Are children being traumatized by Alarmists and all the man-made Global Warming propaganda?

[JC]

I basically agree with Kano and Ottawa Mike, although once again I find your question deserving of more detailed answers. I cannot address the way that British school children are educated, although I have a daughter studying abroad for an advanced degree (unrelated to climate change or science) and the quality of the education she is receiving is excellent in my opinion. We in the United States would be well advised to model more of our public education system based on the example set by the outstanding Universities in the UK-and elsewhere, but perhaps I may be forgiven for focusing on the educational institution I am most familiar with there and wishing that education would emphasize analytical thinking rather than accepting the editorial biases of the educators and society at large.

From my point of view, in the U.S-as a culture-we have more or less abdicated most of our parental responsibility for the moral and ethical education of our children and turned that over to the public educations system. Then we get all outraged when that education does not align with our personal beliefs. Kano and Mike are correct as far as they go in saying that children need to be taught to think and the implication that core subjects are the primary responsibility of educational programs. In terms of teaching children to think, topics such as climate change are relevant, but I do not know many parents who are really involved with their children's day to day lessons and discussing things with them regularly. Others may simply impose their own opinions rather than challenging their children to think for themselves, make their own decisions from an early age, and live with the consequences (while preventing disasters.) But I can't see where a parent who wants his or her child to...well, for the most obvious example in the U.S.-grow up to be a Christian expects public education to do that. If you want your child to believe in a particular faith, raise them in that faith yourself...take them to Church. And if you demand that right for yourself, allow people of other faiths to do the same and not have yours imposed on them by the education system.

It is hard to draw the line on where education should start and stop. It's like teaching and learning History or Literature-there is no way any school or educator can teach the entire breadth of history and literature in a single course or over the course of many years and classes. The only thing the educational system can really do is introduce, provide the opportunity, spark the interest. So we must engage as parents, be involved in the process, and if we see that spark in the subject of history, for example, encourage it by discussing what is being studied, see what generates the spark and suggesting other events to explore. If the subject is literature and your child is taken with a particular book, author, style or topic, BUY THEM MORE BOOKS. Like my father used to say as he invested his time and money in my upbringing, "I buy you books and I buy you books, and all you do is tear out the pages." Haha...the point is, he understood that I would make mistakes and he allowed me the chance to do so, because I would learn from them.

The same thing is true about science, ethics and morality. We cannot hope for our children to learn all about anything in the scant years of their early formal education; all we can do is hope that they are exposed to a wide variety of subjects, one of which they may pursue further in learning or a satisfying and successful career. Our participation in the process is critical as we teach our children-often by example-how to think and be analytical, and make their own decisions rather than being swept along in the emotional maelstrom that society so often provides as an example.

Then, and only then, can our children avoid the 'propaganda' that every school system and educator by default teaches. If a child is traumatized by a subject, class or what a teacher has to say, that is more often than not at least partially the result of our not being involved enough in the process. And there is a huge difference between coming home upset about something that was discussed in school and being 'traumatized.' Parents can help a child deal with upsets by exploring it with them and teaching by example; real trauma is more likely to occur when this is not done-and often almost immediately after the upset happens.