A longtime educator and nonprofit leader shares his blueprint for turning contentious topics into teachable moments that help turn students into global citizens.

By Dr. Ian Jamison

More than any other generation in human history, the students who are in school today will live alongside, work with, and relate to peers with the widest possible range of cultural backgrounds, beliefs, values, and perspectives. To help them thrive in this complex world, it is imperative that we give them the tools they need to build societies that welcome diversity rather than fearing it, that encourage open-mindedness rather cultivating prejudice, and that include rather than exclude.

The alternatives are too terrible to contemplate. Every day we see news reports that indicate what happens as a direct result of people rejecting diversity, celebrating intolerance, and wishing to impose their monolithic vision of reality upon others. With the rapid growth of social media and other forms of online communication, our students are almost certainly already participating in global discussions. At best, young people are being subjected to poor examples of how to interact online, and at worst, we know that a great deal of radicalization into violent extremism takes place online.

Read the rest of the article on The Huffington Post.