Growing Without Schooling 58 by Patrick Farenga

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING 58 In 1 976 John Holt wrote in Iraitead of Eltrcation, "There may be no one publishing Grcwing Wbfwd &hrcling to prove himself wrong. He found, to what must

else who feels this way except me." Ayear later he started

t o

John Holt in 1983 with the Baternm faml\r. whosc rellectiors are part of thls issue's l0th Amiversary celebration.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: OFFICEANNOUCEMENTS P. 2 RecentPublicitv "One Homeschobler's Answers"

1988Directory Donating Holt Books NEWS &REPORTS

p.3-4

Principals Oppose Homeschoollng Jointurg School Activities

Forming Admissions Policy

CHALLENGES & CONCERNS p. 5-7 Dilliculties with Groups Considering School Meeting Other Children Cure for School Phobia

DISCUSSION: JOHN HOLTAND TEACHING. JOHN HOLTAND CFIANGE p.7-9 Thoughts from Herbert Kohl,

JudsonJerome, &Mabel Dennison

CELEBRATING TEN YEARS OF GWS EarlyDays ln the Ofiice p. 16 Reflections from State Leaders &

Editors p.17-21

Evolving ldeas, Evolving Lives

p.22-25

The Experience of Homeschooling

p.26-34

have been his great relief and happiness, that many, manypeople - more he did, or were eager to hear why they ought to. Growirg Wfifwn Scttcr:rlirg grew from a 4-Wge newsletter to a 32-or-more-page magazine (still as chock-full of prlnt - there was so much to say) and its scope and implication far exceeded John's expectations. Or perhaps not so far, because Johnwas skilled at imaglning the future. Many of his early choices about GWSwere deliberate and conscious efforts to enable the publlcation to dowhat hewanted lt to do.

with each year of publication - already felt as

From the beginnlng, GWSwas an lnteractive publicatlon. It depended on readers for its material, which meant that the readers were encouraged to be active - to question, to argue, to help each otherwith suggesfions. It meant that people who had never thought of themselves as having anything to say or as able to put their thoughts on paperwerewriting long letters about their experiences and reflections. Seeing these letters in print took the mystery out of publication and invited other people to write as well. Being an interactive publication also means that readers have always told us what they thought of us, what we ought to do more or less of. Sometimes this makes us feel like the man inAesop's fable'The Mlller, His Son and The Donkey'' who concludes, "Ifyou try to please all, you will please none." But we are grateful that our readership is not a silent audlence whose interests and concerns we cannot lmagtne. As I work on GWS, I feel as if I am talking to people I know. Schoolteachers often say that they never talk about what really goes on tn their classrmms when they gather fior coffee in the teachers' lounge. If they have any secrets about what works, they keep them to themselves. If they have any problems, fears, worries, they are careful not to orpose them. GWS readers, on the other hand, spread informatlon rather than hoardturg it. "I have to write and tell you about what we Just tried," you often say. When one ofyouwrites, "l don't knowwhat to do about thls," reader send more suggesflons than we have room to print. Reporters often ask us what research has been conducted about homeschooling. We can point them to studies, surveys, charts of figures, but in manyways the real research is going on right here in these pages. When people ask, "But how do you know how children learn, or whether homeschoolingworks?" I give them an issue of GWS and say, "Listen to these people talking. Look at what theyVe seen." You cannot arglre wltlt another peron's experience, and after a while that experience, and the eloquent descriptions of it which bring it so vividty to life in these pages, stands as evidence. When we asked you to write us your thoughts and reflections for thls tenth anniversary issue, you responded as enthusiasflcally as you have been responding for ten years. What ts interestlng about the letters in thls issue is that they are as similar as they are specific. So many of them say, "We were so relieved to discover..." 'We thoughtwe were the only ones..." '\)Ve have done things we never believed possible... ". In the section of this issue devoted to thoughts from leaders of homeschooling organizations, Sharon Hillestad wrttes that when she was sent a copy of a magazine which listed state homeschooling leaders, she "looked eagerly for the Minnesota contact. It was me." Many of us have lmked eager$ for leadership or expertise and have found it, through reading, writing for and working on GWS, in ourselves and tn the people who areworkingwith us. Happy tenth anniversary, then, to all of us.

