Schools without Walls

Abstract

With the wind whistling past their oboes and clarinets, the Ohio band students from Shaker Heights High School performed at the Great Wall of China in 2007. They marched alongside Chinese middle school students in the Beijing streets to cadences they'd learned from one another without speaking. No need for Mandarin or English translation here: Students shared the universal language--music. In March 2008, Susan Tave Zelman, superintendent of public instruction in Ohio, walked across the stage at the Asia's Society headquarters in New York City to accept the 2007 Goldman Sachs Prize for Excellence in International Education for the state's global efforts in education. Forces converged to bring the East and West, business and education, international and American cultures together over the past few years as Ohio educators made strategic efforts to internationalize education. Ohio's State Board of Education made education in the global economy a priority, and the Ohio Department of Education benchmarked its practices against world-class standards, expanded visiting teacher programs, and promoted Chinese Mandarin language instruction and curriculum development in Ohio classrooms. first step is to create the political will, Zelman said. That really means developing strategic partnerships--at the cabinet level in state government to understand the link between international education and economic development, with our higher education institutions who share a focus on international education, and between our school districts and higher education to support the teaching and learning of world languages and culture. Terrence Pollack, a high school social studies teacher in Shaker Heights City School District, said district-level partnerships also are important. Some 20 years ago, Pollack worked with his colleagues and community to partner with Marjorie Williams of the Cleveland Museum of Art, creating an interdisciplinary Asian studies program that still exists today. Back then, we felt our curriculum was too Eurocentric, he said. Today, we've entered the world of globalization. The world is much smaller. INFUSING THE COMMUNITY WITH INTERNATIONAL VITALITY Through the Shaker Heights international program, students in this Cleveland suburb are exposed to: * Asian and Pacific Rim art, culture, philosophy, literature, geography, and history through the Cleveland Museum of Art; * Instruction in Japanese and Chinese languages; * Student and teacher exchanges; * Virtual and visiting partnerships with sister schools in China, England, France, Mexico, Japan, and Germany, with additional recent student travel to Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. …