Growing Without Schooling 31 by Patrick Farenga

GROWING

WITHOUT SCHOOLING

The fundamenralists were jubiIant ac Eheir victory. Said Sheridan Road Princinal BiIL Swain: "\"Je knew our position was strongLy supported by the Bi bl e, tale thought we had the Constitution on our side. Buc I didn't expecc to get a favorabLe decision." WilLiam BentLey BalL, a Leading constitut ionaL Iawver who argued for the cwo schooLs, caLLed the -ludgment "very strong on reLigious libercy. cLarifyjng the righl Lo teach and the riehc to learn." WhiLe the decision applies onLy !LU- r,: ^Li ^^- rL r"d]/ rrnfl uence other rr rLLLrtsdr" states. As independent Christian school s have nrol i ferated over Lhe n:cf

dpcadc

- wilh

an eslimaEed

en-

roLLmenE of 600,000 scudents nation-

Cassidy, P0 Box 55, KembLesviIle

; 2L5-255-4058. June 28-30: 7th AnnuaI Kephart Memorial Child Study Cencer Symposium, Univ. of Northern CoLorado, Aspen/Snowmass, CO. Contact: Dr. Roberr Reinert, KMCSC, UNC, Greeley Co 80639; 303-351-2691. Aug, I -2: ChiId Devel opment Symposium, Assoc. for Research & Enlightenment, Virginia Beach, VA. Contact: Robert Witt, PO Box 595, Va. Bch. 2345r; 804-428-3588. Anyone who wanEs to coordinaLe ofhcr neel- inqs or lectures around Ehese times and locations should contact me directly. - Peg Durkee 19341

wide - so have conflicts with state SUCCESS IN MICHIGAN authori t ies . In Nebraska , the Rev. Cheryl lruslman (MI) wrote: Everett Sileven of LouisvilLe was jailed four L imes in 1982 For defying ...Jacob went through kindergara courE decision requiring him to FÎ ^^+ .,^^L,,F FLi wt rt yEd, uuL L"rr ysdr hire state-approved teachers for his ' home. It was so much teaching him aC Faith Bapcist SchooI. ln MassachuPasier fhan T rhouPht iL would be. nonnlp in all Frrorvona had a setEs, Assistant AtCorney Ceneral We wrote a Ietter to the SuperMaria Looez has asked a civil court wonderful time, above aLL the chiLdintendent of t.he Kent County interro impose a $100-a-day fine on two ren. lr was lovely, as is usuaL at We were mediate school districC... ministers who operate the Grace Bible home schooL gatherings, to see chiLdtold that if we wanted to we could Church Christian SchooI in Dracut ren of many ages playing happily home bound student. enroll Jacd5 as a unLil they agree to reporE the names, togecher, the big ones looking ouE This would mean he could receive aIL ases and residences of their 30 stufor the Little ones - a thing that the maLerial that the first g,raders dents. [n Ma ine, a major case wiII be Eoo rarely happens with chiLdren who F-^^ T^ -:-rv !r5 !Lscr receive this we t ri ed i n February. The i ssue, wheLher go to school [,,1e're looking f orward would meeL Lhe first grade teacher the teachers at the Bangor Baptist Lo the next ones ( second Thursday after school Let Church School and some 20 other Chris- cverv ol-her Trresdav every month, 6-8 PM). L^P rr,"P -r--le, wd> so we've L"dL fian schooLs need to have state aPproWherever chere are a number of val and whether Ehe schools must main- been doing this for the Last month home schooLing families and a convenianr nl aao Far fhom rn mpal ii miohr and a halt. Tt has worked out perfecC tain and report educational records... ho Filn r^ h.\/a roo,,l ar orrheri noc because the school is happy and we're ln the Michigan Erial, the issue happv. . . rurned out of teacher certification I ike this. as often as seems desirto t-o be more of an embarrassment able and convenient. The advantage of Chan to the Chriscian having them at a reguLar tine and state officials niaec is- of corrrse. LhaE it saves schools. Education experts couLd noE FAMILY MEETS LEGISLATOR agree on which standards the Christhe crouble and expense oI sending From John Boston (CA): tian teachers needed to follow, nor ouE nocices, and also lets people pLan to attend weLL ahead of time. If couLd they prove any link beEween ceri r: f i 6A iarnhorc ,nd o^î danido r..l^ rhic nleecp . . .l^Jhen you spoke, John, in Ana^1,,^.F ^h hpin in 1981 vnrr ncnfisned it would Noted Judge Hoichkiss, a lormer pubLeE us know - and teLl us how it be helnFrrl i F our lesislators knew lic school teacher: "The overwhelming works out. about home schooling. You suggested evidence shows thaE teacher cercificaOnly one other word - try to just compeWeLl that's ensure teacher we visit Ehem. does not meetEion avoid mak ing chese "business what we did. Eencv and mav even inhibiE iE." Since i ngs, " complete wi th agenda, etc . I first contacted our state senaeach student who Leaves a Michigan Just have them a nice occasion for for's nfIice rrvinq fo find ouC if he public schooL to attend a Christian people to get to know each other and havp a qood rime rocether. - John Holt academv deorives the Local school dis- nnr,l rl ho I n n I or i F., ,rhw enma cchnnl were contacEing some home distrjcts crict 6t about $2,OOO in state aid, fhe irrdce also observed that state schools on their legal sEatus and others were not. His office said they were hardLy disincerested officials IMPORTANT MICHIGAN RULING would get back to me. A few days suardians of educaEion. He caLLed later, I goc a call from one of his Time macazine. l/I0/83: itate reguLation of private schooLs sfaff inforninq re as to the man who "an incredible confLict of interest." I could talk to about private schools intend to ...Michigan officials . . , In a strong, unambi guous in l-hp SrAIF Denf. of Education. More riocician a Minhiorn i,,doe roa{firnoA appeal Judge Hotchkiss's verdict ' importanEly she asked if I would like Says Assistant Attorney General Richthe First AmendmenL guarantee oI sepan appointment to taLk to the senaaration of church and state by exempt- ard Cartner: "The state now has no fnr T <:id vps rv qon would I ike to process Co approve nonPubl ic ing private Christian schooLs from qrafe silnervi sion of their curriculum meet him to learn about srate governschool s." Part oI Michigan's compul6vnofi6n.6 aho d- -^-r rcdr-Pc, ^^*-^nru" L^Ps, sory educat ion 1aw says that parenrs and teachers. Ministers, teachers and gave us an appointmenE, h.'anfe nf tho Rridoennrl Ranl ict must send children to state-approved My wife and I, with our son (age schools. According, Lo GarLner, there Academy and the Sheridan Road Chris13). went fo his oIFice about 20 is now a legal doubc as tc whether tian School, both near Saginaw, had miles away. His secretary showed us the compulsory attendance requiremenE charged thaL attempLs by the staLe's into his office and introduced us. is legal. . . board of education Lo supervise curThe senator was dressed Ieisurely, as riculum and teacher quaLifications rnrl ho relzorl lc rn ro lew hr, violaEed their reLigious freedom. cifl ino in c.ma cnmFnrrrhlo lalnoo Judge Ray Hotchkiss agreed, rul ing JOHN'S COMING SCHEDULE chairs in one area of his office. We that the board, by imposing iLs secuEold him of our son's unusual schoolFeb. 21, 1983: Guest of Honor, lar sEandards of education on reliing arrangement, home Learning. and Harvard Dinner Series, Cambridge, MA. "'-'erfered wi Lh 5LL'uuraL'6' 5ruu5 oF orrr nrivAte schnol . He wanted to nl,inriFfs' cnncrifrrrional riohr fo Apr. 9 (rent. ): Homeschool ing rr e.ij Froolw avprnico rhair hear from our son about what he did -^liî^meetings and Lectures, Chico CA area. aE home. Our son told him about his Contact: Richard Roth, 703 SaLem St, Hotchkiss: rrThis courE fails to see a bicycLes and model airplanes he Chico CA 95926; 916-345-9682. in requircompel I ing state interest buiLt. He told hlm about his Boy Apr, 30: 6th Mass. Area La Leche ing nonpublic schools to be of the -- ^"blic Scout group, his religion classes, -''u dr pu League Conf., WaIsh Middle SchooL, schools in and his Humane Society volunteer Framingham MA. Conlact: Roberta JaISuch a scheme does Ehe samâ&#x201A;Ź disrrict, work, lle talked, informally. for bert, 8 Brown St, Ipswich MA 01938; not ensure even a minimum degree of close to 50 minutes. tle found out the quaLity oF educar ion, " Hotchkiss , how- 6L7 -356-1 345 . did rha cfriorc riohr r^ senator knows people \re do so we had May 3: International Reading 'rnhnl.l some things in common. Assoc . meet ing, Anaheim CA. Contacts : impose on Ehe Christian schools He invited our son (and us) to CaroLe Vinograd-Bause1l, 807 Beaverhealth and safety requirements, to come up to Sacramenco after the new bank Cir., Towson l{D 2L2O4, or Jack which they had never objected, had our first Open House at Ehe GllS office - a great success. I had thought rhaL perhaps, because of Ehe rather short notice, very few peooLe would come. but there were twelve or so families there, probably forty We

ri!ev!

legislative session starts and he would personally Eour the Capitol wiLh us, He was very interested in our son learning about government and gave him a booklet on our state's constituEion and how a bill becomes Law. Al1 in all a very pleasurable experience, both for our son and us. I'm sure if anyrhing about home schooling comes up in Sacramento our senaEor will feel more knowledseable and posirive about iL. We would encourage other home schoolers to do Lhis. Our IegislaEors are Ehe people who make the laws the school officials must folLowl Get them on our sidel Let Ehem know we are famiLies concerned about our childrenl..,

Mathematics, Money, Music, Newsletters , Organizat ions, Poetry, Politics, Printing, Publications, Reading, Religion, Reports, Resources, SociaL Issues, Tapes, Teaching, Tests, Teens Working, Travel, t^lork, Writing, and Young Graduates. Rachael weLcomes suggestions for future editions of the index. At John's suggestion, Mary and Mark Van Doren brought in a little table and chair for our office toddler, Anna. Our extra Eypewriter sits on i L, and somet imes Anna wi I I busy herself for a long time wiLh the machine. Mary has a neat trick of taping two sheets of paper fogether into a Loop, so Lhat no matcer how much Anna presses the rrReturn" key, she never runs out

'l B3lil'*r"n.r*

NOTES FROM DONNA We

Frank

had a nice

of the Mass.

visit

from

RosaLvn

Department of EdiShe's in charse of Ehe "Gift-

cation, ed and Talented SpeciSI Programs" throughout Ehe sCate, and is very symDathetic fo I hc nofion of homeschooling, She would like to know how many home-schooLers Ehere are in MassachuseEts, and wouLd be wiLling to help someone do a survey of the various school districts, Would someone like Eo take on Ehis research oroiect? Yet anoEher home-schooLer' hai sold an article Eo Ehe ilMother's Children" section of The Mother EarLh News I that' s LhreE-dE-TEEEEI-fi-The JEil issue, Joshua Wood wroEe about Lhe same business sell inc sDrorf iArs rhar his morher rofa d;i" "."!uol;";; (105 Stoney #2L. Pat Stone of TMEN Mountain Rd, Hendersonville NC 28791) is always Looking for how-to articles by young people, And if, by chance he's not inLeresEed in your story, we at GWS probabLv wouLd be. e i2-year-oId reader suggesrs we nrrf in a Den-na I secf ion For kids. Werre wiLLing to do this if it doesn't take up Eoo much space. So, any children wanEing pen-paIs, send i n your name ) age, address, and, i F I-3 words ahouf vorrr hohvou want. -_rbies, interescs, lavorite auChors, e tc. We were distressed to hear that reader Rena Caudle's son Jeremy has a massive brain tumor and is not expecEed to live beyond another year or so. Rena says, "If Lhere are any readers that would I i ke to boost up a 1 i tt I e boy, cards wouLd be welcomed. Hers collecEing his cards and he's coLlecti ng scickers, too." Jeremy's address is L4l7 Fir St, Everett WA 98201. Another reader asks if we could print more about divorced homecnhnnlino

n.ronrc

ocnonicllv

tha

other parent disapproves of the home-schooling. Has it ever been an issue in a custody case? Any of you who think your experiences would be useful co others. Dlease wriEe us. Someone asked" if we have any videotapes of TV programs with John HoLt. lle don'ti none of us here have any video equipment. Do any of our readers have such videoEapes, and if so, are they willing to Loan Ehen out, or can they make copies? Rachael Solem has jusE finished the 24-page index to GWS #1-30, which is available here for $2,50. She's done a Ehorough job with the help of a computer. Entries are in Ehe foLlowing caEegori es: AlEernaE ive School s, Arf

H^ma

Arrtshnrc

R^^Lc

n,,^F6.1

Books Reviewed, Children Working, Colleges, CommuniEies, Contriburors, Correspondence SchooLs, Court Cases,

Curriculum. Friendly Lawyers, Cames, General, In SchooL, Language, Learning, LocaI School s & Legal Issues,

NEWS OF COURT CASES We have recently gotten word of two home-schooling courE cases lost) and a number of others pending. Of the losses, rhe bigger ivas thb Virginia State Supreme Court rul ing lL2ljl 82) against Robert and Vicky Crigg of Chesapeake. The court, using reasoning similar to California and Florida cases, said that since the Virginia compul sory educaLion Iaw has a-speci Fic

eyomntinn

fnr

'rhnma

incln,.i

i^n

a qualified Lutor," the Criggs could nol cl aim exempt ion by a differenE route, namely, ChaL their home was a private scho6l. How Ehis will affect other home-schoolers in Virsinia remains to be seen. The ocher loss was in Srenhpnc

CounLy Superior

co"rcl-c."rti;: ;;:

volving Terry and Vlckie RoemhiLd. do not vet have anv details on this cecrsron. Other famiLies who are beins nroqcerrrAd

ero:

IJavna

ard

Maroar6r

Burrow, LittLe Rock, Arkansas; Mary and Carfield Morgan of Lebanon, Cohnecticut; Bob & Jean SmiEh, AlberE Lea, Minnesota: the Warren Parker famiIy, Alexandria, Minnesot-a; Pat Baker of the SouEhside School District, San Antonio, Texas; and Tahca Ska, Poolar. Wisconsin. - DR GEORGIA REGULATIONS

[.ltt: ] ln two sEates, Georgia and MaryLand, the SEate Boards of Education have proposed regulaLions that wiLI make home-schooling difficult or impossible for most famil ies. First, the Georgia situaEion. As the AElanta Constitution of I/1,3/83, in a iT6?i6t-JZne--Faroen, reporced iL :

reqrrlal-inns

superintenden! has recommended standards to eliminate home schooling in

Ceorqia

rocnonca

fha

or^!.tino

5!vY!!t16

number of parents who are teaching their children themselves,., The new policy wouLd further define private schools by requiring them Eo meet

these criteria: l) A minimum of 15 studenLs must be enrolled in fhe program aL Ieast 4rz hours daily and i8O i-.,udy5

t,, ---,,-l dLrrrudrly.

t \ TL^

L,,i r; '-uur rrurltB

l|u5L -..^F

be used primariLy for instruction and musL meeL fire inspection codes, 3) At least one teacher must have a colIege degree from an accredited instituEion..."

hnerd

i c aw^a.f6.l

inr^

nod.liocc LqJJ

nani^ Pa"rL

.F^-i^>Lvr

h., uy

-H^"F

rha

el iohro<f

ir,-Fi Fi^-ud_ JU5L I

o.lrr..hi^-.1

' ' tion for them. 2) They will probably be struck down in most or alL courts in which they are put fo the test, 3) Even iI rhey were upheld by rhe courts, they woul d noE automat ical 1y or necessarily make home school ing impossible. We should understand ourselves, and hel p the public to undersfand, that fhe first two of fhese prooosed board regul ations have nothing whafever to do with education or Learnins or even the qual i Ly oF private schools. In defending the need for these regulations, the board has 1., -^il L)/ sdru

r L^F

,.-.-FwdLrL5

F^ LU

^-1.. uirry

the status of home schooL"clarify" ing under aw, so that iE will know where and how to enforce the staters compulsory school 1aws. This word "cIari Iy" has been used in simi lar circumstances by education authorities in other sEates. In usinq the '1

,,^-A Fh^ R^--l i r vprv n^1 i rel

i^L' usurS,d a^^--ii^ rs! LU PUL n^f hei no crndid. ilve r

as Ehe newspaper story itsel f makes clear, they do noE want to "clarify," but to prohibiE, More specifically, they wanL Lo make privaEe school ing c^

oynpnci\/p

fhrr

nnl'.. -,,.y

F^"

---

-i^h

afford it, The public schooLs have for a long time had a kind of silent bargain wirh the r i chest five pcrcenL of Lhe parents of this councry. They have said, in effect, rrWe will let \'^,, ra..h .,nrrv nhi . I. i*. en any way you want. iI vou wil 1 give us a monooolv y)7". " Unfr L recenLLv. over !he oLner Efif si s w-F -had Tappened. Pr ivate schools, meaning schools in buildings nol rrce.l fnr nihar n, rrnncac :n.i cteffo.l hrr naid ipr.har< hrrro haan <o awnonci\/a rhrl uifh Four aw.dnfi^nc

only affluent parents could afford them. Almost all the private schooLs started by moderate or Low income parents in the past twenty years have failed for lack of money, and those that have survived for any length of Cime have almost aLL been rich ones, hi^h

F'!iFi^6-

^-,

^€F^LEr'

'drtse dowments. Wich very few exceptlons,

E"-

state and local public education authorities have never interfered with lhese rich schools. They could hire any teachers they wanted, not just those with education desrees and teacher's credentials. Thev could teach any kind of curricuLum they wanted! or none at all. SEate laws might mandafe courses in state history, or health, or (as in N.Y. ) the dangers oF al chohol i sm i rich pr i vate schools ignored such Laws. In Ehe fourEeen years I taught in private schools we were never once visited or inspected by publlc education authorifips. Ri.h nri\,rlp."hooIS do have tshdi r

^'.rn

nrir..r^

r ino

^-^radi

cies. but these 6re to allay IJH: I Home schooL families and parents and teachers involved in small church-based schooLs are bandinq fooel-hpr t^ irv ro bIock CheSe

growing numbers of home schooLing fami I i es. may try to make similar regulafions, we might look at these a bit more closely. About Chem, three things can be said: 1) There is not

.'iFh

. . . RULES PUSHED TO END HOME SCHOOLING IN GA - ..,The state school

Thp

voLe on the policy on Feb. 10, so by the cime you read fhis they wil I have decided either to pass these reguLations or an amended version of them, or, if public pressure is strong enough, as we hope will be the case, to Let the whole matter drop. We will tell you whaE happened in CWS #32. Meanwhile, because education officials in other states, thrown

oripc

ri.h

nrranr

roon_

Lhe anxi-

nr^ch6.r

ir'6

studenEs, not co satisfy any requirements of the state. The sEate's position has aLways been and is now, whato\/ar

rich

nonnla

L,rnl

GROI^JING

tsh6 L'rs

woj '."

ur ^F

WITHOUT SCHOOLING #3I

c.h^^1 ino

fnr

rhpi r k'I .!u5

Ldrr

L'ts/

' complele have - if the state can have

conrrolffi public educaffie tion authorities is that the second nrrr

thic

h:roain

hreakinq

down. More and more people who twenty or even Een years vtould never have considered sending Eheir children to private schools are now doing so. the Despire hard times and inIIation. median income oF parenLs of private school children has been dropping every year now for a number oF years. One reason is that more and more paronfc

.ra

hacamino uuev"'r r'5

.ri

^-l

^,,h

lic schools that they are willing to make ever larger money sacri fices Lo set cheir children out of them. But in even more important reason is that npnnle

era

*LU rrrvs'rL

hpoinnino ,,1'."b

among Ehem home schooling,

wd)5r

^*^,,FL uwL'l E,

1^.,

^^-ts

^-i.,^F^

schooling is what the-puETTc school authorities are trying Eo stop, since it threatens thelr effective monopoly over the education of Lhe greaL majoricy oF American children. They say tsh.ts

fha

ln"r

nrrrlifrr

hnmo

schooling EhaE worries them, bul whaL reaIly worries them is iLs low price - Perhaps Ehe best evidence LhaE there is no educational need whatever for these regulat i ons , I eL a l one any compel Iing need, comes from Georgia icself, One of the books on our List iS IhE PETERSON'S GUIDE TO INDEPEN_ DENT STUDY THROUGH INSTRUCTION, which

CORRESPONDENCE

Iists over 12,000 courses offered for academic credit nor iusr af rhe h i qh school but also the undergraduate and even the graduI^,,^l

-r^

h., u)

-i,F., 5!^Ly-r'

lardino

-ina

nri-

' vate and sfaEe colleges and unlversiD., L^-^., ^L^-^^ one of Ehese Dy L'dPP) Lrrd"Lc L!sr. is the Uni versi ty of universities Georgia. Pages 52 and 53 of the Guide list 68 lower level colleee and 96 rrnner level collepe courses which the universi ty otfers, for crediL, by correspondence. Lest any suspect these are some kind of Mickey Mouse cour-^r

-^-lL. rcdr

the fields 1

orrol

}\oro

drdsE ^^.d^hia

aro

of scudy offering

nnrrrcac'

Aori

upper

arrl rlra

Archqonl

gy, Anthropology, EcoIogy, Latin, Amaringn

Hi-ts^rr,

I ii6ratilra

/A66Fi

can, English, European, etc. ), PhiLosophy, Government, Psychology, Socio1

r ^^., uBy ,

F^^^^-i Lsu"u'l

D,,^ i-^^^

^.,

M^-

^-i

agement, Education, Forestry, Nutri tion, and JournaLism. None of these many major departments or divisions at the leadins university of the state seem co feel chat in order for someone to learn Che maEerial in their courses they must be in a room with at least fourfaan

nannlo PsvPrL

^fhar

h,,iIIi^-

h^F

used for any other purposes, etc., eEc. The University, Like all the ocher universiEies listed in the guide, says, in eIfecE, "We don'c care where, or how, or when, or in whose company, or with whose assistance (if any) you learn this maceri^l

I F .,^.. yuu

^^Ldrr

-L^,,

tsL^F

.,^,. yvu

f,^.,^ ,'ovc

learned it, we will give you fulL academic credit for it." This shouLd be enough to dispose o.[ any idea that effecEive Iearning can onLy take place in certain speciaL places where nothing eLse takes pIace, and in the company of some minimum number o[ peonlo

and

tho

nraconnp

cnl

Ioop

Rovnrd fhic up have as evidence

avnafi

m-nt, ",orr)

t,^.F. ]E4rr

.nn arru

even decades of such corresDondence

schools as Calvert InsciLutb, Home Study InstituEe, and a host of others GROt,lING t,lITHOUT SCHOOLING

#3I

CREATIVE HOME

nrrr fopefher musf be cl ose ro haI F a I I i on. and ni pht well be more than EhaL. Beyond that. there are right now many thousands of families in AId5Kd ^l ^^1.^ A^ --i

i..

FL^

6^+r

L^-^

Fh^

rr^,,r

h..L

interior

deserc of AustraLia,

nhi

ldran

rra !

hoino LL !r'6

f --^f oraai 6' !qL

L. ^^-tsPd ' rr rho L"L

where

, irh

6.1,,^-F^^

rh^

support and approval of state school sysLems, if only f,or che very good f h, ts f ha\/

u, L

I ^.

-i

1' '4r'

'rrdr') from the nearest school. No one has ever produced a shred of evidence that all rhis home schooling has noE produced saLisfacLory resulEs. So, as T car; r rhora r rar L,rL

i c n^r

af aAttoat iLv" ^n i I -* -^^..1-Fi^--

i < !r

.1 i -hr rh^ LLLe rr!6'rLcr

nr^n^H.uPv>rrrB ,,Li^

i --

6.ts

^d,,

l^F

. i 6

r rar reguraLlons wnrch we may see put forward in other stales. But let me say again, as at the start of this piece, thaE even if

Shoker Mountoin School

A SYALL ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL. FOUNDED IN ],96iJ, zuLLY A?PROVED BY I]IE STATE OF VERMONT.

WE ARE LTE

IN ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS FOR SE\''ERAL YEARS. A FEW TMMEDIATE OPENINGS. MORE FOR NEXT YEAR. CALL JERRY MINTZ at 8,02-862-5910 188 S. WINOOSKI AVE., EJRLINGTON, VT.O54OI

L]VING

,hir^

EDUCATION

The rorthly journal flor trarents an'J children learning together. Excerpts fron Steiner, Krishnanurti & others arl icles, storiLS, nl'ofos' letters anJ

automatically close down aIl home schooling in the state. The regulaCions say chere must be at least fifteen children in a school. but iE chorrld he easv for more than fifCeen Georgia home school ing families to resisc.er their chi Ldren in one or moie schools, perhaps the Horizons School which already exisfs and in which many of them are already registered. Beyond thaE, chere is no reason why home schooling Fami I ies could not register their children with each others' schools, so thaL Fami Iy A wouLd have in its school Ehe children Frmjtioc

ARE PARTICIPANT CONTROLLED, TRAVEL EXTEN-

SIVELY, AND ARE NOT SEGREGATED BY RACE, AGE, GRADE, OR RELIGION. WE ARE LOOKTNG FOR BOARDING SIUDENTS WHO HAVE BEEN HC}4E SCHOOLED OR

qnme qrrrnea rhrnrroh nia.o of fwisrpd :,.ri^i^t -^!lfF -^^-^-i^^ ^ a^^v^iLiora r^ ,,nhnl d fhace rporr l rt i onc Fh^., ,..^,,1d nonocceri l rr nr -r i I | -^r ,,crcJro!r'f \r! wuuru L'rcy

STTIDY

We offer innovatlve Prograns of fndependent Study for el-cmentary age children, guideC by experienced hone study teachers who respect the unique' ne€ds of each chi.ld. Write for free brochure, OAK MEADOW SCHOOL, DePt. GWS, PO Box G, Ojai, CA 93023

Fiorrre ! rfnr !!6e' v! courSeS

t.-

n.rar!s

and childrFn,

$f5/year - Oak Meadow Publications, Dept. GWS, PO Box G, Ojai, CA 93023

f--

ily B wouLd have in iEs schooL che children of family A, C, D, elc.. and tsLr^

/.rrld

oood

APProved, Tradlilonal

thing for home schooling famil ies to

i^ uu

irrr

,h^*^

--., d'ry

h^me

cchnot

ino

Ilome Study Courses

may come under attack.

The regulations al so say that the schooL must be in a building priBut who marily used for instruction. ruu'u ^^,,1

-.., 5dy

€.f rd,

I rqJr ^-.

Fh.r LiloL

P, ^.^r,6uvr,

For forolgn basgd and stateslde familles ln axlst6nco slnce 1963! Serulng thousands of lamllles wlth tull cours€s. Not Jusl Math, English, Soclal Studl63, Scl€nc€ and R€adlng bul full courses Inctudlng Penmanshlp, PhonlcE, Sp€lllng, ReadlnO for Meanlng, Evo,utlon vs. Sci€nc€, Hsalth afld BiOle and a Klndergarten coursa whlch ls vsry slfectlve In molor coordination ttalnlno and Roadlng. Courses Include a tull

.h\7 ar.)

home in which children were growing up. certainLy any home school , was

noE being used primarily for instruction? l",lhat else happens in the home Fh't nio<

i c m^rd mnro ^f

i m^^rfrnt fha fima

lhri ^r rhnrrohr

ucorl {n-

nri

mrri I rr -l^^-i--

fnr

nnnL i no ^r Th^ r LrE rreorrlrri.nc e6vr

oat -

h-tro ,'dv!

uuL ^rrr t

also falk about 4,2 hours a day of instruction, 180 days a year. Buf -^,,nrl

nar^nts"LD . Pdr

^-.

n^inro.l PUTTLL!u

vlswDolnts. A balanced coursa wlth written assionmsnls but also tlms to Interacl and dlscuss wlth teacher so that tsachof can adiust studenl sp6€d and resDond io n€€ds. Student does not lust wrlia answers to consumable booklels 8ll day- Prolesslonal advlssm€nl avallable at moderals cost and coufs€s can be le'used lor upcomlng stud€nts. Mlsslonary and larg€ lamlly dlscounts Cosl ol Kindsroarten - 392.00 Grades 1 lo 8 - $238.00Internatlonal Instltuto has also asslsted many mlsslon schools and statesldo schools lo starl and become in' de9endsnt by th€ second ysar wlth 6 full complement of texts and lesson plans at a leasonabl6 cost.

to reflsct Chrlstlan

in a home school learning goes on twelve or more hours a day, 365 days ,.,h^ n6ar,'! ^^,'lri lor^rt-ih alnna nrnrro

o fcar! nlaim

rorcnnrhlu

For brochure, rate sh€et end appllcetion write to:

^rhorl,i<o?

With such arguments as these. I chink home schoolers may be able to persuade most state boards of educat i on or comparabl e bodies , or the ctaie

ooi cl rrrrrec

leacher and stud6nt textbogks (some coursBs have 25 books) from repulablo publlshers scroensd comolement

^..rrand

energy of the parents? No reasonable person would cLaim that a home was

IN T

ERN Af I O N A L

ST I TUTE

P.O. Box 99,

Pa* Rldge,1L60068

rh^r

ih^-.^1.,^-

there is no good reason to try to pass regulations or laws such as thnco

nrnnnca.l

C6^--j. 5!d,

,.'hiah wL,!rrr

Larr ^--

serve no usefuL or Legitimare purpose

and wilI only produce a great deal of 1il

iFi--ii^L r 6dL

F^-

^,,,

^lr6e.l\r

torrihiv

overcrowded courts - so overcrowded,

it may be worth poinring 1u

graduaEe. fho

, h^ F^Fel LvLu, corrcqnondence

-F,,/,, ruur sLuuy ^^,,--^' el I I-he hnnp

for Ehe regulacational justiIication tions which the Georgia state board

make

nrivare school ine cosE so much less that more and more people can afford TLi^

in GWS. CaLvert alone has estimated that over the years over 300,000 have used their home

we have listed

rh,f

n.,ar

f hd

.^ir-i

ouc publicrrr

ihorr

are unable Eo bring Eo a speedy trial ^-:-r^^l^

^aF^^.,:FL

wrLrr

l^^^ I u,tB

Second-Class Postage Rates is pending at Boston, Mass. P0STMASTER: Send address changes to G|JS, 729 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02']'l6.

