Socialism vs. Free Enterprise, You Pay
Socialism
Some parents are having problems with the social engineering of a textbook used in Frederick, Maryland school system for third-grade social studies. One parent Cindy Rose said “This book teaches children that the government is where you go with all your problems, for all your answers and that the government holds the purse strings. It has a very green agenda. It paints immigrants as victims who come here not because our country is so great but because their countries are so horrible.”
The text in question “Social Studies Alive: Our Community and Beyond” contains factual errors, such as the United States consists of 50 states while making no mention of the District of Columbia. April Miller, a member of the school board, said the text contains a lot of “leading questions.”
The Maryland State Department of Education has mandated the following:
Environmental Education
.01 Environmental Education Instructional Programs for Grades Prekindergarten — 12.
A. Each local school system shall provide in public schools a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary environmental education program infused within current curricular offerings and aligned with the Maryland Environmental Literacy Curriculum.
B. The Maryland Environmental Education Program shall:
(1) Provide a developmentally appropriate instructional program;
(2) Advance students’ knowledge, confidence, skills, and motivation to make decisions and take actions that create and maintain an optimal relationship between themselves and the environment, and preserve and protect the unique natural resources of Maryland, particularly those of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.
(3) This comprehensive instructional program shall provide for the diversity of student needs, abilities, and interests at the early, middle, and high school learning years, and shall include all of the standards from the Maryland Environmental Literacy Curriculum as set forth in §C of this regulation.
C. Maryland Environmental Literacy Curriculum.
(1) Environmental Issues. The student shall:
(a) Investigate and analyze environmental issues ranging from local to global perspectives and;
(b) Develop and implement a local action project that protects, sustains, or enhances the natural environment.
(2) Interactions of Earth’s Systems. The student shall analyze and apply the properties of systems thinking and modeling to the study of earth’s systems.
(3) Flow of Matter and Energy. The student shall analyze and explain:
(a) The movement of matter and energy through interactions of each of the following earth systems:
(i) Biosphere;
(ii) Geosphere;
(iii) Hydrosphere;
(iv) Atmosphere; and
(v) Cryosphere; and
(b) The influence of this movement on weather patterns, climatic zones, and the distribution of life.
(4) Populations, Communities, and Ecosystems. The student shall use physical, chemical, biological, and ecological concepts to analyze and explain the interdependence of humans and organisms in populations, communities, and ecosystems.
(5) Humans and Natural Resources. The student shall use concepts from chemistry, physics, biology, and ecology to analyze and interpret both positive and negative impacts of human activities on earth’s natural systems and resources.
(6) Environment and Health. The student shall use concepts from science, social studies and health to analyze and interpret both positive and negative impacts of natural events and human activities on human health.
(7) Environment and Society. The student shall analyze how the interactions of heredity, experience, learning and culture influence social decisions and social change.
(8) Sustainability. The student shall:
(a) Make decisions that demonstrate understanding of natural communities and the ecological, economic, political, and social systems of human communities; and
(b) Examine how their personal and collective actions affect the sustainability of these interrelated systems.
D. Each local school system shall establish a support system to enable teachers and administrators to engage in high quality professional development in content knowledge, instructional materials, and methodology related to environmental education.
E. Student Participation. All students shall have the opportunity to participate in the comprehensive environmental education program required by this regulation to meet their graduation requirement in environmental literacy.
Is Maryland going to teach all, including climate-gate? Will they teach about the coming Ice Age, see Newsweek 1975. Then it became global warming. January 2010 it was reported that Professor Latif of the Leibniz Institute at Kiel University in Germany, and author of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, reported that we are headed into a mini ice age. So to recap (1) ice age, (2) global warming, (3) mini ice age, the only thing for sure is that they change their minds.
Free Enterprise
So you have not found out where to dispose of mercury yet and you don’t have $50 to throw out the door, well Texas has the answer. So the next time you are there take an extra suitcase because you want be able to order these little babies through the mail. Incandescent (Edison) bulbs, yeah that is right, if they are made in Texas and only sold in Texas they will be legal in Texas.
Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation that “lets any incandescent light bulb manufactured in Texas – and sold in that state – avoid the authority of the federal government.” [from hotair.com] Texas has decided to let the consumer decide what is best for them.
Conclusion
Texas is having its citizens choose what they do and with what they will do it. Meanwhile in Maryland they appear to have taken a more progressive approach of socialism. Makes one wonder why more people are not moving to Maryland instead of Texas. Makes one wonder why Maryland is not creating near 50% of all new jobs in lieu of Texas.
It isn’t that the global warming/climate change advocates change their minds, the real problem is they can’t make their minds up in the first place. I have some disappointing news for the climate changers. The climate on this little rock of ours has been changing since day one and is likely to continue to do so. It seems the eco/enviro nazis are just now discovering that little fact. The amusing part is they act like they have the answers to the problem when they don’t even know if there is a problem let alone what it is.