Reply to What do you think it means? Science studies from Creationist viewpoint

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "What do you think it means? Science studies from Creationist viewpoint"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I went to what sounds like a similar school for K-12 in the Midwest, and survived.  I did well on both the ACT and SAT, becoming a National Merit Scholar.  I'll be sending my kids to the public elementary down the street here in the DC suburbs, but not because I thought the academics where I went were bad.

A few things to think about:

1.  Is that the only description you're getting about what they teach in first grade?  In contrast, here's what my old school's website says about curriculum in 1st grade:

First graders study The Bible as God’s Story, learning about God through stories from the Old and New Testaments and memorizing key verses.    They learn literacy skills to  read, write, speak, and listen, using an integrated literacy series that gives them the ability to notice, think about and work with the individual sounds in spoken words, learn the relationship between the sounds of spoken language and the letters of the alphabet that represent those sounds in written language. They develop reading comprehension, writing skills and develop reading practices. They can count, write and order numbers, add and subtract, measure, tell time, count money, work with shapes, data charts and probability. They learn about their community: school, family and neighborhoods as well as other communities, and study science topics about plants and animals, magnets and rocks, health and nutrition.

I have to admit, I don't know what that math program you're impressed with is.  But I can tell you a few things about how I was taught, in a conservative, Christian, non-Catholic school.

We weren't taught Creationism in science.  We learned that in Bible class.  When we got to middle school, we were taught that evolution was a theory we didn't necessarily have to agree with, but that we should know about so we could be productive members of society.  Personally, I think there are forms of evolution everywhere, through natural selection if nothing else.  I, personally, don't know that the animals we see today look exactly as they did at creation (which, yes, I believe in, though like a PP I'm not bothered by the idea that the "days" may not have been actual 24 hour periods but more of an eon) and I don't know why that would bother people.  But I may be in the minority for that community - I don't live there anymore.  I also have room in my beliefs that dinosaurs could exist, and we were taught about dinosaurs though not extensively.

As for history, I don't know.  I do remember learning about Manifest Destiny and the theory that settlers were destined (by God) to settle the US, but that seems to be a recognized historical theory, even if it's now considered to be outdated.  But we learned history up through about WWI every year, which I understand is a common "we ran out of time" issue even in today's public schools.

As for the "because God wanted it that way" answer that was debated a few pages ago, we all tried that in about 3rd grade, because how could the teacher mark it wrong?  They marked it wrong and commented that, yes, that was true, but they were looking for another answer and we knew it.  So we generally only tried that once.

As a product of a similar school, here's what I would want to know before sending my kid there:

How many kids are in each grade?  How many classrooms per grade are there?  The school I went to was the same size as most elementary schools in our area, and our high school was the same size as the high schools nearby.  I know you're looking for smaller class sizes, but I'd be hesitant to send my kids to a school with only 15-20 kids per GRADE.  You want your kids to be able to find a tribe of kids like them, and if the school is too small that won't happen.  Also, if there's only one 15-20 kids, that means one classroom per grade - if there's one kid yours really doesn't get along with, there will not be a way to avoid him/her without changing schools.

How diverse is the school?  The big downside to my school is that we were 98% white - with a few adoptees from Korea providing most of the ethnic diversity.  I know people I went to school with that have never associated with anyone not like them.  I don't think that is healthy, particularly as my own kids are multiethnic by way of my husband.  I want my kids to have some kids that look like them at school, but also a healthy number of kids that don't look like them (or believe the same way they do) so that we can all learn to get along.

ASK about the "because God says so" answer.  See what they say.

ASK how/when they teach evolution.  I agree, it probably isn't in first grade.  Ask what happens if your child brings up a theory they don't agree with in a discussion.

Ask about testing, and what kind of standardized tests they administer so you can know how your child is progressing compared to the "rest of the world."  I don't know what the current tests are called, but we took the Iowa Basics every few years (and we didn't live in Iowa).  That way, you can be sure that if you decide after a while that this school isn't for you, you can switch schools knowing you're on grade level.

Would I send my kids to the schools I went to if we lived there? Maybe.  The diversity thing really bothers me.  But I think the academics were good, although I've noticed that they seem to have gotten more conservative since I graduated.  I had a cohort of friends that were considered very liberal there (though I'm a touch conservative here) and if they could find a good friends group, it would work.  What tends to concern me about the Christian schools in this area (not Catholic necessarily) is that they're tiny.  And tiny means that if you don't fit in exactly, you REALLY stick out.  I don't want that for my kids.

Basically, OP, as a graduate of potentially a similar school system, I think your child will be fine for first grade.  I don't know where you live and how easy it would be to transfer back to public (or something else) if this doesn't work after a few years.  It might be worth putting your child there for a while to get the small class sizes, realizing that you'll reevaluate often.  But I would ask the school the questions you're asking here, because they're the ones that would be able to answer them best.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics