A Dramatic World: An Eighth Grade Theater Curriculum for Earth’s Future Caretakers
Yel Hannon Brayton
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GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP and Long Island Sound
“Greed, tribal feuds, and international manipulations have led to massive programmed destructions of large populations. Our capacity as a species for self-destruction by direct killing far transcends our ability to do it by the subtle procedure of altering the environment.”
Karl K. Turekian (
Global Environmental Change,
page 194)
As the ancient Greeks looked from the shore, they beheld a fluid magnificence that provided food and served as a highway; one they could immerse themselves in; one that they could stand back from, gaze at and wonder about its infinite expanse. As Homer illustrated in
The Odyssey,
this was a force that could be beneficent or formidable. Overall, it was one that early man was powerless to control, but would have to reckon with in order to survive. Initially, in their fear and awe, the ancient Greeks came to call this force Poseidon and worshiped it as a god. Later on, natural philosophers would attempt to discern the nature of this puissance through observation, reason and logic. In modern times, scientists can explain much of the ocean. They can divide it into zones, map its floor, categorize the life that abounds within, and predict annual shifts of tectonic plates within inches per year. But for the most part—for many of us—we still remain ignorant of this ubiquitous aspect of our world. Moreover, unlike our ancient counterparts, we have become irreverent of its power. We have maligned it through our carelessness, our shortsightedness, our greed and our violence. Considering that we live on a water planet as approximately 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans—that we, ourselves, are made up of approximately 65% water—learning about the ocean is not only academically sound, it is essential to our education as global citizens.
