12
Shakespeare was a few hundred years ahead of his time when he wrote “All the world’s a stage” in As You Like It. In this day and age, however, we will certainly be doing well for our children if we make it a priority to encourage and help them become successful players on the world stage.
Cincinnati – the reluctant global player
Playing in the world, not in the neighborhood
Many of us Summit parents grew up in Cincinnati, never having to venture far to have successful, fulfilling lives and careers. Even today we may feel it is possible to live that way. However, global is here, want it or not, touching so much of our lives, knowingly or unknowingly. As much as some may view us as a mid-size, midWestern city, Cincinnati is on the global stage. Consider a product purchased that seemed so reasonably priced and where it was made: Mexico or China, perhaps? Or that tasty fruit bought in the middle of winter and from where it came: possibly South America? Or that top-rated television show or movie and who made it: maybe Canadian or British? Without overstating the situation, it is practically impossible to go through a day without contact with a part of the world far, far away from Cincinnati. Some of Cincinnati’s biggest corporate citizens are truly global. In fact, Fortune magazine’s top ten list of most admired global corporations include three with major operations in Cincinnati. Their executives’ children are well represented in The Summit’s enrollment, as are some international students hosted by local families. Interestingly, one of the largest, Procter & Gamble, recently adopted a new diversity mantra that adapts an age-old golden rule for the world we live in today – “Treat others as they want to be treated”, not “as you want to be treated”. This is a small change with major ramifications. Diversity has been much talked about in recent years, in corporate corridors, in political circles, and at The Summit. Our approach has evolved to not only think of valuing and respecting differences, but also in terms of giving everyone an equal place at the table, to be fully inclusive. To be clear we can and should do more… in our student body representation, in our faculty and staff, and in our curriculum. It is no longer an afterthought, but more and more often a well-considered strategy.
Turning to our children, consider how different their world is from the one in which most of us grew up. Children used to vacation only in the United States; now they travel all over the world. Children used to play mainly with neighbors; now they are instant messaging friends all over town, as well as are playing and communicating online with children all over the world. With the latest video game systems they talk to and team up with people from around the globe. They quickly learn cultural differences in communication. They learn to be sensitive to different approaches, and know they need to do this if they want to succeed in the games.
Creating Intuitive Global Citizens Many of us adults have been trained in computers. Our children have also had training in computers, but once they have the basics they approach the latest innovations on the computer intuitively – no manuals, no online tutorials, they just dive in and work it out intuitively. In similar fashion, our aspiration should be to give our children some of the skills, enough of the exposure and a lot of open mindedness to become intuitive global citizens. The Summit Diversity Mission calls for “fostering an inclusive environment that embraces every individual enabling them to fully contribute to the world they inherit”. It rightfully calls for an approach that accepts people for who they are and what they uniquely bring to the “world table”. Our mission should be to make sure that by the time our children leave the school, we have given them the tools to naturally and without apprehension be comfortable working alongside any person, whether it be from Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati to Rhine, Germany, and from Lima, Ohio to Lima, Peru. Then they will be comfortable on the world stage. And then they will certainly improve the world they inherit.
Neil Comber, Summit Trustee.
13