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Home Education Magazine
November-December 1997 - Columns
News Watch - Linda Dobson
Spiders, Sports, Public Policy
While you are reading these pages in November, it is early September as I prepare this fifth anniversary edition of News Watch. Many of you know my family and I live in an area where winter arrives early, lasts at least six months and brings temperatures unfit for man, beast or automobile. Yet life continues. There are groceries to buy, library books to be returned, meeting and work obligations to be met. Life continues, but is accompanied by winter mindset, distinctly different than the summer one which so enjoys the relative freedom of sunny afternoons and outward exploration.
Winter mindset is setting in now, encouraged by shorter days, glowing red leaves, chilly nights and tomato plants dying in the garden. It's time to hunker down physically, of course, but also mentally, to follow the cycle's flow into inward exploration. This helps fill winter's long nights and warms the soul, if not the toes. It's time to take stock of harvests - note what has grown - and stoke the fires of a thankful heart.
I thought News Watch could serve this purpose during the holiday season by highlighting some of the growing number of homeschooled children who, as they grow, serve the world as real life examples of the blessings of educational freedom.
I am thankful for these children and their parents whose inspirational lives we glimpse through the "Out in this World" section of News Watch.
I am thankful my children have grown in freedom and that today, the first day of the new school year, they are on their way to a self-planned "field trip" in Boston instead of on a school bus.
I am thankful so many of you share through these pages the news, the good and the not so, and take the time to write and remind me of the value of my chosen work.
I am thankful I am one small piece of this wonderful thing we call the homeschool community.
Happy, warm, peaceful holidays to all.
Out in this World - Holiday Edition
Homeschoolers Grow And Deliver White House Christmas Tree:
North Carolina Christmas Tree Association and AgriBusiness Communications Group press releases
Home educators Sanford and Deborah Fishel, and daughters Maggie (13) and Sarah Beth (8), will present to Mrs. Clinton at a White House ceremony the 18-foot North Carolina Fraser fir "official Christmas tree" which was grown on their farm. White House representatives will visit the farm to make the final tree selection from among three choices. In late November or early December, the tree - and the Fishels - will trek to Washington, and the tree will be displayed in the White House Blue Room.
The Fishels grow fir trees and white pine on the "more than 500 owned and leased acres" they cultivate in North Carolina and Virginia. The family also has a fir nursery and a seed orchard from which Sanford harvests his own seeds. This fall the family expects to harvest 40,000 firs.
Maggie and Sara Beth have learned at home for four years, and are "involved in all parts of the family operation. Deborah, along with being the home school teacher, the farm recordkeeper, and coordinator of all the loading sites during harvest season, also bakes Moravian chicken pies for sale during the holiday season."
In their spare (?) time, Sanford and the girls show their Registered Quarter Horses as accomplished equestrians. Maggie stands second in the nation in western showmanship.
The Washington trip includes a special tour of the White House, and in the past families presenting the tree have stepped into the Oval Office for a handshake. Here's hoping the Fishels have a wonderful trip, and a homeschooling brochure or two to leave behind!
And Speaking Of Trees
"These Kids Climib Trees, But It's Not Child's Play," Joan Jackson, San Jose Mercury News (Home & Garden section), July 11, 1997
International Society of Arboriculture press release
Allison (16) and James (15) Henry grew up homeschooling in an Aptos, CA plant nursery. As homeschoolers do, they started learning about the world around them at a tender age, learning the sciences of arboriculture and horticulture, studying Latin, and driving a tractor. To date "they have planted thousands of plants including over 400 fruit trees, rare bamboo, water plants, and much more. They installed the majority of the irrigation system by themselves and manage a large part of the nursery operation." Allison and James "give [weekly] educational tours to horticultural professionals, educators, students and amateur gardeners."
But Allison and James made the news when they tackled the 200 question exam, often failed by arborists with degrees, and became the youngest certified arborists in the world through the International Society of Arboriculture. Oh, yeah, they graduated high school, too.
The siblings like to read, perform Scottish dancing, and play the piano, violin and bagpipes. Immediate plans include an arboriculture course at Cabrillo College and some arboriculture courses at Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo. Certified arborist parents J.D. and Matthew Henry must smile a lot these days.
