Science:
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Home schoolers and all teachers of younger children should think about doing science as a vehicle for meeting their general educational goals.

Why Science?

1. It is an excellent vehicle for general educational goals
2. Children are curious about the world around them
3. The process you encourage as children explore is important

For teachers who emphasize religious values an understanding of creation can be an important part of nurturing a childs appreciation of the greatness of God. Also science reminds all Christians that truth is not a matter of opinion. Science gives you an excellent opportunity to help students to distinguish fact from fantasy, and reality from myth.

Teachers and home schoolers often say to me I have enough trouble doing basics, getting my students to read, write, develop basic math skills, to become more socially aware, to interact well with others, and communicate properly .... etc. Don't ask me, on top of everything else, to do specialist subjects like science, for which I am not qualified anyway. I am a pretty good classroom teacher, but I dont have electrical outlets, special supplies or tables in my room. My job is to educate the children, do the 3 Rs. Surely that is more important than doing some of your fun experiments, silly puzzles, and messy science! Well I point out unfortunately science is fun!

I believe science is for everybody, because the concrete interesting experiences it involves provide an excellent vehicle for your general educational goals. In addition to providing an important understanding of God's creation, it requires organizational skills, manual dexterity, group cooperation, and social interaction. In addition it helps develop communication and reasoning skills in children in a real and interesting context.

I am talking about education THROUGH science as well as IN science. Education must do more than prepare for future courses, it must prepare for life. The full enjoyment of the world around us, life skills for a technological society and scientific literacy, are a crucial part of any education today.

One of the most important goals of education is to nurture creativity in children, and develop their problem solving skills. You see in the end we must remember that we are not teaching science - we are teaching children. And concrete experiences that relate to real life, interesting reality, always comes before theories and principles.

How Should We Do It?

We need to put the emphasis on learning rather than teaching. In fact let me use the word "learn" to summarize my philosophy on HOW we should teach science and WHAT we should do: