Teaching Children How to Think Internationally

09 March 2011

A teacher works with a student at the British School of Chicago

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

The International Primary Curriculum is an idea that began in Britain eight years ago. Today this curriculum is taught in more than one thousand primary schools in fifty-eight countries, including the United States.

Educator Martin Skelton co-wrote the International Primary Curriculum, or IPC. He says for children to learn and succeed, they need a program that permits them to learn individually.

MARTIN SKELTON: "Our view is the teachers should be thinking about their kids in their class and why they are not learning and trying to work out what they are going to be doing tomorrow to help individual kids learn much better."

He says the idea with the curriculum is to help today's children become good citizens of the world and twenty-first century leaders.

MARTIN SKELTON: "Most world problems are going to be solved internationally now. I mean no single country is going to solve the environment or terrorism. It's a multi-cooperational activity."

Mr. Skelton says the curriculum has activities built around the development of "international mindedness" starting from the age of five.

MARTIN SKELTON: "We encourage the kids to mingling with schools in other countries, and then of course things like Skype now make that fantastically easy to do."