Fifth grade students will learn about NAFTA. Here is an example of the kinds of projects they do:

"Why am I smiling? Talking Back to Ads
The picture below is a reproduction of children's clothing ad.  After studying about hidden social and environmental costs of everyday products, students were instructed to identify critical product information NOT revealed in ads.  A fifth grade student in a Vermont public school 'talked back' to the ad by adding the thought bubble."

See the comic here:http://www.creativechange.net/examples/ex_k12/econ_ads.htm

For 6th grade, language arts students will:

"Watch television and/or skim through magazines, writing down and/or cutting out any advertisements that seem to encourage anthropocentric, hierarchical, individualistic, dominating behavior or thinking."

If you haven't heard of anthropocentric thinking before, here is the definition:
"anthropocentrism:  The view that humans are the most important beings on Earth.   Regarding humans as the central element of the universe."

The underlying theme is that humans are no more important than plants and animals. We have heard that argument before somewhere.

This program is being used in the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, The  Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency, and Ann Arbor Public Schools.  Recently the Bloomfield Hills School Board voted to add the program to their curriculum.

If you are concerned about this program, please read more about it at www.creativechange.net. Then contact your local School Board and find out if they are using this program or plan to.  Let them know your concerns.  If we don't stand up now, to make sure our kids get a balanced and rational education, the we may be looking at a very different country in 50-years.