As the global community becomes increasingly complex, interdependent and interconnected, students are required to develop advanced skills, understandings and perspectives in order to be successful citizens of the world community. The forces of globalization began as early as the fifteenth century as various peoples traveled to and interacted with faraway places. Today globalization has seemingly made the world smaller as interactions among various peoples, cultures, and nations have become omnipresent in our daily lives. The purpose of Global Perspectives in ninth grade is to prepare students to be active, engaged and informed members of this global society. In order to be both informed and engaged students must develop the skills necessary to access and evaluate information from multiple sources. Moreover, students must develop skills associated with inquiry based learning. In a world filled with numerous problems to solve, today’s students, tomorrow’s leaders, must be able to work both independently and collaboratively, to identify and prioritize significant issues, to make connections, and to evaluate relationships. Students learn how to develop engaging and thought provoking questions. This ensures that students are driven to find and evaluate information to address globally significant problems. Working with various forms of technology aids students to develop these essential skills.

Global Perspectives compels students to apply their leaning to the real world and presents opportunities to take informed action. It is not enough for students to know about the world in which he/she lives. Today’s students must apply the skills learned in classroom to the world in which the student lives. This curriculum challenges students to be engaged global citizens. Through the study of world cultures, history, and contemporary issues, students learn there are many universal needs, desires, and challenges encountered by all peoples. Furthermore, they develop a global perspective in which they can see diverse viewpoints that both converge and conflict as societies attempt to balance their own needs and desires with the common good.

Students begin the course by learning how to effectively study other cultures and develop a global perspective that allows for a better understanding of the diverse experiences of people around the world. The course then focuses on the major forces that have shaped recent history, including: exploration, trade, colonialism, imperialism, revolution, nationalism, self-determination, militarism, and globalization. The course also requires students to consider how the international community can best respond to contemporary challenges that have grown out of these forces. Some of these contemporary challenges include: population growth, environmental endangerment, urbanization, industrialization, regional warfare, technological innovations, terrorism, and the global market economy. These global challenges and issues have affected the world’s political stability, the interdependence of the global economy, the long term health of the environment, and peoples’ quality of life and standards of living. Geography, anthropology, history, economics and civics are integrated to address the Common Core State Standards and the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards to provide students with a comprehensive social studies experience. This course is required for all ninth graders not enrolled in Humanities or Exploring Global Studies and is the first of the three years of required social studies at the high school level.