Comments on: Our first book - The World is FLat by Thomas L. Friedman http://stratereaders.kucrl.org/2006/08/31/our-first-book-the-world-is-flat-by-thomas-l-friedman/ A Book Discussion Group Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:18:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.3 by: Monique Mountain http://stratereaders.kucrl.org/2006/08/31/our-first-book-the-world-is-flat-by-thomas-l-friedman/#comment-111 Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:34:54 +0000 http://stratereaders.kucrl.org/2006/08/31/our-first-book-the-world-is-flat-by-thomas-l-friedman/#comment-111 Hi Found your website through Google. I am not a member of the SIM community. Not even sure what it is. I am at the end of The World is Flat and just wanted to talk to somebody about it. It is an amazing book. Mr. Friedman is very talented at putting a lot of information together, although I think he writes from a certain point of view. I haven't seen the world change as fast as he has or have the impact he claims. But I'm sure its coming. On a personal level, this flattening of the world makes me wonder about the quality of life we as a society will have to find. With the flattening of the world, there is an overload of information that is available. I think people will have to decide what their values are (beyond just making money) and deal with the flattened world from their value system. Mr. Friedman also writes about what the future of America will be with the outsourcing that is going on. As the world races toward acquiring the American lifestyle of materialism, maybe American society will lead the way by saying, yeah its great, but these are our excesses and these are the things that make life meaningful in the face of our lifestyle. It is clear in the book that Mr. Friedman does not think the world's resources can support everyone in the whole world having the lifestyle that many Americans currently have. On a professional level, I own a business that provides business support services to small business owners and attorneys. I am convinced that my business will become "vanilla" as Mr. Friedman puts it, so I am left with finding a niche or looking at going into another field. My husband is a machinist with a company that actually builds machines for companies in Asia. The condition of the global market place could be a future issue for him also. I have discovered that I have a growing interest in solar energy. It may need to become a future career. In reply to Mandy Horton on Nov. 13th, I did not see the PBS program, but I think it would be great if China shared their new-found expertise in environmentalism with us. We don't have to agree with everything China thinks to recognize they might have some good ideas. I would imagine there would be more pressure in China to conserve resources because of their large population. Necessity may be the mother of invention and I hope the U.S. can take advantage and will want to take advantage of any new conservation technologies that China might share. Or China might inspire the U.S. to make advances in such technologies themselves. Thanks for reading. Thanks for putting this website together. It could be an interesting experience. Hi

Found your website through Google. I am not a member of the SIM community. Not even sure what it is.

I am at the end of The World is Flat and just wanted to talk to somebody about it. It is an amazing book. Mr. Friedman is very talented at putting a lot of information together, although I think he writes from a certain point of view. I haven’t seen the world change as fast as he has or have the impact he claims. But I’m sure its coming.

On a personal level, this flattening of the world makes me wonder about the quality of life we as a society will have to find. With the flattening of the world, there is an overload of information that is available. I think people will have to decide what their values are (beyond just making money) and deal with the flattened world from their value system. Mr. Friedman also writes about what the future of America will be with the outsourcing that is going on. As the world races toward acquiring the American lifestyle of materialism, maybe American society will lead the way by saying, yeah its great, but these are our excesses and these are the things that make life meaningful in the face of our lifestyle. It is clear in the book that Mr. Friedman does not think the world’s resources can support everyone in the whole world having the lifestyle that many Americans currently have.

On a professional level, I own a business that provides business support services to small business owners and attorneys. I am convinced that my business will become “vanilla” as Mr. Friedman puts it, so I am left with finding a niche or looking at going into another field. My husband is a machinist with a company that actually builds machines for companies in Asia. The condition of the global market place could be a future issue for him also. I have discovered that I have a growing interest in solar energy. It may need to become a future career.

In reply to Mandy Horton on Nov. 13th, I did not see the PBS program, but I think it would be great if China shared their new-found expertise in environmentalism with us. We don’t have to agree with everything China thinks to recognize they might have some good ideas. I would imagine there would be more pressure in China to conserve resources because of their large population. Necessity may be the mother of invention and I hope the U.S. can take advantage and will want to take advantage of any new conservation technologies that China might share. Or China might inspire the U.S. to make advances in such technologies themselves.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for putting this website together. It could be an interesting experience.

]]> by: Mandy Horton http://stratereaders.kucrl.org/2006/08/31/our-first-book-the-world-is-flat-by-thomas-l-friedman/#comment-90 Mon, 13 Nov 2006 10:49:59 +0000 http://stratereaders.kucrl.org/2006/08/31/our-first-book-the-world-is-flat-by-thomas-l-friedman/#comment-90 Hello, Did anyone see all of the recent PBS program about China's potential impact on the global ecology and their environmental reforms? What if China exports their new-found expertise in environmentalism? to us? Hello,

Did anyone see all of the recent PBS program about China’s potential impact on the global ecology and their environmental reforms?

