Thursday, February 3, 2011

Psychological warfare

Here's a fascinating little tidbit.

It seems a Quebec mom was making lunch for her six-year-old son who attends kindergarten when the boy noticed his mother was using a Ziploc bag to wrap his sandwich. He screamed, "No Mommy! Not a Ziploc!"

It turns out the boy's teacher would "exclude him from a contest to win a stuffed teddy bear if he brought an environmentally unfriendly plastic baggie to school."

When the father questioned the boy's teacher, she responded, "You know, it's not very good for the environment. We have to take care of our planet and the bags do not decompose well."

I see. Look, the kid is six years old and he is now terrified of the implications of using a Ziploc bag. Psychological warfare, anyone?

I happen to be a huge fan of Ziploc bags. A box each of the gallon-sized and the quart-sized bags last me about a year because I wash and re-use and re-use and re-use them until they're in shreds. In fact, Ziploc bags are one of the few name brand things I buy (rather than the house brand equivalent) because the quality is high and I can get about a year's worth of use out of them.

Washed bags hanging upside down to dry.

Clearly this news incident goes beyond a mere plastic bag. This is an example of the psychological indoctrination children receive in public schools in the U.S. and Canada. "The key problem is we've got a teacher that is on a political crusade," said Michael Sanera (director of research and local government studies for the John Locke Foundation), "and thinks it's her responsibility to indoctrinate kids and not teach sound science."

I am not without some knowledge of science. My bachelor's degree was in zoology; my master's degree was in Environmental Education. And I am, once more, so thankful to be homeschooling my girls. Our kids are growing up with a balanced grasp of environmental issues, not the left-wing propaganda the Progressives love to force-feed innocent children in schools.

Look, if you choose never to use a Ziploc bag, more power to ya. But don't terrify little kids that we're all gonna die if they use a Ziploc, okay?

20 comments:

  1. LOL @ your picture of your bags drying... Looks like my house. I was raised by two children of the Depression and learned well.

    I was irritated when my brother quit his job as a beancounter to go into ministry (with a reduced salary) and he and his wife were visiting us, and he saw my bags drying and said to his wife, "Guess that'll be us in a few months, huh?" 'Scuse me?? What's wrong with being unwasteful? We were raised by the same parents, buddy.

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  2. BTW I recanned my crushed pineapple this morning as we talked about, also some hominy that also came in a #10 can, and so far so good. I plan to do more of this.

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  3. Picture could be my kitchen counter-I only wish I had invented the dumb bags:)
    That teacher could have more impact by helping the kids come up with new ways to re-use and re-cycle!
    Mary

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  4. We just moved from the Portland, OR area this summer. There was a billboard near where we entered the city emblazoned with "Plastic is Forever". As I drove past it, rolling my eyes, I wondered, have these people never owned anything made of plastic before? Never owned a plastic toy as a child? Never tried to store anything long-term in a plastic container? My kids know, plastic breaks and typically sooner than you want it to. The big secret some apparently don't know is that --if it's breaking, that means it's breaking down. Sigh...
    jcd

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  5. Public schools

    Plastic bags, plastic sporks, toy guns, spitwad weapons, being male... it's all the lefty feminist teachers realm to indoctrinate, make illegal, and punish as they see fit.

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  6. Gee, why doesn't the rocket scientist concentrate on filling the children with a love of reading, writing, and arithmetic rather than make those babies terrified that they have the power to destroy what only our Creator can do. Thank You, thank You, thank You Father for the blessing of being allowed to homeschool my babies!

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  7. What's funny Plastics got so big cause "Paper bags" and paper products were destoying forests. :)

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  8. It really burns me when the schools start USING the children instead of just teaching them. What you wrap the child's sandwich in is not the child's decision nor control. Why should the child be penalized for it?

    My child told me the school councilors came into class and asked kids who's parents drank, smoked, or used any drugs to raise their hands. They wrote down their names. I was appalled! They are making the children think it is right to "fink" on their family??? I blew a gasket.

    The chairman of the school board (Whom I called that very day) told me it was to identify students that needed more input to keep them from growing up to be users too.

    I told him his Gestapo profiling did not need to train my children to tattle on loved ones. He should teach my children to add and conjugate verbs, and stay out of my possible consumption habits. They agreed to quit this program when I called major media outlets.

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  9. My mom used to even wash pieces of plastic wrap. They went into the dishwater first, got scrubbed, rinsed really well and then stuck to the back splash behind the sink to dry. Wonder what kind of car that teacher drives? Probably something 'green'...and mostly made of plastic. That's partly how they improve gas mileage, you know. Metal weighs a whole lot more than plastic but plastic can be painted to look just like metal!

