You may have read my post about the indoctrination field trip. Here is my update.
Yesterday, after reviewing what appeared to be another go-green science lesson, I contacted a representative from the STEM program at my daughter's high school, to discuss what I feared was a green trend for STEM science.
She apologized about the field trip, and assured me that the children were not supposed to see the global warming exhibit at the museum. The museum curator had been instructed to show them the infectious diseases exhibits only.
She further assured me that our school's STEM program has no agenda to indoctrinate the students with the man-made global warming point of view. She said the current science assignment examining climate data trends was designed to enable the students to discover the natural causes of changes to our climate, not just accept the current drum beat of man is the cause. The point of the exercise was not spelled out, but I will take her word for it.
I further mentioned two speeches from the Secretary of Education and the Undersecretary of Education, given at last month's Sustainability Summit, regarding the STEM programs, and the Department of Education's mission to turn our students into "good little envirionmental citizens" in this "green revolution."
She assured me that at our school, they are not doing that.
I believe her, because I still have hope that things may be different on the local level. But I will stay vigilant.
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Indoctrination Field Trip...
For my update, please click here.
Yesterday, I accompanied my 9th grader on a field trip to the Marian Koshman Science Museum of the American Academy of Sciences. We were told this would be a lesson about infectious diseases.
It is true that there was a lesson about infectious diseases, but we also were required to walk through an exhibit about... wait for it... global warming.
In fact, the global warming exhibit took up half the square footage of the actual exhibit area. There were no questions to answer for purposes of the field trip, but we were told by the museum curator to spend twenty minutes in that exhibit and just "absorb."
I wrote down the museum's statement about global warming. According to the National Academy of Sciences, "A growing body of evidence indicates that humans now have a significant impact on climate. Nevertheless, it is difficult to identify humans as the only cause of a particular weather event or local climate change."
Yes. For instance, perhaps sun activity warms the earth.
So... According to the Academy, humans are significantly impacting climate, but not the weather or local climate change. What? A growing body of evidence? Any proven scientific fact?
Someone at the Academy may want to read the reports about Weathergate. It appears the growing body of evidence concerning man-made global warming was admittedly falsified and subsequently debunked.
When someone thinks that two things are scientifically connected, I was taught that that is called a hypothesis. Then if researchers actually prove it, it becomes a fact that can be taught in high school. All the talk of a consensus is an attempt to legitimize something that simply cannot be proven, nor universally accepted.
Makes me wonder what else is being taught as scientific fact.
I did not have long to wait for another example.
Once we were in the actual infectious disease part of the exhibit, we watched a video about the spread of HIV/AIDS. Condom use was clearly and graphically promoted as the answer to controlling the spread of AIDS. This was reiterated in the group discussion at the close of the field trip. There was no mention of either the failure rate of condoms or the moral considerations of contraception.
You know how educators have mostly taken history and changed it to social studies? I think the same thing is happening with science. Yesterday, I witnessed science being transformed into some sort of global social studies.
Science is supposed to reflect physical truths. This was about global social reforms.
You can be sure my daughter knows the truth. She knows the truth because I was there to tell her, every step of the way, what was true and right... and what was not.
But what about the other thirty kids? Their parents were not there. What about the ones who do not believe in what was promoted as true. They may send their kids off to school and trust that they won't be indoctrinated this way.
Sadly, I can only trust that they will. It is getting difficult to manage. There is simply too much of it.
And sadder still is that my options are slim. You may think this indoctrination only occurs in public schools, but the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is promoting, as part of Catholic education, the St. Francis Pledge, otherwise known as the Catholic Climate Covenant, and environmental justice as a collective pursuit.
So, what is a parent to do? Our daughter could be in for four more years of this.
Homeschooling a high-schooler? I'll have to investigate.
I am praying for discernment.
Yesterday, I accompanied my 9th grader on a field trip to the Marian Koshman Science Museum of the American Academy of Sciences. We were told this would be a lesson about infectious diseases.
It is true that there was a lesson about infectious diseases, but we also were required to walk through an exhibit about... wait for it... global warming.
In fact, the global warming exhibit took up half the square footage of the actual exhibit area. There were no questions to answer for purposes of the field trip, but we were told by the museum curator to spend twenty minutes in that exhibit and just "absorb."
I wrote down the museum's statement about global warming. According to the National Academy of Sciences, "A growing body of evidence indicates that humans now have a significant impact on climate. Nevertheless, it is difficult to identify humans as the only cause of a particular weather event or local climate change."
Yes. For instance, perhaps sun activity warms the earth.
So... According to the Academy, humans are significantly impacting climate, but not the weather or local climate change. What? A growing body of evidence? Any proven scientific fact?
Someone at the Academy may want to read the reports about Weathergate. It appears the growing body of evidence concerning man-made global warming was admittedly falsified and subsequently debunked.
When someone thinks that two things are scientifically connected, I was taught that that is called a hypothesis. Then if researchers actually prove it, it becomes a fact that can be taught in high school. All the talk of a consensus is an attempt to legitimize something that simply cannot be proven, nor universally accepted.
Makes me wonder what else is being taught as scientific fact.
I did not have long to wait for another example.
Once we were in the actual infectious disease part of the exhibit, we watched a video about the spread of HIV/AIDS. Condom use was clearly and graphically promoted as the answer to controlling the spread of AIDS. This was reiterated in the group discussion at the close of the field trip. There was no mention of either the failure rate of condoms or the moral considerations of contraception.
You know how educators have mostly taken history and changed it to social studies? I think the same thing is happening with science. Yesterday, I witnessed science being transformed into some sort of global social studies.
Science is supposed to reflect physical truths. This was about global social reforms.
You can be sure my daughter knows the truth. She knows the truth because I was there to tell her, every step of the way, what was true and right... and what was not.
But what about the other thirty kids? Their parents were not there. What about the ones who do not believe in what was promoted as true. They may send their kids off to school and trust that they won't be indoctrinated this way.
Sadly, I can only trust that they will. It is getting difficult to manage. There is simply too much of it.
And sadder still is that my options are slim. You may think this indoctrination only occurs in public schools, but the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is promoting, as part of Catholic education, the St. Francis Pledge, otherwise known as the Catholic Climate Covenant, and environmental justice as a collective pursuit.
So, what is a parent to do? Our daughter could be in for four more years of this.
Homeschooling a high-schooler? I'll have to investigate.
I am praying for discernment.
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