(and 2 of our 4 "Notions")
Even though most of the students told me they preferred Rochester over New York City ... our last day in the Big Apple was very full and memorable.
It started for many with jogging through Central Park before sunrise or an early morning tour of the Columbia University campus.
After breakfast at the Youth Hostel we again took the subway to see:
The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
These two monuments are perfect for talking about the notion "Spaces and Exchanges". Of course, the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of those Fundamental Founding Values that drew so many immigrants to the American Space over the years. And of course, many of those immigrants became settlers on the Frontier. Although the Ellis Island Immigration center opened only in 1892, at the close of the period we are studying in class, it is now an Immigration Museum which relates the story of immigration to America from the beginning when Europeans began "moving west" to the New World.
The next stop was dinner at a "typical American restaurant": Dallas Barbecue
The 9-11 memorial museum and the new "Liberty Tower" were also a reminder to the American values of Liberty as well as showing that pioneer spirit that overcame the hardships of the Frontier and which refuses to let fear paralyse us. These monuments also are important for the notion: "Places and Forms of Power" because the attack on the World Trade Center was meant to be an attack on America as a military and economic super power as well as an attack on the free economies of the whole world: "World Trade Center"!
While the fountains remind us of all the lives that were lost that day, they are also a symbol of the hope that can spring from disaster. Finally, the Liberty Tower, towering 1776 feet tall over ground zero shows that Liberty has the last word over violence and terrorism.
Even though our day was full, and we were tired, we would have loved to spend more time in the
City of Blinding Lights.
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