Field of Science

The homeschooling trap

Only conservative Christians can publish an article in which this opening paragraph is actually meant as an endorsement:
One flustered parent who was disillusioned with public school systems and what she believed to be lack of personal attention and creeping propaganda has chosen an alternative, where she may opt out of lessons on evolution, sex education and teaching that goes against her Christian beliefs – and her tax dollars pay for it all.
But then, the WorldNetDaily is a bastion of inanity. Notice that when conservatives agree with some use of taxes, they will say "her tax dollars pay for it all," but when they condemn it (as is most often the case - in fact this is a first that I see in print such a an endorsement of spending), they will say "my tax dollars pay for it all."

Opting out of any lessons is opting out of education. Most likely Susan Lockhart has trouble with letting her children learn about evolution.
"We had reached a point where the indoctrination in the schools was just untenable," said Susan Lockhart, a homeschooling mother. "I was going down there and complaining on a nearly daily basis about things. It got to the point where I had to do something. I had to get them out of there."
I wonder what things she felt she had to complain about all the time. They don't teach evolution every day of school. What else is did she find so disagreeable? The article does not say.
When the subject of evolution was addressed in Kristin Lockhart's marine science course, she was given an assignment to create a marine life that would evolve and adapt to its environment over time.

"I spoke to the teacher and told her we don't believe in evolution. We believe in creation," Lockhart explained. "I told her my daughter was going to do this assignment in terms of creationism, which she did. The teacher had no problem with it, and she got an 'A.'"
They've got to be kidding! That's an awesome assignment. I wonder how any teachers expect school children to do what professional researchers have a hard time doing. If she could really shown marine organisms adapting, she could publish in Nature overnight. But, appallingly, it is possible to reject the assignment and make another based of ideology rather then evidence.
"My kids don't have to put up with bullying. They don't have to put up with indoctrination. They don't have to have sex education. We're allowed to pray all we want at home," she said. "It's really a lifesaver for Christian parents."
Bullying is bad, but if you avoid it by staying home then the children are missing out on what I consider to be very important social lessons with other kids. I seriously have doubts that children who don't go to school with other kids are as capable socially as the rest of them, and that would be a real handicap. As for indoctrination, that's apparently also dependent on your point of view. I don't actually know what kind of it Susan Lockhart is referring to, but in my book indoctrinate means to instruct in a doctrine, principle, ideology, etc., esp. to imbue with a specific partisan or biased belief or point of view (my book is a dictionary). Christianity is of course a doctrine, and barring your children from arguments against it is indoctrination. Why, why, why would any parents prevent their children from getting sex education? Studies have shown that the better educated children are about sex, the better they know how to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Besides, learning about something does not necessarily mean that you condone it. I have learned about ideas and theories that I dislike and that have been proven wrong (Maoism, Intelligent Design), but learning about them is still a good thing. It's like refusing to learn about the Holocaust. It was a bad thing, and exactly because of that it is so important that we all learn about it.

Lastly, I would very much like to see some statistics comparing the education of homeschooled vs. properly schooled children in the US. I predict that homeschoolers will choose science in college less often, will do worse in science, and those that do well in science start doubting their homeschooled ways. I predict that homeschoolers stay closer to home when they grow up, are more unhappy in their relationships, and have lower incomes. I predict that homeschoolers are more likely to accept the religious beliefs of their parents (which is not an endorsement, though I suspect that this is the main reason why some prefer to homeschool their kids), and I predict that homeschoolers are more ignorant as well as less tolerant of different cultures and ways of living.

Please, please do not homeschool your children. Give them the best chances in life by sending them to a real school. If the schools in your city are all bad, move or pay for a private school. When they get home, tell them that YOU don't believe in evolution, but let them make up their own minds. Anything else is indoctrination.

