What Not To Teach

The right to home-school your children is something that i find myself uneasy with. I kow some parents are more than capable, but it should not be used as a method of indoctrination. Being taught proper science, and being able to discuss the implications of ideas such as evolution, creationism, etc with their peers exposes children to the idea that not everybody believes the same things, and will hopefully cause them to turn to the evidence.

This article from the Telegraph highlights the problems when parents do the wrong thing. No child should have a link between 'The Wizard of Oz' and atheism, it is a FICTIONAL story, it says nothing about religion. The twisting of fictional fantasy to fatastical beliefs continues with Harry Potter 'the Lord is in charge of your life, and in Harry Potter the characters are interested in gaining power for themselves'.

But worse is yet to come...

'We don't want people teaching our children that they come from monkeys,' says Michelle McKissick, 40, from Houston, who teaches her four children at home. What happens in biology classrooms is 'a lie', she says, before instructing me in the 'correct' view: Genesis 1.11 – not a metaphor, or a story, but fact. She firmly believes that the world is only 6,000 years old and that, consequently, man and dinosaurs (created on Day Six, along with Adam and Eve) once lived together quite happily – the creationist view of the universe. 'Dinosaurs weren't all these great big huge monstrosities,' she smiles, 'and they weren't all ferocious. Probably most of them were, in fact, plant-eaters.' It is Noah's flood, she points out patiently, that is responsible for the existence of fossils. And as for the vexing question of how Noah got a brachiosaurus, an animal that could have weighed up to 33 tons and eaten 3,000lb of green plants a day on to the Ark – 'He took the young ones. That would make the most sense.'

Why would herbivorous animals have teeth perfectly designed for tearing into animal flesh and practically useless for chewing plants? Perhaps she should be denied the right to decide what makes 'the most sense'?

Jesus Camp

I finally got round to watching this film in some free time I had this morning. For those of you who haven't seen or heard about it, it follows a few kids attending a 'Jesus Camp' run by a larger than life evangelical woman. It really does ram home the problem of religion.

Most of the kids are home-schooled, apparently on religious grounds. The lessons seem to make a complete mockery of science, evolution, and who knows what else. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole of history was rewritten to support the Bible.

The camp itself used evocative music, dance, speech, lighting, etc to enchant the children and draw them into the fold. These tactics wouldn't be out of place in the arsenal of many a dictator, and the conviction of the speaker, and her eagerness to convert the people to believe her world-view reminded me of Adolf Hitler than the biblical accounts of Jesus of Nazareth.

That made me angry, but the anger was overcome by sadness for the children. For those of you who doubted Richard Dawkins claim that this form of indoctrination is child abuse you need look no further. The children seem to be converted not just for their own good, but to be soldiers for the cause of evangelism.