Downtown, he's 15 and apparently the only training his parents have had is via a creationist website and their curriculum which his parents have been giving him at a rate of a couple of hours a day.
Ask a Homeschooler
- Thread starter Darth Caesar
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generalstaff
Steadfast
IMO it would be acceptable if he was not being taught creationism as fact. That is what troubles me; I do not have enough other information to go further than that.
civver_764
Deity
I think that religious indoctrination is a very serious form of child abuse.
Easily one of the worst, and hardest to recover from than the others.
dwaxe
is not a fanatic
Do you have many Muslim, Jewish, other Christian Denominations, non-religious, etc. friends in real life?
Well, the "only a few hours a day" thing isn't a huge deal...you can accomplish all your coursework in 4 hours if you're very efficient each day. I'd be concerned that the rest of the day was filled with fulfilling academic activities though, like field trips, indepedendent studies, etc.
I noticed that you're planning on going to college. If your curriculum isn't coming from some accredited, respected institution, you may find your college choices limited, even if you do very well on your SAT/ACT scores...unless you wanted to go to a very religious institution, which it sounds like you might.
My mom ran an online homeschool program for several years, and I worked for another large curriculum provider for a while, so I'm pretty familiar with how certain programs are evaluated by post secondary institutions..
Darth Caesar
Might be a Wizard
*facepalm*
1. I'm 15, 2. I live in Virginia which is a good state for homeschooling, 3. Alpha Omega Productions Switched on Schoolhouse, and no they are not accredited, 4. They have not received any training for being a teacher.
They don't like how the publice school system has gotten so secular, students can't even privately pray any more.
No, most of my other friends are homeschoolers.
About 3-5 and none of those are faked.
Luckymoose
The World is Mine
It is true. I will not let you get away with religious prejudice.
Darth Caesar
Might be a Wizard
If you don't get the humor then fine by me!
holy king
Deity
true. but then, we had a free porn channel running from 1 am to 5 am.
Quite apart from the fact that you live in an avowedly secular country, I was under the impression that praying involved sitting somewhere and being quiet. You can't seriously tell me that that is impossible at school now.
civver_764
Deity
I'm not sure such misinformed people should be entrusted with educating you. You seriously think that you can't pray privately in public school?
pob
Deity²
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Although I am loath to quote wikipedia, in the USA "the courts have consistently ruled that students' expressions of religious views through prayer or otherwise cannot be abridged unless they can be shown to cause substantial disruption in the school." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_prayer#United_States)
Darth Caesar, you'd be free to pray in any way you wanted as long as you were not disrupting others.
Darth Caesar, you'd be free to pray in any way you wanted as long as you were not disrupting others.
Okay, I know how everybody here is basically asking questions like OMG UR GETTING RELIGIOUS SCHOOL YOU ARE SO DUMB, and I know that must be kind of frustrating for you.
Your parents don't have any training for being a teacher, so they might not know this..here's a little tip, since you said you wanted to go to college.
When you complete a public high school, or an accredited home school program, you get a High School Diploma. If you complete an *unaccredited* home school program, you get a completion certificate. While the certificate means you technically graduated high school, they aren't the same thing! Unless you want to go to a place like Liberty University, (or an unaccredited bible college), you're going to be at a severe disadvantage.
A completion certificate is a major red flag indicating that you wouldn't be as successful in a traditional college environment.
Look, if your parents want to teach you the earth is 4,000 years old or whatever, some smart people might laugh at you, but that doesn't mean you can't be successful. If you want to study English or something, honestly, it really doesn't matter how old you think the earth is. There are plenty of accredited programs for other academic content that you parents can enroll you in (including college coursework!), and still teach you the science stuff.
(also, I used to teach public school in the south. You absolutely can pray in school. The teacher just can't lead the prayer, or tell you what to pray. I have an ask a teacher thread if you're curious about how that stuff works)
pob
Deity²
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Have you had any lessons in logic? (Something which is very underrepresented in most education systems.) Have you learnt any debating skills? (Very important for your future political career)
Do you play any team sports?
Why did you start this thread? Did you think the responses you would get would be affirming of the decision your parents made to homeschool you?
Do you play any team sports?
Why did you start this thread? Did you think the responses you would get would be affirming of the decision your parents made to homeschool you?
Ajidica
High Quality Person
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How do you define 'privately pray'? If you feel like praying quietly and on the whole try and keep it self-contained, no public school will have a problem with it. If however by 'privately pray' you mean the Baptist Holy Roller feeling the presence of the holy spirit style prayers, no you would likely not be able to do that in public schools in a public setting simply because of the disruption it would cause. That doesn't apply just to religions. If I jumped up on my desk and started shouting Lenin's 'April Theses', I would not be allowed to do that due to the disturbance it would cause.DC said:
Holycannoli
Deity
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I said this thread would turn out this way on page 1, and now that it has I'm angry. Get your intolerant atheist views the hell out of here.
Darth Caesar, I do think you need to get a regular public or quality private education in addition to this. Try to talk to your parents about it. Even if it's just a year before college, it's worth it. I'm not saying your parents are wrong for homeschooling you, but they really should let you experience all that education has to offer which includes daily social interaction and hopefully a focus on scientific study without any religious or other prejudice (there's more than a few science teachers who will show anti-religious prejudice though, but the good ones don't).
It's not easy to understand when you're a teen. What I'm afraid of, and am nervous to say, is that your parents are religious nuts, what most on these forums call fundamentalists, and that will do harm. I mean no disrespect, I'm just forming a hypothesis based on what I've been reading here. But I'm catholic, and contrary to popular belief we don't automatically dismiss science including evolution. The problem with fundamentalists is they often actively deny science, without realizing that science and religion are not contradictory if you don't interpret the Bible so literally (mostly the Old Testament). I'm hoping you aren't forming such an anti-science opinion yourself. I just want you to realize that they aren't exclusive, that science doesn't disprove religion or vice versa, that even the study of evolution is the search for God's truth and not a search for denial of Him.
Xanikk999
History junkie
I can't beileve this is legal. Children should have to be brought up to the same standards for education as public schoolers; that is the standards accepted by scientific fact without religious extremist views.
Sorry I do not approve of an education where they indoctrinate kids with lies and misrepresent the truth. These kids will grow up to be the next generation of republicans.
Sorry if I sounded a little harsh but it really irritates me that homeschooled kids can be brainwashed like this and its legal.
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