"The world is flat," so proclaimed award-winning journalist Thomas Friedman in his best-selling book examining the forces that have given rise to globalism. Fundamentally, Friedman's book asks, "Has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?"
Civic educators, multiculturalists and most political commentators agree that creating such stability — and protecting our nation's ability to thrive in a global context — requires more robust classroom emphases on global knowledge and perspectives.
The following activities and resources can help infuse global perspectives into classroom explorations before, during and after Constitution and Citizenship Day observances.
Dialogue of Freedom
Freedom is an American value, but that does not mean our nation holds a monopoly on the principle. This article and accompanying activities explore the meaning of freedom through Asian perspectives. Three spokespersons — one historical and two contemporary — serve as guides: Zhuangzi or Chuang Tzu, a Daoist (Taoist) poet-philosopher in 4th-century B.C.E. China; Indian-born Nobel economist, Amartya Sen, whose work on poverty links "development" with freedom; and Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese democratic leader and Nobel Peace laureate.
Primary Resources
Just as people outside of the United States might look to our Constitution and other founding documents as a way to learn about our nation and its values, we too can examine manuscripts from other nations as a way to learn about them. (Like the United States, many nations struggle to live up to the promises made in their founding documents.)
Start classroom explorations with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, adopted in 1996 after the fall of apartheid and after an explicit process of reconciliation, and the Mexican Constitution, as of 2002. In small groups, ask students to review these documents, paying special attention to passages that relate to values like equality and freedom. Ask small groups to share their findings with the whole class and then compare and contrast the findings with the U.S. Constitution.
Note: Examining the Mexican Constitution also can be used to debunk notions that immigrants to the U.S. from Mexico come as "blank slates" without any appreciation of civic values — including "American values" like freedom and equality. Indeed, the Mexican Constitution is more explicit about protecting the rights of "minority groups" than the U.S. Constitution.
Human Rights
In 2008, the world will mark the 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By Virtue of Being Human, published by Teaching Tolerance on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, still serves as a powerful call to U.S. educators to incorporate this world-changing document into classroom study and provides a useful roadmap on how to get started.
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