Teachers/moms of preschoolers - talk to me about ABEKA pls.

[Deleted]

This is what every daycare around here (Bible Belt FTW!) seems to be offering once the child turns two.

A's current daycare is openly Christian-based. Although DH and I want her education to be secular, we enrolled her here because we weren't opposed to a Christian-based organization for infant care, and it was by far the best we could find in the limited time we had to find it (our initial choice fell through). However, she'll be two in September and, if she were to stay here, would be taught their ABEKA curriculum which the director told me personally is Christian-based.

Now there is another daycare nearby that has the best rep in town and does NOT advertise themselves as Christian-based. It was actually our first choice due to that and its location, but it was full with a waiting list when we first looked. However, we are buying a house which is actually much closer to this place than her current daycare AND they have a spot available! 

I just reviewed their website and found that while they do not mention Christian-based education, they do use ABEKA. As does every other local daycare, it seems. 

My google results didn't yield much other than use of ABEKA for homeschooling, but I did find a few sources hinting that ABEKA can be taught without the religious component. My question to all of you is - is that accurate?

I know I can just call the daycare and ask, but I'd like to get opinions I am fairly sure will be unbiased. 

[madisen]

I found this. =(
It's primarily about Louisiana's new voucher system but still probably applies.

www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/07/photos-evangelical-curricula-louisiana-tax-dollars


14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher Schools

—By Deanna Pan

| Tue Aug. 7, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

Thanks to a new law privatizing public education in Louisiana, Bible-based curriculum can now indoctrinate young, pliant minds with the good news of the Lord—all on the state taxpayers' dime.

Under Gov. Bobby Jindal's voucher program, considered the most sweeping in the country, Louisiana is poised to spend tens of millions of dollars to help poor and middle-class students from the state's notoriously terrible public schools receive a private education. While the governor's plan sounds great in the glittery parlance of the state's PR machine, the program is rife with accountability problems that actually haven't been solved by the new standards the Louisiana Department of Education adopted two weeks ago.

For one, of the 119 (mostly Christian) participating schools, Zack Kopplin, a gutsy college sophomore who's taken to Change.org to stonewall the program, has identified at least 19 that teach or champion creationist nonscience and will rake in nearly $4 million in public funding from the initial round of voucher designations.

Read about Bobby Jindal's exorcism problem.

Many of these schools, Kopplin notes, rely on Pensacola-based A Beka Book curriculum or Bob Jones University Press textbooks to teach their pupils Bible-based "facts," such as the existence of Nessie the Loch Ness Monster and all sorts of pseudoscience that researcher Rachel Tabachnick and writer Thomas Vinciguerra have thankfully pored over so the rest of world doesn't have to.

Here are some of my favorite lessons:

1. Dinosaurs and humans probably hung out: "Bible-believing Christians cannot accept any evolutionary interpretation. Dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time and may have even lived side by side within the past few thousand years."—Life Science, 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2007

Much like tough cop Katie Coltrane and Teddy the T-rex in the direct-to-video hit Theodore Rex Screenshot: YouTube

2. Dragons were totally real: "[Is] it possible that a fire-breathing animal really existed? Today some scientists are saying yes. They have found large chambers in certain dinosaur skulls…The large skull chambers could have contained special chemical-producing glands. When the animal forced the chemicals out of its mouth or nose, these substances may have combined and produced fire and smoke."—Life Science, 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2007

3. "God used the Trail of Tears to bring many Indians to Christ."—America: Land That I Love, Teacher ed., A Beka Book, 1994

4. Africa needs religion: "Africa is a continent with many needs. It is still in need of the gospel…Only about ten percent of Africans can read and write. In some areas the mission schools have been shut down by Communists who have taken over the government."—Old World History and Geography in Christian Perspective, 3rd ed., A Beka Book, 2004

The literacy rate in Africa is "only about 10 percent"…give or take a few dozen percentage points. residentevil_stars2001/Flickr

5. Slave masters were nice guys: "A few slave holders were undeniably cruel. Examples of slaves beaten to death were not common, neither were they unknown. The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well."—United States History for Christian Schools, 2nd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 1991

Doesn't everyone look happy?! Edward Williams Clay/Library of Congress

6. The KKK was A-OK: "[The Ku Klux] Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross. Klan targets were bootleggers, wife-beaters, and immoral movies. In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians."—United States History for Christian Schools, 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2001

