In 1962, a book titled Silent Spring written by a woman named Rachel Carson was published. Its premise is that the use of DDT to control bugs is evil because of all of the things it kills that she believed it shouldn’t. Christian read a book from his Sonlight program about her titled Listening to Crickets. After reading the book Christian asked me about DDT. I explained to him that many people are dying, particularly in African countries because the use of DDT has been effectively banned there. Some people in a number of governments have chosen to ignore science and the benefit of using DDT to control mosquitos that carry malaria. Instead, they have put the needs of animals above the needs of humans. If DDT were used judiciously in this regard, many thousands of people who have died and/or suffered from the ravages of malaria would be alive and well today.
Day: January 25, 2005
Yesterday, the kids had a very busy day. They got a little bit of a late start, so all they got done before they went to their swimming lesson was their piano practice. We are at about week twenty in their thirty-six week homeschool year. That means they are a little ahead of schedule. I want to get ahead by about one week more so that we can accommodate their three week trip to Mexico in June to be out of town during the hay fever season. If we gain the additional week, they will be able to both take our skiing /museum field trip to Bend for a week and a week of spring break with the government school kids in the neighborhood.