I teach I think.

Learning about Foreign Affairs from my student

The peace plan brokered between Russia and The Republic of Georgia with the help of France's Sarkozy still seems about as stable as York's email server as of late. Reports of Russian and Georgian soldiers sharing cigarettes with each other one minute and pointing AK-47's the next suggest this conflict may not end immediately. These events remind me of what the Christmas Truce of World War I demonstrate about the internal conflict troops face. I don't claim to know what it's like to be a soldier in a war zone, but from what I've gathered, most soldiers who experience fire don't relish the experience. As realistic as the violence in Call of Duty or Rambo may be, I don't think such entertainment media conveys the horror of warfare. Which is why, when given the choice, soldiers on opposite sides of the front are able to find common ground, which is more elusive at the negotiating table among diplomats and generals. When I read a couple weeks ago about the crisis in Georgia, I wasn't particularly surprised. Not because I'm in the habbit of staying on top of former Soviet conflicts. I do try to stay current in world affairs, but the only reason I knew about this potential crisis is because I read the essays my students write. Last spring, in my senior English class, Morgan Paull, who is preparing to head off to Harvard, interviewed a York alumnus, Irakli Chikovani '97 and wrote a compelling profile. After York, Chikovani (an AFS student from The Republic of Georgia) studied foreign relations and now works for his government as a representative for the United Nations. Morgan's piece, written last Spring, was remarkably prophetic:

Since arriving in New York, Chikovani has been working hard in the face of what could only be called daunting challenges for his country. Faced with two internal regions attempting to secede, and striving for EU and NATO membership, Chikovani and his associates have had their work cut out for them.

The difficulties of achieving these goals are sharpened by Russia's strong resistance to any attempts by former Soviet Union nations to join NATO or the EU, although prospects may have brightened for Chikovani and Georgia when President Bush declared in early April that he would stand beside his support for Georgia and Ukraine's NATO membership regardless of Russia's complaints.

How many high school teachers get to read material of such insight when grading essays?

Journey to the flat world

The first assignment I give my history students each Fall is Thomas Friedman's article, "It's a flat world after all," a condensed version of his book, "The World is Flat." Most of you all know the premise. For a variety of reasons, the global playing field has been leveled. At one time there was a significant advantage to being born in the United States, but with the ubiquity of broadband internet (among other disruptive technology) a high school student in India or China now has many of the same opportunities as a student in California. It's a bit of a wake-up call for my students.

I see the flat world everywhere I look. My favorite example is the popular power ballad band, Journey. Ever since Steve Perry and his signature voice left the band in the 80's, founder Neil Schon struggled to find a suitable replacement. Various singers were hired, but none really caught a lot of attention. Back then, Journey held auditions, listening to a handful of vocalists who were well-connected enough to get their feet in the door, but the pool of applicants was quite small, and no one was able to match Perry.

But in 2007, YouTube changed everything. Schon was surfing the web and stumbled across a video from the Filipino Journey tribute band The Zoo. The singer, Arnel Pineda, was a dead ringer for Steve Perry. He was the best Steve Perry in the world, and Schon was able to find him only because of the internet. Here's the video Schon saw:

Last fall we watched the (new) Journey play at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA. The most interesting thing about the concert was not on the stage. It was the audience. It wasn't just a bunch of has-beens from the 70's trying to relive the glory years, nor was it just a crowd of Gen X'ers, like me, trying to decide if their taste for Journey was ironic or genuine. No, the most striking element was that the Filipino / American community of Northern California came out in droves. They packed the kids and grandma in the car to see a extremely talented yet unknown Filipino singer formerly of a small cover band live the dream.

There was some skepticism from the crowd before the headliners took the stage. Steve Perry is a local San Francisco guy. Shoreline posted a number for the audience to text messages on the jumbo trons, and among the "Journey ROX!" and "Janice, I LUV U" posts, there were more than a few messages that read, "We want Steve!"

But once Pineda took the stage in the leather pants to match his long black hair and began singing, "Never Walk Away" the audience got into it. But by the time they got to "Don't Stop Believin'" we all started to wonder, does this guy do Steve Perry better than Steve Perry? For me the answer is yes.

So I told this story to my students, all of whom attend a well respected independent school known for its high achieving students. Among students in California, they rank pretty high up there. Some of them might even be considered one out of a thousand. But when students are competing in the marketplace with students from India, China, and yes The Philippines, one out of a thousand means there are two million people just as good or better. "Better do your homework."

Pineda had no L.A. connections. Indeed, the guy lived on an island on the other side of the planet. But, he was arguably the best Steve Perry out of six billion, and, most remarkably, he was found. The internet has its pitfalls. But one thing I have seen it do is make the world a fairer (or, as Friedman would say, flatter) place, and if it makes 80's rock rock harder, then I'm all for it.