Our legacy to the world

thoughtDear 7B,

Sometimes I have dreams of how people will remember me. These dreams are usually positive but occasionally – well, a little embarrassing.

♥”She was a very good knitter. Look, she made me this scarf.”

♥”She was funny. Well, peculiar, actually.”

♥”She helped me on my first day of school when I got hopelessly lost and ended up in the cleaner’s broom cupboard.”

Hmm, well. I know they’re not the most wonderful things to be remembered for, but they’re possibilities.

What would you like to be remembered for?

lab_pouring_test_tube pd wpclipartcom

♥”That boy made a gadget that caused the i-Pad 3 (whoops, I mean the new i-Pad) to stop selling. Apple had to give him a job before he put the company out of business.”

♥”That girl became a great scientist and found a cure for breast cancer.”

♥”That boy figured out how to power Melbourne with recycled garbage from two high schools, four office blocks and an alpaca farm.”

♥”She was such a warm, kind person.”

♥”He was a wonderful father. Every night he told his children stories and they hung on his words.”

Everyone leaves some kind of legacy – and I don’t mean money. I mean an attitude of mind, a skill, an action or an achievement, hopefully one that is memorable and worthwhile, that lasts for many years and influences others.

Leonardo da Vinci - a great legacy
Leonardo da Vinci - a great legacy (photo kindly provided by Dee McQueen)

 

The Colosseum - a legacy of great architecture and blood sports (photo kindly provided by Dee McQueen)
The Colosseum - a legacy of great architecture and, less admirably, blood sports (photo kindly provided by Dee McQueen) Can you think of other arenas based on this concept?

In the context of a civilisation, a legacy means a special contribution that a civilisation leaves behind. It might include:

♦a memorable idea such as a special way of organising a society or dealing with a problem;

♦some kind of scientific knowledge;

♦an invention;

♦a monument;

♦a skill;hieroglyph river wpclipart pd

♦an impressive achievement in art, government, literature, etc;

♦something that later societies have admired and sought to emulate.

For instance, the ancient Sumerians are believed to have been the first to create a writing system. They pressed wedge-shaped marks into clay tablets. Many historians believe that this is what gave the Egyptians the idea of developing hieroglyphs.

Cuneiform – clipart kindly provided by www.phillipmartin.info (I always think that it would be wonderful if the first writing was created to write love poems or great literature. But no – someone wanted a receipt. Sigh. This is a material world.)

Here’s a quotation from an article about the 20-year history of the internet, by Guy Rundle in The Age on Sunday 15 March, 2009:

“Five thousand years ago, the invention of writing in Mesopotamia [Sumer] separated information from presence – a few strokes of cuneiform on a clay tablet established that meaning, intent, communication could be separated and transmitted without a person there to present it.

“From this event flows every modern institution of the state…”

That’s some legacy!

The ancient Egyptians had many achievements over the course of their long history. Their beautiful tomb paintings, for example, show us all about their lives on the Nile River. They drew figures in a way that changed little over the years. Can you think of other great and inspiring achievements that others might have built upon?

 

Egyptian peasants during harvest – note the side-on presentation of the bodies in classic Egyptian style

Image in public domain from wikimedia.commons

See what you can find out about the legacies of the ancient Egyptians at these sites.

Pharaoh by Ros

♦Mathematics:

http://www.suite101.com/content/the-mathematics-of-ancient-egypt-a49376

♦Ancient Egyptian ideas about pi:

http://ualr.edu/lasmoller/pi.html

♦Ancient Egyptian art:

http://www.aldokkan.com/art/art.htm

water_drop wpclipartcom pdAncient Egyptian water engineering and inventions:

http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/nile/t1.html

(You’ll need to scroll down to read the vital information.)

Managing time – calendars and clocks:

http://library.thinkquest.org/J002046F/technology.htm

Ancient Egyptian writing:

http://www.ancientscripts.com/egyptian.html

Write a comment in answer to this question: What legacy would you as an individual like to leave behind? Another way to put this could be: How do you intend to leave the world a better place than you found it?

Legacies of Ancient Egypt

A legacy in this context means a special contribution that a civilisation leaves behind. It might include:

 

Clipart kindly provided by www.phillipmartin.info A famous piece of ancient architecture. Can you think of other arenas based on this concept?

  • a memorable idea such as a special way of organising a society or dealing with a problem;

  • some kind of scientific knowledge;

  • an invention;

  • a monument;

  • a skill;

  • an impressive achievement in art, government, literature, etc;

  • something that later societies have admired and sought to emulate.

For instance, ancient Sumerians are believed to have been the first to create a writing system. They pressed wedge-shaped marks into clay tablets. Many historians believe that this is what gave the Egyptians the idea of developing hieroglyphs.

 

 Here’s a quotation from an article about the 20-year history of the internet, by Guy Rundle in The Age on Sunday 15 March:

     “Five thousand years ago, the invention of writing in Mesopotamia [Sumer] separated information from presence – a few strokes of cuneiform on a clay tablet established that meaning, intent, communication could be separated and transmitted without a person there to present it.

       “From this event flows every modern institution of the state…”

That’s some legacy!

Cuneiform – clipart kindly provided by www.phillipmartin.info I always think that it would be wonderful if the first writing was created to write love poems or great literature. But no – someone wanted a receipt. Sigh. This is a material world.

 

 

The ancient Egyptians had many achievements over the course of their long history. Their beautiful tomb paintings, for example, show us all about their lives on the Nile River. They drew figures in a way that changed little over the years. Can you think of other great and inspiring achievements that others might have built upon?

 

 
Egyptian peasants during harvest – note the side-on presentation of the bodies in classic Egyptian style
Image in public domain from wikimedia.commons

See what you can find out about the legacies of the ancient Egyptians at these sites.

**************************************************************** 

General: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_461511156_4/ancient_egypt.html (Scroll down to find ideas about legacies.)

Monuments:

http://www.jaconline.com.au/retroactive/home/downloads/retro-1-2e-spread-2-10.pdf

This is a pdf on the pyramids and monuments.

Mathematics:

http://math.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_mathematics_of_ancient_egypt

Ancient Egyptian ideas about pi:

http://ualr.edu/lasmoller/pi.html

Ancient Egyptian art:

http://www.aldokkan.com/art/art.htm 

Ancient Egyptian water engineering and inventions: http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/nile/t1.html 

(You’ll need to scroll down to read the vital information.)

Managing time – calendars and clocks: http://library.thinkquest.org/J002046F/technology.htm

Ancient Egyptian writing:

http://www.ancientscripts.com/egyptian.html

Your task: Create an attractive A4 page divided into four parts. Your heading is “Legacies of Ancient Egypt”. In each quarter of the page paste a picture and write (using your own words) about the legacy you have chosen and why you think it is impressive, significant or influential in history.

**************************************************

Then write a comment in answer to this cruel but fascinating question: What legacy would you as an individual like to leave behind?

Another way to put this could be: How do you intend to leave the world a better place than you found it?

                 My legacy…