![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/xchang.jpg\")
It
\n is not only at the university level that foreign students are an endangered
\n species in the United States these days. That time-honored stable of
\n the 60’s and 70’s, the foreign exchange student, is disappearing from
\n high schools across the country.<\/p>\n
Long the butt of crude jokes and stereotypes, these
\n teenaged foreign ambassadors were our first exposure to people who
\n looked, dressed, spoke and addressed life differently than our parents
\n and the
\n other kids in our middle-class suburban universe.<\/p>\n
In fact, we would like to take this opportunity to appologize
\n to little Gretta Erdhoffen from Dusseldorf for taping those Hogan’s
\n Heroes posters to her locker. Only now do we realize how brave
\n and tolerant these students are, to come
\n to such
\n a
\n strange
\n land
\n and put
\n up
\n with such
\n boorish
\n behavior. Or were…<\/p>\n
\n\n ”We don’t really have a lot of research into why it is happening,
\n but it is happening. There are fewer students," said John
\n Hishmeh, executive director of an umbrella group for most of the
\n large exchange
\n programs in the country.<\/p>\nLast year, 27,742 foreign students visited the United
\n States through programs accredited by Hishmeh’s organization, the Council
\n on Standards
\n for International Educational Travel. There were 44,291 in the 1999-2000
\n school year and 62,005 in 1993-94.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nIs isolationism the new American reality? Do we truly
\n want to cut ourselves off from the rest of the world? It’s not just that it’s harder for them to get in, many of them have no interest in or fear of coming to America. Is this in any way related to our underwhelming popularity among the youth of the world, many of whom are now studying Chinese?<\/p>\narticle from the Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n
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It is not only at the university level that foreign students are an endangered species in the United States these days. That time-honored stable of the 60’s and 70’s, the foreign exchange student, is disappearing from high schools across the … Continue reading