When I drive I always look ahead.  When I see an upcoming light turning red I slow down.  I feel that there is no need to speed up to a red light plus it saves gas to slow down to a stop.  I am conscious of what is going on all around me especially when I come to intersections.

I feel it is incumbent on all educators and parents to prepare our students/children for what lies ahead as well as making them conscious of the world around them.  I know it is impossible to predict the future but we must give our children a good foundation.

When I started teaching global history I quickly realized that my students had little knowledge of the world.  In fact, they did not even know about where they lived. I wanted them to be aware of the history and resources available to them.  I decided then to write a study of the neighborhood I taught in.  I then used that as a microcosm to explore the rest of the world.  Included in the neighborhood study was a comparison of the careers then and now.  This led to my writing career education curriculum for a school-business partnership.

I am a firm believer that we should be teaching about careers on all grade levels and in all subject areas. We should be exposing our students to possible careers but most important we have to stress the basic skills necessary for the work world.  Teaching them both verbal and non verbal communication skills, problem solving and critical thinking, working with others, money and budgeting, consumerism and technology are very important.

When I taught Social Studies I made it a point to make sure that my students were aware of what was going on in the world.  My daily homework assignment (sorry Alfie Kohn) was to have the students read about, listen to or watch the news.  In class we would discuss the major news stories.  One student years later wrote the following:

“Yale has played a tremendous role in broadening my horizons.  I’d never really been a very political person before – you probably remember quiet little me when it came to current events back in the good ‘ole days – but there is so much debate and political unrest here, it is almost impossible to not become aware of the issues.  There are so many things in this world that are flawed, and I think awareness is the key to improving them.  I used to dislike the “current events” part of our class, but now looking back, I see the significance of this exercise.  I only wish I saw it then.  And now, as I am about to embark on this long and treacherous journey called Life, I see it fitting that I look to the past, to the man who has been so important to my growth.  And I want to thank him.  Thank you. Mr. Blumengarten.”