Preparing Students for the Flat World
The current economic crisis and its relationship to the way in which the American economy has adjusted to the “flat world” provide an opportune context to rethink the purposes of our schools. How do we prepare children to invent a future that enables them to meet their needs, develop, be happy, and continue deepening the work-in-progress that is our democracy?
The most critical challenge before schools in this century will be giving students both the skills and the ethical dispositions to invent a future that enhances human well-being in an age of globalization. The response to this challenge is global education, comprising three objectives and three avenues for action. The objectives are to develop global values, build foreign-language skills, and create globalization expertise. The avenues for doing this are, first, to make the development of global competence a policy priority for public education; second, to build a knowledge base grounded in scientific research that will help us discern what works well, with what effects, and at what costs; and, third, to continue to develop rigorous curricula, instructional materials, and opportunities for teacher education.
Global competency requires not only knowledge of the world, but also skills that can put that knowledge to use. Equally important are attitudinal and ethical dispositions, which make it possible to interact peacefully, respectfully, and productively with fellow human beings from diverse geographies in addressing global problems. Challenges such as achieving sustainable forms of human-environmental interaction, finding fair and sustainable forms of global trade, dealing with health epidemics, eliminating global poverty, or creating the conditions for lasting peace and security are complex, and the options for addressing them are controversial. Preparing students to deal with such complexity and controversy and educating them to lead on behalf of meaningful global purposes is at the...
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