Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Guardian has published an open letter from the leadership of the student climate change strikers.
We, the young, are deeply concerned about our future. Humanity is currently causing the sixth mass extinction of species and the global climate system is at the brink of a catastrophic crisis. Its devastating impacts are already felt by millions of people around the globe. Yet we are far from reaching the goals of the Paris agreement.
Young people make up more than half of the global population. Our generation grew up with the climate crisis and we will have to deal with it for the rest of our lives. Despite that fact, most of us are not included in the local and global decision-making process. We are the voiceless future of humanity.
We will no longer accept this injustice. We demand justice for all past, current and future victims of the climate crisis, and so we are rising up. Thousands of us have taken to the streets in the past weeks all around the world. Now we will make our voices heard. On 15 March, we will protest on every continent.
We finally need to treat the climate crisis as a crisis. It is the biggest threat in human history and we will not accept the world’s decision-makers’ inaction that threatens our entire civilisation. We will not accept a life in fear and devastation. We have the right to live our dreams and hopes. Climate change is already happening. People did die, are dying and will die because of it, but we can and will stop this madness.
We, the young, have started to move. We are going to change the fate of humanity, whether you like it or not. United we will rise until we see climate justice. We demand the world’s decision-makers take responsibility and solve this crisis.
You have failed us in the past. If you continue failing us in the future, we, the young people, will make change happen by ourselves. The youth of this world has started to move and we will not rest again.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/01/youth-climate-change-strikers-open-letter-to-world-leaders
The global coordination group of the youth-led climate strike
What do the school strikers plan to do to “make change happen”? I guess if they knew, they wouldn’t still be demanding their parents sort out their lives.
“ I’ll thcream and thcream until I’m thick”. That used to work for Violet Elizabeth Bott.
“ I’ll thcream and thcream until I’m thick”.
Well, the success of that tactic is on display with these young nitwits.
“We, the brainwashed”
Fixed.
Or “We, the young and dumb”
In 1971, the 26th Amendment pushed the US voting age down to 18 from the 21 it had been at for a century.
In 1968 the Democrats in Congress passed and LBJ signed a gun control act that placed an 18 age limit on buying any gun, and 21 age limit on handguns.
In the 1980’s a strong push by MADD at the federal level forced all 50 states and territories to increase the drinking age to 21 from 18 by 1986.
Every state that allows it sets a 21 age limit on casino style gambling.
Many states are now considering moving the smoking age to 21 (age to buy any tobacco or vaporizer liquid) .
Some states are now moving the gun buying age to 21 for even hunting rifles and shotguns.
But now we hear of Democrats wanting to push the voting age down to 16.
So 18 is too immature to drink, smoke, buy a gun, or gamble, yet Democrats want to push voting to 16?
There is no more clear example than this of how Democrats simply want more and more power to tell people how to live their lives while destroying everything that has made the USA the greatest country in the world.
And they’ll use immature children as their tools if it helps them in that agenda.
Democrats are literally insane.
Because at 16 your head is still filled with mush and you still live at mommy’s house.
Insidious more than insane.
In a mobocracy, the biggest mob wins and the ulterior motive behind almost every push to expand voting rights has been to grow the mob.
Wow a whole generation of Don Quixotes!
CO2 makes a contribution to the cooling.
Climate change, as the consensus pushes it, is in fact man-made:
Like any destructive delusional obsession.
Like anorexia or paranoia are man-made.
Dear kids, You have been lied to and used as pawns in a political game. I hope that when you realise this you get angry at those who lied to you and never trust them again. Feel free to point out to them that they were wrong.
I also hope you become way more suspicious of all authorities telling you certainties.
Since they are demanding justice for a hypothetical injustice, I suggest we offer them hypothetical remediation.
Open Letter To the Student Climate Change Strikers
We, the mature and informed, take note of your specific claims of:
— the sixth mass extinction of species,
— the brink of a catastrophic crisis,
— the climate crisis that you will have to deal with the rest of your lives,
— devastating impacts (of climate change) are already felt by millions of people around the globe
— past, current and future victims of the climate crisis, and
— the climate crisis is the biggest threat in human history, and the world’s decision-makers’ inaction that threatens our entire civilisation (sic).
