Children draw the World

The future and realization of global citizenship?

Weight of the world too much?• I like this drawing a lot. It depicts

the world as it seems to be hanging by a thread as the weights at the bottom, visually depicted as the problems that are destroying the planet. The twine that is holding up the planet is unraveling as the weights, or the problems of the world, war, famine, etc., are taking its final toll thus killing the world and us with it if we do not find solutions and drop the weights.

Branding of the World• I take a very pessimistic

interpretation to this drawing. When I see that there are multiple corporate brands as the true make up of the world I see that we, as a global people, see brands that make up our global society when I know that we have much more to offer rather than just a consistency of corporate brands.

The World’s Ark• I see the world’s various

countries united on a quest. They are using the map of the world as the sail and all of the various countries are helping to propel the boat, in this case an ark, to maybe find a new home, a figurative one, where they can find peace and live in unity. The waves can represent the rough present they are trying to escape to the calm waters of the future.

The World’s Top Hat• From this drawing,

originally titled as “Flag of the World,” I see this as a person with clothing made completely out of the flags of the world. As the face it depicts a picture of the world and gives a unique sense of world unity through the use of the flags.

The World Through Sport• Soccer, or more commonly

known as football to the better part of the world, is the most popular sport in the world. Being an athlete myself I believe that sports are universal and can be a great way for different countries to unite and bond over games of sport. Just like the Olympics, it can be a time period of peace where people can use sport as a medium of equality where everyone has a chance of participation.

All hands together

• A very simple drawing in its meaning. Using different ethnicities to unite the people of the world hand in hand shows that no matter the color of one person, we should all stride to work towards some peace for our world to continue on.

The Global Heart• Clearly to most people who would

lay eyes on this map would think this picture to be a symbol of how the world is all connected and beats as one. This could then be seen as a hope for the future, the present, or an idea that may never come to fruition, pending on one’s outlook of the world. To me, I think that it is the present and that whether we are disconnected or united, there is still only one earth and one planet that we all live on.

“The world is in our laptop”• With most of the 1st world

having a broadband connection, our world has certainly shrunk as anyone can actively engage with other populations and cultures with a single click of a computer mouse. I think that this is a great tool that can be used to create a more global society and erase the stereotypical lines that divide the people.

Online to the universe• Very similar to the drawing that I

explained in the previous slide but I found this one as just another interesting interpretation of global awareness beyond our planet. Our students are becoming even more knowledgeable of the planets that surround us and could possibly help discover some new answers to questions we have asked for thousands of years as they continue to grow that our generation probably never dreamed of answers.

Biking Across the World Day and Night

• This picture seems to bring about the liberal view of the world to me. I am big person of trying to see the world for what it is and this picture shows a major life goal of mine of trying to see the world on a bicycle and travelling the world.

A Children’s Perspective on the World

Branding of the World - AnalysisI believe that this child has definitely grown up in this

age of new information and branding. Clearly they understand the major brands of the world and the effect they have had on creating this new world culture where everything seems to focus on what brands people are sporting. By placing the drawing of the brands within the center of the Earth, he is depicting that the brands of these various corporations is what makes up the cultural breadth of the world. Now I am not totally sure whether this drawing is meant to be cynical of the brands or more endearing and it can be seen as either. I find it more endearing as I see that the brands are creating a somewhat universal language that all can understand and maybe find some common ground to continue the growth of globalization.

Synthesis of children drawing the world

• Through the ten maps that I have discussed and re-shown in this presentation, there are some great inferences along the lines of similarities and differences. In all the drawings there is a complete representation of diversity among the maps. Also, for the most part I believe that the majority of the drawings of the world depicted a sense of optimism, with the exception of the first one with the weights attached to the bottom, showing that as most of the world is reporting famines, genocide, economic collapse throughout the news that it has not dwelled on our younger generation and given them some hope to help brighten our future and to hopefully make the realization of a global world and a true global citizenry a distinct possibility.

Idea for instruction• The way that I would use this website and project in an instructional use

would be to first have my students browse the website and look at the different styles in which the children are drawing the world. Then, they would be instructed to continue to peruse through the drawings but to look more specifically at the country of origin of the child and their age and try to evaluate if that has any sort of influence on how they drew the world. This would take a basic understanding and prior knowledge of many of the countries in which the website draws in these pictures. As a teacher, in either World History, Sociology, Comparative Government, and/or Human Geography, this would be a great exercise as you get to have a different perspective into the modern outlook of the young citizens of various countries. One addition to the lesson that could be made is that depending on the age of your students, the teacher can select specific countries for their students and tell them to compare the drawing to infer about any similarities or differences that may exist within those countries.