[Vanity] Does this stuff belong in an 8th Grade Science Textbook? You tell me.

I know that this may be a long read, there's a lot of content here, but I think that many FReepers will find the information here interesting and disturbing. I will appreciate any help I can get with this situation.

My wife and I have been homeschooling our children since they started schooling. We have 5th, 6th, and 8th graders. Recently, we made the tough decision to enroll them in a local Charter School. In Arizona, a Charter School is a privately run, smaller, more focused public school. It provides parents with school choice and some competition between the schools. Although, right now, the Charter Schools are the red-headed step children and are regularly passed over in funding, resources, etc. in favor of the megaschools. We favored the small school environment and found a Charter School that we thought met our minimum standards. We went into this with our eyes open and met with the Principal and the School Director and asked many specific questions related to policies, teachers, environment, curriculum, underlying philosophy, discipline, etc. We knew that we were going to have to unteach our children some of the garbage that they would inherently be taught in any sort of public school and we were prepared to do that.

They've been in the school less than a month and we've already run into problems with what is being taught and what we were told they would be taught. We've dealt with some, but the biggest one came up last night.

My 8th grader is not allowed to bring her Science textbook home. The reason is that the Science teacher purchased the textbooks with his own money and doesn't want any to be lost or defaced. In fact, there's not enough books to go around so some students must double up on a textbook. I understand this, to some extent, and actually see a benefit with my daughter having to take copious notes to keep up. That note-taking skill will serve her well later on.

We help our children every night with their homework. At this time, if you look at raw man hours, we probably spend more time helping them with their homework now than we spent teaching them and helping them with their homework when we were homeschooling, but I digress. Anyway, my 8th grader had some questions about an essay that she was assigned to write for her science class. She started reading off some things that were supposed to be about human ecology and said that she was supposed to write why she agreed or disagreed with each statement. Now, in what science class do you write why you agree or disagree with the First Law of Thermodynamics? In the 8th grade?!

The book is called "Global Science" and it is the 3rd Edition published by Kendall/Hunt in 1991 and authored by John W. Christensen." I can find no other science books authored by this person.

Many of those "laws and principles" had little to do with science, were value statements, and some were plainly offensive. But, whether one agrees or disagrees with the philosophy behind some of these statements, many don't belong in a science book. This piqued my interest and I read through the "laws and principles" thoroughly and then Googled them.

These are the "laws and principles" that are printed in this textbook. I quote them here so that you can read them and I enthusiastically invite comment about them:

There is no reference in the book to where this crap came from. Disturbing is the fact that bizarre value statements are mingled with scientific principles like the Laws of Thermodynamics. When I Googled, I could not find any legitimate science sites, papers, or articles which contained this set of principles or anything close to them. What I did find was that every site that had this set or a slightly reworded set were Pagan and Witchcraft sites. No, really. I'm not looking for Satanists under every bed or in every closet, but this is what I found and it surprised me.

Here's a list of some of the websites which contain this set of principles or slightly reworded versions:

The only reference I could find, and I found it on several of the sites, was to something called "Ecomagic - Book of shadows" and it showed that this set of principles was on Page 616 of that book. What does "Ecomagic" have to do with science? When I compare what was printed in the science book with the reworded versions found on the websites, it appeared to me that what was in the science book was simply a cleaned up version, with some grammatical fixes, of what was published in Pagan literature and published online. Now, of course, I need to know which was published first. The book was published in 1991 and had earlier editions. Did the Pagan sites get the statements from this "science" book, or did the "science" book AND the Pagan sites get the list of principles from some other source that I can't find? Maybe (probably) this is a distraction, but I think it is noteworthy and disturbing.

These principles are not just included in a sidebar or appendix. No, instead they are at the end of Chapter 1 and they are prefaced with this comment:

The author makes it clear right here that these so-called "principles" are going to pervade the "science" text and that the goal of the text is not to teach science, but to ensure that the students accepts these "principles".

