No good reason to duck accountability

Oct. 14, 2005

Spectrum\Chuck Legge

Wow! It looks like I've been stirring the pot - or cauldron - a little vigorously.

In the Sept. 23 edition of the Frontiersman, I drew a cartoon depicting a home-school science lesson as witchcraft. I have drawn Karl Rove as a demon, Gov. Murkowski as a pirate, and run Sen. Ben Stevens out of town on a rail. Apparently, home-schooling is a much more sensitive subject than demons, pirates or mob rule because it received more response than anything I've ever drawn.

I won't resort to saying that some of my best friends are home-schooled. My son was home-schooled, and he is much more than a friend to me.

My wife took on the enormous task of educating our son, and together, they produced something they should be proud of. From the fifth to the 12th grades, he received courses from such institutions as the University of Nebraska, University of North Dakota, and Brigham Young University. He attended Mat-Su College, where he was on the dean's list, and is now at U.A.A., majoring in computer science.

He also took every test the state required.

I understand how difficult home-schooling can be. I know what it's like to come home after working all day to review an algebraic concept you were happy to have forgotten years ago.

As long as parents are willing to put in the work, I think home-schooling is a reasonable answer. I think the one-on-one interaction and self-motivation of home-schoolers is invaluable.

I also think that accountability is absolutely essential in any educational system. A look at the cartoon in question shows the issue I was addressing was accountability.

Let's cut to the chase here. The reason I chose witchcraft to illustrate my concern about a lack of accountability or testing is simple. Schools - public, private or home - should not be free to subject our children to any belief and pass it off as science. Two plus two shouldn't equal five, and science shouldn't advocate for a supernatural being.

Our educational system, in whatever form, needs to meet a minimum basic norm. This accountability is accomplished through testing.

Religious beliefs should not be substituted for science. God, gods, angels, elves, sprites, demons and various other supernatural folks are all fervently believed in by someone.

Do stars coalesce from elementary particles, or are they milk from a magic, divine cow? Does the sun's gravitational field hold the Earth in its' orbit, or does it ride across the sky on a chariot? Is the theory of evolution legitimate, or did we all spring fully clad from God's forehead?

There is a conglomeration of beliefs, but I don't think we should displace scientific theory with an esoteric soup de jour. Anyone is free to believe anything they choose. But the difference here is that science deals in theory, not belief. Belief, by its nature, involves faith. It is not provable. It is profoundly felt, and tends to be implacable.

Theory, on the other hand, is very provable. It is based on a body of evidence arrived at through experimentation and or the fossil record.

I may believe Frank Murkowski is a pirate, or Karl Rove is a demon. I may believe Ben Stevens should be run out of town on a rail. Actually, I'm probably not alone in that belief. I may believe that the theory of gravity is illegitimate, and that the Earth just sucks. I can believe anything I wish, but I shouldn't be allowed to teach it as a science lesson.

Among other things, I was a philosophy major. I enjoy the free exchange of ideas. I truly believe that children benefit from the study of diverse religions and cultures. I would love to see classes in comparative religion and philosophy introduced into the school system, but not as science.

We all want to do the best for our children. Let's prepare them for the world they will live in. Let all of us, all home-schoolers, be accountable.

Palmer resident Chuck

Legge is the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman's free-lance cartoonist. His award-winning work has been published in the &#8221Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year“ anthology.