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Home schooling the JREF way

Alareth

Philosopher
Alareth
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
7,682
Location
Jacksonville, FL
Over on PZ's blog there is a discussion of a recent article on the religious leaning of available materials for home schooling. Since there are a small percentage of people that homeschool for other reasons, it's hard for them to find science based textbooks to use.

Someone commented that they would like to see NCSE, JREF or CFI release an accredited home school curriculum for people that want to teach something other than Goddidit to their kids.

So, my question is, if JREF were to publish a curriculum for a home school education what should it include?
 
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Why don't they just buy some books that the schools use?
 
I know lots of home-schooled kids. Very many of them are wildly successful, compared to their school-going peers.

From what I've seen, the advantage of homeschooling is that you get out of the way and allow your kid to learn. Most are hungry for knowledge. Public schools often inadvertently repress a kid's natural curiosity, and force them to compromise their intelligence for adult approval. Obedience is the lesson being taught.
The other stuff is easy to learn, in much less time, especially if the parents aren't total jerks.

In rural Appalachia, for instance, 2 hours of the kid's school day is focused on behaving on the bus. Yet, no one seems to notice or care.
Toss in study hall; homeroom; lunch; gym...you're left with the Emperor's new edu-ma-cation.

Too bad we generally hold this sham in such high esteem. Its pathetically inefficient.
Otoh, school is nice as far as getting your kids out of your hair for 8 hours of the day.

But who wants to admit that?
A curious, normal, un-traumatized 10 year old could easily learn all that is required in an hour a day at home, given an encouraging, loving environment.

Such kids, true, they don't really learn how to walk in the halls without drawing demerits; nor do they learn how to deal with the cruel bastards that give them 'noogies' at the bustop. They might even be deprived of the knowledge that their clothes are worthy of torture, or how to cajole their strapped parents into buying the expensive jeans they need to be popular.

Sorry for the rant, folks, but in retrospect, school was designed to inhibit learning.
The brick walls are effective at keeping knowledge out.
 
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Dallas Independent School District's budget is about 2.3 billion dollars. I wish I had $40,000 each year to teach my own kids. At home the ratio would be 2 teachers to 4 students, at school its 1 teacher to 30 students. Teachers are getting in the habit putting their job off on the parents anyway in the form of homework.
 
h.g.Whiz said:
Dallas Independent School District's budget is about 2.3 billion dollars. I wish I had $40,000 each year to teach my own kids. At home the ratio would be 2 teachers to 4 students, at school its 1 teacher to 30 students. Teachers are getting in the habit putting their job off on the parents anyway in the form of homework.
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And Parents are in the habit of pawning off their parental duties on the teachers.

It goes both ways.


I will say this: Homeschooling taught me how to learn/teach myself. Public schools are important for the intersocial skills children learn.
 
Home schooling the JREF way, with forum trolls and all that? :D
 
Alareth said:
So, my question is, if JREF were to publish a curriculum for a home school education what should it include?
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I would build the science curriculum around:

The Ring of Truth: An Inquiry into How We Know What We Know by Phillip Morrison

and

The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski

books and videos.
 
Alareth said:
Over on PZ's blog there is a discussion of a recent article on the religious leaning of available materials for home schooling. Since there are a small percentage of people that homeschool for other reasons, it's hard for them to find science based textbooks to use.

Someone commented that they would like to see NCSE, JREF or CFI release an accredited home school curriculum for people that want to teach something other than Goddidit to their kids.

So, my question is, if JREF were to publish a curriculum for a home school education what should it include?
Click to expand...

I think the problem is that the curriculum should also be relevant to the region's academic system or there's no point.

This is why I agree with tyr_13's suggestion: start with the school district's textbooks.

Most school districts support the homeschooled students as much as possible. Parents seeking external resources are often doing so because they *don't* want their kids to learn the normal material, which also happens to be pretty much what skeptics want kids to learn.

