THE stupidification of American children continues at depressing speed …
According to this report, Christian-based teaching materials dominate an escalating home-school education market encompassing more than 1.5 million students.
And for most home-school parents, a Bible-based version of the Earth’s creation is exactly what they want.
Federal statistics from 2007 show 83 percent of home-schooling parents want to give their children “religious or moral instruction.”
Said Ian Slatter, a spokesman for the Home School Legal Defense Association:
The majority of home-schoolers self-identify as evangelical Christians. Most home-schoolers will definitely have a sort of creationist component to their home-school program.
Those who don’t, however, often feel isolated and frustrated in their efforts to find a textbook that fits their beliefs.
Two of the best-selling biology textbooks stack the deck against evolution, said some science educators who reviewed sections of the books.
Said Jerry Coyne, an ecology and evolution professor at the University of Chicago:
I feel fairly strongly about this. These books are promulgating lies to kids.
Apologia Educational Ministries Inc, for example, says of its Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology (yours for a paltry $39.00):
Finally! Apologia introduces an elementary level Anatomy book that gives glory to God as children discover what’s going on inside their bodies! …They’ll study nutrition and health, how God designed their immune system to protect them, along with embryology and what makes them a unique creation of God.
Apologia’s motto is:
Learn, Live & Defend the Faith.
The textbook publishers defend their books as well-rounded lessons on evolution and its shortcomings. One of the books doesn’t attempt to mask disdain for Darwin and evolutionary science.
The introduction to Biology: Third Edition from Bob Jones University Press declares:
Those who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God will find many points in this book puzzling. This book was not written for them.
The textbook delivers a religious ultimatum to young readers and parents, warning in its History of Life chapter that:
A Christian worldview … is the only correct view of reality; anyone who rejects it will not only fail to reach heaven but also fail to see the world as it truly is.
When challenged about that passage, university spokesman Brian Scoles said the sentence made it into the book because of an editing error and would be removed from future editions.