American Kids Studying Abroad

Source: International Institute of Education via
The New York Times

Comment: The increasing trend is encouraging. The decreasing trend of kids spending a year abroad is worrisome.. I think a year is a relatively short time to get acquainted with ones first foreign country. The distribution of countries is also of some concern. It might be better for the United States were a larger portion of the students to go to Asia, especially China and India. It might be better for the students were more to go to Latin America, where they might learn more about society and the social sciences and less about art and high culture, and at a lower cost.

Perhaps a foundation could step in to work on policy for international education for the United States. A fairly small program might make a difference in the choices of several thousand students per year, especially if it were to enable Latin American universities to offer more attractive programs to U.S. students, or to reach more of them with more attractively presented programs. JAD