Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

CHAPTER 5: Fostering the 8 Strengths of Character—Outcome 7as a constitution that protects human rights, free elections,structures for making and enforcing laws, and a systemof checks and balances); and (2) virtuous citizens. Ifindividual citizens lack virtue, democratic institutions areundermined. For example, laws can be passed, but if citizenscheat and steal whenever they think they can getaway with it, or turn to violence to solve their conflicts,the rule of law is undermined.Citizenship is GlobalOutcome 7 asserts that we are citizens not only of oursociety, but also of the world.This means, first of all, having a sense of responsibilitythat extends to all humanity.This is collective responsibility—one of the centralthemes of our Smart & Good High Schools report—writlarge. If people anywhere in the world are the victims ofpersecution, war, famine, disease, or natural disaster, thatis my concern. We are members of a single human family.Are there limits to what an individual can do to solve theworld’s problems? Obviously. But each of us can do something.In a shrinking world, our fates areincreasingly linked.Why, we might ask, should we care about sufferingstrangers in distant parts of the planet? First, because it’sjust and compassionate to do so. Second, because it isenlightened self-interest. We are interdependent; in ashrinking world, our fates are increasingly linked.Is there no virtue among us? If there benot, we are in a wretched situation. Tosuppose that any form of governmentwill secure liberty and happiness withoutany virtue in the people is achimerical idea.—JAMES MADISONPreparing Students for Citizenshipin the Global EconomyWe are also citizens of the world in another challengingway: We live in an increasingly globalized economy. In hisarticle “Globalization and Education” for Phi DeltaKappan, the educator R.D. Nordgren reports that the literatureon what students need to succeed in the newglobal economy identifies the following assets as crucial:1. the ability to work collaboratively within teams andacross cultures2. the ability to solve problems, including conflicts withinteams3. the ability to be the kind of entrepreneur who canthink creatively, take risks, and initiate change4. the ability to use technology to enhance personal andorganizational performance. 9However, Nordgren points out, to the extent that schoolsand classrooms run like top-down bureaucracies that fostermindless, sheep-like compliance, they will fail to fosterthe collaborative interaction and innovative entrepreneurialthinking that success in the intensely competitive globalmarket demands. To prepare students for the new economy,he concludes, schools must do what today’s successfulbusiness organizations do: foster highly effective teamwork,shared decision-making, and creative risk-taking.Preparing workers for the 21st century, then, becomesanother compelling rationale for creating highly collaborative,democratic schools and classrooms that involve studentsand staff in shared leadership and imaginative, participatoryproblem-solving.To prepare students for the globaleconomy, schools must do whatsuccessful businesses do: foster highlyeffective teamwork, shared decisionmaking,and creative risk-taking.Citizenship Builds on LoveOutcome 7 speaks of developing young people who contributeto their families, classrooms, schools, and communities.In this sense, we are “citizens” of all the groups towhich we belong. Parents, classroom teachers, coaches,youth leaders, employers, and others who work with youngpeople all have an opportunity and a duty to help thembecome contributing members in every social situation.179Smart & Good High Schools