Tag: Sustainability

Categories
Quick Analysis

Warping American Schools, Part 2

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government concludes its review of biased education in U.S. schools. 

Much of what used to be objective science curriculum is now devoted to politically-oriented “sustainability” course work.  The National Association of Scholars discussed the role of this on colleges, but the problem has now spread to grammar and high schools as well: “The sustainability movement is a way for people with a hugely unpopular political program to get into positions of influence so that they can advance their cause despite lack of public support… Sustainability advocates assume that no one can legitimately disagree with their message. They therefore have no qualms about imposing their politics on students, faculty, and staff. If someone does disagree, they attack that person’s motives and ignore his actual points…. Sustainability advocates don’t want to just add sustainability to the curriculum; they want to make it “the foundation of all learning and practice in higher education… Sustainability advocates don’t like free markets or personal liberty. They believe markets ignore long-term costs and people typically make bad choices. Instead of liberty, sustainability advocates praise ‘social justice’ and ‘equitable distribution of resources’ as the foundation of a sustainable society… The proponents of sustainability aim to have ‘all students engaged as effective change agents in our sustainability challenges.’ ”

Pew Research found that “only 29% of Americans rated their country’s K-12 education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (known as STEM) as above average or the best in the world. Scientists were even more critical: A companion survey of members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science found that just 16% called U.S. K-12 STEM education the best or above average; 46%, in contrast, said K-12 STEM in the U.S. was below average.”

According to The 74 site , in 2016 “American teenagers’ math scores on an international test dropped last year, putting the United States in the bottom half among dozens of participating countries. ‘This pattern that we’re seeing in mathematics seems to be sort of consistent with what we’ve seen in previous assessments of mathematics literacy,’ said Peggy Carr, acting director of the National Center for Education Statistics. ‘Everything is just going down across the entire distribution. I think it is something we should keep an eye on as we move forward.’ U.S. students ranked No. 35 in math, down from No. 28 in 2012, among the 60 nations whose students took the Program for International Student Assessment in both 2012 and 2015. PISA is given every three years through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to 15-year-olds around the world, assessing performance in math, reading and science.”

As the Progressive philosophy is rammed into school curriculum, traditional cultural touchstones are forced out. This is followed to an almost ludicrous degree. The Daily Mail  reported last Christmas season that “School officials in Texas are in trouble after putting up a poster “showing a picture of [the character from the Peanuts cartoon] Linus, along with a scrawny Christmas tree and a brief passage that sums up the meaning of the holiday.”

Also omitted in some jurisdictions are concepts as normal as “boy” and “girl.” Matt Walsh, writing for The Blaze  reports “Charlotte public schools have banished the terms “boy” and “girl” from their classrooms. The new transgender-affirming policy allows students to select their own gender and then choose the bathroom (although that part is on hold for now), extracurricular activity, sport, etc., that best fits whatever label they happen to identify with at the moment. Boys will even be permitted to take part in “all-girl” overnight excursions, so long as they become girls for the duration of the trip. Of course, the studious observer might wonder how a boy can identify as a girl if we aren’t allowed to call people girls anymore.”
Where cialis professional no prescription is $15.00 per pill, the generic medicine Kamagra sells at less than 1.00 dollar per pill. The tube is placed over viagra online for women your penis, and then the pump is used to suck out the air by a vacuum pump, then the penis gets erect and remains so for a longer time and the stamina and strength thousand times. HRT for Men The first of these is sildenafil ( sales viagra). It is considered viagra no prescription cute-n-tiny.com the best herbal treatment for low testosterone.
Progressive perspectives are advocated by some educational commentators.  Peter DeWitt, writing in Education Week, states: “Now that the Supreme Court made their historic decision regarding gay marriage it’s time for LGBT issues and curriculum to be spoken about in schools.”

Progressive school boards have a bizarre inclination, even while many American schools continue to provide disappointing scores in traditional subjects, to inappropriately introduce their strange version of sex education to extremely  young students. In 2013, ABC News reported that “sex education will be coming to Chicago kindergartners within two years as part of an overhaul of the Chicago public schools sexual health program… Under the new policy, the youngest students – the kindergartners – will learn the basics about anatomy, reproduction, healthy relationships and personal safety.”

In addition to denigrating U.S. history and replacing cultural touchstones with sex education, outright political bias has entered the grammar school scene. In 2009, notorious—and creepy—scenes of students being led in songs praising Barack Obama were noted. The trend continues.

On the other hand, in what is becoming a commonplace scene, high school students like Maxine Yeakle, reports the Daily Mail, was threatened with suspension merely for wearing a pro-Trump T-shirt.

American schools have been transformed from an institution designed to produce well educated, capable and knowledgeable students into one dedicated to indoctrinate youth into progressive beliefs.

Categories
Quick Analysis

Environmental Extremists Hijack U.S. Schools

When it comes to science in the classroom, are American schools educating or indoctrinating?

