Sigh. We homeschool our children for many reasons, but religion is not among them. Articles like this one are hugely misleading. See, what happens is that people see bits like, "the majority of home-schoolers self-identify as evangelical Christians," and then they find out that we homeschool. They reel back in shock and surprise, often commenting that they didn't know we were Religious.
"We're not," we reply, and then it begins. We must help dispel the myth that most homeschoolers are religious, or that every homeschooler's idea of a fun evening is a high-stakes spelling bee, or that as homeschoolers we don't allow our children to associate with other kids.
Most of the homeschoolers we know are not evangelical Christians; some are not even Christians. Never mind the diversity of my own circle of friends; people should know (and so I'm saying it now) that the HSLDA does not speak for all homeschoolers. It doesn't even speak for all Christian homeschoolers. Most homeschoolers, quite frankly, are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves . . . we do it often, and loudly when necessary.
The truth is that homeschooling is growing nationwide not because there are more evangelical Christians removing their children from the clutches of the God-hating leftist heathens who are in charge of public schools but because parents in general are increasingly dissatisfied with the environment of public schools.
So yeah, we're secular homeschoolers. We embrace a science curriculum which recognizes evolution as the well-observed scientific phenomenon that it is. We also teach our kids that there are people who don't "believe" in evolution because they think God just poofed us all into existence one day when he was bored because there was nothing on tv. (Well, there wasn't!) We haven't told them yet about the people who don't "believe" in gravity.
I would love to add your blog to our list of secular homeschool blogs! (http://www.secularhomeschool.com/content/207-Secular-Homeschool-Blogs) If you would be willing, how about shooting me an email at info@secularhomeschool.com
ReplyDeleteWe're out here in NW Loudoun County, which is home to a particularly friendly group of evangelical Christians. We put up with--and even like--one another pretty well. However, we've talked about homeschooling as an option, but if we were to do so I'm afraid we'd be the ONLY non-evangelical Christian homeschooling family I know of. Unfortunately, the prevalence of secular homeschoolers appears to be highly non-homogenous. I wish we lived in an area like yours where homeschooling was in practice more about an educational choice than a religious choice.
ReplyDeleteI have found that public schools are just as bad at not addressing science and evolution for fear of offending anyone. If we wanted science, we had to do it ourselves. Where's the national article about that? :)
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