First look at the following Data Sheet:

"SUMMARY OF THE WORLD"

- Putting the world in perspective

- If you shrink the world's population of 5.7b people to 100 people

- Maintaining existing ratios, the following profile emerges:

• 51 are female, and 49 are male
• 70 are non-white, while 30 are white
• 67 are non-Christian, while 33 are Christian
• 80 live in sub-standard housing
• 70 cannot read (*Note: David thinks that "cannot read" means may be able to read mechanically, but without comprehension. His source says that this astounding statistic holds as well for Americans, 70% of whom can't interpret a railroad timetable without help)
• Half suffer from malnutrition
• 75 have never made a phone call
• Less than one is on the Internet
• Only one has a college education
• Half of the wealth would be in the hands of six people

- All six would be citizens of the United States

David greets his kids at the beginning of the lesson by saying "I think you people don't know very much about the world we live in, and I'm going to prove it to you." He has already written a table on the blackboard for the students to copy into their notebooks. The table itemizes all of the points from the data sheet, followed by two columns: Your estimation, and The reality.

He goes over the necessary vocabulary from the data sheet. He then has the students write their guesses in the table--what does each student think are the existing ratios for each of the items? After everyone has filled in his estimates and a bit of time for discussion, David fills in the reality from the actual data sheet.

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David says the lesson is adaptable for many different class sizes, from a very good 8th grade on up, and that it generates an EXTREMELY enthusiastic debate. The kids loved the lesson, and 45 minutes felt like 5. There are 10 different subjects, and every teacher will be interested in exploring something else in depth. By the way, David's students were so astounded by the statistics that a couple went home and did their own research on the Internet. They came back to school and verified that the ratios were accurate.