Category: Blog

As we at World Savvy think about 2022 and all that this year could bring, there is a quote from the incomparable bell hooks that we have been thinking about a lot: “The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is – it’s to imagine what is possible.”  

There are countless articles about the current state of education – about educators’ fatigue, low test scores, debates about Critical Race Theory, and the achievement gap. There is no shortage of news detailing the persistent problems that plague our education system. And while it is good for people to understand the challenges that we face, we often find solutions lacking in these pieces. We will never make the progress we desire for the future if we only rehash the present.

Let 2022 be the year that we tell a different story. Let this be the year that we heed the words of bell hooks and move beyond just telling it like it is and begin to imagine what is possible.

Here are three important ways to reimagine learning and create a system that helps students know more, care more, and do more.

Elevate skills: If we want young people to be responsible and engaged citizens, we need to teach them the skills and dispositions this requires. We must rethink and reimagine the classroom experience and the traditional assessments teachers have used. No longer would we be grading to see if a student knows who was president during World War I–they can google that. We would be grading their ability to think critically about the information before them, ask deep and probing questions, seek out the perspectives they need to understand, form opinions based on fact and exploration, and find comfort in ambiguity. In life, there are no easy answers. Why should school be different? 

It is also time that we shift our language when describing empathy, resilience, and collaboration. These are not “soft skills.” In our complex and interconnected world, they are essential skills, and they should be taught and assessed with intention and urgency. As we look around the world right now, we can think of nothing more important than ensuring human beings have the capacity for these three things. 

Elevate relevance: Students can practice critical thinking, research, empathy, and collaboration with any topic, so why not give them topics relevant to their lives right now and that prepare them to engage in a world that is complex, interconnected and rapidly changing? Explorations of the Civil War and Reconstruction should include explorations of redlining and mass incarceration today. Explorations of immigration in the early 1900s should consist of explorations of the border wall, ICE, and immigrants’ lived experiences today. We can give students work that directly connects to the world beyond the classroom so that they can begin to make sense of the world in which they live.  

Elevate student choice and agency: Many schools offer students choices when it comes to the classes they take. French or Spanish? US History or Economics? Computer Science or Theatre? It is good for kids to have options, but none of those choices matter as much as the choices they get to make once they are IN the classroom.  

Students need to have a voice in their own learning. Essential skills like critical thinking, coping and resilience, and questioning prevailing assumptions can be demonstrated in a myriad of ways, so let’s give students some power over how they show growth in these areas. When teachers move from the center of the classroom, a place where they are the keepers of knowledge, and into the role of facilitators of their students’ learning, they create a space where students can fully and authentically engage with the material and learn to think for themselves. There is nothing more powerful than asking a student, “What do you care most about?” and seeing their curiosity ignited. Schools can help students identify their passions and take informed action on the issues that matter to them.

School should not be a place that kids have to get through in order to do something more exciting; it should not be a box that has to be checked. School should be a place where important and complex work gets done, where students feel seen and valued, and where they learn how to see and value others. By centering the development of the essential skills and dispositions that young people need to thrive in this ever-changing world, teachers can create learning spaces that are relevant, inclusive, and engaging – places where students WANT to be. We can transform classrooms into places that move beyond WHAT kids know and instead focus on what kids can DO with what they know. This is what the world needs – a generation of young people who are curious, empathetic, critical thinkers who will take action on issues of global significance.

At World Savvy, we are committed to creating an educational system that inspires students to learn, work, and thrive as responsible global citizens – and we’ve reached more than 808,000 students since our founding in 2002. As the pandemic has so harshly demonstrated, we are all connected. We need to raise young people who possess the skills and dispositions to be leaders and changemakers in their diverse communities, locally and globally. 

Together we can reimagine schools and create a new reality for both teachers and students. 

Let this be the year that we imagine what is possible.

International Education Week celebrates the benefits of cultural and academic exchange programs around the world. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Education promotes how international education programs:

• Prepare Americans for a global environment.
• Invite the world’s future leaders to exchange ideas and experiences in the United States.

Today, the celebration kicks off at World Savvy by highlighting the accomplishments of five global education leaders whose impacts on education expand internationally. World Savvy has had the great fortune to partner with these regarded leaders and benefited from their diverse perspectives. 

