My Back Pages: No Age Barriers to World Understanding (1946)

"Today, as teachers, we find ourselves alternately amazed and frustrated by the speed at which things are happening . . . learning experiences and training materials for children must take cognizance of this new and amazingly real and interdependent world."

With international conflicts ongoing and an increasingly worldwide financial crisis, educators today are hearing familiar calls to educate students for the realities of the interconnected globe. Yet the above quote, from Boulder, Colo. elementary supervisor Marie Anna Mehl, comes from her October 1946 Educational Leadership article "No Age Barriers to World Understanding" (PDF). In the article, she writes of the urgency to educate children with a sense of social responsibility, particularly in light of the awesome power of the atomic bomb.

In a case study of her efforts to reform her schools’ social studies curriculum, Mehl details the importance of cultivating world understanding in the "grass roots" of the early grades, through both experiences such as cooperative learning and discussion of the world's different cultures and economic realities. She casts these two strands as complimentary, as children who are "emotionally sensitized" to working together will better understand the interconnectedness of the worlds' people.

How do you integrate issues of global cooperation and interconnectedness in your classroom?

Comments

[Julie Lehr]

There is a world of wisdom in the common thread that connects every culture and people. Our effort is to create dialogue with respect to the many perspectives present in the world today. Please visit our website, www.goldenruleproject.org for more information and/or materials.

[Julie Lehr]

Mrs. Cassidy, Have you been able to visit our website? We have just published our first Story - starter coloring cards. May I send some materials for your class?
Julie Lehr
Outreach Coordinator
julie@goldenruleproject.org
801-433-6275