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April 08, 2010
Thursday
 
 
What do they teach them at these schools?
Natalie Solent (Essex)  Education

According to "Messenger", a guest poster at Bishop Hill blog, they - in the form of the Climate Change Schools Project - are "bringing climate change to the heart of the national curriculum."

So far the the Climate Change Lead Schools network only consists of 80 schools from across the North East. But fear not, says the Project's website, "They are helping to pave the way for what is hoped will become a national programme of positive climate change education and action, led by our young people."

I have a feeling that the words "led by our young people" are strictly conditional on said leadership being in one particular direction.

The "Climate Cops" activity that so angered Messenger, in which children "book" their friends or parents for crimes against climate, has already reached beyond the area of the North East in which the "Lead Schools" were situated. I saw a leaflet about it in my local library. Creepy website here. It is sponsored by nPower, the gas and electricity company - another example of how big energy corporations, far from opposing climate change activism, frequently pay for it.

Comments

Further proof of why we need to get Schools out of the clutches of the State.


Posted by Tim Carpenter (Libertarian Party) at April 9, 2010 12:21 AM

The statists learned from Captain Planet (Link). People had the option turning him off, and they did.


Posted by Thomas at April 9, 2010 12:57 AM

Wow, that last link is crap. When does the giant snow weasel flip out and tear the heads off the kids?


Posted by thefrollickingmole at April 9, 2010 01:59 AM

Didn't the Soviets glorify kids who turned in their parents for hoarding, and other crimes? Who says infanticide is always wrong?


Posted by Nuke Gray at April 9, 2010 01:59 AM

The background color of the site is most appropriate.


Posted by Eric Tavenner at April 9, 2010 02:32 AM

As Nuke Gray says "Didn't the Soviets glorify kids who turned in their parents for hoarding, and other crimes? Who says infanticide is always wrong?".

Both the Russian and Chinese communists have praised children for the denounciation of their parents. Indeed Pavlik Morozov was a Soviet Martyr for such an alleged denounciation, however not everything is always what it seems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlik_Morozov

It takes a particularly nasty form of state to train children to denounce their parents, neighbours and friends, but as Perry is continuously warning us "The State is not your friend".

"Hail the green revolution comrade - or its a quick death behind the chemical sheds for you".


Posted by John Galt at April 9, 2010 08:48 AM

This is a sinister and unsettling report. One grain of comfort comes from the fact that their teacher feedback questionnaires showed a dramatic decline in favourable responses, dropping to near zero by the 5th module. The PR-speak of the report put this down to 'questionnaire fatigue'. I'd rather cling to my belief that it was done to human beings re-asserting themselves after an onslaught of guff and manipulation.


Posted by Frank S at April 9, 2010 09:20 AM

'down to' not 'done to' in my second last line please!


Posted by Frank S at April 9, 2010 09:21 AM

Eon, the electricity firm, also has some creepy adverts on the London Underground at the moment and elsewhere. This is the ultimate irony: contrary to what some Greens say, Big Business is in fact a prime mover in pushing AGW alarmism, or at least in pandering to it.

In reality, of course, such businesses are run by those who see AGW alarmism as a trend they have to go along with rather than actively oppose, although rather like the National Insurance increase issue, if enough businesses realised how royally fucked they will be by a severe Green agenda, enough of them might grow a backbone and start to oppose it more vigorously.

We live in hope, anyway.


Posted by Johnathan Pearce at April 9, 2010 10:08 AM

Climate change propaganda is accepted in our schools. Not all teachers are in agreement or even interested but they know better than to challenge those who know themselves to be correct, both scientifically and politically.

Another odd thing I've noticed in quite a few state schools recently are pictures of President Obama looking like the messiah above scripts of his presidential acceptance speech. I thought politics weren't allowed in schools but an exception has been made here.


Posted by pete at April 9, 2010 12:24 PM

Obama has now transcended politics and become an eternal hero - just like Che Guevara. The reality is being replaced by the status of an untouchable icon.

I wonder if he is planning any visits to Dallas, Texas any time soon. There is a book depository and a grassy knoll with excellent views across Dealey Plaza.

:-)


Posted by John Galt at April 9, 2010 01:32 PM

Let's hope the poseurs do bring climate change to the heart of the national curriculum.

It would be great for young people to learn about science by studying the irrefutable geological evidence for repeated Ice Ages & interglacial warm periods spanning tens of millions of years -- before before humanity appeared.

They could learn about history by studying the mountains of evidence for the Medieval Warm Period -- centuries before mankind started using fossil fuels.

They could learn about ecology by studying the evidence that humanity has done better during historically warm periods than cold.

Yes please! Let's bring the study of climate change to the heart of the curriculum.


Posted by Alice at April 9, 2010 02:49 PM

But that sort of information, Alice, would undermine the efforts underway to de-industrialise us and massively increase state control (we'll need it to organise the rationing). Hence your points are not to be entertained, not in state schools anyway.

In fact, I suspect you may be a bit of a denier, and hence in need of more programming.


Posted by Frank S at April 9, 2010 02:55 PM

Denier denier, pants on fire! (cue in children clapping in unison)


Posted by Alisa at April 9, 2010 03:04 PM

Eon, IG Farben is there any difference? The corporate state marches on.


Posted by JohnK at April 9, 2010 04:33 PM

"led by our young people"

Mao would be proud.


Posted by pst314 at April 9, 2010 06:20 PM

I thought that some one would have mentioned people being afraid of their government programmed children in Orwell's 1984 by now, maybe it is too obvious.

The point about De-industrialisation stated by Frank S, I think is the key. Spell out to your kids just what the warmists want you to go without based on their highly questionable hypothesies.


Posted by Stonyground at April 9, 2010 06:25 PM

"In fact, I suspect you may be a bit of a denier, and hence in need of more programming."

Oh, absolutely! Although the term "denier" should properly be reserved for those who deny the geological & historical evidence for incessant climate change prior to the Industrial Revolution. I.e., "denier" = "warm-monger".

Unfortunately, the process of de-industrialization is already upon us. That is why the US has to pay the Russians to take our astronauts into space (with a "pretty please"), and why the US aircraft industry is reduced to one company assembling parts brought from overseas. It is also why US energy intensity has gone down ("Good!", say the warm-mongers), and why real unemployment is now pushing 20% ("Nothing to do with us", say the warm-mongers).

But the opportunity exists to re-industrialize from scratch, with legacy factories and unions now reduced to dust. It may yet happen, but there are probably still more tears to be cried first.


Posted by Alice at April 9, 2010 11:10 PM

Climate Cops propaganda unraveled here:

(Link)


it's about time someone put together a teaching aid that explianed the Scientific method to schoolchildren, so that in the inevitable event that they are exposed to junk science they can debunk it themselvs.


Posted by David Vincent at April 10, 2010 02:34 PM

An education system which (reductio ad absurdum, but just the far end of anthropomorphic-ascribed climate change) chooses to teach children that it would be better for the environment had they never been born, is ... well, words currently escape me.

The consequences may resemble Jonestown.


Posted by Dave Walker at April 13, 2010 07:41 PM
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