Johnny can't read, write or do math. But he may know how to save the Earth.
Johnny knows about global warming, acid rain, nuclear power, deforestation, big oil and capitalism.
Johnny knows all this because his teachers have told him so. And they got help from interest groups, the Environmental Protection Agency
and green textbooks that purport to explain these Earth-in-the-balance issues.
Problem is, most of the texts are one-sided, say critics. They also fail to explain basic economics, such as prices, which affect demand for
and supply of natural resources and energy.
Many texts have the look of advocacy tomes, often ignoring sound science in favor of junk science, the critics say. Socialist solutions to
problems are favored over capitalist ones, and new age spirituality is emphasized.
''With few exceptions, textbook treatment of environmental issues is influenced by an ideological view that presents human beings as evil
and blames the United States in particular and Western industrial societies in general for every environmental ill,'' said Michael Sanera, head
of the Center for Environmental Education Research at the Claremont (Calif.) Institute.
Sanera and Jane Shaw wrote ''Facts, Not Fear: A Parent's Guide to Teaching Children About the Environment,'' which is based on their
review of more than 130 texts and 170 environmental books for kids in grades K-12.
Views similar to theirs were expressed by the green magazines Garbage and Audubon, the magazine of the National Audubon Society.
Of course, advocates say the environment is too important to be ignored. And they say traditional approaches -a reliance on markets, a focus
on the individual - haven't worked. Getting schoolkids to change their way of thinking is the only way to save the planet from the wasteful habits
of their parents, according to those who push the green agenda in schools.
Many analysts agree that public schools, in general, fail to teach kids what they need to know to be educated. Learning about the
environment probably is helpful.
But critics say mastering the basics first is most important for kids. And learning about the environment shouldn't include a radical green
agenda, bereft of balance and sound scientific rules.
The question is: How do you best teach kids about the planet?
The environmental movement in the U.S. sprouted in '62 with the publication of the semi-apocalyptic ''Silent Spring.'' In '69, Congress
passed the National Environmental Policy Act.
One year later came the Clean Air Act Amendments and the first Earth Day. That same year, Congress passed the National Environmental
Education Act to promote and fund environmental education in grades K-12.
In '72, a group of global leaders called the Club of Rome published ''The Limits to Growth.'' It warned that the world would run out of
gold in '81, mercury in '85, tin by '87, zinc by '90, oil by '92, and copper, lead and natural gas by '93.
It was wrong, of course. But it helped set the tone for environmental education for two decades.
In '90, for instance, Congress funded the Office of Environmental Education in the EPA. This office hands out funds for teacher training,
curriculum research and enviro-related internships and fellowships nationwide, according to the Claremont Institute.
In '94, the EPA published the ''Environmental Science Education Materials Review Guide.'' One of its guidelines: Materials must ''reflect
EPA policy on the topics explored.''
According to the Claremont Institute: ''Students learning from materials produced under the 'Guide' will not learn about the problems with
Superfund or the EPA's failures in implementing the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts. Evidently, the EPA does not want to educate students,
but rather indoctrinate them to blind obedience to federal policies.''
The OEE got $7.8 million last year and has requested $7.3 million for fiscal year '99. Its director, Michael Baker, said that the office
provides money for teaching about the environment at the grass roots, largely the public schools.
Textbooks have some of the most serious problems, say critics.
Examples studied by Sanera include:
''Access to Health'' (Prentice Hall). It says that the planet's natural resources ''will become so depleted that our very existence will become
economically and environmentally impossible.'' This, it warns, will cause ''famine, disease, pollution, unrest, crime and international conflicts.''
''Earth Science: The Challenge of Discovery'' (D.C. Heath). This book says, ''The world could run out of petroleum by the year 2080.
. . . What can you do to lessen the demand for fossil fuels?'' It then advises: ''Reduce greenhouse gases by using less fossil fuel. Walk, ride
a bike, or take a bus instead of a car for short trips.'' This text also claims that proven reserves of copper, zinc and petroleum ''will be depleted
in 60, 40, and 30 years respectively.''
