Growing Without Schooling 18

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING

18 We are trying out a lighter grade of paper for this issue; it allows us to increase the number of pages wi th out costing us more in postage.

My home-schooling book is going to be called TEACH YOUR OWN; pUblica­ tion date is set at June 12, 1981. We will ~f course be se l ling it here, and we hope that as many readers as possible will buy it directly from us - but then again, we also hope you inquire for it at your local book­ store and try to get them to carry ~t. Not sure of the price yet.

I am about to leave on my .Cali­ fornia trip, which now includes stops in Santa Rosa, Mill Valley, Santa Cruz, San Jose, San Francisco, and Redlands .. Our thanks to the GWS read­ ers who helped put this trip togeth­ er. And to those who were interested in having me speak but who could not be fit into the schedule: perhaps we could work on arranging another West Coast trip.

When I spoke at Normal, Ill. Oct . 29, I was surprised and delight­ ed to see an overflow crowd of more than 700 peop le in the room . It seems to me, from talking with people on my travels as well as from the mail I get, that there are quite a lot of people in this country who are seri­ ~hst~ considering teaching their own c 1 ren; they may not be quite ready to do so, but they'r~ on the verge of deciding .

Mary Bergman (MO Dir.) tells us she has gotten "hundreds and hun­ dreds" of letters in response to Paul Harvey's newspaper column and radio show on the National Association of Home Educators.

The state legislatures in Louisi­ ana and Wisconsin have recently passed new laws that mention the option of home education - more de­ tails in this issue . And a Colorado home schooling family told me on the phone the other day that they had a great deal of co-operation and sup­ port ~rom the State Dept. of Educa­ tion, even though their local school district had been giving them trou­ ble. They said they would write us about it soon.

About the move in the Virginia legislature to tighten the private school "loophole" (see GWS #16), Abbey Lawrence writes: " . . . The subcom­ mittee has met twice thus far. Rose Jones tells me that, according to the reporter who covered the first, half the members seem to want to leave well enough alone, and half seem to want to do something, but don't know what. - I'm optimistic."

A volunteer has just made an index to Issues #1-8 of GWS, and we should have copies available soon.

Also, other volunteers are putting to­ gether a resource list of all the addresses of the organizations, peri­

odicals, materials, etc. that have been mentioned in GWS . If it's short enough, we may include a copy of t h is list with GWS #19. - John Holt

COMING LECTURES March 18, 1981: William Rainey Harper College, Palatine IL 60067; aft mtgs, 8 -PM lecture . Contact Jeanne Pankanin, Stu. Act., 312-397­ 3000 ext. 242 .

Apr 24: Music Educator's Nat'l Conference, Arena, Minneapolis MN. 11 AM mtg, Minneapolis Convention Hall .

Contact: Gene Morlan, 1902 Assoc. Dr, Reston VA . 22091.

May 9: Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation Conf., Airport Holiday Inn, Lancaster, Ontario. Con­ tact Bob Morrow, 416-627-3685.

MAKING OF AN UNSCHOOLER From Karen Franklin (AL): ... My 5th grade class was --:e.r y interested in the Bicentennial ln 1976. After several days of discuss­ ing the American Revolution, Boston Tea Party, Stamp Act, etc, I gave the required quiz. One of the questions. was: "What is a boycott?" Now, this was a 5th grade in an all black school in Birmingham, Alabama. Out of 30 kids, only two explained the word in terms of the Stamp Act and Ameri­ can boycott of English imports. The other 28 said - and I quote - "It ' s when you ain't gonna ride the bus no more. II For about two minutes that answer puzzled me, then it hit me ­ what else would you expect black Ala­ bama ll-year-olds to say? They have heard abou~ the Montgomery bus boy­ cotts that helped start the Civil Rights movement since they were born.

Of course that's what it means. I grabbed the chance to use it and we compared the 1770's to the 1960's and I saw eyes allover the room light up - the ah-hah' look. It was wonderful.

I was so excited about it, I told the whole story in the afternoon faculty meeting. Ever.yone, including the black principal, was much more concerned that the students didn't answer the question "RIGHT." I was instructed to mark 28 answers wrong so they would learn to pay attention and "get their lessons."

I didn't do it; instead I quit in January before the birth of our first child and decided then and there both of us would stay home.

We've been learning together ever since ...

TRAVEL NETWORKS From Elaine Andres, 2120 W. Cash­ man Ct, Peoria IL 61604: ... My husband John and I wou~ like to offer another idea for un­ schoolers which is similar to the Learning Exchange idea in GWS #16. We would like to start a Network for Edu­ cational Travel (NET) for unschool­ ers. Anyone interested in having some other home-schooling family visit their part of the country can send bs their name and address. We will put this information on a card. When a family wants to visit some place they can write to us for names of families who are willing to host them during their visit. The two families can then work out the details of the visit.

We are willing t o provide floor space for sleeping bags, a kitchen fo r cooking their Own meals (each fam­ ily furnishes its own food), a bath­ room (bring own towels, soap, etc . ) and our ideas on what to do and where to go in Central Illinois .

Our area h as many ~nteresting places to visit and experiences to offer. I'm sure every part of our country has unique sights to see and places to explore. We hope others would be willing to share their homes with us as this would be an inexpen­ sive way to educate our children to­ gether. It would be a lot of fun shar­ ing ideas, too' . ..

Many thanks to Elaine for her good offe~. It will be exciting to see what comes of it.

We h ave also heard of a similar on-going organization ' for world travel: U. S. SERVAS, 11 John St, Rm 406, New York NY 10038. With the dol­ lar in decline, many people from oth­ er countries are visiting the US, and t h is migh t be a good way for GWS read­ ers to make friends with them and per­ haps learn their language. From the SERVAS brochure : SERVAS is an international co­ operative system of hosts and travel­ ers establis h ed to help build world peace, good will, and understanding by providing opportunities for deep­ er, more perso~al contacts among peo­ ple of diverse cultures and back­ grounds . .. . Have you ever wished you could get beyond the tourist a~trac­ tions and know the people where you travel? SERVAS may be the answer ...

You plan your own trip using lists of hosts in the countries where you wish to go. These lists give the hosts' addresses, phone numbers, languages spoken, activities, and interests.

You share the everyday life of the family whom you visit. Stays are usu­ ally for 2 or 3 days . . . . There is a small contribution to cover SERVAS experyses . No money is exchanged be­ tween travelers and hosts.

SERVAS invites you to be a host. . . . "For those of us who can't trav­ el," says one host, "SERVAS brings the world into our living rooms through the visits of friendly, enthu­ siastic people from every continent."

Hosts share their family meals with travelers and provide accommoda­ tions that will fill simple needs.

SERVAS travelers ... are expected to arrange the visit with you beforehand by letter or phone. Hosts are urged to avoid accepting travelers when they are planning to be away, or if the arrangements would interfere with important plans .

To obtain a traveler and/or host application, send SERVAS a long-sized self-addressed stamped envelope ...

AN UNSCHOOLING CO-OP From Laurie.Davis (MI): .. . We have been unschoolers for nearly three years, and have recently become part of a group of "home" schoolers with the addition of four families .

Perhaps you would like to know how we are operating on a group level. We five families take turns meeting one day a week at alternating homes for a " school day" which con­ sists of a variety of activities host­ ed by one or more adults and usually includes eight children ages 5-11. We

2 have done things like potaio-printing art, writing or dictating autobio­ graphies, fruit harves~ng at a com­ mercial orchard, having a sandwich concession at a local art fair, and opening a bank account with the money well-earned, ( The money will be used for supplies or for f~ture field trips, possibly to the Chicago Museum of Natural History, which is quite a trek for 22 of us from northern Michi­ gan!) We try to focus ' on developing and maintaining positive self-images; to do quiet, thoughtful things toge­ ther like yoga and brief meditation; to talk about feelings and interests - really trying to notice what goes on inside as well as outside of our­ selves.

One trip to a small local zoo prompted a follow-up trip to the lib­ rary where we did research on a cho­ sen animal, discovering its real habi­ tat, how natural life ,differea-Irom zoo life, how the zoo could be changed to be more accomodating. The children really enjoy the field trips and the chance at interaction, shar­ ing fun and learning. The onc~-a-week socializing is far superior to what they would get in school on a daily basis.

Other main focuses are environ­ ment, health, and conservation, and there is always ' lots to do as a group in those areas: v isiting Michigan's last remaining virgin forest, or pre­ paring a meal from scratch, or recy­ cling old clothing into new garments.

A few of these we haven't done yet ­ we have such a long exciting list' Basically, we as a group have re­ solved to do reading/math-type work at home on an individual basis, and group or community project~ weekly or whenever something special comes up whic~ would be enjoyed by mos~. We find 'by remaining fairly informal, open, and honest, there is very lit­ tle concern with group dynamics or decision-making type stuff.

We may be able to use our local elementary school gym for playing in the winter time. It is open for pub­ lic use as long as advance notice is given and it's not already being used. Same goes for the school lib­ rary, audio-visual aids, etc.

As far as how we have all man­ aged to take our kids out of school: we are very fortunate to have amongst us three certified teachers, so the question of whete do we get our tutors is automatically answered.

There have not been many questions by local authorities concerning this arrangement ... We'll be sure to let you know of further developments in this area. ... We try to have regular meet­ ings with the adults of the group to discuss our home-schooling experi­ ences, and to share ideas, support, doubts, and fears. We are all getting to know each other better and find the "safety in numbers" element a def­ inite plus, as opposed to being un­ schoolers alone.

Some of us have our doubtful moments: "Am I doing the right thing?" "Is X really going to learn how to read all by herself?" It real­ ly helps to have each other (and GWS) for reassurance. And we have ro-re­ mind ourselves not to come on as in the traditional teacher-student situa­ tion. You can tell when you're get­ ting "structured" - the kids clam right up' You have to stop and think why the kids are at home in5tead of in school. If you rearry trust them, I think they can feel that and it really adds to their self-confidence.

The Middletons ( see Dir.) would

be interested in exchanging letters with other home schoolers who might consider a ki.d exchange in the future . They have pre-teen and teen­ age daughters. Maybe an exchange could be initiated by "pen-pals" get­ ting to know one another and eventual­ ly arranging a meeting ... Most of the parents I have talked to seem to have reservations about actually sending one of their .kids to the home of a stran~el' unschoolers or not. Maybe rne-w 0 e thing does need to be tossed around awhile before anything positive comes of it. ... We may be building our house next summer and it would be fun to share the whole experience with some­ one to whom it would mean a lot. We would proba.bly 1 i ve in a tent or other makeshift shelter during the building process. We will pe anxious to share ideas with others out there - anybody could write us. .. • Also, I think it would be won­ derful - at our house at least - if we could get a foster grandparent somewhere, part- or full-time. It is something we have given thought to many times; 'we are so li~ited within our nuclear families. Children ( as well as myself) always seem to be in awe of older people, and there would be so much to share. I'm sure there must be many lonely and talented old­ er people out there who would just love to have a family' In all the advertising and recruiting I have seen for intentional communities, there have never been any requests for grandparently types ...

Even a teenager who likes young- ' er kids and would be interested in spending time with us as a mother's/ kids ' helper in exchange for room and board or something equitable would be considered. It could be for a week or two or a month or more ...

LIVE-INS WANTED: NC . . .

From Shelley Dameron in NC ( GWS #17, "Learning Exchanges"): ... Two articles in GWS #17 caught my eye. . .. Fi rs t, I read "Li ve­ in Babysitters." You may remember that I wrote that it was difficult to find a job where my baby would be wel­ come. Having a live-in babysitter would be a good solution, but the problem would still be money. The article following that one on the idea of a Kids Exchange, sparked my thought: How about a combination of both? That is, teenagers living with a different family for whatever rea­ son, might be willing to help out with the babysitting.

We live in the Appalachian Moun­ tains of North Carolina. In the win­ ter months, I'm told we have good ski­ ing, and in the summer there are many outdoor activities. I would be inter­ ested to know if any young people or parents among the GWS readers would be .interested in our particular situa­ tion. Perhaps someone could come to be in this area for a week or month or whatever and stay with us . The babysitting itself would be minimal ...

. . . AND VA ...

Fr.om Connie Schwartz, Golden Horseshoe Inn, Stanardsville VA 22973: ... After 16 issues of GWS,

have come to the conclusion that per­

haps we .have something very valuable

to offer to others. First, we teach

our four sons at home (ages l~, 3, 5,

6~). Second, home is an old brick/ frame house located on the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, adjacent to the Shenandoah National Park. We own approxi~ately 20 acres and a motorcy­ cle sales and repair shop. We live a life as nearly self-sufficient as possible. We rai~e sheep, ducks, rab­ ' bits, bees, chickens, fatten some pigs and just recently acquired a milk cow ~ a long desired dream. We breed, raise, fatten, slaughter, butcher, and preserve all our own ani­ mals. We also do extensive gardening, starting our own plants and preser­ ving all we don't eat. r feel we have a large variety of experience to offer. Mechanical, farming chores of all kinds (fencing, worming, feeding, roving, etc.), gar­ dening (we practice organic), food preservation and storage, cooking (we make most things from scratch includ­ ing bread and butter), complete build­ ing construction, logging and woodcut­ ting, beekeeping, homemaking, actual­ ly the list goes on and on. We are currently looking for a spinning wheel and floor loom so we can spin and weave our own wool.

Our children are included in all of this and we'd like to share it with others who haven't the chance otherwise. No age limits, but they'll either have to do en o ugh work for their keep, or pay some ro om and board. We have no TV or radio, but lots of books ' and the bookmo bile comes literall y to our fr ont door twice monthly. We have an endless list of projects to be done and never enough time.

We are willing to share our home and the life we love in return for the labor and knowledge of another.

Witnessing the reacti o n of a newcomer to this type of life will also be en­ riching. This would have t o be arranged on a personal basis with any­ one interested, of cou,se, but we are looking for people of clean living habits. We feel a bit shaky making this offer, as there are all kinds of kooks and weirdos in the world, but we still feel that there would be many benefits to all parties. For fur­ ther information please contact us at the above address ...

&

... AND WISC. From Gretchen Spicer, Rt 1 Box

85, New Lisbon WI 53950:

... We would be interested in both a live-in babysitter and the kids exchange. We live on a farm with two other families. Altogether there are nine children at the farm ranging in age from 6 weeks to 10 years. We have goats (for milk) and a very large garden, apple trees, grapes, raspberries/ etc. We also have a T­ shirt screening business. We do maple-sugaring in the spring. We would be glad to have kids of any age on an exchange basis.

We could offer a live-in babysit­ ter room and board and $50 a month for about 10 hours of babysitting per week. We have four children ages 10, 7, 6 and 2. The 2-year-old is the only one that actually needS to be "watched." The three older children only need someone around if they need help. A young person living with us could also make additional money baby­ sitting on an hourly basis for the other two families here, besides some part-time work in the T-Shirt busi­ ness. Other part-time work on neigh­ boring farms might be available fro~ time to time. Anyone interested could

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

3 call us collect at 608-562-3969. ... 1 was interested in the com­ ment from Louise Andrieshyn (GWS #17, "A Singing Painter") . She mentioned that her daughter did not start sing­ ing until she left her alone. I noticed recently that when I was help­ ing my kids with their reading that I sometimes found myself getting up and doing household chores, in which case I did not hear their requests fo~ help, ~ or I would try to put them off until I was finished with what I was doing. On the other hand, if I sat right by them and watched what they were doing, I found myself jumping to explain things that they could surely have figured out and worse yet, becom­ ing bossy and impatient.

Quite by accident I found the perfect solution one day when I was engrossed in a novel that I couldn't p~t down and they wanted help with their work books. I just sat close at hand and continued reading. I was right there and ~vailable , when they wanted help, but not so bored that I was sticking my nose ' into their busi­ ness all the time. Best of all, there I was actively enjoying the very skill that they were working to mas­ ter. Now I reall~ look forward to sit­ ting down with them to work on read­ ing ...

WHA T GENIUSES NEED

A reader sent us an article, "The Childhood Pattern of Genius," which appeared in Horizon Magazine, May 1960 . The writer, Harold C. McCur­ dy, describes the childhood of twenty notable "geniuses," including John Stuart Mill, Goethe, Pascal, Coler­ idge, and Voltaire. The article con­ cludes: ... In summary, the present' sur­ vey of biographical information on a sample of twenty men of genius sug­ gests that the typical developmental pattern includes as important as­ pects: (1) a high degree of attention focused upon the child by parents and other adults, expressed in intensive education measures and, usually, abun­ dant love; ' (2) isolation from other ch i ldren, especially oucside the fami­ ly; and (3) a rich efflorescence,of fantasy as a reaction to the preced­ ing conditions. It'might be remarked that the mass education of our publi~ school system is, in its way, a vast experiment on the effect of reducing all three factors to a minimum; accor­ dingly, it should tend to suppress the occurrence of genius ...

INFO SOURCE: NY . ..

From Harold Ingraham, INDEPEN­ DENT FAMILY SCHOOLS RESOURCE CENTER (RD 1, Smyrna NY 13464; 607-627-6670): , .. . Please feel free to refer any family to us . A few of those who read of our center in the Directory of GWS #15 called us just to chat and lift their spirits. I think ' sometimes this is the/ best part of the services we p~ovide . There is nothing like talk­ ing to a truste'd colleague . . . . The resource center is far from being like the standard social center . We aren't trying to save the world. We just feel that our experi­ ence can be a help to parents getting their feet wet. Since we won our case in the courts, there has been a steady stream of cases that we have helped.

I have listed what we have done

GRGWJNG WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

in the way of helping families. The experiences go like this:

home study students. We are develop­ ing independent study courses which have been successful with some stu­ 1. How to meet with a public school dents, and others use the Pa. State official University Extension courses. for high 2. Dealing with lawyers school. We like to work with each stu­ }. A run-down on NY education laws dent individually according to his/ 4.' Recognizing the unique indi vidu­ her needs. ality of a child One child is severely brain 5. Help in writing up a curriculum damaged and his mother works so well to present to a Board of Education with him that ' we do not interfere. We 6. Referral to legal help simply keep him on our rolls. This 7. Simply a shoulder to lean on way his public school doesn't have to when the going gets tough cope with him and his family can have , 8. Training workshop in using a him at home. This particular mother library had all sorts of difficulty with the 9. Correspondence ~ith family­ schools until she told them that the school students who like to write and chi Id was enr,olled here, and I wrote be written to on interesting topics them an official letter. Neither of 10. Suggesting a reading study list us has heard from them since. in classical literature

Last year we had a waiting list 11. A do and don't list of how to for our school ~nd had several stu­ break the news of new-found education­ dents doing work at home so that they al independence. to SOCiety could get out of bad situations in 12. How to use the news media effec­ their local schools while waiting,for tively when in court space in our school. One girl just 13. A list of available correspon­ needed to get a few credits so that dence, private, and Christian schools she could save face to go back to her 14. Referral to good private tutors old ~chool. S~ you ~ee, we are pretty 15. Workshops in teaching reading flexible as to whaC goes. We do recom­ and math skills mend that students become minimally 16. Textbook selection and resour­ involved in the school if it seems ces for'good books (like the GWS lis~) possible - they come to meetings some­ 17. Publications that help a family­ times and help out with special aff­ school get started and give good airs. We charge $75.QO. adVice, like GWS SO far we do not feel any pres­ 18. Planning and preparation before sure to be secretive. We feel that we will simply continue to do what we're starting a family-school, such as get­ ting the idea across to ' the children doing and if the authorities ask ques­ tions we'll deal with that when it And here are a fe,w things we happ~ns ... would like to do: 1. To finish our NY educational law manual which states the law and how CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL to comply as a family school, with From Mrs. Carol A. Christopher practical advice on how to deal with of the BETHANY HOMESTEAD CHRISTIAN public school officials RESOURCE CENTER (RFD I , Box 220, Tay­ 2. Provide a guideline for writing a curriculum lor Rd, Thompson CT 06277; 203-928­ 0453) : 3. Provide mor~ workshops for par­ ents who want training in teaching skills to their children .. · .. We have heard of your work and have read some of the recent maga­ zine interviews concerning your pro­ gram . The Bethany Homestead Christian ... AND NJ Resource Center is also an organiza­ tion supporting home schooling. We Meg Johnson , (337 Downs St, Ridge­ are a small Seventh-day Adventist wood NJ 07450; 201-447-4044) writes: self-supporting group providing ... 1 established the HOME EDUCA­ school books, materials, schedule TION RESOURCE CENTER this summer, at helps and , when necessary, a support umbrella if school authoritie s the request of several friends around inquire. the country. I have a considerable Our curriculum is a combination amount of information and ideas on home schooling and wish to share it . work-stud ~ , program set ftccord{ng to individual s~dent needs. We offer (The only problem being I can't aff­ ord this venture.) two correspondence-type programs to aid parents who teach at home. We _ I'~ offering a booklet ~ncluding serve families all across the United "A Preliminary Guide for Preparing to States, Canada, and a few foreign Teach Children at Home," and "Do countries .

Children Really Need Peer Group · .. The cost for enrollment is Socialization?" for $3.00. I also $100 per family for one year - Septem­ have a list of books for people inter­ ber through June. If more than one ested in home schooling, a ~ist of family has joined together to form a home study courses, an address list school, the cost is tbe same, since eor sources of materials, a packet on all information is being sent to one how to set up a support group, a sam­ location ... ple of an academic program accepted by a local school district ...

Donations of any amount w,o uld be appreciated as materials will only be MORE 'COVER SCHOOL· NEWS sent out as there are sufficient From the Michigan Coalition of funds. Handling, printing, and distri­ Alternative Schools Newsletter: bution costs 20¢ per page or more ...

SCHOOL IN PA.

,From Sandy Hurst at UPATTINAS SCHOOL, RD 1, &ox 378, Glenmoore PA 19343 (215-458-5138): . .. We are willing to have our­ selves listed as a school which takes

· .. The HOME BASED EDUCATION PRO­ GRAM was started officially in Aug~ ust, usi n g office-space at Clonlara (1289 Jewett, Ann Arbor MI 48104; phone 313-769'- 4515) and direc-ted by Pat Montgomery (Dr. Pat Montgomery now, mind you!) Of course, there is no way of knowing how many Michigan families are doing home study but the

4

number who are actually enrolled in H.B.E.P. now is 32 students. Another

115 have made inquiries . ..

From Bonnie Williams, OAK MEADOW (PO Box 1051, Ojai CA 93023, 805-646-4510) : ~C HOOL

... We presently have 55 students enrolled from all o~er the US and so far so good. We recently had a case in Northern Calif. where the sheriff visited a mother and told her to report to school. She approached the Superintendent of schools and told him that she was enrolled in our home study program and wanted to make it legal . He merely sent her down the hall to fill out an affidavit and the people in the office even 'helped her to fill it Cout ...

Ed Nagel tells FE COMMUNITY SCHOOL ta Fe NM 87501) has h ome-study students in 1980-81 so far.

us that the SANTA (PO Box 2241, San­ enrolled over 200 since 1976 ~ 115

Other schools that have told us

recently that they are willing to

h e l p home-schoolers:

HOME SCHOOL, Manuela Schreiner,

849 Drake S~, Cambria CA 93428; (805)

927-4137 .

JONATHAN'S PLACE, Pat & Marshall Martin, 4301 Harrison, Kansas City ' MO 64112; (816) 753-5392 or 444-3168.

HOLT SCHOOL, Ann Bodine, Box 866, New Providence NJ 07974.

HALVI SCHOOL, H. Saer, 124 N Par ­ edes Line Rd, Brownsville TX 78520; (512) 546-1449 .

THE JOHN HOLT LEARNING CENTER,

James Salisbury, 8446 S Harrispn St,

Midvale UT 84047.

HOME STUDY IN ALASKA

energy, handicrafts, back-to-the­ earth, and almanac-ty~e historical curiosities." For $1.50, Merritt will send you clips of the article; for $2.50, the complete issues of The Townships Sun. Send US or CanaOIan mone~im at Box 129, Richford VT 05476, or Box 10, BTigham, Quebec, JOE lJO. CONN. HOME-SCHOOLERS

The Tromblys (CT) sent this

story from their local paper:

... David Cole, assistant super­ intendent of East Lynne Sc~ools, ad­ mitted the Tromblys' request' "took some getting used to," but that now a "very positive relationship" exists between the two sides.

What Cole and other educators don't say, however, is that home edu­ cation is available to practically any -family who wishes to give it a try. For instance, there are no re­ quirements that parents be cer~ified instructors. Even the $tate law, which education department spokesmen declined to comment on, is so vague it is almost impossible to prevent anyone from educating their children at home, _as long as they have the time.

Under Section 10-184 of the Conn . General Statutes, children be­ tween the ages ~f 7 and 16 must attend a public school "unless the parent . . . Js able to show that the children are elsewhere receiving equi­ valent instructions in th'e studies taught in the public schools." Thus far, no cases have gone to court re­ ~arding the home education issue in

Connecticut .

.. . Where there used to be only a few corresponde-n ce schools for the interested parent to ch90se from, there no~ are many, which perhaps bet­ ter than any other yardstick, meas­ ures the growth of home education pro­ grams . . .

A reader in Alaska writes: ... There is an elaborate home­ ,schooling correspondence course in Fairbanks. When we enrolled our daugh­ ter this spring, they offered no ob­ jections - in filling out her forms, we were simply asked to give a reason for using the correspondence school and I had the feeling that they would h ave accepted any reasonable-sounding explanation. They took the form and handed us five big boxes of materials - workbooks, art materials, books to read. The workbooks are boring and stupid but required. According to the correspondence teachers, there are about 50 children (all grades) in the Fairbanks school district who use the program . This Fairbank's office is only for students within the school district - the "bush" students work through Juneau, the head office ...

LD. ARTICLE

My friend Merritt Ciifton, who publishes a small fiterary magazine, Samisdat, recently wrote a long arti­ cle called "Learning Disabilities: What the Publ icity Doesn't Tell. " I t is quite extensive, thorough, and " skeptical of the whole notion of "LD" - good ammunition for any who are con­ cerned with fighting this battle. It was printed. in two issues of The Town­ ships Sun (Box 28, Lennoxville, Que. JIM 123), which, Merritt says, "is a good, family-oriented monthly news­ magazine focussing on alternative

Eileen Trombly added: . ,.You might be relieved to know t hat, although as yet unlisted in GWS, there are many-interested people ~arin~ to "home-instruct." The many we _ ave spoken with all have pre­ school children and want to "get it <ll} toge ther" ahead of time. We do recommend to them that they draw up­ their plans" before meeting with any officials, and have a plan of action ready to submit, but not to do "so until ~he necessary time (age 6 in Conn. ) We also have suggested agreeing to allow their chilqren to be given ?tandardized tests twice a year, and agreeihg to infttruct 180 days per year, minimum 4 hours per day. lhe testing is to satisfy local and state boards. ThiS, along with a curricu­ lum~ seems to be all that's necessary "to turn in to the superintendent .

As you are aware - the standard­ ized testing is almost worthless, but it satisfies them . We do not agr~e to any other type "of testing~everal years back an incident came up where­ by a teacher administrating the tests gave her own type of test - asking the girls questions that indicated to her that they were "unhappy because they missed their school friends."

Her personal opinion on this whole idea was given at the conclusion of the test in writing. We stopped this.