Spiders
August 27, 1997 Chicago Tribune article (in more detail below)
Early in August homeschooler Alexandra Rose, from west suburban Woodridge, Illinois, presented a research paper featuring her 16-week study on spiders to a scientific conference on insects in Tucson, another first for a child. Alexandra is 10 years old.
The study "was so well received that she has been invited to present her findings in October at the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington."
Listen To The Music
Disney Adventures, August 1, 1997, pp. 47-49; Teen Beat, October 1997, p. 87; The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, July 11, 997; Entertainment Weekly cover story, July 25, 1997, pp. 28-34;
"Boys in the Band," Kyle Smith and Ken Baker, People, July 7, 1997, pp. 89-90
A young News Watch reader recently educated this columnist about Hanson - the popular, musical trio of homeschooled brothers from Oklahoma - by sending an envelope that contained all of the above coverage of their activity. When Jay Leno asked if they all go to the same school Tay Hanson said, "Yeah. Home." Jay only had the fellas qualify that Mom and Dad do the teaching before he changed the subject.
The Entertainment Weekly story shares a bit more about family, the crazy lifestyle of teen idols, and the "nice, wholesome" Hanson image which is part of their appeal. Evangelical Christians, parents Diana and Walker felt homeschooling "was better for the kids," but that's all they'll say. Music in the living room followed "completed homework," and the rest, as they say, is history.
At first, according to People, they wrote a lot of songs about frogs and ants, but now Hanson "cowrite, sing, and play most of their own music," signed a six album deal with Mercury Records, and are in the middle of a long tour of the U.S. and abroad. Spare time is spent drawing, rollerblading, playing street hockey and soccer. Three younger siblings round out the family.
Watch for their smiling faces in one of those milk-moustache ads, a concert tour that might hit a town near you, and an authorized biography. Oh, and check out Teen Beat to find a word search puzzle with the word "homeschooling" smack-dab center stage!
Music In My Backyard
"Musical Family Main Attraction at Jay Series," Adirondack Daily Enterprise (Saranac Lake, NY), July 31, 1997, p. 7
An article to announce a local concert called it "a most unusual program" presented by my friends, the homeschooling Waickman family. Adam (11), Bethany (9), Kellen (7), and Nicholas (5) enjoyed a summer playing a wide variety of instruments and concerts around the region with parents Lynn and Tony.
The family's hectic schedule of lessons will continue amidst reading good literature and raising sheep, goats and rabbits.
The Family That Learns Together
"Study Buddies," Marissa Espino, L.A. Times, July 7, 1997
Here's an inspirational twist on the "homeschooler goes to college at age 15" story. Andy Harber and his son, Ben, have hit Orange Coast College (OCC) together!
Inspired to return to school and "do something different," this McDonnell Douglas employee and son took the basic drafting class together. Dad got a B; son got an A. Ben aspires to a job in the engineering field, but is also interested in ballet dancing.
Dancing since he was nine, a scholarship from Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet took Ben to a six week summer camp. And although he started the fall line-up of classes at OCC, Ben expects to take advantage of his acceptance to Pacific Northwestern Ballet in Seattle as well. Dad plans to get a bachelor's degree in organizational management.
National Merit Scholar
"Congratulations, Eryn," Cindy Wade, Right at Home (RR 2, Box 145, E. Wallingford, VT 05742), July-September, 1997
She hadn't taken a test since she was five years old, but that didn't stop Eryn Kline of Starksboro, Vermont from winning a National Merit Scholarship. It's off to Vermont's Middlebury College for Eryn, who "reads, paints, plays cello and raises fish but doesn't watch much TV."
Act Test Scores In
"Homeschools Do Best on Test," Jodi S. Cohen and Charles Hurt, The Detroit News, August 25, 1997
ACT Inc. of Iowa City, the company that administers the famous (or infamous) ACT tests has provided a first-time breakout of scores. 136 of Michigan's nearly 40,000 homeschoolers took the last exam bringing the total of homeschooled takers nationwide to about 2000. This Michigan newspaper offered the following stats on scores (36 is a perfect score):
National average: 21
National average, homeschoolers: 22.5
Michigan average: 21.3
Michigan average, homeschoolers: 23.1
"'Any school that doesn't take [homeschooling] more seriously would be making a mistake,' said John Fraire, dean of admissions at Western Michigan University, which is exploring ways to reach out more to the homeschooled."
