School puts phonics 'phirst'

The school holds classes Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with parents expected to pick up the slack Mondays and Fridays. Everybody brings a sack lunch. There are no buses, no P.E., and parent volunteers monitor recess. Field trips are held on off days.

It's a private, Christian school but doesn't teach the Bible, figuring that's up to parents, too. Tuition is cheap, by private school standards: ranging from $130 to $245 a month for preschool through eighth grade -- less than half of what some schools charge.

"We're trying to teach kids to be literate," says the school's principal and founder, former pastor Brian Mayer. "If you can read, if you can write, you'll be successful in every other subject. It's the core foundation, the basis of every other aspect of learning.

"We're the old philosophy that everybody abandoned that got our country where we are today," Mayer says.

Which includes an unabashedly positive spin on America. Emphasis on respect, dignity and manners. Flag salutes, prayer in class and not a word about evolution. And above all: a commitment by parents to take charge of their children's education.

It's an approach that resonates with an increasing number of families. The school has outgrown a string of rented facilities and moved three times in nine years.

Next month, the school plans to break ground on a 17,900-square-foot building on Northeast Eighth Street off Kane Drive. Mayer hopes to have 16 classrooms ready by fall; a second phase could bring a 6,900-square-foot gymnasium. The school has about 220 students and projects having 260 next fall.

The draw for many parents is a bare-bones education, stripped of what Mayer and the staff consider clutter. Teachers are hired to teach a structured curriculum, not to freelance from topic to topic.

"We don't waste a lot of time," Mayer says. "When classrooms are under control, when things are respectful, well-ordered and well-organized, you'd be surprised at how much you can accomplish."

With students in class only three days a week, the school makes decisions all the time on what to emphasize, Mayer says. Teachers in public schools, he says, have lost instruction time to the demands, concerns and problems of society.

"We've reversed that," Mayer says. "The parents are in charge of that. We work on the basic academics, the rest is yours.

"Our philosophy is, kids at younger ages don't have to be exposed to everything," Mayer says. "When they're older, then they can deal with all the other issues of society."

High expectations It's 10:07 a.m. when teacher JoAnn Harrison glances at the clock. She finishes instructions for a genealogy notebook her combined class of fifth- and sixth-graders is working on: "My Place in History." Now it's time for math, and the Spanish teacher who visits each class one day a week is coming at 11.

She moves at a brisk pace, reviewing lessons with her 21 students: how to find the perimeter of a rectangle, square and triangle. Solving equations such as 6y = 23+7. "What's the first step?" she asks, and reminds students they must show their work even if the answer, as in this case, is apparent.

Despite having their students in class only 100 days a year, Harrison and other Phonics Phactory teachers say the children are, on average, a year ahead of their public school counterparts. It's not uncommon that children transferring from public schools have to drop down a grade, at least temporarily.

A school brochure includes a 52-word, seven-sentence paragraph about a gray mouse and asks, "Can your kindergartner read this?" The average Phonics Phactory kindergartner can read it by mid-April, the school maintains.

Private schools have a self-selected student body, however, and Harrison acknowledges that Phonics Phactory students begin with an edge because they come from motivated families. But they are not necessarily brighter, she says. Rather, the school has high expectations and a clear focus.

There are few differences between Harrison's classroom and one in a public school. Bulky backpacks slump beneath desks. Girls whisper to each other, and boys scratch their heads. One girl wears an Old Navy sweat shirt, another wears a T-shirt that says "Worship!"

Science projects are in the back of the room: rocks soaking in vinegar and plants spritzed with vinegar to simulate the effects of acid rain. Fertilized chicken eggs sit in a pair of incubators. The natural world is presented as fact. Animals may be described as "uniquely gifted by God," but the debate over creationism and evolution is not raised.

Harrison doesn't use a computer in her class because there is no room for it. Most of the children have computers at home, anyway, she says.

Harrison taught five years at Reynolds High School. Her husband still teaches in the Reynolds School District. The Harrisons enrolled their children in Phonics Phactory when their son was in fourth grade and their daughter in second, transferring them from Troutdale Elementary School. Both are now at Reynolds High and doing well. JoAnn Harrison is in her sixth year of teaching at Phonics Phactory.

Parent volunteer Erin Kalmbach taught 11 years in the Parkrose School District. She has four children at Phonics Phactory.

Kalmbach says she didn't feel like she knew what her children were doing in public school. At Phonics Phactory, the work comes home and parents follow along in a home curriculum guide. Parents get weekly updates on how their children are doing.

The curriculum comes from A Beka Book, developed by Arlin and Beka Horton, the founders of Pensacola Christian College in Florida.

