Worldwide Locations
Worldwide Locations
President Obama Calls for American Education System to Align with Global Economy
President Barack Obama has called for American schools to align student achievement with the demands of the global economy, saying, “The source of America's prosperity has never been merely how ably we accumulate wealth, but how well we educate our people. This has never been more true than it is today. In a 21st-century world where jobs can be shipped wherever there's an Internet connection, where a child born in Dallas is now competing with a child in New Delhi, where your best job qualification is not what you do, but what you know -- education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, it's a prerequisite for success.”
There have been a lot of talk—and $100 billion in education funding—tied to the idea of creating a world-class education system. But what does it really mean?
In any industry, the financial one notwithstanding, the world is interconnected. Five forces can clearly be seen in the global economy, each requiring a different skill set for true success:
A Science and Knowledge Economy
Students need scientific and technological literacy.
A Resource-Challenged Economy
Students need critical thinking about sustainable economies.
A Globally Interdependent Economy
Students need knowledge about other countries, regions, cultures, and global systems. They need skills to communicate digitally, effectively, and in other languages. They need a values system to respect global peers and cultures different from their own.
A Demographically Diverse Economy
Students need cross-cultural leadership skills.
An Innovation-Driven Economy
Students need to understand complexity and adapt to rapid change.
Students need to be globally competent. Other countries are already investing in these skills. For example, languages help people reap economic returns in addition to cultural and social ones. Most European countries start a first foreign language in the elementary grades and a quarter of Australian students learn an Asian language. Only about one-half of American high school students study a world language; the majority of these students never progress beyond the introductory level and 70 percent study Spanish, which does not help the United States meet the critical language needs identified by the US State and Defense Departments.
Similarly, in China, education leaders study education practices in other countries, teachers are encouraged to study abroad, and schools are strongly urged to form sister school partnerships with schools in other countries. However, less than one percent of American students study abroad, the figure is much higher in other industrialized countries.
The future is here. It’s global, multicultural, multilingual, and digitally connected. If we put the world into world-class education, not only will we be more successful and innovative in the global economy, but we will also lay an important foundation for peace and a shared global future.
Do you agree that children should learn to read and write English first? The literacy achievement for 1st - 4th graders has gone down significantly since Mandarin was introduced into the pre-k and kindergarten curriculum in our school system. The 1st - 3rd grade school is a failing school for three years straight now. Perhaps the globalization should take place through cultural activities in pre-k and Kindergarten while students learn to read and write in English. My granddaughter says her brain hurts. She is studying 3 languages at one time. English, Spanish and Mandarin. That is a little much for pre-k and kindergarten students. They should learn about their own communities before learning about the world. Otherwise, they will not understand how they fit in. We have enough of that already. Standardized tests are given in English. Scores on these tests set the course for a child's life forever.
I attended a Waldorf school for the first 7 years of my education, and I learned to fluently speak French. I think the problem with your granddaughter may not be the curriculum, but the method of teaching. (My Waldorf had no texts or homework papers; everything we learned about the language was either written on the board or orated. It's a very effective and engaging style of teaching language). Personally, I would think that your granddaughter should learn to speak Mandarin and Spanish, but focus on *reading* in English in addition to speaking it. Reading is of foremost importance.
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