THE NON-EXISTENCE OF NORTH DAKOTA

Dave, the English teacher, put a bug in my mind one day by declaring that there could be an argument that North Dakota did not exist. After all, he surmised, did anyone know anyone from ND, had they seen a license place from there, had anyone ever been there, is there ever any news about ND? I found the thought amusing and mentioned it in one of my classes. my student immediately began to attack my ridiculous theory. I, of course, realizing how ridiculous the whole idea was, found it necessary to defend it at all cost.  

Overnight I developed a list of arguments that proved that there is no North Dakota.  Now and then one of my charges would hear about something about North Dakota on  tv or, for those who read, read an article about the state.   I found these  easy to dispel with arguments like the following: 1. Anyone can say they are from ND but that doesn't make it true. 2. I could put a sign in Louisville that said ND but that would not make ND a reality. 3. they only think they live in North Dakota. 

 Many day, in the first few minutes of class, my theory was attacked and I often had to come up with new arguments to defend it. Some were political, "It is only a communist plot to advance the ruse of the existence of this state. Students finally got into the realm of psychology and philosophy with questions like “why would anyone pretend that there was no ND?  Those answer came with a little bit more difficulty.

One student eventually realized that she was in an American History classroom and that there was a set of about ten maps that roll down showing important era maps. She dared me to show the class all of my maps.  That put the students into an information feeding frenzy.  For drama, I put them off for a few minutes until being compelled to show the maps.

The first few maps were no problem, they showed the colonies of England and some territories held by France and by Spain Or the North West Territories. The next three were my friends because for the first half or so of our history there literally was no North Dakota. One showed the geography of the areas as Unorganized territory. I really liked that one. The next two maps were troublesome. And the student anticipated a great victory in the battle of brains. I showed the next map and where North Dakota should have been was cover with a white sheet of paper that said Southern Canada in my handwriting. The class went into hysterics. That was really funny. On the last map the name of North Dakota had literally been erased and the substitute name Northern SOUTH Dakota appeared. The kids were loving this.  The following class already knew ask to see my maps  I never allowed these things to take long periods of each class and it set a really good mood for the day.  

Other stories will be coming on this theme.