This is why many DU teachers are so determined to fight education 'reform':

[proud2BlibKansan]

Do you want your kids to go to a school that teaches electricity is a mystery? If you live in Louisiana or a handful of other states, that is a real possibility if your child is given a voucher (or 'opportunity scholarship') to attend a private school. There is NO state agency that oversees curriculum in private schools. There is no state agency that makes certain teachers are fully certified in private schools.

Some states allow religious schools to become charter schools, where your child can enroll and no tuition is charged.

Is this the Science textbook you want your child's school to use?

ALEC legislation has been proposed in many states that would allow vouchers or 'opportunity scholarships' for religious schools that use textbooks like this.

Please keep this in mind if you think you should support reforming public education.

If your child attends a private school, don't assume that school won't adopt textbooks like this. Find out how the textbook adoption process works. Is there parental input allowed? There is no public agency that oversees this process.

Privatization is not the answer our public schools need. Electricity is NOT a mystery.

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[RandiFan1290]

2. More miracles!

[NYC_SKP]

3. Well, Everyone knows GOD makes electricity!

It says so right in the bible:

"The voice of thy thunder was in the Heaven; the lightnings lightened the world; the Earth trembled and shook. Psalms 77:18

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

62. Come on! Everyone knows that Thor is responsible for lightning

and electricity.

Of course, power outages are due to others playing with Thor's stuff:

[tclambert]

87. My socks are responsible for electricity!

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle . . . ZAP! Take that, Thor!

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

92. I'll see your socks and raise you a Van de Graaff Generator

Take that!
.
.
.
.
.

wait for it...it takes a second to charge up...
.
.
.
Yeeeeeeeeeelp!


.
.
.
.
.
You win
(but Uncle Thor still kicks butt)

[eridani]

99. Wrong! Wrong! WRONG!!!

The sock is the larval form of the coat hanger. Everybody knows that.

[derby378]

93. Wrong! Mama Boucher invented electricity

Ben Franklin is the DEVIL!

[NYC_SKP]

4. I have publisher Bob Jones University's rebuttal to criticisms right here:

Are Christians Just out of It, Scientifically Speaking?

Have you seen this page scanned from an older edition (copyright 1990) of our Science 4 textbook floating around the blogosphere lately? Just do a Google search for “electricity is a mystery” (include the quotation marks) and you’ll see that it has been making the rounds.

The word “mystery” might seem unusual in a science context, but to
physicists the world is still full of mystery. When electricity and
magnetism were unified through Maxwell’s equations and light was
explained as electromagnetic radiation, people thought that we fully
understood this area of science. The famous physicist Albert Michelson
said in 1894 that “The more important fundamental laws and facts of
physical science have all been discovered.” On careful reading in
context, Michelson’s quotation was not as naive as it sounds, but it
does reflect a widespread view that physics was largely complete.
Within a few decades the discoveries of relativity and of quantum
mechanics turned the world of physics upside down. Today, the sense of
wonder and mystery in physics is as large as ever. The popular science
writer Amir Aczel is unafraid to use the word mystery in the title of
his recent book, Entanglement: The Greatest Mystery in Physics (Wiley,
2002).

Of course all of this is too much to explain in a 4th grade science
textbook. A helpful first step, however, is to acknowledge that even the
familiar set of phenomena we call electricity is still not fully
understood and to point out the difference between the effects of
electricity and the fundamental nature of electricity itself.

A number of people have taken the opportunity to ridicule the science that is presented here as well as the Bible. The basic point being made is that Christians are just out of it; we don’t have a clue; we are “two hundred years” out of touch with reality.

---more at the link---

http://www.bjupress.com/about/electricity-is-a-mystery.php

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. I've seen many more textbooks just like this one

I have a neighbor who homeschools her kids and I have helped her choose materials and textbooks. I've also had several students who were homeschooled and their parents shared the materials they used.

This kind of crap is rampant in 'Christian' textbooks. And in 2012, not just 1980.

[NYC_SKP]

8. I'd love to get a copy of one of these, old or new edition...

...without paying BYU for it, of course.

I'm a bibliophile with a lot of textbooks in the mix.

[Agony]

12. abe may be your friend

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?pn=%22bju+press%22&x=0&y=0

i can't bear to look any farther than that

have fun!

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. You can find lots of them on line.