We will promote International Education Week on our Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook page throughout the week. World Savvy will also join the festivities with EXPLR Media webinar on November 16. Our very own Shumit DasGupta, Professional Learning Facilitator, will lead the session, which focuses on the video “We Create Together,” about a STEM program that brings Jewish and Muslim kids together in Gaza. The video — complemented by a corresponding lesson — explores how to use content as a vehicle to increase student engagement by building connections between content and each other. 

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Global Education Leaders 

Madiha Murshed

“Despite income levels, social backgrounds, types of schools, and language or cultural differences, there are archetypes of teachers that hold true across national boundaries. In coming back and working here, I realized that east and west are not so far apart as they sometimes seem.”

Madiha’s contributions to global education are remarkable — from co-founding World Savvy with Dana Mortenson to now serving as the Managing Director of two schools in Bangladesh. Madiha recently opened the Aurora International School in Bangladesh, which teaches an international curriculum designed to build global competency skills for all its students. Since 2008, she has served as the Managing Director of Scholastica, a well-regarded English-medium private school in Bangladesh. Madiha graduated from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2002 with a Masters in International Affairs and a concentration in Economic and Political Development. She received a Bachelor’s Degree, Magna Cum Laude, in Development Economics from Harvard College in 1999. Since May 2006, Syeda Madiha Murshed has served as Executive Director of SPEED, a training center in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

Dr. Muhammad Khalifa

“How can we reform education without understanding the realities of the people we serve?” 

Dr. Muhammad Khalifa is a leading expert in changing how school leaders enact culturally responsive leadership and anti-oppressive schooling practices. He has published four books and over 50 other publications in some of the most highly rated journals in education. His most recent book, Culturally Responsive School Leadership (Harvard University Press, 2018), is a top-seller and is being used in over 100 leadership training programs across the U.S. and Canada, as well as other parts of the world. Dr. Khalifa also regularly partners with school districts to conduct equity audits using research-based practices to help school leaders eliminate systemic disparities in schools and society. He is currently starting a new non-profit (TEECH), which would develop culturally responsive teachers training teachers to empower community-based settings. Dr. Khalifa was formerly the Robert Beck Endowed Professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and is currently a professor of Educational Administration and the Executive Director of Urban and Rural Initiatives at The Ohio State University. He also is a former district administrator and science teacher in Detroit Public Schools and a leading expert on educational reform in African and Asian contexts.

Dr. Khalifa has served on our Global Advisory Board here at World Savvy and has partnered with us in our work with schools. We are fortunate to benefit from his incredible wisdom.

Dr. William Gaudelli

“Being a global citizen means being aware of diversity in your community, learning to live at peace with one’s neighbors, and to appreciate the diversity that exists with people around you. I think as well as being concerned about the biosphere and the way in which we interact with the earth and its resources coupled with an awareness of how power operates on the planet.”

Dr. William Gaudelli is a prominent international scholar whose research focuses on global citizenship and teacher education and development. His career spans 30 years as a classroom teacher, researcher, professor, and seasoned administrator. He has published over 60 scholarly pieces and three books. In his latest book, Global Citizenship Education: Everyday Transcendence, he analyzes global citizenship education in various global locales. Dr. Gaudelli is a frequent keynote speaker at international conferences and guest lecturer at multiple universities worldwide, including China, Italy, Israel, Thailand, Japan, India, Poland, Hong Kong, Germany, and South Korea. He has participated in panel discussions and conferences with UNESCO, UNAI, UNAOC, WFUNA, and many professional organizations.

World Savvy is proud to have co-founded the Global Competence Certificate (GCC) program in partnership with Dr. Gaudelli and the Asia Society. Bill is currently serving as a Dean and Vice Provost for Innovation in Education at Lehigh University. 

Petteri Elo

“Education cannot be mainly about learning and reproducing facts.”

Petteri Elo is a renowned Finnish educator and educational consultant who has worked with educators worldwide on hands-on pedagogical and curriculum development. He turns his innovative and experimental practices with his students into engaging and thought-provoking training concepts for educators worldwide. As a trainer and consultant, Petteri is praised for his passion, energy, and expertise in curriculum development/implementation and innovative pedagogy from various viewpoints. Petteri’s way of combining theory and practice brings life to the critical goals of 21st-century education. 

