A series of school visits to China is among the first activities students enrolled in the new Global Studies programme at Granville High School (in Ohio, United States of America) will be able to enjoy.
The first of these trips, lasting nine days, is actually being used to kickstart this new programme, and will see twenty-three of the school’s pupils head to the world’s most densely populated country. They will join 700 other American and Chinese pupils in a special summit destined to help the children develop their debating and diplomatic skills.
At this summit, held in Shanghai, each student will be placed into a group that includes no other children from his or her school, and asked to find a solution to a specific global issue. The pupils will therefore be forced to share views and debate opinions, honing the desired skills in the process. After the summit, as a way to unwind, the school is taking its students on a more leisure-oriented tour of Chinese capital Beijing, where they can indulge in the usual shopping and sightseeing, as well as a few more culturally relevant activities.
The trip in question is being organised by a local educational network, comprised of representatives from the Columbus city council as well as from several school districts around the area. The objective of this outfit, dubbed the GlobalEd Network, is to enforce the inclusion of global education programmes into school syllabi, since the skills and experience acquired during this type of activity are thought to be impossible to replicate in a classroom environment. A local travel agent specialising in this type of tour will also be lending a hand with the administrative tasks associated with this trip.
Despite the significant costs of this trip, which students will be paying out of pocket, adhesion to the programme has so far surpassed expectations, with six seats initially allotted to Granville High School quickly turning into the current twenty-three.
The students currently attending these school visits to China have been in the Global Scholars programme for a year, and are generally taking at least one foreign language class, although none of them will be speaking Chinese during the tour.
About School Travel Service:
School Travel Service is the UK’s largest educational travel company, providing school trips for secondary schools and colleges. Find them at http://www.equityschooltravel.co.uk/
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