Just your friendly neighborhood Imperial Wizard Unknown/Library of Congress

7. The Great Depression wasn't as bad as the liberals made it sound: "Perhaps the best known work of propaganda to come from the Depression was John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath…Other forms of propaganda included rumors of mortgage foreclosures, mass evictions, and hunger riots and exaggerated statistics representing the number of unemployed and homeless people in America."—United States History: Heritage of Freedom, 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1996

Definitely Photoshopped. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration/Wikipedia

8. SCOTUS enslaved fetuses: "Ignoring 3,500 years of Judeo-Christian civilization, religion, morality, and law, the Burger Court held that an unborn child was not a living person but rather the "property" of the mother (much like slaves were considered property in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford)."—American Government in Christian Perspective, 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1997

9. The Red Scare isn't over yet: "It is no wonder that Satan hates the family and has hurled his venom against it in the form of Communism."— American Government in Christian Perspective, 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1997

Catechetical Guild/Wikipedia

10. Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson were a couple of hacks: "[Mark] Twain's outlook was both self-centered and ultimately hopeless…Twain's skepticism was clearly not the honest questioning of a seeker of truth but the deliberate defiance of a confessed rebel."—Elements of Literature for Christian Schools, Bob Jones University, 2001

"Several of [Emily Dickinson's] poems show a presumptuous attitude concerning her eternal destiny and a veiled disrespect for authority in general. Throughout her life she viewed salvation as a gamble, not a certainty. Although she did view the Bible as a source of poetic inspiration, she never accepted it as an inerrant guide to life."—Elements of Literature for Christian Schools, Bob Jones University, 2001

To say nothing of her poetry's Syntax and Punctuation—how odious it is.Todd-Bingham picture collection, 1837-1966 (inclusive)/ Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University

11. Abstract algebra is too dang complicated: "Unlike the 'modern math' theorists, who believe that mathematics is a creation of man and thus arbitrary and relative, A Beka Book teaches that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute…A Beka Book provides attractive, legible, and workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory."—ABeka.com

MATHS: Y U SO HARD? Screenshot: MittRomney.com

12. Gay people "have no more claims to special rights than child molesters or rapists."—Teacher's Resource Guide to Current Events for Christian Schools, 1998-1999, Bob Jones University Press, 1998

13. "Global environmentalists have said and written enough to leave no doubt that their goal is to destroy the prosperous economies of the world's richest nations."—Economics: Work and Prosperity in Christian Perspective, 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1999

Plotting economic apocalypse, BRB Lynn Freeny, Department of Energy/Flickr

14. Globalization is a precursor to rapture: "But instead of this world unification ushering in an age of prosperity and peace, as most globalists believe it will, it will be a time of unimaginable human suffering as recorded in God's Word. The Anti-christ will tightly regulate who may buy and sell."—Economics: Work and Prosperity in Christian Perspective, 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1999

Swapping insider-trading secrets is the devil's favorite pastime. Luca Signorelli/WikipediaWhew! Seems extreme. But perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised. Gov. Jindal, you remember, once tried to perform an exorcism on a college gal pal.

[meshaliuknits]

I think sushi has info on ABEKA?

From what I recall reading, I want to say it gets crazy in the science department but that wouldn't be until later on. I would think that for the preschool set it's fine. I imagine it still uses religious imagery while teaching letters and and such, but if you're cool with that, I'm sure there's no problem. I can't imagine what it would skip or teach that's whacky for kids so young. The basics are the basics weather you're learning that B is for Bug or B is for Bible.

[Deleted]

sushi

[sushi]

Fundie watcher at your service!

ABeka is from Pensacola Christian College. An extremely conservative school, along the lines of BJU and Oral Roberts. There is a whole lot of crazy in it. However, I believe it's the most popular homeschooling curriculum out there, even for secular homeschoolers. My aunt used it for my cousins when they were K age.

Yes, it's biblical, but what I remember from my cousins is it would teach math with something biblical like (wild exaggeration ahead) 3 samaritans find 2 nazarenes. How many people are in the picture? They taught reading with parables.

I would imagine the 2 year old curriculum is likely secular enough, even for someone like me. If my 2 year old learns giraffe vs elephant by coloring in noah's ark, I'm ok with that. There's probably a pro-life slant from the beginning, but what young kid would notice that?

