August 2006 Archives

This weekend’s Washington Post had an interesting article about the growing emphasis on learning "critical languages" such as Chinese and Arabic.

In it, the reporter writes: "Americans have awakened to a far more global playing field and the need for specialized languages, economists say."

Read the article: "With a Changing World Comes An Urgency to Learn Chinese".

How important do you think it is that our kids learn other languages? And which languages are the most important? Tell us!

Poor Pluto. Today astronomers voted to strip it of its planet status, downsizing Pluto to a dwarf and leaving our solar system with just eight planets.

The new rules say a planet must be "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." Pluto doesn’t make the cut since its orbit overlaps with Neptune’s.

Read a news story.

Watch a video: Pluto—Does Size Matter?

More about Pluto:

Recently, Sven Lindblad, chairman of My Wonderful World coalition member Lindblad Expeditions, included this letter in Lindblad’s Explorations trip catalog:

Dear Traveler,

Some wonderful things happened in the last couple of days in Washington, D.C., and fortunately I was able to be part of them.

The first was the unveiling of a new public campaign entitled My Wonderful World. Launched by the National Geographic Education Foundation, the campaign’s goal is to vigorously promote geographic literacy at home, in schools and in communities.

A recent Roper poll provides alarming evidence that American youth leaving the educational system display a disturbing lack of basic, geographical knowledge about the world they will inherit. Of the young people (ages 18-24) surveyed, half cannot find New York state on a map. As Gary Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshops said at the unveiling, "They (American youth) can only be good global citizens if they know their world." John Fahey, National Geographic’s President and CEO, went on to say, "Geography is what helps us make sense of our world by showing the connections between people and places."

In any case, I urge you to explore the campaign’s newly launched web site, www.mywonderfulworld.org. You can even take a quiz to test your own geographic knowledge.

Last night’s event (a small gathering for 1,000 people) was for Mr. Gilbert M. Grosvenor, national Geographic’s Chairman, on his 75th birthday, of which more than 50 years have been dedicated to the Society. The birthday event, however, was just a pretext for the real mission—the launching of the Gilbert M. Grosvenor Fund for Geography Education. Mr. Grosvenor has long distinguished himself as the nation’s leading advocate for returning geography education to schools. Not only did we have a terrific, inspiring party, but $7 million was raised to kick off the endowed fund.

It was a privilege to be there with our National Geographic colleagues and I was delighted that Lindblad Expeditions could grant a new scholarship that provides two K-12 teacher scholarships each year, in perpetuity, to travel on one of our expeditions. The scholarships were presented as a gift on his 75th birthday and will be named in Mr. Grosvenor’s honor.

So as I wrote earlier, Washington had a couple of really good days.

You might wonder why I find this subject so compelling and important. It’s probably quite obvious. When we come together, we are all about geography and understanding the interdependence of our world, and the National Geographic Society is working tirelessly through these complementary initiatives, to help us and our children know it.

All the best,
Sven-Olof Lindblad,
Chairman, Lindblad Expeditions

The continuing success and growth of the My Wonderful World campaign is due to the work of all our coalition members—but most of all it’s because of people like you who have joined the campaign. Make sure to spread the word and tell your friends that you support geography education.

In the news today: Newly arrived immigrants are spreading out across the United States like never before, new census data shows.

While traditionally the majority of immigrants have settled in gateway states such as California and Florida, data collected since 2000 shows that Mexicans are "leading a wave of newly arrived immigrants" to states such as South Carolina, Indiana, and Nebraska. (See news story and interactive map.)

Here are some sites to put this population news in context.

Live cams give us a glimpse at faraway places and wild (and not-so-wild) animals. One of the best sites is EarthCam, which lists hundreds of cams, divided by category. (You can also find cams on the world map.)

And here are some other not-to-be missed cams:



Animals

Summer’s winding down and it’s nearly back-to-school time. So tell us: How have you brought geographic learning into your summer? Have you and your kids explored the geography of your backyard, the local community, and beyond? Tell us!

Looking for happiness? Head to Denmark but avoid Burundi. So says a British psychologist who has created the first "world map of happiness." (Read a news story.) Adrian White used data such as health care, wealth, and education to create his list of happy nations. The Danes came out on top, along with European neighbors Switzerland, Austria, and Iceland. Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Moldova join Burundi at the bottom. Countries in conflict, such as Iraq and Liberia, weren’t included.

Image courtesy Adrian White, Analytic Social Psychologist, University of Leicester