Page Eight
MICHIGAN SCHOOL CASE
[DR:l We got a copy of the court decision described in “Important Michigan Ruling,” GWS #31, and quote some of the relevant portions below. In case you’re interested in how to obtain such documents, what we did was write to the County Courthouse in Saginaw, the city closest to the towns mentioned; someone there forwarded our letter to the Court Clerk of Ingham County in Lansing, who asked us for $5 for photocopying.
SHERIDAN ROAD BAPTIST CHURCH, FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH BRIDGEPORT, et al, Plaintiffs; vs State of Michigan, Depirtment of Education, and Phillip E. Runkel, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Defendants.
OPINION AND ORDER, Docket #80-26205-AZ
… Held in the Circuit Courtrooms, City of Lansing, County of Ingham, state of Michigan, on the 29th dav of December, 1982. Present: Honorable Ray C. Hotchkiss, Circuit Judge
… In July of 1980, Defendant, Michigan Dept. of Education, filed a complaint with the Superintendent of Public Instruction seeking suspension of the operation of Sheridan Road Christian School and the Bridgeport Baptist Academy. The complaint alleged that the schools failed to comply with the requirements of 1921 P.A. 302, S. 5; MCLA 388.555; MSA 15.1925.
On Dec. 6, 1980, plaintiffs filed the present action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of 1921 P.A. 302 (hereafter referred to as “the act”) and allege that said act is contrary to the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and Article 1, Section 4, and Article VII, Section 1. of the Constitution of the State of Michigan.
The purpose of 1921 P.A. 302 is clearly stated in the preamble to that act. It provides;
“AN ACT to provide for the supervision of private, denominational and parochial schools; to provide the manner of securing funds in payment of the expense of such supervision; to provide the qualifications of the teachers in such schools; and to provide for the endorsement of the provisions hereof.”
Under Section 1 of this act, the superintendent of public instruction is given supervision over all private, denominational, and parochial schools. This section further provides that the sanitary conditions and the courses of study in religious schools must be of the same standard as provided by the public schools. Under Section 3 of the act, all teachers employed by non public schools must be certificated and must submit to an examination to obtain a certificate.
… Section 5 provides for investigation and examination of records of non public schools by the superintendent of public education to determine whether that school is in compliance with the act. This section also provides that refusal to allow an investigation or examination of records is sufficient cause to suspend the operation of the school.
… This Court is of the opinion that the religious beliefs of the plaintiffs are sincere and that the education of their children in schools which conform to their religious beliefs is an integral part of the churches’ religious mission. This Court is further of the opinion that the regulations imposed on the schools by 1921 P.A. 302 interfere with the practice of plaintiffs’ legitimate religious beliefs.
Freedom of worship is among the fundamental rights which are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Consiitlition from infringement by the state … The basic purpose of the free exercise and establishment clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is to see that no religion is favored, sponsored, commanded, or inhibited … Only the highest state interests, and those not otherwise served, may overbalance the legitimate claims to the free exercise of religion (Sherbert v.Verner, Wisconsin v. Yoder).
…The State of Michigan’s interest in universal education can only be classified as a state interest of the highest order. To implement the responsibility for education, it is necessary that the state have power to impose reasonable regulations. However, even the state’s interest in education is not above the balancing process when it impinges on fundamental rights like the free exercise of religion.
Section 3 of the act requires that all teachers employed by non public schools must be certified by the State of Michigan. Under MCLA 380.1531, the State Board of Education is responsible for determining the requirement for teacher certification. One requirement is that a candidate must hold a degree from a college or university with an approved teacher training program. Another requirement is that a candidate must complete a certain number of hours as a student teacher under the guidance of an experienced teacher.
The purpose of teacher certification in Michigan is to insure a minimal level of qualification for teachers, and to provide some minimum standards to address things a teacher ought to know in order to avoid harm or detriment to children.
Defendants’ expert witness, Dr. Judith E. Lanier, stated that without teacher certification, there would be no safeguard or mechanism to represent the State’s interest in the education of children by qualified instructors. However, Dr. Lanier admitted that she was aware of no specific research linking teacher certification with better teachers. Dr. Lanier also stated that she did not believe Michigan’s teacher certification program has resulted in overall success in performance by Michigan students.
Dr. Donald Erickson, an expert in the field of education, testified that there is a distinct lack of consensus on the method to be used to train teachers. Dr. Erickson further testified that the factors that make certain teachers more effective than others are unknown.
Dr. Erickson stated that schools that employ only certified teachers are generally less effective when effectiveness is measured by student achievement. He criticized Michigan’s teacher education system which he felt imposed certain mechods of teaching at the expense of others. Dr. Erickson further testified that he believed teacher certification to be one of the weakest steps to guaranteeing educational quality.
Another expert in the field of education, Dr. Russell D. Kirk, testified that the requirements for teacher certification in Michigan are excessive in number and that the requirements for teacher training institutions are too restrictive. Dr. Kirk was of the opinion that the certification requirement produces mediocrity in the teaching profession and does not improve the quality of teaching in this state …
Defendant contends that the need to insure minimum standards for teaching in private schools constitutes a compelling state interest and that teacher certification is a reasonable means of assuring that state interest. The overwhelming weight of evidence presented, however, shows that teacher certification does not insure teacher competency and may even inhibit teacher competency.
Defendants have failed to show that teacher certification is a reasonable or effective means to carry out a legitimate state purpose. Further, this court is of the opinion that teacher certification causes excessive government entanglement with religion.
This Court is of the opinion that 1921 PA 302, Section 3, MCLA, is violative of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and is, therefore, void and without effect.
… Plaintiffs object to the requirement that the courses of study must be of the same standard as the public school. The “general school laws” of the state do not specify any particular courses, but allow the local school boards to determine the courses of study in their districts …
State official, Paul DeRose, testified that the Department of Education makes a judgment as to what is comparable in terms of curriculum offered by non public schools. Mr. DeRose further testified that non public schools must be comparable to public schools in the same district but may not be comparable to public schools located in a different school district. Mr. DeRose was unaware of any guidelines for local school district officials in evaluating non public schools.
Jack R. Newton, Superintendent of the Bridgeport-Spalding Community School District, testified that it was within his power to evaluate the curriculum of non public schools to ascertain if that curriculum was comparable to the public schools in that area … Mr. Newton admitted concern with the loss of $2,000 in State Aid for every student who leaves the public school and enrols in area non public schools.
This Court fails to see a compelling state interest in requiring non public schoolry to be “of the same standard” as public schools in the same school district. Such a scheme does not insure uniformity in che quality of education in the state because the school districts throughout the state are not required to be comparable. Further, such a scheme does not insure even a minimum degree of quality in education; it merely requires that non public schools be as good as, or as bad as, the public schools in the district.
…This Court is of the opinion that Section 1 of 1921 PA 302 causes excessive government entanglement with religion and does not forward any compelling state interest. It is, therefore, the opinion of this court that Section 1 of 1921 PA 302 is unconstitutional …
METRONOME AVAILABLE HERE
SEIKO ELECTRONIC METRONOME (Available from Holt Associates; $63.50, postage included). A metronome, as most readers probably know, is a clock-like device which beats time, by giving a click and/or flashing a light, at whatever speed you want, from 40 to 208 beats per minute. It is an indispensable tool for any serious student of music, and has been used by virtually all musicians since it was first invented by Maelzel. I have tried out a number of metronomes since I first began making music, and of all the ones I have seen this compact and versatile little machine is the best. In its case, it measures about 5-1/2 X 2 3/4 x 1 1/3 inches, and weighs less than half a pound. It will give you an A to tune with, at any pitch from 440 to 445 cycles (useful if you want to play with a recording, or a piano, that is not tuned exactly to A 440). It will beat time with a flashing light, or a sound, or both. The sound can be at low level or high level, and atc high level is strong enough (not true of most small metronomes) to be heard over loud instruments.
