In a government move that I happen to agree with, a California District court has basically said that home schooling is illegal, unless the parent has proper teaching credentials. This ruling (which is being appealed) would affect over 100,00 students.
While parents should definitely have options when it comes to teaching their children, when it is done in the home it will generally lead to academic and social problems. When kids are home schooled they do not get to interact with other children and may have socialization problems later in life. Furthermore, of the home schooled people I have known, they were at least 2-3 years behind their grade level in math and science. Obviously, your mileage will vary in a home school.
The parents quoted in the article are scared that their children will be "exposed to teachings about evolution, homosexuality, same-sex marriage and sex education." How scary! A kid may actually learn about true science, as opposed to the BS in the family bible, which may be a fun story but is far, far from fact. He or she will also learn techniques to prevent HIV infection, how horrible!
I think that if a group of parents wants to start up a school (which could take place in a home) and come up with an adequate curriculum, home school could be a good thing, especially for kids who would have to attend some horrible public school. But even in those cases, private schools are generally available. The problem is that the parents cannot take the money out of the public school (which their taxes pay for) and use it to pay for private school tuition. If this problem is fixed, I don't see a need for homeschools anymore, unless there are some very extreme circumstances.
5 comments:
I agree. in order for a student to be homeschooled, the parent/whoever must have a teaching license/degree. I do agree. As to the bible, it's not BS but the student should be exposed to other teachings too so they can decide what to believe. I'm against evolution, but do agree that a student should learn something about it and make a decision on what to believe. again, the bible isn't BS, there's nothing wrong in reading it.
I've got no problems with people reading the bible, but it needs to be taken with a grain (or more) of salt.
There's no difference between Judeo-Christian stories and ancient Greek stories of Apollo and Zeus. It all boils down to mythology that was used by primitive cultures to explain things that they did not have the abilities to fully understand.
Its fun to read the bible, especially since it can be used to both justify and condemn things such as slavery or homosexuality, beating of women, etc.
Also, I don't understand how its possible to be "against " evolution. That would kind of be like saying you are "against" a round earth. Even the Pope believes that evolution happened and does not treat the bible as fact.
I do, however, think that people could argue that a God or gods sparked evolution on this world, but to deny that it happened and is happening (example: people are taller than they were 100 years ago) ignores almost all of our scientific knowledge on the subject.
Mike Huckabee may disagree with me on this, but Adam and Eve did not feast on dinosaurs.
But back to the bible, will we really have Four Horsemen arrive and kill us as it says in Revelations? The things they represent may truly be some awful shit, but it won't be 4 people on horseback that will hurt us.
And then Psalm tells us that "Vain is the help of man." So in my vanity, I say that the bible is BS. Its a good story though, probably the best horror book ever written.
http://thankgodforevolution.com/
I'm sure G-d started evolution. I'll agree that things that evolved were started by G-d and did not occur on their own.
I also like Greek mythology too. There's nothing wrong with it.
totally agree with you MSC
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