With our life experience and knowledge of science, logic and politics gained over living more than 20 years on this Earth, we respectfully ask this of you:
Do you have any objective evidence (scientific-, economic-, societal-, or historical-based)—aka, facts—that you can present to us to support any one of your above claims?
We are waiting . . . but remember, time is critical for you to get back to us on this matter!
Don’t need facts, just faith in “the science” and “the scientists”.
Aristotle said if first – “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.”
Mobilization of youth is a common and effective tactic of those who would oppress. Sadly it’s very effective and the young seldom realize how they’ve been duped until middle age (if at all) and by then the damage is done.
These kids are the most dependant on fossil fuel of any generation in all of history. They have never known anything else other than the blessings of fossil fuels They are all passionate environmentalists while at the same time they’re the most isolated and protected from the environment that it is possible to be. They have no idea what they’re demanding.
The maxim, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it” has never been more appropriate.
Fifty years ago I discovered how many students were what the Irish call Eejits. Despite the explosion of knowledge and the easy availability of so much information, the number of students who deserve the designation Eejit seems to have multiplied exponentially since then.
The kids here are getting too much credit and way too much blame. Indoctrination takes an indoctrinator – children have many faults, but they are learned behaviors. These come from educational institutions at every level and from every parent that can’t be bothered to research truth and honesty while letting their kids become propagandized by self-aggrandized, self-serving educators.
This group sounds like another variation of the many radical “Students for fill-in-the-blank” groups that have been around since the 60’s. They claim some noble cause, but under the covers it is a radical Marxist group that uses intimidation tactics. The SDS from the 60’s, with their Weather Underground off-shoot, started bombings. Reminds me of the friends of the Obamas…Bill Ayers & Bernadine Dohrn.
‘ We are the voiceless future of humanity.’
Well then, shut up!
That letter — what a piece of crap !
The kids are extremely comfortable, compared to the grandiose, alarming language used in the letter.
Please teach our kids what hypocrites they are being led to be.
It’s more than disgusting — it’s sickening how we are allowing child minds to be eroded.
If they get their way the lucky ones that survive the total collapse of the economy will have wonderful careers pulling plows.
Or being sex toys for the elites, bluntly.
Those toys will be fed, to keep them plump – until they are too old.
Say about their twentieth year.
Then – to the fields for the rest of your lives, which will, once again, be ‘nasty, brutish and short’!
Auto – aware that the indoctrinated will mot likely not listen.
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers”.
― Socrates.
Far too many adults younger than 60 today plus their children are what I call “citified”. They have no idea how anything works. If the car doesn’t work, call someone to fix it. If the plumbing doesn’t work, call someone to fix it. If the lights go out, call someone to check the fuse box. Hire someone to mow your lawn. Hire someone to paint your house.
They’ve never had to fix the wiring in the barn where the mouse ate into it using a candle or lantern. They’ve never had to crank a tractor to start it because the battery went dead. Change the oil in the motor? Didn’t know it had any oil in it! They’ve never had to stand knee deep in cow guts in order to get their hamburger. Most of them have probably never spent a week in the rain at an outdoor camp.
If these people had ever spent *any* time uncomfortable or having to do dirty, smelly things in order to survive they would be a lot less whiny about the climate!
Oh, well.
The real big real catastrophic crisis that humanity will face at some point,
it will be when it realizes clearly, that there is no enough straight-jackets to go around, as per means of need and safety. 🙂
Biggy biggy problemo…
No enough padded cells either…. 🙂
cheers
What a fun little Fitler group, blaming everything they can think of on those of us who work to put roofs over their ungrateful little heads, food in their demanding little tummies, and clothes on their lazy little backsides.
I wonder when they will get little uniforms with insignia on the sleeves?
“Global coordination group” they claim to be. Well, they won’t be joined by Chinese, Indian, Japanese, African, Asian children. Only the decadent western nations will allow this sort of nonsense. The world’s future will be decided in the developing world. Western civilisation has had its time.
