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In our 5 year old son’s homework a little while back:

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Well, at least they ask a critical thinking question at the end,

This, by the way, is VERY MUCH worth reading. I basically start and end every serious conversation I have with others by asking, “Can you explain why you believe that?” And you know how that usually goes.  There are of course a couple of flaws with relying on this line of questioning. See the pages I scanned in above for example. If someone actually answers the question, “Can you explain why you need to recycle?” and the answer you are given is a matter of simple logic, like, “Trash doesn’t disappear,” we are back to where we started – meaning we have to have an actual examination of the veracity of that observation, an examination of whether or not this is a problem, and so on. I suspect securing humility in belief is a lot harder than Sunstein makes it sound.

8 Responses to “And Then They Came for the Kindergartners”

  1. jb says:

    Well done post. It seems to me that it is the advocates of recycling, the “evangelists”, who seem to think that trash “disappears” into a recycling black hole or something.
    I am waiting for an opportunity, perhaps the next time someone tells me that people “should recycle”, to politely ask “who does the recycling, and why do you suppose they do it?”

    I suppose that if they were asked “who does the recycling”, they would ultimately admit that it must be someone in the private sector. With further inquiry they might realize that this would typically require an incentive for that “someone” to earn a profit. At some point, through patient questioning, it might dawn on them that by sorting and storing these materials, they are providing free labor to ensure profits for someone they probably don’t even know. Perhaps I am being overly optimistic here, but it might even occur to them that without their free labor subsidy, recycling would be an unprofitable, and therefore inefficient endeavor.

    If it were efficient, someone would be paying us to do it, wouldn’t they?

  2. Harry says:

    Good, WC and JB.

    As they say, it takes a village to raise a young pioneer, an that is the reason why progressives want to get their hands on four-year olds, in the name of free day care for yuppies and hipsters.

    I should have photographed a piece of litter thrown in my field — it was a worksheet that had groups of bugs and animals that is the new way to teach (second grade or sixth grade?) kids the times tables; two groups of three bugs is how many bugs? Circle the answer on the right.

    Later in middle school, they get the kids to calculate the family’s carbon footprint, which includes footnotes about mommy and daddy recycling their wine bottles and how well the compost pile and Swedish waterless toilet are doing.

    And….then they turn their parents in to the block captain, and they are free!

  3. […] And Then They Came for the Kindergartners […]

  4. Speedmaster says:

    And while our kids are learning to re-use garbage. Kids in India, South Korea, and Japan are learning math and physics.

    I guess there’s a simply opportunity cost lesson in here. There are only so many hours in a day. When time is spent on this nonsense, what else, more important, are they /not/ learning?

    • jb says:

      Great point re: opportunity cost. Take out environmentalism, Phys. ed., social engineering, and “field trips”; I wonder how much time is left for math, science, reading, writing and history?

  5. Scott says:

    I wonder if private schools push recycling just as hard as public schools? I know I went to public school, and they always asked us to recycle. And we would laugh as we watched the janitors pour all the bins, black garbage bins and blue recycle bins, right into the same garbage container outside. There was no recycling!

    In Britain, the Government began a major ad campaign, “Recycle. Can you afford not to?” was plastered on posters and advertisements EVERYWHERE. I always wondered, “I don’t know, what does it cost?” But I was the only one who asked.

    I just do not understand. Do you know how quickly you will lose friends if you were to question the complete and total religious commitment to recycling? It is amazing to me how much we just accept, without question.

    This is how evil starts. With a little recycling bin, a box of crayons and a healthy does of mind control.

    It takes a village to raise a young prisoner. But how many John Galt’s do we need to set them all free?

    • wintercow20 says:

      The reason for my alarm is that this IS PRIVATE school. I send them to Catholic schools over here.

      • Harry says:

        Sorry for jumping to a conclusion, WC. Maybe the nuns still teach times tables.

        Nor is it wrong to teach children good habits and morals. But in Kindergarten there are limits. Maybe the teachers, all of whom were educated after the first Earth Day, have bought into environmental indoctrination.

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