Ask A Homeschooler

[Kennigit]

AP classes are evaluated on the AP tests; anyone can sign up for the test and pay for it afaik. As long as there are schools that offer the test nearby (which all of northern virginia will). i.e. you don't need an official "class" for AP.

 

[NickyJ]

How are you evaluated and judged to be in whatever grade/year you're currently in?

Each year, there are three days of standardized tests that I must take in a classroom with other homeschoolers. (In my case, the classroom is in a Baptist church, but I digress.) Those tests include basic skills pertaining to math and grammar. About a month after the tests are completed, the results are mailed to us, and in turn, we mail them to government for them to evaluate. If I score well, I may move on to the next grade. If I don't, then I must either repeat the grade or go to public school. (Fortunately, I've been scoring college levels for a number of years. )

What was the approach to education that your homeschooling went for. Did it go for the classical approach with the trivium and applying classical education to (in a few cases on here) a christian context?
If so (and if it was a different approach I have not mentioned) what would you say is the fundamental difference between the homeschool method you went for and a more standard manner of education?

I'm not quite sure I understand the question. Are you asking how the lessons are emphasized? (i.e. with a Christian approach to science.) If that is the question, then my answer is: Yes. For example, my science classes usually emphasize that all things, from atoms and quarks, to the universe itself, are a gift from God, and that everything was specially designed by God to serve a purpose in this world.

The main difference between my family's homeschool method and the standard manner is that the above example is not found in my local public schools. The schools would teach from an atheistic viewpoint, and would teach that the world as we know it today is a result of millions of years of evolution.

 

[Ajidica]

The schools would teach from an atheistic viewpoint, and would teach that the world as we know it today is a result of millions of years of evolution.

I wasn't aware the Pope was an athiest.

Pope Pius XII declared that "the teaching authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions . . . take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God" (Pius XII, Humani Generis 36).

http://www.catholic.com/library/Adam_Eve_and_Evolution.asp

"In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation, provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points.... Today, more than a half-century after the appearance of that encyclical, some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than a hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies—which was neither planned nor sought—constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory."

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I wasn't aware the Pope was an athiest.

Indeed. It's the scientific viewpoint with which many theists subscribe to. It's irritating when I see atheists lumping all theists together, it's just as irritating when theists do it. No theist is the spokesperson for all theists. No theist represents the viewpoint for all theists.

Which means, it's objecting to schools teaching from a scientific viewpoint.

 

[NickyJ]

I wasn't aware the Pope was an athiest.

I never said he was. Evolution does not necessarily mean atheism. All I said is that they would teach atheism. They would also teach evolution.

 

[downtown]

AP classes are evaluated on the AP tests; anyone can sign up for the test and pay for it afaik. As long as there are schools that offer the test nearby (which all of northern virginia will). i.e. you don't need an official "class" for AP.

Yup, thats basically how it works. I'm sure Virgina has ways to enroll in certain AP classes online, or partnered with local community colleges as well. You don't actually have to take the class though...anybody who can pony up the what, 80 bucks or so, can take the test, and if you pass, you get credit.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

How does one teach atheism?

 

[downtown]

How does one teach atheism?

Yeah, that isn't how public school science instruction works, or at least, it shouldn't. State standards instruct teachers to not take sides on God or not. Their role is to instruct how natural processes work...if students want to believe those are run by God or not, that's their business. The class does not attempt to solve those questions.

I taught in one of the most Jesusy states in the US, and that was my training.

 

[timtofly]

The online course CFC, Off topic?

 

[Ajidica]

I never said he was. Evolution does not necessarily mean atheism. All I said is that they would teach atheism. They would also teach evolution.

I never encountered any sort of 'athiestic viewpoint' endorsed by any teacher. The closest we came was in Physics when we read Hawking's A Briefer History of Time and in World Religions when we talked about proof for a god and in both of those classes the teacher made no pronouncement on whether there is or isn't a god.

 

[Takhisis]

Each year, there are three days of standardized tests that I must take in a classroom with other homeschoolers. (In my case, the classroom is in a Baptist church, but I digress.) Those tests include basic skills pertaining to math and grammar. About a month after the tests are completed, the results are mailed to us, and in turn, we mail them to government for them to evaluate. If I score well, I may move on to the next grade. If I don't, then I must either repeat the grade or go to public school. (Fortunately, I've been scoring college levels for a number of years. )

Math, grammar? No history or Literature or such?

