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Science curricula (evolution, creationism, ID etc)
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Hi there,
I will be honest and say I am still in the research stage of homeschooling. I do not have children yet, but I have been off and on reading up on it for years. (yes, indeed, I am that nerdy). But I want to go into this as prepared as I can be. I selected Charlotte Mason a couple of years ago. In fact, it was reading about CM initially that made me think that homeschooling might be a good idea and not some ‘crazy backwoods evangelical thing’. (forgive me I was young and very liberal then). I loved reading and typically read, myself about 1000 pages a week, plus internet political reading, and I love the idea of a literature based approach to education. I think of all the twaddle I read growing up (and indeed still read. Nora Roberts, anyone?) And I hope that I can raise my children to love good books. I also hope that my own reading and writing skills will improve.
As much as I can tell, it would appear that my views would be in the minority here with reguards to science. I am a biologist, and evolution has never caused me any disquiet. I reconciled it to genesis long, long ago. I dont’ like the worldviews that natural selection leads to. I also don’t believe that I am here by random chance. So I guess you could say that I would believe in some form of ID. My husband is more heavily in the ID camp than I am. However, I find that the framework of natural selection is very usefull for organizing concepts, especially in the fields of ecology (predator- prey interactions) and of course, genetics. As an environmental scientist, I can honestly say that evolution does not figure heavily (or at all) in my daily job (my job is to detect water pollution and enforce its clean-up). So I don’t worry that belief in ID or creationism will harm them if they want to persue a science field. But I want my future children to have a good understaning of both schools of thought (and to be well aquainted with the genesis account, of course).
After that long introduction, here are my questions. Rainbow and Apolgia science programs are christian-based. But I am evidence that Christian beliefs on the topics of geology and biology run the gamut from a literal interpretation of genesis, with a young earth, and creation in 7 days; to genesis being allegorical with evolution by process of natural selection being the method God used to bring about life. I am somewhat in-between…
what do these science programs espouse? Young earth? Old earth? ID? Genesis as literal truth? I hope my statements of my understanding is not insulting. I really just want a very rigorous science program. I went to a high school where you could take four years of physics (ap 1 and ap 2 after physics 1 and adv. physical science). Plus ap bio and ap chem. I want my children to be able to have the options of higher level science that I had. I took two scienece courses a year after my freshman year.
thank you
Catherine
Catherine, We use Apologia science books along with SCM’s 106 Days of Creation and they are Genesis-literal-creation, young-earth-theology based in their approach to human origins. I’m not familiar with Rainbow science, but someone else can chime in on that one. I think it’s wonderful that you are getting a feel for homeschool styles before you have children, what a fantastic headstart you have! Like you, Charlotte Mason was very excited about all the scientific advances during her lifetime and she believed they were God’s revelation to humanity. She also believed (after reading Darwin’s Origin of the Species) that human evolution was true and that the creation story in Genesis was merely a fable that God used in order to teach truths (many christians believed this during that time). Regardless of her humanist reasoning which often differs from my own views, I believe she was a brilliant educator who left many gems of wisdom for us to utilize.
Best wishes!
Rachel
We come from a creationist view at our house. You can read Jeannie Fullbright’s thoughts on her website about young earth and a great article on evolution, she wrote the elementary Apologia books. Not sure if that is any help!
Here is the link to her evolution article:
http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/articles/article/5406998/94789.htm
Young Earth:
http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/youngearth.html
Hi Catherine
It is brilliant that you are already planning your future children’s education. Personally I do not find any of your comments unsettling, I believe there is room for all in this world and this is a great group of ladies. We are using Apologia science for high school with my daughters, however, we also study the secular view we have a secular biology text as well as the Apologia, and one daughter studies equine science from a secular textbook – we always wanted out daughters to be thinkers and we did not wish to impose our views on them to the exclusion of everything else – so we made sure that they had access to viewpoints of all kinds. We consider them old enough to think things through themselves and to make up there own minds now they are in high school. I am sure I have a different outlook to a lot of people, but my husband and I agreed a long time ago that we should teach both views – so we have studied Darwin, and evolution along with Creation and all the forms of ID. The same with religion, in my public upper school in the UK I was taught about all religions and about atheisim and it was taught in a totally non biased way, I really appreciated that, even though I had grown up in a CofE home. We decided that was also the way to go with our own daughters and so we studied all the various religions throughout the years. So welcome and kudos to you for starting thinking about these things so early on – you will be well prepared when the time comes. Linda
Have you looked at Noeo Science? They are a very hands on science curriculum and have an FAQ on the way they handle evolution.
http://www.noeoscience.com/frequently_asked_questions.html
I haven’t used this program (as we are using Apologia Elementary) but it seems pretty “rigorous”.
I’m new to homeschooling, too, as my oldest is in kindergarten. But I explored the options for years before I had children. The K12 curriculum seems pretty intense and has several high school science options (core, comprehensive, honors, AP). I don’t know anything about its viewpoint, though.
Karen
I don’t see anything in the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling that would prevent you from covering science from whatever perspective you want. You are free to chose what fits best for your family and stil use the CM-style in your studies.
I realize that nothing prevents me from doing a different science program. I was more curious as to what extent the popular programs I’ve come across (apoligia, rainbow, a bekka etc) teach gnensis vs. evolution. Christian-based curricula could mean many different things. So I wasn’t sure from the websites what their perspective is.
thanks everoyone for your advice. I will probably retire this subject of interest for awhile. and move on to my other topics that I perpetually researchign (homebirth, cloth diapers) You can tell where my mind is these days…
Sounds like you’ve got babies on the brain, what an exciting time! If you ever want to chat about homebirth and all things natural feel free to send me a private message, I’ve got some experience with those things
Take care,
Rachel
http://www.creation.com is a website of creation scientists that has articles on many different topics. They have books/magazines as well. This would be a good site to look at for particualr topics to hear a very thorough scientific explanation from a creationist point of view.
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