And in the midst of political fury about the urgency of more and national tests, the way the powers-that-be refuse to acknowledge yet another of the increasing number of signs of homeschooling's success made me laugh out loud. Carole Kennedy, the president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals (long time critics of home ed), tells the world, "There's more to being a good citizen and good student than just scoring high on standardized tests." (Hear that, Mr. Clinton and Mr. Riley?) "Students 'need to get along with their peers.' Homeschooling, in fact, can even hinder a child's learning if not done properly...And if parents teach their children at home for years before realizing the kids are falling behind, then throwing them into the public school system may not bring them up to speed. 'The damage may already be done,'" she warned.
Maybe we should start warning that homeschooling may not "bring up to speed" the countless number of kids turning to homeschooling because they are "falling behind" after years of government schooling. Nah. Send us your tired,your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, Ms. Kennedy. History has shown we can undo your damage.
Public Policy Acceptance
"Homeschooling's Lesson for U.S. Education," Julia and Thomas Vitullo-Martin, Bridge News (Forum-Opinion), July 15, 1997 (75 Wall St., 22nd Floor, New York, NY 10005)
Homeschooling has now earned approval from a public policy perspective. Author Julia is editor of Breaking Away: The Future of Cities; Thomas is an education consultant working with the charter school movement. They've heard about the remarkable accomplishments of homeschoolers Santina Polera and Rebecca Sealfon (both stories available in 9-10/97 News Watch). Of Santina's story they state, "[It] holds many lessons. But for public policy, the important one is this: Homeschooling - a once obscure but now increasingly popular practice - is not just for oddballs. Rather, it is a crucial option for many children. Indeed, between 1990 and 1996, the number of homeschoolers more than doubled to 1.3 million students. This is nearly 3% of the total school population and more than 20% of the private school enrollment. It equals more than half the total Catholic school enrollment."
The Vitullo-Martins compare the government school system to the old story of Procrustes, "the ancient Greek who required that his guests fit his bed perfectly." If too tall, guests lost their feet. Too short? Stretch to fill. "The key," say Julia and Thomas, "is to move toward a system that allows every child choice and flexibility rather than trying to jam the child into the constraints of an assigned institution."
The most striking aspect of this opinion piece is what the authors term "a call for revolution" represented in the words of Howard Fuller, an African-American leader and a former superintendent of Milwaukee's public schools "forced out for pushing a plan to give vouchers to poor children attending bad public schools..." Fuller is called "probably the first and only superintendent of a major public school system to urge such a level of choice" for stating, "My first priority is not to protect institutions that are failing to educate children. My first priority is to see to it that children get the best education possible when they need it. And if that is in a private school, a suburban public school, a religious school or schooling at home, that choice, whatever it is, should be supported by the public."
Julia and Thomas explain further, "Fuller found homeschooling to be a difficult but good choice for parents whose children would otherwise be assigned to a bad public school and who lack the financial ability to pay tuition to a private school."
And Plain Ol' Public Acceptance
"Homeschooling is Earning Higher Grades: A Gallup Poll Finds Public Acceptance of Growing Movement Has Soared Over 12 Years," Casey Banas, Chicago Tribune, August 27, 1997
You saw it right, folks, homeschooling and public acceptance in the same headline. Before you get excited, though, growing acceptance means that in 1985 73% said it was a "bad thing" while this year's Gallup Poll on public attitudes towards schools found that percentage dropped to 57%. OK, if you like your stats with a kinder edge, in '85 16% said homeschooling was a "good thing." In '97, that number jumped to 36%. Feel better?
Among the ever-fascinating numbers generated by this annually commissioned poll by Phi Delta Kappan:
* 88% want a requirement that homeschools guarantee a minimum level of educational quality
* 44% support allowing parents to send kids to private school on the public dole (24% in '93)
* 77% believe national standards for measuring academic performance of public schools would help a lot
* 67% support using standardized national tests to measure academic achievement of students
* 57% favor Clinton's specific proposal for his national 4th grade reading and 8th grade math tests
And in that dichotomy that won't go away:
Grading of the nation's public schools: A - 2%; B - 20%; C - 48%; D - 15%; F - 6% with 9% giving no grade.