World Savvy is thrilled to have been selected to present with Petteri at the upcoming SXSW Edu conference on March 7-10, 2022. World Savvy’s Chief Program Officer Mallory Tuominen and Petteri Elo will co-present a session titled, Phenomenon Based Learning for Local Citizenship. The session will explore how phenomenon-based learning centers students in the learning process and supports global competence development. 

Dina Buchbinder Auron

“Every person in the world is an agent of change. Wherever you are, there is something you can do to improve your community, your city, your country, your world.”

Dina Buchbinder Auron is a social entrepreneur that has introduced an innovative, action-oriented international education model called Education for Sharing (E4S) to systems that have long struggled with passivity and rigidity. E4S mission is to form better global citizens from childhood through the power of play. Since its inception in 2007, E4S has worked with over 1.3 million children, teachers, and families with important results in Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Panama, and New Zealand. Dina is an Ashoka Fellow and an emerita member of the BOD of the International Youth Foundation. She is a Vital Voices Lead Fellow, a WEF Global Shaper, and an Edmund Hillary Fellow. She is also a Hubert Humphrey Fellow in Urban Planning at MIT and holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Education for Sharing and World Savvy both focus on developing global citizenship among K-12 students and are planning collaboration in 2022.

For World Savvy’s second installment of the Changemakers Series on September 22, 2021, CEO Dana Mortenson sat down with award-winning New York Times journalist, author, and Solutions Journalism co-founder David Bornstein. It was a dynamic and encouraging discussion about how journalism might be transformed to focus not just on today’s most pressing issues, but also on possible solutions – and solutionaries. This trailblazing work in our current climate of polarization could not be more timely or critical for engaged citizenship.

Imagine, for a moment, waking up each morning, making your coffee, and then settling in to read the news. But instead of an endless stream of information about the world’s issues, you open the newspaper (or your web browser) to stories covering fascinating and encouraging solutions that address some of the day’s most urgent issues – and ways you can join to create change. Wouldn’t you feel a bit more hopeful and maybe empowered, while still informed about the issues of today?

David Bornstein thinks so. 

Throughout this hour-long discussion, David shared Solutions Journalism’s mission and growth and how they are revolutionizing the field of journalism by engendering trust, advancing local and global solutions to the issues that matter most to people, and bridging political divides by focusing more on what is being done right in communities and driving collaboration across difference. Learn about all of this – and more – by watching the full video of David and Dana’s discussion here!

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World Savvy envisions a future where all people, young and old, are empathetic, civic-minded, engaged global citizens. Where they can collaborate across cultures, communicate across difference, and solve complex problems. And we believe this vision starts with education – with preparing a generation of empathetic and engaged young leaders ready to address complex, real-world challenges.

This year, in an engaging series of online conversations, we’re highlighting changemakers and thought leaders across sectors who share this vision. Just like Amanda Ripley and David Bornstein have done, they will inspire us all to know more, care more, and do more for a more sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world. In this six-part series, we’ll learn from journalists, activists, civic and nonprofit leaders, young changemakers, and more. 

One thing remains certain in a world fraught with unknowns — students need connection more than ever; connection with teachers, connection with peers and connections to the content they are engaging with on a daily basis. 

Evidence shows that relationships are critical in school reform efforts. Higher levels of trust and collaboration have been associated with a greater openness to innovation and improvement [1]. Connections between and among students also matter. Through collaboration with peers and teachers, students are able to critically analyze the world in which they currently live, the historical and social connections to that world, and imagine a future of hope and possibility. Further, collaborative problem-solving provides students with experiences that better prepare them to be problem solvers and citizens as they matriculate through school and into careers. 

World Savvy’s work is grounded in a set of Evidence-Based Principles that leverage nearly 20 years of experience embedding Global Competence in K-12 teaching and learning. The first of the four principles is Cultivating Connections. Our goal is to identify and nurture connections across individuals and issues to make learning personal and relevant.

