The Providence Journal headline, “WAR OVER,” was indeed good news. A few American troops will remain in Iraq to help train the Iraqi army, but all other military personnel will be home before the end of the year. We still have approximately 100,000 troops in Afghanistan with a target withdrawal date of December 2014. I look forward to the time when war in the South West Asia region comes off the CWI syllabus.
Happy Bill of Rights Day!
We took time off from our busy schedule to celebrate Bill of Rights Day on December 15. This is a great time to pause and think about how fortunate we are to live in a country that respects and promotes individual liberty. It is amazing that so many people do not know their basic rights, but you did a great job outlining our five essential freedoms under the First Amendment: freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition. Bill of Rights Day was formally declared in 1941 when President Franklin Roosevelt asked all Americans to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the passage of the Bill of Rights. So when you walk into room 246 and see the bright lights you know it is time to celebrate! Did you “Tweet for Freedom”?
Tasks
We squeezed in one day in the library this week to revise tasks. Many of you did a great job the first time out but others needed to go back and reference the articles in the body of your essay. Those of you who treated the assignment as a current event were able to complete the task without revision. My goal is to have 100% meet standard so I am anxious to start reading your revised essays.
South Asia
We used our chapter 25 worksheet to help build background on India and we used the vocabulary cards as a way to help tell the story of this country. Focusing on new vocabulary and key terms is a way to better understand the readings. We also saw a clip from the NYT on outsourcing and interviews with young Indians and how they view their future. Our reading from The Economist gave us a well written argument on how India’s growth could outpace China’s. We took the opportunity to make a list of factors that would support investment in India, what the challenges are, and where we would invest money for future growth: India or China.
Our finally video is entitled “India Rising,” an Emmy award winning documentary by PBS NOW. The video points out the reasons for a fast growing middle class in India and its impact on your life style. The growth of the middle class is causing prices for all commodities to increase. Are we on a seesaw? As India rises does it mean our own standard of living will decrease?
Naval War College Guest Speaker Series
Our speaker series started off with two dynamic and engaging speakers: CDR Bottger from Peru and LT Vaidotas from Lithuania. Their PowerPoint presentations covered the history of their countries and brought us up to contemporary times. You could quickly see that both officers are enthusiastic supporters of their homelands.
I want to compliment you as an audience on your attention and great listening skills. Speakers appreciate a good audience and I know our two international officers will go back to the Naval War College with glowing reviews. Next time, let’s work on questions. Speakers always enjoy thought provoking questions as it shows you were listening and it gives them the opportunity to bring out additional points. Our next speakers will be January 13.
Current Events
This is an ongoing assignment and by now you should be earning high scores. You have a week to do the assignment so that is plenty of time to find an article and write your two paragraphs. When you need an event from a certain region let me remind you again that you can’t just go to the computer and type in the region. We must use our text and your map work to determine which countries are in the region of study. Some search engines put Afghanistan in South Asia while our text considers it part of Southwest Asia. By doing the regional map as your first assignment on the syllabus you know which countries are part of the region we are studying. I will return the assignment and you have the opportunity to revise.
Wrap Up
We are just about at the end of our 2011 school year and my goal is to finish our South Asia syllabus and return the tasks to you prior to our break. If we can finish our multiple text study of Pakistan (that will require you to do the few pages of reading in your text on Monday evening) then we can all go home for the break without any formal homework. Yes, I know...keeping up with current events, watching the news, and knowing what is happening in the outside world are ongoing tasks, but it would be nice not to have any formal worksheets, papers or assignments, so let’s put in that extra effort.
Beautiful Music
A special thank you to our chorus for a wonderful holiday concert. Your long hours of practice paid off and it was an evening many of us will remember for a long time.
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