Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not a preparation for life but is life itself. --John Dewey
We live in an awesome country. I cannot imagine what life would have been like had I lived anywhere else other than the United States. The freedoms that we have as US citizens are unmatched anywhere else in the world. It is due to these freedoms why the US has led the world in innovation and defining individualistic quality of life.
At the same time, the world we live in is changing. It is changing in ways never imagined before. Getting higher education online, or talking to people across the globe on video phones, or small business owners doing businesses with the world community on the Internet was unthinkable a few years ago. Furthermore corporations are using labor force as well as technology professionals from other countries like China and India to lower cost and increase profits. Globalization of job markets has changed the demands of the workforce of future economy. In order to work in the world of 21st century we must provide children with an understanding of the role they will be playing as world-wise US citizens, and provide them the tools to work in this new environment. These changes require that we seriously consider how we prepare our young people to continue exercising their freedoms and lead the world
Preparation of young people for adult life is done during school years, and our schools are not preparing young people for the world of 21st century. Under the mandates of NCLB and the immense preoccupation with the test scores, many of the programs like foreign languages and sciences have been placed on the back burner. World events do not take first place in the social studies curriculum and world geography is hardly seen as essential. The globalization demands that students value in learning more about other cultures and perspectives to be able to communicate better. It also demands that students understand their relationship to world events. Finally globalization demands that schools teach students to seek out unique and creative solutions for solving problems.
Tougher Choices and Tougher Times , a 1997 report on the skills of the American workforce released by National Center on Education and Economy, makes it clear that we need to change the way we prepare our students for future. The schools have not sensed the urgency to address the issues mentioned in this report. As I read this report I was struck by these points:
1. There is a strategic shift in labor industry. With labor jobs going to other countries, our students will have to learn to strategize and analyze to come up with new ways of solving problems.
2. Our students will have to communicate with people of other cultures in seamless ways. Therefore students will have to learn history, geography, sciences, foreign languages and literature in ways to see clear connections between the world events and their personal and civic lives.
3. The most important point, our students may have to exercise their creativity in seeking new and unique contexts, patterns, relationships in ways never imagined before.
I invite all teachers, colleagues, concerned parents and students to tell me what they think of globalization and the report posted above and share their ideas Also feel free to check out related few links provided at the top right corner of this website.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Dear Dr. Jolly,
I think this blog is an excellent way we educators can catch up with our students who understand better than we, how small the world is becoming.
Here's to hearing from the world!!!
elogan
Dr. Jolly,
I think that you are exactly right. I teach second grade, and in my school system, social studies and science are not taught until third grade. Because the new state standards will cover science and social studies this year and next year on the CRCT, we have started working these subjects in, but only to score well on the test. As a result our high school students are having trouble passing the high school graduation test in these subjects and are not well prepared to be productive members of a global community. I think that it is imperative that we move away from the test is the measure of all success and start teaching our students skills that will help them be successful in our changing world.
HWest
Hello H. West,
Thank you for joining in this conversation.
I think if we move away from test scores and focus on assessment (I mean formative assessment) that helps us judge what the students know and what they need, then I think we will make some progress.
All in all, I still think teachers hold the power to teach from the global perspective even when we are strapped to this test-based reform.
Please come and visit again.
Anju Jolly
Dr. Anju,
As always, you bring up interesting and accurate points in your discussion. I too believe that it is our responsibility as educators to prepare our students globally because they will need those skills to survive in their future workplace. However, I constantly struggle with how to do that and exactly what that looks like in our classrooms. There's a fine line that we need to be aware of though. Schools cannot ignore the fact that there are basic skills students need as part of their preparation. To me it's kind of like the baseball player who needs to be able to compete against the very best competition. In order for that to happen, there are basic fundamentals such as throwing and catching that he or she needs. NCLB certainly has its flaws and needs to be revised, but one of the positives is that it does make schools focus on basic skills which are important. I have read Tough Times or Tough Choices before and actually wrote a paper analyzing the various aspects of the report. I think it is interesting reading but I struggle with its practicality. The authors of the report are very creative but I feel that most of their ideas are easier said than done. For example, they mention the need for more effective standards but they do not provide any examples. The authors would like to recruit teachers from the top third of graduating classes. When did a high GPA guarantee success for a teacher in the classroom? I don't think that GPA's represent a person's creativity and ability to think outside the box which are necessary characteristics of today's teacher. I apologize for rambling but I could go on and on regarding Tough Choices and Tough Times. I believe that we do need to revise our current standards. There needs to be a better mix of basic skills along with critical thinking and problem solving opportunities which are necessary for a globalized workplace. Social studies and languages are important aspects of an education. I think our students would love the opportunity to learn more about our democratic society and learn how to become active members. All you had to do was sit back listen to them talk about the presidential race. They loved it. Dr. Anju, I will continue to look for ways to work globalization into our school's curriculum and I think eventually we as educators will figure things out and prepare our students for a globalized society.
Dr. Jolly,
I also feel that public schools are not preparing our students for the demands of globalization. I teach 6th grade Social Studies and when the students come into my classroom for the first time, they do not even know the continents and where they are located. It seems to me that we need to be educating the children earlier and exposing them to the different cultures of the world. Every elementary school should have a foreign language program to expose them to different languages. Our country alone is a melting pot of people and we should not be ignorant towards them, but rather embrace the culture and learn as much as we can about it.
I know that in our elementary schools, science and social studies are taught on a marking period basis. It’s either one or the other. I find it very hard to believe that when the students come to me in sixth grade science and they have never used a microscope before, it is very das. I try very hard to equip these students to be able to understand what the world is expecting of them.
We as educators need to come together and make a stand against these mandates that are holding us back.
Keith S.
Post a Comment