sherri "world is flat" shepherd gets a thank you from a chicago schoolteacher

As part of my commitment to deliver the highest quality of reporting, I wanted to give this update on my Sherri Shepherd project. She was widely mocked after telling the audience of The View that she didn't know if the world was flat -- not only that, she "never thought about it."

In light of Ms. South Carolina's recently solution for helping American schoolchildren find the USA on a map, I knew the real fix for all our educational failings was simple: globes.

So in Sherri Shepherd's name, I donated a globe and "hands-on mapping activities" to her hometown of Chicago through DonorsChoose. They even let me email Mrs. Shepherd with a message:

Dear Mrs. Shepherd,

Mr. Ohanian has funded a proposal at DonorsChoose.org in your honor and wrote you this message:

Mrs. Shepherd, I felt so guilty watching the clip of you on The View that I was compelled to donate a globe (and geography kit) to your hometown. The world is indeed round. I hope no other school children in Chicago have to grow up thinking otherwise. best wishes, Alexis

One of the nice parts of DonorsChoose is that the teachers whose projects you fund will likely email you directly with a brief not of appreciation. It's a nice touch. I just got the CC of what Mrs. Shepherd received:

Dear Mrs. Shepherd,

Thank you so much for funding our classroom with Mapping Our Way To The World! I know that my students will be so excited to receive our new materials and start learning about the world all around them. I hope you will enjoy reading our thank you letters! Thanks again, [redacted]

So far, no response from Sherri Shepherd.

a modest proposal, really: donating a globe to a school in Sherri Shepherd's hometown

Some folks got onto the forum of Sherri Shepherd's website to discuss her comments about the world being flat. Needless to say, it's pretty harsh.

Looking back on what I wrote this morning, I felt a bit guilty.

But this gave me an idea. I wanted to actually donate a globe to a public school. I was recently introduced to a fantastic site, DonorsChoose, which lets teachers create proposals for micro-philanthropists to fulfill (thanks, Joel).

I searched for projects including "globe" in Los Angeles (Mrs. Shepherd currently resides in L.A., according to her MySpace page) and didn't come up with any results. But I wouldn't be thwarted that easily, so I searched Chicago (the city of her birth, according to Wikipedia).

There I found an elementary school teacher who needed funding for a project called Mapping Our Way To The World! Perfect, this teacher wants to buy a globe and "hands-on mapping activities" -- hopefully that means Risk.

The whole process only took a minute and hopefully these kids will now graduate knowing the world is indeed round. Or at least they won't have an excuse not to.

Thanks, Sherri Shepherd (I donated it in your name).

a simple solution for america's educational failings

The reddit community is aghast at what co-host Sherri Shepherd of The View said when asked if the world was flat.

"…I Don’t know."

She "never thought about it," but she has in fact thought about "how I’m going to feed my child."

As a twenty-four year old without children, I have the time to ponder the shape of our world. She doesn't. I consider being able to feed just myself an accomplishment.

What's more frustrating is that Whoopi keeps wasting her time probing about the shape of the Earth. The ladies of The View could have been using that time to discuss the nuances of string theory (Elizabeth Hasselbeck is a huge Brian Green fan).

Besides, so-called "intellectuals" like Thomas Friedman have only muddied the waters. His very popular (and evidently very misleading) book, The World is Flat, probably caught Mrs. Shepherd's eye.

Just whose side are you on, Mr. Friedman? It's time you were held accountable, but that's for another day.

Now, before we go burning Mrs. Shepherd at the stake (that's what scientists are for) we should consider the broader implications of her comments. It reveals the failings of our education system. Juxtapose Mrs. Shepherd's comments with those of Ms. South Carolina:

"[...]some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future."

Not only do Americans not have maps. Those that do can't use them. Worse, they think the Earth really looks like that (flat and all squished out -- c'mon, Greenland looks frigging huge!).
My solution? Globes in every classroom!