Mitchell L. Stevens papers, 1988-2004

(bulk 1992-2000)

John Hay Library , Special Collections
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401-863-2146
email: hay@brown.edu

Published in 2013

Collection Overview

Title:	Mitchell L. Stevens papers
Date range:	1988-2004, (bulk 1992-2000)
Creator:	Stevens, Mitchell L.
Extent:	5.0 Linear feet
Abstract:	The Mitchell L. Stevens papers are a collection of materials on home schooling in the United States in the late 20th and early 21st century. There are newsletters, catalogs, workbooks and promotional materials for private schools, home schooling programs and home schooling products, conference handouts, photocopies of newspaper and magazine articles and long runs of magazines.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	John Hay Library , Special Collections
Collection number:	Ms.2008.001

Scope & content

The Mitchell L. Stevens papers consist of pamphlets, flyers, audiotapes, registration forms, workbooks, catalogs, booklets, articles, news clippings, and periodicals documenting the home school movement in the United States in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Stevens compiled this research material while working on his doctorate in sociology at Northwestern University. His dissertation, entitled "Kingdom and coalition: Hierarchy and autonomy in the home education movement," was completed in 1996 and later published under the title, Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement (Princeton University Press, 2001).

The papers are divided into six series : conference materials, promotional material, catalogs, subject files, articles and periodicals. There are only a few pieces of correspondence, all of which concern requests for materials. These are filed with the materials requested.

Conference materials consist of registration forms for conferences and workshops, pamphlets announcing conferences or conventions, order forms for audio tapes of talks given at conferences, and session schedules. There are also flyers for a few small scale local meetings, which were aimed at training parents who wished to home school their children rather than providing information to academics or education professionals.

Promotional materials include pamphlets, flyers, cassettes which offer sample lessons and workbooks for programs designed to help the homeschooling parent teach subjects such as math, science, English, and Bible studies. Many of the programs are offered by an umbrella organization from which parents can receive lesson plans to use in teaching their children at home.

The catalog series supplements the promotional materials series, and includes actual lists and order forms for books, educational toys, and cassettes for use in the home classroom. One company offers Christian piano lessons; another has two separate catalogs, one offering materials for boys such as coonskin caps and astronaut suits, and the other materials for girls, including tea sets, aprons and hope chests.

Subject files include information from diverse sources, such as pamphlets from the La Leche League, materials from the campaign for lieutenant governor of Virginia, booklets on the history of the Home School Legal Defense Association, information on children who went from homeschooling to successful careers at colleges like Harvard, and biographical material on important figures in the home school movement. There are also print outs of web resources and home pages that share the experiences of families who home school, and one pamphlet simply entitled Prepare to meet thy God.

Articles are filed alphabetically by title and include photocopies of original articles, printouts of articles posted to the web and articles clipped directly from magazines and newspapers. Sources for these include the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and Congressional Quarterly.

By far the largest series in this collection is the periodical series. Most of the titles included in this series represent short runs or even single issues of magazines devoted to homeschooling; taken together, they represent a wide spectrum of opinion. In particular, the series includes long but incomplete runs of Home Education Magazine (1998-2000), Growing without Schooling (issue numbers #57-128), Teaching Home (1994-2001), and Practical Homeschooling (1993-2002).

Access Points

Subject Names

• Stevens, Mitchell L.

Subject Topics

• Christian education
• Home schooling--United States--Handbooks, manuals, etc
• Home schooling--United States--Miscellanea
• Home schooling--United States--Periodicals

Occupations

• Educators
• Sociologists

Document Types

• Newsletters
• Periodicals
• Press clippings
• Reports

Subject Topics

• Education

Arrangement

The collection is divided into the following 5 series:

• Series 1. Periodicals.
• Series 2. Catalogs.
• Series 3. Promotional material.
• Series 4. Conference material.
• Series 5. Subject files.

Biographical note

Mitchell L. Stevens holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University, from which he earlier earned an M.A. degree. Trained as an organizational sociologist, his interests lie in higher education, alternative schooling and the quantification of academic achievement. He became interested in the home school movement through friends who were successfully homeschooling their own children. Their experience prompted his in-depth investigation into homeschooling in the late 20th and early 21st centuries in the United States, which became the topic of his doctoral dissertation. The dissertation was revised and published as Kingdom of Children : Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement, published by the Princeton University Press in 2001.

More recently, Stevens has focused on aspects of higher education in his research. He is the author of Creating a Class : College Admissions and the Education of Elites (2007). He has taught sociology at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York (1996 through 2003), and in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University, where he is currently Associate Professor of Educational Sociology.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Use of the materials:	Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	Mitchell L. Stevens papers, Ms. 2008.001, Brown University Library.
Contact information:	John Hay Library , Special Collections Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Tel: 401-863-2146 email: hay@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	The collection was a gift to Brown University on April 3, 2006 from Mitchell L. Stevens, associate professor of educational sociology at Steinhardt School of Education, New York University.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Lindsay Woodel.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2013-04-19

Additional Information

Separated material:	The collection included 10 monographs that were cataloged separately. They can be found under the following search entry: Mitchell L. Stevens Papers (Brown University)
Other information:	Brown University Library catalog record for this collection: Mitchell L. Stevens papers

Inventory

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