Home Schooling

[cmfbaker]

Someone wrote:

There are lots of things the school teaches which I dont agree with (teaching evolution as fact, for example) so I get to decide the curriulum! BIG BONUS

...but don't you think it's important that kids learn about that sort of stuff, even if you don't believe in it? (which I'm assuming you don't, sorry if I'm wrong)

Personally, I'd like my children to experience a variety of cultures and how other people think. I think if they stayed at home with me homeschooling them, they'd get a very one-sided view of the world. I know I could choose to teach them about, say, different religions, but they wouldn't get the understanding that would come from having a friend with a Muslim background, for instance.

Also how do you teach sports, like footie? What about Sex-ed? (I can only imagine being 14 and not wanting to hear about boys from my mum...)
What about excursions? Other languages? I know you can learn a language too, as a parent, but you can never get the understanding of it that a native teacher would have. Same with science, you can learn the facts, but I know I wouldn't have the exitement and thrill in teaching that, as my physics teacher had.

As you can probably tell, I have quite a few questions regarding this, but I don find the topic interesting. Possibly because I'd never head of it before moving to Australia.

[The_Source]

Hi there!

@cmfbaker - Without knowing who gardeningkate is, I would summise from my experience of the home schooling community, that your suggestion that a child should be taught all points of view is *exactly* why gardeningkate would not want evolution taught as fact. There is such a significant amount of disagreement between academic scientists in this area that there is no way that it should ever have been taught as fact in the first place. Darwin's theory, in his original papers, only suggested evolution by natural selection not by genetic mutation and this is often overlooked in Western textbooks and the derived thought on this has been hotly contested for decades.

Now, everyone will have an opinion on what they believe in this example, BUT the point is not what you believe but rather that each child /student / lifelong learner should have the chance to given the whole picture so that they can evaluate the information and determine their own position for themselves. This is a practice that is common in the vast majority of homeschooling environments and it is certainly an eye opener for a child to be able to sit down and explain over a cold drink in summer by the local lake why they believe something because it was not just because a text book told them so.

Cheers!

[cmfbaker]

Thanks for your reply, I think it sounds great trying to explain all sides of an issue like that. What about the rest of my questions, what do you do there?
Kind regards, Christine