[asa] Homeschooling and Creation Science

The other day I mentioned a book which we picked up at a homeschool
conference. It was a bit discouraging walking through the many vendor
aisles, looking at all the various booths and seeing what seemed like all of
them packing various YEC-slanted materials on the sciences (it would be
impossible to tell without looking through them all, but that's a good
guess). I realized that this is going to be (and probably already is) a
formidable force, as the homeschooling movement has picked up steam over the
last 20 years.
 
It's got a lot of dynamics to it. First, Christians often choose to
homeschool because of removing their children from the evil influences of
the world, including "Darwinism", "evolution", etc. (I.e., I didn't see any
booths for the "Atheist homeschooler", although I work with one, and I
didn't see any Christian or secular vendor promoting "accurate science for
homeschoolers" (although many claimed to). Maybe this is because the
conference was sponsored by a Christian-run organization, but if so that's
part of what's feeding this dynamic (not seeing other alternatives, or maybe
not having any viable alternatives present, in a Christian context).
 
Second, Christian homeschooled children have the opportunity for excellent
education with all the good resources out there (in general), with
first-rate personal attention in a low student-to-teacher ratio. But most
will not have parents who know, much less appreciate the nuances of
scientific evidence or method, and they will simply teach by the book. (I'm
an electrical engineer, my wife is a pre-med biology major, and I'm ahead of
her on being acquainted with and/or comfortable with how to present the real
science in a Christian context. But we are still finding our way.)
 
Third, the quality of many of them are now equivalent to public school
education texts, at least in terms of colorful, appealing, and in many ways
technically accurate in its descriptions of non-controversial subjects, why
not trust its "Biblical message" on those parts that relate specifically to
creation?
 
Fourth, it's self-reinforcing. Since adequate volumes of material exists
for the young-earth perspective, without any balance and a whole lot of
imbalance in how they present their view as the only Christian view, it
seems only natural that parents would choose more of the same for later
years of science education. And once those homeschool children graduate,
they will become the next generation of AIG and CRI scholars, textbook and
children's book authors, etc. That is, if they don't go on to college and
have their faith destroyed once they learn the more accurate picture of
scientific knowledge. Or, if they can survive their "faith crisis" and go
on to support more balanced positions such as the ASA promotes.
 
 
Early on, we decided to pick creation-based, faith-based curriculum,
figuring that it would be better to build our children's character around
something that affirmed God as being involved in the creation; and once they
got older, we could more easily correct any errors in their scientific
knowledge, than it would be to build them up based on non-faith-affirming
material and take the chance that we would have to go back and do corrective
faith-building issues later in childhood. I don't regret that decision, but
with a son who will be in 6th grade next year (and after reflections on the
homeschool conference), I'm considering a resolve toward getting a really
good secular science text series for the upper grades, so we can start
providing better balance and dialogue on science-as-science issues before
our children leave home.
 
I asked some time ago about texts with both Christian and accurate science
geared toward children, and someone directed me toward a several lesson
material. But this really doesn't compare with what I'm seeing the real
need is. (If anyone knows of something that already exists on the scale
that I'm suggesting, let me know.)
 
I hate to suggest that ASA take on a whole publicity wing, the likes of
AiG's publishing mill. But honestly I think this might possibly be the only
way to make ASA's influence really effective over the course of the next
generation, without getting drowned in the sea of the other materials being
put out. It would be a massive effort -- the amount of work needed to turn
out even one series of quality science texts with photos, activities, etc.,
would be huge.
 
It would also require substantial effort at "teaching the teachers", making
the Christian homeschool parents see why they should care about a science
text that contradicts 95% of the others out there (who would inevitably end
up railing against it, because of its positions on the age of the earth,
etc.). It would have to assure Christian parents that fidelity to the Bible
can be achieved while still using accurate science, it could use specific
examples of "bad science" and YEC-trained people losing their faith and
well-known non-YEC Christian scientists as exemplary of why this is a
reasonable position to consider. In other words, it would have to preempt
the "faith crisis" in the parents before they will be comfortable teaching
it to their children.
 
I'm also thinking it could be written such that the parents guide would be
useful to homeschool parents, but the text itself might even be written such
that it could serve a dual purpose of being used in public schools, as long
as the science was good, and the religious references was done in accordance
with constitutional guidelines and non-sectarian emphasis. However, this
might be too tall an order, to make it acceptable to a wide audience of
Christian homeschoolers (requiring enough emphasis on the Bible, alternative
interpretations of Genesis, etc.) and still fall within federal guidelines.
Or the more religious-based theologically oriented materials could be
supplementary to the text, but having two texts would be difficult to manage
and sell to homeschooling parents.
 
I realize that it's difficult to convey in words the large vision of what
I'm envisioning, and if you haven't looked at the vast array of homeschool
texts, you may not be fully cognizant of how "mainstream" they have become
(in terms of presentation, marketing, etc.) But I figure if Christian
organizations can produce these quality materials, maybe some group of
people (maybe some within the domain of ASA or CIS or elsewhere) may somehow
be inspired to get a vision of a way to present a more accurate view of
science in the same manner to a whole generation of homeschooled Christians.
I do have one or two of those Moody Bible videos (I believe Moody was the
producer) which teach a decidedly non-YEC view of the universe, and they are
of equivalent quality with their YEC counterparts. It's a good thing, but
there needs to be more of this kind of educational material available.
 
Sincerely,
 
Jon Tandy
 
 

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Received on Fri Apr 27 15:19:47 2007