This makes it abundantly clear what the goals of the "science" text are. By mingling science (a "tool at our disposal") with a collection of socialistic, radical environmentalist, and zero-population growth garbage, as long as student has the "proper attitude", will mold them to have the mindset that the author intends. The goal is not to provide the student with an understanding of a specific science because, as the author states, "this is not just another science course."

Chapter 3 is all about Growth and Population. In fact, population problems appear throughout the entire text. The references used are typically the Ehrlich's disproven zero-population junk science philosophy. References also come from the Club of Rome's 1971 "Limits to Growth" study which is more zero-population, one-worlder garbage. Chapter 3 is quite offensive as it compares humans to bacteria, discusses abortion as an acceptable form of population control, and even includes diagrams of several birth control methods and devices. So offensive was this chapter that the original school who used this book removed the most offensive 10 pages. I found out about that content while using Google and reading a fairly positive review of the book and that content. I spoke to the Director of my children's school and he knew nothing about the book, its contents, and the excised portion.

Throughout the book are several political cartoons. One shows an Earth covered with people, so many so that they are hanging on the bottom and some are tumbling off the bottom into space. Others depict a cowboy, an indian, and a dead buffalo and it mocks the evil and stupid cowboy for wanting to slaughter more buffalo. Another shows a baby with a globe for a head labeled "population" with a big mouth and a farmer bringing food to the baby. Each progressive frame shows the baby's head and mouth growing larger, the farmer's bushel of food also growing larger, then finally the farmer has aged, the bushel is empty, and it appears the huge mouth is going to swallow the farmer who has stumbled to the ground. Another cartoon shows factories with stacks belching smoke, denuded trees, clouded skies, pipes spewing pollution into a waterway, and dead animals around it. The evil suit-wearing capitalist has his arm around his son and is captioned as saying, "Someday, my boy, this will all be yours." Pure propaganda.

Further propaganda found in the book includes NASA images of the so-called "ozone hole" over the South Pole. The images are displayed to make the student believe that the "hole", which is in fact just a natural period thinning, is there at all times. It makes no mention of the natural processes (volcanic activity, cold season weather differentials, solar cycles) that actually cause the thinning. Another example, in the chapter called "Food, Agriculture, and Population Interactions" shows a shrouded women with an emaciated dead-looking naked infant in her lap. The caption says, "Ten million children around the world live like this." This is science?

In the same chapter that contained the starved baby photo, is the section on "Global Cooperation." And I quote:

This stuff is not just hidden in the text of the chapters, but is included in the exercises at the end of each chapter and likely will be on the tests. The students are still in chapter 1 and the teacher has already assigned an essay on one of the most offense portions of the book.

The teacher of this class is an outspoken atheist. The essay assignment for students to write how they agree or disagree with the principles and laws in the 1st chapter appears to be an attempt for the students to expose their immature (they're 8th graders) disagreements with the statements so that the teacher can categorize the students, soften them up by openly or subtly attacking their disagreements or beliefs, and/or by opening then up to criticism from their peers.

I have made an appointment with the school's director to discuss these matters. I'm looking for further information from those who would like to comment on the book and its content. As you can see, I've already formed a strong basis for my arguments that I will use with the school's director and the science teacher. I would appreciate further input to help strengthen those arguments or to develop new ones to ensure that this problem is promptly corrected.

1. I am in awe of your patience. Really. 2. Considering the infantile behavior of the teacher, you should fully expect this teacher to go nuclear on your daughter. I would think that he is completely capable of yelling at and attempting to publicly embarass her. Considering that he has (more than once) brought up legal issues, he will probably attempt to provoke you to violence. a. bring a recording device, if allowed. b. bring an adult witness other than your wife. c. prepare your daughter for the worst. d. have your daughter prepare any friends she might have in the class. e. continue to keep your patience. An attack on your daughter will require a whole new level of patience that you may not be prepared for, especially if she is brought to tears.

Thank you for your advice. We purchased a digital recorder last night and will use it from now on.