One of the most important features of this metronome, one I have found in few others, is that it will not only beat time but, like a conductor, will give you the first beat in the measure. You can set it for measures of anywhere from two to six beats. When it is set for, say, a three beat measure, it will flash a red light and give a high-pitched sound for one beat, then a green light and a lower pitched sound for the next two beats, and so on for as long as it runs. I have found this very useful in trying to play music with (for me) complicated rhythms - if I skip a rest, or don’t hold a rest or a note long enough, this machine will cell me, where a conventional metronome might not. It is, as I say, like having a little conductor on the music stand.
We will send the metronome to you with its 9 volt transistor radio battery installed. When the time comes to change the battery (easily found in drugstores, etc.), you will find the battery cover a little bit stiff to open. Push with your thumb, as the instruction manual says, and don’t be afraid to push hard - you can’t hurt anything by doing so. When you put the battery cover back on (the metronome will work OK with the cover off), push down and in on the little arrow and the word “Open.” You don’t have to worry about putting the battery the wrong way, because you can’t - the clips are designed so that they will only go on the right way.
There’s a foolish printer’s mistake in the instruction booklet, which is not of any importance but may puzzle you. A photo of the back of the metronome points out the battery cover and the prop-up stand, but the labels are reversed.
This may seem quite a lot of money to pay for a little device that doesn’t do much except say “click-click-click.” But, as I said, it is an extremely important musical tool, which you will use in many ways. If you and/or your children are seriously studying any of the major instruments, you will spend a great deal more than this in only a few years, on lessons, strings, repairs, sheet music, recordings, and the like. Even the cheapest metronomes cost about half as much as this one, and its convenience and extra features make it well worth the extra money. I am very glad to have one for my own use, and strongly recommend it. - JH
TWO INSTRUMENTS AVAILABLE HERE
AULOS SOPRANO RECORDER (Available from Holt Associates, $10.00 including postage). When I first thought of adding a recorder to our music list, I asked several of my recorder playing friends what companies made the best plastic recorders (the ones in wood are much more expensive) . They all said, “Aulos.” So we tracked down their catalog, found they make a whole line of recorders -soprano, alto, tenor, etc. - and, again on the advice of friends, picked this one to start with. I am not a recorder expert, but it seems easy to blow, accurate in pitch, even in sound, and pleasant in tone. It is one of the best beginning musical instruments for children or adults, and in fairly large and musically active cities like Boston you can often find groups of people to play with who specialize in recorder music. Also, it is a no-worry instrument; short of running over it with the car, it is pretty hard to hurt it. So it’s OK to leave it lying around where anyone who feels like it can pick it up and tootle on it.
PIANICA ($47 incl. postage). For some time have been small and inexpensive ment, for families to own or have access to board instruments are certainly the easiest something about music notation, harmony, etc. As an experienced piano teacher once put it, “A piano is a perfect teaching machine; what you see is what you get.” Also, it is one of the easiest of all instruments for young children to make some kind of sound on. Action leads to results, which little children like and need. And by their own investigations they can learn a lot about how (musically) a keyboard instrument works. Unfortunately, not everyone can find or afford a piano. One inexpensive electronic substitute I like very much is the Casio VL-10, a tiny synthesizer, great fun to play with and to compose tunes on. But it won’t play chords, and the cheapest machines that will play them cost $150 and more - and usually don’t sound very good. Also, the Casio probably wouldn’t stand much rough treatment. (For older children, it may still be worth looking into.) Then we found the Pianica (Piano + Harmonica). As with a harmonica, you blow into it, in this case, through a flexible pipe that fits in one end. The air makes notes by vibrating little metal reeds, and you pick the notes you want by pressing down a key or keys on a piano-type keyboard, two and a half octaves wide. The Pianica is cheaper than other instruments of this kind, and sounds better - the pitches are accurate, the tone pleasant, and the chords actually sound like chords, and not, as on many expensive electronic instruments, like discords. Erik Sessions, who is a good violinist and pianist, was in the office from Iowa the other day, and he had a good time with it. I think you and your children will too. - JH
NEW BOOKS AVAILABLE HERE
THE DOLL BOOK, by Karin Neuschutz ($8 + post). This book is subtitled “Soft Dolls and Creative Free Play,” and is about both of those - how, if you can sew, with or without a machine, you can make soft dolls for children, and the many kinds of things children can do with them (and other simple objects), The dolls themselves are inexpensive, not hard to make, and completely charming - I can well imagine how much children would love them. But the book itself would be well worth its price just for what the author says about play. She understands clearly and illustrates vividly what I say in HOW CHILDREN LEARN - that children use play as a way of exploring the world and making as much sense as they can out of it.