-^^^-a-

for violent crimes, but instead must let Ehem back on the streets or. as is common.

who have been arrested

GRo}JING l,iITH0UT SCH00LING is published six times a year by Holt Associates, 729 Boy'lston Street, Boston l4A 02.l'l6, at $15/yr. Date of .l983. lssue, Feb. I, Application to 14ail at

ADVERT I SERS

publ i 'i

cati

Deadline

is l5

days before

date. Special discount for ads

n three or more issues. send for rates.

run

I ol

ihom

nf f

r"ri th

dr6ar

22nC'- ro share wit-h rrs. , , . If everyone ,,.rr evervone wi1 ticipate, we will be able to win and maintain our rights Eo continue Eeach-

I rr rod"a-.i

sentence. We cannot say too often that our courts have far more important and indeed urgent things fo do than pursue conscientious parents who A^i

^r^

their

'^-hl^

own children.

i^L JUU

^f ur

F^^^Li..^ LedLL'rr'ts

Drrrmmar

eonf

ur ',.

;T---Ftr^

d ruPj

6^ti.6

th.F

r.'^

rh^','hf L LIUUEJIIL

urnrrld

useful Eo reprint in case oEher readers faced a similar battle:

ho GWS

...Here is a checklis! of thinss each oF you can do to hel p in the days ahead: | ) Cal I your IocaI I egi s1 ators in Lhe Ceorgia Assembly. Let Lhem know what has happened and ask them Eo call their sEafe board representa(provide them Eive for their district with a phone number) and tell them !o voEe no on the proposed policy. This is where the real power is going to come from. If you know someone or have a friend that knows someone in the CapitoL or on the Board of Education! leE us know.., 2J CaLL aLl l0 members of the Board of EducEETon and let lhem know why you are opposed to Ehe proposed ruling. Be careful not to atEack openly the public schools. Calling is o.ino

hatra

mnra

i-^^^F

cause they can easily overlook Letters which Lhey delegate to their secretaries to take care of, If you cannot call, rhen do write everyone a letEer. 3) Sit down and compose a sincere IeEEer for your local newspaper.

T,.,

F^^Fâ&#x201A;Ź,,t

^-'

^-^

1^^r

^^^A d^ 6vus

image oF home schooling. If you are wi 1I ing Co be inCerviewed, contact local radio and TV staEions and let them know whaE is happening and why you oppose it. We need favorable pub-

iciry. 4) Cet signatures on the petition thaE is enclosed. Make copies if you need more. Refurn aIi petiEions to PhilLis BosEar before Feb. 5, so they can be presented co the school board at cheir meeting. 5) Duplicate this material as many times as you are able, and pass 1

i r

^no

^fhar

i nd i rri drr-

als Ehat vou mav know Ehat are interested in tn. tarity and basic rights of citizens. , . 6 ) l.le need money, [,,ihatever you can donate, please send. Money is needed to cover aIl the printing ^^-F-

FLi 1i-^ ^ -^i LL'!J|l|daIrl'6'Pv5Ld6g

opes, Iong distance caIls. items . . .

^-..^1

and other

7) Actend the meetins of home schoolers and interested aitizens on Sat. Jan. 22.,. Bring copies of any letters you have written. Please share them with us so we can benefit from your ideas. . . 8) Artend the State School Board of Education MeeEings on Wed. Feb. 9 and Thur. Feb. 10.,. Our numbers will carry a lot of weight aE Ehese meeEings... Bring as many others as you

-hi^-

-^l

individual

i^i^,.^

L^t

i^a^

philoso-

, uPPUsrllx

lifestyles, or other differences divide us. We must sEand solidly together on Ehis one issue ...There is noE much time. We need co move as quickly and deLiberateLy as possibLe. . .

Connie Shaw, editor of the Georgia home-schooling newsIeCLer, A DiIForani

home.

Do noc let

ACTION BY GA. HOME-SCHOOLERS

Infomtilon packec, including a list of recommended actions, that she sent to Georqia home-schoolers in order to fight lhe proposed regulacions. It seems like such a Ehorough job, eqncc i al I v fnr hai no 6166s on short

ing at

MARYLAND REGULATIONS At the same time. the Marvland

StaEe Board of EducaEion is pr6posing even more sEringent regulations. MANfrEd SMiEh Of ThC MARYLAND HOME EDUCATI0N ASSOCIATION tells us that home-schoolerS will ha ar fhp nrrhlin hearing Jan.26 to testify against Ehem. The Baltimore Sun of 1116/83, in a story-Ey-GafT-TEFpbell, subheadlined "StaEe move would virtually ol iminAlA

narani

ro^.F'ot

qrrmmer-

ized the regulations and added some interesling comment. We quote, in part: . . . Parents' freedom to teach children at home insEead of sendins Ehem to school will virtually end if t.he StaEe Board Of Education adopts a proposed revision of its bylaws. A drafE byLaw wouLd allow only parents with college degrees or certifinriinn

fh6

c,,hia^fc

fhov

ra..h

their

children to do home teaching. The drafE also would require children to receive at home a minimum of 180 days, or 1,080 hours, of instrucEion in courses such as EngIish, Ianguage arLs, maLhemaLics, science and social studies. These home courses would have to be described to schooL officials in a written curriculum citing specific ob iect ives and submiETAd:T;-TFe Tocal + school superintendent for approval. ParenEs Eeaching aC home would also have to provide books and malerials comparable to those found in pubIic school sysEems IJH: the regulaF; ^-^

-^F.,-

I 1,, ry

good qualiry,,, i

^F,,

--i

\{udilLlLy,., ^,,-6Fi

^^., rdy

tsL^,, L'rey

-L^1

1 k^

and in sufficient

F.'

t' 1 t,

drru ^-i

FL^

ll^F

var1 ^^^l

superidcendent wouLd determine how often children should be tested Eo measure their progress. . , LasE January, a Harford county coupLe were refused permission to Eeach thei r 7-year-old daughter aE home. The counEy school board voted with one abstenEion Eo unhold SuoerinEendent Al lonso A. Rob-rty's decision and ordered Miguel and Ellen AndrioLo to enrol1 fheir dauphtet Zoe in school immediate I y. . . Mrs. Andriolo is not a colLese graduaEe and Eherefore would noc {ua1ify as a home teacher under the proposed bylaw, but she said she felE she did a good job Leaching her daughter af home in spite of that. "Mv daushEer tested Ehree srade Ievels aDove her own." Mrs. Andrrolo -rldl--SahmT-offTEfai s te s Eed Zoe afEer she had been Eaught for a year and a half at home... Dr. RoberEy said he EoEally supported the proposed bylaw. rrThe qualifications are ctsrinoanf

thararc

dn|ht

ah.,,f

Rabbi Kenneth B. Block, vice president of the Harford county school board, said he was equailv opposed to rhe byIaw... "I fhink-ir's Eoo restrictive and unnecessary. They're trying Co legislaEe home instruction out of existence." Rabbi Block said. , , He said. , . he bel ieves families should have the option of teaching at home i f they wish. . . W. Eugene Craybeal, presidenC of the Harford county school board, sayinq he sooke As An individual cifizen... said he too believes parents should have Ehe choice of feachins at home. rrBut this bylaw Che state board has in the eJorks is to sErenethen its control over home teaching, The trend should be to Loosen its hold,rrMr. Graybeal said... IJH: Some comment on this parficular story. It seems very likely Ehat a reasonable court would rule that Ehe Harford county schooL board erred in not allowing Mrs. Andriolo Eo continue Eeaching her own daughEer, since she was obviously working more Ehan twice as effectively as Che schools, And, though a court would noE say this, mosE reasonable ciEizens would further conclude L) that Dr. Roberty was not competent to irrdqe fhe nrral i fi.Af i ons of a home Eeacher, since he so obviously judged vrrongly in this case, and/or 2\ Dr. Roberty and Ehe Harford county school board were clearly noE acting in good faiEh, EhaE is, in Ehe besE interests ^f

rha

^hil;

.^rih^

rh^"

iil

Beyond EhaC, we can only wonder,

since two members of the Harford

counEy board said in these hearings EhaE they thoughc people shouLd be able to teach their own children, how AiA

h-^^^n

tsh.r

rhic

crm6.^rrnilt

board voEed 3-0 against Mrs. Andriolo? In quoting the news story, I underl ined Ehe words "c i ting spec i fic objectives." They refer Eo a certain kind of meaningless school jargon every teacher's lesson plan is supposed to IisE "Objectives,r'In many ts^^^h^--^^. ron"i ?a.l i^ I i ci --^ LEdgrr<r ^1 Prduâ&#x201A;Źr, both "Outcomesrr and rrobiectives.t' and have to do verbaf-Eandsirings Co make them sound different, since there is in fact no reaL difference. But the schools could use this clause as a vJay of penalizing parents for noc using the approved privaEe jargon. Of course, top rated private schools and colleges do not use Ehis kind of jargon at all. MORE LOCAL NEWS

For addresses of the orsani-zations mentioned, see Ehe DirEctory in #30, or our 'rHome-Schooling Resource LisE" ($l). If you have a IocaL newsletter, vJe'd really appreciate being on your mailing list; thal way we can Let the resL of our readers know whaE yourre doing, CALIFORNIA: We List the San Juan Ridge--1ii-i6n-SCFool District in Cal ifornia as a "Friendly School DisGWS

fri.f

rr Tfc

Tndonondanh

qr,,.lv

Uiraa-

tor, Marilyn DeVore, has just told us inc address is that althoug.h iLs.. mail r'"'b

in Nevada CiEv. Ehe district is actual I y in North- San Juan, I 6 mi l esaway. She writes, "Our Nevada City mailing address has presenEed some

but it needs Eo be stringent. Otherwise, we'I1 have everybody Ceaching Ldr, - PdrerLLs, ^*.^i^'?onfe everywhere with no specific curricuproblems. A family reading your pubLiErd"sP-and oEher interested Darties, Lumr" Dr. Roberty said. cation moved co Nevada City, only to 9) If you are sebking permission neonle don't like uniformifind EhaE the school district "Some Ehere to speak ouE aE Ehe school board meet- ty, but when ! you're running s chool does not ofler IndependenE SEudy..." !L^l ^ ,.L^* ings, please bring a copy oF your >y5Le,,,r wrrdL y,,ou need Connie Warthan in San Jose "he prepared speech to the meeting on the added. writes, rrln the Bay Area we have been Friondc

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING

#3I

meeting for almosE a year now,.. Tc is an informal picnic and anybody inEerested in unschooling is welcome. Date is second Saturday of Ehe monEh.rr For location, caLL Connie at 408-266-L494 or the Blomquists. 408243-7870.

CONNECTICUT: From Jeanine Lupinek: "As a resuTE of a picnic held ac home of Madalene and Tom Murphy the last summer, many Famil ies have gotten together and the Murphys are putting out a newsletter, Hearth Notes. Laura Pritchard and I hetE-puI togeEher an information packet on home school ing in Connecticur, which contains the guidelines on home education from the sfate department, our Letler to the supE., an excensive list of resources, and names of homeschoolers. l,Je have to ask $2 f or Ehe packeE to cover princing and mailing expenses. . . " FLORIDA: Ann Mordes writes in the l-LAsH newstecter, | /6Ji ".1 have received manv telephone caLls and Letters from ali over- Ehe state since October. from people who are complaining of harrassment by truanE officers, FLASH was happy co supply these many people with copies of our letters from the Governor's offlce, and the Health and Rehabilitative Services letter which'1et my husband and me off the hookr here in Jackson County IGWS #28]. Indeed these leCLers have helped every home schooler who needed and used them." ILLINOIS: The Demmins sent us a reporl--iJ5mTTEed to the state Board of Education, dated 6124182, called "lnformational Report and Preliminary RecommendaEions Regarding the Srare's Rolrrianchin

Ill

\l^nntlhl

in^i-

Schools." It recommended that the State rradd ro the current list of ranrrirod (

Far

rooi

i. e. immunization/health

I i^-.

L^^fFL

f:-^

--l

crraf dil

dsd-

demic terrn of 176 days or 880 cLock hoursl and nondiscriminaLory poli-

cies) the following: thar children are taught the branches of education also taught to children of correspondino :oac ^^L^^t ^

end

orqdac n")/u,,E

....

i .-T;c

in ih6 l.-^,.i^^ ^"uwil,li

nlhl in ^c tst^

fate of these recommendations. olease let us know. KENTUCKY: According to some newsr--t

conr

hr, uJ

ai,r h M^r,,F^hr\uLrr

en, Ehe sEaEe Superintendent of Public Instruction told the local districEs Lhat they were responsible for bringing 1ega1 acEion against parents whose children attended unaooroved schools. and officials in at Ieast Ewo districts have starced Eruancy proceedings againsC families in Christian schools. However, the Rev. B.C. CiIlpcnip hac filad srrir aoainci fha state board in U.S. District Court. MASSACHUSETTS: Deborah Armer, 36 Shore-iEsT-Drl--E-Tal mouth MA 02 536, writes, "Some of us here in the Fa1mouth area are now caLlins ourselves ThE CAPE COD HOMESCHOOLIN. COOPERA-

TIVE, At lasE we have a name for ourselves (and some discounEs when we go \' "e w do d SruuP/ consist of Pr4uqr eighE families at the moment; six actualLy have their children ouE of school, the others are not yet of school age. We are beginning to get lnfs.F nhonc cellq From others in surrounding Eowns, as weLl... We have finished putEing out our second monEh1

no.'c1

otsto-

t tt

MICHIGAN: Dr. Ravmond Moore. aurhoF-ot-s-eFiool cAN ilet r, Houe-cnowt

I{Tnq

6r.

h.c

cf .f f ai

-^,.'-l

^t r ^*

Family ReporE, for members of his

EEfiTTT-TESEERCH FOUNDATTON

(

553 Tudor

Rd, Berrien Springs, MI 49103).

bership is $15/year.

GROI^/ING l.lITHOUT SCHOOLING

#3I

Mem-

Toni O'Leary (405-332OKLAHOMA HOME-

was to have its firsE meetins on Feb. 12. PENNSYLVANIA: A SEory in The Fall tTI-PEl--nnschool ers itletwork beganwir@ PhiIIips: "What is defeat? Nothing buf educarion, nothing but the Iirst step to something better," and then went on to say, "This was borne ouE in the experiences of Ehe Rattenni family in Canonsburg. Jean and Richard had appLied to their local superintendenE about homeschooling their two daughters. The reply was negative because of their lack of teaching certificate, Drawing deep gulps of faith, they set abouE collecting recommendations from locaL elementary faculty, regionaL overseer of their church, etc. Based on these, the SCHOOLERS ASSOCIATION

superintendent

REVERSED

sroN. . . "

HIS DECI-

TEXAS: The TEXAS HOME EDUCATION

1I12 MilLsprings, Richardson TX 75080) is planning seminars on how to defend your own case in courc, and is considering submiLcing a prohome-schooling bill in the state IegCOALITION-(

isLature.

Jerry Minaz of the a newsleLter for the VERMONT ALTERNA(P0 Box 74, TIVE EDUCATION NETWORK Hinesburg VT 05461). He says, "The woman who typed up Ehe mailing list is about to start home-schooLins her granddaughter when she takes hei on a three-month trip down south.rl VERMONT:

Shakeiliountain SchooL has started

AUSTRALIAN NEWSLETTER

The Dec. 82 issue of OEher Wavs. Arrc .- Y"' ner Jvr- f rom ALTERNFI-I-V-EEDUCATI0N RESOURCES GROUP, c/o Heather Keck, 22 RLx St., Glen Iris 3146, I

i^n

examina-

-^f^F.. sLy,

OKLAHOMA:

9284) roTd us rhar rhe

$1o

Victoria, Australia] has much exci!ing news of aLcernative school and home school developments in that country. NoE only is home schooling continuing Eo grow in the state of Victoria (where the city of Melbourne is Iocated), but it is spreading Eo and growing in other slaEes; New South [.,JaIes, Southern Australia, QueensLand, WesEern Australia - which covers mosE of rhe country. Lorraine and Adrian Doesburg, with whom I had i nf6roct

i no

nno

.li crrnco

phone conversation a few months ago, are the resource peopLe for WesEern Australia - write them aL P.O. Roleystone, W.A. 6111, In Queensland che

contact person is Lyn CargiIL,

Henson Rd., Salisbury 4107, Other Wavs. which at first +..

148

concerned itself mainly with doings in Ehe sLate of VicEoria, seems to have become the Australian national newsletter of alternaEive and home schooLing - at leasc, I don't know of any other. Any who are interested in Ehe growth of home schooling in AusEra1ia, and certainly any who think they might be visiting or moving there in Ehe near fuEure, should subscribe. Al-^

iF L

-^,,

L^ u<

-^^i,,-,, BUUU

wdJ

F^ru!

^Li1i

"'dt ren Co make some AustraLian pen oals. . _JH

...Ed feels the Legal Insurance For Education (LIFE) program is working very weLL as a proEection for home study families from intimidation and/or prosecuEion. 0f Ehe 52 families who have caken ou! policies, onLy Ewo have made claims, In most casPs- srrons letters From Ed to threaEening school officiaLs have

averted Legal action.

The rates are the same as orisinally explained in TidbiEs #8: $80 i yerr- for' up to g20,O00--6ierage, $40 a year for up Eo $10,000 coverage, and $20 a year up to $5,000... MORE NEWS FROM CARVER From PaE MonEgomery (MI):

IDR:l In January 1981, Ed Nagel

and Ehe NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

LEGAL SUPPORT OF ALTERNATIVE

FOR THE SCHOOLS

(PO Box 2823, SanEa Fe NM 87501)

started an insurance program for home-schooling families concerned abouL facing legal acEion. I'Je asked how it was going, and Lu Vorys wroEe on Ed's behalf:

.'^"

mi ohr

I ilra f n

Jvu,"15,,!

dent of Carver Schools in Carver,

MassachusecEs, is very supporEive of home schooling, In Ehe lasE rwo years

he has gone before his board four times and recommended that families in hi s disErict do home schooling, .r onlara's Home ^--^. cr ^^r 1-. u!! d"u, 5PEsrrrudrry, Based Education Program. He called the other day regarding one oF Ehe fami lies and was lavish in his praise ^t u!

^,.* uu!

Pr v6r o,"

He was also seriously concerned abouE another famiLy in his discrict who were noE following any program

and were apparenEly feeding him misinformation about their home schooling. He seemed genuinely disturbed by this in view of the fact that he is known Eo support home schooling. You will probabLy recal I IGWS #?l I rhrr Carttor ic fhe nl:cp whcre two or three years ago, a judge ordered a family of a frequentlyabsent-from-schooL teenager to enroLl i- .1 ^..1 r Pr u5! o,,, - and he also

ordered the schooL district

the bil1.

pay

COMMISSION FOR ADS

As you can see, our campaign Co display and classified advertising in GWS is off to a good sEarc. Many thanks to all of you who bought Ehese ads. In order to make GWS a's close as possible to self-supporEing, and less dependenc than it is on the very uncertain and declining lecture business, we want to increase this advertising as fast as we can; our EargeE, which we hope to reach in a geE

ysdr

Lwu,

ir 5 â&#x201A;Ź^,,!uur

^^-^^ Pd6e5

-l-

each issue, which by thaE time would be 28 and more probably 32 pages. We plan to solicit ads actively from this office; Pat Farenga will be our Director of Advertising. But because we are small and already very busy, we will only be able to do a limited amounE of this. What we would like is to have as many readers as possibl e solicir ads for us, from any businesses chey may know of or read about EhaE they think might I ike Eo advertise in GWS. To encourage you, we make this offer: for every display ad Ehat you recruit for us (from some^na

LEGAL INSURANCE WORKING

r tsh^',dhr LLrvuSL,L

..,r

know that Norman Bossio, superincen-

nnrrreo

-dt'

.i du

F^LU,

,,^,,yvq,

self wouldn't counE), and send in Eogether with the check in payment, we will pay you a commission of lO"L of rhe cost of the ad. The only ocher Ehing I would like to say about our advertising is that it would be very helpfuL if, whenever you buy anything advertised here, you mention to Ehe company Lhac you saw their ad in GWS - perhaps wriEing them a Ietter, perhaps just making a littLe note on the order

blank.

F^F

-nv

h^l .'sr ^P ',^'r )uu

crn

o i rro

rrc

either of these ways, thanks very much, - JH

i n

Well, my waEery eye vlould be written up in fhe absence note as a true epic of "l achrymatory excess Iimiting fhe ocular field.rr Described that wav. it was worth a good week to ten days ac home.

YOUNG FARMERS' EARNINGS

BeEty Anderson (FL) wrote:

...In ApriI of '81

my daughEer

and son opened bank accounts for their own business practice. The bank loaned them each $800 to purchase a sEeer and feed for the year. In February of '82 their steers were sold at aucEion (this was their 4-H oroi-

ecE), In our county bids on these

4-H

animals go beyond Lhu are..g. market nricp

Fnr

haoâ&#x201A;Ź

enim:1

Tho

nrnfir<

have paid for many college degrees and set up independent businesses for young peopLe. My children were fortunate to add approximately $4500 to their bank accounts through the sale of their sEeers (profit ),...According Co the bank, the money belongs soLely Co me. How ridiculous. They were the ones who were up at 6 AM daily to feed, waEer, and groom the animals, They were the ones who missed out or were late arrivine at social functions because Lhey we;e tending the steers in Ehe affernoons, They were the ones to balance bank statements, write checks for feed bills and keeo dailv records of the project. They did al L the work - but the bank does noE recognize an 11year-old girl and a 9-lear-otd boy as estabLished customers of lheir bank. You should have seen the look on tsL^ L"c

d,'u ^i^n^ Pa

--1^.-.-|-

Fa.6

urhan

mrr

11-year-oLd waLked into his showroom and began to make a deal on Ehe purchase of a piano. At first he want.ed to speak with me, but I made it clear that he and Tammy would be conversing. He was astonished. Tammy was indienant that he didn't treat her as a valid cusEomer. The purchase was made and I heard him say ro Tammy, "Your mom can make the check ouE for $X.rt Tammy looked up at him sweetiy and said, "No sir, my morher doesn't have enough money to buy chis piano, so I'Il write you a check from my accounE.rr l^iithouE hesitaEion she opened her checkbook and began co write out a check for the full amount of a brand new Kimball. The man began to chuckle at his own isnorance of her ability. When the plano tuner h^

-.ii

rrT. r 5 T.hm\/ | d,rr.rj

...My absences allowed me to grow up wiEh large open spaces in my life. lt was like being a pioneer inEo frontier terriEory.., I read myseLf into the rhythms of other $torLds, For three voyaging months the language of I.IOBY DICK ro11ed me on the ocean. At oEher Eimes I walked briskly Eo the clipped affectaEion of Lord Peter Wimsey. Then Eoo, Lhere were the comforEing rhythms of our adjoining family print ing bus iness . I 'd been co1 laL i ng printed sheeEs into booklets since I was two years old. Now I added typino

:ddraccino rrt6'

fiiinrrrrL16

werp

and

.-l

--t^*i--

to my reperCoire, Much of the work was what mosc adults misht shun as routine, buE I enjoyed Ihe almost mystical monotony very much, The work left the mind uncLuEtered and receptive. My parents never fiIIed my free t ime with any formal instruction. lhara

1 : F^ P^-^FL^a way or ^F rrre LogeLner.

t",6ra TL l

narf

naE was

enough. Now I'm well inEo adulthood and am in charge of the family business...

From Eileen Perkins (VT):

...My senior year I had a con* cussion and was physically ouE of school .[or over a month. (Mental 1 y it fook me a corrnlp vFArs fo recover. ) My assignments were sent home. That semester I received my first straight A's and in my Engl ish class noE onlv d id

T oar

f^n

c.^ro

i n

rha

cl rcc

hrrr

top score in the four English sections fhat leacher Eaught. I assure you, I spenE much less time on schoolwork than the six hours a day I would h5\ro cnanf,f nrarlintod rh.i

e.h^^l Mrr narantc m\/ orada< rrn,,1r1

hazl dran

because I spent hours working on

plays.

From the last experience I changed my study habiEs when ^nt I ^^^ nl eccac

r -^1 d^cu .-^i q"Jvjsu ^n i^\,6.t al-'^"r di dnrr r.rnrrrr hu! ' !) auuuL

my -r-A^.

and I think I Learned more than if I were trying Eo please the teacher or

Andorcnn

here ? "

Children do need more rights and m^ra r6c^d^ts <^^Fts / 9 )woul d t ike Che right Uo vote. This pasC election I feeL he made wise choices. I believed it enough that when I went into the booth I voted on Ehe candidates he had chosen. I did that because I wanted to prove Eo him his political choices were as sound as mine... Actuallv. he made an effort to become weLi'informed about each candidate I didnrE and I'm 31 years old. I would have voted a straight ticket because I was less informed... THEY LEARNED AT HOME

From Rosalie Schultz, 3755 Kedzie Av, Chicago IL 60618:

.,.Mv Darents and I collaborated to keep mb out of school as nuch as possible. We did it wiLh creaLiveLy writEen excuse noEes. It's a lot like the more common art of creaEive menu eJriting. You've seen hovr hamburgers geL dramatized inEo "delicately diced boeuf au jus naEurel" on a menu.

SELF-TAUGHT SCIENTIST

A Christian nla

r^*

Science MoniEor arti-

12/22/82: - VincenE J. of rainmakers" and one of the world's leading atmosnheric c.ianlicfc .lid noE take the conventionaL academic route Co emin...ROTTERDAM,

Sahrofor

ence.

rrfh6

f.rhor

Until 1961, when he founded the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center ac Ehe State University of New York at ALbany, which he directed as its Leading professor for 15 years, he had never set fooc inside a college or university - except as a distinguished lecturer or to receive some honorarv degree. Schaef6r never aspi red to become a self-insEructed scientist. He had hoped co go to college Co become a forester. ItBut wc had a large famiiy." he said in an inEerview a! his home in rural Rotterdam, "Beins the eldest of the fami ly, with our p;rents in poor health, it was necessary for me to go

'.'^rL

h*i--

iI -I' euvsSrl ^n^rroh

m^na\r

keep us in food.rrAfter onLy two years in high school, he left to become an apprentice at General ElecEri c in nearby Schenectady. Four years Later, he had masEered Ehe machinist trade and was making experimentaL nodels for scient i st.s at CE's Research Laboratory. . . ...SchaeIer reFers to his experience aE CeneraL EIecLric as I'Langmuir Ilnirrprci

rr llnrlor

f v

rha

f rrial

aoo

the la Ee I rv i ng Langmu i r , For whom he was building test models, Schaefer's natural talents came fo flower. In a shorl time he was conducting his own experiments in the General ELectric Lab.

.. ,That unorthodox beginning launched him on a career as a highly inventive natural scientist, In 7946, Schaefer discovered the first feasibLe method of seeding clouds. What is his secret oF success? - l"lork on your own, - Learn by doing. - Seek ouE worlhwhile people and make chem your friends. - Read books. advantage of every good - Take F., F^ I vPPUr ^^^^-F,,-i

LUL'rL

-^-^FL:

- Remember Ehat mature peopLe enjoy help.ing young peopLe who are rrvi nc to Fi nd fhemselves and real ize their poEential. Schaefer ins i sts thaE anyone with the desire could do what he has done. "You have Eo have a sense of ''^-r^DdJ5, dL, be aware of "-^d everything"E that goes on. You have to devel op what I call 'intelligent ^"^'wiCh rhe world sjss rl ^^j

^,,^-.,'Ii--

iril

L':i

iF rL!

of a "A book is a distiLlation person's ideas," said Schaefer, a t'If you have a voracious reader. -- --'n door Lo the uuu^, yuu area of knowledge Lhe auEhor is incerested in. lt is a tremendous resource F^

i n-

F^1.^

^1.,^-F^-^

.,.A boyhood interest

*^al.-

--e^,,h^rdc

--i

in collecti n

rh i c oA^_

logically and hisLorically rich region introduced him to the first of his long Iisr of "worlhwhile people." Two farmers, both self-educated men, stirred in young Vince an admiration for their knowLedge of Local hislnrv

urhore

Indian

lnro

minolac

r,,irh

tales of early Dutch settLers. . . . In retrospecL, he gi ves much credit to Lhe Lone Scours of America, an organizaLion for farm boys who were too isolated Lo be active in Boy q.^rrf rr^^nc Thov rn6[ al L Lhe i r tests by correspondence. "It gave you a sense oI independence because you were on your oldn honor," Schaefer said. Eventually, with three other bovs- hp formed lhp lone Scout Mohawk Tribe- The hovs nuhl i shed a I i ttle magazine on archeol ogy, which aLtracLed the attention of the New York State Department of Archeology. Through the head of rhe research laboratory, SchaeFer eventually met the ctAlp

rrcha^lnoicl

who invited h ir

Arrh"r

ParLer

the J7-year-oId to join

. -^-Fh a,"u,,L"-rw,,6

field trip. ..

^n^

-r.ha^1.o

i.,

HOME-SCHOOLER HELPS SCHOOL

From Jacque l,^lilliamson ([dV):

...I direcc and Leach an early school for children ages 2-5 which is cimiIrr r^, nrronr fhaf m.qf n:ranlc

nn-nn r^frro

cnhnnl hol nino

in mo

in the classroom. This is the second year I've had a home schooler helping

me (she was 10 lasE year, L1 this).

GROI,,IING I,IITHOUT SCHOOLiNG

#3I

Itrs been great for us both, As we onLy meet two mornings a week, it isn't too demanding of her time and gives her a chance to use her skills wiEh others. Irm consEantly amazed at how she can breeze into situations wiEh children who won't try a new activity and have them rapidly enjoying the very th.ing they've avoided. I think she has a "kid-sense" we have Iost. t'n quite open with parents who ask about her presence and now we have severaL more families interested in home schooling since they see it in action. One of these days I hope Chris will write you aboul her experi ence hel ni nc i n the school . . .

is a word that comes up over and over again - and they want the recognition thaE comes with success, such as a raise, or a promolion, or a more difficult assignment. As Ted Sizer recenfly noted, "A sEudent may work forty hours a week as assistant manager at a fasE food place, but aL school he sEill needs a pass to go Eo the bathroom: iE's crazyi" llhether or noE they see craziness in the situation, many scudents are voting wi th their free hours after school for a chance Eo be treated Like the adults they believe they are... KIDS IN THE NEWS

A U,P.I. article from Sandy,

HIGH SCHOOLERS AT WORK

UT:

...Karisa RoEhey, 6, thinks her

Theodore Sizer, chairman of "A Study of High Schools," sent us an interesting paper by Eleanor Farrar, Some excerpts:

neighbors in suburban Sandy should take a lesson from Mormon hisEory to

...Our fieLd sEudies in fifteen high schools around the country are in the final phase,.. One widespread phenomenon which has Eaken many of the staff by surprise is the amount

flnnlrc

fimF

pnprow

end

rh.r

n.nv

n,th

1ic high school students commit to working. We've noLiced that, regardlocc Fnr

frmi Lo"'r!J lw afrar

1 i fp

!eir.r'm.F.n-^. hi oh cchnnl

vr ^m.cl

dents are holding jobs, many virrrrrllrr

recent

F,,ll-f

ih6

dm^l^\'a6c

publ i shed

^1.-PLd,'r crr-

Tho

reporL I rom

Ehe

High School and Beyond SEudy, Employment During High "Youth ,r (nhnn1 i ts-tsit'^

NORC

in quo,,LrLoLrvs rLr ^t,.nr

^.nirrrac

form the lmpressions we have formed in the field: the NORC study reports Ehat 50"1 of aLl sEudents surveyed in <nrino r'6 JH! '

lQRO

.--^1-

n'fi^-^r

nearLy 60,000 sophomores and <ani arc ) urooL. rnd

hrrl u,nrLorl rha nrarri r'^-r in rha cani^r Jv,,!vr ]sa!

nrrc 41"/

h-A

worked. FurEhermore, over half Ehe seniors worked more Lhan fifEeen hours per week. 10% worked ful1-time, and the average weekly hours oF work was 19. These f,igures include private >.

