LOL! Please let us know if your son does ask and what his NEA preacher teacher says.
2. Yes or No - People harm the environment when they plant trees.
3. Yes or No - People harm the environment when they drain wetlands.
4. Yes or No - People harm the environment when they build skyscrapers.
Building cities definitely harms the ecosystem--destroys habitat, increases pollution, and disturbs water drainage by diverting rainfall to runoff instead of returning to the water table. Planting trees may harm the ecosystem as well, though! Norway maples are an invasive species, for example.
Yes, beavers cut down trees and change the environment, but they change it from one type of habitat with diverse lifeforms to another type of environment with many other lifeforms. When we build cities the resulting habitat really only suits humans, rats, cockroaches, feral cats and dogs, and sometimes coyotes. Plus there are about 6.5 billion of us!
However, we can recognize these valid concerns without turning into rabid PETA tree-huggers. Perhaps you could have a meeting with the teacher and see why he is presenting this material and what he is trying to teach the children.
You're where I was at a few years ago.
My solution was to have my own version of summer school, covering subjects 'taught' over the last year as well as touching on things for the next year.
We stick to basics. Math, geography, history, English, etc. Things that have been sacrificed in the schoolroom for entertainment and indoctrination.
Most schools have their curriculums online, so you know what will be covered.
You can also request any and all materials from the school so you can examine them.
I've opted my girls out of numerous 'do-nothing' activities, and requested that the school give them alternate academic assignments.
If you think science is bad look at history textbooks. To say that they lie would be an understatement.
Above all, I've taught my girls that
1) A teachers word is not gospel, but you have to put what the teacher wants on the test
2) Printed material should be taken with a grain of salt unless corroborated by another source.
3) If they ever have any questions about what they've heard in school, let me know and we'll research for the truth together.
It's worked out pretty well. They get A's and B's in school and many teachers have told me in private that they are much more mature than most of their contemporaries.
This sounds like the 'mental mapping' classes being taught in schools that Rush was talking about yesterday.
OBE - Outcome Based Education
Get your kid home schooled or in a private school as quickly as possible.
No question that the first 4 are evident of a left-wing environmentalist mentality. I think I would have a little conversation with said Science teacher and inform him/her that you child will be taught at home, the TRUTH about those statements. Sickening.
Have your son ask the teacher for the scientific definition of "harm", and for the reproducible, experimental evidence to support her scientific definition. Have him explain that he can't answer the question without the definition.
When my oldest son was in 3rd grade, his class did a Earth Day unit on overpopulation. His teacher told the class that "normal" families now only have 1 child and that large families are like having a toxic waste dump in your neighborhood. I had to tell him, "No, your sisters aren't pollution". He had been asking me to homeschool him, and after that I was very happy to. I'm still homeschooling my three younger kids.
That's a YES, if it happens to be one of those massive sprawling government school building served by fleets of toxic spewing buses and who's interior environment has proven to cause learning disabilities among otherwise bright and curious children.
I thought I would send an update out about this topic. I went to the school and had a talk with them. I found them to be quite agreeable with the position I took to them.
It was refreshing to to be met with agreement rather than the opposition I was expecting and the outcome was a change in the test from the word "harm" to the word "change" to match the beaver example.
I was made aware that this is the last year these particular science textbooks will be in use. This made me feel like I was not the only parent to voice concern about
issues such as this one.
I would like to thank Freepers for offering their views on this subject and helping me decide which direction to go regarding this issue. It appears that the good guys won this time. Thanks folks.
You have a right to be upset. That's indoctrination not education.
1960
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of this price. What is his profit?
1970 (New Math)
A logger exchanges a set of L lumber for a set of M money. The cardinality of set M is $100, and each element is worth $100. Make 100 dots representing the elements of set M. The set of C of the costs of production contains 20 fewer points than set M.
Represent the set C as a subset of M, and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set P of profits?
1980
A logger sells a truckload of wood for $100. His cost of production is $80, and his profit is $20. Your assignment is to underline the number 20.
1990
By cutting down beautiful forest trees, a logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living?
Topic for Class Participation: How do the forest birds and squirrels feel?