    Was the news article skewed in favor of the teacher or the parents? I wonder...

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  10. I turn the bags inside out (outside in). I will also reuse paper towels. If I 've cleaned a spill that isn't that messy, I will rinse them, hang them on the cabinet knobs, and WAHLA....good as almost new. Goodness gracious!
    Kelly in NC

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  11. OK warped coincidence has raised it's head today. The google ad just to the right of anonymous' Kelly in NC is a link to a coupon for ZIPLOCK BAGS. God is an iron. BTW I use my ziplocks until they are in tatters too. They are a great idea but not cheap. Inside out and a sponge, dry it. good to go for tomorrow's lunch.

    Ottar

    PS another thought since this blogosphere is run off of google why does google always get a red underline like it is misspelled?

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  12. ha ha...Looks just like my dish rack, a couple of bags hanging on tall utensils, then turned outside in to finish drying. I wash and reuse until they get holes in them. Speaking of ziplock bags, they slip and slide around in my freezer, (holding cookies or muffins for ex) so now I take an empty cereal box, slip the ziplock bag with the food inside, write the contents on the box, and stack the box flat on the freezer shelf...No more sliding bags.

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  13. those doggone teachers have been at the indoctrination game for at least the last 35 years. i know, cause i have had to blast a few of them myself while my son was being educated by the public system. sad thing is that some ofthe kids in school now will be teaching our grandchildren and that is a really scarey thought.

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  14. The really scary thing is that what this child is being taught is that you are thrown out of the competition if you don't conform to the leadership's ideas. This would marginalize the child and put him up to ridicule by fellow students. All at an age when this cannot be psychologically handled. It's a lot like what the government is currently trying to do to us radicals who don't follow the herd of sheep down the road to socialism. Those of us who believe that the Constitution and the Bible were given to us for a reason. Those of us who, although we were raised in government indoctrination centers, have chosen to follow our own paths. I am sooo glad I homeschool.

    Laurie in NC

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  15. This reminds me of one of the stories that ends with my wife and I homeschooling our son...

    It was a sunny afternoon in North Carolina and we waited in line to pick our son up from the "better" school we had gotten him into through a lottery. Our son took his seat in the car on the verge of tears and we asked him what was wrong. He said the teacher wanted him to eat at McDonald's and he didn't want to.

    Turns out the school was having a fundraiser and the class that brought the most people into the local McDonald's on that night won a prize. Since our family does not support fast food, this presented a serious conundrum for my son. We reassured him that we would smooth it over and were able to end the issue.

    My nasty call to the principal informed me that the McDonald's Night was a function of the PTA, not the school (nevermind the huge banner in the entry of the school with a graph of the attendance of each class).

    I wrote a letter to the PTA explaining my position, included a check written directly to the PTA for approximately what we might have spent at McDonald's, and asked that our attendance be counted toward our son's class.

    The check was cashed, but we never received a response from the PTA.

    Schools exploit children.

    Sometimes without apology or explanation.

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  16. Yea! I'm one of the plastic bag savers too. I dry mine on the wooden spoons sticking up out of my utensil crock, works great. One of my kids (who should know better) stated "seriously mom?" while holding up a ziplock to wash. I answered "yes, it's my effort to cut down on imported oil, I reuse, reuse, reuse the bags."

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  17. A few years ago, when my daughter was in first grade, her teacher did an experiment about melting ice. During a conference describing the experiment, he commented that we'd better be careful or else we would all have to wear bathing suits, because we'd be swimming when the polar ice caps melted. In front of my six year old daughter. We left that school soon after...for many reasons.

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  18. My first reaction to this was a desire to buy that poor kid a teddy bear. I guess I'm an enabler :D I was homeschooled 1st grade through HS and it is the only way to go in my mind.

    Renee

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  19. I applaud the teacher--education regarding the care of our environment is a very important topic. We as a society need to be more enviromentally responsible. We need to decrease our use of non-renewable resources and reuse what we have, not always buy new. I think there is way too much drama stated here that the 6 year was having "psychological warfare" used on him. This matter can be discussed at home as it well should be. What one chooses to use in their own home is their business, but as adults we need to lead the way in providing a healthy earth for future generations. That six year old is going to grow up and we want him and all six year olds to have a healthy planet in which to live. By- the- way, one must be careful in reusing plastic bags due to certain bacterias. I myself reuse them, but am very careful what I reuse them for. Some bacteria cannot be removed by a simple rinsing even with soap and water. If everyone would decrease their use of something that does not decompose or is non-renewable we could make a significant difference. The choice is of course where you intend to make your difference.

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