Global Competence: Asia Society Calls for More Sister Schools

In a landmark publication published this fall, Ready for the World: Preparing Elementary Students for the Global Age, the Asia Society calls for significant improvements in the approach U.S. schools take to open the minds of elementary students. The guide lays out a complete framework on how schools, administrators, and teachers and integrate global competence in their work.

The authors lay out a 10-point outline that they call a Vision for Global Education, which calls for “dynamic interactions and exchanges with sister schools to enhance learning and create understanding.” This is a chance to connect your sister cities program with the local education system. Check out Sister Cities International's sister schools toolkit.

Any interested reader will find the guide accessible, but I see it as an important tool to articulate the needed reasoning for increased integration of global topics in the classroom. Both readers outside the education system and those professional educators will find this useful.

I was especially impressed with the opening of the preface by Tony Jackson, the Vice President of Education at the Asia Society:

Consider a girl entering kindergarten in the United States. Though her classes may be full of students from around the world, chances are global issues and cultures will not be consistently woven throughout her coursework. Unlike young children in other nations who begin learning a second language in elementary school, she will probably learn only one language, English, until high school. When she starts her career, she will likely live and work in a world where China is the largest economy and the world’s largest cities are all outside the United States. Will her American education prepare her for the challenges and opportunities of a global economy?

Well said. Elementary School? Middle School? High School? College? We are not doing enough to expose, engage and educate the current and next generation to the rest of the world. Kids across the globe know English, U.S. major foreign policies, and definitely American pop culture. What do our kids know about Africa’s emerging democracies, Asian cultures, or contemporary history of South America? Very little - we need to get moving!