HOME-SPUN SCHOOLS--By Raymond & Dorothy Moore
Home-Spun Schools
The home, not the school, was the original educational system. Until the last century, most children who went to school started at twelve or later. Nor has mass education proven itself as much as many of us have hoped. In fact, it is being most seriously questioned. And, where possible, parents are more & more often opting for the home. So the home-spun school has become the fastest developing educational movement in America--now perhaps exceeding a quarter of a million students--& once again proving its worth as an original.
To take little children unnecessarily out of the home & put them into institutions is perhaps our most pervasive form of child abuse today. As a number of leading psychologists & psychiatrists point out, the child who feels rejected is usually more damaged than the one who is physically bruised.
Home schools work well under almost any kind of circumstance. They do well in city or country, among rich or poor, professional or blue collar workers, married or single parents, whether educated in high school or college, in the U.S. or overseas.
Recipe for Home-Schooling Teaching
The requirements are not complex. Parents need only be loving, responsive & reasonably consistent, & salt these qualities with a little imagination, common sense & willingness to follow a few simple suggestions. And don't worry about the opinions of neighbours who don't know or care about the real needs of children. Just be kind to them. Have your children be helpful in your home & in the neighbourhood. Visit the old & infirm & ill. Do favours for others without asking any in return. Soon your "strange antics" will be forgotten...or admired.
In one sense you are teaching all your waking moments--as models to your offspring. Yet while some parents are more diligent than others, none need to formally teach a full school day. Seldom are more than two or three hours of formal academic instruction a day appropriate. Many mothers & fathers limit their formal teaching to little more than an hour.
Much more important is your working with your children in physical work, helping them learn practical skills & the nobility of work--building character qualities of industry, neatness, order, responsibility & dependability, which are hard to find in even one in ten children or young adults today.
Along with these practical values you can by precept & example teach manners & graces which today are rare--kindness, thoughtfulness, tact, forgiveness, generosity, & a just plain kind of for-others love. This is seldom done in schools these days. Teach them how to walk tall, how to listen closely, how to speak graciously. Paul was not gesturing idly when he wrote Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report...think on these things." This is also a good guide to book selection.
With this kind of teaching, accompanied by well-regulated physical work in fellowship with you, comes also a moral tone which is not otherwise possible. If you follow a simple routine & use materials from any of a number of excellent sources, your children will excel academically. But this is not all. Their behaviour will be superior too! And socially they will generally be outstanding.
Typically today in schools, children are fed along with their studies a narcissistic, me-first mixture of business, sports, amusements & snacks. Why shouldn't they instead learn an altruistic, my-neighbour-first mixture of work & service & joy of sharing?
Socialisation (Relating to Others)
Little children are not only better taught at home than at school, but are also better socialised by parental example & sharing than by other little children. Contrary to common beliefs, then, little children are not best socialised by other kids, & socialisation is not neutral. It is either positive or negative.
1. Positive, or altruistic & principled, sociability is firmly linked with the family--with the quantity & quality of self-worth. This is in turn dependent largely on the values & experience provided by the family at least until the child can reason consistently. In other words, the child who works & eats & plays & has his rest & is read to daily, more with his parents than with his peers, senses that he is part of the family corporation--needed, wanted, depended upon. He is the one who has a sense of self-worth.
2. Negative, me-first sociability, on the other hand, is born from too great a proportion of peer-group association & too few meaningful parental contacts & responsible experiences in the home during the first eight to twelve years. The early peer influence generally brings an indifference to family values which defy parent correction. The child does not yet consistently understand the "why" of parental demands when his peers replace his parents as his models because he is with them more. So he does what comes naturally: He adapts to the ways of his agemates because "everybody's doing it," & gives his parents' values the back of his little hand. And, he has few sound values to pass on to the next generation. He is seldom truly practical, productive or self-directed.
Here are the makings of the rebels of the sixties, the drug & sex culture of the seventies & the perverse society of the eighties. On the other hand, we have never yet found drugs in a home school. Home schoolers usually have a keen sense of direction & are social leaders in their neighbourhoods. Their homes are often social centers for the kids who instinctively know which parents care.
The Ten Little Commandments for Home Schools
There are some ideas which apply generally to all home-school beginners. We might call them "The Ten Little Commandments for Home School." They come from the personal experiences of men & women, & from home-school specialists.
1. Be sure of your beliefs & goals as parents; decide if the needs of your children are more important to you than social pressures & bad laws, & if you can be a compassionate neighbour when others think you strange. The more you know about your children, the more likely you will cope.
2. Examine your willingness to be a patient, warm, responsive & consistent parent. If you can't handle your children, learn how. Otherwise, put them in a good school or farm them out to someone who can guide them.
3. Learn how your children develop so that you can talk knowledgeably & with assurance to your school officials.
4. Learn your rights as parents.
5. Seek the best counsel available. If necessary, reach out to national specialists & don't go into court without experienced counsel & witnesses.
6. Settle on a curriculum compatible with your ability & beliefs. Many parents later find that they can build their own courses of study without helper schools, but experienced suppliers are a good bet when you begin.
7. Keep a balance in your program. Don't tie yourself down to books all day. An hour & a half to two hours is ample time for formal education in a typical home school, then work, read, sing, play, rest, eat & go places with your children. If you have more than one child, use the older one to teach the younger & the stronger to help the weaker. Home school should be less perplexity than fun. You are teaching by example every moment. Respond warmly. Use your imagination. Everything within sight, sound, touch, taste & smell is a learning tool.
8. Don't make a big thing out of being different, but don't be ashamed either. Name your home school, so that when asked, your children can say, "I go to the Rice Christian Academy," for example. It may be wise to consider yourself a branch of your supplier school, or set up as a satellite of a local public, private or parochial school, or you may arrange for supervision by a certified teacher if you must have the confidence of local school officials. Remember, no two home schools will be exactly alike. If you are determined to meet the needs of your child, you will do very well.
9. Most school officials seem to prefer that you move ahead quietly, although in States like California you usually file an affidavit with your State or county school office. If officials challenge you or threaten arrest, be calm, offer evidence of the rightness of your doings, ask if in face of your evidence they have any better ideas. If they are persistent, seek specialists' help. There are usually many recourses short of court, such as an injunction, hearings with boards of education & reasoning by specialists on your behalf with officials--which often quickly settles the case. For parents of faith this also means prayer.
10. Keep your cool. If your children do not learn as fast as you think they should, take counsel. Be patient.
Remember, when you surrender your parental authority & responsibility to the State, you are still accountable for your children, but you never fully retrieve your authority.
If we are to believe such eminent sociologists as Frederick Le Play, J.D. Unwin or Carle Zimmerman, we must spend more time with our children in the home & protect them from decadent pressures & laws lest society collapse like that of Greece or Rome, when their societies' conditions were virtually identical to ours.
Let's have more warmth & consistent firmness, less indulgence; more work with parents, more tools, sticks, nails than fancy toys; more service for others--the old, the young, the poor, the infirm--& less sports & amusements; more self-control, productiveness & responsibility--which lead to, & follow, self-worth as noble citizens. Parents & home, undiluted, usually do this best.
Following are a number of home schooling stories we have heard of or been involved in. We hope that they will be either a help or an encouragement to you that you can have your own "home spun school."
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If it's not the Word & not the Truth, I don't care to teach it to my children.
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The Nurse & the PR Man (with Margie Schaefer)
I was scared that I was losing my son. We were desperate. The whole public school situation concerned me. Mean little tricks were the rule of the day. Flushing shoes, sweaters, anything to stop up the toilets. And what rivalry! Always & forever competing to be the biggest, the strongest, the best.
"But you can't protect your kids from everything," people said. "Life is rough." But too many kids are being hurt by too many slashing put downs. How many times can you be killed by words? We decided to take Mark out of school.
We were able to buy Mark's schoolbooks & would continue with the subjects he had in the classroom. I called a local church pastor & asked if he knew of someone we could contact to supervise Mark's work. Though I'm a registered nurse, I, like any typical parent, felt incapable of guiding his study. The pastor put us in touch with a certified teacher. For the remainder of that first year of home school, we met with her once a week. Observing her guidance, by the next school year I felt enough confidence in myself & in Mark to let him work without her.
We were not without problems, however. We were reported to the local authorities. We felt the pressure & I was tempted to cave in under it. No matter whether you like to admit it or not, what other people think of you is important. Then we made a decision--a wise decision--to go to the local school system itself & talk with the attendance officer. We would do our own reporting. I might confess that at this point my courage wasn't any too great, but the man was very understanding. He told me there would be no problem as long as our home program was monitored by a certified teacher from the district.
We wrote a summary of our reasons for removing Mark from school & gave them a list of the books we'd be using & the curriculum. We did the same the following September when Mark began home study again & sent it to the local school officer in charge of attendance.
As it turned out, our program was so successful that after a few months they didn't concern themselves with us any more. Our next-door-neighbour, herself the principal of a local public school, supported us from the beginning &, in fact, still does. She became a liaison between us & the school authorities & they have not contacted us since.
