|
SpeechesEducating Our Youth for the Global Economic RevolutionKeynote Address at the Junior Achievement Worldwide Leadership Conference in Washington, DC.
Graham B. Spanier
A colleague once asked her students to answer the question of what they would wish for if they had just one hour to live. One of the students said, "If I had just one hour to live, I would like to attend one of Graham Spanier's lectures." July 11, 2007 I was flattered of course, until learning that the student added, "When he talks for an hour it seems like an eternity." I promise today's remarks will be shorter than that. As you've heard, I was involved with Junior Achievement in my youth and it is a great honor today to serve on the Board of Directors. I joined JA when I was 15 years old growing up in the Chicago area. I was the first president of a Junior Achievement company that provided a service rather than a product. However, if I had known that lava lamps and tie dye shirts were going to make it so big, I may have opted for a product! The service was a one-hour weekly radio show for youth in Chicago. The show gave me and others a start in radio and TV, something that still involves me today. My co-producer in that early endeavor, Brian Ross, has gone on to become the chief investigative correspondent for ABC News and one of the most honored and respected journalists in the United States. He and I are but two of JA's millions of stories. But what of the millions to come? Preparing our youth for a global economy is high on the agenda of many nations today. In the United States, organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the Council on Competitiveness, and the Business Higher Education Forum all have sounded the alarm about the perceived decline in primary and secondary education. They have issued a call for every sector--from corporations, universities, and government to nonprofit and professional organizations--to collaborate on ways to improve teaching and learning and to expand access to education. The United Nations, through its Education for All initiative, is monitoring the progress of youth across the globe. In fact, 189 countries agreed to a set of goals, which include universal access to education by 2015. Some countries are keeping those commitments. Some are falling behind. You are all youth development experts in your countries and that is what draws us together. As former UN leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kofi Annan said, "Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development." Education clearly removes barriers and encourages respect and cooperation-- something that is desperately needed in our world today. I plan to touch on four topics that I believe have direct bearing on the mission of Junior Achievement Worldwide and its quest to prepare our youth for the global economic revolution. They are the changing demographics of our students; the pressing need for more science, mathematics, technology, and economics education; the growth and potential of hybrid learning; and the challenges that await Junior Achievement. EDUCATION OVERVIEW First, some demographics. Enrollment in primary schools is reported to be at 86 percent worldwide, or about 682 million children, which might sound pretty good to many of us. But recent surveys also show that many children who are enrolled do not attend regularly. And there are still nearly 104 million children out of school. The highest numbers are in Africa and South Asia. In addition, an estimated 150 million children drop out before grade five--that's more people than currently live in the nations of Belguim, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Panama combined. It is a huge segment of our future population. Advancing through school is not always easy. I once overheard a second-grade boy giving advice to his sister, who was about to enter kindergarten. "Don't learn to spell cat," he solemnly advised. "Because after that the words just keep getting harder." In today's world, not all children who complete primary school enter secondary education because many have not mastered the minimum skills needed to continue school. Despite these drawbacks, there is good news: Demand for secondary education is growing on a global scale. In 2004, 502 million students were enrolled in secondary education, an increase of 14 percent from 1999. Amid the growing demand, however, some countries are finding they simply cannot provide enough places in secondary school for all the children who wish to attend. This limited number of open spaces in secondary education actually serves as a deterrent to universal primary education. Why should students finish when there is obviously no reward? In a 2006 report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 23 of the 30 countries studied show a looming decline in their primary school populations. For example, in Korea, the population aged 5 to 14 will decline by as much as 29 percent over the next eight years. In the Czech Republic, 15 to 19 year olds will fall by at least 30 percent, which will cut the demand for upper secondary education in that country. Contrary to predictions that once had us living in an overpopulated world, a closer look at demographic trends now shows that the rate of world population growth has fallen by more than 40 percent since the late 1960s. The root cause of this trend is declining birth rates. The world is changing quickly and countries once classified as under-developed will begin taking center stage. In 1950, the countries with the largest populations were Russia, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy. By 2050, none of these countries will make the top 10. In their places will be countries like Indonesia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and the Congo. In the future, the greatest global population growth will occur in the lowest-income groups of emerging nations. For educators in these regions of the world, the challenges will be tremendous as you work to supply teachers and resources for this expected growth. These demographic trends, as well as others, have a lot to tell us about the opportunities that may be available to JA youth in the years ahead. Along with changing demographics, issues of access, readiness, and the ability to transition from primary to secondary education are serious impediments to the success of our youth and the future of our nations. Although today we know more than ever about how children develop and about how to best support learning, there are many problems--such as the high rate of illiteracy, ill-trained teachers, huge class sizes, poverty, AIDS, discrimination, and poorly equipped schools--that cannot be solved fast enough despite international efforts to do so. I remember