Homeschooling and Science

[Marta Toran]

There are over 1.3 Million students being homeschooled in the States. Last year during my maternity leave I taught a Science class to homeschoolers. When I asked one of the moms how homeschooling was going since she was new to it, she said "Great, now that I've combined Bible Studies and Physical Science." hmmm. I'm curious how that works, I guess it would be interesting to teach forces as they apply to David and Goliath.

Anyway, I'm not teaching in the coop this year, but I saw that the course that is replacing mine is called "Exploring Creation with Zoology: Land Animals of the Sixth Day"

Is anyone else worried about the quality of Science (if you can even call it that) they're teaching homeschoolers? I'm sure there are some parents who are giving their kids an excellent education at home, but I'm not sure how regulated all this really is and it's pretty scary. Has anyone else had similar experiences or know more about what they are required to teach these students? Don't the same standards apply?

[Elissa Hoffman]

Ouch - that is a heck of a course title.
Anyway, of course I'm worried about the quality of science in homeschool situations. Not everyone homeschools because of religion, although around here that seems to be the case in the majority of situations. In most of those situations, I would wager that science education is lacking.

I know a few people who homeschool. (One is for religious reasons - the other informed me that she didn't like the large class sizes of their local school, but I think religion is involved there too.) In both cases, the parents have asked me for science advice - they seem to just be cobbling together demos from the internet and trying to explain them. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it. I would imagine this isn't a science-specific concern - it would affect math, social studies, etc. also. I think overall I'm concerned with the preparation of homeschool parents. As much as I dislike buzzwords, I do think curriculum, scope and sequence, interdisciplinary / cross-disciplinary connections, and standards are important in ensuring quality.

Not all states hold homeschoolers to the same standards. Some do, and require the students to pass the same standardized tests. Others are far more loosey-goosey, and basically the parents just file a form with the state saying they're homeschooling, and you never hear from them again.

Even if these kids don't wind up going to normal colleges (as opposed to Liberty U) or entering the workforce, they're still going to be voters someday. Given that I've heard anecdotes like that some homeschool textbooks teach that men have one less rib than women (since that's how Eve was created), this is a scary thought.

[Tom Wanamaker]

It's a generalization, but I think it's fair to say that a large proportion of kids are homeschooled because of their parents' conservative religious beliefs. It's a safe bet that most of them are not being taught very well when it comes to evolution (assuming it is covered at all). When I get homeschooled kids coming into my classes, I figure there is a good chance that I will have to overcome a lot of lies and misconceptions that they have picked up over the years. The thing is, I get a lot of that with kids who have gone through the public schools their entire lives. It's a pain, but it goes with the territory.

Hoffman is right in her assessment of what often happens when kids leave for homeschooling -- a lot of muddled, poorly organized, and poorly taught subjects -- science and math in particular. We often hear that from the kids when their parents get tired of it and they come back to school a year behind where they were when they left.

I agree that getting a diploma with "sceince" courses like "Exploring Creation..." on the transcript is a joke. Based on its title, such a course would have a hard time meeting the science standards set forth in Wisconsin, but I'm not certian if that precludes a home schooled student from using it to earn a HS diploma. I suspect that it may vary from state to state. The bigger issue for the student may be whether or not a college will accept it. (Our Savior's Victory Bible College may have it on their list of prerequisites -- who knows?)

It's doing students a disservice to give them a diploma based on science courses that are actually religion classes, but the political will to get tough when it comes to standards just isn't there in most states. The homeschooling crowd has fought hard to be able to do what they think is best for their kids and their influence is particularly strong among Republican politicians. I just don't see more strict expectations regarding science standards for homeschools coming from state Departments of Public Instruction, much less state legislatures. On the contrary, certain state legislators have felt the need to introduce bills that weaken instruction in science.

As I see it, it's more important to do a good job with the 99% of the kids who DO pass through your doors rather than worrying about the few nut-jobs who are strongly committed to rejecting evolution no matter what they see or hear.

[David Knuffke]

It's an interesting point, but I think it misses the mark. Of course it is a concern. I do not feel that any parent who home school's their children so as to bias their education in support of their particular religious dogma is doing their children a service. But I am also concerned with personal liberty. You can not tell parents how they have to school their children for good reason. Imagine if the state was pushing a creationist curriculum and you were required to modify your home schooling to fit that standard. This cuts both ways.

