Kindergarteners Go Global
Thanks to a creative collaboration between two educators at the School and College, and the wonders of technology, our kindergarteners are developing as global citizens—right here on campus!
Kindergarten teacher Lori Lines (US’73, C’77) is partnering with Principia College Director of Global Studies Dr. Sally Steindorf (US’93, C’97), who has a son in kindergarten, on a six-week unit that introduces the students to cultures, traditions, languages, and symbols from every continent—and to the broader concepts of global citizenship. These themes grew out of conversations between the two, after Lines sought to broaden the scope of kindergarten’s single-country “Market Day” unit of previous years. The overall aim, Lines explains, is “for us to see ourselves as part of a large, diverse, global community and to understand that we have the chance to make a positive impact on our earth.”
Initial steps included looking at a world map, finding personal connections to different countries—through relatives, previous visits, friendships, etc.—and reading a children’s book called What Does It Mean to Be Global? This was followed by “language week,” during which the students learned about Hindi from Steindorf (who did her dissertation work in India); Chinese from Upper School teacher Kathie CalkinsKeyes and her students; and Spanish with Lower and Middle School Spanish teacher Mary Beth Cox (C’08). Soon the students will share letters and pictures with kindergarteners in Germany. The finale will be “Global Tour Day,” when students and families will share their learning with each other. (Parents have enthusiastically jumped on board to support the exploration of a country that has meaning to their family.)
But the learning delves beyond these topics into three key concepts of global citizenship that Steindorf uses with her undergraduates at the College and that she and Lines have translated into simpler terms for these younger learners:
- Being curious and learning about the world (Global Studies majors at the College call it “global awareness and knowledge.”)
- Respecting different people and cultures (“intercultural competence”)
- Doing good for the world (“global service”)
“As our world becomes more interconnected and as the United States becomes more multicultural,” Steindorf says, “I think it is imperative that students of all ages have a 21st-century education—which is very much about global citizenship, about respecting difference rather than judging it.”
In her many years of teaching preschool and kindergarten, Lines has observed that “young children naturally think of others being just as good as they are” and have not yet learned or developed stereotypes or prejudices. And with a class in which half the students come from a multicultural background, both she and Steindorf agree that this is the perfect time to pilot a broadly focused unit on global citizenship.
“I see kindergarten as laying a strong foundation for future years," Steindorf says. “If part of that foundation includes developing our children’s sense of themselves as part of an interconnected world, then we’re setting them up for success.”