Science's Crusade Against Religion



NOTICE: This item is not Returnable


Author or Contributor : Pamela R. Winnick
Published by: Thomas Nelson Publishers†

Topics : Sale Other and Science

Hard Cover Book

Ages: 18 and up

List Price: $25.99 US
Your Price: $11.99 US
A DISCOUNT OF 53.9%
Availability: In Stock
HBC Part Num: 270567
In this riveting book, an award-winning journalist reveals the many ways in which science has eroded human dignity and shielded itself from scrutiny by attacking religion - becoming itself an oppressive, narrow-minded system of faith that blindly pursues its own objectives, shirking off traditional values and moral responsibilities.

https://www.HomeschoolingBooks.com/pages/itemdetail.asp?ItemID=14110

Who We Are
At HomeschoolingBooks.com we want you to feel like you’re walking into the corner store in town and purchasing your materials from people you know and trust. We are owned by a company that started in the homeschool business almost before there was home schooling. Our parent company, Mott Media, began in 1974 out of an interest in teaching, a concern for the erosion of values in education, and a desire to preserve our Christian heritage. The home school movement was in its infancy and there weren’t many homeschool programs, so we republished Ray’s Arithmetic, McGuffey’s Readers, Harvey’s Grammar and Spencerian Penmanship. In 1991, Mott Media launched the Homeschooling Book Club and in 2003, the website HomeschoolingBooks.com. We have been committed to providing the home school community with great materials and great service at great prices.
https://www.HomeschoolingBooks.com/

[NYC_SKP]

14. Thanks.

All I find from that single book is page 40, I'm thinking there are 39 or more equally disturbing pages!

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Those are from the first link that comes up when you Google 'books for homeschoolers'

You have to go way down the list to find books that aren't 'Christian'.

That's why my neighbor asked me to help her. She ended up using older textbooks she found at garage sales and thrift stores. But she wanted newer texts for Science and Social Studies. And that took some searching.

[knitter4democracy]

20. I interviewed for a Baptist school position once.

Their Abecca literature series was flat-out disgusting. Worst textbook I have ever looked at. They were talking about having me start an AP Lit/Lang course, and I made sure the principal and dept. head both knew that would be impossible with the books they had. They had authors I'd never heard of because they weren't so controversial or were Baptists, and they entirely ignored massive swaths of literature.

Trust me, there are lots of terrible textbooks out there that perpetuate whatever the authors want to perpetuate. It's brainwashing, exactly what we real teachers are accused of doing and they're just projecting.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. The Math books are absolutely horrible

100 problems per page. No concepts taught, just practice, practice, practice.

[knitter4democracy]

31. Were they Saxon books?

I love Saxon, though I've heard that the books aren't as good as they used to be. He'd break down the concepts into smaller components, we'd learn that bit, practice that along with everything else we'd learned, and it all kept building up. Math made sense for the first time ever when I got into the Saxon pilot program in high school.

[eppur_se_muova]

35. Well, they're part of our shared Anglo-Saxon heritage ...

[proud2BlibKansan]

38. No not Saxon

I think it started with a B. ??

[knitter4democracy]

63. If it wasn't Abecca, I don't know which one it was.

My XMIL homeschooled my XSILs for a couple of years and tried to talk me into helping her teach them. It was a disaster, but I don't remember a math curriculum that started with a B. She showed me a lot of her materials, but that doesn't ring a bell.

[tclambert]

97. Well, of course fractions are a mystery. No one knows where least common denominators come from.

Maybe from the sun? Or possibly from cottage cheese.

[SheilaT]

32. Any actual AP courses, as I understand it, need

to use actual AP tests and the AP exam must at least be offered. That school might delude itself into thinking it's giving their kids an AP literature class, but if they're only using their own textbooks, it won't cut it when the kids get to college.

Which brings up a very important aspect of home schooling. The students who "learn" science from these kinds of texts will be completely unable to take college science classes. I suppose they can simply go to the Christian colleges and universities out there, and remain ignorant of how truly ignorant they are.

I have sat in junior college classrooms with students who were home schooled, and their lack of sophistication is kind of strange. You can tell they'd never interacted with people not exactly like them.

[knitter4democracy]

64. I went to a Christian college--it's real science there.

Mostly because they are sending their grads to med schools and the like.

I had a roomie in college who'd been homeschooled. *shudders* It. was. awful.

Yes, they would have had to offer the real AP test, and there's no way their materials would have worked. The pastor of the attached church wanted the AP class offered because of parent complaints, but honestly, no one there had a clue what they were really doing.

I've had too many interactions with evangelicals in education; I'm more than a little cynical.

[mwooldri]

74. I guess the badly educated homeschoolers need to start off @ community college.

If the education is not up to snuff and the 4 year colleges won't take you...

