From the October 23, 1996 Daily Report Card:
-> *3   BLAZING OLD TRAILS:  CHARTER SCHOOL STRESSES PHONICS
->    The Ball Foundation, located in Glen Ellyn, Ill., is
-> planning to create a charter school that stresses the "old-
-> fashioned" way of teaching reading, by using phonics (Banas,
-> Chicago TRIBUNE, 10/21).  If approved, the charter would be the first
-> for DuPage County.
->    "We need to develop an old-fashioned elementary school,"
-> said Andrew Carson, the Ball Foundation staff member developing the
-> proposal.  "We need a school where children learn to read
-> using a strong phonics approach."
->    Two decades ago, Carl Ball, chairman of the Burpee Holding
-> Company, created a foundation to focus on education issues,
-> writes the paper.  According to the paper, the foundation's plan to
-> focus on phonics-based instruction may determine whether area parents
-> remained dissatisfied with the whole-language method that operates in
-> the public school system.  A group of parents,
-> primarily evangelical Christians, revolted against a supplemental
-> reading series called "Impressions," in 1990-1991.  The parents
-> claimed the series "featured stories and poems with satanic and
-> witchcraft themes and promoted disrespect for parents," writes
-> the paper.
->    The school board decided to keep the series as part of its
-> whole-language program.  Carson said Ball's charter school would
-> avoid "the whole-language curriculum that is unfortunately still
-> alive and well in this district, [which] as a primary means of
-> reading instruction, has failed utterly."
->    Carson also said he intends to secure an empty elementary
-> school as the site for the new charter school.
->    Ill. passed charter school legislation last May that permits
-> 45 charter schools to open:  14 in Chicago, 15 in the suburbs and 15
-> throughout the rest of the state.  Under the law, charters
-> must be public, not-for-profit and nonreligious.  They also
-> cannot be based in a home.  Charters will be granted for three to
-> five years.
--- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10
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