GROWING
WITHOUT
SCHOOLING
45 You'll find the new homeschool ing laws from Arkansas and New Mexico in this issue . At press time, Washing ton State and Tennessee also seemed about to enact new laws . Delighted to hear of two major awards won by young GWS'ers. Rachel harton, a 10-year-old violinist, won a $5,000 scholarship as first prize in the junior division of the Chicago Symphony Young Performers Competi ti on. She proudly told the TV inter v i ewer that she is homeschooled. And Ishmael Wallace (13) of Ithaca, NY won first prize of $1000 in a nation al contest for composers aged 13-19. His entry was an opera. In May, the National Public Radio show "All Things Considered" interviewed John Holt and others for a story on homeschooling. Listening to the story, we were surprised to hear Grant Colfax, the much-publi cized homeschooler at Harvard, say that he was a late reader, not begin ning until age 9 . Some of you may be wondering what has happened to our idea of form ing a non-profit corporation, "Friends of Homeschooling." We are waiting to see what becomes of Rea gan ' s proposal to eliminate tax-deduc t ions for charitable contributions . Meanwhile, if any of you are willing to make non-deductable contributions, we could-aTways use them. Thanks to the readers who sent the article "Stress Effects on 1.Q . ," first mentioned in GWS #37. If anyone else would like a photocopy, send us a SASE. As you'll see in this issue, we always find a large amount in Susan Richman's Western PA Homeschoolers newsletter that we want to repr1nt in GWS - and there's even more that we have no space for . You don't have to live in western Pennsylvania to sub scribe to this excellent publication ($6/year; address RD 2, Kittanning PA 16201) . We have a limited number of hard bound copies of John Holt's HOW CHILD REN LEARN: REVISED EDITION which we will use for a special offer. To any current GWS subscriber who gets us a separate new subscription of $15 or ~o~e Jnot an addition to any group sub, nor-a renewal), we will send a free autographed copy of this book. The new subscriber s hould give you a check or money order payable to GWS, which you send to us along with his/ h er address and your request for the free book. --- Donna Richoux JOHN HOLTS COMING SCH EDULE June 13, 1985: Holt Assoc . Open House (2nd Thurs. each mo., 6-8 PM). July 20-21: Homesteaders Good Life Get Together, Naples NY. Contact Norm Lee, Box 517, Naples NY 14512;
607-522-3324 AU~ 7-10: Sun Valley Music Camp, Sun Val ey 10. Contact James Salis bury, PO Box 2261, Twin Falls ID 83303; 208-734-6746 . ALL-NEW 1986 DIRECTORY We have decided to toss out our last complete Directory and to print an all-new, updated Directory in GWS #48, made up only of those who tell us in 1985 that they want to be list ed. We're afraid that a large propor tion (one quarter?) of the names in the current Directory, which we have been compiling since 1978, are of peo ple who have moved without telling us or who are no longer interested in homeschooling . Also, we will now s~itch to printing only birth years for child ren instead of ages. Updating all those ages every year has finally got ten to be too big a job. So if you wish to be in the "1986 Directory," send your entry using the form on page 31, or use a postcard or 3x5 card (one family per card). The only people who do not need to tell us again are those who have already sent an entry or change during 1985 (most of these appear on page 30). We will remind you once more about this in GWS #46 . Please send your entry as soon as possible so we can get to work. Thanks. - DR STUDY KNOCKS SCHOOL READING An important story from the Chi cago Tribune, 5/1/85 . For a copy of the report described in the article, "Becoming a Nation of Readers," send $4 . 50 to U. of Illinois, PO Box 2774 Sta. A, Champaign IL 61820-0774: ... American schools could pro- duce students who read better if only what is already known about the most effective ways to teach reading were put into widespread practice, accord ing to a major national study to be released Wednesday. "It's not that we don't know what to do; it's that too many teach ers are not doing it," said Richard Anderson, director of the Center for the Study of Reading at the Universi ty of Ill~nois and chairman of the National Academy of Education Commis sion on Reading. ~nderson will present the commis sion's 153-page report, "Becoming a Nation of Readers," to U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett on Wednes day in Washington. The report was com missioned by the National Institute of Education. Among the commission's major findings are that children spend far too little time reading, in school and at home, and too much time fill ing out workbook exercises that have not been demonstrated to help them learn to read. The report is highly critical of "mastery learning" programs, such as that used in Chicago and some other school systems. Diane Ravitch, Columbia Universi ty education professor and a national authority on education policy, said the new study is as important as the 1983 study, "A Nation at Risk," which is credited with triggering the national move for school reform. "It not only says we should do better, but how we should do better," Ravitch said. "It has so many clear cut steps everybody can do right now."
The commission reached its con clusions by analyzing hundreds of studies, compiling the first national report that synthesized what research has already determined about reading instruction. Textbook publishers, school administrators, teachers and parents must share in the failure to turn out better readers, the report says. Among its findings are the following: - Elementary-school teachers devote too much time to workbook exer cises - up to 70% of the time alloca ted to reading instruction - though little evidence exists that this helps children read . Because reading instruction generally is done with small groups, the teacher must give the other children tasks to keep them busy, and that means "seatwork" workbook exercises that may run as high as 1,000 pages a year. "Even young children often see the futility of doing workbook page after workbook page," the report said . "Most saw the pages merely as something to get finished . As one boy, age 6, said: 'There' I didn't understand it, but I got it done. '" - Though independent, silent reading is a major element in improv ing one's ability to read, schools and pare~s do not have their child ren do this enough. The typical 1st through 3rd grade classroom has only 7 or 8 minutes a day of silent reading. - A "mastery reading" approach such as Chicago's which requires stu dents to demonstrate that they've mas tered specific skills, "unbalances a reading program" by forcing teachers to devote "an extraordinary amount of time" to exercises that do not teach children to read ... - The common practice of assign ing primary-grade children to abili ty-ranked reading groups with "cute names" such as "bluebirds" may create self-fulfilling prophecies that keep slower youngsters behind for the rest of their lives .. . - Many primary-grade readers do not tell a story, and ."this makes the selections less comprehensible, less interesting and probably slows pro gress in learning to read." Text books in subjects such as science and social studies "too often" fail to explain important concepts and are frequently poorly written. ... One study found that only 45 minutes of comprehension instruction - teaching children the meaning of what they read - were found during 17,997 minutes of observation in read ing and social studies periods in 39 elemantary classrooms in 14 school districts. ... The commission also stressed the importance of parents' work with their own children . "Reading begins in the home," it
WHAT'S INSIDE Page 2: Travel Network, Court News, New AR & NM laws --- 3: Legal news --- 4: TV, Grown un schoo l ers --- 5: Compulsory school age, Col l ege admission, CA Supt cooperates, Life at Home --- 6: Caring for parent, Leopard --- 7: Recovering motivation, Organic Learning, Time to sit, Watching learner, Being Smart --- 8: Apprentice Architect, Printer, Sales, Harlem teens --- 9: Sesame St, Mexico, English/2nd language --- 10: Houk/plays, Berg/sculpture, Testing - - - 11: Richman/war --- 12: History - -- 13-20 Booklist --- 21: Revising, Mnemon ics, Writing, Indian, Self-taught r eaders -- 22: Richman/reading, Math --- 23: Sports, PE --- 24: Exercises, Science, 4-H, Piano --- 25: Rewards/practicing, Record --- 26: Books 29: Speakers --- 30: Directory summary