State attorneys general aren’t the only ones engaging in climate justice thuggery.
The board for Portland Public Schools unanimously approved a resolution to eliminate materials that question on the existence of climate change and mankind’s impact on the global environment.
“A lot of the text materials are kind of thick with the language of doubt, and obviously the science says otherwise,” Bill Bigelow, a former Portland Public Schools teacher who was involved in working to present the resolution, told the Portland Tribune. “We don’t want kids in Portland learning material courtesy of the fossil fuel industry.”“It is unacceptable that we have textbooks in our schools that spread doubt about the human causes and urgency of the crisis,” Gaby Lemieux, a high school student in the district, reportedly said in board testimony. “Climate education is not a niche or a specialization, it is the minimum requirement for my generation to be successful in our changing world.”
Interestingly, Bigelow, a former Portland teacher and current curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools (a magazine devoted to education issues) is the author of a book on climate change.
A People’s Curriculum for the Earth is a collection of articles, role plays, simulations, stores, poems, and graphics to help breathe life into teaching about the environmental crisis. The book features some of the best articles from Rethinking Schools magazine alongside classroom friendly readings on climate change, energy, water, food, and pollution–as well as on people who are working to make things better. At a time when it’s becoming increasingly obvious that life on Earth is at risk, here is a resource that helps students see what’s wrong and imagine solutions.
He insists that there are no plans to include this tome in the curriculum going forward:
“What we’re asking for is not: Buy new stuff,” he said. “What we’re looking for is a whole different model of curriculum development and distribution.”
Bigelow and the other proponents of this action insist that our kids are endanger of being subjected to propaganda from the fossil fuel industry. Quite frankly, as the mother of a teen who has experienced the public education system, the curriculum has always been “global warming”, “renewable energy”, and “recycling.” The only “climate questioning” I am aware of is related to my voluntary attempts to provide a different perspective (e.g., Maunder Minimum sun cycles).
I sure wish Exxon or the Koch Brothers would pony up a few dollars for my “climate questioning.”
Bigelow has long been a progressive gadfly, trying to force others into living by progressive precepts. His idea of sensible science is tying July 4th fireworks to heart attacks.
In Portland, Oregon, where I live, the 4th of July holiday offers an excuse for a wonderful annual blues festival in Waterfront Park downtown. Unfortunately, in my neighborhood, it also provides cover for people to blow off fireworks that terrify young children and animals, and that turn the air thick with smoke and errant projectiles. Last year, the fire department here reported 35 fires sparked by toy missiles, defective firecrackers, and other items of explosive revelry. The Washington State Department of Ecology warns that “Breathing fine particles in fireworks smoke can cause or contribute to serious short- or long-term health problems. They include: Risk of heart attack and stroke. Lung inflammation. Reduced lung function. Asthma-like symptoms. Asthma attacks.”
I hope Portland’s parents force the board to reverse their decision. The “climate-change” consensus is entirely bogus, and this forced change in curriculum is ultimately unfair to the students because it fails to educate them.
If Portland’s school board is allowed to suppress alternative theories, then the only subject our children will be allowed to question is their gender.
(Featured image via Youtube video).
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