Two-Column Notes

Date:
Name: Morgan Niese
Class/Subject: EDTL 2760
9/13/201
6
MR Title(s): Global Democracy Rating, America is NOT the best Country in The
World!
MR Source(s): (2015). Global Democracy Rating
Sorkin, A. (2009). The Newsroom First Scene. YouTube Video retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJWKccHQFOA
Page #
The Text Says
I Say
Notes (key concepts, direct quotes, etc.)
My notes, commentary
Mission
Stateme
nt

the Democracy Ranking is a ranking for

the Quality of Democracy, because it
wants to contribute conceptually to how
democracy quality may be measured as
well as wants to support the awareness
how important democracy quality is for the
further development, reform and
enhancement of democracies.

Mission
Stateme
nt

The ranking designs a multidimensional

conceptual approach, integrating the
political and non-political dimensions of

This is very interesting to me because I had no

idea that there was even a democracy rating
even though I probably should have. As of
right now the United States ranking stands at
15th as of 2016. Since 2009 we have moved
down 4 spots from being 12th. It is interesting
what kind of qualities in each democracy are
used to determine the ranking of a country.
From a previous article we read, Why Kids
Dont Like Social Studies? we learned that
many students dont like social studies because
they think it will not apply to their future or
everyday lives. Maybe if the students start to
enjoy social studies and actually pay attention
they will learn how to find ways to improve our
democracy. They will understand what they
should do as a citizen and how to participate to
make the United States a better country.
To rank a country, qualities such as political and
non-political are used. Some non-political
qualities would be knowledge, health, and

society, and is furthermore carried by a

broader theoretical understanding of
democracy.

Video

Its not the greatest country in the world

professor, thats my answer you are
going to tell students that America is so
star-spangled awesome that we are the
only ones in the world who have freedom?
Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom,
the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain,
Australia, Belgium has freedom. So out of
207 sovereign states in the world, 180 of
them have freedom.

environment. So, as people of the United

States, we need to develop more ways to excel
in these categories to create a more strong
democracy. That is why is important for
teachers to really understand the standards
that are given to them. In a lot of ways,
teachers can help promote better ideas to
improve our nations democracy. The
government gives these standards and
expectations to try to improve every students
knowledge. Last week when I read the national
and Ohio social studies standards, it was clear
that the government expected a lot from the
teachers and students. By following these
standards and expanding the students
knowledge over various subjects, we might be
able to find and create different ways to
improve our environment and medical
research.
Many people say that the United States in the
greatest country in the world because we are
free. While this is true that we have freedom, it
is also important to recognize that other
countries are now free because they worked
hard for it too. I found this part of the video to
be interesting because the speaker was right,
we do have freedom and we worked extremely
hard to get it but so did many other countries
too. Freedom is not the only thing that should
make our country great. It is important for
many people to know that. While we want to
keep our freedom, we need to keep working on
keeping it. Freedom was not just handed to us
people before us worked hard to achieve and

Video

There are somethings you need to know,

one of them is, there is absolutely no
evidence to support the statement that we
are the greatest country in the world. We
are 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in
science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in
infant mortality, 3rd in median house hold
income, number 4 in labor force, and
number 4 in exports. We lead the world in
only three categories number of
incarcerated citizens per capita, number of
adults who believe angels are real, and
defense spending where we spend more
than the next 26 countries combined, 25
which are allies.
Sure used to be, we stood up for what was
right. We fought for moral reasons. We
passed laws. Struck down laws for moral
reasons. We waged wars on poverty not
poor people. We sacrificed, we cared
about our neighbors, we put our money
were are mouths were, and we never beat
our chest We reached for the starsWe
inspired to intelligence. We didnt belittle
it We were able to be all these things, do
all these things because we were
informed.

receive freedom but it is our duties as citizens

of the United States to continue to work hard to
maintain our freedom.
Even though many people call the United
States the greatest country we are not
anymore. Many other countries are exceeding
in certain categories way more than the United
States. We are not the smartest in math,
science, or literacy. We are not rank the best
for infant mortality rates. We do not provide as
many jobs or trade systems as other countries
do. There are so many things that we, the
United States citizens, need to improve to
become the greatest country in the world
again. At one time we were the best and we
can be again.
While listening to this video, I found this quote
to be the most powerful. The speaker lists off
all of the qualities Americans had while building
this free country we call home. They worked so
hard and reached for the stars to create the
nation we live in today. We were a great
country because we fought for moral reasons,
we stood up for what was right, we sacrificed
for others, we cared about other people, and
they wanted to be intelligent. They inspired to
find new technological, medical, and research
advances. They worked night and day to give
us the nation we have today so it is important
that we start living up to the expectations that
the people before us have set to keep
improving our country and to continue the

legacy that people, over 100 years ago,

created.
Connections to previous MR:
First, let me just say that this video was mind blowing. It had such a powerful message and I am going
to be honest, I watched it 3 times just because I thought it said a lot about the United States and it was
really interesting. We pride ourselves on what we have created over the years such as being free,
creating the best economy in the world, and developing a democracy that has respect for all human
rights. We make ourselves seem like it is the greatest country in the world. But are we really? As it
was pointed out in the video, even though we are one of the most powerful nations in the world, we are
not exactly the greatest. Many other countries have developed a strong and powerful democracy and
have advanced in so many ways. Education wise, we are not the smartest country in the world, health
wise, we are not the healthiest country, and even though our medical field has had many advances, we
cannot consider ourselves to be the best in the medical field either. Since the United States won it
freedom, we have had a representative democracy also known as a democratic republic. We have a
voting system that allows the citizens to vote for mayors, governors, senators, representatives, and
even the president to represent us as a country and run our government. This form of democracy has
worked well since the beginning of our nation. Even though this form of democracy has work well for
us, there are many other forms that have and are being used for other countries. I think that it is
important for students to learn about and understand the democracy the United States has adopted so
that they can be informed on how our government works. But, I also believe that they should be
informed about other forms of democracy to understand how other countries work. Understanding
other countries is important because even though our democracy works best for us, other forms of
democracy may work better for other countries. It is important for students to learn about other
countries because it will help them in the future when foreign policies are brought up or cause issues. It
will help our citizens to be informed about the world around them.