Anyway - as more people get in­

volved in the. actual instruction pro­

cess, they will include their names in the directory. They are anxious to ...

LETTER FROM CALIF.

From a reader in California: . .. After five years in the Ori­ ent, we decided to educate our child­ ren ourselves. My husband is a writer and artist with an M.A. in Philoso­ phy, and I have a B.A. from Sarah Law­ rence. Sam and Sara spent most of their childhood travelling in Asia and only returned to America when they were seven (1975).

We bought land in an isolated part of northern California, started building our solar house and growing our own food. It never occurred to us to notify any authorities, as our place is over forty miles from the county seat and we have no neighbors to complain about the children not go­ ing to school.

I'd never taught (though my hus­ band has taught painting and History of Art) but decided to start our , "school" by exposing Sara and Sam to everything we loved: good literature, art, and music. During the long rainy winter I spent most of the day read­ ing out loud: The Greek, Norse, Cel­ tic, and Egyptian myths; the Ramayana and Mahabarata~ Homer, Shakespeare, Tolkien, Keats, and Shelley. We con­ stantly played tapes of Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Vivaldi, and Indian ragas, and brought home books from the lib~ rary on painting, sculpture, archaeol­ ogy, and architecture, which we all looked at together. The children used to snuggle close and look over my shoulder as I read aloud, and within two years were reading on their own "The Chronicles of Narnia," Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, Howard Pyle, and Robert Louis Stevenson. We sub­ scribe to several magazines that they eagerly read: National Geographic, Natural History, W'o rld, Ranger R1ck, and the Sunday New-YOrk Times. When­ ever they were 1nterested ~n a topic (King Tut, dinosaurs, Columbus) we'd find a book at the library and read up on that particular subject . .

We had-no eystem for teaching math, but noticed that the children quickly taught themselves how to count money, make change, and add up the cost of groceries when we made our weekly shopping trip to town . Sam and Sara drew and painted a lot, wrote stories and poems and made up their own plays with beautiful cos­ tumes. We supplemented the indoor act­ ivities with daily work on the farm: gardening, carpentry, chopping wood, cooking, and caring for our animals.

The children seemed healthy and happy except for one thing - they longed for other children and we just didn't know any, living so far out from town. Finally in October 1978 we rented a house in the town and en­ rolled them in a small private school so they could enjoy the social life they were begging for.

In a short time we knew we had made a mistake. The joy went out of their faces, they were constantly tired and irritable, and all creative energy evaporated to be replaced by televisio.n, "Buck Rogers," and "Star Wars . " Their conversation at home was mostly how mean or crazy the other kids were, and who did what nasty thing to whom that day at school. We hated the change but stuck it out fo~ two winters because this "social" life seemed so important and we thought we would all adjust.

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

5 To get an inside view of the school, I volunteered as a History teacher so I could get to know the other children, but what I saw real­ ly made me sad, and strengthened our feelings that there is something seri­ ously wrong with American families to produce such neurotic children. There were only a few I found to be normal, happy children.

Now we've spent the summer months back on our farm and have def~ initely decided to give up school and the house in town. Sara is painting" baking, sewing, and writing poems again. Sam is sleeping well and put­ ting on weight, losing his cranky, irritable look he got in town, and once more is singing, writing stor­ ies, and whistling as he helps us around the farm. . .. 1 hope to solve the need for other children by inviting kids from town up ' on weekends and I'll let you know how that works out ...

PERSONAL POLITICS Norma Luce wrote in the Oct. '80

Home Educators Newsletter ( PO Box

623, Logan Dr 84321; $17.50/yr.):

... What would happen , if each o f you, in your vario u s and separate states, became personally acquainted with ' the legislative representative in your area, not your state, just your area? These men [Ed. - & women] need to be educated. They need to hear about what you are doing. They "need to meet your children. They need to hear your views on your inalien­ able constitutional rights. They need to see your effectiveness. Then, "when adverse legislation comes up they'll stanq and ,say "I don't see any need for it. I PERSONALLY KNOW PEOPLE WHO ARE EDUCATING THEIR CHILDREN AT HOME. THEY ARE DOING A WONDERFUL JOB. I be­ lieve they should be left alone." " What if, after this legislator speaks, seventeen others from differ­ ent areas in the state stand and say the same thing. What if three-fourths of the state House of Representatives and two-thirds of the state Senate personally know fa'milies who are successfully educating their child­ ren? .. It's so simple. No tra veling , no big amounts of money expended .

Just talk to your neighbor, the one that you have elected to represent your area in the state legislature ...

DEVELOPING SKILLS From Lori Smith (NY): .. . 1 have been intending to write in praise of GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING but never got around to it until this evening. Though I am thor­ oughly fascinated by the informati o n and ideas contained in each issue, the fact that my husband and I have no children (yet) made me feel more like an observer, not a participant.

However, Issue #17 spoke directly to me, especially "The Process of Work."

I am 25 years old and have been grappling with the problem: what do I do with my life now that I have a BA degree in English but no idea of what WORK I should do? The struggle has been deciding between a career in "EDUCATION" (because it is a "respect­ able" profession) or "simply puttering around learning all I can about em­ broidery, weaving, and textile arts in general (because I love thread, yarn, needles, fabric, mnd sewirig).

Even though I suffered through a

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

few education classes in college and decided that I wanted nothing to do with schools, I h ave recently ques­ tioned that decision, wondering if I quit because I was just too cowardly to cope with the unpleasantness of herding children through their ,lives.

Then I read: " ... Six adult 'teachers' had all done many kinds of work before they began teaching, and all brought to the ~chool a number of visible and interesting skills."

And, "Adults must use t"he skills they have whe~e children-can see them."

I realized that for me, it is im­ portant to develop the skills that will enable me to do the work that I love. I also realize how much I have been brainwashed by my ow'n sChooling (which I hated) to fit into society ­ doing something "respectable" like teaching.

Thank you for the encouragement I needed to finally decide , in favor of learning real skills .

As far as teaching, the most rewarding teaching experience I've had was when my nine year old niece saw me sewing and asked me to teach her. We rummaged around for a scrap of cloth, thread, and needle, and I showed her how to make a draw-string bag for her doll. We worked for hours; she had great difficulty get­ ting accustomed to holding the nee­ dle. Her hand began to hurt and she pricked herself many times, but I was amazed at how deliberate and careful she was to make the stitches small and even - ripping out those that were unsuitable and doing them over and over. When the bag was finished she was so thrilled and excited that she decided to keep it for herself to carry change and tissue.

As I said before, I have' only praise for what GWS is doing for chil ­ dren and parents, but I am even more grateful for what I am learning about myself and my own education. I guess it amounts to un-schooling myself after 25 years ...

UNUSUAL SCIENTIST A UPI story from Eight Dollar Mountain, OR: ... You wouldn't expect to find a space -age scientist living with compu­ ters and telescopes atop a roadless hill on the edge of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, 30 miles southwest of Grants Pass, Oregon.

But then, Paul Lutus is a man who's spent his 33 ' years doing things in different ways. . . . As a bookwormi s h "extremely precocious and arrogant 12-year-old," he idolized Albert Einstein. Believ­ ing school would "lead to ruin," the 7th grader dropped ou t to study astro­ nom y and electronics on his own.

When his parent s didn't accept that decision, he moved out . Under the wing of a foster family, the 12­ year-old became a television repair­ man. At 16 he qualified for a Federal Communications Commission radio­ television license and later worked as a radio announcer in San Jose, Cal. At 20 he launched a career as a "street person." He earned a panhan­ dler's living in San Francisco by sketching portraits, singing folk songs, strumming his guitar, holding bubble-blowing classes.

He switched to a research asso­ ciate position at Mt. Sinai Medical School in New York. Then he pedaled his bicycle from New York to Colorado where he -to ok a job designing re­

search equipment for the molecular biology department at the University of Colorado: In 1974 Lutus began work as a NASA consultant in San Francisco. He moved to his hill at the base of Eight Dollar Mountain a year later.

He designed computer programs that helped the Viking spacecraft fly to Mars, and he's the electronics engin­ eer who i nvented a "new kind of light­ ing for the space shuttle.

His lifestyle (no' running water" "no telephones, no roads) may seem un­ conventional, but he says, "I do a lot better work up here." ...

SHE LEARNED AT HOME . . .

From Ruth Stewart (KS): ... You might be interested to know that I was myself an "unschool ­ er." My parents became mission aries in Colombia when I was six. There were five of us children at the time (and I was the second oldest, so you can see how close in age we were') and a few months after we arrived in Colombia we adopted an infant who was brought to our doorstep half-star ved .

For our meager resources the Cal- " vert courses were too expensive, and my parents felt strongly about not wanting to place 'their work bef o re their children, hence they did not wish to send us away to boarding school as is a common practice for missionary families in remote areas.

My mother had done some school teach­ ing in the States and before we moved she procured an assortment of new and used textbooks for first thr ough sixt h grade - English, arithmetic, science, geography, history, h ealth, writing.

She would make out a list of daily assignments' for " each of u s, sometimes weeks in advance. We worked almost entirely on our own, coming to her only if we had questions we couldn 't find answers for by our­ selves. Almost immediately I moved up to my older sister's level , and that made things a bit easier for Mom be­ cause there was one fewer se t of assignments to make. Mom would check our written work and show us any errors she had found, but s he never graded. .

My parents are both great read­ ers and we all inherited it . I loved doing my reading and grammar assign­ ments. When I was seven, one day I completed the third grade grammar book and my mother gave me the fourth grade one to look at. I glanced through it and r.ealized that it was all review of things I already knew .

Mom took my word for it and the next day I st a rted the fifth grade book .

It was that kind of flexibilit y that I particularly value in looking back .

Our lessons didn't tak e us very long most days and then we were free to play. Needless to say, there was no television and we had few of the toys most modern American parents consider vital for a child's stimula­ tion. We made trains out of packing boxes and then set them on their sides and they were dollhouse s. We were given some puppets and we wrote our own puppet shows. We pored through children's crafts books to find things that we could make to amuse ourselves. We rode bikes, played in the park, participated in church activities, made friend s with neighborhood children.

Most of all, we read and made up

stories~ My younger sister and I

wrote our own little books of poems,

6 stories, drawings, puzzles, and jokes. We lay awake in bed at night sharing spontaneousfantasies~ My mother enrolled us in various book clubs and children's magazines, and we devoured each month's offering hungrily. We found penpals allover the world and wrote innumerable letters.

Our learning in science was a bit sketchy. My parents are more in­ terested in the "humaniti·es" end of learning than in the scientific end.

Still, I remember a good many hours I enjoyed bro.w sing through numerous natural history books for children.

Recently I was amused to find one of these 'and read on the fly-leaf, writ­ ten laboriously in my eight-year-old cursive, "This is my favorite book. I wish it had ALL science in it!"

By the time I was 10 and my older sister barely 11, we had fin­ ished all the sixth-grade texts. My parents decided to send us to stay with my grandmother in Kansas·City and attend a private Christian school ... I had · eagerly anticipated returning to the U.S. - after all, the textbooks I had studied eulogized the American way as if it were un­ questionably the best way of life. It wasn't long after I began school, though, that I realized everything wasn't quite as I had expected. I was 10 years old, coming straight from· the jungle, in a classroom of 12- and 13-year-old kids. Academically I was practically at the head of my class, but that wasn't very important in a setting ~here one had to dress right and talk right in order to be accep­ ted. I wasn't ready to care about make-up, hose, hairstyles, and boy­ friends. So I associated principally with the other misfits. I developed an awkward shyness, spent much time watching TV, grew chubby, read ro­ mances from the public library, and scored at 11th grade level on achieve­ ment tests. The next year, when my family was reunited, was better; I went tb a different school and devel­ op~d a few of the social graces neces­ sary to survive in American early­ teen culture.

At the end of my 8th grade year, my parents presented me with the choice of staying with Grandma or returning ,to Colombia ... With no ques­ tion I chose the latter .. .

We lived in the jungle one more year and I studied University of Nebraska Extension courses - I was glad to see their ·letter in GWS #14.

It is a good program, offering a broad range of subjects . . . . 1 whizzed through English and social studies and dallied over math and science. In fact, biology was the only course that I remember as being thoroughly unsatisfa~tory for me. The study of living thing! is of course ~uch best done in direct interaction w~th those things; working from a book, for lack of a personal guide, is utterly unin­ teresting.

When we moved to the city I also continued the piano lessons I had be­ gun in Kansas, and my sisters and I had opportunities to participate in choirs from time to time and to attend concerts. I even took a har­ mony (basic music theory) course py correspondence.

Prior to my senior year we re­ turned to Kansas City ... This time I found American school boring rather than frightening. I had been used to scheduling my own time and I resented having to sit through study halls even when I had no homework. The thought that every · other person my age over tpe entire U.S. was rising

right to educate ner own children.

The case generated a lot of pub­ licity. It was said that she had made legal and educational history. Cer­ tainly the attitude of the authori­ ties has changed considerably towards people who wish to educate their children other than by sending them to school. In the book CHILDREN IN CHANCERY, my mother, Joy Baker, told the story of her legal battles which, because of financial difficulties, she conducted herself.

I believe that for a large num­ ber of children, school is far from the best way of equipping them for adult life. But even more I believe in the right of the individual to de­ cide how his or her children will be educated. A child's education is the single most important factor in deci­ ding what sort of person he will be­ come.

And that must surely be a par­ ent's responsibility ...

about the same time I did, eating at the same time, trundling off to school and waiting for the sound of the bell over and over again every day, until he could finally go home again - well, it nauseated me. I wrote a poem beginning "I feel like I'm wearing someone else's life."

Graduation was simply a relief. Col­ lege was ~uch more enjoyable because of the freedom to make many of my own decisions about what I wished to pursue in studies and lifestyle.

As I look back, I particularly appreciate two things about my home schooling: (1) the unstructured en­ vironment that, while providing me with set goals (completion of my texts), allowed me ample freedom to read, express my thoughts, and try my hand at numerous creative ventures; (2) the family bond. E.F. Schumacher in SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL speaks of the educated man as being "truly in touch with the centre. He will not be in doubt about his basic convictions, about his view on the meaning and pur­ pose of his lif.e ... the conduct of his l~fe will show a certain sureness of touch which stems from his inner clarity." I think it is our families who can best provide what we need for "inner clarity," and mine certainly gave me a strong, stable sense of per­ sonal identity. Of course, home schooling was just one of many fac­ tors there, others being the type of work my parents did, their love for' God which they communicated clearly to us, and my father's beautiful, lov­ ing "fatherliness." As far as I can tell, he was a member of a rare breed among American men . Most of my Ameri­ can friends remember their fathers as detached, remote . Mine adored us and made sure each of us knew he or she was very special in his eyes. ... My husband and I began seri­ ously talking about home schooling after hearing the interview with you, Mr. Holt, on NPR's Options in Educa­ tion. J.D. went through a very tradi­ t~onal education in western Kansas but asserted that eve;"ing, "Well, if you're a typical product of home schooling then I'm all for it."

Sweet, eh? J.D., by the way, is a paleontologist, a real nature-lover, and our daughter Claire and I have already learned a great deal from him. I will certainly have no doubts regarding the quality of my child­ ren ' s opportunities to "do" science! . ..

ESCAPE FROM HIGH SCHOOL

... AND SO DID HE

From Lavonne Bennett, 637 Ben­ nett Rd, Ionia MI 48846:

From David Baker (NY): ... It was with particular inter­ est that I read the feature in The Mother Earth News. I am now 35 years old and I grew up entirely without schooling.

I come from England, and just be­ fore I was born a bill became law that required all children between the ages of 5 and · 15 (now 16) to re­ ceive full-time education. My mother had very definite views on the ~at­ ter. Believing that children learn best at their own pace\ that it was only necessary to make knowledge available to them, not push it down their throats, she refused to send any of her seven children to school.

(My parents were separated at that time - the y are now divorced.) Her action resulted in legal proceedings being taken against her by the Educa­ tion Board, and she appealed on vari­ ous counts over a period of about 10 years. Finally, in 1961, she won the

INVENTOR From the Nov-Dec. '7.9 Caip Chats, a magazine on woodcarving: ... When my father died, he had 105 American and Canadian patents, most dealing with components of rail­ road freight cars and some still in use. He was unlettered and unsung, never having progressed be'yond the fourth grade in school nor beyond a superintendency in a railroad-car plant. He always felt hampered by his lack of formal education - which is a major reason why I, as his eldest son, have two degrees in engineering (but no patents). His very lack of education may have been a blessing in disguise; he hadn't been taught all the things that cannot be done, so his imagination was unfettered.

I can remember that he would sit and fish - or just sit - and suddenly burst out with some new concept, the obvious result of his musing. Other men, without patents, smiled over the time he "wasted," kept"asking "Where do you get these ideas?" Some of the ideas were well ahead of their time, and some, I or others, on the basis of education, convinced him were im­ practical - until someone else inven­ ted them later and made a fortune ...

. .. As the years flew by, friends and neighbors proclaimed my son a mechanical and electronics genius, but his high school teacher called him a "stupid dummy."

Rather than tolerate the name­ calling, we sought alternatives . to that particular class for our son.

When he was 14, he began taking a college class at the community col­ lege. There, he found that instruc­ tors did not find it necessary to call students belittling names. From then on, high school became intoler­ able be~ause he'd seen how good learn­ ing can be! . . . Many afternoons, he came home from high school angry at the verbal and physical abuse by teachers to other students as well as to himself.

Rebuilding his self-esteem after each high school day became a monumental task.

We took him out of high s chool in the middle of his junior year ...

He's 17 now and has managed two

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

7

stores for an electronics - product firm, parlayed a $150 clunker car up to a classic sports car, has bought equipment for his recording studio, has been a mentor for an eight year old boy, helping h im to organize model-train layouts, and has given guitar lessons .

All those 'wasted, institutional­ ized years! He learned from private lessons, college classes, role-mo.del­ ing and from life the skills he's using now .. .

WHAT SCHOOL IS LIKE

'From New England: . . . I've never been to school be­ fore and I just went la\t week for a three-day visit, The teacher's name is Miss C. The teacher was a pretty good teacher and I learned some interesting things. (But she was a little odd.)

She wasn ' t a vefy strict teacher but she did get mad when the kids fooled around too much . We passed notes but she never caught us . One day there was a substitute named Mrs . N. be­ ca~se Miss C. was sick. She wasn't such a good teacher and she was way too strict! Everyone in the class hated her.

Everyone thought I was weird be­ cause I was new and didn't go to school and didn't eat meat . The kids weren't' being very good to the teach­ er. They were back-talking and wise­ mouthing her. They fooled around a lot too. They never bothered me much .

There was one girl that played with me all the time . I met her at a friend's party . Then met her at school again. Now she is a good friend! We are hoping that she can come ove~ to my house or I can com~ to her house.

At school they taught spelling, math, social studies and we did read­ ing and writing . A kid and I were the best readers in the class . I think that the work was very easy' Each day there were six hours of school. There was a recess at 10:30 a.m. then there was a recess from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and the last recess was at 2:00 until 2:30 so we only ~nded up doing 4 hours of school. Sometimes you'd get done early and have to wait for the other kids ' to get done .. .

WHAT SCHOOLS COULD BE

From the Boston Globe: WAYLAND TO RECYCLE A SCHOOL With public school enrol~ment drop­ ping dramatically·in Wayland (Mass.) from 4100 students in 1971 to 2600 this year, ft was inevitable that yet another elementary school would be closed.

But while school closings in Massachusetts are no longer unusual, the action of the local school board and selectmen regarding the Loker School, closed in June, is a novel approach to the reuse of a public school · in an era of declining enroll­ ment.

Instead of accomodating more than 350.students this fall, the Loker School, .now the property of the Board of Selectmen, is about to be­ come a cultural center for the town.

The school wilL be leased to four groups, ' with the largest tenant an organization called Arts-Wayland.

Mardee Nordberg, chairman of Arts­ Wayland's space development commit-

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #lB

tee, says availability of the Loker School will.enable approximately 40 group members to set up studios, gal­ leries, and classrooms to practice and teach visual, performing, and lit­ erary arts.

Also renting space at the 21­ year-old facility are an after-school day care center, a dance and gymnas­ tics school, and The EduGation Collab­ orative, of which the Wayland school system is a member, and which would rent office space and provide some classes for special needs students.

"I think the whole concept is ex­ citing and challenging and it's a creative use for an abandoned school building," said Wayland School Supt .

William Zimmerman. "It puts the empha­ sis on serving the local community ­ but in a different way than an elemen­ tary school would .. .

Herbert Odell, chairman of the Board of Selectmen ... added_: "If we boarded up the school and didn't use it for anything, it would still cost about $20,000 just to insure the building." . . .

TESTING COMPROMISE

From Nancy Wallace (NH): < •• For the past two years, the school people insist~d that Ishmael take the Stanford achievement test.

They acted as though they couldn ' t possibly understand why I was so opposed to this method of evaluation, since after all, it only tested kids on the bare minimums and everyon.e knows that Ishmael is very advanced for his age. Through vocal outrage and obstinacy I did manage to get them to allow me to administer the test to Ishmaer-at the school, which made things a bit nicer, but that's as far as they would go.

This summer, though, we got a new superintendent and some other new staff and so once again we raised our objections to the standardized test.

This time the superintendent listened more closely and he even seemed to agree with us. He nodded when I said that the test onl)' meas'u red how good you were at taking tests; that the score was meaningless unless it was av~raged over a number of years and then compared with the scores of kids in similar situations; that from the test, I couldn't discover Ishmael's areas of strength and weakness since there were too many variables in­ volved in the actual phrasing of the questions and the process a child must go through in order to mark the correct answer on the answer sheet; etc.

When I was ~one, he told me that not only did he agree with me, but that many of the teachers in the school district agreed with me. And then he add.ed, "But I think Ishmael should take the test anyway." .. . It dawned on me that the school people are primarily concerned wtih Ish­ mael's ability to be like everyone else, if need be. ... 1 proposed a compromise, which the superintendent happily accepted. Ishmael would take the test once a year, but I'd give it to him, here at the kitchen table, anp it would be used oni y as test-taking practice, a litt e dose of "rea~ity."

The school people would see the re­ sults of the test and would get an idea of how ordinary Ishmael was, but they couldn't use this information against us. Our evaluation would be based solely on our portfolio (my daily log, a list of the books Ish­

mael reads from Sept.-June, his stor­ ies, etc.) As an extra touch of nor­ mality, I asked that I be shown a copy of the test whenever I felt like it, since all classroom teachers have that privilege, and the superinten­ dent agreed to that too. So if I feel like it, I can prepare Ishmael in advance ...

TWO PUNISHMENT VICTORIES

An A.P. story from. Albany, NY: ... The state's education commis­ sioner ruled Friday that schools can­ not discipline students by lowe ring grades unless there is a definite con­ nection ' between a student's miscon­ duct and academic performance. , In his ruling, Commissioner Gor­ don Ambach charged that the Galway Central School District had reduced the ' grades of one of its junior high school students purely as a disciplin­ ary measure.

"A 'grade is intended as an educa­ tional evaluation," Ambach said. "In view of the other disciplinary meas­ ures available, the school board may not subvert the purpose of grading by arbitrarily reducing a student's grades as a means of imposing discip­ line . "

However, Ambach said there wer e instances, such as cheating on an examinat"ion, where grade reductions might be acceptable. ... The commissioner said that on March 7, 19BO, a 7th grader at the Saratoga County school "was involved in an'incident in one of the boy's lavatories" and was subsequently sus­ pended for five days. The student was allowed back into school, but school authorities, in accordance with dis­ trict policy, ordered that he not be given any grade above 75% for the term ... [even though] he actuall y had qchieved grades of 90, 79, and 7B ·... Ambach ordered the grades restored . . .

From The Last? Resort, Sept.

'80 (977 Keeler Av, Berkeley CA 94708; $lO/yr): ... In 1977, headlines across the rountry screamed "SUPREME COURT OK'S SCHOOL SPANKING . " Whether this was greeted with groans or grins, few doubted the finality of th~ decisi on.

We ' were wrong. . .. Gertrude M. Bacon of Parents Anonymous of New York ... said at the time and still believes that the ca s e of Ingraham v. wrifht was inadequat e ­ ly argued and was ost, essentiall y , by the a tt orney for the children, Bruce S . Rogow . . . .. "He continually and persistently narrowed his argu­ ment to one issue - cruel and unusual punishment - and did not allow him­ self to be led by the pertinent ques­ tions posed by Justices Marshall, Ste­ vens, Rehnquist, and Brennan. They kept opening th~ door, and he kept closing it - or I should say slamming it shut." .. ~ James Wal"lerstein said: "There were a number of positive im­ plications in the majority decision which the Civil Liberties groups should have jumped on: 'Where school authorities acting under color of State Law, deliber­ ately decide to punish a child for misconduct by restraining the child and inflicting appreciable physical pain, we hold that the Fourteenth Amendment liberty interests are im­

8 plicated (p.22).

"This means that school corporal punishment is a federal question, and not just a State one:" The 1980 decision Hall v. Tawney which, in effect, reversed the Sup reme Court's decision of 1977, was greeted by the news media with a dull thud. Education newsleLters and jour­ nals carried the information but made little of it.

The three children of the Hall family, Mervin, - Linda, and Naomi, each in turn were severely hurt by 7th grade t e acher G. Garrison Tawney.

He had a handmade paddle fashioned from a hard rubber home-plate used in playground ball games. He swung this vicious weapon indiscriminately and with such force as to put Naomi in the hospital for ten days.

The lawyer, Daniel F. Hodges of the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Charleston, WV, did his home­ work. He went to the Federal Courts.

When the case was dismissed on the ba s is of ~raham, he appealed and the 4th CLrcure-u$ Court of Appeals upheld his contention that the "due Erocess" Clause of the l4thl\nieno::­ ment, in its substantive aspects, did Erotect children against brutality even thoU~h it was administered in school an in the name of discifline.

"SubstantIVedue process" LS a difficult concept for non-lawyers to ~rasp. There are rather rigid rules about the rights of a suspect and the manner in which he may be taken into custody. For example, forcible use of a stomach pump by police, and the un­ provoked beating of a pretrial detain­ ee by a guard ... have been held to be unconstitutional ... Teacher bru­ tality was held comparable to police brutality. The judgement states: The existence of this right to ultimate bodily security - the most fundamental aspect of personal pri­ vacy - is unmistakably established in our constitutional decisions as an attribute of the ordered liberty that is the concern of substantive due process.

The decision is a landmark in that cases may be tried in Federal courts when there has been an' injury or when the punishment is demonstra­ bly greater than necessary to main­ tain order ...

TONE- DEAF CHOIR In regard to the "Tone Deaf" sec­ tion in NEVER TOO LATE (GWS #16), Lisa C. Coffey, 2128 Memorial Av, Las Vegas NV 89119, wrote: ... Every year on the anniversary of the founding of the school I went co, it was tradit.ional, among many festive activities, for the junior class to preserit a humorous skit.

When I was a junior, we decided to do a skit which was a parody on "chap­ el." We impersonated the headmaster, the teachers, etc, and burlesqued the whole routine.

Our chapel services always in­ cluded a choral response sung by the choir, a very select and prestigious organization consisting of twelve of the best (or the twelve best) singers among the students. Naturally, for our humorous skit, we put together a choir composed of the twelve "tone­ deaf" students.

