Forum focuses on globalization

Being part of the global village has its advantages, but it also comes with challenges, speakers at a local forum said Thursday.

"The ability to manage change is imperative," said Deborah Levine, president of the American Diversity Report, an online resource for diversity issues. "Unless we can get ourselves to move faster (intellectually), we will fall farther and farther behind."

One of those changes is in education, said Jeff Olingy, director of Economic and Community Development at Chattanooga State Community College.

"We can no longer live under the illusion that we are isolated. We are having to compete with places like India and China," he told a group of about 20 attendees at the "Education for the Global Village" forum in the Jewish Cultural Center.

The forum included social services providers, artists, educators and business people.

About 30 percent of ninth-graders in Hamilton County will not graduate, Mr. Olingy said, and about 70 percent of the students at Chattanooga State take some sort of remedial classes.

The challenge for education, he said, "is how to anticipate what's going to be needed down the road to prepare students for when (the new jobs) become available."

Along with education, the arts are a vital piece, said Rodney Van Valkenburg, director of arts education for Allied Arts.

"I think there's a disconnect in Chattanooga and (Hamilton County) between what skills are needed and how children are educated," he said. "We need to make sure they know there's a lot more out there (than their town)."

The arts give students "opportunities to take risks and get out of their comfort zones, which helps prepare them for the challenges of the real world," said Kathy Lanza, head of St. Peter's Episcopal School.

Ms. Levine said learning how to be players on a diverse team doesn't come overnight.

"We need to generate the interest and expertise," she said. "They need to see themselves as a member of the global village and then say, 'Now what?'"