Going International

As the year comes to a close and I begin reflecting on how much I taught my students, how much they truly learned, and how I would change my plan for next year, I begin to think about the big picture. Our world is changing and the U.S. is more focused on international relations. We are constantly buying and selling to certain nations and establishing security measures to protect us from others. As we educate "our future leaders" we must ask ourselves how well we are preparing them for the world?! Most of my students HAVE to take Spanish and don't have an option of various languages like Arabic or Chinese that might be beneficial and guarantee them a job in the future. Many of my kids cannot tell you much about other countries, except maybe about a holiday people celebrate or a language they speak there. Our students are lacking global awareness at the basic level of geographic recognition to understanding of the importance of international trade to a country's economy. An article I read describes the future high school graduate as one who will need to:

1. Sell to the world.
2. Buy from the world.
3. Work for international companies.
4. Manage employees from other cultures and countries.
5. Collaborate with people from all of the world in joint ventures.
6. Compete with people on the other side of the world for jobs and markets.

So I ask you, do you think YOUR students are ready for these tasks? I am sad to admit that mine are not. Just like teaching a student to read is not just the language arts teacher, teaching basic knowledge of globalization isn't the job of just the social studies teacher. Everyone at school must be on board and begin to create plans to increase global awareness.

The article has impressive solutions to teaching students about the world, but many of them sound like charter schools or smaller high school concepts that require lots of money and resources. I'm not suggesting we need a fix-all solution to this problem, but just more attention given to the fact that our students need to be prepared for the issues in their future.



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