Kids Are Our Future

Children today are growing up in an increasingly global society exposed to diverse people and cultures. Increased globalization requires children to develop new skills to survive and thrive in the global society.

How to help children to interact with and understand people who are ethnically, racially and culturally different from themselves? How to help children to build a learning environment that encourages a global vision and moral action? How to prepare children to become globally aware and responsible? These are the questions, for which we need to find the answers.

I think in order to survive and thrive in the global society, to respect each other and learn from each other is the key. Teach our children that the world is a diverse place, never mind too many differences between them and others, respect those difference and learn the good things from them.

The global society presents both opportunities and challenges for us and our children. It also has challenged our values and broadened our horizons, changing the way we see the world. We should try to build communities that encourage multiple cultures to coexist and co-prosper, a multicultural society with integrated good aspects, in order to prepare a generation of children that believe in unity in diversity, who practice world citizenship, and who are ready to help serve humanity.

Global society is bringing our diverse communities together. In order to deepen our understanding of our own cultural heritage and other different culture, we should share our native culture, e.g. clothing, food and music, promote cross-cultural communication. Good multicultural books definitely help as well.

The survey commissioned by NAFSA identifies overwhelming numbers of Americans support for educational exchanges, study abroad, and foreign language learning. They believe that international education is a key to preparing children for success in the global world; foreign language skills will make children more competitive in a job market, and it is important for the next generation to have the opportunity to study abroad and to interact with students from other countries.