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Posted on 09/04/2001 1:56:47 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

(CNSNews.com) - What school children learn about America's natural resources and the environment may come from a teacher who is simply "going by the book." And that's a problem, said one policy expert, who believes that teachers are tools in a propaganda campaign being waged by environmental activists.

"Environmental dogma has invaded the classroom," said policy expert Jeff Stier, the associate director of the American Council on Science and Health.

"What's so troubling," Stier commented, "is that it (propaganda) starts popping up in textbooks and it appears in the curriculum, especially at the elementary school levels."

"Teachers are general education teachers," Stier noted. "They are not necessarily experts in any specific area."

He said the problem comes when teachers rely on the materials provided to them, whether it's textbooks or other curricula they receive. The teachers tend to treat the material as factual or "scientific," when it may be misleading and have its roots in advocacy, Stier said.

Activist organizations distribute their "green" agenda to teachers inside the classroom (textbooks, lesson plans, Earth Day celebrations). The World Wide Web also offers plenty of readily accessible environmental "lessons," both in class and at home.

Online, these organizations may also attract the curious eyes of children with colorful graphics and cartoon-like depictions of environmental critters and their habitats.

The Rainforest Action Network (RAN), a grassroots organization that works "to protect rainforests and the human rights of those living in and around those forests," maintains a "Kids Corner" on its website. Included in "7 Steps for Kids to Take," RAN recommends that school-age children "use less gasoline and plastic."

"Instead of using gasoline to drive somewhere in a car, ride your bike, walk, carpool, or take the bus whenever possible," RAN suggests as a rainforest-friendly alternative.

RAN also urges kids to, "Eat less red meat," claiming that, "one big reason rainforests are being destroyed is for beef."

Trees, RAN maintains, are being chopped down and turned into pastures for cows destined to be butchered and sent to the U.S. "to be put into fast-food hamburgers, frozen meat products, and canned pet food."

Further, "For every quarter-pound fast-food hamburger that comes from the rainforest, 55 square feet of rainforest is destroyed," RAN warns its young readers.

No Formal Science Background

The Wilderness Society's Earth Day website wants to "introduce students to the champions and the issues of the Wilderness Movement."

The environmental curriculum for teachers K-12 was "developed by a volunteer for us," said Kathy Kilmer, the manager of electronic communications for the Wilderness Society.

That volunteer, Bobby Truscott, is a former elementary school teacher who told CNSNews.com that he has "no formal science background." In fact, Truscott relied solely on a federally funded environmental website for the Wilderness Society's lesson plans for teachers.

"The website is www.wilderness.net , and the lessons were based on a Forest Service education program, but the activities were mine," said Truscott.

"We definitely have a point of view," said Kilmer of the Wilderness Society's classroom agenda. "It's not our intention to create a kind of curriculum that gives the oil industry's point of view or the chemical manufacturing industry's point of view."

"We are giving the wilderness point of view," Kilmer added. "And, I believe that teachers are pretty well aware of that."

Privately funded organizations are not the only sources generating environmental curricula.

The State of Texas' Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) has designed lesson plans "to provide educators who teach kindergarten through 12th grade with the background, activities and resources to teach the subject of air quality in the classroom," the agency's website states.

The TNRCC's Teaching Environmental Sciences (TES) graduate studies program for eligible teachers of grades K-12 focuses on "the importance of understanding air, water, and waste issues which affect their community's environmental and economic health."

"One of the requirements that we ask of the professors is that they require the teachers to write curriculums for us on issues related to air, water or waste," said Dr. Eunice Pearson-Hefty, director of the Teaching Environmental Science program.

Those lesson plans are reviewed internally by the TNRCC and "only the best ones are selected," Pearson-Hefty said. "We do ask that their work be as original as possible."

The TNRCC selected the "Air Pollution Gremlins" as one of its best lesson plans for 1st graders. Each one of the six Air Pollution Gremlins is intended to "introduce the students to the six criteria pollutants," including "Cranky Carbon Monoxide; Smelly Sulfur Dioxide; Nasty Nitrogen Dioxide; Pesky Particulate; Odious Ozone; and Lumpy Lead."

