How to Raise a Global Kid -- Newsweek: 7/25/11

Taking Tiger Mom tactics to radical new heights, these parents are packing up the family for a total Far East Immersion.

American Kids Immersed in Chinese, Asian Education - Newsweek

Some of the quotes in this article are amazing. Here are some zingers. Did you find others?

--> I’m doing what parents have done for many years,” Jim Rogers says. “I’m trying to prepare my children for the future, for the 21st century. I’m trying to prepare them as best I can for the world as I see it.” Rogers believes the future is Asia—he was recently on cable television flogging Chinese commodities. “The money is in the East, and the debtors are in the West. I’d rather be with the creditors than the debtors,” he adds.

--> It has become a convention of public discourse to regard rapid globalization—of economies and business; of politics and conflict; of fashion, technology, and music—as the great future threat to American prosperity. The burden of meeting that challenge rests explicitly on our kids. If they don’t learn—now—to achieve a comfort level with foreign people, foreign languages, and foreign lands, this argument goes, America’s competitive position in the world will continue to erode, and their future livelihood and that of subsequent generations will be in jeopardy.

--> “In this global economy, the line between domestic and international issues is increasingly blurred, with the world’s economies, societies, and people interconnected as never before. I am worried that in this interconnected world, our country risks being disconnected from the contributions of other countries and cultures.” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan

--> America is so far utterly failing to produce a generation of global citizens.
• Only 37 percent of Americans hold a passport.
• Fewer than 2 percent of America’s 18 million college students go abroad during their undergraduate years—and when they do go, it’s mostly for short stints in England, Spain, or Italy that are more like vacations.
• Only a quarter of public primary schools offer any language instruction at all.
• Fewer high schools offer French, German, Latin, Japanese, or Russian than they did in 1997.

--> “Not training our kids to be able to work and live in an international environment is like leaving them illiterate.” David Boren (former U.S. senator and current pres. of the U. of OK).

--> The gap between our ambition and reality yawns wide.

--> Most colleges and universities say they want to increase participation in study-abroad programs, but only 40 percent are actually making concerted efforts to do so.

--> “We think we’re the world leader, but we’re not. I don’t like saying that. I’m an American. I vote. I pay taxes. But the level of knowledge is not very high, and that’s going to hurt us." Jim Rogers

--> Having a "global perspective"... pushes you out of your comfort zone. It builds a very compassionate child. While, yes, grades and academics are ... important...you need resilience to understand, and have sympathy for, other people.”

--> “For children to be competitive and successful in a global economy,” she says, “it’s important for them to be bilingual.” Maribeth Henderson

-- Immersion schools have exploded over the past 40 years, growing from none in 1970 to 440 today.