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  • WHAT’S THAT YOU SAY?

    Filed at 7:01 am under by dcobranchi

    Here’s an interesting little home education tidbit– HE plays a prominent role in the long awaited sequel to The Graduate.

    Plans for a sequel to the film – starring Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross and Anne Bancroft as the predatory Mrs Robinson – have become part of Hollywood mythology. Now the speculation can finally be put to rest: the sequel has been written.

    Home School picks up the narrative several years later. Benjamin is now a father who, scarred by his own education, decides to teach his children at home. He has not, however, entirely escaped his past, as the seductive spectre of Mrs Robinson looms once again.

    But the agonising wait is not over for devotees yet. Charles Webb, who wrote The Graduate in 1963, has declared that Home School, which he completed two months ago, will not be published until after his death.

    …Home School owes its inspiration to Webb and his partner’s decision to take their own children out of school and teach them at home, an illegal act which left them on the run from the US authorities and seeking refuge by running nudist camps.

    It is this unorthodox subject matter which causes Webb to fear that a film version would wreck the integrity of his creation. ‘There’s never been a film before about a family that home educates its kids. Very few people in the movie world have had that experience, so I don’t think it’s a subject that would be treated objectively. It’s a runaway, underground, counter-culture kind of thing – that’s why it hasn’t been done.’

    6 Responses to “WHAT’S THAT YOU SAY?”


    Comment by
    Jill
    March 27th, 2005
    at 10:22 am

    I’ll have to remember that if I get in trouble with the law for homeschooling, I’ll just open a nudist camp. WTF??
    “an illegal act which left them on the run from the US authorities and seeking refuge by running nudist camps.”


    Comment by
    Mike Peach
    March 27th, 2005
    at 3:22 pm

    Makes me want to go on the run immediately!


    Comment by
    Sarah
    March 28th, 2005
    at 12:05 am

    That’s very strange… I was expecting that sentence to finish with “by hiding in the mountains of [insert the name of a random liberal state with lots of hippies here].”

    Though it kind of does make the reader say, “wait, so home education would get them prosecuted, but it was perfectly legal to take their kids and start up a nudist camp?”

    And I’m not so sure that “no one” in the movie industry has experience with home educators. More than a few TV/movie parents in the last 15-20 years have decided to just go the home education route instead of contantly switching between public schools and studio tutors. It’s just easier on the kids, and makes the audition process a lot less painful. At least two kids in my elementary school were planning to stop public school and began home education because the commercials and minor TV roles were hurting their grades; that’s one reason why few of my peers thought my whole “oh, I won’t be going to junior high” plan was all that odd.

    (by the way, this post failed the first time because I used a synonym for “strange” that starts with a “b” — perhaps your blacklist is a little too strict?)


    Comment by
    Lynn
    March 28th, 2005
    at 2:18 pm

    Since when is homeschooling illegal? Counter-culture I can understand, but it’s legal everywhere in the USA.


    Comment by
    Amy K
    March 28th, 2005
    at 7:19 pm

    Lynn, it’s legal now. It used to be illegal in several states.


    Comment by
    Amy K
    March 28th, 2005
    at 7:20 pm

    Lynn, it’s legal now; however, it used to be illegal in several states.