"Top home-school texts dismiss Darwin, evolution"

[Shinegreymon Burst]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/03/06/national/a112446S05.DTL&tsp=1

While farting around on Reddit, I noticed this article about home-school textbooks don't apply or completely deny Darwin's evolution theories. Instead of using his theories, most home-school textbooks used religious(i.e Christian) views to come up with their own things about biology. I can't explain too much, as I'm not great at coming up with summaries, I will add quotes to make things more interesting.

"Christian-based materials dominate a growing home-school education market that encompasses more than 1.5 million students in the U.S. And for most home-school parents, a Bible-based version of the Earth's creation is exactly what they want."

Really? I'm agnostic, as in I don't really care about religion, But I think educational textbooks based on religious opinion are just wrong.

"The textbook publishers defend their books as well-rounded lessons on evolution and its shortcomings. One of the books doesn't attempt to mask disdain for Darwin and evolutionary science."

Religious facts won't get you to Harvard, but truly accepted facts, or both, will. I guess this means home-schooling's materials aren't of good quality when compared to public schools, which have straight-forward facts and accept any kid, even if their parents are homosexual(?(not proven)).

"The textbook delivers a religious ultimatum to young readers and parents, warning in its "History of Life" chapter that a "Christian worldview ... is the only correct view of reality; anyone who rejects it will not only fail to reach heaven but also fail to see the world as it truly is."

When the AP asked about that passage, university spokesman Brian Scoles said the sentence made it into the book because of an editing error and will be removed from future editions."

Hmm, editing mistake? I think they would've noticed that in the rough draft of the book. And besides, whoever wrote that fact must really be devoted to Christianity and wants to expose his/her beliefs/views to the public. Well, they said it would be removed from future editions.

I don't want to waste a lot of space, so click the article and read for yourself.

 

[pixiv.Kec]

An objective, atheistic approach to things is always the best idea with science for me. When you bring religion into the party everyone intelligent seems to leave, complaining of stomach problems.

 

[BigLutz]

Keywords here being "Home school texts" they have to walk a fine line when it comes to such text books even more so than schools. They also have a core audience they have to sell to unlike school districts that would buy in massively large bulks. They probably have done surveys and tests to find out what would offend such a audience, and tried to avoid such subjects.

 

[FEEPtheFlareon]

It's just an alternitive view.;136;

 

[Fused]

An objective, atheistic approach to things is always the best idea with science for me. When you bring religion into the party everyone intelligent seems to leave, complaining of stomach problems.

You actually really don't need an atheistic view, just an objective, maybe creative view (Get it? creative?) It's not impossible to accept both evolution and religion. My biology teacher does.

It's just an alternitive view.;136;

Yes, but as the article mentioned, it can disrupt a child's education. At least, if such information is not what the child, or parent, wants.

 

[CSolarstorm]

There are Christian public schools and private schools too; I don't see why Christian homeschooling is a problem. If you can't stomach the idea of a Christian-centered curricula, that's your own feeling about it, not someone else's. In my opinion, if a child is being abused, the government should step in; but otherwise, parents have the right to teach their children what they want. Anything else amounts to a crusade against a certain culture.

Besides; I don't think evolution is hard to teach an adult. If someone graduates believing in creationism, they will just end up taking a Biology class in community college. Or even go to a Christian-centered college. It's not a big thing.

I dread this thread turning into another "this is precisely what is wrong with homeschooling! It lets parents brainwash their kids!" thread.

 

[Vermehlo_Steele]

Things like this are occuring in Australia, where we now have to learn Aboriginal history and Chinese herbal medicine before biology, geography, physics and other Australian history.

The problem is that Aboriginal history is sketchy and noone is sure what's true or not. Most of it is folklore and mythology.

This is Political Correctness going to far, in that we have to accommodate all views for fear some one is going to be offended. Whats next, marriage advice from Muslim terrorists?

I also like how people assume that science is just another view, like religion. Science explains how things work, religion does not.

BTW, why is it so hard to believe in the Law of Evolution?

 

[GolemGuy]

Waaaaaaaaittt...So it's okay for public schools, which have the far larger amount of students to not discuss Intelligent Design at all, but it isn't okay for Homeschools where there's a far fewer amount of children and a very large reason for going is for religious reasons to not teach Evolution?

My opinion on the subject: Textbooks like that should be throughly accepted, with two conditions:

1. The book contain a disclaimer that it caters to a Christian viewpoint so people don't end up unwittengly buying it
2. There's a section on Darwinian evolution just so they aren't utterly bewildered when they have to take exams/go to College or something.

Parents should have power over what their child does and does not learn, as long as they don't do things ridiculous like not allow their children to learn Algebra or only teach them Klingon.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I was homeschooled for several years and this is VERY common. It took us a long time to find textbooks that didn't have a slant to them (most commonly religious slants). We found MATH BOOKS where all the word problems were Biblical parables.

 

[CSolarstorm]

That's strange. I was homeschooled for four years, and I used the same school textbooks as the middle schoolers did. My homeschooling office was registered as its own school in the city school district, so the district picked the schoolbooks for all the public schools...I don't understand how homeschoolers can get different textbooks. Maybe it's different outside of L.A.

 

[Sapphiredragon929]

>> Seriously? Gah. :x

It's pretty sad how everyone thinks that homeschooling = Mormon or some other god-awfully devoted church. On TV 99.999999999998% of people you see that are homeschooled belong to some sort of religion they are gaga about.

It's a shame people can't take a hint and actually publish something from a nuetral stance >>;;

 

[TomDraco]

"Home School"

Now thars yer problem.

