I have been so busy up here. Last weekend I drove up to The Lost 40 (about four hours from here) to see old growth pine forests that were never logged. (Pictures throughout this post). Then this weekend was Halloween and I went to Duluth on Friday night and went to a costume party here in Finland on Saturday.
Friday I also started a new class through UMD. In it we watched John Stossel's program "Tampering with Nature" where he blatantly attacks environmental education and environmentalists with horrible arguments that hold no bearing. Our first assignment for the class is to write a letter response to Stossel. Mine is below:)
Dear Mr. Stossel,
I recently watched your program “Tampering with Nature” and cannot help but tell you that I was appalled and quite disappointed with what it contained. There were a plethora of ad hominem attacks on environmental education, horrid assumptions of native peoples and their historical lifestyles and a blatant disregard for journalistic integrity. I will not ignore the fact that I am sure you have already received numerous letters, emails, and phone calls in regard to the program. The internet is swimming with angry articles about the lack of reliable content in many of the segments you have done for 20/20 as well. You are also well aware, I am sure, that the not only controversial, but also inherently untrue things you often say have lead to a website being created in order to “save” you from being cut by ABC. Assuming that you know all of the above I’d like to jump forward to arguments you made in the show “Tampering with Nature” and respond to them using actual empirical data and facts.
In the program you used the pilgrims as an example of a group of people who tried to “live with nature” and failed. I ask you, why did you choose the pilgrims? They came to a land they did not understand and struggled, this is no surprise. Even with all of the “tampering” that humanity does these days, going to a new land with unknown dangers isn’t easy to do. Why not use, as an example, native peoples that lived with the land for many centuries? Was there starvation and did people die? Yes. However, that happens now as well. Or have you forgotten (or were you not aware of) the starving children that live in the United States? According to Johns Hopkins, about 1% of children are chronically malnourished in the United States.
I am also wondering about your childhood, Mr. Stossel. Please fill me in. Did you spend much time playing outside? Did you learn where the little nooks and crannies were in trees and come up with stories full of mystery to fill them? Did you ever hear the crickets calling as you fell asleep, tan and exhausted on summer evenings? Perhaps you had a swimming hole, lake, stream, or ocean that you liked to frequent. Tell me what you did as a child, and perhaps I’ll be able to understand why you have a personal vendetta against fostering a relationship with nature for children today. Did you know that children don’t go outside much anymore? Environmental Education is seeking to do many things, one of which is to get students to care about nature and go outside. This will result in positive experiences, probably much like you had as a child. If there was a swimming hole, ocean, lake, or stream you played in, it is likely polluted now. The water isn’t safe to take a sip of on days that get just a bit too balmy for comfort, and upstream perhaps there is a factory. What are those factories doing? Tampering with nature.
I could go on and on all day, Mr. Stossel, but I am sure you have some leading questions to formulate or statistics to meld to your bidding. Please consider my input filed, as disappointed and angered, in response to the show “Tampering with Nature”. I will not hesitate, in the future, to bring out the truth in segments you champion with your own agenda.
Angrily,
AZ
I haven't decided yet if I'll actually send the letter or not. What do you all think?
I have been trying to track down poetry slams in Duluth, as many of you know. I have yet to have any luck, but I found a contact who I can call if I find a few poems and want to organize a slam of my own. If only I had more time! Here is a new slam poem I wrote (the 2nd since I moved only) about teaching. What do you all think? It would obviously be better if you could hear it...but I haven't had time to record it yet.
Misunderstood
By: Angie Ziobro
Yeah, I'm a teacher
but not the normal kind
I teach classes, you see
where children go outside.
And I hear day after day
year after year
from teachers whose classrooms have walls...
"Little Timmy isn't the best behaved"
"Suzy cries and lies and probably can't be saved."
These are the children of our future
and hope has already started to wain
but aren't the geniuses
those most often misunderstood?
Isn't Einstein an example
of a child they said couldn't
but could?
Does it really do any good to base anything at all
on a child enslaved by education's walls?
I think the real gems of students
are those who can't pull their eyes off the windows--
the ones who sit, jittery in their seats--
who dispose of their ADHD medication, secretively.
I see more soul in the eyes of the child who
taps incessantly on her desk,
the one with a beat so deep inside her,
it CAN'T be suppressed.
This is a poem for the children who despise
single file lines,
the lost boys and girls who just want to be outside.
It's a plea to the teachers who judge them while they're in--
Take them out and watch the children be
as they should have always been.
Teach them to love the land
by pointing to trees, not books
attune that girl's tapping heart
with a babbling brook.
No need out here to worry
of the boy's eyes looking out.
Out is where we are.
...Where children laugh and learn
without walls that are bars.
This is a poem for the misunderstood minds,
screaming to be wild.
It's for the exploring heart
that's in every child.
It's for the drop outs that saw
more life outside than in,
For the counselors, outdoor educators,
the adults that refuse to judge
the wandering children.
It's for waking up to the sunrise
and hiking at night.
The rough bark of ancient trees
and a bird's very first flight.
It's for the child in all of us
that still glances to the window--
For the Einsteins, the Timmys
and the Suzys we all know.
Because like Einstein they're examples
of students they said couldn't, that could.
I think the geniuses are the ones
most often misunderstood.
I have been trying to track down poetry slams in Duluth, as many of you know. I have yet to have any luck, but I found a contact who I can call if I find a few poems and want to organize a slam of my own. If only I had more time! Here is a new slam poem I wrote (the 2nd since I moved only) about teaching. What do you all think? It would obviously be better if you could hear it...but I haven't had time to record it yet.
Misunderstood
By: Angie Ziobro
Yeah, I'm a teacher
but not the normal kind
I teach classes, you see
where children go outside.
And I hear day after day
year after year
from teachers whose classrooms have walls...
"Little Timmy isn't the best behaved"
"Suzy cries and lies and probably can't be saved."
These are the children of our future
and hope has already started to wain
but aren't the geniuses
those most often misunderstood?
Isn't Einstein an example
of a child they said couldn't
but could?
Does it really do any good to base anything at all
on a child enslaved by education's walls?
I think the real gems of students
are those who can't pull their eyes off the windows--
the ones who sit, jittery in their seats--
who dispose of their ADHD medication, secretively.
I see more soul in the eyes of the child who
taps incessantly on her desk,
the one with a beat so deep inside her,
it CAN'T be suppressed.
This is a poem for the children who despise
single file lines,
the lost boys and girls who just want to be outside.
It's a plea to the teachers who judge them while they're in--
Take them out and watch the children be
as they should have always been.
Teach them to love the land
by pointing to trees, not books
attune that girl's tapping heart
with a babbling brook.
No need out here to worry
of the boy's eyes looking out.
Out is where we are.
...Where children laugh and learn
without walls that are bars.
This is a poem for the misunderstood minds,
screaming to be wild.
It's for the exploring heart
that's in every child.
It's for the drop outs that saw
more life outside than in,
For the counselors, outdoor educators,
the adults that refuse to judge
the wandering children.
It's for waking up to the sunrise
and hiking at night.
The rough bark of ancient trees
and a bird's very first flight.
It's for the child in all of us
that still glances to the window--
For the Einsteins, the Timmys
and the Suzys we all know.
Because like Einstein they're examples
of students they said couldn't, that could.
I think the geniuses are the ones
most often misunderstood.
___________________________________
As always I'll try to post again soon.
-Angie
