GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING
43 We no t iced t hat quite a number of GWS readers contributed letters and articles to the Winter issue of Mot heri ng, i n c ludi n g a piece by Hele n F ox (Que . ) on teaching kids to sew, and a bea u tifu l a rt icle by Nancy Wal l ace (NY) on t h e deat h of three of h er c h ild r en . We were a l so p l eased to see Vita Wallace ' s sto r y, on putting on a fami l y conce rt , in the " Mother ' s Ch ildren " section of th e Jan. /Feb . issue of Mot h er Ea rt h News . Brian D. Ray (Science Education Dept . , Or ego n S t ate Un iversity, Cor vallis OR 97331; 503 - 754-4151 or 838-1248) would like to form a net work of any people doing research on home centered lea r ning, for the purpose of s haring ideas, resources, findi ngs , etc . He as k s for any such r esearche r s to con t ac t him . We ' ve go t ten a few co p ies of WAY IT SPOZED TO BE by James Herndon si n ce th e a nno unceme n t in #42, but we s t il l n ee d mo r e . Remem be r , we ' l l send a $2 credit for copies in good condi ti o n . Fur th ermore, we h ave decided to recycle two of John Holt ' s books in the same manner : we will pay $2 for WHAT DO I DO MONDAY? or THE UNDER AC HIEVING SC HOOL . Please do not send o t her tit l es by. Jo h n . We a r e 3d~ing t o our l ist of r eprints a fi n e review written by S u sa nn a h Sheffe r a b out the revised e d ition of HOW CHI LDREN LEARN. She says, " I assumed I k new wh at [John Ho lt ] ha d t o say; i n s t ead, I found a boo k wh ic h t ook me comp l e t e l y by sur pr ise a nd move d me mo r e t h a n a l most any o th er ." For a copy of the review, send 10¢, plus a se l f-addressed s t amped e n ve l ope i f you are not order ing ot h er mate r ials from us . Beca u se of t he n ew postal rates, we are fo r ced t o r aise our postal charge fo r " John Ho l t's Book and Mu sic S t o r e " i t ems . Ou r c harge had s t ayed t h e same since 1 981 . Please consu lt t h e " Or de r Info r mation" in th e back of t h e ma g azi n e for t he new r a t es . - -- Donna Richoux
suburbs, 39% in the country, and 20 % in small towns . 72% of our readers have an inter est in reading about music and 53 % play an instrumenl . 45 % use computers for learning and of those who don't, 44% plan on buying one. The primary reader of GWS is the mother of the family (62 %); 13% answered the father , 18% said both, and 7% answered the whole family . The median family says it spends $15 a mo n th o n books and buys through the mail six times a year . We also found out that GWS gets shared a lot; 68% of respo ndents share their issues with one or two other people. 61 % of the respondents are cur rently homeschooling school-age child ren . If this rate holds true for the readers h ip a t large, it would mean almost 3,000 of the 4,800 GWS house holds . - -- Pat Farenga
JOHN HOLT'S COMING SC HEDULE March 14, 1984 : Holt Associates Ope n House ( 2nd Th urs . each month) . ~: Smithsonian American His t ory Museum, Washington D.C . 3 PM . Open to public . Contact Joan Liver sage at Smithsonian . Arril 24-28 (tentative): Nation al Coa ition of Alternative Community Schools conference, Clonlara School, Ann Arbor MI . Contact Kathy Suther land, 313-769-4515. ~~ (tentative) : Mass . Library Associa t ion Convention, Sheraton Hotel, Sturbridge MA . Contact Mary Whi t e, 617-245-0790 . Aug 17 - 18: Homeschoolers Jam bor ee , La n si n g MI . Contact Carolyn Cordell , 2310 Bernard, Lansing MI 48910 .