At least at a community college they have evening classes that teach the fundamentals... I guess to get the GED first, and then to classes. Get a 2 year degree.

Either that or find a private college that has a reality lined up with yours.

[jtuck004]

78. "... to ridicule the science that is presented he ...". Where does the science part start? n/t

[yurbud]

110. even in the fourth grade, you could show how we use the scientific method to figure

out some basic things about electricity instead of just making these bland statements.

[blackspade]

112. This explanation does not make it better.

The idea that 4th graders are too ignorant to understand the nuances of scientific theory is bullshit.
The folks that write this crap are clowns that have no business teaching science or any other subject.

[baldguy]

5. Powerful people with a lot of money have a vested interest in keeping the masses ignorant.

[Flatulo]

89. Isn't this true of every religion? nt

[obxhead]

105. I find it true of the religions,

but in this case I would blame government and their masters the corporations. It may be the religious that create the demand, but it's the government allowing the nonsense to occur.

Ignorant people will be busy hating each other, not the real culprit.

[ancianita]

6. Holy shit.

Thank you for this eye opener. ANY experienced professional opposes the voucher scam of public school 'reform.' The 1% only need one generation of this, and the uphill battle for a people's intelligence will be too great.

[grantcart]

50. a rather ironic, and I am guessing unintended, apt description of the picture.

[barbtries]

9. this is frightening.

new jersey, tn - there has been not all good news for democrats this week

[Starry Messenger]

10. Your tax dollars would be going to this, folks.

Creeping superstition and hatred of facts and science should have no place in contemporary society.

[coalition_unwilling]

11. Emphatic K&R. Cannot be said often enough! No public monies

to support the establishment of religion. Period.

[n2doc]

15. There is no commandment saying "Thou are to be stupid"

AFAIK. I don't remember Jesus saying anything like that, either.

[MADem]

23. Yep...and when he talked about "suffer the little children" he wasn't talking about "at the hands of

their idiot parents and 'mystery science' teachers" either!

[MichiganVote]

16. K&R

[AllyCat]

17. That is frightening. We are about to embark on homeschooling our oldest this year...

...I know we will likely run into some of these nuts. Will be a good opportunity to talk to our kids about the value of quality education and my continuing allergy to religion.

[knitter4democracy]

21. Definitely talk with them about it.

Most homeschoolers do it for religious reasons or use religious curricula (Abecca being the worst, I think). If you have your kids join in their sports or drama clubs, you'll run into it quite a bit. Just make sure to keep an eye on it, as many of these religious homeschoolers are also constantly looking for missionary opportunities in their community.

[AllyCat]

33. Thanks. We are fortunate to have a large group of homeschoolers in our city

who are not doing this for religious reasons. A bunch of people recommended Abecca to me and when I went to their website, my eyes were opened. We are preparing to 'unschool' but I have purchased a supportive curriculum that was inexpensive and science-based. The sports' groups could get interesting and we are trying to aim for city rec programs.

[knitter4democracy]

65. Yeah, Abecca's scary.

A lot of smaller Christian schools use their crap, too.

I have a lot of respect for unschooling as long as everyone involved is committed to it working. It can really be neat, and I wish you all the best this year.

[bahrbearian]

19. I miss Madfloridian

[suffragette]

24. I miss her, too.

[YvonneCa]

26. Follow her...

...here: https://twitter.com/madfloridian

[bahrbearian]

28. Are you sure that link if ok for you to Post

TOS and all

[YvonneCa]

42. Not sure...

...re-reading it. ?

[msanthrope]

58. Why would it be a TOS violation? nt

[scarletwoman]

67. It's a Twitter link, those get posted all the time. Of course it's okay.

It's not a link to any of the unmentionable sites.

[bahrbearian]

68. So why was she tombstoned?

[msanthrope]

70. She has an active account as of this post. nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

72. I thought she left voluntarily.

[msanthrope]

75. She has an active account as of right now.

Profile information

About madfloridian
Statistics and Information
Account status: Active
Member since: 2002
Number of posts: 76,360
Number of posts, last 90 days: 0
Favorite forum: NA
Favorite group: NA
Last post: N/A

Alerts
Alerts sent by me: coming soon
Successful alerts (post was hidden by Jury): coming soon
Success rate percentage: coming soon

Jury
Willing to serve on a DU Jury: Yes
Chance of serving on a Jury: 80% (explain)
Number of times served on a Jury: 0

Avatar image

[bahrbearian]

77. Where can I find this profile, I've done a search, I seem to be missing it some where.

[msanthrope]

81. Just look it up in the search functions under 'my account..' You can look up anyone. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

82. She did, she chose not to make the move to DU3

And many of us considered that too.

