Smarr Publishers: helping the home school community since 1996.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What does "Smarr" stand for?

Actually, "Smarr" is the name of the small Georgia town where we had lived at the time of the founding of the company. The location of Smarr, Georgia, is on U.S. 41--Dixie Highway--between Forsyth and Bolingbroke. The town has a post office, an United Methodist Church, and a landscaping business. Smarr's only claim to fame is Rosebud Christmas Tree farm. Smarr is named after William Smarr who climbed aboard the first train between Barnesville and Macon in 1838.

When did you get started in business?

In 1996, we began development of any idea, and in 1998, we began production and marketing some of our products. The structure and appearance of our courses have gone through an evolution due to the positive and negative criticisms received from customers. Today we use the internet and direct mailings to let people know about our courses. We do offer wholesale discounts on our products to retailers who service the home school community. We definitely appreciate referrals.

Will your courses fulfill the requirements for honors credits in high school English?

Yes. Both honors and "regular" English classes are supposed to prepare students for college. However, honors courses are taught at a faster pace and cover more material in greater depth than other English courses. The works included in the honors course are often more challenging as well as being centered more on the classics and "great books." Some of our selected works in our courses are not usually read until a student takes a graduate course in English. Our courses include reading classical literature covering all of the genres (many regular courses do not have any Shakespeare), daily vocabulary studies with weekly quizzes (the sort of words found on the SAT and MAT), writing lessons with exercises (emphasizing rhetorical writing, not creative or journal writing), and eight critical writing assignments per year. If the student is required to do additonal work in order to meet honors requirements, all courses also include five optional impromptu essays, or the student could do a research project. However, we do not recommend any research projects until the student has practiced rhetorical writing for at least three years.

Our courses cannot, however, be used as an Advance Placement (AP) course. The reason is because our courses have not been audited by the College Board. We tried in 2010, but we would have been required to restructure a couple of our courses in order to meet the arbitary standards of the College Board. Nevertheless, all homeschooled students may take AP tests, whether they have participated in an AP class or not. Go to this link for more information: AP Examination.

Should our students use the unabridged version of the text?

If appreciation of the workmanship of the author is the goal of literature, then using abridged texts, or even reading portions of a complete work in an anthology, makes very little sense. Therefore, students should use unabridged versions of the author's work. Our study guides were developed by using unabridged works, except in very few works. We have tried to make the guides compatible with all editions of the work. However, if a particular text is required, this information is made available on the "Required Book List" with ISBNs when applicable.

How are the students tested over the material?

If a student enjoys reading a book, then what is there to test? Having students memorize unimportant facts only to be regurgitated on an objective test has no value in the study of literature. In fact, such tests are counterproductive, because literature cannot be taught, but rather it must be experienced. Therefore, our English courses discourage the use of objective tests (fill in the blank, multiple-choice, etc.). However, since critical writing is the most important skill that a high school student needs to develop, the student will have the opportunity to do plenty of writing. The students' reading of quality literature will give them excellent patterns to emulate and good rhetorical issues to write about. We do offer a guide with our courses suggesting the weight for each portion of the courses.

What criteria did you use for selecting these particular works?

Admittedly, selection of literature is a subjective exercise. However, many of the texts have been used in the classroom by Bob Watson and Dori Anne Abbott. These works tend to hold the attention and imagination of students. The primary criterion is to find works of literature that reflected our overall philosophy, being that reading literature ought to be a delight, and not a boring exercise of senseless memorization of facts for objective tests. We have excluded postmodernist works for two reasons: first, these works are too recent to be considered "classical," and second, and more important, postmodernism offers no answers and no hope in a sin-cursed world. True literature, as is true with all art, is to elevate and to enrich the soul, not to cause the soul to utterly despair.

What forms of payment do you accept?

We are pleased to accept your Visa, MasterCard, and Discover cards, both credit and debit. Also, we do accept phone orders with debit cards and credit cards, although we prefer that you use our online ordering on the website. We hope to activate the use of PayPal as well in the near future.

What is your policy regarding more than one student using a course?

We understand that budgets are tight. If you have two or more students in the same household who will be using our courses, we give permission to copy the Student Study Guide for the other students. However, these copies ARE NOT to be sold or given away, except in accordance with the licensing agreement. The duplication of materials by co-ops or schools for any student, who has not paid Smarr Publishers for the materials, IS NOT permitted.

Obviously, we rely upon the fairplay and honesty of our customers to not abuse this policy.