At the risk of making my blood pressure rise drastically, I’m going to share something with you.  A fellow homeschool mom sent me this link the other day.  It is a poll for people to vote about whether or not homeschool textbooks should be able to dismiss the theory of evolution.

Right off the bat I was a little irritated, I didn’t like how the question was worded – it sounds biased against homeschoolers from the get-go.  Homeschoolers aren’t the only ones using Christian/creation based textbooks – many private schools do as well.  And that wasn’t the point of the question anyway.  In my opinion, a better question, and less biased, might have been, “Do you believe it is okay for a textbook to teach the theory of evolution as a theory only and not as fact.”  Because that’s what they want to know right?  But the way they worded the question not only brings out all the creation haters but the homeschool haters as well.  There are people that would answer the question against homeschoolers no matter what the question was.  So, in my mind, the results are already skewed.  (And I haven’t even touched on the fact that the books they are referring to (Apologia) do NOT dismiss the theory of evolution but teach it as just that – a theory.)

Here are some direct quotes, copied and pasted from the poll, of some of the ridiculous comments just to prove my point:

• It’s one thing to keep yourself stupid, but please stop dumbing down the future of the country.

• Sure. It’s home school do what you want. When it comes time for my kid to compete with ignorant home schooled kids she will eat their lunch

• This is the sort of abuse that really calls into question the whole practice of unmonitored home schooling

• Home schooled kids do not need a reality based education if all they are going to do is grown up and work in the fast food industry.

• Most home-schooling exists to perpetuate bigotry, religion, & other stupidity.

• makes you wonder what else they are dismissing in their attempt to keep their kids from thinking on their own

Seriously???  I wish I could sit down and have a conversation with these people.  According to them, I am stupid, ignorant, a child abuser, and a bigot.  And my children are stupid, abused, incapable of thinking on their own, and unable to get a decent job.  And this is just a small sampling of the comments!  I wonder if they’ve ever even met a homeschooler in person.  I will never understand how people can make such hateful statements to an entire group of people (THAT THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW!) simply because they don’t do things the same way.  While I do find fault with the public school system and the poor job it seems to be doing as a whole, I would never make a blanket statement that ‘all kids who go to public schools are ignorant’ or any of the other things people say about homeschoolers.  It constantly amazes me how much stupidity, ignorance, and hate there is regarding homeschooling.  All we are doing is educating our own children!  Why are people so threatened by that???

The thing that is the most galling is that statistics show that homeschoolers far outscore their public school counterparts.  Here is some information from the National Home Education Research Institute:

The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests. (The public school average is the 50^th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.)

Homeschool students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income.

Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not related to their children’s academic achievement.

Degree of state control and regulation of homeschooling is not related to academic achievement.

Home-educated students typically score above average on the SAT and ACT tests that colleges consider for admissions.

Homeschool students are increasingly being actively recruited by colleges.

- Dr. Brian D. Ray from NHERI

That sounds to me like the homeschoolers are the ones with the better education, the better chance at better jobs, and the ones that do know how to use their minds.  I can use my own kids as an example as well.  And I’m not doing this to brag but to prove a point.  Standardized testing is not required of homeschoolers in our state so we had never participated in it up until a couple of years ago.  I don’t like tests like that because I feel there are so many better ways to measure what a child has learned than sitting them down with a paper with a bunch of dots to fill in.  Not all kids test well and not all things taught are going to be covered on those tests.  Regardless of my opinion of them though, I decided to let my kids take one a couple of years ago.  My daughter was interested in seeing how she would do and I thought it probably wouldn’t hurt to see how she scored.  Well, both of my kids (who have been homeschooled almost all the way through school – my son went to public school Kindergarten and my daughter went to public school through 1st grade and they are now in 9th and 11th respectively) scored in the 99th percentile – and that’s including all of the standardized tests taken in the nation – public schools included.

I can even go one step further.  My daughter took the ACT at the beginning of this school year (her junior year) just as a practice so she could figure out what it would be like and be better prepared her senior year so that she could give it her best at that time.  Well, she went in and took it and came away with a 29.  In case you aren’t familiar with the ACT, a 36 is a perfect score and the average score is a 20.  Needless to say, we had a little celebration the day we got her results in the mail!  I’m anxious to see how well she does when she takes it again after completing all of this year’s school work – things that were on the test that we hadn’t even gotten to yet since she took it early!

I say all of this to say one thing – homeschooling works.  There may be a lot of people who don’t understand it and a lot of people who wouldn’t do it themselves but that doesn’t mean that we are doing anything wrong.  It doesn’t mean that we are abusing our children.  It doesn’t mean that we aren’t teaching our kids to think for themselves and that they aren’t growing up to be very bright individuals and becoming great contributors to society.    And it doesn’t even mean that we aren’t teaching our kids what evolution is!

That started out being the whole point to this post but I got a little sidetracked.   I do want to share a few of the ridiculous comments in regards to the original question on the poll though:

• It’s just as o.k. for home-school textbooks to dismiss the holocaust or to state that the earth is the center of the universe.

Do people really think that because we aren’t willing to have evolution shoved down our throats as fact when there is NO evidence to support it that we are going to deny the holocaust or that our universe is heliocentric?  There is overwhelming evidence to support those!

• Teaching Evangelical Christian beliefs as science should constitute child abuse, as it deliberately deprives children of quality education.

WOW!  Again with the child abuse thing?  And I think I’ve already proven that my children have received a quality education – even by YOUR standards.

• Is it okay for home-school textbooks to teach 2+2=5 or that a verb is really a noun? Our children need to be educated, not indoctrinated.

Umm… isn’t that what virtually every public school in America does?  Indoctrinate kids to believe a certain way?  Do they teach both sides and let the child choose or do they shove evolution down their throat and say it’s the ONLY right answer?

• Actually, yes, but only if they also give equal time to the Tooth fairy, Leprechauns, and also explain how Noah got dinosaurs onto the Ark

When you can’t come up with a logical reason for something, throw out stupid, moronic comments.  geez!  And I’m pretty sure Noah didn’t take the largest available animal when he put each kind on the ark.  I’m thinking he probably took babies and animals that had not reached full maturity yet.

• Science isn’t about justifying or proving theology, it’s about discovering the truth.

Amen!  I agree.  But when the truth points you away from evolution you need to be willing to pay attention instead of sweeping that under the rug and firing anyone who dares say something different.

And what did I answer on the poll?  Even though I didn’t like the wording of the question, I knew what they were going for so I answered yes.  Homeschoolers, as well as anyone else in this country, have the right to purchase any book they want and teach what they believe to be true. Interestingly enough, as I believe I pointed out earlier, the Apologia books (which started this debate I think) do not dismiss the theory of evolution.  They present the evidence and facts that exist and leave the student to decide.  We’ve used these books all through middle and high school so I am familiar with them.

I believe in teaching what evolution is but I believe in teaching creationism as true.  The Bible makes much more sense to me than Darwin’s theory of evolution.  It’s okay if others don’t agree and want to teach something different.  I’m not going to try to force you to teach what I believe and you shouldn’t try to force me.

I stand firm on the word of God though and He says that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I believe that to be true and I would rather do that now by choice than wait until Judgment day and say it because it’s the only option left.  One day the Truth will be known.

I think I’ve said enough now.  If you’re still reading, thanks for “listening” to my rant.