Home-schooling special: Preach your children well

NewScientist.com ^ | 11 November 2006 | Amanda Gefter

[Sopater]

TO THE unsuspecting visitor, Patrick Henry College looks like a typical American liberal-arts college tucked away amidst the rolling green farmlands of Virginia. Its curriculum is far from typical, however, and anything but liberal. Witness this lecture on faith and reason in an idyllic red-brick college building reminiscent of colonial America. As the speaker takes to the podium, several students silence their cellphones. One puts down his copy of The Wall Street Journal and takes out his Bible. They bow their heads and pray to Jesus, then stand up and sing a hymn, belting out "Holy, holy, holy" with gusto. Eventually, the speaker addresses the crowd.

"Christians increasingly have an advantage in the educational enterprise," he says. "This is evident in the success of Christian home-schooled children, as compared to their government-schooled friends who have spent their time constructing their own truths." The students, all evangelical Christians, applaud loudly. Most of them were schooled at home before arriving at Patrick Henry - a college created especially for them.

These students are part of a large, well-organised movement that is empowering parents to teach their children creationist biology and other unorthodox versions of science at home, all centred on the idea that God created Earth in six days about 6000 years ago. Patrick Henry, near the town of Purcellville, about 60 kilometres north-west of Washington DC, is gearing up to groom home-schooled students for political office and typifies a movement that seems set to expand, opening up a new front in the battle between creationists and Darwinian evolutionists. New Scientist investigated how home-schooling, with its considerable legal support, is quietly transforming the landscape of science education in the US, subverting and possibly threatening the public school system that has fought hard against imposing a Christian viewpoint on science teaching.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Such tests cannot, however, reveal whether or not a student understands scientific method, a compulsory subject in public schools but not for home-schoolers.

Considering the number of people who swallow junk science whole I would say that the home schoolers couldn't do any worse then public school does.

Whether it is "a compulsory subject" subject or not obviously the scientific method is not being taught in public schools either.

[GourmetDan]

"... there pronouncement proceed from there."

...their pronouncements proceed from there.

Must be my public school edumacation, sheesh.

[Wormwood]

Must be my public school edumacation, sheesh.

Those who can't do...

[Sopater]

Makes one wonder how our greenhouse-gases got to the outer planets and their moons.

I told my kids that would happen if they kept leaving the door open. (sarc)

[Sopater]

Such tests cannot, however, reveal whether or not a student understands scientific method, a compulsory subject in public schools but not for home-schoolers.

What do these folks think? That public school kids actually do understand the scientific method better than homeschoolers? I'd like to see one statistic that supports that notion.

[LadyNavyVet]

Not all scientists start by assuming there is no God. My husband is a scientist. He is very much convinced that science supports the evidence of God, as there is an elegance and order to the universe that cannot be happenstance. There are many more scientists like him. We know several.

[Osage Orange]

Makes me want to go smoke a cigar....

A Tabacalera Perdomo Seleccion Estate Vintage 1991..ought to work just fine.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I would too. I personally find that most home schoolers have been taught to think and reason to a far greater degree then their public schooled counterparts.

[wintertime]

According to the US government's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 72 per cent of home-schooling parents interviewed said that they were motivated by the desire to provide religious and moral instruction. ( from the article)
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

What a distortion!

This is presented as if religious and moral instruction were the ONLY reason parents chose homeschooling. Parents also choose homeschooling because homeschoolers are academically and socially more successful. They homeschool because it is a healthier way ( emotionally and physically) to raise a child.

By the way, I have never met a fat homeschooler who has been homeschooled from the beginning. In fact, I can't even recall meeting a chubby one!

[wintertime]

I think these folks at the "New Scientist" magazine are in for a big shock in 15 to 20 years when the big brain jobs s at the JPL and the Salk Institute, etc are dominated by home schooled kids.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The liberal atheists will be shocked when, as you say, the "big brain jobs" are dominated by formerly homeschooled adults.

My religiously observant adult children were homeschooled. They are NORMALLY bright children and not any smarter than the children of the posters on this board. This is what homeschooling accomplished.

