Reflection 1/1/11: Why Global Education is so Important for the 21st Century

Right before our Christmas holidays, our school organised a rather grand party for all our teachers.  I found myself sitting on a table with teachers from one of our other campuses, teachers whom I didn't know particularly well.  Three of them were in the high school humanities department.  I used to be a high school humanities teacher myself, in fact right before I moved to Switzerland I taught a class of IB geography.  I have come to realise just how much I miss that teaching - the discussions we used to have about global issues, population and development, natural and human disasters, resources, ecosystems and so on.  So today, at the start of another new year, I watched this short movie about the meaning of the 21st century and how important global education is.  Although we are facing major challenges, we also have the solutions - this is why we need our students to develop their powers of creative thinking and innovation, this is why it is important for our students to develop international mindedness and understand the multiple perspectives of others around the world so that they are able to communicate with them and collaborate on these solutions.  As James Martin says in the movie:

We are at an extraordinary crossroads of human history. Our actions, or failure to act, during the next 20 years will determine the fate of the Earth and human civilization for centuries to come. This is a make-or-break century.