A Quebec family was propelled into the spotlight after their 6-year old son spoke out to his mother about using a Ziploc bag in his school lunch. Isabel Theoret of Laval was preparing her son's lunch when her son Felix screamed "...not a Ziploc!"

The boy explained that he would be excluded from a contest at school to win a stuffed teddy bear if he brought a plastic bag to school. The idea was to teach the children something about being friendlier to the environment.

The boys father Marc-Andre Lanciault blogged about the incident and this sparked heated debate about eco-friendliness, how to teach young children and the use of plastic bags. The story captured the attention of U.S. media, most recently ABC News, who reported that the family were no longer doing interviews because the story had grown to enormous proportions.

On his blog, Lanciault  accused the school of "propaganda" and pondered what was next. Disciplining school children who wore clothes made in China?  Across the board from editors, to bloggers, to general public, the school in Laval is being lambasted and accused of "Eco-fascism."

Dare I say I commend them. Granted it's true that children don't pack their own lunches so there's a disconnect between the lesson and real life, but the idea that a 6-year old be against plastic bags can't be detrimental.

Perhaps in this case Felix didn't quite understand why plastic bags were bad. All he understood was that he couldn't win a teddy bear if his mother used one in his lunch. The better thing to do would have been to educate both the children and the parents so that they could pack lunches together and decide on the most eco-friendly choices.

Was this situation Eco-fascism? Hardly. The school was simply trying to teach a lesson - a little misguided perhaps but memorable nonetheless. I'm sure the boy is discouraged from using the bags in the future, which is what we should be aiming for in the end. There's no better way to teach proactive environmentalism than to the young, who have yet to form their plastic, gas-guzzling habits.