Grading of one's community's public school: A - 10%; B - 36%; C - 32%; D - 11%; F - 6% with 5% giving no grade. Public school problems, obviously, remain "out there somewhere."
And Sports Acceptance In Wisconsin
"School Withdraws from WIAA So Student Can Play," Appleton Post Crescent (WI), September 9, 1997, p. B2
A small article with a big bang that provides hope for the required character and cooperation between government and home schools.
When the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association refused to let 13 year-old homeschooler Luke Wagner play football, the West Salem Middle School "dropped its membership." Luke has already hit his first practice. The superintendent of West Salem, Gene Ertz, said "the school district decided to drop out of the WIAA only at the middle school because of the legal costs." Therefore, the local high school remains a member.
Drop-Outs In Disguise
"Some Droputs Disguised as Homeschool," Charles Wolfe, Kentucky Messenger, June 12, 1997, p. 12
"Home Educators, Truant Officers Draw Up Truce," Charles Wolfe, Paducah Sun (KY), August 5, 1997, p. 3A
"Homeschooling: Kentucky Truce Encouraging Sign," Editorial, Paducah Sun, date unknown
(You didn't really think all the news was great, did you?!) The number of school drop-outs in Kentucky is "alarming." So in June, Kentucky Board of Education member Jeffrey Mando reported that the problem may actually be worse than many suspected. Some northern Kentucky superintendents told him "parents of 'problem' students have been encouraged to take their children out of school under the guise of homeschooling."
He never stated who is doing the alleged encouraging. When interviewed, Mando also had to admit "he did not personally know a child who was falsely being recorded as homeschooled."
Fortunately for all involved, this was not a court case nor a matter of legislation. The "truce" in the headlines refers to a packet of information "now issued by the Department of Education - a compilation of statutes, regulations and general guidelines." The packet will be replaced by one drafted by a task force which included representation from the Kentucky Home Education Association, Christian Home Educators of Kentucky, and pupil personnel directors of public school districts.
While the editorial was largely positive, stating "the movement deserves a certain freedom to flourish," one pupil personnel director got in the last digs in the August 5 article by outlining "indicators of bogus homeschooling," including: 1) Abrupt notice of intent to withdraw a child for homeschooling; 2) Children in and out of homeschooling two or three times a year; 3) Children in mid- to late teens who have not been homeschooled before; 4) Children who are disciplinary problems or are failing in school; 5) A parent appears incapable of teaching.
With those who may need homeschooing the most counted among those with bogus reasons, this may turn out to be more of a calm-before-the-storm than a truce.
Principal Demoted For Homeschooling; Wins Court Case
"Ex-Principal's Rights Violated, Court Says," AP, L.A. Times, Juy 12, 1997
"The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury's $300,000 damage award to former elementary school Principal Frank Peterson and awarded him attorney fees from the district."
Mr. Peterson had been a principal for fifteen years, and like most of his neighbors in the Minidoka County, Idaho school district, is a Mormon. When he announced in January, 1992 that he was considering homeschooling for eight of his twelve children, "the district delayed his annual rehiring decision. The leaders of the teachers association told the superintendent that faculty members felt betrayed..."
Superintendent Michael Bishop claims he was "concerned that homeschooling would cut into Peterson's work time," justification for a May, 1992 announcement that Peterson was demoted to teacher (teachers have more time off, according to school district lawyer Steven Tolman).
Peterson quit, was unable to find another teaching job, "then worked briefly as a truck driver and started a short-lived trucking business."
"In a 2-1 ruling, the [Appeals] court rejected the district's argument that the reaction of teachers who felt insulted by Peterson's decision justified his demotion." The court said, "Peterson's choice of homeschooling for his...children...was religiously motivated and protected by his constitutional right to choose his children's education."
Another Debate Hits Print
"Homeschooling Clash of Opinions," Bay Area Parent, August, 1997, p. 48 +
Four-year homeschooler Joyce Swanson provides the pro side with "Home is Ideal," and hits homeschooling's major benefits succinctly. These are things you already know. In an effort for us to better understand what "the other side" still thinks and shares with the public, we'll focus on "Classroom is Best," the con side of the debate provided by Tracy Pope, a former education reporter, sixth grade teacher for seven years, and mother of one.
Keep your mind open; you're not going to like much of what Tracy puts forth. Consider this a painful learning experience.
