Free Press – August 31, 2006

Craig Sellers, “Reds” Worthington, Millie Bailey

Dear Friends,

Good morning. Very few become Fulbright scholars. For the 2006- 2007 academic year, only 170 Americans were chosen for this prestigious exchange program. Craig Sellers, Head of the United Friends School in Quakertown, has just won that honor. More about him and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship in a moment.

But first, two items.

I saw Clifford (“Reds”) Worthington at the lunch counter at Sine’s 5 and 10 last week. Reds was reminiscing about his 29 years on the Quakertown Borough Council. He’s also the oldest living past President of the West End Fire Company where he served for decades. Reds thinks that the present council doesn’t provide enough oversight of its Borough Manager [David Woglom].

I’ll have more to add concerning the squabbles within council’s ranks on another day. But Reds steered me to another subject. Behind the Sine’s lunch counter was an older woman washing dishes. “That’s Millie Bailey who’s been working here for ages,” Reds told me.

Millie celebrated her 76^th birthday yesterday. Millie comes from a big family and grew up with 12 brothers and sisters. Linda Henderson, owner Bill Haar’s daughter, helps manage Sine’s. She added this thought: “Millie’s sister, Jeanette, told Millie that she wouldn’t last a week…and that was more than 30 years ago!”

And now to Craig Sellers.

In January, he leaves for a six-week academic exchange to Thailand. A few months earlier, Chatree Sakunbunma, the head master of the Muang Krabi School in Thailand, will shadow Sellers in Quakertown and teach at United Friends School (UFS). Sakunbunma will stay in Quakertown area homes for six weeks beginning October 15. Sakunbunma’s school is larger than UFS…1,400 students in 12 grades. He is 55 and has six siblings. His late father was a teacher.

“The genius of the Fulbright program is putting people together in the classroom,” Sellers began. “Tying cultures together through an exchange of people is better than using paper [books] and electronics. The world is flattening,” he continued. “We’re all tied together. Here’s an opportunity for kids to live [through an exchange].

“It’s a wonderful fit,” Sellers added. “It’s exactly what the Fulbright is about. It brings peoples and countries together. Schools don’t often get the opportunity of putting cultures together. The only down side is the separation from my family for six weeks.”

That’s why Sellers is taking his family to Thailand for two weeks before his exchange begins. His wife and children will be able to see where Sellers will be teaching and sample Thailand culture and geography.

Initiated by U. S. Senator J. William Fulbright, the exchange has attracted 273,000 fellows of whom 102,000 are Americans. Among the alumni are 34 Nobel Prize winners, heads of state, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, judges, university presidents, heads of business, artists, professors, leaders in education, and journalists. For 60 years, the Fulbright mission remains unchanged: to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of America and 150 countries.

American recipients receive a $3,000 grant plus air fare. Families in the host countries provide housing.

“Chatree [Sakunbunma] and I will be looking over our respective shoulders together; first in Quakertown and later in Thailand,” Sellers said. In his application for the Fulbright, Sellers wrote, “The best education is about the world that is and the world that ought to be.”

United Friends is a Quaker school with students from kindergarten through the eighth grade. Social studies and science are combined into a “Discovery Curriculum” which rotates around America and the world. Each year, UFS students learn about America and another country or region. Because this year is America and Asia, Sellers thought Thailand would be an interesting fit.

“A liberal arts education is the ability to look at one’s experience from a variety of perspectives,” Sellers told me. “Education continues to be increasingly global. In the future, I believe that America’s best schools will seek out a variety of viewpoints and cultures built into discussions right around the classroom table.”

Sellers is preparing for his Thailand experience. “The Thais are cheery, happy people,” he said. “[in the Thai language] Sanuk means cheeriness…happiness. If a Thai doesn’t think something or someone has Sanuk, he won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.

“I don’t want to plan too much for Chatree,” Sellers concluded. “I want the community to open their arms to him. Quakers say, ‘You do as the way opens.’”

There’s no doubt in my mind that the “way” will open for Sellers and Sakunbunma. And the people of Bangkok and Quakertown will profit from the exchange as well. I look forward to following up as the story unfolds.

“How well will this go,” Sellers wondered aloud? “I think it will go very well,” he answered. “After all is said and done, both Chatree and I will ask: what did we learn? How well did we prepare? Was language a hindrance?”

We’ll just have to stay tuned of course. But Sellers added a final note: “The Fulbright [exchange] is what the world should be.”

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith