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Discovering Deception
Lewis
Goldberg
09/01/2003
Kids
Discover Magazine - a juvenile knock-off of the popular Discover
proclaims itself, on its back cover, the winner of the 1996 and 1997
Parent's Choice Gold Award, and the EdPress Golden Lamp award. Now, I'm a
parent, and no one ever asked me, so I wonder who these voters were - kind
of like the Trident™ Gum "4 out of 5 dentists surveyed." Did
they just keep asking five dentists until they got the results they wanted?
Inquiring minds want to know - and you owe it to yourself to look a
little harder at the latest Kids Discover to see what it is your
young'uns are supposed to be discovering this month.
Now,
I'm not 100% down on this magazine - aside from the usual secular schlock -
millions of years of history, the spectre of environmentalism lurking
everywhere, everybody's wonderful, etc. - most issues are pretty harmless
if your kids are well grounded. But the latest issue [Vol. 13, Issue 9] is
a special peek at what your kids or grandkids are learning in their social
studies classes regarding our national government. Let's look inside:
The
magazine begins with a caricature of George Washington in jeans and a
t-shirt, telling us he'll e our guide on a tour of How America Works. KD
wastes no time getting to the meat of it. Right inside the front cover is a
list of &some of the many ways government connects to your daily
life."
- Managing
Forests
- Teaching you
- Promoting the
Arts
- Protecting
Money in Banks
- Protecting
wildlife
- Testing
Drivers and Registering Vehicles
- Fighting
Fires
- Looking After
Nature
- Overseeing
Elections*
- Maintaining
Roads*
- Working With
Farmers
- Fighting
Crime*
- Supporting
Scientific Research
- Watching Out
for your Health
- Cleaning the
Streets*
- Exploring
Space
- Providing
Funds for the Elderly and Disabled
- Maintaining
Energy
- Ensuring Safe
and Convenient Transportation
- Delivering
the Mail*
- Ensuring
National Security*
- Overseeing
Air Safety
- Looking After
the Environment
- Collecting
Taxes*
- Counting the
Population*
In
case you couldn't tell, the items with an asterisk are legitimate local and
national governmental interests. If the list seems a bit redundant on the
environment, the entire two first pages mention the importance of
government looking after the environment no less than six times...think
they have an agenda?
Turn
the page - another heresy. At the top is loudly proclaimed, "The U.S.
government is a democracy." No, it is a Republic. There is a huge
difference. "What's a democracy?" asks a little cartoon imp.
George goes on to answer how the representatives of our republic are
elected - even stating that what the elected government can and cannot do
is written in the constitution. It's a shame that no one at KD
thought to read it before writing this issue.
On
the facing page, we are told how some of the other governments of the world
operate - specifically how a totalitarian state functions. Next to this
sidebar is a lovely picture of Hitler, with the caption stating that he was
"a dictator in Germany from 1933 to 1945," but failing to note
that he was installed in office and granted his powers in the same manner
as our elected officials.
After
a few pages of bland facts, we come to page 9's contribution to the
corruption of our youth...
The
Constitution is a Flexible Set of Rules...
Okay.
After I regained consciousness, here's a few things I found in the rest of
the magazine:
- BiPartisanship
is essential for congress to get anything done. Quite frankly, I'd
rather they gridlocked every day.
- "See if
you can find out who your representatives are." because surely your
parents don't have any idea .
- To become
president, one should "discuss the economy. Do people have enough
money? Do they have jobs? You might discuss the environment: Are we
polluting the air? Is our water clean? Your ideas about these topics
will get you noticed by TV and newspapers." Refreshing honesty
here, folks.
KD
gets a big fat F - for failing to understand the real lawful functions of
government, and for masquerading a bunch of propaganda as educational
material. Their slick, cartoony presentation would have made the managers
of the Hitler Youth program drool with envy. I encourage you to root out
this issue of KD wherever you find it, and deposit it in its
rightful resting spot - the local landfill. Now that this article is done,
that's where mine is headed.
Your comments and questions are encouraged. [editor@patriotist.com]
Patriotist
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