Global History II taught me to be a globally aware citizen. To me, being globally aware means understanding issues and events that affect people worldwide and teach us about the differences between cultures. We began to learn about imperialism, a worldwide issue, from when it existed in the past, for example in Africa. We then connected the idea to modern times through a debate. In the debate about whether Puerto Rico is a colony of the US, I was on the side that it is a colony. This debate not only helped my skills in debating and proving my point, which is an area that I tend to struggle in, but it increased my knowledge of global issues still occurring by connecting the past to the present.
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This document is the opening statement for the debate that I did with Gracey. During this assignment, we learned about modern day imperialism and then applied our knowledge into a debate. While debates can be difficult, the amount of preparation needed prepared me well so that I fully understood the ideas that come with imperialism. Also, the learning we did in class about imperialism of the past helped me understand what true imperialism is.
While this specific example of imperialism does cover all topics of global awareness, it shows that because of history this year, I learned more about world issues, causing me to be more aware of what happens in the world we live in. In all the units, we always would work on drawing connects to modern day and our lives, which increases our global awareness. It is important to be a globally aware citizen for similar reasons to that of understanding other cultures. If everyone recognized differences and become more accepting to others, the world's nations would get along with less issues. It is easy to be ignorant to other areas of the world when you live in a bubble like Madison. What is important for what I hope to continue doing, is to go out of my way to pay attention to what happens around the world.