Who's Qualified?

When Lincoln Levison moved to Greenfield, Ill. two summers ago, the town (pop. 1,006) took to him at once. He opened a small sawmill and customers came flocking. Soon he was able to move into a trim white house with his wife and two little daughters. To wife Marjorie, Greenfield seemed "just like heaven."

Then fall came and the trouble started. The town discovered that the Levisons were not sending seven-year-old Carolyn to school. Instead, Mrs. Levison was teaching her at home. The Levisons explained that they were Seventh-Day Adventists and that as far as they could see, their religion was strict on the matter. Said Mrs. Levison, quoting an Adventist text: "Parents are the best teachers of their children until they are eight to ten. Small children should be left free as lambs to run out of doors." As a former college student, Mrs. Levison thought she was fully qualified to teach. She had a complete set of second-grade texts for Carolyn.

But the county school superintendent disagreed. The Levisons were arrested for violating the state compulsory school law and fined $5. They appealed the case.

Out-of-town reporters wrote that perhaps the Levisons were being persecuted because of their religion. At that point Greenfielders lost patience. They objected to the slur on their town, resented the trouble the Levisons were causing. Customers stopped going to Levison's sawmill; stores stopped extending him credit. Finally the Levisons moved out of town. But they were not giving up their fight.

Last week the battle ended. The Illinois supreme court ruled that since Mrs. Levison had been to college and was following the prescribed school courses, she was indeed a qualified teacher and could keep Carolyn at home. It had nothing to do with religious freedom, said the court. Any Illinois parent, if he gave his child as good a schooling as the school, might properly do the same thing.

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