Homeschooling and Evolution

The headline was enough to make me cringe: "Top home-school texts dismiss Darwin, evolution."

The accompanying graphic, a line graph showing the growth of homeschooling over the last 20 years, is enough to incite yet another wave of anti-homeschooling sentiment -- because really, who wouldn't be against homeschooling if homeschooling means that over 1.5 million kids are being spoon-fed questionable science?

That, of course, is exactly what the article implies, thanks largely to an extremely short-sighted, ill-advised comment from Ian Slatter, a spokesman for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). "The majority of home-schoolers self-identify as evangelical Christians," said Slatter. "Most home-schoolers will definitely have a sort of creationist component to their home-school program."

Oh. Good. Gravy. For a group that claims to support homeschooling, such a comment -- which will clearly turn off at least half of the general public -- is pure idiocy. Are they trying to convince the American public that homeschoolers are nuts?

Note: I am not anti-evangelical Christian. I support parents' rights to teach and instill religious values. But this Slatter guy has gone way too far.

What he doesn't tell you is that a lot of parents homeschool because they want their children to have a broader world view. I don't homeschool because I want to protect my children from evolution; I homeschool because I want them to question everything. I want to expose them to things they might not learn for years yet, if they were confined to a certain grade level in a certain school. I want them to have the freedom to think deeply, to make connections, to ask questions. I want to teach them how to analyze information, how to consider the source and how to come to a conclusion based on established facts. I don't want them to believe in evolution because someone tells them it's so, and I don't want them to believe in creationism because someone tells them it's true. I want them to understand the arguments and "facts" on both sides, and I want them to reach their own, reasoned conclusions. Because whether you believe in evolution or not -- whether you believe in creationism or not -- you darn well better understand the issues on both sides, because none of us lives in a world with one, accepted world view.

Except maybe the Home School Legal Defense Assocation, which has a long history of promoting evangelical Christian concerns at the expense of the broader homeschooling community.

I will tell you this: The HSLDA does not speak for me. And while the article would have you believe that homeschool parents are stymied, stuck in a system in which the only available textbooks are anti-evolution rants, the article overlooks the simple fact that many (most!) homeschoolers are extremely resourceful people. We haunt the library, checking out scientific books (even -- gasp!-- The Origin of the Species) and movies. We visit science museums and consult with friends, neighbors and associates who work in scientific fields. We read newspapers -- and let our children read along. We surf the 'Net. We watch the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. We attend scientific lectures and sign our children up for hands-on, experimental science classes. We experiment and play. We arrange mentorships for our older children and enroll them in community college when they want a more formal educational experience. We are NOT restricted to a couple of questionable texts, just because they're the top-selling homeschool texts.

Call us the silent majority. We focus on our families while the Associated Press and HSLDA incite homeschooling hysteria.

Jesus Was a Boy Too

I'm not exactly a Biblical blogger. In fact, we might go years and years without me ever mentioning the Bible again. And yet....

Last night a certain passage caught my eye. Even if you're not a religious person, you've probably heard the story. It's the story of Jesus in the temple, the time when 12-year-old Jesus stayed back in Jerusalem while he parents went on. Mary and Joseph were, of course, frantic when the realized that Jesus wasn't with their family group. They returned to Jersusalem to find him.

For three days they searched. (I never remembered that part before. Can you imagine searching for your son for three days?) They found him in the temple, preaching.

Of course, his earthly parents basically asked, "What do you think you're doing, young man?!?" and Jesus, being Jesus, responded, "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"

That part of the story I knew. That part mystified Mary and Joseph, at least in the moment, but I've attended enough Catholic school to know exactly what he meant.

It was the next sentence that got me: "Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them." (Luke 3:51)

So let me get this straight -- their twelve-year-old son stayed back in Jerusalem to preach in the temple. Then headed home and was obedient for the next 20 or so years?? This is what the Bible has to tell me about Jesus' teen years?

My oldest son is 11 1/2 and quite precocious. If we'd lived back in BC, I could see him lingering at the temple, hanging around and talking. (OK, since this is my son and not the Son of God, it's more likely that he would have been hanging out at the Sea of Galilee, chatting it up with the fishermen.) And I could see him giving a relatively smart-ass answer when we found him again and asked what he was up too.

I can NOT see him coming home and being obedient. Maybe it's because my boys are going through some kind of annoy-Mom-and-each-other-stage right now, or maybe it's because I just can't see any boy going home and being perfectly obedient after being that independent at the age of twelve.

Suddenly, the Bible seemed all too vague. What was Jesus really like as he grew? How did he handle peer pressure and shaving and voice changes? How did Mary reconcile her need to love and protect her son with his need to blossom? How did Jesus grow up to be, well -- Jesus?

Someday, I think, Mary and I need to chat.