^^L^^1 5Lrruuf

TF ^-i,,^F^^,,^-^ r! Pr

^.,^t,,i^l

are they working?

or cuLreBe, ^^ir^-^

. First

uf a CaT., Or

Erip. Others work to supporE cars, or their closeEs. or their weekend fun. Many sLudents work because they have to: brrl a srrrorisinc number of students say that though Eheir parents provide an allowance, they willingly feel uncomfortable takins it. As one girl puLs iL, "My mom goE a job when my siscer wenl Lo col1ege. They'd give me an allowance if I asked, bul rrf c^^r !uL,L'] t..--,, F^1.i-L4N!r'E it,'r Like so many young people, she reLishes the freedom and independence that her own money brings, but she aLso feels obLipared to'lichten the burden at home, In this sense, students work not I'have to" for financial because they reasons, but because their sense of self-esteem and of familv membership requires iC. Work also seems to provide a 1^rd^r rdr5c,

k^.,nnA ucJvilu

-rdrdrsrLd'

rha

cnhanl

which young people can take a measure of Ehemselves. While school provides a tesr oâ&#x201A;Ź academic achievement or, F^-

-^-^

^FL1^+i^

it seems to fall

skilL,

.,^-A^ts ydru5L

i ^1.

l:ts,, ^:Li JrurrrLy

-..^L ^F i-iFi^+i.,^

:^..--^1i^Fi^ tuu,"dllrLrI

short as

i i ' ^^l

^..^1

SDPU"F^ LU

^Li1its., durrrLJ

get on in the world. The opportunities schools Drovide in these domains caom

ili.n LvP

v!!

^rfrr

^^i PUTLtL ^F

,,hi

i -

too low For many students. They want j

hi oopr

nhal

I anooc

rr-^^^^h-i

GROI^/ING I.IITHOUT SCHOOLING

#3I

r,'rl

carorrll<

hplnod

hannorc

f h.r

qarre

fhe

from swarms of grass-

t.'ara

riorrorrri

ihai

crops in 1847. Karisa has once asain found that aiswer Eo Lhe inbirds are a Lerrific sect plague. OnLy she uses a flock of Leghorn chickens, which she rents to neishbors a week at a time. The voracious chickens. along with domestic ducks, seem co be succeeding in parEially curbing a nasEy grasshopper infesEation that has resisted insecticides and brush fires set bv the fire deDartment. Sandy city of'fic i a1 s have asked Governor ScoEt Macheson to provide sLare assisrance and even cbl 1 ouL Ehe Utah National Guard to deaL wiEh Ehe hungry chompers that have been stripping gardens and even fruit Erees throughout the suburb south of Salt Lake City. BuE Karlsa said, "All peopLe need are some chickens. They love to eaf bugs. The grasshoppers used to -1

FL^

^-ts^

i ^

-^-i^^

^,,-

had to plant the corn L\,iice. BUE Ehe chickens jusc gobble up the grasshoooers ." -Karissa said her father, Kenneth RoEhey, a lawyer, boughr her some baby chicks for Easter and she raised them specificalLy to attack Ehe bugs that invade her yard yearly from nearby fields. After the chickens cleaned the insects out oI her yard, Karisa began renting Ehem ro her neighbors lor 25 .onfc nar nhinkon ner week. She aIsO colLects and sells the eggs. ,rt,r^ We

and foremost, sLudenEs say that they work forg^-the oavcheck. Some are -^,,i-^ savrLrB

Mormon settlers

^^F

che number would be even higher.., t"lhy

oot rid of e nleorra of hrrnorv errqqhonners. so she has cone into the rent-a-chicken business. Before the days o.f insecti cides,

Frrl

aoo<

d^rr i no cnmo he:rrr'i _ -^!., 6sLL!'16 rr raiA Frnm al l ih2F eLrsL ^v^r^in PruLcrtt,

her father. rrKarissa is selling them for 50 cents a dozen, and she has her savings accounE." $140 in \'^:^LL^-^ ..^ ^-r down the bLock L!sr6r'uurr uP d,,u

have been renting

the birds,

Tho oroonn rnrrrnal , 5/4/82: EUGENE - There are kids in this town who tell some pretty Eall rales - and when Ehey do, others listen, In fact. thev Listen so well that sometimei they forgeE where rhey are. And that's the besE complimenE you can give these young people r< prc Pnncorrol

Trnrrna

Qrnrrrral

fL wrLlr llonsLers -^-^r^--

--l prlnCeSSeS, auu ^-i

These "spelLbinder aPprenrices as they have been caLled, are in "' | i Fr, d i,!ni h i oh cf rr-^,EdrrLy ^F 5,vuf, ^r dents who have performed for more than 26,000 elementary school students Ehroughout the stace, have and eiven demonstrations aE libraries for college education classes, have radio and for recorded had their work television and are occasionaLly called on to exhibiE their skiLls at teacher workshops, During Ehe summer months manY of the tellers perform for chiLdren's festivals, summer camp or park programs, and at hospitals. One girl,_ c.ant.

6uc5L

in Hilo, Hawaii, and others rurn their wel l -practiced Lal enEs to high school dramatic presentaLions. Wherever they perform, ic is as professionaLs. "I wiLl not save them if they are up in Front of a class." says R^hart F

Rrrhi nql-ei n . creator and of fhe frouDe. It is Che they expecE Irom kind of discipline this man. professional sEorycel Ler himA self, Rubinscein Learned the crafE while working as a children's Librarian in Boston and continues to work at it in addition to fulLtime teaching duties at Roosevelt Junior High

di rp.ror

SchooL,

"It's a hard Life," says Rubinstein, of those who atEempt to make a career of sEorytelling. "A few of Ehe very best can make a I iving at it, but they just about have to be single and willins - fo Eravel all over the country." ...Each of the srudenEs in the travelling troupe must develop a repertoire of four stories and be ready to Derform anv or aLL of Ehem on -"1 I f.ra

rrhi ah cts^r\/r6l

nâ&#x201A;Ź nanr<o i c nno larrc or^-F FdLcsL 5r

rho

...Some have writEen originaL srories Co tell. Most, however, choose tales with good characters and exciting dialogue, which make their job easier in the long run. Thev learn fasE "I Like short stories because Ehey are easier to EelI and you can make up more,rr says Jean Tobin, 1.3. "Ic is a challenge Eo be able Lo tell something to take Ehe place of Fha

ni.FI16<

ara

<earaA

rr rdrtc

.^t'm-

n-,.,h

I ?

"It's fun. Ic makes other peopLe happy and I Iike thaL." says CIaire Ferres. 12. "talhaL's rea l Iy hard i s when you rnd

haoin ,, F^ LU rrii-^F,,h^h au6c( wL,e'l

you sEand up," confides another member of Ehe tToupe. BuE when it comes time to puLl on the red troupe T-shirts and climb into che van heading for the nexE cnhnnl

rhorr Lr'!J

cnnn Jvurr

tsk^ ^c^

i i I F^-. J LLE'

h" uy

' wisecracking and singing songs.., "The most important thing Co keep in mind when seLecting a sEory," rRubinsteinl teIls his students, "is thaE Ehe Eeller must genuinely Iike che story, want to tell it and want to share ic with his audience."..,

14.YEAR.OLD ON TV

From Doris Neman (NY):

in irs l3th year and sti Il the onLy troupe of its kind in the nacion. They may spin their yarns in Ehe cLassroom, but they transporE cheir audience to far-off fairyEale lands

,,i

scary places with haunEed houses, or magical kingdoms where anything can haooen, ''

\t^,,---

. . . My ,

i,,-F -tuJL

14-year-old daughLer, Joy ts.^^l udPsu

ialavici^n

nil^i

called "The Kid's Connection." She was one of five professional children in a talk show chosen co participate for Eeenagers, with an adult interviewer and a live audience of adoles-

cents. The five children included two tap dancers (sisEer and broEher), a model, a singer, and an actress. ALthough Joy was hlred as the acEress, as soon as the producers found ouE that she does noE aCtend school, they focused on her home schooling for mosE of Ehe questions. In rehearsal, the other kids were asked neutraL questions like "How did you gec your firsc job?" andrrHow old were you when you firsc got started?" Joy was asked, "Don'c you feel isolated?" and I'ArenrE you lonely?" When I spoke to Ehe women who were running the show ( teachers ) , they assured me Ehat everyone was iltsf

inforaete.l

nnf

chel

lonoino

threatening. Joy felt that she was put in Che position of defending herself and her education. Because she was so uncomfortable about Ehe tone of Ehe inquiries, we spent some time at home thinking of hosCile questi ons, a1 though iE ' s hard for mv husband and mvself to assume a frame'of mind where the most imporrrnl

rhinoa

ara

ranavt

loclc

child, because of special skiLls and work experiences, It was inleresting to me that the model, the singer, and the Lwo dancers kept assuring everyone EhaE they were jusL "ordinary, regular, average kids." Joy acknowIedged thaE her life is different. On the program her answers were unique because of her frankness about conflicts in her Life, conErasted with rhp

i daa l i ct i.

-^L^^*.-l

tsL-r

rh^

Yociordrrr

rrhon

iharr

ts.na.l

Fh6

giving thoughEful ansrrers, When she mentioned learning French from ttp--1

-^i

rr d-

^,,h1 Puurr!

rol

orri c i nn

nrn-

' gram, she rdas asked how she could learn without a book. Jovrs resoonse was to explain how we senc away for the book of scripts, which is written in French, and how we read aloud with our own spontaneous EransLaEions. (She didn'E have fime to tell about onino r^, ino Frcnch

Fran.h filmc

roef4rrr.nr nr cerrino

lehalc

from products made in France or Quebec,

)

from the studio audience asked, "Some day, wonrt you be sorry you didn't get a welL-rounded educaSomeone

tion?" The irony is this: A11 five kids (who were Long Islanders hired in

\I^r.'

v^?1'

eir.,Ly

drLs' ^Fts^r

qrrdirinnino

for rhe show) had co EraveL a couple of hours to Tarrytown in Westchesfer County, where the TV studio was located, AII oI the oEhers, whose education was not considered ouestionable. wenE home as soon as the show was over. Our fami[y sEayed overnighE. PhilEhen drove a few miles to visit ipsburg Manor, hrhich was builE in 1720. AE Ehe mill on the estate. Jov sEudied the gears attached to the water wheel for grinding corn and wheat, she drew sketches of Lhe ewes and rams near the barn, walked on the oyster shell paths, asked questions of the well-informed tour guides, and saw a short film on Lhe hisEory and restoration of the manor. We compared in the manor house Eo the artifacts ones used on stage for "The CrucibLe'l at SUNY Stony Brook lasL summer. (Joy had played a role in the Arthur Miller Dlav abouE lhe Salem witch trials of |OSZ.l r^r,r^ > il-^L^^1 JU) sLrruur

i--rr !,LB

til-rF u,uil

^+^^ L sLUP

because it was Saturday, but the other students and cheir famiLies apparenEly thought Ehat since it wasn't in a school bui I di ng, and i c was a weekend, there was no need for any more education for the week. They were about Ehree miles from this beautiful olace when thev left the TV studio-and headed home. So much for the well-rounded educaEion I The education of al1 five children who were interviewed is acEually much broader Ehan Chat of the averase

nrocont

hr,

i!s-

<rrnnncod 5uPyurLU

rn Lv

ho uL

made the most

FROM THE MAHERS

Frnm Marw Mahor

T^rrrc J rncwor JUJ

shovr, Joy was smiling and confident,

,,h^

-i 'l

missing socialization new friendsl...

naric

better Ehan the ones we would have given. [^le wanted Eo bring your book TEACH YOUR OWN and other maEerials to show, but they rejected the idea,

f,,16

the others. Joy was arLiculate, informative, and sometimes amusing. (Her answers were singuLarly Lacking the "Iike. you know, Iike" speech pattern of our LocaL adolescents. ) Alter the show, some of the boys went over to the model, while most of the kids in the studio audience flocked around Joy, Isn't iL f,unny

schedules and graded homework. At our

n*ir'.ts^

ni.

...I in^

(f,1f,

)

;

have mv dream of buv-

still

-i4-^ drru,

H,,F uuL

Fh^ Ltts

rrn

crroaf

nrnhlom Pruur!

where Lo puL it?... Mandy {6) has a reaL interest in the oiano. She's been tak i ng mus i c c Iaises ( wi th note reading and some piano) from a very accompl ished Russian pianist who I i rrec

f ha

She

lnrrac

oni no

there and is now after me to get her something Eo pLay on. In the meantime I'm going to buy her a recorder, A friend has offered to Eeach her Eo r^l ^.,

-^i-^L'Lt3 ,,, 6u

^l ^.,

Ju.,!ur

nr.oram ,f fhp his choice. He's

very exciEed about hls class - loEs of experiments and opportuni ties to ask questions. His grades are al1 A's. I don't care what his srades are, bul he is proud to feel that he can succeed in school. ln Ehe past he always saw himsel f as a fai lure, and now he has a chance Co see EhaC he is smart. The science teacher told us Ehat Scott is a child any teacher wouLd love to have in his class L-l^Lr lts -^1.^^.,^-+i^-i-^ rvrr!r'6. me so happy to see Scott appreciated ^rr^- ^r L"c ycdr 5 v^f criticism from elementary school teachers. I remember Eelling you once how Scott couldn't write - he would just freeze up. WelI. you should see him now! He wri fes nape affer nape without any anxiety. Not forcing him to write at aII in the beginning, and being oh so pat i ent, has reaIIy paid

off.

i.nr'

-^^d EUvu

rhinoc L"r'16J

harra

awful 1ot to learn and iE's a rather slow process. Mandy and Scott have iE. Tom will write you all about it when he finally undersEands itl.., boEh put programs into

Scott also wrote us a lettef: ...When I left school two years .isFL ^--r^ LrrLL' r' felL Chat I 6rduE, would not want to go back. I am now in seventh grade and 1 am very interesfcd in ccipnce. Mv friends Lold me that the science class down at the junior high school was very exc i ting and they were doing a loE o[ experiments. tJhen I heard this I decided to Ery it out. Tn Oclohpr mv nrrents and I wenL for a meeFins down at Che school. The feachers were plad ro hear thaL I wanEed to go down there for a class and cave me rhc hesr teacher. The first day of class I felt awkward because I didn't know mosE of che kids, but now I feel I fiL in with the class. None of the other kids think I'm different because Irm a home schooler. The homework is very Ed5f dIu '- -bout 5 to l0 minutes. My Eeacher says I am one of his best students. Some of Che things we study are: -^r ^^^--.' ^'oms and molecuLes, and now machines. . . MANHATTAN HOME.SCHOOL

ArticLes

^l ^^

f{andy is doing so weLl as a hone schooler, I really see the benefits of never having let her attend school at all. Learnins to read and do mach is fun for her.-She has no anxieties at aLl abouE whatever she wancs Eo learn, Itrs so wonderful - and such a contrast from Scott Scott (12) is free and happy now, but some aspects of school work sEilL cause him unhappiness. Too many bad memories. I guess. One good thing. though - he is enrolled in the 7th orada ccipnce :,,^j.Li^L -^L--r ilr5,,

boughc a 16K memory RAM. There is an

nnma

from home schooling, The best is that my children hardly ever fight anymnrp. Thpv aro nlncp friends and care about each other deeply. I did noEhing to bring this about, it just haooened, It makes me see more and more how terribly destructive school can be to a child's well-beine and sense of self-worth. ...You asked us co let you know how we are doing with our SincLair Computer, We have bought several books on how to program it. and also

La nd

owne

from The Gorsetman -

Home -

chooT--o

f-j-a

nFa

"The HisEory of our SchooL" By Rose Landowne ..

.For the past ten years.

Chaya

lGorseLmanl and I have been dreaming

about the type of Jewish education (including general educaEion) that we want our daughters fo have. Chaya had - ^"ooI and kinderd Uurr<r) buLr ^-r "^ dL,u ws Eo find an cLeSdrLeLrr mentary program which con!inued with the same philosophy of living Judaism, respect for individuals, and rrnpressured growth. l"Je visited close to fi Ftrr FLi^L"!"8

cahnnl c tsL-F L"dL wdr

n^r fi ^i .-., hr:t ;i.l l^i ^1., ^-r i "F,,i^LU"'P'eLEly sdLrs'yLr'ts.

...A1 First rhe idea oF keeping the chiLdren ouE of school was not but Lhen

much more than a fantasy. ^,.*

^^--,,

I | ^^F

^*^

poinEed out that we rea1ly should do iE. As our frustrations with instituF

i nn<

,nv

c^rr

mn,rnforl

rha

irlnr

heeFn fo seem better

and betCer. Whcn \,ne read TEACH YOUR OWN by John Holr, we real ized LhaE, a1 though we did not know any oEher peopLe who were home schooling their chiLdren, iL was a growing trend, and made a Lot of sense,

Lasl snrinq we rade our decision and began gathering texcbooks and discussing what sorL of curricuLar materials to use. l,,Je decided to use a curriculum which we had writcen for our d,,, . -"e r L,! basi s of this Pr u6r curriculum i s the Jewi sh cal endar, and iE branches out into science, social sLudies, and Jewish Lexfual material. We originaJly wrote it for the first two elemenLary grades. but r^,,-/l Fh.F -^ rhrnrroh fi ffh d'.i^ 6r dvc mrrori.l

,,iFh w, L,, iF LL h\' uy in donrh

irre'r

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.r,,ivino rLuuJ ' "b

tho

I oyrlrrl

Chaya's siscer got married and sublet her aparcment to us, so we have a workspace. lt's easier to get started when you have to leave lhe house in Lhe morning. During Lhe sumGROWiNG IdITHOUT SCHOOLlNG #3I

mer we cleaned the aparEment' seC up

furniture and arranged our Library. On Tuesday, September 7, the day afcer Labor Day, the Jewish FamilY opened its SchooI (un)officially doors Eo our four q'sLudents, Atara I ^.--r^ Dena Landowne igrade 5). TaIya Gorsetman (grade 3), and Lea Landowne (grade 1)... "How We Work"

By Atara Gorsetman

rhan

cho

nen

u,nrlz

camo

nrn

ect, This month we worked on two proiecrs. One was our Rosh Hashanah cards and the oEher was hooked rugs, which we designed and began making. Hooked rugs are made wiEh special tooLs, AfEer Lunch we do our jobs. Then Chaya, Rose, Dena, and I work on a workbook calLed You are Ehe EdiEor. r f i < <,,n.^co,-r ri--EFln--iii--iFl-FE-TEtter. I! is hard to tell righE now, bul I think it wilL help. Every day we work on Hebrew but in a differenE way each day. For instance, one day we might work in a workbook called Sefatenu. It has exercises with differen! words and questions to answer about a sEory. Sometimes we study texts. For example, before Yom Kippur we learned the book of Jonah and before Succoth we learned the holiday's sources in the book of Leviticus. Afler Hebrew we go upstairs co my h^,,ca

nirn^

^r.^fi.a

Thon

fho

drrr

is aImosE over, Sometimes we plan Fri.c

chard...

nlraoc

I ilro

rho

annlo

nr-

From "Sepcember Review" by Chaya

R. GorseEman:

are studying animals, classifying them according to cold blooded and warm blooded, vertebraEes: mammal q. and rcnfi I es - etc, Al I Lhis came about because of the snake that we are buying. , . .l,le

irs

T^l,,^ rd,yd ^^^^*^^-i dPPUruP,

l^,,^1 usvsruPsu ^^^, ^ts^ f^-

d^ -^FL "'dL" ^l-^-F

hi . uwrr . Tha\/ hqrro trrrnod ,"!, -n.l ^..,n l;vd,r. ts^ ha rrarv ch^rr rarm - rtcrtal I v

-^l ^,,ts

something thaf can be accomplished in an hour - but at Least I don't feel a need to keep Ehings going myseLf aII day, When the kids bog down or get hnrori rhon T oaf game or pro^!'l_- a ia.r

In our school we have a very di fferent schedule than any other schooL. Our hours are from 9 AM to 3 PM. We start wiEh Tefil,a (prayer). Then we have some sort of math scheduled unril 1unch. However, when or iI someone finishes math before lunch ts;ma

go al ong with them at thi s poi nt. Last year for school I Eried to around the cenCer our activities childrenrs interesEs. This year my aooroach has been Eo Let each child

rL-F -^-^ -^^dir ^l | d5sJ..!

All four girls are taking

piano

lessons and are attending the Hebrew Arfs Schonl For art - choir and lsraeli Dance. Dena and Atara are tak4,,6 d LrdrJ ^^ d^t Ehe WaIden Jswsrr/ School. Talya is taking a gymnasEics cLass ac a local gymnastic studio... SUCCESS STORIES

fh.i

nn,r]dn'r

,nnr^\/a.l

Frran

lh.rreh

t hpcF

thinss can be a bother we are aware that we are the first home schoolers in our area and want to make a good impression. tJhat we seemed to be judged on is how cooperative we are willing to be rather than how well we are educating our children. And the issues they wanE us to cooperaEe on are so minor that we are willing Eo GROt,lING |JITHOUT SCHOOLING

#3I

urenfad

avnorimanf

nnccihlrr

cimnlrr

ha-

cerrse thev had never finished lege, Thoie who have finished

col-

coLlege

but have not specialized in teaching usuaLly feel Ehey could teach Eheir chiLdren in their area of exDercise. buE noL in other areas. Those of us

F^-Fi6-,,ill LEsLrr'ts

From David Byram in Connectricut:

...lrle have been successfully teachins our o\rn aE home for about tlro and a haLf months now. ...[,Je are using Lhe Calvert system for Christi (6) and Jeremy (9). My wi fe Linda mainly does Ehe teachFL t'r) d5rrDLduL : -^ ..j :-*^-^e on areas rhat rL'5 wrL,, may be unfamiliar to her. ...The first meeting with the superintendenr and his assiscanc ended up with what seemed to be a loss. They Lried so much to discourage us, nf

nnrrrco

fh.r,'.-

s^Pcr L^v^^-ts

ed, Before we even contacted them we did much research on ConnecEicut laws and had the aid of an aEtornev. Mr. Frank B. Cochran 1 see "Frlendly Lawyers"], Eo whom we owe much Ehanks. hlhenever the local board thought Ehey couLd geE us on some Eechnicality, Mr. Cochran poinLed us Eo what the law really says. . . .AfEer the very f i rst rneeting with Lhe superinEendent, it seemed Ehat we gained their cooperation, which was a great help. The moniLoring requiremenEs were not burdensome. t,Je go to the Local school every e i ghC weeks to show the children's pro6rs>r...

Th^ r'rE

^rin^r Pl

^-t

i c rrprw

ni ce

and cooDerative and. since he knows Jeremy lnd Christi from their earlier school records - toi d the school board they are both exceLlent sEudenEs and EhaL he sees no problems. The onLy formal testing will be a standard achievement tesE given in ApriI. My wife does notice the lack of time she has now, but we both find it rewarding, especially as we see the children grow rapidLy... Carole MilLer (MA) writes: ..,We are unschoooling here in

Saugus this year - aE last - with the aDDrovaL of the School Committee and

Sirferintendent's Office. tJe began Ehis venture in Florida, buc I gave in to Ehe prevailing pressures to put Adam in school when we moved to Massachusetts after my divorce from Adam's father. At chac Eime I suess I wasn'c rIn

an.ihar

hefilorT.,^ .

lwv

ho uL

ranrrirorl rLYurrLU

From a reader in AustraLia:

e. ano tusE cLVe

cnmahhino

-^F,,-11.,

remains to be seen. OLherwise, werre on our own...

now chac our courses nave

From Judith Wenz (NE):

...This is our second year of homeschool ing, We have four children, 8, 7, 5, and 2. We have our school set uD as a privaEe schooL since I am teacher in Ehis state. a cerlified This seemed like the paEh oF least resistance. We have our library with a card catalog, books with their Dewey decimal numbers on them and alL things we had to do the other little

Irrro

with, and Ehat gets us over Ehe hump. ,..I have met people just as abLe as I am to teach, who say they

r- I F^"^-'- (and nathemati cs 5 rdrrSudBs drLr LUwr' curricuLa for Grade 2. We're DreEtv much on our own for science, iociai studies, music, arE and physical education. For materials, I am using my choice of town-suDDLied texts and \rorkbooks as che Lore of Adam's program in language arts and math, although I am 1iberally supplementing Ehese with oCher materiaLs of my own choosing. Macerials for science, social studies, eEc, have been Left In all areas, to my own discretion. the publ ic library has proved to be an invaluabLe resource as our finances are extremely Limited. I have asreed to standardized Eesting ac th6 end of the school years, aLthough whether or not this

\'6arc )iEdrr

in ,',

Ehe Firsc grade for Adam gave me the courage to renew my commitment to home schooling. Adam's adjustment has been beautifuL (as I knew it would) and his progress has exceeded even my

expectations. T 1 agreeo ^^-^^l LO Lwency nours per week of home instruction - fifteen of which are based on my summary of the

.,.1 have my 12-year-oId stepdauehter ouE of school as we were tolA that she needed co be puE away for her in a osvchiatric inscitution "mad't- behaviour at the locaL Stafe schooll How dangerously wrong Ehey were

. ..Her real problems were caused by missing out on learnlng unEil age eight due Eo undi agnosed deafness, ( I married her faEher when she was 7 and I delected the deafness which is now qu i te cured . ) She has comprehens ion problems with reading and her math Level was three srades behind. After three weeks with me "Eeaching" her. she has made remarkabLe progress, She has already succeeded in complecing eighteen months of math and is doing daiLv comorehension exercises aE a qreat rate from an American series of books caLled INCREASING COMPREHENSION SKILLS. Her self-esteem is rising dail y, and forEunarely the memories of reacher and peer humiLiations are F.lin-

T ^nr,,

f^.

-clzo.l

nor_

mission to keep her out of school for one Eerm (our system has the school year ending just before Christmas ) , T only needed a medical certificate rh-F

-F-Fi-sLdLtr'|i

unfit for

.h^

rr-wd5

dm^tsinnal L"'vLruilorrJ

lrr

schooL. . .

RECOVERING FROM "SPECIAL ED"

From Kristine Maihado in souEhern California:

...We have three children, ages 11, 9, and 6. \te Eook our two oLder children out of pubLic schooL one and -

h-l

> 46ur

- tr6r drLL'

mrr.h

etrrro-

' ing and dissat i sfacEion on our part and unhaooiness on theirs. Our'oldesc boy, Jamie, had been Iabeled hyperactive, , . They advised rrs l^ nrrl him nn npdicaEion and inLo a speciaL class. WeLL, we did the speciaL class but not Ehe drugs...

trrnh

varr

rn;

hi < hv^Fh^f

^niU

would faLl farEher and farther behind in reading... This was creaEing a very negaEive siCuation for them... Tn

tsh6

ma.nFi

m6 ,,"y

yuu"6s5L

child, EmiLy, had started at a marvelous litEle schooL near our home nhi I ^-^^k.' .-i rh.frc hrcad nn J\r^r!r uu! P,,r !uru that of Joseph ChiLton Pearce and A.S. Neill of Summerhill. She was doing fine and was wonderfuLLy happy. Her two oLder brothers were de.,^l^^i-^ vE, uP, ^ "B -^i L'6 wd5 t.ur "--

-^^l

,,.^ Lwu

,.^^1.

^,,-i^-i+., ^L^,,ts thiintprpqfino

.,L^F

schooI... So with much enthusiasm, they started going there afEer school )^..^ udyr

L^^^-^

-^F^

place for them to vent a lof of angry feelings, Creative things happened as

weLl and many nice humane relation-

â&#x201A;Ź^-^^A wcrE - ..^-^ Then one day while brc,wsing in the locaL library, T happened on the book AND THE CHILDREN PLAYED by Patricia Joudry. I immediacely fell in love wiEh the author:, her philosophy. and whole way of life. I wanted Ehat for us. I remember Ehe turning point. ^L: ^^ srrrPD

tr-c

F F i,r,5 h-

v" ^n

uuL ^,,F

F'^6r

nnrah

nna

warm November Sunday afternoon reading this book, IaughLng, crying, and

intermittenEly reading Parts to

husband, Jim. When Ehe three children aLl trooped out and announced that Ehey wanted to cook, I looked aE Jim, he looked at me, and we said sure. Amidst flour, butter and honey on the fi^^r

T mrdo

dinnar

Fh4F

-iahF,.,ifh

a feeLing of warmth and new freedom in my heart. 'After Chrisrmas, with Lots of Teservations and excitement, we took Lhem out of public schooL. We decided they wouLd attend the Private school for Ewo or Ehree days a week, and the resE of che E.ime they would be home. They loved it and verY quicklY feLl into the roucine. Jamie has spent hours rePairing bikes, had a job at a bike shoP for a while. This year he buiLt a beauriful bike for himself from scratch. He Likes reading cLassified ads in the newspaper, bike magazines, and Mad Magazine, though sometimes I suspect he mOSLIV IoOKs af Plccures. Bot-h boys Iike building things and have made duck and fish Ponds, forEs, lofrs, animal cages. AndY spent a loc of Last Year cooking, and cboks many chings, from cookies to oizza. even a whole dinner for us at times. He also likes stained glass, music, aerobics, and several times lasc year spent days working in a ma!h workbook. They are inEerested and enrhusiastic abouE many rhings and are always busy' .,.Jamie reads and writes vel:Y -^t rrv at ail - he !sduD n'ruy IILL!E. ^^a.. -^^Asometimes recognizes words and other times can'E remember the sounds of I ofEen geL very scared that letters. fhey Lack so much self-confidence in thac area and Ehat they have so many negative feelings they may jusc grow rrn read or write. - naver lparnino fo Ir's hard Eo face our friends and family when theY hear about our home schooling and say, rrBut look at your children, they don't even read vec." Thev even sometimes ask our 6hildren if they can read. The children look down with long faces and repLv. "No. I can'1. " IE real I y hurls r. wfiet I iee them feel ashamed of themselves. I Love home schooling and can't coun! aLl Ehe good things that have

come of it. I see no oEher waYl this is the best. Our littLe school here (all the other pupils are home schooLers roo) is great for breaking the isolation of home schooling and getting together and sharing with oEher Deople. though it is, tike You saY' Johir. a tor 6f extra work' Every day I count my blessings that I can give my children Ehis kind of Ireedom, and Iim feeLing better and stronger and more relaxed about everything. ...How should I handle chis? If I just completelY leave them alone, which is what I want to do, with Eheir negative FeeIings, wi 1 L they eventual ly ceach Lhemselves co read on their own? ..,My newest idea was to make a journal for them Lo keep and require Ehae they write something in it once

a week wi Eh pi ctures, sfori es, poems. mainly for the purpose of allowing f pc I i noq

f hc

:,n uP

!.nma v,,,!

