IMPORTANT UPDATE: The 12-year-old girl at the heart of the Immanual Christian School story mentioned below has since recanted her story and her accusations against her classmates.
This is a serious development worthy of further discussion in a separate blog.
Stay out of school kids, stay out of school
While looking at the #Friday4Future march in Madrid on Friday September 27th, I couldn’t help but wonder what lessons they are missing and what lessons they are learning.
They are striking for justice so this civics class can double as a history class where they are writing the last chapter of a history book. Then there are all the posters and signs which are written in English or in some cases, English on one side and Español en el otro lado.
Maybe they are missing basic maths but they are learning all about numbers and one plus one is far better than being divided on this issue.
Last week Germany announced that they would make changes to the curriculum to combat Climate Change. Great proposals but pretty basic, I have been suggesting for years that we needed to make public transport work. More trains running on time that cost far less than flying, it's basic maths.
SOLVE FOR X: If Jane takes a train from Frankfurt to Berlin and John flies first class, how much more attractive is Angela Merkle’s environmental proposals to encourage public transport by taxing domestic flights?
A. Less, B. None, C. A lot more
What are students learning in school anyways?
This week I read about a horrible story where a group of boys held down a 12-year-old girl and cut some of her dreadlocks with a scissors, they held her arms behind her back and covered her mouth as they cut her hair in the school playground.
This incident apparently took place in Immanuel Christian school in Springfield, Virginia where Karen Pence works part-time as an Art teacher so the questions I would like answered are, where did the boys get the scissors and why is Vice President Mike Pence not allowed to meet women unsupervised?
Clearly there are issues to be addressed about boys running with scissors in the playground and these teens should be supervised for life as I am sure this is not the last young girl that they will hold down against her will.
Back in Madrid, kids marched in an orderly fashion past the world renowned Prado Museum and statues of Velásquez. They had brought their own art supplies and were having a field-day with the event.
As long as these student protests don’t turn out like Kent State University when governments refuse to change, then what harm can come from students teaching us a lesson?
These children know all about the chemical reaction of burning rainforests and the make up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, they know that we are losing species in the Amazon and biology might be easier if there are less animals to learn about. Geography could also be easier for students if one of the continents was to melt and countries disappeared below rising sea level. I don't know much but I do know that Civil Right’s activist and songwriter Sam Cooke famously sang:
Don't know much about history, Don’t know much biology
Don't know much about a science book,
Don't know much about the french I took
But I do know that I love you,
And I know that if you love me, too,
What a wonderful world this would be
Let’s show our love for this wonderful world and proudly miss Miss Pence’s Art class on Fridays.
WRITINGS ON THE WALL: Boys in Springfield have more important things to learn
the 12 year old girl in virginia was lying