Posted on 04/17/2005 3:02:47 PM PDT by Tanniker Smith
I'm teaching an Environmental Science course in a NYC high school. The textbook I'm using is about 10 years old, so it has some stuff about off-road vehicles, but not so much about gas-guzzling SUVs. I've come right out and told my students that some things that appear in the book look like they were written by whackos who care for the environment first and people second, and I've told them that I would let help them separate fact from hype.
So I was stunned when I saw the following passage in the textbook. It was in a sidebar article about air pollution in Polland:
"How did things get this bad? Poland, along with other Eastern European countries, experienced intense industrialization under communist rule. Production of goods was the most important consideration, with little thought given to environmental concerns. Most of the power plants had no pollution controls at all. Furthermore, the fuel that powered almost all of Poland's industries was a type of coal with an especially high sulfur content.
"Things are beginning to change, however. Since the communist government fell in 1989, a free-market economy has begun to develop."
Huh? Communist, bad? Free market, good? Who let this book into a NYC public school??
TS
Wonder what right-wing wacko was able to slip that in? lol
Still I am surprised to see that kind of text writtin in that context.
Might want to see what the updated version of the text says. Chances are that they sacked the writer and have rewritten it in a new, PC-compliant style.
It doesn't exactly say "Communist bad.Free market good." They probably mean "Profit from goods is now the most important consideration".
Wow.
The person who let that in the text book will never be heard from ever again.
Huh? Communist, bad? Free market, good? Who let this book into a NYC public school??
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Loose lips sink ships !!!
Shy Mon Ewe . . . you just let the cat outa the bag !!! ;-))
...it just goes to show that the education leaders in New York don't even read the textbooks they use - go figure.
Most of the "education leaders" in NYC probably graduated from their own school system and are themselves illiterate.
I,like you teach HS Environmental Science. I use the textbook, Global Science by John W. Christensen. It is a good book that only teaches the science of Env. Science and doesn't preach the liberal view that humans will destroy the planet. I have used it for 5 years and the students get the message and are able to make up their own minds.
These are the things which nobody actually owns, but belong to everyone, and carry costs. The most commonly referred to externalities are water and air (or more accurately, clean water and clean air)!
Another case in point is how the cars that the Commies built immediately cleaned up after 1989. The Trabant and Wartburg - which ran on 2 cycle engines suddenly became obsolte. In fact, in Poland, you could no longer register a 2-cycle Trabant - you could only renew its registration. So there are now very, very few on the roads in Poland and the East block. For a while, they built some with 4-cycle VW Polo engines, but they are few and far between.
Good point - that might explain it.
There's certainly no way a conservative could have sneaked into the NYC School Board (or any other school board, for that matter).
Sounds dangerously close to actual truth to me.
But with only a very small percentage of the world's population we still consume 110% of all the world's resources.
I know it's true. I read it at D.U.
the students get the message and are able to make up their own minds.
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That kinda sorta sounds illegal, in today's asinine liberal infested/infected school system !!! ;-))
Too bad. I just got Martin Cruz Smith's Wolves Eat Dogs which is set in the exclusion zone. I should read it before spouting off more ignorant rants.
That is an unusual find, surely.
Good on you, though. Good for telling the kids the facts instead of the crapola that tends to pass for academics these days.
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