What if China exports their new-found expertise in environmentalism?
to us?

]]> by: Mandy Horton http://stratereaders.kucrl.org/2006/08/31/our-first-book-the-world-is-flat-by-thomas-l-friedman/#comment-56 Thu, 02 Nov 2006 02:13:53 +0000 http://stratereaders.kucrl.org/2006/08/31/our-first-book-the-world-is-flat-by-thomas-l-friedman/#comment-56 Hello, Is anyone still blogging on "Flat"? Well, I just have to say that I really think it would be awesome if we could offer more online professional development and followup to further grow our SIM serve to our colleagues and our students. I am really enjoying participating in online trainings and networking/collaborating and find that to be highly effective for self-starters. Since SIM tends to attract and "grab" self-starters", it seems wise to continue along these lines. It seems we are beginning to scratch the surface of the flat world in regards to SIM. For example, what if all our stuff were online, the student worksheets, etc? What if we collaborated or harnessed E-Texts so students could learn and practice LS and CER at their grade level but with the support of the E-Text readers to mediate their reading levels while they work on comprehension tasks through strategy instruction? What if we offered differentiated texts for all our model passages and student worksheets so students of various reading levels would have the same passages written at different readability levels within each SIM lesson? Mandy Hello,

Is anyone still blogging on “Flat”? Well, I just have to say that I really think it would be awesome if we could offer more online professional development and followup to further grow our SIM serve to our colleagues and our students. I am really enjoying participating in online trainings and networking/collaborating and find that to be highly effective for self-starters. Since SIM tends to attract and “grab” self-starters”, it seems wise to continue along these lines. It seems we are beginning to scratch the surface of the flat world in regards to SIM.

For example, what if all our stuff were online, the student worksheets, etc? What if we collaborated or harnessed E-Texts so students could learn and practice LS and CER at their grade level but with the support of the E-Text readers to mediate their reading levels while they work on comprehension tasks through strategy instruction? What if we offered differentiated texts for all our model passages and student worksheets so students of various reading levels would have the same passages written at different readability levels within each SIM lesson?

Mandy

]]> by: Mandy Horton http://stratereaders.kucrl.org/2006/08/31/our-first-book-the-world-is-flat-by-thomas-l-friedman/#comment-49 Mon, 30 Oct 2006 02:41:18 +0000 http://stratereaders.kucrl.org/2006/08/31/our-first-book-the-world-is-flat-by-thomas-l-friedman/#comment-49 Hello, I just want to express my thanks for this blog. It helped me to better understand the book by reading the blog and reflecting on the various comments as I ponder my own. Sincerely, Mandy Hello,

I just want to express my thanks for this blog. It helped me to better understand the book by reading the blog and reflecting on the various comments as I ponder my own.

Sincerely,

Mandy

]]> by: Sue Nolan http://stratereaders.kucrl.org/2006/08/31/our-first-book-the-world-is-flat-by-thomas-l-friedman/#comment-42 Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:28:31 +0000 http://stratereaders.kucrl.org/2006/08/31/our-first-book-the-world-is-flat-by-thomas-l-friedman/#comment-42 This on -line format for discussion is so great! I am in several bookclubs whose meeting I often miss because of other conflicts. That won't be the case with this one! Thanks Jean for setting this up! The information that Friedman shares affects our family directly because my husband is in the furniture industry. A "flattened" world has affected his industry in many complex-some good some not so good ways. The average consumer doesn't realize that many small family owned stores and business in the US have been eliminated because they can't compete with the "big Box" vendors that order direct from overseas or set up their own factories in China and especially Vietnam. Professionally, I would be interested to learn more about how we can teach US children ways to think more "outside the box" in order to compete with this fast paced changing world. Many children with processing deficits will be even more handicapped if they are unable to multi-task faster. I have not finished the book, am only half way thru it...but anxious to read his next book too! Can't help but be a little overwhelmed with how fast much of this has all happened in less than 10 years! This on -line format for discussion is so great! I am in several bookclubs whose meeting I often miss because of other conflicts. That won’t be the case with this one! Thanks Jean for setting this up!
The information that Friedman shares affects our family directly because my husband is in the furniture industry. A “flattened” world has affected his industry in many complex-some good some not so good ways. The average consumer doesn’t realize that many small family owned stores and business in the US have been eliminated because they can’t compete with the “big Box” vendors that order direct from overseas or set up their own factories in China and especially Vietnam.
Professionally, I would be interested to learn more about how we can teach US children ways to think more “outside the box” in order to compete with this fast paced changing world. Many children with processing deficits will be even more handicapped if they are unable to multi-task faster.
I have not finished the book, am only half way thru it…but anxious to read his next book too! Can’t help but be a little overwhelmed with how fast much of this has all happened in less than 10 years!

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