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GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING 32 Date of Issue April 1, 1983
An unusual amount of legal information in this issue. For a while it seemed as if every day brought news of another family in court or another legislature acting against homeschoolers. You'll find many of John Holt's thoughts on how to deal with these situations inside.
Our friend and co-worker Tim Chapman is leaving us after two years to work in a completely different field. John thought that Tim's experience is such a good example of learning from the world instead of through formal schooling that he asked him to write about it, and you'll find Tim's letter in this issue. We welcome to our staff Mark Pierce who is now learning to handle book orders and subscriptions.
Beginning in March, John had series of radio interviews, arranged by Delacorte (publishers of TEACH YOUR OWN and the revised editions of HOW CHILDREN FALL and HOW CHILDREN LEARN). John was on the air in Winston-Salem, Muncie, Nashville, St. Louis, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Des Moines. He also went to Philadelphia for a live TV show, and to West Virginia for a speaking engagement at Glenville State College. Next week he leaves for a series of home-schooling meetings in northern California and a lecture in Chico.
In early February I went to Arizona to visit family and friends in the Phoenix area, so I suggested to Brian Evans of the ARIZONA HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATION that it would be nice to meet some of the homeschooling families there. The Association invited me to a meeting where I answered questions for an hour about home-schooling and the work of Holt Associates, and later in the week I had lunch and dinner with various GWS readers. A most pleasant visit. --- Donna Richoux
JOHN'S COMING SCHEDULE Apr. 30, 1983: 6th Mass. Area La Leche League Conf., Walsh Middle School, Framingham MA. Contact: Roberta Jalbert, 8 Brown St, Ipswich MA 01938; 617-356-7345. May 3: International Reading Assoc. meeting, Anaheim CA. Contacts: Carole Vinograd-Bausell, 807 Beaverbank Cir., Towson MD 21204, or Jack Cassidy, PO Box 55, Kemblesville PA 19347; 215-255-4058. May 4: Sky Mountain Life School, Escondido CA. Contact Dean Donald F. Hanley, 1084 Nostalgia Pl, Vista CA 92083; 619-726-7016. May 5: Sacramento area homeschooling meeting. Contact Jane Williams, 8241 E Hidden Lakes Dr, Roseville CA 95678. May 14-15: N.J. Homeschoolers meeting. Contact Nancy Plent, 2 Smith St Farmingdale NJ 07727; 201-938-2473. June 24: Center for Innovation in Education, Saratoga CA. Contact: Susan Iwamoto, CIE, 19225 Vineyard Ln, Saratoga CA 95070. June 28-30: 7th Annual Kephart Memorial Child Study Center Symposium, Univ. of Northern Colorado, Aspen/Snowmass, CO. Contact: Dr. Robert Reinert, KMCSC, UNC, Greeley CO 80639; 303-351-2691. Aug. 1-2: Child Development Symposium, Assoc. for Research & Enlightenment, 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 these times and locations should contact me directly. - Peg Durkee
SELF-TAUGHT COMPUTER DESIGNER
From Barb Parshley (NH):
... I wanted to send this as I read in GWS 029 what the physicist said about people learning science and not through college ["Becoming Experts" by David Deutsch].
... I am presently apprenticing in the most positive sense of the word, under someone who designs computers. I have a love for science but have never studied anything about computers. Jim began by showing me how to wire the boards inside and I later began learning to read and draw the schematic diagrams. All the time I'm learning about how these things are put together, all on-the-job training. I stood in awe of the knowledge this man has.
One day, as I expressed my regret to him for my not having gone to college for a degree in this field so I could work better for him, I asked him what his degree was in. He chuckled and said he didn't have one. Being sure he misunderstood my question, and also sure he must be progressing toward his doctorate, I restated my question. He said once again that he didn't have a degree, not even on a high school level. In fact, he never went past 8th grade! He is self-taught, and is designing computers for companies both here and abroad.
This man has been a great inspiration to me as I home-school my children (I take all my work home) and realize that they could do quite well in a highly technical field, if they choose to, learning on their own, as Jim did...
RESOLUTION IN VIRGINIA
Jim O'Toole writes, "Recently the Virginia Legislature passed the following resolution. It is designed to study the conditions, if any, under which parents may pursue schooling of their children at home. If you reside in Virginia and wish to become part of the committee's work, please contact me at Box 256, King George VA 22485; 703-775-4867."
The resolution reads: ... WHEREAS, parents are traditionally and rightfully the primary educators of their children and have a fundamental responsibility to prepare their children for the obligations of later life; and WHEREAS, it is the joint responsibility of parents and the state to provide children with educational opportunities; and WHEREAS, our Compulsory Attendance Law has served well the educational goals of the Commonwealth and an overwhelming majority of its families; and WHEREAS, there are children who are more receptive to the educational process in the environment of their own homes; and WHEREAS, it is appropriate and desirable that families who believe that home instruction is better for their children be allowed to educate them at home; and WHEREAS, the Commonwealth is responsible for the delicate task of ensuring educational opportunity for children and encouraging the healthy growth of the family unit; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, that the Education and Health Committee of the Senate and the Education Committee of the House of Delegates are requested to create a joint subcommittee on home education. The joint subcommittee is requested to establish guidelines whereby parents may qualify to educate their own children in their own home.
