Top home-school texts dismiss Darwin, evolution

[Underwater Ophelia]

Originally Posted by Delkaetre

A large part of the problem is that secular homeschoolers have difficulty accessing non-Christian books. A lot of the suppliers for school books only ship in bulk, not in homeschool-friendly single copies and small orders. The homeschool market is so heavily dominated by the Christian homeschoolers that it becomes very difficult for secular homeschool textbooks to get into the market, and is likely to be highly unprofitable because such a relatively small percentage of homeschoolers are non-Christian.

It'd be great if they could just pick up alternative books that easily, but it's more difficult to acquire them than it might seem at first.

(my comments are based on what I've read from secular homeschoolers, and I admit that I have not researched the revelant figures to check and offer up)

So it's more difficult? Wah wah, you actually have to try when educating your child. I'm not buying it.

[vindicatedxjin]

Delk is actually right, my mom had to spend about 3,000 a year on my curriculum because it was heavily unit study based and hard to come by. Home schooling is not easy whatsoever. Think of it this way... you have one person carrying the duty of what hundreds do together at an actual school. Obviously it's just for one child, but it's still a big load. I don't know how my mom did it...but whenever I have kids, it's what I'll want to do.

[ape descendant]

Originally Posted by Delkaetre

It'd be great if they could just pick up alternative books that easily, but it's more difficult to acquire them than it might seem at first.

(my comments are based on what I've read from secular homeschoolers, and I admit that I have not researched the relevant figures to check and offer up)

I googled it, they're not impossible to find but it did turn out to be a little more difficult than I thought it would be.

Either way though, the internet is awesome and one can find just about anything one is looking for on it.

Push come shove, one could contact the National Center for Science Education. I'm not sure how much good it could do, but it may help.

[CptSternn]

Originally Posted by vindicatedxjin

WRONG. I was home schooled and taught evolution. I didn't know about creation until I was older.

So you are arguing with the article? What basis do you have? How many other home schoolers have you spoke with to back your assertion?

[CptSternn]

Originally Posted by vindicatedxjin

Oh, and it's really frustrating that people seem to see home schooling, as being a one belief/concept type thing when home schoolers are parents, who all have very, very different beliefs. Each and every home schooled friend that I had was taught differently, with different curriculum. Yes about 50 percent of them were raised in Christian homes and taught about creation. But like I said, I was taught evolution and than creation later in life...and so were the other 50 percent of the kids I knew...In our group alone we had wiccans, christians, atheists, and even a buddist... .

Again, you claim to know more than the nice person who wrote the article. No offense, but I have to question your authority on the subject.

I mean, if the home school text book companies make billions, and there are only two sets of books that are NO Christian based, then one has to wonder where you are getting your facts, because simple math does not further your assertions.

[CptSternn]

Originally Posted by vindicatedxjin

Think of it this way... you have one person carrying the duty of what hundreds do together at an actual school. Obviously it's just for one child, but it's still a big load. I don't know how my mom did it...but whenever I have kids, it's what I'll want to do.

I have to ask, how does college work for home schoolers? Did you apply and if so what tests did you have to take prior to filling out entry forms?

Also, why exactly were you home schooled? I mean, I watch reality TV and see kids with special medical conditions that have to be home schooled, read about kids living in rural areas that also have to be home schooled, but the majority of kids home schooled are done so because their parents either are Christian zealots, or right-wing militant types who do not trust the government. Neither of which I think should be given authority to take a child from the state sponsored learning to teach them ideas that more than likely will not be helpful in the real world.

Whats your story then?

[Tam Li Hua]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

So you are arguing with the article? What basis do you have? How many other home schoolers have you spoke with to back your assertion?

Well, I think it's pretty clear that her basis is her personal experience, Sternn. O_o

Are you calling her a liar?

[Tam Li Hua]

About Home-schooling: I was never home-schooled myself, but I went to college with a lot of kids who were. Apparently, there are summer camps and other things that help them to interact with other kids, so it's not solely based on keeping the kid home for crazy reasons.

Me personally, if things had been saner with my parents, would have probably preferred home-schooling. Going to state-schools all through elementary school, and then private from 6th to 12th didn't really help me with real-world stuff at -all-; I was painfully shy, and it took medication, counseling, and the freedom gained when living on one's own away from one's home environment to bring me out of my shell.

