"Yes," responded some sixty-one (61) delegates attending the second International School Leaders Seminar on Global Connections hosted by Geelong Grammar School and the Sydney Church of England Co-Educational Grammar School (SCECGS/Redlands) in Australia this past March.
The 1998 Seminar participants came from twelve (12) countries and included representatives from diverse educational associations and organizations such as the Canadian Association of Independent Schools, the European Council of International Schools, Global Educational Enterprises, and Round Square.
Of the organizations and schools represented, twelve (12) were "alumni" of the 1997 Global Connections Seminar which was held in South Africa and Botswana and hosted by St. Stithians College and Maru a Pula School. Their representatives provided an important continuum of interests and experiences which were shared with the delegates attending Global Connections II.
Principal among the on-going initiatives resulting from the 1997 Seminar was the emerging entity called Zwelibansi (Zula for wide or broad world). This group consists of representatives from area independent schools and a range of township and government institutions. Two of the members and catalysts are the Letsibogo School for Girls in Soweto and St. Stithians Collegiate, a coordinate girls school in Randburg. Together they have initiated regular meetings of Zwelibansi, jointly conducted teacher training opportunities, student and teacher exchanges, and established an on-going electronic relationship which includes e-mail, teleconferencing, and sharing of curricula materials.
On a more global basis,
- Letsibogo School for Girls has been offered two music scholarships at SCECGS/Redlands for the coming year as well as two additional bursaries at Frankston High School, an Australian government secondary school outside of Melbourne.
- Deerfield Academy (U.S.) sent three basketball coaches to run a clinic in Botswana at Maru a Pula School for aspiring young players at that school and throughout the country.
The Chair of the Science Department visited Maru a Pula's bush campus on the Limpopo River in June, 1997 preparatory to arranging a study tour there in 1999.
- Maru a Pula is to conduct an environmental course at its bush campus this June for students from The Hill School (U.S.).
- And The Hill is offering a senior year scholarship to a student from Maru a Pula for this coming year.
Global Connections II expanded the international representation and involved twenty-four (24) representatives from Australia and thirty-seven (37) from other schools and organizations worldwide.
Emphases in the Seminar were on equity among and between advantaged and less advantaged schools, technology, experiential education, and community service. Visits featured multicultural government schools, the Ministry of Education (State of Victoria) and a day's program at Timbertop, the site of Geelong Grammar School's year-long experiential program.
Presentations included those on community service by Munungi Musee, Assistant Head of the Starehe Boys Centre and Educational Institution (Kenya) where 70% of the students are orphans, the fundamental shifts to digital learning by the author of From Sandcastles to Space Ships: Learning in the 21st Century, Di Fleming, Principal of Kilvington Baptist Girls' Grammar (Australia), and Murray Guests' Educating for the Growth of Independence, The Approach of Geelong Grammar School Timbertop. These and fifteen (15) other presentations were integrated with small discussion group sessions over the five-day Seminar which is purposely limited to sixty (60) school leaders worldwide in order to insure dialogue and discussion among and between all participants.
A post-Seminar program hosted by the SCECGS/Redlands school included a presentation on transformations within the secondary system of New South Wales, a close look at the competitive admissions dimensions effecting K-12 enrollments, and a visit to a multicultural school with a sizeable Aboriginal population, where considerable interest was expressed in creating a number of local and regional opportunities for its staff, students, and community.
As one of the Australian participants observed:
"I was particularly encouraged and inspired by the discussion on equity in education. Those of us in advantaged circumstances really do have a responsibility to support those less fortunate and thus bring the young people in our care closer together and provide them with a better understanding of the world in which they live. It must benefit our wider communities when our students become more sensitive to the needs of others and have a clearer understanding of the cultures in which our people live."
Global Connections II concluded by reaffirming an interest in identifying and initiating opportunities for student and teacher interchanges; in furthering relations between advantaged and less advantaged schools locally, regionally, and globally; and in developing an electronic "menu" or "catalog" of participating schools to provide information on options for school-to-school activities as well as brief reports on activities undertaken to date worldwide.
Perhaps most reaffirming of all was the offer by Wellington College, England, to host Global Connections III in April, 1999. Two tentative sites have also been identified for 2000 and 2001. Can Global Connections make a world of difference for you, your school, your students? You bet!
