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Over 20 years ago as a high school senior in Worthington, Ohio, my first day of AP European History started with the teacher asking us to take out a blank sheet of paper. He instructed us to freehand draw the map of Europe labeling all political boundries, mountains, rivers and bodies of water. This was an exercise he repeated every week of the course. His belief was that we couldn't understand history without understanding geography. It has proven extremely valuable over the last 20 years in following current political events. The map has changed quite a bit since I was a high school senior but as recently as 5 years ago, I could still draw that map!

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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