Who Will Hold Science Teachers Association Accountable? (Truthout)

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Who Will Hold Science Teachers Association Accountable?
By John Borowski
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor

Thursday 25 January 2007

The world's largest science teachers association has rejected "An Inconvenient Truth." Who will hold them accountable at their annual national conference?

Occasionally, a simple story engages people, inspires them to believe that participation in an act of concern can make a difference. I am watching that story unfold - from the inside. A piece published by Truthout on November 28th, 2006, was the initial salvo. Now it has grown into a three-part story with the first two acts completed. We await Act Three, a culminating curtain call: a trip to St. Louis to the March 2007 conference of the National Science Teachers Association to speak on behalf of hundreds of angered parents, teachers and citizens.

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the world's largest organization of science teachers, is not stepping up for children, and they will not "just say no" to corporate curriculum.

Actually, Act Three is playing out now as I write. This story began simply enough, on the pages of this web site. Light shone brightly on the NSTA's refusal to distribute 50,000 free "An Inconvenient Truth" DVDs. That part of the story was easy: I was aided by Laurie David, Hollywood celebrity and climate-change activist who contacted me to gather information on the invasion of public schools by the likes of the American Petroleum Institute, Exxon Mobil, Monsanto and Weyerhaeuser.

The ten-year battle to bring this story to the forefront was far from easy, though. Having watched my steamer trunk of dishonest curriculum from corporate profiteers fill to the brim and spill over, I often wondered why I couldn't crack a national audience. The high visibility of Ms. David, and her subsequent writing of an opinion piece in the Washington Post, created leverage for me to pen Act One.

I bear witness each school year to field trips sponsored by the world's worst clear-cutters, an energy curriculum mailed to schools that actually intends to deceive children about the reality of climate change, and a disheartening, dishonest "ecological curriculum" that is so brown that even the slickest Madison Avenue propaganda cannot paint it "green." I have traveled to NSTA conferences and collected big coal, big timber and big oil's deceitful and disingenuous "ecological curriculum."

Since the first piece appeared in Truthout on November 28, 2006, and another on December 13th, hundreds of emails have greeted me every morning and afternoon as I arrived home from school. In ten years of writing about the Trojan horse of corporate misinformation, I have never experienced such an avalanche of support and follow-up on a simple request: voice your outrage. Apparently, hundreds of emails have also been sent to Gerald Wheeler, the executive director of the NSTA, ranging from expressions of outright disgust to requests from NSTA members to drop their subscriptions. On the NSTA's own web site, there has been an open rebellion against the aiding and abetting of climate despoilers by the NSTA. At the conclusion of this piece, please read some of the emails I continue to receive today and emails sent to the NSTA.

Teachers are writing to me to request free DVDs (Laurie David provided me with 200 to distribute) and ideas on how to educate children on the science and solutions of this impending climate-change disaster. Unfortunately, the NSTA has still refused to distribute the DVDs. Laurie David is now making the DVD available for teachers. Trish, my wife, gave me some money right before Christmas to buy gifts for our two older daughters; I spent it on postage, sending free DVDs to teachers, concerned parents and students. My daughters understood perfectly.

Act Three of this story will only be completed if we attend the NSTA conference and bring the concerns of thousands of parents, and the best interests of millions of students, to St. Louis: we will not tolerate dishonest curriculum in our schools. .....(more)

The rest of the piece is at: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012507H.shtml