Ok, so I just read an article in this week's new scientist which...well, I'll let you decide for yourselves...Sorry about the unprofessionally subjective and sarcastic edge to the writing but this one got me kinda riled...and I don't write too proper when I'm riled! (link to full article is at the end)
The basic gist was about how American families are turning more and more to home schooling in order to (how do I put this tactfully...?) teach their children whatever bullshit they like, regardless of its footing (or lack thereof) in actual scientific fact. If you're not with me yet, I mean christian families, but in particular creationists, fundamentalists and propagators of Intelligent Design.
Hang on...I was a little quite to the mark on that 'lack of scientific fact' comment. How could I be so naive, when clearly there are such good textbooks (and clearly this is analogous with fact) availabale to the creationist home "teacher" (who no longer have to be certified in any way whatsoever in order to teach their children thanks to some friendly evangelical attorneys), texbooks such as Science of the Physical Creation which argues that 'evolution is a concept that attempts to free man from God and his responsibility to his Creator'. Damn niggling Evolution - and there was me thinking that it was a long tested hypothesis, based upon previously known Scientific EVIDENCE, partially in response to an earlier incarnation of Intelligent Design (Paley's Natural Theology), and then rigorously tested and retested and retested and retested and so on, until it was finally allowed the honour of becoming a theory. And then retested some more. But it turns out it's just a bit of an elaborate get out of prayer free card.
Another one of these fine textbooks (published by the same company) argues that climate change does not, and cannot, exist - as God could never create a world that would endanger his most prized posessions now, would he? Oh and there are others that claim, amongst other things, that a) The Grand Canyon was created during the great flood (as well as all deposits that may, to the layperson, suggest a world older than 6000 years) and b) (my personal favourite) that God created light from starts billions of light years away already en route to earth (again trying to combat the annoying age thing).
The focus of this piece is a certain Patrick Henry College, based in Virginia, which takes on previously home schooled kids and teaches them to argue. And pray. And that's about it. This is a 240 pupil strong college which has an incredibly strong debate team...so strong in fact that they have beaten Oxford's team twice. Which seems quite amazing, until you remember that the Oxford debate team can often be caught procrastinating their time by undertaking such other useless tasks as learning stuff and suchlike.
This college, by 2004, held 7 out of 100 internships in the white house. Think about that for a second. Across the whole of America, there are only 100 internships - and students from this college (which, remember, only has 240 students) got 7. Wow.
I've left the best for last mind...
There's an organisation based in South Carolina called Exodus Mandate who are trying to get in with the Southern Baptist Convention (a denomination with over 16 million members). In a bid to try and get kids out of school, at last years convention the EM introduced a resolution asking SBC members (all 16 mil) to conduct a homosexual risk assessment on their local public schools. This survey was designed to "make christian parents and pastors more aware of the aggressive homosexual activism being sponsored by many public schools" and claimed that homosexuality reduces life expectancy at age 20 by 8-20 years, and greatly increases the risk of contracting breast cancer.
The resolution was passed.
This is the twenty first century - and this is no small bunch of southerners that are stuck in the past - this is 72% of up to 2.4 million children being home schooled in the US. This is big.
Read the whole article at www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19225776.100-homeschooling-special-preach-your-children-well.html
I'll leave you with a quote from E. Ray Moore, director of Exodus Mandate,
'If we could get up to 30% of public school students into home schooling and private schools, the system would start to unravel and at some point collapse. The government would be forced to get the states out of the education business altogether. It would go back to churches and the families. It's a strategy for the renewal of society.'
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