March 8, 2010
A recent Associated Press report has found that two best-selling biology textbooks for home schooling children, published by Bob Jones University Press and the Apologia Education Ministries “stack the deck against evolution.”
According to Ian Slatter, a spokesman for the Home School Legal Defense Association, these textbooks are merely in keeping with the expectations of parents. Says Slatter, “Most home-schoolers will definitely have a sort of creationist component to their home-school program.”
Yet many scientists and educators are worried by the trend. Jerry Coyne, ecology and evolution professor at the University of Chicago, was asked to review the two books. He said, “I feel fairly strongly about this. These books are promulgating lies to kids.” Coyne added that “if this is the way kids are home-schooled then they’re being shortchanged, both rationally and in terms of biology.”
In defense of its content, Biology: Third Edition, the textbook offering from Bob Jones University, states: “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 is not written for them.” Another chapter in the book entitled “History of Life” states that the “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.” However, Brian Scoles, university spokesman, said the latter sentence should not have been published and blamed its presence on an editing error.
Others, however, see no problem with such assertions. Jay Wile, a former chemistry professor in Indianapolis who helped launch the Apologia curriculum in the early 1990s, claims it is the scientists who are being misleading. Says Wiles, “[Coyne] feels compelled to lie in order to prop up a failing hypothesis (evolution). We definitely do not lie to the students. We tell them the facts that people like Dr. Coyne would prefer to cover up.”
Caught in between these two sides are parents like Lexington, Kentucky, mothers Mia Perry and Wendy Womack, who have found that scientific, non-religious curriculum is difficult to come by. “We’re not religious home-schoolers, and there’s somewhat of a feeling of being outnumbered,” said Perry. A recent study found that 83 percent of parents home school their children for religious or moral reasons.
To read the full article, see “Top home-school texts dismiss Darwin, evolution”.