What this looks like in the classroom:

• Personalizing learning to center students’ strengths, needs, and interests
• Emphasizing connections across issues and subjects
• Exploring and nurturing connections across identities
• Constructing meaningful opportunities for collaboration

World Savvy is kicking off our school year with several new team members who have a collective total of over 80 years of experience in the field of education. Meet the team below and hear more about the ways in which they prioritized building connections in their classrooms.

1. Lay the foundation by establishing strong classroom culture with imagery and exercises.
   From KK Neimann, who joined World Savvy as the Director of Professional Learning in June.
   
   “Back-to-School was always my favorite time! As a 6th grade Humanities teacher, my students were new to middle school and coming from many different elementary schools, so it was essential to spend a lot of time building community with kids.”
   
   “To begin that process, we spent a lot of time exploring and understanding our Classroom Culture. I had a gigantic poster up that started with “In this classroom, we will…”, and kids worked in groups to discuss the behaviors that could go along with the items on the list. What does it look like to “Form opinions based on facts and exploration”? What does it look like to really “Listen” and “Collaborate” and “Be patient with ourselves and others?” The classroom walls were filled with examples of the kind of thinking and feeling I wanted them to do in my space. One poster was a quote from James Baldwin – “You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with YOU, not with its idea of you.” Another came from Minnesotan author Sun Yung Shin and said, “Tell me the truth of the matter. When I don’t understand, I will not protest or judge or correct, I will simply listen harder. I am here to recognize you as my fellow human being with a story.” Another said “Listen to understand, not to respond.” I used these posters as models for how we would all show up in my space, and we looked to them all the time for guidance.”


2. Build connections with an identity circle.
   From KK Neimann, Director of Professional Learning.
   
   “Once our Classroom Culture was set and understood, I built connections through an Identity Circle exercise. Everyone in the room, including me, identified and shared the identities that are important to us. I talked through my circles first as a model for students, and then they got to sit at their tables and think through their own identities. Kids shared what they were comfortable sharing, and their circles included things like gender, race, nationality, religion, age, sexual orientation, birth order (“I am the oldest child.”), sports they play (“I am a soccer player”), hobbies and talents (“I am a musician”), and so on. As I circulated around the room, I got to chat and connect with kids about their circles, and in turn, they chatted and shared identities with their peers. As a group we discussed how identities can change over time, how some of our identities are misunderstood or stereotyped, and how it would feel if someone chose our circles for us or ignored one of our circles. It is a powerful exercise; everyone feels seen, and everyone feels they know their peers better. In addition, they learn that everyone has identities that are important to them, and to really understand someone, we have to try and know all their circles.”
   
   “I will miss engaging in these activities with students this year, but I am excited to work with teachers and support their efforts to connect with their own students and create communities where everyone feels seen and valued. It is only from that place that kids can learn.”


3. Create opportunities for students to build connections outside of the classroom.
   From Molly Dengler, who joined World Savvy as a Professional Learning Facilitator in MN in June.
   
   “As a special education teacher and administrator across different settings, I created opportunities for my students to cultivate connections with the greater school community to be seen for their strengths, provide leadership opportunities and combat the isolation that can sometimes occur in a special education setting. One student with autism practiced functional and social skills through an internship with our facilities manager which included passing out lunches. My self-contained 1st and 2nd grade class created awareness around school recycling procedures and performed weekly inspections by completing a scorecard for each classroom to ensure that the recycling was not contaminated.”


4. Talk about communication preferences to build a stronger team.
   From Whitney McKinley, who joined World Savvy as a Professional Learning Facilitator in the Bay Area in MN in June.
   
   “Communication was always a cornerstone of my classroom community, whether I was teaching math, science, or art. In order to work together and grow as a team, we not only needed to communicate, we needed to understand how our communication styles and preferences interact with those of others. The beginning of the year is a great time to start building communication pathways, to better understand each other, and to learn how we like to give and receive feedback. In the first weeks of school our team would explore simulations, complete personality tests, share personal communication preferences, and most importantly, reflect on how these experiences would influence our work together. By acknowledging and understanding communication differences early on, we were able to lay the foundation for rich discussion and productive feedback as the year progressed.”


5. Don’t do it all. Build cohesion by empowering students.
   From Shumit DasGupta, who joined World Savvy as a Professional Learning Facilitator in the Bay Area in November of last year.
   
