I just have to talk about this. Al Gore and the producers of An Inconvenient Truth decided they would donate 50,000 copies of the movie to schools so that it could be shown in science classes. They made this generous offer to the National Science Teachers Association.
The NSTA said no thank you. Why? Because Exxon Mobil has given the NSTA over 6 million dollars in recent years.
Now, I’m fairly sure this was a calculated move on the part of Al and Co. They could have chosen to go through school districts, boards, state government bodies, or any number of channels to distribute their gift. I have a feeling they knew damn well the NSTA was getting dirty money from oil companies and they wanted to out them. I say good for them. It worked.
Now the big oil donors are erasing the paper trail on this story, which broke a few weeks ago…
If you have kids in school or friends and relatives who do, please contact their science teachers and ask others to do so too. Ask the teachers if they belong to the NSTA. Encourage them to speak up and get involved. Contact the school principals, boards, departments of education and encourage them to go straight to the source and obtain one of those free copies. Write some letters. Time to misbehave again.
It’s the responsibility of government, not special interests, to pay for public education. If our government had its priorities right and allocated more of our tax money to education, maybe our teachers wouldn’t be in a position to have to compromise their principles and take money from special interests. And aren’t there laws that are supposed to prevent special interests from influencing school curricula? There should be.
So is it OK that our kids are being taught in science classes that Adam and Eve are real and global warming isn’t? At what point do people say enough is enough?
- A dozen states, environmental groups, and large cities have asked the Supreme Court to make the US government get its environmental act together.
- Go to the Sierra Club Expose Exxon Mobil campaign.