Preparing Global Citizens in the United States

Abstract

The most recent graduates of the high school education system in the United States seem to be below the average world standard in cultural and geographic understanding. In fact, young Americans show a lack of preparation for an increasingly global future. Since the 2006 National Geographic Society-Roper Report, ten years have passed and the present conditions are not different. Young people in the country have not gained any evident preparation to function as adequate global citizens who are responsible to conduct and guide social and economic development. A localized study in a Texas high school in 2013 demonstrated some evidence about the way our youngsters vision their futures as citizens of the United State and the world in 2020. The students showed a sense of eagerness and urgency to know about other cultures and what is going on in the world around them, yet their abilities to have geographic understanding depend on spatial thinking skills that they did not have at the time of the survey. Responding to the issue of preparing global citizens, the author analyzes the importance of spatial thinking and geospatial technology in the curriculum. The analysis is based on the Social Studies and Geography Survey in 2015. The results indicate that only 14 states are requiring geography for high school graduation and 13 states do not require geography. Spatial thinking and geospatial technology have a reduced expression and practice in the schools among those states that require geography for graduation.