A Freethought Academy

[believer2atheist]

Dear Sir or Madam,

Hello, my name is Kevin and I am a freethinker like many of you.  I am also the husband of the most amazing woman I have ever met and father of two beautiful children.  First, let me thank you for taking the time to hear my thoughts on a subject that is important to me â€" the education of our children.  
   A brief history of my life may be in order for you all to understand where I am coming from.  My father was an evangelical preacher with a Christian sect known as the Assemblies of God.  From a very young age, I accepted Christ as my personal savior, went to revival prayer meetings, led school Bible clubs, and even spoke in tongues (glossolia).  My wife was also raised in an Assemblies of God family with her father serving as a missionary to Cameroon, Africa.  We led similar lives so when we met in Bible College we were sure it was “God’s will” for us to start a live together.  In December of 1999, we were married.  We moved to Georgia in 2001, I continued work at the University of West Georgia on my Education Degree.  This was the first experience I had ever had in reading texts outside of a religious setting.  I truly enjoyed reading the works of Thomas Paine and Bertrand Russell and others.  I just couldn’t understand how when it came to the most crucial decision of their lives (i.e. Christ) they got it wrong.  Well, I was bound and determined to figure this conundrum out.  I began reading every non-theist text I could find in order to refute these men’s claims.  My collection started small but before I realized it I had more freethought books than religious ones.  
If the reader would allow, I would like to take a moment to thank five authors of books that truly inspired both my wife and I to take the leap from faith to freethought:  Richard Dawkins (The Blind Watchmaker and The Selfish Gene), Dan Barker (Losing Faith in Faith), George Smith (Atheism), Michael Martin (The Case Against Christianity), and Charles Templeton (Farewell to God).  Again, thank you to these and so many others for having the courage and integrity to stand up for the truth.
   
Now, the reason for my letter- as a public school educator I see on a daily basis how religion has infiltrated our public schools at every level.  From the Pledge of Allegiance to teachers openly praying for students, the public school system in my opinion has become the largest “mission field” for Christians.  To be frank, I’m sick of the hypocrisy of our teachers, our politicians, and our government talking about Jefferson’s separation of church and state as a good thing and then holding prayer services around school flags. On a daily basis,  I hear about teachers in every subject area putting a religious spin on instruction.  We must remember that a Christians #1 job is to “win souls for the kingdom.”
   





My wife and I recently purchased the book, Parenting Beyond Belief (and met the author at a freethought meeting in ATL, GA), which has many excellent authors and articles that we enjoyed.  However, after reading the book I looked at my wife and told her that I believe many of these authors would have loved to have gone and/or sent their own children to an educational experience that was free of religious bias.  To be honest, the idea of sending my children to an elementary school in Bible belt Georgia scares me.  I believe it would be an injustice to allow our children to attend a school where they will be indoctrinated at a young age. Students at this age are so receptive to any and all authority figures and their opinions.  I realize that my son and daughter will get their moral, ethical, educational, emotional, and freethought training at home but for seven hours out the day my children will be around these individuals that will pray for a scraped knee or read a biblical myth as fact.  I felt compelled to share my idea for a school based on sound educational principles but also on reason and critical thinking skills -- a Freethought Academy.
   I know there is a negative voice from some freethinkers to private schools/vouchers â€" mainly due to the opinion that it is segregation.  However, this argument is not realistic.  We are all segregated in one-way or another.  For example look at your own friends and the neighborhood you live in.  Is there diversity like there is in public schools?  Nine out of ten of you (if answering honestly) would probably answer with a resounding NO!  We migrate towards people of the same likes and dislikes as ourselves.  We would not allow our children attend church yet at times our public schools are not much different (just desks instead of pews).  You and I are segregated from the elements of society that we believe to be harmful.  With the violence and religious bias in public school I know it is a place I want my young children segregated from. .  Students do much better in Private schools as opposed to Public schools this is a FACT!   This is the case with everyone I have ever talked to that has sent his or her children to private school.  It was also the case in my own life.  The problem is that the vast majority of private schools are religious based schools.   This is the true reason I believe non-believers are opposed to vouchers and private schools.  I believe if we established the Academy our students test scores would exceed both public and other private schools.  Believers and skeptics alike would have to “check us out” to see the reason we are so successful.  Which in turn would open up the door to many families exploring freethought.  
Research shows that a persons early years (1-8 years of age) are the most crucial for their development.  Personally, I would feel much more comfortable knowing my child was getting a solid education with absolutely no interference from religion.  The Academy would be an elementary/middle school of sorts in that we would focus on students at a young age who could in later years go out to the public arena and make a difference.  I am not opposed to high school ages for the academy but the beginning years are the most important.  I came across a 2001 article, http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/ ... s_10_4.htm talking about how there are few if any freethinking leaders in the public arena.  The Freethought Academy would produce such individuals; freethought leaders to change Ron Reagan Jr.’s tragic statement that an atheist could never run for political office.    