I'm not quite sure I understand the question. Are you asking how the lessons are emphasized? (i.e. with a Christian approach to science.) If that is the question, then my answer is: Yes. For example, my science classes usually emphasize that all things, from atoms and quarks, to the universe itself, are a gift from God, and that everything was specially designed by God to serve a purpose in this world.

The main difference between my family's homeschool method and the standard manner is that the above example is not found in my local public schools. The schools would teach from an atheistic viewpoint, and would teach that the world as we know it today is a result of millions of years of evolution.

Wrong, it's more of a secular viewpoint, Not an atheistic one.

 

[peter grimes]

For example, my science classes usually emphasize that all things, from atoms and quarks, to the universe itself, are a gift from God, and that everything was specially designed by God to serve a purpose in this world.

The main difference between my family's homeschool method and the standard manner is that the above example is not found in my local public schools. The schools would teach from an atheistic viewpoint, and would teach that the world as we know it today is a result of millions of years of evolution.

Wait... are you saying that your teaching has NOT shown you that this the world as we know is the result of millions and billions of years of natural processes?

And to chime in withe the other voices, there was nothing at all theistic or atheistic in my public and private schooling, nor at the state university I attended. If you think there is an 'athiestic agenda' in schools you're being fed a line of stink.

 

[NickyJ]

Math, grammar? No history or Literature or such?

Correct. Apparently, the government feels that my grasp of history and literature do not need to be tested.

Wait... are you saying that your teaching has NOT shown you that this the world as we know is the result of millions and billions of years of natural processes?

It has said that it is possible. However, I find that all proof lies towards the direction of special creation.

That said, do not turn this into another evolution-creation debate thread.

 

[timtofly]

Wait... are you saying that your teaching has NOT shown you that this the world as we know is the result of millions and billions of years of natural processes?

And to chime in withe the other voices, there was nothing at all theistic or atheistic in my public and private schooling, nor at the state university I attended. If you think there is an 'athiestic agenda' in schools you're being fed a line of stink.

I would call it secularization, since athiest is a little "narrow" minded. Athiest tend to leave God out of their personal lives and education. Secularist want God out of everything.

 

[bathsheba666]

Correct. Apparently, the government feels that my grasp of history and literature do not need to be tested.


It has said that it is possible. However, I find that all proof lies towards the direction of special creation.

That said, do not turn this into another evolution-creation debate thread.

What meaning of the term 'proof' has your education led you to understand?

I would call it secularization, since athiest is a little "narrow" minded. Athiest tend to leave God out of their personal lives and education. Secularist want God out of everything.

This seems a flawed classification.
Atheists clearly believe there is no God.
Secularism does not deny the existence of God, but seeks to keep the state free from religious influence - part of the objective of this is to not let one religion dominate or victimise others.
To identify atheism and secularism seems almost paranoid.

 

[NickyJ]

What meaning of the term 'proof' has your education led you to understand?

Because I will grow very annoyed if this turns into an evolution-creation debate, I will not answer.

 

[bathsheba666]

Because I will grow very annoyed if this turns into an evolution-creation debate, I will not answer.

Well, as the term could pop up in various classes, from science to rhetoric, I was interested in its origins.

 

[Takhisis]

Correct. Apparently, the government feels that my grasp of history and literature do not need to be tested.

This explains a lot… how can you be expected not to make the same mistakes if you don't read about them?
Can you post a full list of the subjects which you have to take and those that 'regular' students have to take but home-schoolers don't'?

I would call it secularization, since athiest is a little "narrow" minded. Athiest tend to leave God out of their personal lives and education. Secularist want God out of everything.

No, just no. Atheists are people who don't believe in God(s), secularists are people who separate religion from the state.

 

[NickyJ]

This explains a lot… how can you be expected not to make the same mistakes if you don't read about them?

Erm, what? I still do take history and science classes. In fact, I score my highest marks in history.

 

[downtown]

This explains a lot… how can you be expected not to make the same mistakes if you don't read about them?
Can you post a full list of the subjects which you have to take and those that 'regular' students have to take but home-schoolers don't'?

Public school kids don't take promotional standardized test scores in those subjects either.