The following is an edited version of a speech given to the full staff of the Gorham School Department earlier this month by

Ted Sharp, superintendent:

BRIC is an acronym that every American should recognize and, more importantly know why it is a centerpiece for discussion and concern among many economists, educators, governments and others around the globe.

BRIC stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China, four nations that many believe will be the four strongest economic powers no later than the year 2035, if not sooner. And, as we know, economic power almost invariably advances political and military power and influence. Let’s take a brief look at China to determine why it is a member of this group.

“Let China sleep, for when she wakes, the world will shake!” This prophetic statement by Napoleon is undeniably true as we near the second decade of the 21st century. In the early 1970s President Nixon embarked on a trip to China, where he was greeted by Vice Premier Chou En Lai, and subsequently met with an aging and fragile Chairman Mao. Within a few years after that historic visit, China began a determined effort to shed the repressive and stultifying economic policies of Maoism, as well as the cultural and political destructiveness of the Cultural Revolution, and began to embrace the tenets and the fruits of a capitalistic, if not an unfettered, free market economy.

This shift resulted in unprecedented economic growth for China. A fast-growing, entrepreneurial business class emerged, a middle class developed and urban China transformed from a 19th-century infrastructure to one that both reflects and challenges Japan and the so-called 16 westernized economic powers. And, this has been accomplished under the aegis of the Chinese Communist party, the single political entity that has ruled China since the Communist secured power from the Nationalist Party in October 1949.

That is not to say that this unprecedented growth has not come without a price for the Chinese and for their trade partners, including the United States. China’s air pollution, the pirating of patented goods, shoddy workmanship, a lack of sound (and honest) safety inspections for goods and services present serious challenges for the Chinese government and for the international community. Further, in their rush to construct a modern society and the infrastructure to support it, many of China’s cultural and historical sites have either been demolished or diminished in size to make way for the high-rise buildings of a modern, urban environment.

Last year, two of my colleagues and I traveled to China under the auspices of the College Board. Working with Chinese colleagues, including the Ministry if Education, we visited many schools in China. The reason for the visit was to advance the teaching of Mandarin Chinese in American schools. The trip was financed totally by HANBAN, a division of the Chinese Ministry of Education. We witnessed many classrooms where Chinese students, beginning in the second grade, were learning English, and, in fact, their classes were taught entirely in English. More than 50 percent of Chinese students are conversant, if not fluent, in English upon graduation from high school. Compare that to less than 5 percent of U.S. high school graduates who are conversant in Mandarin Chinese.

Everywhere we went, our hosts would remind us that while the United States is the greatest economy in the world today, China will surpass us within 20 years. There is increasing evidence that this is not an idle boast.

Brazil, the nation many prognosticators have always defined as being “on the cusp” of greatness, has never been able to achieve that lofty goal, and yet, there are signs that this embryonic democracy may be making some determined headway these past two decades. Brazil’s immense size and vast natural resources offer a tantalizing spectrum of opportunities for economic growth and, as a possible consequence, tangible improvement for the quality of life of a vast underclass represented by more than half of the population.

Brazil is gradually freeing itself from the yoke of the 500-year- old Portuguese political, social, cultural and economic infrastructure that has compromised so many attempts to establish a modern, industrialized society. Subsequent to the oil crisis of 1973, the Brazilian government pledged that it would take all necessary steps to end its reliance on foreign oil. Today, ethanol has replaced gasoline as the fuel for the majority of automobiles in Brazil.

I had the privilege to be the headmaster of Escola American do Rio de Janeiro in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and was able to witness firsthand the many struggles and the many accomplishments that define Brazil in the early 21st century. They are determined to become a “First World” society and they know that they have the natural resources required to fuel the accomplishment of that goal.

India and Russia have earned membership into BRIC for different reasons. Russia’s entry rests primarily on its vast resources of natural gas and other natural resources required in a modern economy. Russia has the resources, and perhaps the political will and determination, to significantly expand and strengthen its economy. And, an extension, if it is so inclined, can dramatically improve the quality of life for all citizens.

India’s “ticket to ride” is the size and quality of the nation’s educational institutions, the number of qualified graduates in this and related fields and the emphasis on the continuous development and refinement of information technology. In fact, both India and China are graduating thousands of highly talented and skilled young men and women each year to advance this work.

We also need to be reminded that three of the BRIC members are nuclear powers, Russia, India and China. This capability adds an important, and potentially a challenging, even volatile dimension to the equation.

So, what must our role as educators be in responding to theses challenges?

Communication would seem to be the key, specifically the ability to engage in meaningful and substantive discourse with one another, and, with other people around the globe, in their language. Being able to communicate with others in their language helps others to appreciate that we take them seriously, that we have respect for them and for their culture. It also enables us to be less reliant on others to facilitate discourse with people from other cultures. We must be mindful that many people around the globe speak multiple languages and that they cross national borders like we Americans cross state borders.

This demands that we introduce the study of foreign language in our elementary schools and that we require every public school graduate to be fluent in a second language. And, you may ask, what language or languages should that be? Well, for a start, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish or Arabic. Facility with any other language, in addition to one or more of the aforementioned, would be, as they say, gravy. Our graduates who are fluent in one or more of these three languages will be able to “write their own ticket” with respect to opportunities for employment.

We have raised at least two generations, if not more, who are ignorant of much of the rest of the world. We must reinvigorate the teaching of geography, we must integrate the teaching of the history of other cultures and nations into our social studies courses and literature courses and we must expand opportunities for our students to engage in programs like Model United Nations, foreign travel and exchange programs, and a myriad of other opportunities to further understand and appreciate this nation and the international community of nations.

The Gorham school district has dedicated itself to this important work by creating the Twenty-First Century Committee. The goal is to provide the educational program and infrastructure that will help each student be a person of integrity, a person who contributes to the common good, a person who understands, appreciates, advances the principles of our democracy, a person who has a sound understanding and appreciation of the international community of which we are a part, and a person whose educational experience has offered the content knowledge and the skills to make informed and judicious decisions.

BRIC should be both a reminder and a challenge. Our responsibility to our students, to ourselves, to our colleagues, to our schools and to society is to embrace these challenges with the ultimate goal of providing our students with an education that truly does prepare them for the 21st century and the opportunities and challenges of living and working in global environment.