Tracy's faith and trust in the credentials and air of "expertise" associated with government school teachers carries through her piece and punches the reader with her opening sentence: "To repair your car, would you take it to the dentist?"
She practically dismisses the number of "legitimate" home educators, set at "less than one percent of total student population," then chastises "renegade" (read unregistered) parents because they are "unaccountable to any state or local standards for academic performance."
Praise for school districts, not successful homeschoolers, follows, because they provide "books and quality homeschooling programs that follow state and local standards for curriculum development and implementation." This hardly-a-pat-on-the-back-to-hard-working-homeschoolers is the end of her "concessions" to homeschool proponents.
Tracy found an Evergreen Valley College (San Jose) journalism instructor, Ralph Nichols, who has changed his positive outlook on home ed after "encounters with" homeschoolers, and bases his judgment on "his own anecdotal observations of students he had taught in the past several years."
Younger students in community college worry him. "They're bright, but deficient in social skills and maturity...They end up with a good G.P.A., but they're not equipped to deal with life as well as normal college graduates." Ahem.
Tracy's argument concludes with the party line about classroom exposure to diversity as "the threads of society's fabric, which when woven together help strengthen our society and democracy." Ahem.
"Anything that tugs at the threads of this fabric threatens to unravel it. The homeschooling movement...has the potential to isolate groups of students and further endanger public education." Ahem.
"Teachers are trained professionals with an abundance of expertise to offer. Your child belongs in our classrooms."
Ahem.
Do we now better understand how total and efficient the training of teacher colleges? How many other Tracys are there with unlimited, unsupervised access to our nation's children, their time, and their minds?
We must continue to educate the public. Obviously, there is still much work to be done.
AROUND THIS WORLD
Don't know if this trend of international coverage of home education will continue, but if it does watch for the growing excitement of international homeschooling right here, folks.
An Israeli Cover Story
"Home Improvement," Dina Shiloh, Jerusalem Post Magazine, June 13, 1997, pp. 16-19
Actually Sadam Hussein takes up most of the space, but there it is on the bottom left side of the cover: Home Becomes a Classroom. The legal status of homeschooling in Israel was covered in the May-June '97 News Watch, and the news left us up in the air pending new government discussions necessitated by a new government. But still the new minister of education, Zevulun Hammer, has not informed homeschoolers of any official approval.
"In fact, under Hammer, the decision to allow homeschooling for children 'for a temporary experimental period of one year' has been reversed, explains Judith Danilow, coordinator of the pedagogic center at the ministry." And that means requesting "special permission" from the minister himself who has no homeschooling guidelines or curriculum.
"Was repealing the homeschooling decision a political move?
"Danilow pauses. 'You said it, not me.'" One family is currently under prosecution by local authority for not sending their children to school.
Although he says he's in favor of giving parents more educational responsibility, Professor Dan Inbar, dean of the School of Education at the Hebrew University, also feels, "You don't want the situation where rich kids in Herzliya and Kfar Shmaryahu are staying at home and their parents are paying for private teachers for them. They will become schools for the rich." And, of course, he worries about social isolation.
All these worries while homeschooling is practiced by "only a handful." As a homeschooler and newsletter publisher who lived in America until a year ago, Sara Rivka Ernstoff points out, "Here the situation is legally and socially the same as it was in the U.S. 25 years ago. There will be more and more cases until the ministry finally makes it legal."
England's Homeschooling Families
"Why There's a School in My Dining Room," Emma Haughton, The Times (London), July 5, 1997
Several homeschooling families seem to shrink geographical distances as they sound as if they're homeschoolers down the street instead of across the ocean.
The Turners enjoy an "enviably varied and relaxed" household. "When the kids (four girls) were at school," explains Paula Turner, "they would ask us questions, and we wouldn't know whether our answers went over their heads or were too obvious. Now we're much more in tune with them."
Says Judith of west London of her two young sons, "They are fearless around adults. They've not got that reverence for authority that school instills."
Last we meet Bob and Pien, "now chair of Education Otherwise, the homeschooling support group," who was the subject of a bit of e-mail controversy for her comments that appear in this article. It was later explained that Pien's words were tweaked a bit by the reporter, but readers of The Times got this: "Bob and Pien felt their children should go to school eventually. 'At a certain age they need to be with other children in bigger groups. Being at home is too limiting,' Pien says."
