The World is Flat

During the past weeks, and especially the past days, I have begun reading a few pages in a very long book by Thomas L. Friedman. The World is Flat, is getting me excited for this new school year. I first encountered the title about six years ago when I received a copy of the article by the same title during my AP World History training course. This summer I stumbled upon a 2nd. edition of the book at a thrift store in my hometown.

I have only read the first sixty pages so far and have about five hundred left to go, but I find his ideas are like a synthesis to the life I have led these past years and have already learned so much about issues relating to history, politics, technology, trade, and global inter-connections that I am excited to read more. As I read, the points he explains explain how the world has changed since the early 1990s..the same period my own world became flattened as I moved to Nigeria.

I even had my own encounter during my flight from Seattle to Frankfurt when I met an Indian man in the seat next to mine. I didn't even take time to ask his name, but as we shared our stories of being transplanted to different cultures (he has lived outside of Seattle for the past ten years working in the pharmaceutical business, ironically he lives in the same  neighborhood I did before moving to Nigeria twenty-two years ago).

I am trying to envision how to reshape my APWH course to make them come alive to my students. They too have a flat world as they live in Nigeria, study in a school that has an American curriculum and mostly American teachers, and usually end up going to college in the US and connect with other international students.

Globalization is usually a topic I rush through at the end of the school year, but now I am considering introducing the topic before I even get to ancient history because I envision it serving as a great link to the past and present and connecting the world today as we discover what has shaped our development.

After feeling so dry these past months, I am relieved and excited to feel my passion for history and teaching returning...and just in time since I report back to school on Monday!

I love history and trying to make it come alive to my students and pray that my passion can ignite my students as well!Th