21st Century Skills & Knowledge Part 2: Global Studies

Knowledge of global issues has never been more important or rewarding. Our country is ever more economically interdependent with the rest of the world and more racially diverse.  Our geopolitical histories in East Asia, South America, and the Middle East are as complex as they ever have been and increasingly our country is open to the rich heritages and contemporary cultures of the broader world.

Today and even more so in the future, global knowledge is not something only useful for diplomats, international businesspeople, or even avid travelers, it’s a necessity for anyone who seeks to understand rising gas prices, difficulties of coordination on global warming, international arts and cultures, good investment opportunities, and more.

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Teaching students global knowledge is part of teaching Social Studies in general. In common with most of the nation, elementary school students in South Orange-Maplewood learn comparatively little Social Studies, with what little time is spent on Social Studies almost entirely devoted to American history until 5th grade, when students learn about Pre-Columbian civilizations. The lack of World History is unfortunate, given most of the topics in World History chronologically precede American history, how much young children tend to love topics in World History, like the Stone Age and Ancient Egypt, and Social Studies’ spillover benefits for reading comprehension.

We should not teach elementary schoolers the political histories of India, China, the Middle East, and Africa, but lessons on the cultures, languages, foods, holidays, and heroes of these regions would be well-received. Students love learning about Greek mythology in enrichment, so offering units on the mythologies of other civilizations could likewise be a delight for elementary schoolers.

Going beyond traditional lessons and activities, we could have elementary schoolers have international email pen pals. There are also numerous extracurricular opportunities available – many elementary and middle schools participate in the National Geographic Geography Bee (registration costs all of $90 a year) - our participation is overdue.

Changes to Global Studies in the middle schools also needs to be discussed. At present, students learn modern American history in 6th grade, then study contemporary world issues thematically in 7th grade, and then jump backwards in time to World History for 8th grade.

Global curricular opportunities at the high school are not well developed as they should be. The only global studies classes at Columbia, other than the 9th grade World History survey that all high schools offer, are AP Comparative Government (which is cotaught with US Government), World Literature (combined with British literature), an African Studies semester course, and an economics semester course.

Livingston, Westfield, Millburn, Montclair, and some small districts like Verona provide impressive electives and extracurriculars for students wishing to build their global literacy. Livingston High School has an international business class, a Middle Eastern Studies class, AP Economics, AP Human Geography, World Film, and a Historical Research Class. Livingston also has an extraordinary large number of cultural clubs and international-involvement clubs, many of which concentrate on helping the most vulnerable people in the world, like Amnesty International, Invisible Children (for former child soldiers in Uganda), LINK (a North Korean education club), and UNICEF. Westfield High School has semester-long classes Comparative Religion, Global Studies, and Exploring Global Perspectives, and also a fairly large number of cultural and international-involvement clubs and teams. Millburn now offers Middle Eastern Studies, Global Issues, World Literature, a Macroeconomics seminar, and in recent years has offered East Asian Studies, a History of Russia Course, and even a Russian Literature course. Montclair’s offerings in global classes are not extensive, but there are many international-involvement clubs, like Model UN, Fed Challenge, Amnesty International, Fair Trade, Rwanda Teens for Life, Save Darfur, and Knitting for Rwanda. Even Verona High School – which, as a small school has limited offerings – participates in numerous global extracurriculars, such as the Euro Challenge, International Weekend, Model UN, and clubs for all the languages taught. 

Columbia High School’s global issues classes and extracurriculars are simply not as wide-ranging.  Our foreign language instruction also needs to be strengthened, a topic I will address in the future. 

Where should we go and how do we afford it? 

The foundation for 21st Century Skills and Knowledge – and most subjects – is laid in the elementary schools. The relative neglect of Social Studies (and Science) in the elementary schools must be corrected. 

In the middle schools we can consider changing the sequence of how students study Social Studies. World History usually precedes American History and has some topics which are incredibly interesting to young students. Placing World History before American History and redesigning the theme year of 7th grade are items to discuss.

The core history classes at Columbia High School are good, but we can add global studies electives, like as classes on East Asia, the Middle East, classes in transdisciplinary subjects like Human Rights and economics/economic history.  There is also a strong case to be made for offering Mandarin.

Creating new electives may not be as costly as it first seems.  AP World History (which is one of the nation’s most rapidly growing AP classes) is something that can be offered as an option to 9^th graders instead of the regular World History class and would thus be offered at virtually no additional cost.  Some electives can be offered in alternate years or semesters to reduce expense.   

Runing a class for a very small enrollment may not be a prudent use of resources, but offering an extracurricular for a smaller number of students is feasible.  Although it would be preferable to offer a class in economics or global issues in the near future, offering an extracurricular in one of those subjects is a different situation, hence the importance of creating extracurriculars in subjects where our class opportunities are not developed, like Fed Challenge and Model UN.  Aside from the learning involved, extracurriculars serve as a way for students to become comfortable in a high school as large as Columbia and can give students an advantage in college admissions.  Finally, we should also explore ways for students to learn these subjects through independent study or online learning.

The world is changing; our curriculum and course offerings should keep pace. Educating students with “21st Century Skills” is a real need.  Let's prepare our students to understand the complex, dynamic, globalized new world they will inherit.