GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING
33 Since GWS #32 went to press I have spoken to many meetings that (because they were arranged later) were not listed on my schedule . On my April trip to California, along with listed meetings at Chico, I spoke in Marin County (wonderfully green after all that rain), San Francisco, Nevada City, and Eureka. On my May trip, along with the listed meetings, I spoke in Carson City NV, and San Diego. On a very quick trip in late May, I spoke to a number of good meet ings at Georgia Southern College in Statesboro GA . Thanks to a tremendous amount of good work by Nancy Plent and Meg John son (and in part to perfect weather), the May meeting of New Jersey home schoolers was a great success - over 200 people came, with many children of all ages. Eric Plent was our capa ble sound engineer, and Corinne and Melissa Johnson did good work at the registration desk. On the way to California in April I appeared in Detroit on the popular local TV show "Kelly & Co." On the day that the newspapers announced the report of the Presi dent's Commission on Education (of which more later in this issue), Susan Stanberg of "All Things Consid ered" from National Public Radio interviewed me about it. The follow ing day CBS "Sunday Morning" and the Donahue show both asked me to appear the following week, but since I was going to be on the West Coast I was not able to. I have a l so been on radio shows in Saskatoon, St . Paul, San Antonio, and Boston . I also did one interview for the magazine Learnin~ Toda~, and another for the largestngl~s lang uage magazine in Japan. Not sure yet when these will appear. While I was in Sacramento, Jane Williams (CA) and I had a very plea sant and interesting meeting with Janet McCormack, the Private Schools Liaison office r for the State Depart ment of Education . She was very inter ested, well informed, and helpful she really knows how California gov ernment works . From what she told us, it seems likely that, for the time being at least, we will probably not be able to get any significant home schooling legislation through the Cal ifornia legislature. On the other hand, we may not need to; the home schooling picture looks much better than a few months ago. Around the country, the picture remains mixed ; in some states, home schooling has become easier, in others the state authorities still seem to be looking for ways to put a stop to it. It is still and probably will be for some time an important part of our job to convince the schools that home schooling is not a threat to them . In this connection,
we keep getting good responses to my article in the Phi Delta Kappan (see GWS #32), one even coming from as far away as Germany. Near the end of March I spent a weekend visiting the Wallaces in Ithaca NY, and there saw the last three of nine public performances of Ishmael Wallace's musical play (his second), "I Love You More Than A Grapefruit Squirts . " It was a delight, and a well-deserved success, interesting, dramatic, and very funny. I hope by the next issue of GWS to be able to offer tapes of the performance and a complete script. More good news from the Wallace family - Nancy found a publisher for her book on home-schooling, the Swedish firm Larson, which is begin ning to publish in the U. S. The book is called BETTER THAN SCHOOL, and will be published in November. Con gratulations to Nancy and the family' Here in Boston we have a big change in the office. Our old friend and colleague Peggy Durkee, whom many of you know in person or at least over the phone, was suddenly offered the job of Office Manager by the com pany she worked for before she came to work here, fourteen years ago, the same company that handles the mailing of GWS . It was an offer far too good to turn down, and one we could never hope to match here, much as we would like to. So she will have left by the time you read this. Fortunately for us all, Pat Farenga, who will be getting married in August, was in a position to (and eager to) work full-time, so he will be taking over Peggy ' s duties and responsibilities . For a while we will be even busier than ever here, but we are all sure that the transition will go smoothly. Please note in the Directory that we have a new address for both the Canadian Alliance of Home School ers and Education Otherwise in Great Britain. To those who found GWS #32 a bit hard to read, my apologies. I thought that green would be a nice color for spring, but the ink turned out to be paler in print than I had expected from the sample. For the time being we'll stay with the blue, which peo ple seem to like, though we may try some other colors later. You will see from the reviews that we are adding our first musical instruments to our mail-order list. Hope you like these; in time we may add others. --- John Holt
these times and locations should contact Pat Farenga.
WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT RULING From the Wisconsin News-Tribune
& Herald, 4/27/83: . . . A Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling Tuesday that the state's pri vate school attendance law is uncon stitutional apparently will deter prosecution of at least four "home schools" in Douglas County. The high court said the law is "impermissibly vague" and could not be used in prosecutions involving attendance or non-attendance at pri vate schools. The ruling could affect at least three children in the Superior School District who have been considered truant, according to Joseph Rogina, director of student services for the district. He said the children are attending private schools set up by their parents last school year but not sanctioned by the state. Douglas County District Attorney Keith Peterson said similar cases have been raised in three other dis tricts around the county, though charges are pending in only one. .. . In Tuesday's deciSion, the court directed that the Iowa County Circuit Court dismiss two misdemeanor convictions against Laurence Popanz, who was convicted of failure to send two daughters to a public or private school. Popanz, a member of the Agency for the Church of the Free Thinker, Inc . , had two daughters enrolled in the Free Thinker School, a private school in Avoca. The local school district admin istrator refused to recognize the school as a private school because it was not listed in the "Wisconsin Non public School District Directory" issued by the state Department of Pub lic Instruction. There is no requirement in state law or administrative regulations re quiring that private schools be so listed, the Supreme Court said in a decision written by Justice Shirley Abrahamson. "The administrator testified that the listing requirement was a matter of his own 'professional ' standards," she wrote. "Due process " she said "re quires that the l~w set forth fair notice of the conduct prohibited or required and proper standards for enforcement of the law adjudication . "
JOHN 'S COMING SCHEDULE June 24, 1983: Center for Innova tion in Education, Saratoga CA. Con tact: Susan Iwamoto, CIE, 19225 Vine yard Ln, Saratoga CA 95070. June 28-30: 7th Annual Kephart Memorial Child Study Center Sympo sium, Univ. of Northern Colorado, Aspen/Snowmass, CO. Contact: Dr. Robert Reinert, KMCSC, UNC, Greeley CO 80639; 303-351-2691. July 21-23: Homesteaders Good Life Get-Together. Contact Sherrie & Norm Lee, Homesteaders News, Naples NY 14512. July 30-31: West Virginia home schoolers . Contact Jan Evergreen, Rt 1 Box 352, Alderson WV 24910. Aug. 1-2: Child Development Sym posium, Assoc. for Research & Enlight enment, Virginia Beach, VA. Contact: Robert Witt, PO Box 595, Va. Bch. 23451; 804-428-3588. Anyone who wants to coordinate other meetings or lectures around
[JH:] This is the first case I know of in which a state supreme court has overturned such a law on grounds of vagueness, so it will prob ably be useful to continue to make this point and to cite this ruling in support.
NEW MONTANA LAW The state of Montana has just passed a law which specifically per mits home education . From an article by Ginny Baker in the newsletter of the MONTANA HOMESCHOOLERS ASSOCIATION (the actual words of the bill are underlined; other remarks are Ginny's): ... [The law] will go into effect July 1, 1983, and will have the fol lowing provisions .. . A child between the ages of 7
2 and 16 must attend a public school unless the child is "enrolled in a nonpublic or home school that com ~lies with the provisions of Section _Ii of this bill. "For the purposes of this subsection (f), a home school is the instruction by a parent of his child, stepchild, or ward in his resi dence, and a nonpublic school in cludes a parochial, church, reli gious, or private school." To qualify for exemption, Section 2 states "a nonpublic or home school shall: {I} "maintain records on pupil attendance and disease immunization and make such records available to the county su¥erintendent or schools on request. " he parent merely must keep these records, even if he does not immunize his children ... (2) "provide at least 180 days of pupil instruction or the ejUiVa lent in accordance with 20-1- 01 and 70-1-302." These sections define 180 days of instru,ction to include at least 2 hours for pre-school and kin dergarten, 4 hours for grades 1 through 3, and 6 hours for grades 4 through 12 ... (3) "be housed in a bUilding that com lies with a licable local health an sa ety regu ations. It is t e intent of the legislature that if your home is safe enough to live in, it is safe enough to hold your home school in. This subsection should have no effect on the home schol except for local zoning laws for all homes. (4) " rovide an or anized course of studX t at inc u es instruction in the sub ects re uired of ublic sc 00 s as a asic instructional pro gram rursuant to 20-7-111. " The home schoo er may provide his own course of study that includes these subject areas: ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (grades K-6): Language arts (reading, wri ting, speaking, listening, spelling, penmanship, English); arithmetic (oral and written); science and con servation; social sciences (geo graphy, history of the US, state his tory, agriculture, economics); fine arts (music and art); physical educa tion; safety (including fire preven tion); health education. JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL (grades 7-9): language arts, social sciences, mathematics, sci ence, health and physical education, fine arts, practical arts (2 years). HIGH SCHOOL (grades 9-12): language arts, social sciences, mathematics, science, health and physical educa tion, fine arts, practical arts (home economics, industrial arts, business, or agriculture), electives. (5) "in the case of home schools, notify the county superinten dent of sc hools of the student ' s attendance at the school. " It appears the parent wh o operates a home school must take the initiative to notify the county superintendent of the stu dent(s)' attendance at such school. Montana takes no census of school-age children . The legislature included this subsection because it felt it had to keep track of our children. Home educators in Montana do not have to submit their children to test ing of any kind. Nonpublic teachers do not have to be "certified." The h ome school curriculum and textbooks need no approval by anyone as long as the parent affirms that they include the above mentioned subjects. Any par ents who claim to teach their child ren at home yet do not are "non schoolers," not home schoolers, and would be liable for prosecution under the current truancy laws. I recommend that all home educators get a copy of Revised Law 20-5 - 102, MCA to keep on
hand in case you are challenged by local authorities who are unaware of the change that legalizes home educa tion in Montana ...
not over yet . We'll still fight it," Jones said, referring to charges which may yet be laid against him by the Department of Education for run ning his school ...
VICTORY IN ALBERTA The Calgary Herald, 3/17/83: · .. A Calgary courtoom echoed with cheering Wednesday as a provin cial judge found Pastor Larry Jones is not guilty of contravening School Act regulations by keeping his child ren out of a board-controlled school. · .. Judge Douglas Fitch ruled it is "the right of every person" to give efficient educational instruc tion to his children ... He based his ruling on Section 143 of the act and Section 7 of the federal Charter of Rights . Section 143 of the School Act "preserves" the right of parent to educate their children outside a cer tified school, he ruled. The section says children can be excused from attending a certified public school if an application by parents is granted by a superinten dent of schools, or a Department of Education inspector feels the child ren are being properly instructed at home or elsewhere. But defense lawyer Phillip Carr argued there is nothing in the act which says parents have to apply for such an exemption . He also said Jones's books have always been open for inspection. "School authorities declined to send in their inspectors but (sent) school attendance officers" to ex plain to Jones he was breaking the law, Fitch said in his judgement. Fitch also said Jones's rights were infringed upon under Section 7 of the Charter of Rights which says "everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice . " Since the school officials who challenge Jones's right to educate his children are the same officials who decide, under Section 143 of the School Act if his school provides proper instruction, that contradicts the notion of "fundamental justice," referred to in the Charter of Rights, the judge said. · .. The judge also ruled that in broad terms, the School Act doesn't infringe on freedom of religion. One of the designers of the Alpha Omega curriculum, a Christian based correspondence-type program which Jones uses, testified Wednesday the same curriculum is used in more than 2,000 schools in 20 countries. Harold Wengert, also president of the Texas company which distrib utes the curriculum, said students who have taken the program often score much higher on university entrance exams than students who fol low regular school-based programs. Linda Matsalla, who performs psychological and educational testing for Foothills Educational Services, testified that an assessment of Jones's three daughters who currently attend his school showed all three scored average or well above average on achievement tests set for their grade level . In some areas the oldest daugh ter, Laura, and the youngest, Alison, were three grades ahead of the stan dards of students the same age in a public school. "It was a good victory but it's
PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION REPORT The President's Commission on Excellence In Education has recently issued a report, entitled "A Nation At Risk," on the state of our public schools. In report card terms, they gave them an F . Among other things, they said that if a foreign country had done to us what our public schools have done to us, we might well consider it an act of war. Strong words. What did the Commission recom mend? Same old stuff - a longer school year, tougher courses, fewer electives, higher standards (code for "flunk more kids"), better teachers, more money. A number of people, beginning with Susan Stanberg of NPR ' s " All Things Considered," have asked me what I thought about the report. Among other things, I said: . The report was no surprise. If you set up a commission to study U.S . transportation, and put on the commis sion only General Motors executives, naturally they will say that what we need is more cars, better roads, cheaper gas, etc. This commission, being made up of people in the school business, naturally said that the remedy for our problems was more school. The report was nothing new . Every commission that has taken a broad look at the schools since the end of World War II has said exactly the same thing. We had national crises in the schools in the late '40s, in the '50s when Sputnik went up, in the early '60s, again in the late '60s, in the early '70s when we went "Back To Basics" - that movement is now about ten years old - and almost continuously since then. There probably never was a time since uni versal compulsory public schools were invented when any overall look at what they were doing would have given them a good report . The report will probably not do much of anything, but if it does, will do mostly harm. After all, if the medicine is what is making you sick, more of the same medicine will only make you sicker. The medicine, as I have said for many years, is Coerced, Controlled, Competitive Learning, which destroys most of the desire and capacity for learning of almost all on whom it is inflicted, even those who are good at school. But, I was asked, won't it do some good if we just spend more money on schools. No. If you start from Chi cago to go to San Francisco, and assume that it is due south, the further and faster you go, the worse off you will be. The schools are oper ating on the basis of fundamentally wrong assumptions about children, learning, and teaching, and as long as they do, the harder they try, the worse they will do. They assume that children will not learn unless made to and cannot learn unless shown how, and that the way to make them learn is to give them a lot of disconnected little "facts" to memorize and punish them if they fail. This never worked and never will. The correct assumptions, as our readers learn every day from their own experiences with their children, are that children love to learn, are
GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #33
3
very good at it, and, like scien tists, do it by looking at the world around them, asking themselves ques tions about it, and making up or find ing, and then testing, their answers to these questions. Efforts to co erce, control, and measure this pro cess simply turn it off, for the vast majority of children. Until the schools learn this and act on it, they will remain where they have been for eighty or more years now - in ser ious trouble . Aside from that, the effect of everyone of these reports, and indeed all efforts to legislate improvement in education, is to take away from teachers the power to run their own classrooms as they see fit, and so to drive most of the best of them out of teaching, since they won't stand for other people, most of whom have never done any teaching, telling them what to do in their classrooms and constantly checking up on them to be sure they do it . Tell ing teachers how to teach does not make bad teachers good; it only makes good teachers furious, and as the record shows, they don't put up with it for long. Will this report, and the Demo crats ' hastily thrown together answer to it, help or hurt home schooling? Perhaps some of both . The report will certainly give us an answer to the schools' claim that only they are com petent to teach our children . But it may also breed a swarm of new curricu lum requirements which could serious ly limit our right to teach our child ren as we think best. Time will tell. - JH
ENCOURAGEMENT FROM CALIFORNIA [JH:] I received a very encour aging letter just the other day from Dr . Lynn P . Hartzler, Program Mana ger, Alternative Education and Inde pendent Study, California Dept of Edu cation, 721 Capitol Mall, Sacramento CA 95814, saying in part : .. . This is to acknowledge and thank you for your letter to Bill Honig, Superintendent of Public Instruction. Mr . Honig has asked me to write to you because I have been assigned the responsibility for alter native programs including home school ing. We concur with the observation that home and public schools may exist in a mutually cooperative and suportive relationship . .. At present there is much that can be done legal ly under the Independent Study option provided the local school authority adopts the required policy and pro cedures. Our position has been to encourage school boards and adminis trators to try to accommodate parents who request home schooling under the existing Independent Study legisla tion ... [JH:] Along with this, Dr . Hartzler sent me a copy of a letter he or she wrote to some parents who had written their Assemblyman, Don Sebastiani, about home schooling. This letter (a copy was sent to Mr. Sebastiani) says in part: . .. We are pleased with your report of success in conducting a home school last year for the benefit of one child and the mother . There is no doubt that home schooling can be a fine experience especially for young children when the conditions are favorable, as they seem to have been in your case . It is our operational
GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #33
policy to encourage school district officials to attempt to accommodate parents who are willing and able to conduct home schools to do so via the Independent Study process . This is a legal option for citizens in Califor nia which safeguards school interests while allowing home schooling on a conditional basis ... This office will be pleased to supply parents and school officials information and assistance in taking advantage of thi s opt ion . .. [JH:] I think California fami lies would be wise to explore and pur sue this Independent Study option before considering registering their own homes as private schools, for reasons I discuss in the article "Pri vate School Option," page 24 .