There are tons of blogs out there for homeschools, so they're a better resource for you figuring out if this curriculum is ok or not for your views. Even better is if you trust the daycare and their implementation.

[Deleted]

May 28, 2013 17:58:39 GMT -5 sushi said:

Fundie watcher at your service!

ABEKA is from Pensacola Christian College. An extremely conservative school, along the lines of BJU and Oral Roberts. There is a whole lot of crazy in it. However, I believe it's the most popular homeschooling curriculum out there, even for secular homeschoolers. My aunt used it for my cousins when they were K age.

Yes, it's biblical, but what I remember from my cousins is it would teach math with something biblical like (wild exaggeration ahead) 3 samaritans find 2 nazarenes. How many people are in the picture? They taught reading with parables.

I would imagine the 2 year old curriculum is likely secular enough, even for someone like me. If my 2 year old learns giraffe vs elephant by coloring in noah's ark, I'm ok with that. There's probably a pro-life slant from the beginning, but what young kid would notice that?

There are tons of blogs out there for homeschools, so they're a better resource for you figuring out if this curriculum is ok or not for your views. Even better is if you trust the daycare and their implementation.

Yikes at the origin....  But at the 2 yo level, it sounds OK. She'll be in public school later so her education will be mostly secular.....assuming the First Amendment remains intact by then LOL. Thanks for the info.

[joenali]

Time to start your own day care!!

[sushi]

The secular criticisms I've heard have more to do with it being worksheet focused and not allowing for much creativity. It's apparently pretty rigid, not interactive.

[Deleted]

May 28, 2013 18:32:15 GMT -5 joenali said:

Time to start your own day care!!

LOL, helllll no. The idea of dealing with several toddlers simultaneously every day terrifies me.

[Deleted]

I'm not familiar with the curriculum you mention, but does your school district have an early childhood center?

Often they do, but it may not start until 3. But I've found that districts in our area favor a model which draws typical kids in at a great price to have a balance with their special needs kids. Of course, that's usually a part- time model. Our ECC has a PT and FT program in the same building, but you pay through the nose for FT.

Regardless, asking your district or your Parents As Teachers educator (if you have that) would be a great start for finding a secular option. GL!

[FloFTW]

I wouldn't be OK with this. This when they getcha - when you're young.

[Deleted]

May 28, 2013 18:36:42 GMT -5 sushi said:

The secular criticisms I've heard have more to do with it being worksheet focused and not allowing for much creativity. It's apparently pretty rigid, not interactive.

Yeah, I saw a lot of those same criticisms reading the the links that came up on Google.

[debatethis]

May 28, 2013 17:58:39 GMT -5 sushi said:

Fundie watcher at your service!

ABEKA is from Pensacola Christian College. An extremely conservative school, along the lines of BJU and Oral Roberts. There is a whole lot of crazy in it. However, I believe it's the most popular homeschooling curriculum out there, even for secular homeschoolers. My aunt used it for my cousins when they were K age.

Yes, it's biblical, but what I remember from my cousins is it would teach math with something biblical like (wild exaggeration ahead) 3 samaritans find 2 nazarenes. How many people are in the picture? They taught reading with parables.

I would imagine the 2 year old curriculum is likely secular enough, even for someone like me. If my 2 year old learns giraffe vs elephant by coloring in noah's ark, I'm ok with that. There's probably a pro-life slant from the beginning, but what young kid would notice that?

There are tons of blogs out there for homeschools, so they're a better resource for you figuring out if this curriculum is ok or not for your views. Even better is if you trust the daycare and their implementation.

My experience with ABEKA has been the same. I didn't notice the overt religious tones til ~5th-6th grade or thereabouts. And last I checked the curriculum is the same whether it's being used in a school or in a home. I'm pretty sure they don't print two separate ones.

[annieblah]

www.abeka.com/FAQ/Curriculum.aspx

[Deleted]

May 28, 2013 18:36:42 GMT -5 sushi said:

The secular criticisms I've heard have more to do with it being worksheet focused and not allowing for much creativity. It's apparently pretty rigid, not interactive.

that's to insure no critical thinking skills are developed.

[Deleted]

May 28, 2013 22:06:59 GMT -5 annieblah said:

www.abeka.com/FAQ/Curriculum.aspx

Yes, I found this link when I googled. Unfortunately my question wasn't among the frequently asked ones.