# Homeschooling biology FAILURE **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 5, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352 "2013-02-05T02:28:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/81 "2013-02-06T18:09:09Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > What does that have to do with speaking for everyone? To you and I, “wingnuts” could mean any percentage of people on the right, or even on the left. But when you translate the word into High Republican Persecutese (is that on Google Translate yet?) it means “every person to the right of Chairman Mao”. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/82 "2013-02-06T18:12:09Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > “[…] The only requirement for Texas homeschooling is that children ages 6-17 be taught a written curriculum of reading, _ **spelling,** _ grammar, math and good citizenship in a _ **bona fied** _ manner. […]” :smack: How reassuring. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/83 "2013-02-06T18:17:54Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > How the hell are colleges supposed to know if homeschooled kids are qualified if they can’t be tested? I’ve encountered student like this in college. They don’t do so well. I watched a student start off by laughing out loud at a sociology teacher talking about % of the US by religion, and declared that ‘10% atheist is wrong, everyone is a Christian’. When the teacher tried to discuss it with her, she just kept insisting she was right, and went from amused to angry. She insisted that what she learned in homeschooling was right, so the teacher had to be wrong. In another class a teacher was talking about the Puritans and how they interpreted the bible, and one student would constantly interrupt her to inform her that bible clearly states blah blah blah and that the Puritans were wrong. She told him over and over again that what they were learning was about the Puritans, and whether or not they were right had nothing to do with the class. He got more and more frustrated as the class went on, and one day tried to tell her that his homeschooling was obviously much better than what she was teacher, and she was wrong. Watching some homeschooled kids hit reality wasn’t pleasant. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/84 "2013-02-06T18:44:03Z")
A few of my best students at elite colleges have been homeschooled for at least part of their education, so I’m definitely not condemning homeschooling across the board. But yeah, there is a subset (possibly a majority) of homeschooled kids who have had VERY little exposure to any kind of critical thinking or research skills, and whose curriculum content has to a large extent been just plain factually erroneous. Our admissions dept. weeds them out but most of our students at least know somebody who knows somebody who’s notorious for being a brainwashed pig-ignorant homeschooler, and they tend to be famed in story and song for their clueless reactions when they encounter an item of knowledge that contradicts their carefully instilled worldview. I’m glad that my students find these incidents so horrifying and ludicrous—it’s kind of like a Scared Straight program for ignorance-fighting—but I’m angry that those poor indoctrination-homeschooled kids have been denied the full use of their minds and turned into high-profile dunces to be immortalized as objects of ridicule. Morally speaking, how is that not child abuse? ---
**Author:** ![EMCEE\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@EMCEE\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EMCEE_98)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/85 "2013-02-06T20:25:45Z")
These nutjobs are against birth control. What they don’t realize is that EVERY FUCKING WORD that comes out of their mouths makes them a proponent of birth control by default. Seriously, stop talking. Shit, stop breathing. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/86 "2013-02-06T21:11:48Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > It might make for a decent horror movie. At least a made-for-TV on the Sci-Fi channel type. I immediately thought of the Ghost of Christmas future in Scrooged. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/87 "2013-02-06T22:21:58Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Read the OP again. One of the favorite little liberal slurs is to refer to conservatives as wingnuts. “Wingnut” and “conservative” are mutually exclusive terms. In fact, it is reaching the point where “right-wing” not longer includes “conservative”. From what I have seen of your posts, you seem to fall into a seam somewhere between all these. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/88 "2013-02-06T22:28:45Z")
I was thinking more of this: [http://www.hellhappens.com/heads.jpg](http://www.hellhappens.com/heads.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/89 "2013-02-06T22:37:46Z")
I see it more as surreal imagery in a novel, rather than a movie, for some reason. Hundreds of tiny fetuses watching carnal activity (ignore the anatomical issues) would fit really well in _ **A Hundred Years of Solitude** _. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/90 "2013-02-07T00:14:04Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Some women (I knew one) take a pill regimen [that completely suppresses their period](http://www.noperiod.com/FAQ.html#What_birth). I’m trying to figure out in what context you posted this. Were you replying to a specific post or idea in the thread? Yes, if you continuously take birth control pills, you’ll never have a period. Most pill packs include a week of sugar pills, and during that week, a woman bleeds though it isn’t true menses. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/91 "2013-02-07T00:28:15Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > I’m trying to figure out in what context you posted this. Were you replying to a specific post or idea in the thread? Yes, if you continuously take birth control pills, you’ll never have a period. Most pill packs include a week of sugar pills, and during that week, a woman bleeds though it isn’t true menses. Maybe he meant that some women take only the active pills, skip the sugar pills and go on to the next pack and don’t get even anovulatory periods? And all those little dead baby like fetuses don’t get a chance to flush out? You wanna break the news about “spotting,” or should I? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/92 "2013-02-07T00:35:26Z")