The joint subcommittee shall consist of five members: two members of the Education and Health Committee of the Senate to be appointed by the Committee on Privileges and Elections of the Senate, and three members of the Education Committee of the House of Delegates to be appointed by the Chairman thereof.
The joint subcommittee shall submit its recommendations to the 1984 Session of the General Assembly.
The cost of this study shall not exceed $4,000. _____
[JH: This is something that homeschoolers in many states could probably fairly easily persuade their legislators to do. In any case, we hope readers will tell as many legislators as possible about this.
SINGLE MOTHER'S ARRANGEMENTS
From Valerie Vaughan (MA), who wrote "Mom & Son Travel," GWS #25:
... After sending my son Gabe (almost 5) to a preschool for the last year because I'm a single working mother, and having seen his spirit dampened, I was getting more and more concerned. I felt under a terrible emotional and financial struggle, and then your Issues #25-30 arrived and I stayed up to 3 A.M reading and regaining hope and determination to "go for" what I really want for my son. With the help of another GWS homeschooler, Diane Landis, and a little extra driving every week, Gabe will be at others' homes while I work, and will only be one afternoon at preschool per week (which I'll change if I can find another arrangement!)
The difference in his mood and my relief from a destructive guilt is so uplifting. GWS, I want to thank you for saving this situation. It was really the inspiration and push I needed to get the two of us our of the pits. I think one of the worst forms of self-negation is to believe so totally in one thing and to feel (financially or otherwise) forced to do the opposite.
I send out this message for other single working mothers - don't give up - the convenience of a daily pre-school or other school is a deceptive illusion, and the price is the wearing away of the living drive and spirit of not just your child, but your own self! Hold the image strong that there is another way, and the answer will appear. I had to want this enough so that it could happen...
GOOD NEWS FROM SESSIONS
[JH:] On Jan. 31, Bob Sessions wrote us an encouraging letter about latest developments in his case in Iowa. For those new readers of GWS who may not have read TEACH YOUR OWN and for whom the name Sessions may not mean anything, let me sum up very briefly what this is all about. Five years or so ago Bob and Linda Sessions began to teach their son at home. The local Superintendent (who retired last Dec.) was adamantly opposed to this and took the Sessions to court. They lost, appealed to District Court, and won there in a ruling which we quote in TEACH YOUR OWN. Later on, when another Iowa family appealed a weak First Amendment case to the state Supreme Court and lost there, the Decorah school district saw their chance to go after the Sessions family again, and it is about this second case that Bob is writing.
What has happened is that the Sessions and their lawyer have prepared such a strong case that the state DPI (Department of Public Instruction) is reluctant to press the suit against them, for fear that the Sessions may win and so set a strong home schooling precedent for the whole state. Also, some members of the local school board are themselves beginning to wonder whether this suit is worth going on with, particularly since the superintendent who felt so strongly about it is gone. So the family, the DPI, and the local board are trying to find a solution acceptable to all of them. The DPI is no longer opposed in principle to home schooling or determined that it shall only be done by certified teachers, but they do want the state to retain some control over it; no more in Iowa than anywhere else are they willing to give an absolutely blank check to home schoolers.
I wrote to Bob that there were parts of his second paragraph that I couldn't understand. In his reply he admitted that it was unclear. What the DPI is struggling to do is to find a definition of the words "equivalent instruction by a certificated teacher" (which come from the statutes) that will not enable the Sessions or any other home schoolers to show in court that these same requirements are nowhere met by the state's own schools - an argument which, as I have said elsewhere in this issue, should be extremely effective in many or most courts, including the Federal courts.
In his letter Bob wrote, in part:
... We had our DPI hearing last week. It was quite interesting! We won't know the official outcome for a month or two, but some things are clear now.
The DPI officials (same ones we met with five years ago) would like to side with us, they would like to rule us "equivalent," if for no other reason than to stop our move toward a clear court decision in our favor. They told us they continue to have no problem finding our program equivalent ... Furthermore, they made it clear they hoped that their vague "certified instruction equivalent to that in public schools" statement of five years ago would suffice as a general policy across the state. They're now clear that saying "equivalent means equivalent" doesn't really settle anything, and they spent much time in the hearing trying to figure out some grounds for saying home schools must have X hours per week of certified instruction ... And they're finally facing the whole issue of quality.
The hearing will help us a lot in court if we have to go back there ... And if the DPI is willing to admit, for the public record, that it is very difficult to find a decision procedure to determine equivalency, the judge will surely wonder how they can justify harassing us for five years.
... It became apparent to the local principals that we might be up to something acceptable; i.e., for the first time, perhaps, some local officials are beginning to see that nonschool education could be legitimate.
