"Your Shot" China Map from National Geographic

With the Olympics on the way, see National Geographic readers' photos of Chinese life plotted on an interactive map—with tranquil rivers, frenetic cities, and more.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/your-shot/china-map-interactive?source=email_places_20080710&email=places_20080710.

You Tube video "Where the Hell is Matt?" - hurting or helping global education?

Recently a New York Times article caught my eye. It began with this description:

"There are no weekend box office charts for online videos. But if there were, near or at the very top of the list right now might well be a four-and-a-half-minute video called 'Dancing,' which more than four million people have viewed on You Tube, and perhaps another million on other sites, in the just over two weeks since it appeared. It’s the online equivalent of a platinum hit, seeping from one computer to the next like a virus."

Almost the same day a global education listserve that I belong to alerted its readers to this video's existance. This started an interesting and spirited conversation about how we teach our students about other people and cultures around the world.

Some people were fully supportive of the video, posting comments such as, "There can be such difficulty in persuading our youth and our students to venture outside the U.S. and experience other countries and cultures, that it's great to find something that shows them all the places they can go and experience and that they can have fun doing it. And even make contact with local people."

Others, though, were strongly against using this video in the classroom. One response focused on perceived superficiality by saying, "What I heard from a group of social studies teachers (some are from other countries) is that 'Matt' was just another superficial look at other cultures. Someone said it reduced people in his country to being the backdrop for a white American guy's video. One compared it to white actors using Kenyans as scenery in Out of Africa."

Another person brought up the topioc of deeper understanding with this comment: "Why not ask students to analyze the carbon footprint of that activity? And what does it really contribute to people's understandings of cultures that they can't get from M-TV? The two best scenes, in my opinion, are where he dances with the Indian women who are doing their own dance, and where the PNG folks are doing their own thing while Matt does his little dance. This is fun but I think there are better ways to contribute to students' understandings of world cultures. I think it feeds students' celebrity-itis and their desire to do gimmicky things to put on the internet rather than feeding a real desire to understand other cultures."

What do you think?

To view the video go to http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/?fbid=B_z_WU.

• Does this video really contribute to students' understanding of the world around them?


• Would you use this video in your classroom? If so, how? If not, why?

Bradford to celebrate bicentennial in 2010 of America's first globe

By Tom Haley
Rutland Herald
July 5, 2008

The man who made the first globe in North America had a farm in Bradford, and it's not difficult to see the town is proud of that distinction. There are signs in town and a historic marker on Interstate 91. Years ago, the local bank had a drawing of a globe on the checks, according to Bradford Historical Society President Larry Coffin.

But the grandest proclamation will come in 2010 when Bradford celebrates the bicentennial of the Wilson Globe. James Wilson might well have made his first globe before 1810, but that is the date of the first recorded sale so the town is using that year to celebrate the event. The centerpiece of the celebration will be one of the first three globes made by Wilson.

The globe is in Williamstown, Mass., where it is being restored by the Williamstown Art Conservation Center to the tune of about $25,000."It was falling apart and fragile," Coffin said. He felt if they were ever going to be able to achieve its restoration, it would be for a bicentennial event. There will also be a stand for the globe and a booklet that Coffin estimates will be 20 pages or so with information on Wilson.

Appropriately, one of the events for raising the funds is a geography bee held at Oxbow Union High School in Bradford. The second bee will be Nov. 15. The first in 2007 was a success financially and in terms of the enthusiasm it generated. With its entry fees, sponsorship money and a matching sum from the Modern Woodmen of America, the geography bee raised about $3,800. But it was the excitement and fun it brought to the community that was its signature."Everyone had a great, great time. It was so successful, we are going to do it again," Nordham said. Who knows? The bee might have a life beyond the bicentennial."It will go at least through the bicentennial," Coffin said. "It might go for awhile."Personally, I love geography."

Evidently, so do many others. The competition of the first bee was spirited and the knowledge impressive by the three-person teams in the two categories: elementary school and high school/adult."Many of the adults were impressed that the kids knew as much as they did," Nordham said. The grand prize is a $300 16-inch Replogle Globe in a Queen Anne style cherry floor stand that was donated by the Replogle Globe Co. The winning team will select the area school or library that receives it. National Geographic Society atlases and other prizes will also be awarded.

Bradford's bicentennial of the Wilson Globe will be a celebration of its heritage, but as much as anything it will be an event honoring ingenuity and hard work.It is fascinating what this farmer/blacksmith went through to achieve his globe business after moving to Bradford in 1796 with little formal education."He was totally self-taught," Nordham said.Wilson sold cows from his farm to buy an encyclopedia and educated himself in cartography and map making. He sought out an expert in engraving, Amos Doolittle in Connecticut."He taught himself geography and astronomy," Nordham said. "He studied all the skills he needed to make his globes."

For the complete story go to http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080705/NEWS02/807050328.

It's high time to retire the Pledge of Allegiance

By PAUL M. HOWEY
Times Argus

July 6, 2008

We say the Pledge of Allegiance a lot, mechanically mouthing the words without truly understanding them or their history. Are we deluding ourselves into believing this somehow renders us more patriotic?At the risk of sounding like Cliff from "Cheers," here are some little-known facts, Normie.

Conservatives are up in arms about presidential candidates wearing flag pins. I'll bet precious few of them, however, are aware the Pledge of Allegiance was written by a left winger, a socialist even, and that corporate profits were the sole motivating factor behind it.

Francis Bellamy penned the pledge in 1892. Bellamy was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist, and an extreme nationalist whose sermons ("Jesus the Socialist," for one) eventually got him booted from the church. He then landed a job with Youth's Companion, a magazine that also happened to be in the business of selling American flags. The magazine's owners decided they needed to boost flag sales. They came up with a marketing gimmick. They engineered a deal with the National Education Association to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus landing in the New World. By agreement, all the schools in the country were to have flag ceremonies, and naturally they would all need to have flags. To cement the deal, they had Bellamy write the following pledge that youngsters all over the country would be required to say:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

One nation indivisible" was a phrase Bellamy used to drive home the fact that states had no inherent right of secession. The Civil War was still fresh on the minds of Americans, and the Northerners wanted to be sure the Southerners understood the new rules. Socialist that he was, Francis had wanted to include "equality for all" in his pledge, but he knew the states' superintendents of education — who generally did not support equality for women or for African-Americans — would object.That could hurt flag sales (the pledge was, after all, just an advertising ploy meant to peddle more flags), and so he dropped the idea.

The last change to the pledge came in 1954. In response to the "Red Scare" of the McCarthy era, the words "under God" were added, supposedly to show that we rejected the godless precepts of communism. Otherwise patriotic atheists and agnostics were not consulted.

Sadly, the Pledge of Allegiance was but an ad campaign created to bolster a corporation's bottom line. Perhaps worse, it was worded to be politically expedient rather than politically correct. We're about the only nation to "pledge allegiance" to a flag, and we do it without even understanding why we do so.

Perhaps it's time to consider retiring this anachronistic practice, or at least finding a meaningful replacement.

Paul M. Howey is an author and photographer, and lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

• Do students in your school regularly recite the Pledge of Allegiance?
• What is your opinion? Would you use this article with your students? If so, how? If not, why?
• Have you ever used the Pledge of Allegiance as the basis for a lesson in your classroom? What did that look like?
• Do you have any resources you would recommend for others about this topic?