,..^-1. i -^

-ni

through them, not necessari ly that they actuaLly write. Anocher idea was to have my husband and me olav school with them in Ehe evening iometimes, Jlm and me bei 6n

Fh^

n',^i

.-i

rLa

ch i I d rpn

hp i no

the teachers. I can imagine now all kinds of orders and reprimands going on, I truly believe Ehat once these feeLings are out they will feel so much freer and better about themselves and will reclaim that natural curiosity and true desire for learning that was theirs before Ehey went to school. T must say LhaE my six-year-o1d Emily is thoroughly in love with I i fe, She is constanCly busy, pl ays great imaginary, deEailed games with her friends. She begged to go to kindergarten this year, Wel I , freedom is FrooAan

u,a

Iot\L

ha.rL'

^^ 6u

^-^

^Fr^-

month she stiLL won't miss a day. She real Iy I i kes do i ng homework , eEc . I will keen close tabs on what is happening there and wiLl let her leave as soon as she even hints about it. I'm so afraid this natural enchusiasm of hers could be ruined aLl too easily. . .

chnrl

.ni

,,-F i I

^..

i 1.,

frnm

fhair

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a^n^id^ri--

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avnprionna

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Fh^,' Lr'<) T F

,.i

I I

rrn,r

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tho\/ LLrs)

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h:ve

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acl"

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f^ Lv

ho uL L,^rr\/

roqrl

hnvc

.^harhino

avon

tharr

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Faur

words, thEn-EFey can read. So don't let chem say they can't. Don't even Let them Ehink it, As for your friends and family, ask them or teLL rham Lrrs.,.

nlarca p

cl.n J!vp

a-r'i q5^ Li':i

LL'dL

gu<s-

which onLy makes things worse. More to the point, teLL them that the boys' reading is none of cheir busition,

NCSS.

Above aIl , don't let the boys feel ashamed of themseLves. Even if ir

daro

ril1o

,nd

icnri

lhef

iha\/

couldn't read a s i ngle word, iE wouLd be nothing to be ashamed of. Reading is a useful skill as well as a source of much information and oleasure. and not b-eing able to do ic can be a nuisance. BuE it is not a crime. Reading has noching to do with intelligence or competence, and I have heard ^r vurLc -..jF^ o^ E^,u! rcw L:-Li.. L,r6r,rf successful and lrhrr

nannl6

lhic

.^1'ntr\/

who couLd noE read a! all. There is no reason for shame. Make sure the boys undersEand thaE.

As I say, not being able to read is an inconvenience and a nuisance, like having a broken leg or being . i ^1.

a,,F

a 1 .^

^n^^

na^^l

nrarrorJ

u,rnno

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aar

l(^ .^., rdJ . ts^ \/^,, LU JUU!

ronA

F^koon r\ssy

orrorrr r,rnrd ho ..l ^h.h^Fi^.1 r Ld! a,' orP"ducL

card file of Ehese words. You and he will soon Iind LhaE he can read many -^-^,.^-^la:vc

Fh-^.'^,,-

fhnrrohr

You say. " I f I just compl ctol fhom

elnnn

urith

rhair

naolli\ra

feelings. wiLI t,hey eventually teach themselves to read on their own?" You don't leave them complerely alone in anything eIse, so-wh1':h-6uTd you in lhic"

Trrc

rhoir

naorrir;e

Faalino<

that you have to Ery to deal wiLh. nn.6

| hdv

foal

inI rr5

--h.-^^ drL'd'il<u,

rhinlrino rh:f ovan' iF lhov.li.l Irw r. read they wouldn't be abLe Eo, their inial

I ioonco

end

errrincirw

.h^,,1

read, they look down wich long faces and say that they can'1. l.Jhy do they say that? It's not truel Donrt let Ehem say i E any morer Maybe lhey can't read very much, maybe they donrL read very often, but if they ean

heen

sands of times." One way of showing Andy how many words he does in facE know how to read miqhr be to ofFer him a smal I

it, iL would probably help if you bought them some kind of a Lypewritcr - thev wi I I almoqr .erLainlv Iike if and will want to Learn to use it. PLease let me know what you think and feel abouc this leLter, and

something else. You say "Jamie reads and writes very Iitt1e..." You LaLer say Ehat urhan

nnl.

^i^

o.i 6vL,

they seem to be doing very well. About their reading, you say, rr...they may just grow up never Iearning to read or write," There is about as much chance oF EhaE happening as FL-F LrrdL di 1oc

^--

reason you think that perhaps you can't learn to read is because all those people in school fold you so.

II do Ehe resE. As far as hel p goes, iE wiLL be enough to say, "Any Eime you want me to Lell you what a word says, ask me and I'l I tell you. and anyETme you wanE me to write a word for vorr- ask me and l'II do that." That wilI almost certainIy do

educaEion."

bPcsrd hiurt3

driylril/L ^-,,F i -^

--,

wd'rL

want Eo, you can do iL ,rTho

,r v^,,

Thanks so much for your good lerI'm so glad the boys are re-

nnrrorino

.,^,, )/uu

you realIy

nrlrrrrl

John wrote in repLy: ter...

I i mo

often only a few months or less - I mvselI nersonal]v saw adult iiliLerates in l-heir 40's and 50rs learning !he essenlial skills of reading in only a few weeks. You can say to the boys. "You don't have Lo read unless

oaf

^\iar

the idea that reading i s terribly difficult or chat lhev are too stuDid to do i t, neither of which is true, and once they decide that for Eheir own reasons they really want to read.

rh6

rFi.L

i F L .,^', )uu

Thn"-h

.,^.. l: r: a r /uu PL^.. - -.. LUEy rdy

^L -..F

L^^,,

FLi-^L"r,'65

F ..; FL :r ^-d

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rd,l ^.-

l L^

--)

L^.,^

arrer

few

months, please wriEe again and Ier L^.,

Lry

l,rcdsc

Co you all.

-*^

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-1^^dru"6.

'ess. Cood

wurr)/

us n,'u ^-,1

l uck

TRYING OUT SCHOOL Frnm lecnrrp Wi1 I i265s6

(["JV);

Orrr pvnorimFnr nF hrrrino NaLhan (5) artend pub) ic kindergartcn Ev/o mornings a week has about run its l.r^ h-A d6rcsu F^ r.\/ ;ts !u. f^r --v^^d .L Lv L'J

Ehree months. Nathan loved it the first month and I was Feel ing a mix-

Eure of reLief and anxiety, I rvas ,^ -^r .,^t worried about ^1 ^r L^ .j, what would happen i f he really I iked iL and insisted on going to firsL -^:-^t all our wishcs - plus I was puzzled about why he liked such a strucEure which he's never Iiked before. I was beginning fo nrrocl ion ri I orrr fhg6aigg 3nd nlrnc

Fnr

hic

cchnali-^ -,'5)

tshi-Li^L"!L'^rL'5

-..'

"'dJbe I'd misjudged what he needed. However, after eight mornings (one monEh), he started to ask to not go. A Ii ttle LaIking about scicking ic out unEil November, as ne had agreed, was all it took ro keep him going a few more Eimes. However, near the end, he downrighL pleaded Lo not on l" !Jr

cn rI

ho clr i nnod <arrarel d:rrc .n^nF. n^'ni-^ LTilh him .Ps"L

Finql fo opr

a feel for the whole flow - I'd visited trequently [or several years in '-'" "rieF visics. After our visit I told his teacher he h.^^.,

.-i

,.^

.oroerl dbr !\u

i or.h

him at home for Ehe winter and see whaL he wanEs to do come spring. He's GROWING |,lITHOUT SCHOOLING

}3I

il happy. "

he haPPY at first and liiter dissati sfied? Ar fir:st the noveLty was what he Likc'cl new new p1ace, new toys, new activitles, Iriends. fh:tt soon wore off when everl' day wes the samc Lhing. ln tlrree month-q the1, f ingcrp:rl-nted otrcc, thc onLy tinc there was an\r free-iorm art l.1s opposccl to r'rhat I calL "prc planned parcnt pLeasers" - Lhose thint!s that aLL Look the same for cach chilcl and which Parents can rccognize as being a turkeY, etc). tlis lrequent clLrestion during this t i me itas "i'1ommv, hoin' comc in publ i c schooL thel'cltru't Let voL.l nake anv clec i sions?" Thc Lock slcp of the svstcm L:cc;rme appa rc)rt tlhen Lhcv s tudi ed nunbcrs I 5 in November, cvcrl Lhough his tcacher admitLecl all brrt two chiLclrcn kncw 1-l L'eforc entering kindergartcn. and thosc two shc cliclr't exPect Lo Le:lrn I -t al 1 Year: So Nrthan tiits f,Jhy was

red

Now hc's home c1oing his own Pro-i ccLs, mostly rton acadclmic. Howerrcr. irL times hc F,ets intercstocl in rettcli irg or math or science ltn<l in short r)r(lcr zooms aheacl , He's on par wi tlr grrtclers herc irr maih and t hc first c 1r)se in rcadi ng and I clrtt:e sav hc' s s|cnL I ess thatt two Iu] I school davs' wrrrfh of L i mo getting those skil I s. . .

Jesse l'lurphree (FI.I \drote in thc l/8]:

Fl-ASll newsletter.

whole bag of sugar, would You let her?'' 'lhough I was dumbstruck, when I reflectecl on it. I thought. "No, trut I wouldn'l denv her a taste'" I fcel that she needs to cxpcrience school in order to make an informed choice, hence mv decision to alLow her to go. I nusf admit, thoLrgh, my husbarrcl anci I were boLh a bit clisaPpointed rvhern she chosc'to go. l^lc b'ere all sot Lo allol" ircr tc learn bv curiositv as she has always donc at home. ...!ie stiLl â&#x201A;Źncourage hcr lcarn ing on hcr own, throtrgh al1 fhc ways ment i onccl in GhlS otrcr and overagain... Both Beth li) ancl Joe (3) have been assisting me itr so manv iirc:rs l I-ast rdcck, f or instuuce, I wils busv when mv:rpple pic was done in the oven. 13cth shut of 1' the buzzer arrd the oven and, using Pot-holders, removecl thc pie irom the oven to cool - al1 r,ithout anv prompting' lhis ireek. .Joc made nrifIins for a friencl I measurccl the irrgrediwho r",:rs ill. enLs ouf, he put Lhem jn the b,owL. beat it up and spoonecl fhe battcr into mrrl'f in tins. Ht' c\ren deLivcrecl then t() the doorI 'fhis is hor" r'c cncouragc scl f suffic i cncv. Helpi ng onLv whetr ne erded and al loh'ing the chiLdren grow r nto

SHE CHOSE TO GO

Fron llonnie KolLr(lzV in Ontilrio: -..Though my olclcst i s in kinclcrgartert, i t is b,v hcr choicc. Shc knorvs that an1'time shc wi shes to, she malr sw:itch to homeschrtol ing.. ' I oncc had someclnc rtsk me in rcgard to my allowing hc'r to choosc to go to school. "1f she wanted to eal a GROIIING l^/ITHOUT SCHOOL]NG

"3I

Django.

f{v husbarrtl and I arc around to answcr questions a Iot. As one gets rrrorri out. the other usuaLlv takes ovcr the with raPid-fire conversa ti on. Spencer. mY husband, i s a musician and r:ruI of tolln too much, so wc'rc working orr gettinll a bus to be a familv on the road ' We' re al L at thc Prospect of learning thrilled harrcl. hrhv not I carn abouL 1 i fe first the format ion of Ihe earth aI YelLorstone or ilhere clothes come frcm in I)elta whcrc cotton is the )iississippi bcing farneci'l I've b,een subscribing to and saving Cobblestonc nagazines as each month Eliev Ere topics like :r \cw [ngland comnunitl'or thc ]rrie Canal or the llcaver trade of the to suppleLtJ00's with lciLs of listing mcnt the mag:rzine. like mttseums ancL I was e:<pLaining locks fo I itcrature. l) jango when thc Iirie Ca1r.l1 issue cane out, but he interrupted mc since he krew about it from a Iocal tour boal ridc he'd takcn several months ago. D-jango toOk a reaL interesL itr maps f or a whi 1o. l{e sperL ttlo r"eek:; indepcrrclence. . . vacationing ancl used the flap a lot as wc were doing i t l)rettY frec form. hrhcn we got homc. D-jango (lrew a maP AT HOME IN NEW ORLEANS of ;r r,al k ne were to tilkc to a lerrV that r"ould get LIS downtoritr' It was )lar i Lvn Bohrcrr L-A ) wri tcs Lrerf ect. So I clrew a maP 1)f our I errands dornnf own ancl he Iol.l owed i t. I clui t !torr),i ng? . . .!,lhen will Spencer bought a rrl<elcle for thc boys 5 arcl 3, have thrce chilclrcn boys. It neeclccl fixing so 1)-iango got and a ncwborn girL. The 5-yerr-oLd j.ntD Ihat aspcct - he lovcs machines has beerr picking uP reading as it ancl knowing hor'' thev fir Logether rhc intercsts hin - he's unafraid Irr I oVes golng irrto iactori cs to see tho tachLc words phoncti caLll' and u'ri tes convevor belts and such). .\s soon as his own stuff i usual Ly on the tvpewri ter bc:cause i t' s farster ) , phonct i c- thc uke was Logether, hc lrrsI intercst and Anclre Look over. stlrumming a1 1y al so. Slnce I'vc done crossword puzzl.cs and shorrhartcl , I have rro prob- ancl writing songs and s ingirlg at fhtr top of hi s lttrgs. lrihen Spcrtcer wouLd 1em de c i phcring the storie.-c ' sit tlown Lo p1 ;rr'. Andre I'orLl d get the . . . His math astounds aL I of us . uke itnd mimic hi s nrlvemcllts. Oncc "Can I have some harcl-cctokecl c.qg?" he Anclre even got uP on stilgc t'jth Spcnaskecl while we prcP:rred dinner for cer :rf a loose outdoor gig and jusL companv. I said to figure jt out. He stood next Lo hjm and g.)L Ihe feel of addecl our famiLy to Ihe vj.stors, fhe audiencc. He didn'I b()L11cr anvone counted the eggs and divided by 4 as I quartcrecl them, ancl then subtracted - just soakecl j t aLl uP. lloth bovs hc1p Spencer change strirlils and volunto fin.l hc could hrve three picces. Lari I t' moVe tlto l ighcer c.lLriPnient ' flul D j .n8.'' - ,lr ,u i ng u '' ''' lf ra id o1: w:int him Thev're so eagcr to t'e irr fhe bus, exi stcnt. I didn'L because inLerestecl ltoo. wasn't but lrc art I feel so I ucky to ltlve time he coulcln't do i l. J'hen he saw some whith wi th my chiLclron. The I asL Lhrec th -F 'rr l\ at ;r tri.rd's vcars I'rre bccn a I icensccl niclwi f e. explainccl something similar to a CliS clcl ivering crrough babies irt hone L. articlo 1Ji251 whorc: ever-vthing is just hroken dok'n i rlto L'asic shapes. kcop me pretLv busv. BuI as the br-rvs get oLder and no\i that wo have anothNow wc can hardLv kcep hin and his changer babv, I fincl m\/priorities brothcr Andre supltlied with cnough ing. I want Lo be avaiLttblc to answcr papor, A[ 3, Ancirc is clrawjng a ciraL L rhose qucst i ons and Lo tcitch thcm cLe hcircl with circle eyes arrcl line fts thev're rcrrclv. ['Je aLso rteed to llc mouth.0ften he'll watch Django or the road. so I'm letl ing nidwiferv tackl c. something - for as 1 ong :rs lO slicle for no\'... lt's amitzirrg ilcli lrv minutcs - and thcn m:rvbe he'11 clo ir jt iL loF concentralictn ict'el h:ts clrltrgecl now hins, 'r rarl'. 'rc' I ci:^it that I'm not keeping thrcc' or foLrr a colrp I e of days. women-who-couI cl-deL iver-:inv-seconcl otr . . .N1ost davs thc boYs wi L L sPend my mind a1L tlrc time. [llrch as 1 ltlvr: a couplc of hours spontaneollsly al mothers ancl l,.alties, I Lclvcl mv lamilv thcir dcsk: dr.rwing, cutting, Punchmore. And I iigure whv go fD the ing, pasl,ing. A lot of iL soems to be just 1-a3s51.ing thcir skilLs. fhe con- bot[rer of a spcrcial ]:'irtlr iI vou'rc not going to foLlow throrrgh - which centrati(ln leVel amJzes me. 1n the in oLlr case mcans home-schooLing. afternoOrts we reacl more both ilre i'ly kids have: a wee'klv exchangc fanatic iibout bctoks. And whilc Andre with other kids thev Lovc ancl who arcl naps, D-jango general Iy has at cluiet not vet in school. And t,c Visit oLhcr time where I rest from questjons and hone-schoolcrs as kre c:trt. llut r''hcrlhe uscs spccial nraLerlals Andrc can't vet. ll()th cvet they'r. with schorrlr:cl chlLdren. hanclle carefullv cnough hits sevDjango me cook and thcv ine\.itabLv complajn Lafer ab()ut bovs hclp how those l(i(ls are toLr rough cr nc eral special recipcs he can mill(e for fun. One excopt ion was I l ittle Sptrnthei r snacks. I can see thc advantagc for the ish bov who was iln ouLsitlor at school youngcr siblings as Django cxpl ains bccaus'e of thc language barrier. He and D-lango hrcl great f un gcntl i'' pi a)' lettcrs to Andre and even 2-nonth-o1c1 :

I hlvc been art uttschooLer al I mv I if e. lluL ALrgust 30 , I 982 , I stepped into :i pubLic m:lddle school. It was thc first pubLic school I'd cver aftendcd in m}' L i Ic. Ihe re:rs()r] I r,,as going to school wrts I n'antecl ttl gct out an<l mcef sone girLs m1. own age. I was I)rctty scare<l since I'd ncver been to a reaL school beforc. The tlring I was mosr worried lbout tn'as school worl<, Urlt i L I wallf cd to start school I'cl ncver done itnv l<incl of n,ork i and I'm tro genius ) . lior cLeven I'e;rrs I'd donc practicaLLl' whatever I pleased an(l rrow I was jn s j xth graclc. I madc Iriends but i t was sort rrf hard bec:tuse I'm kincl of shv anrl s(rme g j r1s were nof f o() f riendLt'. Brtt es time wenL bv I learncd which girl s t(. :lvoicl ancl which ones r\'ere nlce After the firsf six week Perio(l fh(: names of the peoplc who nade Lhe honor roLl were cal1ed over the irlLci: com. I w.rs one of then, fhe next clitv I got :r bLtLc card wl th mv nane ancl r LittLe rcrl ribbon on it. l went to .-schooL tru'o more wcel(s before I dccicled to qlrit' It wasn't th:rt I clidn'L Like schooL, it was lrrst schooJ lvasn't:rIL pcaches ancl cream. Most o1'the work wlts Prettv l,.oring ancl it took uP :t LoL of mt' tinc. I w:tnted more timo to !',riLc st.ries ancl clcr other things. L thinl< schooL trrts rr good exPL-ricnce. I maclc f riends arrcl hacl some: good times. lvlost of a1l I Learnecl that J cotrl(l go to school and makc the honor roLl even though I'cl nevc'r' bren to school beforc. lhat gave nc a I oL of conI i c]ence. . . ..

Corinna. Anclrc is Learning his alphabet in a very clifferent wilv from D-janâ&#x201A;Źio. D jango Learned thc' song and eveniual 1y askeci alrout Lettcrs. Andre dcclares a ncl lctl,ei about once a weck - I assume he gets it trom

i no

rnoarhar

I find

are nearLy

boCh boys

impossible to geE out of the house some days as theyrre so busy. , , It's encouraging Co me that they find Eheir securicy aE home and I hope

they'Ll transfer this t.o the bus. I know none of this is so very spectacular, as I read this sorL oI thing in GWS and hear it from other home-schooling mothers all Ehe time, BUE sEilI - here's more Frrel for vnrrr

will say, "No, Mom, I'11 do that." I love it. And it's been so good for Lhem, too. They don't take for granted the many hours i! takes to run a household, Plus they've learned about job sharing, organizing and many oEher things. . .

TIME FOR EVERYONE

Joyce Kinmont (UT) wrote in her newsletter The Tender Tutor:

personal revelaEion nonetheless) Eo incLude Jessica { IL) accively. Now

i ra

t-^rt^in1.,

sha tr*n-

Arannq vLs6v,'

mnihar

Firro

the oldest a second grader and the

youngesC not yet born, who is considering home school: "I've noticed that

even when the young children are happily occupied, as soon as I sit down with an older child, both young ones qh^rf mrr Ien

wrrL)/ ^-l'

h-',i-^ Lrdv!rrti

individual aEtenEion for the older children while the younger ones take naps (I enjoy resting aLso), I wonder if you have found something lhat works well for you?... Have you found if

nnccihla

nrrrcrra

\r^r'r

in.li-

^t,'n

vidual projects whi 1 e having a1 I your children home all of the time?" In reading Eh i s Ietter, iL suddenly hit me whaE a wonderful compLiment iE is to a person to be abLe to say that the minule she sits down her children run Eo siE on her lap. How nrivileqed ue arP fo be mothers. No other occupaEion in the worLd brings EhaE kind of reward. When I work wiEh my children individuaLly we go into another room where I have a desk set up and where we can close the door for Drivacv. The other children accept ttrls wirfr no trouble because thev aLl know thev will get their own turn. (Our 2!year-old is amusing in her insistence that nobody enEer the room when it's her Eurn, ) There is an old DrinciDle we have alI heard thaE when a mother is busy in the kitchen and a child Lugs on her apron strings, if she wiLl stop and spend a minute answering his need he will go aviay satisfied and she wiLl be free Eo finish her work. If she tries to put him off, he will continue to bother her unlil they are both frustraEed. I find that the same orinciole works in home schooling. lE I spend my mornings wiEh my children. they are usually happy to pursue their own nr^

ia^fe

left with

iha

.fror-^^-

pLenty

-n/

of free time.,.

Susan Blount wrote in the Maine

Education newsletter,

FalL--r621-

...I have develooed a iob List for the girls and every timE a job is completed satisfactorily they can put a star on a charE. They receive a quarCer alLowance for every Len stars, There are a few ruLes to be followed: 1) They must cooperate on a i^L \1^ f i Jvu.tlvllSllLrl16UlL'lc} -LFi

tsL^,,

.,i

I 1

L^,,^

r ^

finish the job but not get a stari 2) They must do three things with their money: save some, give some, spend some. They have opened Eheir own savings accounts. ...We have implemented this plan for over a year. I can't see us ever outgrowing it... You wouldn't beLieve the work that gets done now. They

har

h--incr^rm

diqnar

h,,r

;]rc

T,*

while Irm putting

on the diaper.

that she likes

that way...

i^ :clz hpr Fnr oech nin --r...h^ cides ro- shc hends fhem to me. We laugh and play peek-a-boo and talk. er-nr^A T^.-i^hnld rLtrvrL hnco ninc ,,,dy --,, ilv!u PLrrr for quite a while sometimes, but she is in conErol as much as I am. I know

From HeLen Cave (BC):

...This morning rhe girls (9, 7, and 4) decided that I was to have

rrifre h-^.1,F..r in k^d.hoon e lnno rva hed Eo have breakfimp ei fast in hed hpcerr.*-ou were sick," l^lhiLe preparing they debreakfast (plates, cided to move our dishes bowl s , cups ) [rom an upper. hard-Loreach cupboard Eo a more accessible

below-counter cupboard, I was so used t^

!,^-y^

Ai-r^' rrrEr

l.^nt

hioh

crrn_

^cPe boards EhaC I was dubious at first of Ehe new arrangement, But it's much more practicaf - easier to get aC nol- nnlv fnr fhon hrrt also for mei...

NICOLE'S BOOK From Juanita Haddad (BC):

.,,Since cho'c haan ^ ^ Suuu ^ ' -r dr q^ I Fr^cts

Nicole began to talk

cawino

rhinoc

I hat

Mi hpoan

c^,,ndorl

Ine or Roberl I hi^^.

r,7ri rin'

t:FFI^ ^:-1 ^. ^F t^^.,aS ^-r "Li rb L"ruu}iL' !! "fe

<ha

^n<

<rrr.l\7

l^''^

She danCeS and of Nicole

an.l

in<6a.F

each phenomenon. (The hardback, A175001 Record book with a singLe Iine by Dominion Bluel ine Inc, is an excellenE weLl-bound book. ) To begin with, none of what I wrole down was sa i d for wri L i ng down. i n

rhp

rar

ar ,,^-F-i uP5Ldrr orrdpn

liaonino --,

-an

nnfohnnkc i^.,^-F-i i nqn

FL^F

Thi n^-

-*^

^h-n-i

rFref uJL

^-^

rh^!roh Lilvu6'r,

course. At IirsL I subtly wrote hcerr]

fhan

Ni.nl

h^--us6d"

a ,v

..-^-

oF writing, nf ur

what

At Lu ^

duur ,,8 ^ASi ^-

' taEions that she "wanted in her book" and now she's begun wiLh the copying. . . . I'11 choose from all Nicole's onrriac Irn i^ iha nrasent:

...There was an owl in Ehe summer when you had your summer cLothes on, (4/81)

Come back wind, come back wind and bring the sun. { 5/81 It's funny when your bcLhrobe gets sfreLched out I ike a butterfly. (6 /8r ) I'm drinking water butEons off the pea pLants . t e /Sf t Mamma, I just saw a fixture. He sicting on Lhe ramp. He was just a liEtle one. Then he flew up in the Lree and he was saying. "FixLure, fixt q/81 - at Che Lime ture, fixrure," wc were putLing in plumbing. ) Oh: It's raining! See Ehe windows al1 sparklyl Up came a rainbow droni Look at rhe crnwds of IeavesI ( 10/8r ) l^lhen I see your old toys around )

T t.^^,,

t,if,

!D^^^,,^^ dPd wds

^-A

boy. That's how I know you were Litt1e tiny people. (2'82) When I cry and I get done crylng I kind ot laugh a nice kind ot Laugh. (r / 82)

The song geEs louder and the qcf s

drrrm

lorrdor:

ilrcl

lho

clrrrm

oet c

louder, and you sing soFLIy to a Ioud drum. (3/82) Tip your cereal dish, Mama. The nilk makes a nicce of moun ur a cradle or a Leaf curling. (L2182) ON READING & MATH From Susan Haverfield

Now I'm writing down for Tacy, too. One only has to glance at the book to know something of cwo very di FferenL

and

Home

hnldc

T onl hai tsL^ F-,,^1.

MAKING LIFE EASIER

n^F L'uL

r'!y

r!r'inn LullIlSLllUUElILJrL^,,^LF-

cumbered wi th the eflort I

From Therese Maria PoL (IL): . . , I have heard and read how difficulE it is to change and dress toddl ers , lrJeI I , we were having our a-,,-*-^ts: owr LrusLratrngr -^ ^,,^ squrrmlng sessrons for a while. Then it dawned on me

ultimately "chooses" what goes in her book. I've wanted it to be as much hers as possible until she can do it aIl hersel f. YeE, I realize I'm cap-

(tlA):

...When Ben was 3, we tried Doman's TEACH YOUR BABY TO READ. I

don'f fhink npnnlc are monsCers fo tsrr, Lr)

:ts

!L,

h,,F

:t,c

Fhi-1,

nnccihlo

PVJJ

resent the child if he loses interest lLhe preparaLion is very timeconsuming). Ben Learned, then Lost i nterecf fhen Feroof. I now feel confidenE that he will learn to read when he wants to and I probably wouldn't recommend the method. lt was often fun, but nol as much Fun as when he figures out things for himself. . .

in -nl

i r i no

Dorothy !,Jerner wrote in the

aao

t^- \!: -^r - . - for me. I'm ter_ ri l-r'l e ar rememheri nc word f or word what she's said so I put it down immediaLely or have to 1eL it go. I'd never fiLl in the blanks for her. AfLer Nicole underslood I wouldn't be sending her book, just copies from it, she said I could send some to you. She remembers each entrv, word [or word. Afrer a I I , they' re her words and each is eroater Chan i fsc I f. crrrrorrndpd hv Ehe memories and meaninq of Fhe real conLext iC was spoken in. [,Je read that book more often than any other in fhe house. She hardly lets us catch our breath. She says, "Readl" It Iooks now like iE may be the f,irsL ching she'l choose to read as I ofEen see her wirh ir. findinq thp words she knows. a Iirtle uncomfortable about being the person who L

House Door:

7 182

. . . Us ing Che lvlonLh I y Record t he Home Based [ducation Program (MT) pro-

vides has shown all of us Ehat we acfrrallv cnpnd F lnr more time on academics Ehan we thought. l^le really hedn't not i ced . c i nce much of LhaL time is not structured-at-deskand-write kind, My 1l-year-old was sure he was behirrd in maLh. JusL for fun, we wenL through the Math outLine to see. He di scovered he is above grade-Level in ^f

h.rh

Th-ts LL'd(

ii u!r!vv<rl

let him relax about math, and now he snends more l-imo wifh iL. ...Joshua had done very little formal math work in the aLEernative school he had attended since the first grade. He was sure he was bchind. And he found out it simply wasn'c so. . . GROI,IING t,/ITHOUT SCHOOLING

#3I

t3 From Miriam Mangione (NV):

...Since Shanda has been home we have learned more about her. Since Ehe second grade she has employed her own method of subtracting two digit numbers. For example, 15 - 8. First she adds the 1 and 5 of 15 and seEs 6, then she counts back on her fingers 6, 7, 8; there are seven fingers left, whicF is the answer. She uses this onLy for two digit numbers rrn

Har

roarF'av-

told her it couldn't bui she persisEed in od as it was Ehe one for herself that she I

h-,,^

-,,- s d-1,I wdy

be done that way using this methshe fieured out undersEood...