This teacher is mean. This is what my daughter and other students report. He's already brought my daughter to tears on the first or second day of class, before we had this issue with the textbook. When we visited class yesterday, you could see that the students are very fearful of him. The first student who gave her report was very nervous and said, "I don't know if this is what you are looking for" to the teacher. She had somewhat of a hard time getting through her presentation and finally started crying and sat down and put her head down on her desk.

My daughter reports that her friends in class told her that the teacher had NEVER done oral presentations the way he did yesterday. Normally, he berates and belittles them, interrupting their presentations and reducing some of them to tears. This is exactly why I was concerned with this assignment to discuss the bizarre "laws and principles" in the textbook. I just knew that the teacher was going to use the opportunity to destroy any objections the students had to the statements. The teacher can expect my wife, me, or both of us to be sitting in on all the oral presentations until this assignment is finished. We're going to thwart his attempts to brainwash these kids and he's hopping mad about it. If he was teaching out of a regular science book and sticking to the approved curriculum and lesson plan (and state standards, for that matter) we would have no problem. He's not. He injecting bizarre new age religion garbage.

UPDATE: When I dropped off my kids at the school this morning, I poked my head into the admin office so that I could remind the principal that my wife would be attending the science class later that morning. And to ask for a copy of the current lesson plan for that science class. He was tied up in a meeting, I was told, so I told the receptionist to pass on the message. She told me that he was in a meeting with the head of the curriculum committee as well as the science teacher. Sure enough, I look down the little hallway through the open door to the principal's office, and there was the science teacher. He was standing in front of the desk and he did not look happy. So, they are doing something about the issue and, it appears, the science teacher is not pleased.

My wife attended the science class today. She brought her little recorder. Before class started, the science teacher had another teacher watch the class while he lectured my wife. He said that he would not permit her to sit in his class if she was there only to find fault. He said that she could sign up as a teacher's aide and help teach the class, but that he would not tolerate her "negative" influence. She basically said, "whatever..." Then, he said he was angry that I had "demanded" a copy of the current lesson plan and that all I had to do was ask for it and he would have given it to me. She corrected him and said that I had not demanded anything, but simply asked the principal for the current lesson plan. He then started the class.

Guess what? No oral presentations were given today. He rearranged the whole class schedule, announced that the test on the whole chapter that was going to be next week was now going to be tomorrow and then he launched into a review of the science portions of the chapter.

This tactic is not going to work because my wife is prepared to sit in that class until that "science" textbook is out of the school.

Here's where the story gets even more interesting. In the middle of class, another teacher (my son's teacher) came to the classroom to get my wife. She left her purse there with the recorder going and went to the principal's office with the teacher. She said that my 6th grader son was not in any kind of trouble, but that there was an issue that she could help resolve.

Yesterday, my son came home after school and wanted to talk to me about what he'd learned in History class. They are studying World History and they're currently on the set of chapters about World Religions. He had come home Monday night with a bunch of spelling words which were words from such religions as Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Daoism, and Hinduism. We noticed nothing related to Christianity. My wife asked the teacher about that on Tuesday and she was more than comfortable with the teacher's plans to cover Christianity next week. In fact, the class is currently reading The Chronicles of Narnia and will be attending the film as a field trip on Friday. Additionally, the symbolism in the book and film has been discussed with the class.

In History class yesterday one of the high school teachers had come over and given a presentation on Islam. This teacher served as a Christian missionary in an Islamic country. He mentioned that he had to do so secretly or he could have been killed for trying to convert Muslims. He showed the a prayer rug, showed them how Muslims pray, and discussed other aspects of their religion and culture.

In my discussion with my son, who, by the way learned almost everything he needed to learn about Islam on 9/11, we discussed why the Christian missionary had to keep his mission secret. We discussed the Quran and the portions in it which proscribe the killing of those who convert Muslims to Christianity and to those Muslims who do convert to Christianity. We also discussed the head chopping habit with which Islam seems to be so enamored. We've discussed Islam before, he's seen the news reports about the hostages who have been killed on video by the "peaceful" representatives of the religion of Islam, and he's listened with me to Michael Savage in the car when Savage has been ranting about Islam. He is fully aware of what Islam is all about.

