ABSTRACT
In fact, fewer than three in 10 of those surveyed think it is absolutely necessary to know where countries in the news are located. A long list of prestigious education organizations have called for the inclusion of global literacy in school. Teaching global awareness goes beyond simple geography lessons or cultural studies, especially if one of the goals is to teach social responsibility. Karen was in her tenth year of teaching seventh and eighth grade in a Chicago public school when the people decided to work together on an inquiry unit with her twenty-eight lively eighth graders. Middle school teachers know the marvelous, expansive, and sometimes convoluted and mind-boggling directions their students can take in classroom conversations. Variations in national income levels were also enlightening. If adolescents and young adults remain ignorant of these realities, they will not fulfill the promise of a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”.
