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A Word from our Executive Director: Janet Blomberg
This fall, TCKs around the world are heading back to school. Some have returned to their passport culture and have started college or university. Although their passport says they belong, it may have been many years since they’ve actually lived in that culture. Some are in elementary or high school and have returned to their passport culture for six months or a year. Some have left are at home, but away from home. Others have just left their passport culture and arrived overseas. They have left the familiar and are trying to make sense of a new culture and school community. Some of you are teachers.
If you’re a teacher at an overseas school, these first few days and weeks are so crucial for your students. Are you monitoring how they are adjusting? Are you taking specific steps to help them process their feelings, find good mentors and settle into the school? Remember, you determine the climate in your classroom for your students.
If you’re a parent, are you keeping a stress watch on your children? How many transitions have  they experienced lately? How are they processing this transition? Can they share how they are feeling with you? Have they found good mentors? Remember, many of their clues about how to handle transition are coming from you, your reactions and what they see and hear from you.
If you’re a parent or teacher who has just arrived overseas, how’s your transition going? Are you using your work as a way to hide out from the culture in which you’re now living? Have you found someone who can be a mentor to help you understand the culture and act appropriately in it? What are you making jokes about? How did you leave your last location/assignment? Remember, how you left has an enormous impact on how you enter a new culture.
Whoever you are and wherever you are, look for the TCKs around you, especially those in transition. Look for families and teachers who are in the midst of transition. Reach out to them, encourage them and befriend them! Remember, Interaction International has great resources (Dave Pollock’s books, our RAFT CDs, our publications and our transition seminars) that deal with transition and can provide training/seminars on these topics for your organization.
We, at Interaction, are committed to helping TCKs maximize the benefits and minimize the challenges that comes from their childhood experiences. We are committed to equipping them to build well on their heritage and to nurture their well-being (academically, emotionally, spiritually, etc.). We are committed to being advocates for TCKs and families and to providing a flow of care for them throughout their international sojourn.
In addition, we have added many new features to our website that we hope you will find helpful. Whether it’s through our programs, resources or the services that our staff can provide, we are eager to be of help to you. As Dave Pollock, who founded Interaction International wrote in the introduction to Third Culture Kid Experience,
“My appeal to you—whether a TCK of any age, a parent, a caregiver for TCKs, or an administrator of agencies with cross-cultural personnel—is that you read carefully and empathetically, act to make a positive difference in the lives of our TCK and adult TCK populations, and provide leadership and support to smooth the way and amplify the advantages for our future TCKs.”
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