During my remarks to you in August 2006 I made reference to Tom Friedman’s book, “The World is Flat.” The essence of Friedman’s message is that information technology has created, at a minimum, a more level playing surface for much of the world’s population by providing people equal access to knowledge, information, and the ability to communicate with others around the world. Physical distance, one from another, is no longer the impediment for “knowing” that it has been throughout the history of humankind.

As a result, the expectations for the education of the young have, and will continue to rise exponentially as a result of the information engine driven by computer related technology. The development of information technology, with respect to its impact on humankind, equates with the discovery of fire, the invention of the printing press, the development of the gas-fueled engine, and the splitting of the atom. Our contemporary world is a complex, fast-evolving, often volatile, and eternally fragile entity that demands our most serious, focused, and thoughtful attention.

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, NGO’s, and others around the globe. BRIC stands for Brazil, Russia, India, and China, four nations that many of these aforementioned groups believe will be the four strongest economic powers no later than the year 2035, if not sooner! These nations are now defined as “Second World” nations, as opposed to the “First World” or “Third World” designations with which many of us are familiar. 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 of four nations.

“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. I have always had a fascination for China ever since one of my college professors, fresh out of Yale, captured my imagination and interest on a survey course entitled, China, A History! At the time, China was under the repressive grip of MaoTse-Tung and was, for all intents and purposes, a closed society to the West. Then came the early 1970s and President Nixon embarked on a trip to China where he was greeted by Vice Premier Chou EnLai and, subsequently, met with an aging and fragile Chairman Mao. As a young teacher and China scholar I was glued to the images of China and the Chinese people as they appeared on TV. 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.

The results of 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 Communists 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. As the most recent edition of The Economist suggests, Europe and America suffered these same conditions during their respective industrial revolutions.

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. Acknowledging that our Chinese hosts were putting their best foot forward by showing us schools and campuses that would compare most favorably with those of Phillips Exeter and Phillips Andover, or our top tier public school facilities, it was not the buildings and grounds, but the academic programs that were the most impressive. We witnessed many classrooms where Chinese students, beginning in the second grade, were learning English, in fact their classes were taught entirely in English. Over 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 which is 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 never again be reliant on foreign oil. Today, some 30-plus years later, 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. That fact is recognized by economists and others and has earned them the distinction of securing membership in this new class, the “Second World” tier of nations, as opposed to the “Third World” designation that is assigned to the vast majority of less developed nations of the world.

India and Russia have earned membership into this group (BRIC) for different reasons, as one might expect. Russia’s entry rests primarily on its vast resources of natural gas and other natural resources that fuel a modern economy. While the military prowess and swagger of the Cold War era Soviet Union is now only a memory, there are remnants of that era and that mystique which may be experiencing resurgence under the leadership of Vladimir Putin. What is not in doubt is that 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. While we Americans may joke that when we call a number to secure information or services about our cell phone or laptop that an Indian voice (in India) responds to our inquiry, that intercourse, that connection, exemplifies the growth of the IT industry and international influence of India.

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, you ask, what does BRIC mean for the West, specifically the United States, and 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. This dependency, as we have learned, can have serious repercussions for our national purpose, our international relationships, and at worst, our national security. 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 in the business, governmental, and NGO sectors in the 21st century. The ability to communicate is my primary concern, not because I don’t think we have the resources to meet the challenges that BRIC presents, rather, I wonder if we take it seriously. Indeed, I wonder if we even understand and appreciate the breadth and the depth of the challenges and what is required for us to successfully address them. As a history major and one with a lifelong interest in other nations, peoples, cultures, and institutions, together with the fact that I have had the good fortune to work and to live with people and institutions around the world, I am struck by the insular behavior and attitude of many of our institutions and many of our people with respect to the international community. Further, I am concerned that this insularity can breed an arrogance and ignorance. When combined, this is a most deadly combination, creating and sustaining a mind set about the world and America’s place in it that I fear will be harmful to us, our children, our grandchildren, and to our national interest.

We have raised at least two generations, if not more, who are ignorant of much of the rest of the world. Indeed, they are ignorant of many of the principles and institutions, the core beliefs, if you will, upon which this free and democratic society was founded. The 4th century Greek historian Thucydidies warned his own and future generations in these words: “When key words and key ideas are not in the common lexicon (language) that the society is at risk.” In the modern world we must extend his words to include not only our society, but also to the world as a whole.

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.

Schools reflect society’s expectations and mandates; it is not the other way around. If our schools are to prepare our children, our students to meet the challenges of the 21st century, we must commit ourselves to a serious and unencumbered review and retooling of our educational system. Engaging in this most serious and complex study requires that there be no “sacred cows,” albeit that at the conclusion of this work there will be a few “sacred cows” that will, and should be, left standing.

The Gorham School District has dedicated itself to this important work by creating the Twenty-First Century Committee, a group of people whose membership on the committee was presaged by a pledge that there are no “sacred cows.” During the ensuing 18 to 24 months this group of individuals will be meeting with interested, appropriate, and invested parties as part of this study. The overarching goal is to provide the educational program and infrastructure that will enable the Gorham Schools to best enable every student to 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 provided them with the content knowledge and the skills to make informed and judicious decisions.

BRIC should be both a reminder and a challenge for all Americans. BRIC, specifically the determination of each of those nations to achieve greatness, should remind America and Americans of our own rise to economic power in the late 19th and continuing into the 20th century and the challenges that are attendant to being true to a national sense of purpose and the commitment and dedication required to realize that purpose.

Here in Gorham, in Maine, and across the nation, we are ever mindful that the application of our financial recourses is requiring an even more focused and responsive mindset. If we are to rethink and retool our public schools and public colleges and universities, since the latter have the daunting task of preparing those who will be the teachers of our children, we must understand that a partnership is required to achieve our goals, a partnership of society (the greater community) with the schools and universities. Teacher preparation in our colleges and universities must provide and require students to engage in rigorous, content-rich academic programs, as well as programs that enable the prospective teacher to acquire the necessary pedagogical skills that enable one to be a highly competent and confident educator.

America’s education system, the traditional K-12 school system and our institutions of higher education long fueled the nation’s growth and the quality of life enjoyed by many of its citizens. In the past 25 to 30 years much more has been asked of schools and colleges by our society and to successfully meet these new expectations requires an amalgamation of old ideas, skills, and programs honed and retooled with new ideas, expanded skills, and programs.

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 a global economy and a global environment.

Using poetic license to reference an oft-used old phrase, this is not your father’s world and these are not, and cannot, be your father’s schools. Our failure to recognize this, and our failure to respond to the challenges of the 21st century will, I am certain, compromise dramatically the quality of life of our citizens and the security and prosperity of our nation.

In essence, we can be inspired or we can be intimidated by these challenges. I remain confident in our resiliency, our competence, and our confidence as a people and as a profession, as educators, to successfully address these challenges and, in doing, prepare well our students for life, for meeting the demands of a complex and constantly changing world, the world of the 21st century.

Ted Sharp is superinetndent of Gorham schools.