I can remember very little of the skit (which was a smash hit) but I will always remember the choral

response. It didn't occur to me that it was a rare event to hear twelve "tone-deaf" people sing together un­ abashedly a piece of music from start to finish. There was a strange organ­ ic beauty to that song and my memory of having been privileged to hear it is ~ treasured gem.

Whenever I meet someone who claims to be "tone deaf" I try to get them to sing for me, but they never will. Maybe they would if they thought I wanted to laugh at them, but I guess the thought that I -find it unusual and beautiful throws them for the proverbial loop. Oh, well, at least I got to hear it once, and it really wa~ glorious._.

FROM JF.'S MOM More from Kathy Mingl ( IL )

["Meet J.P.", GWS # 16):

. . . The discussion of art materi­ als in GWS #16 interested me. After reading about acrylics in GWS #9, I had dug out some old paints I used to mess around with in the old days when I had time for such things, and pre­ sented them to J.P. ( age 2). He was very enthusiastic about the whOle bus­ iness; his mother mostly came out feeling rueful and philosophical.

That kid has some kind of natural tal­ ent, all right, but I think it's for housepainting. His technique involves mixing all the colors thoroughly to­ gether, scrubbing them on industrious­ ly, and covering up every bare spot of paper. His favorite color seems to be black. I felt obliged to offer some diplomatic suggestions, but it's not easy - he may not be B Michelange­ lo, but he's awfully touchy. (One time when he was using his watercol­ ors, I interfered somehow - insisted he wash out his brush or something ­ and he got upset. When I asked him if he was going to paint some more, he said, "No, I'm too sad of it.")

What I finally got him to do was to paint gently, whicq seems to just about cov~ situation, and I told him that you look at what you're do~ ing as you go along, and when it's pretty, you stop. I wouldn't insist on that "pretty" bit, of course, but that's what J.P. is into right now .

It's probably something more like " when it looks like what you want it to."

My excuse jor impo~ing my no­ tions of order on J.P. is that I'm the one who has to clean up after-him \f he makes a mess. I tell him that when he can clean up after himself he can make all the messes he wants, but in the meantime he can learn to do it !llY way. He does accept that, i 'n gener­ aI, unless I get too -heavy about it.

By the way, one thing J.P. loves is soap paint. I mix Ivory soap flakes with water to make a paste, and then combine it with food color-­ ing in a plastic ice-cube tray to ­ make as many .different colors as I can. J.P. glops it allover himself an.d the bathtub, and then sluices eveiything down with the shower hose.

He gets to make "pretties" and gets praised for cleaning up the bathtub all at one shot. I don ' t have to ' wash him _at all, and it keeps him occupied and out of trouble for an entire afternoon. I don't put any water in the tub, so I can go off and do other things and not worry about him. I do have to come back and admire his art­ work periodically, and sometimes I make him rinse the bottom of the tub if it looks like it's getting too slippery, ~lthough he's usually pret­

ty careful about that .

Another thing I've used food col­ oring for is ink _for a toy stamp-pad set. I cut a piece of foam rubber to fit in a covered soap dish and soaked it with several colors. They work real well, and they should be pretty well non-toxic, although I don't use them in food for the most part.

I get most of J.P. 's - art materi­ als from garage sales, especially paint. and paper. I just paid SO¢ for a slightly used set of artist's water colors in tubes. I like them better than acrylics because the colors are reusable after they dry in the mixing pan. We've ' thrown out most of the little-kid cheapie sets J.P. had though - once you've used the real thing, those colors look yukky.

One thing I've noticed about cor­ recting J.P. is that it's easy to overdo it becaus~ there's no instant response to show he's gotten it, and you think he's not listening. If I force it on him he gets crazy, and if I persis~ beyond that, he cries. If I just matter-of-factly mention that this is how you do~hat thing, he'll apparently ignore it, but then spon­ taneously come up with it later, and g~~it right. I think it's really a ~easier to explain things to lit­ tle children than you think - it's just that it takes much longer for it to sift ·through to them than you'd expect, especially if they've got a lot on their minds just then. It doesn't speed up the process any if yo-u get them all upset, either.

Another thing that interested me in GWS #16 was the section on music.

It reminded me that when J.P. was smaller we used to sing together, especially in the car. He would croon ·some sort of random tonal pattern - I hesitate to call it a tune - and we would admire his "song," and then he'd really belt it out. Maybe a true musician would have tossed him out of the window instead, but his doting parents liked it. Then I'd get into the spirit of things and sing along with him, which mostly involved try­ ing to anticipate and match his notes. Gradually he got more predicta­ ble, and we also made up a game where he would suddenly hold some note and I'd have to match it and hold it with him. Just now he's more interested in the words of songs than the music, but I notice that when he sings, the tunes are getting more recognizable.

I fully expect that one of these days he'll find out that he c~n match the notes other people sIng. J.P. has gotten very thoughtful these days. He asks, "What is a ?" and "What do you call -that?" a hun­ dred times a day, and in between ques­ tions, he puts it all together as bus­ ily as a little computer. I think the wheels go round in his head even when he's sleeping because he's been mut­ tering to himself in his sleep lately.

I have trouble answering his questions clearly enough to satisfy him, without going into compli.cations that create more mysteries than be­ fore. Even when you think you've come up with the perfect reply and that's the end of that, he mulls it over and two days later suddenly questions your answer. Slow motion dialectic, right? ... J.P . has recently become interested in books. He likes me to read to him before bedtime, and I think I can see a pattern emerging al­ r ·e ady. During the day he's busy doing things, and at night he likes to think it over . If he's come across something interesting, he likes to see a picture of it in a book, or

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

9 LEARNING ITALIC WRITING Sherrie Lee (NY) writes out each issue of the Homesteaders News in calli­ graphy. W~ asked her some questions about learning calligraphy, and she wrote out her reply so beautifully that we thought we'd reproduce it directly in GWS. (This appears here reduced from the actual ~ize.)

hear about other people doing the same things. I think evening is a much more natural time for study - than sitting around in the daytime. During the day, -if J.P . picks up a book, he reads it to me ("Once upon a day ... ", upside down)~ but he's ~oing, he's ­ not interested in listenLng. I had heard that you should read to children from the time they're born, to "saturate" _them with it and make them smart. Well, that might work with some kids, but J.P. never cared for it. He liked music, bu~ he only started to respond to stories after he had begun to use his own imagination in playing, I think. He, ' s vaguely interested in letters and num­ bers - I made him a set of large wood­ en numbers and the alphabet, and he traces the outlines with his crayons, but I think he most~y just enjoys the different shapes . .. . I ' m starting a ' special fund in my desk drawer for J.P. 's educa­ tion - books ;and materials now, and any training he might want later ­ out of whatever money I can make my­ sel f. . .. One idea I had was that your other GWS readers might be interested in the patterns and directions for making the wooden alphabet set out of lx4 . It's really neat, if I do say so myself . I'll sell a ready-made set, too, if anyone wants one, but I'd have to c h arge about $10, plus $2 shipping. I could sell the plans for $2 - the idea they can have for free, .. I also made J.P. a number set, 0-10, which I could sell ready­ made for $'. A simple cloth bag to hold the sets would be $1.50 ...

READING MUSIC Folksinger Pete Seeger said, in the Music Educators Journal, 2/80: .. . People should not learn to read music until they have a good ' Tep­ ertoire of songs they like to sing under their belt. When they know what kind of music they like and how they want to sing it, then they can learn to read. One wouldn't teach a child dance notation before the child can dance. One never teaches a baby to read before it can talk. Music notes tend to freeze the musician into thinking these notes are the way it MUST go ...

TAPING BOOKS From Ann Bodine (NJ):

slW-rri£

Leg. £gvwr

2;('02. ~15i

... One idea I've worked out to cope with diverse reading interests of oldest and middle child - whenever I read my oldest a longish children's novel tha t is beyond the comprehen­ sion of my middle child, I tape­ record it so that my oldest can hear it again. [See also "Tape Recorders," GWS #17.) I do the same with the books I read my youngest which are too young for my oldest. Along the same line, I have just discovered the tape recordings of children's novels which the library carries. Listening to them makes up somewhat for the books I used to read my oldest which I no longer have time for ...

.:A.dCIi.soK JVew!/orR...:L48aL I

NUMBERS AS OBJECTS From Jeannette Baumgardner (CA): (In a later letter, Sherrie said she'd be happy to send the - page of sam­ ple italic letters to anyone who sends a self -addr essed stamped envelope. She also suggested another good workbook, THE ITALIC WAY TO BEAUTIFUL HANDWRITING

by Fred Eager, $3 . 95 from Pentalic Corp., 132 W 22 St , NY NY 10011.)

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

.. . 1 n ow have further insights on math b l ock - or numbers as gnomes [See "On Counting," GWS #1.) I've

10 tried to understand math in terms of analogies. That's why I stare and stare at an algebraic equation with total uncomprehension. It doesn't look like anything. Finally I get it ... the letters are symbols for something else. Coul d numbers be only symbols?? No wonder I have trouble adding; numbers a re objects to me.

Multipl ying is insane if "elevens" are noodl es to you and "eights" are smu~, fat, bald people ...

THOSE EASY TABLES - 2 In GWS # 1 1, we suggested one method for becoming more comfortable with th e multiplication table s. Anoth­ er thing you could do is simply to give the child a 3 x 5 card with a grid with the table filled o ut in pen­ cil, and let the ' child keep the card handy, and u se it whenever slhe had multiplying to d o. You could say , "Whenever you d on" t need a produc t on the card, erase it, so you only have the ones you're not sure of." As time went on, more and more would be erased. This would be a smart thing to do even in a school classroom.

Less worrying about remembering would result in more learning.

If I were working with children who had never learned to be afraid of numbers or to think that th e tables were hard, I would let them discover the patterns in the tables them­ selves. But with c hildren (o r adults) who had learned to' think that the tables were hard and mysterious, I would probably make an extra effort to s how them that the tables were easier than they tho~ght.

For example, if you look at a

4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30

4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60

8

9 10

8 9 10 14 16 18 20 21 24 27 30 28 32 36 40 35 40 45 50 42 48 54 60 49 56 63 70 56 64 72 80 63 72 81 90 708090100

filled-out multiplication table (or if you fill it out yourself), it's pretty clear there's a lot of repeti­ ti on. 2 x 3 is the same as 3 x 2, 4 x 9 is the same as 9 x 4, etc . In fact if you were to fold the table down a diagonal line from the top left corner to the bottom right, the two h alves would be mirror images. ( And along the line itself are the "perf ect squares," 1 x 1, 2 x 2, 3 x 3, etc . ) This means we really o nl y hav e to bothe~ about roughly half as many products as it would appear at first glance - actually 55.

I would l et the child be the o n e to decide whether or not to erase the pencilled-in products . But if sl h e de­ cided to, what a relief it would be to see a lmost h alf that chart disap­ pear. It might work best t o hav e two fill ed-out tables, a permanent one-­ for looking at patte rns, and one for the c hild to erase.

And that's just a start. Next I might suggest, "N ow we probably don't need to worry about the 1 row or the 1 column, or the 2 row or co lumn, or the 5's, or the 10's, right ? Because it's easy to count by l's, or 2's, or 5's, or 10's. So we could leave them out." If sl h e agrees, we'r e down t o 21 pr od u cts l eft.

But it's just about as easy to count by 3 ' s as it is by 2's; you can

do that in your head. So we don't really have to worry about the 3's,_ we can leave them out. Perhaps some children wouldn't accept this at first, but with some time and prac­ tice, they would 'become confident about the 3's.

And the 4 r ow and column are even easier, because they are just twice 'as big as the 2 row, which is easy . So all you have to do is double the products in the 2's column. If we know, say, 2 x 7 = 14, then 4 x 7 is just twice that much, or 28. Nothing hard about that, so we can leave out the 4 row and column . Only 10 pro­ ducts Left to think about now.

But if you're good at d ou bling numbers mentally, most of these are easy, too. If to get from the 2 row to the 4 row we just d oub l e every­ thing, to get from the 4 row to the 8 row we just double it again. 4 x 7 = 28, so 8 x 7 has to be twice that much, or 56. In the sa me way, the 6 row is just twice as much as the 3 r ow . 3 x 7 = 21, so 6 x 7 must be twice as much, or 42. So we can take out the 6 and 8 row and column, and that means there are just three pro­ ducts left .

Actually, the entire 9 column (or row) turns out to be pretty spe­ cial . For example, as you go down the column, the left-hand digit in each product gets one bigger each time, and the second, right-hand digit gets one sma ller. Another pattern: the two digits in each product always add up to 9: 18, 27, 36, etc. Furthermore, 3 x 9 is 27, 7 x . 9 is 63, etc - the first digIt is always one less than the number that is being-multiplied by 9. One way to understand that: if 7 x 10 i s 70, 7 x 9 will be a bit les s than 70: sixty-something. Sixty­ what? Well, it can't be, say, 64, because 6 + 4 isn't 9. It must be 63.

So the only product left is 7 x 7 = 49. There's no particularly easy way to rememb er it. Of course, you can always figure out 7 x 6, which is 42, and add 7 to that. But you'll probably find that after you've looked up 7 x 7 a few Limes, you 'll know it as well as a ll the others.

Let me repeat: I would not do all this heavy-duty ex plaining to most children, because it is much more effective and exciting for them to discover these patterns them­ selves . But for adults or o lder child­ ren who had never gotten to know the tables, these facts can make them a lot easier.

You'll probably notice ot her things we haven't mentioned here.

Work with the patterns; let the num­ bers h elp you . -- JH & DR

AT HOME IN VA. More from Connie Sc hwartz (VA ): ... Actually none of our four boys hav e been in public school, al­ though Bj. (Benjamin, 6) went to a Montessori school for a year when he was 3. We have been working with the boys for the last two years, Bj . and Aedin (5) , that is. Baron (3) and Nathaniel (l~) still do their own thing.

Bj. can re ad anything, does basic math including multiple column addition and s ubtr actio n, multiplica­ tion, division, and some fractions thrown in for kicks. He can do the math him se lf and is improving his methods all the time, finding faster, easie r ways of doing more of it in his head. Aedin can read anything he

wishes to, but at a slow pace yet, and does addition, subtraction, and some multiple column stuff .

I equate learning math with learni.ng to reason . . . . When I first started Benjamin on math, I used cray­ ons or blocks, anything physical, to illustrate to him what was happ ening .

I firmly agree that children need to physically see the concrete before they can understand the abstract reas­ oning . From this, Bj. went to a bit of finger counting and then to making dots or m~rks on scratch paper and using them to compute his work. I was just beginning to get a bi~ concerned with his long use of these marks when he decided for himself that it was too slow and awkward. One da y I ' gave him 8 x 8 as a problem. Instead of dots, h e said , "8 plup 8 is 16, plus 8 is 24, plus 8 is 32," etc., until he had the answer. The very happy part of this is that he did each part in his head.

Now, just a few weeks l ater, he does nearly all his work in his head.

Things are a little bit differ en t with Aedin; he has a child's toy with beads which he uses as an abacus. I know that they both understand what they are doing because I have heard them working together and with friends and explaining, not just the answer, but the reasons for getting there.

They also do lots of carpentry, building some pretty amazing things.

I let them do it all, the sawing, the measuring, the h ammering, and even the salvage of nails t o use from old things. Bj. just recently spent some of his own money for the first time and b ought some new nails.

They are also doing a lot of woodcutting this fall, with a pruning saw and c lippers; they are cutting down 4-6 inch diameter trees about 10-15 feet tall and cutting them up to woodstove length. They cart it in on their wagon and stack it on the porch to season and I k~ow that they deri v~ great satisfaction from this.

The sheep belong to them and as they get older they t~ke over more o f the care of them and are learning a great d eal of animal husbandr y. They help us in all the chores and work in their own capacity. We do in sis t that each one does what they are capable of, not just what they may happ en to feel like doing. The little ones . carry little sticks of wood and the big ones carry larger ones .

The older boys each look after those brothers who are younger than they, and are very responsible c hild­ ren . My husband is a volunteer fire­ man and one day when I was out of the house the fire monitor went off. Bj. got a stool, dialed the phone (I didn't even know he knew our shop num­ ber), and told his father that there was a fire in a certain place and what type of fire it was. He had never u sed the phone before, never b ee n shown or told to do anything lik e that, but he knew that it was im­ portant and so pulled out the info,rma­ tion from hi s computer-brain that fit the need and did an exceptional job.

We were both impressed' We hav e been trying to be very low-key about keeping the boys home.

We li ve in a small mountain communi ty though, and as three of the local women are bus dri vers and two are teachers in the l ocal school, we didn't . expect to get by too long.

Lots of folks kn ew that we were teach­ ing the boys. Someone, intentionally or otherwise, turned us in to the sc hool this year. The two oldest were supposed to be enrolled. We wrote

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

11 that we were keeping the boys home and educating them here as our reli­ gion prevented sending them to school and we also wished to protect their mental and moral well-being. About the time we began to wonder if the letter had been lost in the mails, we heard from the school social worker.

She indicated that this was the first time the school had been confronted with this situation and they had con­ tacted the state authorities before getting back to us . . . . The school board decided.that ~gey wanted no trouble over t h is an as long as the boys were being educated at home they were happy.

I wasn ' t easy in mind until we got it in writing . Now I feel safe in letting others know what has happened to us. We have not been asked to meet any criteria or supply any informa­ tion about the "curriculum" we're fol­ lowing. The social worker did make an "unofficial" visit to meet us and we showed her some of the material we had.compiled from various sources; she asked to see som~ of the boys' work and was visibly impressed. I ~ust hope that this attitude of ' hands off" on their part continues. · .. 1 firmly believe in letting the boys saturate themselves in some­ ~hing they are keen about. Why kill the -enthusiasm by making what they are interested in seem unimportant, by insisting they go on to something else now?

They- love mazes and hidden words and often design their own. They also make up math problems for us to do, and are very proud of us when we get the right answer. My sons love to play games, but not just to win. They play checkers for the sheer joy of be­ ing jumped and want you to give them some more men so they can move them and be jumped again' A friend of theirs can't understand or' tolerate it. He gets really frustrated that they aren't out for blood as he is.

This friend goes to public school and has constant colds all school year, which drastically affects his hearing. · . . Bj . h elped me can all my peaches this year. He stood at the sink all day for two days peeling peaches, and we were able to keep up with a 9- quar t canner - while alone I was unable to keep up with a 7-qt. canner. So you can measure the amount of help he truly was .. .

4-YEAR-OLD CARPENTERS

I found this clipping in my files, from the Toronto Star of 3/26/72: -­ . . . Carpentry is child's play to the junior kindergarten class at Kew Beach Public School. Adult-si~ed ham­ mers and saws are deftly handled by t he pint-sized 4 year o l d girls and boys as t hey bu ild houses, trucks and airplanes from scrap lumber. . ... The children create wonders in wood. Many of their creations end up in principal Shirley Simons' office, where they are proudly dis­ played to parents and friends .

Mrs. Simons, whose husband is a builder, supplies the wood and nails.

The children supply the muscle, and parents often come in to lend a hand with the heavy work . ..

YOUNG PROFESSIONAL

From t he Boston Globe, 10/24/80: · .. The opening concert of t he

GROWI NG WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

10th anniversary season of Jazz Cele­ brations . ~. will have Roswell Rudd and the Flexible Flyers. Rudd has played with Archie Shepp and several other groups, and has been named No. 1 trombonist in the Downbeat Critics' Poll for 1975, 1978, and 1979 ... His 10-year-old son, Chris, plays percuss­ ion in the band . ..

SHARING ONE'S WORK

From Jenny Wright (NH): .. . As two families of our friends send their children back to school this year, I am struck by how important one's profession and wheth­ er one's children share it rr-rs-ro­ rne-home schoo1~ng p~ctu~f Van­ essa wasn't a real active member of our apple crews, appreciated by every­ one, feeling herself responsible for getting in the crop, listeoing to and sharing her opinions in the discuss­ ions of problems that come up with g'r oup living, I doubt she'd feel as she does: that her life, though dif­ ferent, is just as exciting as most other people's lives . . .

KIDS ON THE JOB

Letters from two readers: ... I'm happy to have a job where I can bring my 6-year-old son . He either helps me or finds activities.

'I'm a janitor in the afternoon for a public school. He also enjoyed going on truck runs with a friend of ours when she worked in a cooperative trucking company. He thrives on being part of the work crew .. . ... 1 was glad to read about babies and children at work with par ­ ents. We live on my in-laws' Christ ­ mas tree farm and nursery . Forest was born 9 months ago and has been out to the field with us on many different jobs including shearing trees, inven­ tory, and sizing trees .

This fall we're going to try bal­ ing and painting the trees with him along . Before he was on our backs in a carrier. But now he is quite active and I hope we'll be able to continue to work with him nearby ...

A 3-YEAR-OLD LEARNER

More from Karen Franklin (AL): ... Since my children were born, have gradually developed a way of life that fits in with all you've been saying for years. Before you can teach anyone anything, they have to have the maturity to learn it (physi­ cal maturity and emotional maturity) and they have to have the need to learn . . . . For example, I decided long ago that I wouldn't put a lot of eff­ ort into potty training. I figured most people learn . I wasn't goin~ to be the one trained ~ ' Do you need to go to the potty, honey?") One day, Adam (now 3~) announced that he wasn't going to wear diapers, he was going to wear big boy pants. He's been trained since that moment.

He goes to bed when he's tired, eats when he's hungry. Mealtime and bedtime is without conflict around here because we respect him and feel he can usually make these decisions himself. I don't mean that we don ' t have any rules, I just mean we don't, have arbitrary rules . I think the

ideas expressed in THE CONTINUUM CON­ CEPT fit in here.

One thing that has worked well for us is to remove as many of the "NOs" as possible. There are some things of mine that I feel special about; if they were bro,ken I would be unhappy. The obvious solution is to put them away for awhile until Adam or Jessica is old enough to hold, look at, or use them. It makes no sense to have a crystal dish on the coffee table and be constantly saying "NO-NO." The things that are out are safe to play with and explore. · .. About right and left (GWS #3). I'm left handed . I remember my fifth grade teacher telling me to raise my right hand. I held up my write hand. The one that I wrote ~ Everyone laughed, and I didn't know why. For some reason something was wrong - no one told me about "right" and "write." L still have trouble with right and left . . . . After that day, I'used to remember ~h~ch was which by putting my hand over my heart as though I was going to "Pledge the Flag." I knew that was supposed to be my right hand'.

When my son Adam was almost three, he told his father, "My cold leg hurts." His dad asked, "Is your leg cold?" Adam said, "NO' My cold leg has a scratch on it and it hurts right there'" (He pointed to his right knee.) If you don't understand the logic of what he was trying to say, go to the bathroom sink and turn on the cold water . Our bathroom is right by the hot water heater, and it is very important to know which hand turns on which faucet . At times when he can't understand right and left, we use "hot side" and "cold side" ­ he gets it every time. · .. Adam has learned a lot about letters by "playing" with the type­ writer. He asks me to type a line, and he tries to copy it.

We play a rhyme game every time we get in the car. I say, "I ' m think­ ing of a word that rhymes with TREE, It's part of your leg and it's your ... " and Adam shouts "KNEE." As many rhyming words as there are, this can go on forever. The game has evolved another step: I get as far as "It rhymes with ... " and Adam tells what word to use. Sometimes it's pretty hard to think of another word and definition that fit his choice' · .. Adam is coming to know that a library and book are where you can find out almost anything you want to know. Mt. St. Helens prompted a recent study on volcanos, which led to his ~atest interest, dinosaurs. I personally am -sick of dinosaurs since we've had every book out 3 or 4 times and bought a few at the book store. I still don't know which one is which, but Adam does. At supper tonight, he told me he didn't have to eat h~s vegetables because he was a Tyranno­ saurus and they only eat meat . ..

We've also used the library to find out about chicken pox (for obvi­ ous reasons), bees (after a sting), dromedaries as opposed to camels (do you know the difference?), why the sky is blue, what is a half moon, do birds cry, and how do you make pret­ zels . . . . Our family has become in­ volved with recycling because we read a children's book called WHAT HAPPENS TO GARB~GE? ... The money we get when we go to the recycling center just barely pays the gas, but we feel we're teaching moral responsibility. ... Adam doesn't read yet, but he i& beginning to figure it out. He's always asking what words say. He has d favorite book or two memorized and

12

if I skip a word, he knows. He has be­ gun to c ompare words, and wants always to be the one to turn-the pages. I feel like he'll teach him­ self soon, but if he doesn't, w~'ll continue to read tb him. We haven't done anything to teach him to read except ·expose him to lots of books and s how him in subtle ways that read­ ing is an important skill.

At our house we have a quiet · time in the evening. Usually Richard (my husband) and I read . Adam is wel­ come to stay up, but must do some­ thing quiet ~f he is going to stay in the room with us. Sometimes he choos­ es to_play in his room, sometimes he lies on the couc h and falls asleep, sometimes he plays with crayons or puzzles or blocks or other toys, some­ times he asks to be read t o. But more and more, he uses his quiet time to look at his books and ask ~uestions.

Like you, lance tried running my finger under the words as 1 read.

Adam told me to "Just read . " However, one day we were talking about signs, and Adam wanted me to make a sign that said ADAM'S ROOM. Over the next few days we made signs f o r each room of the house, for the door, light, table, etc. I don't think I'd have done it if he hadn't asked - a little too much like shoving it down hi s throat, if I had started it. . .. We take the kids to places where you usually don't see kids; they usually do fine. If one of them really talks too much or seems to be disturbing ot h ers , we can always t a ke them out . . . . We have a small museum, a zoo, state parks, library, civic ballet, litt l e theater, and farms, dairies, swimming holes, places to "pick your own" food, a friend who is a beekeeper, h ot air balloon races, ice rink, antique shops, craft fairs, factories that give t ours, free out­ door concerts, etc . I don't think where we live is especially unique .. .

We cou ldn't afford to go to most places if we had to hire a babysit­ ter. The o ther reason we take the m is because we're all happier. I ' obvious­ ly can't leave Jessica, a nursing baby, for long . Adam is old e~ough that h e doesn't misbehave (meaning that he can act like a " l i ttle man" so he doesn't offend others - at least any more than by just being there). The c hildren like to be with us, and we like to be with them ...

Richard and I aren't really comforta­ ble around people who don't welc ome our children ...

TOOLS VS. TOYS

From Barry Kahn in Maine ("Another Teaclier," GWS #16): ... 1 don't think Baby Joc (Joce­ lyn, our almost-one-year~old) is going to let me type very much, but I'll give it ~ try. What I need is a silent invisible typewriter.

Speaking of t ypewriter s , last night Heather (3) called me over, pointed to the letters she had t ype d, and said, "Daddy, these [on the paper] aren't the same as these [on the keys ] ." She had disc ove red upper and lower case letters - and she wasn't too pleased about it . So I showed her the SHIFT and LOCK keys and she went happil y back to work on , her name. ... 1 think children instinctive­ ly recognize objects (and people, per­ hap s) of special power . I am thinking of musical instruments in particular, but probably fine tools, etc:, would evoke the same reaction. I picked up

my fiddle case this evening and Joce ­ lyn, who ha s not seen the fiddle for at least two weeks, crawled across the floor like a sprinter b.efore I had it half , unzipped . She communi ­ ca tes at a very high level both with noises and body language, and when she saw that violin come out of the case she was "shouting": SPECIAL TOY - Let me try it'" . Which of course I did. Then Heather had a turn, and then I got a chance. They react to the guitar the same way. Heather, being older, is now becoming more in­ terested in subtleties: how I hold the bow, how I strum the guitar strings. But the basic reaction of in_ tense interest is the same in bot h kids . Believe me, the y don't react to plastic toys like that .

