Speech : Adriana Ferro

United States and Global Education

Having had the opportunity of experiencing studying in the US high school system while an exchange student as an American who has been raised abroad, I cannot see that the concept of international education has changed much in a period of two decades.

Being involved in the educational sector for some years as a Spanish teacher has given me the opportunity to understand the great need to re-examine the social studies program of middle and high school students in the US with the objective to better empower the leaders needed in the international arena during the twenty-first century.

The initiation of a broad and deep economic integration of the Americas, under the FTAA, as was the objective of the Summit of the Americas in Denver on June 30, 1995, to establish market openness, raise living standards, improve working conditions, and increase the level of development of the small economies of the American continent, will be in the hands of those with the broadest knowledge of the region at stake, and although we all share the same first name, America, how much do our young generations know of our neighbors in the realm?

We are definitely going through changes. During the Clinton administration we lived through the reinvention of the government. Presently, in the Bush administration we have been forced to restructure our economy, and our immediate future calls for much educational reform. In times when we speak about globalization we must understand that the notion of global society begins in the classroom, and multicultural and global education overlap at one point, but in essence are different in their application. Multicultural education is the study of national cultural diversities, and global education is the study of cultural diversities among nations. Both which need much attention in the United States.

In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, ten-year-old children learn about the great western powers and the development that has brought them to their present status. In the US, state and national standards call to have our students exposed to world history in ninth or tenth grade with great emphasis placed on the rise and fall of lost civilizations. Studying the present status of nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America is very limited and unfortunately, due to time constraints on many occasions the subject, if discussed at all, does not receive the needed attention. This leaves us to conclude, that it is up to the young generations to update their knowledge of world issues in the years to come.

A proper education takes time, and in the same way that Western European societies are profoundly studied, why are we not responsible enough to further research the historical, political, geographical, and cultural aspects of all other business partners? Why have we ignored the European colonies in South America, those where the Incas, the Mayas, and the Aztecs once lived? How loyal have we been to the teachings of ideas, institutions, and cultures of the citizens of the entire world? How much do we understand of their heritage, values, and aspirations?

We have armies of social scientists and world affairs specialists, why do we not use their profound knowledge and findings to establish a proactive curriculum in this perspective where teachers get involved in a positive and active way so the nations of the South are heard.

A consensus is needed across federal, state, and local educational objectives including religious and independent education organizations to work on the blueprints of social studies curriculum. The integration of subjects is highly valuable, and teaching foreign languages and the geography of the target cultures are the basic foundations in the objective of global education.

We cannot wait for the few young students who may register in cross-cultural courses in college to take our future into their hands. The gap of insubstantial global education must be filled adequately and be taught to students from an early age.

So if today young students can hardly point to capitals of the countries in Latin America on a map, what shall we expect from them regarding world issues.

Let us be proactive in global education and create the immediate change the world needs.