Many people have at least some experience with student exchange programs - at least they know about them. Some of these programs are officially sponsored by the United States Government. Click right here for the Department of State's website devoted to the exchange programs affliliated with the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
I never was an exchange student, during my high school years, but I definitely knew a number of exchange students who came to Palo Alto High School from other countries. Recently, as it has become ever clearer to me that we are "all in this together" - globally, and not just nationally - I have begun entertaining the idea that there is a lot of potential benefit in promoting a greatly expanded program of student exchange.
One of the great things about "self-government" is that every one of us can have an idea that might ripen into real action, affecting our local community, or even our state, or even the entire nation. So, here's an idea. What about expanding student exchange programs until such programs are, essentially, so extensive that almost every student participates?
We could do that! What if Congress could be convinced that building connections between every country in the world, and our country, the United States, would advance our national interest? I do think that there is a pretty good argument that such an expanded student exchange program would do just that.
If we decided to do it, we could make a national decision to spend some considerable amount of our tax dollars making arrangements to send U.S. high school students to virtually every country in the world, while simultaneously welcoming foreign students to come to our country. I am thinking of, perhaps, a six-month program, to send almost every U.S. high school student abroad (to virtually every country in the world), while bringing similarly aged students here, from other countries, so that they could learn, firsthand, about the United States. If we did that, we might find that the result, over the long run, would be a world that could better work together to deal with the planetary-level challenges that are going to be of increasing importance in the years soon coming.
There is also another advantage to this idea, too. Right now, as most of us are painfully aware, there are a number of nations with nuclear weapons (including our own), and these nations are tempted, always, to consider using such nuclear weapons against another nations (including our own). So far, the only nation that has ever used nuclear weapons against another nation is the United States, and our current president has indicated, fairly recently, that this is definitely an option that he wants to continue to have available. China, Korea, Russia, and maybe even Iran could be in a position to consider using nuclear weapons against us - and Israel might be tempted to use its nuclear weapons, too, even if it's unlikely that the United States would be the target. You get the picture. We are all implicated in a kind of "nuclear hostage" situation, and dangers seem to be growing, not getting less.
If there were thousands, or even tens of thousands, of young students from these nuclear-capable countries here in the United States, the possibility that someone would want to fire off nuclear weapons that would end up killing their own students would certainly be discouraged. And, of course, if thousands of U.S. students were in places like China, and Russia, and Iran, the U.S. government would certainly have to think very hard before launching a nuclear weapon against such a country.
Well, this is just a thought. New ideas are needed. It is ever more clear that we live in one world, and that "nationalism" is not going to be a solid basis on which the nations of the world can move ahead to a better future. Getting our young students involved in other countries, as a routine matter, might make our international interdependence ever more clear, with new possibilities for peace and cooperation.
That's sure a problem we ought to be working on!
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