And I know a few of my fans would have been pleased.

fans

[msanthrope]

84. But her account is here.....

Profile information

About madfloridian
Statistics and Information
Account status: Active
Member since: 2002
Number of posts: 76,360
Number of posts, last 90 days: 0
Favorite forum: NA
Favorite group: NA
Last post: N/A

Alerts
Alerts sent by me: coming soon
Successful alerts (post was hidden by Jury): coming soon
Success rate percentage: coming soon

Jury
Willing to serve on a DU Jury: Yes
Chance of serving on a Jury: 80% (explain)
Number of times served on a Jury: 0

Avatar image

[truth2power]

98. My understanding was that she decided to stay over at DU1. I don't know if it's

even still there. There was a time that one could access it but I could never figure out how to do it. I'd still be interested in reading her posts.

[Lifelong Protester]

85. I miss her too.

does she have an alternate blog or something? I don't 'twitter' (I assume that is a verb).

[AllyCat]

34. Huh? What happened to her?

[bahrbearian]

45. She got lerkfished

[sabrina 1]

76. No she didn't.

[nadinbrzezinski]

83. No she did not, she chose not to move to DU3

[SidDithers]

115. LOL. No, she didn't. She quit...nt

Sid

[slipslidingaway]

94. She still posts at DU2, posted this last night ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2486240

[progressoid]

95. +1

[iemitsu]

25. thanks for the thread. this is a pressing issue in the sate of washington

where charter schools will be on the ballot for the fourth time this november.
gates is determined to own the schools here and plug children into his software.
so we fight corporate greed, religious indoctrination, and hollywood fantasy in our efforts to provide sound educations for our youth.
i have been wondering all summer how i was going to convince students that abe lincoln was not a vampire.

[xxqqqzme]

27. More here:

http://www.11points.com/Books/11_Eye-Opening_Highlights_From_a_Creationist_Science_Textbook

The pages about the Moon are puzzling. I had no idea the moon was 10,000 years old!

One can only hope the children, handicapped by this forced ignorance, find their way out of the dense undergrowth.

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. That's just downright scary.

[Snarkoleptic]

69. The moon continues to puzzle Billol. Was prolly thinking about loofah and falafel during class.

[Posteritatis]

30. Guh, it's like juggalos got into academic publishing... (nt)

[Odin2005]

36. OMG, the stupid, IT BURNS!!!

[Trillo]

37. Can't municipal water districts simply up the amount of sodium fluoride put in our water?

Then you uppity teachers will eventually die, some of your generation's children will become teachers, and in a generation or two, that pictured science textbook may seem like a PhD's course of study.

[Riley18]

39. If electricity is a miracle, phones must be

little demon voices.

[lumberjack_jeff]

40. Jesus Christ!

That is the most ridiculous excuse for teaching I've ever seen.

Fuckin magnets; the textbook.

[progressoid]

96. I don't wanna talk to a scientist, y'all muther fuckas lyin' and gettin me pissed.

[HiPointDem]

41. one of a number of reasons.

[proud2BlibKansan]

44. Lesson #1

[cloudbase]

43. I should have put

"it's a mystery" on all those physics and EE exams I took back in the day. I'm certain it would've gone over just fine with the professors.

[lindysalsagal]

46. Flawed as they are, we need to maintain local boards of ed with local community oversight.

These corporations will not care about parent complaints, on any level or on any topic. They're beholden to their shareholders, who just want to make a profit.

The original stakeholder responsibility for self-education lies with local districts for good reason: You get exactly what you pay for, not what someone wants you to have after the profits have been taken.

[proud2BlibKansan]

48. Exactly

[xtraxritical]

79. Double exactly!

[nadinbrzezinski]

47. But we know the tides prove the existence of god

Just ask O'Reilly.

On a serios matter, this is not jut the US. The effort to return the masses is a global project. Imagine sending your kids to a religios school where there is absolutely no mention of the moon shot?

[KansDem]

49. Once when I was young I stuck a hairpin in a wall socket...

I found out really quick what electricity was!

[cantbeserious]

51. And Worse Yet - The Christians Have No Interest In Solving Mysteries!

eom

[own your story]

52. Didn't Obama tap Michelle Rhee (spelling?)

for Secretary of Edumacation? Is she pro-union? What about Arne Duncan, formerly of CPS? I turned off "Waiting for Superman" after about 40 min. when I realized it was a hit job on the teacher's union. She's (Rhee)prominently featured in the documentary. I was appalled that this was passed off as unbiased (informational).

