In article ,
Bill wrote:

In article
,
Billy wrote:

In article ,
"Jon Danniken" wrote:

"FarmI" wrote:
"Jon Danniken" wrote:
Charlie wrote:

In an interview in her office, Mrs. Obama said, "My hope is that
through children, they will begin to educate their families and that
will, in turn, begin to educate our communities."

I don't know about you, but I found that to be kind of creepy. I
mean,
sure, organic gardens are the way to go, but the whole "child
propaganda"
concept is a bit frightening, even if it is well intentioned.

Obviously it's been a long time since you saw the early episodes of
Sesame
Street.

Didn't watch the show as a child; I rode my bike around (unsupervised and
without a helmet!), played in the dirt (digging holes was a favorite
activity) hung out at the library listening to records or reading books,
skateboarded, went to the beach, played army with realistic looking toy
guns, you know, normal things kids are supposed to do when they are
allowed
to be KIDS and not treated as commodities to be molded and controlled by
the
party in power.

My point was that injecting social engineering by targeting the most
vulnerable, ie our children, is a very dangerous thing to do, for so very
many reasons. That this isn't readily apparent to everyone is even more
disturbing, but that is a sign of the times we live in today.

Jon

You think gardening is propaganda? Gardening requires the use of
arithmetic to determine how many plants can be alloted to a given area
(geometry), or how much fish emulsion per quart or 5 gallons (algebra).
Gardening requires monitoring of plants and soil for moisture content,
crowding by weeds, and insect predation (observation, and biology).
Gardening involves, classification of soil composition (geology) as well
as pH (chemistry), classification of soil organisms and their
interactions with each other and the plants (ecology), classification of
beneficial, and harmful insects (biology), dealing with animals that may
damage a garden (cats, dogs, raccoons, gofers, jays, ect.: ecology and
zoology) classification of chemicals (e.g. K, P, and N) as nutrients
(chemistry, botany, physiology), why we eat certain plants (human
physiology, nutrition, health), how to prepare the plants for eating
(culture, nutrition, health), countering risks of working in full sun on
hot days (physiology and health), and the importance of exercise
(health).

Other than that, it is a complete waste of time.

Social engineering? You may want to check out B. F. Skinner's book,
"Walden Two", although it may set your "free will" conceits on edge.

I'd add sociology as interaction with others is increased. Who wanted
a piece of that plant ? Wonder if I can get some of neighbors to weed
the pachysandra ? Win Win .

Bill

Whoops. Definitely sociology and team work.
--

- Billy
"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is
now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of
conception until death." - Rachel Carson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI29wVQN8Go

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072040.html