Maryland now requires ‘environmental proficiency’ to graduate from high school

[Saltbag]

Pajamas Media:

Maryland now requires ‘environmental proficiency’ to graduate from high school
Well, the least Free State — literally — is outdoing itself in the idiocy department.

In an historic vote today, the Maryland State Board of Education provided specific guidance to all public schools to require that each student be environmentally literate before he or she graduates from high school. The vote cements Maryland as the first state in the country to approve a graduation requirement in environmental literacy, a credit to Governor O’Malley, to board members, and to Dr. Nancy Grasmick, State Superintendent of Schools.

In other words, despite the growing evidence of fraud within the global warming/climate change debate, Maryland schools will, by law, force feed enviro-propaganda in the classroom. And your kid will swallow it whole, or not graduate.

MD's my home state. What a train wreck.

Here's an added bonus article:
Maryland Last Place in Freedom Rating

[Rheo]

[Geee]

In the 'olden days' you had to pass a civics exam to graduate grade school and again in high school. Now, as I understand it, that is no longer required-but environmental proficiency is. Now why is it that our kids are ignorant of how our government is supposed to work?

[clearvision]

Can we get them financially literate first?

[nickydog]

I am not a proponent of home schooling -- yet, but I can understand why that choice continues to grow.

[Pepper]

MD's my home state. What a train wreck.

 

Here's an added bonus article:

Maryland Last Place in Freedom Rating

 

Environmentally literate

 

http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/programs/environment/tk/els

 

Compare the distribution of a common resource (e.g. money, food) of different groups of people in their own community, region, nation, or world and explain how this resource distribution affects sustainability.

Investigate how the growth or decline of a human population affects a community’s social, economic, and environmental sustainability, including factors that may contribute to unsustainable population growth.

Demonstrate understanding of how authority is exercised in different countries under different forms of government.

Develop a personal and household plan for the fair consumption of goods based on your ecological footprint assessment.

 

 

I could agree with this:

 

Standard 3: Flow of Matter and Energy

The student will analyze and explain the movement of matter and energy through interactions of earth’s systems (biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and cryosphere) and the influence of this movement on weather patterns, climatic zones, and the distribution of life

Indicator 3: Explain that transfer of thermal energy between the atmosphere and the land or oceans influences climate patterns.

a. Demonstrate that global climate patterns are determined by dynamic energy conditions, such as cloud cover, ocean currents, atmospheric circulation, Earth’s rotation, and the Earth’s various surfaces.

b. Demonstrate that global climate patterns are determined by static conditions, such as latitude, altitude and the position of mountain ranges, oceans, lakes.

e. Cite evidence to show that changes in climate can produce very large changes in ecosystems.

f. Cite evidence to show that earth’s climates have changed in the past are currently changing and are expected to change in the future.

 

 

but not this from Standard 5, State Social Studies Curriculum

 

f. Investigate, analyze and explain how human impacts threaten current global stability and if not addressed, will irreversibly affect earth’s systems.

from

State Social Studies Curriculum

[clearvision]

Could a correct answer to f be "they don't"?

[Pepper]

Could a correct answer to f be "they don't"?

To the back of the room for you, Clear.

[Geee]

Could a correct answer to f be "they don't"?

To the back of the room for you, Clear.

 

To the front of the room where they can keep an eye on him

[Saltbag]

I could agree with this:

 

Standard 3: Flow of Matter and Energy

The student will analyze and explain the movement of matter and energy through interactions of earth’s systems (biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and cryosphere) and the influence of this movement on weather patterns, climatic zones, and the distribution of life

Indicator 3: Explain that transfer of thermal energy between the atmosphere and the land or oceans influences climate patterns.

a. Demonstrate that global climate patterns are determined by dynamic energy conditions, such as cloud cover, ocean currents, atmospheric circulation, Earth’s rotation, and the Earth’s various surfaces.

b. Demonstrate that global climate patterns are determined by static conditions, such as latitude, altitude and the position of mountain ranges, oceans, lakes.

e. Cite evidence to show that changes in climate can produce very large changes in ecosystems.

f. Cite evidence to show that earth’s climates have changed in the past are currently changing and are expected to change in the future.

 

It sounds great on paper, but I couldn't agree with this because I don't trust the intention or the data. They're talking about mass transfer and thermodynamics which is great to understand, but it's an implied trust that the data behind the sources and relative quantity of the sources will be accurately presented. I don't buy it for a minute. This is not the ecology you and I might have learned.

 

To exaggerate to make the point, I'm afraid the correct answer on the final exam would be "Fossil fuel burning cars and farting cows generate CO2 at an unnatural rates, which throws off the natural balance, goes into the upper atmosphere, and heats the planet. We should all buy Chevy Volts and go Vegan before the icecaps melt and kill us all."

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

Maryland is the first state in the country to impose a new requirement to graduate from high school -- something called environmental literacy.

But what is that? That is the question State Senator J. B. Jennings is asking.

"What kind of education is it going to be?” he asks. “Is it going to be fact-based? Or is it going to be theory-based, which is usually politically, theory driven. And you can think, it's going to be about global warming or climate change."

Sarah Bodor of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation supports the initiative and says there is no mandate.

"People express concern about the content but what is important to know is that this new requirement doesn't actually mandate any content at all."

The new rule is a regulation from the State Board of Education, not a law passed by the legislature, so it lays out no specifics. Governor Martin O'Malley offers no real details but praises it, saying it will "infuse core subjects with lessons about conservation and smart growth and the health of our natural world."

O’Malley also said it'll serve as a "foundation for green jobs," though one analyst says training for those is just like it is for any other job.

"You need to know how to get there on time, how to be alert, how to work hard, how to absorb a lot of information, how to - you know - learn new skills," says Myron Ebell of free market think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute."

The state education board leaves all content up to local school boards and a state official says " local systems will implement the requirement as they see fit."
________

In other words, they'll make up excuses for this as they go along.

[Saltbag]

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