Posted on 03/11/2012 7:40:44 AM PDT by Jeff Head
I saw Lorax yesterday with five of my grankids, ages 10 down to 5.
It was a fun kids movie, but clearly slanted towards environmentalism and particularly with an anti-business and anti-lumber company...really, and anti-capitalism bias.
On the way home it provided teaching moments. I asked the kids how many of them did not like lumber companies that cut down and harvest trees and why. All of them said they did not like them because they are "stealing our air," hurting animals, and destroying their places to live.
I pointed to the Boise Mountains which we could see from the windows of my Pickup Truck, which they love to drive in...crew cab, 4x4 with a big V-8, and said,
"You see all that dark green on the mountains as far as you can see...that's forests. Almost all lumber companies do not cut down "all" the forests. In fact, they plant more than they cut. We have more forests in the US now than they did 300 years ago in Colonial America."
I then asked..."Who likes wooden playground swings, see saws, etc., pencils, your furniture, your houses?" They all said they did. I asked them to start looking for things made of wood as we drove...they saw fences, signs, roofs, paper, carts, trailers, etc., etc. I told them that all of that was made from wood by companies who, yes make a profit because those people have jobs...but who also try and make the forests better, and bigger in the process.
After a good ten minutes of them pointing out all of these thigns, I then asked, "Who likes lumber companies now, and why?"
At that point they all said they did because they are really making more forest which makes more air, and trying to protect the forests even if they do cut down some of the trees and all of the neat things we have in society because those companies are working in the forests.
This is a long explanation...but it was a good teaching moment for grandpa and I thought I should share.
AMEIRCA AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY.
What do you say when one of the kids asks about clear cutting tropical forests that are not being replanted?
Great way to handle the greenie propanda - Thanks for the post!!
I told my 14 year old daughter when the subject came up - trees are renewable and can be replanted. She has zero interest in seeing the movie, (thankfully) and also immediately recognized the logic in the trees are renewable position.
The job killing greenies are out of control! I care deeply about the environment by the way - I refused to use disposable diapers for 4 babies, for example, but with proper ingenuity jobs and industry can be managed and the environment can be sustained at the same time.
Crude oil is a completely natural substance - let’s use our God given intelligence to figure out how to use it cleanly!! (That’s another topic, though)
Thanks again for the great post.
It's Obama that wants to kill algae to make gas.
Simple truth: Some organisms must die so that I may live.
ping
A great thing you did, Jeff. As you said, you took what the kids already knew and used that to point out the contradictions inherent in the propaganda they experienced in that movie. Illustrates the extent of the corruption of our schools and our culture.
"Everything that's made of wood (was once a tree)"
Thanks for the ping!
We're not quite to the grandkid stage yet, but have done this sort of "teachable moment" talk with our kids on every subject imaginable -our youngest two just turned 18 and we are still having these talks. Just the other day we discussed Rush and the "slut" ordeal (hope you will get a bye on that one for a while, Jeff!)
Teachable moments are out there just waiting for parents and grandparents to reinforce commonsense ideas and to refute the phony illogical liberal "truths" they are exposed to on a daily basis. The key is, like Jeff, to ask questions, and to gently guide them to the discovery of a right and proper response.
The really cool thing is it has legs - because you chose to teach and not preach, I guarantee that your precious grandkids will patiently explain to their friends the very concept you taught. I've seen it in action, and it's the best feeling in the world!
Well that’s just Crazy talk from grampa ! < /sarcasm> .....:o)
Stay safe buddy....!
"Idaho."
Thanks for reading. We now return you to your marginally more series thread.
I doubt that too many people who truly understand what the EPA and the movement is all about can truly be happy and enjoy life as they whistle past the graveyard of history. Of course, we want to care for our environment but we want it done through truth and not lies, through freedom and not slavery, through wisdom and not insanity. Unfortunately, the critical thinkers are to be found on the other side of this issue..Also, it is doubly true that in times like these, the “wise man or woman is seldom glad.” Too many of the environmentalist wackos do not have children..Therefore they do not need to think about the next generation. Americans need to fall at the feet of
Lord Monckton and his voice of reason for which we starve. The pollution which is killing us is made up of the false propaganda our minds are fed each and every day from the government run journalists. I once read that it takes around eight years for ideas to permeate society. That is nearly a generation..The West does not have that kind of time to turn this around.
My late father-in-law hated Dr. Suess. He said he was a communist. I guess he was right.
Thanks Jeff! I am going to see it in an hour with my ten year old granddaughter, who is going green lately..
Of course, with me as her grandmother, she won’t ever become a Lefty ;-)
But I’ve been dreading seeing the movie(except for the fun of being with her)..and now I feel more armed and ready for battle.
View Lord Monckton’s debate with student environmentalists and their professors.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/10/moncktons-schenectady-showdown/
The Lorax had an environmentalist bent to begin with but not in any radical sense.
Well done!
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