Creating “Sister Classrooms” to Modify & Redefine Global Education

In 1956 President Eisenhower launched the “People to People” initiative to create peace through understanding other nations by international exchange. This has been implemented many different way over the decades including the Pen Pal program, People to People Ambassador Programs (An International educational travel program that has traveled over 500,000 student to over 70 countries and all 7 continents. I worked for them for the last 10 years.) and the Sister Cities Program. Here is how the Sister Cities program go started:

“The US sister city program formally began in 1956 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed a people-to-people, citizen diplomacy initiative. Originally a program of the National League of Cities, Sister Cities International (SCI) became a separate corporation in 1967 due to the growth and popularity of the US program.^[44] SCI is now a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network that creates and strengthens partnerships between communities in the US and other countries, organizes cultural exchanges, and provides support and funding. Under its administration, more than 2,000 cities, states and counties are partnered in 136 countries.^[44][45]”      

Seeing what schools have been doing and what we highlighted in class, I’m inspired to create “Sister Classrooms”. There are so many teachers already doing this around the world this would be a great time to organize and affiliate this with the People to People programs. I have many contacts in the organization,

The time is right to bring together communication and collaboration technology with the enduring idea President Eisenhower articulated with his People to People initiative in 1956.