''World Geography Today'' (Holt). It claims that world petroleum supplies will last ''only another 50 years or so.'' It goes on to say:
''(The) people of the world must share and use the planet's resources more wisely. . . . Will the richer nations share their wealth and resources
with the less fortunate nations?''
''Biology, an Everyday Experience'' (Glencoe). This book claims that ''the supply of fossil fuels is being used up at an alarming rate''
and that ''governments must help save our fossil fuel supply by passing laws'' limiting their use.
''Concepts and Challenges in Earth Science'' (Globe). It says that if global warming continues, ''New York City would almost be covered
with water. Only the tops of very tall buildings will be above the water.''
''Biosphere 2000: Protecting Our Global Environment'' (HarperCollins). It reads: ''As human activity interferes with the earth's capacity
to maintain a maximum range of tolerances for life, history traces the roots of degrading activity to: the advent of agriculture and the rise of
civilization; the Judeo-Christian view of human beings as having domination over the earth; the industrial and scientific revolutions; and the
rise of capitalism.''
These are a few samples from among hundreds of texts. Critics note that, besides their apocalyptic views, these place little emphasis on
basic economics - prices, scarity, supply and demand -and how these factors affect the use of resources and the environment.
If gasoline prices rise, people drive less. They use substitutes, such as a bicycle, bus or subway. Rising demand and higher prices will
generate greater supplies.
For instance, between '50 and '90, oil and natural gas reserves rose 733%, according to Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute. Furthermore,
the real average price of natural resources has decreased. It's now about one-eighth of what it was in 1900, said Moore.
Also, no one knows how much oil is in the Earth. Government officials and private analysts have predicted at various times that oil would
be depleted in 1914, '19, '26, '39, '49 and '80. President Carter falsely predicted, in '77, that ''we could use up all proven reserves of oil in
the entire world by the end of the next decade.''
But this is rarely found in green texts.
''In essence, the environmental educational campaign is aimed at turning our nation's schoolchildren into environmentalists,'' said Jo Kwong,
a researcher at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, in a report for the Center for the Study of American Business. ''We are producing
a nation of 'doomsday kids' or 'eco-kids' -children who can tell you what is right and wrong but are woefully ignorant of the reasons why. .
. . (Environental education) preaches socially or politically correct lessons. (It) is unabashedly devoted to activism and politics, rather than
knowledge and understanding.''
Many green texts urge students to become politically active and join radical groups such as Greenpeace, Earth First!, Planned Parenthood
or Zero Population Growth.
And some advocate that consumers switch to renewable energy - solar, wind - now, said Sanera. The texts also advocate government control
of energy because the private sector has neither the will nor the means to do the right thing.
To date, 31 states have mandated environmental education in public schools. It's also often woven into other subjects, such as history, math and English.
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Our understanding of mental illness has evolved over the centuries. We’ve gone from merely stashing the afflicted away somewhere, to treating them. However, treatments haven’t always been successful. This is the story that those in the mental health treatment community do not want told.
It wasn’t long ago that cutting out part of a person’s brain or sending substantial voltages of electricity through someone’s head was considered the most modern and effective treatment for mental illness. These ‘effective’ treatments often produced living corpses who became wards of the state. Beyond treatment, there are a number of legitimate concerns and criticisms surrounding how Psychologists or Psychiatrists decide a person is mentally ill or in need of various levels of therapy.
The greatest embarrassment to mental health ‘professionals’ has been their inability to scientifically prove what constitutes a mental disorder. In the 1970’s, for example, thousands of people were found languishing in state mental health facilities throughout the United States who didn’t belong there. It was during that period that people suffering from cerebral palsy, physical disabilities or nothing at all were discovered among thousands of ‘patients’ at often dilapidated facilities.
