Ebrooks2000's Weblog

Here’s a frustrating post: An Inconvenient Youth

While I am all for teaching all sides to issues as long as they are based in fact (let’s please keep creationism out of schools, seriously, and I am painfully aware of the quality of teachers in the US system now, but we work with what we have if we aren’t going to pay what teachers are really worth), I am not for teaching children that they cannot or should not do their part to help when they can. The exact figures on how much of global warming is coming from humans’ effects is certainly controversial, and which figure you choose to quote certainly depends on which side benefits you (usually financially), but that does not mean we are not having a noticeable impact. It also does not mean that our future scientists, engineers, architects, inventors, etc. are not in school right now. What is wrong with giving them an awareness of the world outside of their physical selves? What is wrong with showing them that the things they do, literally everything, affects everyone else? Their parents might not help them to feel/see/whatever their spiritual connection to everyone and everything else, but I do not see anything whatsoever wrong with making them aware of how their decisions at the store or when buying a home or car, or when designing that home or car, affect everyone including the very planet we all live on and depend on for our very lives. And even if our effect is only 5% (which I believe the poster chose because it works best for her argument, and let’s face it, we can find some source to cite for just about any figure we want to pull out of our asses to support our own viewpoints), what is wrong with making them aware of the part they can play? It’s still a pretty impressive figure. I wish it were the real one, but telling children the information in that video is wrong as opposed to perhaps biased or that the bears are not protected now, well. . .

That would be a lie. I’m sad that the author has been missing the point all along. She’s still wrapped up in “me.” This isn’t about her or me or any one of us, especially us old folks. We’ll likely be gone before the “sins” of our youths will really come down on them. It’s about teaching social and environmental consciousness. It’s about responsibility for our own actions, for our own part and parts in this society. I am tired of lazy people who will not take responsibility for their own actions (or inaction), and I am even more tired of people teaching their children their bad habits. Do NOT stop someone who is trying to motivate the children of the lazy, irresponsible people who want to sit around debating what is causing global warming and if there is such a thing at all (in between stuffing their faces with junk food while watching “reality shows”) instead of starting to make better decisions on their own now while we wait for the exact facts and figures to come in about the causes, and there are likely many. Please. She should give them some other facts (stressing facts here) to temper Mr. Gore’s if she wants but to not, in any way, lead them to believe they cannot or should not do their part to make responsible choices as consumers and as citizens of the planet. This is not indoctrination; it is education. There is a huge difference.

What is wrong with teaching children to use and re-use bags they bring from home so they do not have to answer the “paper or plastic” question? What is wrong with teaching them to think about packaging, to read labels and to buy locally when they can? What is wrong with teaching them to get off their butts and walk or bicycle to where they need to go instead of getting a ride? What is wrong with showing them with that film or some other AND by example to carpool? to buy light bulbs that save electricity and last longer? to hang up the laundry on the line rather than using the dryer whenever possible? What is wrong with showing them that sometimes there could be a better way when they are designing a product and to consider more than looks or function but also impact on other people and the environment? Even if global warming had nothing whatsoever to do with humans, what would be so bad about teaching people early on not to squander resources and make unnecessary messes that may be very difficult to clean up?

What is wrong with teaching children about the natural cycles of life and that polar bears are a part of it, and that keeping balance in an ecosystem means all of the animals, the predators and the prey, and the plants? What is wrong with helping them to understand that eliminating one species changes the balance in that ecosystem?

I don’t understand why it is preferable to sit around and debate things we KNOW to be true while we try to figure out the rest. Why wait? Why not teach children about responsibility now?