Forensic Science

Yesterday my sister-in-law came to visit. She is a long-time teacher who sometimes questions but mostly supports our homeschool decision. This year she is teaching various grade nine subjects and one she and I were very surprised at, Forensic Science. It is a new option in her Catholic school for junior high students, grades 7-9 and there is no curriculum at all. She is considering different options including leaning on taped footage of CSI.

Having never watched, or cared to watch, CSI I can't comment on the series per se. However it was truly ironic that a commercial came on sortly after she left of an upcoming CSI Miami episode featured a pregnant woman who was raped and her baby killed (I assumed shot given the footage, but it didn't specify). Wow. Like I would want my son or daughter watching footage like this! I trust my sil who is the consumate professional with high integrity to teach this subject well, but the thought of forensics being taught to my children at that age leaves me shaking my head.

I acknowledge this occupation as a very important one as most of the work is learning why a person died to better support the grieving family, and almost always it is not under the auspicious circumstances of the aformentioned CSI Miami episode. We as a culture are afraid of death and very often shy away from the subject and learning about forensics is good. However, I question teaching this material to 11 year olds where it is much better material for high school students who are more focused on future occupations.

To close this blog post, I have a question for you. What is the number one reason for maternal mortality in North America?

Tragically it is echoed in the CSI Miami episode: the number one killer of pregnant women is murder by the baby's father and/or the mother's significant other. Case in point - in July of this year, very close to home, a pregnant mother of a two-year-old daughter went missing. Her body was found when her husband and his family/friends searched the outskirts of their fair city on their own. Shortly thereafter her husband and the father of her children was charged with her murder. Forensic scientists could not determine a cause of death because her body was so badly decomposed... not the forensics I am wanting my children to learn, not yet anyway.