Susannah Shelfer

SPECIAL TENTH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

OFFICE NEWS & ANNOIJNCEMENTS RECENT PUBLICITY workshops on "ContinuingJohn Work' and "Responding to Children's Writin$' at tlre MARYIAND HOME I led

Holf

EDUCATION ASSOCIATION conference ln June, where I met many GWS readers from the Mid-Atlantic states. The conferencewasl a nice mixofold and newhomeschoolers, and often the veteran homeschoolers were the ones leading the workshops, passing on their knowledge and experlence. I'll be leadtng these two workshops agaln at the CLONLARA conference inAugust, While in Marvland I had the pleasure of

stayingwith Maniied Smlth of ugBeand his family, where other ggests were the Richmans (PA), the Plents (NJ) and the Giesys [VA).

Talldnglate into the ntghtwith such thoughtfirl and e4perlenced homeschoolers was

wellworttr the trip.

A reporter from the NATIONAL SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION Journal called to ask several ouesflons about HoltAssociates and homescfioohng, so we should be reachfurg

their audlence before long. Alffe Kohn, author of the book No Contest (GWS #55, #56), spent

long ttrne i-n the ofrce tnteMenring us for ?he Atlanfic,so watch tlrose pages too. - SS

know something and your parents don't lorow the answer?" 'Would your parents let you go to school lfvouwanted to?" and "Dovou ever think about your future?" Amandis detailed answers girrc an extraordinarily vivid picture of one homeschooler's life, and I think the flyerwould be a useful lnclusion in packets of lnformatlon to leglslators and school olllclals as well as somethlng to enjoy yourselves. The cost is 25c plus a S.dSE tf you're not ordering any other materials from

us; lOcopiesfor$1, This is agood timeto remindyou ofour other reprlnts, many ofwhich would also be usefr:l to you as you educate your legfslators, school olliclals and netghbors about homeschooling. Many people have told us thatJohn Holfs ardcle tn thePlntuIta Kqpart "Schools and Homeschoolers: A Frultfi-rl Parbrershlp" has lnlluenced superlntendents to adopt a more farrcrable atfl tude toward homeschoolers. John's critique of Sesarre Str@( "Big Bird, Meet Dtck andJane"will also i:rterest many ofyouwho are thinking about telewislon and how chlldren learn to râ&#x201A;Źad, See our Book and Music Store tnsert ln thls lssue for lr:rformaflon about orderlng

reprlnts. -SS

HOW YOU CAN HELP We are gratefrrl to so

1988 DIRECTORY We want to remind you again thatwe will discardlng all the names in the Directory, and we ask that ifyou want to be listed in the next complete Directory, which will appear in GWS#@, you send usyourentryby

September3O. We're hoping that the 1988 Directory be as blg (or bigger) than the current one.

manyofyou for

ttrinldng ofways to publtclze ourwork. Manfred Srnlthofthe MAFYLAND HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATION has ofiered to take out an ad for us in a local publication

whlch ts distributed to 60,0O0 parents. Many ofyou contlnue to distrlbute our literature and represent us at falrs and conferences. We

will

Please use theent4rformirr theback ofthis issue, or send us a sqrarate 3 x 5 card (one card per family). The only peoplewho do notneed to tell us again to put them in the Directory are thosewho already told us tn 1987 - that ls, thosewhose addidons or changes appear ln the summar5l of changes tn #57, or ln thls

issue,

Ifyou re not sure whetheryou were ln the last complete Dkectory or no| please do us the favor, lfyou can, of checking tn GWS #54, thelssue Lnwhich the lastcomplete Dilectory was printed. Thls saves us the tlme it takes to look up your name ourselves, Youwill notice that someadditlons to the Dlrectorytntlds issue are followed by art (H). Ttrts lndlcate that the farntly is wllllng to host GWS travelers who make advance arrangements ln wrltlng. There ls space on the Dlrectory entry form to tndicatewhether you would be willing to host travelers, so please be sure to let us know about that as

want to remlnd you of a few other things you cando: 'Askltbraries to subscrlbeto GWS. Many universit5r libraries, ln pardcular, have large pertodlcal secflons and would be lnterested tn

maklngGWSavailable. ' Thlnk of centers, organlzadons or

groups ofpeople lnyourarea thatwould be tnterested tn arrangtng for someone from HoltAssoclates to speak to tlrem. Marry groups that are not spectffcally tnterested ln homeschoollng are lrrterested ln other aspects ofJohn Holf s work, such as clrtldren s rtghts or school and society. Tell us about these places, or tell someone there about us. ' kave GWS flyers and John Holt's Book and Muslc Store catalogs ln chtldren s clothlng stores, toy stor,es, health food stores, bookstores. t Referreporterswho askyou about homeschoollng to HoltAssoclates (after answerlng the quesdons yourselves, of coursel)

well. -SS

''ONE HOMESCHOOLER'S ANSWERS'' We are addtng to ourllstofreprints a Ilver called "One Homeschooler's Answers.