15 comments:

  1. Get a life man. Homeschooling started long before today's sterile, instiutionalized learning. In regard to request for statistics on homeschooled students, here are several reports for your consideration.

    http://www.hslda.org/research/ray2003/HomeschoolingGrowsUp.pdf

    H:\Reference articles\Report card on homeschooling.mht

    http://www.ontariohomeschool.org/discussion.shtml#studies

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll certainly do my best to get a life worthy of the pro-homeschoolers, but as a scientist I doubt that will happen.

    I happen to be a firm non-believer in tradition. That homeschooling is older than schools means no more to me than monarchy being older than democracy does. And I am sorry that your experience with schools is that they are sterile. Mine is that lots of great things are taught there and that they are full of lively (and dirty in every way) kids.

    But thanks for the links. I will take a critical look.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks like anon is a real pro. Who else would keep reference materials like his second one?

    I'm with you on the aversion to home-schooling. I think of all the humbling (read embarrassing) moments that my freinds have never let me forget, and the triumphs too, that helped shape me as an individual instead of a cardboard cut-out idea of what a perfect child should be.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And then the homeschooled go to religious colleges (to avoid their programming coming all unstuck) where the sciences are taught with a Creationist bent. But that's okay, because Reason is the enemy of Faith, and there is nothing more important than Faith.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jason, I didn't notice earlier that the second link is a directory path in Anon's computer. How the hell does he expect us to browse to it? That's really funny.

    Cicely, in fact the article above is about a program where homeschoolers can get assitance through an online program, and that program uses materials from Bob Jones University.... of course.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'd like to offer a slice of my life story as a data point, along with some opinions. I was homeschooled through fifth grade, attended a private Christian school 6th through 8th, and attended a public high school.

    This post provoked a very wordy response from me, which I am going to post on my own blog.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I highly recommend Fiat's post. Read it here.

    P.S. I can't help noticing the creative Google ads. On the left ads for online homeschooling programs take up all the space. Apparently there is no shortage of resources for parents of that persuasion.

    ReplyDelete
  8. While I do agree with you for the most part, I thought I'd point out the online highschools that are starting to come out, that teach homeschooled kids the same things they learn in any public or private school. IB and AP courses, real sceince and sex ed courses, everything they would have access to in a more traditional school.

    I have a younger sibling that was pulled out of public schools after the bullying for her being a lesbian got bad enough she couldn't attend school regularly. While I hate homeschooling, private schooling isn't an option for everyone. There are at least some decent alternatives.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ezri, I agree that there can be some (even many) cases where homeschooling is the best option. And in those cases online programs is nice to have around. The problem with the one the article above is about is that the parents can opt out of whatever they want, get top grades for "creative" assignments, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  10. So, homeschooling is ok if you're teaching a lesbian child who was bullied, but not ok if you're cultivating a Christian mindset in your child? Or is it just that you don't like parents opting their children out of things YOU think they should have to learn?

    BTW, have linked to your post on my blog, just for fun.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dear Mrs. C.

    That's right. I think there are special circumstances in which homeschooling is a good option, but a desire to indoctrinate your own children is not one of them (what you call "cultivating a Christian mindset").

    And yes, I don't think that parents should opt to prevent their children from learning ANYTHING. For many people learning is believing, but that is not reality. I have taken many classes and learned about many theories that I didn't believe in (Chsitianity, Islam, and Velikovski comes to mind).

    Mrs. C.'s reply to my post is here, along with my reply to her post.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That you see no difference between "indoctrination" and "cultivating a Christian mindset" reveals your bias against Christians.

    ReplyDelete
  13. It reveals that I have realized that "cultivating a Christian mindset" is indoctrination. It means loading your child's brain with unfounded biases. I do have a bias against (i.e. dislike of) Christian (and Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, etc.) ways of thinking about the world, but that's one that I have learned from experience. You, on the other hand, are going to rob our children of a subset of (safe) experiences that you dislike, and I think that's abuse (in a non-criminal sense).

    ReplyDelete
  14. "OUR" children. I had not realized that my children belonged to the Collective.

    Where are you getting this "fact" that I'm going to "rob" them of safe experiences I dislike? Do you mean that because I opt my older public-schooled children out of sex ed (lessons for 40 minutes over two weeks in the first semester of eighth grade, hardly the whole curriculum!), that I am abusing them?