Bottom line--do we have a President who supports teachers and their unions or not?

[proud2BlibKansan]

57. I don't think so.

Never heard that about Rhee.

There are some significant differences between many teachers and the president's education policies, however.

[proud2BlibKansan]

60. Do you believe Romney will have a better education agenda?

I don't. He's already said he will increase class sizes to reduce costs.

[old soul]

61. LOL- No, of course not.

But I cannot act as if false choices are okay with me.

[Egalitarian Thug]

54. K&R&OMFG! Where the hell do these morons come from and why do we tolerate their existence?

One my favorite drinking stories is my job interview of a 'graduate' of one of these so-called universities. Completely worthless and a huge liability to boot.

[Ilsa]

55. This must have been Bill O'Reilly's textbook. nt

[bvar22]

56. This is only ONE of the reasons why "Charter" (Private) Schools are a BAD idea.

!

[Skidmore]

66. Want to see the TOC from an astronomy text?

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product_slideshow?sku=337001&actual_sku=337001&slide=1&action=Next

[proud2BlibKansan]

71. Very interesting indeed

[MI_State_Too]

73. Ugh.

Lying to children, my favorite.

[spanone]

80. reads like Mad Magazine....holy jeeebus

[tclambert]

86. Shocking! Just shocking!

But then it's a mystery what that means.

[golfguru]

88. Choice is never bad

Whether for right to choose, right to marry any human being or right to vote without ID.

[Ikonoklast]

100. I think it's a good thing that the idiot fundy Christians want their kids to remain ignorant, too.

That way, they remove themselves from the competitive workforce as no employer will hire someone that is totally clueless and uneducated at even a basic level, leaving more jobs to be filled by educated liberals.

But I'm sure that's not what you mean.

[golfguru]

113. I don't worry about what Christians think

I am not Christian, but I respect their right to educate their children
in the manner they feel is best. Parents should always be the final
authority when it comes to children, unless there is evidence of abuse.

[DesertDiamond]

90. Lightning isn't visible????

[proud2BlibKansan]

91. There you go using those critical thinking skills!

[D23MIURG23]

101. That faint humming sound you hear is Richard Feynman spinning in his grave. n/t

[Daphne08]

102. In what friggin' century are we living?

I don't have any words for this crap!

[Coyotl]

107. The one with record warfare, but hey baby women vote now and it is after slavery, not?

Unless, of course, you lament the days when slaves were guaranteed food and housing

[grahamhgreen]

103. Want good schools? Follow the example of Finland, public and unionized.

[golfguru]

114. I am not willing to prefer economy of Finland over ours.

Besides those small countries with populations under 10-15 million
are not necessarily comparable to countries with over 100 million+.

[obxhead]

104. Vouchers alone are complete BULLSHIT!

Why should someone get a tax break to send their children to a private school? I don't have any children and I can't participate in any way, nor would I want to. It's my responsibility to help fund our public education system.

Why should ANY taxpayer get a voucher to send their child to a private school? If they want a special school let them fund it fully on their own.

As for this textbook? What do they think power plants do?

[Coyotl]

106. So this is what they purchase with the public money left over after profits and advertising costs

We get to watch our hard-earned public education dollars go to T-V ads for these agenda (propaganda) schools.

[proud2BlibKansan]

108. Those Exxon Mobil commercials are revolting

Also, Michelle Rhee is asking for donations so Students First can air commercials on TV.

[yurbud]

109. electricity is a mystery, but they know all about what happens in heaven, that angels are watching

over us now, and which commandments in Leviticus God still cares about (no gay sex!), and which he doesn't (rapists should pay the father of victim them marry her, don't wear a fabric made of two kinds of thread like poly cotton, and women on their period should sit in a tipi outside of town--which was actually God's commandment to form suburbs).

[yurbud]

111. electricity is a mystery, but Bob Jones U used to claim to know exactly where the lines were

between races and that it was a sin for different races to mix.

[SomethingFishy]

116. There is a pretty funny Blog post about this book

here:
http://www.11points.com/Books/11_Eye-Opening_Highlights_From_a_Creationist_Science_Textbook

It does not talk about the "Electricity" chapter but the chapter about "The Moon".

Any reasonable person would find this book... highly suspect. And thats the nice way to put it

[DirkGently]

117. It's come down to demand that children be kept in ignorance, lest they

question the ignorance of their parents.

Truly demented.