   “As a high school science teacher, I always struggled with the sheer amount of ‘stuff’ needed to do; proper labs, creating models, and generally keeping the classroom functional. We had a year of labs ahead of us, and I was just one person. The solution? As many parents and elementary school teachers could probably tell you, it was ‘make the kids do it.’ It sounds obvious at first, but putting the onus and responsibility of maintaining the classroom offered students to be vested in the community — they controlled where materials lived, tracked it through a spreadsheet, made sure all the classroom pets and organisms were taken care of, and fell into a routine when they arrived to class. Not immediately, and not without practice, but establishing this practice in the beginning of the year was entirely worth it. This simple cornerstone — the expectation that students needed to do their part so that we could get to the fun business of doing actual science — added a cohesiveness to the classroom experience that can’t be replicated with a list of rules or an addition to the syllabus. Once we worked out the kinks in the system, it was an unspoken ritual that wasn’t verbal, didn’t need prompting, and added a sense of comfortable routine to the start of every class.”

World Savvy partners with schools and districts to integrate global competence in K-12 teaching, learning, and culture. This is a dynamic process that isn’t a one-size-fits-all program model, so our partnerships demand responsiveness. Our work is anchored in four overarching principles: 

1. Cultivating connections 
2. Promoting active, interdisciplinary learning
3. Fostering Knowledge-to-Action
4. Reflecting and adapting

Today’s blog featured the first of four principles. We will dive into the remaining three over the course of the school year. Stay connected!

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[1] Bryk, Anthony S and Barbara Schneider. (2003) Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for School Reform. Creating Caring Schools, Volume 60, Number 6, pp. 40-45. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educationalleadership/mar03/vol60/num06/Trust-in-Schools@-A-Core-Resource-for-School-Reform.aspx 

For World Savvy’s inaugural Changemakers Series event on July 28, 2021, CEO Dana Mortenson sat down with award-winning journalist and author Amanda Ripley to discuss her latest book, High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. It was a dynamic and thought-provoking discussion exploring the causes and impacts of high conflict on interpersonal, community, and national levels, and what we all – young and old – can do as responsible community members and citizens to shift from high conflict to healthy conflict.

Over the course of an hour that flew by, Amanda walked us through her journey of understanding high conflict. She met with conflict experts such as mediators, gang violence interrupters, religious leaders, ex-guerilla fighters, and more, and analyzed toxic and violent conflicts in Chicago neighborhoods, the Colombian jungle, and even within US politics. What she found was that most high conflict shared two key characteristics: 

Through the stories of individuals shared in the pages of High Conflict – Gary, a conflict expert who finds himself embroiled in a local political feud, Curtis, a former gang leader turned violence interrupter who now works alongside the man who killed his childhood idol, and Sandra, one of many ex-guerilla fighters in Colombia – Amanda painted a picture not just of what high conflict looks like, but also how we might extract ourselves and instead pivot to good conflict. 

These characteristics of good conflict reminded us of something else: World Savvy’s Global Competence Matrix, which outlines the relevant behaviors, attitudes, and skills World Savvy works to instill: valuing multiple perspectives, comfort with complexity and ambiguity, empathy, questioning prevailing assumptions, engaging in inclusive dialogue and collaborative problem solving. It is our hope that, by approaching conflict with these skills and dispositions, today’s youth will be equipped to engage in healthy conflict that moves us all forward and addresses some of our world’s biggest challenges.

Imagine for a moment a world where healthy discourse and good conflict takes place. Where statehouses, neighborhoods, and dinner tables are filled with rich dialogue where multiple perspectives are valued and welcomed. This important work begins when schools are equipped with the tools to transform their learning environments, and where students develop essential skills like critical thinking, problem solving and communication. These skills are foundational to fostering good conflict over high conflict. 

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World Savvy envisions a future where all people, young and old, are empathetic, civic-minded, engaged global citizens. Where they can collaborate across cultures, communicate across difference, and solve complex problems. And we believe this vision starts with education – with preparing a generation of empathetic and engaged young leaders ready to address complex, real-world challenges.

