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You and I may not agree with their religious beliefs, but I agree with their instinct to avoid letting their children be indoctrinated with the memes of the lar

You and I may not agree with their religious beliefs, but I agree with their instinct to avoid letting their children be indoctrinated with the memes of the larger culture. I wish more people considered which memes they allowed into their lives.

amyjess 10y ago
It's not their lives, it's their children's lives. Parents have no right to indoctrinate their children with falsehoods. If you want to deny science to yourselves, that's fine, but don't you dare drag your children into that: that's called child abuse. Parents also have a responsibility to integrate their children into society, and if they refuse to step up to that responsibility, then it's the government's job to step in and place the children under the care of those who will.
- toasterlovin 10y ago
  Teaching your children that evolution doesn't explain human origins is not child abuse. It will probably have zero practical impact on how a child's life turns out. Once they're of age, they can live life as they please and believe what they want. I can agree that making sure children can read, write, and do some amount of math is fundamental to them being able to succeed as adults. But I'm skeptical of any attempts to make sure that children are "integrated" into society. I have a four year old daughter. There is no way you're going to convince me that putting her in an environment where girls are pressured into sending nude photos to boys is good for her. I'm sure there are things which can be done to mitigate these risks, but I like to play games where the odds are in my (and my daughter's) favor.
lawless123 10y ago
Is this about keeping them away from school or other children, tv, the internet, society etc? Maybe homeschooling is a filter bubble.
- toasterlovin 10y ago
  I am of the opinion that developing a powerful system of meme defense is one of the most important tasks modern humans face. After all, nobody designed the meme-scape we all face today. It just evolved. So there's no guarantee that the memes we encounter will be beneficial. Quite to the contrary, actually: there are countless parasitic memes out there that take your time, attention, and money, without giving anything in return (TV, social media + fake news, celebrity worship, gambling, drugs, etc). So maybe homeschooling is a filter bubble. And maybe that's a good thing.

amyjess 10y ago

It's not their lives, it's their children's lives. Parents have no right to indoctrinate their children with falsehoods. If you want to deny science to yourselves, that's fine, but don't you dare drag your children into that: that's called child abuse. Parents also have a responsibility to integrate their children into society, and if they refuse to step up to that responsibility, then it's the government's job to step in and place the children under the care of those who will.

toasterlovin 10y ago
Teaching your children that evolution doesn't explain human origins is not child abuse. It will probably have zero practical impact on how a child's life turns out. Once they're of age, they can live life as they please and believe what they want. I can agree that making sure children can read, write, and do some amount of math is fundamental to them being able to succeed as adults. But I'm skeptical of any attempts to make sure that children are "integrated" into society. I have a four year old daughter. There is no way you're going to convince me that putting her in an environment where girls are pressured into sending nude photos to boys is good for her. I'm sure there are things which can be done to mitigate these risks, but I like to play games where the odds are in my (and my daughter's) favor.

lawless123 10y ago

Is this about keeping them away from school or other children, tv, the internet, society etc? Maybe homeschooling is a filter bubble.

toasterlovin 10y ago
I am of the opinion that developing a powerful system of meme defense is one of the most important tasks modern humans face. After all, nobody designed the meme-scape we all face today. It just evolved. So there's no guarantee that the memes we encounter will be beneficial. Quite to the contrary, actually: there are countless parasitic memes out there that take your time, attention, and money, without giving anything in return (TV, social media + fake news, celebrity worship, gambling, drugs, etc). So maybe homeschooling is a filter bubble. And maybe that's a good thing.