When my son and I went on the tour of the school the week we found out we were moving, the entire \u201cGlobal Citizen\u201d idea made me think of our LGP program, and the way that the students of Portland Seminary are all striving to become leaders with global perspectives.\u00a0 In large part because it seemed like my son and I could compare \u201cglobal leadership\/citizen\u201d notes for the next few years, we decided to move to this school district and found a place to live that worked for us.<\/p>\n
Similar to my daughter\u2019s experience, this new school environment has been a place where my son has experienced a new culture and is blossoming.\u00a0 Among the 500 students there are over 70 native languages spoken, students have regular experiences working in the numerous gardens maintained by the school, and the overall emphasis on civility, is one that is cherished by this father.<\/p>\n I share these experiences the week that we write on The Silk Roads<\/em>, by Oxford Professor Peter Frankopan.\u00a0 His 600 page book invites the reader into a much different view on the history of the world and civilization than what Frankopan posits to be the generally agreed upon story taught in most places in the West.\u00a0 \u201cThe accepted and lazy history of civilization . . . is one where \u201cAncient Greece begat Rome, Rome begat Christian Europe, Christian Europe begat the Renaissance, the Renaissance the Enlightenment, the Enlightenment political democracy and the industrial revolution. Industry crossed with democracy in turn yielded the United States, embodying the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.\u201d[1]<\/a> In other words, Frankopan insists that the true history of the world is full of many more stories, colors, and ideas than merely the one he derides above.\u00a0 His book goes on to tell riveting histories from, Persia, China, and other empires that I must admit were glossed over in my history training and were fascinating to learn about now.<\/p>\n Much of this book isn\u2019t only to educate the reader in mesmerizing history from across the globe but also \u201cto recalibrate our view of history, to challenge assumptions about where we come from and what has shaped us.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 One such assumption is that globalization is \u201ca uniquely modern phenomenon; yet 2,000 years ago too, it was a fact of life, one that presented opportunities, created problems and prompted technological advance.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Frankopan makes the case that the silk roads were the system for this globalization to take place.\u00a0 \u201cThe silk roads of the title are the arteries along which people, goods, ideas, religions, disease and many other things have flowed . . . Scientific advances, philosophical ideas and much else was cross-fertilised by exposure to east and west.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n Today, the silk roads for my family are the places in which we all attend school.\u00a0 Be it through attending weekly shabbat, striving to become a global citizen, or the LGP, the globalized-silk-road world is what we encounter every day.\u00a0 Just like 2000 years ago it presents opportunities, creates problems, and prompts technological advance.\u00a0 May it also prompt cultural advance, as the world travels these silk roads together.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World<\/em>, (New York: Vintage Books, 2017), Introduction, xiii.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Anthony Sattin, \u201cThe Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan review \u2013 a frustrating trail: An ambitious Persian-centric rewrite of world history is full of insight but let down by factual errors,\u201d The Guardian<\/em>, September 29, 2015, https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2015\/sep\/29\/silk-roads-peter-frankopan-review<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_0290-e1570549383224.jpg\")
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