Homeschooling
gregladen | March 25, 2008You've probably already seen this: it is a bunch of crazy home schooling creationists demonstrating that they are utter, incurable morons. In this video, they are seen committing child abuse. Again and again and again.
I stole it from Pharangula, he stole it from Sandwalk.
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO APPEASE THESE PEOPLE, PEOPLE??????
Chris and Matt do.
gregladen | March 19, 2008The fight continues in Texas; Homophobia is a punishable offense, yet legislators march on in opposition to the already underway 21st century; Some guy named Stephen on homeschooling.
Mary Helen Berlanga is the senior member of the Texas Board of Education. She is warning Texas citizens of impending fights on the board regarding a number of issues, including evolution.
She asked her constituents to travel to Austin next week to speak out against proposed amendments outside consultants are pushing for that she says exclude Hispanics and other minorities from classroom instruction.…
gregladen | March 12, 2008... well, just a little carnival. More like a street fair. On a small side street:
Editorial: State must set standards for home schooling
Extreme circumstances make bad legal precedents. It's proven anew in last week's court ruling that would dismantle a thriving and diverse home-school movement in California.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday called for legislation affirming parents' ability to home school, if the state Supreme Court doesn't overturn the decision on a Southern California case. Lawmakers should act, although carefully. The issue is more complex than a universal right…
gregladen | March 11, 2008OMG!
A three-judge panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeals made it illegal on February 28 for any parent to home school their child, unless they have a teaching or tutor credential. Upon hearing the ruling, school districts officials began demanding that police take immediate action. So yesterday, throughout the state, judges secretly began swearing out and signing arrest warrants for any parent who was suspected of home-schooling their children without a teaching credential.
Setting up a special task force virtually overnight, SWAT teams and truant officers armed with arrest warrants…
gregladen | March 6, 2008May any parent legally homeschool children in California? Last week, a state appellate court said no. A unanimous three-judge panel ruled that California law lays down specific circumstances under which homeschooling is permitted, and not all parents meet the requirements.
[source]
gregladen | February 27, 2008Bennett Gordon has a post on the Har Mar Science Fair:
...Every diorama in the Home School Science Fair, which took place inside a shopping mall in Roseville, Minnesota, had a biblical quote attached to it. A young woman whose project involved teaching her dog how to run circles between her legs decorated the words: "If you love me, you will obey what I command." (John 14:15) in pink lace fabric. This quote got to the crux of the science fair, in my opinion: parental commandment. These parents pulled their children out of school, away from their peers, and said, "Now prove that Darwin was…
gregladen | February 17, 2008The fair was this weekend. I was in the vicinity of Har Mar, but only briefly, and I did not have time to stop in this weekend. But The Lorax did, and he has blogged about it here.
Here are a couple of my earlier posts on this event, including last years:
Twin Cities Home Schooling Creationist Science Fair Photos
Some Sick Atheist Demeans Kids ... Photographic Evidence Destroyed
If you are eating or driking something now, don't read this.
gregladen | February 14, 2008Katie Criss has a post critiquing home schooling.
When I asked myself the question, How do you feel about home schooling? I first thought "Why would anyone do that" So I researched exactly that, What are the reasons that people give of why they choose to homeschool and how valid are they.
Link died, has been removed.
gregladen | February 13, 2008In a previous discussion on home schooling and athletics, this idea, surprisingly, did not come up:
Some senators worry a bill that passed the Senate this morning might allow student to cheat their way into playing sports.
The bill allows home schooled students to join public school sports teams and other exrtracirricular activities. But their academic performance must meet certain standards. But how do home schoolers establish academic standards? Some argue that they can't.
Today's vote followed a heated discussion in the Senate Monday over whether to amend the bill so public schools…
gregladen | February 7, 2008I came across this chilling misanthropic missive in support of home schooling.
The greatest pitfalls of public education are the humanistic philosophies taught at the expense of biblical truth, ungodly teachers and classmates seeking to influence our children, and the absence of spiritual or moral considerations within the educational process. However, those problems aren't isolated to the public-school setting (as evidenced by just a few minutes of television-watching).
Within most of our neighborhoods--and even in some Christian schools--there are influences that tear at our desired…
gregladen | February 1, 2008An increasingly large number of K through 12 students (in the tens of thousands or more) are getting some or all of their education on line. Typically, the on line resources are provided by private corporate vendors contracting to individuals or in some cases school districts, and the target audience tends to be middle school or high school.
School districts and teachers (including unions) are typically reticent to support this shift. While such groups may be resisting online offerings because it constitutes direct competition, they also have valid complaints that online learning, like…
gregladen | January 29, 2008You may not want to miss this (Feb 13th) episode of Wife Swap:
a theologically liberal high powered corporate executive mother with a stay-at-home husband swaps lives with a born again Christian mom who believes women are created to be men's help-mates ...