“We the Young”
Meaning – the inexperienced, who have not analyzed or actually researched the “facts” told to us that we espouse and regurgitate, and not being taught or encouraged to participate and practice critical thinking skills to arrive at our own conclusions of the facts told to us, are now demanding that “the Old” be punished and condemned for providing us with abundant food, shelter, clothing and leisure time which we use to participate in pleasure at the expense of industry, and further that demand that the “Govt” continue to provide us with said leisure lifestyle without requirement of effort or sacrifice from “We the Young” while we continue in our ignorant self righteousness to condemn all those older and less caring than we.
Baaaaa-baaaaaaa-baaaaaaa
“We the brainwashed”….is more accurate. The climate hacks operate a lot like Scientology.
“… and of course, the squirrels”? https://youtu.be/-esLrrqGKkE
Kid’s can’t legally vote nor drink until 18, can’t legally have sex until 16, but can have access to internet and smartphone at aged 4.
The above article presents evidence of why there needs to be legal restriction on unsupervised child usage of the internet without legal restrictions. They are being brainwashed, manipulated and damaged by devious adults.
Apparently teachers can’t be trusted to be responsible (and seem to be the main culprits actually), so they’ll have to be made legally responsible for any children using the internet under their supervision. It’s not acceptable that children end up thoroughly delusional and troubled due to bad parents and exceptionally bad teachers, and due to terrible governance.
The internet clearly damages many young easily impressed minds that are exposed to it, and extraordinarily slimy and devious adults are taking advantage of the ability to brainwash children rapidly, and are seriously harming their minds and futures, and are doing it willfully for mere political objectives.
This is really quite abhorrent.
My estimation of the value and qualities of ‘teachers’ plummets more and more each year, the schools are not places of basic education that they once were, they’ve clearly morphed into a bizarre political circus, and education of children in proper ways is apparently not their raison-detre. Political corruption of education and undermining children’s minds seems to be their underlying mission, at this point.
And who is producing these ‘teachers’? It all points back to ‘Teachers Colleges’ where they get their diplomas. This is where the cancer within education institutions has metastasized from. Yet more rubbish warped ‘professors’ and lecturers providing indoctrination courses, rather than an education within western Universities.
That’s where the really sick and slimy behavior resides with regard to what is occurring to children, otherwise the ‘teachers’ would never have facilitated and incited this sort of rubbish to get established in schools.
I used to think journalists were real go-along-to-get-along scumbags but these ‘teachers’ are even worse.
FAKE EDUCATION
Bull*hit. I work my butt off teaching and am constantly pushing kids to higher standards, likely higher than you faced when you were in high school. Right now I am teaching argumentative writing tactics to high school seniors who have delayed learning issues. They must present both sides of an issue with at least 40/60 reporting. Anything more lopsided is usually filled with opinion and light on verifiable facts. Something so abhorrent to me that I have been known to wad up such papers and throw them in the garbage. So let’s have at it. Write something you think is your best effort on teachers. I dare you. My thinking is that my students can run circles around your product.
I am so sick and tired of endless, baseless derogatory statements made to appear like facts but reek of opinion regarding teachers. Sick of it!
You maybe doing the job Pamela, but from what you say in your frustration above, you also seem to not want to not face-up to what’s occurring. The outcomes are what they are.
Opinion without facts as to the cause.
F.
As is yours.
Pamela Gray
March 2, 2019 at 2:16 pm
What a fun little Fitler group, blaming everything they can think of on those of us who work to put roofs over their ungrateful little heads, food in their demanding little tummies, and clothes on their lazy little backsides. I wonder when they will get little uniforms with insignia on the sleeves?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/03/02/we-the-young-open-letter-from-the-student-climate-change-strikers/#comment-2645010
—
By which you indicate that you perceive that a very serious problem exists and is getting worse, right?
OK then.