After the first year our home school evolved into something quite different from that of a normal classroom. As our concept of education has changed to include the whole person, our curriculum changed also.
The boys--now ages 15, 12 & 11--study the three R's, plus Bible, English, spelling, science, music & typing. We avoid "grading" as much as possible. We encourage them to work at their own speed, advancing when they can, & spending extra time on areas in which they are weak.
Our curricula now fall under four headings: Study of Scripture, study of nature, useful labour & experiences of life. We begin our days with family devotions. The boys study from a Bible textbook & workbook. Then we--the boys & I together--plan their schoolwork for the day. Sometimes they spend two hours on math or reading, depending upon their problems or needs. Other mornings they work in all their textbooks. And some days their projects do not include books at all.
By noon the boys have usually finished their schoolwork & have the day free for other activities. This is one reason they enjoy home study so much.
They use science textbooks but we found that many other activities teach principles of science through experience: Hiking, backpacking in our nearby mountains, for example, & observing the trees & flowers, the rock formations, the birds & insects along the trails. Their pets include birds, horses, rabbits & a tree squirrel. All these require, & to these the boys give, daily attention.
My husband's job takes him as a speaker & representative of his firm to meetings in different areas of the U.S. & Canada. We travel with him & all enjoy & learn from visiting so many different places.
We had another problem with Jonathan, one of our other sons. Jon didn't want to learn how to read. He's always been a bit immature for his age, but nine years old! A nine-year-old running around, not reading! Not able to read. Not interested. Dr. Raymond Moore had told me that some boys don't read until ten or later, but this was my boy. Besides, I am not the most patient person in the World, & I began to get worried. There are all those people out there--the church school principal, the critical neighbour, just waiting for a failure!
I mean, it's one thing to teach your children at home. Our friends & relatives have grown used to that idea. But letting Jonathan run around free as a lamb--or really more like a colt--& not reading? Impossible!
So I decided to teach him. We sat down together. We looked at bright pictures & large-print first-grade words. He couldn't have cared less. I began to push, push hard. I began to feel frantic inside. War developed between me & my middle son. I pushed harder, but he planted his feet & refused to budge. Can you force anybody to learn?
To make matters worse my husband intervened, & not in my favour. "Back off," he suggested. "You may have the kid under more pressure than he'd get at school." "But he won't learn to read. He simply refuses." Dick smiled patiently. "He's only nine." Only nine? "It's not only a matter of years. He's not mature for his age. Let him take care of the animals & travel with us. Can't you let him be a little kid awhile longer? You don't force a horse to race before he's ready." My mouth closed. I tried to keep it that way. After all, Dick was head of the family. But it wasn't easy.
A year passed. He still didn't read. Then--without warning--one day my ears told me something I couldn't believe. "I want to learn to read like Mark because he can read the signs along the freeway." It was Jonathan!
We bought a child's book with a record, a read-along-while-you-listen device. He played the record. He followed along in his book. He picked up other books & began to study them. Because he'd long had an interest in Indians, we got him "Friday, the Arapaho," a two-hundred-page book. Within four months he'd read it from cover to cover about 15 times. Within six months his oral reading became as accurate & well enunciated as most adults'. Once he started, no one could stop him. I marvelled. But I later found for myself that this was not particularly unusual.
Our emphasis is not on testing them against the norms. Some norms these days are declining. We prefer instead that they develop their own highest potential. After completing the requirements of high school they will take the GED test (high school diploma equivalency exam) & college entrance exams. We have no doubts about their success.
The greatest reward from our home school is the closeness of our family, the family that we were losing. Instead we are friends. If "friends" doesn't mean anything to you, maybe it's because you're still fighting your children. Some mothers confess that their kids are the enemy & they don't know how to cope. Others have children who are so wrapped up in a multitude of activities that they become strangers though they sleep under the same roof.
We have a sense of bonding & comradeship that we now see is rare in most homes. Working together on their school program--& just working together--has drawn us closer. We confide, we share, we have a strong respect for one another. Instead of our going five separate ways, our greatest joy is doing things together.
The Schoolmarm & the New York Banker (with Meg Johnson)
Some might feel that because I am a trained teacher & my husband is a New York banker, we are not typical home-school people. Perhaps not, but I have worked with enough home-school folks to know that family schools have little relationship to the average teacher-education program. There are reasons to believe that some of these education courses might even be a handicap. A loving mother, just by being a good person, is a far better than average teacher of her own children. And some of the best of them don't even have a full high-school education. But they have a clear idea of what they want their children to be, & set about to get good advice. And their kids are among the best learners of all.
The overriding need is simply a mother's total commitment to the program. Her attitude & a reasonable self-confidence are important.
Our daughters, Melissa & Corinne, have never attended a regular school, & at ages eight & nine are now studying on the third & fifth grade levels. Our classroom is a small room in our basement, although we use the kitchen, the yard & our piano in the living room for the many other learning activities. Brad, our five-year-old son, also participates in the experiences we share in our home school.
We learned of the Christian Liberty Academy program & used it concurrently with Calvert for three years. We have always included additional materials & have become so secure in our home education that we now have our own program. We use "McGuffey's Eclectic Readers" & have been pleased with Beka Book publications, using them in many subjects.
In addition to the essential academic subjects, we include basic etiquette, proper speaking habits, music, homemaking, physical education & art. We also go regularly to the local library.
The costs of our home school have varied. We probably spent about $250-$300 per school-age child until this year. Now we can manage a superior program on about $100-$150 per year, not including extras like field trips & expanding our materials. We find garage & book sales are good sources of many materials. We also have learned to deal directly with our publishers for our texts, such as Rod & Staff Publishers of Crockett, Kentucky & Beka Books from the Pensacola Christian School in Florida.
We kept our children home for a number of reasons. We were especially concerned about the social development of our children. We have grave concerns about exposing them to such influences as peer-group pressures & what some call "groupthink." It is quite enough to combat TV (ours is now in the attic), movies, music, certain books & advertising. But we were most concerned about the subtle attack on our Christian values & heritage. Sound moral principles are diluted by the wrong kinds of "values clarification," situation ethics & so-called behavioural modifications practiced on children in schools. We did not feel we could surrender the development of our children's minds to a system which differs so much in its philosophy from ours.
We had read & observed that school is tiring & upsetting to these very young children. They are often frustrated & anxiety-ridden & are subjected to rivalry & ridicule on the buses & at school. By the time their physical ability catches up with their mental ability, their self-esteem has been battered to the point they often incur considerable emotional damage.
But perhaps the most important reason we had for choosing to keep our children home was that as parents we simply were not ready to give them up at age six. They were getting to be fun. I hesitate to call them wonderful & special, & yet they were--& are--to me. It just didn't seem fair to turn them over to others who could not possibly get the enjoyment which could be ours, & who could not give the one-to-one attention we could provide.
The rewards of our endeavour have been immense. Our prayers--& we do pray--have been answered. We have not done it by ourselves, nor is the job finished. We are well pleased with our children's scholastic progress thus far, but far more importantly, they are able to think independently & creatively. These are important tools of life. They can think through & express their ideas without excessive concern about what anyone else might think. This desirable independence was a fond hope of ours--independence from the less desirable influence of their peers. At least outwardly, they seem to understand that what others might think is not a good criterion by which to evaluate thoughts or actions.
Recently Corinne gave a three-minute speech for us. The assignment involved choosing a topic, then mentally composing the talk. She stood in our classroom, self-consciously twisting & turning as she began. "I'm going to talk on `Why My Mother Teaches Me at Home'."
Listening, I became amazed at her grasp of the reasons we hold home school. She spoke of Christian values & the importance of being with her family. Melissa listened & even little Bradley stopped his playing, as if he knew something important was in the air. I could feel tears filling my eyes. When she came to her ending, "I know my mother loves me very much," I couldn't keep back my tears.
Having school at home brings much more than the schoolwork. This fall the girls decided that they wanted to sew & I was all for that. We'd work together & I figured they'd begin with aprons or perhaps a simple skirt.
Not my girls. After a talk together they came to me with their choices. They wanted to make Halloween costumes. Melissa chose an angel gown, with rick-rack trim & hook & eye fasteners. Corinne decided that she wanted to be an old-fashioned lady. What does an old-fashioned lady wear but long lace-trimmed sleeves & a long, wide, fully gathered skirt!
They have done virtually all the sewing themselves. Poor Corinne. How many stitches go into hemming the long, full skirt of an old-fashioned lady? She worked. We encouraged. She bent over the hemming again...& do you know, she finished it in time for Halloween! Learning, sewing, perseverance...education.
Our family life has been enriched by home schooling. The whole family is involved in the learning experience--daddy as well as me. We work together on problems & share responsibilities. We have a calm home despite the fact that the children are here all the time. And the neighbourhood children seem to sense their contentment. They come by constantly. Our children are comfortable, not overtired & not always subjected to the emotionally upsetting experiences of modern schools.
