Jacob Kattakayam, Montclair State's Distinguished Foreign Scholar this semester, enjoys working with American students because he says they are more serious about their education than students in India. The cornerstone of that commitment, he says, is tuition.

"Education in India is free so students take it for granted," said Kattakayam. "They're also afraid of their teachers so they don't ask questions. There is too much politics among students in Kerala because they are more desperate about their future. In the United States there is a sense of responsibility. Students are engaged, interactive and more involved."

Kattakayam, a member of the faculty at the University of Kerala, also is impressed by how the faculty here teaches students about eastern society and globalization. "There can be no more compartmentalization, especially in light of the homogenization of societies around the world," he said. "To have global unification we must know about other societies, and the faculty at Montclair State gives its students something to think about in terms of other cultures."

These are not casual observations based on a semester at Montclair State. Kattakayam, whose research is in sociology and gerontology, has served as visiting professor at Morgan State and Duke universities, and in 16 years has visited several other universities in North and South America, Canada, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia.

"It is a great honor for our department along with the Sociology Department to host Dr. Kattakayam," said Richard Franke of Anthropology, who was instrumental in bringing the scholar to Montclair State. "He is one of India's foremost social scientists. Dr. Kattakayam has conducted research on the tribal minority peoples of Kerala and on the sociology of aging in Kerala and India. Both of these topics are of critical significance to Kerala society and they offer important comparative insights for research in other parts of India and internationally."

Kattakayam is teaching a seminar on social problems of India in the Anthropology Department this semester, and he's joined with Mary Holley of Sociology to teach a comparative course on aging in India and the United States. "Professor Kattakayam and I have integrated a comparative perspective to provide students with a better understanding of aging in a global context," said Holley.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Kattakayam visits an assisted living home and a shared housing facility for older adults in Montclair with Holley, discussing issues and observing the status of the elderly in American society.

But this research has personal as well as professional implications for Kattakayam. He began looking at gerontology in India because his country is facing an increasing mortality rate and estimates that within 20 years India will surpass China's population. The crisis, according to Kattakayam, is that although India accounts for 17 percent of the world's population, it retains only 2 percent of its wealth.

"We never before thought aging in India would be an issue," explained Kattakayam. "The 90-plus age category will be three times more than that in China. We need to find some way to engage them in society because in Kerala the age of retirement is between 55 and 58, which means our senior citizens are staying on for another 40 years without earning income. We need to utilize their experience."

According to Kattakayam, who lives with both his own and his wife's parents, the elderly in India have a critical role in society and 99 percent of them live at home. Families there give care to their elderly relatives, but the cost of medicine is increasing due to multinational pharmacies and companies. "There is no social security and we are all wage earners so we can't properly care for our elderly. This is an acute problem," he said.

"I hope Dr. Kattakayam will be able to use his experiences here to generate new ideas for teaching strategies in Kerala," said Franke. "He is working hard on this issue with University of Kerala Vice Chancellor B. Ekbal, who visited our Anthropology Department in 2001. Both Ekbal and Kattakayam are dedicated teachers, eager to implement changes in the curriculum and in teaching practices that will make the University of Kerala a more effective institution of learning."

According to Franke, an ad hoc faculty group including members of Sociology and Anthropology has put together an application for a Fulbright Educational Partnership grant that would finance 10 one-month visits by MSU faculty and 10 by faculty from the University of Kerala over the next two years. This grant application has been made jointly with the Global Education Center.

"We are hoping to offer certain research and teaching skills to Kerala University faculty and students, and to benefit Montclair State by learning more about their research on their successful multicultural society that has been hailed as a third world model by many observers," said Franke. "Dr. Kattakayam has spent a great deal of time interacting with our students and faculty and has made himself a most welcome visitor by his enthusiasm, his knowledge and his dedication to his field of learning."

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