I think they know, somehow, that guitars and violins are in a special class of objects which last, which remain interesting forever, and also which demand something special of them . Heather checks herself on the fiddle like she does with the door­ knobs around th e house wh ich she still can't turn by herself - just a quick little self-test to see if the prev~ous day's growth has made any difference. She wants to be big, but she accepts that it will take time.

She's clearly confident, however, that when she is big, she will be able to do anytning and everything all the adults she knows can do. It ' s that confidence that I would like to keep alive and well .

Beneath the Himalayas of bull which the education industry produces every year, I ~erceive one fundamen ­ tal belief: children can't be trusted to learn; t hey must be taught . And un­ derlying the unschooling movement is the belief - which I fervently share - that children are curious, self ­ motivated learners-by-nature. I have faith in my children. A lot of folks don't. After watching Heather for three years and Jocelyn for oqe, there isn't a shred of doubt in my mind that my children not only are capable of directing their own learn~ ing, but that they have been since birth. We can help greatly, we can hinder terminally, but at least in the beginning the potential for child­ ren to learn and grow in tune wit h their own natural rhythms and readi­ ne ss is present .

'You have written about how hard it is to do no te ac hing, to let the learner, the child, direct things. I agree completely. We either have faith in children - or we don't. The consequences of no faith are visible everywhere . The consequences of faith, I submit, ar~ beyond the imagi­ ning of most adults bec~use neither they nor anyone th ey know was allowed to grpw up in trust and faith. ' 1 cer­ tainly wasn't. In fact I can only imagine wh at my children will be like in ten or fifteen years if they pur­ sue their own interests and aren ' t forced to sit year after tedious year waiting for something to happen, learning to be good test-takers, learning to psych ou.t their teachers, etc . , ad nauseam~ Life is too short to spend it in classrooms ...

GOOD NEWS FROM TEXAS

From Sally Wilson (TX): ... Alt the people wh o have con­ tributed to GWS have meant a great deal to my family . You have sparked our interest, given us fait h in our project, supported us. I would like to share our story . . .

We moved to the country three months ago looking for "The Good Life," fresh a ir,. independence, hard work, freedom. We found all these things. Our boys, John ( 9 ), Jimmy (5), and Davey (3)~ have gained an inner peace, a beautiful sense of won­ derment, and a freedom that was unob­ tainable in the heavily populated sub­ urbia from where we came. . .. John and Jimmy were eager to start school. Determined to learn.

Excited to work. The second week of school I received a mimeographed form l etter from Jimmy's kindergarten teacher which read: "Your ch ild has committed the following infraction of school rules: TQrowing a cookie at a boy who threw one at him. As a result of this action, your . child was repri­ manded and spanked." This was his first infraction of the rules" The spanking involved being taken from the classroom and swatted three times with a paddle in view of another adult witness. The offense took place at recess time . ... Rather t han confront the teacher, I called around to see what other parents' feelings were qn this subject. The poll was upanimous ­ whatever the school does is right.

I cautioned Jimmy, but told him that I di~ not agree with his teacher and would find some way to prevent this from happening again . . . . 1 read John Holt's article . in Mother Ea rth News ... Suddenly, it seemed Lmportant. I ordered GWS and read all six issues ... My husband and I, well awar~ · of the system's resistance to change, decided the change had to be ours. We had big plans to do thorough investigations of laws, children's reaction to home schooling, our own skills. We had ex­ perimented with small scale home Iearning . The boys loved it, and so did we. It worked. But our p~ans were to be slow, careful, leaving no stone's unturned.

Meanwhile, John had· developed se~ere headaches and stomach pains.

He cried all one night because he had forgotten his homework book, and begged to stay home .the n~xt day. We tried to find 9ut the boys' problems, but they would not open up their feel­ ings . About all we could do was give them some feeble reassurance. ... 1 was pleased when John's teacher asked me for a conference; I thought this w'ould be an insight to our problem. I will let the conversa­ ti on speak for itself: Teacher: I want to speak t o you about John's attitude . He says you do not want him to be spanked in school. If I am going to have any control I need your cooperation .

Me: Are you asking if I will allow s panking? I will not.

Teacher: I cannot make the child­ ren do anything unless I spank them .. .

Me: Are you saying the way to learn is through fear an9 punish­ ment?

Teacher: It's school policy, you do not have anything to say about it.

Me: I ha ve something to say to the principal. I want an appoint­ ment with you for me and my husband.

The principal was in the hall and I questibned him on leaving the classroom. He said, "It is school law, state law, federal law. There is nothing you can do about it . " ... Oh, but there was something 1 could do . We were not prepared. The whole idea came to us suddenly and

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

13

not much time has p'a ssed. We grasped at straws, determined the boys would never go back to that school.

We knew so little about our state laws, ai learning about them was a project we had intended for the future . I called people in the GWS Directory; they were very concerned and helpful. One man in particular led us to the decision we finally made. My husband called lawyers, gov­ ernment agencies, anyone; everyone.

The Texas State School Board was helpful . They said we c'o uld take our children out of puBtic school at 'any time provided we enroll them in a pri­ vate or parochial school . There are none in this area . This is a point in our favor. My ~ister owns and oper­ ates a private school fifty miles away and has agreed to enroll my children and help us set up a home study curricu:um . She will advise us and we will go to her school once a week or as needed. Th is is perfectly legal . We must call the public school and advise them of what we are doing - ' and they cannot dO , anything about it .

All of this - the teacher confer­ ence, the phone calls - took place to­ day. It proves the "Where there's a will, there's a way" theory. It proves there is a hope if we will not accept less than our 'dreams, if we help each other. We are aware there will be setbacks and rough spots. We are not afraid because we know this is right.

If there could ever be any re­ gret for our actions, all I have to do is remember my son today when he came home . I told him I knew what had been happening at sc~ool and he apolo­ gizetl for it. Now I knew he couldn't tell me before because he thou~ht everhthing that happened at sc 001 was ~s fault. I hugged h~m, loved him, and told him over and 'over, "It's not your fault. It never was your fault. You' will never have to feel that way again . " And we cried to­ gether, for ourselves, for the poor creatures who run the school, for relief.

Please add us to the Directory . ..

AT HOME IN UTAH

From PatrIcia Gurley (UT): ... The kids love the freedom of "no school . " I am quite prone to lean ,toward unschooling as so , many seem to be doing, but I still find myself with a tendency towards keeping the kids "on top" of math and grammar.

Otherwise their reins are pretty free.

Brendan ( 10) is teaching himself the recorder and guitar and has always been an avid reader . Cindy (&) loves to learn, but loves to learn what s he ' wants to learn when she wants to learn it. I'm enjoying watch~ ing where their heads are taking them - and they're so very much happier and carefree than are school kids.

I recently took a ~ollege course in sign language and finger spelling and of covrse, I'm teaching it to the children . They love it. We're using the finger spelling to learn spelling - sneaky, hmm? And they think more about what they're spell~it seems, than when they just write words .

Since we live 1500 miles from our families, let~er writing has become quite a tool for language anQ writing skills, and the grandmas respond quickly enough to make wri­ ting worth the time and effort in­ vo'tved.

GROWING WITHOUT SC~OOLING #18.

Since we are Jehovah's Witness­ es, we lack no companionship as we, go out in the tioor-to-door work together almost every day, and Brendan and Cihdy do enjoy that. ,We also attend five hours' worth of meetings per week where both of the children are enrolled in the theocratic school (as are we, their parents) and they are learning to give ta-lks from the plat-, form .

We are all enrolled in dancing and gymnastics classes, and go roller skating almost every week. · We ~ive in Canyonlands cQuntry right near Arches National Monument (4 miles north). We swim in a beautiful creek with every size pool imaginable, which runs for about 20 miles from Moab to the La Sal Mountains. So ~ our live ~ are full anq happy and we're very thank­ ful , for your books and ,newsletter as a needed positive reinforcement. Bren­ dan is reading HOW CHILDREN LEARN ...

ONTARIO COURSES

A reader writes: . .. Ontario parents may be inter­ ested to know that correspondence courses are available free of charge from the Education Ministry, Corres­ pondence Education Branch, 909 George St, Toronto M4w 3G2.

To qualify fDr Elementary School courses, one ,needs a -medical certifi­ cate if not well enough t o attend school, or a ~ecommendation from senior education area if distance is the reason (i ncluding travel and tem­ porary residence outside Canada.)

These restrictions also apply to the high . school courses. Students ~ n grade 11, 12, or 13 at public school can also take one of these courses with the principal's permissi on .

What interested me is that these courses are also open to adults seek­ ing further education or enrichment.

They are free of charge to Canadian citizens resident in Ontar'i:o. Inclu­ ded in the high school courses are courses in Typewriting, Computer Fun­ damentals, Accounting, Creative Writ­ ing, Readings in Wilderness, Archae­ ology, Science Fiction, German, Lat­ in, French, Investment Compu't ations, Caipentry (lumber kit provided), Printmaking, Photography, Cinemato­ graphy, Art History, and Practical Art (a rt kits provided or loaned.) ,It seems a marvelous free oppor­ tunity for enrichment. A younger per­ son could be "fronted" by an adult who would apply for .the course if the younger person could not qualify.

High school certificates issued by the Correspondence Education branch have the same validity as those issued by Ontario secondary schools. .. . 1 have applied for French for myself and plan ' to include my 11 and 6 year olds in the lessons (casse tte tapes, too). The next one will be Typing, then some Art, and who knows ...

STATE AID

A Michigan reader writes: ... The local superintendent says when ou~ children return to public school they will refuse to promote them. We ate proceeding with our plans anyway and hope to keep them out of ' public school from now on. He candidly told me it comes down to a choice, between what's best for my children and what's best for the

school system, and if the y let me "get away with this" then all the other parents who are unhapp y wit h school will pull their kids out and the school system couldn't function if that happened. In this state they lost as much as ,1600 per child ...

We need to do some research to find out, in as many states as possi­ ble; what are the specific laws and/or administrative regulati ons on state aid, so that we can find or in­ vent ways in which schools can cooper­ ate withou~ losing state aid. We'll be grateful for any help readers can give us with this.

CALIF. UNSCHOOLERS

The Sacramento Bee, 9/7/80: . . . Laura Joyce of Broderi ck, a big-eyed, intelligent 8-year-old, didn't go back to school last week.

And her curious, livewire brother, 5-year-old Alex, ,didn't start kinder­ garten .

Instead, Laura, a voracious read­ er, spent the day with her nose in "The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald." She built some min iature furniture for her Barbie doll and swung from trees . .

Alex tinkered with the old clock he's been trying to fix, zipped through several pages of a math work­ book, and dug in the garden.

Together with their mother, they did some research to identify and study the Goliath beetle they had found.

Their mother, Jane Joyce, has strong . beliefs that school is not a good place for children to learn the lessons she believes are important for them, lessons about respect and decision-making and cooperation and Goliath beetles . She also has strong oeliefs that home is a good place for the children to learn, a place where they can become proficient in all the school stuff known as basic skills, plus learn more things than a school could hope to fit into a dqy, a whole range of subjects and skills that edu­ cators might describe as an enriched curriculum.

Joyce believes Laura and Alex should be able . to become competent at everything from library skills to cooking, without being exposed to what she considers are negative mes­ sages about competition and violence, and the drudgery of learning she be­ lieves school teaches.

So this fall, after playing hide­ and-seek with the compulsory educa­ tion laws for much of the past three years, she decided to confront the issue head-on. Rather than refuse to allow school officials in the door when they came to warn her that she was breaking the law by keeping Laura out of school, Joyce offered a com­ promise. _ , If she would enroll, h er children and keep standard attendance re co rds so the district could claim them for financial purposes, and if the staff could test the youngsters as they wi's hed, and if a teacher could make, periodic home visits, Joyce asked, then could she teach them at home?

She petitioned the school board to approve the arrangement under a state law that allows for independent home study .

Thursday, the Washington Unified Scl:1001 District board 'made "indepen­ dent study" a l~gitimate program at the elementary grade level within the

14

district. And Friday, Joyce negoti~ ated with Rudy Jakosa, assistant superintendent' of instruction, about the form independent study would take for the Joyce children.

Their mother wants them at horne full time, perhaps with a teacher corning in twice a week to supervise their studies. Jakosa still wants them in school 75% of the time. Usual­ ly this would mean three hours a day, until noon, but Jakosa said there would be flexibility to allow for full days off. . .. Monday, Joyce is supposed to report back to Jakosa about whether she will accept his offer, one she clearly doesn't like.

Joyce fir.st - l~arned to distrust schools while teaching for five years in New YorK schools. "I kept thinking the problem was ' the particular school," she recalls. "But it was the system . " "The mqst loving teacher cannot possibly love 30 children," she holds' , "or know each time they are turned on or turned off. In fact, the finest teachers I know are tortured by the system they must work in, get burned out, and leave." . . . Her children learn gardening and carpentry because of her involve­ ment with those activities. Laura helps her balance the checkbook. When she goes to the library to read a rare book she's ordered, the children find books and tapes there in their areas of interest. .. . Many people who find school a limiting institution in terms of aca­ demic skills , and the acquisition of knowledge still defend it for its role ' in socializing children. But Joyce's view of that socialization is critical. "It's one of the biggest reasons not to send them to school," she said. "I don't want them to laugh at the weakness of others, to tease, ' even if that's the norm. I want them to be able to spot cruelty, and call it what i t is.

"I don't want them to be told they're cheating if they help their neighbor. Or to be in trouble if t hey talk to their friends, or think that tattling on their friends in OK. I don't want them to be trained to be good robots. I want them to be aware, to have practice in making good deci­ sions. I want them to question author­ ity, even if it's mine,. hard as that is . If they're immersed in a book, I don't want them to feel they have to stop that to go to circle time, to deny their own reality that way . " , : . . She is working to earn Cali­ fornia ,teaching credentials, a move that the district says would allow her to educate her children at horne legally . . .

Jane Joyce (see Cal. Dir . ) wrote us that the above arrangement with the loca l school did not' work out, and she plans to establish her own private school. Meanwhile, the same school district that would not let her teach her own children at horne has hired her to tutor other people's children.

YOUNG AND OLD

More from Eileen Trombly in Connecticut ("Back Horne," GWS #15): . . . Here we are into our sevent~ year of horne-instruction and things are going along smoothly. . . . There always has ~een and still seems to be a great deal of con­

cern over this socialization busi­ ness . Over the years I have observed enough with our own three children to feel entitled to voice my personal observations and opinions con~erning the matter . . .. Spencer and I have always stressed quality of friendship rather than quantity of friends. Our children have learned the value of having one or two close friends and the work involved in developing those relationships; as o~posed to many superficial friendships . We have seen how superficial friendships have served only to create disappointment, insecurity, and distrust in t heir peers. Lori, Amy, and Sarah have all maintained a ' social life best suited to their individual needs, rather than living up to parental expecta­ tions, or the pressures and demands of a school-oriented social life.

They are comfortable with managing their own social programs and involve­ ment and have developed a confidence around people of all age groups that is simply not visible in school­ attending children.

For an example: Amy, 14, has taken ballet lessons from an older woman in town and has developed a unique, warm relationship with her over the years. The woman is now in he~ eighties, $till participates in dance, and has a wi ry interesting past which she shares with Amy . .Th e lesson is one-on-one so there is always much time for sharing and feel ­ ing relaxed in each other's company .

The teacher was once a ballerina in the New York Ballet Troupe; owned a theater with her husband, who was in vaudeville; was daughter-in-law of a former Cohnecticut governor; and was acquainted with Anna Pavlova. She has much to offer in the way of experi ­ ences, and her polished yet friendly manner has served to influence Amy in a very positive way.

Relationships with older people have affected all the girls in posi­ tive, creative ways. There is a depth and sincerity in it that has taught them how important human relation­ ships really are. Trust and respect for the generations develops and t h e "gap" never gets a chance to start.

They enrich each other's lives with the enthusiasm of the young combined with the wisdom and experience of the old. This is not to say, however, that they don't haVe friends their age~, but that they choose to develop relationships with' people anywhere from 5 to 7p years older. They feel secure in these friendships and do not fear rejection. ... Lori has always been able to deal with people of all age groups and with the opposite sex, as 'well.

She is now sixteen and has problems with older people only when she gets the feeling that they are trying to put her down due to her age . . .. She is often expected to function as a ','normal" sixteen year old and becomes frustrated when not allowed to apPly her knowledge or be respected 11'S a person.

Sarah, although only ten, has also had the opportunity to establish relationships with older people and people of the opposite sex. Her paper­ route, consisting of many senior citi­ zens, has enabled her to do this.

Many have reached out to her and she, in turn, has received them. The time length of her route varies , each day according to the needs of her "friends" that day. She is able to sense their loneliness and they seem to have time to ' listen to each other ' " apart from the pressures of the younger world of fast living and con­

tinual activity. One of Sarah's hob­ bies is making greeting cards. Her thoughtfulness in remembering these neighbors with her cards has corne back to her in many pleasant ways.

They have the time for her and she takes-rKe time for them. This is all DyC11oice.

The girls each have their one or two , "best friends" their own ages and these friends are truly sincere .. .

SUPERINTENDENT'S FEARS

A reader writes: . . . This was my first meeting with the school principal . I had called him to make an appointment when he had " considerable time." I told him my objectives: to take our children out of school because I con­ sider it an undesirable situation and to educate them at horne, and that the reason for my meeting with him was to see if we could do this with coopera­ tion and communication between the school and us or if outright war was the only alternative. I made it very clear to him that it was not him per­ sonally or t h is particular school, but the system I reject. We talked for several hours, but I got nowhere .

Finally he asked the superinten­ dent of schools to join us to share this development ~ith him and get his views. Well, the Superintendent lis­ tened until he heard I intended to take the children out of school at which point he said, "Well, the law is very clear, we must report ab­ sences or we are fined . Either you send your c h ildren to school or we have to turn it over to the district attorney because I'm not going - to prison for you." . . .

Until I read this parent's letter I did not realize how genuine was the fear of some school officials that if they allowed a family to teach their own children they them­ selves might get-in serious trouble .

This poor devil ' s notion of the law boils down to this: If you try to teach 'your kids, I have to put you in jail, and if I don't, someone will put me in jail. Untrue, and absurd ­ but fie really believes it.

First of all, the laws of many states ~pecifically provide for some­ thing other than attendance in , school, whether this be called "horne instruction" or "equivalent instruc­ tion" or whatever . As I said in GWS #12, "They Have A Choic,e ," the power to approve or-Gisapprove of horne in­ struction re'sts in almost all states at the local level; the superinten­ dent does-n0t have to answer to any higher authority.

But even where the law speaks only of " school attendance," the sc hools still have a legal right ­ not a duty, but a right - to approve horne schooling. As far as I know, sc hools have the _right to define "attendance" in whatever ways they wish. No state statute says that "attendance" can only mean bodily pre­ sence in some school building. Under the law, schools have the right to assign students to field trips, apprentices~ips, job training pro­ grams, travel, or instructional pro­ grams (like the Parkway Project in Philadelphia) where ' for months on end students do all th-eir work outside of school buildings. Under the laws as written, children are attending school whenever they are taking part in an instructional program, in what-

GROWING WITH OUT SCHOOL ING #18

15

ever place and of whatever kind, t hat is approve d by the sc hool. There is nothing either in the statutes or the case law (court rulings) to prevent a school distr.ict, if it wis hes, from assigning certain children to study at home.

Before would - be home schoolers have any kind of meetings with the superintendent and/or school board, or begin to discus~ any details of their own home schooling program, they should write the superintendent a letter making the points above. In this letter, it might also be well to add, "If you know of anything in the statutes and/or the case law that con­ tradicts what I have said above about the meaning of t he law, please let me know as soon as possible . Unless I hear f~om you to the contrary, I will assume that you agree in ?ubstance with my interpretation of the law."

This puts the burden on them to show (if ' they can ) that you are mistaken .

If they do not, and later try to take part in some kind of legal action against you, they will be in ' a weak position. You can show that you tried to find out ' what the law was, and that, despite their legal obligation to do so, they did not tell you.

It might also be well to send the same letter not only to the mem ­ bers of the school board but also (1) the county attorney (2) the state department of education (3) your state legislators (4) the local wel ­ fare and/or child-service organiza­ tions, since the schools often use these to press charges of child neg­ lect, and (5) the judges of the juve­ nile court.

After you have sent out such a letter, and waited (not very long) for a response, you can begin to talk to school people, in person or by mail, about teaching your children at home, and the ways in which you in­ tend to do this.

If and when you write such a let­ ter/s, please let us know what respon­ ses and results you get. Let me say once more that the point of all this is not that the law says that schools must cooperate with home schoolers, but only that they can if they want .

NEW LAWS: WISC . ..

The Wisconsin legislature recent­ ly passed some amendments to the edu­ cation laws, which formerly made no mention of home instruction. In part: ASSEMBLY SUBSTITUTE AMENDMENT 1, TO 1979 ASSEMBLY BILL 1075 . .. Section 10. 118.15 (1) (d) and (el of the statutes are repealed and recreated to read : 118.15 (1) (d) Any child's par­ ent or guardian, or the child if the parent or guardian is notified, may request the school board to provide the child with program or curriculum modifications, including but not lim­ ited to: ... 5 . Home-bound study, includ­ ing nonsectarian correspondence cour­ ses or other courses of study approved by the school board or non­ sectarian tutoring provided by the school in which the child is enrolled.

6. Enrollment in any public edu­ cational program located outside the school district in which the child re­ sides. Enrollment of a child under this subdivision may be pursuant to a contractual agreement between school districts. ( e) Any decision made by a school board or a designee of the

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

school board in response to a request for program or curriculum modifica­ tions under paragraph (d) shall be re­ viewed by the school board upon re ­ quest of the child's parents or guard­ ian. The school board shall render its determination upon review in writ­ ing, if the child's parents or guard­ ian so requests . . .

AND LOUISIANA

Mrs. Raymond (Hazel) Anderson, 1420 Prentiss, New Orleans LA 70122, writes: ... A great victory has been won for parents in the state of Louisi­ ana . Act 828 ~complet~ text follows] i's now a law which allows parents to teach their children at home . As of this writing, the Boa~d of Elementary and Secondary Education of the state of Louisiana is in the process of for­ mulating how the home study curricula will be approved. ... So a parent no longer has to face harrassment by authorities, fines, and/or imprisonment (as one mother experienced in Monroe, La. this year). It's amazing how crimi­ nals are free to roam our cities and parents are being imprisoned nation­ wide for caring enough to see that their children receive a good educa­ tion' State Representative Louis "Woody'" Jenkins (Baton Rouge dis­ crict) sponsored the bill. I asked him to co-author it when my husband and I met him at a Pro-Family Forum conference at which he spoke in Mon­ roe, La. in February, 1980. Since our own representative was not able to sponsor it for us, Mr. Jenkins agreed to do so as he had already considered writing such a bill himself.

We withdrew our own son from a terrible public school situation ( 6th grade) at the end of December, 1979, and used the Home Study Program of the Christian Liberty Academy (203 E, McDonald Rd, Prospect Hts IL 60070) . .. . We are thrilled that "aver­ age" citizens can get a law passed under our system-of government. Until this year, we didn't even know who our legislators were' ... If you need any more info, please write ...

1980 REGULAR SESSION DEFINITION OF A SCHOOL UNDER GEN­ ERAL SCHOOL LAW Act. No. 828 House Bill No. 1782 Be it enacted by the Legislature of LoUTSiana: Section 1 . Section 236 of Title 17 of the LouISiana Revised Statutes of 1950 is hereby amended and reenact­ ed as follows: S. 236. Definition of a school .

For the purposes of this Chapter, a school is defined as an Institution for the teaching of children, consist­ ing of an adequate physical plant, whether owned or leased, instruction­ al staff members, and students. For such an institution to be classified as a school, within the meaning of this Chapter, instructional staff mem­ bers shall meet the following require­ ments: if a public day school or a nonpublic school which receives local, state, or federal funds or sup­ port, directly or indirectly, they shall be certified in accordance with rules established by the Board of Ele­ mentary and Secondary Education; if a nonpublic school which receives no local, state, or federal funds or sup­

port, directly or indirectly, they shall meet such , requirements as may be ' prescribed by the school or the church . In addition, any such institu ­ tion, tO ' be classified as a sc ~ool, shall operate a minimum session of not less than one hundred eighty days. Solely for purposes of compul­ sory attendance in a nonpublic school, a child who participates in a home study program approved by the Board of Elemenary and Secondary Edu­ cation shall be considered in atten­ dance at a day school; a home study program shall be approved if it off­ ers a sustained curriculum of a quali­ ty at least equal to that offered by public schools at the same grade level.

Section 2 . If any provision or it~m of th~s Act or the,application thereof is held invalid, such invalid­ ity shall not affect other provis­ ions, items, or applications of this Act which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items, or applications, and to this end the pro­ visions of this Act are hereby de­ clared severable .

Section 3. All laws or parts of laws in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

Approved Aug. 1, 1980.

CLASS ACTION SUITS

People in several states have talked about filing "class action" suits on behalf of home schoolers. I think these people may have mistaken ideas about what class action suits are, and if so may wind up wasting a lot of time, energy, and money.

Class action suits are used, as far as I know exclusively, in cases where monetary damages are sought .

They don't fit our situation at all.

For example, the families of babies deformed by Thalidomide filed a class7 action suit against the drug manu­ facturers, asking for (and getting) considerable amounts of money for care and treatment of the victims.

The impression I get is that these folks who tall< about "class action" are trying to get a court to rule in favor of home schooling in such a way that it will be binding in all future cases in the state. They'd like a court to say, "Not only can this family appearing before us teac h their children at home, but from now on ~ family who wants can teach their children at hpme, and i~ is none of the schools' or the state's business."

There is no way to do this. Tha t isn't the way our legal system works.

In our system of law, there is no such thing as a "binding precedent."

Judg'es may be and usually are very strongly influenced by precedents, since they like the law to be consis­ tent. But they are not and cannot be bound by them .

However, if a court makes a strong decision in favor of a home schooling family, as in Perchemlides here in Mass., this will do a great deal to dissuade other school boards from trying to make trouble for home schoolers. What those concerned "class-action" people could do in­ stead is to prepare the strongest possible case for one intelligent, dedicated, and articulate family with a very well worked-out educational plan which they are prepared to de­ fend at length, with all manner of quotes from educators, legal deci­ sions, etc. If this family wins, later families, even those less weli prepared, can then draw on that as a

16 precedent. It doesn't guarantee suc­ cess, but makes it much more likely.

But there is no way to get a court to make a decision that will Eermanently bind other courts. If a case comes along which is sufficient­ ly different from the case that set the precedent, there is nothing to prevent a court from saying, or a lawyer from trying to get a cou'rt to say, "The ·fo rmer ruling does not apply here." Courts have said such things thousands of times.