Mixed with a population of drug addicts, chronic alcoholics, habitual criminals and insane people were those who had been misdiagnosed as mentally ill. Many had been placed there by relatives unable or unwilling to take care of them. Others were admitted by legal authorities acting in good faith on the recommendations of medical professionals. Most had arrived as children or teenagers and been physically and sexually abused for years by other patients or caregivers themselves.
Today, we are told that the ‘bad old days’ of mental health care are long gone. Mental Health Professionals are better informed, trained and have superior diagnostics and treatments to offer potential patients. These treatments often include drugs so caustic that, in liquid form, heavy gloves are required to pour them. Regarding diagnostics, here are some observations requiring a response that are taken directly from a form designed to detect mental illness:
1. At times I can't control the urge to strike another person.
Ask yourself if you would like to end up taking a lifetime of potentially dangerous drugs or spending years in theory based on the way you respond to even a few of those statements? It may surprise you to find that eight million children in the USA are now receiving drugs to treat vague and unscientifically proven mental illnesses based on questions like that and the observation of ‘abnormal’ behavior by unqualified persons such as teachers, principals and school nurses.
Once a teacher, principal or school nurse makes up their mind that your child needs help, watch out! They call in the school or district Psychologist or Psychiatrist who is, more often then not, glad to affirm their observations. Parents are called in, given the bad news and told officially or unofficially that their child will not be welcomed back in school until they are medicated or sign up for counseling sessions.
School systems throughout the world have become outpatient clinics that supply children with daily doses of dangerous drugs to control abnormal behavior described as fidgeting, squirming in their seat, talking out of turn and not listening to a teacher or authority figure. When I was in school those behaviors were treated by a drug called Detention. Before you sign your child up for one of Doctor Feelgood’s miracle drugs, there are some things you should know and probably haven’t been told.
The diagnosis and treatment of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) has become a breakout source of huge profits for drug companies, suburban treatment centers and caregivers. Once Psychiatrists and Psychologists started redefining normal childhood behavior as ‘abnormal’ or ‘deviant,’ they won the lotto for themselves and prescription drug companies. Take note that up until just a few years ago, those same health care professionals diagnosed gay and lesbian people as being abnormal, deviant and mentally ill.
School shootings that occurred at Columbine High School in 1999 and a Native American Educational Facility in 2005, were committed by children being treated for ADHD with prescription drugs. In addition to being ignorant of the dangerous side effects and addiction these drugs can cause, children taking them are often unaware of some of the lifelong consequences associated with being treated for ADHD.
The FDA tells us that there is no cure for ADHD. This means that once you begin receiving treatment for it, you will taking those drugs for the rest of your life. How long will it be before States or the Federal Government insist that people with ADHD continue on their medication until some doctor says they are cured? Even now, many States are limiting the ability of people diagnosed or being treated for ADHD to obtain professional licenses, serve in the field of law enforcement or work in various civil service jobs.
Despite the fact that thousands of school children will be diagnosed with ADHD this year, there are no scientific tests to prove the condition even exists. The existence of the condition and recommended treatments are based solely on theory and conjecture. If a school is failing to educate a child, it has to be the fault of the child or parents. If it’s the child, mental illness has to be the answer and ADHD is often their best guess.
Studies show that drug treatments don’t work. Children being given prescribed drugs fail just as many courses as children who do not take any. Children who do take the drugs are at risk. The FDA has reported that between 1990 and 1997 there were 160 deaths directly related to drugs used to treat ADHD. There were also hundreds of hospitalizations.
Canada has already banned Adderall XR. It was used to treat ADHD, but twenty sudden deaths associated with its use have raised serious concerns. The FDA in the United States has not banned this drug. Ritalin, a more popular drug used to treat ADHD, may be even more dangerous. According to Peter R. Breggin, M.D., Director of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology and associate faculty at The Johns Hopkins University, It decreases blood flow to the brain. This can suppress normal physical and mental growth patterns in children.
