Tomorrow’s Classroom
By Peter W. Cookson, Jr.

As the school year comes to an end, it's a good time for reflection on the past year and the years ahead. As a first-year teacher your learning curve has been very, very steep; in many ways you've been transformed by your experience because, by reaching out to your students, you've learned lessons in humility, compassion and the innate desire to learn. There are probably some lessons you wish that you could do over. I'm sure there are undoubtedly some students who you wish you could've helped more. And certainly there were several glorious moments when it all came together and you had that feeling of "flow" that comes when real learning is taking place.

Forecast for the future
This year has been the first step on your journey to the future. So often, however, because teaching requires us to live in the present, we give little thought to the future. The future, however, beckons to us. Your students, with a little luck, will live to the very edge of the twenty-first century and possibly into the twenty-second century. How can we prepare them for the opportunities and challenges they will face?

Our students are citizens of the world. National boundaries are becoming less significant. Ecological problems have an international impact. Populations are moving across the globe so rapidly that our concepts of citizenship and participation are challenged daily. In this sense your classroom, whether you teach in an urban, suburban or rural school, is a microcosm of global change.

Complexity and diversity
There are two elements to this global change that drive all others: complexity and diversity. When we go to the store we are quite likely to buy goods manufactured in China. When we go onto the Internet, we are able to communicate instantly with others around the globe. When we think of foreign relations, it requires a sophisticated knowledge of different cultures. Progress has brought with it huge benefits. It has, however, also brought with it a level of complexity that is seldom reflected in our way of thinking about education.

The world is also becoming more diverse. School systems around the country are educating students from all over the globe. These students speak different languages and dialects. They have different habits of mind. They have complex cultural understandings that are not always compatible with American culture. Our classrooms are truly global in their composition. By the year 2040 less than half the population of the United States will be Caucasian. This diversity is an opportunity to celebrate the variety of human experience. Beyond celebration, however, there is the question of creating twenty-first century curriculum in which the multicultural voices of the many can be heard. Our nationalistic perspective in the best sense is a cultural foundation for embracing other nations and cultures. Viewed this way, our history can be windows to the future or blinders keeping us in the past.

Going global
As you think about your classroom next year, consider it from the point of view of an increasingly interdependent global world. To my way of thinking, it's a service to children to bring in globes and maps that reinforce the knowledge that we are all one world. Consider bringing art from other countries into the classroom as well as words and phrases from other languages. Make sure you honor the wisdom of the cultures from which your students come by inviting their families to join you at key moments in the school year. At the beginning of next year, honor each one of your students by having him or her talk about his or her family. Consider such traditional practices as an international food fair. Model for your students the values that are essential if we are to make the twenty-first century a just and happy hundred years where talent is supported and violence is avoided.

Courageous reasoners
These thoughts are not simply idle speculation or opportunities to feel good. Embracing complexity and diversity is an adaptive skill that is required of us if our students are to bring the world together rather than divide it. Today, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan dominates the headlines and the airwaves. Have you ever wondered how your students are mentally processing the flood of images and words that seek to describe and explain events in the Middle East and Asia? We need to help our students develop a frame of reference that's broad enough to allow them to become critical thinkers and courageous reasoners.

Providing hope
In an era of standardized testing, we may overlook the true function of education, which is to draw out from each one of our students his or her innate capacity to ask the question "Why?" We should help students seek answers that are based on logic and fact rather than on magical thinking and fantasy. If we can guide our students to think clearly and to use their emotions to problem-solve rather than to become self-indulgent, there is good reason to be optimistic about the future. We are lucky to be teachers because we hold in our hands the power to do good and to shape the future so that it provides hope for the many and not just the few.

Peter W. Cookson, Jr. is the founder of TCinnovations and the Dean of the Graduate School of Education of Lewis & Clark College. He is also founder of the Center for Educational Outreach & Innovation at Teachers College.

May 2006, Vol.36, No.8