. . .l,Je haven't real l y changed our

daily rouEine very much (or lack of one), since we began. BasicaIly the kids have most of the day Eo foLlow their oi,Jn incerests. l,lhen the weather was nice we went to Darks aLmost daily_and they played, walked, or observeo nature. One change I have made is that Lucas (7) now does some academic tvDe work everyday, lt usually takes him' 30 to 45 minuEes. I got a bit upsel because for six solid months (starting when we took him out of school ) , he didn't write a word, He had previously flooded us with notes and 1eEters. l,lhen, aE my suggestion, he tried to write a letter renuesrino some free sLufF from nr"g"i-ni"r.,-n. goE terribly frustrated and gave up. For a long rime I did nothing, but I finally decided Ehat this was not a case where I should jusc leave him alone. He had seE up a real mental block somewhere along the way. I read about DrNealian handwritine in ctJs #23, and ordered Eheir workEexts. I told him he was to do two pages a ,..!L

JLd!Lrr

lle

firct_orrdp_

level' book. He srumbled a little at first but in ab6ut four weeks he was writing easily and beautifully. He finished thaE book in about six weeks, and is now halfway through the Level 2 book and is Iearninq cursive. and besE of aL1 is writins Ietters acain! t qoF him his own address book and stationery and he writes to distant friends and relatives and can even address the envelopes h i mse I f. . . As far as his reading ability goes, for some unexplained reason tsh-rr-

^-^

chi-- r16 aI l^-rts,,^**., uurr L wurry

^L^,,F

Don occasionalLy asks him to read one

of his books out loud, and Lucas alHe spends some time every day reading library books he picks ouE. I also read aloud every day. We just finished Madeline L'Englers A ITTRINKLE IN TIME, which we both Loved. That reminds me. Whv isn'E THE EDUCATION oF LTTTLE TitEE on your booklist anymore? [DR: Sad co say, if ' s ouE of print again. ] tJe goc it at the 1 ibrary, and that is now my all time favorite book about lndian life. Lucas also loved it. Althoueh I have read in many ofher books about the "trail of tears'r, when I read Little Tree's version I was crying so hard I couLdnrt see Ehe words: And the explanation of spiritual Iife, and of r.dhat it means to Love (Eo undersEand) is so beaulifuL and so simple that to my mind it's a classic. I read Ehat book monchs aso and Lucas still quotes from i t. One area of Lucasrs education I do worry about is his math ability (or Lack of iL), After playing dominways does fine.

GROWING t,lITHOUT SCHOOLING #3I

irtcl

n.f

inlpraqle.i

hpre

:oain

am in a quandary. Should t g.ive him Anothpr rrnrshrt nr qhould T Ieave him

alone? Of course I am scared that one of his relatives (who are all worried about his education) wilL ask him a math question, or that sooner or Later our school will be tested in some way and found lacking, As of the last two weeks, I have tacked on a short marh type assignment to his daiLy writing. We do a problem wiCh cuisenaire rods, or from Lhe L HATE MATH book. or somelhing eice

3 R'S AT HOME Denise Hodges (IL) writes:

r^., qdJ

oes with him and having him keep score I was shocked to find out that he had forgoEten how to do even simple sums. I have tried to interest Lucas in severaL of GWSrs math tvoe games (the grids, etc.) but he is

T dream

rrn

cnncornino

cnmpfhino

we are doing (Iike cooking). I am not at all sure I am doing the righf thing, buL I am going to stick wiLh it for a while and hope that light will go on again as it did wiLh his wr!LrL,5, uf Lucas doesn't rilc wd), compLain about doing this stuff. On the other hand he rarely does iE wiEhouE my reminder. Another worry I have concerns Maia's (31) insisrence that she is soing to kindergarren. True - iL's 1lyears away, buE she Ealks about it dailyl She is doing beautifully on her writing, totally on her own initiaEive. and learning Lo recognize some words. She will Literallv soend hours ciffino

ih6

ts.hld,.'?iFin^

lzif.ho-

in a praccice book I made for her hpr

rporrocr

hrlo

caF

rhAr

nrrro

love of Iearning destroyed by a [ormal school experience. On i:he oEher hand, I'm afraid if I don't let her go to kindergarten she will resent me and feel that she is missine ouE on something terrific. But if I do let her go, I subjecL her to aIl the negative fhinps in nrrhl ic schools Lhat I am now so against. . . She is a very social creaEure. We joined a pLaygroup Eo fulfill Ehat need for now. By the way, the playgroup was originally intended for 3-4 ',a.-

r,,^.-,,--

^li-

n^r

onino 5vr,,6

tn LU ho uL

involved. But I quickly found ouE that he loved pLaying with the litCLe nneq pcnee i al I v ihe two I 0-month-oId infants who come with Eheir

mochers: , ,

DRAMA & WRITING

I(aren HoLguin (CA) writes: ...The Universitv of Southern has a summer campus, open Lo adults and kids, for rhe pursui t of the arts: drama, music, phoEo-

Cal i fornia ,F.^h,,

,,^-rrino

^^,--i^-

ot.

Mrrri

attended the Children's Theater lasE summer for Ewo weeks, a very good group with a dynamic inscructor. MarEi was also able Co secure a parf in an adulE cast last wlnter. His interest ln drama grew ouc of an interest in special effects and now he is becoming quite serious about it. He pLans to geE a summer job on campus in exchange for classes. At present he spends I to 2 hours each day studying pantomime. This involves a lot of "Hey, Iook, Moml" but I am enjoying it: I believc thi s i s one of Che big advanEages of home schooling. The child is free Eo exDlore subieccs in depth for prolonged times and-as a resulE is better able Eo pursue slrhiecfs of inferest as an aduIt. For insLance, Marti is writing a ch^rt 6in^

n,nar A. n>

^n --FF Pdr

fho L

hi.r^-', Lr'5Lvry r ha nanar

ur ^f

cama \/oi n ha hac hoorrn in,rrnr I Thi c i c hi c ^-i Jvur "o '

was

well as the

tzaonino

nl -^^

'ats^

Karen's letter in "'Free t^lrifingtAE Horne,

Ct,lS #21 . l

READING VIA COMPUTER

Our friend Bob Lawler sent us an excelLent article he wrote for The Boston Review, 6/82. The Lawlers are

Iiving in Paris, and Bob says, "...My two older kids are in a French school iafrer Fhree vears of Calvert home schooling) and doing wel1. now

Ronerrca

nri\/rra

c.h^^l

rharr

can Cake c ime off Lo Eravel with c^

thoir

n^ciri^n

n^f

me,

nnnroccirro

They began the year in Engl ish and will converc to French, course by course, during the year. . . " From the article' .,,l i n.lr<frv

have worked in the computer lnr

ntrpr

ini

aracfad

ffaan

',oew.

were born I

when my children in ho I Lr IL"L

nnl--Fi PULc"Lrd

-1 '

'nd

became

i--.^r r"rPd!L

early computer experience on childran'c

laqrnino

haorn

earrar.l

',^.--.^^> dBv!

vr ^F ir,l

colLaboration wiEh the LOGO proiect at MIT lsee "Mindstorms," cW3 #241, I i nf onc i va

cr,r.lv

.1. i I "

h^'.,

access co a computer influenced the F,.,^

^l d^F

^hi

l.Jrpn

_ rhon

eoorl

eichf and six - learned the basics of arithmetic. By Lhe Lime Cheir younger c i cl-pr

Ppoov

rrrrnad

rhroe

ni.r^-

computer had become srandard equipmenc in our household, and I began to develop several programs to give D^--., 1^ FL^ Dl-.,i^^ -^^^-. Idy'"ts --^Li^^ with the programs in her own way and on her own initiative, Peggy has begun to do someChing that looks very much I ike Lhe beginnings of reading and writing.., Peggy, at Lhe age of Lhree. even 1 iving in a bookish family, did not know how to read in any substantial spnca

heFnra

har

.^mn,'rar

pwnorionco

Her knowl edqe of I crfers aL Ehree years and three months of age was quite speci fic and I imi ted. She recognized onlv a few lerfers as distincL symbols wich any meaning, For exarnol e. she knew thaf "P" was Lhe first Letter of her name. She also recognized rrc, as Ehe "mommy letter" because her mother's name is Gretchen. [,]haL was Peggy's understand i ng oI spelling? One incidenE gave me some inkl ing, lvly oldest daughter was learning a bit of French; one day Pessv claimed that she knew how to "speI1 French" and cont inued, "un, rr

.ioilv

rr^ic

dltaryo

^in^

-n^Fh

er time her snell ino e[ "French" was "woof boogle jig." (Some of you may recognize Lhis as the KIopsLockian love song from a l^1.C. Fields movle. ) Peggy seemed to have the general idea of <nallino e< rlannmn _---...r oslng a meanlngfuI whole into a string of essentially meaningless symbols, but she had nnf vpf I parnp.l rn\' -f Che cul turestandard assignments of letters to word s

...Atler receiving a book as a qiFt Irom her o]dpr sisCer (who then wroEe PEGGY LAWLER on the flyleaf), Peccv inrernrpt ed ai I small clusters of aLphabetic symbols as "Peggy Lawler." Later, as a consequcnce of ben j ?^

noEes

though he shares occasionally, AII this from the boy who four years ago ^"'-- and wheeze wd5'ldvr''6llyJLglllD attacks over book reports:... lsee

inq

^^-,^ PdilLUho i c

taking notes from what he reads...

did nor learn Ehis skill unril well ouE of schoo1... Marti's refLect whaE the book says as what he thinks about thaE. In

reaal rh^

Lhe title

l-o ,.,^-d

she hec:me rhlo lo rocnorrh., anne:rart !v nn uJ, " .,hi wr,!!,,ch qHHsu, v,,

page of every book we read

to her, There is no reason to believe she had any idea of whal I'by" might mean in that contexE. She did recosnize that same word "bv" in ouite i different context, spontaneously pointing ouE the word in the line "These Romans aye crazyl by Jupiterl" from an AsEerix cartoon book. Her knowledge of reading as a process for interpreting graphic material is best seen in her observation that when we read a book together, she reads pictures and I read words, From her remark! we can infer she would "read" L., i-,,^^Fr ^-.. based on her besE speculation about the picturesl meaning. She assumed that I was doing the same with the words. Not a bad assumpti on, but completeLy emply oF any information about how r,Jritten words signify as they do. Contrast the foregoing sketch of Peggy's knowledge at three years and three months with whaL she now knows seven months later. Her knowledse of l^FF^*^

rcLLers

:^ rs ^^^^-F:^ll esseuLrdrry

complete,

that she discriminaEes the 26 letters

^F FL^ ^1^L^L^F ^-., ^an name Ehem. Her knowledge of words, in Ehe sense nf infarnroFino I hom ^na 4f a t ima : t: ^^-F1.. ----Eer. She reads more Ehan 20 words, most wiCh complete dependability. But unlike children who have Learned to read and wriEe by convenlional means, she sees Ehe speLl ing of words as step-by-step directions for typing a name into the computer. AlEhough her generaL idea of what book reading i s may not have changed, she has a different and powerful idea oF what reading single words means that derives directly Frnm r d",r |i-r4n.

hor ownorionao T,,'^r^ IT r

rrirh ^^lI

nnmnrrfa rho.^mnrriar

environments created by the programs I have wriEten, r'microworlds.") ...Her desire !o control the machine@e Fffinirter hcr f irsr "wrif Len" word. Having helped load programs by pushing bultons on a cassette tape recorder, one day on her own Peggy typed frl nrf

iho

Lowhnr

t ho

anmnli

Eerminal and then came seeking direction as to whaf letter came next, A few days laEer, she Eyped the "LOAD" command while the rest of the family was at lunch in a differenc room. microworLds were one The initial for movins colored blocks around on the compufer's video display screen and another (made for her older sisrer but taken over by Peggy) which created designs by moving a colored cursor abouE on Ehe screen. Her oLder sister used this drawing program to make designs, but Peggy's first desiqn was a larpe hox - which she immediateLy converted into a letter "Prr by adding Lhe stem. Letters intrigued Peggy. They were a source oF nower she .l i dn'r understand. A few days lacer, Peggy keyed Lhe Ietter "A" and explained Lo me that rrA is for apple." Her comment suggested a way we could - on the computer - make a new kind oF prereadersr ABC book. . . In the ABC rnicroworld we invented, Ehe IeLter is the "key" for accessing Ehe picture. That is, typinp the kev for fhe letter "Drr on the compuEer's keyboard produces a picLure of a dog on the compuler screen... Peggy was able Lo Ery any to see leEEer on the keyboard, first, what iL goL her. and Iater, if Lhe picture intcrested her, Lo inquire name. She was what was Ehe letter's in control of her own learning. She could Learn what she wanted, when she wanted to, and couLd ask for advice or information when she decided she wanted ic... The shapes were seLecced

and created on the comDucer bv Peggy's older sister and brotirer, aged ten and twelve.,, More complex and interesEing than Ehe ABC microworld, the BEACH microworld provides a backdrop for action that can be controlled by the chiLd. Waves and a beach in the foreground. wiEh grass above, rise to a road, more grass, and clouds at the top oI rhe display. Against that backdrop, Peggy could creaEe a small piclrrra

nhiocr

hlr -^^-iFr?inrt vJDPglIlyrl'5d

Sho

nn,,l.l

Fnr

a.rmnlo

mrLa

a CAR image appear by keying that ,,^-, ^L^.^^^ i ts- r ^^^cion with com_ mands UP, DOWN. MOVE, and specify iEs heading and velocity with TURN, SLOW, I'AST, FASTER! and HALT. These microworlds were created ,,-ih^

ln.n

ir.,

nnmnrohanciht6

computer language which permits Lhe programm€r to assign meaning Eo any l^rts^-^ 1.,..-iFi^- I ^ ^+-i^^ ^a ^:-^i^ u) wt lL-r : ^ ^^.ivaLed whenever ^-^^^r..-^ Prve€uurs thaE sEring of leECers is typed. LOG0rs procedure definition was L

acnaniql

the

velrrahl6

BEACH

lrorLd.

.rct^mi?ino

When Peggy

n-1.^ nnccihlo a mnrp |, uorr ilrd^s ^-n I rr duJUlt,L!Ullv!NllUwrgu}.9 -h-^-^tsi ^l^^ ^- ^F l,^^,,t p^ l----in- ,,!'r5 e^.i frnm iha nrinrLU

--Fi€i^i.1

name, Lhen manipulate the picture with commands typed on Lhe computer keyboard. Peggy typically began constructing a scene by Cyping the word SUN. A yeLlow circle would appear in the waves. She wouLd raise it to the sky by keying the word UP repeatedly, change its color or set it in motion wiEh another word, and go on to ofher ^hia.rc

learn from the computer through her self-di rected exploraEion and experi ment. The basic lesson I draw from this story is NOT merely about rrmoEivation" - although Peggy did enjoy playing rarith Ehese microworLds and Learned from doing so. There is a more revolutionary aspect, one Ehat is paradoxical as well. This new technology, although it may seem highly

first

tsh--

ed page. The character o[ words experienced as executable orocedure names brought Peggy into a new reLationship with Language, one different from whaE has been characteristic of learni| ,,5 ^^

F^ ru

*^-l r

FL^ L rrc

I ^^--i--

^-^F PooL

read from print is necessariLy a pascivF nro.esq rL"sh^ n.^^ .f.-l PdSs

for

f^-

fhc chiId. Words on arcJ vL,rL, ^rhar nonnl PLVPTL

meaninss, Until children slart to wri te Ehey can't use wriLten words for their-own purposes, MicrocompuEers put reading and writing Eogelher From Ehe sfarE. A word fhal Peggy can read is also one she can use Eo prodrreo nn fho cnmnrrfor eIfects Ehat inCerest her. For P"ggy, learning Ehe alphabetic language has become more I i ke whal every in Fant ' s Iearning o f the vocal language is 1ike. Speaking ic nnurorFrrl fnr rho inFanf prron fnr one who commands but a few words, when a resDonsive Derson listens and ror.rc

l ito"rico

rho

nrnd,,niinn

speed of the objects and asked. "How can I make them zoom, Daddy?" Nothing was easier Ehan to creale a new word,

aLphabetic symboLs - even one letter and one word at a time - can become powerful for the young child when computer microworl ds provjde a paEient !

ZOOM.

racn^ni

rrcad

RFACLI

cha

rrrc

r:hh,r^n. uuL'dPyy

,,i Fh

rh^

the Drocedure for which would cof rha rrainnirv nf rhp ah ipcts wirh ^ ^i--r Lvuv ! ve command. ln Pr r,"rc anoLher i nstance, Peggy's older s i ster made a horse-and-rider desisn and ,.,F^F^ . DnYv ^r^^6i!,-e to creaLe that object and set it in motion. After watching her sister edit that shape design, Peggy imirated Lhe speci fic commands to create her own new shape. (She couLd not well controL the design and ended with a coLlecLion of DerDendicular 1ines. Asked vJhat it was', she firsE repLied, "A pony." rr(nmarhin^ r'\ tshon

i6^^-F.-ts r|r},wl

r ,,6

'tar

. .,As a direct

consecuence of

playing with the BTACH wo;ld, Peggy Iearned to "read" approximateiy Lwency words. Initially. she keyed names and commands, copying them letter by letter from a set of 4 x 6 t h.ts

^^-A-

| -.i^

,,^ qP

f^, !u,

h6r ,,s'

ennn

her favorite words were keyed from memory. Less familiar words she would I nnrro

hrr

coqrnhi

rhr^rroh

fhe

ni I a

of cards. When her mood was exploraEory, she wouLd try unfamiliar words i I she encountered them by chance. Now, when shown these words - on the nrioinrl fr, v 6 cerdc or nrinrpd elcor^rhara

cha

roenoni

zoc

f he

nAf iprn

Letters and associaEes it wieh the appropriaEe vocal expression. Frrrihor

rho

unrdc

ero

meaninaFrrl

her. She knows what they represent, cifhcr

ohipcfs

or aclions

in the

micioworLd, In the past, children have always learned Eo read words as alphabetic symbols for ideas to be evoked in the mind. For Peggy, words BEACH

'ro

rh-ar

hrrf

lhev

rrF

c.morhi

ol ca

as well - a set of directions for specifying how to key a computer comin different mand. What is strikingly this new word-concept is that the ^L:1 I afiar

-^, cfri

uv",PuLcr no From

F^-^Fh^Lv6sL,,cl nri 2

A^-^A^ nFai

,.,^-J

a procedure which the computer execuEes and whose sienificance Ehe ch i 1d can apprec i ate. Because the .^mnr,far

.rn

i ntsarnror

cno.

i Fi n u,ardc

the child does noL yeE know, she can

\7p

i nlal

I i oon.o

l-n

i nfprnraF

them.

The change wrought by microcomputers may noE be profound for Peggy. She wouLd have learned to read anyway at six or five instead of Ehree; but for many other children in the world - Lhose with Iess resDonsive families and E.eachers, for example - the chance to use language symbol s in microcompufers may give them a new access to the power of written words which can truly be called revolutionarv. The comDuter revolution is worthhas the Dotential

to do so if

who care about individual's

Ehose

freedom

and development join in shaping this plasEic medium more to the service of mankind than narro\.{ technicaL or commercial interests might be inclined to (lo... YOUNG COMPUTER TEACHER

a New York reader: ..,We sent our son (12) to

From

com-

Duter camD last summer and he came home qui te knowledgeable on computers. We decided to buv one for mv husband's business and it would double as an educationaL tool for our children, We found our son so enthusi.cl i. ooctad

^\,ar ha

fh6 lorch

.^mnrrl6r a emqll

thaf Lta crro.nmnrrlor

class to fellow classmates. (n

oathprpd

hiq

n.rpc

roqefh-

er and eot in contact with a Eeacher down che road from us (who will be teaching a computer course to her elementary scudents soon) and asked her i t she would heLp him make up some r-.-r ^c 1^-^^- y!drL>. ^r^-^ she was will_ ing, for he shared with her what he knew and helped her design her course and she helped him make up his course. They visited libraries and viewed fiLms and swapped magazines. Rrr rho

an;

e1 I

FhJ -

hi ^ 1.-^,.

ledge was doubled and so was hers.

GROWING W]THOUI SCHOOLING

#3I

He has been holding classes for a month now - ages range from nine years to adult. He includes a few workshops as weLl and will be doing an advanced course for students Later in the year. In payment for Ehis lady's heLp, he offered her son the entire series free. He has accepted barLer but prefers to ger paid ,saving for hi s own computer and frrflra .^nnrTar .nrrrses ). fhi s has kept him quite busy afEer school and on weekends. Not only has his knowLedge on or<

^^mnflt

hodn

rai

eaching, but

zloc

ira

tsa

izoon

afaraori

thrn,,oh

L has gi ven him

qhand

(tanc

I L,^

h i c

students as wel I He i s 1 earning business managemenL, dealing with al I types of people and how co invest his Lla

iaal

rhic

hec

hoon

rrorrr

worthwhile experience for us all and ovni fod ahnrrL Lhc monLhs ahead.

His only advertisement so far has becn wiLh direct mai I ing of the -^mn,,F6r LU"'PuLLr

Pr ^rinf-^rri "'r

Hp hnnp< l,\ .-i

-,,^^Fm.'ll.r r ,,,4 suPc

m-/^,,^

Fh^

l^.el

hi.

zdverLise

norrcnrnpr

So far hi s besL source oI promot i on ir -s .,^-A wur u ul ^â&#x201A;Ź ilruuL rr k., uy LLl I S mom. -^,,FL ...T called around to [1nd a typing course for him through adulc education and the instructor cold me she would not take one so young for his r not have the tol '" wuuru'1 .PdL' does erance for her course (little she knowl )..,

programned co take game carcridges or no memory is, one wich pracrjcally over a period of time, a dull machine. one that minimizes Ehe user's power, BuL an expandable syscem, onc EhaL can lead Lo increasing)y complex uses and conLrol of great.^mnrrrar

^r I

Herb Koh], a very humane and inEelligent man and, as readers of his books will know, one who understands and loves children, underscores Bob Lawler's remarks in an articLe he wrote for the Sept.-Oct. ln '82 issue of the Harvard Bulletin. IJH:

^^ir

r.- ^^;-rLL Pd!e

I was reminded of the continuaL pleasure I got Ias a child] fror hrrildino an elecLric-train world rp.pnt Iv rhon T vi<ifed a local compuler store. A number o[ girls and boys between nine and fifteen were hanging around, watching the salespeople' s demonsEraEions. playing ' .,-iFi-^ games, ano ^-, wrr Lrng +L Lnelr own programs whenever a demonstration machine became avai IabIe. I asked the person wailing on me if she knew the young..

itv 4!/

offerc vr

chal-

FL^F )iuu edrr I-eturn LO for -^ ..^ LrrdL rerrtsc5 years. This i s not an exaggeraLi on. My nei ghbor's son, thoroughLy bored wirh school, has builL a smal I computer into a very pouerfu) system fhat he has used to reproduce arcade games, to develop Programs that anaIyze Lhe stat i sL i cs of h i s highschool basketball team, and to set up hnnl<q For hi s nFrenrs' smal I bus i ness. Joscph is noc exceptional, even within our smalL community in norfhThere is a microcompucrn California. cer that has been floacing around Point Arena for over five years. A high-school student boughC it originaLly, and after a year found ic too Limited for his purposes. So he sold it to another student and bought a system with a greater memory and bet Ler sranhics. The second studenL uroni

rhrnrroh

t hc

cemo

eynari

anca

enrl

now LhaE machine ls passed from sLu-

dent to student wifh the knowledge [hat he or she will soon oucgror,J it. fa dara i r hr< hapn \,^,rndcf orc rnd rrcad hrr

uy sr^ cerrara l .lnzan

more. The Local high school has held nlrccnc

in.^mnrrrer

cciance

nnlv

fnr

the Dasf two vears, Most of the students who know something about comt qlra

rlnnrr

^r,rorc

KOHL ON COMPUTERS

ernahil

rhp

.^rrrqp

hacarrco

as one boy told me, "I know more than Lhe teacher, and he'IL ger angry aL mc for Eel I ing h i m th i ngs to do thaf renrri re nore I han he knows, " Thi s sLudent is fifteen, but he said he knew of a dozen fifth and sixth graders who also knew more than the teacher. So much for the high-school teacher. There's a one-room school about five miles north of here with two teachers and 35 studencs. The man who Leaches kindergarLen rhrough rF'i rA

oraAo d i ccnrrprad rnrl nnur hp i c a

.^mnrlor< | , cr hrrff norhrnc

even an expcrt. He and many of rhe chi ldren in our community have come to some agreemenE about I'time on the tr

i -^

--^h

h,,F

,.,h-r

i onroccac IIIIHI LJJLJ

m^cl

is che fact that they donrt relate to each other in the usual teacher/student or adult/chiLd node, Instead rhorr

rol,ro

rhic

nnon-endpd

mach-

ine thac they are exploring Eogether. It is possibLe for young people and

ct orc rnd cho rnl d mo f her rha\/ ,^,F16 rho I nael namn,rr ar hrrFFc Thov hrd nn

-i,,1

machines at home or at school, and

to randomize old notions of domin-

F^-

f,.r

lhe store had become a social center + L^-

A^ I ^-^ nJlv''5oJL||gJ

r L^,,

-^l^

troubLe and freed the machines for customers, they were r,nelcome. In F--r rdLL,

Fh^,, L"cy

^-r^^-^^-1

,.^-^ wrr<

.,^-. v<ry

hol nFrrl

rha

^ some of them knew more about compulers and computing chan anyone who worked at the s tore. I talked to several of the youngsters and found thaE Ehey were indeed knowledgeable, and Ehat the sense of 5drcrPeuPrc

nnurar

fharr

fa I r

urhon

.^nfr.l

I i no

rha

machines was close to what I had felE ^r ^^' -: ^ .-^:ns. wrLrr,") over the past few years I've been observing a number of young people working and pl aying with compuCers. and have dis-

covered thaf ic is not only the buffs

who love the power Ehat comes with

control, but thaE most children seem to enjoy the complexity and chalLenge represented by computers. And even more, they seem Eo enjoy the facr that one doesn't need an adult teacher in order to learn Lo program or use a compurer. A

.^m^',f6r

fh-r

i -

GROWING I^/ITHOUT SCHOOLING #3'I

-ih^l

^F^

rnd --

I ^r*n|,,

no uv",PuLrL'5 ^^-^,rfi

tn fao I rI ^-,nind sd, "r"5

r^oaihor Lv5LL.'u'

i nrronf i \ra an.l ,.ii f h mrr ilrf ahi lrlron wrL,,

on the Atari we have, and am findjng ouE how to approach problem solving and complex Lhinking in a sysEematic way with the continual feedback a home computer provides. . . IJH: ] ttow sad it is that the high school Leacher was jealous and fearful of the children who knew more about computers Ehan he did. Why nol instead appLaud and welcome their skill, and encourage them to use it rn

hal n

^Fh6.c?

Taenhorc

cnmnl

qin

wiEh good reason, about their class loads. This high-schooL teacher could ^^^: r.. drru ^-r RrcaL!J ^-^-tsr., -rduce hiS teach!r <d-!rf r"5-^'Er with children !Lrli rudu ujl rLLdr i f

uL,ry ^-1.'

!wu!u ^^i'li

h-ino ur ',,6

himcpl L'r,"J!r

tn !v

ask them to help him. For all that I am in many ways .,^*.,

.1,^^F

i ^- 1 -h^,,r

.^m^!rf

orc

the grandiose claims that are fnr

rhom

.an

cao

ih.ts

an.l

made

rthts n^r.'

they are an important part of our worLd. and am therefore interesEed in

thom

rnd

orron

mnra

wdyr

L"dL

children use thern. Do readers know of other friendly compucer stores where children are encouraged Lo hang oul, ,'co tsho mrnhinoc in rh^ n.r,,r-l

rnd honnmo avnarrq n.i^ld(e I coJ rrrrr l{nhl Pqrr'

.-.1

describes? If you know stories Like the ones he tells about children using computers, please tell us about Chem, foo. Herb Eold me on the phone a nnrrnl

o nF

mnnrhc

-L LrrdL

,s^ q6v

rrc

wd5

PrdL'-

nins to start a ne\.dsLetter about children and compuEers, and the IirsE issue should be out soon, If you r,Jant more info on this. wrice him c/o GWS at our office. I agree with aIL that Seymour Papert, Bob Lawler, and Herb KohL have said about Ehe value of making availabLe to chiLdren a world in which they can make things happen, and in Che ways they want. BUE Ehere i ^ i^-^^,,^ L --l ^ canger, rs a anu we nave slgns already how great it may be, Ehat some children (adults too) may so love their Dower over the mini-world _

r h-

aamnirrar !v",PuLLr

Fh^,, L"<y

rh.r L"qL

,,i I I

hil^

in that world from the larger worLd outside in which they conrrol so litcle. May noE auEistic chiLdren be in essence people who, bewiLdered and tarrj

fi a;

hrr uJ

rha L

,,n.r^li uilPr sur ^ts-hi

1 i F.'

--l

tsL^., LL,q]

^^ro,l

"L uncontrol 1 ab i I i cy of the reaL world , have drawn back into a shrunken world FL^i-

^,,uw"

i-.,Li^L

-^l.i-^

"rd^!r,6 predicE and control

r -^l

much

orrr f ^-

eoa tsan

everything?

r.rnrchi m'ah

nc ^^,.r^F -nd -^n 4h; f uuuuL .l^,,hts \/6r\/ vcrJ

that a remedy for this cultural ^..'---'-oI at the disPuwcr

disease will be ro put some form of LvLdr nncr I

n t-

^-.. ^f.^-r

LvL!Jv'rL

this further. lhought

,.,h^

^.,^ -,'^-^

LeL,s discuss trle'd like to hear your

uu",PuLE!

BUYING A COMPUTER I

harra

haon

rr\/ino

find

rha

cheapest computer on which you can use LOGO, The leading candidaEe seemed Eo be the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, which LisEs at $300 buE for which deaLers are for Ehe time beins giving a $100 rebaEe. If you have anlnr

T\/

-n"

dnnrt

nao/

a mnnitar.