    I have to shudder to think that you don't know what real abuse entails if that's the case. Or do you mean that I should send Elf back to school for the "safe" experience of being locked in a closet by the teachers charged with his care?

    And the issue of Christian teaching and "indoctrination" is a totally different one, IMO, as certainly not all homeschoolers are Christians. And not all Christians homeschool (most I know don't, even in the dresses-only crowd).

    You're a scientist, and I'm sure you could draw a Venn diagram and figure it out... no, I'm not trying to be insulting... just saying that in my mind it seems you have those "issues" intertwined.

    All that to say... who do you think should get to decide what is in a child's best interest? My opinion is that it should be the parent except in very severe cases of real abuse. Just to define abuse, I don't mean CCD classes. I mean locking kids in closets, depriving them of food and water, dragging a child in front of his peers, calling him "manipulative," allowing them to sit in urine-soaked clothes and mocking him... in short, the things my child experienced in public school.

    Can we just admit there are bad parents *and* bad schools? I shouldn't have to send my child to that school. Ever.

    Do I make mistakes in educating my child? I'm sure I do. I'm also sure that the public schools are not perfect. I can, despite our bad experience, state that school can be a good place for many children, but that parents should have the ultimate say-so over minor children.

    PS. If you are not a Christian, you do not have experience in the "Christian way" of thinking about the world. What you have learned are some tenets of the faith, and that's ok. It just isn't the totality of the Christian experience. :]

    ReplyDelete
  15. Where are you getting this "fact" that I'm going to "rob" them of safe experiences I dislike? Do you mean that because I opt my older public-schooled children out of sex ed (lessons for 40 minutes over two weeks in the first semester of eighth grade, hardly the whole curriculum!), that I am abusing them?

    No, the abuse (non-criminally) is that you raise them with a particular mindset (and look, if this happens to be wrong about you, then I apologize, but my original post was clearly intended to include homeschoolers who do).

    I have to shudder to think that you don't know what real abuse entails if that's the case. Or do you mean that I should send Elf back to school for the "safe" experience of being locked in a closet by the teachers charged with his care?

    And I do know what "real" abuse is, of course, I just think there are gradations. I think you should do what you think is best for your children. My point was, again, that for most children I think it is best that they go to school with other children (but their siblings) for various reasons. There are exceptions, of course, as with your autistic children.

    And the issue of Christian teaching and "indoctrination" is a totally different one, IMO, as certainly not all homeschoolers are Christians. And not all Christians homeschool (most I know don't, even in the dresses-only crowd).

    But there is a large overlap. Children may of course be indoctrinated in other ways than Christian, I grant you.

    All that to say... who do you think should get to decide what is in a child's best interest? My opinion is that it should be the parent except in very severe cases of real abuse.

    Total agreement. The parents (legal guardians) should choose. I just wish more wold choose not to homeschool, and I said why.

    Can we just admit there are bad parents *and* bad schools? I shouldn't have to send my child to that school. Ever.

    Agreed. Also, I am truly sorry that your children had to go through those horrible experiences. Taking them out was definitely the right choice.

    PS. If you are not a Christian, you do not have experience in the "Christian way" of thinking about the world. What you have learned are some tenets of the faith, and that's ok. It just isn't the totality of the Christian experience. :]

    I'm sure the "Christian way" of thinking varies between and within denominations. I was brought up without religion from my family, but in a society that is culturally Christian/Protestant. At age 10 I announced that I would like to be baptized (very uncommon), and I was confirmed at age 14. I am quite sure that I know at least one way of being a Christian, and while I am an atheist, I don't think it excludes me from that understanding. As for you, I am certain that for example Catholics would say your way isn't the total Christian experience either.

    ReplyDelete

Markup Key:
- <b>bold</b> = bold
- <i>italic</i> = italic
- <a href="http://www.fieldofscience.com/">FoS</a> = FoS