On Oct 29, 2005, at 2:10 PM, dalecochoy wrote:

snip
John and Nina,
As an old Industrial Arts teacher ( Woodshop and drafting) and an old
Voc
Ed. H.S. Electronics teacher I can tell you that not only "Science" is
, or
will suffer. Our kids are more and more leaving school without knowing
how
to do anything but play video games and makeup a web page.
snip

Dale


Along this line, I would also argue that our isolation from nature, and
lack of understanding how nature works, has contributed to our
ecological crisis. Living here, close to NYC, I find that many people
see nature as an enemy--either it's too hot, or it's raining, or in the
winter the snow is a nuisance. Nature is something that gets in our
way.

A new neighbor down the street who bought a McMansion was walking by a
few weeks ago so I introduced myself. When she told me which house she
and her fiance had bought I realized it was one that included about 5-6
acres of bog. I asked if they planned to leave it as is to enjoy the
birds and wildlife. No, she said, they had brush hogged the whole
thing. Bear in mind this was in the middle of a bad drought. The fiance
said it wasn't like a bog now--it was nice and dry.

Now, after 18" of rain during the last few weeks, their lawn is back to
being a bog. I hope they don't try to fill it in.

Craig Cowing
NY
Zone 5b/6a Sunset 37

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