TI's own moniCor, wiEh very vivid coLor, costs about $300. The LOGO sofEware to so with this cosEs an additional $200 or so. LOGO for $800, maybe $500 - not so bad, Then I read an article on home comDuters in a recenL issue of the Bo;ton Phoenix, and found: ,..If

you purchased a TI 99/4A

because o'f th;l uniErs low price and TI's Iong involvement in computer-

aided education, did the dealer r^l Ls, rL,^,,)vu

Fh-ts L,,oL

r,^,,r fus

I I

h.r,6

i^ Lv

cnan/l rPs"u

another $1000 on an expansion interface and disk drive before you can use the highly praised TI LOGO learning language?. . . ls this correcE? I f so, TI LOCO wilL cost about $1500-1800. Is there a cheaper way to use LOCO? If you know, please telL us. When I saw a demo of TI LOGO, Ehe software package included anoEher game, whose name I forget, in which many objects and groups of objects of different sizes and coLors couLd be moved in differenE ways about Ehe screen. It looked quite interesEing. But the Tl 99/4A has a limiEed memory, which means that you are not -^i^5urrits ^F ih^

ts^ ^Ll^ LU L^ ue dure F-.^i-^ri-!drg!rrdLrr,6

ts^ r^..iFL tshinoc Lrrr rrsJ

lF !L

rhrf

mour Papert and Bob Lawler

about. As another reviewer

talk DUE

ildrry -^-, qa\/_

iE.

with it, you soon 'rrun out of ink." Perhaps LOGO wiEh an Apple computer has more possibiliEies, because of its greaEer memory. Do any readers have experience with Ehis? What is the minimum cost of Apple LOG0? Are there other possibiliEies? Since I agree with Papert that many children mighc be much more interested in writing if they had a quick and easy way to edit and add to \dhat they had already written, I have wondered lihaE is the least exDensive equipment wiEh which they couid do this? The new Cornmodore 64 comouter coscs $600, and I read in Popuiar Science EhaE a New York comoafri-ETTE?fQdTEk Brown Fox - what a'nice namel offers a word processing program For Ehe 64 that costs only around $150, much less than most word processing software, (I've writEen for more info.) tJith this you would need a moniEor, which for word processing could be an inexpensive black-and-whiEe TV, and a printer, which you can now get for about $600, for a total of around $1500. Of course, you would have limiEed memory, buE then chiLdren are not going to be writing 50,000 word novels (at 1east, I don't chjnk so). Is there a cheaper way to do Ehis? Do any readers know children who have worked wiEh word processors? Which ones? How did they Like it? Does it in Fanr ac Pen6ri nrodi ciorl age their writing? Thanks for anything you can Eell us, UnEil recently Ehe cheapesE complete compuEer and word processor package seemed Eo be the Osborne, which at $1800 (without printer) had the further advantage chac it was portable - if you call 24 pounds portable. Anyway, it all fits together into a case with a handLe, so you can carry it if you have fo. But the unic has a very small screen, only five or so inches wide, and Ehe furcher disadvanEage Ehat only 50 or so spaces of the 8o-space widch line will fit on Ehe screen at a Eime, so that You can never see all of your tex! aE once. This more or Iess defeats Ehe whoLe poinc of having the screen. Also, when I tried out the Osborne, I didn't like the feel of Ehe keyboard. Since Ehen a similar machine, the Kaypro, has come out at the same price. lt offers a Iarger and fullwidth screen, and Tim Chapman, who has used it, says Ehe keyboard is a delight. An ad in a recent New York Times offered the Kaypro, wl-rTi-Ehil newTnith Corona letter quality print,,hi^h i. Fnr avvuL ehnrrr d??5o rr ^f^hvuJLLJV vr ably as good a buy in a new machine as you can find these days. But Osborne is supposed to be coming out soon wiEh a new Dortable machine thaE corrects all Ehe- faulEs of the first, and a number of other companies, including Apple, are supposed to be bringing out porEables wi Ehin a year or so. If you can, waiE; if you are eager to buy now, Ehe Kaypro is Probably worth looking at. [,Je don'E have time or money Eo Eest these machines in the office, so must rely on you, or people Like Herb Kohl, to Eell us whaE children like besE. Thanks for any news you can send. - JH FOREIGN LANGUAGE TAPES

Ann Bodine (NJ) told us Intith enEhusiasm about THE LEARNABLES, a for-

eign language tape course avaiLable from the INTERNATIONAL LINGUISTICS CORPORATION, 401 W 89th St, Kansas City MO 64114. She says, 'rI have tried several foreign language cour-

ses and find Ehat this one promotes the fastest learning. It's also Ehe most enjoyable. Like Suzuki in music, THE LEARNABLES is based on ear Eraining firsE, , ,rl Courses available are French, German, and Spanish. We sent $L for the samole lesson in Mandarin Chinese (furchei lessons not available) to get an idea of thffiethod. In the sample, you look at a series of piclrrrAc eirnlrno)

{qn

qnnlo urhilo

)

ru hn.' uvy rha r.na

A^^r^r rana.fe

iho

appropriaEe name or a shor! senEence. You do not saying anyEhing, you just lisren.-John and I enjoyed this, and remembered some of Ehe names for days. According co Ann, only after you've gone through the entire series of lessons Lhat way do you start saying any of the words. It sounds logical - affer all, babies listen to a l --^,,--^

t^-

urr6 ^n-

Fima L rIrL

hoFnro

thor,

trv- to sDeak it. The'cost is $35 for 5 tapes and a book. There are four leveLs of 5 tapes for each language, and Ehe book is the same for alI the languages,

,,Li

-h

A--

j nF. ^^ PU!'L5

crrroc

^1rf learn more of monev if vou want !o rr^rrr f .,^,, F-., FL^^^ -r ^-- ^ ^-L Lrldrr urrs. , PrEdre )uu EeIl us how you like them. - DR

hi r

PHOTOGRAPHY AT 6

From CaLifornia:

...hle have a one-man store - a photography store. Zane (6) aLready takes fantastic DicEures and did his first aerial work a few weeks ago of Yosemite ValLey using an oLd camera of mine. Yourd believe his work, but not many people could accept so much So far we from a six-year-old. haven't had time to do anything butmake

a contact sheet. Soon Zane

i ...His His comDosiEion composiEion must be intuiE. understand tL. itive: even Ir oon tElve; don't.t uncersrano His firsE rolI of slides was fanEas^-i,,L-FwrrdL

i^,, -luy

hAr]

oirrino

hic

first sLide show - setting up Ehe projector, putEing the slides in, etc. He's so quick and spontaneous Eaking his pictures that, as a grown-up, I find it hard to believe he can get such good resulLs, My thinking says you have Eo work to do it. He pLays, and does it. Of course, he prefers color to black and whiEe - and that is too expensive for how quickly he !L.-^..^L ^ -^r1 oF film. Now we Ldr, L'rr vu6Lr 6v are bulk-loading black and white, so it is quiEe inexpensive. LOO feet of Film fnr e]7 o^oc - r_ _lrlng way, even the way I shoot... SUZUKI IN N.J. From Joanne LynE . . ,My

New

Jersey:

husband's supervi sor at

work told us about a Suzuki violin program in a nearby town... We are

lU ri ry ,

h^^.,,.^ urLdurs

infont

nleaqed. Thc feacher is so Eolerant of family needs. Everyone brings their babies and toddlers along to the older child's class. There is no pressure Eo find babysitters. No trauma. A11 Ehe parents partjcipate frrllv in the classes and at home with practice. I have found some wonderfuL friends, many of them homeschooLers. There is much trading of experiences Ehroush Ehe newsLetEer and Ehe Talent Educaiion Journal (a Suzuki pubTii6:Eton--l"omlm-erTcan-based t rans Iators i 236 Spring Av, SE. Louis MO 63119; $6/yr). Greta (3!) has grown a whole loc from spending time r{ith rhese

T ^-

I ^^rnino

fha

rrrrth

of so many accounts I have read about leaving the children !o learn on their own but be there when they do need you. The FTiit-TEw weeks I was rtroino

| ^

f:raf.

^*4-ri^^ Prd!Lr!E

every day. I was being so bossy about it. Having taught myself several insEruments by ear (with no parental intervention), I should have realized the vaLue of personal incentive. But I was determined to sDare her che poor habiEs I had devbloped through lack of discipline. Anyway, when I forced myself to sEop being so demanding, her interest did pick up on its <n,,rro.l

rho

i ncni

ruri

seeing the other kids in her class olav their violins. ' The Suzuki experience is real ly a total environment in which parents Iearn to improve their attitudes toward Eheir children through love and patience. I must say that the class schedules themselves are so busy that most of the enlightenment I have acquired has been through the lending library which the Eeacher provides, and then I reLate the lheorv back to Che reality... SUZUKI IN N.Y. When I visited the t,la11aces (NY) in November, I went Eo two very interestins Suzuki evenEs. First I heard a reheaisal of a string orchestra in wh i ch V i ta tJaI Iace ( 7 ) was pl aying violin. The young conductor had wriEr6n

go into the darkroom wiEh us and make nrinl- - all himself . aIL hv bv himseLf his first r Drint Fi^

families. I was amazed that so many parents would be wilLing to spend so much Eime with their children, It is really like a large family. And helnine Crera learn the viofor us as a PrdsL!us future (present?) homeschooling fam-

<h^rf

Fh^h

.h/

niona iF

r.'-.

in fhroo intdrocfino eJLrrrb

naric

fnr

t.raf.h

him help Ehem put it Eogecher. LaCer we went to a formal recitaL. First a

of sEudenrs, ranging from five-year-old beginners co very skill-

number â&#x201A;Ź,,1 !ur

F^^Lss"-d6E-^^v.

^l -.'^d

cnl n nioaoc

or in one case a piece for three players. Then the smaLl orchestra of which Vita was a member pJayed, in unison, a number of sEandard Suzuki pieces. Recitals of children can often but be tense and unhappy affairs, this one was pure pLeasure. One thing helped make it so; I donrt know whetht ' 'r^'a^-) ^ractice at Suzu!>.Lduudru P ki reciEals everywhere, or an invenFi ^-

FLi L'rr5

^^-Fi Pdr

vuP, ^-^,.^ 5,

^,,1 ^-

Th^., r,!s)

did not start the recital wiEh the youngest chiLdren and slowly work their way up to the experts; instead, they mixed beginners and experEs more no feelor less randomly. There was Fi^-. iF rr^:^^f !rrB ur -i-^1" 5r"'P'y

-+^-sLdrs, d L!uuP

uL ruilrPeLr ^F ^hi liron

I I

ts^ hri hd ur r,'5

mqlrino

music together for their pleasure and the pLeasure of their parenEs and any others who might hear them. The feeling was very much like one of our home schooling family parties. One thing. though, struck me as odd. None of the soloists, not even the very talented girL who played the entire middLe movement of the Bruch G minor concerEo, one of Ehe great pieces of Ehe Romantic repertory, were aLlowed to tune their own vio1

i n..

k.,

rham L'rEIt

rrn uP

â&#x201A;Źnr rv!

one of the adult teachers to tune. I can understand this for the beginners; not only can they probably not hear accurate fifths (Ehe strings of violins and ceLlos are tuned a fifth apart ) , bu! their hands are not

strong enough fo turn the pegs. BUE why shouLd Ehe advanced players not

GROl,lING I^/ITHOUT SCHOOLING #3I

have tuned lheir own insEruments? I have to assume they knew how. Perhaps the Suzuki people fclt that Letting some children tune their own instruments while making ofhers hrinq t heirs rrn for adulLs to Cune -^-,,1 ts i ,i'rliLrL -.^Lf I i na' hor!-,don ^f

A-^,,i-^ I'o^^n"

:,,-F FL^ rrh-rrr -ni

l,i^i nl -,, vtdJ-

FL^,. uru r,, ^^. L,uL L"cf wish Lo draw. If lhis was Eheir idea, then a good case can be made for it. ln any case, it is mosc imporLanc for even young and inexperienced players to Iearn as qoon Fq nossihle ro learn to tune their insLrunrents accurately; iE is a "basic skiII" of string players. If we need to invent devices to make it nn<cihlp For I it t lp children to do rhie

rhpn

them. -

iplrc

oer

hrrcv:nd

inrrpnt

INSTEAD OF TESTING

Freda Lynn Davies (Ont, ) wrote: ...I was able to convince the school authorities that it \das in Kevin's best interests Ehat sEandardized I est ine not he used Co evaluaEe hIs ouL-of-school learning. The meeLinr"B

r| ,,-. wd>

h.,

^ h-d

r,,irh

rho

nrnrrin-

ciaL attendance counseLor was reduced Eo a phone calL through which arrangemenfs were msde for a meeting with local officiaLs, 1n which we were Lry dBdrLL '^ LU " ^ solve the eval u-Fi^- ru,, dL

l^^-I1,, ugd,

--^hl^P'

Tho

nar.r

incendenE for our area was the most

understanding school official I have yeL encountered (and I LhoughE I was lrrckv hoForp fo hFvc been able to dcal wi rh nrefrv reasonable school nennlo

fhi

c qrea

)

hrn,rohr

the meeting a kind-eyed lady who is now a member o[ rhe "supporr scaff" which I gather is a group whose memhorc

frnm

cchnnl

.^h^^l

h^1 L'srPr,,E ^i-^

to solve individual students' problems. The resuLc is Ehat she is now our "evaluator" and comes to visit us. She has come twice this fall and , ill

.^-in in d6dl||I||L''lJvl

^^6^

hha

p I5 crr

Far., 'l

FLi ^_-

rr,^^ LJPC

L,,F

never pushed him when he seemed uncomfortabLe. Kevin and I would of course rather be Iefr alone entirely. but rhic

caomc

liL:o

r u

nrart.' PrLrLy

^^^l Suuu

Lv,"P,

probably good to keep Ehe communicaLion lines open wich the many caring people sEill within Ehe school sysEem... mise, and it's

WRITING A CURRICULUM

Afl er seeinp her "Successful Curriculum" printed in GhlS #27. Lynn Kapplow (MA) wroEe: ...If

any of you are planning d-head and write JUJL 5v down what you're already doing; rrnrrr'l

nl oac.nr PrLororrL!)

I \'

.tr*rri

.^i

v--.,

of us don't real ize what amazing things are happening r{ith our kids until we're forced to commit it to paper. Suddenly we're made aware of Ehe varied and invenEive ways in which learning occurs in our homes. When I made the curriculum I reaIized I'd now have school people being overly curious about whaf we do, cn

T haorn

lroanino

inFnrmal

record of what we accomplish each day. I r's similar Eo Anna QuinnSmith's learning record (GWS #27) but much less detailed, since I feel Irm only doing Ehis as a concession to fL6

.^h^^l

. .

rT ^^-.^-.1 Pc,.v,,o"J

to know how my kids are do-

i n!rrt3.

rha

I,r,-

,,^nr

T t vo

Fh.F

hoon ussLL

Loan^cgP

ing them, I've never looked back at i-,,rudy

-i-^t^ 5r,'tsr<

qfill

5, -^^^-i

uage arts and scoring above grade LeveL in every area. a

fh6wr\/p

proved very importanE. Towards the end of receiving our approval, the superintendent's office told us thaL they were holding up our approval because they didn't have a way to moniEor us. They Frankly expected thaL ,,^ri :-^ r"ts

h^.itstsin^ .rLL'"E ..^-1. ^^L^^l sL"uul

informed

Ehem

Fram a-1 rincaL" ^.aL.larr ua) T ,,^^ 1 ^, ^^^^l d,,u ^^i wdr dPPdrr<u

that we left school be-

c.-L^F :^.-^^sed !,"yui on children wL'dL rr

and had no intention of playing school at home. I went on to explain , i ^

-i

wdy

L^.,

FL^

-h.,f r,,/e"",r h-^

vt ^F

children '!E at home who are free to study whenever they want are completely different from those at school. I then suggesEed that his office have free access to my daily records as a way Lo know what the kids are doing. Th6\' il,c)

f,uu,'u ^,rn.l

rhi

c rrarrr J

..r i -f .^F^-" soLrrrasLu,J.

...Whatrs turned ouC to be more i mnort anr fo fhe c i rl s are Ehei r acL i vity boxes. Each one has a carton fiLled wiCh all the work they've done 6-.- FL^..^-r-,^ ^^t their art work, cards, Ietters. sEories, ads, mock newspapers, jokes, mach, speLling bees. compositions, crafts, grammar pages, etc. They love iE, and our youngesE is always going through it, showing us her achievements. We save them trom year ro year, feeling they'll be fun Eo look back on when FL^ ^i -l Lne glrrs are grown up, My biggest problem with keeping records is thac I find mvself oressuring my kids ro do somb schooL work so I can enter iE on the record. I don't like doing rhat, and feel I have to come to terms with this and devise some new thinkins and new types of record keeping that cypities home schooling and what we find importanE. If I solve iE, I'LI-share it, since I know many parents are struggling with the same problem...

(he

cnrino

did not tes! Kevin in the usual sense oF the word, but engaged him in friendly conversation. She asked him rn

rrritten

I rr dnnrr

naa;

to look aC chese records once they're GROWING |,lITHOUT SCHOOLING #3I

LETTER TO SUPT.

From Deirdre Purdy (WV): . . . I wanted Eo send you our letEer to the school board asking for homeschooling for our oldesr, Jed. The noinf of rhe I Pffer is to teII the absoLute and compLete truth abou! Jed's school ing while never promising to fo1low a curriculum, study anything any number of hours every day, rrco

.arr.in

fowf<

1,,

-^6^*.1 vr:3<'rcrdrry ^r

ru,"^^-

' mit ourselves.in writing Lo holding schooL... The crux of the lelEer is paragraph 3. AfLer saying something like Ehat, you go on Lo elaborate on your chiLd's learning in as much deLai I as you can muster. Every letter would be very different and Frrll of convincinq nersonal details of what the children are doing (rather than whac they're supposed to do ^- ..L^F )uu rc 6urL,6 -^:^^ to make them do)...

IThe Purdy's leEEer, addressed to. the county superintendent of scnoors: l ..,We would like Eo reques! a continuance of Jedediah Purdy's homeschooling, We would also Like to enroll Hannah in kindergarEen buc conrinue to teach her at home also, Jed was seven on November 29, l98L He was enrolled Last year at Minnora School, but learned at home. When he was tested at the end of the year on the CTBS, he scored very welI, getF:-^

lnnol

ai.,^

^F eL

1^^rd'16-

Jed will be instructed by both of us. We are both coLlege graduates. WaLter has a B.A. in philosophy. Deirdre has a B.A. in English, B.A, in American sEudies, M.A. in EngIish, ,.. P"rruruPLry, ^Lr r ^^^-L., o^nd did further graduate work toward her Ph.D. Deirdre was also a teaching assiscanc aE Penn State and at Ehe University of Pittsburgh, and an instructor of philosophy aE Carnegie-MelIon University' She also has a particuLar interest in education and is the ediEor of [Alternatives in Education" newsletter. Jed will be enrolled in the third grade. We would like Ehe appropriate books to ensure thaE he is aware of the material being covered in the Ehird grade at school. However, we plan Eo conEinue Jed's education in the same manner as vte have conducted iE so far: Jed likes to read and reguLarly reads four or more hours per day when he is aE home withouE friends visiting. A few of his favoriEe books are 20,000 Leagues Under Lhe Sea, + Treaslrre TsTend. The A-dvencures of -Sa wye r, Lj-dnap-p-e dlJu--E--So--S t or T om res. and Swrss famrLV KoDlnson, ne of all Fas read EEe orrg-fntl- vdlons of these books several times. He also comic adventure read superhero books, stories such as Star Trek, Tom Swift, or the Hardy boys, and a number of books with which you may be less familiar such as Flaming Arrows and Black Scone KnffE.--FE ilEiTE the Km-wF -CouLry--af5ra ry in Cha r I e s t on where he has had a library card for several years and borroi{s 5 Eo 10 books each month. Jed has special interesEs in science and science ficEion. Another favorite book is The Time Machine. He recenEly made a serwhich were designs re-of-Aiagiams for an android. Jed was given a number of junior high school science texts by a friend who is a teacher, and read sections in al1 of them. Jed also reads portions of the daily CharLeston nevrspaper and the magazines which \.r7e receive. He f ol1ows the cartoons of Dan O'NeiLI and R, Crumb of the CoEvolution Ouarterlv. Becaus i nr"R

o -ki 1r ir r., du, L]

:eTr6-TT gE-TdiET-o-f-TE?d.-l d,,u

ki . ,,!r

nrrchi

clri

l l c

"ru!errrr'6 at articuLation we feeL ic is imporEant to teach him at home where we can ensure he has maEeriaL Eo read and dlscussion concomitant with hls level of understandins. Jed's inceresE ii science began with his rock colLection, He has collected rocks since he was Ehree and has a Large and varied colleclion, mosEly gaEhered in West Virginia. Amons them are half a dozen fossils and i collection of fLoating rocks. He has studied several books on geology and on rock identification, We have vi sited quarries, strip mines, and stream beds for rock collection. Jed also has a bone coLlection with specimens from wiLd and domestic animaLs, He and his friends often go on nature walks logether, gathering whatever interesEing items they may find, Li-zards, fish, and including turtles, r^^F L^..-r uvSr r^-^ drr -rr oF which we have kcnt For A t ime' and lhen returned or '^l

^4.^j

l^d

-l -^

r-1"oc Lo^Lo

.^mnl ar a !v",yrLLU

responsibiliLy for his pet rabbic which he hopes Eo breed soon. Jed is interested in the cows, horses, and gardens which we raise. He experimented with soil mixEures and bean seeds this spring to deEermine which soil mix produced the best bean seedlings. Jed is interested in plant and animal idenEi ficaEion, and can ident.ify mosc of the trees and fLowers. manv birds.

'tB

snakes, insects, and large animals which live in our area. He has helped tap trees and make mapLe syrup, and waEched trees cut, hauled ouE, miLled, returned, and made into buiLdj-^!r16r,

c^ ru

L^ rr<

ic r5

L !r ^^Ftsj-o 6EL

infpnei\ra

education in the use of natural resources. Jed reads reguLarly aboul: space exploration and astronomy. He has a chemisEry seE wiEh which he performs simpLe experimenEs. As parE of our everyday conversation we discuss such issues as nuclear Dower. acid rain, soil erosion, and'the causes of a:-^^^^F..i-^ L:^ ^cientific inter_ ests in with currenE events and more generaL knowledge, He also receives Rick nature magazine and reads .+ Ranger cover-to-cover each monEh. We plan to encourage Jed to continue to explore these interests while broadenins his knowledge in alI oF these areasl Jed is incerested in several areas of history: the American revolution and civiL war, the Life of the American Indians, and pioneering in the 19th century. He has read all eighE of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books many times. He has read a number of books about these periods as well as biographies of such Flgures as Frederick Douglass, Abraham LincoIn, and George Washington. He has been learning about Peter the Great recentLy, He is also learning to read maps and globes at present, hle use road maps for Erips and when discussing currenL events. l,Je have also examined locaL topographic maps. National Public Radio is on for "Morning EdiI^1 Fi^-il

.-l

rrrrrrtsr nr 1r Tki-^.

a^ncirla16.l vvrrrrurrâ&#x201A;Źut

programs, so the whoLe familv lisEens Eo Dortions of these three hours of daily-news programming. We discussed the Falklands war and its causes, foLlowed the acEion on the globe, and read about it in the newspaper. It was on pubLic radio that Jed firsc Learned (or at least ingesEed the fact) that nuclear weapons existed that could desCroy the world. Ewo news

t-to hac

haon

hri

noi no

FL4r LildL

F-^ts rdLL

,,^ ul/

f ^!ur

discussion in many contexts. Jed's interest in cartoons has Led him to cartoon examine the daily editorial in the newspaper, and usually to understand it and its object. Jed reads in NationaL Geographic each month, anck-we-Eave a Tarl'e collection of old Ceographics which he and his sister can examihe. tle visit the Deparlment of Culture and History in Charleston several times a year to c66

rha

. rr

eraFt

qnd

h i sfnrv

d i c-

olavs. - We regularLy take the chiLdren to see appropriate movies, such as "E.T,," "On Golden Pond," "Superman I & 1I," "Star Wars," "Coal Miner's Daughter" and so on. AfEer the movies we discuss with them what parts they Liked or didn'E like and why' We do the same with books Ehey read and programs heard on the radio, feeling rhar ihis nrovides the foundations oF personal judgmenc for aestheLic appreciation and understanding, We do not the childrenrs art, howcriticize ever. They both draw with great pleasure. Jed does extensive carLooning and has developed several superhero characters such as Fish Man, AntimatEer Man, and Mental Man. These characters occur in comic strips which he draws and each has an appropriate origin, strengEh, .[Iaw, cosEume, al ter identiEy, and so on, We keep pens, PdrrrL,

l ^^^^i PErrsrrs' -

u' dyur's

^^-1,^--

paper, and oEher art maEerials well supplied. We also examine reproducEions of fine drawings, paintings'

and other arts and crafts of many eras from manv Darts of the world. t{e visir Che Carnegie Museum in PicEsburgh at

Ieast once a year and visit naturaL hisLory and art displays (though the chiLdren's preference is for natural history). The children see us build buildings, do architectural drawings and auto mechanics, make books, knit and sew, Contact with and DarticiDation in ongoing productive- creativity i c

r"ra hal

i er;e

f ha

m^cf

imn^rranr

part of education in the arts. [,le of ten olav music on che radio, and on iec6rd and casserte players, We aIl Iisten to jazz. blue-^^1, ^-r c^11. mus ic. We al so 6rdrrt sing songs. Jed is IeasC interested in

mrlcio

a1MuuJL!Lr l crjhia^r-

^.-ri^,,1--

ly in his boyish resistance to dancing. Hannah loves to sing and dance and plans to take dancing lessons sCarting this faLl. We wiLL continue Eo play music and sing wiLh the chi ldren, take them co dances and to hear live music, and giving them the chance to enjoy_music wichout any -Dressure co Derlorm. Jed studies arithmetic from severaL elementary arithmetic books which we own. He is competent and working above grade level as shown by the CTBS tests. He is quite abLe, for exampLe, Eo be the banker at Monopoly, Figuring percenEages for mort.,^1 rI

l;d6c5'

.dD

6-r' ino ''|d^l||5

nhrnoe

fnr

iho

rhirrl

property purchases and overseeing bankruptcies. We wiLl continue co hj.

rrcino

-F,,;i^.

grade ariEhmetic books, as weII as those he is a1 ready working wiEh. Both of our children have an exEensive social life. They have friends from 3 to 73. Their young friends often spend Ehe night, or they go Co spend the night with Lheir friends, both boys and girls, about once a week and sometimes more often, Many of their best friends are also hnnocahnnl

orc

fharr

ha\/o

r : -LF L!t3r'L cn^rrq J JPvr

A^A^^

^^A

| I

-F

,.,h nh wLrr i rrl

--^,,nvuP 6r

severa.l parents have been running. They both like ro play chess and nhanlzorc

Iod

nl rnc

hooin

Var^ro

lessons this fall which wiLl bring him in contact with new chiLdren in an aEmosphere of educaLion and discii-^1 P!!"c.

nl nco

IoA

-h d",

^^rts }Jd,

L i^,,l.Flrr

imnracco.l

to carry with the children's ability on conversacions with aduLts who loan them books, Ealk with Ehem, and take an interest in their educaEion. For instance, Jed wiII travel to tdashington, DC, for 3 days next month wittr a man who is his friend, Each child has several friends around Lheir own age, wiEh whom they are particuLarly fnr

owannl

i c

fri

ends

with Lucy Perineau with whom I have overheard him discuss the intelli-^nn^ BeL'sc

nf v'

l^1 vurP,,^h rin-

i fo

aFror

doart:

and reincarnation, as weLl as books Ehey bolh have read or their plans for the afternoon. One of the main reasons we wish the children to study at home is so that they have time to maintain these social relations, Both children are Iearning to pLay softbaLl and to swim this summer. They are extremely active all day long, hrhen Lhey are not quieEly working or reading. Another reason F^t

raa.h

ino

rham

h6mo

n,rt\/ r" "J t

l-hpw

wiLI be able to complete their necessary schoolwork in shorter time,

iha

Minn^r.

anhnnl

rharr

did lasE year. lnle would be very happy to share any of our activicies with any sEudents or classes aE school, Thank you for consideration of our request. , . MONTESSORI LEGAL MEMO We received a "Memorandum of Law - PrivaEe MonEessori Schools'r from the International Montessori Society, 912 Thayer Av, Silver Spring MD 20910. It makes some very important. points that apply just as well to people wich privaEe schools in fheir homes. From the merno:

...State control and regulation over Montessori schools has been 1^^^rr-....^F:F,^r -^ limiE Ehe Free rctidrry owarn .rlion

i ca nâ&#x201A;Ź I i hortsrr i n nri \r. ra a.1,,a^nli-.ri^6 thrnrroh 4 q41p*al, dr oPP!ruoL!uLl

of "state oolice Dower." From State v. William-s ( 253 NC 337 , 1I7 SE 2d 444, 92 ALR2d 513 1960): ,..rrrhe scace has a Iimited riohf rrndar fhp nolina nourpr f.l regulate private schools and their agents and soliciEors, provided (1 ) there is a manifest present need which affects che health, morals, ^ur

^^l^F., 5dlsLy

tsL^

i^ rL

^,,L1 yuu,

I ]

^^-^-^1t,, 6s,,c!d!

(2) the reguLations are not arbiLrary, l:^^-i-i-^F^ ul scr rnlrilaLory, oppresslve, or otherwise unreasonable, and (3) adequate legislaEive standards are escablished. " Howcver. annl icaLion of such

iho

tunity to participate in lessons whenOnce or twice a week ever they visit, they visit with our neighbors who are in cheir seventies. Every few months, they watch Saturday morning TV cartoons and have dinner with these friends. They attend adult softbaLl games where Lhey can play with Eheir friends while the adulEs play softbalL They have learned many group games such as tag, Red Rover, Red r i .-^^L!!i"L^LF u' EE" f ha nh i I dron'c

given individual aftention, and noE be forced to remain inactive for lone ncriods of Time thai are ofEen required in the classroom. We would like Jed and Hannah Eo continue to DarEiciDate in school acEivities, !uch as-the Halloween

nnl

ico

va i I i

nnurpr

i c

I imi

fod

.nlnl

ng ri ghts of private

or-

schoo

s pro-

Eected by the U,S. Constitutlon...

From Binet-Montessori,

Franc@

Inc. v.

San

L919):

"A necessary corol lary to the parenErs right to send a child Eo private ri ohr

-^h^^l

^-i.,-F^ P' ' vdLs

rha

riohf

lha

school to operate. The ln

cend

onoIc

ch i

drpn

nri

vate school would be a hollow righE if the sEate couLd Drevent the oDeraL ion of such schooi s. " . . , In Milwaukee Montessori School v. Pscy-1273-F-Supp ft58 Tq.IqT-;-;;.-' a nnn-nraFi f M.nfecsori school in Wisconsin successfully chal I enged the constitutional i ty ot the Dertinent dav care law as a denial of equal proreccion of che laws slnce this law established a classi f icaLion exemption for "parochi rl'r

cahnnl

ovnl

rrd i no

nrhar

nri

\rrre

schooLs. The court held that: is no rational basis "...there for the di stinction created {by the ct etsrrFa)

horwoan

nrir.-F^ P!, vdLc

schooLs and other private

^-F^^hi.l Pd!w!L,ror

schooLs

and therefore the enforcement of thac staEute... is in violation of Ehe eoual Drofection clause of the Fourceenth'Amendment, . , "

(381

In GriswoLd v. ConnecticuE,

us479rc

Court specifically noted certain riohfc in nri\r,ra rho nr^lo.finn "...the

righE

education as under che First Amendment to educace one's

GROI,IING |,l]THOUT SCHOOLING #3'1

children as one chooses is made applicable Lo the staces by the

went chrough the usual routine paper-

force of the First and Fourteenth Amendnents... In oEher words, the state mav not. consistent with Ehe spirit oi the First Amendment, confrA.r fhP snecrrum oF avail abl e knowledge.'r

In Roe v. Wade, 410 US 113 judicial scrutiny afIorded to high rrfundamentalrr righEs such as those included under the First AmendmenE:

(1973\, tE-e Supreme Court noted the

Farrad,

In appl icaLion, a 'rcompel I ing state interesE" normally requires the sEate to show some special emergency or exceptional need, above and beyond a rational purpose related to the gennrrhli.

infringing Hnurerrer

iniarocf

itrcfiFrr

fha

of fundamental rights. . .

pwpn

a'rnnmnolIino

ctara

"..,these standards are so Dervasive and aIl-encompassing thbc total compljance with each and h.'

nnn-nrrhl

school would effectively eradicate Ehe disEinction beEween public and nnn-nrrhl

i n oirrcari

rnd

rharohrr

denri ve fhese annel lants of their inEerest as parents to tradifional direct Ehe upbringing and education of the children. ". . . CHANGING RESIDENCY

[ln: ] Vihen John was in New York, the Helmke-scharfs told him that rhey nhanoad

fhair

laoal

racidonnrr

order to be in a district thaE was more co-operative wiEh home-schoolers. Ofher home-schoole.rs may want to consider doing Ehe same thing, aLthough we cauEion anyone rhinking of rhi

^h^^1.

