The Romans DID NOT do it first.

(from the wiki on aqueducts)

An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose. In a more restricted use, aqueduct (occasionally water bridge) applies to any bridge or viaduct that transports water—instead of a path, road or railway—across a gap. Large navigable aqueducts are used as transport links for boats or ships. Aqueducts must span a crossing at the same level as the watercourses on each side. The word is derived from the Latin ' ("water") and ' ("to lead").

Ancient aqueducts

Although particularly associated with the Romans, aqueducts were devised much earlier in Greece and the Near East and Indian subcontinent, where peoples such as the Egyptians and Harappans built sophisticated irrigation systems. Roman-style aqueducts were used as early as the 7th century BCE, when the Assyrians built an 80 km long limestone aqueduct, 10 m high and 300 m wide, to carry water across a valley to their capital city, Nineveh. In the new world, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán was watered by two aqueducts in the middle of the second millennium.

Kill Your Television (before it kills you)

August 15, 2011: http://news.yahoo.com/too-much-tv-may-years-off-life-231005195.html

Tim Wise

http://www.timwise.org/

Rethinking Popular Culture in School

Rethinking Popular Culture and Media - Rethinking Schools Online


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction — 1
By Elizabeth Marshall & Özlem Sensoy

Part 1: Study the Relationship Among Corporations, Youth, and Schooling

Moving Beyond Media Literacy — 14
By Rethinking Schools Editors

Why I Said No to Coca-Cola — 17
By John Sheehan

Coping with TV: Some Lesson Ideas — 20
By Bob Peterson

Seventeen, Self-Image, and Stereotypes — 24
By Bakari Chavanu

Rethinking MySpace — 31
By Antero Garcia

Six, Going on Sixteen — 36
By Geralyn Bywater Mclaughlin

Bonfire of the Disney Princesses — 46
By Barbara Ehrenreich

Sweatshop Accounting — 49
By Larry Steele

My Year with Nike — 61
By Rachel Cloues

Part 2: Critique How Popular Culture and Media Frame Historical Events and Actors

The Politics of Children’s Literature: What’s Wrong with the Rosa Parks Myth — 68
By Herbert Kohl

Once upon a Genocide: Columbus in Children’s Literature — 77
By Bill Bigelow

The Truth About Helen Keller — 91
By Ruth Shagoury

Why I’m Not Thankful for Thanksgiving — 100
By Michael Dorris

Mulan’s Mixed Messages — 106
By Chyng Feng Sun

A Barbie-Doll Pocahontas — 110
By Cornel Pewewardy

Fiction Posing As Truth — 112
By Debbie Reese et al.

‘Save The Muslim Girl!’ — 120
By Özlem Sensoy and Elizabeth Marshall

Marketing American Girlhood — 129
By Elizabeth Marshall

Part 3: Examine Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Histories in Popular Culture and Media

Girls, Worms, and Body Image — 138
By Kate Lyman

Math and Media: Bias Busters — 147
By Bob Peterson

Human Beings Are Not Mascots — 149
By Barbara Munson

Race: Some Teachable–and Uncomfortable–Moments — 153
By Heidi Tolentino

Seventh Graders and Sexism — 163
By Lisa Espinosa

Rethinking Agatha Christie — 172
By Sudie Hofmann

School Days: Hail, Hail, Rock ‘N’ Roll — 178
By Rick Mitchell

Deconstructing Barbie: Math and Popular Culture — 187
By Swapna Mukhopadhyay

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us: Critiquing Fairy Tales and Cartoons — 189
By Linda Christensen

Looking Pretty, Waiting for the Prince — 201
By Lila Johnson

Looking for the Girls — 203
By Andrea Brown-Thirston

Miles of Aisles of Sexism — 207
By Sudie Hofmann

Part 4: View and Analyze Representations of Teachers, Youth, and Schools

TV Bullies: How Glee and Anti-Bullying Programs Miss the Mark — 216
By Gerald Walton

Kid Nation — 223
By Ellen Goodman

Freedom Writers: White Teacher to the Rescue — 226
By Chela Delgado

City Teaching, Beyond the Stereotypes — 230
By Gregory Michie

Sticking It to the Man — 234
By Wayne Au

More Than Just Dance Lessons — 238
By Terry Burant

Part 5: Take Action for a Just Society

Taking the Offensive Against Offensive Toys — 244
By Leonore Gordon

Beyond Pink and Blue — 247
By Robin Cooley

Taking Action Against Disney — 253
By Steven Friedman

Why We Banned Legos — 258
By Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin

‘Lego Fascists’ (That’s Us) vs. Fox News — 271
By Rethinking Schools Editors

Tuning In to Violence: Students Use Math to Analyze What TV Is Teaching Them — 275
By Margot Pepper

Examining Media Violence — 282
By Bakari Chavanu

Part 6: Use Popular Culture and Media to Transgress

‘And Ya Don’t Stop’: Using Hip Hop in the Language Arts Classroom — 288
By Wayne Au

Stenciling Dissent: Political Graffiti Engages Students in the History of Social Justice — 298
By Andrew Reed

The Murder of Sean Bell — 304
By Renée Watson

Knock, Knock: Turning Pain into Power — 312
By Linda Christensen

Haiku and Hiroshima — 318
By Wayne Au

Veni, Vidi, Teach-ee

Teaching the Classics - peer-reviewed online journal