Instead of working yourself into a Gordian-Knot while mentally redlining on points within my comment which referred to the role of teachers (among several other things you seem been blinded to due to your losing-it re teachers), why don’t you write a cogent ‘product’, which corrects the record according to your experiences and views, and submit it to Anthony to be published, so that the mitigating circumstances to this general festering topic can be aired/discussed/debated in the usual way, if you so strongly disagree, and believe there’s another side to it all and teachers are not to be held accountable or responsible for it?
I’d like to read it, I’m sure many others would too.
Your’s was the opinion piece without facts. Do your own damn homework.
Then quit your whining.
When commentators spout off about what is causing this or that with nothing but vitriol to back it up, you are no better than the unthinking students the thread is about. Vigorously pointing out such off-the-rails comments like yours is standard fair game in debate. However it appears I may have wasted my stern reply on you. Continue to be as you were if you like or improve with something more cogent.
This …
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/03/02/we-the-young-open-letter-from-the-student-climate-change-strikers/#comment-2645211
… was a more than fair challenge to you to put-up or shut-up.
You’ve done neither.
Really? I see high school grads who can not do basic math or understand simple written instructions on a regular basis. Not just teenagers, we get people in their 30s who still can’t do these basic things. Can’t run a cash drawer. Can’t read a tape measure. Can’t follow directions or use a map. They can text a bunch of gibberish, bet your ass they can. Education in America has been turning out defective product for decades. Are there people getting decent educations in spite of our screwed up school system? Of course. Are there teachers doing a good job? Of course. Problem is we have been steadily sinking for a long time. When education takes a back seat to diversity, self esteem and social justice we all lose.
For a reasoned perspective of math instruction through the decades, this grey paper provides thoughtful input and cited research.
http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMAT7050/HistoryWeggener.html
My great grandmother was a high school principal trained in East Coast schools before coming out West on her own to help change the dated system of public education still in place here. As a result, there were many old textbooks in our home library that stretched from the first decades of the last century clear through to post “new math” teaching paradigms, and clearly demonstrate what the above author speaks of. The breadth and depth of Algebra, now taught in two sections and devoid of shortcuts such as cross multiplying, is far and away more advanced then it was back in the day. Sorry to disappoint but I see no backward trend in math concepts being taught in today’s schools. That said, I do see struggling students in the low to average math ability range. But through changes in pedagogical approaches, these students can achieve better algebraic thinking. I know it because I’ve witnessed it.
Oops. What happened to my name? My fingers sometime do not tap the key I want. That is part of West Nile after-affects I have to contend with now.
So you refuse to accept what people out here in the actual world see and experience every day. So be it. Be sure to double check your change at the store and stop complaining when your order from a business is completely wrong. Your vaunted educational system turned out those stellar employees.
Oh, and pray to God your doctor is over 50, perhaps they will have some clue and enough basic motivation to actually do the job.
I am in the actual world. And it is true that observation is the first step in classic scientific methods. But to end your personal research with anecdotal evidence, as you just did, and to put it out here as a robust conclusion, is what those kids with their placards are doing.
Folks, this is why I consider opinion writing low hanging fruit. Persuasive writing is only one twig up from that. Well cited argumentative writing is getting closer to the top. However, well-critiqued research, that uses gold standard methods and replication under different parameters to show robustness, is where the real meat is and should be the trunk that informs all such debate. Otherwise either side of an issue, when argued based on anecdotal evidence interpreted through biased beliefs, is worse than snake oil and the hawkers that tried to sell it.
We have no power to change these young minds if we are only up to an adult version of making equally biased comments in opposition to theirs (unless hyperbole is the vehicle of choice, then all bets are off).
“anecdotal” Just another word for reality. Out here in the actual word we can all see the results of your progressive education jihad, and they ain’t pretty.
Your paper totally ignores the need to master basic number theory before advancing. And I am talking about how to do basic things like add, subtract, divide, and multiply. Learning he multiplication tables is a *necessity*. From that flows the ability to judge if answers to things like word problems, physics problems, etc. make any sense whatsoever.
