Jess Rimington Discusses Global Education on WNPR/Connecticut Public Radio

Anjali Daryanani is the Communications Director of One World Youth Project. She grew up in Hong Kong and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. Read more about Anjali

Today, WNPR/Connecticut Public Radio hosted a radio talk show on “Cultural Competency for Kids” and the need for students to develop global competence skills within education itself, where issues of the world and diversity can be addressed in the classroom, instead of simply teaching to the test.

Jess Rimington, our executive director, was invited to speak about the work about One World Youth Project and why it is urgent for students to develop curiosity about the world, cross-cultural communication skills and other global competencies within educational curricula. Listen to her input below:

“What we’re really trying to do with global competency is not necessarily teach facts and geography about the world… Instead, it’s triggering and firing a curiosity and a way of thinking that’s beyond just looking up facts about Connecticut on Wikipedia, but learning to communicate that to others across cultures. And I think that if we focus last on the facts for a change, and more about how we’re teaching young people to communicate, then we could even have scenarios where you’re talking to someone from Rwanda about your state’s history and learning how to communicate that, and that’s the skills we’re hiring for: it’s how to incorporate and utilize and implement knowledge.” -Jess Rimington

Download the full 1-hour podcast at this link: http://www.yourpublicmedia.org/node/20690