This week, let’s talk about expanding students’ concepts of the world. 

The other day I was talking to my husband in the car, as we drove through rainstorms and rainbows home to Slovakia from our holiday trip to Croatia. We were talking about his wonderful high school Spanish teacher, who we’re still friends with thirty years after she taught him Spanish. 

"She was the first one, you know,” he said. “She said to us, ‘you know not everyone thinks America is the best country in the world, right?’”  Growing up in a small and quiet town in America’s heartland, far from the borders of any other country, he hadn't really thought about this before, and it made a big impact on him.  

Just like my husband, I grew up in the midwest, and my small city in Northern Minnesota felt pretty far from the influence of other countries. I felt like I stuck out at my high school a bit because I was Methodist instead of Lutheran, had red hair instead of blonde, and lived in a cute little white house instead of in the wealthy neighborhood most of my classmates came from. My only international experience was on a church service trip to Thunder Bay, Canada, three hours north. 

These childhood experiences contrast sharply with those of, for example, my students back when I worked in Bulgaria. On the first day of my first year, I played an icebreaker game with my tenth graders where they would go to one side of the room if they chose one answer to a question, and the other side if they chose another. For one of my questions, I asked them to move to this side of the room if they had been out of the country. They all did. I asked a few follow-ups, and soon realized that most of my kids had been to at least three other countries.

Think of the difference, growing up having experienced the reality of life in other places. To see that parents are playing with kids on the playground, just the same. That people are speaking other languages with all the confidence and nuance that students are speaking their own. That people are thriving in other countries with different beliefs, different cultures, different norms, different histories. 

We can help students experience more international awareness through small choices in class, whether or not they'll have the opportunity to travel beyond their national borders as students.

Let’s talk about a few quick ideas.

Maybe you could host an international classroom project, connecting your classroom with one in another country to share writing, talk about a book together, or work collaboratively on a creative project.

Maybe you could incorporate international photography and video into writing prompts and grammar lessons, helping kids see parts of the world they wouldn’t normally interact with.

Maybe you could try to feature international writers and travel literature now and then in your FCFs, BT Tuesdays, and book displays. 

Maybe you could try comparing news articles from papers in different countries, taking a look at different perspectives.

These are a few quick ideas, and I’m sure you can think of many more. Helping kids understand that there are many possible ways to see the world, and many perspectives from which to see it, is such an important part of preparing them to be world citizens. A few small additions to class can make a big difference, so this week I want to highly recommend that you help students look beyond their borders in whatever ways you can easily incorporate. 

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