HOME-BOUND EQUIVALENT From an Indiana reader: ... I've noticed something to be true you mentioned in your article in Mother Earth News. Our 8th grade boy D~is lett arm and injured his left leg, and has them both in casts .

He is to be home from school until the 1st of December, so we have a home-bound teacher coming each day.

She doesn't come until 3:30 p.m. each day and is only here half ~n hour to h elp him with a whole day ot school work. She grades the papers he's done and makes new assignments and leaves ...

In oth~r words, not only is this teacher in the boy's presence for 2~ hours a week, but during that time she gives zero hours of assistance or instructio~othing is shown or ex­ plained, no questions are answered.

There is nothing' done here that could not just as easily be done by mail.

Indeed, many of the schools that now work with parents from a distance, such as Calver t, Santa Fe Community Sc hool, etc, do a great deal more .

Yet in the eyes of the local school district, the' compulsory education law is being satisfied by this sketchy treatment.

Once again, we ask and urge read­ ers to find out all they can about what public schools in their district and state actually do with children who are h ome sick . This information can be ve ~y useful to families for whom the schools are trying to make trouble.

MORE COLLEGE AT HOME From Quest, Feb/Mar.

'80:

.. . Last March, Emil · Berendt be­ came a college graduate by earning a B.S. degree from the University of the State of New York. Not for anoth­ er th·ree months did he receive what usually comes first - a high school diploma.

At 16, Berendt was the youngest of more than 9,000 people who have won college degrees without attending college classes, through USNY's pio­ neering Regents External Degree Pro­ gram. While going to high school full­ ti.me in Katonah, NY, he had managed to earn 126 college credits (six more than he needed) solely by studying at home and passing a series of exams in different subjects. His B.S. degree cost him on ly $320, plus the expense of a few books ...

Students can earn credits toward these external degre~s in three ways.

Some, like Emil Berendt, choose to sit for rigorous multiple choice exams, which are given several times a year at test centers across the country and at military bases around the world. There are minimum accept­ able scores for each test.

Other students, like John Hagan of Williamsburg, Va., . may have stu­ died at several colleges or universi­ ties over the years but were never in one place long enough to meet the res­ idence requirements for a degree . ..

Last January, Hagan had the tran­ scripts of all his prior college work sent to the New York Regents program for evaluation. (Ahy classroom or cor­ respondence course taken a4 any time, from any accredited institution, is acceptable if the student has main­ tained a C average.) Since Hagan had more credits than a B.A. requires, h e got his degree in June - at a total cost of $106. · . . James Enright learned Vietnam­ ese during his four years as a ij.S .

Army code breaker and interpreter. A widower with two small children, he managed to complete a Regents B.A. last March. He combined credi~s from three schools, one correspondence course, some college-proficiency exams, and a special assessment of his fluency in Vietnalllese . . . "The pro­ gram was a breakthrough for me, " says Enright. "After a lapse of nine years, I completed all the require­ ments for a bachelor's degree in about 13 months . " . · .. New Jersey's Edison College uses individual assessments wheneve r possible as an integral part of its program. George R. Meisler got his bachelor's degree at 65, partly on the strength of his 40 years as a labor leader and editor of a trade union journal . ... The Council for the Advance­ ment of ~xperiential Learning in Col­ umbia MD offers free telep h one infor­ mation about schools allover the country that evaluate and give credit for "prior learning." Call 800-638­ 7813 . . ... In the University Without Walls program of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, students earn bachelor's degrees largely by de­ signing their own courses . Most are working people who plan and carry out a project on the job, guided by uni­ versity faculty and perhaps by a com­ munity adviser with special knowledge of their field. To graduate, the stu­ dent must meet certain general criter­ ia (a command of written English and the methods of scientific inquiry, for instance) and must prepare a dos­ sier to prove his mastery of his maj­ or subject . .

U\']W students register for full­ time study a nd pay full tuition rates ($ 307 a quarter), but they also quali­ fy'for standard financial aid. They do not have to spend any time on cam­ pus. Students of the Minnesota pro ­ gram live in many other' states as well as other countries. One British ~oman earned her B.A. from Minneso~a while teaching in Zambia. · .. One of the important new ven­ tures in off-campus education is the University of Mid-America, based in Lincoln, Nebraska. Its radio and TV courses for home study can lead to a degree from one o f 11 participating Midwestern universities located in seven states .. . [ For more about College At Home, see GWS #9 & 14. 1

POSSIBLE RESOURCES Issue #66 of Th e Mother Earth News (PO Box 70, Hendersonville NC Tgfgl), page 122, announces the forma­ tion of local chapters of Mother sub­ scribers. It seems to us that many GWS readers might want to take part in this, as a way of getting in touch

with people who are not only likely to be sympathetic to home schooling, but pr6bably also skilled and re­ sourceful. Annual dues are $25, in addition to the cost of subscribirtg to the magazine ($15/yr).

Another group that may have peo­ ple sympathetic to unschooling, as well as much valuable knowledge, is LA LECHE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL, 9616 Mi~neapolis Av, Frankl~n Park IL 60131. They have local chapters, a national newsletter, and books and re­ prints on natural childbirth, breast­ f e ed ing, midwifery, nutrition, etc.

By the way, another source of in­ formation on these topics is the book catalog of the CHILD~IRTH EDUCATION SUPPLY CENTER, 10 Sol Drive, Carmel NY 10512.

OFFER From Ken Maly, Rt 2 Box 78, Rus h ­ ford MN 55971: . ... 1 am a bookbinder ... Anyone who wishes to have the GWS newslet­ ters bound should simply send me the ones to be bound, $10.00, and name the color of cover they want, and I will bind them and send them back .

They should allow four weeks (not be­ cause it takes four weeks to do it, but because it may take me three weeks to get to it' ) ...

WE NEED YOU Discussing why some people don't renew their GWS subscriptions, a read­ er writes: ... 1 wondered if it was that at least some of those folks don't need GWS anymore. I know that when my---­ daughter first left public school my anxiety level was so high that I would literally grab GWS from the mailbox and read it from beginning to end before I went to bed that night.

That was almost two years ago - and it's all been so ~asy, so smooth, so satisfying thar-I can't-rmagine why-I worried so much. Now I scan GWS over a week's time .. .

I'm sure s he's right. I think a lpt of people did need GWS very much at first, and that after a while they reached a point where they felt they didn't need it. That's good; all good teachers, and GWS is a kind of teach­ er, want to help their students get to the place where they don't need them any more. But even when our read­ ers don't need us, we need them, &0 that we can keep on putting out GWS for the people who do need.it. To peo­ ple who no longer need GWS and feel they have too much to read, I'd say, instead of a subscription, why not send us a contribution?'

Of course, there are many rea­ sons for reading GWS that have nothing to do with need. It's a good place, probably the best place, to find out how the home 'school movement is going, and growing. Also, we keep reviewing new books for our list, and parents who can't afford to buy many of them can a lways look for these books in a library. We have had much more stuff about music and art in recent issues, and will have still more about them, and many other sub­ jects, in issues to come. We will always be looking for ideas and infor­ mation, and will print any we find, about ways in which young people can join adults in serious work . Finally,

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

17

through the Directory and other kinds of networks that are beginning to spring up " home schoolers will De able to meet more and more people who f eel as they do ab.out chj.ldren and schooling, and how to help young peo­ ple make their way into the world.

Well, if people don't want to read about all that, Xhat's fine.

Help us with contributions instead .

We have a very long way to go before home schooling, which has become easy for some, becomes easy for everyone.

ON ROY MASTERS

From Gary Arnett (NS): · .. 1 was not surprised to see in GWS #15 one of the letter-writers [Valerie Hd ligan, "At Home in III i­ nois"] mentioning that she practiced the meditation taught by Roy Masters and found this strengthened her con­ victions toward unschooling. The group of parents who started the "school" I have written you about (GWS #13) practice this meditation also. I am sure there must be other GWS readers and/or unschoolers who use this meditation, and have also gained insights concerning schools and the destruction of children by adults through listening to Roy Mas­ ter's radio programs and reading his writings.

Roy has written a number of arti­ cles concerning education ("Why Educa­ tion Fails," "The Deception of Educa­ tion," '!The Letter Killeth") that might be of interest to GWS read~ ers ... I know of no one else on syndi­ cated stations across the continent who so openly and forcefully advo­ cates unschooling and explains the harm being done by the schools. His address is The Foundation of Human Understanding, 8780 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90034 ...

IMPOSING VALUES

Stephen Arons (GWS ,#12,), writing in 1978 about the Perchemlides case, put an important issue very well: · .. The family's suit contends that the school committee's standards for approval of home education must be minimal. Since the family's rights of privacy, conscience, and belief are at risk in government regulation of education, the suit seeks to re­ quire that any regulation of the right of home education in Massachu­ setts be justified by a compelling state interest. Most important, the Perchemlides call for·an end to the practice by which educat~on standards and truanc¥ laws are used to impose the educatlonal phllosoph and politi­ cal and cultural values 0 the school bureaucracy upon lndlvldual famiTies ...

1

SEEKS COMMUNITY

From Christina Lloyd, 2369 Van Horn, Memphis TN 38112: · . . Ny husband is currently a sen­ ior medical student. We are trying to figure out where to do a residency. A large factor of where to do it is whether I can find other parents who believe as we do that we can share teaching in the home.

I think it is very important to have age peers to share learning with. Other children learn best from group experiences of learning (some

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18 '

of the time anyway.) It's more like sharing learning and teaching helps.

My six year old teaches a great deal to my 4 and 2 year olds, including reading and numbers to the 4 year old; the 4 year old teachers color names to the 2 year old, etc.

I like using games like Scrabble (with 5 and above) or Chutes and Lad ders to teach numbers. It has been frustrating at times, , but it was real­ ly rewarding when my oldest read his first book to me. He just turned six and recently read me an "I-Can-Read­ It" book (60 pages' ) , Mitchell is M0ciing. Science experiments are fun an easy to do. My husband contrib­ utes with anatomy and medicine les­ sons. Writing letters to friends is my best trick for practicing writ­ ing ... ... Well, I can hardly wait to get the'magazine. Can I put an ad in it so we can find a favorable town to live in? ..

EXTRA BOOKLISTS

Now and then it happens that we have more booklists printed up than we need for our mailings, speaking en­ gagements, etc. If any GWS readers would like to have some of these book­ lists to mail to friends, distribute at meetings, etc., we wou1d be happy to send them out. Please tell us your name, address, and quantity desired (25, 50, 100, etc); we will keep your request on file and send the book­ lists when we have extras , to spare.

ENO-oF-YEAR SALE

We have seven hardbound copies of the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD REC­ ORDS, 1980 editlon, that ,we want to clear out as soon as possible, so we are making this special offer: we will sell them for what we paid for them, only $5.97, plus postage (60¢ rrrr-l or 2; 25¢ each for 3 or more).

These books have a publisher's retail price of $9.95. Hurry - when these seven are gone, we will have to re­ fund any other orders.

NEW BOOKS AVAILABLE HERE

MARTIN LUTHER KING: THE PKACEFUL WARRIOR, by Ed Clayton ($1 . 35 + post). This is the story, told well and simply for young readers (and well illustrated by many pencil draw­ ings), of the life and work of a great American and human being. It begins with the story of his father, a remarkable man in his o.wn right, who grew up the son of a poor share­ ~ropper, went to Atlanta when he was fifteen, and after eleven years of heavy labor during the day and study at night, got his high school diplo­ ma. Five years later he graduated from Morehouse College and became a minister.

The book goes on to tell the story of young Martin's growing up in Atlanta, his struggle over his own im­ pulsive nature, his love of language, his education and call to the minis ­ try, and finally of his leadership of the non-violent Civil Rights Move­ ment, his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize, and his murder.

Those heroic, hopeful, and in the end tragiC years seem very far away today. It is hard even for those of us who lived through the Civil Rights years to remember ·them clear­ ly, and there may well be many child­ ren growing up who do not even know

about them - which would be almost as much a t ragedy as Dr . King's death and the decline of his non-violent movement. This book will help keep the memory of those days, and of that man and his vital work, alive.

JUST SO STORIES, by Rudyard Kip­ ling (85¢ + post). These famous stor­ ies are fables, written for English children and set against the exotic backgrounds of Asia, Africa, Austra­ lia, or the sea. For those who may never have heard of them, they are about such things as "The Elephant" s Child," "How The Leopard Cot His Spots," "How The Rhino'ceros Got His Skin," "Why The Sea Is Salt," , and so on. They are a delicious combination of story-with-moral, myth, and non­ sense. And (like ROOTABAGA STORIES) they are full of the kind of repeated rhythmical long words and phrases, like "the great gray-green greasy Lim­ popo river," that children love to hear re a d aloud.

Mixed in are the ' original strange and faSCinating illustrations by the a uthor, and some delightful light verse, of which I will quote a bit, for parents of young children: I keep six honest ser·ving men;

(They taught me all I knew)

Their names are What and Where and

When And How and Why and Who. I send them over land and sea, I send them east and west; But after they have worked for me, ! give them all a rest . . .

But different folk have different views; I know a person small ---

She keeps ten million serving men,

Who get no rest at all'

She sends 'em abro~d on her own

affairs, From the second she opens her eyes One million Hows, two million Wheres , And seven million Whys'

VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, by C. S. Lewis ($1.75 + post). 1 realize that I made a mistake in GWS #16, calling one of the Narnia books "The Voyage of Prince Caspian." 'I:he third book in the Narnia series is PRINCE CASPIAN ($1.75), in which the English children go back into Narnia in a different time and help a young prince escape his murderous guardian and regain his throne. In, this fourth book, THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, the children return to Narnia some' time later, and go with Caspian (now King) on a long sea' journey to the very edge of the world, with the usual exciting adventures on the way.

Another fine story.

A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA, 'by Ursula LeGuin ($2.00 + post) . This is the first of three books (we will add the other two later) about Earthsea, an imagined world of islands in a huge ocean, in which magiC is a widespread and acce pted fact of life. On these is lands, young people wi th specia'l talents and desires train to be wiz­ ards just as in our world they might train to be scientists or priests.

But with their special powers'come special responsibilities and duties ­ wizards are assigned to duty in places that need them, places to which th e y might never have chosen to go, And there are ,many limits to their magical powers. One of the first things young wizards must learn (unlike so many modern scientists in our world) is to use their powers responsibly and sparingly, no more

1"8 than necessary.

This book tells how a boy, Ged, finds out he has magical powers; how he goes to the school for wizards to get his training; what happens when he uses his new powers wrongly, boast­ fully, just to show he has them; and how he atones for this nearly fatal mistake.

I love the Earthsea books. In some ways they are like the Tolkien books - the worlds they describe are pre-industrial, full of 'natural beau­ ty and skillful work. Ln other ways they are ve'ry different. The Earthsea books are much shorter, there is lit­ tle or no fighting in them, their world is an ocean world, not a land world, and they are much less crowded with creatures, speeches, and events than the Tolkien books - they are quieter, more reflective. The Earth­ sea world is if anything even more real to me than the Tolkien world - I felt completely a part of it, and felt it as a real world long after I had finished the books. I look for­ ward eagerly to reading ' much more of LeGuin's work.

Until recently, and perhaps even now, we had cultures on earth in which magic. was a reality. A very good book about one of them is called WE CHOSE THE ISLANDS, written by a British colonial officer named Grim­ ble. See if you can find it in a lib­ rary; it appears to be out of print.

FAMOUS GHOST STORIES, Ed. by Ben­ nett Cerf ($2.65 + post). This con­ tains some of the great classic stor­ ies of the supernatural, including, "The Beckoning Fair One," probably the best of all haunted house stor­ ies, "The Monkey's Paw," about magic wishes we would be better off with­ out, and the very short story "August Heat," which I (and many others) con­ sider perhaps the finest of all ghost stories - though no ghost appea~s in it. There are also two of the best stories by M. R. James and "Saki" (see our list), which will give a taste of their work to any who may not know them.

A POCKET BOOK OF SHORT STORIES, Ed. by Edmund Speare ($2.75 + post).

When I first taught English . in a school, in 1953, I used this collec­ tion, and I'm delighted to see it still in print. It still seems to me the best general colle~tion of short stories I know. E~ery story in' it .is a classic and a masterwork, many' of them would be hard or impossible to find outside this collection, and they have great variety and range.

I am particularly glad to see saved in print three of my special favorites: Anatole France's '~he Pro­ curator Of Judea,H which is about Pontius Pilate, and whose last line is one of the great surprises in lit­ erature; Thomas Mann's "Disorder And Early Sorrow," a very touching por­ trait of a little girl and her ador­ ing father; and my favorite of them all, R. L. Stevenson's "A Lodging For The Night" (which I have not been able to find anywhere else), which is about the medieval French poet Fran­ coi~ Villon, who, at the end of the story, has a long argument with an old nobleman about right, wrong, hon­ or, and duty, that raises questions that are still not easy to answer.

Wonderful storie~ - many of them good for reading aloud.

FIVE STORIES, by Willa Cather ($2.65 + .post). These stories are a good introduction to the work of an American woman who wrote a number of

sensitive and loving books about what might seem the harsh and unforgiving country of the Great Plains and the Southwest, and about the people who settled there.

One story, "Paul's Case," is about a teen-aged boy so overcome by the ' glamor and luxury of wealth that his eyeryday "real" life became un­ real and intolerable to him. Written before TV had brought the dream world of wealth and success right into everyone's living room, the story seems more prophetic than Willa Cath­ er may have realized.

Of the other stories, one is about the Southwest, the others about the Great Plains, all of them very gentle, slow-paced, and affectionate stories about "'Ordinary" people, the kind who are usually not much written about, but are here brought very strongly to life by her writing.

ROBERT FROST'S POEMS ($2.00 + post). This is a collection of the best poems of a great American poet and my favorite of all poets who have written in English - I can't think of any other who has written so many poems that I really love; What appeals to me most about Frost's poetry is the power and depth of thought and feeling that he gets from such simple words. Take "Fire and Ice," a special favorite of mine.

It is only 9 lines long - 49 words. 6 of these words have two syllables ­ al~ the ~est have only one . . Yet with these short words Frost says as much about human life as most poems, or even books. In "The · Death Of The Hired Man," an old farmhand, worn out by a life of hard work and too old to do any more, comes unexpectedly to the house of a young farm couple who used to hire him. The man wonders why he has come there, instead of going to relatives who live close by. In reply his wife says, "Home is .where, when you have to go there, they have to let you in." How could it be said better?

If some of the poems are somber, others are very tender and light­ hearted, and some - like "Departmen­ tal," very funny in Frost's dry New England way. I'll close with a quote from another favorite, "At Woodward's Gardens." In this a boy takes a burn­ ing (magnifying) glass to a zoo, .and uses it to focus the sun's rays to a pinpoint 'of heat with which he.teases a couple of chimps. One Df them grabs the glass away from him, and the two of them take it back into their cage, where, trying without success to fig­ ure out what it's for, they only de­ molish it. Then they come to the front of the cage to lopk wryly at the boy again, and Frost ends the poem with these very useful words: They might not understand a burning glass.

They might not understand the sun itself.

It's knowing what to do with things that counts.

The book , is illustrated with many beautiful woodcuts of the coun­ try about which Frost was writ ; ng. A lovely collection.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, by Harper Lee ($2.65 + post). The film of this buok has made it so well known that some might think they don't need or have no reason to read the book, since theY ' already "know . what it's about." If so, they would miss one of the best novels ever writ~en about children growing up, and perhaps the

best about growing up agains~ a back­ ground of social conflict and change.

The story is told by Jean Louise Finch - "Scout" .- who is about six when the story begins, and who lives with her older brother Jem and their widowed lawyer father in a small town in the deep South in the 1930's. The author is unfail{ngly good at seeing the world as a child that age would have seen it; Scout is not a wise adult disguised as a child, but a real child, who notices a lot of what the adults do but still can't make muc h sense of it.

No need to say much here abqut the plot. But there is much more in the book than the film. Atticus Finch, like Thomas More in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, is very much a man of his place and time. He has lived al­ most all of his life in the same lit­ tle town in Alabama, plans to live the rest of his life there, and hopes his children will do the same. ' He is not itching to turn the place upside down. He is willing and even glad to take his world much as he finds it, and again, he wants his children to do the same. But there is a line he will not cross, even at the risk of his life.

The book is in important part about how a civilized parent (with the help of neighbors and friends) slowly civilizes his beloved but bar­ baric little.daughter. For Scout, like all healthy young children, is a barbarian, like a Homeric Greek: brave, impulsive, .fierce, proud, pas­ sionate, vengeful. Not for anything would her father break her proud spir­ it - he knows that a truly civilized person is the very opposite of a cowed savage and resentful slave. He civilizes his children, makes them more patient, generous, tolerant and compassionate, mostly by his own exam­ ple. His virtue is a magnet to his children even as it is a burden and nuisance to them - though it often makes their lives harder, it pulls them irresistibly in his direction.

I never get tired ' of reading this book. What fun it would be to read aloud.

THE POCKET BOOK OF O. HENRY STOR­ IES ($2.25 + post). Here are many of the best and most famous of O. Henry's unique and delightful stories - wry, witty, cynical yet sentimen­ tal, full of ingenious and convenient twists of plot. No great studies of character here, but much pleasure, and great fun to read aloud: GUIDE TO HOME ENERGY, by Mother Ear.th News ($3. 60 + post). This is a collection of many of the most impor­ tant articles on home energy that The Mother Earth News has carried over--­ the past few years. It covers, among other things: bio-gas planns, compost water heaters, woodstoves, hybrid ' . poplars (this article alone is well worth the price of the book), heat­ ers, different kinds of solar homes, solar furnaces, wind generators, small scale turbo-generators, the New Alchemists, etc. An incredible bar­ gain . .

A REVERENCE FOR WOOD, by ~ic Sloane ($3.60 + post). This is anoth­ er beautiful and informative book abo)lt a too-lit't le known part of our history and heritage, 9 good sequel to DIARY OF AN EARLY AMERICAN BOY. It is about wood and its uses and impor­ tance in the lives of earlier Ameri­ cans, and how the colonists built or made almost everything they needed from it. .

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

19

In t hese words Sloane says much about a quality of life and an atti­ tude toward living that we see'm large­ ly to have lost - but that we may be starting to regain: In 1765 everything that a man owned was made more valuable by the fact ~hat he had made it himself or knew exactly from where it had come ... That century of magnificent awareness preceding the Civil War was the age of wood. Wood was not accepted simply as the material for building a new nation - it was an inspiration. Gentle to the , touch, exquisite to contemplate, tractable in creative hands, stronger by weight than iron, wood was, as Wil­ liam Penn h ad said, " a substance ' with a soul . " .. . We can see why the early American's attitude toward the forest was reverent, and why when the colonies sought an emblem of independence for their flags, it was a tree .

Like his piary, this book is filled with S oane ' s beautiful pen and ink illustrations, which often tell us far more than any photograph could .

Readers might be interested to know tbat for many kinds of loads laminated wood beams are not only stronger than steel beams of the same weight, but are far more able to with­ stand fire . And not long ago (a nd per­ haps even now ) a very small company in England built sports cars with a wooden chassis, which the y claimed was stronger and more shock-resistant than a modern steel chassis of the same weight .

MUDDLING TOWARD FRUGALITY, by Warren Johnson ($2.65 + post). Now that this book is in paperback, I'm happy to add it to our regular list (I' d been thinking for some time of adding the hard-cover edition to our On-Demand list) . It is a very hopeful book about the difficult times we are living through, whith make so many people feel hopeless. What we as humans and as Americans are going to have to learn - or rather, re-learn ­ is t o live frugally, within our natur­ al means. Johnson says, first qf all, that this is a good thing in itself, that living more frugally will make our lives not worse but better . He then points out that this change to a more frugal way of life is one that we are in fact alread making. And he shows very conv~nc~ng y that the rath­ er fumbling, bumbling, haphazard way we are doing this is not only the best way to do it but may be the only way we can do it - that if we tried to make-rhis change happen through some giant, sudden, top-down plan we would create more problems than we solved.

In support of this it's worth quoting an astonis h ing fact from an encouraging and important article by Amory Lovins in the Nov. '80 issue of NEW AGE. He points out that in the years '72 - , 78, of the new energy that became available to-the coun­ tries of the European Economic Commun­ ity, only 5% came from J uch well­ publicized sources as nuclear plants, North Sea oil, etc. 95% came from peo­ ple using energy mor~fficiently.

The EEC energy bureaucrats to whom he pOinted this out could hardly believe it, even though ~is figures came out of their own books - they had been working so hard to get that addition­ al 5% of ,energy supply that they did not even notice that the people of their countries, acting quietly, in-

t

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

dividually, in small groups, or as organizations, were nineteen times as good at "finding" energy as ' they were.

In the U.S., for the same peri­ od, 72% of new energy came from con­ servatron - and the figure is surely much higher now, as we are beginning to build much mor e energy-efficient houses, burn more wood, dri~e smaller cars, etc.

One of the ideas that would alone make this book well worth hav­ ing is the idea of ecological his­ tory, of seeing the h~story of any given country or region in terms of the raw materials and energy sources available to'it. In some early chap­ ters Johnson does that, and tells me many fascinating facts and connec­ tions between facts that I never knew and would never have guessed - a nd would certainly never have found in any conventional hfstory books.

The~e are a few ideas I don't altogether agree with. Johnson is 100% right in saying that as a coun­ try, we should be paying replacement cost for our oil - that is, for every barrel we use we should pay what it would cost to add an additional bar­ rel to our capacity . If we did this, it would greatly speed ' our move to­ ward frugality. But if we do this through "the market" alone, it wil'!. work the greatest hardship on the pogres t people. Not only is this un­ just and unfair, it's also political­ ly unwise, for these people, in des­ perate self-defense, will find (in­ deed in such cases as returnable­ bottle bills, a lready have found) ways to resist and block the changes that sooner or later we will have to make.

But this is a very minor criti­ cism of a very good book. Most books that help us see more clearly where we are, make us feel worse about it.

This one mftkes us feel better.

HIROSHIMA, by John Hersey ($1.75 + post). Soon after the atom bOlTlb was

dropped on Hiroshima, John Hersey went there arid wrote this report for THE NEW YORKER. It may well be the most widely read piece of journalism ever written; the book is now in its 50th printing .

Instead of trying to describe the results of the bomb in any over­ all way, he let six survivors, five Japanese and one German Catholic priest, tell what happened to them when the bomb fell and in the da ys following . He kept out of his story his own shock, horror, and fear, but simply told, as matter-of-factly as if h e were describing an everyday event, what these six survivors saw, heard, thought, felt, and did. This calm, &etached, almost emotionless way of telling the story makes it all the more real and terrifying.

When I first read his article in The New Yo'rker I was horri fied by the vastness of the destruction and my strong feeling - which still remains - that in dropping the bomb we had not only committed a kind of crime, but had created far worse problems than we had so lved, Insofar as I thought about 'the people of Hiro­ s hima, it was only as pitiful vic­ tims. Today, reading Hersey's account ftgain, and with the wisd9m of hind­ sight, I am astonished at the pati­ ence, courage, unselfishness, and endurance shown by the Hiroshima sur­ vivors as they s truggled to recover from their great disaster. If an atom bomb were to destroy an American city, would the survivors here behave as well? I hope we don't have to find out.

