Four years in park for Forest Family
This is a story for proponents of alternative education. A man and his 12-year-old daughter have been living in the forest in Portland's largest park for four years. It seems as though the mother has been institutionalized and is legally out of the picture. They lived under a tarp. They built a pond for water and to clean themselves, and they went into town to get supplies and attend church. They survived on a $400-a-month disability check. They were found by a hiker, who was the first person to report them in all this time.
But even better than that, the girl was educated by her father using old encyclopedias and a bible. The father is an ex-marine with a university degree, so he knew how to teach the basics (and more than the basics, it seems) and how to survive. The girl would be in the seventh grade, but is functioning at a 12th-grade level. That's incredible.
But why would a 53-year-old jobless man with a daughter hide out in the woods for so long? Because, according to the father, society seems to abhor poor single men with children, and he was afraid that they would be separated. A legitimate fear. They checked out this girl, who is very intelligent, well-mannered and in better shape than probably 90% of girls her age, with no signs of any abuse whatsoever, and still some were thinking of separating her from her father. Luckily, the police officer overseeing them actually evaluated the situation and did what was right for them, which in this case was to keep them together and make sure that they got a place to live and a job. I don't know about her being in a public school, though. Doesn't sound like a good idea.
Now there is a college fund for "Ruthie" that anyone can donate to at any Bank of America branch. That's a lot of branches. I hope it works out well. I should like to revisit Ruthie and her dad in a few years.