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For over 20 years, this extraordinarily successful program has been building genuine relationshps between school children and college students from other countries, exciting and motivating children to learn more about places, people and languages they hadn't even known existed before the visits.
Distinct from other international "guest speaker" programs, the mulitple visits design of the Intercultural Ambassadors program offers a unique opportunity for classroom cross-cultural experience; the program focuses on building genuine relationships between the intertnational students and San Diego's K-12 students and teachers with whom they come in contact. The effects are long-lasting. Teachers have reported that even many years after their Intercultural Ambassador experience, former students return to reminisce, "Mrs. Reed, remember when Tony, from Greece, visited our class?" But it's not only the San Diego school children who benefit. The college students, too, immensely enjoy - and learn from - the program. Many of them live fairly isolated lives in San Diego. The program allows them to interact with American children and to experience an aspect of US culture - K-12 schools - they otherwise would not see. "Thank you for everything and most of all, giving me the chance to represent my country to the future adults of this nation. I had a blast! And it was more fun and enjoyable than I could have ever imagined."
Throughout 2009, educational institutions around San Diego will be commemorating these dates with guest speakers, film series, academic symposia, theater events and museum exhibits. “One Book, One San Diego” will be reading The Zookeepers Wife, a true story that reverberates with related themes. What will be happening in your classroom? One hundred fifty years after the publication of On the Origins of Species, evolution remains a sensitive subject in many schools. Biology teachers are often called upon to demonstrate sensitivity to the beliefs of families who eschew the concept for religious reasons. The California Standards in History-Social Sciences don’t even mention Darwin, although they do call on students to analyze the philosophy and impact of Social Darwinism (10.4.1; 11.2.7.) (Is it beyond bounds to ask how students can understand Social Darwinism if they don’t know who Darwin is and haven’t been taught about evolution?) However one might feel about it, “evolution” has become a commonly used word applied to a wide range of subjects, even as the “science vs. religion” debate it has come to epitomize still rages around us 150 years after the fact. The 2005 court case, Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al., echoed in a remarkable fashion the same core issues that characterized the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” of 1925. During the Spring/Fall Semester, 2009, a constellation of public events focusing on the continuing conflict over teaching evolutionary theory in the schools will take place on the SDSU campus. These will include:
Monday, January 29, 2007 5:00 - 7:00 pm Terra
Restaurant & Bar
Bring along and share your own poem, song or toast to Tom!
$15 Cover Charge includes hors d'oeuvres and raffle ticket (No-Host Bar) RSVP Required: (619) 594-5780 Cash or Check (payable to ISTEP) at door
Co-sponsored by ISTEP and the Greater San Diego Council for the Social Studies |
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Last Updated:
October 21, 2009
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