I must admit, my heart sinks as I walk around many of the exhibit halls as these conventions and look at the mixed/compromise messages (and the outright pagan literature) being made readily available to the thousands of parents who are seeking help on how to educate the next generation to stand on the authority of God’s Word! This is a serious problem I want to bring to the attention of the homeschool movement in an effort to at least get organizers discussing the issues and being aware of this compromising situation.
Problems in the Homeschool Movement
I for one think it is GREAT that publishers have realized that there is a DEMAND for secular textbooks amongst homeschoolers. Homeschoolers are a diverse bunch, many of us use REAL SCIENCE books and believe in Evolution. A Homeschool Convention is the perfect place to showcase all textbooks. It should be up to the parents to review the textbooks and decide which textbooks to purchase for their family not some self appointed "homeschool textbook censor".
Feel free to make my site public. I am not afraid to speak my word.
ReplyDeleteYou sir, do the homeschool movement a great diservice by lamenting that there are more than one kind of curricula available. The homeschooling movement has it's strength in diversity. It may be newsworthy to you, but homeschoolers come in a great deal of many flavors. Just alone the homeschool group I belong to in the Quad Cities is so varied. We are a secular group. All that means is that we chose to homeschool based on reasons other than religion. Many in our group are very devout. Some others not so much and some others not at all. As for me, I welcome the availability of a variety of curricula. Be they religious or not. Homeschooling my dear man, is for all of us. Not just those of a Christian bend of mind. It is for pagans (yes, shocking I know....), it is for Muslims, it is for Agnostics and Atheists. It is for all that homeschool, be it out of desire or necessity. A disclaimer? How arrogant. You treat non-religious material as though touched by a leper. Didn't Jesus himself touch and accept the lepers? We secular homeschoolers are not asking you to love us. We are not asking you to convert your beliefs but we believe that homeschool conventions are there to serve more than one section of our community at large.
Homeschoolers of all beliefs and faiths, of every stripe, should strive to teach tolerance and acceptance to their children. I think all of us have met the lack thereof for the simple reason that we homeschool. But, as we grow stronger by each year and school districts begin to loose funding they will exert pressure on the lawmakers to regulate and pressure our little community. We have to stand united when those days come to protect our way of life and beliefs. And by beliefs I don't mean religious beliefs. I mean beliefs in the education of our children. I am an evolutionist. I am not alone. You are a creationist. You are not alone. But if we insist on standing alone we will eventually fall together. Homeschool conventions are designed to reach you and me and everyone else and in between. People who attend homeschool conventions don't go there to find the word of their god. They go there to find curricula and tools to be better teachers. To find your word of god go to your preacher, pastor, rabbi, guru, mullah and imam. God's words are to be taught by them and the parents. Not a homeschool convention.
A note of thanks to Alasandra (http://alasandras.blogspot.com/) for posting information about your article.
Please understand, I don't seek a fight with you. I just hope to have you realize that the homeschooling world in America is much much bigger than the community you represent.
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Alasandra, above is a copy of the reply I left on Ken's site. I copied it to yours because I didn't know how open to discussion he would be with someone who believes differently.
btw, this Ken Hamm claims the title Doctor. I wonder what kind of Doctor he is?
ReplyDeleteMarlis, thanks for posting your response to my blog. His Doctorates are honorary.
ReplyDeleteKen has also been awarded two honorary doctorates: a Doctor of Divinity (1997) from Temple Baptist College in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a Doctor of Literature (2004) from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Marlis, Your reply was exactly the same thing I thought but didn't have time to write, I had to go plant some roses. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to him.
ReplyDeleteWell, I certainly agree that the roses come first. We have a rather big garden ourselves. Unfortunately the Japanese beetles are ravaging our garden every summer.
ReplyDeletewhen I visited the site it said that my comment is awaiting moderation. I must say I'll be pleasantly surprised if he does decide to make it public. We'll see.
Have a great day!
Well, it would appear that Mr. Ham did not have the courage to post my comment. Frankly I would have been surpised if he had which is why I had the foresight to copy my reply to your site. Why is it that so many religious people are so low on tolerance?
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that there are no comments at all on the site. I'm a conservative Christian, but I would find having Mr. Ham as a key speaker to be a disincentive to attending a particular conference. There is much that I disagree with in the evolution centric presentation of science (such as the idea that it disproves God). But there is also plenty to flee from in the literal 144 hour 6 day creation narrative.
ReplyDeleteIf a homeschool convention is going to have its staff vett the offerings at the vendor hall, they should make that very clear in their registration packet. Because I don't need to have my books pre-digested or approved by an outside authority. That is why God gave my kids parents.
Both Marlis & I left comments on the site, but they were never approved.
ReplyDeleteWhen I homeschooled my boys we studied Theistic Evolution.