Pharyngula Fallacies

Biologist PZ Myers, the voice behind the science blog, Pharyngula,  may not be as evolved as he thinks he is, given his poorly developed opinion about homeschooling.  In the aptly titled,  "I am the wrong person to answer this email," Myers says, among other things:

"This is one of the big problems of homeschooling: for every good, science-oriented parent, there are dozens or hundreds who buy into the awful, horrible, no-good nonsense peddled by Ken Ham and other creationists."

He then asks," What can be done in the short term to protest damning choices like bringing Ham in to speak to a convention, and what can be done in the long run to get better quality science into homeschool programs? That last one will be a real challenge, given that my impression of the majority of homeschoolers is that they're doing it specifically to indoctrinate their kids in a specific conservative Christian ideology."

There are SO many places to go with this!  I'll start with the obvious:

An opinion titled "I am the wrong person to answer this email," followed by a series of ignorant generalizations, is definitely a good way to support a thesis.  Point made.

Weighing in like God over Sodom and Gomorrah with his observation that "for every good, science-oriented parent, there are dozens or hundreds who buy into the awful, horrible, no-good nonsense peddled by Ken Ham and other creationists," Myers overlooks the corollary that for every for every good, science-oriented *public-school* family, there are thousands more who buy into creationist nonsense, as well. And worse yet, many of them are on the school board! Witness Texas, for one.

Myers thinks homeschooling - the practice of free, unfettered access to knowledge of all kinds, at all times, for all types of children -- should be illegal, without taking into account the latest research being done on Free Choice Learning and Informal Education, to name just a couple of studies that explore large scale applications of the learning style home educators have practiced for decades.  But more to Myers' point,  there are more private schoolers than homeschoolers, and many of them attend religiously conservative institutions. Should private schools be illegal?

The fact is, however, that there are thousands of secular homeschoolers -- a lot in a practice that only numbers a couple of million, and above and beyond the secular homeschoolers are thousands more home educators who may hold religious views but teach at home for the sake of knowledge alone.

Check out:

• Homeschooling Freethinkers 
• Secular Homeschool 
• UU Homeschoolers
• The Denim Jumper
• Atheist Homeschool (A Non Prophet Website)

"...what can be done in the long run to get better quality science into homeschool programs?," asks Myers.  That last one will be a real challenge, given that my impression of the majority of homeschoolers is that they're doing it specifically to indoctrinate their kids in a specific conservative Christian ideology."

We've got better quality science than most public schools!  We have the internet! We have opensource courseware from MIT and others. In Florida, we have Florida Virtual School - the state's online public school. And most of us have access to dual enrollment, where our high school aged children can take college classes.

So Myers is right on one thing - he's definitely the wrong person to answer the email to which he was responding.  In fact, his response was quite creationist-like -- reactionary, incendiary and completely lacking in facts (as were several of the comments). If we were to apply the ten questions from Michael Shermer's Baloney Detection Kit  to evaluate the value of his observations, he'd lose on all ten counts.

Oh -- and regarding the original question: "What can be done in the short term to protest damning choices like bringing Ham in to speak to a convention, and what can be done in the long run to get better quality science into homeschool programs?"

Absolutely nothing! Others could just as easily ask, "What can be done in the short term to protest damning choices like bringing PZ Myers in to speak to a convention, and what can be done in the long run to get better quality science opinions into homeschool programs?"

People are free to host whatever kind of conventions they want, inviting whomever the majority of their constituents want to hear.  LIFE Fest 2010, in Florida, will feature a variety of secular education resources, workshops and information.

If secularists really want to solve the problem of poor science education in America, look in the mirror. Go write some curriculum for use in homeschools if you feel it's that big of an issue. Mentor a community based science, math or tech club that welcomes everyone. Since homeschoolers learn out in the community, work to support more community science!

And for the Phoenix homeschooler -- there are plenty of secular homeschooling resources in AZ. Check out UU Homeschoolers' Directory of Inclusive Groups . Several serve the Phoenix area.

In a later post,titled "Belief Can Be Dangerous", Myers comments on delusional belief systems that can be "used to justify horrific acts against others."

Acts like saying that the educational choices of others should be taken away because you don't believe in them, and can only cite generalized, unsubstantiated, fallacious arguments to support that contention? Delusional belief systems, whether they're religious, political or social,  have always been used to justify horrific acts against others.

The real trick is being self-honest enough, and self-aware enough,  to know when we've become victims of our own beliefs, which for secularists can often consist of the arrogant belief that we can't fall victim to delusional belief systems.

If we really want to improve the American appetite for sound science, we need to work together, at all levels, to make science accessible, exciting, interesting, and engaging, in schools and in our communities.  Pitting secularists against one another, simply because of how we choose to learn, undermines the solid, common ground of good science and the goal of an informed and educated public that I think we all seek.