Objections to Apologia

[CarlaJoy]

We stopped using the Apologia junior high and high school texts primarily because the text was babble. They ramble and blather, was how four of us independently felt (two parents and two sons).

 

Somewhere in the general science (the first one) text, I read some digressive economics viewpoint which my husband (Ph.D. in economics) agreed was a howler.

 

We do not want rabidly pro-macro-evolution textbooks, but we equally dislike textbooks that preach somebody else's version of Christianity.

 

I don't think the science component is any better than that available elsewhere.

 

Just a bad match for our family.

 

To imitate the Amazon.com review system, I'll give Apologia a "one star" because it actually can be left in the hands of the student and requires minimal parental oversight.

 

Our thoughts were similar. I'm a literal 6 day creationist but I still found the almost "anti-science" tone (in a science text:blink:) to be a big turn off. I think that it is possible to communicate aspects of your worldview that may not be 'mainstream' without fostering a suspicion of science.

 

I'm also of the opinion that stewardship of the earth is one of the many mandates that Christians have, and the tone I discovered in the books made it clear that that idea is not compatible with the Apologia texts.

[ouzel]

My son is very ecologically oriented and when he read some excerpts out of Apologia, he just rolled his eyes and was really annoyed. Doing Apologia science would likely make him cynical. It just isn't worth dealing with that. Having said that, we have friends who are not literal 6 day creationists and they just discussed these issues with their children as they came up. It wasn't a problem for them and their kids did great on their science testing for college.

[cbollin]

I'm also of the opinion that stewardship of the earth is one of the many mandates that Christians have, and the tone I discovered in the books made it clear that that idea is not compatible with the Apologia texts.

 

interesting difference in my experience with some of this.

 

I found that the sections in Physical Science (8th grade) about the importance of clean water and working toward that goal to be in line with care of the earth. We read his stuff and thought it was nice to see that he was encouraging being involved in care of water supply around the globe.

 

My oldest is already inclined toward "fair trade" ideas (rainforest ecology and such) and using Apologia Physical didn't change that. She didn't think he was saying anything different than what she thought about care of the earth is important.

 

maybe it's different in books later on.

 

-crystal

[CarlaJoy]

I admit to also being disturbed by Apologia's suggestions of supplements which include:

Environmental Overkill: Whatever Happened to Common Sense? Dixy Lee Ray, Regnery Gateway, Hardcover ISBN 0895265125, Paperback ISBN 0060975989

 

:eek:

[CarlaJoy]

My son is very ecologically oriented and when he read some excerpts out of Apologia, he just rolled his eyes and was really annoyed. Doing Apologia science would likely make him cynical. It just isn't worth dealing with that. Having said that, we have friends who are not literal 6 day creationists and they just discussed these issues with their children as they came up. It wasn't a problem for them and their kids did great on their science testing for college.

 

I could definately see that!