Global Education: Swimming Upstream?

In an article published recently, Samara Green, a high school senior in Potomac, Maryland, wrote a great commentary about the need for greater emphasis on Global Education in the United States. A link to her piece is at the bottom of this post.

I really resonated with her take on the minimal nature of globalized learning in this country. In my state of Georgia, for example, the only required courses with ANY world//global focus in grades K-12 are the 6th & 7th grade Modern World Studies Course and in high school World History.

This is problematic. Do you realize there isn't even an expectation that children be taught the seven continents' names (much less location) in elementary school? This helps explain why every year I have a few students identified as "gifted" who live in GEORGIA (on the East Coast) and don't know the difference between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. While Honors, AP & on-level Human Geography are becoming more popular as elective choices in high school, they are not required. How can we truly produce competent 21st century citizens when they are exposed very little to the world in which they live? This also helps explain why I had the mom of a former student send me a message to say that her second-semester college-freshman daughter said that my 6th grade class was helping her more than anything else in her college world history class.

I am befuddled and NOT amused at the state of where global education fits into our K-12 education. Even with opportunities such as the one I am participating with IREX through the Teachers for Global Classrooms program, it is hard to convince principals and district officials to allow teachers to miss two weeks from the classroom when they don't teach a subject that directly correlates to global education.

The focus of STEM education is admirable, but I firmly believe we as a country are "missing the boat" when we raise scientists, mathematicians, and technologists without providing them opportunity to truly learn about the world in which we expect them to use those extraordinary STEM skills and abilities. (At the bottom of this post, there is a link to a very recent blog article highlighting the gulf being created by hyperfocusing on STEM education at the expense of humanities)

Social Studies Georgia Peformance Standards (Courses):


Elementary:
Kindergarten: Symbols of America
Grade 1: American Heroes
Grade 2: Georgia, My State
Grade 3: Our Democratic Heritage
Grade 4: Unites States History to 1860
Grade 5: Unites States History since 1860
 
Middle:
Grade 6: Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada, Europe, and Australia
       Sixth grade is the first year of a two year World Area Studies course. Sixth grade students study Latin America, Canada, Europe, & Australia. The goal of this two year course is to acquaint middle school students with the world in which they live. The geography domain includes both physical & human geography. The intent of the geography domain is for students to begin to grasp the importance geography plays in their everyday lives. The government/civics domain focuses on selected types of government found in the various areas so as to help students begin to understand the variety of governments in the world. The economics domain builds on the K-5 economics; however, the focus shifts from the United States to how other countries answer the basic questions of economics. The history domain focuses on major events in each region during the 20th & 21st centuries.
Grade 7: Africa, Southwest Asia (Middle East), Southern & Eastern Asia
     Seventh grade is the second year of a two year World Area Studies course. Seventh grade students study Africa & Asia in a course with focus concepts mirroring those taught in 6th grade.
Grade 8: Georgia Studies
  

High:
High School Graduation Requirements: (IV) Social Sciences: Three units of credit shall be required in social studies. One unit of credit shall be required in United States History. One unit of credit shall be required in World History. One-half unit of American Government/Civics shall be required. One-half unit of Economics shall be required.

In high school, World Geography is the only other course with a global focus that has Georgia Performance Standards.While many of my former students take AP European History, it is often taken instead of World or AP Human Geography.


" Catch Up, America!!"  by Samara Green
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samara-green/catch-up-america_b_1324144.html

" Why STEM Is Not Enough (and we still need the humanities)"  by Valerie Strauss
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-stem-is-not-enough-and-we-still-need-the-humanities/2012/03/04/gIQAniScrR_blog.html