Fh^

^-.

rodr!i

romanf

for their sEate and districE thoroughly first. BiLl Scharf LaCer wrote us hovt Ehey did it: .,,1) We informed school district #l thaE we would be "reLocating" to districc #2. ("When asked if we were seLling our farm, we of course exDlained that we would still be running the farm and spending as much l-ime there as oossibLe. ) \ ' 'i (tor 2) tJe renLed $10 Der month) a mail ins address frorn a friend's

ii district #2... We wrote a brief but Iegal paper with her saying that we were subrenEing parE of her apartment for $10 per monEh and thaE she \,JouLd accept our maiL. She couLd Eerminate the agreement at any time and for any reason. For this agreement and Davmenc she added our name Eo her maiLbox. tJe nocified che post offi ce. 3) We informed district #2 Ehat we hrere now in their disErict and mocher

GROI^IING !jITHOUT SCHOOLING #3'I

raoi, dL r6!rLr tsF^Fi

\/.for

4-^

of our chosen

GRADUATES LACK SKILLS r-^-

rrSrrrrrorr

L^^/.11 inori I'gdur !'rLu

JLvr/ ^F^-,,

Finds Young People Lack Work Skills," by KathLeen Teltsch, in the New York Times, Ll16l83: ...Industry in the United States is being severely undercuE because young people entering the work force Lack basic skil1s in reading, wririn-

ccionna

-ni

-.rh^*-ri^-

aoaarA-

ing to a survey of corporations and school systems across fhe country.

-..,-, companLes are spending miLlions of dollars for remedial training to Learn skills that should have been accomolished in the ninth and tenth grades, the researchers concluded. The study was conduct.i by rhe Center for PuLLic Resources and financed -mai n1 y by I several I arge corDorations ... ' rho racn^..o" Ir^ rha n,roct i^nAc..^nco^!ran.o

intetest" can be asserted within the sEate's compul sory school age range (normaL1y,6-16), Ehe state must stil1 further show Ehat such interest does not extend pasE certain I'minimum standardsil of conEroL or resulaEion. . . . ln State V. Whisner- ( 351 NE 2d 750 1975I--EEe court noted the Ohio "minimum standards'r for orivate schools as beyond the bounds bF reasonable regulaEion.

6!'^rr' gvgl)JLo''UdLUvfd -f-nr--l

ortr

school disErict.

ihp Cnrrrf hrc linitsino rhaca nnlrr hrr r vLtLJ |)t o

Legi'compelLing state interesEr... slative enactments must be narrowly drawn to express only the legitimate sEate interests at sEake."

orrl

4) District #2 informed us that their legal counsel advised that a resident of the school district was a person who filed their Federal Income Tax Return from an address within the disErict. This was good news because by attending to those delails, everyone (adminisErators in both districts as weLl as ourselves) were off the hook. We Eelephoned che IRS, transbecame LegaI residents

"tlhere cerEain'fundamental

ri ohrc' aro i nwnl rred hFl.l fh,f raorrlafian h^ i".rifiod -..' 'i-hts. JurLrrrru

r,Jork.

nr i roc cants iho - F,,i,. - - iI ,-..-5Luu/5d!u!>uE_ ^rrt oocf rhrf a rrcioniFi.-hF -^^rr u Jr5rLr!rLdilL ^-i-F. BdP

between business' and educators' perceptions as to the adequacy of rhe

job ski tLs of young people. It said

many companies reported that deficiencies in basic skilLs were aDDar6nt

i^h

. m. i^Fi trr nf ol'|aJvlrLJU!JUUldLgt.UIIg5.

^-F6d^ri

By contrast, school officials p.l thrl aniorino

rho mlinri rhp inh

rv nf marl<pi

insist-

pc oradrr:f uoro adaatralo-

Iy prepared for empLoyment. But the sEudy said there was "surprising" recognition by both schooLs and business thdE companies would have to be more precise in def ining job-preparation requiremenrs, in assisting with the development of curriculum and even in participating in classroom i nstrucCi on. . . l,lhile Ehe need for improving h..i

.r/i

I 1.

h.-

haon

^--

raaaoni

zaA

by educators, the report maintained fh.r

hrd

nnl\t

ro.arr

Irr

hocnma

"priority issue" for American industry as iL faced stiffer economic com-

ndriii^n

frnm

nrhar

n-Fi^^^

.L^^-j-^ vL'd,,5r,,8

technology has also compelled business Lo seek job applicants capable of handling more comprehensive tasks. 0f the 184 companies responding, half said skilLed and semi-skilled empLoyees, including bookkeepers, could not complete mathemaEics problems invoLvins decimaLs and fractions. 50% of-those responding also said managers and supervisors couLd not write paragraphs thaL had no grammaEical or spelling errors. 4O% of the companies said secreraries had r,tF,^..r rrB ! edur '-^ d^L the Level re_ ^,.i -^l vurrsu

L., uy

FL^i Lrrcr!

l^L^ tvu>.

In contrast, of the schools surveyed, 80% said Lheir graduates read ueII enough for employmenE, 667 said tsL^ ..,*i i i -.ki I i F,, .f f hpi r orr.irr_ ates was adeauate and 19% said their graduates' knowledge of maEhematics was adecuaEe. A.^nv

rha

ran^rr

nan

nh-

tained from the Center for PubLic Resources, 680 Fifch Ave., New York

NY 10019. .

I JH: ] much space

ordinari ly we don' E give

in GWS to stories like this of the schooLs' many troubles and failures. We would rather heLp those peopLe who wish to teach their own chiLdien to do that as well as possible. But jn states I ike Ceorgia and MarvLand. where state school officials and Boards of Education are now trying to pass regulations designed only Eo make home schooling impossible, the lnformation in the Times srory may be able Eo help homE-Gihoolers block Lhese efforts, And in any places where home schooling families are being prosecuLed in courE, this inEormaLion may al so be helpful. This survey makes cLear chat not only are the schools not doing a good job of insErucEion, but also Ehat Lhey are doing an equally poor job of monitoring or measuring Jearning. TL^., L'Ey '

1 ! ril.^

FL-F LrrdL

^i-

tsL^,, L,'s)/

+L^

^,^

only people who can either produce learning or measure iE; the facEs are I ^^-1., ^u,Ed! Ly

r L^F L,,dL

FL^,, L"cy

-^^A t3vuu

dL ^F

A^ uu-

ing either. The survey al so di sposes of the schools' claim thaE chey, and onLy rl-rav

nhi

liran

fnr

onrrrr

into the "real world" of emplovment. On the contrarv. che evidence is ct r^nd >Lru'16

tsh.r

.l-r^,,f

h"l

rhai

oradrr-

ates are very badly prepared for that world. Nobody has produced or is likeLv to oroduce anv such evidence about hbme sihooled children. Stories like the one from the Timec orrored ahovp give home schooleiG--EFe means to make a strong case that it is precisely beFh^, ,,^-r I h^i* chi Idren to bEsdurs ^-,,.^ LUgf prepared for Ehe real world Chat they want to Eeach them at home. We musE be sure to use information like this with cact and discreLryrLr6 ^n ihd <nhnnl< ^nl\r ts^ norcrrrda rhom LO SLOP Lryrng LO maKe War On US. or When we Ealk co schooL officiaLs 1 poi c1 rt rrl.o oanora I nrrhl i e .h^',f rha nrnhlom< nf rho <nhaal c F

rr^

^-.

F-,,i

--1.^

,,^,

would probabLy do weLl Lo say, first ^â&#x201A;Ź

tsh-r

.'^

',-i^-cr,n.l

rrorrr

"roi

that some of the serious problems of the schools have their orisin in Ehe world ouLside, and that the schools cannot fairly be blamed for them. Beyond that, we can say, as I have iust said in an articLe for Phi Delta Kappan iFeb '83 t , a leading Aducatim-aT nrasazine. rhaL we believe that much 5t whai we are learning in our evnpripncec es home schoolers could in fact be very useful Eo Ehe schools and might help them go a long way toward soLving some of their more serious problems, and therefore that the schools have much co gain by cooperaLing wich us rather than trying Lo fieht us. As I have written before, when home schooLers find themselves in court they must be carefuL noE to appear to be inviLing Lhe judge to cqv

nFFicirllv

rh.r

aoroac

fhrr

the schools are doing a poor job. Whatever may be their private thoughEs, few judges will say this officially and publicly, for Ehis reason among others, that Co make such judgements is not their proper business or within their competence. If they think chac by ruling in favor oF a family Ehey will be widely understood as making such a statement, they wiLL not so rule. We should make clear fhat we are not asking the courE in anv wav to condemn the schools- oniv ri sav EhaE their raeard

l_pr.h

i no

and

moni f.ri

children is noE so good as to entitle them to say that they are the onLy ones who should be allowed Eo do it.

In golf terms, we are not asking courcs to say that people who have ncver hroken 9O in qolf shouLd not F^ Lv

^ll^,,^l

^l-,, Prdy

L.,F uuL

-^la r , t3vr

FL^F L'rdL

^^1,, uL'ry

they should not be allowed to say thac everyone who plays golF should be made to p)ay iL their way. RECORDS AVAILABLE HERE TAPIOLA CHILDREN'S CHOIR:

nhnrrrc

SOUNDS

OFFIffiCTST eich + post). Here are ttEe--ITErsc

cwo

commercial recordings we have added to our list, two beautiful collecI i nnc

cnnoc

rhi LLrrs -

.-i duu ^ir-h -,,. i^-1 P' (erLr I dren from F i nl

F^61 ino !curJJrb

and

I hen

rhaca

The first of these two recordings, Sounds of Finland, was made in 7 7, e i ther HeIs i nFl-Ti-N6vefr5EiJ9 just before the chorus Left for a to Japan or jusL after s i x-week trip rhorr

had

rai,rrna.l

rhp

correr

nholn

shows some of the children in costumes made for that trip. Since the chorus, whenever Ehey visit another country, always i ncl udes on Lheir programs some songs of Ehat country {always astonishing their hearers by how

well they pronounce the languagel, on Fhi-

tsh^1' L'r<)

'^^^ri

ci--

lhrpa

lnrralv

Japanese FoIk songs , so beauE i fuI ly F L^,,^ i I L, ,,^i^^^ ^-^^r PrdrLrud

-..^

their audiences to hear them. The other songs are Finnish songs of Ehe l9Lh and 20th centuries, beginning with Sibelius' "FinLandia" - how I envy the Finns that beauLiful nationaL anlhem. Some of Ehese songs are some quite modern and traditional, avrramalrr c^LrL."L!)

difFiarrl

drrrdzllr6

how Lhey keep Lhese compL i caLed and

shifting harmonies so perfectly in tune - and all are beautiful. On two songs there are inEerl.,l^^ L., -l ^.,^l ^F*i-^ , uusr u)/ d^ rLr Prd)/<u FL^ F-^^^ FL^ LrPwu LrLj/ ^ i F., LL'E \L"< ^â&#x201A;Ź "hi i,r na'F t fhamha* nr^h6<rr, dPor

^*^A^-F-^ T--i ^h ^l .^ndrr.f-

ed by the brother of the man who directs the chorus. The record jackec describes them as a group of young playcrs. Itly guess is thaL Lhey are older anoLher and perhaps slightly group lhan the chorus - Ehey play Like aduLc professionaLs, and I'd be happy Eo have a recording of them aLone.

The firsc half of the recording of ChrisEmas Music is made up of tradsongs, four of them itionaT-Thtis-Em old Finnish songs, Ehe others by Praetorius, Bach, HandeL, and Sibelius. The only melody familiar to me is the Handel. which I have known as the Dead March from his opera "Saulr' (the melody is a Suzuki vioLin piece). BuE -l

h4"^

rL'u'16

ahri

crmrc

fael

ino

abouL Ehem, made even more beautiful bv the clear and oure sound of Ehe n

rtrtsr tr5,

c i noc

The entire other side of the record is a new piece, written in I a75 fnr rhi c ornrrn hv ihe F inni qh composer Rautavaara, "The Mysterious Legend of Marjatta, Lowly Maiden." The text is taken from the Kalavela, the greaL collection oF Finnish Iegend is 1 egends. This particular the story of the birth of Jesus, but changed many cenEufies ago inco a Finnish context. Marjatta, the lowly maiden, chaste and pure, is made pregnant by a magic berry which begs her Co eaE it, which she does. When fhe

rha

.-i

c^Ff

m!,-F^'j Ly5LE!!uu5

^!,-

song wiEh which the piece started, the narrator, an aduLt man wiEh a very gentle and beautiful speaking - how the old vurLe, 5dyb Legend ends, which carne from afar Eo Finland

4.F^-i -hih^ drLUL,r5'rrr'5

children's chorus, of which I wrote in GWS #30. t{hat I said about their singing aE the concert is just as t rrre of rheir sineine on fhese records; I have never heard any singing group, children or aduILs, anywhere in the world EhaE sings with more beauty of tone, perfection of ch i

time comes for her Eo bear her chiLd, she looks for a sauna in which !o ease her labor, but the man who controLs aIl the saunas will not let her use one. InsEead he sends her to a horse sEall in some burnt out woods. There the breath of the animals makes the sEall like a sauna and lets her have her baby. AC the end, as the

hrinoino

,,6

u rrew

belief to forests and Lakes. nen hoDe for their inhabicancs. new love among ysuPrc

r .

BUUU wrr

' piece, for narrator, vocal The sol o Fl ute, solo violin, organ, percussion, and the chorus, is modern in feeling and technique, but very beautiful - the music fits the lpopnd nprfaeflw and of course the

sol oi sts,

ehildran

cino

nounce their

especially rho

â&#x201A;Źircr

nprfocilv

Thpv

nrn-

words so clearly EhaE, with the shorter songs on

cido

r^ LU

sdDy ^--!,

F^ll^,,

them in the text. Indeed, from the record we can get a I iLLle lesson in pronouncing trinni.L

,.,hi^h

F^r.ll

ifc

cfranoa

grammar and speLling sounds much Less

Foreign than any Slavic Ianguage or, for fhaE matter, French or German. The words sound very much the way they Iook. After hearing "Marjatta" only one or Lwo times, you should be ab1e, by folLowing the text and Ehe t -.-.1 tn Lnnr.' rha maanino of -Fi^rven L without the ucI16 5urrB. meaning, the music is very beauciful , but the meaning makes it even more so, One more astonishing thing about this chorus is that they sing their music from memory, which is rarely done. A friend of mine sinss in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, which is one of the outstanding choruses of the worLd, The other night rhey sang in a superb performance of "The Damnation of Faust." The conductor, Seiji Ozawa, had them sing iE from memory, instead oF from the music, as is usual, and my friend said to me how much more difficuLt this was, But that is how this very taLented Tapiola Children's Choir does it, The recordings themseLves are made by a smalL Swedish company calLed BIS (a musical word meaning 'r-_d6d,,ri nrr

rrt'^n^-Frr

Th6 rL,c

!v,"Po"J ^^mn.n\7

itselF is something of a phenomenon. The founder was Robert von Bahr, who has run it for a number of years with only a few assistanEs. Most companies Iose money making classical records, and must be subsidized by their popular divisions or in other ways. Von Bahr and BIS, rriEhout subsidies, melzo

mnnarr

1oa<r

L'uu6rr s^6^,,^L

tinue to make recordings, of which they have by now over 200. In qualiEy oF sound Ehey are among the finest recordings being made. When the big companies make a classical recording, ILilcy L^.,

F^-J LEnu

F^ LU ^^ tsu

i-,

,,i +L

d^ Li ur6 ^

^-^,, srEw

engineers and about a Eon of equipment. Von Bahr carries in his own Revox Eape recorder and two mikes, .n.l

d\i6ri,

ana

hi c RT(

ul ^F

racnrdinoc

have heard has a far more natural sound quality than almost any of the recordings of the big companies, I hope you love this music as much as I do. - JH NEW BOOKS AVAILABLE HERE Bo

THE BORROWERS AFIELD R0WERS-AFI0FT-;-Ej,-X

TF2:65=acE +

and N

THE

r t on

post). I loved

THE

( Gl,iS #16 ) , Ehe f irst book in Ehis series, so much that I cantt think why it has Caken me so long to add the others (I wiLl add THE BORROWERS ALOFT, the fourth in the series, as soon as we get it in.) I faintly recall someone telling me that Ehey were not as good, and I may have put

BORROWERS

aff

road,i

rhpm

far

Foer

hoino

disappointed. Well, whoever told me that (if anyone did) was mistakenl Lhese are every bit as interesting, beautiful, and exciting as THE BORROIiERS iEself. Those of you who have read Ehe first book will remember that Che .r^^r. t^-ir,, y t !cLl,sr r-tsL^- pod, moEher Hom_ ily, and teen-aged daughter ArieEty, alI tiny human-like crearures onLy a few inches high, were discovered by the fuLl-sized humans in whose house they had been living for many years, and were driven out of their comforEabLe home under Ehe kitchen floor and forced to fLee into the fields, where they hoped to find sheLter \,iith some relatives who wete said to be livine in an abandoned badger den. In Ehes6 two books we follow their furEher advenEures as, very much indoor creatures, Chey find sheLter and learn to live in the wild outdoors, chough Lhey never give up their hope of finding a human house and I iving secretly in it, as true borrowers shouLd. In time they meet another borrower, SpiLler, a boy not much older than ArieEEy, who unlike themselves is at home in Ehe wiLd and loves it, only going into human houses when he must. This is alL I will tell abouc these fascinating stories. What makes them seem so true - truer than much fiction - is supposedly realistic first of all Mary Norton's accuraEe and loving eye for Ehe significanE detaiLs of life, boEh indoors and outdoors, and secondly the fact Chat L-.,i-ud v !rrE

^-^^F^,

i--^i-^Fi^-

FL^-^

peopLe, she then Eakes them seriously enough to treat them as if Ehey were real. Having asked us to Eake on faith that there are people six inches high, she cl6Es noE ask us to take anything el se on FanEasEic tiny

f ai rh cci onri

Tncf cf

ar;ov, or cha ovnl

fha

dr drt)/ nrrpcl i

i^-1

i-^ rrrS

^n' rrlf chere were such^rac creatures as these, how would chey live, what would the world look like to them, what problems and dangers mighE Ehey meet, hon might they solve and overcome or escanp them?" And t.he more we cao

fhoco

I, ri rf a yLUHr nonnl LL I' L

,,i Fh wrLrr

uncertaincy, hardship, and danger not just the danger of death, but che even worse danger of being capEured, imprisoned, and exhibited for the greed of some humans and the pleasure of others - the more we admire and love Ehem. COOT CLUB. bv Arthur Ransome t$3.35 + Dost). In Ehis next book in fhe SWALLOWS series, we meet again not the walker and Blackett children of the first rwo books, but DoroEhea and Dick, she the romancer and and scienwriter, he the naturalist tiqf. whom we first net in WINTER HOLIDAY. They are going to Norfolk i-n the east of England Eo visiE their mother's former teacher Mrs, Barrable, who is going Eo spend a week or so of the Eascer holiday on her brotherrs small boaE. The two D's, as they came to be called in the earlier book, are overjoyed, because Ehey think Ehey will have a chance to learn co sail, and so will be able to meet their sailing friends as equals on the lake when summer comes. They are crushed when they learn thaE Mrs. BarrabLe doesn't know how to sail GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING

#3I

either, and is only planning ro spend her time on the boat at anchor, But things happen, as they always do in these books, and before long they are h-!,in^

tsh^

i I ih-

rh6\t

-d\/ontrrro

Ionged For, and becoming the compet--F ."i1arc fho' A-^'^XA ^r x-;i-I began to read Ehis as I starEed off on a bus Erio Eo New HamD^Li*^ ^ ^1..^.,^ , re waS like opening a window and getting a delicious breaEh of fresh air. Beginning a Ransome book, we find ourselves in a world fulI of energetic, serious, capable people, young and oLd, doing meaningfuL \,Jork that they enjoy and believe in, Some of these are moderately rich, many are not rich at alI, but all recognize and respect serious and skillful work wherever chey see it, Ransome's world is a democracy such as we mighE dream of Iiving in, in which people are respected and honored, not for wealch and power, but for competence and character. Among all Che people we meet in COOT CLUB, there is only one group of bad guys, rich vacaEioners down from London, who donrt know how to handLe boaEs or how to behave on the waEer, But aLl the others know Ehey are bad guys and siLently conspire to outr,rit them. And at the end, when they bring well-earned trouble on themselves, DP!LE

-L-

fa.f

lhai

fh6\'

don't seem to have Learned any lesson from it, we even feel a liEtLe biE sorry for Ehem. A fine end to a fine story. WE

DIDN'T MEAN TO GO TO SEA. bv

Arthu@isstory sEarts very much like the others, wiEh some children, our friends the Walkers, off for some pleasanE sailing v/iCh a college-age friend. For a while everyEhing is as interesting and happy as Ransome knows how Eo make iE. But it takes only a couple of small mistakes by the young captain, a little bad Luck, and another misEake by John Walker to puE the children into a real adventure, in which they are noE in some kind of ingenious made-up contesE with the Blacketcs bt.. ^-^ r, -LFr-wiEh every drop of sErength for their very Lives. Despite being ignorant and confused, sick and exhausted, and terrified almosc buE not quite out of Eheir wits, they donrt give up or panic, as many surely would have, and in the end all the courage, skiLl, and judgement which they learned from their play adventures, plus some good luck, earn Chem the mercy of the sea, and at Ehe end, a very moving tribute from one of the sea's veterans. It is a very exciting and indeed frighEening story, with which Ransome reminds us lhat the sea must be not just loved and enjoyed buE respected 4-/l

€^.*^i

Fh-ts

Fii^

:nd

Fno

anri

wind and wave do not al1ow or forsive many mistakes. On the waEer, chinls must be done right, or it may cost you your Life - thus the tragic death last summer of the very gifted young black conducfor Calvin Simmons, who while canoeing in Ehe middle of a calm Lake overturned his canoe and drowned before any could reach him. Ransome has already shown us thaE the water, wheEher in river, 1ake, or ocean, is a great Eeacher. Here he shows us Ehat it can be a very stern one

ALL NEti DINOSAURS. bv Robert ( 92. os +

Long Eid-SEhilEf-WETTET.

post). Here's your chance to know more dinosaurs and dinosaur names than any kid (or adulE) on the block! All children love dinosaurs, and GROWING I.IITHOUT SCHOOLING

#3I

-l I ^l-^-F rh^ €^6i 1,'

1.*^.. A^-

,.^1 I ds ^^ LFL^., LrEy l.-^., Krruw ' rho chanoc and

of the old standbvs - tvrannosaurus rex, bronEosaurus, gI:!S.=;aLops. sEeqosaurus. pterodEEtvTl per-

names

naps allosaurus and drplodocus. buE thi s Ts-lust rcralchTng--The surFace. On the cover of this book you will

deinonychus, "only'r twelve Feet Iong but pound for pound probably the

meeE rr+_

most vicious and fearsome kiLLer of them a1l. AfEer that come brachvlooho-

saurus. podopteryx, chanares[i

graci lisuchus. tanystFopFeus. FuEesucnus... ano so oni proDaDIy close E5-a--Fundred of Ehem in all. Alone -i#-wjth the many drawings of animals-and -l

^t--FPrdrrLr

Ll^^1,

,,LiF^ wlLLLs!

^-l

,.iFL wtLlr

space Eo color for any who wanE Eo do Ehat, is a great deal of information about Ehe latest work being done by paleontologists, Che people who dig up and identify and classify these old bones. On the last page of the book che authors puE forward a theory o[ Dr. Russell in Canada thaE a supernova in space killed all the dinosaurs by bathing the earth in intense radiation. Since this book was r,Jritten, an even newer theory has been proposed, with much evidence Eo support it, that a very large mefeorite actually hit the earth, sending so much dusE into the sky EhaL it produced a change in the earchrs climaEe which Ehe dinosaurs could not survive. No dinosaur fan should be without this book. TOTTO-CHAN, by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (98.65 + post). This is the true sEory of a young child's advenEures in a most unusual school run by a most gifted, humane, and imaginative Eeacher. The child grew up to become the leading TV personaliLy in Japan. hosE for eight years now of Japan's #1 TV talk show, and the auEhor of this book. The school \"/as Tomoe Gakuen, a small elementary school founded in Tokyo in 1937 and destroyed in rh^

Fi-^

-'^-F

-^iA-

^i ^LF srli"L

,,^^*^ s yEdr

LaLer. The Eeacher, founder of the school and iEs headmaster durins iEs short IiIe, was Sosaku Kobayashi, a man I wish (as wilL many others) I had known, who died in 1963 at the ^-^

rsv<rrLy.

The book has been a publishing sensalion in Japan; in only sixteen months iE has sold more Ehan five million coples. This is probabLy more than all the school reform books Dut together have sold in this count.ry in the last twency years. Of course it helps that Ehe author is one of Ehe best known and most often seen and heard people in Japan. But this alone would not explain Ehe book's success; biographies of our most famous TV personalities donrt do nearLy as welL. Perhaps millions of Japanese wanE for ihpir

chil;ron

1^^-ts,.Li1^w'rrre

FL^.. LilEy

are young, a kind of schooling very differenL €rom what chey have had. Perhaps the idea that young children can and should be trusEed and respected, which has certainly not taken root anywhere else that T know of, is about to take root in JaDan. Let us hope so. They are setting us an exampLe in many ofher Ehings; perhaps they will do so in this. The book itself is altosether charming. Totto-chan (Lhe auEhor was called Chat as a child) was a delisht.. ful little girl, curious, imaginative, warm-hearted, friendly, energetic, and Iogical and impuLsive as happy children so often are - if a thing seemed sensible and interesting fnr

hor

cha

.li.l

i F

r.'i tsh^"ts

worrying about nheEher others

were

doing iC or what they might later say about it. Her kind parents loved this innocent courage and adventurousness, but it quite naturally gof her in trouble elsewhere - while stiLl only seven years o1d she was expelled from her first schooL (which her mother didn't teLl her until she was Ewenty), as she would probably have been expelLed from almost any conventional school that could expel her. One of her chief crimes was thaE when something interesEing happened outside the window, and since the *he rrSLLL wdJ urr r street this happened aIl the time, she could noE keep from rushing to lhe window to see what it was; hence the sub-title of the book, "The Girl At The Window." (Today she wouLd be calLed In her new school Che "hyperactive.") kindLy headmasEer, knowing how much of this kind of troubLe with adults T^FF^

^L^-

i-F^

^^F

,,^.,11

Eo her, "You really ll

,,^,. )wu cha

l,^^,, ^,,vw carrc

har

^l drwdy5

sdy

are a good girl,

Ti-L^F

-L^

nrofaa^ PrLroes,

-^^r^r, r..iFL^"r wrLLruuL

hirrrilr

she might very easily have grown up thinking of herself as a bad and

!,'^rrhl

acc

It i s i mnossi hl e in fhis short sDace to cive more fhan the barest hint of the wonderfuL character of this school or the wonderful man who ran it. Two deEails mav heID: Ehe classrooms were in a gi-oup bf ota raiLroad cars that Mr. Kobayashi found somewhere and manaeed Eo have moved co the school; eveiy day he looked aE the children's Lunches to he srrre fhaf- es hp had asked Ehem and as Ehey were aLways happy to show him, they had brought rrsomething from the mounlain and somethine from the sea, " Perhans fhe nosf characEeri sEic and touching incidenE of all, the one Chat made me think when I read it, "We have to have this book on our list." took DLace when ToEto-chan firsL went tb be inrerviewed by the

headmasLer.