A conservative Christian theme is woven through the school materials. For example, a language arts text asks students to find run-on sentences from among several examples. One is about President Eisenhower, another about the properties of gasoline. Yet another reads, "The Bible contains more truth than all the other books in the world combined, it is the most important book ever written."

The introduction to a mathematics textbook says arithmetic involves learning to think precisely and learning to believe in absolutes.

It also involves "indirectly learning more about the God who created the world using mathematics" and applying a body of knowledge "as one way to obey the command of Genesis 1:28 to subdue the earth and exercise dominion over it," according to the text.

"Look for smiles" Some education experts might describe the Phonics Phactory's approach as too narrow. Current research indicates there is no single right method for teaching reading, for example, and that a balance of phonics and "whole language" methods is appropriate, according to the International Reading Association.

The Phonics Phactory is not certified by the state. Certification is not required of private schools.

Factors that contribute to a school's success include strong leadership and collaboration, consistent use of data to judge student performance, professional development and innovation, and strong links to parents, says Alexa Parker, coordinator of the education graduate school at the University of Oregon.

Parents considering enrolling their children in private schools ought to check with parents of other students at the school and see how well students adjust to public school after eighth grade, says Gary Welander, chairman of the Division of Teacher Education at Western Oregon University.

"First of all, look for smiles," Welander says. "You don't need a lot of money to have enthusiasm, energy and commitment."

Having a basic educational philosophy shared by like-minded teachers and parents can be very powerful, he says. "The downside is becoming one-minded, like looking through one eye."

Private schools may isolate students at a time when issues of multiculturalism and diversity are crucial to society, he says.

"You have to be careful," Welander says. "One of the great worths of the public school system is that it keeps this country together."

Making learning fun Mayer, 52, was a senior pastor at Gresham Nazarene Church when he and his wife, Debbie, founded the Phonics Phactory in 1993. Debbie Mayer teaches kindergarten at the school. Brian Mayer retired as pastor in 2000 to devote full time to the school. He teaches seventh and eighth grades.

With their own children, they used public schools, traditional private schools and home schooling. The Phonics Phactory, they say, is a blend of the three methods -- with parents retaining the role of their children's chief educators. They are careful not to criticize the other systems, saying theirs is an alternative that's not for everyone.

In Brian Mayer's view, the Phactory produces learners. Much of learning is self-discipline, he says. The school emphasizes study skills and how to use time wisely. The idea is to make learning fun.

"If you can't get a kid to want to come to school, you're dead in the water," Mayer says.

Anyone who has raised more than a couple can tell you that a nice hot shower is a super treat for a parent at the end of a long hard day!

Ain't that the truth!

One day a friend asked me how I managed my boys when we went to the grocery store. After I told her about finding letters, numbers, colors, talking about how foods are made or where they come from, or why certain foods are good for us and others not good for us, she was amazed. Like you, a trip to the grocery store (or wherever) is a great learning opportunity.

"You have to be careful," Welander says. "One of the great worths of the public school system is that it keeps this country together.""

If the schools teach common history and values. Schools do not teach people about individualism and common democratic values. Instead it emphasizes tribalism. Everyone is assigned a group, and expected to behave in accordance to the liberal view of the group. So if you are nonwhite and liberal, good boy, if not you are an aberration that needs more multicultural education. If you are white and proud of it, you are in trouble. End result of public education, whites hate colors, and colors hate white. Yea, public education does promote unity in the US (sarcasm).

If you can read, if you can write, you'll be successful in every other subject. It's the core foundation, the basis of every other aspect of learning.

Bravo. Every really bright, successful person I know reads a lot, both for work and pleasure. If there is one commonality to success that is it.

The point of phonics is that English words are not pictograms. My experience is quite different from yours. When I was starting school, the school system was in the process of abandoning phonics. Only the older teachers taught it using the older materials they had saved since the school no longer supported phonics. My mother told me later that she thought I would NEVER learn to read using "look-say" methods and "Ted and Sally" readers. In third grade, I finally had a phonics-teaching teacher. Phonics made so much sense that I finally learned to read with lightening speed and have been a constant reader ever since. By fourth grade, I was reading at the 9th grade level. There is nothing slow or laborious about phonics. You learn to decode syllables, and it goes fast. The only time "sounding out" is used occurs when the student meets up with an unfamiliar word.

Private schools may isolate students at a time when issues of multiculturalism and diversity are crucial to society, he says.

It is multiculturalism that is dividing society, and isolating people.

"You have to be careful," Welander says. "One of the great worths of the public school system is that it keeps this country together."

On the contrary, it is destroying the country.

This type of school requires the participation of the parents, and a lot of parents just don't care about putting their own effort into their children's educations. But more schools like this one would probably be a good thing, because it seems like it combines benefits of homeschooling and regular classes.

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