Is the US lost in Geography?

A newspaper article from the Chicago Tribune this morning wrote that United States Americans are one of the least knowledgeable people in World Geography today. There have been many surveys which have led to this conclusion, but why is it that one of the strongest countries in the world today can't even tell New York from Arizona? Although this article talked a lot about around the world geography, I am going to use some of my knowledge from years past in the US.
When I was in third grade, my teacher made it a point to teach us every where every state in the US is and what their capitals are. By the end of that year, I didnt even have to look at a map and I could go across the US from top to bottom and name every single state and its capital. My older sister had the same teacher as I did, but my twin, who did not, has never learned how to do this. Over the years, my knowledge has left about the states and their capitals, but I could tell you if the state is in the West or East quite easily.
My sister came home from college this year and told her that her room mates from New York could not even point out on a map where Illinois was, let alone their home state of New York. Knowing all that I do from third grade, and also knowing that these college students, who are at one of the top schools in the nation, I could tell that this is not something to be proud about. When I was little we had a puzzle in the house of the US and you had to put all of the states where they belonged. That was a great learning tool.
So I think what this article is trying to say is very good. Students should have to learn more aabout the geography of the world because it is a key factor to knowing baout current events in the world.

Moment of Silence Gone?

Last week in the newspaper, there was an article about how the new "Moment of Silence" law was on hold for the time being. When I heard that the first time, I could not help myself but to laugh. I found myself laughing not because it was on hold, but because after all of the trouble this new law has caused us for the past month or two, they have decided that they need to re-word it. A man found that the original title of the act, which was called the "Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act" was unlawful and unconstitutional. Going back to the discussion we had in class right after the Act was established, I definately agree with him. Especially for public schools where the students are very diverse, having an act mandated which states that we should take time for "Silent Prayer" is unlawful, and in some cases either mocking or going against some religions.

Witchcraft in Africa?

Today, I got the chance to sit in a college lecture called "Africa Peoples and Cultures." The topic that they focused on was the theory that witchcraft is actually going on in Africa today. The Professor talked a lot about how parents in Angola accuse their children of being witches for the sole reason that they want to get rid of them, so they do not have to go more out of their way to get them more food. I related this to The Crucible in that so many people were accusing the children for dancing in the forest. More children were blamed than were in the forest that night but, like in Angola, we are left with the idea that one kid represents the entire children population in Salem, or today, in Africa.
A question that the Professor asked was, "Is there actually witchcraft in Angola?" There is an article that was published, as Mr. O'Connor already posted on the AIS blog, that was published in the New York Times this morning about this subject. In reality, the answer is of course, NO. A word that the Professor used, which I am not remembering at this moment, meant that the cause of accusing, and the professor said that is "taking something very abstract, like witchcraft, and making it seem like it is a tangible thing." You could walk away from the New York Times this morning thinking that there is a lot of witchcraft going on in Africa. This also happened in Salem during The Crucible. Witchcraft was basically a rumor that spread too quickly. It started out really abstract, then with time began to form into something more concrete and tangible.
This is the article from the paper. What do you think?

The Election on 1800

Today in class, we did the recreation of the election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1800. I thought this was an excellent activity to participate in. From the view as one of the undecided people, it looked like the speeches that were spoken by the people who played Adams and Jefferson were written for an actual Presidential Election. The partisans did a terrific job of putting all of the posters and questions together, too. Also, the whole class ran so smoothly. Everyone knew exactly what they were doing and when to do it, on basically no class time to prepare.
During the speeches, I was thinking about what it was actually like to take part in that election in 1800. We know that Jefferson won that election, but in our class vote, Adams won. What made Adams more appealing? Of course, the cupcakes were a big part of the bais because all of the undecideds want one. However, with the actual issues, I think what made Adams more appealing was his ability to state the facts how they were. The only fault with the question and answer section was that Adams was kind of dodging questions when they were not expected to be questioned.
That is what made the class so entertaining. Everyone had terrific questions to ask, and if the candidates or their managers didnt know how to answer them, they would get around it. This activity was really well done and very interesting to be a part of.

Wiki-What?

While doing this project in class, I have noticed a lot of things about how different people do research. I saw that some people were using Wikipedia as one of their primary locations for information. Growing up, I have learned that you should never use wikipedia as a source for information, because the information may not always be correct. I think that this is very true because anyone can access and edit anything they want to on that site. Maybe someone had a really bad day, and they decided, "maybe I'll just go on Wikipedia and change all the information, so maybe the history of the world be altered." This is not the way to do research. If you really are desperate for information, go on google and get information from a place that only the makers can edit. I remember when I was little that I used a program called "Encarta" that was basically an encyclopedia in software. What happened to those days?