General discussion

Nature wrecked again

3 Comments

Someone in Florida is arranging a kind of Tea Party summer camp, designed to inculcate such not at all vague and totally consistent core "principles" such as (1) God exists; (2) America is Awesome; and (3) No one (save presumably God and your tithe-requiring church) can make you share.

TAMPA — Here's another option now that the kids are out of school: a weeklong seminar about our nation's founding principles, courtesy of the Tampa 912 Project.

The organization, which falls under the tea party umbrella, hopes to introduce kids ages 8 to 12 to principles that include "America is good," "I believe in God," and "I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable."

Organized by conservative writer Jeff Lukens and staffed by volunteers from the 912 Project, Tampa Liberty School will meet every morning July 11-15 in borrowed space at the Paideia Christian school in Temple Terrace.

"We want to impart to our children what our nation is about, and what they may or may not be told," Lukens said.

He said he was not familiar with public school curriculum, but, "I do know they have a lot of political correctness. We are a faithful people, and when you talk about natural law, you have to talk about God. When you take that out of the discussion, you miss the whole thing."

Pointing and laughing is a reasonable option.  But I don't know if it will do much good.

3 thoughts on “Nature wrecked again”

  1. Why does it have to be in Tampa? We actually do have intelligent and thoughtful people here, they just never make the news, or win gubernatorial elections

  2. One example at Liberty: Children will win hard, wrapped candies to use as currency for a store, symbolizing the gold standard. On the second day, the “banker” will issue paper money instead. Over time, students will realize their paper money buys less and less, while the candies retain their value.

    Sure, until someone causes inflation by providing a new source of hard, wrapped candies — symbolizing the influx of gold from the New World which caused inflation in Europe during the 1700s, or the increase in gold mining in the West which caused inflation in America during the 1800s.

    Tampa Liberty is modeled after vacation Bible schools, which use fun, hands-on activities to deliver Christian messages.

    I would love to know if those messages will include Jesus’ exhortation to pay taxes, or Paul’s insistence on submitting to the will of the governing authorities (because God ordained the authorities; whoever opposes the authorities opposes God; and whoever opposes God will receive damnation).

    Another example: Starting in an austere room where they are made to sit quietly, symbolizing Europe, the children will pass through an obstacle course to arrive at a brightly decorated party room (the New World).

    Because Enlightenment-era Europe was a stultifying environment devoid of anything intellectually or emotionally stimulating, and those who emigrated to the New World found no obstacles after they had arrived, and simply partied?

    Still another example: Children will blow bubbles from a single container of soapy solution, and then pop each other’s bubbles with squirt guns in an arrangement that mimics socialism. They are to count how many bubbles they pop. Then they will work with individual bottles of solution and pop their own bubbles.

    … what?

  3. Still another example: Children will blow bubbles from a single container of soapy solution, and then pop each other’s bubbles with squirt guns in an arrangement that mimics socialism. They are to count how many bubbles they pop. Then they will work with individual bottles of solution and pop their own bubbles.

    “What they will find out is that you can do a lot more with individual freedom,” Lukens said.

    You know, I’ve been thinking about this on and off all day.

    Assuming multiple bubbles are produced by blowing on the wand, it seems to me that the children might discover that cooperation permits them to achieve their goal of popping the bubbles more quickly and more efficiently (with fewer “wasted” bubbles) than if they attempt to perform both tasks individually.

    Which seems to be the opposite of the lesson they say they want the children to learn.

Comments are closed.