... the Childs are born-again Christians who interpret the bible literally and use it as a guide for life. In the Childs' family constitution, God comes first, husband Christopher comes second. The family have to serve God at all times with a cheerful heart, and they follow the words of scripture to the letter. Lee-Ann is a stay-at-home mom…
gregladen | January 28, 2008The Twin Cities Creation Science Association Home School Science Fair, held each year in February, in Har Mar Mall, Roseville, Minnesota, will occur this year on Saturday & Sunday, February 16 and 17, 2008.
The Application Deadline is January 31st, 2008 ($5.00 entry fee)
You can register after January 31st at the door for only three bucks more!
Here are the entry guidelines:
This fair is open to all Home School students in the greater Twin Cities area.
Each student may enter only one project.
There will be only individual projects, and team projects will not be allowed.
Each exhibit…
gregladen | January 26, 2008This is a repost of an item from my old blog.
The Twin Cities Home Schooling Creationist Science Fair at Har Mar Mall in Roseville, Minnesota happened last month. The organization that (at least partly) sponsors this event (Twin Cities Creation Science) usually posts photographs of the science fair, but this year they got into a tizzy about it for some reason and removed the photographs from their web site.
I was at the science fair, and I snapped a couple of photos, and I think there are interesting points of discussion that are lost with the TCCSA dropping the ball. Unfortunately, many…
gregladen | January 26, 2008I'm serious. You can't see this post until you put down your coffee and make sure your airways are clear. Then you can click on the heading and laugh, and cry, and everything...
This is a repost of an item from my old blog.
OK, I think this is fake, it can't be real. This was spotted on Pharyngula, and PZ Myers is a smart guy, but maybe this time he was fooled.
I'm talking about the "Twin Citeis Creation Science Association 2007 Home School Science Fair" planned for February 17th and 18th.
Here is the link if you want to see their site.
The following are my favorites form a list of 114…
gregladen | January 22, 2008You are going to be hearing a lot more about Darwin in the month of February, which is Darwin Month here on The Internet. (It is also Creationist Home Schooling Science Fair month, so hang on to your mice and keyboards!!!!) I have a Darwin plan of my own that you will be learning of soon enough.
In the mean time, I wanted to remind you of the Beagle Project:
We aim to celebrate Charles Darwin's 200th birthday by building a sailing replica of HMS Beagle and recreating the Voyage of the Beagle with an international crew of researchers, aspiring scientists and science communicators. The…
gregladen | January 20, 2008Home School
A big chunk of the reading world is going to have a great time devouring a Home School, new semi erotic, not-very-family values novel by the very author that gave us The Graduate (which was made into that movie with Dustin Hoffman ... one of the classics). This is ironic, because the book's plot, which continues the original story of Benjamin and The Robinson's, is advanced partly at the expense of the self-same self-righteous Homeschoolers that will be forced, due to a neurotic sense of shame, to ban the book from their own homes.
The Graduate, Webb's earlier book on which the…
gregladen | January 19, 2008This is Part 1 because there is more than one part. But I'm only going to do one of them, so it is Part 1 of 1. There is more than one "kind" of home schooler, home schooling parent, home schooling family, etc., and thus there are multiple attitudes. But a good chunk of the home schooling population, represented by these excerpts from their own rhetoric, are more than a little annoying, and are the reason why we should always be suspicious of home schooling and home schoolers until we see their credentials.
Home Schooling Is a Good Choice for Christian Parenting
If you want to impart a…
gregladen | January 13, 2008It is science fair season! Elmer's Inc is cranking out the three-part display boards, Office Max is stocking up on its colored paper and glue sticks, and thousands upon thousands of kids are working out the fine details of the hypothesis they want to test using an experiment that can be demonstrated in the Science Fair.
Pretty boring, actually.
Unless you focus on the Christian Creationist Science Fairs. They are Always so much fun. And remember, Greg Laden's Blog here at scienceblogs.com is your Christian Creation Science Creationist Science Fair Center! Keep checking back!
For now, I…
gregladen | January 6, 2008Have you ever seen the TV show "Wife Swap?" Admit it, you have. It is a form of ethnography in its own somewhat demented way. But it is also a very specific, network-endorsed statement about class and character of society.
It seems that it is fairly often the case that one of the families, and the families are always contrasted in many different ways, home schools.
At lease one homeschooling proponent claims that the show "stacks the shelf (sic)" against homeschoolers, making them appear less mainstream than homeschoolers really are.
As a homeschooler, I really feel that I have had…