We have found that home education is not the total answer to all our child-rearing problems. But it is a rewarding alternative to giving them over to others with less motivation to succeed & less time to give than we have as their parents.
The Builder & the Homemaker (with Pat Graybill)
We, like many parents of pre-school children, expected our children to go to school at the usual age of five or six of course, & like most parents, thought our children to be brighter than average & would benefit from early schooling.
But by the time our first son actually reached between five & six, our ideas about what we wanted for our children were beginning to change. We had been studying the book "Child Guidance" by E.G. White, who describes how important it is for parents to be the only teacher until a child reaches eight to ten years of age & the crucial importance of young children to be much in the out-of-doors drinking in the fresh air & sunshine.
We swayed back & forth, for we knew no one who was doing this. When we would talk to people about it, they would try to discourage us, suggesting that anyone in his right mind could see that Bucky is ready for school. Our well-meaning friends & neighbours thought we were out of our minds, & even we began to wonder ourselves.
We were keenly aware that we were marching to the sound of different drums. And to be truthful, at that time we weren't so sure we wanted to be different. After all, it's not that easy paddling a little two-man canoe against the winds on a big ocean, & it seemed to us that this was exactly what we were doing. It was not safe to assume the whole World could be wrong & we were the only ones right. Those were difficult days for us. But we fully believed that our children were sacred trusts--that God had a plan for our little family--& we prayed that He would give us help in this important decision.
Help came when we needed it most. In August, 1973, the magazine "These Times" came out with an article entitled: "The Dangers of Early Schooling," written by Dr. Raymond S. Moore & Dennis R. Moore. That article gave stability & courage to our decision.
Well, we sailed into our first little home school year with no problem. It was quite informal, for Bucky was not yet seven. I spent time with both our boys--reading stories, teaching Bible lessons, how to be helpful in the kitchen & around the house. We spent time out-of-doors studying nature & just being out together. Their daddy often took Bucky, our oldest, with him to work, teaching & talking to him about various aspects of the building business. This on-the-job experience has proven a valuable one, far better than any he could have gotten at school.
Our second home-school year was a bit more eventful. By this time our children were three & a half & seven & a half. And of course, by keeping our seven-year-old home, we were breaking Colorado's compulsory school attendance law. We were not sure exactly what to do about this, so we decided to just be quiet & do nothing. But it wasn't very long into the school year before our little boat was again on troubled waters.
The assistant superintendent of schools said it had come to his attention that we had a school-age boy who was not in school. I tried to be very calm & confident as I told him he was in school, he just wasn't in a formal school.
About a week later, the school truant officer paid us a friendly visit, & advised us of our rights. "They do not include teaching your own children past the age of seven," he said.--And then added, "Here are some papers that will give you the date that this matter will come to court."
We were startled & somehow unprepared for all of this, but again put the matter in God's hands. We felt in view of how He had led us in the past, He would part the waters again & be our Bridge to the other side. We were impressed to call & talk to the superintendent of schools.
"I'm sorry," he told us, "but this is my job, to uphold the law. There is nothing I can do about it."
"Is there someone at the State level with whom we can talk?" we asked him. "Why yes," he answered thoughtfully, "I will be glad to make an appointment for you to see Robert M. Hall, the State consultant for accreditation."
So we went to Denver & met with Robert Hall & the State legal counsel, Jane Kardokus. They were very interested in what we were doing & the books we referred them to. They explored alternatives that Section (J) of Statute 123-20-5 provides. They decided to allow us to continue our home school under the supervision of a certified teacher. We agreed to cooperate with a teacher, although I would be doing the actual teaching & it would not involve more than an hour & a half to two hours a day of desk work.
Our home-school program was very relaxed the rest of the year. We did very little book work, for our oldest was just turning eight, & we also knew that boys mature later than girls, although we did do some phonics just for fun.
At the end of the school year when Bucky was eight years & three months, Mrs. Vixie, the teacher, tested him. Bucky was well above average in most subjects & not below average in any!
During our home school years, we lived a mile & a half from a church school & about three miles from the public school. We did receive a lot of criticism. People seemed to think that we were not being supportive of our church-school program that was so close to our door. And they didn't mind telling us so. This social pressure was merciless.
A typical day's schedule would start with morning worship at around 8:00, & it would include some singing, a Bible story & or maybe a Bible game & memorising Bible text. Then we usually followed with reading, writing & phonics.
We always took a long morning break, going for walks, doing some yard & garden work & playing together. We also had math & in the third grade we included science. We finished by noon, & two or three days a week the boys went with their father on the job project. This was great education--physical, industrial with their own dad!
We've had our ups & downs, & there have been those days when I would have liked to have put them in school & forgotten about it all. But as the days have come & gone, my husband & I have realised our children are not the only ones learning & growing, but in fact we were students too, learning in God's school. God knew all along what we needed when He instituted the family relationship in the first garden school & when He put the Christ child in His father's carpenter shop. It is here in this relationship that characters are formed not only for this life but the life to come--even if the parents have only a high-school education!
The Hotel Keeper (with Dixie Rice)
We moved from Shelton to Wallace, Nebraska, in August 1976, & Leslie Sue transferred to the sixth grade in the public school there. We were not entirely happy with the situation, for her grades had been going downward since the fourth grade & we couldn't pinpoint why. We wondered about the crowded classrooms, & teachers unable to give individual attention, yet we had no other choice.
We were not only unhappy generally with the textbooks & the questions they raised in the students' minds. Specifically we agonised as we saw evolution taught as fact without any balance whatsoever of the Biblical point of view. There was never a hint in history of God's leading.
The drug use among students deeply disturbed us & the early, intense relationships between boys & girls. We sought to instill high standards & values in our daughter, but the public school situation seemed to slash across almost everything we believed.
And yet, until July 1977, we knew of no alternative but to send our 12-year-old daughter back to public school.
Then I saw an ad in a magazine for the home study program of the Christian Liberty Academy. They sent us the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills with instructions on how to administer them. They showed her to be average in most subjects but only on the fifth grade level in math, & she was entering the seventh.
We paid the Academy's tuition, then $185 a year, & they requested & received her records from Wallace School District. The textbooks arrived & with no inkling of where our decision would lead us, Leslie Sue opened the books & began to study.
We concentrated heavily on math that year, & English & science--her weakest areas. The textbooks delighted us. All subjects were related to the principles of Christian love for God & society found in the Bible.
Leslie Sue progressed rapidly, her work coming along so nicely that we were actually surprised when the trouble started. Living on Main Street in a town of 240 is like living in the proverbial fishbowl. Every ripple you make can be seen from all sides.
The local school superintendent didn't seem impressed with our home set-up or the fact that Leslie Sue had quietly sprung ahead in most of her subjects. "You're breaking the law," he told us, "the compulsory attendance law."
The County superintendent called next with more questions & an ultimatum. Finally the deputy County Attorney filed charges against us for child neglect in the area of education. "Criminal child neglect," they finally called it. One of our local lawmen came into our hotel & placed a subpoena in our hands. We were to appear in a juvenile court on October 25th. Strange emotions went through our hearts. Here we were actually charged as criminals. It all seemed so wrong.
Of course this was far beyond our scope of experiences so we didn't know what to expect, but nothing could have prepared us for what happened. A pretrial, they called it, an arraignment, & none of us were asked to testify. But the judge--a woman--proceeded to try to damage us as much as possible.
"We have the authority to take your child out of your home," she told us sternly. This seemed a starkly cruel threat. "You realise, Leslie Sue, that you don't have to listen to your parents. We can appoint you a lawyer." This message to our daughter!
"You have a right to go to school, Leslie Sue. You have the right to be with other children your own age. Your parents can't take this away from you." Leslie Sue couldn't believe her ears. We didn't answer; we didn't try to answer. At that point, what could we say? October 25th, our first day in court, was also our daughter's 13th birthday.
We were advised to obtain a lawyer for ourselves & a second one for our daughter. She could not use our lawyer because we "might influence him," the court stated & eventually they appointed a man, a public defender, for her.
We left the courtroom numbed by the unreality of what had happened behind those walls. Our courts, our protectors! We felt shafted as the judge actually tried to turn our daughter against us! We found it unbelievable that she threatened to take Leslie Sue from our home, just because we elected to use Christian home-school work rather than the public classroom.
Yet, in a strange way, we were not frightened but strengthened by the judge's threats. She had only succeeded in binding us closer together, to determine to support each other & to see the problem through--& win!
We felt God on our side, so were not unduly concerned. We contacted Attorneys Tom Guilfoyle & Craig Swoboda in Omaha, who gladly took our case. "Mrs. Rice, are you willing to go to jail for your beliefs?" Attorney Guilfoyle asked me. For an instant I was taken aback, then told him, "Yes, I am willing to go to jail."
At home we discussed the possible results of our decision to keep Leslie Sue learning at home & concluded that we were not quitters. God would see us through. That discussion marked a turning point in our attitude toward our prosecution. From that time on we never had a fear or even a period of doubt. After the public defender talked to Leslie Sue, he realised the seriousness of her beliefs & her love for her family.
