Last week, West Virginia Public Broadcasting did a story on a Raleigh Country classroom. Tuesday, fourth graders at Stratton Elementary School took a field trip to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine to experience an underground mine.
It was the conclusion to a pro-coal curriculum created by The Friends of Coal – Ladies Auxiliary.
According to the report, it’s the first class in the West Virginia public school system to host the curriculum.
And hopefully the last.
Elementary students shouldn’t be subjected to such blatant political bias pertaining to a polarizing issue at such a young age. Especially if they didn’t get both sides of the story.
"We just make it as lighthearted as possible but informative," said Regina Fairchild, chairwoman of the auxiliary. "We just want to educate them about our vital resource in our area and in the United States."
Yes, coal is a vital resource for the state of West Virginia. It provides numerous jobs and the majority of state tax revenues.
But its extraction and burning to generate electricity also produces harmful secondary effects to society and the environment.
The pro-coal curriculum included a coloring book that was part of the fourth graders’ classroom activities.
It includes phrases like "Why coal is important" and "Coal is a big part of our future" and "The advantages of coal." It also depicts an oversimplified surface mine, the ease of mountaintop reclamation and the cleanliness of the coal-burning process.
One page even has a piece of coal being scrubbed by several brushes, with a sign reading "Exit Harmful Gases."
Ever-present are sparkling pieces of coal, smiling trees, smiling clouds and a smiling sun.
Lighthearted enough, it seems.
Yet, nowhere to be found was anything about energy conservation or environmental impacts.
The WVPB report states that Coal River Mountain Watch, an anti-mountaintop removal organization, is currently developing its own elementary curriculum about alternative energy.
We question the usefulness of either in the context of an elementary school classroom.
Especially in light of the fact that West Virginia lags behind the national average for almost all important educational statistics.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, state fourth-graders lag behind the nation in the areas of math, reading and writing.
For example, only 61 percent of state fourth-graders are at or above basic reading proficiency.
How a pro-coal coloring book will improve those numbers seems difficult to comprehend.
With these statistics in hand, perhaps our youngest children would be better served by focusing more on those so-called "Three Rs" and less about polarizing political issues; especially at such a young age.
Teach elementary school children the basics first – save the world of politics, economics and environmentalism until they are older.
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