As to why I went to private school, well...the public schools in my area at that time were rather gang-ridden, and didn't exactly have a reputation of being safe. :/ It didn't have anything to do with religion, since my parents weren't religious. They just wanted me to have a good education in a safe environment.

[Tam Li Hua]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

Again, you claim to know more than the nice person who wrote the article. No offense, but I have to question your authority on the subject.

Wait wait wait...everything someone writes on t3h Interwebz is true, but her personal experience is completely invalid?

That's craziness.

[vindicatedxjin]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

I have to ask, how does college work for home schoolers? Did you apply and if so what tests did you have to take prior to filling out entry forms?

I enrolled in a community college when I was 16 for duel credits, all I had to do was take the accuplacer and give them my school records. Regardless I took all the standardized tests that everyone else takes, including the SAT.

Also, why exactly were you home schooled?

From what I know, it simply had a lot to do with my mom not wanting me to go to a really ghetto school... I lived in a nice neighborhood, but the school district sucked. She was a stay at home mom, and was able to have me reading pretty well by the age of 4. Like I've mentioned in previous posts, her teaching style was very unit study based. Obviously I had the necessary subjects to learn, but everything would somehow correspond to that given topic. Say I had a strong interest in learning about king tut...my mom would take me to the library, get as many books on ancient Egypt as I wanted, Take me to an exhibit, and then we would make our own cartouches with our names in them...we would go over this topic for that whole week, and on Thursday she would assign me to write a paper over what I learned over the week that was due the next day. This is what my schooling consisted of until I was in about 9th grade. And that's when things had to get more serious, because I was enrolled in a community college by that point. So I was having to finish my "home" work, and deal with college classes. On top of the schooling though, she had my ass busy with art classes, piano, horseback riding, theater, AND the home school group that always had activities to go to. I was a really busy kid. And although my mom does believe in God, she never forced anything religious into my head... like I said, I didn't know about creation until I was way older. I truly am grateful for what I had being home schooled, and even though I know there's a lot of home schooled kids that aren't being taught properly, you just can't generalize it, when you don't see the other side of things. Obviously now that I'm in my 20's I can look back and decide on whether or not my mothers decision was wise. And honestly, I have absolutely nothing to complain about... and although I didn't finish college completely, I was able to land an amazing job in e-commerce for a really good website. It's not like home schooled girls grow up to become mothers that wear moo moo dresses.

[vindicatedxjin]

Originally Posted by Tam Li Hua

Wait wait wait...everything someone writes on t3h Interwebz is true, but her personal experience is completely invalid?

That's craziness.

Lol Tam, I've dealt with this my whole life. It's a fact that people just don't like the idea of home schooling. It's just not 'normal'. And I can't for the life of me understand why. I remember getting asked about a gagillion, trillion, times about whether I had any friends. 0.o it was always so insulting. I had a ton of friends home schooled, public schooled, and private schooled... And the only difference between my life and theirs was that I was able to learn in a more calm environment.

[PortraitOfSanity]

She was too damaged for public school.

Her mom just never told her.

[vindicatedxjin]

Yes, I'm a deet dee dee.

[Alan]

No one said you were fat.

[PortraitOfSanity]

I would call you more of a herp derp, but yea.

[vindicatedxjin]

Originally Posted by Alan

No one said you were fat.

*beep* Cannot compute.

[Lethe]

Originally Posted by Tam Li Hua

Wait wait wait...everything someone writes on t3h Interwebz is true, but her personal experience is completely invalid?

That's craziness.

She was also telling us this personal experience through the internet. She could be completely lying about being homeschooled.

[JCC]

Originally Posted by Lethe

She was also telling us this personal experience through the internet. She could be completely lying about being homeschooled.

What if she isn't who she says she is at all, but is a teenager HIRED BY A PAEDOPHILE to lure impressionable youth into his scaly grasp?

[Lethe]

Originally Posted by JCC

What if she isn't who she says she is at all, but is a teenager HIRED BY A PAEDOPHILE to lure impressionable youth into his scaly grasp?

Or she could be the paedophile! (Cue dramatic gasp!)
Edit: I realized a grammar mistake...

[ape descendant]

A teenage pedophile with a scaly homeschooling grasp!! *shock*

[Solumina]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

the majority of kids home schooled are done so because their parents either are Christian zealots, or right-wing militant types who do not trust the government.

Hey now, you're forgetting about a rather significant number of homeschooling parents: Abusive Parents! After all it is rather hard for adults to see the signs of abuse if the child has only limited interactions with the outside world.