The trial lasted two days. Our attorney maintained that the law was vague & virtually impossible to enforce. He laid the foundations of our belief in God before the court & asserted that by not teaching our child Christian principles & precepts, we would be disobeying God.
Pastor Lindstrom of the Christian Liberty Academy came a long distance to testify in our behalf. The judge listened, his face impassive.
The court belaboured the fact that I was not a certified or qualified teacher. Again & again they returned to the tired refrain that we were denying Leslie Sue social contact with her peers. "She'll never be able to take her proper place in society without this contact," they said. "It's the State's duty to see that all children are properly prepared to take their place in society." "As drug addicts?" we questioned silently. "With the unfortunate ones that drop out? As unwed mothers & fathers? As high school graduates who never learned to read, the too-often product of a lifetime of education in public schools?"
At the end of two long days the judge found us guilty as charged & ordered us to pay court costs.
We'd gone to court with the threat of Leslie Sue's removal still heavy over our home & were prepared to whisk out of the County--or State--if necessary. However, the judge conceded that since she'd stayed at home these months with no apparent ill effects, she might as well remain awhile longer.
We immediately appealed the decision to district court & they scheduled our court appearance for July, 1978. By then the local papers had discovered the story & came to talk with us. They treated us fairly & this led to many opportunities to visit with television reporters & personnel. So not all our surprises were unpleasant. We found the media quite open to our views. We saw them several times, went by the studio to leave them answers--material on home study & also on our problems with the public school system.
Because of this publicity an interested person sent us an article by a man we'd never heard of, a Dr. Raymond Moore. We forwarded the article to Leslie's lawyer & he eventually contacted Dr. Moore. Dr. Moore asked that Leslie Sue be tested by an unbiased party, suggesting that we go to our State university, which he thought would be best respected by the judge. The professor from the University of Nebraska, Dr. Cook, agreed to come testify for us. Dr. Moore came, too.
Dr. Cook first testified for us, bringing a graph she'd made comparing Leslie's scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. It showed her low scores at the beginning of the seventh grade--then after a year of home study--their dramatic rise, especially in math. She had averaged two to three grades' improvement in her studies during that home school year.
Again, the State, in the person of its prosecuting attorney Marianne Vainiunas, built its criminal case against us. She tried to embarrass Dr. Moore, our leading witness, by asking him if he was a born-again Christian. If he had said, "yes," as most Christians would have expected, she would have cornered him & put him on the defensive. But he was not so easily trapped.
"What," he asked her, "is your definition of a born-again Christian?" She obviously didn't expect this & sort of stammered out what was a really good description. "If that is your definition," Dr. Moore replied, smiling, "I am one."
She dropped the subject like a hot potato & got into our case by trying to develop the premise that our daughter would be socially disturbed because of the lack of what she called "proper social contact with a peer group." But her idea of what was proper was not the same as ours.
Dr. Moore proved to be a godsend against this argument. He testified with evidence based on his experience as a psychologist & public educator & on his well-known research that children progress much faster socially, emotionally, academically & with greater stability in a warm & consistent home atmosphere where they best develop a sense of self-worth, especially during their early years.
We thanked God for Leslie's progress & Dr. Moore's testimony & felt certain we'd win our case. "Give God all the glory," Dr. Moore said. "He was testing you." And sure enough, Judge Keith Windrum of the district court did rule in our favour even though he was well known for his loyalties to the public schools. We thanked God for a fair judge.
Prosecutor Vainiunas nevertheless appealed Judge Windrum's decision to the Supreme Court of Nebraska. We waited again in prayer. Then, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in our favour. So with Nebraska's official approval, we entered our second year of home school. We thanked God again for fair judges.
Leslie Sue follows a fairly strict schedule from 8:45 to 2:30, & is doing outstanding work in her studies. I taught her an hour & a half or so a day at the start. But she is now fifteen & a high-school junior in our family school & I hardly teach her at all any more. Remember, four years ago she was floundering in the sixth grade at a local public school. People marvel at the excellence of her education. Even her friends acknowledge it, some wishing they could do the same. But she also helps me in the hotel three or four hours a day making beds, cooking, cleaning & being a first-rate assistant manager. We think this balance of work & study is a great advantage to her. It has made her prompt, industrious, responsible, dependable & courteous to all.
Many people come to us, some worried about taxes or having to pay court costs, & asking our advice in making their decision to begin a home school. We tell them that it's not a question of money any more. It's a question of survival for our children.
The Army Wife & the Intelligence Officer (with Betty Gerbozy)
At age four, we discovered that Seth suffered from extreme astigmatism. This was so severe that the ophthalmologist expressed great surprise that his eyes were not crossed. Glasses were prescribed with heavy, thick lenses because his eyes were so terribly bad.
We began our quest for schooling for Seth when he turned five years old. Looking ahead, we wondered where we'd send him. The organisation my husband worked for provided a school, but as a previous teacher myself, I was not assured of their competence & concern for children. Some teachers were excellent, but most seemed poorly trained, & more interested in being in Europe than in training their students. We began to think of teaching our children at home.
Because we are Christians, we preferred a Christ-centered curriculum. Because of Seth's unique problems, & because someone whose judgement we valued had observed that children do well to be kept out of school until they are more emotionally & physically mature--we planned to wait until he was eight to begin.
With Seth going on seven, I felt pressured to enroll him in some form of school. I wanted to spare him the negative remarks of neighbours or children & legal problems that could arise. So we ordered kindergarten classes from a study-at-home correspondence school. It was a useless venture, a waste of time. And even worse, totally unnecessary. The work was so simple that there was no challenge. It was nothing more than busy work.
It was during this time that he developed hearing problems. We had Seth evaluated at a Rehabilitation Center, specifically for the purpose of having his ears checked. In the process his eyes were checked also.
At the end of the day, the evaluation was completed, & we were told that Seth had a severe learning problem. His eyes, not his ears, were the cause. The diagnosis: Extreme astigmatism, no depth perception, both eyes working independently of each other. Furthermore, he probably saw split images or double images of everything, not to mention that the words on a page didn't remain stationary, but wandered around as he tried to focus on them. They also tested him for maturity in several areas & his maturity checked out at six years even though he would be eight in a few months.
We saw a psychologist at the end of the evaluation. He instructed us in some eye exercises for Seth & gave us some first-grade books. We were to begin tutoring Seth by teaching him letters of the alphabet. The psychologist told me to open the book to page one & say the letters of each word one time. Seth then must tell me the letters, & I must let him flounder around, guessing as many as five times before I would give him the correct answer again.
This teaching method, we were told, had two purposes. The first, to teach him to read. The second, to break his independent spirit & make him more docile.
The psychologist viewed Seth's so-called lack of hearing as inattention & a form of rebellion. Seth will cry in frustration, he told me, but I must ignore this & continue with the program.
We left the Rehabilitation Center, books in arms & Seth by the hand, our minds a tangle of questions. Was this good advice? Where was the motivation for him to learn the alphabet? Where & how would he find joy in learning? Is this any way to treat a child?
As predicted, Seth resisted. I didn't have his attention. I couldn't keep his attention. Forcing him to guess letters that had no meaning to him was a nightmare & after two or three sessions it struck me as little less than brainwashing.
Besides, I didn't want to break his will. I viewed his will & his individuality as sacred before God. I wanted to guide Seth. I wanted to develop his personality, to make reading--if possible--a thing to be enjoyed. I didn't want to fight him, to force him, my son. He was normally obedient. Yet, after two or three stormy, tearful sessions, we abandoned the "program."
It was then that I set up our dining room as a classroom. I was able to get an eight-foot blackboard which I placed against one wall & taped the alphabet in large letters above it; also numerals 0 to 9. I put large--eight & a half by 11--phonics cards with pictures on a tall board that we used as a room divider.
At first Seth's progress was more like one step forward & five backwards. One day he couldn't do anything right; I couldn't keep his attention, he was restless & uninterested. The next day he'd do beautifully, only to follow that by several days of seemingly total amnesia & frustration.
If I were doing it over again, I would not have started teaching him until he was nine or ten. After all, he'd been diagnosed as having only six-year maturity. But I felt like I raced against time. The doctors had told us he might go blind. The psychologists said he might never learn to read. I felt an urgency to lead him (not push him), to keep his interest up, to teach him to read.
Our situation was unique, living in a foreign country, yet we were pretty much left alone by officials to tutor Seth as we chose. We were working for Americans, so they could not go to the country's courts to prosecute us, a blessing that I realised & was thankful for.
The beauty of a one-to-one relationship is that it lets you know just where your child is at any given time. You can work immediately to encourage or correct.
And slowly, oh so slowly at first, then faster & faster, Seth learned to read. We kept on with the phonics. My review became more complicated & I constantly devised new ways to keep it interesting. In about two years--when he was ten or eleven--Seth had become an excellent reader. He read the newspaper sent from the States & the "Reader's Digest." He had a good comprehension of what he read & his oral reading became better than many children's.
