A post by Pat
It’s the No Child Left Inside Act of 2009. Oh, there’s a lot more to it than getting the kids outside. We have recess for that. It’s federal funding for environmentalist propaganda.
$500M Teaching ‘Environmental Literacy’ Starting in Kindergarten
“These young people will be the environmental stewards and leaders of tomorrow, and we have to prepare them today – and that’s the whole point of this legislation.â€
The bill, sponsored and co-sponsored by Democrats, was introduced in the House and Senate on Earth Day, April 22. It would provide $500 million over five years to schools with approved “environmental literacy†plans for students in grades kindergarten through 12, and offer competitive grants to schools and non-profits for outdoor education projects.
But some critics charge that what appears to support getting kids outside to learn about nature also promotes an environmental message with a more political agenda.
“The Obama administration and Congress are moving toward having the power of a national school board,†Dan Lips, a senior policy analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation, told CNSNews.com.
In addition to the $500 million from this new legislation, the The No Child Left Inside Coalition has its eyes on some of the $100 billion in the stimulus bill for education. Maybe they’re angling for some loot from the healthcare money pot too considering young people are in danger of Nature Deficit Disorder.
The Obama Administration’s new stimulus package contains more than $100 billion for education. There are funds that may be available for the development and implementation of environmental literacy plans and for model environmental education programs. We urge members of the Coalition to monitor the Department of Education website…for information on grant eligibility and to apply for funding.
“Educators must be given the training the tools, and the time to incorporate environmental education meaningfully. Additionally, states in partnership with LEA’s and other stakeholders must develop plans to ensure that all children are provided the learning experiences they need to become environmentally literate. In 2008, environmental literacy cannot be a privilege reserved for a few; it is a right and a responsibility that every one of us must undertake.†~NEA letter to Congress, 2008
This bill was also introduced last year but didn’t make it through the Senate. It was sidetracked by the economic crisis of all things. No lessons learned there.
It’s flat out wrong for the schools to be used as indoctrination camps for leftwing causes even if the government had real money to spend. When I was a kid we’d rip leaves off the tress to use as play money. Now the government is ripping off kids. Wait until these future stewards of the environment realize the total effect of government irresponsibility in their childhood amounts to one gigantic No Child Left Untaxed law.
Education is one thing, but what’s being taught should be our concern. We have, as you so correctly put, “indoctrination camps for leftwing causes”. This goes back to the Fifties when History was renamed “Social Studies”.
But, again, we must face up to ourselves and admit, we’ve been here all along.
Until we’re ready to admit this to ourselves, we have no argument.
I’m in the den typing this while my wife is watching the Farrah Fawcett documentary. Just couldn’t bring myself to watch it, really. My wife is the cancer survivor… go figure, you’d think she would be uncomfortable with it.
But I can hear it nonetheless, and I can’t help but think: what could we have done with the trillions of dollars just misspent by the liberals in control of this country? Seems logical we could have made major inroads toward finding a cure for this dread disease.
This has to stop. First of all, the federal government is once again overstepping into state sovereignty as each state is set up to take on its own education standards. One of the huge criticisms of No Child Left Behind by teacher’s unions was the legislation invited too much government (go figure). Now, we see them begging for this administration to dictate ‘environmental education standards’. Also be aware of the push for nationalizing education standards (each state sets its own; NCLB did not dictate to states what to teach). Having taught in public and charter high schools, I get the briefs on ‘what’s to come’ and the Obama administration will be all too happy to dictate what will be taught – and by whom. Look for difficulties ahead if you are a parent who homeschools, has your child in a private school or a learning environment wherein the government has yet to insert itself into your child’s learning materials.
This measure is indeed indoctrination. Children are a captive audience, and officials full well know that polluting a child’s mind in kindergarten will set the tone of brainwashing that will take place over the next 12 years of a child’s education & life.
Bear in mind that just because someone is a teacher of a specific subject does not mean they actually possess working knowledge in that field. How many science teachers have actually worked as scientists? How many history teachers have actually researched and written about historical events outside of a college assignment? Many times, teachers are merely passing off information they have received from their college courses or professional development propaganda forums to pass onto your child. So your child will also be on the receiving end of such lies and mass incompetence.
Too bad many well-intentioned individuals in the teaching field have blindly accepted the false science of politically-motivated rhetoric from environmentalists posing as experts in this field.
I remember many years ago watching a documentary on the Hitler youth movement. Children were subjected to long school hours in which they were given a healthy dose of revisionist history, government sponsored health programs, and science courses showing how biologically inferior Jews were to Aryans – something that also included ‘information’ on how the brain was constructed differently on Jews making them less than human; perhaps Janeane Garofalo received her expertise in limbic brain function from 1930’s German educational materials.
My point is this: if we do not stand up against this now, it will escalate, and the unthinkable will wind up happening here. Don’t rely on politicians to change the course of events: rely on yourself to speak up with the voice God gave you while you still have it!
“Too bad many well-intentioned individuals in the teaching field have blindly accepted the false science of politically-motivated rhetoric from environmentalists posing as experts in this field.” I couldn’t agree with you more. Yes, the well-intentioned have been directed from historical orthodoxy.
And, think too of C’Man and his wife. How many potential workers in the health and science and related research fields have been shunted off, when remedials in math might have been appropriate.
But, again, here, I go, we have to reconcile ourselves to the issue. There is more contact between social workers and parents than teachers and parents. (Do PTA’s still exist?) How many people know the name of their bartender, but not their kid’s teacher’s, their caddy’s, but not their kid’s teacher’s; know their broker’s wine cellar better than the school’s staff. (After all, he or she is laying their ‘future’s’, stocks and vintages, down, while we hoping – at a distance – that an educator is boilding our futures up.
Again, we have to ask ourselves, where we were when this decline was happpening.
And for Boomers and X’ers, don’t let me land on you too hard either. You are as much victims of this neglect, too. So in being fair to yourselves, enjoy the honesty in calling things as they are.
“You can make a change in any minute of a day (a corrrection in any phase of a life).” It’s an adventure for which none of us are too old.
How about it? Book clubs, adult math and science do’s, historical study groups; could be fun.
When education is left up to an essentially political organization its primary educational goal will always be political indoctrination.
It’s not like this is something new. From its beginning public education’s explicit purpose was not to educate the public but to “produce good citizens”.
Look into the history of public education and you will see all of the “progressive” heroes like Dewey and James.