Jeremy Levitt, the associate dean for International Programs and a distinguished professor of international law at FAMU’s College of Law, thinks American K-12 students need to learn more about other countries and cultures.From his recent column in the Orlando Sentinel:
What is the value of a global education? Over the past 20 years, I have traveled all over the world as an international lawyer, educator or tourist. In nearly every place that I have worked or visited, I found that the world knows more about us than we do about them.
This truth is evident in the richest and poorest nations from Cape Town to Cairo and Calcutta to Calgary. Test: Can you locate Kyrgyzstan on a map?
The United States is no longer a world leader in secondary education, ranking 18th among 36 nations assessed, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Hence, not only do we comparatively know far less about the rest of the world than we should, we are also falling behind lesser-developed nations like China, India and South Korea in core subjects areas like math and science.
How can we adequately compete in the global marketplace and simultaneously remain ignorant about our competitors? Not only are we collectively ignorant about world geography, foreign cultures, languages, people and history; even more disturbing, we have yet to acquire a local or national appetite to learn about them.
This is a problem that has its genesis in American culture and supremacy, and the false notion that the world revolves around us. It often originates from and is reinforced in our K-12 and higher-education systems, given our excessive reliance on Western or Eurocentric perspectives and approaches on nearly every issue. Such perspectives filter into every facet of our educational, economic, social and political orders.
Read the full column here.
No excuses here , I agree. But this is a big country and we don't even know much about here. The spotlight is on the US so it isn't a surprise that others know or think they know more about the US. We also have a "democracy" so our business is out there far more than other nation states. At one time I knew every country on the planet but so much has changed in such a short time, I question that knowledge a bit now. The joke in my class was that we knew more about the rest of the world than we knew about our own. It was true. I didn't know the gdp or gnp of the US, but I did know Mali's.
ReplyDeleteWhat you need to complete in the global marketplace is the willingness to work for a dollar an hour less than the next guy not education. The US is globally competitive because everyone wants to work here and the opportunity for foreign workers is tremendous. You have educated people in a foreign country which are making 100 dollars a month who come over here and can make 2000 dollars a month. Whereas a US citizen with an education, which was making 3000 a month and with 10 years experience now has to fight with a low cost foreign import to make that same 2000 dollars. Open your eyes people don't listen to these globalists.
ReplyDeleteSounds like this guy would been a great presenter for the upcoming SBI Global Leadership Conference!
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