Spotlight

Primary Source Celebrates 20 Years of Global Education

For the past two decades, Primary Source has brought international perspectives into the classrooms of thousands of students across New England.

Founded in 1989 by educators Anna Roelofs and Anne Watt, Primary Source works in collaboration with K-12 teachers and schools to help students think critically, be culturally competent, and have a global mindset. The organization provides graduate courses on the history and culture of the United States and the world, as well as international study tours, to approximately 1800 public and independent school educators each year.

Primary Source grew out of Anna Roelofs' quest to make history and the humanities more exciting for students and Anne Watt's drive to teach children about places and people that she herself had never learned about in school. Initially, Primary Source provided programs for teachers that focused primarily on inclusive American history and China studies, the interests of its founders. Together, Anne and Anna created an institution that has changed the direction of many schools and districts, helping to develop globally minded curricula.

Primary Source currently serves teachers in more than 45 schools and districts. Brockton, Brookline, Winchester, and many others have established district-wide Chinese language programs as a result of involvement with Primary Source. High schools in Needham and Burlington have developed global competency certificate programs designed to provide graduates with the essential skills for participating in and contributing to an increasingly globalized society, and dozens of schools now engage in international teacher and student exchanges.

Since its early offerings of a few yearly seminars for fewer than 100 teachers, Primary Source has grown in programmatic depth and geographic reach. Today, under the leadership of Executive Director Kathy Ennis, the organization provides programs in a variety of content areas, curriculum resources, and study tours to teachers throughout New England. In the past twenty years, Primary Source has served more than 11,000 teachers and, through them, reached over 1 million students.

In honor of Primary Source's 20th anniversary, the organization will hold a "Gala for Global Education" on October 23, 2009, at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge. For more information, visit http://www.primarysource.org/gala.

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