Letter - Being Respectful

I read the article "When East Meets West<193>" by Dr. S. Perkowitz (The Scientist>, November 28, 1988, page 9). I like the presentation of his experiences with his foreign scholars. I, with no surprise, agree with his comment that "some of the internationals are far more respectful to me than their U.S. counterparts." But I do not see that this hampers open exchange of views and free discussion of problems. For example, I come from a country (India) where the first thing a child learns is a Sanskrit hymn "Gururbrahma Gururvishnu Gururdeva Maheswar. . ." which means "Teacher is the Creator, the Protector, and the Destroyer. He is the Master of the Universe, so I bow to him." And when one starts one's education at three years of age with an approach like this, one normally becomes respectful towards one's teacher. But that does not mean that one should be ...