...The headmaster offered her a chair and turned to Mother. rrYou may go home now. I want. to EaIk Eo Totto-chan. " fAfEer MoEher lefE] The headmaster drew over a chair and puc it F. ^ i -^

r ^

^h --

and

urhon

iharr

were both sitEing down close togeCher, he said, "Now then, teIl me all about yourself. TelI me anything at al1 you want to talk abou!. I'

"Anything I like?" Totto-chan had expecled him to ask questions she would have to answer. l,,lhen he said she could talk about anything she wanted, she was so happy she began straieht awav, - -l nfter a-long cime I she coul d Ehink of nothing more to say no matter how hard she tried. It made her rather sad, BUC iust then the headmaster got up, placed his lI d!5c, ---^

.,--wd l

L^-l

L^-

L^^l

^^)

said, "WelI, now you're a pupi l of this school .rl OnLy sometime LaEer did she realize EhaE she had talked for four hours. 'rAnd all that time the headmaster hadn't yawned once or looked bored, but seemed jusE as inCeresfed in what she had Eo say as she was,rr A lovely man, a lovely book. GIVING UP THE GUN. bv NoeL

Perrii--T$-[150- +-o-6TEl-] This is

beauciful, asconishing, and encouraging book. Though it has pracEically nothing to do with home schooling, it has much Eo do with the world Ehat we

and our chi ldren are I iving and wi I rr d,,, ^- ouurr'5 ^rJj^- iL to our I isL for a number of reasons: L) It is a beautiful book, fineLy printed and i I Ius trated w i th many beaut t ful reproducti ons of Japancse prinLs . 2 ) I r tel I s us someLh.ing Chac T suspecL none o.f us knew and thaL many of us 3) IE shows us LU 6rdu "cdr. that something we have aLl been told fact been done. wd5 r,"PUo-ru I

Tn t ha Fnr'.,rrri

Perrin

teIIs

us:

...This book teIIs the story oI

almost unknown incjdenL jn history. A ^i.,iti-^J A ulvrrrzeu hi -h F^^h-^l F^ -ir,^ ,,n

^^,,6F-. cuuLrLry, u5] ! vu ^-."'^l,,nf .n .ir..n.orl

pOSSeSSIng .ri'l rr nhnco mil it Lsr rrrr J qu ,ilrrr

weapon and co reEurn to a more prim-

t i ve one. IL chose co do Ehis, and it succeeded... Cuns arrived fin Japanl in I543, brought by the firsL Europeans, They were adopted i

^n.o

rnrl

'roro

,,carl

uridal

w fnr

the next hundred years. Then they ^L^-doned. . , wvrY '' ovdtl t6rduudrLJ How and why this alL happened makes a fascinating story. From it I lcarnpd manv rhinqs T did not know

and would never have guessed, one being that in those days (l6th - LSrh cenEuries) Japanese technology was in mosL respects Far ahead of Europe's. At thc end- Mr- Perrin wriCes: ...None of this proves in Ehe least, to be sure, fhat what the Japanese once did with guns the whole world could now do wiEh, say, pLutonium. Japan's circumstances in the seventeenth century were utIerly differenc from those of any mi1 itary power now. wnaf cne JaPanese exPerrence does prove is two things. First, EEEE a no-growEh economy is perf anrl

rr enmnrt

i hl n r"ri I h

n16qnor.rrc

Life. And second, and civilized rhaf hllaan heinps are Iess the nnssive vicl ims of Lhei-ilwn knowledge and skill than most men in the West suppose. "You can't stop progress." people say' .. This is to talk as if progress however one defines that elusive concePE - were something semidivine. An incyoral-rle force ouCside human conrrol, And, of course, it isn't. It is something we can guide, and direcE, and even stoP' Men can choose to rememberl theY can also choose to forget. As men did on Tanegashima... ROCANNON'S WORLD, by Ursula Le very early Guin TS2ln0-T-poif)lThis novel of Le Guin is an adventure sEory set on a distanE worLd' a planet oF che star Fomalhaut (by which I remember navigating in submarine dayst, in a far distanl future, when three technicalLy advanced civiliTarionq. one of fhen our own on Earth, have joined to form the League of l,lorlds. Rocannon has been sent with a smaLl group of assisEants by the League to study the primitive races and cultures of this world. As the srory begins his ship, and wirh it all his companions and the instanc communicator which is his only contacE wiEh the League, have been desEroyed by a sudden attack bY a rebeL Dlanet which plans co make this remote worLd a base- for war on the League, leaving Rocannon alone and seemingly helpless againsc these powerful and ruthless enemies. AgainsE fhis background Le Guin spins an absorbing Eale of fantasY and swashbuckLing adventure. What makes this story stand out from hundreds of others of iEs general kind,

and why so much of it sticks in memory, is tha! Le Guin has such an imi^ nrioinql farrilo .ni i^F-il^i inal ion: fhAl she uriLeS So well Lhat she can make us see in our mind's eye what she sees in hers; Lhat she takes such LroubLe to make che many details of her story consistent with each ocher; and finally, that even in this tale of pure advenEure (which in Lhe risht hands could make a wonderfuL film) she nrites from a thouehEful and coherent point of view aEout peopLe and civiLizations and what makes some better or worse Ehan others. This book is far Less philosophical than her Later books ( see booklist). but it holds hints of important ideas she was Later Eo develop in much more depth. A fine s tory . MANY DIMENSIONS, by Charles Wi11iamslT4.50 + Dost ) . This is the second of seven remarkable novels wrirLen during rhe I930's by Ehe Bri tish theologian, nho died in 1945 at The book jackthe age of fifty-nine. 6i LL

rrThoro

c.\rc oa)o

in^Fhi-^ ,16 rrr

fi-Fi^I

orrife like fhese nove1s." It is an understatement; I donrt know anything in Iicrion even remoEel y I ike them. They are, in one way or another, stories o[ exploration and adventure, of the body and/or the mind and spirit. in i..F^ni.h Thorr rro ell inrrnlrrod ,.1 FL FL^ ^€ -,^.,^..^^wrLL, LL'E ruPc,rilts vdr!ELy^r-. u, wd)r) I, . Th^., . *^ nl I f c^mo owranf r,,cf ^ -v^ dr<

ar, ^l I !

.^.in d6dr

Ai Florarr

ways, about the nature of time, deafh end ev i ci encP aFter deaEh. MANY DIMENSIONS was my introduction to Williams' novels, and having now read a[I of them, all more then nnna I ihi nL i I is the best Like aLl the novels, it introduction. is set in t'JiLLiams ' s "present ,rr that is, England in the 1930's. The villain (a really hareful one), a rich and powerful man whose supposedly curiosity is at boEtom scientific only a desire to wieLd unlimiLed power over people and chings, manages to have stolen for him a very ancient, powerful, and holy religious relic, a stone from the crown of King Solomon. This stone has two properties: it can be divided into an infini ro

nrrmlror

ronl

i.4-

i F.^r

--,

to anyone holding any one of Chese repl icas it gives the power Eo move anywhere in tlme and space, and also, to know and to have some power over ^rhar

a s I Jc

na^n1

ihnrrohr. !,'vs5,rLJ

Th^

ri r6rrL rur ^Lts€,,1

guardians of rhe sLone come Eo England ro reDorf t he theft to the Lord Chief JusEice, a man of greaE judgement and probicy, and he and his young secretary set out to regajn ic. l,lhat happens to Ehe sLone in England, how it affects the Lives of the many people who come in conEact with it, and how the sEone is restored, is whac the plot of this novel is about. it is of Like all serious fiction, course about much more than that, If rrnrr lilzo €

"uu|4il

l.F^,.,. iF nlaqco i^F,,r --jIi -rr others of t,liI_

liams's novels to the list, which I would very much like Eo be able to do. MATHEMAT]CS: A HUMAN ENDEAVOR, 2ndE@ poFal. I wrote abouE Ehis book in GWS x7, but since iE was expensive, and since I Ehought ic might soon come ouE in paperback, I didn't add it to our List, But it has been such a suc.ac<

fhri

rha

nrrhl

i chprc

hr\/a

kcnf

uri fh

oFhpr

Femi I iac

ch:rino

tsimo

with it as they might share time on a computer. In GWS #7, I wrote: .,.IThis] is abouc the besr book ^n

m.rhom.ii.<

fnr

haoi

nnarc

iher

have ever seen. What Jacobs Eries to do, and does very well, is give the beginner, or even the math-hater, an idea of whaE marhema!ical Ehinkins is about, why human beings ha76-To-und i t so interesting, and how (to some exEent) it has grown over the cenfuei^-

n^li-LFF,,1 rBrrLr

k^^1. uvvNr

F^!vl

people of almost any age. People who (like me) have done school maEh (and even got good grades ) without ever havinq fhe sliPhtesf idea of what mrtsh

qli urr

raallrr ,I

ah^,,r uuuuL

n-.,

Fihi !r 'ru

ir rL

interesting and exciting. '|dj PeopLe who have always feared and hated maEh may find chere is no reason to fear and hate it. And I canrt Ehink of any book on maLh thar would be more fun to read aLoud to and work on wiEh quite young children. I believe thar it was written for high-schooL or even college studenEs, but I would guess that quite young children would like it if they could work on it with rn

qd,,li

narhanc

haln

fham

L'irh

some of the Long words,

and again in many ways, about conflicts beEween good and evl1. Finally Fh^,, L"ct

lhev likFd if. So T've decided to add iE to our list. Families who find it coo expensive couLd perhaps find a way Lo share Lhe cosE of the book

i f

in hardcover, and indeed printed this second edition. Meanwhile, many peopLe have written us about how much

The book is laid out somewhat like a conventionaL EexE, in chapters, wiEh questions and problems. Rl1r

"-1

i lza m^cr

tavF^

i F L^-i ucts!rrr--

looking aE the path of bilLiard pL^,,^.,^

F^L1 ^

--l

wdy5

i^,,Li^L,,^ rrr

h,, u)/

balls

might think about that. From there it goes on Eo many other fascinating and unfamiLiar topics. The mathemafical iLlustrations are clear and wellchosen, and Ehe book is sprinkJed wiEh pertinenE and very Eunny car-

toons from "Peanuts," "8.C. ," and other sources. I canrt recommend it too highLy... STEWART PIANO PRE_SCHOOL BOOK

andTffiO each@ilLbe familiar wiEh Books I and II of Mrs.

SEewart's Piano MeEhod, which I reviewed in GWS f21, saying in part, "From the very beginning, children the books are desiened for children to use or for adulEs to use with children - are encouraged to cranssame tune in r,r. Lv L,'' "e P!d/ Pws<, all keys and are given a simple device,,. which makes iE easy for Lhem to do so... Where Lhe other books I had seen made Learning music and dull look mysterious, difficult, Ehese books made it look sensible, exciting, and easy.,. in the sense that at everv Doint I know whaE I am doing and why I am doing it." I remain iust as enEhusiastic, The PRE-SCHOOL BOOK is a book of LhirEeen songs for young children of four (or less) co hear, sing, and pLay, It precedes Book I of the Stewart Piano Lessons. The TEACHER the adult INSTRUCTION BOOK tells Eeacher (who need not know how Eo pLay the piano her/himself) how Eo use this book (and by implication the Later books) with children. IE is full of sensible and helpful suggesEions drawn From actual experience. Indeed, I would recommend it even to people who were using Ehe laEer books, whether Eo teach children or themselves. One parEicuLarly wise suggestion Is, "Play A1I over The Piano.'t Another: rrBe sure to move onto the second, third, eEc., scales right away. Do not wait for each Eo GROW]NG WITHOUT SCHOOLING

#3I

be perfect - keep adding on new scales as you practice the old ones..." A very good point - if children never tr.ied to say a new word until they could say all cheir old u.r.lc nprfa.tlv I hov nevef would learn to spcak. Lcarning i< nore interesLing and cxciting, therefore more efficient, when we are expl ori ng many related things at once. This insighC seems Eo have been losC or given up in Suzuki music insLrucEion, which i s fui I of taLk about naking sure that Che child does

made

each st en nerfccl r^ iha nowr cfon ---P.

Gandhian Thought

I v hofnra Thi .'.-s 1s

oni no

surprlslng, since i L was prec i seLy from I isteni ng to ch i Ldren Leach themsel ves fo "'"*" sneak rhaL Dr. Suzuki goL h;;-o;i;i"ir --

mi ohi

hpqr

I aqrn

music. At any rate, it's one of the many merits of the Scewarf mechod that it doesn't make chis mistake. - JH THE FlRST HOME_SCHOOL CATALOGUE

byDo@ a home-schooling parent, has put together this 200+ page collection of articles, reference Lists, and cataLog descripfions in an aLLempE ro make a kind of WHOLE EARTH CATALOG for home-schoolers. The firsC section deals with che how-to's and lesalities of home-schooling, including copies of the correspondence between the Reeds and the school officials; a summary of the home-schooling laws in each stace and province (which the author admits is "only verv basic" and noE up-to-date); and I I sts of correspondence schools and textbook publishers. Most interestine to us are fhe dozens of items desciibed in the remainder of the book. Manv of these. such as rubber stamps (six pages' worthl ) and stenciLs are Ehe kind of simple Iearning materials that John has suggested using in the past. There are science kits, maps, globes, and an "eyescope" that lets you see the inner workings of your own eye. There are many pages of "TaLking Books" and "Old-Time Radio Shows" on aasscf-fp

fanAc.

Thara

aro

n:ooc

free materials to send for, and the address of a man in Massachusetts who has over a million back issues of magazines to sel I. t{ant the front oaqe of the New York times iJr unu-a!i-i" rhe lasE 130 yearsl Or a badge mide with any design you choose? THE FIRST HOME SCHOOL CATALOGUE will helo vou. Many o[ these items are avaltabLe through the Reed family's BROOK FARM BOOKS service, which is located in Canada. They also offer hundreds of books such as all the Modern Library and PorEable Library titles; aII the Danny Dunn, Tintin and Tarzan books; the Foxfire series, the rrMade Simple" series, the Bellerophon coloring books, and more. The catalog is printed by the Reeds themseLves, who welcome readers' ideas and contribuEions for future editions. We see this catalog as potenEiaily very useful and vaIuI abLe to many home-schoolers, and we ttish the Reeds well in this venture. _DR

BOOK ORDER INFO t apes

Postage charge: For l, 2, or 3 books or :-75?l-l- oi-fr6r--e, 25 0 pe li t em. Rec ord s

for I,

for

additional.0verseas surface mail: l, 2, or 3 items, gl;-T-6r

75C

add 25C

each

more,-ToTEF-te-m.

residents, add 5% sales tax. Make check (tJS bank) or money order for books, records, tapes, and reprints payable to Mass.

lNC. Payment ads, or back issues of

H0LT ASS0CIATES,

tions,

GROI^/ING I/lITHOUT SCHOOLING

for

subscripG|,lS should be #3I

out separately to

SCHOOLING. l,Je wi I

credit) for

CLASSIFIED ADS Rates for ads: S5

per )ine (47 spaces).

these fo'lks you saw their ad

07080; 20'l-755-6200 NY - David J. Mandel,360

York lO0lB

condition.

good

teI

field

GRoWING WITHOUT

I sti I I pay $2 (preferably i n copies of THE WAY IT SP0ZED T0

Please

GtiS.

Educational Reconstruction $4.50; Towards New Education $3; To Students S1.50; Handbooks of

36th St, .l56,

t,'l

New

NC - Lee A. Hol ley, P0 Bor Buies Creek 27506 ']30 0H - Richard l,4oore, 6929 l,,l St, Ste. 600, CTeveland 44.130; 2']6-845-6800 0K - John Eidsmoe, 0RU Law Schoo'1, 777 S

Lewis. lutsa t4ttl 0R - Prof. Brendan Stock l in-Enrioht. |i,lillamEfte Univ., Col)ege of Law, Sateil gigot - -- Ph i l Studenberg, 439 Pi ne St , K l amath

Fal I s 9260'] PA - Jim Tobak, 20lA Drown Hal), LeHigh 'l80.l5; #l-20 S12. By Vinoba Bhave: Univ.,-T-ethlehem 215-861-3407; lawyer Thoughts on Education 56.0rders under gl5, add in lvlass. & R.l. $1 shipping. Greenleaf Books, ljeare, NH. Ljst. SC - Timothy Farr, l5 Gallery Ctr,

Grocery Discount Purchase Plan - Diana Mammele ,l372 SE 5 St DeerfieldBch FL3344l (305)42'l-,1808 rYy 0augnter 5aIr0n, & I (agn0sttc, tong hatred, work-a-holicl-lEiEral contractor, passive solar ,l55#)

designer, 2/10/45,5'9", 8ob, wishto find a strong, outdoor loving, countill & health nut oriented lady (+ 66 - children) to become one

with us for life. Please send explicit letter telling about yourself, & what you need &expect

us.POST 3205.Pendleton Av.Pendleton,lN.46064

share our 'l l0-acre farm and

Colombia,

Remote

beautiful. Jim, A.A. llB, Cartago,

Colombia

Interesting,fun,informative.SASE for info/rates Eby, Box 896, Port Townsend t^lA 98368

Grandma

Hornebased business-anywhere-USA

& Eng. Flexible

hours, good money. For more info. write Valer-ie Swedlund, P.0. Box

38, Exce)sior,

14N

55331

For cataloq-V.Swedlund P0Box3SExcelsior MN5533l

typesetting/art work/hard-soft binding/short

long runs/low rates/books/pamphlets/newsletters C0LUl48lA PUBLISHING P0Box lB7 0roville t,lA 98844

natural parenting Pat Hamon, Rt LnILUKLI\'5

bUUK

methods

with white lettering and 'logo. Adult L, lV, S $B Child L, l'1, S $7.50. Home Centered Learninq. 34 Katrina Lane, San Anselmo CA 94960

ior

Dave

Haigler,

---

no lawyer from your state i ght r,i lite Dr. l4oore. l

on our

list,

you

ALLIES

In GllS #30, we I isted al I the certified teachers who have told us thev are wiTflnq'-T6 trEfi-tr-onre-schoolers. Here are more narnes Ihat have come since then: CA - Phyl'lis Mottola, 728 Chiquita Rd, Santa BTrbara 93)03; 805-965-4838; elem. & Mon-

tessori,

Joyce Houck, RR

rzdr5i

Box 148A, Brant

etem. Ann Lahrson, 5360 Sl^l

I92,

Aloha

97007;-T-8 --- Mary L. lYayfield, 28915 Liberty Rd, Sweet Home 97386; 503-367-2474; 5-12. ,l48

dox 172, Waukomis 0K 73773 LUf | , New & used Ktds', books

mag

Box 61782, Dal las Egon R. Tausch, Landmark Bldg #906, A'lamo Plaza, San Antonio;5'l2227 -8208 VA - Peter W.D. Wright, 2702 Parham Rd #21 0, Rr-chmond 23229 ; 804-270-0250 lll - lYark L. Perrine, 5l4j 2nd St W, P0 Box 3841 Ashland 54806; 7'l5-682-5.l66 IJH: Dr. Raymond l,4oore (553 Tudor Rd, Berrien Springs l'41 49103) has worked with a number of other lawyers not on this list. If

bought & sold via mai'l.Books given atiay to kids w/out. DetaiIs. Rt 3, Box 305, Chloe l,lv 25235.

-Arts

/5261; 385-9550

LaKe

prices, write Andrews Photo, 3'12 W. 0ak, Palestine IX 7580'l (214)729-5182 corresp0n

Taylor;-29687; 244-7122

PA - Ruth Butler, Chickasaw, Pittsburgh T5237; K-8. WI - Dav'id Grapentine, Rt I Box 450A, f4ap1e

54854; l-6.

Friendly School District (please ask s i-fiT-t;;-F5-Ti-btTTs-fe-d) : So u t hwe s t I ut 1er County School District, RD l, Harmony PA 16037; Ron Snyder, Supt.

you r

5Jslyr.,9gx_]2e, Richford vT 05476 1,2/saTplei lJan t

Pri vate School

l.li

1 1

School@n Iv, Tt53; Fullertoi

TESTED ALL TASTE GREAT RECIPES SEND $3.00 TO DAVID GASION PO BOX 3223 MORGANTOI^IN I,IV 26505

ADDITIONS TO DIRECTORY

homeschool family in exchange for room/board Chicaqo20mi Martin 2923W7lst !,loodridoe IL 605']7

Hel

Home-

92631

Here are the additions and chanqes since the last issue. THIS IS N0T THE COMPLETE DIR-

FRIENDLY LAWYERS CT - Frank Cochran,250 Church St,

Box 1898, New Haven 06508-,l898; 203-787-5821

- Tom Digrazia, 3233 Klin9)e Rd NW, Washington 20008 GA - J. Britten Mi11er, Jr, Georgia DC

Coalitl6n of Alternative Schools, P0 Box 20, Rydal 30171; 404-479-9763 IL - Helen Baker, 440 Addison Av, Elm-

hurst 6-0]26i 312-833-5655

Alder, Nelson & McKennil 9300 l^l ll0th St, Ste. 690, 0verland Park 66210; 913-383-2720 or 2Bl-5544 KY - Theodore H. Amshoff, Jr, Amshoff & AmshofTl 1445 Starks 81dg, 455 4th Av, LouisKS

Mary E'llen Rose;

vi I le 40202

- Samuel W. Lanham, Jr; Mitchell & I lulerchants Plaza, P0 Box 702, Bangor ; J. St, l^ialtham 02,l 54: 6l 7-899-5337 14l - Dustin 0rdway, 330 E Kingsley, Ann Arbor 48104 M0 - Robert Baker,0n the Square, 5arcoxre b4abz NJ - Mark W, Fox, 2l0l Park Av, S Plainl"lE

Stearn3l

0440 1 -0702 207 -947 -37 4l l4A Eugene Burkart, 566 Main

The last complete Directory was in #30. Our Directory js not a ]ist of all subscribers, but only of those who have asked to ECTORY.

'l'isted, so that other GWS readers, or other interested people, may get jn touch with them. If you would like to be included, please send

us the i nformati on. Note

that we are listing

or birthyears of children in

names and ages many families.

if you want us to add yours to the Please tell us if you would rather have your phone number listed instead of a mai ling address. If a name in a Gt,jS story is followed by an abbreviatjon in parentheses, that person is in the Directory. (Check here and in #30.) We will forward mail to those wholE-address is Let us l ist.

know

not in the Directory.

AZ - Dennis & Janet SARKTTT (Donovan 14. Jeremia-F 6, Nathaniel 3) 628 S. 2nd St, Wi I l i ams 86046 (change ) AR - Tighe & Kurt YOVANOFF (Brenna 3, t4adalyn l) Rt A Box ll2-0, Yellviile 72687 South CA (Zips to 94000) - Karen HOLGUIN, F0-Box T389, Idyl lwi'1d 92349 (change)

Jake/8l ) 492 Little River Rd, Pt Angeles 98362 information in them. Ken & Roberta KUSLER (Raridy/74, Renee/75) --- Brian & Gala LINDVALL (Eric 2) 18004 lst Our new rates for back issues: any comP0 Box l16, Nipomo 93444 bination of back issues. mailed at one time to North CA (Zips 94000 & up) - Tamie ANDER- Nl^J, Seatt'le 98177 (Davin/ tll - David & Rachel GRAPENTINE one address, cost 75C per issue, plus $2.00. SON, l4l3T$cliff Way, Magalia 95954 --For example, chls #1-30 would cost $24.50. (30 82) Rt-T Box 450-A, Maple 54854 Laureen BARCLAY , I 4338 Carnegi e Rd, lt4agal .l005i a (Jacque x 75c is $22.50. $22.50 + $2 is $24.50. ) These Lake4) 95954 --- Kelley BRANDEAU

---

dale tJay, Sunnyvale C0

- Bill

94086

& Lehana

S|4YTH (Roshan/77,

Roman/80, Hannah/8.l) 2888 S

Linco'ln,

Englewood

80]]0 --- Rebecca W00D (Rose 9, Asa 5, Elizabeth 3) 2.l75 Norwood, Boulder 80302

- Bill RUFFIN, P0 Box'l153, l,Jashing-' FL - Betty ANDERS0N (Tammy 11, Scott 9, Todd 6, Eric 4) P0 Box 4]5, Alva 33920 --'l2, DC

ton

20OT3

Zach 6) 9]2 Mike & Pam i'4URPHREE (Jesse Groveland Hills Dr, Tallahassee 3230'] (change) (Audr"a 4', Shane --- Dennis & Peggy 0BEDZINSKI 5 mo) 706 N Regent Cir, Brandon 335]'l GA - Eve'lyn FIIZSIMMoNS (Aaron ll, AndrewJO) Rt lBox 474, Burnt M'i ll Rd, Flintstone 30725 (change) --- Larry & Carol SH0RT (Jason 3) P0 Box 824, Hartwell 30643 IL - Larry & Kathy L0RIMER (Lisa 5,

CANADA rates are for subscribers only; non-subscribers pay $2.50EFTssue. BC - Lori & Mike GREEN (t"latthew I ) P0 Box 3381 Ft St James VoJ lPo --- Monica & Bob If you're moving, please 1et us know .|47], Ft St James, VOJ your new address as soon as possible. The post GRILL (Sam 2) P0 Box lPO --- Sandra HANS0N (Edd'ie Ke11y 7) 3-1075 office usuaily does not forward Third and Nelson, Vancouver V6E lJl --- Louise & Barry Fourth class mail, and we don't want you to SALT (Jesse 3) P0 Box 1725, Ft St James VOJ 1P0 miss an issue. ONT - Lloyd & f4ary G0OSSEN-SC0TT (Benjamin 7, iElny 3) RR I, Campbellcroft LOA 180 LATE NEWS LATE NEI^]S LATE NEWS LATE

RENEWALS Please help us by renewing ear1y. How tell when your subscription expires? Look at this sample 1abe1:

can you

12345

---

Heathei-3, Heidi 3)

RR 2, Metamora 6]548 SCHEWE, H00KDALE CHRISTIAN ACADEMY,

JII,{ &

MARY JONES

26 01

Virginia Rt I Box 25, Smithboro 62284 --- Rosalie

16 MAIN

NEWS

As we go to press, we've heard several developments concerning the Georgia and Maryland proposed regulations (Pages 2-4 inside). In Georgia, due to the surprisingly strong opposition from home-schoolers, church groups, family lobbies, etc, the Board decided to postpone any hearings until lYarch. In lt4aryland, ']20-]40 people vJent to the Jan. 26 hearing, where almost all the testimony opposed the

regulations.

Also, we have just learned that there's a bill in the Iowa State Senate, S-70, which The number that is underl'ined in the sam- would eliminate the certification requirement Laura ZI 407 N 1st, Goshen 46526 for home-teachinq. ole tells the number of the final issue for IA - John & Carol CRAFT (Nathan/78, '179-A, the subscription. The Jones'-3i5-El!TFEs with Newton 50208 --LaRita780) Rt I Box issue #32, the next issue. But if we were to Barb & Wayne TETZLAFF (Josh 8) 202 SE 8th St, Editors - John Holt & Donna Richoux Ankeny 50021 --- Victoria & Martin ZELL (Rach- receive their renewal before we sent #32 to Managing Editor - Peg Durkee el 6, Hannah 3) 105 NE 64th St, Runnells 50237 the mailing house (around mid-Apri1), they Editorial Assistant - Pat Farenga would qualify for the free bonus issue. KY - Kevin & Patti VAN BUSKIRK (Luke 3, Subscriptions & Books - Tim Chapman Renewal rates arE-ThE-38frE-IiFor new Hannah-6'mo) Rt 3 Box 324, Mt Vernon 40456 Office Assistant - Mary Van Doren ( change ) subscriptions: $]5 for 6 issues, $24 for l2 LA - Marilyn & Spencer B0HREN (Django 5, 'issues, $30 for l8 issues. If that number in the third line of your label is 3'1, 32, 33, Andre 3l Corinna 2 no) 712 Pel ican Av, New etc, please renew now - rates will never get 0rleans 70114 --- Ray & Car OLIVER (Joshua 9, Autumn 6, Caleb 4) Rt ll Box 675, Lake Charles any cheaper. 7066r MA - Robin CAISSIE, 164 Spruce St, Leominstet-01453 --- D'iane & Michael LANDIS (Noel SUBSCRIPTIONS --5) 27 Washington St, Greenfield 'll9 Main0'l30'l t' .l977 Holt Associates Our current policy starts all subscripSt #2, Saugus Carole MILLER (Adam/73) published. (Shireen Rates next issue tions with the 6) ll 0'l906 --- Diane & Bob RICH are: $15 for 6 issues, $24 for l2 issues, $30 Baxter St, Melrose 02.l76 (t4ichael for l8 issues. GIiJS is published every other 6, NORTON Dave & Jenny MI @\ o ON p month. A single issue costs $2.50. Matthei-3, John 3 mo) 6498 I,,l Bristol Rd, O For all subs or orders of GWS (not swartz LreeK 464/J OE = z -o books), please send check or money orddFs payMN - John & Kathy SZYMANSKI (John Jay/ able to GR0|^IING t.lITHOUT SCHOOLING. 78, MaFk/8]) RR 2 Box 109-D, Alden 56009 == Foreign payments must be either money MS - Bob & Keitha lJHITAKER (Heather/72, oo I orders-Tn-lB-funds or checks drawn on Us -OC Andy/75, Pippin/76) 3339 0akview Dr, Jackson banks, We can't afford to acceDt personal 39212 if have even they accounts, checks on Canadian NJ - Ronn K0EPPEL & t^lendy HALLGREN o @ o (Jonah-3) Box .l76, Ski l lman NJ 08558 "US funds" written on them. Outside of North O NY - Suresh & Aranyani BHATE (lvlangala 9) America, add $6 per year for airmai'l (otherfor mail). months surface allow 2-3 --wise, & 12309 John Rd, Niskayuna ll54 Mohawk Group subscriptions: al I copies are Margaret Nancy ITALIA (Wiiliam/77, Corinna/78, = ma i I ed-T6-iiE-llklidssTHEre are the current /80\ 32 Church St, Oneonta 'l3820 --- Reb group rates ('lX means you get one copy of each MacKENZIE & Jim C0NT0IS (Jaime/76, Mathias/78) issue, 2X means you get 2 copies of each RD 2 Box 6A, Schaghtjcoke 12.|54 --- Larry & issue, 3X means 3 copies, etc. ): Charlene REED (Mike 8, Jessica 2) 32 Student (change) Ln, Erockport 14420 3 yrs. I year 2 yrs. '12 iss. 0H - Hank & Ede GURRY (Marty 7, Robbie 18 iss. 6 iss. West Manor Dr, mo) 7937 5, Jenny 2, Kit 8 rx $30 $24 $15 Chester 45069 --- George & Ruth KIRCHHAUSEN SCHULTZ, 3755 N Kedzie

60618

Bryce

2) 64]4 Rt 86,

Concord

Twp

44077

- John & Toni 0'LEARY (Rose/79) P0 Box 397l Ada 74820 0R - Molly FARQUHARS0N (Meadow 5, Luke 3) P0 Box 552, Dallas 97338 (change) (0liv'ia 4, PA - Ronald .l002 & Diana BASEI4AN 'l5044 Arborwood Dr, Gibsonia Delia Imo) .l0, ,l3, Jamin --- Cindi & Chuck BIGEL0W (Shawn Liza 4, Aeb 2) 20] Jackson Av, Warren ]0, Josh 'l6365 --- Dale & Lynn SCHMIDT (Derek 9, Samuel 0K

Rachel

burq - I 5229 TX

01l

Matthew & Kathy LIND (Kevin 4,

(Jasmin

Av, Chicago

PLAINVILLE

3, Abby 1) 122 Princeton Av, Pitts-

Tina

BURNETT

Marble-Talls 78654 HERMNN (Sarah

(Cory 3) Rt 4 Box 476,

--- Bill

& Mary Jean ']03 River

7, Emily 5, Annie 3)

Ridge Rd, Sealy 77474 VT Raymond & Eileen PERKINS

(Sadie 3, Sean ]f350 Spear St #38' S Burlington 0540'l VA - Victoria & Leon KNIGHT (Charlotte 8, JeniTfer 6, Rebecca 6) 5497 Carolina Rd, Suffolk 23434 --- Celie & Michael MCGURK (C/76, F/79) 6420 l5th St, Alexandria 22307 t{A - Bob & Susan HAVERFIELD (Ben/71,

2x 3X 4X 5X

$37 . s0

$34 $45 $60 $75

$l 12.50

$45

$90

$r 35

$20 $2s $30

$4s

$67.50 $90

7X, 8X, etc: $7.50 per person per year. Please remember that group rates changed Jan. l. For groups larger than 4X, instead of adding a certain amount per person to a base figure, simply multiply $7.50 times the number of people in the group, and then multiply that by l, 2, or 3 years.

Please send members

keeo

in the

of your

names and addresses group sub, so that we can

o ofi d+o o>z = oo =!626 6 0@

touch with them. Thanks.

We strongly urge you to get the back issues of GwS,-especialiy if you plan T6-Take

t6l;-hildren out of school. Many of the articles are as useful and important as when they were printed, and we do not plan to repeat the GROI,]ING t.l]THOUT SCHOOLING

#3I