Superintendent visits Orient

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It was a huge learning experience for Edmonton Catholic Schools Superintendent Terry Fortin, and he hopes many others will make the same journey. Fortin represented his school system on the Team Canada trade mission to Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand.

"Within 500 miles of Bangkok is two-thirds of the worlds populations," said the Metis educator. "On the trip, we visited three cities, each with a population of more than 10 million people. We need, as a society, to change our focus from exclusively looking at Europe to the Orient. That's where much of our future can lie."

To move in that direction, Fortin is planning to encourage ex-changes for both staff and students from his schools. He stressed that it is important to get to know the Far East while the students are in their teens instead of waiting until college to find out about this fast-growing part of the world.

"I hope the corporate world starts to realize that we can't have kids learn about the international scene after their graduation or their first degree," he said. Fortin hopes to find his planned exchanges with donations.