Boston Public Schools Set the World Map Straight | History NOW

The world map you know is wrong, but Boston Public Schools is here to help. BPS has added the Gall-Peters Projection Map to their official curriculum which brings the world to scale, rather than minimizing the size of non-European and Western countries. #HistoryNOW

Subscribe to History NOW for more:

Watch more from the History Makers:

Check out exclusive History NOW content:

History NOW is a collection of timely and relevant stories that can only be experienced, documented, and shared right now. History NOW features powerful videos from people capturing significant, transformative events from their unique first-person perspectives. From politics and sports to science and technology, these are the people making history now.

[scratch]

Easy fix: put an actual globe in every classroom so the children get the most accurate information. You can even put a gold star sticker on africa so the dark ones feel special

[bunsenn]

The Peters projection gets size right, but fails to preserve shape. There are other projections that are far better at balancing both the shape and size of the land bodies on the map while still maintaining some usefulness. Mercator’s projection was often used because it worked the best for Navigation purposes, since the latitude and longitude lines were made straight by the projection.

[michaelalbertsr]

Also, the world map is actually upside down.

[SerAbiotico]

What's with the intense music? I get the ideological stuff and map rendering, but you have to present it like a box match?

[Amberussianbeauty]

Where are the students of color from besides America? And i seriously doubt anybody was floored, its literally almost the same just elongated

[v_DICE_v]

Wait until he finds out we're all from Africa

[FooodSandwich]

okay, but in the Galls-Peter projection, Europe, Australia, the USA, and half of Canada all mostly retain their shape, while Africa and South America look stretched-out af.

[ivliusfluvius]

Is this the highest level of ethno-narcissism? Whining about maps?

[frieken]

bruh a map is not necessarily wrong, but just have a different projection. public schools dont have globes?

[AridersLifeYT]

you can solve this issue easy. use a GPS map.

[Ojas_Singh]

No 2d map in the world is accurate, It is impossible to fit a 3d object in a flat sheet, so to fit it we have to shrink the sizes of some and increase the size of others

[beautifulcrazy]

we just want scientists and politicians to tell us the truth. that is why we agreed to pay our taxes and entrust them

[leaderunithl]

The Mercator is not racist, I don’t know how people came up with this idea. It was originally created for ease of navigation, a straight line on the Mercator is a straight line on the globe, in my opinion the I don’t like the look of the gall-peters; why not go for one of the rounded projections that preserves both size and shape?

[officialhideyo]

Ah yeah size is more important than distorted shape? When the kids grow up won't they learn that you lied about the shape of the different countries? So this doesn't even make any difference. Dumb news.

Rather they could use a globe to show how it actually(more accurately) looks

[joshflorence]

I didn't know the history channel was fine with taking a scientific reason for something existing, and twisting it into a race issue.

[brayentvivaldi]

It's about time all "third world countries" to make a move, and make a better decision to the international stage about their economic stances and true potential. World map is one part of the systematic discrimination as in the "north-south" gap. It is the intention to spread fear to developing countries so they will always see themselves as a "small countries". "Mercator Projection" is just one proof that the international economic system we are living now is just another way of imperalistic movement.

Sadly this kinda map is not yet spread publically. I really support Gall-peter projection map, but to make it more aesthetic, i kinda prefer the "Equal Earth map projection".

[cameronc]

You can make Africa and South America look as big as you want and it still won’t change the fact that people risk their lives every day to flee from those places to get to the US.

[jdlc]

To see the mercator map as racist because of something as superficial as size is such a black African mentality

[walrusvision]

If the map was wrong then show proof....peer reviews then correct it. If the fact is determined,  for approval to be taught as the new standard. There is something in the "victimhood mentality" that in my humble opinion really cripples progress. One I would view as example is the government coming into my personal life and dictating what actions I should take because I am a victim of something in which I claim to be the same government who is victimizing a mistake was made, I am to learn from it and ensure it does happen again to me and as a social species to everyone else. Not to dwell on it.