Global Inequalities, Instability, and Education

The article "Global Inequality and Instability" is a thought provoking essay which paints an alarming picture about the state of education today and its future. The authors, Allan and Jason Ornstein, propose education in the United States does not do an adequate job teaching students about truths concerning other countries in our world. The authors believe education in the United States does not prepare students to become future leaders who will help solve the problems facing our ever changing world. To illustrate their thoughts, the authors begin by travelling back in time to lay the foundation of their argument.

America's founding fathers and other educational theorists through time believed in the need to examine economic and social problems, moral choices, and controversial issues. Engaging in such activities would help strengthen democracy by preparing a populace of educated, thoughtful citizens. To accomplish this goal, they felt students should be active participants in their education. Students should raise questions and challenge teachers and textbooks. I believe this is what education should be all about.

Somewhere over the last one hundred years a shift occurred resulting in what the authors now consider is the "norm" for education. Today students are no longer active participants in their education. Students are rarely challenged in terms of critical thinking activities. Our educational system is not preparing students with the skills they'll need to help combat a world ripe with global inequalities. In fact, our educational system largely ignores discussion of global issues. If global issues are discussed, they are done through the lens of rose colored glasses with America's role sanitized in order to shine the best light upon it. Students are not being exposed to the festering anti-American sentiment which is spreading over the world. Attacks on perceived values and the American way of life are not debated for their merits. This all contributes to the authors’ contention that our schools are not preparing students to become global citizens.

The authors feel educational reform is necessary to help combat the issues in our evolving world. Today's students are going to become tomorrow's leaders. Students need to be challenged with curriculum that develops their critical thinking skills. The role of standardized testing and its importance hinders students. There is not enough time devoted to discussing these issues because teaching what is on the test takes precedence. Global issues need to be discussed in the classroom in order to expose students to the world around them. Existing curriculum does not introduce such concepts to students and thus students are largely ignorant to the world outside of the United States. Students are shielded from a world of growing inequalities and disdain for the United States and what it represents.

Students need to be challenged by their teachers. All too familiar is a teacher standing at the front of a classroom lecturing students from textbooks which do not address the real issues facing the world. Students are passive participants in their education. Critical thinking skills are underdeveloped; there is not enough questioning and debate about the world around them, their role in it, and collaboration with students from around the world about the issues facing them. Wouldn’t healthy debate with foreign students, whom may not agree with our values or way of life (and vice versa), help all parties involved gain insight about one another? I believe this type of activity is essential going forward if we truly want to broaden the minds of our youth in a manner which addresses global issues.

The authors argue today’s youth are self-absorbed individuals swimming in a media-driven cultural cesspool and have no capacity for hearing the cries of the impoverished in lands they could not locate on a map. Today’s youth are consumed with their own problems such as not getting a good enough parking space or having enough goat cheese on their salad. Can today’s youth truly relate to the genuine pain and suffering occurring in the world? How much of this is exaggerated perception and how much is reality?

Our world is changing and not for the better according to the authors. The divide between the “haves and “have nots” is widening at an alarming pace. The rich get richer. The poor struggle to escape what is known as the poverty trap, which is a repeating cycle that siphons away hope and any chance of prosperity for countries caught in it. Global poverty is increasing, yet nations in a position to help stem the tide are not completely altruistic when it comes to aid. Making wholesale changes to help others may jeopardize their standing in the world and they would also be discounting their own domestic problems in the process.

It is drummed into our subconscious that living in the 21st century means being part of a global economy, “a world without borders”, and how the future of communication and overall advancement is through technology. Our students are plugged into a myriad of multi-media devices, while all across the globe children are playing, sleeping, and living in squalid conditions. An obesity epidemic is engulfing the youth of America, while throughout the world there is famine which continues to become increasingly dire as the result of the third world population boom. All of this is not going unnoticed outside of the United States as anti-American sentiment is becoming more voluminous and violent. Even domestically, the gap is widening between the “have and have nots”; how long before unrest and violence erupts in the United States?

The authors conclude by stating they wish educational reform could be the solution to the world’s issues; however they feel the only real hope the world has to combat its issues will come in the form of political revolution, which they identify is also ripe with problems. The article paints a very dim future for our world in the years to come.

I am an optimist and also a realist. I feel there is no easy answer to solving the issues which created the world’s inequalities and instability. We live in a complex world with a multitude of influencing factors touching upon just about anything and everything one could imagine (e.g., age, education, ethnicity, gender, geography, politics, race, religion, history, wealth, food, culture, values). The issues existing in our world, whether viewed domestically or on a global scale, weren’t born overnight. They won’t be solved overnight either. I consider the article’s outlook to be extremely alarmist, which is not to say its indicators aren't rooted in reality. Suggesting what is set in motion cannot be combated at this point would be conceding defeat and how would that help? Education is key in the battle. Students must become active participants in their education while developing critical thinking skills through a dynamic curriculum which addresses global issues in a realistic manner and can be practically applied. Throughout history the human spirit has risen to the occasion to tackle overwhelming odds and overcome issues they were faced with. I am confident this generation and ones after it will do the same, but actions speak louder than words.

As I mentioned these are complex issues and ones which cannot be solved alone. We are all stakeholders in the future of humanity. I’d like to hear some of your thoughts on education’s role in combating global inequality and instability. I look forward to your thoughtful comments!