a story about a man who suffered a severe financial setback. He became destitute, and in utter despair turned to God. "Please, God," he prayed, "you've got to help me. Please let me win the lottery." And there was no answer. No response. The next day was no better. And he prayed again, "Please God, the only way I'll get back on my feet is if I win the lottery." This went on for a few days. The man thought that God wasn't hearing him. With his final breath of hope, he turned to God one last time and said, "I beg of you, let me win the lottery." After a moment of silence a booming voice from the sky said, "Give me a break. At least buy a ticket." To be successful in preparing our youth for a global economy, we can't just wish for something to happen. We have to take the necessary steps. As evidence of the public and private benefits of education grows, so does the rate of completion of upper secondary education worldwide. In 2006, 8 in 10 children completed secondary education--an all-time high. However, once again, there are wide variations across countries. Let's turn now to higher education. I am the president of a university that enrolls 84,000 students, and although I know I don't look it, I am also the father of two college graduates. I know a little bit about college students, but I say "a little bit" because as every parent realizes early on, our children know so much more than we do. As Mark Twain once said, "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have him around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in just seven years." In the last decade, tens of millions of new students around the world have entered higher education--offering proof of the increasing global demand for educated individuals. In America today, our colleges and universities enroll nearly 17.5 million students --with about 40 percent of these being what we consider "traditional" college students--that is, those who are 18 to 24 years old and enrolled full-time. It is the largest and most diverse generation of college students in American history and they are just a fraction of the 132 million students who are enrolled worldwide. China actually has the largest number of college students, recently passing 20 million. Despite these growing numbers, on average, some 30 percent of university students worldwide fail to successfully complete their programs. The highest "survival rates" are reported by Ireland, Japan, and Korea, with over 80 percent of their students graduating. Yet many educators don't realize that there are millions of parents who DON'T want their children to go on to post secondary education. Why? They are deathly afraid of debt or they are afraid of the disclosures that would be required to seek financial aid or the family may rely on the child's income or the family's values are contrary to the perceived elitism or secularism associated with higher education. We also need to remember there are many students who choose the vocational track, rather than the traditional university path. As employers continue to emphasize the need for workers with a wide variety of skills, vocational education and training is taking on new importance. Vocational education and training is serving a wide variety of individuals, including a large adult population. Many programs include general education subjects as well as occupation-specific subjects, and educators are working to improve the status and perceived value of vocational education and training. The bottom line is that a strong educational beginning that provides the necessary skills at primary and secondary levels is what will allow our children to advance in school and in society. Worldwide, a child can expect to receive on average, 1.5 years of post secondary education. Are we in Junior Achievement motivating students with relevant, hands-on learning experiences? Are we in JA preparing them for lifelong learning? Right now across the globe, about 780 million adults--two-thirds of them women --are illiterate, and higher population growth in certain regions of the world will not allow this number to fall much in the future. There are efforts under way worldwide to lower the illiteracy rate. The Education for All movement overseen by the UN, the World Bank, and three other international agencies, has a goal of increasing literacy rates by 50 percent by 2015. Also part of Education for All is the goal to help resolve the serious imbalance in many parts of the world in the number of females who are participating at all levels of education--from primary through post-secondary. It may surprise you to know that the majority of American college students today are women, who make up more than 56 percent of the undergraduate population. In the United States, we are worried about the shrinking numbers of men seeking higher education opportunities. In fact, globally we are now seeing a reversal of this historic pattern of male-dominated educational systems. Females are now more likely to complete upper secondary education than males in almost every OECD country. STEM AND ECONOMICS EDUCATION Among the greatest challenges we face as educators is the challenge to produce more scientists, engineers, and those skilled in technology, finance, and economics. The competitive effects of globalization have led to the belief that our schools must produce far more students with skills, creativity, a desire to be engaged, and a desire for entrepreneurship. In the United States, we are falling behind. According to the Financial Times, the U.S. and many EU countries find themselves way down in the rankings for basic math skills of 15-year-olds. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measured the performance of 15-year-olds in 49 industrialized countries, found that only 4 percent of students who were tested can perform highly complex mathematical tasks, and 11 percent of students are not capable of using basic level mathematics in a given situation. In some countries, over 20 percent are in this category. There are, of course, some great successes. In Finland, Korea, and Hong Kong-China, nearly half of all students can perform at higher mathematics levels. A U.S. survey this year of 11- to 13-year olds found that 84 percent would "rather clean their room, eat their vegetables, go to the dentist, or take out the garbage than learn math or science." Wow. Even going to the dentist beats math and science. What are we doing wrong? Students seem to me to be gravitating toward career opportunities that are perceived to be more "glamorous" or high profile--careers in public relations, marketing, advertising, broadcasting, communications, entertainment and even politics. Politics? This glamorization of certain careers is clearly a mismatch between what our countries need and what is happening. Perhaps the more developed a nation, the more intense the media presence and so the more exposed students become to Hollywood and western values. We are exposing students to the attractiveness of being a pop star, a professional athlete, a movie star, a politician. In the U.S., television shows like "American Idol," "So You Think You Can Dance," and "America's Next Top Model" promise tremendous payoffs to youth if only someone would "discover" them. I know these shows have their counterparts in other nations as well. So the question remains: What are we doing to get students excited about being engaged with economics, science and math? Research has shown that the more engaging and hands-on we can make the curricula, the more students will gravitate toward those topics. If we can get students from an early age to make the connections between concrete real-world uses of math, science, and economics, they are more likely to embrace these learning experiences. