Introduction


 * [[image:French_entry.jpg align="center"]] || [[image:92-mpg-eco-car.jpg align="center"]] ||
 * French entry in The Great Race 1908. From New York City to Paris to prove to the world that the automobile was a reliable form of transportation. || The Great Race of 2008 features cars with renewable fuels and other 21st century technologies as well as the old classics! Here you see the [|“alé”], built by FuelVapor Technologies. ||

The Great Race and Education in the 21st Century
The Great Race Global Student Project offers 21st century students the real-world educational opportunities to develop skills needed to live and succeed in the 21st century. The organization of this significant, historic, global event by Great Race Sports, Inc., the sponsors, teams and other participating organizations is providing a once-in-a-lifetime scenario that is perfectly suited for delivery of 21st century curriculum and instruction.

The Great Race offers students opportunities to learn, create, innovate and communicate in critical issues of the 21st century, including but not limited to, the environment, technologies, communications, exploration, innovation, medical advances, physical fitness, finance, globalization issues and more.

Today's kindergarteners will be retiring in the year 2067. We have no idea of what the world will look in five years, much less 60 years, yet we are charged with preparing our students for life in that world. Our students are facing many emerging issues such as global warming, famine, poverty, health issues, a global population explosion and other environmental and social issues. These issues lead to a need for students to be able to communicate and function in this world, and to create change personally, socially, economically and politically on local, national and global levels.

Even kindergarten children can make a difference in the world by participating in real-life, real-world service learning projects. You're never too young, or too old, to make your voice heard and create change that makes the world a better place.

Emerging technologies and resulting globalization also provide unlimited possibilities for exciting new discoveries and developments such as new forms of energy, medical advances, restoration of environmentally ravaged areas, communications, and exploration into space and into the depths of the oceans. The possibilities are unlimited.

Our students deserve and require more than ongoing, panic-driven, standardized test prep. As Sir Ken Robinson says, we are educating our children out of creativity; the arts (music, dance, drama and art) are as important to the education of our children as are mathematics and science. Quoting Jonas Salk, he says “If all insects were to disappear from the Earth, all life on Earth would end within 50 years. If all humans disappeared from the Earth, within 50 years all life would be flourishing.” Referring to Al Gore’s talk on ecology and the revolution that was triggered by Rachel Carson, he believes that our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology. Our task is to educate the “whole being.”


 * About 21st Century Schools and The Great Race**

Recognizing this event for its educational significance, 21st Century Schools will be dedicating a great deal of its resources to the promotion of The Great Race. This promotion will range from dedicating 21st Century Schools’ home page to promotion of the event and the corresponding possibilities for curriculum and instruction to the active solicitation of global public awareness through press releases, newsletters to educators and other sources available.

We pledge to make every endeavor to assist students around the world in collaborating and creating quality products worthy of the world as their audience. Finally, we pledge to involve as many individuals and organizations as possible whose expertise would increase the value of the experience for the students and teachers. Of course this will also benefit the organizer, Great Race Sports, Inc. and their sponsors.

21st Century Schools has been offering professional staff development and curriculum design services to educators since 1995. In addition to a web site containing a wealth of free resources and a free enewsletter, we offer on-site staff development, regional workshops, self-paced online courses, and a new virtual classroom. We plan to expand our offerings to include more workshops in all formats, and products for purchase including podcasts and videocasts, professional development seminars on DVD, curriculum design workbooks and other materials. We will research and utilize emerging technologies to reach a larger audience and to acquire and maintain a place on the cutting edge of education, technology and important issues.

We have already established a global presence, as evidenced by the links to our web site appearing on school district, university, organizational and RSS feed web sites in languages from English to Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and more. For example, we are quoted and listed as a resource in places such as the Education Technology Plan for the Los Angeles Unified School District (July 2006 through June 2009), and the Review of Government Secondary Colleges by the Australian Capital Territory.

About the Project