​From the 18th to the early 19th century, needlework was considered an important part of the curriculum for girls but the use of map needlework for geographical education started to decline during the 1820s. American and British school girls received their geographical education by embroidering maps on pieces of cloth. Girls were educated either at home or sent to boarding schools or dame schools headed by single women.  

Extensive research on antique map samplers was conducted on Dr. Judith A. Tyner, a cartographer and historian, and the author of the book "Stitching the World: Embroidered Maps and Women’s Geographical Education." Very little information was available about the use of map samplers to educate young women in geography before her book was published.
​
Research on embroidered maps was overlooked, according to Tyner because cartographic historians did not consider them to be true maps, some even considered them as cartifacts, an object with a map on it that is used primarily for decorative purposes. But Tyner thought them to be true maps noting the accurate placement of the counties and bodies of water on the detailed sampler. She also thought that map embroidery must have been a very effective method for learning geography.

The young mapmakers who stitched them will always remain anonymous. Many existing map samplers, being in a state of deterioration were discarded because of their condition. All map samplers that were embroidered during the 18th and 19th centuries are cultural artifacts that should be preserved. We are fortunate to have this map sampler in the Library’s collections as embroidered maps are an important part of cartographic history.

Whitman wrote in his notebooks about what His observations while on the streets of Washington during the Civil War were transcribed to his notebooks including the hotels, recently enslaved persons classified in property terms as “contraband” walking up wartime Fourteenth Street, Union soldiers waiting for their pay.

Besides compassionately describing the severity of the conditions of the patients he met while volunteering in Civil War hospital wards, he also sketched scenarios of the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the haze of camp fires during his visit to the Union army encampments at Culpeper, of the sun setting behind the U.S. Capitol, and political opinions formed after witnessing proceedings while sitting in the gallery of Congress.

Combined with resources from the Whitman-Harned collections with two hospital notebooks containing information translated into Whitman’s journalism and poems about the Civil War were, they form a basis of Whitman’s published memoirs about Washington in the war period. The Whitman campaign materials in By the People relate closely to other campaigns of collection items about the Civil War.

Focusing upon philosophies of writing and of life, he records titles of books and the authors he’s reading. he had thoughts about writing a poem about libraries, poems about American names, letter writing, occupations, artists, singers, musicians, tools found in hardware stores or used in trades, tears, insects and plant life, Indigenous peoples, and the various states.

He examines the mandate for equality in light of the perpetual hierarchies created by humankind and figured liberty as something still in the process of being realized. He champions the felon, the prostitute, enslaved people, and those who are dying. While thinking about the nature of personality, of introverts and extroverts, magnetism and ego, he writes of infusing the spirit of joy into poems. ​

We ultimately see in the notebooks Whitman achieving what poet Alberto Ríos has called a “rugged pluralism.” That is poetry freed of the parlor and brought out into the neighborhoods and the streets, enlivening and honoring what is witnessed, and dealing and struggling, sometime imperfectly, with major questions. The notebooks show poetry as a live and dynamic and changing thing. In the notebook pages we find seeds of influence and work that have since Whitman’s time continued to grow and expand and entwine more communities in ever more diverse languages and voices. This is happening as writers of increasingly polyglot identities take up the mantle of poetry writing today, and as students in classrooms, and those who are penning their own thoughts and trial lines as they walk down the streets of their city, join poetry slams, and see all around them the poetic, as Whitman did, in animal, vegetable, mineral, Earth, and in the faces of strangers and those passing by.

Presently, schools in other parts of Manitoba will stay open but would move to online learning in case these schools see more than one COVID-19 case unless those are people from the same household.

With newspapers alone losing an estimated $30 billion last year, “some fear that the pandemic could become a ‘media extinction event’”, he warned. 

“We cannot afford to let this happen”, the UN chief said in pre-recorded message. “Maintaining independent, fact-based reporting is an essential global public good, critical to building a safer, healthier and greener future.” 