Later, talking about fairy tales and what children can get out of them, Neuschutz says something I have long felt, without quite being able to put it into words:
… To give children realistic everyday stories in books with the motivation that that’s how many children today live - that Charlie lives in an apartment building, that his mother and father often fight, that this is what it’s like to be in a hospital or at the dentist’s or in a barn or in Antarctica - is actually to fool both ourselves and the child. No film or book can show a child how it is. Only the reality that we ourselves experience can show us the workings of the outside world …
At the very end of the book Neuschutz talks about what to do when a favorite doll gets worn out. Ask the child if it’s all right to take the doll to the hospital, and if so, tell the child that when it gets all well and comes back it won’t look exactly the same. Then re-make as much of the doll as is worn out, keeping the old head and face or perhaps only the hair. The doll can be almost totally new, but to the child it will be the same old friend. It reminds me of the story of the old woodsman who, showing a friend his house, pointed to an axe behind the door, and said, “I’ve had that axe all my life; it’s had three new heads and seven new handles.” That’s how children can feel about fixed-up old dolls, and why these simple soft dolls are so nice.
It occurs to me that, using the patterns in this book, some home schoolers might make a small cottage industry out of making these dolls for others. They’d make lovely presents.
This book, by the way, is published by Larson, the company that will be publishing Nancy Wallace’s book. The book is very well made, with a sewn binding (I can’t remember the last book of mine to have one - publishers these days usually just glue the pages together at the spine of the book, which they call a “perfect” binding).
CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF MUSIC, Ed. by Michael Kennedy ($10.45 + post). 724 pages of fascinating information about composers, both famous and obscure, together with lists of their works; also many compositions (listed by title), performers, musical instruments, musical terms (the ones, like allegro, piu mosso, etc., that you would find in written music), music theory (harmony, ornaments, etc.), musical history, and just about anything that might interest anyone who likes “classical” music. (A few great jazz players are mentioned, but only a few.) An excellent reference work for serious students, and a delightful book just to browse in - every time I pick it up to look up something, I find myself reading about a lot of other things. Of the one volume dictionaries of music I have seen, much the most complete and readable.
PETER AND THE WOLF ($5.35 + post) and THE NUTCRACKER ($5.35 + post). Two famous ballet stories, charmingly illustrated in colour, with selections (written for piano) of some of the best known and most beautiful music of each, so that as adults or children read the story they can play some of the music along with it. Thus, from PETER, we have the songs of Peter, the bird, the duck, the cat, the grandfather, the wolf, and the hunters. From NUTCRACKER we have Harlequin and Columbine, the Waltz of the Snowflakes, the Mice, the Dance of the Flutes, the Chinese Dance, and the Waltz of the Flowers.
THE STORY OF FERDINAND, by Munro Leaf ($3.15 + post). The classic story of the little Spanish bull who would rather sit quietly smelling the flowers than fight. The black and white pen and ink illustrations by Robert Lawson have great life and vitality, almost more colour than if they were in colour. A wonderful story.
By the way, the same pair did another book called WEE GILLIS which though equally good is unfortunately out of print. It is about a little Scottish boy who learns to play some bagpipes that no one else can play. If you ever see a copy in a second hand bookstore, snap it up - and if there are extras, please get some for us - we’ll buy them from you at cost.