Ideas for Curriculum:

1.   Mathematics
2.   Grammar
3.   Literature
4.   History
5.   Science (with an evolutionary stance)
6.   Writing
7.   Debate
8.   Research class
9.   Computer sciences
10.   Art
11.   Music
12.   Physical Education
13.   Philosophy
14.   World Affairs
15.   Economic Freedom
16.   Skeptics 101 / Jr. Skeptic Class (looking at everything from Angels to Zeus)
17.   Guest Speakers in an assembly format once a month
18.   Field Trips into Nature

These are simply ideas that I believe would help our students become more educated about the world they live in while maintaining the educational integrity that states require.  Imagine the possibilities of having young people that unlike many of us were never force fed any religious dogma or myths but have a solid 8-12 years of solid freethought education.  My wife and I would be happy to operate the school with additional faculty.  I am currently working on a graduate degree in School Administration. The location of the Academy would be crucially important (Atlanta would be ideal for my present location) and my wife and I would be willing to do everything we can for this most amazing of opportunities.  Funding would also be a key to allowing us to start the Academy.  Since the Academy would be a private institution we would need private funding and off course could supplement cost with tuitions.  If you feel as strongly about the Academy as I do, I could use your help in finding donators to our cause.  Also if you are an educator and would be interested in teaching in such an environment please contact me.  This letter is currently being sent to everyone I can think of in the freethought community, but please forward it to anyone you think might be interested.

Thank you again for your time. Please respond with your thought (positive or negative) on the subject.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Kevin
Educator
believer2atheist@yahoo.com

[shoruke]

Nice points, Kevin. I am personally in high school right now, and if there was a specifically freethought-based high school in my city, I'd probably try to get a transfer there.

Also, your story reminds me of another one I read a while ago. Go to google and type in "just another salem", there's a blogspot about how flipping evil the christian community was being to an atheist family.

If there was a decent chance of a freethought school being made, I might actually just donate to it, or something. Or suggest that my city take a leaf out of their book and make one of our own.

[believer2atheist]

Thanks for your response I check out that article.  I won't give up on this idea it is vitally important to me as an educator and parent.

[donkeyhoty]

There actually is "a freethought academy", sort of, in Florida.  It's called Carl Sagan Academy.  I came across it though the Institute for Humanist Studies that was mentioned in another post.

Here's the link:  http://www.carlsaganacademy.org/index.html

I'm sure there's at least a few more private schools that are truly secular.
I know there's a few in this area, but there's more "Catholic" private schools than the good ones.

Unfortunately, public schools should be like what you've stated, kevin, as well as like this Carl Sagan Academy.  I hope they succeed in what their doing.   Edit: As I read the CSA website I realized it's a charter school, so technically it's a public school.


The pledge of allegiance is absurd.  It's truly mind-boggling to make people in a "free" country proclaim their allegiance EVERY day, not to mention the "under God" addendum(oops, I guesss I did mention it).  Hell, we shouldn't even need to do it once.  It's embarrassingly antithetical to what this country should be, like many things.

[SteveS]

Hi Kevin - I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, going to public schools, and there really wasn't much of a religious issue that I was aware of.  The Pledge of Allegiance was about it; and I agree with donkeyhoty's statements immensely, particularly the judgment that the pledge is "antithetical to what this country should be" - very well put!

Anyway, though, I like your curricula ideas - I take it as a sad and alarming commentary that we are forced to resort to listing:

5. Science (with an evolutionary stance)

How did the public get fooled into thinking I.D. (or any other religious "theory") counts as "scientific"?!?

Also, let me highly agree with:

13. Philosophy

I didn't take much philosophy at all growing up, and in college I took an engineering degree so I only dabbled.  As an adult, and especially recently, I've become sort of enamored with philosophy --- I can't see how it could hurt if everyone is exposed to this topic.  I wish I had taken more of this when I was younger.