We kept Deborah out of school until she was eight. We then enrolled her in the first grade, where she did better than good. She learned quickly--immediately grasped concepts that the six-year-olds had difficulty with, which is only normal--& was double promoted between the second & fourth grade.
Yet she could not enter the fourth grade with students her age until she completed all the third grade book work & workbooks. To do this extra she had to stay after school two days a week & work on third grade work during school hours. If she knew the studies well, why all the repetition?
Do I sound unhappy with our school system? I am. By far the overseas teachers in our experience have been--I hate to say it--lazy in actuality. Is merely following the outlines in the Teacher's Guide of every textbook, teaching? Is assigning endless pages of workbooks really teaching? Shouldn't teaching invoke an excitement for learning, a challenge for even the small child to reach beyond his known grasp & achieve more than he knew that he could? Are children manacled to every workbook page?
Must not the physical & emotional side of the child be considered as well as the mental? Learning must be more than filing information in the appropriate slots in the brain.
And yet, after a few years in classes, our children's idea of school is still to fill out endless & mindless workbook pages. The older children already recognise for themselves that workbooks rarely do more than keep the pupils busy. Their major complaint has been the hours they spent in school for no purpose.
The Teacher & the Carpenter (with Ruth Nobel)
It wasn't that our kids weren't happy in school. There hadn't been any big problems. But my husband & I still somehow were not satisfied with their education...
We'd already chosen a Christian school over the public ones because our beliefs & philosophy differed drastically from that taught in public school. In short the philosophy of the public school seemed materialistic--to make money, get things, enjoy life. Therefore we chose a Christian school.
Two years ago, however, we began to have problems, even with their program. There were doctrinal differences from our viewpoint & we found the discipline lazy in the junior high. We wanted a change for our children, but didn't quite know where to go.
Then my brother-in-law saw an ad offering a home-study program for children, using textbooks based on the Bible. We investigated it further. We wanted to try it.
I guess you've got to be a little bit crazy to even think of teaching five children at home, what with a house & a garden to care for too.--Unless you believe that God wants more for your kids than their school can give them, & that He is leading you down a new road. We believed that & we started the adventure.
Ahead of time we set up each study area individually. I knew that with two little ones I would not be able to supervise them constantly & felt that separating the kids in this way would minimise the temptation to waste time by waiting & "goofing around." It's also a good idea to familiarise yourself with each child's textbooks to know where you're heading & how long it should take you to get there.
We stay on a 180-day school schedule, & stick closely to it. Because we are generally where we should be in the textbooks, we feel free to take a day off now & then for other important activities, "field trips" & such.
Our girls weren't rebellious about our decision to teach them at home. We've raised them to respect our guidance, but there was a definite period of adjustment. One suggestion I would have for parents planning a "home school," is that you try to anticipate what your child will miss from his "regular" school. Since art is something our kids looked forward to, we included a Friday art class from the start.
Recognising their need for friends, we changed our visiting habits. Instead of getting a babysitter for them & our visiting friends from 8:00 to 12:00 on Friday nights, now we have a family over for supper from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. The children have a great time while we adults talk. They also play with neighbour children & cousins.
After your school begins, you'll no doubt run into unique & unanticipated problems.
Our recreation (& this is of utmost importance, the physical side of education) needed help. We were able to get a secondhand volleyball & net, basketball & rim etc. Birthday gifts have included a ping pong set & sliding saucers for winter recess.
My teaching methods evolved as the needs arose, & I'm sure that you--like me--will develop your own shortcuts to streamline your program.
For example, I made correcting & planning a one-step process. As I correct Eve's math, I see they're all correct, so I check (with a check mark) only every other row on the next three pages for the following day's assignment. I think: Why write out lesson plans, or spend a lot of time the next day assigning lessons? By that time, I may have forgotten yesterday's performance.
We send in finished work about every four weeks. They send out report cards four times a year & periodic update sheets. They encourage us to call or write with any questions that come up.
The Iowa Basic & Stanford Achievement tests are sent each fall. We give them to the children & send them on for correction. All in all, we've been very happy working with the Academy to educate our children. The learning material is mostly self-teaching except for kindergarten & the first grade.
They give legal advice--but do not provide a lawyer--& that brings us to another part of the story.
Two months after beginning, we received visits from the truant officer & were subsequently charged with truancy. A district court hearing was held on our case & both sides were given thirty days to file briefs. We were representing ourselves at first, but then two attorneys--John W. Whitehead of Washington, D.C., who became our head lawyer, & Stuart D. Hubbell of Traverse City, our local counsel--became interested in our case. They saw it as one concerning religious freedom & the separation of church & State. They represented us in court without fee.
We found that the basic trial is very important, especially if there is a possibility that the case may be appealed. We did not dispute the fact that we were not sending our children to either a pubic or private school outside our home. However, we maintained that we were not guilty of the truancy charge because we were educating our children in a "satellite school" of the Christian Liberty Academy.
We chose this method of educating our youngsters because of our religious beliefs.
The basic problem was that the State demanded that school children be taught--or supervised--by a certified teacher. I happened to be a teacher, with a degree in elementary education from Calvin College, but am uncertified.
Professor Donald Erickson of the University of San Francisco & formerly of the University of Chicago, testified that there is no evidence that a teaching certificate proved teacher competence. And, he stated, children in private schools consistently do better on standardised tests than do public school students even though many private schools do not require teacher certification.
In the meantime, the children were evaluated by an educational psychologist--given intelligence & psychological tests. The evaluation indicated that our five school age kids were above average in intelligence & had an educational level well ahead of other kids their age.
We felt God's leading & guidance as we defended our position. On December 14, 1979, we read in the Benton Harbour, Michigan, "Herald Palladium": "Judge Says Religious Couple Can Teach Children at Home." Then, "The goal of the Michigan statute is not to have certified teachers but to educate students...Certification is the State's way of having a set standard for the education of children. If certification conflicts with religious beliefs, then the State has to find another way to deal with that." We were thankful to have the trial behind us & to start anew on our study.
I think that one of the first things any mother teaching her children at home must come to terms with is that you can't do everything. I'm not "Superwoman." You're not "Superwoman." Dr. Raymond Moore tells me a half day of teaching is enough, so we are now planning more manual activities, such as tapping maple trees to make syrup.
Children are a big help! Everyone has to eat, so you have to fix three good meals. In fact, I began baking bread on a regular basis during the first year, & now we have a homeful of bakers.
And clothes must be kept clean. Laundry, an endless parade! But it is not meaningless. You should see my assistants!
Youngsters can indeed be quite helpful in this area. Our children, except the two-year-old, make their beds. They each have a laundry bag hanging in their closets, which helps keep their rooms neat & saves a lot of time & steps. When I'm ready to wash, I just say, "Bring down your dirty clothes bags," & that's a big help.
And by all means, get some priorities. I determined beforehand, there were two things I would not neglect: A normal baby-childhood for the pre-schoolers & the family-together-after-suppertime in the living room.
After two years of home study we still don't have all the answers. Neither do the regular schools, however, though they often pretend to.
I'm still exhausted too much of the time. September is a month for finishing up canning peaches, tomatoes etc., as well as starting school. A family of nine just plain involves a lot of work, even with shortcuts & cooperation. That may ease up or solve itself in time as each year does seem to improve.
On the positive side, we enjoy the program. The kids far prefer it to regular school. Maybe it's not perfect, but oh so good!
The initial cool reaction of a lot of acquaintances is warming up. We get suggestions for field trips, books & teaching aids. And the rivalry & ridicule of school is absent here.
From the start we've recognised that all learning isn't from books so we take trips to the zoo, the museum etc. All the kids are avid readers so we stock up on books from the local library every other week. And we learn a lot from work!
I can't say that our home school has strikingly changed our kids' behaviour because they were generally well-behaved & good students to begin with. We hope that their values have benefited but that's often hard to judge until later. However, one incident points up the general direction.
Upon hearing rock music at a friend's house, our timid daughter spoke up against it & quietly left. The friend called her up & chose her companionship over the music. You can imagine how she felt! I just don't think this would have happened two years ago.
In summary, the few problems of home-school--the early opposition, the extra time it takes to supervise & correct papers, even our legal battles--have been far outweighed by the value to us of educating our children at home.
Perhaps the greatest value is that we have grown to think of everything in terms of family. Functioning as a unit, instead of nine individuals who happen to use the same house, is very rewarding.
It carries over from school work to their cheerfully working together to painting the trim on the house, to canning vegetables, to preparing for picnics.
This unity & teamwork--instead of making the kids reserved & withdrawn--has given them the confidence & independence that comes from realising their value as part of our family & children of God.
The Oil Man & the Housewife (with Marie Gray)
When we decided to keep Kevin out of school until he was eight & one half, we didn't anticipate any problems with school & State officials & we didn't have any.