At any rate, this accourlt of the results of what by today's standards is a very small and primitive atom bomb is something we all ought to read now and then, just to remind us of what we are messing around with.

THE WORD FOR WORLD IS FOREST, by Ursula LeGuin ($1 . 60 + post). In this story, a ruthless space colonizer ­ and we may be sure that if we ever colonize space, we wi l l do it as ruth­ lessly as we have colonized Earth ­ invades'a rain forest world of gentle tree-worshippers . • He uses them as slave labor to cut down all their trees to ship to Earth, which has destroyed all its own trees. When this world is treeless and barren, he plans to abapdon it and look for another . But as this story shows, his plan does not work out as he hoped.

The story is in part based on fact. As many of you know, the rich countri es of Earth are right now c~ear-cuttin~ the rain forests of the Amazon Basin and the East Indies, fo~­ ests which, once cut down, will be destroyed forever . .The people who ­ happen to live in these forests will be out of luck. For they don't have the powers of the people of LeGuin's forest world. If our colonizers are to be stopped from laying waste our world, we are , going to have to ' stop­ them soon.

There's some rough language and violence in this story, and we don't recommend it for our younger readers.

But o ther sections are lyrical and beautiful, and they, as well as the message, make the book worth reading.

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY, by James Agee ($2 . 25 + post). This very percep­ tive and moving book, Agee's only nov­ el, is about a family - a young couple, their two little children, and their various relatives - and what happens to them in the few days following the sudden death of the father in an auto accident.

In part, the book is about fami­ lies themselves: the complicated tangle of their lives and emotions, their loves, likes, and dislikes, their envies and jealousies, their deep unde rstandings of one another, and their equally deep misunderstand­ ings. In part it is about Mary, the young Catholic mother and widow, her heartbreaking struggle first to accept an~ then to bear the death of her loved husband, and the way in which her religious faith, which only her aunt shares and understands, helps her t9 do this.

But most of all the book is about the effect of his father's death on six year old Rufus, who even more than his mother is the central character of this book . Agee takes us into the inner world of this little boy, makes us see the w,o rld as he sees it, and feel as he feels. In al l the books I have read there are very few if any portraits of the inner life of a young child to compare with this one .

School does not come into the book at all, but in one scene Agee shows us the pointless cruelty of the school-centered peer-group or child­ mob. In a flashback, we see the four­ year-old Rufus, standing in his yard every morning enviously watching a group of older boys going to school.

Day after day this mob of children, anyone of whom, by himself, might have been happy to be kind to Rufus, t eases and humiliates him. They do this in a particularly terrible way, by using his natural trust of people and his desire to be liked by them to

20 get him to tell them things about him­ self, and then making fun of him, in a way that makes it impossible for him to be completely sure whether or not they are trying to hurt him. The art and the fun of the game was 'to see how mean they could be to Rufus without killing his hope that they really liked him. It is a truly hQrri­ fying scene, and a powerful indict­ ment of the "socializing" done by and in school.

In the book Agee also shows us something of the inner life of Rufus' four-year-old sister Catherine, and it is remarkable how clearly he shows us the difference between a four-year­ old and a six-year-old, and beyond that, the difference between Cather­ ine and Rufus as people - for they are nothing alike. From what we see of Rufus, we can guess that he may have a hard enough time growing up; but from the even less that we see of Catherine, we guess that she will have it much worse.

All in all, a most beautiful and remarkable book, for adults and older (13+?) child,r en. (If children younger than that read and enjoy it, I'd like very much to hear about it.)

93420 --- Tim & Portia PEARSON (Kyla 9, Keri 8, Rachel 6) 73070 Santa.Rosa, Palm Desert 92260 --- Meridith & Jim RIEMAN (Elizabeth 6, Ann 4, John 2) 301 Cedar St, Newport Beach 92663 --- Charlotte ROBERTS (Tequina 5) PO Box 3671, San Bernardino 92413 --- Anita ROWSON (dtr Stacey Bedard) 515 Del Norte Rd, Ojai 93023 --- Steve & Mary Clare SCHLESINGER 1981 DIRECTORY (Rebecca 7) 25161 Jesmond Dene Dr, Escondido Here is the first complete listing 92026 --- Toni SHY, 5100 Woodman Av #23, Sher­ since GWS #15. In the next two issues, we man Oaks 91423 --- Sandra & Joe SMITH (Carlos wi l t only list the additio ns and changes that 5) 1248 Magnolia Av, Ramona 92065 --- Janet & have come in since the previous issue.

Miles STANDISH (Timi 4) 3232 Sautelle Blv #3, This is not a list of all subscribers, Los Angeles 90046 --- Steve & Marilyn SWIFT but only of those who have asked to b~ l ist­ (Taggart 2) 20959 Hemmingway St, Canoga Park ed, so that GWS readers, or other interested 91304 --- VENTURE SCHOOL, PO Box 169, Culver people, may get in touch with them. If you City 90230 --- Lawrence & Bonnie WILLIAMS would like your name to appear here, please (Robin 17, Jill 16, Naomi 15, Jay 10, Christo­ send us the information. pher 5) PO Box 1051, Ojai 93023 --- Jack & Note that we are listing names and /or Nancy WILSON (Jennifer 3) 919 E High Av, Red­ ages of children in many families . Let us lands 92373 know if you want us to add yours to the list.

North CA (Zips 94000 & up) - Bob & To keep the Directory current, we have added Liora ADLER, Round Mountain Cooperative Com­ one year to the ages of all children listed. ~unity, 1201 Parducer Rd, Ukiah 95482 --This may mean some children's ages are not Jill McLare~ ALEXANDER (Crystal 13) 384 43rd correct right now, but they wi l l be correct St, Oakland 94609 --- Antonio, Deborah & Crys­ some time in 1981. tal BARRAGAN, 474 WMacArthur Blvd, Oakla nd 94609 --- Tim & Karen BATES (Jos.eph 3) 3322 AL - Regina CALLAHAN, 798 Westcott Dr, Chiles Valley Rd, St Helena 94574 --- Frank & WetumpKa 36092 --- Karen & Richard FRANKLIN Jeannette BAUMGARDNER (Joel 12, Will 9) 2571 (Adam 4, Jessica 1) 4823 .Parktowne Way #143, Blucher Valley Rd, Sebastopol 95472 (ne~ add) Montgomery 36116 --- Tina BELL-GUMAER (Chaya 5) c/o Hammady, AK - Alvin & Kathy AMASON, (Lena 5) Box 2785 Shasta Rd, Berkeley 94708 --- Steven THE FAMILY BED, by Tine Thevenin 562, Koaiak 996 15 --- Melinda & Richard LEE BELLING, 316 KIng St, Santa Cruz 95060 --­ ($4.50 ,+ post). this book argues very (Elijah 7, Annabelle 4) 1670 Evergreen, Jun­ Gale BRAXTON, PO Box 202, Lewiston 96052 --­ persuasively for the "continuum" idea eau 99801 --- Stan LONG, Box 2810, Kenai John & Marlene BUMGARNER (Dona Ana 8, John that children should not be left 99611 --- Lori & John O'HARE (Eamonn 3) Box Rowland 5) PO Box 1326, Morgan Hill 95037 --­ alone at night until they want to be.

1932, Kodiak 99615 --- Margare~ & Bill ROB ­ Shirley R. CHAPMAN (Howard 15) 900 Southamp­ When young, children should be able ERTS (Jenny 7, Jesse 3) Box 1731, Kodiak ton Rd #140, Benicia 94510 --- Ms. Sydney to sleep in the same bed with their 99615 --- Mary C. SCHWENZFEIER, Red Mtn. Via, CLEMENS (Alex 13, Jenny 11) 73 Arbor St, San parents, and even when they are old­ Homer' 99603 --- Frank SODENKAMP & Carol LAM­ Francisco 94131 --- Claes & Marcia DIEDERICH er, at least until thiy want a pri­ BERT .(Benjamin 3) General Delivery, Kodiak (Catherine 9, Tony & Marcus 7) 415 Beresford, vate sleeping place of their own '99615 Redwood City 94061 --- Marilyn DITMANSON (which ,they will), they should be AZ Gillian AMUNDSEN, 551 1 E Wethers­ (9,7), 3188 Northview Dr, Sacramento 95833 able to sleep in the same room. field ~, Scottsdale 85254 --- The CARSTENS --- Diane DONDERO, PO Box 12, Horse Creek Until very recently, and. perhaps (Nathan 2) 7507 E Garfield, Scottsdale 85257 96045 --- Fir Free, Kerista Village, 935 Stan­ still, virtually all child "expert s " --- Kathleen &Wayne JOHNSON (Darcy 3) Childs yan St, San Francisco 94117 --- Donald & furiously opposed this, using various Power Plant, Camp Verde 86322 --- Hal LENKE, Susan GOEWEY (Brenton 9, Sam 6, Hollin 4) 453 Freudian arguments which never made 821 Boulder Dr, Prescott 86301 --- Linda & Lakeview Way, Redwood City 94061 --- Meco & much sense to me, si nce children have Allan RIEKEN (Forest, 3r 2539 E Portland St, Marla HALL (Raivan 5, Shugy 4, Matani 2) Box slept with adults in most human cul~ Phoenix 85008 83, Trinity Ctr 96091 --- Mike & Kathy JOHNS­ tures that ever existed. People who AR - Shirley DYE (Alan 13) Box 322, TON (Scott 10, Daniel 7) 1358 Oakland Rd #96, think . that for c hildren to sleep .with Keiseri2351 --- Joe & Terry PRIDE (Zachary San Jose 95112 --- Jayne M. JOYCE (Laura 8, their parents is a bad, immoral, un­ 1) Rt 6 Box 233, Huntsville 72740 --- James & Alex 5) 635 Elizabeth St, Broderick 95605 --­ healthY"dangerous, etc . , idea will Carol STIRLING (Jim 17, John 13, Charity 7) Sydney & David KISSINGER (dtr Kirsten) PO Box not have their minds changed by this Rt 1 Box 5, Gravette 72736 --- Margaret 370, Happy Camp 96039 --- George LEVENSON & book and should probably leave it VIERS, PO Box 4, Deer 72628 Vicki LUNDGREN (Jacob 8, Rhys 6) 123 Woods alone. But people whose instinct is South CA {Zips to 94000) Da vid & Nan­ St, Santa Cruz 95062 --- Jan MEYER, 1375 De to want to have their children close cy ALLEN (Cralg 8, Leslie 5) 9923 W Lilac Rd, Solo Dr, Pacifica 94044 --- Mari lyn & Dean to them at night, but who may have Escondido 92026 --- Asha & Joti AMARA, 4251 MOOREHOUSE' (Sun 7, Enoch 6, Faith 4) PO Box been intimidated by the "experts," Altadena, San Diego 92115 --Arnold & Caro­ 1910, Burney 96013 --- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION may be encouraged by this book to let lan BLACK (Jerry 19, Jeannette 17, JaLeen 8) TUTORIAL SERVICES, PO Box 160, Forestville their children sleep with them. And 2051 Friendly Dr, Vista 92083 -John BOSTON 95436 --- Rudy & Bonnie RODRIGUEZ (Holly 8, people who are already doing this, & Stella P'CARROLL (Sean Boston 12) PO Box Nicole 6, Shannon 3) 3998 Walker Av, Santa but are getting criticized by rela­ 92, Escondido 92025 --- Sylvia BRIDGE, 520 W Rosa 95401 --- Ken & Tangie ROWLAND, 533 Park­ tives or friends, will find here much 11th Av, Escondido 92025 --- Victoria &Wil way, Santa Cruz 95062 --- Carrie SACHS (Tobe useful argument and moral support.

CORBETT (Capri 2) 219 Palo Verde Av, Palm Sachs-O'Neal, 4) 2033 Haste #3 16, Berkeley Note that the book is not only Springs 92262 --- Katherine DAVIS, Box DH, 94704 --- June & Ralph SANDERS (Mark 16, Mich­ written but published by the author. elle 14, Donna 10) PO Box 193, Central Valley I hope it has the success it deserves. Lomita 90717 --- Lesley & Rubin DAY (Mary 2) 2895 College Blvd, Oceansid~ 92054 --- Toni 96019 --- Diane SKYE (girls: Lunaura 9, Sun­ DE LA GARZA, 21265 Pine Ridge, Apple Valley aura 8, Prairie 1; boy Aurion 3) 519 Park 92387 --- Rita DOMINGUEZ, 6389 Cooper, Fon­ Way, Santa Cruz 95062 --- The SULLIVANS (Mich· BOOK ORDER INFO tana 92335 --- Cathy EARLE, 1602 Naco Place, ael 4, Meredith 2) PO Box 1059, Aptos 95003 Hacienda Hts 91745 (new add) --- Tom & Kathy --- Kathy SUMMERFELT (Amy 6, Adam 3) Box Postage charge: for 1 or 2 books, 60¢; FAULKNER (Chad 10, Eric 7, Jeff 5) 9124 Cam­ 721A, Allegheny Star Rt, Nevada City 95959 for 3 or more books, 25¢ per book (75¢ for 3 Dr, Apt C, La Mesa 92041 --Suzanne pina --- John TAPERT, 1236 MSt, Eureka 95501 --­ books, $1 for 4, etc.)

GETCHEL (Amy 8) 23 Wi 11 ow Grove, I rvi ne 92714 Tom & Stella TAYLOR (Ian 7, Sonya 4) Rt 1 Box Make check (US bank) or money order for --- Rosie HACKETT (Shawn 10, Terry 8) Box 42F, Winters 95694 --- Pat & Joe TENNANT book orders payable to HOLT ASSOCIATES, INC. 1446, Crestline 92325 --- David & Marilyn (Ginger 14, Doug 13) 11828 Appey Way, Sonora (Payment for subscriptions or back issues of HALL, Box 222, Orange 92666 --- Herbert HAM­ 95370 --- Mark S. TOMES, PO Box 3182, Chico GWS should be made outseparately to GROWING MER, 7001 AlverR St, Apt A, Los Angeles 90045 95927 --- J.E. VACCARO, 4601 Hawkeye, Turlock WITHOUT SCHOOLING.) Address: 308 Boylston St, --- Harry & Helena HAROUTUNIAN (Michael 15, 95380 --- Jeff & Julia WHITT (Jeremy 4) 103 Boston MA 02116.

Crescent #3 , San Francisco 94110 --- Carl & We have had to raise prices on a number Naomi 10, Ian 8) 320 WGarfield Av, Glendale 91204 --- Steve & Jocelyn KOPEL (6,5) 391 N Andrea WILSON (Laura 3) 955 3rd Av, Redwood of books; please be sure to consult the Mountain Trail, Sierra Madre 91024 -.- Frank City 94063 --- Phil & Jan ZUMBRO, 1006 Water­ latest booklist. brook Ct, Santa Rosa 95401 For your convenience, each entry on the & Regina MALLAT (Ahna 6, Josefina 2) 9504 Mecca Rd, Morongo Valley 92256 --- Donna & CO - Ann & K.L. BERRY (Jason 11, Jessi­ booklist now includes the number of the GWS Ken McCULLOCH (Kenny 5, Kyle 2) 3580 Cerritos ca 6, relin 3) 6690 E Colorado Dr, Denver issue which reviews that book.

Av, Long Beach 90807 --- Bonnie MINKIN, Box 80224 --- Louis KRUPNICK, 1217 9th Av, Gree­ Sorry if we confused any readers with 653, Desert Hot Springs 92240 --- Debbie & ley 80631 --- The LARSENS (K~is 6, Hilary 3) the "On-Demand" section in GWS #17. The only Peter MITTEN (Jonathan 5, Jed 3) 14102 Pris­ 1627 Centaur Circle, Lafayette 80026 --- Ned, "on-demand" book so far is THE TOOTHPASTrHrL­ cilla St, La Mirada 90638 -OAK MEADOW Luz, Cassidy, 818 Blake, Glenwood Springs LIONAIRE. Other books reviewed in #17 are SCHOOL, PO Box 1051, Ojai 93023 --- Steve & 81601 --- Pam & Tom O'BRIEN, PO Box 9138, available now.

Sally PAIGE, Rt 2 Box 714H, Arroyo Grande Aspen 81611 --- Kathleen SABlAN, 2007 Greeley WHAT DO I DO MONDAY? is out of stock GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18 until further notice.

New titles on our booklist include: BY THE SHORES OF SILVER LAKE, THE STORY OF THE AMULET, THE PHOENIX AND THE CARPET, THE BOOK OF SMALL, OUR TOWN, and THE IDES OF MARCH .

21

Mall, Greeley 80631 --- Rick & Marianne SCHROEDER, 107 N Hollywood St, Ft Collins 80521 --- Mrs M. M. SIDDIQUI, 3720 Royal Dr, Ft Collins 80526 --- Dave & Helene VAN MANEN (Sierra, 2) PO Box 43, Beulah 81023 --­ Stephen & Betsie WElL (5,3) 2320 N Weber St, Colorado Spgs 80907 --- Bill & Denise WILCOX (Erika 8, Kristin 6) Box 517, Frederick 80530 --- Fred D. & Karen ZIEGLER (Grant 11, Angel . 7) 195 13th St, Burlington 80807 CT - Anita BIBEAU, 339 Prospect St, E. Hartf.ora 06108 --- Spencer & Eileen TROMBLY, 29 N Washington Av, Niantic 06537 DE - Lyn & Harry ANDERSON (Peter 3) 29 Upland-rt, Newark 19723 --- William E. MOR­ RIS, 2124 Brandywine Dr, Wilmington 19810 DC - Robert ALEXANDER, Dir., LIVING STAGE,-;th & Maine Ave SW, Wash 20002 --- .

Robert, Sharon & Susan (11) DICKEY, 401 A St NE, Wash 20002 --- Ellen PEREZ (Nikki 8) 4707 Conn. Ave NW #109, Wash 20008 --- Sheridan PETTIE, 3918 WSt, Wash 20007 --- Pamela TUCK­ ER (Darian 5), 1729 Park Rd NW, Wash 20010 FL - Alison AckERMAN, Cal usa Island PO Box 13"5"";" Bokeelia 33922 --- Gloria ·& John BALTZ (Christopher 8, John 6, Juston 3) 314 NW 2nd Av, Gainesville 32601 --- Lillian R. BLUMENFEL~, 3400 Central Av, Fort Myers 33901 --- Pat CANARD (Jason 5, Mirisa 3) 4306 NW 21st, Gainesville 32601 --- Cathy & David COOK (Andrew "4, Elaina 1) 718 Poinciana St, Clewiston 33440 --- Bob & Bev DIMAIO (Martha 6, Peter 4, Jeffrey 2) 10856 Gable St, Boca Raton 33433 --- Ron & Linda LA~SEN (Adam 4, Nicholas 2) 4893 S Kirk Rd, Lake Worth 33461 --- Jack & Diana' MAMMELE (Amanda 3) 1372 SE 5 St, Deerfield Beach 33441 --- Nancy MARSH (Bonnie 12, Sara 7) 1212 Crestwood, Lake Worth 33460 --- Tina MARTIN, 2715 Adams St, Hollywood 33020 --- Terry & McGill McFADDEN (Eliza 4, Jacob 2) 910 NE 5 St, Pompano Beach 33060 --- Chuc~ & Linda MOORE (Jennifer 12, Chris 11, Wendy 8, Emily '6) 631 Pettry Ct, Pensacola 32508 --- Patricia Ann MORDES (Dani­ el 8, Gabriel 3) Rt 3 Box 169M, Marianna 32446 --- Mike & Pam MURPHREE (Jesse 10, Zach 4) 151? Dacron Dr, Tallahassee 32301 --- Pat­ ricia OLIPHANT, 101 SW 4th Av, Boynton Beach 33435 --- Susan' & David PRICE (Matt 9, ' Faith 8) 1455 90th Ave, Lot 45, Vero Beach 32960 --- Eileen & Fred RESSLER (Lila 11, Django 10, Wild Sun 8, Oma 4) Box 1282, Hawthorne 32640 --- Carol SANSKY (Cathy 7, Laura & Jess­ ica 3) 4720 NW 39th, Gainesville 32601 --­ Rickie & A.J. TAYLOR (Sam 5) PO Box 557342, Miami 33155 --- Mike & Jolynn THOMAS, 3781 Riverside Dr, Melbourne 32935 GA - Patty BLANKENSHIP (Mark is, Pat­ rick lIT Box 205, Roswell 30075 --- Alice & Jerry TEAL (Jay 7, Andy 4) 106 Briarwood Dr, Carrollton 30117 --- Jerry VANCE, 1583B Hol­ comb Bridge Rd, Norcross 30092 , HI - Alana & Luke AITKEN, PO Box 1733, KealakeKua 96750 --- Robyn & Terence WELCH (Esrael 3) Box 772, Captain Cook 96704 ID - Lynn T. FIFELD, UNITED LIBERTARIAN FELLO~IP, Box 356, Elk City 83525 --- Jan RUEDIGER, 1109 Deakin St, #2, Moscow 83843 IL - John & Elaine ANDRES, NETWORK FOR EDUCArTITNAL 'TRAVEL, 2120 WCashman Ct, Peoria 61604 --- Mr & Mrs Wm BIVENS (Tia Lyn 4) 295 Alleghany; Park Focest 6046S --- ' Marirose Blum BUMP, 1025 Garnett Pl, ' Evanston ~0201 --- The CAMPBELLS, 5111 78th Av, Lot 11, Milan 61264 --- Stephen & Cheri CLARK (Jas­ mine 1) Rt 2 Box 77A, Lebanon 62254 --- Ron & Karen DEMMIN (Rama 8, Amma 5) Box 144 Rt 2, Cobden 62920 --- Ed DOBMEYER, LEARNING EX­ £HANGE, Box 920, Evanston 60204 --- Terry & Kelli FAIDLEY (Chad 10, Monty , 9, Nikki 5, Kerri 3) 2606 Oakland Dr, DeKalb 60115 --­ Desiree FRISCHMANN-FULL (Colleen 3) 12 Plover Ct, Woodridge 60515 --- Adrienne GELLER, 8827 Central Park Av, Evanston 60203 --- Beth HAGENS, Jim LAUKES, PEMBROKE CO-OP, Box 445, Hopkins Park 60944 --- Tom & Valerie HILLIGAN (Erin 15, Mora 14, Patrick 10, Valerie 8) 2807 Baycliff Dr, McHenry 60050 --- Stan & Susan HOWARD (Christine 13, Kathryn 10, Sara 7, Aaron 5) 1807 Sherman Blvd, Crystal Lake 60014 --- Suzanne LYNCH (Mary 21, Jim 20, Liz 19, Annie 14, David 6) 7619 W. Argyle, Chica­ go 60656 --- Sue & Mark McGARTLAND (Dawn 7, Nathan 6) 221 Po lk St, Pontiac 61764 --- RosaGROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

lie & Loris MEGLI (Alan 15, Lora 13, Joel 10) Rt 1, Anna 62906 --- Tony & Kathy MINGL (J.P. 3) 207 Bartlett Rd, Streamwood 60103 '--- Jean NOSBISCH-SMITH (8,5,3) RR 1, Eldred 62027 --­ Julia PEMOLLER (Kyle 5, Bret 1) 890 Mohawk Dr, Elgin 60120 --- Cinny POPPEN, VALLEY CO-OP SCHOOL, RR 2 Box 518, Dundee 60118 --­ Richard PORPURA, Penny WILL (Tristen 4) 202 Ash, Park Forest 60466 --- Wanda REZAC (Ron­ ald 6, Jean 4) 454 Enterprise St, Elgin 60120 --- Frank RICHARDS, 422 S Lombard, Oak Park 60302 --- Rob SCHACHTER, 1337 WSchool, Chica­ go 60657 --- Dorothy & David WERNER (Steve 19, Erik 14, Josh 10, Ethan 6), SUNFLOWER SCHOOL, 1400 N Mason, Chicago 60651 IN - Arlyne CREAMER (Tad 13, Ty 16) 3025 9Eth St, Highland 46322 --- Scott, Penny & Meegan GILLIE, 1203 WCottage Grove, 8100m­ ington 47401 --- Carol & Abraham HADDAD (Dav­ id 14) 1407 Franklin St, Michigan City 46360 --- Paul W. HYATT, RR 2 Box 94, Zionsville 46077 --- The LESTERS (Nathan 10, Ely 8, Dami­ an 3) 1 W 169th St, Westfield 46074 --- Rich­ ard & Barbara MAZANEC, GREENHOUSE ACADEMY (Pati 15, Susi 11, Angi 9) 707 E Main, N Jud­ son 46366 --- Penny & Peterson NESBIT (Peter­ son 10) 65 Oak Meadow, Evansville 47711 ~-­ Anna ROCHELLE & Paul NICHOLLS (Gabriel 10, Elijah 7, Joseph 2) 2718 Euclid Av, Ft Wayne 46806 --- Tom & lynn WEISS (Kurt 2) Rt 8 Box 167, Browning Rd, Evansville 47711 IA - Debbie BRENNAN, 1561 Parkway, Dubuque52001 --- Janine CALSBEEK, 222. Albany Av SE, Orange City 51041 --~ Ann C. EDGERTON (Lisa 13, Per 3) RR 2, Decorah 52101 --Bruce & Na,ncy FREDERICK (Zack 6, Zeb 4) North­ side Traile~ Ct, Alta 51002 --- Shannon HAG­ GERSON (Jessica 8, Ryan 3, Anne 2) RR 1, Ana­ mosa 52205 --- R. HAYDEN, Box 462~Ames 50010 --- Pat HELLAND (Anna 6) 219 W. Division, Clarinda 51632 --- John & Amy HULL, 219 N Rus­ sell, Ames 50010 --- KOINONIA SCHOOL & EDUCA­ TIONAL SERVICES, PO Box 2551, Cedar Rapids 52406 --- Bob & Jamie ROSENFELS (Jaia 10, Jaffa 7, Je~emiah 5, Sage 3) R#l, Maquoketa 52060 --- Mary RUSSELL, CHRYSALIS SCHOOL, 3140 Carroll Dr SE, Cedar Rapids 52403 --­ Robert & linda SESSIONS (Erik 10, Sarah 6, Ben 3t Rt 2, Decorah 52101 --- Mackie & Rob­ ert TIRELLA (Astra 9, Atom 8, Noah 5) RR 1 Box 44, Dexter 50070 --- Jeff & Phyl WEIH, RR 1, Toledo 52342 KS - Nyla & Thomas BRODDLE (Terra 5, TimothY-4, Evin 1) RR 2 Box llB, Mayetta 66509 --- Tim CLANTON & Lelain LORENZEN (Sofie Grace 2) Rt 2 Box 49, Galva 67443 --­ Joy COLLINS (Christoph~r 4, Danielle 5) Box 554, Galva 67443 --- Patsy HARPER (Alicia 7) 512 Myrtle, Newton 67114 --- Leonard McWIL­ LIAMS (Adam 3, Ruth l} 209 Pi necone Dr, Law­ rence 66044 --- Barbara & Rich ROBERTS (Nath­ an 7) 321 W5th, Junction City 66441 --- Paul­ ine ROSE (Heather Higgins 8) Rt 2 Box 2(A, Galva 67443 --- J.D. & Ruth STEWART (Claire 3) 178 Pinecone Dr, Lawrence 66044 --- Paula & Keith WHITE, Box 28, Miltonvale 67466 --­ Cindy & Mike WOOD (Seth 5, Chris 2) Rt 2 Box 66, Mapleton 66754 , KY - Kevin & Trish AKERS (Devin 16, CassitT"4) 9004 Preston Hwy, Louisville 40219 --- Mil & Bill DUNCAN (Graham 6, Ian 5) 106 Lorraine Ct, Berea 40403 --- Patricia & Vic­ tor FOOTE (Dagmar 7, Jason 4) Toad Hall, Gul­ nare 41530 --- Richard & Charlotte GREEN (Jordan 6, Alice 2) Sawdridge Creek, Rt 3, Owenton 40359 --- Kelly & Teri MEHLER (Jason 7, Lisa-rose 3) 152 Lorraine Ct, Berea 40403 --- Barbara & Kenneth NYE (Jeremy 5, Cameran 2) Rt 1 Box 389-0, Cattlesburg 41129 --­ Kevin & Patti VAN BUSKIRK (Luke 2) Rossly~ 40369 LA - Jun~ & Allen CONLEY (Craig 15, Frank TT) 2248 Cherrydale 'Av, ' Baton Rouge 70808 --- Peggy & J.D. DEMAREST, 2519 Short St, New Orleans 70125 --- Dot GELPI, 916 Richard St, Gretna 70053 --- Walter & Mapy MARSCHNER (Jerrrny Pangborn, 16) 628 Oaklawn Av, Lafayette 70506 --- Millard & Mary Ann McINNIS (Tristan 3) Rt 3 Box B5~, Benton 71006 --- Keith & Andre MILLER, Rt 1 Box 82F, Carencro 70520 ME - Marilyn BACON (Chris 8, John 6, Maya 4~N. Sullivan 04664 --- Bhasha, Divyo (Tanya 3) c/ o Leonard, 605 Pool Rd, Biddeford

