Pennsylvania 6 year olds taught about Y2k

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I heard this report on KYW 1060 AM at 1:07 PM on 12/7/99. The Ridley School district in Delaware County, Pennsylvania is discussing Y2k with the students. In order to communicate this complicated issue to the 1st and 2nd grade classes, they gave them a book to read.

What was the book?

"Chicken Little".

They then asked the students how chicken little would feel if he knew more about acorns.

I wonder if they asked the kids how chicken little would feel if the power went off in his coop in the middle of winter and he lost his beak and part of a wing to frost-bite?

-- Pete (pberry1_98@yahoo.com), December 07, 1999

Answers

This is ridiculous! Why would a school district attempt to even address the Y2K issue with 1st and 2nd graders??!! Those kids could care less. Christmas is coming up and the only thing on their minds is video games and Pokemon.

Ridley School district should be ashamed and they better be glad my boys don't go to that school. That teachers @ss would be mine!

-- Familyman (prepare@home.com), December 07, 1999.


Found this link to the story on KYW's website.

Link

Also found the story in the Philadelphia Inquirer here Link

As an afterthought, I wonder if they told the kids that the governor, in his Y2K Consumer Guide, is recommending folks stock up with 1 TO 2 WEEKS worth of food and water (page 3 column 3). Sounds like Chicken Little knew all he needed to know about acorns.

-- Pete (pberry1_98@yahoo.com), December 07, 1999.


Mr. Koskinain has long had plans (and written text) to propagandize the politically correct standard answers (three day storm, leave your money in the bank, ridicule anybody who is preparing for any other kind of trouble) to grade schoolers and children at large - see the government's web site -

At least they are not yet telling the children in public schools to stand on towers in the Ukranian grain fields and warn the authorities about starving peasants trying to steal the grain.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 07, 1999.


..."The district's youngest students read the story of "Chicken Little" to understand how sometimes fear is worse than the event, Clevenstine said."

That quote puts the article in context. Get it? Fear can be worse than the event...oh, yeah that's just spin.

-- Proud Polly (Proud2b@polly.net), December 07, 1999.


I read a while ago that the REAL Y2k problems will be the ones we don't see coming. It won't be the compter on your desktop it will be the office door that won't open because all the security codes "expired".

It is interesting to note that Chicken Little thought that the sky was falling but ended up dying anyway for a totally unexpected reason. A foxes dinner. Hmmmm Maybe they were teaching a worthwhile lesson after all...

-- Foxy Loxy (foxyloxy@acorn.com), December 07, 1999.



Maybe they should throw in "The Ant and the Grasshopper" for some balance...

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), December 07, 1999.


Subject: The Ant and the Grasshopper

> THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER in 1999 > > THE CLASSIC VERSION > ____________________ > > The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, > building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. > The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances > and plays the summer away. > > Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper > has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold. > > > THE MODERN VERSION > __________________ > The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, > building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. > The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances > and plays the summer away. > > Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference > and asks how the ants are warm and well fed while others are cold and > starving. CBS, CNN, NBCand ABC show up to provide pictures of the > shivering grasshopper next to video of the ant in his comfortable home > with a table filled with food. > > America and the world is stunned by the sharp contrast. > How can it be that, in a country of such wealth, this poor > grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? > > Then a representative of the NAAGB (National Association of > Green Bugs) shows up on Nightline and charges the ant with > "green bias", and makes the case that the grasshopper is > the victim of 30 million years of greenism. > > Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and > everybody cries when he sings "It's Not Easy Being Green." > Bill and Hillary Clinton make a special guest appearance on > the CBS Evening News to tell a concerned Dan Rather that they > will do everything they can for the grasshopper who has been > denied the prosperity he deserves by those who benefited > unfairly during the Reagan summers, or as Bill refers to > it, the "Temperatures of the 80's." > > Richard Gephardt exclaims in an interview with Peter Jennings > that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, > and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay > his "fair share." > > Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Greenism > Act". Retroactive to the beginning of the summer, the ant was > fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs > and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home > is confiscated by the government. > > The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last > bits of the ant's food while the government house he's in, which > just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him since > he doesn't know how to maintain it. The ant has disappeared in > the snow. And on the TV, which the grasshopper bought by selling most > of the ant's food, they are showing Bill Clinton standing before a > wildly applauding group of compatriots announcing that a new era of > "fairness" has dawned in America. > > > >

-- Alice (Alice@the wildwoods.com), December 08, 1999.


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