... Our best hope is that the DPI will go for us in a way which will set reasonable standards for all homeschoolers in Iowa. Possibly they will send it back to the locals with instructions to be reasonable and talk to us. And if they do set some policy we can't live with (four or five hours per day with a certified teacher), we should have a good chance to win in court. We're not anxious to return to court, but we're certainly not terribly fearful, given what we experienced at our hearing.
We'll be presenters at a workshop in Iowa City for school superintendents this summer on the topic of homeschooling. Our lawyer and the DPI lawyer also will be featured. Clearly the educational folks in this state are moving in the direction you take in your Kappan article ...
FAMILIES WIN IN COURT
From the latest issue of Tidbits (PO Box 2823, Santa Fe NM 87501
... In August, 1982, Don and Paula Edgington of Socorro, New Mexico, won the right to teach their children at home without enrolling them in a state-recognized school. The couple had been found guilty in February of the petty misdemeanor charge of not complying with state law by failing to send their two minor children to a state-recognized school or adhering to an approved home study course. On appeal, the district court reversed their conviction, declaring that portion of the state law which allegedly excludes parents from teaching their children at home "is unreasonable, arbitrary, and does not rest upon some ground of difference having a fair and substantial relation to the objects of the Public School Code..."
Paula, who has a degree in education, is teaching their children at home as a satellite school of the Christian Liberty Academy, based in Illinois. The defense attorney claimed two constitutional violations in the matter: denial of equal protection and denial of due process of law. In his defense he also presented testimony that freedom of religion was denied the Edgingtons, stating that under the statute the family was being denied their choice of educational format based, in part, upon their belief "that a child's religious instruction and secular instruction should be integrated one with the other." However, freedom of religion as an issue in this case was not considered in the court's decision.
In finding for the parents, District Court Judge Edmund Kase focused primarily upon the wording of the statute involved, where it states in part:
"a private school means a school offering programs of instruction not under the control, supervision or management of a local school board exclusive of home instruction by the parent, guardian, or one having custody of the student."
The state education statute did not exclude all home instruction - only home instruction by a parent or guardian, which defense attorney Neil Mertz said "lacked any reasonable relationship to power within the state to regulate." The ruling judge agreed, saying that clause "doesn't make sense" by leaving it open for an aunt or grandparent - in short anyone other than the parent or guardian - to instruct children at home.
... The district court's ruling has been appealed by the State ... If it is upheld (as is likely) by the appellate court, deputy district attorney Charles Noland has indicated the State will ask the New Mexico Supreme Court to review the matter. If the Supreme Court chooses not to review the case or upholds the district court's decision, he said, then the legislature will probably be asked to rewrite the statute (again) ... _____
From the Quincy, Mass. Patriot Ledger, 1/18/83:
... Craig Bialick of Cedarville can teach his 7-year-old son at home now without fear of being dragged off to jail or fined for making the boy a truant.
The school committee voted unanimously last night to accept Bialick's home education plan for his son, Isaiah, who was pulled out of school 2 1/2 months ago by his parents.
... Bialick's brush with the school department came to a head two weeks ago when he was arrested at his 46 Sharps Drive home for failing to bring his son to school. The arrest came the night after Bialick and his wife, Mary Lou, asked the school committee for permission to teach their son at home.
... Bialick appeared in Plymouth District Court last week on the misdemeanor charge of "failing to send a child to school." His case was continued to tomorrow to give him time to work out his differences with the school department.
Bialick's home education plan consists of the basic subjects required by state law - reading, writing and mathematics ... The Bialicks also have lined up help from an aunt who worked for 33 years as a public school teacher, and a family friend who has worked as an art teacher.
... The Bialicks have agreed to provide school officials with a portfolio of their son's educational accomplishments, and have agreed to periodic testing.
"I don't mind the tests. I'd like to know how he's doing, anyway," said Mrs. Bialick. "Not to put him up against a bunch of other kids, but to find out what he knows and what he needs to know."
The Bialicks are former commune members who lived and worked on a vegetarian cooperative in Tennessee called, simply, The Farm. They also lived in Guatemala. Mr. Bialick taught the Mayan Indians and Mrs. Bialick assisted midwives at birth... _____
Nancy Coomes (TN) sent us a series of articles from Tennessee newspapers about two home-schooling families in Murfreesboro who were taken to court. The final story reads:
... Two local children can continue attending school at home while the county school board investigates the quality of education their parents are giving them.
A General Sessions Court case against the parents - Charles and Linda Law and Natale and Geraldine Failla - was continued indefinitely today after the school board was ordered to investigate the home instruccion before prosecuting the parents...
"The board of education is responsible for making a factual determination in each case," said local District Attorney General Guy Dotson. "I don't think the school board has visited the homes and they haven't made a determination of the curriculum being taught."
Dotson said an opinion he requested from state Attorney General William Leech suggested that it is the school board's responsibility to determine whether the children are receiving a quality education.
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