Environment to be added to state curriculum
But state board puts off making it a graduation requirement
By Liz Bowie, The Baltimore Sun
6:39 p.m. EDT, September 21, 2010
The Maryland State Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to make environmental education a part of every student’s education, but put off making it a graduation requirement.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which had advocated for making environmental studies a part of the curriculum, had hoped for stronger requirements than what was passed by the board, but the nonprofit advocacy group said the board’s action was a “partial victory.”
Under the new regulation, high school students will not need to take any additional courses, but environmental education will be added into existing courses, such as biology. Every five years, school districts will have to report to the state on whether they have environmental subject matter in courses that every student must take.
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“The onus needs to be on the school system, not on the students” to prove that courses have been taken, said Donna Hill Staton, a board member.
Don Baugh, vice president for education at the bay foundation, said the organization would work with state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick to help address the school board’s concerns.
“This does not maintain the status quo,” Baugh said. “I think this is an infusion of expectation into schools … that environmental education is not considered optional. It is not fit in.”
Baugh said there are still school districts where students are not exposed to environmental science before graduation. But board members said they don’t want to add another requirement to the plates of high schoolers, giving them less flexibility in shaping their high school program. Financial literacy recently became a requirement.
“Every time we add something what does that take away?” Staton said. “I think we are starting to overwhelm the system.”
Board Chairman James H. DeGraffenreidt told the state Department of Education staff after the graduation requirement was defeated in a split vote that more work had to be done to improve the language in the proposed regulation.
But some board members said they would put a high priority on making sure students have environmental knowledge when they graduate. “I don’t know how many things are as important as people understanding the environment,” said board member Ivan C.A. Walks.
If the regulation had been passed, Maryland would have become the first state in the nation to have an environmental graduation requirement, according to the bay foundation.
How revolting.
Why? Don’t they already study fiction in lit?
In stark contrast to what Hillsdale is teaching. This is a recruiting tool for the special Olympics and depression/ADD medication proscriptions.
grounds for termination
END TAXPAYER FUNDED INDOCTRINATION PROGRAMS FOR THE ENVIROWACKOS.
END THE EDU.
Who cares if our school children can read or write or do arithmetic, but they’ll damn sure know how to recycle!!
Hey Arne! Any chance you could take a little time to teach them something like Reading, Math, Science and Civics while you’re at it?
It gets weird.
dumb as a rock, but good enviromental citizens none the less
> U.S. Education Secretary Vows to Make American
> Children ‘Good Environmental Citizens’
Yes, of course, that’s a *LOT* easier than making them academically competitive.
U.S. Dept. of Education ... 18,000 union workers with an $80 billion budget.
And what have they to show for it?
What do all those 18,000 people do, anyway?
HP has over 100,000 employees all over the world, with sales totaling $50 billion, $30 billion less than what it takes to run the Dept. of Education, ans HP shows a PROFIT.
Filthy rotten eco-whacko scum.
I guess a person really shouldn’t hope for another to bark in Hell for all eternity. That said, my loathing for this vile scoundrel burns with the fire of a thousand suns.
"Critical distinctions must be made between sound steps to create a healthier environment and using public education to indoctrinate students as the means to impose a political agenda that mirrors communism. California state Sen. Alan Lowenthal's bill, S.B.1322, to remove long-standing safeguards that prevent "teaching communism with the intent to indoctrinate" coincides with the Education for Sustainability agenda, as it would pave the way to teach these programs in California schools."
The above from Opening the school door to communism
We certainly don’t need to spend time teaching the students to read, write, and do arithmetic.
“Green” jobs are a fallacy.
Here in Maine, a backlash has already started against those damn windmills.
To save this nation, the Department of Education MUST be abolished.
I guess I thought the students should learn to read and write and maybe to do some math with out a calculator first, but I guess not.....
The Antichrist spirit.