A classroom as big as the world

About 150 students at Evanston are learning Japanese. "A lot of the kids who take Japanese take the Asia studies class as well," says Michael Van Krey, one of two Japanese teachers at the school. "They get a bigger picture of another part of the world.... People realize Asia's here to stay."

Evanston is unusual in that it implemented global studies so thoroughly, and so early. But other schools show interest in doing the same.

It's not always easy. Faculty members can be insecure about their own limited knowledge of the world, or resistant to changing the way they teach. Even when they're willing to learn more, funding teacher training is a challenge.

The standards movement, too, has worked against globally themed curricula, with its emphasis on basic skills like reading and math over social studies, and few, if any, requirements about international knowledge.

More states are now paying lip service to global studies, and mention them in state standards, but that doesn't always translate into action in the classroom.

Teachers and principals need to be proactive, say some advocates of global ed.

"If we've decided our standards are international, it's up to us and our teachers to live up to those standards," says Mark Montgomery, director of the Center for Teaching International Relations at the University of Denver.

Sometimes a program like Evanston's - in a big, relatively wealthy, suburban school - can actually discourage, rather than inspire, smaller, poorer, or more rural schools, he says. "If you hold that up as the model, [other schools] will say, 'I can't do that.' "

He tries to show them that they can do just as much in their own way - in particular, that an international viewpoint is something that can be integrated into existing classes.

He'll talk to US history teachers about the influence of the French and British on the founding of America and to science teachers about how units on wildlife migration, nutrition, or disease can be expanded to have a global viewpoint.

Mr. Levine of the Asia Society agrees, and notes that international studies have also succeeded in some urban schools. Recently the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which works almost entirely in underfunded schools, has made a push for more global curricula.

"It's an important equity issue," Levine says. "In terms of the global economy, these are going to be essential skills.... When we begin to introduce these courses and opportunities in urban areas, there's tremendous demand for it."

A school on Manhattan's Lower East Side with a 100 percent nonwhite student body recently developed an international theme. Some students take Chinese, and others participate in an exchange with Sri Lankans.

At Evanston, students tend to come from affluent backgrounds, and some are accustomed to discussing current events at home. Even so, many students say the global perspectives classes are having a profound effect on how they see the world.

Page: 1 | 2 | 3