DESTINATION MOON, $4.45; EXPLORERS OF THE MOON, $3.55; THE SHOOTING STAR, $4.45. Three more in the great series of Tintin comic books (see GWS #29 and #25). Can’t add much to what I’ve said before about these: ingenious and exciting plots, lots of slapstick humour of the kind that kids like, plenty of interesting dialogue, and accurate, detailed, and often quite beautiful drawings - kids may not think much about colour and composition in their comic books, but they probably respond to them, and they certainly add to the pleasure of any adults who read these books aloud (or by themselves).
Herge wrote these books when people were first talking about going to the moon, but before anyone had gone there, so much of the “science” he had to make up out of his imagination. Events may have outdated some of it, but not enough to bother most young readers.
May I repeat what we said in GWS #29; if any of you are interested in foreign language versions of the Tintin books, please tell us. We have had one or two requests for Tintin in the original French, but so far there has not been enough demand to warrant stocking even a French edition.
THE MAN WHO KEPT CIGARS IN HIS CAP, by Jim Heynen ($4.50 + post). Many books on our list are unusual and beautiful, but this book, suggested by home schooling friends in Yucaipa CA, is one of the most unusual and beautiful of all. It is a group of forty-one very short stories, really just accounts of incidents, in the life of a small, un-named farm community. The central figures in the book are a group of boys, who appear in all the incidents. We are not told how many there are, or their ages or names - they are only called “the boys.” Only rarely will the storyteller even single out one as littlest or biggest. In my mind’s eye I see perhaps three or four boys, the oldest of them not much more than ten. But this is only my guess; the story-teller does not tell us, nor do the few pen and ink illustrations.
In fact, only three characters of the many in the book are named: Maggie, a little girl with an extra toe; Moley, the midget shoemaker; and the stallion Bayard. This lack of names, of people or places, gives these short tales an almost mythic quality - they might have happened anywhere, they could be happening anywhere, anywhere at least that human beings grow food and raise animals and live in small towns. Many of the tales are about the daily realities of farm life, animals being born, getting sick, dying. Others have to do with life and death, happiness and grief, in a much larger sense. To give a hint of their flavor, here are some quotes:
… When the boys went to one neighbour’s farm to ask him if they might pick some of his apples, they could not find him anywhere … Finally - in a very dark corner of the barn - they saw him. He was praying to his-animals.
On his knees with his hands crossed in his lap. Praying to a piglet, a dog, a cat, and a bull calf. He had fed each of them their own kind of food, so they were quiet as he prayed.
He was saving, little animals with four feet on the ground, teach the rocks to lie in their places, tell the oceans never to rise and the mountains never to fall. Little ones, give your gentle ways to me.
The boys slipped away and went to wait in the yard. When the man came out of the barn, they asked him about apples. He brought a large basket and said they could fill it with the ripest and largest apples from his trees. Not only that. He said they could keep the basket to carry feed to their animals.
… One night the boys were getting ready for bed. I smell a girl, said the smallest boy. There aren’t any girls here, silly, said the biggest boy. They started looking anyway. Under the beds and inside drawers. One of the window curtains moved a little and the smallest boy said, See, there! That was a girl!
But there were no arms or feet, only the curtain moving a little. The boys went to bed without finding the girl. Still, they could not sleep because they smelled the girl. The smell got stronger.
After a while, in the dark, one of them said, It’s not a girl, it’s a lady. It smells like a grown lady.
They turned on the lights and looked for the lady. But she was not there.
Back in bed, they lay listening and smelling the strange smell. It’s not a girl or a lady, one of them said. It smells like an old, old woman.
Again, the boys turned on the lights. The curtain was still moving. This time they saw something. It was dust, blowing in through the window. So they closed the window and went back to bed.
After that, they fell asleep. The last story in the book, called “Death Death Death,” might be (and is probably meant to be) a kind of parable of modern life. On a hot summer day, playing in the yard, the boys suddenly become aware of the smell of many dead creatures.
… Death, Death, Death, said one of the boys.
There were dead animals all over the farmyard - if they’d look for them… And this was not unusual. Things die. It’s just that the boys happened to be noticing it all at once …
Look. One of the boys pointed to the sky. They were not alone, noticing all the death. A chicken hawk was circling overhead. Circling over the whole farmyard. This place stinks like dead everything, said one of the boys. There’s only one thing to do about all this death, said the smallest boy … But I will let you find out from this wonderful book what that was.
