As a homeschool dad, I am used to people accusing me of “sheltering” my children.  I hear it all the time (mostly indirectly).  “You homeschoolers are doing your children an injustice by keeping them away from ‘real’ science and just giving them one side of the argument.”  I love to see the looks on people’s faces when they discover that our children actually read more Darwin than those in Government Indoctrination Centers.  That’s right; my children read, Darwin’s book, The Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (gotta love that racist title).  Did you read that in school?  I know I didn’t. 

My children also read The Communist Manifesto, The Humanist Manifesto, and Mein Kampf, among others (again, who read this stuff in government school?).  They are well versed in the arguments of the “other side.”  In fact, they often find that they know more about Darwinism, socialism and secular humanism than those who claim to be champions of the aforementioned worldviews.  Ironically, though, the true ‘sheltering’ of children is happening in the government schools.  That’s right.  While homeschool families are exposing their children to a broad range of literature and worldview arguments (and outscoring their government educated counterparts on every significant standardized test), it is the government school that suppresses opposition. 

A shining example of this suppression took place recently right here in the Republic of Texas!  (note to all the nit-pickers:  I know we are no longer our own Republic... its a joke!)  The Texas State Board of Education recently voted 8-7 in favor of willful ignorance when “The twenty-year-old clear mandate to teach scientific "strengths and weaknesses" of theories and hypotheses, both of which have weaknesses, was taken out of the Texas science standards and replaced with "analyze and evaluate", a far less clear phrasing.” (see the story here)  It seems the Darwinists don’t like their weaknesses exposed.  They’d rather shove their heads under a rock and follow their religion blindly in spite of real science (insert audible laughter from Christian homeschool parents).

Lest you think this was a radical leftist move, Texans for Better Science Education reported:

Three Republican and five Democratic Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) members voted with Darwinists, atheists, ACLU members, and at least one bona fide signer of the infamous Humanist Manifesto III, in an attempt to promote indoctrination over critical thinking skills.  The GOP members ignored both the 2008 Republican Party Platform[1] and constituent emails that numbered over 6500--an unprecedented number for SBOE battles.

Don’t worry, though.  This is Texas, and as I’ve heard hundreds, if not thousands of times from Christian parents in this state who send their children to the government for their education... “Our schools are DIFFERENT!”

VB