Saturday, June 16, 2007
BIGELMAN REPORT IN
Teacher Randy Bigelman’s fourth grade class publishes its scientific findings in the Portland Press Herald:
A small group of students at our school has been researching and studying the effects of global warming. The evidence and data we collected is so overwhelming that we have decided to write about this issue ...
Have we ever wondered what life might be like in 50 to 100 years? We might have imagined big robotic cities and flying cars, but I bet we didn’t imagine huge cities and tall skyscrapers underwater. Well, that’s what life will be if we keep burning fossil fuels without thought.
Reader response may not have been as Bigelman expected. A small sample:
• pwyman of Saco, ME: “My eleven year old thinks he is personally contributing to the end of the world if he is not vigilant in his ‘green’ choices. This sort of pressure is outright abuse.”
• Martin Russo of Portland, ME: “My youngest comes home from her Portland public school with these junk science factoids all the time. I have to sit her down and explain that political movements that border on the quasi-religious aren’t facts or science. Just because a fat, balding hypocrite Loserman says something in a movie doesn’t make it true.”
• cgar of Flora, MS: “Addie, my four month old grandchild, would like to congratulate the fourth grade scientists at Portland’s East End Community School. She says, ‘Hi.’ In fact, she first said this word at two and one-half months. Without question she is a genius. She loves opera and can entertain a crowd for hours with her babbling. I’m sure Mr. Bigelman is equally proud of his little Einsteins.”
• action jack of Moscow, OH: “I especially liked this comment: ‘Just notice the strange weather around us this winter and spring and even summer-like days in March.’ As if fourth graders have lived long enough and experienced enough seasons to make such comments.”
• babyboomer of Overland Park, KS: “If you just HAVE to worry about something in the fourth grade then worry about the really poor education you’re receiving!”
Via Rich Stadnik; contact details for Bigelman here.