Eclectic Parent

I came across an article today from the New York Times called A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash. It’s one of those articles that reminds me of all the reasons we prefer to homeschool. And yes, I did just write that we had given the children the choice to go to school, but I’m glad they chose not to. As soon as you say that you homeschool, many people assume you are religious. It is an easy enough assumption; many homeschoolers in this country are. But read this article on the difficulties of teaching evolution in contemporary US high schools or read an article on the failure rates of abstinence only sex education and it is impossible to miss how religion has seeped into public education.

Our children have been to the American Museum of Natural History since birth - even though we now live thousands of miles away. They have explored the hall of human origins, wandered through the dinosaur exhibits, studied the relationships between animals in the hall of ocean life and been fascinated by holding a living horseshoe crab one day and seeing a fossil of one the next. So often people assume that homeschooler, not only are religious but, are having knowledge withheld. Instead I like to think that we cover more than many children get in school. Science fact and science fiction; heaven, reincarnation and nothingness; measuring and guessing; the Texan and Mexican side to the Alamo.

We’re trying to do more social studies. The kids have always been interested in science, reading happens and, if you cook or measure, you’ve got instant math; but they’ve never been captivated by pyramids, knights or pharaohs. They may read a fiction book about something historical but then move on. We’ve decided to start with the indigenous peoples of the Americas.  I can’t imagine how not to do it from all sides, but it isn’t easy to find a lot of K - 2nd ish level books about the complexities of so many cultures being lumped under one title. We’ll see how it goes. That’s the job of this. We can try, adjust, adapt to fit their needs. We can tell them Columbus discovered America like they’d probably learn in school or we can tell them that this land was always here, already populated, he got lost and bumped into it. Perhaps the reason some people homeschool is to keep their children from hearing what they’d be told, not about sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, but about creationism and historical mythology they’d have to unlearn in college.