What is the root cause of our world’s troubles?
If you ask me, it’s not a trade imbalance or a terrorist threat. If we’re talking about the problem that lies at the heart of everything, it’s got to be a severe, devastating lack of empathy – the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Continue reading “Open Ended Social Studies has the chapters that your world history textbook is missing”
Globalization is nothing new – the indigenous peoples slaving away in the Potosi mines 500 years ago could tell you all about it, while Europeans cracked the whip in order to buy Asian-made goods at affordable prices. Add in the fact that the mines were supplied with food and coca by African slaves laboring away in the low lands, and you have a template for the modern integrated global economy – exploitation, unequal rewards, and all. Continue reading “Who made your smartphone? Globalization, raw materials, and slave labor from Potosi to Silicon Valley”
When you’re teaching from many textbooks, it’s easy to think of native societies as “the other” – the Aztec are conquered and swept aside, if they’re mentioned at all, and they appear from the perspective of their conquerors. They didn’t even call themselves the Aztec, for that matter – they referred to themselves as the Mexica, a name lent to the modern nation, and often excluded from your textbooks to prevent confusion between the two among students. Continue reading “For educators: Create an illustrated glossary of Nahuatl/English loan words”
Some of these girls are refugees from Syria and Iraq. Now, through the mercy and compassion of others, they are safe, fortunate enough to attend school in Bahrain. But there are many more just like them still hoping to escape the conflict and war that continues unabated in their homeland.
If only the United States – self-proclaimed greatest nation on Earth – could hold itself to the same standard as Bahrain.
The President of the United States – acting from fear, ignorance, and prejudice, in defiance of the America’s best virtues, of tolerance, inclusion, and mercy – has unilaterally decided that Islam is the enemy.
Who was Muhammad, and how did the Arab world of the seventh century shape his teachings? Continue reading “Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam”
This November, I will have the pleasure of participating in the Bilateral US-Arab Chamber’s Teachers Educating Across Cultures in Harmony (TEACH) Fellowship. This fellowship will take me to UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain and provide the basis for new lessons focusing on Islam and the Middle East here at Open Ended Social Studies. Continue reading “Upcoming Research Trip to the Middle East”
Meet my World – a film by Peruvian youth, in their own words.
From the filmmakers:
Amantani is an Anglo Peruvian NGO, which works to help children from marginalised Quechua families to access education, stimulating social development for Peru’s most disadvantaged communities. Together with our friends at Andina restaurant in London, we have created Meet My World; a participatory film campaign developed by indigenous children from the Andes of Peru.
Continue reading “Meet my World – a film by Peruvian youth, in their own words.”
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