For nearly a century, Western society, in general, and American society, in particular, has been dominated by a form of thinking and an approach to life that is narrowly reductive and deeply analytical. Ours has been the age of the worker, the welleducated manipulator of information and deployer of expertise. But that is changing. (Pink, 2005, p. 2)The 21st century has been a time of great change. Now more than ever, people talk about a and a economy. The advances in technology keep evolving at an incredible pace, flattening the world even more (Friedman, 2007). Connecting around the globe is becoming commonplace in business as well as in personal life.Businesses now speak of a new set of basics to work and thrive within a culture of innovation. As Sir Ken Robinson (2011) outlined in his recent book on creativity,A culture of innovation depends on cultivating three processes, each of which is related to the others. The first is imagination: the ability to bring to mind events and ideas that are not present to our senses. The second is creativity: the process of having original ideas that have value. The third is innovation: the process of putting original ideas into practice. (p. 219)This fresh emphasis on innovation sends a new imperative to schools that is both exciting and challenging. Schools must provide an education for all students that prepares them for success in this rapidly changing world rather than educating them for the world in which their parents and teachers grew up. Students will be buying and selling and communicating, either face to face or through technologies that have yet to be developed, with people whose backgrounds and cultures are very different from their own. They will be working in collaborative teams that represent increased diversity and various points of view. They will be using technologies that have not yet come to market in jobs that have not yet been invented. They will be collaborating with people around the globe using multidisciplinary knowledge. Educators cannot continue to prepare students to live in the world of typewriters and landlines-of silos and isolation-when that world is quickly disappearing.The old basics are still important, but new basics will be required, including a deeper understanding of academic content, the ability to apply knowledge to new problems, and a set of strategies to enable students to learn how to learn, be creative, and take control of their own learning. (Stewart, 2012, p. 141)Connecting the young adolescent to the worldOne recurring theme in the literature examining the characteristics of young adolescents is curiosity, often associated with increased risk taking. A curious young adolescent is frequently compared to a preschooler or toddler who is beginning to make sense of the world. In Turning Points 2000: Educating Adolescents in the 21st Century, Jackson and Davis (2000) stated,Early adolescence is a time of discovery, when young people have significantly greater capacity for complex thinking. They are more able to be out in the world, to participate in a wider universe of activities. They are better equipped to make important decisions affecting themselves and others, but their lack of experience leaves them vulnerable. (p. 7)This incredible curiosity presents both challenges and opportunities. How do educators harness this force to help students gain the experiences that will assist them in creating mental models for decision making? How do educators involve students in learning that is significant to their world and honors their voices? And, most of all, why should educators do these things? Education for global competence may be part of the solution.Coupled with what we know about the characteristics of young adolescents is the recent research, led by Robert Balfanz from John Hopkins University, about the relationship between high school graduation rates and the middle grades experience. …