By incorporating the cartoon character pollutants into math word problems, 1st graders learn to solve environmental problems as well. For example:

There are 12 invisible Cranky Carbon Monoxide Air Pollution Gremlins coming from wherever fuels are burned. Seven are coming mainly from automobile exhausts. How many Cranky Carbon Monoxide Air Pollution Gremlins are there all together?

The 1st grade answer to this word problem is '19,' but the TNRCC offers 2nd graders an alternative solution. "One thing you can do to keep the air clean is to encourage your family or friends to walk or ride a bike when possible instead of driving."

However, TES' Assistant Coordinator Mary Kelley declared, "There's not one of us as a parent, who could not construe that as a teacher stepping over their boundaries."

Curtain Call?

In an effort to "focus on the causes and hazards of air pollution," the TNRCC has selected an environmentally themed play for 3rd grade students to perform and discuss as another one of its best-submitted lessons.

The cast of "The Day the Air Pollution Gremlins Came to Town" consists of the familiar 6 Air Pollution Gremlins and 2 fictitious children named Christina and Steven.

According to the dialogue, Christina and Steven go outside to play and look up to the sky only to see a cloud. "Underneath or behind the cloud are the Air Pollution Gremlins." Pesky Particulate tells Christina, "You may be nice people, but nobody seems to care about the air in this town."

"You mean that just because we waste electricity and ride around a lot in the car, you guys are here to stay," Steven asks the Air Pollution Gremlins. "Bingo," replies Nasty Nitrogen Dioxide.

Scared, Christina vows not to waste electricity anymore and to walk or ride her bike if she wants to "go somewhere nearby."

Pearson-Hefty maintains that the play "is simply a tool for showing [kids] exactly what is going on." She noted, however, "We did not develop these [Air Pollution Gremlins themed lessons], but we have not done away with them."

The TNRCC has "not had any negative feedback on them (Air Pollution Gremlins), so it's something to consider," Kelley said.

Kelley rejected the notion that the Gremlins are used to scare kids. "The kid will remember more of the subject if they've got, like, a picture, maybe a fun [picture]. We don't mean it to be scary, by no means. That's not our purpose," she said.

"Kids are impressionable," said Pearson-Hefty. "Anything you tell them when they're real small can have a lasting impression."

Kelley added, "These lessons that we have up on our website - they are suggested activities that we hope that the teachers can take and use positively."Where the confusion lies

"I resent teachers thinking that pollution happens only by industry," said Pearson-Hefty

She is concerned by the lack of general knowledge today's teachers display. Playing "devil's advocate," she often asks new teachers in her program, "Who do you think is the biggest polluter?"

"This is a good way to find out what their thinking is," said Pearson-Hefty. "Generally they're going to say, 'Probably, the industries in my neighborhood.' The fact is, that is not the case, but that's what they want to believe." The truth, Pearson-Hefty said, is "mobile sources."

"Their first thought is that they're going to point a finger at anyone but themselves."

Citing a simple pre and post-test she administers to TES program participants, Pearson-Hefty noted "most of them [teachers] make close to a zero on the beginning of it and at the end they know all about it."

Pearson-Hefty laughed that "even the teachers who consider themselves big environmentalists - they can't answer the questions either."

According to Stier, "There is a lack of scientific method in place for [these] textbooks themselves. They don't go through a proper period of being processed."

Stier added that the science textbooks used by elementary and high school teachers are "written by an author who has whatever position on whatever issues they have. And that makes its way into the book. They don't go through a strict peer review process as scientific studies would, to evaluate whether the information in those textbooks is accurate."

The lack of standards in publishing science textbooks bound for classrooms nationwide makes it easier for environmental activists to promote their agenda, Stier cautioned.

"Certainly, there's always going to be that twist to anything," Kelley commented. "We certainly don't want to be a party to it."

"To have a healthy environment," Stier observed, "we need to have better educated students today. Promoting an environmental agenda does not promote science education. Rather, it promotes a political agenda which is not an appropriate forum for the promotion of that agenda.

Stier concluded, "Whenever you have activist groups appealing to educators to promote an agenda, there should be cause for concern."

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