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All the world is a classroom, Scott Stephens and Jennifer Kuhel
All the world is a classroom
Scott Stephens and Jennifer Kuhel explain how an IB education is broadening horizons
Shakespeare once observed that all the world is a stage. For the Shaker Heights City School District, Ohio, all the world is a classroom. The 5,000-student public school district, nestled in a leafy suburb just east of Cleveland, is one of only eight school districts in North America to offer the prestigious International Baccalaureate to every student at every grade level. Because the IB framework embraces a global focus and emphasizes hands-on projects, inquiry-based learning and community service, a Shaker Heights education frequently extends beyond the borders of nations.
Last spring, for instance, Shaker Heights High School students spent their spring break repairing a school house in Prek Toal, a floating village in Cambodia. Half a world away, the school’s choir and orchestra, standing in the shadow of ancient ruins, serenaded citizens of Olympia, Greece. In Costa Rica, 11 Shaker students practiced their Spanish while helping with a tree planting conservation project. In a remote village in Morocco, their classmates tutored residents, helped construct a community center and planted a portion of the town’s community garden. ‘We not only learned to appreciate the history of the Moroccan people; we also made friendships and connections that will last a lifetime’, said social studies teacher Amanda Ersek, who accompanied the students.
Over the summer, students from the high school’s Asian Studies program wandered through Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing,
the busiest crosswalk in the world, visited their sister school in Nara, took a bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo and learned the Japanese art of cloth folding. Students studying German met with students from Shaker’s sister school in Goslar, Germany – the longest-standing exchange between a US school and a German school. Meanwhile, Shaker administrators travel to China every year to learn how to better recruit teachers for the district’s Mandarin program, which offers more than 2,000 students in grades 1-12 Chinese language and culture classes. Shaker leaders have led leadership workshops for the IB Organization’s office in The Hague, Netherlands. ‘One can no longer make sense of everyday life unless it is set in the context of living in a global society’, said Dr John Moore, Shaker Heights’ IB Coordinator. ‘In fact, the process of globalization is changing the face of the planet’.
Shaker Schools received their first International Baccalaureate designation at the High School in 2010 and, since then, each of the District’s eight schools has earned IB authorization. The IB is offered at three levels in Shaker: the Primary Years Programme for students in grades PreK4; the Middle Years Programme for students in grades 5-10; and the Diploma Programme, an elective course of studies offered for students in grades 11 and 12. At the end of each of these programmes students participate in one of the three research-based projects.
Shaker’s IB Programme has grown as well. The high school had 57 students entering the IB Diploma Programme this past fall, a significant increase over the 38 who received IB Diplomas last school year. The enrollment of studentsof-color increased 130 percent. ‘It is our most diverse class ever’, Moore said. Shaker Heights is actually bucking the trend of turning away from multiculturalism in favor of isolationism. Recent surveys recently conducted by the National Geographic Society and the Asia Society shed light on a growing concern: the decline of multicultural awareness. Their studies show that US students lack an understanding and knowledge of different people, places, and cultures – skills they need to be successful in the modern world.
‘We are now faced with a multiplicity of global linkages, far and distant events and decisions that impact us nationally and locally’, Moore added. ‘Climate change, terrorism and energy dependence are a few examples. These issues have global, national and local dimensions to them and education has a crucial role to play in creating awareness of such issues’.
