Many of you have probably seen the Weekly Reader...if you have kids in school anyway. Here is the one my daughter brought home today.

(forgive the size of the images, I wanted the text to be readable)



You HAVE to love this sinister looking virus on the front page. An awesome picture.



Notice the body of the article claims that 'Doctors think about 1 million Americans may have gotten the H1N1 virus.' but no mention about how many have gotten really sick.

I asked both of my daughters a question. 'Do you think everyone who gets infected with the Swine Flu dies?' They both answered yes.

We talked a little bit about it and did a little bit of math. After a while they understood that maybe it wasn't as bad as they thought.

The part that angers me about this is the one-sided nature of the information they are feeding the kids. Don't get me wrong, I think kids should wash their hands and not run around kissing each other and drinking out of each other's straws, but this article reeks of propaganda to me.

Am I just being overly sensitive, or does anyone else detect a hint of manipulation going on here?

KS,

I hope beyond a shadow of a doubt that You yank Your children out of school instead of submitting them to what is surely a killer vaccine....S&F

Originally posted by sanchoearlyjones
KS,

I hope beyond a shadow of a doubt that You yank Your children out of school instead of submitting them to what is surely a killer vaccine....S&F

We've had a discussion about it, but are by no means done. It's difficult when they are so young. We're working on an age-appropriate understanding. They know I do not approve of any type of medication, especially shots, without me being there.

Unbelievable, that this is the current day Weekly Reader, that our kids

get!! I don't trust the Schools, let alone the Government. Keep a close

eye on your children!!....imo

Weekly Reader has been a propaganda tool in our schools for 50 years. I remember paying my 18 cents a month to get it in school. That tells you how long its been since I went to grammar school. Back then it was the Red Menace and Nuclear Proliferation. Duck and cover! Now its Green propaganda and Virus scares and squeel on your parents if you see something the WR tells the kids is wrong. It's hard to ween your kids off the propaganda when the other kids swallow it like pablum!

Zindo

[edit on 8/24/2009 by ZindoDoone]

Yep, they will be saying all kinds of things to make the kids fearful, they might even say stuff, to make them turn against the parents for the parents refusing them vaccine shots. I wouldn't be surprised. Imagine a kid telling the school "my parents will not allow me to get the vaccine". What do you think the school might say "Wow, you have terrible parents, not allowing you to get something that will keep you well and not get sick, don't your parents care, if you die or not"?

Seriously, they will say things to the kids, when they go back, and we have refused the vaccine for them.

My daughter all ready knows, she is not getting vaccinated.

I remember the good 'ole Weekly Reader from when I was in school - I think I still have my copy about the Challenger explosion stashed somewhere at my parents' house.

Even then they dealt with topics that were affecting the world at the time. It is unfortunate however that the fear being dished out left and right has to also come from kids' weekly magazine. I mean it's good to be prepared, but it is inevitable that kids will start to get freaked out by all they see on the news, overhear, and read elsewhere.

Personally I think the choice of the cover photo was horrible - one of the snotty kids on the inside would have done fine as an image to get the point across.

[edit on 24/8/09 by Evasius]

i came down with a viral bug 2 days ago, just a 48hr thing, but as it came on really quickly i thought it was the flu, which im happy to get out of the way soon, before it mutates! but my little girl got really scared when i told her not to come into the room and cuddle cause i might be getting the flu, she said "is it the swine flu? will you be ok?!?!" so i told her it was just like any other flu and as long as your not sick already it wont do any harm, but it just opened my eyes to how much kids pick up, from tv,hearing people talk about things....im not looking forward to her going back to school next week and beibg pumped full of scare tacticts to wash her hands etc...ive taught her that already!

I have never swallowed any of this crap and now I hope to go to my senior year of highschool. However, i think that the vaccine might be manditory.

Originally posted by questioningall
Yep, they will be saying all kinds of things to make the kids fearful, they might even say stuff, to make them turn against the parents for the parents refusing them vaccine shots. I wouldn't be surprised. Imagine a kid telling the school "my parents will not allow me to get the vaccine". What do you think the school might say "Wow, you have terrible parents, not allowing you to get something that will keep you well and not get sick, don't your parents care, if you die or not"?

Seriously, they will say things to the kids, when they go back, and we have refused the vaccine for them.

My daughter all ready knows, she is not getting vaccinated.

I know they will QA. We've seen it with everything the government wants to feed them. I wish we could home school.

It's the kids that don't have parent like you Pigpen who are in real trouble.
They're the ones who won't get any other information except what the tv and schools give out.
Where did your girls get the idea that the flu would kill you? You need to isolate that and talk to them about how the media gets viewers to watch
by making things scarier than they really are. It sounds like your little girls are blessed with great parents. Best of luck!

[edit on 25-8-2009 by Asktheanimals]

Even here in Canada the kids are being scared by the "system" . Normally, I'd say that as a nation, we don't really butt heads about propaganda, I guess we are just a little more relaxed about that kind of thing up here. But even my 5 year old knows about Swine Flu, and is scared to go shopping because of germs. 5 year olds should be scared of monsters and not getting dessert, not viruses and worrying about medicine. I agree that they should all be educated, but appropriately.
It's encouraging to see all the parents on here with good judgement, and balls to stand up for their kids, I feel sad for the children cursed with sheep for parents who let them blindly follow the leader and not think for themselves.
I don't think mandatory vaccines are being discussed here yet, but I'm sure we'll be told to follow along if our friends south of the border start that nonsense. Good luck to all!