An Inconvenient Curriculum
"First it was his world history class. Then he saw it in his economics class. And his world issues class. And his environment class. In total, 18-year-old McKenzie, a Northern Ontario high schooler, says he has had the film An Inconvenient Truth shown to him by four different teachers this year." This happens here too.
When I found out they were showing An Inconvenient Truth to my son's class, I inquired of the principal of the school. I explained that I was not comfortable with the school's presenting a Democrat politician's (note I did not say Democrat scientist) version of science as fact. She assured me that it would be part of a debate presenting "both sides" of the issue.
My son told me that, when the movie was over, the teacher turned it off and said "Well. It's sure hard to argue with evidence...isn't it?"
Some balance.
4 comments:
It goes way beyond the movie. I had my 10 year old worried that I was ruining the ecosystem by killing all the bugs when I sprayed weeds. While I tried to explain that it is ok to kill some things (like the weeds I wanted to kill), I think the only thing that appeased her was that I was not using and insecticide, so the bugs would be ok.
Of course, this is the same child that helped me put up the wasp traps because she didn't want to get stung. So, I suppose we can trust that bright minds will eventually find the truth, no matter what is forced on them in school.
I went to school in Missoula for a long time, and I came out ok, so I will try to believe that.
This, in a nutshell, is why Boy goes to a private school. Not because I think they'll only teach him what I believe --because I know they won't-- and not because I think every controversial topic will be handled fairly --private school teachers have prejudices, too-- but because I have more of a voice than I do as a tiny cog in the massive public education machine. If this movie were being shown to my son's class, I'd be there watching it with them and making absolutely sure there was a discussion afterwards that made it clear there is more than one side to the issue.
me home this week & announced "Global warming is a big scam" and then told me he had to watch the AL Gore movie & "the one that opposes it". I have no idea what the other movie is...can you clue me in here?
Thanks!
http://ecityblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/global-warming-swindle.html
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