Chemistry teacher Kristin Marais with Discovery Institute Academy was on a podcast with a straightforward title: “It’s Not That Hard to Homeschool High School.” Yes, but as host Lisa Nehring admits, teaching your homeschool student chemistry really can be tough. Chemistry for many was one of the more intimidating classes they took in high school. That’s why Kristin Marais’s course may be just the answer to a homeschooling parent’s dilemma.
Next year’s two-semester course starts on August 26. More information including a full syllabus is here. You’ll need to register soon because spaces for students are limited.
Not Your Father’s Chemistry Teacher
Listen here and I think you’ll agree that Ms. Marais has a super-friendly and welcoming demeanor — not at all the case with my own high school chemistry teacher. And a unique thing about her teaching is that she incorporates relevant concepts about intelligent design, from biologist Michael Denton on man as “privileged species” to physicist Brian Miller, in a recent live lecture to the class, on design evidence from the origin of life. That is really neat.
And it is so needed. Not only because chemistry is a hard subject, but because as Marais and Nehring agree, the years since 2020 have made it particularly challenging to be a student. Homeschoolers were partly exempted from the burdens of Covid lockdowns, and seemingly we’re past that now. But as a speaker yesterday at my own younger daughter’s high school graduation said, students are graduating from a sane environment (in my daughter’s case, a Jewish day school) into the nihilistic “asylum” of our general culture. College campuses are some of the craziest environments out there. That is not going to be easy for anyone.
Chemistry, Enriched by Design
The rationale behind Discovery Institute Academy is to enrich a subject like chemistry with some of the objective evidence for meaning and purpose that science offers. Chemistry, like biology and physics, has that evidence to offer. Kristin’s class is not only a reasonable way for homeschool parents to “outsource” a subject. It’s also an opportunity to help get students ready for their eventual meeting with that outside asylum, where acknowledgements of life’s value and meaning are countercultural.
It’s a wonderful resource. As one of Ms. Marais’s students from last year wrote to her, “I have never in my life had a teacher (besides my parents) who was as dedicated and excited as you!” Listen to an ID the Future episode with Kristin, and meet her in a short video here: