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GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING
36 The Jan . /Feb . issue of Mother Earth News, which should be out about the time you receive this GWS, will carry an article by me about how to home-school . It will also recommend and quote from Nancy Wallace's new book BETTER THAN SC HOOL (see GWS #35). I will a l so write an article for The Progressive about what I call the metaph ors of education; not sure when this will appear. And I am talk ing to the editors of Phi Delta Kap ~ about doing another article for them, about some simple and inexpen sive ways to make the schools a lit tle bit better . On Sat . Nov . 19 I spoke to a state-wide meeting of school boards in Nevada, saying why I thought it would be in their best interests to allow and support home schooling, without imposing too restrictive con ditions . The audience was polite though not enthusiastic. Later the President of the state board of educa tion said to them that there was no longer any question of the state for bidding home schooling, it was defin itely legal, and the only question to discuss was under wh at conditions would it be allowed . For the time be ing the state seems ready to tell peo ple that they can teach their kids at home as long as they do exactly what the schools do, a condition which most home schoolers (and I) would find too restrictive and not accepta ble. But it is encouraging that they are at least no longer thinking about trying to forbid home schooling alto gether . On returning from my Nevada trip, I and our friends the Maher fam ily taped a too - brief TV show with Steve Allen, musician, comedian, and one of the big stars of TV a decade or so ago . He did not learn until he reached the studio that he was going to be the interviewer for our show, so had no time to prepare; but even on this very short notice he asked good questions and was fun to work with . While speaking in Philadelphia, I met my hosts' seven - year - old daugh ter, Amanda Bergson-Shilcock, who entirely on her own started and runs "A's Bakery. " It is all her show; she makes and puts up posters, collects orders, buys the raw materials, bakes blueberry muffins and three different kinds of (delicious) cookies, fills the orders, collects the money, every thing. I hope in a coming issue of GWS to tell, or to have her tell, her story at greater length . We are happy to say that in recent weeks we have had the largest volume of book orders in our short history . Thanks for using us . As we've said before, one small but real ly helpful thing you can do is show or send our book list to as many peo ple as possible.
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I am leaving immediately for a 10-day trip to the Midwest, which (thanks to some organizing by GWS readers) includes talks at Eastern Illinois U., DePauw (IN) U. , Indiana polis, Chicago, Northbrook IL, Kalama zoo MI, Ann Arbor, and Oakland U. (Rochester MI). I will be back in time for the Dec. 8 Open House, and a Dec . 12 meeting with Providence, RI homeschoolers . - John Holt
JOHN 'S COMING SCHEDULE Jan. 12, 1984: Holt Associates Open House. Jan. 28: Providence Learning Con nection, Providence RI . Contact Joyce McFarlane, 401-274-9330. (Feb. 4 snow date) . Feb. 9: Holt Assoc. Open House. Mar . 5: Project Excell, Suffolk U., Boston. Contact Glen Lewandowski, 723-4700 ext. 280 . Mar. 30: Eastern Washington Uni versity, Cheney WA . Contact Darleen Weller, 509-456-4401. Mar. 31 - Apr . 1: Seattle home schoolers . Contact Deb Stewart, 206-435-5015. Apr . 2-3: Home Schooling Fair, Spokane WA. Contact Nola Evans, 509-326-0267. Apr . 16: University of Kentucky. Contact Libby Morley, 606-273-7816.
