This month, Rebecca Battistoni is a guest blogger in my place. Rebecca is the librarian at Santa Cruz Cooperative School, an international school with an American curriculum in Bolivia. Previously, for thirteen years, she was a middle school teacher. As you will see, Rebecca is passionate about inspiring students to take action to solve the world's most pressing problems. Two days after I visited SCCS, Rebecca and a group of her students left for Brazil to attend the Global Issues Network Conference.
When I met David
Schwartz for the first time, it was at the Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, around
2:00 am, and still very hot outside.
David had come to Bolivia on the last leg of a three country school tour –
first Venezuela, then Peru, and finally, Bolivia. Our school had invited him to speak to our elementary and
middle school students about math, science, and nature – topics that align with
one of my other passions, global issues.
As librarian of
our 600+ student, Pre - K through 12th grade school, I am always
looking for great non-fiction that helps teach our students about the world
around them. And since taking on
sponsorship of the school’s Global Issues Network (GIN) group, I have become
even more interested in finding books and resources that will help our students
make sense of global issues that will impact their lives.
One of the
components of a GIN conference is using research-based, factual information as
a framework to discuss a local problem.
Imagine how important it is, then, to offer students only the best in
well-written, well-researched non-fiction in order to complete their
projects. Most of you know this
already, just as you know the impact of the Common Core State Standards on the teaching
and publishing world. So why write
about it here?
It hasn’t reached the United States in the same way it has in Europe,
Asia, Africa, and now South America – namely, through the student conferences
held yearly, bringing together hundreds of students from international schools
to create networks of global citizens.
But you may have heard of Challenge 20/20, a similar program run by the
National Association of Independent Schools. http://www.nais.org/Articles/Pages/Challenge-20-20.aspx
The goals of
both programs are based on the book High
Noon: 20 Global Problems and 20 Years
to Solve Them by Jean-Francois Rischard, former Vice-President at the World
Bank. The 20 global issues are
divided into three main categories: Sharing our planet; Sharing our humanity;
and Sharing our rulebook. The
issues range from global warming to water deficits and deforestation, from peacekeeping and the digital divide to illegal drugs and eCommerce, to name
just a few.
But how easy is it for students to
understand the 20 issues? How does
one go about explaining biotechnology rules to middle school students? Or what about international labor laws
to second graders? Not an easy
thing to do at all. However, now
is the time to tackle these issues, finding quality books written in clear,
easy to understand ways that our students can understand. Now is the time to teach about topics
that are not traditionally found on “Easy” bookshelves. Many teachers, librarians and authors
have already begun, and there are many books which are the starting off points
for our student researchers. Authors, please write more of these books. Teachers and librarians, please look for the best of these books and use them with your students!
Please teach the tough topics. Our students are interested in
learning, and the world needs them to learn about these subjects. Global issues can be ignored no longer.
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