Posted on 12/01/2005 11:27:55 AM PST by Spiff
I know that this may be a long read, there's a lot of content here, but I think that many FReepers will find the information here interesting and disturbing. I will appreciate any help I can get with this situation.
My wife and I have been homeschooling our children since they started schooling. We have 5th, 6th, and 8th graders. Recently, we made the tough decision to enroll them in a local Charter School. In Arizona, a Charter School is a privately run, smaller, more focused public school. It provides parents with school choice and some competition between the schools. Although, right now, the Charter Schools are the red-headed step children and are regularly passed over in funding, resources, etc. in favor of the megaschools. We favored the small school environment and found a Charter School that we thought met our minimum standards. We went into this with our eyes open and met with the Principal and the School Director and asked many specific questions related to policies, teachers, environment, curriculum, underlying philosophy, discipline, etc. We knew that we were going to have to unteach our children some of the garbage that they would inherently be taught in any sort of public school and we were prepared to do that.
They've been in the school less than a month and we've already run into problems with what is being taught and what we were told they would be taught. We've dealt with some, but the biggest one came up last night.
My 8th grader is not allowed to bring her Science textbook home. The reason is that the Science teacher purchased the textbooks with his own money and doesn't want any to be lost or defaced. In fact, there's not enough books to go around so some students must double up on a textbook. I understand this, to some extent, and actually see a benefit with my daughter having to take copious notes to keep up. That note-taking skill will serve her well later on.
We help our children every night with their homework. At this time, if you look at raw man hours, we probably spend more time helping them with their homework now than we spent teaching them and helping them with their homework when we were homeschooling, but I digress. Anyway, my 8th grader had some questions about an essay that she was assigned to write for her science class. She started reading off some things that were supposed to be about human ecology and said that she was supposed to write why she agreed or disagreed with each statement. Now, in what science class do you write why you agree or disagree with the First Law of Thermodynamics? In the 8th grade?!
The book is called "Global Science" and it is the 3rd Edition published by Kendall/Hunt in 1991 and authored by John W. Christensen." I can find no other science books authored by this person.
Many of those "laws and principles" had little to do with science, were value statements, and some were plainly offensive. But, whether one agrees or disagrees with the philosophy behind some of these statements, many don't belong in a science book. This piqued my interest and I read through the "laws and principles" thoroughly and then Googled them.
These are the "laws and principles" that are printed in this textbook. I quote them here so that you can read them and I enthusiastically invite comment about them:
THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS AND PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN ECOLOGY
- Law of Interrelatedness: We interact with each other, and relate to everyting around us; everything is connected to everything else. You can't do just one thing.
- The Law of Equity All humans are created with an equal right to live in dignity and peace and to work out a meaningful existence. Everyone is entitled to a fair share of the world's resources--provided one is carrying one's own share of the responsibilities.
- Law of Conservation of Matter Matter can neither be created nor destroyed. It can be rearranged. Everything must go somewhere - there is no away.
- First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. However, it can be transformed from one from to another.
- Second Law of Thermodynamics: As energy and other resources are used, there is an overall decrease in the amount of usefulness.
- Continuous Change: Everything is becoming something else.
- Brontosaurus Principle: Up to a point, the bigger the better; beyond that point, benefits could be reduced. Or, to everything there is an optimum size.
- Rights of Future Generations: Our environment does not belong to us alone. It was used by our forefathers, passed on to us, and we are charged with the responsibility of passing it in the best condition possible to future generations.
- Responsibility of the Born: All persons must be held responsible for their own pollution.
- Nature Knows Best: Nature frequently, but not always knows best. We use antibiotics to counter nature.)
- Your Environment is You: "We shape our buildings (environment) and afterwards our building (environment) shapes us." - Winston Churchill
- Goal of Society: Society's goal should be to live in comfort, and in harmony with nature.
- The Principle of Diversity: The greater the diversity of a system, the greater its stability.
- Give Earth a Chance:No national purpose however urgent, no political or economic necessity however pressing, can possibly justify the risk of bringing all human history to an end.
- Technology-Part of the Problem, Part of the Solution: Corollary: God science proceeds into the unknown with caution; and in ignorance, refrains.
- Ideas Unlimited: The creativity of the collective human mind seems almost limitless. If humans, as a whole, understand the laws that govern our ecosphere and live within the limits imposed by nature, human creativity should enable us to enjoy a comfortable living on our planet for an indefinite period of time.
