Time – Andrés Martinez
“People are constantly extolling the study of foreign languages and cultures because it helps us better understand the rest of the world, and because it turns out that being bilingual is good for the brain (thanks, ma!). But one of the corollary benefits of spending time immersed in a foreign culture – as important as any other benefit – is that you gain a better understanding of your own…That’s why all Americans should adopt a second country…Here’s how it would work: Every American second grader would be assigned a second country. School districts would organize annual festivals around a lottery that matched kids with their second countries, with which they’d establish a long- term relationship…The result would go beyond creating a far more cosmopolitan and informed citizenry…That’s my proposal, anyways. Back here in the real world, however, the trends are heading in the opposite direction…In our schoolyards, it’s as if the rest of the world were shrinking in economic and strategic importance to us.”(more)