LAKEVIEW, Mich. — Cari Scholtens teaches some very advanced 8th grade science students at Lakeview High School. Now one of them has a letter from the president of the United States.
When Scholtens was teaching the topic of hydrology, a fellow teacher suggested she educate the students about groundwater pollution. Scholtens had learned a bit about hydraulic fracturing while in college, so she too was interested in learning a bit more. Scholtens chose the documentary ‘Gasland’ by Josh Fox, in which Fox takes a journey across country uncovering what he calls as lies, secrets, and contamination.
“Them setting the tap water on fire, really made me upset,” student Mitchell Englund said. ”I did not realize you could do that with tap water.”
At the end of the movie, there is a call for action, and Scholtens’ students were fired up. They decided to write letters to top officials, and Mitchell wrote to President Obama.
Little by little, responses came back from U.S. senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, followed by one from Governor Rick Snyder’s office. But on Monday, a big surprise showed up to Lakeview High School.
“I got called to the office and I thought I might be in trouble and I saw where the envelope was from and I started freaking out,” Mitchell said.
Along with the letter, there was an autographed picture of President Obama, too. All of the letters the class received are in frames, and Mitchell said he is going to hold onto his very tightly.
“They were celebrities here and they still are,” Scholtens said. “Kids are always asking Mitchell to see the letter and to see his picture, I mean to have those things, that’s something he’s going to have the rest of his life.”
24 Comments to “Lakeview Students Stoked About Receiving Letter From President”
February 6, 2013 at 10:57 PM
The enthusiasm of the students is admirable. Perhaps their views would have been more balanced if Ms. Scholtens would have also showed her students "Fracknation".
February 6, 2013 at 11:59 PM
I am very disappointed in the one sided view on this piece. Whatever happened to fair and balanced in both teaching and reporting. I wonder what Gov. Synder had to say in response to their letters?
February 7, 2013 at 4:46 PM
He did not respond. He probably was too busy slashing the education budget!
February 8, 2013 at 6:57 PM
Well, he certainly should, if teachers like this are allowed to show their kids anti-scientific propaganda movies!
It's completely unethical.
February 16, 2013 at 5:39 PM
Nothing balanced about "Fracknation" that is simply industry propaganda
.
February 7, 2013 at 7:51 AM
Clear example of indoctrination rather than balanced education. And they celebrate it…..
February 16, 2013 at 4:34 PM
Nope. Indoctrination is telling people to act against their best interests. Making sure you and your community has clean drinking water in the future is telling students "hey if you don't take care of politics, politics will take care of you". It's education. It's learning to work collectively towards a better future.
What would you rather do? Tell kids they should shut up and pray they get hired by the local fracking company? Pray tell us how you want to fix the world by telling kids not to get involved.
February 7, 2013 at 12:38 PM
The reason this story was picked up by FOX 17 was that a group of young kids from rural America are receiving notable recognition from our State’s and our Nation’s leaders. In a small school and a small community, it is easy for children to forget or never know that there is a world outside this tiny shell. Before this assignment many kids didn’t even know it was allowed to write a letter to the Senators, Governor or President…much less expect a reply. I taught this unit quite close to this past election season. This sparked these young students to research the issues and stances of both President Obama and Governor Romney. It began with their stances on alternative energy, but their curiosity quickly spread (as curiosity often does) to educational issues, gun control, healthcare, etc. In short, these children have indeed been, as Galt said, “[indoctrinated]”. The doctrine? Political activism and investment in one’s own education on topics of national importance. If I am wrong for teaching my students that it is valuable to be interested and knowledgeable about the world around them…then I suppose I’d rather not be right.
The lesson that these children have taken from this experience is not about fracking. When Mitchell Englund is in college, he will not, in all likelihood, be an anti-fracking activist. What he will remember is that he got a letter from the President of the United States. What the rest of my students will know is that they have a voice and a power over the way this country is run. When they speak, they are heard. In the coming years, my kids might not remember a thing about fracking…but I’ll bet they’ll remember to vote.