The ‘infodemic’ threat The Secretary-General called for countries to support the newly established International Fund for Public Interest Media, particularly to secure the future of independent media organizations in low- and middle-income countries. 

Wednesday’s discussion was held ahead of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.  It was co-organized by the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC) in cooperation with the philanthropic organization Luminate, in support of Verified, a UN initiative to share fact-based COVID-19 information.  Melissa Fleming, who heads up DGC, moderated the event. 

The pandemic has revealed how access to reliable information is more than just a basic human right, but also a matter of life and death, and the UN has been working to counter related misinformation and disinformation, as well as hate speech, which have risen along with the caseload. 

Ghana’s Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, told participants that the “infodemic” has only added to the economic woes which the media is facing.  

​Democracy at risk As economies slowly return to a new normal, Ms. Barnathan expects ad revenues will also come back.  However, she wondered if their levels will be sufficient to fund vibrant public interest media globally because something greater is at stake. 

 “At risk is not just journalism but, in my view, the future of democracies”, she said. 

Award-winning Filipina journalist Maria Ressa supported this belief, stating that the “mission” of journalism has never been more important.  Most people now get their news from social media such as Facebook, but she said these same platforms “are biased against facts”.   

“If we don’t have facts, then we don’t have a shared reality”, said Ms. Ressa, this year’s recipient of a UN press freedom prize. “A lie told a million times becomes a fact. Without facts, we can’t have truth. Without truth, we can’t have trust.” 

Disruption and innovation With the current business model of journalism essentially “dead”, and advertising being siphoned off by Facebook and other tech giants, Ms Ressa stressed that public interest media organizations must “deal with the tech” to survive.   

Fellow journalist Maria Teresa Ronderos from Colombia believed the current period of “disruption” could lead to experimentation and innovation in their profession.  She underlined the need for funding. 

This festival would be a live event via Facebook and YouTube and admission is free. The festival programming includes live music, cultural performances, magic show, arts and more.  Some local artists with significant talent and achievements lined up are 6DEUCE, SIMONE, Ensemble Topaz, and Girl Pow-R to name a few. The Master of Ceremonies are Isabella Milano and Tushar Unadkat. 

Celebration of Canada's Multiculturalism is another step towards eliminating discrimination, racism, and prejudice in Ontario, Canada, and the world. It is indeed festivals and events such as these that are beneficial in promoting multiculturalism and unity.
 
This Festival encourages and promotes the expression of multiple identities to increase participants' sense of belonging and attachment to Canada. We will be highlighting the incredible talent of various local artists from a variety of artistic and cultural backgrounds.

In addition MCF invites you to participate in SPRING FEST - PHOTO CONTEST!
 
3 Winners! $300 Cash Prize each.

Photo Contest Ends on Friday, March 26, 2021, at 9 PM | FREE ADMISSION
 
To participate:

- Upload your best photo to Facebook/Instagram or both
- Please tag & check-in Moksha Canada Foundation.
- Use the hashtag #MokshaCanada in your post.
 
Photos with maximum likes and comments will be the Winner.​

Moksha Canada Foundation is a registered Not-for-profit organization (Ontario Based) operating since 2014. The word "Moksha" originates from the Sanskrit language, which refers to liberation and releases forms.

We believe the spirit and joy of "Moksha" can only be attained in celebration of cultures and through the selfless service of those who are from most marginalized backgrounds. ​

Even before COVID-19 hit, the world was experiencing a learning crisis. 258 million children of primary- and secondary-school age were out of school, and the Learning Poverty rate in low- and middle-income countries was 53 percent – meaning that over half of all 10-year-old children could not read and understand a simple text. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the figure was closer to 90 percent.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the learning crisis, and the impact on the human capital of this generation of learners is likely to be long-lasting. At the peak of school closures in April 2020, 94 percent of students – or 1.6 billion children – were out of school worldwide, and, still, around 700 million students today are studying from home, in a context of huge uncertainty and with families and schools having to navigate across options of hybrid and remote learning, or no schooling at all.  In the vast majority of countries, there is no end in sight to this uncertainty.  Early evidence from several high-income countries has already revealed learning losses and increases in inequality.