Yet, we met opposition in surprising places, from friends & members of our church. The first grade teacher of our church school strongly felt that we were making a mistake in keeping him out. She had twenty-five years of teaching experience behind her & could see no benefits of his starting at a later age.
Some felt we were "radical." Others could not comprehend the importance we placed on letting Kevin's mind & muscles mature & his coordination develop before confining him to a desk & putting a small pencil in his little hand. We also deemed of great importance his emotional development & feelings of self-worth before exposing him to the classroom community. We sought to teach him our values, giving him a firm spiritual foundation & awareness of God as his Friend & Companion before his secular training began.
For all these reasons, & more, we kept him home while his six & seven-year-old neighbours went to school. We considered our home a school, anyway. We thought the widely varied experiences offered on our Missouri farm with his daddy were an important part of our boy's education, too.
We found that when children are young, "helping" is exciting, & learning the skills that keep a home running comes easily, without the child even realising that he's learning anything. He's just enjoying himself. But the key is that he is working with you!
After the noon meal I sat down & read to him every day. During the summer before he started regular school, I ordered phonics material from Rod & Staff Publishers in Crockett, Kentucky, & reviewed him in phonics. He was a late bloomer in reading. Still we enjoyed our extra year with Kevin at home. We knew that he'd grown emotionally & mentally as well as physically. But by the time he reached eight & a half, we felt the time ready for him to attend school.
We chose a church-related private school, & requested to begin Kevin in the second grade.--And that's where the problems began.
The teacher, with her "lifetime of experience" to rely on, insisted that Kevin enter the first grade. And we--his parents, the ones closest to him & most aware of his abilities--were sure that he should begin in the second. Frank & I were aware of the research & work of Raymond & Dorothy Moore at the Hewitt Research Foundation & of their findings that most children who begin school at a later age are wholly capable of working with their peers, &, in fact, of excelling.
A sad example, with which we were acquainted, added to our determination. Parents of another bright little boy had kept him out past the usual starting age. When he began, they placed him in the first grade. From the beginning he didn't fit in because he was older & larger than his classmates. Yet the adults who ruled his life couldn't see that boredom & inability to fit in with this classmates contributed to his problems. They made him stay with children younger than he grade after grade, until he became cast in a backward role & now could not escape it. We would not let that happen to Kevin.
During this time I contacted Dorothy Moore & asked her counsel. Mrs. Moore knew of other parents in the same situation who had allowed themselves to be intimidated & their children kept back. With her encouragement we decided to tactfully talk with the teachers again. We pointed out to the teacher that Kevin could at least do second-grade work. The teacher's classroom consisted of grades one through four, & she finally agreed that Kevin could begin in grade two if he also did most of the first-grade work.
We, Kevin's parents, couldn't change their minds but Kevin could. And he did. Academically he has passed even our expectations. He has good study habits, socialises well & is highly motivated. His teacher kept him busy doing the first grade workbooks--unfairly, we believed--but he completed them so easily & so well (in addition to his regular second grade work) that it became obviously unnecessary. It is remarkable how the teacher changed her opinion of late starters when he saw how well Kevin did in comparison with the other students.
Kevin is now eleven & in the fifth grade. My only regret now is that we sent him to formal school at all. There is a lot of plain foolishness in the classroom, so much wasted time. On occasion when Kevin has had to stay home, he had completed his actual schoolwork in an hour & one-half. "If it takes you only an hour & one-half to do your lessons," I asked him, "what do you do the rest of the day in school?" Of course I realise that teacher presentation & class discussion involves time. Yet it seems such a waste of our children's hours. Kevin brings these habits into our home life too so that time has less meaning than before. There's a lack of Christian refinement in the classroom, even in our small school. Of course this goes back to how his classmates are trained in their homes. Yet it influences Kevin in our home.
There is far too much emphasis on competitive sports & the "win at any cost" attitude that goes with it. We'd rather Kevin value himself for the way he has developed his God-given abilities, & to help those who are less able than he, rather than competing with his peers. Self-worth developed by the child who recognises his value as an able worker & who helps others seems to us far more important than the pride a child feels in himself because he can kick a ball higher than his smaller, less muscular classmates.
We also have a younger son, Teddy, who will be eight next September. He also has stayed home as Kevin did. However, we plan to teach Teddy at home next year, beginning his work on the level most suited to his needs & abilities. We are strongly considering teaching Kevin at home also.
The Dentist & the Nurse (with Rosemary Sprague)
After mulling it over separately, discussing it together, reading about home education & praying about it, Howard & I decided to make teaching our children our central family activity. We would even relocate to carry out this God-given privilege if the State gave us any problem. We decided to approach the issue head on & so, with the school material in hand, we visited our assistant public school superintendent.
Though they approved of our home program in spirit, their official answer had to be "no" because of the, said they, New Hampshire law. They had no authority to give approval to our program (although we understood some States leave interpretation of the law to the local schools). We then contacted a lawyer who agreed to represent us & help us work out a solution.
But also, eventually we received two notices from the assistant school superintendent stating that Polly must be enrolled by a certain date or we would be subject to prosecution. Of course we were concerned but managed to weather this stressful four weeks. Howard dealt with the pressure, talking with our lawyer etc. Me? During this time intravenous feeding was helping me cope with my third pregnancy.
My Aunt Olive stayed with us weekdays for ten weeks until I could resume my duties. We trusted God to help us through, earnestly believing that we were doing the best for our family.
Then the school lawyer & our lawyer found a legal loophole & brought us a possible solution. If we could register Polly at a church school (twenty-four miles away) & if they allowed us to teach at home, it would be considered their affair. We'd meet the letter of the law & Polly could be registered in a State-approved school.
And do you know, it worked! Our home school was treated as a satellite to the church school. We were so grateful to the lawyers for working to help us & to God who led them to the solution.
This is our fourth year under the umbrella of the church school nearby. Our home school has flowered to include as much as we'd hoped, & has brought us inner satisfaction.
I enjoy my work as their teacher. We share moments of closeness impossible in a home where the children spend most of their waking hours away.
Polly & Jennifer (now in grades five & two) take their achievement tests at the church school. During the year I report school grades & the number of school days to them. We use the Home Study Institute course. I do the teaching & only mail in the tests for them to correct. They also ask for several projects a period.
We feel that beyond the benefits of close contact between parents & child in the home school, & the self-esteem which develops as the child becomes aware of her own value without the normal classroom competition & comparison with peers, are the strong points of 1) flexibility, 2) practical improvisation & 3) creativity.
Flexibility: School can be taught in many different situations. Whether going to town or going on a trip, I have a book for each girl. We often study while travelling in the car, waiting in offices, waiting for Howard, & so on.
Practical Improvisation: Polly & Jennifer's handwriting practice is mostly done in the form of correspondence--letters to pen pals & relatives, including thank-you notes. Which, by the way, is necessary etiquette, taught more by experience than by reading rules in a book. We also play math & spelling games for short intervals as we travel.
Physical education has room for great variety. During the fall one of our family projects is splitting & stacking seven to eight cords of wood--physical education of the most basic kind. After we inherited a palomino horse, the girls took horseback riding lessons three times a week for two months. Together we go hiking, cross-country & downhill skiing, & the girls take swimming lessons at the community center. We're much happier with this togetherness form of physical education than with the competition & stress of winning at all costs that we see in many playground situations.
Creativity: Though Howard is unable to take on teaching Polly & Jennifer their regular subjects, he shares just about everything he knows. And the girls are delighted. They learn the Morse code with him, for example. They watch & learn as he takes photographs & develops them in his darkroom. He's interested in astronomy, so they share his excitement in viewing the stars & planets through our fourteen-inch telescope. Howard also plays violin with Polly. In other words, he spends a lot of time with them.
As a family we visit museums, & national parks. We attend concerts & travelogues & films such as Audubon. We would probably attend such programs even if we didn't have a home school, but our awareness of them as learning tools has been increased.
Because of our lifestyle, school must function around the office where I fill in occasionally. Then there is seasonal work & lots of company, & the needs of the day. At age ten, Polly is my right hand in the kitchen & I am happy to do the less exciting jobs while she develops the art of cooking. When neighbours or friends get sick, Polly gets out the cookbooks to find something to fix for them. We are finding that doing things for needy people in our community is a very special experience for our girls--a very maturing one.
Home school has taught me my limits. I can't go here & there on a whim, & I must say no to many things that I once enjoyed. Often there is not time for activities that I want to do. Adequate sleep is an essential part in keeping up our program & this too is hard for me.
We are learning as we go. I mention these things only because I want to be realistic in what I share about our home school. I'd hate for anyone to begin teaching their children at home without being totally committed & aware of the limits that it sets upon one's time & the problems that can arise. Also, I'd be less than honest if I pretended that I'm completely self-sufficient. My mother & my Aunt Olive help me in so many ways.
