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more in real dollars than we did in 1930 and thus we buy even more of what mass schooling
dollars always bought.
Vox Populi
Just under eighteen hundred people wrote letters to me in the year I was New York State Teacher
of the Year, in response to a series of essays I wrote about what I had witnessed as a
schoolteacher, essays which have now become part of this book. In a strange way, those different
letters were eighteen hundred versions of the same letter, a spontaneous outcry against the
violation that so many feel in being compelled to be a character in someone else’s fantasy of how
to grow up. Listen to a few of these voices:
Huntington, West Virginia "Homeschooling may be stressful but it’s nothing
compared to the stress I experienced watching my daughter’s self-respect and
creative energy drain away within the first few weeks of third grade."
Toronto, Canada "Little has changed since I was asked to sit in straight rows
and memorize an irrelevant curriculum. Recently my wife quit her job because
we fear losing contact with our children as they enter a school system we
cannot understand and are unable to change."
Frankfurt, Illinois "I had a rich personal inquiry going on in many things.
School was for me a tedious interruption of my otherwise interesting life."
Yelm, Washington "My passion is that my daughter be allowed to grow up
being completely who she is. Right now she is a happy, enthusiastic, self-taught
child of eight and a half. She taught herself to read at four, reads everything.
School to me has always felt sick at the core of its concept."
Madison, Wisconsin "I’m desperate what to do. Three bright and lively
children but everyday I see a closing down of enthusiasm as they grind their
way through a predetermined school program."
Reno, Nevada "My wife and I came to the end of the rope with public
education four years ago. I was tired of seeing my once happy child constantly
in tears."
Santa Barbara, California "I just took my eight-year-old daughter from school.
Bit by bit she was becoming silent, even fearful. From her anxiety to reach the
school bus on time to the times she was visibly shaken from criticism of her
homework. Day by day she was changing for the worse. But the absolute end
was the destructive effect the culture of schoolchildren’s values had on her
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