that the trip will be as enlightening for him personally as it will be professionally, he’ll have the students in mind during the trip.

“I’m always trying to learn as much as I can to become a better teacher. One of the ways I do that is by actively learning with the students.”