It also happens to be Lenin's Birthday, in case you've forgotten.
Imagine my absolute horror a few days ago when my four-year-old nephew was telling me all about what his pre-School teacher had taught him about Earth Day. There were the songs, and the little dance, naturally, and there was even talk of an Earth Day Parade, and the "project" he was given to do.
The Project involved the child being given a small flowerpot with a seed planted within. In my nephew's case, it happens to have been a strawberry seed. As Earth Day approached, he was expected to take care of his little flowerpot and nurture his little strawberry bush (or is it a vine? I'm not even sure). I guess this is somewhat educational for a four-year-old; he now kinda-sorta understands that strawberries grow from seeds (I'm waiting for him to make the connection between seeds and babies and ask that dreaded question. When my older nephew asked, and I answered truthfully and in detail, my sister was rather upset, so I'm not getting involved in this one).
But I have to wonder at the ulterior motive. Because while the "assignment" itself was quite okay, the idea that it would be complete by Earth Day when he's expected to show off the fruits, so to speak, of his labor, is more than a bit contrived. I mean, really, how did we reach the stage where teachers are indoctrinating four-year-olds with ideas which have their basis in politics, and which they cannot possibly be expected to understand? Yeah, I know, the schools have always been the laboratory of Social Engineering, but this is outrageous.
Personally, I think it's despicable. If you want to teach lessons on agriculture, the life-cycle of a plant, a sense of responsibility, even, to a child, then I'm all for it. What I object to was that these noble goals were subverted in the service of a political theory based upon junk science, outright lies, and a hidden Socialist Agenda.
Teachers are supposed to teach in a politically-neutral manner, and they aren't supposed to take advantage of the youth and inexperience of their students (and the ignorance and apathy of the parents!) to instill their own political beliefs in the children they're responsible for. It was bad enough those little children couldn't celebrate REAL Holidays like Christmas, Easter or Passover -- they had to call it The Winter Festival, or the Spring Bunny Party, or some other such nonsense, because the Lone Scientologist or Muslim in the class would have their religious and cultural sensibilities deeply offended -- but somehow it was quite okay to preach politics-disguised-as-a-song-and-dance-routine and "homework".
This sort of thing is tantamount to child abuse; they're implanting ideas that the child will probably never be encouraged to explore for themselves later in life. Most of what they're told will remain "fact" because it was given to them by an authority figure and they were too young to ask the proper questions, or lacked the experience to be skeptical.
So, do us all a favor today, and if you manage to see one of these Earth Day Celebrations, kick a treehugger in the ass, and Save the Children!
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