For some reason I can’t get Kuato from _Total Recall_ out of my head. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/93 "2013-02-07T01:29:25Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I’m glad that my students find these incidents so horrifying and ludicrous—it’s kind of like a Scared Straight program for ignorance-fighting—but I’m angry that those poor indoctrination-homeschooled kids have been denied the full use of their minds and turned into high-profile dunces to be immortalized as objects of ridicule. Morally speaking, how is that not child abuse? Abuse and/or neglect but when religion is involved, it gets a pass more often than not. Tax exemption, child abuse/neglect, withholding of medical care et al. ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/94 "2013-02-07T01:43:22Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Your “they” is way too broad. No doubt some minority subset of the pro-lifers think birth control is a social evil, but I don’t believe most feel that way. Yes, but as **redtail23** pointed out, they’re the leadership, and the ones who really care about the issue. So you’re right in sheer numbers, probably, but weighted for influence in the movement is … harder to Google. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/95 "2013-02-07T01:53:34Z")
> [@](#): > > How the hell are colleges supposed to know if homeschooled kids are qualified if they can’t be tested? That’s the fun part! The colleges won’t know until the kids screw up! Not to worry, though, many of the homeschooled kids who were taught by True Believers go to Bible colleges. And oh, I could talk about Bible colleges for a long, long time. Let’s just say that in many of the Bible colleges, you can also earn a degree, even a postgrad degree, without having to let any of that nasty, icky science knowledge contaminate your brain. > [@hotflungwok](#): > > I’ve encountered student like this in college. They don’t do so well. > > I watched a student start off by laughing out loud at a sociology teacher talking about % of the US by religion, and declared that ‘10% atheist is wrong, everyone is a Christian’. When the teacher tried to discuss it with her, she just kept insisting she was right, and went from amused to angry. She insisted that what she learned in homeschooling was right, so the teacher had to be wrong. > > In another class a teacher was talking about the Puritans and how they interpreted the bible, and one student would constantly interrupt her to inform her that bible clearly states blah blah blah and that the Puritans were wrong. She told him over and over again that what they were learning was about the Puritans, and whether or not they were right had nothing to do with the class. He got more and more frustrated as the class went on, and one day tried to tell her that his homeschooling was obviously much better than what she was teacher, and she was wrong. > > Watching some homeschooled kids hit reality wasn’t pleasant. Working with them isn’t very pleasant, either. Sometimes, homeschooling is the best option all around, especially if the child is exceptionally smart or really, really needs one-on-one instruction in order to learn something. More often, though (IME), homeschooling is done because the parents have an agenda, and wish to indoctrinate their little followers into the One True Way without exposing the kids to people of different backgrounds and beliefs. When the True Believers’ homeschooled kids encounter any situation which doesn’t fit into their world view, they quite frequently can’t cope very well. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/96 "2013-02-07T01:59:35Z")
When my goddaughters decided to go to college, one went to culinary school (don’t know the application process for that one) and the other went first to community college. Sat the same placement exams as everyone else and was put straight in the deep end. Both have done swimmingly. Now the elder is ready to go to a four year school to finish out her degree; they don’t care where she got her high schooling, they’ve got transcripts from the community college. They are not from a psychotic Christian family, however. They’re from a crazy hippie family. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/97 "2013-02-07T02:06:49Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > one went to culinary school (don’t know the application process for that one) _“You want to pay us thousands of dollars to give you a phony certificate that will only qualify you to get $8 an hour restaurant jobs you could get without it? Sure, come on in! What? I’m still laughing at the funny joke I heard just before you walked in. I swear!”_ ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/98 "2013-02-07T02:25:09Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > _“You want to pay us thousands of dollars to give you a phony certificate that will only qualify you to get $8 an hour restaurant jobs you could get without it? Sure, come on in! What? I’m still laughing at the funny joke I heard just before you walked in. I swear!”_ Yeah. I should have mentioned she left there after the first two trimesters to enroll in the community college and work towards a degree in nutrition, instead. 😃 But after that, I expect her story to be much like her sister’s. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/99 "2013-02-07T02:35:52Z")
> [@For You](#): > > “Wingnut” and “conservative” are mutually exclusive terms. In fact, it is reaching the point where “right-wing” not longer includes “conservative”. The true definitions of small c conservative don’t really gibe with the realities of the the party that’s adopted it. From M-W… [conservative](a : tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions : traditional b : marked by moderation or caution \ c : marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners) > [@](#): > > a : tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions > b : marked by moderation or caution \ > c : marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners a : Well this maybe, but the bad more than the good. b : They have demonstrated how absurd this is with their two unfunded “wars” and deregulation. c : Okay ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352/100 "2013-02-07T02:51:12Z")
The link conservative above failed as the browser was spinning and posted the text but not the link correctly. It’s the Merriam-Webster definition of conservative. Sorry about that… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeschooling-biology-failure/649352.md?page=6)