Sharon says she is disappointed. So am I. I am disappointed that when a group of motivated children find success, it must be overshadowed by people who can only focus on the politics. The nitpickers who can only see controversy where there should be jubilant.
Should you respond to this post, rest assured, you will have the last word. I will not reply to any further criticism on this matter as I have stated my stance and shan't change it.
February 7, 2013 at 1:45 PM
"If I am wrong for teaching my students that it is valuable to be interested and knowledgeable about the world around them…then I suppose I’d rather not be right." — Cari Scholtens
This statement assumes that what you are offering your students is, in fact, knowledge. Many of the supposed "facts" and arguments in the "documentary" – "Gasland" – have been exposed as a fraudulent. Have you told the children this? Do you plan to screen the documentary rebuttal to "Gasland", "FrackNation"? Or, should the kids only be "interested" in the anti-capitalist propaganda of the left?
Who knows, after watching "FrackNation" demolish the deliberate falsehoods promoted in "Gasland", maybe the kids will be motivated to write Josh Fox and HBO letters asking why Fox is such a liar. Then, if he responds, you can frame his letter and put it on the wall along with the others.
February 7, 2013 at 2:36 PM
Never mind that "Gasland's" director, Josh Fox, has admitted that he knew residents in Colorado have been able to ignite their tap water since back in the 1930s; Never mind that you, a supposed science teacher, are teaching students false, medievalish science; Never mind that you, Obama, and others did not see fit to come clean on the scientific fraud perpetrated by "Gasland."
Nope. Never mind all that! The kids got a letter from Obama, gosh darn it! And, that's all that matters to you, a supposed "science" teacher?
You are not teaching students true science, you are teaching students false emotions. Perhaps you should consider a career in the laughably named, "Social Sciences."
Good day.
- Dr. Bulldog (Ph.d – Physics)
February 7, 2013 at 3:43 PM
Never mind that I have friends that have had to have plastic surgery because after an explosion in West Middle Town Pa. fracking chemicals breached their well. The chemical cocktail was zetta flow. Also it killed their dog. Also never mind that a spill reached Cross Creek lake resulting in a large aquatic kill. 1 time it was reported by the media. However, there were 2 more spills that were not. Plus the lake was pumped down 6 feet below the safe level by drilling companies.
Never mind that there is documentation of wild life and farm animals that drank from the spills and exploded less than 15 feet from the spill. Never mind that we have people in the area of Avella Pa. that are sick do to the fracking. You need to do more research before you start spouting you propaganda.
February 7, 2013 at 4:14 PM
"Notoriously, activists like Josh Fox, producer of the disinformation docudrama Gasland, claim that the process of blasting open cracks in deep shale deposits to release trapped natural gas, a.k.a. fracking, has contaminated water wells. Not so, concluded a report released last month at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences." — Reason
February 7, 2013 at 4:16 PM
"Don't blame fracking for environmental problems associated with extracting gas from shale. That's the message of a new report from the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, released on the opening day of the AAAS meeting in Vancouver, Canada." — New Scientist
February 7, 2013 at 4:20 PM
"At a U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing yesterday, President Barack Obama’s EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, admitted the environmental risk of hydraulic fracturing is practically nonexistent. “I’m not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water, although there are investigations ongoing,” she said." — EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Tells Congress "No Proven Cases Where Fracking Has Affected Water"
February 7, 2013 at 4:41 PM
During a keynote lunch speech at the conference presented by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, Halliburton Co. CEO Dave Lesar talked about addressing public concerns about hydraulic fracturing, which extracts natural gas by blasting a mix of water, chemicals and sand underground.
