x-post Is Runkle's Geography actually secular?

[nmoira]

My copy arrived today, so I haven't yet read every word; however, thus far I've not seen any mention of geologic time. In the first chapter, light speed is discussed and Earth's place in the Solar System, but there's no mention of the age of the universe. That's easy enough to deal with, but there's no mention of Pangea in the chapter dealing with plate tectonics. I saw more than one "over time" with respect to the formation of mountains and subduction zones, but that's it. Please tell me I'm missing something, or does it get worse? This isn't something I expected to have to supplement to make it functionally secular instead of merely "not religious" solely by omission of direct religious references. :(

Edited November 19, 2011 by nmoira

[KarenC]

I don't remember anything non secular at all.

 

Karen

[laundrycrisis]

I just looked at a bunch of reviews of this, all of them at Christian sites, all happy that this course is "neutral"....nothing in it goes against their beliefs. The author's LinkedIn profile shows her as a teacher at the Potter's School, and that webpage advertises biblical this and that. I would not consider this a secular curriculum - I would consider it "religious by omission".

[JennW in SoCal]

I posted on the logic stage board, but will repeat this here. It is a geography text, and a good one at that, for a logic stage or early high school aged student. A geography text does not need to cover the origins of the planet and solar system because those are topics that would be covered by a geology, or earth sciences text. Sure there is overlap between geography and geology, but as I said in my other post, geography is more about understanding the influence of the planet on the activities of people.

 

The big bang, the solar system and the epochs of geologic time were topics I wouldn't have noticed as missing from the text as we covered them through our interests in astronomy and dinosaurs and natural history. Those are topics you can easily cover, too, should you want to add them.

[nmoira]

 

I just looked at a bunch of reviews of this, all of them at Christian sites, all happy that this course is "neutral"....nothing in it goes against their beliefs. The author's LinkedIn profile shows her as a teacher at the Potter's School, and that webpage advertises biblical this and that. I would not consider this a secular curriculum - I would consider it "religious by omission".

I read about half the book last night, and have come to a similar conclusion. :glare:

[nmoira]

I posted on the logic stage board, but will repeat this here. It is a geography text, and a good one at that, for a logic stage or early high school aged student. A geography text does not need to cover the origins of the planet and solar system because those are topics that would be covered by a geology, or earth sciences text. Sure there is overlap between geography and geology, but as I said in my other post, geography is more about understanding the influence of the planet on the activities of people.

Disclaimer: I'm a geography major. :001_smile:

 

This is primarily a physical geography text that discusses geologic processes without using the phrase "millions of years." Whether or not it can be used in a secular homeschool with adaptations or supplementation is a separate question, and one I have not yet answered (having chosen to purchase the text on the assurance that it "is secular" and without doing proper research beyond this... my bad). However, I would not characterize the text itself, billed as a high school text, as secular because of this glaring omission.

 

ETA: I hope this didn't sound snippy... I'm disappointed by this, having thought I'd found a plug-and-play program, so to speak.

 

The big bang, the solar system and the epochs of geologic time were topics I wouldn't have noticed as missing from the text as we covered them through our interests in astronomy and dinosaurs and natural history. Those are topics you can easily cover, too, should you want to add them.

Edited November 19, 2011 by nmoira

[JennW in SoCal]

Disclaimer: I'm a geography major. :001_smile:

 

This is primarily a physical geography text that discusses geologic processes without using the phrase "millions of years." Whether or not it can be used in a secular homeschool with adaptations or supplementation is a separate question, and one I have not yet answered (having chosen to purchase the text on the assurance that it "is secular" and without doing proper research beyond this... my bad). However, I would not characterize the text itself, billed as a high school text, as secular because of this glaring omission.

 

Similar disclaimer: Within my multi-disciplinary major, geography was my concentration. It is nice to find others out there!;)

 

I found Runkles to be just fine for my ds when he was in 7th grade. It covered things that we hadn't covered, though I didn't use it as a "spine" or as the basis for a formal course. It covered topics that we hadn't covered and there were some clever projects and assignments. And yes, I recognize that it is a physical geography text! I think I would use it for high school only as part of a larger course, not as a foundation for a course -- add parts of it to a Earth Science course, or add in some cultural geography.

 

I didn't use Christian materials as we're secular homeschoolers, but I did use a couple of Christian books when they served a purpose. Runkles never struck me as being one of those, although I never critically read it to hunt out a bias. Now that y'all have pointed it out, I do see that it is "religious by omission", but still think it is a useful text even for a secular homeschool family.

[nmoira]

Similar disclaimer: Within my multi-disciplinary major, geography was my concentration. It is nice to find others out there!;)

:hurray: Seems there are fewer all the time. When interdisciplinary studies became all the rage awhile back, I'd hoped that Geography would get a bit of a reprieve... I'm still hopeful.

 

I found Runkles to be just fine for my ds when he was in 7th grade. It covered things that we hadn't covered, though I didn't use it as a "spine" or as the basis for a formal course. It covered topics that we hadn't covered and there were some clever projects and assignments. And yes, I recognize that it is a physical geography text! I think I would use it for high school only as part of a larger course, not as a foundation for a course -- add parts of it to a Earth Science course, or add in some cultural geography.

I'm using it for middle-ish school. You're helping me breathe a bit slower. :001_smile:

 

I didn't use Christian materials as we're secular homeschoolers, but I did use a couple of Christian books when they served a purpose. Runkles never struck me as being one of those, although I never critically read it to hunt out a bias. Now that y'all have pointed it out, I do see that it is "religious by omission", but still think it is a useful text even for a secular homeschool family.

This helps. Thank you.