Why We Need More Globes

A recent New York Times Sunday Review opinion piececelebrates the old fashioned globe. Pilot and writer Mark VanHoenacker reminds us of the many advantages of globes. Globes are probably the best way to understand distances across polar regions, to teach earth-sun relationships, and to convey the sense of living on a single, shared planet. Globes remind us that all our two-dimensional representations of the earth are at best flawed or highly limited approximations. Yet, the globe is disappearing from corporate board rooms just as globalization gathers steam. And globes are disappearing from classrooms, victim of standardized testing for subjects like English and Math. I think I am going to go out and buy a couple more globes for the Gustavus geography classrooms.