My guess is that the scenario outlined in the PZMyer's blog was a parent who simply wasn't aware that the school district was a homeschooling resource, and thought she had to subscribe to some alternative textbook supplier in order to homeschool.
 
To start to form a curriculum, I believe it is best to start by brainstorming subject areas, so I will begin a list (feel free to add to it):

I. Natural Science
1. Geology
2. Biology
3. Astronomy
II. Social Science
1. Economics
2. History
3. Sociology
4. Psychology
III. Mathematics
1. Basic (including addition, subtraction, multiplication, logic, etc)
2. Algebra
3. Calculus
4. Trigonometry
5. Geometry
6. Statistics
IV. Humanities and Arts
1. Philosophy (including fallacies and paradoxes)
2. World Religions
3. Visual Arts
4. Music
V. Literature and Language
1. Grammar
2. Spelling
3. Literature
VI. Foreign Language
1. French
2. Spanish
3. Latin
 
Shrike said:
Wouldn't they do that if it were that simple?
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If they knew about it.

I don't see anything on the blog page saying that it was even attempted.

Start with the low-hanging fruit.

Just as an example, when I wanted to learn the content of a particular art history course that was being taught at UBC, I looked up the syllabus and bought the texts from a used textbook store. It seems like the first logical thing to do if you want to get a close approximation of the learning goal, but throug an alternative route.
 
I'd add Geography to the list of Social Sciences.

The True Scotsman said:
To start to form a curriculum, I believe it is best to start by brainstorming subject areas, so I will begin a list (feel free to add to it):

I. Natural Science
1. Geology
2. Biology
3. Astronomy
II. Social Science
1. Economics
2. History
3. Sociology
4. Psychology
III. Mathematics
1. Basic (including addition, subtraction, multiplication, logic, etc)
2. Algebra
3. Calculus
4. Trigonometry
5. Geometry
6. Statistics
IV. Humanities and Arts
1. Philosophy (including fallacies and paradoxes)
2. World Religions
3. Visual Arts
4. Music
V. Literature and Language
1. Grammar
2. Spelling
3. Literature
VI. Foreign Language
1. French
2. Spanish
3. Latin
Click to expand...
 
I really wouldn't include Latin unless the kid ends up being interested in the Romance language roots. Much better to study one of the Asian living languages.
 
tyr_13 said:
I really wouldn't include Latin unless the kid ends up being interested in the Romance language roots. Much better to study one of the Asian living languages.
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Yeah, I was simply throwing out the common high school foreign languages.
 
blutoski said:
If they knew about it.

I don't see anything on the blog page saying that it was even attempted.

Start with the low-hanging fruit.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sorry.
Currently at work, I'm surrounded by people who, everytime there is a problem, situation or whatever comes up, always come up with something like 'why don't you just' or 'why don't they just'. Their solution usually is simple, short and wrong. I just lashed out.
 
quarky said:
A curious, normal, un-traumatized 10 year old could easily learn all that is required in an hour a day at home, given an encouraging, loving environment.
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EVIDENCE???

What is "all that is required?" The public school system is plagued with the same inefficiencies as the rest of government run entities are. The school system is not "designed" to inhibit learning.
 
Arisia said:
I'd add Geography to the list of Social Sciences.

The True Scotsman said:
To start to form a curriculum, I believe it is best to start by brainstorming subject areas, so I will begin a list (feel free to add to it):

I. Natural Science
1. Geology
2. Biology
3. Astronomy
II. Social Science
1. Economics
2. History
3. Sociology
4. Psychology
III. Mathematics
1. Basic (including addition, subtraction, multiplication, logic, etc)
2. Algebra
3. Calculus
4. Trigonometry
5. Geometry
6. Statistics
IV. Humanities and Arts
1. Philosophy (including fallacies and paradoxes)
2. World Religions
3. Visual Arts
4. Music
V. Literature and Language
1. Grammar
2. Spelling
3. Literature
VI. Foreign Language
1. French
2. Spanish
3. Latin
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

How about Logic and Computer programming?
 
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