11.20: Lessons -- The World

My 9th grade students are reading a book called Outcasts United, which talks about refugees who form soccer teams outside of Atlanta, Georgia. It's a nonfiction book and I think it's really good. My students (and many of their parents) are stressed because I have made them read the whole thing on their own in a month. This is not a big deal, and I answer their whining with pretty direct remarks. I don't really care about the complaining. They will deal.

The other six 9th grade teachers are not making their students read this book. They are instead focusing on documentaries and journalism and other kinds of expression, which is all well and good, but I really want my kids to learn about people who are from different parts of the world than they are. Most of them are super rich and have lived in suburban, white Ohio their whole lives.

I make them read, answer questions, take quizzes, discuss the themes and fill out maps and character/country lists. They whine and cry. I make them do it anyway.

Today, my students drew maps of the world on the board. They did it randomly, but three of them did it. And here's what they drew:

If you notice, there is something wrong with the labeling in this picture. There is NO Africa. Not even a lack of a LABELED Africa, but no Africa whatsoever.

How can you draw the earth and miss a HUGE continent? And while we're at it -- Russia is NOT a continent. 

So this is why, even though my kids are really pissed at me, I make them read about cultures around the world. It's time to get them out of the bubble.

NGS likely knows more about the earth than me.