The Writing Exercise That Didn't Happen

12/3/2019

"Have your students watch this video and then instruct them to write a one-page response about how we are destroying the environment."

I don't remember what I ended up doing with the class that day, but I I didn't show the video, and the students never wrote the response.

'The writing exercise that didn't happen' ended up being one of my last acts of non-compliance as a secondary school teacher. I left the profession not long after. Both decisions rank among the best I ever made.

9 Comments

Bruce Charlton

12/4/2019 14:13:21

Describe "how we are destroying the environment" - a good example of CS Lewis termed Bulverism

https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2019/07/bulverism-and-mainstream-dominant-left.html

The inrony (but intended) is that overall, and strongly, that which is being done to 'save' the environment (ie massive expensive replacement of already existing technology with energy-consuming and environment destroying self-styled 'green' novelties) is contributing to the environmental destruction - which is real enough, but has nothing whatsoever to do with CO2 levels.

Francis Berger

12/4/2019 15:18:09

@ Bruce - Yes, I agree - that is a good example of Bulverism. You also raised an excellent point concerning environmental destruction - the current mantra being "buy more of this stuff to replace the other stuff and the world will be saved!"

I find it more than a little odd that the same forces who did nothing but encourage everyone to consume as much as possible over the past five or six decades are now pointing fingers about how damaging all of this consumption has been. Their solution - more consumption, only this time, make it green.

My favorite leftist mouthpiece - Slavoj Zizek - made a similar observation once about cafés and other businesses that donate a portion of sales to environmental causes. You can go to some café, have your half-caf-double-decaf-machiato with whipped cream served in plastic cup and feel satisfied knowing five cents from the purchase of your coffee is going to help save the pandas. In other words, there is no need to reflect upon your consumption - in fact, you can begin to regard it as a means through which you are doing good. Heck, the more coffees you drink, the more pandas you'll save!

William James Tychonievich link

12/4/2019 15:26:40

Wow, as if the video weren't manipulative enough, the content of the expected response is explicitly given. Not "How would you respond to the video's provocative message that the human race deserves to be exterminated?" but "Write a one-page response about how right the video is."

I ought to be a receptive audience for this video. After all, I agree that the cavalier treatment of other species and of the natural world is a serious sin -- but it deals with the issues at about the same level of seriousness as a Chick tract and deserves about the same degree of respect.

Actually, that's a fairly precise analogue. This video is the leftist version of a Chick tract, and the assignment is the equivalent of "Have your students read 'Death Cookie' and then instruct them to write a one-page response about how the Vatican is marked for judgment and destruction for her blasphemy against the Lord Jesus."

Francis Berger

12/4/2019 18:00:59

@ Wm - Great comment. I haven't thought about Chick tracts in years. And yes, the little video is very similar to a Chick tract, both in style and theme. Perhaps I felt this somewhere deep down at the time I was asked to give the assignment - and perhaps that was one of the reasons I chose not to have the class complete the assignment.

I am also concerned about the mistreatment of animals, pollution, and environmental degradation, but I just can't get on board with the crisis hysteria gripping the world right now.

Serhei

12/5/2019 05:49:39

The thumbnail for the embedded video is a man holding out his hands to embrace a pair of serpents, which almost begs for symbolic dissection before even watching the video.

Francis Berger

12/5/2019 06:17:19

That's a good observation, Serhei. I only noticed it after you mentioned it. It's interesting to note that both serpents are also smiling.

William James Tychonievich link

12/5/2019 20:03:23

Serhei, I noticed that, too. It made me think of Hercules!

Bookslinger

12/5/2019 21:59:49

The drawing style is that of the underground comics that I discovered in the 1970's. Now-a-days you can find the style in "alternative" publications. But the so-called-artists still have the anarchist and pervert mind-set.

S.K. Orr link

12/7/2019 04:54:36

WJT, you put a smile on my face tonight. "Death Cookie." Man, I hadn't thought of that in years and years. As Jack Chick would have put it, "Haw! Haw! Haw!"

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The Writing Exercise That Didn't Happen

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