Frankly, not that long ago it would have been illegal to tell parents that they had to school their children at all. A cursory examination of the history of mandatory schooling in this country demonstrates that it is nowhere near as old as the republic (only being really in effect for the past 125 years or so) and that the public school systems that most of us teach in were constructed with an eye towards producing a suitable working class for the industrial age. It really had nothing to do with improving education, so much as it had to do with increasing its utility for the functioning of society at large. We can discuss what it has become since, but that is the foundation. Understand that every major American intellectual through 1900, from founding fathers, to Lincoln, to Henry David Thoreau, was not compulsorily educated by the state unless they were the ward of the state.

I know for a fact that there are excellent, well-rounded students produced through home schooling. One of them just graduated third in his class in our district, four years after his brother was the valedictorian. I even know of a, herein anonymous though very well-respected, AP Biology teacher who home schooled his/her own children.

Students are beholden to state standards if they want the credentials that states offer (state certified diplomas). A surprising number of people go to college and have fruitful careers while never getting state certified diplomas. Cynically, I will make the point that I spend a lot more of my time wondering why the public school system that I teach in is so remarkably ineffective at inculcating learning in so many of our students than I do concerning myself with people exercising their right to raise their own children.

Does it make me grit my teeth? Sure. But there are a lot of unfortunate side-effects of our rights as citizens that I tolerate because it enables me to have the freedoms that I have come to depend on.

[Mike Pilliod]

As usual, David, I agree with you!

I've known some seriously gifted college students-turned-professionals who were homeschooled throughout their entire academic career (K-12). I've even known some of the same individuals who were homeschooled because of religious convictions who learned all that nasty creationism who then went on to get degrees in Biology. So, golly, I guess it can happen!

[Colin Matheson]

Interesting points about the rights of the individual, David. At the same time I can see Marta's point, if some states are so obsessed with what is being taught and ensuring fair and equal access that they are requiring lockstep curriculum (Listen closely and on a quiet morning you can hear every 4th grader in Texas turn to page 15 in unison), why allow a total opt out? I am sure some teachers would like to "opt out".
I guess the metaphor that comes to mind is vaccination. We try to vaccinate so that there is a herd immunity. Enough people in an area opt out of vaccination and an outbreak occurs which harms immunized people. Is teaching science (or anything in an academic context) "immunizing" future adults from zealotry and bigotry? If enough people don't get inculcated in open mindedness will we see an outbreak of narrow thinking?

It seems to me that nowadays, school is primarily about socialization, neither our students nor home school students really need or use biology. I like to think that biology education creates a society more open to providing funding to and accepting the results of research which is accomplished by a small group. When people were criticizing government waste a while back some politician mentioned the ludicrous waste of $30 million dollars to study the animals in the Great Lakes. I hope that we do our jobs well enough (and to enough people) that people don't pick on research as waste.

PS I have homeschooled my cats with mixed results.

[David Knuffke]

I take your point. But be careful about education as "immunization" from zealotry and bigotry. As an anecdotal experience, it makes sense, but I don't know that I have ever seen hard data on that correlation. There are certainly plenty of zealous bigots who went to school.

I think state's drive to standards-based education has a lot more to do with ensuring NCLB compliance (and continuation of funding) than it does with any real concern about providing students a well-rounded education. Again, I am nothing if not cynical.

I return to the point that the system that allows a fundamentalist to educate their child as they wish is a also a system that will allow me the freedom to do so if I so choose. This is not a major concern for me in New York, but it might be if I lived elsewhere.

You are absolutely right on when you say that compulsory education is primarily about "socialization." It always has been. Content is largely secondary, as is real learning. This is not so much the case in our AP and honor's level classes, where we deal with the minority of students who thrive in the classic public school system, but I would hope it is self-evident to any of us who teach the "general population." I often ask my colleagues how many of their students learn optimally in the school setting they are in. I have never had an answer greater than 50%. Given that, it is not hard for me to understand why some people want to opt out of the system for reasons that have nothing to do with fundamentalism. I would hate to force those people to have to send their kids to school.

PS I have also homeschooled my cats, due largely to my desire to teach them that their kitty chow comes from the great invisible kibble in the sky and that mice are infidels who need to be punished, primarily for refusing to recognize the divinity of said kibble. You just can't get that kind of feline education in the public system.