GRANT COLFAX DOING WELL From the San Francisco Examiner, 11/6/83: SCHOLAR WHO NEVER WENT TO SCHOOL LIKES HARVARD - AND IS DOING WELL It's a long way from the coastal moun tains of Mendocino County to Harvard Yard, but except for a touch of home sickness and normal freshman jitters about grades, Grant Colfax is making the adjustment just fine . "Things have calmed down pretty much," said the 18-year- old who drew international media attention after he was admitted to Harvard even though he had never attended school. Colfax and his three younger brothers received all of their educa tion from their parents at their moun taintop home near Boonville (CA) ... Colfax said the media blitz sur rounding his first two weeks at Har vard was "embarrassing . " He went from never having watched television to appearing on "The Johnny Carson Show" ( " which convinced me I don ' t want to be in show biz"), " Good Morning Amer ica" and more than a dozen other radio and TV shows. When he arrived in Cambridge, he was besieged by reporters from as far away as Australia and Germany . CBS wanted a TV crew to follow him during his first day of classes. He refused, explaining, "I figured I had enough to worry about." ... "The change (from studying at home) hasn't been that bad," Colfax said . "There is a lot of work ... The work isn't that hard, it's just the quantity of it. It requires a lot of organization. I have to learn to calm down at times . I have to learn I can't learn every detail like I could at home." That lesson came swiftly. "After my first chemistry test I came out almost in tears because I had done so poorly," he said . "I felt so bad I called home and told them I might not make it. " His intuition was correct . He got only 54% of the answers right. But on the Harvard curve, that was good enough for an A; 39% was worth a
B on the test. His midterm grades in his pre med course of studies were an A in math, an A in Spanish and an A-minus in chemistry. Colfax was one of only nine stu dents selected for a freshman honors seminar on psychological issues in medicine. "There were 90 applica tions," said Dr. David Funder, a psychology professor who conducts the seminar . "I wanted to find people able to work independently, who didn't need to be spoon-fed, who were well-prepared." Colfax more than met those quali fications, Funder said. "He's very energized and well-organized," the professor said, describing him as a "pretty remarkable young man . " . .. His lack of formal schooling and the social interchange associated with it haven't hampered him, Colfax said . "I'm pretty outgoing" ... "The main thing I miss is the quiet," Colfax said . "It's never quiet here. It makes you very tense. I have to get away from it a lot." . ..
NOTES FROM DONNA Looking back on our sixth full year of publication, I must say it was an eventful one for the staff. Two left (Peggy and Tim), one got engaged, then married (Pat), one had a baby (Mary Van Doren). Mark Pierce got pneumonia in September and was out for a week; in his absence we hired Mary Gray, who had been volun teering for us, and now both she and Mark are working on the book orders and subscriptions . Mary often brings her lively 5-year-old son Christopher to the off ice. Time for a big end-of - the-year " Thank you'" to everyone who has worked as a volunteer for us. Special credit goes to: Mary Maher, for proof reading GWS and typing letters; Mari lyn Pelrine, for mailing renewal post cards every two months; Kit Finn, for proofreading the big Directory in this issue. Other local volunteers who have helped this year in the office or at home include Mary Silva, Mary Steele, Mary Pelrine, Pam Mitch ell, Terry Burch, Mario Pagnoni, Ann Gilbert, Danny Desai, Fran Castelluc cio, Sue Mojica, Jan Wrotnowski, and their families. Typists outside the Boston area included June and Allen Conley, Bob Post, Nanda Hills, Zeke Cameron, Cheryl Richardson, Kate Gil day, Jeanne Finan, Mary Friedl, Gary Floam, Diane Kephart . Thanks also to the families such as the Prices (Susan, Matt, and Faith) of Florida who helped while they were visiting Boston. I was surprised at how many entries there were for our " Free Logo Drawing" - 78, not counting dupli cates (we only allowed one entry per family) . The lucky winners were: Randy Pierce, Texas; Freda Davies, Ontario; Nancy Spector, Al aska; Y. Hanus, New York; and Rebekah Co h en , CA. - Donna Richoux
A WIN IN GEORGIA ... There have been two important rulings concerning home-schoolers in recent weeks, one win and one l oss . First, the win. As reported in t h e Atlanta Constitution, 10/26/83: . . . The Georgia Supreme Court overturned the state ' s compulsory school attendance law Tuesday, call ing it an "impermissibly vague" sta