GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING
13 I just spent several hours being interviewed by Pat Stone of Mother Earth News for their " Plowboy " feature. He said it might appear as early as the May issue (and then again, it may not.) I ' m rather exci ted at the idea of reaching their huge audience. In the last two months, I've been traveling and lecturing more than I expected . In January, I spoke at the Schlumberger Corp. in Ridgefield, Ct ., and to an overflow crowd in Worcester, Mass. At the end of the month, I flew to Seattle, Wash., spoke at the University of Washing ton, the Little School, and a local KING-TV show. In February, I gave talks at the University of Leth bridge in Alberta, Canada; St. Paul, Minnesota; Fargo, ND; and Lake City, Illinois. In between lectures, I've been working hard on my unschooling book. Hope to finish it by April; it should be out by next win ter. No definite title yet. Thanks to everyone who has answered the Survey from GWS #11, so far. It will take us a while to process them all. Mean while, if you haven't yet answered, you still can at any time, and we hope you do . The information has al ready been valuable to us, and will be to other un schoolers. The Van Daams in Rhode Island (#10) have told us the charges against them were finally dismissed. More good news: the Santa Fe Community school held a fund-raising drive, and got enough money to buy the land they've rented. Very important article in Reader's ~est (Marc h ) about Ralph NaO~s report on standardized tests. We ' ll get reprints (for one, send _ J a SASE). The Feb. 19 Atlantic also had a good article on tests . As I promised, we've begun to expand our mail order booklist; you'll find reviews of many new addi tions in this issue. RENEWALS The line below your name on th e subscription
label should contain two groups of numbers, two dig its each. The first two num bers tells us how many cop ies of each issue you re ceive, i.e., whether your sub is a lX, 2X, 3X, etc. The second group of numbers is tne-rrnal issue you have paid for. So, if the label on this issue reads 01 13 (or 02 13, 03 13, etc), your subscription expires with this issue, and you shoula-renew right away . We encourage you to re new before your subscrip tion-exprres, so check your label . Renewal rates are the same as for new sub scriptions. Please do tell us that you are renewing when you send in your check, or you may wind up with duplicate issues. TO OUR CANADIAN FRIENDS Please be sure that all checks or money orders for books, magazines, etc, are in United States funds. Not only do we lose on the exchange rate from Canadian to U.S. money, our bank charges us a hefty collec tion fee that can nearly wipe out a small check. Thanks . A YOUNG EXPLORER ... Early last winter several things happened: ( 1 ) J (age 8) was miserable, withdrawn, and hostile at a special private school for gifted children. She had pre-ulcerous stomach pain and was to be sched uled for X-rays. (2) The ar ticle appeared in Time maga zine (12/4/78) abour-John Holt's ideas concerning teaching children at home . . . During J's 1978 Christ mas break, we did a great deal of soul-searching and then told her school that she was leaving to attend another school (we didn't tell them where.) J was absolutely over joyed and declared that she hated school. And especial ly she said no more math ever. Workbooks and point less repetition had ruined math for her. What a turnaround for our eager learner' J had loved learning since the day she was born and had loved it until she went to school. She was always able to do things at a much ear lier age than the experts said she could be expected to do them. We always tried to help learning be fun by allowing her the freedom to choose what she wished to do. Since she was fascina ted with everything, her preschool studies were var ied. She learned to read words as she learned to speak them. She added and understood what numbers rep resented by the time she was two.
... When she was four and attending kindergarten at the previously mentioned special school, the Tutank hamun relics exhibit came to our city and we got the catalog about the exhibit before we went. J read it repeatedly, asking ques tions all the while, until she understood what each ob ject was and what it was used for. Also, she learned some background about the period. When we went to the exhibit, she was more know ledgeable than most of the adults there. Her enjoyment of an cient history was something that she could share with some of the adults she knew. But when she wanted to share her fascination about ancient history with some of her classmates, no one could understand her. She went on to study Greek mythology for a year and a half (an off -sh oot of this was an abiding inter est in astronomy , original ly sparked by the Greek names of the constella tions). But again not a "childish" interest which could be shared with her classmates. Our first step in our new school was months of no "classes" at all, to let J recover from her school mis eries. We organized nothing and only did what J wanted to do. She did take a col lege course at the planetar ium (we ha ve taken seven classes there together . ) .. . The three of us spent the month of May in Europe. J and I studied Eur opean history and planned where we were to travel. The experience of planning and taking the trip was in valuable. Our math-hater could convert currencies in
her he ad . Also she learned, for example: some German, how to read train time ta bles listed in 24-hour clock form, to read maps, to translate menus, plus a ~reat deal about European Lstory - her latest fascin ation . Since we returned from Europe, she wants to learn math because she knows how math can be used. We have also taken more astronomy classes, the Connections course on TV, a ceramics
class, etc . J is again the happy, eager, joking and joyful child we knew before we sent her to school. We had hoped to find a school which wouldn't undo all that we had done with he r . Such a place doesn't seem to exist, so we are continu ing on our own, and plan to keep learning at home until J wants to go to an organ ized school (my current guess would be college). .. . J has grown over 3 inches and gained 11 pounds in the past year since she has been unschooled. During her 2\ school years she only grew in the summer and
didn't total that much growth during those years . Although she was tall for her age before she went to school, she is now short for her age. She was con stantly suffering from in fections of various sorts while in school and is much healthier now ... MORE N.C. NEWS Last year, the Gener a l Assembly of North Caroli na (1979 Session) passed laws freeing private schools from almost all state regulations. When we heard of this, we wrote to the Clerk of the Senate in Raleigh, and also to the NC State Li brary, describing the legis lation and asking for a copy. Within a few weeks, t hey both responded. Actual ly, it was good we wrote to both, for they each sent a different bill - there were two highl y similar bills passed the same day, identi cal except that Senate Bill 383 dealt with "religi ous schools" and Senate Bill 526 with "c ertain qualified nonpublic schools." How ever, all a school has to do to "qualify" is to re ceive no funding from the State of North Carolina. The legislation re qui res the schools to keep attendance, immunization, and standardized test rec ords, and send to the state a "notice of intent to oper ate." It says, "any such school may, on a vo luntary basis, participate in any State operated or sponsored program which would other wise be available to such school . " The final para graph is "N o qualifying non public school, which com plies with the requirements of this Article, shall be subject to any ot her provis ion of law relating to edu cation except requirements of law respecting fire, safety, sanitation and immu nization." Good news that North Carolina legislature has put some clear, deliberate limits on the state's pow er. I hope the ominous "re visions " that some NC educa tional officials have hint ed at do not come to pass. A CHICAGO SCHOOL ... In Sept. 1977 we be gan our own school . .. We have 11 students, aged 3-9. ... Our hours are se cretly flexible ( Illinois asks for so many school day hours). Children choose what they wish to learn. One tactic we are using with "hate schoolitis" is to have parents and teach ers work on their own proj ects at school, too. So far it is good . Young people of ten join in or begin to bring their own interests to us.