Charter & Voucher Schools & "Education"
December 15, 2017 11:44 AM Subscribe
A two-part investigation (by HuffPo) into the taxpayer-funded schools Betsy DeVos supports. Voucher Schools Championed By Betsy DeVos Can Teach Whatever They Want. Turns Out They Teach Lies. These schools teach creationism, racism and sexism. They’re also taking your tax dollars.
Part Two:
Inside The Voucher Schools That Teach L. Ron Hubbard, But Say They’re Not Scientologist. Betsy DeVos wants to expand school voucher programs throughout the U.S. Get ready for that list to include schools that promote Scientologist doctrine.
Dana Hunter, science writer and blogger En Tequila Es Verdad on The Orbit, has an extensive list of her investigation into christian textbooks, many of which are used in the charter and voucher schools: Xian Textbooks
Dana Hunter, science writer and blogger En Tequila Es Verdad on The Orbit, has an extensive list of her investigation into christian textbooks, many of which are used in the charter and voucher schools: Xian Textbooks
We used Accelerated Christian Education textbooks and curriculum materials at the Baptist primary school I attended. Yes, there was a religious bias in the material, but it didn't seem like they were academically worthless. When I entered public school for the intermediate grades, I tested 2-5 grade levels ahead in every subject.
N.B. this was many years ago and the curriculum may have gone way downhill since then for all I know, and it doesn't negate the point of the article in any case
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:18 PM on December 15, 2017
N.B. this was many years ago and the curriculum may have gone way downhill since then for all I know, and it doesn't negate the point of the article in any case
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:18 PM on December 15, 2017
Ugh, this makes me feel kind of sick. I survived those damned Scientologist schools and would prefer if they were all burnt to ashes and swallowed up by the earth. They would swear up and down that they weren't Scientologists to non-Scientologists and try to make themselves sound like a wholesome prep school, but it was a big damn lie.
Pretty much all of the staff and faculty were Scientologists, and while I'm sure some had good intentions, none of them had adequate education credentials or training. Hell, they even had a few who they hired as instructors right after graduating from the same damn school. Every classroom had a picture of Hubbard hanging, a huge portion of the textbooks were straight up from the Church, the rest were out of date and out of touch, and Sea Org recruiters were constantly hanging around to the point that roughly half of the high school class dropped out to join. I was one of the very few from my class to attend college, but my high school education had such huge gaping holes in it, it embarrasses me to this day. No one should ever be going to these schools.
posted by Diagonalize at 2:55 PM on December 15, 2017 [14 favorites]
Pretty much all of the staff and faculty were Scientologists, and while I'm sure some had good intentions, none of them had adequate education credentials or training. Hell, they even had a few who they hired as instructors right after graduating from the same damn school. Every classroom had a picture of Hubbard hanging, a huge portion of the textbooks were straight up from the Church, the rest were out of date and out of touch, and Sea Org recruiters were constantly hanging around to the point that roughly half of the high school class dropped out to join. I was one of the very few from my class to attend college, but my high school education had such huge gaping holes in it, it embarrasses me to this day. No one should ever be going to these schools.
posted by Diagonalize at 2:55 PM on December 15, 2017 [14 favorites]
Wait till Christian school choice advocates find out about equal protection and the other religious schools they'd have to now fund as a result.
Not just other religious schools. Want to get a hard-right conservative to drop this idea like a hot potato? Just whisper "Vouchers fund Madrassas."
posted by tclark at 4:50 PM on December 15, 2017 [5 favorites]
Not just other religious schools. Want to get a hard-right conservative to drop this idea like a hot potato? Just whisper "Vouchers fund Madrassas."
posted by tclark at 4:50 PM on December 15, 2017 [5 favorites]
N.B. this was many years ago and the curriculum may have gone way downhill since then for all I know
The newer books, especially the science ones, are frighteningly devoid of connection to reality, and packed with "proof" that draws on bible verses.
It's certainly possible to create textbooks with a religious bias that aren't horrible as textbooks--a lot of 19th and early 20th century textbooks had a strong Christian bias--but the new ones are really big on "plz ignore what all other schools try to tell you about science." Cracked had an article, including a page from a book published by Bob Jones Uni:
I wish I had the connections to put together a Pagan school plan and seek government funding for it. It's win-win: if I succeed, the Pagan schoolkids in the SF Bay Area get to learn earth science with a spiritual focus; if I lose, there's solid precedent to take down the tax-supported Christian (and Scientologist, ugh) schools.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 5:57 PM on December 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
The newer books, especially the science ones, are frighteningly devoid of connection to reality, and packed with "proof" that draws on bible verses.
It's certainly possible to create textbooks with a religious bias that aren't horrible as textbooks--a lot of 19th and early 20th century textbooks had a strong Christian bias--but the new ones are really big on "plz ignore what all other schools try to tell you about science." Cracked had an article, including a page from a book published by Bob Jones Uni:
[Picture of a white girl with a hairdryer]Article goes on to mention how they "disprove" the popular theory of how the solar system formed: "They instruct parents to mock the theory of it condensing from dust by throwing baby powder in the air and asking the kid to notice how it doesn't condense into tiny planets."
Electricity is a mystery. No one has ever observed it or heard it or felt it. We can see and hear and feel only what electricty does. We know that it makes light bulbs shine and irons heat up and telephones ring. But we cannot say what electricity itself is like.
We cannot even say where electricity comes from. Some scientists think that the sun may be the source of most electricity. Others think that the movement of the earth produces some of it. All anyone knows is that electricity seems to be everywhere and there are many ways to bring it forth.
I wish I had the connections to put together a Pagan school plan and seek government funding for it. It's win-win: if I succeed, the Pagan schoolkids in the SF Bay Area get to learn earth science with a spiritual focus; if I lose, there's solid precedent to take down the tax-supported Christian (and Scientologist, ugh) schools.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 5:57 PM on December 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
the new ones are really big on "plz ignore what all other schools try to tell you about science."
Yeah, science is probably the area where they're the worst, and we didn't get too deeply into science in the primary grades. I remember mostly doing nature walks and plant and insect identification. No doubt the difference would have become more noticeable the higher the grade levels got.
And I have no idea what our teachers' qualifications were. The teachers I had were pastors' wives and missionaries between trips. They may also have been licensed teachers, but I don't believe they were required to be.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:50 PM on December 16, 2017
Yeah, science is probably the area where they're the worst, and we didn't get too deeply into science in the primary grades. I remember mostly doing nature walks and plant and insect identification. No doubt the difference would have become more noticeable the higher the grade levels got.
And I have no idea what our teachers' qualifications were. The teachers I had were pastors' wives and missionaries between trips. They may also have been licensed teachers, but I don't believe they were required to be.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:50 PM on December 16, 2017
...the electricity one is just so weird to me. I know why they try to do the 'it's a mystery! no one has seen it' with evolution, but electricity? Nearly everyone in the world has seen and felt electricity! Do homeschooled children just nod along with this? Are they *so* beaten down and incurious that they don't think 'but I've seen lightning! I've been shocked!'? Are evangelicals so genuinely frightened of all science that they have to reject even the most mechanical and theologically unthreatening aspects of the natural world?
posted by tavella at 10:58 PM on December 16, 2017
posted by tavella at 10:58 PM on December 16, 2017
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