04005 --- John H. BOOMER, RFD 1 Simpson Rd, Saco 04072 --- Dave & Liz BUELL (Gibran 10, Sharma-Naomi 7, Obadiah ,6) Box 2, N Sullivan 04664 --- Kim & David COMPARETTO (toe 9, Aziza 7, Zeke Renaldo 2) RFD #1 Box 526, -Free­ man Twsp, Strong 04983 --- Bill & Andrea CUTLER (Jenny 7, Corrie Ann 4) 8 Towle St, Auburn 04210 --- Susan & James DAVIS (Jimmy 3) RFD 2, Clinton 04927 --- Mabel DENNISON, Box 538, Temple 04984 --- Betty DEXTER, RFD 1 Box 80E (Durham), Auburn 04210 -~- Shepard & Linette B1i ss ERHART (Seraphi na 7) .Shore Rd , Franklin 04634 --- Eileen & Wally GARROWAY (Kate 3) RR 1 Box 789, N Windham 04062 --­ John GOLDFINE, RD 2 Box 151, Belfast 04915 --- Cally & Al HANKINS (Luke 10, Morgan 6, Linsey 3) RFD 3 Box 272, Freeport 04032,--­ Maria H. HOLT, Withywindle, 115 High St, Bath 04530 --- Jean & Barry KAHN (Heather '4, Joce­ lyn 2) 35 Co~lege St, Portland 04103 --- Bi ll & Cheryl KEMP (Arami,e 2) Old Town 04468 --­ Anne MARTINA (Gabrielle 4) Box 15, Harborside 04642 --- Kathleen MIKULKA (12,10) RD 2, Coopers Mills 04341 --- Tom & Sally MORRISON (Evan 2) Old Town 04468 --- Dick & Beedy PARKER (Nelly 8, Danby 17, Jennifer 19) 68 Washington St, Camden 04843 --- Susan RITCH, 151 S Main St, Pittsfield 04967 --- Maria TOMS & David FULTON, Box 213, Oquossoc 04964 --- Carol & Bill WHtTE (Erina 5, Kirsten 4) RD #l, Box 211-0, Charleston 04422 MO - Mary DALY (J 4, C 3) 400 Greenhill Av, Laurel 20810 --- Daniel & Kikuko' DUFFY (Akio 5) 10 York Ct, Baltimore 21218 --Billy & Linda DUNSTAN (4) 14024 Cuba Rd, Cock­ eysville 21030 --- Mary FELBER, 206 Sudbrook Ln, Baltimore 21208 --- Gary GOODENOUGH (11,8) 21201 Heathcote Rd, Freeland 21053 --­ Gail Kuehnle HIMES (6,5) 21201 Heathco~e Rd, Freeland 21053 --- Jud JEROME, Downhill Farm, Hancock 21750 --- David KEATING, 8201 16th St, Silver Spring 20910 --- Linda KESTER, 1130 Oakland Rd, Freeland 21053 --- Dennis & Judy McCAHILL (Colleen 15, Michael 12, Sean 10, Kevin 8) Staff CINCUSNAVEUR, Bo x 8, FPO NYC 09510 --- Dennis & Janet McAULEY (Eliza­ beth 5) B-2 Perry Circle, US Naval Academy,­ Annapolis 21402 --- PARTRIDGEBERRY SCHOOL, Montgomery Av, Laurel 20810 --- Donald & Phyllis PHILLIPS, 1618 Rickenbacker Rd #F, Baltimore 21221 --- Susan S. RHODES, .19348 Keymar Way, Gaithersburg 20760 --- Melvin & Debbie SILCOX (Devin 3) 106 Broadway Av, Glen Burnie 21061 --- Jeanne & Manfred SMITH (Jamie 4) 9085 , Flamepool Way, Columbia 21045 --- Chris STADLER, 809 Gorsuch Av, Baltimore 21218 --- John & Carrie STAPLES (E 6, T 4) Rt 1 Box 70-B, Leonardtown 20650 --- Don WOOD, 6233 Fernwood Tr. #T2, Riverdale 20840 MA - Ed & Michele BENNETT (Naomi 3) 106 Ridge .]O, Upton 01568 --- Emily BERG, 22 Rock­ well St, Dorchester 02124 --- The BRENNANS, 66 Mt Vernon St, Melrose 02176 --- Mrs Walter CANFIELD, 13 Fernwood Av, Bradford 01830 --­ J,im CHARBONNET, 23 Hubbard St, Lenox 01240 --- Margaret DE RIVERA,S Bishop Av, Worces­ ter 011603 --- Paula & Charlie DONAHOE (Kerri 11, Stacey 7) 55 Trenton St, Melrose 02176 --- Bob & Katherine DOOLITTLE (Kate 7, Simon 4) 91 Pleasant St, Reading 01867 --- Nancy HARDY (Chandra 6) 4 Jay St, Cambridge 02139 --- Bill & Loretta HEUER (Tad 3) 164 Norfolk St, Holliston 01746 --- Karen & Michael IDOINE (Justin &_Gillian 13) Star Rt Box 44, Wendell 01379 --- The 'INGERSOLLS, Sky Farm, Barnum St, Sheffield 01257 --- David & Shawn KENDRICK (Celia 12, Anna 8, Eva 5) 40 Brook St, Rehoboth 02769 --_ Karen C. KIMBALL (Becky 11 / 68, Benjy 6/ 73) 163 Hingham St, Rockland 02370 --- The LOWTHERS, Box 566, Truro 02666 --- Susan LOZORAITIS (Kahlil 5) 16 Congress St, Worcester 01609 --- Elaine MAHONEY (Kendra 12, Kimberlee 11) Box 133, Marstons Mills 02648 --- Ed & Gale MASON (Jenny 10, Dave & Ben 5) 25 Mayflower Apts, Belchertown 01007 --- Jean & Don MURRAY (Tegan 8, Jannah & Tara 6) 87 Fayerweather St, Cambridge 02138 --- Jane O'BRIEN, 20 Win­ ter St, Dorchester 02122 --- Mary Ann & Paul O'CONNOR (Danielle 16, Paul Jr 14, Melissa 10, Lisa 9, Lee 7, Hyun & Katie 6, Brian 5, Kevin 4, Rebecca & Jennifer 1) PO Box 204~ Forestdale 02644 --- James & Christine 6STROW 3 Carol Av #11, Brighton 02146 --- Anne PER­

22 KINS, RFD #1, Orange 01364 --- Syl via PIGORS, 140 Upl and , Cambridge 02140 --- Lana REEVES (Lacey 6, Maya-bella 3) 22 Maple Av, S~er­ ville 02145 --- THE RESOURCE CENTER, 198 Con­ cord St, WGloucester 01930 --- Dean SCHNEID­ ER, 256 Cornell Rd, Westport 02790 (new add) --- Judye & Jim SMITH (Adam 4), 34 Edgewood Rd, Shrewsbury 01545 - -- Rachel K. SOLEM (Briana Pearson 3) 20 Robinwood Av, Jamaica Plain 02130 --- Valerie VAUGHAN, ~9 Pine St, Amherst 01002 MI - Field & Sa ndy CARDEN (Jesse 7, Sara 4~Rt 2 Box 71, Suttons Bay 496B2 --­ Gary & Beverly CHEAD LE (£assady 8, Renn 4) Rt 1 Box 223-0, Suttons Bay 49682 --- Pat & Dick COOKMAN (Rob 10, Jane 8) Rt 2 Box 439, Sut­ tons Bay 49682 --- Stephen & Laurie DAVIS (Kyle 10, Grant B, Nathan 7, Will 1) 7857 W Lakeview Rd, Traverse City 49684' --- Anita & Jerry DEVINE (Errin 6, Tully 4) Cold Mountain Farm, Co. Rd . 550 Box 194, Marquette 49855 --- Susan EKSTROM (Aaro n 5/ 78) 1209 Marigold, E Lansing 48823 --- Robert FANSLOW & Diana KISSELBURGH (Abbey 2) 1617-L Spartan Village, E Lansing 48823 --- HOME BASED EDUCATION PRO­ GRAM, c/o Clonlara School, 1289 Jewett, Ann Arbor MI 48104 -- - Jim & Cathe HUGHES (Peter 5, David 3, Rory 2) 25 29 Proctor St, Flint 48504 --- Gary KENNEDY & Janine WILTSE (Devon 2) 120 N Oak, Traverse City 49684 --- Kate & Ed KERMAN (Ada 8, Han nah 5, Jesse 2) 558 S.· Dickinson, Rt 2, Hesperia 49421 --- Richard & Kay Delle KOCH (Birgitta 16, Hans 11) 275 Ridgeway, St Josep h 49085 --- Jerry & Diane LAWSON (Mark 6, David 4) 7272 Renwood, Romeo 48065 --- Ruth LONGCORE (Amy 10, Sarah 9, Brian 5, John 4, 10by 2) 100 Ivanhoe NE, Grand Rapids 49506 -- - Bro . T.L. Michael, Cap­ uchin Community, 121 E Boston Blvd, Detroit 48202 --- Jim & Robin MacKENZIE (Joshua & Jacob 12, Caleb 10, Naomi Praise 1) 55 Amy School Rd, Pierson 49339 - -- Alan ,& Tally MIDDLETON (Amy 18, Alicia 16, Melissa 12, Brigette 9) Box 47, Northport 49670 --- Pat & Jim MONTGOMERY (Chai, 16) 1416 Granger, Ann Arbor 48104 --- Sandra MOSIER, 7391 S 36th St, Scotts 49088 - - - Bernadine PUWAL (Debbie 8) 8466 Colony Or, Algonac 48001 --- Michael & Carolyn WILLIAMS (Dustin 2) 10458 Cedar Run Rd, Traverse City 49684 MN - Sandy ANDERSON (Andy 10) 4317 Re­ gent S~ Duluth 55804 --- Jann GARRITTY, 2517 16th Av NE, Columbia Heights 55421 --- Sharon & Glen HILLESTAD, 9669 E 123, Hastings 55033 --- Rosemary & Lyle HULSING, RR 1, Houston 55943 --- Wayne B. JENNINGS, 449 Desnoyer, St Paul 55104 - -- Tom &Jan KEAVENY (Sam 3, Sarah 1) Alleluia Acres, RR 2 Box 240AA, Albany 56307 --- Beatrice LIU, Rt 1 Box 93B, Becker 55308 --- Alison & David McKEE, 418 E 26th St, Minneapolis 55404 -- - Patricia MON­ SON & Stuart ROSEN (Madeleine 5, Sam ,3) 3500 21st Ave So . , Minneapolis 55407 --- Robert SIGSBEE, 1914 Portland Av S6., Minneapolis 55404 --- David WESTHEIMER, 2702 109th Ln NW, Coon Rapids 55433 MS - Doug & Conni e BALL, Rt 2 Box 218 0, PasS-Christian 39571 --- Cherrie BROWN, Rt 2 Box 274, Lot 6, N. Biloxi ' 39532 --- 8arbara & Tony ELLISON, Box 875, Rosedale 38769 --­ Mary SCHICK, 760 Lakeland Dr 6-B, Jackson 39216 MO ~ Robert & Judith BAKER (9aniel 8, M~ttheW-6) RR 1, Wentworth 64873 --- Mary BERGMAN, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOME EDUCA­ TORS, Star Rt, Smithton 65350 --- Gerald CARL­ STROM & Miriam HALLIDAY (Ian & Inge Carlstrom­ Halliday, 6 & 3) Rt 2 Box 197 B, Oak Grove 64075 --- Carolyn Maria & Kevin COPE, PO Box 27024, Kansas City 64110 --- Debbie HARPER & Chris CHEAVENS (Sean 11, Dehn 9, Caleb 2) Rt 2 Box 413 , Ashland 65010 --- Judy & Ron HIRSCH (Slidnti & Joshua 11, Jai 6) Gen Del, Longrun 65864 --- Albert & Cynthia HOBART (Robert 12) Rt 7 Box 134 , Licking 65542 --­ Jim & Jeanine HOUSE (Peter 10, Jasoll 3) 4814 Liberty, Kansas City 64112 --- Jean KERN (Josh), 627 W. Harrison, Springfield 658'06 --- John & Delores KO ENE (Hjldegarde 15, Mari­ ka 12, Jennifer 11, Myles 8) Rt 3 Box 80A, Poplar Bluff ' 63901 --- Stephen KOVAC, 3914 Humphrey, St Louis 63116 --- Ted & Brenda PARRY (Girls, Cay 10, Noel~ni 9, Rebekah 8; son, Toan 21) 104 Blanche Or, St Charles

aca 14850 --- Cynthia & Timothy DeMULDER 63301 - -- Janey & Terry SMITH '(Sarah 5, Lind­ (C heyene 2), 14 Church St, Unadilla 13849 sey 10) 6 Center Rd, Kirksville 63501 Richard & Anna Marie FAHEY (8 ,7,6,4, 3) Home­ MT - Mel & Jean COLGROVE (Tim 15, Ben steading Center, RD 2, Oxford 13830 --­ 3, Micah 2) Grant Star Rt, Oi 11 on '59725 Linnette & Jeff GANAPOSKI (Alia 4, Kagan 2) NE - Roger & Judy DUERR, 4142 Adams, LincoTn 68504 --- James & Beth ZUEHLKE (James­ 1401 Pine St, Endicott 13760 --- Susan GOSS, 2 Winkle Point Dr, Northpoint 11768 --- Mary Eric "5, Matthew 2) Box 96, Rockville 68871 NV - Ed & Cher BATEMAN (boys n,4) PO Box Jo &Chris HAWKIN S (V 7, E 5, K 2) 330 W. 28th St , #20-C, NYC 10001 --- Harold & Pat 2281 ,-S-tate 1i ne 89449, INGRAHAM, INDEPENDENT FAM ILY SCHOOLS RESOURCE NH - Salah & Carolyn AL-EGAILY (Sadik ,CENTER, PO Box 122" Smyrna 13464 --- Penny 12) POBox 617,S Danville 03881 --- Rosemary KING, Box 243A, E Jefferson Rd, Jefferson & David ARMINGTON, Box 72, Kearsarge 03847 --- Arthur HARVEY & Elizabeth GRAVELOS (Emily 12093 (new add) --- Edith & Bill KRAUSE (Caro­ line 6, Michael 1) 112 Meigs St, Rochester 4), Weare 03281 --- Albert & Janina LAMB l fl'C7 --- Louis & Diane LaBARGE (David 2) Rt (Juno 10, Rosy 8, Jasmine 5, Roland 3) Brown Hill Rd, Tamworth 03886 --- Grace & Joe MATTY 1 .ox 133 , Richville 13681 ~-- Sherrie & Norm LtE (Henry David 17, Russell Bertrand 15) (Jason 8) 5 Grant St, Derry 03038 --- Thom HOMESTEADER'S NEWS, PO Box 193, Addison 14801 McALLISTER & Debi FADDEN; Box 186, Northwood --- Chris & Judy LUNDGREN (Robin 8, Michael 03261 --- Jack, Gail, Bud, Mike. Tim MYLES, 6) 28 Suter Ter, Rochester 14620 --- Rebecca 341 Locke Rd, Rye 03870 --- Peggy SANDOZ Butler MacKENZIE, RD 2 Box 6, Schaghticoke (Kate 11, Noli 10, Jesse 8. Molly 4) RFD Tam­ 12154 --- Harvey & Nancy MILLER (Shane 4, worth 03886 --- Jennifer SEIP, 21 New Rd. North Hampton 03862 --- Jim &Michele SWISHER Elyse 1) 75-05 210th St, 3H, Bayside 11364 --- Louise & Mark SCARLETT, Butler Rd, Rossie (Bill 15, Jascha 4) Oak Hill Rd. Brookline 13646 --- Lori B. SMITH, 185 Lancaster St, 03033 --- Bob & Nancy WALLACE (Ishmael 9, Albany 12210 --- Jon & Debby THOMPSON (Morgan Vita 6) Star Rt 2, Goshen 03752 -- - Jennifer 5, ' Susan 2) 2419 Carson Rd, Cortland 13045 WRIGHT &Stan McCUMBER (Vanessa 11) Star Rt --- Linda TSABOUKAS, 188 Bay 22 St, Brooklyn 2. Charlestown 03603 lr214 --- Tsana Yu, 170 Henry St #2C, NYC NJ - Lucille BENDER, PO'Box 210, Deal 07723~-- Janet M. BENNETT. 205 Essex Ave. 10002 .

N4 - David BRAATZ, PO Box 114, Mt Mourne Boonton 07005 --- Anne BODINE (Jonathan 6, 28123~-- John & Shelley DAMERON (April, 1) Karina 5. David 2) 83 Knollwood Dr. New Prov­ THE KNOWLEDGE BANK , PO Box 1568, Boone 28607 idence 07974 --- Mrs N. BROOK (Nietcha 9) --- Wanda &Tye HUNTER "(Susannah 4) 27 Cedar Meadow Gate Farm, Cross Rd, Colte Neck 07722 Terrace Rd, Chapel Hill 2751~ --- Beth LACKEY --- Pam & Dan DELANEY (Daniel 16. David 14.

(Kent 11, Brad 10) Rt 1 Box 344, Burnsville Peter 12) 2646 River Rd. Manasquan 08736 --­ 28714 --- Frances & P.J. LENIHAN (Michael 3) Erik ERFEL, 4 Abbe Court. Colonia 07067 -~­ 1115 Lockland Av, Win ston-Salem 27103 --­ Stephen & Nancy GERARD (Bob 21, Lillian 11.

Laurel K. MELSON, 201 Oakside Or, Harrisburg Stevie 6) RR 1 Box 502. Philhower Ave, Cali­ 28075 --- Tana NEIGHBORS (Carrie 6, Kristin fon 07830 --- Doug & Meg JOHNSON (Corinne 9.

4) PO Box 364, Coats 27521 --- George & Julia Melissa 8. Brad 5) HOME EDUCATION RESOURCE CENTER, 337 Downs St. Ridgewood 07450 --- Bar­ PETRIDES (Christy 6, Sarah 3) 4015 Marie Dr, Winston Salem 27107 --- Chip & Alise STROUP bara LAFFERTY (Boys 17,16,11.5; girl 7)107 (Kristin & Jennifer 5) PO Box 1322, Lincoln­ Surrey Rd. Voorhees 08043 --- Barbara LATTO. ton 28092 __ L Greg & Ginger WE ITZEL (Skylar NEW DIRECTIONS SCHOOL. 135 Change Bridge Rd, 3) PO Box 453, Newport 28570 Montv i lle 07045 --- Stephen MAHONY. 183 Brook­ NO - Paula ALLMARAS (Zara 8, Dylan 3) side Dr, Medford 08055 --- Pat MASTRI, 103 1145 ~ 8th St, Fargo 58102 -- - Camille 11th Av #2, Belmar 07719 --- Carla Jean & Ed­ KULKA, 14 E 10th St, WFargo 58078 ward McDERMOTT (Edward III 9; Charles 7, OH - Terry &Wendy BENDER-MILLER (Hope James 5) 16 Deborah Or, Piscataway OB854 --­ 2) BoX-62 , Fresno 43824 --- Donna BRYANT Charlette M. MIKULKA, 1409 Scenic Or. Scud­ (Aaron 7) 961 Winding Hollow Ln, Upper Sandus­ ders Falls 08628 --- Barbara MILLER, 30 Lind­ ky 43351 -- - Or . Stephen CORWIN, The Rainbow strom Dr. Somerville 08876 --- Ann MORRIS, Manor, 12 WJeffrey Pl, Columbus 43214 --­ OURSELVES TO EDUCATE GUIDEBOOKS, School of the Arts Publications. PO Box 114. Stillwater Penny & John ELLIS (Marnie 4) Willowood Farm, 174 Morgan Rd, Jefferson 44047 --- David & 07875 --- Sherman MURY, Apt 40K. Village Green, Budd Lake 07828 - -- Jenny & Dick NEPON Lore~ei GIBBS (Cathryn 8, Seth 5) 5720 Will­ nean Ln, Milford 45150 --- Richard & Kathryn' tEmily 3) RD 2, Box 236,-Califon 07830 --­ HOLLAND (3 ch, oldest 6) 6092 SR 323, Mt Ster­ Nancy PLENT, GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING/ NJ, 2 ling 43143 --- Valerie & Bob HOLWAY, ,950 Will­ Smith St, Farmingdale 07727 --- Sue & Charles iam Penn Dr, Galloway 43119 --- Gail & Mich­ PREGGER (Becky 7, Rachel 4, Charlie 1) 125 ael HOOD (Anna 8) RD 5, 8884 Bell Rd, Cam­ Marvin Ln, Pistataway 08854 --- Marvin & Gwen­ bridge 43725 -- - Janet HOWELL, 1081 Kingsway, dolyn RESNICK (Paul 12, Tania 11, Mollianne 4) 7 Westbrook Av, Somerville 08876 --- Sandy Alliance 44601 --- Mrs . Robe rt (Kay) HUBERT, RD 2"- Rock Rd, Shelby 44875 --- Sandra HUSS, SAPELLO, 207 Coari Ave, Minotola 08341 ~-­ 516 S. Main St, Bowling Green 43402 --Judy TRENHOLME (Cindy 11) 44 Dodd St, Mont­ Judith KOVACS, 2380 Nimishillen Church St NE, clair 07042 --- J. LA VIGNA, 110 Glen Av, N Canton 44721 --- Richard & Patti LAWRENCE Glen Rock 07452 (Rachael 7, Sarah 4, Rebekah 2) 101 WMain NM - Amy V. BUNTING (Sarah 11) 112 Calle St, N Fairfield 44855 --- Eliza~eth LOGSDON Paisano, Santa Fe 87501 --- ManoryCHARBON­ (Adam 9) 318 E Henry St, Wooster 44691 --­ NEAU, Box 2606, Santa Fe 87501 --- Anna Maria Chris MAY (David 6, Rebekah 3) 34838 Highland DEARDORFF, General Delivery, Cerrillos 87010 Dr, N Ridgeville 44039 - -- OCEAN (OHIO COALI­ --- James & Penny GALLAGHER (Jamey 7) 2606 TION FOR EDUCATIONAL ALTERNATIVES NOW) 66 Pontiac Av, Alamogordo 88310 --- Ed NAGEL, Jefferson Av, Columbus 43215 --- Nancy RAY­ ~ATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE LEGAL SUPPORT OF MER, Rt 4 Box 134, Jackson 45640 -~ - David ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS (NALSAS), PO Box 2823, SOWD, 1103 19th St NW, Canton 44709 (new add) Santa Fe 87501 --- John &Peggy O'Mara , --- Sharon & Michael TACHENKO, 10000 Daly Rd, McMAHON (Lally 6, Finnie 5, Bram 2) One Mill Cincinnati 45231 --- Ron & Jennell WOODARD, NW, Albuquer que 87120 --- SANTA Ff COMMUNITY 338 Storer Ave, Akron 44302 SCHOOL, PO Box 2241, Santa Fe 87501 --- Dan OK - Leon & Diane SEIFRIED (Heidi 8, SHULTIS, PELONCELLO PRIMARY (Mickey 8, Sir Bridgnte 5, Rud 1) Star, Rt Box 165, Vian Lancelot 7, Robert 6) Box 91, Rodeo 88056 74962 --- Cary WOOD, 3412 Oak Grove, Midwest NY - Diane & Paul ABELL (Joshua 6, Ariel City 73110 3) 26o-Croly St, Syracuse 13224 --- Pe~er & OR - Donna ANESSI (son 7), Gen Del, Arch Lorraine ACKERMAN, 46 E. 83 St, #~-A, NYC 10028 --- David BAKER, RD 1 Box 108, Marathon Cape ~102 --- Arnold & Carolan BLACK (Jerry 19, Jeanette 17, JaLeen 8) 4415 Cedar Flat, Apts, Clover Av, E Greenbush 12061 --- Meri­ Williams 97544 (summer) --- Fred & Mary beth & Brad BERG (Jada 2), Brady Rd, Warwick CAREY, 5738 SE,Westfork St, Portland 97206 10990 --- -Bill & Rachel BOERST (Robin 11, --- Rob & Karen COX (Missie 13, Robert 11, Julie 8) 286 State St, Jamestown 14701 --­ Sue &Michael CARROLL (Nath~ 4, Willow 2) RD Kristina 5) PO Box 556, Reedsport 97467 --­ Valerie CRUMP, 11125 Old Woods Rd, Cloverdale' 1, Avoca 14809 --- Bobbie & Eric COHEN (Laur­ en 6, Alec 3) Rt 2 Grand St, Sag Harbor 11963 97112 --- Hans & Clarice DANKERS (Marieka 2) PO Box 318, Boardman 97818 --- Steve & Cathy --- Jonathan DAITCH, 409 Cascadilla St, Ith­ GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

23 DEESE (Sunbow 7, Cloudrobe 4) 6826 N. Pitts­ burg, Portland 97203 --- Michael &Candace DEGLER (Isaac 7, Vanessa 4, Lucien 2) 26409 Valley View Dr, Cheshire 97419 --- Jeff & Lisa DRAKE, 44855 Hwy 101 S, Neskowin 97149 '--- Harold DUNN, Box 684, O'Brien 97534 --­ Molly FARQUHARSON (Meadow 3) 436 N High St, Monmouth 97361 --- Beth FRANCISCONE, 4330 McMinnville Av, Neskowin 97149 --- Harvey & Prem FREEMAN (Aram 7, Shayna 2) 7425 Sf Ins­ ley St, Portland 97206 (new add) --- Barbara & Lee HAGA, 7995 Slab Creek Rd, Neskowin 97149 --- Loren & Melissa HEUERTZ (Tionne 14, Michelle 11, Nikoli 9, Joshua 6) 19908 E Evans Creek Rd, Central Point 97502 --- Ann & Ri3ck LAHRSON (Alice 3) 5360 SW ' 192, Aloha 97005 --- Virginia MORGAN, 11495 Slab Creek Rd, Neskowin 97149 --- Jerri & John OTTO, 1864 NW 37th, Lincoln City 97367 --- Holly PORTER,,PO Box 592, John Day 97845 --- Ruth, Paula, Scott & Shirley (Teal & Keddy 2) 11330 Takilma Rd. Cave Junction 97523 --- Terry & Teri SANDERSON. Star Rt. Wasco 97065 --­ VALLEY SCHOOL (Kirston Johnson 5. Melissa Vovou 5. Yuri Voght 6. Carina Abernathy 7, Wendy Short Holt 8. Lea Joyer 8. Vasu Bernard 10) 5730 Dee Hwy. Parkdale 97041 --- Susan WALTON. 2433 N,W, Quimby St. Portland 97210 --- David & Janis WEYENETH (David Jr 1) 4737 NE 27th Av. Portland 97211 --- Mary YOST. 10150 Slab Creek Rd. Neskowin 97149 PA - Joseph F & Lorraine CLARK (Linda 21. Carolyn 18.· Lorraine 8) 345 S, Old Middle­ town Rd. Media 19063 --- Marion COHEN. 2014 Locust St, Philadelphia 19103 --- Linda COLLINS (Matthew 4) 262 Park Ln. King of Prus­ sia 19406 - - - Steve & Kathy CONRAD (Jesse Sky 9. Ajna 7) RD 4215. Fleetwood 19522 --- Mrs. David (Ellen) DOMBEK. 1956 Susquehanna St. Abington 19001 --- Ed & Brenda FOX (Storm 2) RD 3, Wood Rd. Franklin· 16323 --- David & Diane GRAJE K. RD 4 tox 35A. Cochranton 16314 --- Sydney & David HALL. 1212 Midland Ave. York 17403 --- Joann HAMER (13.10.8.4) 128 Old Ridge Rd. Coraopolis 15108 --: Karl & Renate KRUMMENOEHL iJoshua 8. Arwen Evenstar 3) Cricklewood. RD 1. Mertztown 19539 --­ Jonathan &Mary Ann LEUPOLD (Thane 9. Bron.4) Sun Power Farm. RD 3 Box 168B. Lehighton 18235 --- Adam LEVINE. 4037 Spruce St. Phila­ delphia 19104 --- Steven & Joyce LIBA~ (Ange­ la 5. Autumn 2) RD 1 Box 87. Little Meadows 18830 --- John & Emily McDERMOTT (Katie 12) 2428 Nottingham Rd. Bethlehem 18107 --Meghan McDOUGALL (age 10). 1 Syl van Ave. Rut­ ledge 19070 --- Andy & Lynette PETERSON (Drew 4) 25 Rose Hill. Smethport 16749 --- Gail REYNOLDS (Levi 6. Bhavani 4) 506 E Allegany Av. Emporium 15834 --- John & Christine SELL­ ERS (Randy 12. He id i 8. Gregory 5) RD 2 Box 190. Honey Brook 19344 --- Cecilia SEVERIN. 3243 Parkview Av. Pittsburgh 15213 --- Lynda SKADDAN. 1140 Old Ford Rd. Huntingdon Valley 19006 --- Joe & Judy STOLZFUS. Rt 1 Box 196.