All were admitted to college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All finished ALL levels of college calculus ( Calc III) by the age of 15 and all their general college courses. The 2 younger graduated from our flagship state university with B.S. degrees in mathematics at the age of 18. The older of the two recently graduated at age 20 with a masters degree in math. ( Plenty of science in these programs.)

The oldest of the 3 would have liked to study math, but is a nationally and internationally ranked athlete. He chose to major in accounting at the age of 15. It suited his heavy training and travel schedule. At 19, just shy of completing his accounting degree, he chose to serve church members in the Baltic States for 2 years. He returned home last year completely fluent in Russian. He is now training and traveling again and completing the last courses for his accounting degree.

All play a musical instrument. All sing in their church and school choruses and choirs. All have studied ballet, modern, and jazz dancing for many years. All are accomplished ballroom dancers. They are active in their church and are active community volunteers through their church.

[wintertime]

, subverting and possibly threatening the public school system..."
( from the article)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I sincerly hope so.

Hopefully, enough parents will abandon the government schools that the government school system will collapse like the Berlin Wall.

[Oberon]

By the way, I have never met a fat homeschooler who has been homeschooled from the beginning. In fact, I can't even recall meeting a chubby one!

You know, it's funny you should mention that...My wife complains that she's putting on weight, though I can't really see it, and I myself am decidedly portly. Both of us are public-school graduates.

Our children, however, who have never attended a classroom school of any sort, are all rail-thin. (Well, except for the two-year-old, who is still a chubby baby.) My wife took our six-year-old for a checkup, and the doctor remarked on how he was only 25th percentile weight for his height. My wife said "Do you think he should be heavier?" The doctor said "OH no! I'm just glad to see a kid who's not grossly obese."

We eat pretty normally, I think, except that we don't buy a lot of prepared foods and it's rare to find chips, snack cakes, store cookies, or soda in our house. We eat a lot of meat and potatoes and homemade bread, and our share of baked goods certainly, but all made at home. Not light fare by any means...and yet my boys have washboard stomachs. My older daughter studies ballet, and so is rock-solid, but still not thick. Hmmm.

[cinives]

Was he a Jesuit ? I've read his book Deschooling Society and quite enjoyed it even tho I knew he was a socialist.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Think about it for a bit.

If your kids sit and study five hours a day that is at least three hours less then most public school students when you add in the time they spend on the bus and homework. If they are just mildly active during those hours they are burning off a lot of calories and building muscle that in turn burns more calories and so fourth.

The problem is not just what we eat, although I would bet your kids don't often eat a bowl of chili-cheese fries for lunch, it is that we aren't moving enough.

Kids who are home schooled have the time and the energy to be active in ways that their public schooled counterparts can not match.

[wintertime]

Considering the number of people who swallow junk science whole I would say that the home schoolers couldn't do any worse then public school does.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Given how poorly government schoolers read, in general, if it weren't for Oprah the public won't know any science.

[Oberon]

You're right, you know. Although it's also true that my children watch almost zero television. A few times a month we'll rent a movie, and we frequently put in little-kid videos for the toddler. However, we're oddities in the neighborhood because we have neither dish nor cable TV, and we tune in the aerial about every third blue moon.

[pamlet]

"I'm not saying PHC is the way to go. I don't know about them. I do have secondhand knowledge of other "Christian colleges" like Bob Jones and Pensaola. They're legalistic, mechanistic and masochistic. Beware going down that route"

Haven't had a chance to read your entire post - will say though ... second hand knowledge doesn't give a great perspective. As a very proud graduate of Bob Jones University I'd have to differ with you on your assessment as "legalistic, mechanistic and masochistic"..

I'll read your post through when I get home... :)

[TomSmedley]

He was laicized after a while, with the provisios that he would continue his obligations in terms of celibacy and praying the breviary.

[AndrewC]

So now we homeschoolers are subverting the public school system.

Yep, their(New Scientist authors) intentions stick out like a sore thumb.

[Tired of Taxes]

Excellent post! But, you do owe me a keyboard for this line:

Not only is the direction going up, but it looks like a hand pointing heavenward. That's interesting. Let's hope the numbers don't plummet. That could be obscene.

I had to stop and think about it before I got it, though. :-)