After sharing these problems, I must hurry to add that I am thankful for the privilege of working with our children & for the responsibility I feel toward them. It isn't a sacrifice, for the rewards are much greater than the efforts would suggest. I wouldn't do it any other way. Howard is with us, giving his total support & time whenever possible, also helping to guide & discipline the children. Without his encouragement, I doubt that I could continue.
There is no end to creative ideas but there is a limit to my time, patience & energy. Since the children go everywhere with us, I have little time to myself. One refreshing spot in the day is my 7:30 a.m. two-mile walk with a neighbour. I would suffer, particularly during the confining winter months, without this exercise, for it clears my mind & gives me energy to begin my work.
We had a rewarding experience this year in sharing our home with a 13-year-old girl from Japan. Her maturity, discipline & courage inspired us all. The LABO Program, which she was with, did an excellent job of preparing us for her visit. The month flew by, the time passing far too quickly, & the goodbyes of our new friend left us with the desire to learn more about other cultures. We are hoping to have a girl from another country next year.
My latest idea concerns helping the girls learn a second language. We have a connection with a family of girls of corresponding ages in Austria. By exchanging our girls on alternative summers we will both benefit & our girls will be able to talk & even think in German. We believe this exchange of cultures & languages invaluable as all peoples are truly a part of God's family.
The Teacher & the Dairy Man (with Lenora Blank)
(Four families received permission from school officials in New York to keep their children at home beyond the compulsory school-starting age (six). They worked together to establish their home-schooling program.)
As the families shared their ideas, the group began to form a more specific outline of instruction for the children. Each set of parents was responsible for its own children's education, but would be working together wherever group action might be more effective & efficient. Every parent, we agreed, would share something for the benefit of all the students.
In the fall of 1975, we began the home-schooling program. Soon the uncertainties were ironed out; we became comfortable working with each other & with the children. Teaching now seemed as natural & as much of our routine as fixing dinner or telling a bedtime story. School had become a part of everyday life.
By 1976-77 we discussed with school officials that not only did we want to delay classroom education until age eight, but we wanted to continue teaching our children at home. It was proving to be a rewarding experience to parents & children & our "school" was going very well. Mr. Peterson agreed & turned the operational details over to Mr. Meldrum, who asked for monthly activity reports & attendance records. I gladly provided them.
In 1977-78 the Ort home became the center of the group education. Besides daily teaching the three R's, we taught Bible, social studies, industrial arts & health. Henry Foote held a weekly science class. Trenton Frost, an accomplished artist, taught art, & Dorita Frost continued Spanish. When William Blank held monthly astronomy meetings at night, the children were awed by moon craters they viewed through a telescope & they followed our trusty flashlight beaming on different constellations. They played little games to help them learn the names of the planets in our solar system & several times we watched movies from a local free film service or library. We regularly used films for various parts of our curriculum.
Jim Foote was nature & hiking leader while his wife helped with choir & cooking. In November, for example, we had several birthdays so decided to have a special dinner. The children planned the menu & helped scrub potatoes, set the table, make the salad & so forth. We held cooking class every week or two.
This was the hey-day for our group home-school, we parents & our children were totally involved in their work. It was a happy time, a time of sharing & laughter & learning.--Much learning as the students--more physically & emotionally mature than the usual first graders--rapidly advanced at their individual paces through the classwork.
In 1978 & '79 there were changes. The Footes moved away & the Frosts' work schedule & transportation problems made involvement in the group school impossible for them. Seven children remained in the home school.
Meanwhile we faced another problem. Our school officials had willingly cooperated with us for a few years but now several other requests for various alternatives to public education were being brought to Mr. Peterson's attention. Pressure grew for us to put our children in regular school.
Mr. Peterson made the State Education Department aware of what he was confronted with, & then worked with them to create a new set of guidelines for uniform dealings with private schools in the county. They then lumped our home education a "private school." This came as a blow, for we had never thought we fit in that category, yet wanted to meet the requirements. This was a serious threat to us, for private school status involved meeting fire-inspection codes etc., which applied to public buildings.
The Orts' home was wasn't equipped with crash bars, exit signs, stainless steel sinks etc., & they couldn't afford such a building. Part of the "genius" of our whole program was the low cost involved. Heat & lighting were actually home costs & our new books & materials were averaging not more than fifty dollars per year as we received supplies from a variety of sources.
So we considered all the options we could think of: Home Study Institute, Accelerated Christian Educational Program, Christian Liberty Academy & others. Happily for us, a lawyer friend unearthed some New York educational laws, regarding precedents already set for parents teaching their children at home. It was just what we needed. We wrote to Mr. Peterson, requesting that we not be considered in any way a private school. We asked instead that each family be regarded as involved strictly in parental education under such laws as applied to parents. He & Mr. Meldrum came to see our home school & our request met with approval. We were thankful to be able to continue another year.
When 1979-80 came, Sara Ort & I, with help from my husband, William, in science, carried the teaching load for the Orts' four children, my daughter, Shari, & Jeremiah Foote. We met together four days a week. However, we also worked separately in our own homes.
We believe that home teachers should be constantly trying to improve themselves--not under strain, but alert to opportunities to improve as parents & teachers. We have been fortunate to be living within twenty miles of four colleges & universities. The State University at Potsdam has a large number of curriculum & learning devices which we could borrow for a semester at a time. We researched New York State requirements for each grade & as we became familiar with what was needed, each parent either created his own "unit" around a particular concept or followed whatever book seemed to best meet his needs.
The length of school time has grown as the children became older, beginning with one to two hours twice a week, to four hours a day, four times a week. While the "official" hours spent in group session have been less than in regular school settings, they had many constructive manual jobs to do. And all the children always completed a year's worth of schoolwork well before the school year was out.
We teachers figured out what work needed to be covered in a certain amount of time & created goal sheets so the older children could plan & record their daily progress in relation to weekly & yearly goals. Often they would motivate themselves, deciding what they needed to do, & parents just worked as advisors.
We found one of the beauties of the home schedule is its flexibility, yet the students were able to use their "goal sheets" as a framework & work within them.
School officials at one time seemed a little worried. After all, the law required that our youngsters be in school. "You can see, of course, that they aren't very neglected," Doug Ort reminded them. "Yes, but..." Mr. Meldrum & Mr. Peterson had State guidelines to meet. They were certainly kind enough in view of these pressures. Clearly they were more concerned about the welfare of the children than the letter of the law.
"What do you suggest?" Doug inquired. "It would be wise to test them, see how they compare with others of their ages." "What tests do you have in mind?" "The Stanford Achievement Tests are given each year to public school students in our area," he said. "Well, let's give them to our youngsters, too."
We parents administered the tests & were excited by the results. We knew our children were happy & content. We knew that they both studied & worked well, but we had not realised how well. Dougie finished the third grade in the 99th percentile at age nine. David Ort finished the second grade in the 96th percentile at eight. Shari Blank, age nine, scored in the 94th percentile on these Stanford Achievement Tests.
Two third-graders & one second-grader finished in the 90th percentile & the tests showed that another little girl had covered two years in one, in reading.
We decided not to pat ourselves on the backs when we saw these scores, but to thoughtfully consider what methods were working best so we could continue using them.
The children are often asked, "Where do you go to school?" & their reply, "I go to Home School," has brought many questions. Soon they realised that their situation carries a certain uniqueness & have developed a keen sense of self-identity in dealing with these questions. The children really enjoy their home school.
The children are not perfect. They have their squabbles & sibling rivalries at times. They need correction & direction as all children do, yet there are certain qualities about them that are refreshing. They enjoy simple, natural things in diet & play. They create all kinds of pioneer set-ups etc. from materials around their premises & play happily together for hours. When motivated, they work quietly & harmoniously together at a job such as filling the wood box or mulching the garden. They love to read & are happy in their lessons, free from the pressure of competition.
For other parents contemplating home education, we make these suggestions:
Develop your own philosophy of education based on your convictions. Study the right books & if necessary, contact home-school experts.
Consider the cost, which includes time, courage & a little money. You may only be teaching an hour & a half to two hours a day formally, but school includes everything you do.
You may be able to start without contacting school authorities. We found it best to seek local educational approval when we began teaching at home. If you take this route, be able to clearly explain what you want to do & why. Be able to state your curriculum & know where you can get materials. Be aware of what laws regarding alternative education exist in your State.
There is a great lack of uniformity in dealing with a new home-school situation. Some have found public school superintendents who would just as soon "let sleeping dogs lie." Some parents have been told, "If we didn't know about you, we wouldn't have to enforce the laws against you."
If you are able to conduct your home school under the umbrella of your local school--as a satellite of that school--that can save you many unnecessary problems. There is no reason to enter your home-education program with your boxing gloves on.
Although disadvantaged, even a single parent can successfully manage a home school. Not even a college education is mandatory--though recommended. Simply being good home models & demonstrating that your children received adequate instruction (& more) can establish you as a home educator.
We began home school because we felt the need for our children. We continue it now because it is still working as the best option for our circumstances. Frankly, we'd miss the closeness, & the chance to witness the total development of our children if it were any other way.