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes had the right notion when he said, "The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving." To generate interest in subject areas where we fall short, we must show students the relevance of their studies. Junior Achievement has taken that approach with financial literacy--and with good reason. Surveys have shown that today's high school students lack financial savvy, yet many have their own credit cards. With access to Internet shopping, that could be a scary combination. In the U.S., the average undergraduate college student has four credit cards and nearly $2,200 in credit card debt--that's on top of any financial aid debt they may incur for schooling. Surveys have found a general lack of knowledge of fundamental economic concepts among high school students and young working adults. These findings are not unique to the United States. A series of surveys measuring financial literacy in the UK, Korea, Japan, Germany, Australia, and other nations showed respondents had a poor understanding of basic financial terms and scored low on financial literacy scales. In addition, across the globe, not surprisingly, the lack of financial knowledge is particularly acute among those with low education and low income. In all of the challenges I have outlined, early intervention is the key. If we are not reaching out EARLY and OFTEN to our young people with the right education, we are not going to have skilled workers, scientists, or entrepreneurs for the future of a globally competitive nation. HYBRID LEARNING At this point, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of the challenges. I feel a little like the young boy who came home from school a bit distressed. His mother asked him what was wrong, and the boy replied, "I just don't get it. Yesterday the teacher told me that 2+2 = 4 and today she changed it to say, 3+1 = 4." I believe these challenges can be solved in time. One critical tool we have to help us is technology. I believe the single greatest unrecognized trend in education today is the merger of traditional classroom instruction with online learning and web-based instruction. Most students today are already immersed in the world of technology. We must continue to rethink our approach to teaching and learning to meet the expectations of these students, an increasing number of whom will spend more of their time learning from behind a wired or wireless device. This point hit home with me recently when I was in a computer store and overheard a man complaining that his son didn't go outdoors much anymore. The father realized his son was spending way too much time on the computer after he asked the teen if he'd like to play soccer and his son replied, "Sure, I'll go load the DVD." Technology is a pervasive force in the lives of this generation. Total internet usage worldwide is more than 1.1 billion people. For educators, the promise of emerging technologies is manifold, holding the potential of limitless learning. Students are no longer hindered by location, and learning experiences can be tailored, making education more flexible, more interactive, more comprehensive, more hands-on, and thus more relevant. In the United States, there were more than 500,000 enrollments in online courses in grades K-12 and nearly 40 percent of public school districts here offered some type of e-learning in 2006. The technology most often used was two-way interactive video. In New South Wales, Australia, online learning for K-12 students is provided to 248 public and private schools. In Ontario, Canada, there are an estimated 25,000 students taking online courses and the number continues to grow. In Iran, where computers are relatively new to citizens, students and teachers still managed to take seminars on the importance of online learning and more than 20,000 students have participated in some format of e-learning. Turkey has a new initiative for K-12 online learning which began last year, Called the "Online Big Project" it offers courses for students in grades 1-8 in Turkish, math, science, and social subject areas. It is funded by a private businessman and is expected to serve more than 200,000 students initially and within three years be used by more than 11 million elementary and secondary students. In Nepal, the International Education and Resource Network, or iEARN, has brought programs to students and teachers. Online learning is just beginning in this country, but there are plans to expand e-learning for all citizens. Nepal, which has been involved in a civil war for several years would like to use e-learning as a way to educate students about conflict management and peace keeping. In China, students of all ages will soon be able to use cell phones to tap into English lessons, test-prep training, and other courses. This mobile learning, announced last month, allows students of all ages to access course materials through a cell phone. And what better way to reach this generation of students who seem to have a cell phone permanently affixed to their ears? In the U.S., virtually all college students have a cell phone, and not just for talk. They send and receive text messages at twice the national average, and I suspect their international counterparts are much the same since worldwide cell phone usage is approaching 2 billion people. We in education are adjusting to this current crop of students who have grown up with technology. They are experienced at text messaging, online shopping, banking, dating, virtual tours, music downloads, pod casts, blogging--the list continues to grow. This year, as I have done every year as president, I stayed overnight in the residence halls with students on move-in weekend. I help them move in, eat with them, and share