There is no reference in the book to where this crap came from. Disturbing is the fact that bizarre value statements are mingled with scientific principles like the Laws of Thermodynamics. When I Googled, I could not find any legitimate science sites, papers, or articles which contained this set of principles or anything close to them. What I did find was that every site that had this set or a slightly reworded set were Pagan and Witchcraft sites. No, really. I'm not looking for Satanists under every bed or in every closet, but this is what I found and it surprised me.
Here's a list of some of the websites which contain this set of principles or slightly reworded versions:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos144.htm
http://www.paganlibrary.com/reference/fundamental_laws_human_ecology.php
http://textfiles.group.lt/occult/echolgyl.txt
http://www.darkwitches.co.uk/haven/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=20
http://www.ladyoftheearth.com/thelaws/laws-01.txt
http://www.paganality.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=11577
http://www.junos-horizon.com/documents/247.html (Wicca site)
http://paganrealm.tripod.com/misc/hum-eco-laws.html
http://groups.msn.com/AlbanysMysticCircle/listmagicktopics.msnw
http://crypt.eldritchs.com/tome/0617.html (Witchy Crypt)
http://www.esotericdotcom.com/categoria.asp?categoria=Human (Directory of articles about magic, divination, alchemy... )
http://www.witcheswell.com/text/thelaws/laws-01.txt
http://www.funet.fi/pub/culture/occult/BoS/0601-700.txt
The only reference I could find, and I found it on several of the sites, was to something called "Ecomagic - Book of shadows" and it showed that this set of principles was on Page 616 of that book. What does "Ecomagic" have to do with science? When I compare what was printed in the science book with the reworded versions found on the websites, it appeared to me that what was in the science book was simply a cleaned up version, with some grammatical fixes, of what was published in Pagan literature and published online. Now, of course, I need to know which was published first. The book was published in 1991 and had earlier editions. Did the Pagan sites get the statements from this "science" book, or did the "science" book AND the Pagan sites get the list of principles from some other source that I can't find? Maybe (probably) this is a distraction, but I think it is noteworthy and disturbing.
These principles are not just included in a sidebar or appendix. No, instead they are at the end of Chapter 1 and they are prefaced with this comment:
The Earth we live on has its problems, but basically it is a world of opportunity. To achieve a life of comfort and happiness, it is important to understand the "laws and principles" discussed in this text. They will be emphasized throughout the course. Upon completion, you should know them well.
The author makes it clear right here that these so-called "principles" are going to pervade the "science" text and that the goal of the text is not to teach science, but to ensure that the students accepts these "principles".
The author reinforces this in his comments at the beginning of the textbook:
You are living at an exciting time. In the next several years extremely important decisions are going to be made, and you will play a role in making them. These decisions will affect: the position of your country in the world of nations; your feeling of who you are and how you relate to others and the environment around you; the standard of living you will have; and , the amount of personal freedom you will enjoy. Many of these deicions are related to energy, resources, and environment.
How well we make these decisions in large part depends upon how well we understand the issues. It is the purpose of this course to build basic background for understanding energy/resource/environment benefits and problems. This is not just another science course. The problems we will be dealing with are in the here and the now. You will find that the road you travel as you work through these pages can be an exciting journey--if you have the proper attitude.
Science is a tool at our disposal. It is a powerful tool, and it will play an important role at this turning point in time. What is exponential growth? How bad is the energy/resource/environmental problem? Does the Earth have a carrying capacity? Can we live better with less? What are our alternatives? How do we get there from here?
Studying these materials won't provide all the answers, but you will be much better prepared to face many issues because of your experiences in this course.
This makes it abundantly clear what the goals of the "science" text are. By mingling science (a "tool at our disposal") with a collection of socialistic, radical environmentalist, and zero-population growth garbage, as long as student has the "proper attitude", will mold them to have the mindset that the author intends. The goal is not to provide the student with an understanding of a specific science because, as the author states, "this is not just another science course."
It gets worse.
Chapter 3 is all about Growth and Population. In fact, population problems appear throughout the entire text. The references used are typically the Ehrlich's disproven zero-population junk science philosophy. References also come from the Club of Rome's 1971 "Limits to Growth" study which is more zero-population, one-worlder garbage. Chapter 3 is quite offensive as it compares humans to bacteria, discusses abortion as an acceptable form of population control, and even includes diagrams of several birth control methods and devices. So offensive was this chapter that the original school who used this book removed the most offensive 10 pages. I found out about that content while using Google and reading a fairly positive review of the book and that content. I spoke to the Director of my children's school and he knew nothing about the book, its contents, and the excised portion.
