The Language of Life: Finding global education inspiration for your child

The Kansas City Star

November 4

BY ANGELA JACKSON

Global Language Project

I attended the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha, Qatar, last week at the invitation of Qatar Foundation International. The theme of the conference was "Education Above All." Thought leaders, community activists and parents from around the world convened, to discuss issues of access to education for the world's most vulnerable children; children who are currently battling poverty and times of war, to gain access to education.    

During the three days at the conference I couldn't help but think about how fortunate we are in the United States that our children have access to a public school system. Yes, I will admit that we still have problems of equity in education to deal with, but for the most part, a majority of our students can get to schools without their lives being threatened. And teachers can teach without fear of having their lives threatened, or worse yet, being killed.

Many parents can relate to waking their child up early in the morning and having them cry out that they don't want to go to school because they are tired. This is in stark contrast to many children in developing nations who walk miles to one-room schoolhouses, with the hope that an education can change their lives and transform their world. It made me think of the responsibility that this access to education brings and how we as parents of students here in the U.S. can communicate to our children that education is a privilege. As the parents of Western children, how do we engage our children to demonstrate how fortunate they are to be born in a time and place where they have free access to education, while in many parts of the world, it is a rare gift? How can we foster an appreciation for education in our children to instill in them a life-long zest for learning?

Offering children visual evidence of their great fortune in being able to access free education, can leave a lasting impression. Through documentaries or news program specials on exactly how children around the world access education, children can see and hear first-hand accounts of the high cost of learning; a cost that sometimes is paid in lost young lives. Finding compelling books that present the harsh realities of education access around the world is another means of conveying this message.

The third edition of "The Cradle of Inequality," a book that has a pictorial portrayal of the challenges children around the world face when accessing education, was released last week. This book is filled with page after page of vivid pictures of children from the Far East to the Middle East and Africa, beautifully portraying the travails of students who just want to learn, but because of poverty and war are barred from schools. They say a picture speaks a thousand words and these pictures do just that, in several of the world's languages. The book was photographed by Sebasti�o Salgado, and the captions, authored by Brazilian Senator Cristovam Buarque, appear in English, Portuguese, French and Spanish, further demonstrating that obtaining an education is a global human right.

As parents we are constantly looking for tools to inspire a love of learning in our children. We need to cultivate a global mindset and awareness in them of how fortunate they are to access education in this country because in many other countries, children are unable to access education so easily. There is a great debate raging on how we can increase the performance of U.S. students in the classroom. Perhaps greater academic success and inspiring a love for education could both be realized, simply by nurturing an attitude of gratitude.

Angela Jackson is the founder of the Global Language Project, a nonprofit program that teaches youth a second language while preparing them and empowering them to compete in a global workforce. Learn more at www.globallanguageproject.org. Follow Angela Jackson on Twitter at @angjack