Good-bye, Old School. Hello, Bold School!
In 2005, Maya Frost and her husband sold everything and left their suburban American lifestyle behind in order to have an adventure abroad. The tricky part: they had to shepherd their four teenage daughters through high school and into college. This hilarious and conspiratorial how-to handbook describes the affordable, accessible, and stunningly advantageous options they stumbled upon that any American student can lev… More >>
Tags: american lifestyle, education product, global student, international education, teenage daughters
I loved “The New Global Student” so much that I wanted to devour it in one sitting, but there was just too much information to process all at once. So I settled back and enjoyed it.
Maya Frost is a wise, witty guide with innovative ideas for global education. She explains her “Bold School” approach: WHY a substantial, immersive international experience before age 20 transforms students’ brains as it creates global citizens. And she provides many ideas about HOW to create such an opportunity, safely and inexpensively. Practical discussions about gaining job experience, getting an education with little or no debt, and helping teens develop independence are spot on for the challenges that today’s families face. This is a guide about living with passion and without fear as much as it is about traveling.
Frost shares her own experiences with her husband and four daughters living in several countries, but she also interviews many other exchange students and experts. What I love the most about “The New Global Student” is that Frost presents a smorgasbord of options and trusts the reader to develop a plan that is right for their family and personal situation. She talks about how to break free of traditional high schools, avoiding piling on AP classes, stressing about the SATs, and all that, but in the end she says, “A traditional four-by-four plan [4 years of high school, 4 years of college] could be the perfect choice as long as it’s based on an understanding of all options available.” That sums up this book’s empowering, positive approach.
Recommended for all families, even (especially!) if you have not considered travel abroad. It’s a great book to read when the kids are young, to open your eyes to a world of possibility. As someone who blindly climbed the academic ladder all the way to the top, nonstop from kindergarten to my Ph. D., I really wish I had taken a step off the path along the way to gain the independent view that Frost helps readers develop. Using this book for guidance, I plan to open those doors for my own daughter to walk through if she chooses.
Rating: 5 / 5
I believe sometimes in our life we come across a certain book that completely and radically changes our perspective, and in this case, Maya Frost provided a fine piece of work that has altered my way of looking at not only studying abroad, but education and life in general. That education is not limited to the traditional classroom, it encompasses much more.
The famous quote, “don’t let your schooling get in the way of your education,” rings a bell here. Due to an increasingly competitive society, parents and students tend to respond by only pushing themselves, failing to recognize that there is more than option. That it’s not a matter of life or death where exactly they attend college. And in her book “the new Global Student,” Frost illustrates that traditional 4×4 (high school and college years) among students and parents has led to a wrong priority of values.
The current fad is to load up on extracurriculars, AP courses, club positions, SAT prep courses, and the list goes on. However, this is also a very alarmingtrend I believe and after reading “Global student” got the feeling that we are failing to realize that we students and the parents should together be seeking to live lives of meaning and happiness. Far too often, I see an increasingly number of students who are stressed at such tender and youthful ages, boring in terms of their personal and intellectual interests, failing to consider the meaning and purpose of life, and sadly thinking there are no other options.
Not only is this a real eye opener of traditional 4×4 thinking and the the immense benefits of someone who actually went abroad with her entire family (4 daughters and husband), it is an entertaining how to guide of how one can literally change their life for the better. If you are interested in living or studying abroad, I highly recommend this. Even better if you are just entering high school or are a parent of high school student(s) (this is also probably the best and only “college admissions” book you’ll ever need).
Rating: 5 / 5
I found much of the information in this book very interesting, and it offered much solid, practical guidance on studying abroad and finding other paths through high school & college that are not as traditional. I definitely think it is worth the time & money to read.
The major criticism I had of the book is the authors assumption that a “global” child is the goal we are all/should all be aiming for, without much explanation as to why that is so much better for our children than a well-informed, balanced, but thoroughly American perspective. Perhaps given the title, her readers’ agreement on that was a fair assumption on her part, but I don’t happen to think that anything global or international is inherently better or worse than anything American, and I found myself quite tired of this assumption in the book. I want my children to understand how truly blessed they are, and to speak other languages, too, but I am not attempting to raise global citizens, I am attempting to raise American citizens that can connect with others around the globe. I didn’t find any allowances for that in this book.
The second problem I had with the book is related to the first – the author throws her worldview into the book freely without ever stopping to consider that others with different worldviews may still be looking for non-traditional routes to college. Her pejorative use of “suburbia” turned me off, as did her completely out of place reference to health care in America not being as humane as health care in Argentina. She did not seem to have any respect for the fact (or any awareness of it, for that matter) that reasonable, thinking people might like Suburbia and find ways other than moving to another country to deal with the pressures in it, or that indeed they may not want their children to be so heavily influenced by other cultures before they fully understand or are able to defend their own.
All in all, though, I found the real information in this book outweighed the irritations. If you share her worldview, you will probably love it. If you happen to lean more conservative, you may be frustrated also, but it is still worth reading.
Rating: 3 / 5
Every parent who worries about what they can and should do to prepare their children for the future should give The Global Student a read. Maya Frost has put together a truly thoughtful piece, providing providing great stories, good guidance, and a different view on how we really prepare our kids for what may come. Maya has gone with the tagline “Good-bye Old School, Hello Bold School,” and when you read her story, you understand how appropriate the line is for her story and her recommendations.
In doing what many of us talk about but few of us dare actually do, Maya and her family have traveled down a path that really forced one to look at the educational choices we make and why we made those choices. And when you look at the the experiences and successes of her children, you have an even deeper appreciation for how difficult and rewarding the path was.
Maya is a fantastic storyteller, and the book really provides some great points for discussion, thought, and action. By refusing to accept the status quo, she has charted a course for those looking to break the norm. And she’s woven a fantastic and captivating story in the process.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is not only an informative “How-To” on do-it-yourself global schooling, it is also an inspiring story of a family, finding themselves somewhat dulled by the sameness and tameness of suburban American living, strike out for something more in life and find it. Thoughtful, articulate, with lots of practical tips for those who fear that public schools are doing little to prepare our kids for a flat-world future. Somewhat unwieldy from on organizational standpoint because it’s really two ( or maybe three) books in one, but it’s a fast read and a book you’re likely to keep coming back to.
Rating: 4 / 5