Why we need an international curriculum model<\/p>\n
By John Phillips<\/p>\n
This is the first of two articles about an international
\ncurriculum model.<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Most international schools are international
\nin name only since they often mirror an existing school system
\nfrom one of several \"home\" countries such as the United States.<\/p>\n
Everything in these schools reflects the culture of that
\ncountry -- everything, that is, except the students. The students
\nare \"from\" all over the world as even those from the dominant
\nculture in the school often spend years overseas.<\/p>\n
Out of school these \"international\" students may live in a
\ncultural cocoon sheltered from the host country environment and,
\neven when they find themselves moving to a third culture, they
\nare still stuck in an international cultural vacuum.<\/p>\n
In this sense, these children represent the future challenge
\nof preparing students for a multi-cultural world, one that will
\ndrive educational policy. But, for these children now, and for
\nthe children of Indonesia later, current curricula are ill-suited
\nto this task as most were created in a rapidly disappearing
\nenvironment for a society that has long since evolved.<\/p>\n
Educators have long anticipated that curriculum reform will be
\nneeded because of anticipated changes in technology and in the
\nnature of work.<\/p>\n
So, curricular change models have often focused on the
\nessential task of primary and secondary education-teaching
\nstudents how to learn and to think.<\/p>\n
Now, in addition there is as great a need to assist students
\nin becoming international citizens. While it is remarkable how
\nthe basic principles implied in this idea were anticipated by the
\nIndonesian state \"ideology\" of Pancasila, in order to meet the
\nchallenges of the future, Indonesia will still need to change its
\neducational system.<\/p>\n
A new system should include not only less emphasis on teaching
\nspecific information and more on critical \"learning-thinking
\nskills\", but also, more emphasis on cross-cultural awareness and
\nadaptation skills while teaching tolerance for differences in the
\nway others live, think and believe.<\/p>\n
The importance of teaching all children \"thinking\" skills
\ncannot be overestimated. These skills are essential for the
\nobvious reason that as the world changes and the nature of what
\nit means to be an educated person changes with it, most of us
\nwill have to continue to learn new things well beyond our initial
\nyears of education.<\/p>\n
Thinking skills are also crucial as all citizens of the planet
\nmust be able to make critical decisions about the quality and
\nworth of the information available to them in ever increasing
\nquantity, but not necessarily better quality.<\/p>\n
For this reason, students must be taught how to think
\nanalytically about their world and their lives to allow them to
\nmake appropriate choices about which information is valuable and
\nuseful and which is not.<\/p>\n
The idea that information can be \"worthless\" or even harmful
\nmay strike some readers as being inward \"looking\", but taking the
\nexample of the dissemination of \"pornography\" over the Internet,
\nit is much easier to see.<\/p>\n
Another example might be information that is inflammatory,
\nracist or hate-filled \"propaganda\" designed to sow confusion and
\nto reap violence in a society.<\/p>\n
An apt example of this occurred late last year in Jakarta when
\na group of armed students were arrested before they could attack
\nstudents in another school.<\/p>\n
Their excuse for planning the attack was that a pamphlet had
\nbeen circulated saying that the other students had insulted their
\nreligion. These students should have been able to figure out that
\nthey were being manipulated by someone who wanted to cause what
\ncan only be described as mindless violence.<\/p>\n
Since there seems to be no way to stem the flow of information
\nregardless of its intrinsic value or truthfulness, students must
\nhave the ability to think through problems, sort information, and
\ncritically analyze ideas in order to separate the \"wheat from the
\nchaff\", that is, distinguish the good from the bad.<\/p>\n
Without these skills society is at the mercy of those who
\ncontrol information. At the same time, while any curriculum must
\ninclude the learning of thinking skills, these skills alone are
\ninsufficient for future international citizens.<\/p>\n
Perhaps as important as thinking skills, future citizens must
\nhave the ability to look beyond themselves and the cultural
\nmilieu in which they exist to \"see\" the value and worth of other
\ncultures.<\/p>\n
Such a curriculum would begin to alter the predominant view
\nthat other ways of living and thinking are interesting, but,
\nultimately inferior or hostile.<\/p>\n
With an appropriate education, other cultures and their
\nperceptions would become not just interesting subjects to be
\nstudied but valuable \"insights\" into the human condition worth
\nexploring for their alternative ways of explaining the world in
\nwhich we live and from which we can learn and benefit.<\/p>\n
In the East, the predominate need might be to combine the
\npreviously discussed critical thinking skills with a more
\nscientific approach to those areas of life which can benefit from
\nobjectivity and analysis such as the ability to critically
\nanalyze texts for flaws in logic and proof.<\/p>\n
In the West, the predominancy need seems to be exactly the
\nopposite, to go beyond our self-imposed cultural \"blinders\" which
\ndismiss anything that is not rational or scientifically provable
\nand to go back to spiritual and cultural roots to discover within
\nthem the essence of our common humanity that makes us more than
\nefficient thinking machines.<\/p>\n
These \"gaps\" in our educational system and our inability to
\nperceive the world as others do appear to be rooted in our lack
\nof understanding about other cultures and in our inability to
\nthink in ways that take in alternatives instead of rejecting them
\nout of hand.<\/p>\n
That is, it seems that what is missing from our education is
\nthe ability to think and to act as \"whole persons\" who are open
\nto new information and ways of seeing and who understand not only
\nourselves, but others as well.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it is restating the obvious, but we have much to learn
\nfrom one another, if we could only open our eyes up a little and
\n\"see\". To do this, we need a truly international curriculum that
\nexpands our ability to think and opens us up to a diverse world
\nof possibilities and promises.<\/p>",
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