Nicholas Kristof, you just made me love you more.

Kristof writes that universities are slowly realizing that they have to get their students ready for globalization. However, their overseas programs are still lame, merely finishing schools for the wealthy.

…They typically involve sending a herd of students for a term in France or Italy, where they study a little and drink a lot together, amid occasional sightings of locals.

Traditionally, many young Britons, Irish, Australians and New Zealanders take a year to travel around the world on a shoestring, getting menial jobs when they run out of money. We should try to inculcate the custom of such a “gap year” in this country by offering university credit for such experiences.

So here’s my proposal. Universities should grant a semester’s credit to any incoming freshman who has taken a gap year to travel around the world. In the longer term, universities should move to a three-year academic program, and require all students to live abroad for a fourth year. In that year, each student would ideally live for three months in each of four continents: Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

(The whole article is below the flap. Take that, Times Select!)

I did the wimpy American version of the year-roaming around on a shoe string and a smelly backpack. My trip was only two months long and was only within Europe. Still, it was enlightening in so many ways. On our honeymoon, we backpacked into Morocco.

Kristof offers to sponsor one American student in Africa. Am I too old to qualify?

Kristof’s proposal is fantastic. We need to get Americans out of the country to witness world poverty and need. Bring back the Peace Corps. Hell, we need to get them out of the suburbs and visit an inner city as well.

Continue reading “Global Studies” →