[CptSternn]

Originally Posted by Tam Li Hua

Wait wait wait...everything someone writes on t3h Interwebz is true, but her personal experience is completely invalid?

That's craziness.

Well, when judging who is an authority on the matter - the writers for syndicated news at the AP whose stories are printed no only on the web but in every newspaper worldwide and a person who in these forums has mentioned a disdain for all non-white people, I tend to side more with the professionals.

[CptSternn]

Originally Posted by vindicatedxjin

I enrolled in a community college when I was 16 for duel credits, all I had to do was take the accuplacer and give them my school records. Regardless I took all the standardized tests that everyone else takes, including the SAT.

So correct me if I am wrong, you didn't go to a private college, never finished community college and you do not have a high school diploma.

From what I know, it simply had a lot to do with my mom not wanting me to go to a really ghetto school.

Thats quite a broad statement. Are you saying you're better than your neighbors? That they are somehow less important that you are?

even though I know there's a lot of home schooled kids that aren't being taught properly, you just can't generalize it

Again, sounds a bit off coming from a person who thinks all blacks are 'ghetto'.

[emeraldlonewoulf]

Entropic - thanks for the link.

As for home schooling, there are fully accredited schools that specialize in providing distance learning curricula, such as Calvert, out of Baltimore, who work with kindergarten through 8th grade, and American School, who have high school courses, in Lansing.

My mother spent 11 years teaching junior high and another five as a health educator for the state of Arkansas, prior to being a stay at home mom. I was home schooled from 3rd grade through my freshman year of high school.

There were a few reasons for this, according to public school testing I had a high IQ, and a college reading level in third grade, but my grades sucked, I wouldn't pay attention in class or finish projects on time, etc. The school officials and counselors wanted me to be put on ritalin and a couple other things, Mom didn't care for that plan too much.

In addition, we went through a complete lifestyle change that year, going from a 3 bedroom suburban house to a 32 foot fifth wheel, traveling over the road. We toured the lower 48, Alaska, much of Canada, and parts of Mexico over the next four years. When we stopped traveling it had become readily apparent I was learning much more through this method, so we continued with it as far as was practical.

In 9th grade, I covered 11 credits worth of course work, and entered public school because it is hard to obtain credits for lab sciences at home. I went through my sophomore and junior years of high school at the local public school, taking Alg. II and Geometry both in my sophomore year, and both Chemistry and Physics in my junior year.
After that, I took a summer course to satisfy the state's requirement for state history, and then tested though two more years of English, graduating with a 3.975 G.P.A. six months early (would have had a 4.0, but I didn't actually study those last two English courses, and ended up with B's on the second semester course work for them).

It was at this point my formal education became seriously derailed. Against all the excellent advice being thrown at me at the time, I married my high school sweetheart and decided that I was tired of school and was willing to "work for a living". I passed up the possible opportunity of attending one of the top 5 engineering schools in the nation, under the erroneous idea that is would be just as easy to attend school again later in my life as it would have been at that time. Even a good education and being "smart" don't prevent a person from making stupid decisions, but I learned many things in the time since then that I never would have if I had taken that path.

I have been "workin' for a living" ever since, and now ten years later I am trying to figure out how to obtain my degree of choice while working full-time in a rural area. I eventually want to get education enough to work in mechanical and materials engineering.

Real education is a lifetime thing, and a true scholar never stops, even if they might get delayed from time to time. Even over these last few years, I still consider myself a home schooler of sorts, a semi-autodidact. I do independent study of several subjects, but it isn't nearly as organized and disciplined as it should be.

All in all, I am a big supporter of home schooling, because without it, I doubt if I would have learned much of anything in school. I am very, very grateful for the fact I was born to woman both qualified and willing to provide a good education.
It was precisely because she was willing to take the extra time with me that a public school teacher would have been unable to provide that I was able to change that worse-than-mediocre elementary school situation into something successful. I shudder to think what I would have had without her dedication.

[Ben Lahnger]

Originally Posted by Entropic

I'm dead serious about that line.

When I used to go church, we were taught that fossils were the work of the devil, and that God permitted the devil to create fossils as a measure of our faith. Then we were taught that most fossils were the creation of evil scientists who are out to disprove creation even though they knew evolution was wrong. Finally, we were told that belief in evolution would lead us to all sorts of sin, like masturbation, fighting, and drug usage.

Finally, an explanation for all my bad behavior! *SNORT*