…here you go. Transcript:
“When I decided to homeschool my six year old son, I told him we were going to do “Dinosaur Week”. Which turned into “Dinosaur Month”… at the least! We watched “Walking With Dinosaurs” and a lot of other documentaries. He’s a pretty smart kid, too, so even he ended up saying “Ok. Scientists say that God isn’t real. They say earth is a kajillion years old. They say that people and dinosaurs weren’t alive at the same time and that a lot of dinosaurs could have died from a big flood, but that The Flood didn’t happen. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!”. He gets really upset about people not believing in God – as in he doesn’t want them to go to hell and he can’t believe people can ignore God all around us. Every time we watch one of those dinosaur things, he gives a big, overly-dramatic sigh whenever they start talking about “millions of years” or evolution.
One that really cracked him up was where they theorize about reptiles evolving into humanoid creatures. Good grief! And they teach most of this stuff as FACT in schools!!!! I can’t believe it. Neither can a six year old. So WHY is it so accepted?!!?
I teach him what makes SENSE. NOT what science textbooks say. I also teach my kids to question what they are taught – especially what they learn in school. It’s really not fun at all having a bunch of junior scientists in the house when 99% of science seems to be atheistic.”
*brain explodes*
Yes, because if something doesn’t make sense to a 6 year old, it’s obviously wrong. That’s also how we’ve disproved gravity and economic policy and algebra. Ironclad logic.
…I …I’m not even going to bother refuting everything Random Internet Creationist Parent has to say. It’s really not going to accomplish anything other than make me weep for humanity. Seriously, it kills me that little kids are being brainwashed like this. Is he one day going to wise up, and then have to deal with the crushing social stigma of leaving your family’s religion? Will he become trapped in this mindless acceptance of unthinking religious dogma and never have the skills to do anything more than flip burgers? Or even more terrifying, will he go on to be your child’s biology teacher?
Auuugghhabbbbllllhhh. Should have saved this post for night so I could relabel it as a scary ghost story.
And yes, it was painful for me to type those periods outside of the quotes.
This is post 20 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
If it makes you feel any better, I was homeschooled after my parents received a “vision for the virgin Mary,” which basically sums up my entire pre-college education.I turned out alright, thanks to the Internet….which might actually explain why I’m so fucked up.
“Seriously, it kills me that little kids are being brainwashed like this. Is he one day going to wise up, and then have to deal with the crushing social stigma of leaving your family’s religion?”I did. The stigma doesn’t really get to me though.
Oy. How has this not been classified as child abuse? If the things you teach your children cripple them intellectually and, by doing so, drastically limit their opportunities in life, shouldn’t there be some way to criminalize that style of teaching?I realize that’s completely unrealistic but aaarghhh.Really?”I teach him what makes SENSE. NOT what science textbooks say. I also teach my kids to question what they are taught – especially what they learn in school.”REALLY?!?!
AARGGHHHH!! Can I tell you, as a homeschooler, how bonkers things like this make me? (liberal, atheist, feminist homeschooler, even.)Sometimes it feels like “We’re homeschooling our kids” has to be followed quickly with the reassurance that “we’re not religious nutters and they are learning REAL science!”
Just to brighten your day, here is a movie about women who can take care of themselves and don’t talk about men with each other.
I’d actually love to hear more about that. As much as I do resent how much of my education was wasted through Catholic Homeschooling, I’m not any more impressed with the current state of public or private schools, and would be very interested to learn more about rational approaches to Homeschooling. Please tell me you have a blog where you write about it!
This is why I tend to agree with Russell Glasser’s “homeschooling is a bad thing” idea.Although I’m none too fond of our public education either, which teaches mindless repetition over comprehension… but at least my local high school doesn’t give us little gems like “I teach him what makes SENSE. NOT what science textbooks say.”
Brilliant, wonderful video. If only there was a full-length version of it ;_;
That’s the downside of being a stark minority in a group, just understand that when we trash home-schoolers we’re talking about the crazy ones, not the ones with genuine reasons to home school who are giving their kids a quality education.
I have a 7 year old who still postulates about the physical existence of Transformers. Come on, lady, 6 year olds are smarter than some people give them credit for, but they’re still primitive humans who often say things to gain appreciation, which does not necessarily mean what they’re saying is at all scientifically correct. See how delighted you are that your son is so ‘smart’? That’s not him being smart, that’s him making his mom happy. Every kid does it. As a freaking home schooling parent, you should be vigilant enough to be able to tell the difference. Oi. Home schoolers who aren’t morons, I’m sorry you have to deal with the stigma people like this create about home schooling.
… you mean… Tranformers aren’t real…? :'(
It’s OK, buddy, we’ll get through this tough time together. :)
It’s more just sort of a family type blog, but it sort of gives you an idea:http://everydayadventuring.blo…There’s even a bit about us studying triboluminescence a page or two in. Which sounds so much more official than “We spent an evening bashing Wintergreen Lifesavers with a hammer. :))
Yup, I learned a long time ago not to let it bother me *too* much.
Fucked up or alright? Make up your mind. ;)
what controls are there on the quality of home schooling in the US ?Here in New Zealand schools are regularly inspected and the results of those inspections are published on the Education Review Office website for parents to check http://www.ero.govt.nz/ . It seems bizarre to allow untrained parents to educate their children though ERO does carry out occasional checks to ensure the children are not being dis advantaged.
I think there’s a very serious case for child abuse here, as the mother blatantly refuses to teach her child about the threat that Reptoids pose to humanity. She scoffs at the idea of dinosaurs becoming humanoid, but it’s already happened! They are real, they are here, and they are trying to infiltrate the highest levels of our government.If this woman will not prepare her child for the coming war against out would-be reptilian overlords, I think the government should step in and place him in a proper home.
Child abuse in action. Sick.
I was once brainwashed like that kid, hell I did the same overly-dramatic sighing at any mention of the earth being millions of years old. Luckily I outgrew religion, and now my overly-dramatic sighs only occur when a religious relative of mine posts a very jesus-humping facebook status. Which is far too often.
Wtf is wrong with people? This is depressing.
Thanks for the link! =D
The control boils down to a 2-day test, performed once a year, usually administered by a homeschooling parent for a group of other home schooled kids.
My inability to determine which makes me think I lean towards fucked up.
I figured I should chime in here since I was homeschooled for 3 years (grades 5 – 7) and it was a fundamentalist curriculum. What controls were there? I had to take a standardized test every year, the so-called “Iowa Tests” which the public school kids in Ohio (where we lived) also had to take. You want to know what was in the science book? I started a thread about it awhile back at the JREF forum. If you’re not depressed yet, this’ll probably do it for you. http://forums.randi.org/showth…
What she really means is as follows: “I also teach my kids to question what they are taught – except anything I tell them, especially if it’s based on the Bible because God should never be questioned.”By the way, I wonder what sort of show the school had that portrayed scientists as saying that god isn’t real. I think I’d like a copy of that program.
My friend is very lucky in that her mother homeschooled her and her brother and taught them to keep an extraordinarily open mind while not brainwashing them to following one certain path; she let them choose for themselves.I know this post isn’t knocking homeschoolers in general, just the loonies that don’t realize to their children. I just like pointing out that my friend is quite the amazing product of homeschooling :)
WIll use this to fuel my run. Thanks.