WELL, THERE’S YOUR PROBLEM, by Edward Koren ($3.65 + post). This is a book of cartoons, all originally published in The New Yorker, done by one of my favorite cartoonsts. If you see The New Yorker often, you probably know his work - many of his drawings are of large, incredibly shaggy, rather solemn looking animals, and all of his drawings are in ink, in a great many slightly wiggly lines, as if his hand shook a little when he tried to draw. Just about every cartoon in the book makes me laugh aloud when I see it, and the cover and title drawing, which I first saw many years ago, has made me laugh ever since, not just when I see it but when I even think of it - I won’t give away what it is about. All in all, a lovely mixture of the gently satirical and the absurd. I’ll think you’ll have a lot of fun with this, our first cartoon book but not, I hope, our last.
THE AMATEUR NATURALIST’S HANDBOOK, by Vinson Brown ($7.15 + post). This splendid book was first published in 1948 and went through fourteen printings before the author prepared this thoroughly revised edition. By way of describing the book and what it is for, I can’t do better than quote the author himself:
… This book is for all who like the out-of-doors and would like to know more about the many interesting things they see … In this book you will be given suggestions about how to go about your work so that you will learn more and more as you go along, and you will be given information about a number of tools useful in studying nature, many of which you can make yourself. The study of each of the great sections of nature is so arranged that there are things to learn and do for the Beginning, Student, Advanced, and Explorer Naturalist…
The table of contents will give an idea of the wealth of facts and ideas to be found here. INTRODUCTION: The Trail Of The Naturalist; What Nature Study Is; Ideals Of A Naturalist; Nature In The City (each of these chapters has sub-sections of its own). THE BEGINNING NATURALIST: Animals and Animal Collecting; Plants and Plant Collecting; Rocks and Minerals and Their Collecting; Climate; Beginning Ecology. Then additional sections, each with chapters and sub-chapters, on THE STUDENT NATURALIST; THE ADVANCED NATURALIST; and BECOMING AN EXPLORER-NATURALIST.
The first two sections of the book take up about 100 of its 400 or so pages, and would alone be well worth its price; even if we look at it only as a school science textbook, rather than the source of interest, pleasure, and knowledge that it is, we can find enough material in it to enable home schoolers to satisfy almost any school’s science requirements well up into the high school years. Any child who knows a good part of what is in here will know much more about science than almost any children of her or his age. But the book is too interesting and beautiful to be used as a textbook - so many pages this day, so many pages that. It is a friendly and helpful guide to seeing and understanding more of the world around us.
About a third of the pages of the book are illustrated; many of them, like those in Eric Sloane’s books (DIARY OF AN EARLY AMERICAN BOY, etc.) have many illustrations. Almost all of these are done in pen and ink, and with the loving accuracy and attention to detail that we see in Sloane’s drawings. The artist signs himself only “Don G K.” Astonishingly, the book does not name him - about the only thing in it that I can find to criticize.
Seeing in the contents that the next-to-last chapter in the book, “The Naturalist as a Scientist,” contained a sub-chapter, The Scientific Attitude, I looked to see what Brown had to say about that, and was relieved to find that he is not a science-worshipper or busy science-promoter and grant-grabber, but a true scientist, in the old and very best sense of the word. He says:
… The scientific attitude recognizes first that truth is what is being sought; second, that no ways should be missed that might help find the truth; and third, that what may seem to be the truth at one time may later, under the advance of new facts, prove to be something less than truth … All in all, a fascinating book, for adults or children, a book to sharpen our eyes and fire our imaginations.- JH
Editors - John Holt & Donna Richoux Managing Editor - Pat Farenga Subscriptions and Books - Mark Pierce Office Assistant - Mary Van Doren
FLASH - Laurie Huffman of the UTAH HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATION tells us that a bill that would have required home-schoolers to be tested annually was defeated following a deluge of letters and phone calls in protest.
Copyright 1977 Holt Associates, Inc.