Albright: Education needed to produce more humane world
November 14, 2006

While policymakers are increasingly interested in education as a tool to prepare U.S. students for the global economy, education is also the key to developing a more peaceful, harmonious global society, said former Secretary of State Madelaine Albright. Albright was addressing education advocates in Washington on Monday at a two-day conference held by the Public Education Network.

In a speech that intertwined foreign policy and education policy, Albright offered an alternative perspective to education's global competitiveness issue, which stresses the need to strengthen student competency in science, technology, engineering and math.

The most essential goal, Albright said, is to develop programs that give children a better understanding of the world around them. Curricula should include world geography, religions, conflicts, and languages, she said.

"The responsibiility of all teachers is to teach children about other places," Albright said, adding that students need to learn how to be "global citizens" when they first enter school. As a whole, schools need to educate children to care about humanity rather than teach that the world is a dangerous place divided "between us and them," she said.