It's official

85% of the voters want Alasandra's Homeschool Blog Awards to continue. I'll need a nifty badge/button for 2009. So feel free to put on your thinking caps and submit one. Badges/Buttons can be submitted anytime before August 1st. During August the badges/buttons will be voted on and one will be chosen. In September I'll ask for nominees.

Fundamentalist bloggers spreading misinformation again

Courtroom injustices are all the rage on fundamentalist homeschooling blogs and Wing (er I mean World) Net Daily. Of course they never bother to get their facts straight.

This is what really happened courtesy of Right Juris.Com

Now back to the story. There are clear warnings posted at the Courthouse to turn off your cell phones and not to use them in the Courtroom. She is being held for warning her husband about the actions that the opposing party were taking to collect the debt. I am sure this sounds pretty innocent, but think about what would happen if this type of behavior were allowed to go unpunished. Parties would simply have text messages sent out from the Courtroom instructing third parties to hide or dispose of assets if a hearing did not look favorable. It’s the content of the text that really got her into trouble with the Judge. I know I’m going to sound like the crotchety old man here, but people these days have no sense of manners when it comes to text messaging. Text messages in church, class, driving, and other equally inappropriate places is a huge problem. This type of behavior needs to be dealt with.

Mrs. Henwood was released from jail today after talking to the judge and having him explain why he put her in jail.

Not this Woman gets 30 days in jail for texting in court

Perhaps the fundamentalist bloggers should get more savvy and rely on something other the Wing Nut Daily for their information.

Homeschooling in nothing like creationism

I always enjoy the thoughtful post at Principled Discovery, Homeschooling as a protest movement is such a post.

This lead me to read Objections to evolution arise from incorrect interpretation of the facts Posted by Lawrence Kapture. I agree with a lot of his post, but I am infuriated by his assumption that all homeschoolers are anti-evolution idiots. Many homeschoolers BELIVE IN EVOLUTION and teach the theory of evolution to our children.

Homeschooling is essentially a protest movement. Regardless of motivation, homeschoolers believe public schools are unable to prepare their children to live in the world.

There is nothing inherently wrong with protesting. Many important reforms (Civil Rights to name one) have been enacted due to people protesting behavior they believed to be wrong. I proudly admit that my family left the Jackson County Public Schools in PROTEST of the mandatory public school uniform policy and it's socialist overtones. But we choose homeschooling because of the many opportunities and benefits it offered to my family.

Unfortunately, what homeschooling can do is isolate children from the market of ideas, especially when it comes to biological science. There is a large amount of fringe literature published by religious groups that support the claims of creationists while providing no real information about the vast field of evolutionary biology.

Homeschooling does not isolate children from "ideas" anymore then the public schools do. In fact many homeschooling parents understand the difference in a scientific theory like evolution and Aunt Betty's theory of who shot JR. We embrace the field of evolutionary biology and make sure our children are well educated in science.

Homeschooling allows families to isolate their children from good information by providing them only with information that is comfortable with their own biases.

Homeschoolers have a wealth of information at their fingertips. Homeschooled children are just as capable of navigating the Internet as public school students are. Frankly I am amazed at the ignorant people who assume homeschoolers are isolated from the world.

Like homeschooling is a protest against public schools, creationism is a protest against anything that opposes a literal interpretation of the Bible. When it comes to the origins of life, creationism is not a scientifically educated movement.

Homeschooling is nothing like creationism. Creationism is a religious belief. It has nothing to do with science and does not belong in a science classroom. Homeschooling is an educational choice, just like sending your child to public school or private school is an educational choice.