Edutopia - February/March 2008 - (Page 12) Sage Advice How do you prepare your students to be citizens of the world? Next time: What is your dream teaching assignment? Send responses, as well as suggestions for future questions, to sage@edutopia.org. For more answers, visit Sage Advice on the Web at www.edutopia.org/sageadvice. (Responses may be edited for length and clarity.) Good citizens need to work, vote, and take care of themselves financially. I prepare them by teaching business life skills, including personal finance, communication, insurance, and computer skills. Rebecca LaBarca Business teacher East Meadow High School East Meadow, New York First, you help them define the term “citizen of the world.” Then you help them learn what being a good citizen means— to themselves, to loved ones and family, to the school community, to the surrounding community. One’s actions can be directly linked to one’s values (beliefs, feelings, and actions that are important to us), so starting with a basic understanding of one’s values is essential to any meaningful discussions on citizenship. The global context is meaningless unless students are good citizens in their own nation. Montgomery Granger District administrator for operations Comsewogue School District Port Jefferson Station, New York Simple: Teach them the Boy Scout motto and slogan! Scout motto: Be prepared. Scout slogan: Do a good turn daily. William Stone Senior innovative-program specialist New York City Department of Education New York, New York Begin by getting our students to learn what it is to be a citizen of a school community, a family, and their own classrooms. Lydia Bellino Principal Goosehill Primary School Cold Spring Harbor, New York Teach them to read, encourage them to read, read to them, ask them to read aloud, read them the newspaper, and have them read the newspaper. Bob Kostka Social studies coordinator Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District Bridgewater, Massachusetts Becoming a world citizen requires knowledge and experience of other cultures; U.S. schools do not provide knowledge or experience. Rather, they provide a cursory glimpse of others in order to exemplify how not to be American. “Diversity Day” does not create world citizens, it patronizes cultural difference and touts xenophobia, and always winds up pandering American culture as Eurocentrically defined. Only travel and immersion in other cultures creates world citizens. William Herbert Smith Yang En University Quanzhou, China Right before our eyes, all that the education sector has controlled, dismissed, manipulated, validated, embellished, fictionalized, and ranked within an aura of tradition and ritual may be accessed by point-and-click. We need to stop chasing exponentially expanding content. Inquiry, problem recognition and solution, creativity, knowing one's strengths and weaknesses, communication, and relationships are what students must be prepared for. Vincent Hawkins Director of curriculum, instructruction, and assessment Springfield School District Springfield, Vermont Prepare students to be citizens of the world by being one yourself. Teach from a global perspective. Jill Goldesberry Program officer, community partnerships, Stanley Foundation Muscatine, Iowa 12 EDUTOPIA FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008 http://www.edutopia.org/sageadvice
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