Giving students a "global education"

The following is excerpted from a pdf file describing some aspects of the curriculum at The Blake School, a college preparatory school in Minnesota.

[S]tudents are introduced to the French language and culture in kindergarten and first grade and to the Japanese language and culture in second and third grades. In fourth and fifth grades, students learn to read and speak Spanish while studying the culture and geography of Spanish-speaking countries around the world. In Middle School, students study French, Spanish, Latin, or Mandarin Chinese. In Upper School students continue advanced classes in their chosen language, literature, and culture…

From kindergarten through fifth grade, language studies of French, Japanese, and Spanish are closely aligned with social studies. Students in sixth grade study the culture (including religion) and geography of North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, and Southeast Asia, and then in seventh and eighth grade, they explore the roots of western civilization and democracy in Greece, Rome, the Renaissance, and Enlightenment Europe before turning their attention to the role of the United States in the world.

In ninth grade, social studies and English classes focus on current issues and the literature of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia; the two courses are interdisciplinary and, at times, team taught. In eleventh and twelfth grade, students must take at least one elective international course, and most take more than one. The current offerings are courses on China and Japan, comparative religion, early European civilization, global community (which is a Model United Nations course), human geography, Latin American studies, modern European civilization, African studies, and South East Asia studies…

When I read that I thought about my own pre-collegiate education 50 years ago, which included three years of Latin, three of German, one middle school course on geography, and one upper school course in history.  I went off to college feeing better prepared than most, but it pales in comparison to what some high school students experience today.