Whose Education is Biased?

Educrats love to accuse homeschooling parents of providing their children only one viewpoint (their own) instead of exposing them to all sides of a controversial issue. While it's true that we parents are going to bring up our kids with a belief system that's our own, it's also true that schools are almost incapable of providing kids with a variety of viewpoints. In most cases, someone's agenda is usually in force.

Case in point: in Canada, students are being forced to watch Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" (about global warming) in school, sometimes repeatedly. One young man reports that so far this year, he has seen it in his World History, Economics, World Issues and Environment classes. The view opposing the global warming theory is usually not presented as a counterpoint. That explains this (from the article):

Meanwhile, Vancouver-based businessman Michael Chernoff, says his charitable foundation will provide to high schools DVD copies of the new British documentary, The Great Global Warming Swindle, featuring interviews with scientists who dissent from Mr. Gore's claims, as soon as the producer is ready to ship the discs.

"And if they start sending [An Inconvenient Truth] to all Canadian schools, then I'll buy a copy of Swindle for all the schools, too," Mr. Chernoff says. "I think showing it is fine, but they should present the other side as well."

(Good luck with that, Mr. Chernoff. Just because you send it doesn't mean they will show your film.)

Meanwhile, we homeschooling parents will decide how we feel about this issue and use the materials we choose to teach our children about it. If our children are going to be exposed repeatedly to someone's theories, why shouldn't they be exposed to those that we agree with? It's our job and our right as parents to guide our children as we see fit.