SOUTH DAKOTA AMENDS LAW [DR:] I wrote to the South Dako ta legislature and to some GWS read ers in that state, trying to find out more about the 1981 home-schooling law and the possible repeal that we men tioned in GWS #32. Shirley Frederick (SD) wrote back: . . . The S.D. law you refer to is better known as the Christian Schools bill. It was promoted by various reli gious groups that wanted to set up schools without meeting state require ments for accreditation . Home school ing was included in the bill . The legislature agreed ... as long as the children were to be tested annually and demonstrated academic progress . The sponsor of the original 1981 bill came back to the legislature in '83 to amend the law - apparently the supporters of the original bill didn't keep their end of the bargain and some children received no instruc tion whatsoever. Other children re ceived dogmatic training under harsh conditions. The '83 fight was bitter - harsh words, name-calling, recrimin ations, bizarre demonstrations, and shady tactics . Legislators supported by the S.D. Education Association tried to require teacher certifica tion for the "Christian schools . " The compromise bill passed on the last day . . . [DR:] The staff attorney at the S.D. State Capitol sent a copy of the amendments as they were passed in the 1983 session: BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA: Section 1 . That S. 13-27-7 be amended to read as follows: 13-27-7 . All applications for excuse from school attendance shall be on a standard form acknowledged before a notary or two witnesses. The form shall be provided by the state superintendent of elementary and secondary education. If the applica tion is granted, a certificate of excuse also provided by the superin tendent of elementary and secondary education shall be issued by the pres ident of the school board having jur isdiction over the district in which the child has school residence, stating the reason for the excuse and be for a period not to exceed one year. Upon a showing by the superin tendent of elementary and secondary education that a child excused from school attendance pursuant to S. 13-27-3 is not being instructed in compliance with 13-27-3, the school
compliance with 13-27-3, the school board may immediately revoke the child's certificate of excuse . All tests scores required by S. 13-27-3 shall be kept on file in the public school of the district where the child has school residence. If subsequent achievement test results reveal less than satisfactory academ ic progress in the child's level of achievement, the school board may refuse to renew the child's certifi cate of excuse . Section 2. That S. 13-27-3 be amended to read as follows: 13-27-3 . A child shall be ex cused from school attendance, pursu ant to 13-27-2, because the child is otherwise provided with competent alternative instruction for an equiva lent period of time, as in the public schools, in the basic skills of lang uage arts and mathematics. The parent or guardian of the child shall identi fy in the application the place where the child shall be instructed and the individual or individuals who will instruct the child. The individuals are not required to be certified but the state superintendent of elemen tary and secondary education may investigate and determine if the instruction is being provided by a competent person . .. The child shall annually take a nationally standard ized achievement test of the basic skills. The test shall be the same test designated to be used in the pub lic school district where the child is instructed and may be monitored by a designee from the local school dis trict where the child is instructed . The test shall be provided by the school district where the child is instructed. The superintendent of elementary and secondary education or his designee may visit any alterna tive education program at reasonable times during the school year. Section 3. That Chapter 13-27 be amended by adding thereto a new sec tion to be read as follows: If a child of compulsory school age [Who] has been attending an un accredited school in another state or country or [Who] has been receiving alternative instruction pursuant to 13-27-3 enrolls in a public school in this state, the child shall be placed at the child ' s demonstrated level of proficiency as established by one or more standardized tests. However, a child's placement may not be in a grade level higher than warranted by the child's chronological age assum ing entry into the first grade at age six . . . [A similar provision for secondary students follows . ]
MORE LEGISLATIVE NEWS CALIFORNIA: According to Jane Williams of the CALIFORNIA HOME EDUCA TION CLEARINGHOUSE, some home-school ers discussed the possibility of home-school legislation with a State Assemblyman, an assistant to a State Senator, Janet McCormick of the Department of Education, a couple of lobbyists, and the general counsel for the Seventh Day Adventists . The
GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING, Vol . 6 No.3. ISSN #0745-5305. Pub l ished bi -month ly by Ho lt Asso ci ates, 729 Boylston St , Boston MA 02 11 6 . S15/yr . Date of Issue, June 1, 1983. Second class postage paid at Boston MA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to GWS, 729 Boylston St, Boston MA 02116. ADVERTISERS : Deadline is 15 days before publi cat ion date. 20%off for 3 or more consecut ive issues. Write to Pat Farenga for rates.