Loysville 17047 --- Clifford & Lois SUNFLOWER (Beorn 3. Phoebe 1) 2371 WBest Rd~ Bath 180 14 --- Len & Carol USEFARA (Michael 8.

Mark 4) 284 Temperance Hill. Plymouth 18651 --- Paul & Linda WEIKEL (Terra 10. Jeremy 7) Box 120 RD 2. Kutztown 19530 --- Bob & Janet WILLIAMS (Jenny 10. Matthew 9. Amy 7. Jacob 4. Katie 2) RD 2 Box 181. York Springs 17372

--- Bob & Bobbie WITKOWSKI (Kevin 7. Beth Ann

5) 328 E Northampton St. Wilkes-Barre 18702

RI - Marie FRIEDEL. NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR GITHD &. CREATIVE CHILDREN. 395 Diamond Hill Rd. Warwick 02886 --- Peter & Brigitta VAN DAAM (Julia 11. Jessica 8. Percival Chris­ topher 4) 46 E George St. Providence 02906 SD - Betty BRECK (Krissy 7). Groton 57445~-- Shirley FREDERICK. 5007 Pierre.

Rapid City 57701 --- Phyllis & Larry SCHRAG (Matthew 6. Benjamin 4) RR 2 Box 15. Marion 57043 TN - George & Pat BUCK (T 6. C 4) Rt 2 Box 2UJ. Elizabethton 37643 --- DRY CREEK COM­ MUNITY SCHOOL. Rt 1. Dowelltown ~7059 --­ Wayne & Ligia HERBERT (Oran 10. Linda 6) Rt 2 Box 43. Prospect 38477 --- Peggy HOLLADAY. CIRCLE OF FRIENDS COMMUNITY SCHOOL. Box 168B Rt 2. Clifton 38425 ~-- Jim & Barbara HOLT (Seth 4) 207 Reed Av. Greeneville 37743 --­ Cynthia MOORE. Rt 3 Box 265A. Waynesboro 38485 --- Gaylon & Terrie SMITH (Kish 5) 1653 GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #18

Sailors. Memphis 38108 --- John & Julia WIKSWO (M 9. S 7) 1025 Manly Ln. Brentwood 37027 :-- Mr &' Mrs Wm WILBANKS (Brett 15.

David 13. Debbie 11) Rt 3 Box 228. Linden 37096 TX - Harold BAER. HALVI SCHOOL. 124 N Paredes Line Rd. Brownsville 78520 --- Mary Jane BERNTSEN, 12000 Sawmill Rd #804. The Woodlands 77380 --- Jim & Jeanie CARDEN (Josh­ ua 6, Jason 3) 4701 Alamo. Wichita Falls 76302 --- Margaret CINQUE. 439 E Main St. Yorktown 78164 --- Charles & Linda DUNCAN (Pam 11. Ken 5). Box 3243. Lubbock 79412 --­ Margaret & Michael EZZELL. 105 WWoodlawn.

San Antonio 78212 --- Jane FENN. 4618 Avenue S ~ . Galveston 77550 --- Hardy & Diana HEN­ DERSON-LEWIS (Levi 8. Lemuel 6. Serenity 4) 205 Northgate Dr. San Antonio 78218 --- Syl­ vester & Delores JACKSON (Mary-Dionne 9.

Kelly 3) 15222 Dunstable Ln. Channelview 77530 --- Dennis & Elly JAMES (Rena 6. Brian 2) Rt 1 Box 189-B2. Wimberley 78676 --- Barb &Jim JOYNER (Cosette 7) 2902 Raspberry. Pasa­ dena 77502 (new add) --- Janet &Bill KING­ SEPP (Steve 7. Tanya 2) Gen Del. Hawkins 75765 --- Laura & John KNOLL. 134 Valero. San Antonio 78212 --- Meg &Wayne MESEBERG (Amy 5. Sarah 4) Rt 1 Box 358. Pearland 77581 --­ Richard STARK. PO Box 66. N Zulch 77872 --­ Jerry & Nancy STEVENS (Shanta 9) 8008 Colony Loop Dr. Austin 78724 --- Larry & Sally WIL­ SON. Rt 2 Box 16. Lindale 75771 UT - Michael & Patricia GURLEY (Brendan 11, Cindy 7) Blacks Tr. Ct. Moab 84532 --­ Norma LUCE. HOME EDUCATORS NEWSLETTER, 180 W 600 South. Logan 84321 --- James SALISBURY. THE JOHN HOLT LEARNING CENTER. 8446 S Harri­ son St. Midvale 84047 VT - Cheyenne AUTUMN. Box 49. Ripton 05766~-- Denise BEATTIE. Middletown Spgs 05757 --- Kathy & Sas BLAIR (Becky 5) RFD 1 Box 251. Waterville 05492 --- Jim & Natalie CASCO (5.3.1) Middletown Spgs 05757 --­ Kathie & Herbert DeWEES (Hannah 10. Esa 6) RD 1 Box 142. Vershire 05079 --- Ruth & David GAILLARD (Jack 6. Luke 2) RFD Box 123. East Hardw ~ ck 05836 --- Adele GARLICK. 206 King St, Burlington 05401 --- Art HARRIS. Red Moun­ tain Rd. Arlington 05250 --- Martha HEITKAMP (22.20.10.10) M~ddletown Spgs 05757 --- Cath­ erine LOWTHER. RD 1. Worcester 05682 --- Hil­ ary Jean & Barbara LYTTON (Krystal 11) RFD. Concord 05824 - -- Peter J. PIERCE. Box 223.

Manchester 05254 --- Truman & Suzi PRICE (Deirdre 14. Jessie 13. Rowan 7, Ami 6) Box 175. Saxon's River 05154 --- David & Gina RITSCHER (6.5.2) Middletown Spgs 05757 --­ Ellen SECORD (3.3) Middletown Spgs 05757 --­ Mrs. Stanley (Carrie) SMITH. Main St. Derby 05829 --- Dirk & Emily THOMAS (3;6) RFD 1 Keifer Rd. Cuttingsville 05738 VA - Yvonne BAGWELL. PO Box 508. East­ ville-Z3347 --- Jim & Rosita BAKER (Jay 15.

Len 14. Wayne 11. Kesha 4) Rt 4 Box 227A. Mechanicsville 23111 --- Susan BAUZ (girl 4) 12X Flowers Terrace. Newport News 23602 --­ Pierre & Linda BLONDEL (Dimitri 7, Emile 3) 602 Orange St. Charlottesville 22901 (new add) --- Ann & Tom BROWN (Todd 6. Meris 3) Rt 1. Box 135A, Callao 22435 --- Mike & Kelly DARROW (B 13). 312 Pin Tail Cres. Virginia Beach 23456 --- Dan & Thea GIESY (Danile 15.

Darrin 13. Susie 11, Anita 8) 4411 Colonial Av. Norfolk 23508 --- Peter & Betty GOODMAN (Ben 9) Rt 1 Box 231. Shipman 22971 --- Doro­ thy HARRINGTON (M 15. L 12. C 10) 14006 Maple­ dale Ave. Woodbridge 22193 --- Rose McLane JONES (T.J. 17. Eddie 14) 311 Chamberlin Av. Hampton 23663 --- Nancy JONES-VOLLETTE (girls 5. 1) 3602 Campbell Rd #155. Newport News 23602 - ~ - David & Carol KENT (Robert 5. Susan­ nah 3. Zachary 1) 831 S. Frederick. Arlington 22204 --- Donna KIRK. 930 Catskill Ct, Virgin­ ia Beach 23451 --- Abbey LAWRENCE. Siler Rt Box 329-D. Winchester 22601 --- Christine LEHNHOFF (Jesse 5. Jared 3) 4436 Vermont Av. Alexandria 22304 --- Edwina & James O'TOOLE. Box 256. King George 22485 --- Lucy PAPPA (boy 3. girl 5) 101 Wedgewood Rd. Newport News 23601 --- Dale & Linda PEEBLES (Katie Lyn 4. Byron Dale 1) 2218 Dartmouth Dr. Alex­ andria 22307 --- Connie ROBERTS (son) 3962 Campbell Rd. Newport News 23602 Cathy RUSSELL (girl 3) 509 Brightwood Rd. Hampton

23661 --- Connie & Leonidas SCHWARTZ (Benjam­ in 7. Aedin 6. Baron 4. Nathaniel 2) Golden Horseshoe Inn. Stanardsville 22973 --- Mela­ nie SHOOK (son 3) PO Box 362. Yorktown 23690 --- Beth & Eldon STOFFEL (Adam 6. Aubrey 1) 411 S Van Dorn St. T-l. Alexandria 22304 --­ Lina & Ed WILHELM (Bob 6. David 3) 7061 Aut­ umn Wood Lane. Roanoke 24019 --- Lynda & Steve WILLINGHAM (A 7. S 5. R 2) Rt 2 Box 20F. Berryville 22611 WA - Richard & Sarah BARRICK (Tammy 7, Steven-4) Rt 1 Box 217L. Eatonville 98328 --­ Gene CADE, PO Box 1435, Olympia 98507 --­ Binda COLEBROOK (Dorje 7) 6906 Goodwin Rd. Everson 98247 --- Greg & Loretta DECKER. E 3423 - 32nd. Spokane 99203 --- Jim & LeAnn ELLIS (April 10. Bobby 7) Rt 2 Box 10DA3, Moses Lake 98837 --- Randy FRANCISCO. 18831 Meridian N.• Seattle 98133 --- Harley GIBSON. Box 336. Ilwaco 98624 --- Luna & Rick GIL­ LESPIE-WALKER (Rain 6. Gaiya 1) Star Rt Box 19. Oroville 98844 --- Paul & Gail GREENHALGH (Stacie 7. Jason 6. Jennifer 4) Rt 2 Box 331.

Port Townsend 98368 --- Dave & Carol HE VEL (David Jr. 3) 931 West Park. Pasco 99301 --­ Ken & Caro l LEITHEAD (Sam 11) Rt 2 Box 428 #31, Colvi l le 99114. --- Sara LIGHT (Ian 1) 5115 S Brandon. Seattle 98118 --- Robert & Susan LORD (Anna 4) 874 Halloran. Samish Is 98232 --- Jessie Loo & Jim PINNEY. Orcas 98280 --- Rob & Polly RAGATZ (Margaret 2) NE 450 Howard St. Pullman 99163 (new add) --­ Dale & Katherine REED. 12027 10th Ave S.• Seattle 98168 --- Ann & George ROHRBACHER (Blake 5. Davey 3, Laura . l) Rt 1 Box 225. Cen­ terville 98613 --- Ann SAARI, Box 104. Ilwaco 98624 --- Dave & Marilyn SABOLD (Ananda 9.

Ben 4) Rt 1, Winthrop 98862 --- Eleanor SIEGL. LITTLE SCHOOL. 2706 10th St E. Seattle 98102 --- John TAPERT. PO Box 316. Duvall 98019 --- Al & Joyce TAYLOR (Charles 6. Sab­ rina 5) 9917 NE 88 Ave. Vancouver 98662 --­ Chuck & Cece THOMAS (Nathan 2) Rt 1 Box 89T. Eastsound 98245 --- Julie & Bob TITUS (Greg 8. Eric 6) Rt'l Box 386, Eastsound 98245 --­ Judy VESEL ITS (Amon 7) 11920 E Mansfield, #135. Spokane 99206 (new add) --- Ethne Ann VIK, 3405 37th Av S.• Seattle 98144 --- Sage & Tim WATERS. 258 E 3rd St, Everson 98247 --­ Susan WOLFE (Andy 4. Bentley 2) N 2614 Made­ lia. Spokane 99207 --- Vern & Elizabeth WORK­ MAN (Lance 13. Trant 11. Rayna 9. Shannon 8.

Caleb 6. Aaron 4) 3109 Friendly Grove. Olym­ pia 98506 --- Don & Lisa ZOOK (Lindsay 4.

Joshua 2) 10922 W. Lakejoy Dr. N. E.. Carna­ tion 98014 . WV - ALTERNATIVES IN EDUCATION. Rt 3 Box 171A.~pencer 25276 --- Marianne & David CEDARLEAF (Ezra 7. Ivy June 4) Box 243. Hills­ boro 24946 --- Karen DANIHEL-AMSLER (Shanna 4) Box 222A. Hillsboro 24946 --~ -Ann & Jerry DAVIS (Luke 4, Joel 1) Box 2080. Hillsboro 24946 --- Jan & Howard EVERGREEN. Rt 5 Box 202. Martinsburg 25401 --- L.M. GRAFTON, PO Box 102. Alderson 24910 --- Lynne McINTOSH­ KIMMEL (Ian McIntosh 11) Jup1ter Hollow. Rt Box 280. Weston 26452 --- Ed & Vicki MEYER (Jeremiah Gullion 10, Elisha 5. Fairlight 3) Hix Rte Box 143A, Sandstone 25985 --- Kath­ nell & Gerry O'SHEA (Kim 13. Layne 11) Rt 4 Box 52A. Clintonville 24928 --- Wally & Deir­ dre PURDY (Jed 5. Hannah 3) Box 7A, Chloe 25235 --- Jacques & Grace TRUDEL (Stella 15) Otto Rt. Box 1l7L. Spencer 25276 --- Danny VAN LEEUWEN. Rt 1 Box 280. Weston 26452 WI - Ella Ruth ADES. Rt 1. River Falls 54022~-- Judith A. CARLSON (Gary & Vicky Reimer. 15 & 11) RR 2 Box 1791. Wild Rose 54984 --- Brigid & Larry HORBINSKI. 3321 W Grange Av. Milwaukee 53221 --- Herm & Ellen NIBBELINK (Nathan 2. Karl 10) Rt 5 Box 46.

Medford 54451 --- Joel OTTENSTEIN, 3875 N. BOth St. Milwaukee 53222 --- Tom & Gretchen SPICER (Jacob 9) Rt 1 Box 85. New Lisbon 53950 --- Janet WRIGHT & E.G. NADEAU (Luke & Isaac Nadeau. 8 &6. Brady Nelle Wright 3) 424 S. Orchard St. Madison 53715 CANADA ALTA - Devon BLEAN & Don FICKO (ETiza­ beth ~harlotte 3) ALBERTA HOMESCHOOLING INFORMATION SERVICE. 514 - 7th St NE, Calgary T2E 4C6 --- Suzan & Arthur HOROVITCH (Vivian

24 II, Debbie 7) Box 55, Barnwell TOK OBO BC - Mike & Barbara BAIRD (Toglia 10, Makeer-7, R.B. 5) Box 204, Tof i~ o VOR 2Z0 --­ Michael BURNS (17,16,13,11) Box 128, Whistle r VON lBO --- Mark & Elaine COUSINS (Jeff II, Chosan 3) RR 3, Site J, Nanaimo V9R 5K3 --­ Stephen & Joanne DARLINGTON (Hannah 4, Tom 2) Gen Del, Denman Island VOR ITO (new add) --­ Wa &Carolyn FONTAINE (Om i 8, Dharma Joe 5, Talula Claire 2) ' Good Rd, Rouse Bay, Lasqueti Island VOR 2JO --- Alex & Juanita (Menden­ hall) HADDAD (Nicole 3, Lacy 1) RR 2, Duncan V9L lN9 --- Eric & Joan LAVING ER (Jamey 10) Box 2198 Parksville VOR 2S0 --- Murray & Al­ ice McEACHERN (Ernie II, Isaac 8, Zoe 4) 17223 2nd Av, White Rock V4B 5A8 --- Edith & Victor NEWMAN (Marion 9, Carey 6) 1971 Kalta ­ sin Rd, RR I, Sooke, VOS lNO --- Juliet SAVAGE (Sean 8, Erik 6, Jason 4) General De­ livery, Nelson VIL 5P3 --- Terry & Jack STAF­ FORD (Arnie 9, Anika 3) Box 438, Fort Langley VOX lJO --- Lynne & Nava THUNDERSTORM (Leaf 10, Quenima Raven 1) Anahim Lake VOL l CO MAN - The ANDRIESHYNS, RR 1, AnoIa ROE OAO -~Richard & Mary-Catheri ne F1GUREL (Mark 6), THE MANITOBA ASSOGIATION FOR SCHOOL­ ING AT HOME (MASH) 824 Barry Av, Winnipeg R2C lM l NB - Laurence MARIE & Ian CURRY (Natha­ lie 11, Oonagh 6;·Siobhan 1) RR 3, Lower Coverdale, Moncton EIC 8J7 NS - Gary ARNETT, Carleton, Yarmouth Co., Errw lLO --- Rocke ROBERTSON & Alma MARKS (Laurel 7, Cai 5) RR#3,'North Grant, Antigon­ ish Co. ONT - Peter & Lou BENNETT (Kevin 8, Noel 5, Emma-2) 81 Hall Av, Renfrew K7V 2S2 --­ CANADIAN ALLIANCE OF HOMESCHOOLERS, Box 640, Jarvis NOA lJO --- Freda Lynn DAVIES, South Gillies PO, POT 2VO --- Alan FOX, RR I, Dacre KOJ lNO --- Don GREENHOW, 39 Li nco ln Green, Markham L3P lR6 --- Pat & Richard KERR (Caro­ lyn 12, Sunny 7, Gordon 5, Roseann 3) RR 3, Dalkeith KOB lEO --- Sidney LEDSON, SO -155 Dolly Varden Blvd, Scarboroug h MIH 2KS --­ Mrs. Margaret LeFEVRE (Mathie u 8, Jocelyn 5) Box 1197, New Liskeard POJ lPO --- Barney & Pat McCAFFREY (Blaise 15, Ammon 13, Daniel & GabriellI) Wi lno --- Mary Su n Rose McDADE (Crow 10, Ahnee 8) Killaloe KOJ 2AO --- Burt & Anna MYERS (Drew 7, Beth 5) RR I , Brooklin ZOB lCO --- Rolf &Wendy PRIESNITZ (Heidi 9, Melanie 8) Box 444, 'Oakville L6J 5A8 --- Mary SYRETT, 24S Airdrie Rd, Toro nto M4G lNl QUE - Helen FOX (Nond ini 15, Maria 11, Cybelre-6) 137 Rang Ruisseau, St Clet JOP ISO --- Peter & Jill WHITMORE (Thomas 5, Ben 3) 116 Sedgefield Ave, Po inte Cla ire, H9R lN5 SASK - Melanie STEELE , 52 4 12th St E, #2B, 5aSKatoon S7N OH2 OTHER LOCATIONS John &Caroline PORTER (Mischa 4) PO Box 497, Koror, Palau, Caroline Islands 96940 --­ Jean LEONARD, Rhein Maln Schoo l, Box 4494, APO NY 09057 (Frankfort, Germa ny ) --- Peter BACON & Rosario FIALLOS Dr-sACON, Escuela Americana, Embajada Americana, Tegucigalpa, D.C., Honduras --- Lisandro SAGASTU ME A., Apartado 443, Tegucigalpa D.C ., Honduras --­ Hope & Einar KNUTSSON (Tryggv i Elnarsson 7, Katla Einarsdottir 4), AEsufell 4 - Apt 2F, 109 Reykjavik, Iceland --- Yosef & Tali HADAR (son Nadav, 4) 1IT5DutZ Mizra, Israel --­ Janine BEICHMAN '& Takeo YAMAMOTOTAya & Abbie Yamamoto, 7 & 2) Hongo 5-5-8, 102, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan --- Tricia CHEEL (Simon Pert 9, Cato 6) T7TSO Stapleford Cresce nt, Browns Bay, Auckland 10, New Zealand --- Gisela BECKER, (13,11,8), RFD Ruta 3, Buzon 75, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico 00928 FRIENDLY SCHOOL DISTRICTS

We are printing a list of schoo l dis­ tricts that are willingly and happily cooper­ ati~g with home schoolers, and who are will­ ing to be listed in GWS as doing so . We will run this list in each issue.

One reason for such a list: I want to encourage and reassure school offici al s who may be hesitant about approving home school­ ing, and let them know that there are other

Back issues are avai l able. Any combina­ districts enjoying goo,d re lationships with their home schooling families. Also, families tion, mal 1ed at one time to one address: 50¢ per issue, plus $4.00. For example, GWS #1- 17 who are wtlling to move to escape a difficult sit uation with school officials would have at would cost $12.50 (17 x 50¢ is $S.50; $8.50 + $4 is $12.50.) These rates apply to subscri ­ least some ideas about where to go : bers only. Non-subscribers pay $2.50~ We will only Jist these school dis­ lssue. tri ct s .under the fo 11 owi ng condit ions: 1) The family has to be not just satis­ fied but pleased with the cooperation the sc hools ar~ng to their home schooling GROUP SUBSCRIPTIONS efforts. 2) The schools themselves have to be Group subscriptions: all copies are

pleased with the relationship with the fam­ mailed tu one address. Rates can be figured

ily. 3) The family has to be happy with the from the following table. IX means you get

idea of asking the schools whether they want one copy of each issue, 2X means you get 2

to be included in this list. If they feel cop ies of each issue, 3X means 3 copies, and

that li sting the schools, or asking the so on.

schoo ls if they want to be listed, may en ­ danger their good pre sent relationship, then IS

they sho uldn't ask. 4) The sc ho ols themselves 6 12 have to be happy about bei ng i nc'l uded in the issues issues issues

list. If they are unea sy about it, or ' fear , IX $15 $24 $30

that it may get them in trouble with someone, $lS $39

we ' d rather not subject them to that risk.

2X $30 (Many cooperating sc hool districts we know of 3X $21 $36 $48

prefer not to be listed.) add $3 per add $6 per add $9 per

So - if your district is cooperating etc person person

with your home sc ho oling, and you would like person them to be on thi s list, ask them, and let us knC'w if th ey say t o go ahead.

You can "bump" your subscription, i.e., ' convert a single to a 2X, a 2X to a 3X, etc, By the way, we would also like to hear but only if the change involves $9 or more. from sc hOol s that would like to help home schooling families, but have not been able to do so because no families have yet asked them.

CA - San J uan Ridge Union School Dis­ trict,-rS847 Tyler Foote Rd, Nevada City 95959; Marilyn DeVore, Administrator.

MA - Barnstable Public SChools, 230 South)t, Hyannis MA 0260 1; Ja ne Sheckells, Curriculum Director.

Rockland Public Schoo ls, Rockland 02370; Supt. Joh n W. Rogers.

Southern Berkshire Regi~nal School Dis­ trict, Sheffield 01257; Director of Guidance, Paul Shafir off.

VT - Wood bury School, Woodbury; Marilyn Hill, l>rincipal.

RENEWALS

The last two digits on the line below your name on the computer label tell the num­ ber of your final issue of GWS . If you renew before we send the last i ssue of your sub to the mailing house (for #19, about mid-Feb.), we will extend your sub for one free bonus issue . ~enewal rate s are the same as for new subscriptions. Please note the rates effec­ tive Jan. 1, 19S1. However, subs expiring with #18 may be renewed under th e old rates untl1 Jan. 31. ($1076 ls sue s, $18712, $247 IS.)

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING 308 Boy l ston Street Boston MA 02116

SUBSCRIPTIONS

We are now cha nging to a policy of starting all subcripti ons with the latest issue. Starting Jan. 1, 1981, rates are: $15 ror-o issues, $24 for 12 issues, $30 for IS i ssues. GWS is publi shed approximately every other month.

For all sub s or orders of GWS (not books), please send check or money oraers in US funds payable to GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOL­ ING . Ca nadian and other f oreign payments must be either money 'orders or checks drawn on US banks. We ca n't afford to accept perso nal checks on Ca nadia'n accounts, even if they have "US funds" written on them.

The price of a single i ss ue is $2.50.

Editor - John Holt Managing Edit or - Pe~ Durkee Associate Edit or - Donna Richoux Editorial Assistant - Jane O' Brien

Copyright

© 1977 Holt As soc iates, Inc .