Gold Medals And Golden Opportunities

by Vivien Stewart

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics fast approaching, the world will soon be gripped by competition between athletes, teams, and countries. Each day, the media will announce the gold, silver, and bronze medals won; the United States focus, of course, on our own daily tally.

But the spotlight on China's Olympic preparations has also highlighted issues that will never be a win for one country and a loss for another. Some of China's challenges—air and water quality, production quality breakdowns—are our concerns as well. These, and other cross-border issues—from global warming and health epidemics, to conflict resolution and economic inter-dependence—affect us all. Solutions will not come through traditional competition, but a new hybrid of cooperative competition between nations and citizens. Success will depend on our ability to understand and work with cultures and societies with different traditions and histories.

Are America's high school and college graduates, who will face these challenges, adequately prepared? Sadly, the answer is too often no.

While many countries in Asia and Europe are emphasizing international knowledge, and language acquisition, surveys by the Asia Society and National Geographic-Roper indicate that compared with students in other industrialized countries, US students lack knowledge of world geography, history, and current events. Fewer than half of our high school students take even an introductory course in a foreign language. They are especially ignorant about Asia, home to 60% of the world's population and its fastest growing economies.

At the Asia Society, we believe the US must create its own education response to meet the global future. Too often, teaching about the rest of the world in US schools focuses on the superficial—food, fun, and festivals. We need deeper knowledge of significant global trends in science and technology, regional, and cultural interconnection, international trade and the global economy. The skill-set our students need goes beyond our current focus on the basics. To be successful whether in the global economy or as global citizens, students need to communicate in languages other than English and be able to work with other cultures.

In 2003, Asia Society joined forces with the Goldman Sachs Foundation to create the Prizes for Excellence in International Education designed to recognize and encourage US schools to meet these challenges and identify the best of the growing number of examples of international education around the country.

This year's winners all demonstrate impressive innovation in exploring new approaches to promoting international knowledge and skills.

The Sunset Elementary School in Miami, Florida, winner of the 2007 Elementary/Middle School Prize, is a diverse school, recognized for its unique International Studies Magnet Program carried out in collaboration with the Ministries of Education in Spain, France, and Germany. This inquiry-based global curriculum focuses on questions of civic responsibility, cultural and environmental awareness, and knowledge of the global economy combined with an immersion foreign language program in Spanish, French, and German.

Eugene International High School, winner of the 2007 High School Prize, is a teacher-developed school-within-a-school across three high school campuses in Eugene, Oregon. The required curriculum centers around culture, history, political systems, economic, and belief systems. Each grade focuses on a particular world region. In the 10th grade, for example, students study the Middle East in Global History, the evolution of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity in Comparative Religion. Graduates of Eugene International High School describe the school as being a turning point on their development, inducing a lifelong interest in and comfort with international affairs.

Prizes were also awarded to the State of Ohio for its commitment to a global vision and system-wide international focus, and to the Reischauer Scholars Program, Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), a college-level distance learning course aimed at high school students who don't have access to international education. The program provides a broad overview of contemporary Japan including literature, religion, art, politics and economics, education, and US-Japan relations.

These award-winners, and those in years past, demonstrate that teaching students about the world should not be a subject separate from other content areas, but rather an integral part of all subjects. Many award winners are partnering with schools in other countries. Students exchange visits with contemporaries in sister cities. All these efforts will create a generation prepared to compete, connect, and cooperate with peers around the world.

While the Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize does not yet have the cache of an Olympic gold medal, for future generations, its winners may have as prominent a place in history for their achievements.

Vivien Stewart is Vice President for Education at Asia Society.