Reciprocating Bill
Posts: 4265
Joined: Oct. 2006
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| Quote (dheddle @ Mar. 07 2008,11:31) | | True, they won't teach evolution, but they won't teach creationism either--they will teach biology "factoids", parts of plants, ecosystems, etc., exactly what my kids got at the best public high school in New Hampshire.) There is no way that you can justify that clamping down on homeschooling is good because the students will now receive a better education: the data don't support it, nor the anecdotal evidence such as the well-known fact that some of the nation's most elite colleges recruit homeschooled students. |
Determining the relative effectiveness of homeschooling is probably impossible, given the fact that parents who home school self-select along several dimensions (motivation to home-school, felt sense of competence TO home school, time and resources, etc.). A randomized trial isn't going to happen. Suffice it to say that the data (as reported by Heddle) indicates that those who do self-select seem to do an adequate job.
Vis the watered down content of the public presentation of biology, that has a long history nationwide, and surely occurred in response to creationist/fundamentalist pressures, and the desire on the part of school systems to avoid conflict since Scopes (which was a defeat for education, not a victory). The fact that fundamentalism/creationism has managed to impair science education and advance ignorance in both private and public venues is nothing to celebrate.
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Myth: Something that never was true, and always will be.
"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."
- David Foster Wallace
"Here’s a clue. Snarky banalities are not a substitute for saying something intelligent. Write that down."
- Barry Arrington
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