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Homeschooling Education
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Question:
Why do the general public in
the US have such a persistent ignorance of science? Sometimes it seems
like a willful ignorance. Or maybe it's that most people think that
science is only for scientific types.
Answer:
-I admit I'm very much guessing right now, but from my German point of view,
two remarkable differences regarding education are impossible not to
notice:
1. that blatant ignorance of science
2. the permission that parents homeschool their kids.
I'd like to know if there is _any_ standard that homeschooling parents have
to meet (or is there any standard AT ALL)? And is there any reliable
statistics et cetera about how many of the ignorant ones were homeschooled?
I think we all agree that if a child is homeschooled by a drooling fanatic
cretinist parent it's no surprise that this kid later knows _nothing_ at
all about what science says... so how usual is this?
-Don't know about the US but the UK homeschooling movement seems to have less
to do with religion and ideological bias than to do with ease of access to
educational materials or actual suitably funded schools. As we have a
national curriculum in essence it only matters if the children are being
educated to a level where they can pass the GCSE standards. While you might
choose a particular examining board, there is less difference between the
programmes and what they expect you to acheive. I don't really have a
problem of 'where' someone is educated, as long as there is an accepted
standard that all parties adhere to. As biology is compulsory up to a
certain level there is less of an opportunity to omit vital components of
that education and replace it with a seperate agenda.
For my money though I would still like to see funding going directly into
state education and supporting that at every level.
-It's an oversimplification to suppose that opposition to public
education is based on the evolution/creation issue. The wealthy feel
it's a waste of their tax money, because they send their children to
private schools or have them tutored at home. They don't feel an
obligation to the children of the nation's middle class or poor,
because they've gone global. To them, the deprived in the U.S. are
just ungrateful. The world's children by comparison are far worse off
and America's poor should be content with whatever "trickles down" to
them. As they succeed to tear apart public education, parents turn to
homeschooling and religions meet the demand for more private schools.
The motivation is to kill public education, supposely lessening the
tax burden (but our government never really lessens the tax burden).
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