This year, in an engaging series of online conversations, we’re highlighting changemakers and thought leaders across sectors who share this vision. Just like Amanda Ripley did, they will inspire us all to know more, care more, and do more for a more sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world. In this six-part series, we’ll learn from journalists, activists, civic and nonprofit leaders, young changemakers, and more.

Dear Friends,

We have some fantastic news to share with you! The Enlight Foundation, a critical World Savvy partner for the last five years, has made a generous $5 million investment in World Savvy’s continued national growth. This donation kick-starts World Savvy’s Vision 2035 Campaign to raise $26.5 million over the next five years toward national expansion at a crucial time in our nation to reimagine an education system grounded in the skills and dispositions young people need to navigate our complex, diverse, and interconnected world.

And, even more exciting – this gift is a challenge grant! Over the next year – July 2021 to June 2022 – all funds raised to support World Savvy’s 2035 Vision will be matched 3-to-1 by Enlight, up to the first $3 million installment of this $5 million pledge. This means, if you support World Savvy in the coming year, your gift will be tripled!

The Enlight Foundation employs an innovative funding strategy to promote community, nurture collaboration and build resilience among an ‘ecosystem’ of vibrant organizations empowering youth as changemakers for a better world.

Since 2002, World Savvy has been building a movement for a future-ready, inclusive education system that builds global competence. By 2035, our goal is to engage a network of 10,000 middle and high schools in diverse geographies across the U.S., reaching an estimated 5 million students. We will leverage the learning and impact in this network of schools to change the discourse nationally on what constitutes a ‘quality’ education. World Savvy is creating a future-ready K-12 system that deeply and equitably prepares young people for life as engaged citizens, thriving professionals, and global problem solvers.

We are so grateful to the Enlight Foundation for helping to accelerate the momentum for this movement. It will take all of us to reimagine the future of education. Will you join us and support a generation of engaged global citizens, preparing them to thrive today and shape tomorrow’s world—a more just, equitable and sustainable world, where all youth can leverage their agency as changemakers.

Join the movement!

Art by @stattheartist

Our Twin Cities community is grieving again, as Daunte Wright, another unarmed Black man, was killed by police on Sunday, April 11th. Daunte Wright was a father. A son. A brother. A partner. A friend. A valued member of the community. He was 20 years old with a full life ahead of him. Less than one year after the murder of George Floyd, we again confront the institutional and systemic racism that continues to violently cut short the lives of our Black neighbors.

To our BIPOC colleagues, partners, friends, and loved ones: we see you. We are here to support you and to ensure that you have the space to express your grief, anger, frustration – whatever you are feeling in the wake of this new but all too familiar trauma. We are committed to allowing our staff – and especially BIPOC team members – to take time for rest and self-care, and to be in community. 

We are also committed to showing up for and supporting the family of Daunte Wright and his community that has been so impacted – and retraumatized – by his murder. Brooklyn Center is a diverse community broken up by several major highways. In the best of times, huge swaths of it are considered a food desert; with businesses closed, many are struggling to access basic necessities. The Sahan Journal has shared a great list, updated frequently, of places where individuals can donate goods, volunteer their time, or contribute to mutual aid funds to support those most impacted: https://sahanjournal.com/helping-out/how-to-help-brooklyn-center-daunte-wright/.

Donations to the The Daunte Wright Sr. Memorial Fund can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/f/dauntewright. 

As we work toward the systemic change so desperately needed to cultivate an inclusive and equitable society, we’re here to listen and learn alongside our community, and stand in solidarity with our Black neighbors and community members who bear the brunt of this injustice, time and time again. 

As the Asian American community deals with Tuesday’s mass shootings in Atlanta that left eight dead, including six Asian women, World Savvy issued the following statement:

“World Savvy stands in solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community during this painful time. In the last year, compounding the challenges facing immigrant and BIPOC community members during COVID, we have seen a dramatic escalation of targeted violence toward our Asian neighbors. We’ve seen COVID-19 referred to repeatedly by those in power with racial slurs, stoking these xenophobic fears and hatred and contributing to a climate of fear for Asian community members. This week, a gunman opened fire at three Asian-operated spas in Georgia, killing 8 people, six of whom were Asian women.