In 2010, MRC TV reported that a middle school near San Bernardino, California produced a video featuring students dressed as members of an “environmental police agency” arresting “non-environmentalists.”

Art Horn, an independent meteorologist writing in PJ Media, gave a presentation to an elementary school which included some skepticism towards global warming theories.

“At several of the elementary schools,” he wrote, “this was actually met with approval. Some teachers approached me at the end of my talk and thanked me for giving the kids a different point of view — since all they hear otherwise is that the future will be a climate calamity..”

However, in response to his pointing out that polar bears were not drowning and that their numbers have been increasing,  and that nature has changed climate in the past and would likely continue to do so in the future, complaints were lodged.

One teacher who invited him actually had to do a special project about global warming to set the parents minds at ease.

Jo Kwong, writing for the Acton Institute,  presents a similar report:

“A growing number of people are disturbed by the methods and strategies used by the environmental special interest movement, particularly in the realm of environmental education… Educators have embraced environmental extremism, fully accepting the anti-man, anti-technology, and anti-economic growth positions. School systems across the nation, often at the requirement of government mandates, are incorporating environmental education into traditional subjects such as mathematics, history, languages, and civics.”

Her review of environmental education teachings revealed a number of unsettling trends and strategies.    She notes: “…it is apparent that 1) children are being scared into becoming environmental activists, 2) there is widespread misinformation in materials aimed at children, 3) children are being taught what to think, rather than how to think, 4) children are taught that man is evil, and 5) environmental education is being used to undermine the simple joys of childhood. These findings raise an important question: Are we raising critically-thinking leaders, or are we merely raising automatons that can recite the latest environmental dogma?”

The next time you feel the urge to complain viagra for cheap , consider the alternatives our ancestors have had to deal with it. When the man fails viagra for women uk to make proper erections. One of the important things cheap cialis is that your selection of mattress align your spine correctly. Without the proper viagra pills in india amount of high quality screening examinations. The National Association of Scholars (NAS) focused on the issue at the college level. In a recent report,  on “sustainability,” (which uses the theory of manmade global warming as a reason to impose substantial and costly regulations that are often little more than old big-government mantras,)  it found:

“Sustainability has become a discipline in its own right. We identified 1,438 degree programs at 475 colleges and universities in 65 states and provinces focused on or relating to sustainability studies. In the U.S. alone, there are 1,274 programs, with at least one program in each of the 50 states…The sustainability movement – a major force on college campuses in the United States and the rest of the Western world – has largely escaped serious critical scrutiny, until now… on campuses across the United States, where sustainability has become dogma, honest investigation of global warming is nearly impossible…Sustainability activists blur the line between pragmatic environmental protection and their utopian dreams – dreams of a carbon-free economy and dreams of a new social order that imposes redistribution of wealth and their own version of “equality.” We support good stewardship of natural resources and agree commonsense conservation measures should be encouraged. The sustainability movement works against those goals by turning environmental policymaking into regulatory power grabs.”

In response to the harms being done by the sustainability movement in higher education, NAS offered ten recommendations under three categories:

Respect Intellectual Freedom

  1. “Create neutral ground. Colleges and universities should be neutral in important and unresolved scientific debates, such as the debate over dangerous anthropogenic global warming. Claims made on the authority of “science” must be made on the basis of transparent evidence and openness to good arguments regardless of their source. 2. Cut the apocalyptic rhetoric. Presenting students with a steady diet of doomsday scenarios undermines liberal education. 3. Maintain civility. Some student sustainability protests have aimed at preventing opponents from speaking. Personal vitriol and ad hominem attack have no place in institutions of higher learning. 4. Stop “nudging.” Leave students the space to make their own decisions about sustainability, and free faculty members from the implied pressure to imbed sustainability into the curricula of unrelated courses.

Uphold Institutional Integrity

 “Withdraw from the President’s Climate Commitment. Colleges that have signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment should withdraw in favor of openminded debate on the subject. 6. Open the books and pull back the sustainability hires. Make the pursuit of sustainability by colleges financially transparent. The growth of administrative and staff positions in sustainability drives up costs and institutionalizes advocacy at the expense of education. 7. Uphold environmental stewardship. Campuses need to recover the distinction between real environmental stewardship and a movement that uses the term as a springboard for a much broader agenda. 8. Credential wisely. Curtail the aggrandizement of sustainability as a subject. Sustainability is not a discipline or even a subject area. It is an ideology.

Be Even-Handed

  1. “Equalize treatment for advocates. Treat sustainability groups on campus under the same rubric as other advocacy groups. They should not enjoy privileged immunity from ordinary rules and special access to institutional resources. 10. Examine motives. College and university boards of trustees should examine demands for divestment from fossil fuels skeptically and with full awareness of the ideological context in which those demands are made.”