Two-Column Notes

Date:
9/13/16

Name:
Class/Subject:
Sarah Prinsen
EDTL 2760
MR Title(s): What is Social Studies and Ohios New Learning Standards: Social
Studies Standards
MR Source(s):
Word Press (n.d.). Global Democracy Rating. Retrieved September 13, 2016, from
http://democracyranking.org/wordpress/
TheFillerIn. (2012, sept. 15) America is NOT the best Country in The World! - The Newsroom Clip. [ Video File]
Retrieved September 13, 2016 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKrV_waE-Fs&feature=youtu.be .

Page #

The Text Says

Notes (key concepts, direct quotes, etc.)

Home
pg.
of Global
democra
cy
website

Quality of Democracy =
(freedom & other characteristics of the
political system) & (performance of the
non-political dimensions)
*The non-political dimensions are:
gender, economy, knowledge, health, and
the environment

Rankings
pg. of
Global
democra

Norway, Ranking 2014 Rank: 1

United States Ranking 2014 Rank: 16

I Say
My notes, commentary
This describes the formula in which they
decide how good a democracy is. The way
they describe this is very vague, freedom and
other stuff as well as non-political dimensions.
They do go on to describe some aspects such
as economics or health of population but do
not say how they measured these things. This
made me a little hesitant to completely trust
this website (is it only based on what
westerner believe is an ideal democracy)
This actually surprised me that we were
ranked as low as we were, we are 16th (which
is not even in the top 5!). I am assuming this
is a nationalistic perspective and maybe

cy
website
YouTube
clip

This man (along with the women in the

audience) also agree that America is not
the greatest democracy in the world.

YouTube
clip

We are behind many other countries in

schooling.

slightly bias. We have not been ranked any

higher than 12 for the whole deration of the
study.
He outlines why for many reasons; these
reasons vary from good to bad things that
occur within our country. This too surprised
me (but then again maybe I am like the naive
college girl who asked the question in the
video). This opens your eyes to how where
you are from and who you are shape your life
view. If I was from another country (say
Norway) I might to think that that was the
best democracy in the world.
I thought that this was necessary to point out
because of the profession I am choosing to go
into (teaching). Being behind many others in
teaching our children is one of the saddest
things this man pointed out (along with having
the most people incarcerated).

Connections to previous MR:

This connects to the pervious articles because the fact that we are behind may reflect on us as a
society but also us as teachers. In the why students hate social studies article, I pondered if who you
have as a teacher effects your love of social studies (or lack thereof) this to may depend on who your
teachers are or what they teach. Are we not giving our students the ability to learn or are we just
teaching them the wrong things or not enough things?