While counseling is not as harmful as turning your kid into a prescription drug addict, it can have some very serious side effects for you and your family. It’s during professional mental health counseling sessions that serious instances of physical, mental or even sexual abuse are often ‘discovered’ by the therapist as repressed memories. Even more shocking, a determination of what constitutes abuse is left almost entirely up to the Therapist. Just yelling at your child can prompt a visit from Child Protective Services or get you hauled into Family Court. All because you listened to a ‘mental health profession’ and wanted the best for your child.
One hundred years ago doctors offered ‘bleeding’ as a treatment for everything from serious physical injury to a headache. Today, parents are being encouraged to turn their children over to doctors and caregivers who depend on junk science to treat conditions with have no basis in scientific fact. Before you make a decision like that, look into the matter very carefully. The future success and happiness of your child may depend on it.
Want to solve the Bible puzzle? Visit Solving The Bible Puzzle and find the answers to many of life's most perplexing questions. 
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Information You NeedCitizen's Commission On Human Rights You Are Someone Special Fight For Kids.com Dinosaurs and People Co-Existed My Kids Deserve Better Does CLEAN Mean Extreme Green? Junk Science in Court Should You Take A Lie Detector Test? Beytta: Hope for Type 2 Diabetics? DDT: A Weapon of Mass Survival WARNING: AVOID PRISTINE FORESTS! Scientists say there is more pollution in ten square feet of forest than you can find in 10 of New York City. Animal waste, plant decay and overgrowth can and does cause ground water contamination and the spread of dangerous bacteria.
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Despite the potentially dangerous side-effects of Ritalin, public school authorities now pressure many parents to give Ritalin to their children so these kids won’t “act up” in school.
Naturally, most parents don’t want to drug their children just because they are unruly, bored in class, or high-spirited. However, compulsory attendance laws force parents to send their children to public schools. Just as school authorities resort to compulsion to get their students by force, so they apply the same compulsion against children and their parents to pressure parents into giving Ritalin to their kids.
How do schools pressure parents? They threaten to expel the child, hold the child back a grade, put the child into a special-education class, or threaten the parents with prosecution for child abuse.
Here’s one parent’s story:
"Hello, my name is Bobby B. [last name withheld for privacy], and that little boy you see above [in a picture in the article] . . . is my pride and joy. The picture was taken on Halloween when he was 5 years old and he was already on Ritalin. He was put on Ritalin because the local school district informed us that if we did not put him on medication he would be removed from school. In fact his first year was a nightmare from the start."
"Kindergarten is supposed to be fun and enjoyable for the child. However, Christopher had the teacher from hell and she made his life miserable. He could do nothing right and at the end of the school year she was going to flunk him out of her class. . . . Christopher’s teacher thought he was nothing but trouble, too hyperactive, too hard to manage and she wanted nothing to do with him. This was the start of our own nightmare and our introduction to Ritalin and ADD. For the next 8 years our little boy was on this medication because without it he would not be allowed to continue in our public school system. . . ."
"My wife volunteers at the school in the office area weekly, and she has told me of the hundreds of kids that are on Ritalin and other medication. They line up every day to get their medication in order for them to stay in school, and attempt to do their work in a drug-induced state."
"About 12 months ago we were told to put Christopher on Adderall and that this medication would work better and would last longer. The side effects were the same, dehydration, loss of appetite, growth limitations and violent mood swings, and the fact is that no one knows what the long term effects on your children’s health will be. We did as the Doctor advised and he has been on Adderall since."
"Any time Christopher has a bad day in school, the teachers want to know if he took his medication for the day. You see, once a child is labeled ADD or hyperactive, it stays with them, and it’s locked in the teachers’ minds. Thus if the child has a problem, it must be that he/she did not take their medication. I am sure this goes on in public schools all over this country and parents like us have no choice or our choices are very limited. If you want your child to stay in school, Ritalin or Adderall is their solution to any and all behavioral problems."
