Giving a Global Mindset to your students | A comprehensive Guide
methods that schools may use to expose children to international relations and global thinking
Global Mindset Guide
In this guide to giving a Global Mindset to your students, you will learn
Chapter 1 | Why does Global Mindset Matter?
When I was studying electrical engineering in my college, I had a huge interest in International relation
I started loving ‘the Economist’ a weekly international magazine
but the new copy for Economist was INR 52 per week, collectively over 200 per month.
You guessed it right,
this beast was really costly, at least for me
So, every 3 months,
I will go to Nehru Place to buy 3 to 6-month-old editions at a price of INR 10 per copy.
I will buy some 5-6 of those and will come back, I grew my passion for international relation
I could tell you in one go
what Boko Haram was doing,
what was happening in the Gaza strip,
Years later when I applied for a program in IIFT
one of the professors who interviewed me was focused on oil diplomacy
and I think, I got selected just because I could talk about the Sakhalin oil reserves
My interest in International Relations put me in an amazing institution, but you may say “Not everyone has similar interests, then why Global Mindset for every child?”
You feel proud of Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Indira Nooyi, and many more like them as they have proved that Indians too can reach a Global top
You appreciate politicians like S. Jaishankar, who is giving India new hope for global growth
You may also feel proud of my all-time favorite entrepreneur Sridhar Vembu, who built a real global Indian enterprise
Spoiler Alert | None of them would have made it big like this without having a Global Mindset
As a School Leader, what are you doing to empower your students to be successful like them?
If you are still not convinced, let me give you another perspective
If you go through the history of colonization and how it still persists
and how the colonial mindset of the big western powers still does not allow countries like us to grow
What about doing this to save our country from a global threat?
Empowering our youth with a global mindset can give our country hope to survive and probably thrive tomorrow
and at the very least, you may do it to teach, Social Sciences in the right way
Chapter 2 | How schools give a Global Mindset?
If I ask you, what are a few ways that schools use currently to give our children a Global Mindset?
While schools can really do many more amazing things, currently they are not exercising many mechanisms for that
One of the most cliche methods that schools use to expose children to international relations and global thinking is to host a
Model United Nations (MUN)
Don’t be offended by my statement, it is indeed a cliche
But that does not say, it is not effective
It is a very effective mechanism in sensitising students about the world
I call it cliche because the only solution most school leaders will tell you to give students a global mindset is Hosting a MUN
But even then, surprisingly, most of the schools in India have never hosted one.
You may click here to look at a detailed procedure to host a MUN
Wish you luck with the MUN that you will host soon at your school
Here is another solution that schools opt for and that is to host a
Cultural Exchange Program
What can you learn from the story of a school leader
who did not have a history of hosting any national or international cultural exchange program, but did one at an unbelievably low budget?
Here I am sharing the story of Taruna Kapoor
and I believe you all can do what she did, you just need the will to do it
It was 2016 and Taruna was serving as a School Principal in a school in Vasundhara, Ghaziabad
They were executing the challenges of ISA and one of the tasks was to host an online cultural exchange with some other school in some other country
but one of her team members suggested, “can we do it in the real world”.
The school did not have any history of hosting such an exchange program and even Taruna herself did not have any such experience ever before
the community collectively decided to execute it
Even the parents whose children were not involved in the exchange were contributing heavily.
Srilankan children loved Indian food and the good thing was that not only parents, but even Indian children were also participating to cook food
Imagine they were making Besan ke laddoo for their Srilankan friends
They were visiting Mathura, Vrindavan, and Agra.
Likewise, when Indian children visited Colombo, they visited many places including the TUK temple, planting trees in the school, and visited defense camp.
More than anything children learned a lot of life skills and got memories for life.
Can you do this at your school?
Can you host it online if not offline?
Can you do it within the country, if not abroad?
I can still recall when I was consulting with a school in Maharashtra and I got to know about 4 types of Puran Poli coming from the four main parts of Maharashtra.
It was new knowledge
And I think now I understand Maharashtra a little better.
Chapter 3 | What more can schools do to give a Global Mindset to students?
The important thing that schools should realize is that there is always a better way to do things
I suggest schools do it in the following four steps (You may ask me for help)
Step 1 | First Teach them about the countries (Foundational stage children 3 to 8 years)
Stories are always the best things to start. Why not start a fable project in your school library?
A fable from China or Egypt or Maya will help children to experience the difference in the culture.
Use Games to teach them about continents, countries, Oceans, Mountain Ranges, rivers, Jungles, Deserts etc.
Digital games like KGeography can be an amazing help.
Physical products are also available in the market that you may explore to teach them about the world. For example, this product or this one at Amazon
Also, try to organize workshops on map reading to teach them longitude-latitude things. Can they make their own maps now
Step 2 | Now in primary (let’s say grades 3-4-5), it is high time to tell them stories about major historical events
Make a club or Genius Hour or some other mechanism to let them explore these stories at least once every week.
How about telling them a story about Boston Tea Party, World Wars, or the Bengal Famine?
But of course Bengal Famine, when we can talk about Holocaust with children, what can be our excuse not to talk about the Bengal Famine
I am not of the opinion that while we are telling about the globe we should forget the stories of our own heroes.
This can be an amazing opportunity to blend in the stories of our own heroes like Shivaji, Subhash Chandra Bose, and Bhagat Singh.
Step 3 | By now our students are entering middle school and already know about the geographical placement of various countries and associated major historical events.
It is high time that we should introduce them to international organizations and how they work.
It is high time to host a MUN
Step 4 | Now that the students have come to the senior school, it is high time for them to get involved in larger-level projects.
Arrange for a workshop to help them understand, how can they lend an internship with such an institution or an individual who may help them understand these ideas a little better.
Voila!!
you have prepared your students for the future of the workplace where they are going to need this global mindset.