I guess this "horse's mouth" criticism was enough, as the requisite institutional opponent never appeared in this article.
School At Home In Scotland
"When School is the Front Room," Sarah Lindsay, The Sunday Post Magazine (Dundee, Scotland), mid-August, 1997
As in the U.S., the individual personalities of education authorities can make homeschooling easy or difficult. Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 parents or guardians are responsible for the education of children until they are 16. If local education authority agrees, parents may withdraw a child from school. And while the parent (or tutor) doesn't need to be a qualified teacher, "the authority will check the standard of education at regular intervals."
Under these conditions Denise and David Connor teach five children, ages 1 to 13, at home where David works as a furniture renovator. Denise, a former teacher familiar with the National Curriculum, says she knows non-teachers educating at home, "but it must be much more difficult for them to get started than it was for me." And so we have further comments like, "the family try to stick to a timetable" and "...it is a teacher's life for Mum, her evenings are spent marking jotters and catching up on housework."
Oldest child Helen, 13, went back to school for a while but "found it restricted me," she said. She will soon "sit her maths GCSE at the local sixth form college along with hundreds of 16 year-olds."
David admits that having the whole family at home can have a down side. "I can never just sneak into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee. I always end up making seven!"
"A small sacrifice for such a happy household."
Interestingly, the article ends by telling other homeschoolers the magazine would like to hear from them. "We will pay for any stories we use."
In Memory: England's Rose
I never was and never will be a royal watcher.
Palaces? Long ski trips? Sons who would be king? Sorry, I just can't relate. It was hard to build sympathy for a princess' disappointing love life, too, because I know for every woman who marries a rich cad there are thousands who marry poor ones and can't wipe away the tears with millions of dollar bills.
So it was when I learned of the death of England's Princess Diana. As they would in any senseless tragedy, my thoughts flew immediately to two more of the world's children suddenly and shockingly turned motherless. Then came a full week preceding Diana's funeral during which the television turned into a real-time biography. Diana, I learned, ran deeper than a privileged pretty face.
News coverage revealed that the princess' real-life lessons of suffering and rejection opened her heart to the suffering and rejected. It portrayed Diana as a devoted parent, etching the picture of a long awaited, loving bear hug for her children into the hearts of mothers everywhere. Reporters praised her effort to share life-beyond-the-castle-gates with her growing sons...she took them to volunteer in soup kitchens...she taught them how to stand in line and pay for purchases...
She homeschooled her children!
Diana probably never used our word - homeschooling - and of course the media didn't, either. But what wasn't revealed in the spoken word came through in action. Diana made sure the prevailing institution in her sons' lives wouldn't smother them. She made sure their experience included large doses of "the real world."
As Elton John sang his song I found that indeed we, too, had a connection to a far-away princess.
That which we call a homeschooler by any other name would be as sweet.
WORTH LOOKING UP
* "Clearinghouse for Homeschooling," R. H. Melton, Washington Post, 6/29/97, p. B1 - It's a celebration as Shabach, "The very few 'umbrella' schools serving black families who teach their children at home" in Prince George, MD, turns one year old. "Maryland permits home schools as part of educational ministries associated with bona fide churches, and academies such as Shabach are essentially independent study groups...Maryland has designated 189 church schools as state-approved, which creates some government oversight over those institutions..."
* "Homeschooling Gains Popularity," Judy Bernstein, The Post-Star Sunday (Glens Falls, NY), 8/31/97, pp. A1 & A5
* "How We Homeschool While Working Full Time," Marie Rodriguez, CA Homeschool News, 8-9/97, p. 14 - An "insider" who gets the job done shares what works for her family.
* "Education Today," a special fall section of the Chicago Tribune, 7/20/97 - Section on homeschooling tucked amidst others on the topic of education.
* "Cutting Out the Public School Middlemen," Editorial, Investment Business Daily, 8/28/97 - Reveals the growth and success of private voucher programs as the "establishment" fights public support for same. "Private groups haven't come close to meeting all the demand for better education. But it's good to see more of corporate America parting ways with the National Education Association and its minions. If enough CEOs buck the NEA, more politicians may get the courage to do the same."
© 1997 Linda Dobson
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