"Cliff" wrote in message
...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100306/...hool_evolution
"Top home-school texts dismiss Darwin, evolution"
[
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Home-school mom Susan Mule wishes she hadn't taken a
friend's
advice and tried a textbook from a popular Christian publisher for her
10-year-old's biology lessons.

Mule's precocious daughter Elizabeth excels at science and has been
studying
tarantulas since she was 5. But she watched Elizabeth's excitement turn to
confusion when they reached the evolution section of the book from
Apologia
Educational Ministries, which disputed Charles Darwin's theory.

"I thought she was going to have a coronary," Mule said of her daughter,
who is
now 16 and taking college
courses in Houston. "She's like, 'This is not true!'"

Christian-based materials dominate a growing home-school education market
that
encompasses more than 1.5 million students in the U.S. 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."

"The majority of home-schoolers self-identify as evangelical Christians,"
said
Ian Slatter, a spokesman for the Home School Legal Defense Association.
"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 from trying
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 at the request
of The
Associated Press.

"I feel fairly strongly about this. These books are promulgating lies to
kids,"
said Jerry Coyne, an ecology and evolution professor at the University of
Chicago.

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.

"Those who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of
God
will find many points in this book puzzling," says the introduction to
"Biology:
Third Edition" from Bob Jones University Press. "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."
....
The size of the business of home-school texts isn't clear because the
textbook
industry is fragmented and privately held publishers don't give out sales
numbers. Slatter said home-school material sales reach about $1 billion
annually
in the U.S.

Publishers are well aware of the market, said Jay Wile, a former chemistry
professor in Indianapolis who helped launch the Apologia curriculum in the
early
1990s.

"If I'm planning to write a curriculum, and I want to write it in a way
that
will appeal to home-schoolers, I'm going to at least find out what my
demographic is," Wile said.
....
Apologia and Bob Jones University Press say their science books sell well.
Apologia's "Exploring Creation" biology textbook retails for $65, while
Bob
Jones' "Biology" Third Edition lists at $52.
Coyne and Virginia Tech biology professor Duncan Porter reviewed excerpts
from
the Apologia and Bob Jones biology textbooks, which are equivalent to
ninth- and
10th-grade biology lessons. Porter said he would give the books an F.

"If this is the way kids are home-schooled then they're being
shortchanged, both
rationally and in terms of biology," Coyne said. He argued that the books
may
steer students away from careers in biology or the study of the history of
the
earth.
....
]


Bless you my son, God wants me to trim out the other newsgroups you spammed
to.

"Burled Frau" wrote in
:

Bless you my son, God wants me to trim out the other newsgroups you
spammed to.


You forgot to "trim out" RCM.

You also forgot to "trim out" his BS.