Throughout the book are several political cartoons. One shows an Earth covered with people, so many so that they are hanging on the bottom and some are tumbling off the bottom into space. Others depict a cowboy, an indian, and a dead buffalo and it mocks the evil and stupid cowboy for wanting to slaughter more buffalo. Another shows a baby with a globe for a head labeled "population" with a big mouth and a farmer bringing food to the baby. Each progressive frame shows the baby's head and mouth growing larger, the farmer's bushel of food also growing larger, then finally the farmer has aged, the bushel is empty, and it appears the huge mouth is going to swallow the farmer who has stumbled to the ground. Another cartoon shows factories with stacks belching smoke, denuded trees, clouded skies, pipes spewing pollution into a waterway, and dead animals around it. The evil suit-wearing capitalist has his arm around his son and is captioned as saying, "Someday, my boy, this will all be yours." Pure propaganda.
Further propaganda found in the book includes NASA images of the so-called "ozone hole" over the South Pole. The images are displayed to make the student believe that the "hole", which is in fact just a natural period thinning, is there at all times. It makes no mention of the natural processes (volcanic activity, cold season weather differentials, solar cycles) that actually cause the thinning. Another example, in the chapter called "Food, Agriculture, and Population Interactions" shows a shrouded women with an emaciated dead-looking naked infant in her lap. The caption says, "Ten million children around the world live like this." This is science?
In the same chapter that contained the starved baby photo, is the section on "Global Cooperation." And I quote:
Surviving children are the parents' only hope for care in their old age. But how do you enable their children to live longer? How do you guarantee care for the elderly? This probably can't be accomplished without some redistribution of wealth, either within a country or between countries. China did it, but with violent revolution. Can redistribution take place without a revolution? Some say it can...
At present we have enough food, and we have the means to deliver it to those that are starving. What we lack is the ability to communicate with others who have different beliefs, attitudes, and world views. Skill in conflict resolution seems to be our real lack. We must pledge to keep working at improving it.
This is science!!? I don't think so.
This stuff is not just hidden in the text of the chapters, but is included in the exercises at the end of each chapter and likely will be on the tests. The students are still in chapter 1 and the teacher has already assigned an essay on one of the most offense portions of the book.
The teacher of this class is an outspoken atheist. The essay assignment for students to write how they agree or disagree with the principles and laws in the 1st chapter appears to be an attempt for the students to expose their immature (they're 8th graders) disagreements with the statements so that the teacher can categorize the students, soften them up by openly or subtly attacking their disagreements or beliefs, and/or by opening then up to criticism from their peers.
I have made an appointment with the school's director to discuss these matters. I'm looking for further information from those who would like to comment on the book and its content. As you can see, I've already formed a strong basis for my arguments that I will use with the school's director and the science teacher. I would appreciate further input to help strengthen those arguments or to develop new ones to ensure that this problem is promptly corrected.
This is the benefit of a charter school. You had a complaint, and someone quickly took action. I guarantee this would not happen in a regular public school.
A classroom during the day is like a community . Teaching is not the only thing that goes on . Teachers are parents,lawyers,nurses,doctors and prison guards at various times during the day . Many things that happen are truely private . Things happen that can be the result of many weeks or months in the making . A person, even an administrator might take the happenings in a negative way without prior knowledge of what led up to the action . Many students also do not want their words taped without prior knowledge . In our district, there are specific guidelines for the taping of a class by a student or parent and the teacher does have the last say in these issues .
My main concern is that you should review all appplicable rules before mentioning to third parties that you privately taped the class. Remember, people have been fined for taping phone calls over the air and relaying information to the Democratic operatives in Florida.
The government also needs a permit to wiretap .
I personally think this teacher has some serious issues , primarily an insecurity complex .
I also think that the administration in this building is lacking in professionally handling your request for disallowing a textbook to be used as a primary source of information that is not approved by the district .
Thanks for the update; fyi, the attitude of the teacher is extremely similar to that of a teacher (a counselor, the principal, the curriculum head, the superintendent, and a few others) I had to deal with when my daughter was in Kindergarten....and, again, for the "values" being taught rather than subjects, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic.