This unspeakable act is emblematic of the larger systemic issues we face as a nation struggling to build an inclusive society in our multi-ethnic democracy. We all must come together not only to condemn these acts, but to act swiftly to combat this rise in racial violence. The first step toward healing must be acknowledgement: both of the long history of discrimination against Asians and Asian Americans – and specifically the stereotyping and dehumanization of Asian women – in this country, as well as the underlying foundation of white supremacy that has allowed this to persist through generations.

Our hearts are with the families and friends of those who lost their lives this week in Georgia. At World Savvy, we remain committed to moving forward with a mission to expand learning and understanding across cultures, build our collective capacity for inclusive dialogue and changemaking, and engage in deep reflection – and action – rooted in our understanding of how we unknowingly contribute to the systemic issues underlying these events. We stand with our neighbors, and remain hopeful for change.”

In solidarity,
World Savvy

As an organization committed to engaged, responsible global citizenship, we and our community have been deeply impacted by this month’s violent attack on the Capitol, and the underlying and systemic issues that created the conditions for these events. And today, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we are deeply reflective about the implications. What transpired was appalling, but not surprising.

White supremacists have plagued this nation since its founding 245 years ago; their power has increased over the past four years with political leaders who share this ideology from state houses and Congress all the way to the White House. Marching through the People’s House to undermine the peaceful transition of power isn’t just an assault on our democracy, it is an assault on our humanity. Our team and our community of educators is committed to the continuous work of deepening our understanding of these issues, actively helping and supporting young people in finding their own agency to build a stronger and more equitable democratic society.

We must think carefully about how to repair the damage that has been done to our nation and dedicate ourselves to measurable action. How do we ensure that people do not fall prey to conspiracy theories and misinformation? How do we create a society that values and celebrates the diversity within it? How do we center equity when our systems weren’t designed by or for so many of our fellow Americans? How do we encourage democratic process participation with empathy, compassion, and a critical mind? And, how do we collectively support educators, young people, and families to be the local and global leaders and changemakers we all need?

It is these deep challenges that World Savvy was founded to overcome. We are working to educate and engage youth to learn, work, and thrive as responsible global citizens. Our community of educators integrates empathy, understanding, and inquiry-based competencies into classrooms to ensure the next generation can communicate across differences, think critically about facts and information, demonstrate empathy, and collaborate and problem-solve complex issues with diverse stakeholders. These events have made it clear there is much work to be done and we need to continue to learn, hone, practice, and improve in our efforts to advance our society beyond where it is today. 

We need to strengthen our democracy and build the foundation for a more equitable society where there is no safe place for racism and prejudice. We must press on to reimagine learning for the 21st century in order to equip our children to address complex, real-world challenges, including an American democratic system that has been undermined by white supremacists. 

As we celebrate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, it is he who said, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” Even as we further develop our intelligence by deepening, expanding, and adapting programming to answer these pressing questions and meet these challenges as an organization, we are also deeply introspective. We need to focus on our character, doing all we can to examine the ways we have participated in perpetuating systems of injustice, missed opportunities to be bolder and clearer about injustice, or failed to create transparent pathways for our community to hold us accountable. We invite you all to continue on this learning journey as well, and to call us out and in as we work to always uphold our values: to notice and disrupt exclusionary patterns, lean into  complexity, believe big things are possible, and see the whole person – to name a few. This introspection and accountability will also help ensure we can achieve our urgent mission: to ensure the next generation of leaders have the skills and dispositions to thrive and lead in our diverse, interconnected global society. 

Look for resources and support in leading dialogue with young people in your community coming from us in the months to come, to aid in this journey. Thank you for being a part of this community.

With hope and commitment,
The World Savvy Team

By Ovie Oghenejobo, Fadesola Ojeikere, Dana Mortenson and Fernande Raine

When President Trump announced plans to establish a government body — the 1776 Commission — to promote “patriotic education” in America’s schools, we were concerned by the intentions behind this move; but it also got us wondering: What is a ‘Patriotic Education”? As educators, we have our own ideas and have been talking about what that could mean ever since. Though President Trump will not serve a second term and go on to see the 1176 Commission through, this election made abundantly clear that educators and students must learn to engage in civil discourse in a holistic and inclusive manner.

