I hate defining myself by what I’m not, but in the case of secular homeschool curricula, especially science curricula, it often really does come down to finding something that is not-religious. The options for homeschool science are pretty much all either religious or the supposedly neutral curricula that are really anything but. The issue is that there is no such thing as neutrality about science — you should be as impartial (in your methodology and interpretation of data) as possible, you can be avoidant (get around that pesky evolution issue by just not mentioning it) of those issues that are the source of dissent — but you can’t really be neutral when it comes to the issue of scientific theory versus religious doctrine.
If you discuss biology (though many Christian curricula call it “life science” or “zoology”) without mentioning evolution, you’ve made a decidedly un-neutral choice. If you present both the theory of evolution and the doctrine of creationism, you’re still making a choice that isn’t neutral — you’re presenting both as equally valid options, two “beliefs” of equal weight between which to choose, and which involves having made the choice to place religious dogma on the same level as evidence-based science.
Once you’ve made your choice, stick with it. Creationism and evolution are incompatible. Literal 6-day creationism and evolution, even less so. Either God made the Earth and its inhabitants in a divine wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am or not. Either the Earth and its inhabitants evolved over time, or they didn’t. Your science text needs to take a stance one way or the other. Anything less is hypocritical and a little bit condescending. A secular science text shouldn’t even address the topic of creationism (or it’s half-assed, fence-sitting cousin, “intelligent design”). There’s no need to bring it up in order to dispute it, because if your text is evidence-based and scientific, religious doctrine has no bearing on it.
Let your argument for your belief stand on its own merits, instead of basing it on how mine is wrong. There’s a time and place for the refutation of fallacies, but I don’t need to see the points of creationism discredited one by one in my child’s science text. The same should go for the creationists, who seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to discredit evolution. The wrongness of someone else’s belief isn’t argument enough for the rightness of yours. What I want is evidence, not faux neutrality. I want rigorous, secular science that addresses real scientific theories, rather than ignoring them to appease both sides. I’d like to have my scientific chocolate peanut butter free of any theological chocolate. That’s decidedly hard to come by in the world of homeschool materials.
I actually couldn’t agree with you more, although I am on the opposite side of the coin.
And I like your description of intelligent design. LOL.
My Momma always says, “If you keep sitting on the fence, you’re just going to get a post up your ass.”
That is why we’ll be using college texts for high school science, and one reason we won’t use ANY formal science program until then.
I’m a VERY secular homeschooler, and I have to respectfully disagree with the idea that creation and evolution are incompatible – I find the idea that things got started somehow, *and* moved on from there, to be reasonable. I totally agree that creation and evolution are *scientifically* incompatible, however, since evolution is science and creation is not.
I really like the Lab of Mr Q Classic science series (google E equals MCQ, you’ll find him). It’s based on a 3 day/36 week schedule, he’s both rigorous and silly (lots of cheesy jokes and bad puns), and he does labs with actual household items. He’s also completely secular (as opposed to most homeschool pseudo-secular science). The whole life science year is free, and I liked it so much I purchased the full set for my 2nd grader. She’s not quite ready for it but she likes the jokes! It’s more like later primary or early middle school level – we started, but she couldn’t keep up so we’ve put it away for a year or two. I picked it because my daughter loves science and doing experiments, and the structure of it is day one is reading, days two and three are experiments each week. No affiliation, just very happy to have found actual secular science for homeschool! It was so much harder to find than I would have ever expected!
Nice post.
We discuss evolution in biology and as part of pre-history, and every time we go to the museum. Can’t see doing it any other way. There is a book on creation that I love and actually read frequently by request – it is Big Momma Makes the World by Phyllis Root – highly recommended.
We discuss creation in our folk tales and myths blocks.
The phrase “that’s a part of Christian mythology” is one I use with the kids, to answer questions like, “What’s Satan?”
@ Smrt Mama – Hear hear [loud applause]
@ Karen – Yep we do likewise: Christian creation myth is good for compare and contrast with the other creation myths we come across in our meanderings.