European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 14, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Turning kitchens into classrooms by Ken franckling United press internationals Shotgun toting Ulah lawmen Varo Mcd i hair snowmobiles and  on John Singer As the fundamentalist mormon Farmer walked to his Mailbox of Winter Day. Singer Hokd up a year earlier in Rural Marion Ulah with his wife and seven children. He armed himself and often patrolled the property with an a Rifle threat ening to shoot it out if the Law visited his land. As the deputies moved in that Day Jan. 18, 1979, Singer waved or pointed a pistol. He was shot to death. His crime was refusing to Send his children and the three children of a second wife to Public schools. Fie believed the schools taught immoral things including sexual permissiveness and disbelief in god. "1 want to keep my children morally decent and clean the German born Farmer explained in 1978. Singer s Case Points out to an extreme degree the intensity with which a growing number of parents across America Are turning kitchens into classrooms. A United press International Surrey found no singular reason Why a estimated 10,q4h or More is. Families took their kids out of school or meter sent them. They include disapproval of values and issues taught in schools that counter personal beliefs concerns Over discipline and peer influence sexuality and drug use and a belief that schools simply do a poor Job. Many reasons match those Given by people sending their youngsters to private schools including the Mafi Christian schools popping up across the land in recent years. Backers of Home schooling Are the first to say it in t for everyone and will never be a mass movement. It has provided a mix of alternatives for parents and students from traditional lesson plans available from correspondence schools to cover institutions that Reg ister students who Don t attend classes on the premises. The movement draws a mix of responses from the educational establishment. There is acceptance and co operation in some communities. There Are arrests and bitter court fights elsewhere. Singer s Home school in a Small building on his farm got cooperation at first from local school officials who provided curriculum and instructional materials. When testing showed his Well scrubbed youngsters lagged behind other children Singer was summoned to juvenile court to answer contempt charges. He refused to go fearing his children would be taken away on the spot. His widow Vicky filed a $72 million wrongful death suit after the shooting. She continues teaching the Chil Dren at Home with local permission and supervision. Education at Home is allowed by Law or court rulings in 38 of the 50 states. New Hampshire s state Board of education issued regulations in june for a two year trial allowing parents to take their children out of school and teach them at Home. Some parents Are dedicated to the proposition that they can do a better Job educating their children at Home said education department spokesman Charles h. Marston. They find no fault with the Public schools. They find no fault with private school. They Are dedicated to the philosophy of Home  new Hampshire like 31 other states places supervisory responsibility in the hands of local school boards or superintendents in some cases it has created a Legal and bureaucratic tangle. Maverick educational consultant John Holt of Boston is one source of advice and encouragement for borne schooners. In the late 1960s and Early 70s, his books How children fail and How children least sparked a Page 12 the stars and stripes movement to make schools More relevant by switching the focus from teacher to child. Holt found schools resist any change. He claims they do More unrelieved harm than Good for most students. Schools he said have mistaken ideas about the nature of children and the nature of learning. Kids Are losing their natural curiosity because of pressure Holt said. It takes that learning and exploring process away from them by deciding when and where and  the former teacher became the father of the Home education movement. He is in his third year of publishing a newsletter called growing without  it lists recommendations for educational resources information on Legal decisions and feedback from parents who Are educating their youngsters at Home. The news letter has a circulation of about 2,100. Holt said his estimate of 10,000 families teaching the r Young at Home is a Blue sky guess that he believes is much higher. It does t include Alaska where Home education is nothing new. The state runs a correspondence study pro Gram fur 500 youngsters in villages top Small 1d support a school. Guidelines for Home education became Law in Massachusetts through a civil suit that gave Peter and sue Perchm lids the right to teach two of their four sons at their Home in Amherst. They claimed Public schools trivialize  Superior court judge John m. Greaney ruled on nov. 13, 1978 in the porch Clides Case that parents May make decisions in matters related to child rearing with out unjustified governmental interference. But to u decision also said Home education rights Aren t absolute and Are subject to reasonable state regulation through the school system. The Perchm lids share teaching of Richard 1c, and Keith 6, at Home for thru hours a Day 12 months a year. Studies include math English theories on the Ori Gin of the universe Star constellations nutrition Garden ing geology and pollution. The process of Home education is going to continue a Long to our total circumstances  uld. His teaching experience started with two older sons pulled out of Boston schools and educated at Home sever Al years ago without incident. In Virginia five couples were dragged into court in the last 16 months on charges of violating the state s compulsory school attendance Law by teaching their youngsters at Home. Four won. A fifth lost but plans to Appeal an order to abide by the Law. Peter and in gite  Daam Are in year no. 2 of a Battle with the Providence r.i., school superintendent Over the Home education of their daughters Julia 9, and Jessica 7. Mrs. Van Daam is a certified teacher. A stand has to be made and we Are standing on the sovereignty of the family  Daam said. Education is a consumer product and the consumer has control Over How it is  the couple was arrested twice on truancy charges for withdrawing Julia from Public school two years ago Jessica was never enrolled in school. The first charge was dismissed last december when a family court judge ruled the Providence school department broke the Law by failing to provide application forms for Home Educa Tion programs. The second charge stemmed from the  Daams refusal to submit an application and proposed Home study program for local approval in open Defiance of the state s 180-Day compulsory attendance Law  Daam an economist said he objects to the school department s insistence that he adhere to a rigid am in ulum and allow monitoring of the program the Case is still pending. The Calvert school to Baltimore Aad Home study Institute in Takoma Park a provide traditional lesson Plant books and accredited courses for thou Sands of stud tits in the . And abroad. Under an option teachers will Grade papers by  Calvert began its Home instruction in 1905, school officials said after a Winter epidemic of whooping cough made it impossible for headmaster Virgil Hillyer to teach. She sent books and lesson plans Home to his Stu dents. Schools to 3�stais urdu Al it he White framed House on great it Boulevard in Chesapeake va., with trea and a big Garden in front is Home As we 3�ifor the Grigg Sisters. We Call our school Ark if said their and teacher Vicki Grigg 33. Noah had Hila Kloj the hoods. We have our school to Escapa pub be  j Stephanie 13, and Nicole 11. Dropped out Ca school last Winter and embarked upon Home Pludy. In Public school learning was i Kab Csc it  said Nicole. Fifth grader. A it it s like color to. My mom can reach mat p ing  said Stephanie a seventh grader the  is chorus. But not the other stuff. I be Lerari with my Mother teaching. And i still have or they think it $ really  3 the Griggs withdrew their youngsters fila Fischook last Nuary after seeing them steadily pm in their studies. A when my daughters came Home they i about what they  mrs. Grigg mid " i if my at Lut 1nr Fink. O_4  Pitt a. Said her husband Robert. 37. A operator nuclear Power Plant we wish Wezum at a Lupu c school. But not the Way that today All the drugs and fighting and Maual l 1 Don t want it for my children. Sunday