Homework

Seeing this kind of work being done by students is inspiring ... and gives me so much hope for the future. Thank you for sharing.

hope? no, actually, it worries me to see how blind we are; and our children seems to follow.

Once kids were annoying, they were continuously "why?"

We lost that and now we stop at the first smart sentence we read.

Why was this Axe made in China and than shipped to US?

Why did I buy it, since I think it isn't environmentally friendly?

Why Fiona parents didn't make her ask these questions?

Our kids are mislead by our blindness. Let's teach them one again to ask questions, not to write sentences.

N O T V E R Y
ENVIRONMENTALY
FRIENDLY, EH?

Wow. What a beautiful typographic drawing. It illustrates an important concept clearly and has a wonderful use of line length. Well done!

ENVIRONMENTALLY

Biggei: Interesting thought, but perhaps these are answers to the questions Fiona was asking in the first place.

axes of evil.....?

Am I missing something? All I get from this is a loud message about an education system in which proper spelling must be under-emphasized.

Ah, but what would be the alternative? Let's think about it…

The plastic toy was made in China. Should it have been made in the US?

You would have used local resources to make it, resources that could otherwise be put to more valuable uses (such as teaching proper spelling, although the poster typography is interesting). This is exactly what you did by electing to buy it from China (otherwise you could have insisted it be made locally), and taking into account all the resources and activities required to produce it and deliver it all the way to the final consumer in CT.

China is using comparatively less-valuable resources to make the toy, which frees you to think about what to do with your own resources. If you really want it made locally, you will have to pull resources around you (used for other activities) into local manufacture — but the question is, don't you want these resources to be used for more valuable activities? What do you value more — toy making or, say, toy design (or even aerospace research)?

By putting such a low price on the toy, you indicated that you value it very little, and someone offered to make it for you. They win, you win. If you insist on making it locally, you have to give up a better use of your time to produce it instead and, consequently, you lose — and they lose, too.

Dear Fiona,

You should thank China for producing this cheap and environmentally unfriendly plastic AXE to perfect your costume.

You should also thank yourself and many millions of individuals that make this object worthy of being produced.

You should thank your parents for purchasing this for you (I assume).

After having bought his plastic axe, your poster is only cute and indulgent. Yet... very 7th grade!