Here we have an example of school authorities not tolerating normal children who might be having a “bad day” or want to express their anger about something. As adults, we all have such bad days and we all get angry occasionally. But because public schools are like mini-prisons that require “order” and “discipline” to function, children are expected to conform to the rules. They are not allowed to have “bad days” or express anger. Hence school authorities must pressure parents to drug these children to make them passive.
Christopher’s horror story is repeated again and again in public schools across the country. Parents, if public school authorities are pressuring you to give your children mind-altering drugs, alarm bells should be going off in your head. You should immediately consider taking your child out of public school and homeschooling him, for your child's sake.
After helping to turn over three million young people under the age of nineteen into prescription drug addicts, the FDA is now trying to hide from the consequences. While touting the benefits of drugs that treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), many physicians have ignored or failed to factor in the dangerous side effects of Ritalin and other ADHD pharmaceuticals. These side effects cannot only affect children taking the drugs in a negative way, but those around them according to long-term studies.
Members of an FDA advisory panel have encouraged the government agency to issue a new and stronger ’black box’ style-warning label for ADHD drugs. However, the FDA Pediatric Advisory Panel voted against it. In attempting to reach a compromise in March of 2006, the Food and Drug Administration decided to clarify, rather then strengthen ADHD prescription drug labels. This is certainly no surprise considering the obvious and almost immediate affect that a stronger label would have on the credibility of the agency and all the doctors who have prescribed these drugs over the years. But the FDA isn’t the only government entity worried about Ritalin.
According to a study by the Heritage Foundation, U.S. Military recruiting is down and the few good men and women usually sought after are just not as available as they used to be. Things like obesity, a lack of proper education and the use of ADHD prescription drugs have severely reduced the once plentiful pool of boot camp candidates. Many States have also shut out ADHD prescription drug users from holding various professional licenses, working as Police Officers or Prison Guards. Despite these and many other voluntary and mandatory career limitations, some members of the Federal Government just can’t wait to get your kids on Ritalin.
According to the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, millions of newborns, toddlers and preschoolers may have undiagnosed mental health conditions. The Federal Mental Health Action Agenda has encouraged local and state governments to place mental health consultants in settings where infants, toddlers and preschoolers are present and may be observed for early signs of ADHD. The government is more than willing to pay the bill for all this through the federal Prevention and Early Intervention Grant Program. It’s a given that parents who reject the diagnosis of an ADHD disorder will probably face the stigma or possible legal ramifications of failing to treat a child with a serious illness. This already happens every day throughout the United States.
The bad news about over ADHD began when parents began to question some of the symptoms used to help diagnose the alleged disorder. Things as common as fidgeting and not paying attention for a few moments could easily place a child in the line for Ritalin handouts at school. Beyond arguments over diagnosing the disorder, the news isn’t any better for those already on ADHD drugs like Ritalin, Adderall XR, Focalin and Strattera. According to studies that began in the year 2000, a number of children taking these prescriptions have reported hallucinations, exhibited sudden and unprovoked violent behavior or experienced physical problems. Some have died. While many medical doctors and educators have embraced ADHD as a mental disability, courts have disagreed to date.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said recently that it had discovered what caused the space shuttle Columbia to break apart as it re-entered the atmosphere: a piece of "environmentally friendly" foam had peeled off the external fuel tank and struck the shuttle's wing shortly after liftoff.
In its zeal to use "environmentally correct" materials, NASA had stopped using Freon-based foam because of the damage supposedly done by Freon to the ozone layer, claims John Berlau (Insight on the News), even though the agency had observed for years that bigger pieces of this new foam were likely to fall off.
Experts say this isn't the first time that substituting "politically correct" materials for older, more reliable ones has brought about disastrous results:
Since the 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and various environmentalist groups and politicians have pressured NASA to use "environmentally friendly products," even though old materials had proven effective with little or no harm to humans. Since then, most of the space shuttle fleet had already been designed with the new, environmentally-safe foam, says Berlau.
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