Scientific American, a 178-year-old scientific journal published by the German-British Springer Nature Group, has in recent years prioritized ideology over science.
dedication “Promotion of social justice” Facilitate The progressive left perspective lacks counterarguments on a range of issues.
The publication broke with a tradition that had lasted for nearly two centuries in 2020.
approved Presidential candidate Joe Biden has pushed pseudoscientific social constructivist arguments about gender, suggesting that Western science invented the gender binary and advancing the claim that the science behind laws against sex-reassignment surgery is “misinformation.” Defended The use of irreversible and dangerous puberty blockers, which have been used for many years to sterilize sex offenders.
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Discuss The Deep State does not exist Deny The wealthy elite Profited Scientific American has defended people against the pandemic, stressed that COVID-19 vaccines are safe, and declared the lab leak theory about COVID-19 to be “false,” but at the same time, it has spent ink, time, and money on multiple articles: Maththe N.F.L., and Fighting Obesity He is racist.
Scientific American has recently devoted its active energy to stoking concerns about homeschooling.
In its Monday newsletter, “Science Today,” Scientific American reported on a June issue of the magazine thatHomeschoolers Need More Unified Oversight“By the editor”
“Federal requirements for child protection reporting and evaluation do not need to be burdensome.”
The editor of this magazine is
Laura HelmutA graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Called Last month, the medical journal BMJ criticized her for ignoring the science that undermines her claims about gender. Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker recently wrote: It is called Helmut is an “awakened fanatic.”
Gina BreinerHe, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, also appears to be a follower of similar ideology.
The editors recommended that the Biden administration “should develop baseline standards for homeschool safety and educational quality across the nation.”
“It is clear that in most states, homeschoolers will continue to lack accountability for outcomes and basic safety,” the editors wrote, “but federal mandates for reporting and evaluation to protect children do not need to be burdensome.”
Scientific American suggested that parents could be required to pass an initial background check to teach their children, “like all states require all K-12 teachers to do.”
In addition to getting approval from Washington, D.C., something their predecessors had done freely, the editors suggested that parents “could be required to submit documentation each year to their local school district or state agency showing that their children are learning.”
The editors warned about the possibility of abuse of students at home due to a lack of federal regulation,
Rampant abuse With the public school system being regulated, they seemed more concerned about the content of the curriculum and the possibility that some students might not be exposed to today’s Orthodox teachings.
“Many parents are attracted to homeschooling because they want more say in what their children do and don’t want to learn,” the researchers wrote. “Nearly 60% of homeschool parents responding to the 2019 NCES survey said religious education motivated their decision to homeschool. Some Christian homeschool curricula teach young-earth creationism rather than evolution.”
“Most states don’t require homeschooled children to be assessed on certain topics like their classroom peers,” the editors continued. “This practice allows for educational neglect that can have long-term effects on children’s development.”
It is unclear how productive the proposed changes will be, given that the standards the government has set for the public education system seem to have produced few results.
The Hill
I got it. At the beginning of this year, not a single student in 44 Chicago public schools was performing at grade level in math, not a single student in 24 Chicago schools was performing at grade level in reading, and not a single student in 40 percent of Baltimore city high schools was meeting standards in math.
The Blaze News reported last year that the 2022 assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed that eighth-graders’ performance in history last year was the lowest since NAEP began monitoring in 1994. A significant decline in academic achievement among public elementary school students was also observed. Reading and Mathematics The same is true for other subjects.
In fact, the poor quality of our public education system is one of the reasons homeschooling is so popular today.
The National Center for Education Statistics
Published in September 2023 The main reasons parents in the 2019 survey chose to homeschool were concerns about the school environment, to provide a moral education, to value family life, dissatisfaction with school academic instruction, to provide religious education, to provide a non-traditional approach to education, and/or to support their child’s special needs.
In the years since, school closures, sporadic teachers’ union strikes, and the politicization of the classroom also likely played a major role.
The Washington Post revealed late last year that the number of homeschooled students has increased by 51% over the past six years, while public school enrollment has fallen by 4%.
The Washington Post found that 390 school districts have one homeschooled child for every 10 public school students in the 2021-2022 school year. By October 2023, it’s estimated that the number of homeschooled children in the U.S. could reach between 1.9 million and 2.7 million.
Heather Hunter, an author and homeschool mom, responded to the Scientific American article:
Emphasize It is a “very careful selection of extreme examples from all the anti-homeschooling arguments.”
“‘Horrific abuse’? Many parents pull their children out of school because they are being abused or bullied and the school is doing nothing,” Hunter writes. “In the past year alone, there have been numerous cases of students ending up in critical condition in the hospital after being violently assaulted by other students. People forget that there is also negative socialization. The vast majority of homeschool parents pour love and effort into their children’s education.”
“‘Lack of education’?” Hunter continued. “My daughter will be in second grade this fall (currently studying a third-grade curriculum in language arts), and she can count to 100 in French, is studying ancient civilizations, Latin, and math, plays soccer, works on art projects with her friends in her homeschool co-op, and is learning science hands-on on field trips and in nature.”
Corey DeAngelis is a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children and executive director of the Institute for Educational Freedom.
Said As for the proposed regulations, he said: “A big no.”
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