Superintendent’s Chat

Preparing for the Global Economy

Richard McClements

We are all seeing the effects of our slowing economy. Gasoline and food prices are soaring. More and more companies are reducing their work forces or downsizing. Housing values have plummeted. People are having their homes foreclosed because they can not make the payments. Our 401 K’s and mutual funds have dropped dramatically in just the last few months. Social security is almost bankrupt. September 11^th, the War Against Terror, Hurricane Katrina, and the devalued American dollar are all having a tremendous impact on every home. Our trade balance is out of whack. We buy more from abroad than we sell abroad. As our Presidential election draws closer, the number one concern is our economy. People are very uneasy.

Order almost any item from Amazon.com, Home Shopping Network, QVC, or go to any Wal-Mart and inspect where that item is from, and you will most likely see that it comes from China. Why you might ask? It is because the world’s economy is now global. Profit margin drives companies. They will purchase the products from China because they are cheaper. We know that China is a potential adversary. Nevertheless, we see those lower prices and buy. Wal Mart will still make their profit margin, which is almost always a 100% mark up. Look at the cars we buy from Japan. They are often as good as or better than anything available from General Motors. We know we should buy American, but we order that Honda anyway. Go to any hospital in Flagstaff or Phoenix and look at the list of doctors. It seems that the vast majority are from Pakistan, the Philippines, or India. Technology makes communication instantaneous. The dress store owner in Flagstaff can get on his laptop and order those dresses from Bangladesh or Singapore at a fraction of the cost he would pay to get them from some factory in New York City. Just like Wal-Mart, he will mark up the cost, and you will buy that dress because of its low price and only later see on the label that it comes from across the world.

Every student and parent need to understand that life as we once knew it will likely never be the same. When my father was a boy, he competed for jobs with all the other young men within a 25 mile radius from Newport, New York. He was a tenant farmer. He didn’t need to have an education back then. He only needed a strong back and a good work ethic. In my lifetime, I have had to compete for jobs with other Americans across the country. The youth of today will now compete for work against people from China, India, Spain, Korea, England, Canada, Germany, Russia, and other countries from around the world. Every Navajo must be as well educated and must have exceptional skills to offer his employer, which most likely will be an international firm. 70% of all companies are now multi-national. That percentage will only increase.

Last summer, I developed a PowerPoint on “Schools are Ignoring the Realities of the Global Economy” for our high school administration, staff, students, and Parent Advisory Committee. The cover of that document had a picture of an ostrich with its head in the sand. That visual suggested my concern last August that American schools were not preparing our kids for the world they will face. I knew that we were not in Shonto. The February 2008 edition of “School Administrator,” which is received by almost every superintendent in America, featured the global economy theme in every article in that magazine. I was delighted to see that the educational community here is finally taking this issue seriously. Many former American companies are now located in countries across the world. They find that people from those other nations will work for less money and do it equally as well as any American. They also know that they will not pay the huge taxes that they face here in America, abide by the environmental constraints, or be required to set aside earnings for employee retirement plans. Those companies that do stay here typically outsource – meaning that they buy many of their products and personnel specialists from abroad. How often have you called up a company for service issues and spoken with someone with a foreign accent? Many countries have educational systems that produce better results than we do. India produces more technology specialists than America. 43% of all college graduates in China have degrees in science and engineering compared to 5% here in America. That data ought to send chills down your spine. We are like ancient Rome thinking that we will be powerful forever. We would be wise to not have blind faith that Washington will always take care of us. We need to invest in ourselves and be ready to face stiff competition from other people.

What does all of this mean for Navajo students? Quite simply, they must be highly educated, life-long learners. School is serious business. Every student must have superior reading skills, possess outstanding communication skills enhanced by solid grammatical awareness and writing expertise, have a broad vocabulary, and embrace personal growth.

Here is some data from that PowerPoint I created:

• The new competitive framework requires a broader set of skills; "hard" (technical) and "soft" (interpersonal and communication) skills are equally important (Carnevale 1991). The skills identified by a number of authors (Carnevale 1991; Herr 1990; Rhinesmith 1991a,b, 1992) include managing information, resources, and relationships with people as well as self-management. The starting point, of course, is basic skills: reading, writing, computation, and, most important, ability to learn continuously throughout life. In addition, "global" workers need flexibility, problem-solving and decision-making ability, adaptability, creative thinking, self-motivation, and the capacity for reflection.

• According to Carnevale, competitive organizations will be characterized by productivity, flexibility, speed, affordable quality, and customer focus. Many organizations will emphasize closely integrated work groups, teamwork, and shared information. The need for certain types of workers is being reduced or eliminated. At the same time, freer movement of some workers across national borders is escalating (Herr 1990); other workers may engage in "electronic immigration," interacting through telecommunications with their employers in other countries. (Carnevale, a.p, 1991 – America and the New Economy)

• Even if they do not themselves relocate, workers will likely deal with people from other nations in their own workplaces or electronically. Dealing with other people in a diverse local as well as international context requires intercultural communication, teamwork, negotiation, conflict resolution, as well as complementarity--the ability to facilitate the work of others (Herr 1990).

Young Americans will now face 10-14 career changes during their lifetimes. They must be able to access information, understand it, and learn quickly. People attribute their success or failure in life to four things: basic ability, task difficulty, luck, and effort. The one thing that a student can always control is the amount of effort that he or she puts into something. Every student can grow and improve if the effort is there. I have written many Superintendent Chats over the past several years. There is none that I feel is more important than having every parent, student, educator, and board member understand that the Shonto Preparatory School cannot ignore the need to mirror the demands of the new workplace. Your future depends upon that ostrich taking his head out of the sand. Rome didn’t. We must.