Jonathan Feicht's Website
  • Home
  • Math
    • Hands-On-Equations
    • Unit 1-Basic Number Sense >
      • Order of Operations
      • Understanding & Writing Basic Expressions
      • Powers of 10
      • Place Value
    • Unit 2 Operations with Decimals >
      • Rounding & Adding/Subtracting Decimals
      • Multiplying Decimals
      • Division of Decimals
    • Unit 3-Fractions >
      • Adding & Subtracting Fractions
      • Multiplying Fractions
      • Dividing Fractions
  • Social Studies
    • Unit 1-Bill of Rights, Citizenship & Due Process
    • Unit 2a: Civil War Overview & Causes >
      • Civil War Battles
      • Civil War People
      • Civil War Interactive Timeline
    • Unit 2b: Reconstruction
    • Changing America--The Turn of the Century >
      • Cattle Trails
      • McKinley & Roosevelt and Changing US Policy
      • Immigration and the American Melting Pot
    • World War I
    • The Roaring Twenties
    • Great Depression >
      • Culture of the 1930's
    • World War II >
      • WWII Events >
        • Pearl Harbor
        • D-Day
        • Iwo Jima
        • Hiroshima and Nagasaki
        • Holocaust
        • V-E & V-J Days
        • Formation of United Nations
      • WWII People
    • The Cold War >
      • Iron Curtain/Berlin Wall
      • Communism vs. Capitalism
      • Berlin Airlift
      • Space Race
    • The Civil Right's Movement >
      • The Crazy Sixties--Assassinations for Sure
      • Brown vs. Board of Education
    • America Since 1975 >
      • September 11, 2001
      • War on Terrorism
  • Science
    • Earth Science >
      • Deposition
      • Earthquakes
      • Faults
      • Volcanoes
      • Erosion
      • Weathering
      • Impact of Organisms
      • Seismological Studies
      • Flood Control
      • Beach Reclamation
    • Physical Science >
      • Physical Changes
      • Chemical Changes
      • Electricity
      • Static Electricity
      • Magnets vs. Electromagnets
    • Life Science >
      • Classifying Animals
      • Classifying Plants
      • Cells
      • Learned & Inherited Traits
      • Good Microorganisms
      • Bad Microorganisms
  • Things
    • Class of 2014-15 >
      • Eagle Time Research Links
    • Class of 2013-14 >
      • Holocaust Student Pages
      • WWII in the Pacific Student Pages
      • WWII on the Home Front
      • Axis vs. Allies Student Pages
    • 5th Grade Scores
    • Pictures >
      • My Pride and Joy
      • My Wildlife Photos
      • Sudan Photos
      • My Alaska Photo Album
      • My Saipan Photos
      • My Egypt Photo Album
      • My Ethiopia Photo Album
      • My Kenya Photo Album
      • My Swaziland Photo Album
      • My Uganda/Rwanda Photo Album
      • My Paris Photos
  • Resources for Teachers
  • 2nd Grade Enrichment Activities
    • Analogies

4/16/2012

Perspective

1 Comment

Read Now
 
I have recently been thinking about how easy it is to lose perspective. I wanted a new iPad, even though my wife already has one, which I can use whenever I want, and I have a fantastic computer. Could I get one? Sure, but that's not the point. What is the point? I often consider myself to be below average in terms of how much money I make. I am a teacher after all. However, having traveled as much as I have, I know better. So I wanted to find out just how rich I am? I discovered a website, which did just that. It compared me and how much money I make with people all over the world. Here is the link if you want to check it out.

Anyway, here is what I found. My wife and I are in the richest 5%, in the entire world. Even more staggering, when I was single (and making about the same amount of money), I was in the richest 1% in the world. What does that mean? For every 100 people in the world, I made more money than 99 of them, and I would have considered myself fairly poor! So it got me to thinking...how much would I have to make before I was no longer richer than half of the world? IF MY WIFE AND I COMBINED MADE ONLY $2500 EACH YEAR, WE WOULD STILL BE MAKING MORE MONEY THAN HALF OF THE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!!! Let me put that into perspective. If you got an allowance of $25 a week you would be making more money than half of the people in the world! 

I need to keep perspective. I am blessed beyond measure, and should not let a day go by without remembering how truly blessed I am. I am only poor when I compare myself to the guy down the street who has a bigger house or a fancier car, but in reality I have far more than I have earned. The only reason I am in the top 5% is because I was fortunate enough to be born in the United States. Sure, I worked hard in school and went to college, but that in itself is more than many people could even hope for. Many people around the world have never had the opportunity for a quality education, but that is for another time.

I believe that those who have been given much, have a great responsibility. I have so much, when it is put in perspective, and I want to be a person who uses what I have to help others, rather than selfishly spending everything I make on myself and the things that I want, but don't really need.

Side Note: You are considered officially poor in the United States if you have a family of four and your family makes less than $22,000. If you make $22,000 and have a family of four, you make more money than 81% of the people in the world!!! 

Share

1 Comment
hentai link
7/13/2012 12:40:40 pm

Thanks for the post to this page

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I have been fortunate to work with kids from all over the world and I want to keep perspective in my own life, as well as challenge others to keep things in perspective in their lives. I know a blog like this might be a bit strange to have on an educational website, but I think that education should not be put in a box. What is learned in school needs to connect to the real world. The posts that I make will hopefully challenge people to think differently about life and the world in which they live.

    Archives

    August 2014
    December 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    July 2012
    April 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Contact www.jonathanfeicht.com