The Global Shift and Public Education
The shifts and changes occurring across continents, cultures, and markets are at once intriguing and troubling for anyone who is paying close attention. While private companies, targeted professions and industries, and perhaps wealthy investors may be experiencing unprecedented growth in many new and emerging markets, the U.S. economy, social structure, and political influence are surely being challenged in ways not seen before. The emerging trends and realities in economic and political terms across the Western and Eastern continents reflect a paradigm shift that has been forecasted by economists, market watchers, and political historians for years. For this group, the measurable decline of Western dominance is perhaps larger and swifter in scale than anticipated. For those in denial, these changes are merely temporary downturns and exaggerated. In the end, one need only review documented historical accounts that describe power shifts and the fall of empires throughout centuries past.
Responding appropriately to these global changes as we transform elementary and secondary education nationwide is indeed critical to ensuring the next generation's readiness and competitiveness in a new world order. To facilitate teaching and learning that integrates languages, customs, and disciplines unlike those of our primary norms and traditions, we will need to expand how we share information and resources across cultures and countries. This represents enormous opportunities for students to grow and learn in ways that broaden their knowledge base and expose them to ideas and experiences that many of us could not have imagined during our school days. While the economic and political shifts across the globe can be viewed as disheartening in some respects, these new realities are in fact tremendous teaching and learning opportunities for our youth to engage and interact with their counterparts around the world cross-culturally and transnationally.
Responding appropriately to these global changes as we transform elementary and secondary education nationwide is indeed critical to ensuring the next generation's readiness and competitiveness in a new world order. To facilitate teaching and learning that integrates languages, customs, and disciplines unlike those of our primary norms and traditions, we will need to expand how we share information and resources across cultures and countries. This represents enormous opportunities for students to grow and learn in ways that broaden their knowledge base and expose them to ideas and experiences that many of us could not have imagined during our school days. While the economic and political shifts across the globe can be viewed as disheartening in some respects, these new realities are in fact tremendous teaching and learning opportunities for our youth to engage and interact with their counterparts around the world cross-culturally and transnationally.
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