Even though the teacher was not pushing Islam, apparently my son took issue with him painting such a pretty picture of Islam by leaving out essential details.

The reason my son was in the principal's office is because his class was assigned to write a 'Thank You' letter to the teacher who gave the presentation. My son took the opportunity of that letter assignment to register his protest of Islam and the pretty picture that the teacher had drawn. He said something along the lines of, "Thank you for coming to our class and giving your presentation on Islam. It was nice, but you didn't talk about the slavery, torture, and killings that happen within Islam. You should have. Thanks anyway."

Apparently, the teacher questioned the tactfulness of the 'Thank You' letter my son wrote. My son felt VERY strongly about this issue and took his teacher's comments as an attack on his firm beliefs. He saw something that was wrong and he spoke up, through the letter, about it. My son can be somewhat emotional when he gets angry or upset, and apparently he shed a few tears as he defended himself against what he thought was an attack on his statements about Islam.

The teacher knew that my wife was on the school grounds, so she decided it was best to get everyone together and discuss the issue. The got everyone into the principal's office and explained to my son that he was not in trouble. He was told that he can keep his letter exactly as he wrote it. The principal told him that he was quite proud of my son for standing up so firmly for his beliefs, but that the method he used may not have been the best way to express himself. It was suggested that if he wanted to alter portions of the letter, that he may want to instead of attacking the teacher for leaving out the bad side of Islam, to have asked the teacher to come back and discuss the things like "slavery, torture, and killings" that happen in Islamic countries. He was sent back to class.

Now, I fully understand why my son chose to protest the way he did. He's attended protests and counterprotests with me. He's seen me in action and all of my kids love a good protest. They're just like I was when I was their age even though my parents were not politically motivated at all and I only once saw a protest when I was a kid, and it was against my church.

(Digression: When I was about my son's age I attended a large conference of my church in a city about 200 miles from my house. My whole family went. We had a great spiritual experience and walked out of the conference one day just filled with the Spirit. We came out and were assailed with all kinds of noise. This was during the push for ERA and my Church was against it. The conference site was surrounded by angry leftists protesting our opposition to ERA. They were chanting, had signs, and there was even a low-flying aircraft carrying a protest banner. There were protestors screaming at us. There were others standing just outside the doors of the arena who were passing out pamphlets to those attendees who were coming out. One tried to put a pamphlet in my hand and said to me, "You need one of these." I said, "No I don't", and I held my Scriptures up and said, "I only need these." I just love that look that a leftist gets when someone stands up to him like that. This was my first taste of it.
But I digress...on with the update.)

So, now I have to decide if I back the teacher up and tell my son that he should have been a little more polite. Or if I applaud his protest. I can tell you right now that I'm really proud of him for sticking up for his beliefs even after he thought his teacher was attacking him. The teacher and the principal told my wife that they were thrilled to see such strong convictions in a child that age and that most of the kids in the school don't even know what they believe in, let alone have the ability to strongly advocate for their position.

The principal told my wife that he wished that my son had brought up the issues in class during the presentation. My son is somewhat shy, unlike my daughters, so he probably just stayed politely quiet. The principal said that the school has to be careful about what they teach when it comes to religion - any religion - but that if a student asks about a certain religious topic that, by law, the teacher CAN discuss and teach on that topic. Now, I don't know why the principal felt that the very real situation of slavery, torture, and killings in the Islamic culture was one of those sensitive "religious" topics, but that is what he said.

I hope my son does decide to invite the teacher back to the class to present something on the issues he raised in his 'Thank You' letter to the teacher. That way, the whole class can be educated on the reality of Islam and its violent, oppressive culture.

Science class was over after this situation was dealt with. My wife retrieved her purse and the recorder. We haven't listened to what happened after she left yet, but we will.

She was told that the "science" book would only be used until the students were done with the test on this chapter. That it was gone, at least for the 8th grade. She didn't press for details about the 9th and 10th grades, but we will get that information as well.

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