Dan Riley School for a Girl

Dismayed at his 14-year-old daughter's poor academic progress in a Southern California public school, freelance writer Riley, a one-time teacher, decided to teach Gillian at home. For her eighth grade year, 1991-92, he devised an idiosyncratic curriculum, and it is apparent--from Gillian's diaries, included here, and Riley's account, spiced with self-deprecating humor--that both student and teacher were educated. Their daily schedule encompassed free-ranging newspaper perusal, video viewing and reading of the classics. Frequent field trips tempered the loss of Gillian's socializing with classmates and smoothed bumps in the relationship between parent/teacher and daughter/student. Riley School had a successful graduate, well prepared for high school and with a strong sense of self-worth. In this entertaining chronicle, Riley offers his experience less as a solution to an educational crisis but as a way of getting closer to one's children. (Aug.)