You have GOT to be kidding. I would have been playing it back in the car, probably in the school parking lot. :D
I don't know anything about the legality or ethics of taping a classroom but common sense tells me it shouldn't be a big issue. I think you underestimate what you refer to as "laypeople." If I heard a tape of what was happening in a classroom, I think I am quite capable of comprehending the fact that you are coming in on the middle of things that may have begun earlier. As for a teacher's role, I think you underestimate us here too. Anyone who is paying attention to the news these days, knows what is happening in schools. Oh, BTW, my baby brother has been teaching 20 years in an urban district in the worst school in the district. Last year an administrator was attacked with a chair (by a parent!). This year a student wrestled a security person down and tried to wrest the gun from the security person. There are so many incidents, I couldn't begin to name them all but I am well aware of what kinds of things happen in schools. Try not to think we are so dumb! Frankly (no offense to you personally), I think a lot of teachers are pretty incompetent, unintelligent, and even, downright ignorant. I give you all the credit though because it's not like it was when I was a kid.
Well...?
Spiff, this teacher/missionary did say he might be killed for preaching Christianity in a Muslim country. That's a lot more honest and non-PC than most school presentations ever get. Also non-PC was having a Christian talk about Islam, instead of a Muslim to totally sugar-coat things.
Now this missionary may have seen things to admire in the Muslims he met, or admired certain aspects of the particular society he was in. Nothing wrong with saying that.
I think you have something of a treasure-trove in this missionary, and your son should realize that, and ask for more information, IF he wants to learn more- but not insist that the answers all reflect as badly as possible on Muslims and Islam - because that wouldn't be honest inqiry.
Matter and energy are intergeable; the total is conserved.
I agree completely. I never said anything bad about the teacher who gave the presentation, or at least I didn't mean to. I discussed the whole thing with my son last night and he was disciplined for his bad behavior. He had to write letters of apology to all involved and to rewrite the original letter in a more appropriate tone and to be more accurate. He chose to leave out any protest about Islam since, after we learned better and discussed it with him, it appears that the teacher did attempt to cover some of the topics that my son addressed in the original letter. Maybe not to my son's satisfaction, but my son never spoke up and asked about any of them.
Today they held their tolerance and diversity assembly. My wife attended because she was invited by the science teacher. The presentation consisted of the teacher who is a former Christian missionary who served in an Islamic country. He gave pretty much the same presentation that he gave to my son's class, but this was for the upper grades. Then the science teacher gave a presentation and spoke about some religion that nobody had heard of and my wife couldn't even remember what it was. It is something from Malaysia and it starts with the letter P. She had a little more info about it and I've Googled, but can't find it.
It was lame, but it wasn't really offensive in any way as far as my wife was concerned.
I hate to disagree with you, but in a taxpayer funded public school and with a teacher who draws his salary from taxpayer funds, there is never anything that happens in a classroom between the class and the teacher that is ever private nor should there be.
Scrutiny and outside observation works. After the initial fireworks caused by the teacher's extreme reaction to our presence, the scrutiny that we've brought to his classroom has done wonders. The students report a significant improvement in how the teacher is treating them. We'll see how that works out over time, but we see some immediate effect when we're there and even after we've left based upon reports from our daughter.
It also sounds like he's ready to back down on the book and he said that he's going to retool his entire lesson plan over the holidays to eliminate the offensive "science" book entirely. He's not the most honest person (his story keeps changing about why the book was there in the first place and how he intended to use it) so we will take a 'wait and see' approach and watch him closely.
My wife has volunteered to serve as a Teacher's Aide in his classroom and he has accepted. This way, she can keep an eye on him AND be helpful. So, I think we may have won on this one, but we won't know for sure until some time in January.
I don't know why you seem like you are going off on me . I am stating a FACT. You can't legally tape a class without the permission of the instructor and/or the administration. If you do it secretly ,and it damages the teacher in question by becoming public knowledge, you are liable. This is common law in lieu of common sense . All I am doing, is suggesting you don't mention the taping to the wrong people or you might get your arse in a sling . If you don't believe me , ask a lawyer .
BTW, I never said you were "dumb" . I realy can't figure out why you made that statement . However there are things in education you are not aware of as you were never a teacher . I feel for your brother also . If he was smart he would try to transfer out of that hellhole while he still has a mind . The conditions he is teaching in are the main cause of early burnout and depression in teachers. I have even advocated that select teachers in a building should be licensed to carry . They would have to pass a psychological and training The teacher(s) in questiion would not be identified . People would think twice before trying to take over a school building like they did in Columbine and elsewhere.