He raised a container of Halliburton’s new fracking fluid made from materials sourced from the food industry, then called up a fellow executive to demonstrate how safe it was by drinking it, according to two attendees. The executive mocked reluctance, then took a swig …
Companies have resisted disclosing exact recipes for fracking fluid for competitive reasons, and those who voluntarily post disclosures on a public online registry called FracFocus can exclude some chemicals. Halliburton’s website lists CleanStim’s ingredients as enzyme, exthoxylated sugar-based fatty acid ester, inorganic and organic acids, inorganic salt, maltodextrin, organic ester, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, polysaccharide polymer and sulfonated alcohol." — Fox News
February 7, 2013 at 4:46 PM
Back in April, anti-drilling Chicken Littles gleefully cackled and clucked about a massive “blowout” at a Pennsylvania natural-gas well and speculated that “thousands of gallons of frack fluid” were poisoning water wells and contaminating a tributary of the Susquehanna River, which flows into Chesapeake Bay …
… a report has found “no environmental impact” from the Luther Township, PA, gas-well malfunction, which accidentally released well fluids.
The 179-page report, which was prepared by SAIC, a firm that specializes in working with governmental agencies, contains extensive water-sampling and other data collected in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the US Environmental Protection Agency. It shows no lasting effect on the environment as a result of a surface release of well fluids from Chesapeake Energy’s “Atgas” well site. — Fracking gets a clean bill of health, New York Post
February 7, 2013 at 9:55 PM
Che is dead,
Thanks for taking the time to point amercanbadass67 in the right direction. I usually just let them wallow and drown in their own fatuity. You are a far better man than myself.
Cheers!
February 16, 2013 at 8:31 PM
I'd say you did a great job by showing this film to your class. You've given them an awareness and peaked their interests, motivating them to participate in public discussion. Just the fact that they have now become aware of both an issue that is controversial and may have a huge impact on their future as well as their voice and their government, I commend you.
February 7, 2013 at 4:30 PM
State government's top scientist on the underground features of New York has never weighed in on the contentious matter of drilling in the great Marcellus shale layers stretching beneath a big part of upstate. Until now …
He said he has been examining the science of hydrofracturing the shale for three years and has found no cases in which the process has led to groundwater contamination, although several portrayals by anti-fracking groups and featured in the press have raised concerns about underground pools being harmed because of drilling.
"Those are exaggerated problems; each incident wasn't the result of hydro-fracking. There were incidents of groundwater contamination near frack sites, but they were unrelated," Smith said. He said the industry should be strictly monitored by the Department of Environmental Conservation, and should be encouraged to move the nation away from coal-fired power and to the more environmentally friendly natural gas. …" — Anti-Fracking Enviros Attempt to Silence NY State's Top Staff Geologist, Reason
February 7, 2013 at 4:47 PM
"Truthland" – Trailer
February 8, 2013 at 6:29 PM
Oh good grief. My elementary students (who are homeschooled) know very well that George Washington set water on fire.
"The results, as described by Paine, were clear:
When the mud at the bottom was disturbed by the poles, the air bubbles rose fast, and I saw the fire take from General Washington’s light and descend from thence to the surface of the water, in a similar manner as when a lighted candle is held so as to touch the smoke of a candle just blown out, the smoke will take fire, and the fire will descend and light up the candle. This was demonstrative evidence that what was called setting the river on fire was setting on fire the inflammable air that arose out of the mud."
February 10, 2013 at 10:33 PM
A more responsible teacher would never have shown her kids a controversial documentary like "Gasland." Are these same kids now going to watch "Fracknation?" Of course the White House responded, they want this indoctrination at a high school level.
February 16, 2013 at 8:33 PM
Listen kids, teachers and Michiganders everywhere!- Don't believe the hype from the oil and gas industry attacking the film. GASLAND is thoroughly researched and backed up by science. If you are interested in further study on GASLAND and on the oil and gas industry smear campaign please watch my new short film THE SKY IS PINK which goes into detail on the water on fire scenes and the way the gas industry has attacked the film. http://www.pinkskyny.com
Thank you for your enthusiasm and your passionate participation in our democracy! Josh Fox, Director, GASLAND