We Single Girls (With Patty Blankenship)
One day while we were doing an interview on WRNG, Atlanta's "Ring Radio," a light feminine voice came urgently over the telephone. After the show, we were told that she had called later & requested to meet us at the station. It was Patty Blankenship, a single mother of two young sons, Mark (eleven) & Patrick (eight). The Dekalb County Juvenile Court was threatening to take her children from her, to fine her a thousand dollars a day & to put her in jail--remarkable retribution for being a good mother.
In 1974, five years earlier, Patrick's kindergarten teacher thought that he was too young & immature to be in school, so Patty brought him home. This alerted her to the importance of readiness for schooling. He did so well at home that she decided to keep him out another year. It was then, in 1975, that the authorities went after her, threatening jail, heavy fines &, worst of all, to take her boys away from her.
This discouraging situation was further complicated by an infection in Patrick's leg which became so serious the surgeons advised amputation. Patty said she would stay home & personally nurse the child before she would permit him to lose his leg. And this she did, sewing for a living, occasionally modeling shoes, & doing anything else on a part-time basis in which she could pick up a few dollars to support her little family & avoid the onus of welfare lines.
She used materials from the Christian Liberty Academy & worked to keep her boys well above average in their schoolwork & distinctly superior to most children in their behaviour.
A few well-meaning friends joined school officials in pointing out the social "losses" the boys would "suffer" by missing a school. Patty not only pointed out that she was keeping Mark home with Patrick to give him company, but also that Patrick was now admired by the Atlanta Flames hockey team; theirs was hardly a case of social deprivation. Nevertheless, school officials continued to harass Patty & her two young sons.
Meanwhile, Patty began studying up on child development & school law, including her constitutional rights. We found when we talked with her in August 1979 that she had already read our books & articles on early schooling & child development. She became enough of an expert on constitutional law that she knew more than the officials who were challenging her. This in part accounts for her managing to delay a formal trial from 1975 to early 1980. During this period, she had brought both of the boys a grade or two above average for their ages, & had managed in the process to save Patrick's leg--except for surgery now planned to lengthen it.
In September, 1979, Attorney Michael Parham of Atlanta--also a Baptist minister--wrote asking for preliminary information. Five months later he wrote again on behalf also of Attorney Ted Price & Patty Blankenship, requesting that we witness at her trial. All counsels & witnesses concerned agreed to donate their time in view of Patty's financial hardship. All concerned believed in view of the attitude voiced by the Dekalb County Juvenile Court that a jury trial should be requested.
This decision turned out to be sound, for the judge appointed turned out to be one who was reputed to work hand-in-glove with the prosecutor with whom he was often teamed. It was difficult for the defense to ask a question without the prosecutor shouting, "I object!" Almost inevitably, & it seemed, automatically, the judge would mutter, "Sustained." The court record will bear this out.
And of course, in questioning, the prosecutor would shout at us that he wanted only yes or no answers. After a series of stand-offs, we were constrained to advise him that we had raised our hand to tell the truth, & that unless he phrased his questions appropriately, he would receive a definitive answer or no answer at all. This legal charade & a sound defense case had its effect on the jury, & Patty was acquitted. Today, she continues to teach her children at home, & is so thoroughly acquainted with State & national law that she is considering running for public office. She is already conducting seminars for lawyers. And, with her new qualifications as a home-schooling specialist, she has become regional representative for a home-school publisher.
Judy Waddell
In late 1974, Judy Waddell received a letter from the Berrien Springs Superintendent of Schools stating that Bret must be enrolled in school by the given date, a few days away.
She had deliberately kept Bret, now seven, out of school--in Michigan, a State which requires little children to be in school by age six. According to his pediatrician, Bret's physical growth was about two years behind the average seven-year-old's. A psychologist had observed that Bret's psychological & emotional maturation levels were quite uneven. Whatever the cause, both the pediatrician & one psychologist intimated to Judy that Bret was not really ready for school.
Although Mrs. Waddell had only a high school education & a stenographic course at a business college, she read avidly anything & everything worthwhile about children. She had read, among other things, that most children could benefit by a delay in school entry. She had learned the importance of spending a great deal of time with her young son, of reading to him daily & having many good books available for him to "read." She often took him with her in her many efforts to help her neighbours.
But now there was word that there could be problems if he were not enrolled in school. While she quietly waited, she checked to see what could be done to cooperate & yet do what was best for Bret. At one point someone suggested that Bret could be taken away from her. Finally, she was threatened with a fine or jail sentence. Without the normal strength & consolation of a husband, some expected Judy Waddell to panic. But Judy, a woman of prayer, seemed to become stronger, until one day the sheriff's squad car drove up in front of her house & two big, hulking, but sheepish officers apologetically led her to the car & drove her to the St. Joseph County jail. She was booked on a charge of criminal misdemeanor (child neglect). She was photographed, just like any other criminal, relieved of her few valuables & placed in the "holding tank" in the inner jail.
When Mrs. Waddell was brought into court for a pretrial hearing, Judge John Hammond was astonished that she would even challenge this attendance law. He set a date for the trial & suggested that it should be over in a matter of "several hours," but Judge Hammond did not know much of the lady that he had on his hands & her determination to give her child the best of a mother's care. With the help of a number of friends & of her church, expert witnesses were brought in from coast to coast, & the trial continued for most of a year--a mixture of an overloaded court & a great deal of unnecessary testimony. That trial, which began October 2, 1975, still had not been resolved as of the writing of this book in early 1982.
Judy Waddell kept Bret out of school until he was eight years of age--then she enrolled him in a half-day kindergarten in order to have "peace." She would have preferred to have kept him home one or two years longer, then started him in second or third grade, for which she would have prepared him academically. When the little boy enrolled in school at age eight, his math tested at grade 2.6, & his vocabulary skills tested at grade 4.4, without an hour of formal instruction in all of his young life.
Vickie Singer
The story of John & Vickie Singer of Kamas, Utah, is quite well known across the nation. We were called in to counsel with the Singers shortly after their three oldest children had been evaluated by the State. Reporters told us that they had been declared by the State-appointed psychometrist to be "asocial, of ghetto mentality & brain damaged."
John was distressed at "error that was being taught as truth" in the schools his children were attending, & decided to take them out & to teach them at home. He went so far as to build a special little schoolhouse for the Singer school, a few yards away from their home on the two-&-a-half acre patch on the side of the mountain above Kamas.
The schoolroom was equipped sparsely but adequately with blackboards, a number of "decent" books, a variety of school helps &--in that cold area--a good woodburning stove. School time, taught mostly by the father & a little by the mother, was augmented with many other activities. All of the children learned how to clean house & to cook & sew & do the laundry. Each of them could bake a good loaf of bread.
That was remarkable enough in this age. But John & Vickie Singer sensed that their oldest daughter had vocal talent, so they arranged to give her professional singing lessons in a town close to the home. Suzanne, their second daughter, obviously had an artistic bent, so they gave her professional art lessons in the big town. And she has sold a number of her paintings--generally of much better quality than the average college art student.
Tim's specialty was building log cabins. He was not satisfied with the first one, so built a second. He did it all by himself except with a little help from his father in establishing the cut & angle on his rafters--a difficult enough chore for most carpenters.
These were the children who, upon the protest of a few neighbours & the State, were forced to submit to an evaluation by the State psychometrist.
Then came the national news media report of the State psychometrist's evaluations, referred to earlier, that the children were asocial, of ghetto mentality & brain damaged. John & his wife were upset by this, yet that is not the primary reason John refused to let anyone else test his children. He & Vickie believed that God had given them children with the command to be guardians & overseers of them. They did not want to give up this happy duty to the State. To allow the State to test & train them, the Singers felt, was a denial of their religious freedom & God-given task to train their children themselves.
"I would rather die than give myself into the hands of the law," John declared. "I cannot compromise these precious things & live with myself."
Some of us worked with John & Vickie Singer while authorities were trying to trick them one way or another into custody--pretending at one time to be "Los Angeles Times" reporters.
John was not an aggressive, violent man, but a man of peace. He took as his motto, "Stand your ground--don't fire unless fired upon." As it turned out, a week or so later, in his last moments of life, he chose to turn & leave those who were pursuing him. In the presence of some of his children, he received nine fatal shots in his back. Many say that this cannot happen in America today. An important court case will soon reveal just how much it can, for the Singer case is being prepared as this book goes to press.
Meanwhile, Vickie continues to teach her children at home. After visiting her recently, & reading the children's letters, we judge they are doing well indeed. Vickie no longer is hearing the State protest, but she is also no longer hearing the strong supportive words of her husband, John. A very strong woman, Vickie Singer, as the behaviour of her children evidences in the face of some neighbours who still do not understand. By hard work & frugality she manages to eke out a living for her brood.
John Singer's rigidity--or his peculiar beliefs--cost him his life. He lived his life by his principles & he did not surrender principle easily. Perhaps we can stand a few more principled parents. Indeed, if we do not have a lot more of them soon, we will shortly lose our country as we now know her.