Good luck with your quest . The teacher in question has so much insecurity that he probably will not be around too long anyway .
Merry Christmas !!
I don't know what you're talking about. You never called me dumb, I never said you did. I don't know what you're talking about when you mention my brother since I don't think I ever mentioned him and he's not a teacher anyway. I think you've misposted or something. I'm not going off on you. I think you have me confused with someone else.
My mistake .Somebody named PavedParadise replied . Didn't notice the tagline ...
Merry Christmas anyway and good luck !
I don't know why you seem to be going off on me. You can't
legally tape a class without the permission of the instructor and/or the administration. If you do it secretly ,and it damages the teacher in question by becoming public knowledge, you are liable. This is common law in lieu of common sense . All I am doing, is suggesting you don't mention the taping to the wrong people or you might get your arse in a sling . If you don't believe me , ask a lawyer .
BTW, I never said you were "dumb" . I realy can't figure out why you made that statement . However there are things in education you are not aware of as you were never a teacher . I feel for your brother also . If he was smart he would try to transfer out of that hellhole while he still has a mind . The conditions he is teaching in are the main cause of early burnout and depression in teachers. I have even advocated that select teachers in a building should be licensed to carry . They would have to pass a psychological and training The teacher(s) in questiion would not be identified . People would think twice before trying to take over a school building like they did in Columbine and elsewhere.
Good luck with your quest . The teacher in question has so much insecurity that he probably will not be around too long anyway .
Merry Christmas !!
However, I've done some intensive Googling and could not find anything about this person. Then, my wife attended the "diversity and tolerance" assembly yesterday and the science teacher's presentation came from a website. He made enough of a note of the website's content for me to find it. The site was packed with the science teacher's writings. He has a PhD and is a prolific writer and does so in PhD-speak.
Anyway, his writings are completely in line with the eco-spiritualist nature of the "laws and principles" of human ecology that brought this textbok to my attention. His beliefs on world governance is also in line with the textbook's political bent. In fact, he makes the argument that a world police state with big brother controls is, while not optimum, a better alternative to our current environmental destruction, wasting of finite resources, world poverty and wealth inequity, and wars between nation states. Heck, from reading his writings I could easily assume that it was he that wrote the "laws and principles" himself since they are completely unsourced in the textbook and I've been unable to find a source on the Internet other than the dozen or so occult/wiccan/pagan sites that they appear on.
So, I think I've disabused myself of the notion that the science teacher may not have been trying to brainwash the students with a bizarre eco-socialist worldview. His writings betray him.
As I said earlier, it appears he's retooling his lesson plan and eliminating the book. We'll see... I'm really going to have to scrutinize what he's doing to make sure that his bizarre ideas are not injected into the lessons. He's got several other science books in the classroom that he will be using that he purchased himself. I'm going to have to inspect them too to be sure they aren't as objectionable as the first one. He's welcome to his weird ideas, but he better keep them to himself when he's teaching science.
Nobody was "going off" on you. If you are a teacher and that sensitive, I'm amazed you survived that long. As for my brother, he takes the bad stuff because he's a good teacher and knows that a lot of the kids want to do well. It's an urban school and if nobody had the guts to teach those kids, then it would be a sad day for the ones who are poor but have a desire to learn. He does it for them. The few times he's thought about leaving, the kids would beg him that he has to stay and do it for the other kids. He's one of the few "true teachers" out there. He's not a nutcase and he's not burned out either (amazingly).
I'm not sensitive at all . Matter of fact I probably would have smacked you if it was in person. Cut me a break dude ,I only stated a fact. You want a lawsuit, go ahead and tape someone without their knowledge . That's how lawyers make mucho $$$$$$.
As for your brother , God bless him. I paid my dues for 35 years and now enjoy Corona and cigars during the cold winter months while the rest of the ( left wing idiots ) I taught with freeze their a$$es off .
Merry Christmas .
That's funny. Honestly, I don't know what I said that seemed to irk you so much. I was talking more about laypeople understanding more than you think about what goes on in today's classrooms. I don't remember really commenting at all about taping stuff so maybe you are confusing me with another Freeper. Meanwhile, just the tone in your replies sounds like you need to chill out just a bit, bro! Relax. As you said, you paid your dues, so just relax and enjoy!!
C'mon, I'm still waiting for a "Merry Christmas !"
Oops. Merry Christmas!!!! God Bless you in 2006! And thank you for all the years you served teaching your young people! How's that?
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