I used to tutor math in one of the local middle schools. Inevitably, those needing tutoring were never taught the basics of adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying. They had no idea what multiplication tables were. They were calculator dependent, even after progressing through Common Core.
These are things that must be learned *by rote repetition* if they are to form a basis from which to learn more advanced concepts. If you can’t square a number (i.e. multiply it by itself) then how does the concept of x**2 ever make any sense?
And Common Core math has pushed learning the “rote” basics even further away from students. When they don’t have a calculator handy they are lost. And this carries on through college. I have watched the 1st semester and 1st year dropout rate at our local engineering universities drop precipitously over the past 20 years. How do you make sense of a parabola or hyperbola when squaring or cubing a number doesn’t come automatically from memory? Without this basic, automatic knowledge, calculus becomes even more difficult to master. So does probability, physics, chemistry, statistics, etc. How do you understand integrating a curve between two limits if you can’t do the multiplication and subtraction in your head first and on the calculator second? If the equation x**2 + x + 1 integrated between 1 and 10 can’t be done in your head and you need a calculator to do the basic math you’ll lose the understanding of the integration pretty quickly.
Yet the document you reference mentions none of this.
Oop! You have done it now! Calling for education to use what has always worked instead of some”new” math method that turns out students who can’t do basic math. Pamela is going to be very cross with you!
Brain imaging says otherwise about rote learning. Rote learning has little to do with number theory when brains are doing math. For example, learning math facts by sorting visual arrays that match symbolic equations is far better than verbal flash card memorization. The former enhances math brain centers dealing with number sense fluency while the latter stores the information in visual and auditory language communication centers that are seldom used when engaged in math tasks. I refer readers to the following:
http://www.normalesup.org/~mamalric/publications/Amalric_Dehaene_Neuroimage2019.pdf
https://suchow.io/assets/cognition/feigenson2004number.pdf
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2016.0515
“Brain imaging says otherwise about rote learning. Rote learning has little to do with number theory when brains are doing math.”
Number theory is *not* just where on a line the numbers lie. If you don’t understand the basic relationships between the numbers, i.e. add/subtract/multiply/divide, you will be forever handicapped in learning anything more advanced.
“For example, learning math facts by sorting visual arrays that match symbolic equations is far better than verbal flash card memorization. ”
Sorting visual arrays, even in your mind, is SLOW and gets in the way. It actually can hide the forest because of the trees. Sorting 9 arrays of 9 in order to figure out the answer of 81 gives you no more insight into x**2 than just knowing 9×9=81. If you must learn visual sorting of this sort then learn it *after* you know the basic multiplication tables! Plotting the equation x**2 + x +1 on graph paper if you actually know the multiplication tables is far faster and less distracting than if you have to run through some kind of visualization of a matrix of arrays in order to figure out each value of the equation for each x being plotted. It lets you focus on what the graph is actually showing instead of focusing on doing mind tricks as you plot each number.
“The former enhances math brain centers dealing with number sense fluency while the latter stores the information in visual and auditory language communication centers that are seldom used when engaged in math tasks.”
And I suppose that learning how to manipulate arrays of matrices is not stored in your visual language communication centers? Remember, *YOU* used the term “visual arrays”, not me. Auditory language communication centers are only used to express the answer after you know it, they don’t determine the answer.
Every year when I was tutoring I saw an increasing number of children who were calculator dependent. They didn’t even have the basic skills to immediately know if what the calculator was showing was reasonable or not. They had no idea if they hit a wrong key or not. The calculator was always right. That’s because they totally lack in knowing that 9×9=81 off the top of their head. And it’s getting worse, not better. The kids in AP Calculus that do well are the ones that can tell you immediately what 9×9 is or 12×12. They don’t have to shuffle a bunch of stuff around in their heads to figure it out. It lets them concentrate on the more advanced concepts instead of getting bogged down in mind games to accomplish the simple stuff!
This is one big reason why it’s harder and harder to interest kids in STEM. If they don’t have the math skills to balance a chemical equation *quickly* or to quickly calculate how many moles of an element they have the whole subject soon loses its attractiveness. Same with the other subjects.