Educators learn more about Asia’s impact in Mississippi
CLAY COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – In the past couple of decades, Mississippi has become a second home to a number of Japanese companies.
There’s Nissan in Canton and Toyota in Blue Springs.
In West Point, the Yokohama Tire plant is working with the Mississippi Council on Economic Education to help build a better understanding between the Far East and the Deep South.
Yokohama Tire Manufacturing is helping area educators learn more about the company’s home country and giving them tools to help teach their students financial literacy.
The Mississippi Council on Economic Education chose Yokohama as the location for a workshop focused on Asian Auto Manufacturers’ impact in the South.
“One of the primary goals and reasons that we’re doing this is that we need to capture kids when they’re younger in K-12 grades as far as working on their financial acumen and financial literacy,” said Philip Calhoun, the General Manager and Vice President of Operations for Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mississippi.
The Jackson-based Council aims to equip teachers across the state with resources to help them teach economics at an age-appropriate level.
They collaborated with the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia to host the event — “Bringing Asia into the Classroom: Trade, Culture, and Global Connections.”
“They’re learning about why Asian auto manufacturers choose the South to build cars. And when cars are built here by other organizations, that brings in organizations like Yokohama,” said Selena Swartzfager, the President of the Mississippi Council on Economic Education
This is the organization’s second time to host the workshop.
Around 30 teachers attended.
Kenneth Nelson will be taking some important lessons back to Kosciusko.
“We also gain valuable information that we can take back and we can give to our students. And a lot of these programs and a lot of these conferences that we go to, we receive curriculum, and we receive the power points, the lesson plans and the teaching material to back and to give and to teach our students this material,” said Nelson.
The workshop catered to teachers in grades fifth through twelfth, but the council welcomes any teacher who is interested in the topics discussed.
Teachers from the areas of businesses, world history, and economics were on hand on June 24.
They also learned about Asian food, culture, and trade.
“I’m excited about what it’s all going to entail. And it’s all about globalization at the end of the day. This is a global economy and it’s good to tap into those other systems and see how they’re living. And they get a chance to tap into ours as well”
The teachers also got the chance to tour Yokohama.
The next stop for the Mississippi Council on Economic Education is Laurel.
This was their second time hosting “Bringing Asia into the Classroom.”
