Creationist ideas being taught here.

[Lilith7]

I had no idea that this backward, American right wing Christian nonsense was being taught here. This is really nasty & scary stuff which has somehow arrived here.


https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/educati...ate-change

"A curriculum that teaches creationism as fact, denies human involvement in climate change and depicts women as inferior to men has grown in popularity.

Former students describe teachers speaking in tongues and a cult-like atmosphere and claim the curriculum has sexist and racist undertones.

Hundreds of New Zealand students learn through Accelerated Christian Education, or ACE, at schools dotted across the country and via homeschooling. That number has increased due to the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.



ACE originated in Texas in 1970. It presents every subject through a Biblical worldview, with young Earth creationism and moral lessons embedded throughout.

ACE also attempts to discredit scientific evidence of humansÔÇÖ role in climate change. A science book for year 9 students says: ÔÇ£Attempts to show a connection between rising global temperatures and rising carbon dioxide levels have failed.ÔÇØ


Jean Balchin, 27, was homeschooled with ACE for six months between the ages of 9 and 10. Her time studying ACE was brief, but her siblings used it for the majority of their education.

Balchin says ACE hammered home the message as a woman, ÔÇ£I had to be docile, I had to be subservient, the man was the head of the householdÔÇØ.

The PACEs are peppered with comics illustrating moral lessons.
Balchin says ACEÔÇÖs lack of critical analysis has frightening real-world implications.

ÔÇ£Quite a few of my siblings are┬áanti-vaxxers, for example, because they take as gospel butchered quasi-scientific explanations from┬áscaremongers on Facebook."

[Zurdo]

My 4 kids were home schooled - oh dear, what have we done to them ? !

[Lilith7]

There's home schooled, & then there's this kind of nonsense.

[Zurdo]

A lot of people seem to associate homeschooling with Fundamental Christians. Right is the new Left.

[Lilith7]

There's a lot of rightwing Christians in America home schooling their kids like this, & apparently it has spread to NZ.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I am in two minds about this kind of stuff, because of my actual parenting experience. I was a huge fan of state education based on my own decades past experience, until I was a parent with a very intelligent curious child who I had home schooled since birth went into that much changed system.

She didn't fit, for a number of reasons and simply abandoned education in her fourteenth year. It was a difficult time, but now, as an adult, she is fine and building a good life for her family.

Having progressed my own learning about the process of education, that sense of discomfort about our state system has only increased. And while I do not hold with the misinformation passed on in the guise of religious education, I am only too aware that learning is a lifelong process, and it is the responsibility of the learner to find the teaching that suits. In the 21st century we are both blessed and hindered by the internet, access to the huge human wealth of knowledge is so much better than it ever was - it is even more true that learning is up to the individual.

Like everything else, it is a choice. Learn, or stay ignorant, and live with the consequences. It really is up to us.

[Lilith7]

I am in two minds about this kind of stuff, because of my actual parenting experience. I was a huge fan of state education based on my own decades past experience, until I was a parent with a very intelligent curious child who I had home schooled since birth went into that much changed system.

She didn't fit, for a number of reasons and simply abandoned education in her fourteenth year. It was a difficult time, but now, as an adult, she is fine and building a good life for her family.

Having progressed my own learning about the process of education, that sense of discomfort about our state system has only increased. And while I do not hold with the misinformation passed on in the guise of religious education, I am only too aware that learning is a lifelong process, and it is the responsibility of the learner to find the teaching that suits. In the 21st century we are both blessed and hindered by the internet, access to the huge human wealth of knowledge is so much better than it ever was - it is even more true that learning is up to the individual.

Like everything else, it is a choice. Learn, or stay ignorant, and live with the consequences. It really is up to us.

I think our education system needs to change; (its only comparatively recently that the education system has recognised dyslexia) in particular that different kids tend to learn differently.

My two youngest went to a boys only high school because that was what they wanted - I'd have preferred a co ed school but since their mates were going to this school I decided it might be for the best.
It wasn't, & I ended up sending them to what was an alternative school back then, despite being warned against it by a teacher from the boys school. That turned out to be the best thing i could have done for them & they learned far more from that experience than they could have where they were.
Sadly, that school no longer exists, but I believe we need more along those lines.

However to be fair, decades later a grandson chose to go to that very same school in spite of his dads experience & flourished there - I suspect things had changed for the better.

Imagine, if we had free education for everyone at all levels. People could continue learning, educating themselves in many different areas & no doubt it would help in staving off things like Alzheimer's.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Learning creates new pathways in the brain, and new cells to support those pathways. It is physically hard work, which is why so many adults shy away from it, especially as we age. But it does postpone cognitive decline, if - and only if - it is the hard work kind.

Unfortunately, the daily quiz doesn't cut it! Doing what we have always done only digs those established pathways deeper. Into ruts...

[Oh_hunnihunni]

There is one other aspect to this brainwashing type education thing - it underlines just how powerless a large section of our human community actually is. The kids.

[Lilith7]

True, that. Not sure just how we could change that either except perhaps by laws.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Well, we could give them the vote...

[Oldfellah]

What is this thing called "school"?

[Lilith7]

Well, we could give them the vote...

Yes, we could allow 16 year olds to vote - & never mind that they'd be doing so with incomplete brains!

They'd probably vote for the best looking candidate....