Thursday, December 11, 2008

New internationalism

I was thinking the other day about education. It's a big subject with me. And today in the grocery line I saw the cover of Time magazine. It said something about....

Hold on. In a break from tradition, I just heard about this website. I mean that I actually just heard about it. As I was typing, a friend started talking and I thought, what a good idea. Sure, we as americans generally frown upon having people that we don't know come into our homes, but there is an appeal to it. If you are worried about the 'wrong' kind of people coming to your home, or going to a house that might be dangerous, there are plenty of situations and news clips (and horror movies) to support your fear. We like our stuff, and we are very attached to it. I like my bed. I like my couch. I only want people that I know and trust to come near them. However, there is a great draw in traveling. At least for me. And traveling all over the world, meeting new people, and sleeping on their couches seems like a dream. Not that I would have to sleep on their couches, but if that's part of it then fine.

On the other hand, it may be difficult to do something like this with a family. Unless it is summer time and I can manage to pack one small pack for each person. Who knows.

....So, as I was saying. Time magazine had something about fixing education in America (by which I assume they meant the United States of America because there are two Americas but there hasn't been as much popular discussion about the international education situation in North and South America). And I was going to say something about how we just need to work harder and teachers need to hold kids to higher standards, and how we need to expect more from ourselves, but I think that I'm done for now. School is hard work, and it should be. I think we get more out of it that way.

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