Backstep – Poll, How far IS too far?
Posted on May 15, 2009 | By Denny Tyler | 5 Comments
I’m having a little trouble letting go of the friends of coal in the classroom thing. So I have devised a little poll here to see how many people think this is as ridiculous as I do or not.
If you didn’t read the article from the link in my last post on this topic you can go here to read it -Beckley school begins coal-themed lesson plans.
I keep re-reading the article and a few things really jump out at me. They stress as justification for the class, in a couple places, as being so the 3RD GRADERS can think about maybe going to work in the coal mines some day.
In my honest and sincere opinion, I think an elementary school is a bad place for the coal controversy. You are teaching these YOUNG kids about maybe getting a job in the coal mines which basically means you are hanging all their hopes on the fact we will blow up mountains for the next ten or twelve years. I think that is being a little too sure of yourself. Be prepared for a ten or twelve year fight.
I think if such a class were to exist then it should at the very least be in high school and be an elective class. You shouldn’t be able to take the children of people fighting for their homes and lives against the coal industry and force them into a class touting the benefits of blowing up mountains for coal. I was very sincere when I said I would not hesitate to pull my child out of such a class.
From the article -
Originally, the program was supposed to start at Stratton Elementary in Beckley. That class was postponed because of conflicting schedules with WEST testing after a bad winter full of snow days.
Now the class is scheduled to start in the Raleigh County public school system in the fall.
My question is simple – Should a Friends of Coal class be allowed on a public school curriculum?
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POLL MOVED TO SIDEBAR
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You can only choose one answer and you can only vote once. The poll will run for ten days. There is an “other” category on this poll allowing you to type your response should you feel the need to do so. However, please do not make hateful/hurtful responses, those will be deleted without a second thought. The poll is completely anonymous. Any appropriate responses, regardless of pro or con, from the “other” category will be displayed at the end of the 10 days along with the overall results.
So VOTE and tell your friends to vote and so on and so on…
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A foam lump of coal… lol, that’s just too funny. Seriously, what are the kids going to do with a foam lump of coal? Wipe their behinds with it?! Maybe try to feed it to the family dog. You know, as hard as I try, and I’ve got a good imagination, I can’t think of one good use for a foam lump of coal. Can you? If you can come up with a good use for a foam lump of coal, please comment. I’d love to hear it no matter how far out there it sounds cause I’d say you’ll have to get creative. May as well have fun with it… in conversation at least. 
Our remnants of wilderness will yield bigger values to the nation’s character and health than they will to its pocketbook, and to destroy them will be to admit that the latter are the only values that interest us. – Aldo Leopold
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5 Responses to “Backstep – Poll, How far IS too far?”
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May 15th, 2009 @ 9:43 am
I can think of a use of that foam coal, but not for kids. Just for the industry and the idiots that are trying to force it down their throats…
they can shove it where the sun don’t shine.
May 15th, 2009 @ 11:01 am
May 15th, 2009 @ 12:56 pm
Denny
Did you love the part about the kids being fascinated with heavy machinery? A man just called me from Ohio and wanted to see the Big John shovel in action. Said his 9-year old grandson was just obsessed with this big earth-moving equipment. I told him to call Larry and arrange a trip to Kayford Mt. See that big boy up close and personal – ripping the guts out of the earth. Maybe kids won’t be so excited if they see the devastation left behind.
May 15th, 2009 @ 3:05 pm
BJ – the first thing I thought about was my neighbor’s little boy, he’s fascinated with John Deere tractors.
I would think they would expect the young boys to be fascinated with heavy equipment. I don’t think a child’s view of a heavy piece of equipment is anything positive for the coal industry, I see it as the reaction of a healthy little boy.
What I don’t like about the whole idea, they are playing dangerously with a person’s right to make a choice by preaching the benefits of coal without the negative aspects to a child that doesn’t know that eventually, left to their own devices, they would be able to form an opinion of their own without someone force feeding it to them as a child.
Everything about it irritates the hell out of me. Something like this class would be questionable at best in an area where the coal controversy doesn’t rage on.
May 15th, 2009 @ 4:43 pm
3rd graders don’t need to be taught the “pros” and “cons” of MTR or many many other things.
my little one likes trucks and tractors. i hope its a phase. they sure ain’t going anywhere in our culture. glorifying them is not going to help, neither is demonizing them. 3rd graders don’t need to hear either one. they need to learn their damn multiplication tables and yes sir and no sir etc