Sadly, for anybody who has been home schooled, and is not an idiot, I believe home schooling is just an easy way out of regular school if you fail there. (Barring religous home schooling, which in this case, is the problem.)

The books are religously biased because they cater to the "the public school system teaches Darwinisim, and I don't want my children to be associated with the devil" parents who drag their kids into home schooling.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

"Home School"

Now thars yer problem.

Sadly, for anybody who has been home schooled, and is not an idiot, I believe home schooling is just an easy way out of regular school if you fail there. (Barring religous home schooling, which in this case, is the problem.)

Um...dude. I was homeschooled because the schools, both public and private, in the area had no idea how to deal with my disability. It had nothing to do with intellect or taking an "easy way out."

 

[CSolarstorm]

"Home School"

Now thars yer problem.

Sadly, for anybody who has been home schooled, and is not an idiot, I believe home schooling is just an easy way out of regular school if you fail there. (Barring religous home schooling, which in this case, is the problem.)

The books are religously biased because they cater to the "the public school system teaches Darwinisim, and I don't want my children to be associated with the devil" parents who drag their kids into home schooling.

How pretentious! Were you the one arguing against homeschooling in the last homeschooling thread?

I was born with spina bifidia. My state-renowned Special Ed school wouldn't let me take care of my own medical procedures, did them wrong, and then told me to lie to my parents about it. So they enrolled me in the district homeschooling program, which provided me with the exact same schoolbooks the rest of the district had. I'm in a state university now. Homeschooling was a) not the easy way out, it was the hard way, and b) improved my grades, because my mom gave me the one-on-one attention to teach me how to write, which I never cared enough to do in public school.

I don't appreciate being typecasted as either a loser or creationist, I'm neither. I believe the authority of schools needs to be balanced by the authority of parents.

 

[Yeti]

'lol' I know plenty of people who are homeschooled and do just fine in running start college programs and they aren't religious fanatics or losers/socially inept.
So thanks for generalizing and proving you're clueless.

Even more 'lol' is that all you nutsacks are butthurt about religious texts being distributed and demanding it be left out in favor of Darwinism... ok that's just as bad because now you're excluding one set of widely-held beliefs to include another. Why not include both so children can learn two very large theories about why people are here?
or is that too inclusive and worthwhile to ever be fruitful

Technically, you can't prove Darwin's theories were correct. You can not prove God did not create things to be as they are and Darwin's theories are just that - theories. Like Him in the Court.
So you can't really demand "FACTS ONLY" in a textbook because you don't have facts, thanks.

Homeschooling is a perfectly valid alternative for students who do not learn well in classroom environments or prefer that option. There's a multitude of reasons for homeschooling a child so don't go saying it's because they're losers or religious freaks.
Public schooling especially caters to a narrow stream of children. Those who learn optimally in classroom settings via taking notes off lectures and Power Points will do best in public schools and those who need one on one, especially during formative years, will fare poorly.

So thanks for being informed bros hope you enjoy your Darwin mess as you sit there clueless about anything else :B

 

[Vermehlo_Steele]

LOL, look at the fanatic trying to sound smart.

By your 'logic' the presence of all other people in the world is questionable as I can't see them and can't physically prove that every person outside of my little country exists.

Which sounds more logical?

1) That over millions of years, a species has evolved because of the fact that weaker/inferior animals die and the stronger/superior animals of a species perpeptuate their species survival because they pass on their genes. Also, fossils and DNA sampling prove that species did change over time. God may explain why we are here, but not how.

2) Big Daddy G created a rock resembling a round turd and placed animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, abiotic substances and other shti on it. Created a pair of humans and all 6 billion humans today come from Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. All this happended 4010 years ago.

 

[GolemGuy]

Evolution does make a lot of sense, but I have two problems with it:

1. No plausible explanation for the beginning of the universe (Big Bang is very illogical)
2. Gases couldn't combine to form soemthing as great as the Cell

 

[Vermehlo_Steele]

GolemGuy, your first question applies to both the Law of Evolution and 'Intelligent Design'
Actually cells are made up of organelles such as Mitochondria and the nucleus, which are built of elements and compounds.

 

[GolemGuy]

1. Actually, there is. Ever-present God who created it to get glory for him. Duh.
2. http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X13...odaily.com/main/technique/tprojects/6850.html

I really don't believe that second one could be produced by mere chance.

 

[7 tyranitars]

There are Christian public schools and private schools too; I don't see why Christian homeschooling is a problem.

I'm at public christian school or atleast it's what it officialy is, and not all teachers believe in a god but that aside it doesn't focus at creatism but at evolution personaly I don't believe in creatism.

I was born with spina bifidia. My state-renowned Special Ed school wouldn't let me take care of my own medical procedures, did them wrong, and then told me to lie to my parents about it. So they enrolled me in the district homeschooling program, which provided me with the exact same schoolbooks the rest of the district had. I'm in a state university now. Homeschooling was a) not the easy way out, it was the hard way, and b) improved my grades, because my mom gave me the one-on-one attention to teach me how to write, which I never cared enough to do in public school.

I don't appreciate being typecasted as either a loser or creationist, I'm neither. I believe the authority of schools needs to be balanced by the authority of parents

I don't think homeschool is for losers or transform you into a creationist it's just that some
of them only use the creation theory

So thanks for being informed bros hope you enjoy your Darwin mess as you sit there clueless about anything else :B

Yes I enjoy it very much thank you for asking I love my Darwin mess and being clueless.

1. No plausible explanation for the beginning of the universe (Big Bang is very illogical)

Yes.. and some God dropping people on a ball of mud sounds very logical..