living quarters with them. I do this to keep my finger on the pulse of our student population. It has been an extremely informative experience. In fact, market researchers who want to capture the $200 billion college market actually pay money to spend valuable time--just like this -- with students. They then charge large corporations big fees for gathering this information. Right now, I am going to give you these research data ABSOLUTELY FREE! I have noted a number of distinct trends. The first trend is Facebook.com and its cousin, MySpace. These are online social networking sites. Facebook alone has more than 11 million registered users and is the seventh most trafficked site in the United States. It's a web site where students can create their own web page, post photos of themselves, find like-minded students from their own university or other universities, reveal personal information, keep in touch with friends, reveal their relationship and availability status, and connect with anyone else who is part of Facebook. Every group imaginable can be found here, from the "I Wear Sweatpants" group to the "Engineering Students Who Think They're Better Than Everyone Else" group (which incidentally has 267 members). On my first night in the residence halls this year, I stopped to chat with folks in the room next door, where I found five guys and a girl who were talking like old friends--which is unusual in a dorm full of freshmen who just arrived that same day. They had met over the summer on Facebook. It seems the guys had seen the girl's picture on Facebook and decided they really wanted to get to know her. Similar social networking sites are popular in other parts of the world--Cyworld in South Korea, Bebo in the UK, Hi5 in India. While there is some social value to this relatively new phenomenon, the term "online privacy" is an oxymoron. With this generation, there is no such thing. Their information is available to millions of people online, and this can also put their safety at risk. YouTube is another recent phenomenon where users can upload, view, and share video clips on virtually any subject. If you have not seen this site, you might want to check out what many youngsters--and adults--are doing with their time and technology skills. But if you go to YouTube give yourself a lot of time, because this site is so mesmerizing and at times unexplainably strange that you could spend hours perusing videos. I share all of this with you because it is clear that this generation and the next are early adopters of technology and eager to use it. But there is an obvious lag between where youth are with their use of technology and our use of technology. This is something for JA to think about. Today's plug and play generation doesn't need instructions and they aren't afraid to experiment. They are wired-whiz kids and we need to ask ourselves if we are reaching our intended audience and with the programs we are offering. We are seeing a shift in the learning process and our programs should reflect that shift. Modern technologies will not displace the primacy of classroom instruction, but the current rigid distinctions between online instruction and classroom instruction are disappearing. When applied correctly, technology can allow educators to deliver the skills that students need for success in the global economy. GLOBAL EDUCATION For Junior Achievement Worldwide, getting youth ready for the global economy is a weighty, but critical, task. Building global competency begins with the basics, which I have discussed briefly here, but also requires us to fully support an international perspective. JA programs must develop in our youth an appreciation for international and global views. We must look at our curricula to see if the content we are teaching opens our students' eyes to new cultures and opportunities. Knowledge of the world is critical to every student's success and to the survival of every nation. We must ask ourselves if JA programs help build a strong foundation of global literacy in students. As part of the JA Worldwide Vision Framework, one of our goals is to "unite people of all nations around the common goals of creating jobs, building stable economies, and providing higher standards of living." In our increasingly diverse and interdependent world, we need to be systematic, deliberate and strategic in our efforts to advance globalization. The JA Worldwide Vision Framework is evolving and each of us in this room can help make it more effective through our strategic planning process. Technology is providing us with an unprecedented opportunity to communicate worldwide. Collaboration among the world's best minds is what will allow us--as a global society--to solve some of our most pressing problems. By providing additional experiential learning opportunities to our youth, we can positively impact the number of students who stay in school. By lighting a fire of excitement for learning in youth at an early age, we will reduce dropout rates. I challenge you to globalize the content of education and to encourage our students to see the interconnectedness of systems on a worldwide scale--whether they are cultural, ecological, economic, or political. You are part of the education pipeline for your country. If there is a program that works well in the U.S., do we simply take that program module, translate it into another language and recycle it for another region of the world? To what extent are we actually making the programs global? I believe JA can be the premier global organization for youth development. All of this reminds me of a story about the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo. Each day after school a little neighbor boy, Giovanni, would rush to Michelangelo's studio to watch the famous sculptor chip away at a 14-foot-high block of marble. Day after day, week after week, the boy would come and watch in fascination as the magnificent form of David began to take shape. Finally it was completed. Young Giovanni was utterly amazed by the transformation of the piece of stone into the beautiful David. In all innocence he asked the sculptor, "How did you know he was in there?" So I ask you, "How do we know that it's all there waiting to be tapped?" I believe we know because we have people willing to envision it and smart enough to create it. As the saying goes, the impossible is often just the untried. To quote Isaac Newton, "No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess." I urge you to make bold guesses. To develop increasingly higher standards for program development. To use all the tools available to you for creating more engaged citizens. I urge you to expand your reach and let your "belief in the boundless potential of young people" inspire and guide you. |