A patriotic education teaches students to engage in the habits of democracy. That means engaging in civic — and civil — discourse, including with people who hold radically different views. And it means teaching students to study their country’s real history, with all of its pain, so that we can heal and make it better. With a new incoming administration, the time is ripe to think critically about the future of our civic education.

Encouraging civil discourse and truthful history requires a fundamental shift not just in what we teach, but how we teach. We became educators to raise young people to be citizens of democracy. We believe in education that challenges students to think, analyze, and contribute to the conversation rather than just passively receive information. We believe in encouraging students to ask questions and find answers, because not only does this help them understand and retain subjects, it also builds the critical thinking skills that they will need to adapt, innovate and thrive in a world of rapid change.

Currently, most students learn a monolithic, whitewashed version of history through standardized textbooks. The goal of these textbooks may be to weave a common national identity, but they usually do the opposite: by minimizing diverse voices and perspectives, they promote an identity that’s fundamentally exclusive. National nostalgia is not the formula to prepare thoughtful and informed citizens.

A truly patriotic education that aims to teach students about our country, and equips them to improve it, would invite them to lead their own conversations on America’s complex past and its reverberations in our present. Education should help young people wrestle with the fact that our nation grew on complicated roots, and that from these roots sprang both radical ideas of freedom and justice, but also great inequities and suffering. It should teach them to think critically about whose stories we honor and what “truth” means in history when all stories aren’t equally heard or valued. Students who think critically about the parts of American history that inspire shame, as well as those that inspire pride, will be better positioned to lead the next chapter of the American saga.

These kinds of conversations can be hard, but they are possible. Indeed, they already are happening at Great Oaks Legacy Charter school in Newark, New Jersey where students have been learning about the history of Cesar Chavez and farm workers. Soon they will turn their attention to the poor conditions farm workers continue to endure and will analyze which demographics consistently work in lower-wage jobs and how systemic racism is an impediment to a better quality of life. Ultimately, these students will define what justice looks like for communities based on this information.

These challenging discussions can even draw in the larger community as is happening in Kansas City, where teachers are wrestling alongside museum educators through how to approach systemic racism. Via their Learning Collaborative, they are creating powerful local resources. For example, the Johnson County Historical Society designed the first local learning journey for teachers and students into the topic of redlining, offering learners the opportunity not only to explore what the effect of racist housing policy was in the past, but how those policies shaped the very neighborhoods in which they live today.

A patriotic education also would equip young people to participate in, and one day lead, our diverse, global, modern society. Technology has made our cultural and economic borders more porous. Affordable products arrive in your local Target via supply chains and workforces spread across continents. The constant movement of people among and between countries has become a defining trait of our modern society. Our schools must teach students to navigate these global complexities.

A patriotic education is one that positions young people to envision and work toward a better America — to learn and analyze so we can make our world a better place. This is happening at Byram Hills High School — a school that partners with World Savvy, a national education nonprofit reimaging K-12 education for a more diverse, interconnected world — in Armonk, New York. Educators there ask students to identify an issue in their community, gather data, seek out multiple perspectives, and design and execute a project to address it. This fall, they took on increasing voter participation in the November election.

Many of our country’s founders were aspirational. While they set out core values for the United States in our founding documents, they recognized that the pursuit of those values would have to change over time. They would have eschewed an uncritical celebration of history as an impediment to achieving that change. Ultimately, a patriotic education should build a strong connection between our nation’s youth and these bold ideals of our founding because so much of the work our founders envisioned still lies ahead of us.

Along with World Savvy, Got History, and all other organizations that are fighting for better history teaching, we call on all historians, parents, and educators to engage in this critical conversation and build a movement for education that matches the legacy of our country, the complexity of our world and, most importantly, the needs of our students.

Ovie Oghenejobo is assistant principal in the Lee Summit School District in Kansas City and a founding member of the Kansas City Learning Collaborative. Fadesola Ojeikere is a director of curriculum and instruction at Great Oaks Legacy Charter School Network, co-founder of the Teach For America Alumni Board and a World Savvy Ambassador. Dana Mortenson is co-founder and CEO of World Savvy. Dr. Fernande Raine is co-founder of got history?

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