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There are currently 15 member reviews
for The New Global Student
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Pam W., Alternative School Teacher, VT
The New Global Student
I have worked with kids outside the traditional school system for years, and I appreciate all the resources and ideas put together in this book. It's a great start for people looking for something more out of education, and includes a lot to inspire. I had a problem with the assumption that making education more truly "global" was the only way to improve it, as her suggestions would do very little to improve education in the math and sciences. I also found the book's tone to be kind of irritating--too many exclamation points, cliches, and bold type--she was trying a little too hard to convince.
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John G. (Steilacoom, WA)
The New Global Student
While certainly not for everyone, there is some great advice for anyone interested in pursuing educational alternatives outside the typical U.S. path: high school to college to grad school/professional school, all in this country.
Maya Frost has identified parental fear as the main roadblock to getting out of this pathway and allowing your children to experience the world, and offers advice for getting past this.
There are excellent sections on finding year long opportunities for high school students to live and study abroad as part of exchange programs and for college students to study abroad outside the American university system.
Many testimonials/success stories are presented including the author's own. To emulate the Frosts moving the entire family outside the U.S. to study and work is obviously not for everyone. It is a great overview of the possibilities available for anyone so inclined.
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Shannon R. (Sunburst, MT)
Some Really Good Ideas
Traditionally in the United States there has been one route to college and then to career employment. Maya Frost offers an alternative. I think there needs to be more "thinking outside the box" when it comes to education. Maya and her family have done this and while her way not be the right way for everyone--she dares you to think of your own alternative. Very interesting read! Thank you!
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Teresa G. (Larue, TX)
Great for Younger Students but Not for Old
This book is excellent for those who wish to create for their children an alternative form of learning about the world than the options available through traditional means. It takes a lighthearted and sometimes humorous view of how to implement this new form of learning.
The only disclaimer I would provide would be that this is aimed more towards people with children in middle school or high school. As a senior adult student, I was searching for alternative ways to provide further education for myself; in that regard, this book was not practicable for someone my age. That does not mean, however, that it is not the right one for many others.
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Dorian B. (Bainbridge, NY)
Thinking outside the box
Maya Frost has written a book in which she is able to share the different approach that her family chose to educate their children. As an educator I applaud their ability to "think outside the box" and create new experiences. While not for everyone, it provides an excellent example to parents that the world still holds many opportunities. We do not necessarily need to leave the country, but following our instincts and knowing our children can help to create many educational opportunities.
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Helen S. (Sun City West, AZ)
Moving toward Bold School thinking
If you are the parent of a middle- or high school student or a school counselor who wants to help prepare high school students for challenging and interesting careers in a global economy, you would get practical, first-hand advice from The New Global Student. In an upbeat (sometimes almost flippant) style, Maya Frost tells why she and her husband chose to leave a comfortable suburban life in the Northwest and move to Mexico, then to Argentina, with their four daughters. The stories of many other students who studied, traveled, and worked throughout the world, became fluent in one or more languages other than English, finished college at least two years earlier than classmates who stayed in a traditional high school program in the United States, and often accomplished this without going into debt are inspiring.
Not all families who want to help their children prepare for a global career are in a position to sell everything and move abroad as the Frosts did. Those families could follow Maya Frost’s recommendations to take community college classes simultaneously with high school classes at home to earn as much as two years’ college credit before high school graduation, then to look for internships and/or jobs abroad to strengthen their language and job skills. The book is full of examples of the various paths taken by successful global students coming from wide range of economic backgrounds. In my opinion, this is a good book which shows that, with discipline and determination, a student desiring a global education could achieve this goal.
The book would be a valuable resource for families contemplating leaving the Old School way of thinking about education and going toward the Bold School of alternative education. Other parents can follow Maya Frost’s practical suggestions to give their students a richer, international education and not use up all the family savings in the process. I enjoyed the book and will recommend it to my two daughters who are now considering expensive, traditional college educations for their high school age children.
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Becky H. (Chicago, IL)
Use this information judiciously
This is a great book for a parent of middle and high schools students to read. The author's daughters did a fast track to their first jobs that you may (or may not) want to emulate! There is lots of good information in this book, but you need to balance her ideas against your own children's needs, desires and maturity level. Not all students want to, or should, barrel through high school and college in two or three years.
Her take on the pluses of living in a foreign country as a local are spot on! But don't believe her negative view of the International Baccalaureate program and immersion schooling. There are good and bad programs in both entities. She doesn't mention Waldorf Education with its global perspective and emphasis on the arts (But it IS expensive). She gives the Peace Corps only a brief mention. Both offer another way to get a global viewpoint, broad practical experience and several languages.
Disclaimer -- my daughter attended a Waldorf school through 8th grade, did the IB program through high school, spent a summer in Spain, attended a small liberal arts college where she was able to plan her own curriculum (magna cum laude), did an intensive language program at St. Petersburg University (Russia) on her own and spent the last 2 1/2 years in Kazakhstan with the Peace Corps and speaks three languages plus English. It STILL took her 6 months to land a job this year!
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