Reflection to Tony Jackson

 How can American students become more globally competent and multiculturally literate?

When I first started to think about my students on a global level, I was not sure what I could do to develop these ideas of diversity.  Sure, I have students of different cultures and different backgrounds.  But beyond the cultures in our room, there is a vast amount of cultures our students are not exposed to.  Tony Jackson discusses, "at the very least they can go to "Google" and flick the switch in the English language from around the world to get a perspective". Sure it might be that easy, but can they really understand what it means to be globally literate?  Tony also states, to be globally literate means to "do onto other as others would want to be done to them".  Seems close to our golden rule right?  After thinking, it may not be that easy.  Something as simple as a hello can mean different things in different languages.  In the United States eye contact is something that is valued whereas in other communities it is seen as disrespectful.

So how can I my students become more globally competent?  I think one way I can make my students more competent is by introducing various cultures in my curriculum.  In physical education we can do this in various ways.  We can set up a multicultural unit or even global games played around the world. Our department already incorporates a research project including various games played around the world.  The students need to research the rules, history, and even produce a video about the game.  In my health education class I could introduce various cultures by discussing health topics around the world. 

Global competency can be defined in various ways.  Tony Jackson discussed that globally competent kids can learn and communicate from various languages.  Not only can this provide them with an understand of various worlds and cultures but also shed light on the youth about the similarities of each.  It can also show that even though differences are evident, they are what makes the world a rich place.    The more we can embrace our differences and pass down the information to our students the better off we will be.