GWS TRAVEL NETWOR K Martha and Ted Laux of Ithaca, who have run the GWS Travel Network for several years, say they are "ready to pass on the baton . " Who wou l d li k e to keep this project going? They have put together a directo r y of 25 GWS families who would li k e to host visitors . Martha says t h e mai l is lig h t and sporadic. Whoeve r t el l s us first t h at s/he would like to run this, gets t o do it . Martha also said that she and Ted had no idea if anyone who got the Travel Directory actually used it to make any visits . We ' d like to hear about some people's experiences with this, so we know it isn't a waste of time and energy . - DR
SEVERE IllNESS CL EARS UP From Was h ington State:
GWS SURVEY RESULTS Ove r t he summer we se n t out a s urvey t o a r a nd om sa mpl e of our 4800 c u rre nt s ub sc r ibe r s i n order to pro vide pote nt ia l adver t isers with a pro f il e of t h e so r t of peop l e th ey can reac h t hr ough GWS . We t h ought you might be interested in the results . 130 s urveys were mailed out and 87 came bac k to us . According to this sam p le , t he median age of our readers ( the age at whi c h h a l f th e p eop l e in th e samp l e are above , a n d half below) is 36 . The me di a n ag e f o r th eir c h il d r e n i s 6 , with a n a ve r age of 2 . 5 c hildr e n p e r fa mily . We we r e s urpris e d t o fi n d th at 2 4 % o f o ur r ea d e r s co n side r t hem se l ves living in th e cit y ; 1 7% i n th e
... My youngest daug h ter started ki nd e r gar t e n o n t h e day s he tu r ned five . .. The teacher was a wonderful p e r so n , soft-spoken, who mixed fun and g ames into her teaching . Sh e was always loving and giving, made her self o n e of t h e chi l dren . .. Then came first grade and a big c hange .. . At the end of a full day at schoo l , my daughter was physically exhausted . The teacher was very strict . She was verbally and ph ysical l y abusive, in my opinion . She be l ieved i n making examples of the c h il dr en . The brig h ter c h ildre n were k ep t at a faster pace, t h e others were given s pecial help o nl y wh en th e r e was time , which seemed t o be a bou t o n ce a week . My little one see me d to be about average, except in
reading. I didn't realize until later, when she told me, that she was made to feel stupid . About Thanksgiving of that year, she started losing weight and develop ing unusual symptoms, such as pain in joints, and a high white count . After a lot of poking and prodding by different specialists, I was told she had a form of spinal arthritis . After more tests , the rheumatologist told me outright he was afraid my daughter had, instead, lymphatic cancer . He went on to tell me about treatments, and how lucky we are to live in an age where she might be helped. At that point my life changed. I cannot even describe what I was feel ing, there are no words for it . So, off to the cancer special ist . After a couple more weeks of tests and waiting, we were told, no, there is no sign of cancer at this point. Her initial pediatrician told us to go home and wait until she took a turn for the worse . He was sure this would come about within a couple months . In the meantime he suggested sending her back to school on the days she felt up to it . I told him that was the last thing I would do, simply because she didn ' t like school . I told him if a tragedy was in store, she was going to stay home and be happy while she could . He dis agreed, but I decided to go with my own feelings . At that point I had not thought about homeschooling, as a matter of fact I knew very little about it . I told my daughter she was not going to have to go to school any more . This was around January of 1984 . Almost immediately a change came about . The aches and pains dis appeared, her appetite increased, and the next blood test came back normal . Her doctor was sure it was a matter of time until she would have a re lapse. But by now I had my own di2g nosis - stress' I have worked as an LPN and have seen stress cause many things, including the symptoms my daughter had. It has now been a year and my sweetheart hasn't been sick or come close to having a relapse of these symptoms . She also hasn ' t returned to school and will not in the future. I now have a healt h y, happy, secure child, who is learning at home with her family . I live next door to my parents, and they share many things with her also . She takes guitar lessons and plays beautifully ... She is learning to cook and makes many things with little or no help. She loves anything to do with money . .. She now enjoys reading, to my de light . We dropped the phonics she was doing in school . Instead she got a library card, and picks out books she enjoys. She has also learned to use my sewing machine, and made several
WHAT' S INSIDE - Court : 2 -- - MN t es t i ng: 2 VT news: 2 - - Austral i a, New Zeal and: 2 - - Jamboree: 3 -- - Exc l uded/re ligi on: 4 --- Pri vate schools (PA, OR , MA): 4- 5 --- T-Sh i rt : 5 --- Ta l king to offi ci al s: 6 --- Al l - day ki n dergarte n: 6 --- JH/Tes t ify, ca nce r : 7 -- Speakers Bureau: 8- 10 --- PTA: 10 - -- Aft er 5 yrs: 10 --- Davies/Prog r am overv iew: 10 -- Teens: 11-14 --- Pet st or e: 12 --- Successfu l Dropout : 12 -- - Ins t ead of diploma: 12 - - Chose Schoo l: 13 --- Cor r es pondence school s: 14 --- Hires t eachers: 14 - -- Famil y bus ine ss: 14 --- Deaf: 14 --- Har d t o Li ve Wit h: 15 -- Lif e at Home: 15 --- Es ta bli shmen t ado pt s "Home Lear ning " : 16 - -- Se i p/Mountain s: 17 -- Ca r son/ nature: 17 --- Spinning: 17 --- Cus t ody : 18 --- Forei gn lang. : 20 --- Maps : 20 - -- Space seeds: 21 --- Wr ite, Re ad: 21- 22 Co ntes t s: 22 --- Pi ano: 23 - -- Sax: 23