Young children are particularly at risk since the pandemic is exacerbating existing disparities in nutrition, health, and stimulation, and services to support these children are too often overlooked in the pandemic response. Most early childhood education institutions are closed. And the unique nature of the pandemic places parents as first-line responders for children’s survival, care, and learning. This places a burden on all families, and especially the most vulnerable.

Adding to this global shock to education systems is the negative impact of the unprecedented global economic contraction on family incomes, which increase the risk of school dropouts, and also results in the contraction of government budgets and strains on public education spending. The extended school closures, together with this economic downturn, is a twin unprecedented shock to education.

Due to learning losses and increases in dropout rates, this generation of students stand to lose an estimated $10 trillion in earnings, or almost 10 percent of global GDP, and countries will be driven even further off-track to achieving their Learning Poverty goals – potentially increasing Learning Poverty levels to 63 percent.

Source: Azevedo (2020). Pessimistic Scenario (of 70% of school closure, very low mitigation effectiveness, no remediation, and WB-MPO June). For more details on the simulation methodology, see Azevedo et al (2020)

Historical data and initial evidence from this pandemic suggest an inequality catastrophe in the making. Similar to the very different experiences Sutil and Rosa faced in 2020 in Indonesia, in all countries in the world we see immense differences in what rich and poor students experience. COVID-19 poses an even higher risk to girls’ education and well-being, as girls are more likely to drop out of school and are also more vulnerable to violence and face child marriage and adolescent fertility. Vulnerable groups such as children with disabilities, ethnic minorities, refugees, and displaced populations are also less likely to access remote learning materials and to return to school post-crisis.

Tertiary education system is also in a deep crisis

At its peak, 220 million tertiary education students were impacted by closures of campuses globally. The tertiary education system is critical for countries’ growth. It is too soon to know the full impact on the declines and decreases in enrollment rates due to the pandemic, but severe losses of current and potential future students are expected.

Unprecedented disruption was also reported for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). According to the ILO-UNESCO-WB survey, 90 percent of respondents reported a complete closure of TVET centers in their countries as the continuity of practical skills training as well as assessment and certification of practical skills has been hit particularly hard due to the social distancing measures.
 
As a result, this generation of students, and especially the more disadvantaged, may never achieve their full education and earnings potential. This is not acceptable, and urgent and effective action is required to address these differential learning losses, which is critical to moving forward so that these gaps don’t widen.

Ramping up World Bank support to countries

The World Bank responded to the pandemic immediately, ramping up its support to countries through a variety of different channels and on different priority interventions.  In all, the World Bank is supporting COVID-19 response investments in 62 countries, covering the entire cycle from early childhood to higher education. The Bank’s overall new commitments in education during the last fiscal year reached US$5.3 billion, the largest figure ever, and expects to add another US$6.2 billion this year. Our active portfolio surpasses $20.6 billion.

The World Bank’s education teams are working with countries along three phases of the COVID-19 response: i. Coping; ii. Managing continuity; and, iii. Improving and accelerating.
Source: World Bank 2020

So far, World Bank efforts are reaching over 400 million students and 16 million teachers – about one-third of the student population and nearly a quarter of the teacher workforce in current client countries.

The World Bank is also providing just-in-time policy advisory support in 65 countries and are leveraging partnerships (with UNICEF, DFID, University of Harvard, University of Oxford, John Hopkins University, OECD, UNESCO, and others) to continue supporting country responses to the pandemic.

Our operational and policy support is not just responding to the crisis, but is building back better so that systems don’t replicate the problems that led to a learning crisis before COVID-19 and instead use this window of opportunity to shape more resilient systems, better prepared to cope with future shocks, as well as more equitable systems that ensure opportunities for all.

