Exposing U.S. students to the larger world around them and ensuring that they not only speak other languages, but also understand and appreciate other cultures, is essential to the nation's success in an increasingly global economy, said members of the National Governors Association's (NGA's) Education, Early Childhood, and Workforce Committee during the NGA's Winter Meeting 2006 this week in Washington, D.C.

"In our global economy, American students, workers, and businesses face new and fierce competition from around the world," said Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, chair of the committee, prior to the meeting. "I'm looking forward to having a conversation with my fellow governors about actions we can take to ensure our students are ready for the challenges of the future."

Foreign-language skills in the U.S. are not where they should be, Pawlenty said, and the cultural awareness of U.S. students and citizens also should be increased.

"We live in a changing world, with changing technology, changing culture, and changing economies," Pawlenty said. As a result, U.S. citizens need "to better understand language, culture, and foster relationships; and of course a big part of that is having an educational system that is aware of those trends. ... We need to prepare our educational curriculum [accordingly]."

"I have traveled around the world and witnessed firsthand our competition, and it is very clear that we need to maintain high standards. We let our students down if we fail to prepare them to succeed in this global economy," said Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, vice chair of the committee.

"Our future lies in our ability to compete, and that lies in our ability to have the best-trained workforce," Gregoire said during the Feb. 27 meeting, held in the JW Marriott just steps from the White House.

Motivating students to take foreign-language classes and teaching them about other cultures can go a long way in fostering an interest in international issues, speakers at the meeting suggested.

"Unfortunately, today there is a huge gap between the increasing importance of global issues and our students' basic knowledge of [these] issues," said Vivien Stewart, vice president for education at the Asia Society. "Our language instruction doesn't reflect today's reality."

Education officials need to find ways to attract all students to international education, not just the high-level students, Stewart said. The issue is not only about attracting students, but also about making the topic attractive to the teachers, she added.

Redesigning high schools to be relevant to today's world is one step to giving students an international education, said Stewart.

She noted that 2,400 schools said they want to offer an Advanced Placement (AP) test in Mandarin Chinese when it is released next year, according to a recent survey--yet only 200 schools currently offer Chinese-language programs, she said.