Bringing global knowledge and tools to the country levelA critical challenge of the response to the rapidly evolving crisis is providing up-to-date and evidence-based information to countries to support them in making the difficult decisions they face in addressing the COVID pandemic.

 The World Bank is supporting countries with this by providing them with tools and guidance on remote learning and school re-openings, such as a decision-making toolkit on remote learning options; remote learning assessment solutions; bringing reading materials to home; measuring the quality of teaching practices in the classroom and using these observations to provide continuous, practical support to teachers; identifying and developing teacher professional development solutions using EdTech, and building  a compendium of structured lesson plans for teaching and uses of multimodal technology (TV, Radio, Mobile, digital content, and platforms).

Laying the groundwork for the future, now

Country challenges vary, but there is a menu of options for countries to choose from to cope with the pandemic shocks, to recover, and to lay the foundations to build back better, more resilient, and equitable education systems.

An urgent priority is to return to learning. Learning losses are mounting, and it is critical that children and youth re-engage with the learning process, either with effective remote learning, hybrid options, or returning to safe schemes of presential education. Many countries are already managing flexible schemes in which schools open partially or close according to the sanitary conditions. It is a complex balance of managing health risks with the huge learning losses, particularly among the poor.

Specifically, there are 10 actions on which countries can take decisions to recover and accelerate learning:

Assessing learning loss and monitor progress, when children return to school and during remote instruction;

Providing remedial education and socio-emotional support to help students catch-up and ensure school retention;

Restructuring the academic calendar, to adjust for lost school days due to the pandemic;
Adapting the curriculum, to prioritize foundational learning (including social-emotional learning) accounting for the lost time;

Preparing and supporting teachers, to manage burnout, improve digital skills, identify those students needing support and adjust instruction to meet them where they are at;

Preparing and supporting school management, to develop and implement plans that ensure health and safety conditions for children’s return to schools and learning continuity;

Communicating with stakeholders, to build ownership and support from parents/ caregivers, teachers, school staff and the broader community for school reopening plans;

Encouraging re-enrolment, with special emphasis on at-risk of dropout populations;

Minimizing disease transmission in schools, supporting campaigns for vaccination rollout and following epidemiological guidelines for sanitation and hygiene to prevent outbreaks, activation of remote instruction; and

Supporting learning at home, by distributing books, digital devices where possible and resource packs for remote learning to children and parents.

Education technology can be a powerful tool to implement the above 10 actions by supporting teachers, children, principals, and parents; expanding accessible digital learning platforms, including radio/TV/Online learning resources (which is here to stay); and using data to identify and help at-risk children, personalize learning, and improve service delivery.

Looking ahead to the ‘Future of Learning’While COVID-19 poses huge challenges, the crisis offers an opportunity to transform and reimagine education and to start realizing a vision for the Future of Learning where all children learn with joy, rigor, and purpose in school and beyond.  In fact, this is a window of opportunity to reimagine education, with a vision of how schools will be shaped in the future – a future that has been propelled to today.
​
The pandemic opens a once in a lifetime opportunity, where long overdue investments in technology, teachers, and parents and communities, might happen faster and better. Countries can build on the lessons of the pandemic:

The digital divide must be closed

We need to invest aggressively in teachers’ professional development and use technology to enhance their work,

Parents play a critical role in their children’s education, and need to be supported in that role, and Resilient systems require better education conditions at home, devices, connectivity, and books.

The critical policy challenge is to make sure that this window of opportunity is not lost, and countries use this momentous crisis as THE opportunity to start seeing a turning point in addressing the learning crisis. The comprehensive reforms that are needed in each one of our client countries can be framed in the five-pillar approach, summarized recently in the Future of Learning report.

While there is no single path toward the future of learning – countries can draw lessons from the pandemic and chart their own path with visionary and bold action to implement targeted investments and reforms starting today so that their:

Learners are prepared and motivated to learn;
Teachers are effective and valued;
Learning resources, including curricula, are diverse and high-quality;
Schools are safe and inclusive spaces;
Education systems are well-managed.