whlch lo-year-oldAmanda Bergson-Shllcock created to answer people's common quesflons about her horrrschoollng. Among the quesdons she answers ln the flyer are, "Do you have a reg;rlar schedtrle for doingyour worlf" 'Who teaches you more, your mom or your dad?" '\tt/hat do you do when you want to

COMMISSION FOR ADS Some dme ago we made an offerwhlch many ofyou may have forgotten: Wewtll pay a 2O9o commlsslon to anyone who can soliclt and then send us, wlth payment, a display or classllled ad forGWS. Ifyou knowofanyone whomyou think would be a likely adver$ser, ask us to sendyou coples ofour adverdslng rates. Afteryou send us thewrlttentextof the classtfted ad orthe camera-readyartwork of the dtsplay ad, along with the paJrment, we

will sendyou the commlsslon. Ad deadllnes are the 15th ofodd-numbered months.

APPRECIATION FOR OUR PICNIC Ow ptottc utJwe 7 Sth was a great ueess, tolth a rrrrn-crrryntllfin be asure hunt, pog rtdes,bubble-nuktng, mustc, and lots oJ waterrrclon at the ertd. oJ the dag, We une deltghtd. tlut pple tawld Jrun as Jar ausag as Neus Yotk to arne to tle plcntc, s

ad. us

tlds

lr,ol'D

bttartomPqgg

bnpttdnt

ernntscanb:

tle*

Webb (NY) rentnd.s

lone schdlng

For over threeyears I've been

lMngwith

the ptrtlosophy, readtngthebooks and GWS, planntngmy moveswlth the school board, collecttngthe tools I thlnkwe'll need forour learntng and, ofcourse, Just moving along on a datly basls - all thts wlthout wer having seen or talked to another llke-minded person outside the family. I'm used to going rrry own way, and don't need a lot ofreassurance. Sflll, there ls asenseoflsoladon and arecurrlng depresslon as I take l-ena on our ltttle trips and watch tlre theft of ctrlldren's dignity occurrlng eveqrwhere. So when my husband asked me why on earth I wanted to bavel four houns for a plcntc, I slmply answered that I needed to be near people who treat thelr ctrildren llke human befirgs, And what fu n we hadl Lerra ts sflll talldng about it and lt was a shot tn the arm for me. I dtdn't rea\r engage in any meardngful c.onversadon wlth arqrone, Just absorbed theafternoon. I saw lO-year-olds helping toddlers up and dorvn the sltdes. I watched my 4-year-old become a dny speck as shecllmbed fartherand fartherup the sH tr:all wlth some older gfrls and then rolled down urtth a flush and a flourlsh, only to climb rlgbt back up again - ln the 90 degree heatl At one point, I reallzed that even with all those chtldren ofall those ages, there is more conlllct and personallty dash ln my drivewaywhen fourschool lidds come over to ride thelr btkes after belng let out of thelr sagFs. So, tn response to Wendy's rhetorical closlng quesdon, "Aren t homeschoolers

wonderful?" I sayY-E-Sl

DONATING HOLT BOOKS Rebg.lc,a M&hee (GA), tulv t,r.s fu en oryanlzbg tle drhE to ddrate JotnHdts

fuks

Mrgia.

librantes, wrlte s :

We have received donattons ofthree books, and then recently GEORGLANS FOR FREEDOM IN EDUCATION donated $3O, so we ordered several cnptes of ?eachYour OwnWe have rrn into several llbraries that have thebooks already. ISS:I Rebecca sent us a copy of a letter written to people in herareadescribing howto set up llbrarydtsplays. Tlrose lnher she'd

group dtsplayed photographs and samples of thek chlldren's unrh flyers, and sample copies ofbooks and magBztres. Ahomeschoolerwas presentat the dlsplay areaonce a'vreek to ansrper quesflons. Ifanyofyou declde to try this "lfbrary dtsplay'' tdea, we'd like to hear about iL and do keep us lnformed ofarqr newcampaigns to

donateJohn's books. GROWING WTNIOUT SCHOOLING #58

NEWS & REPORTS PRINCIPALS OPPOSE HOMESCHOOLING OnJune lOth. at the tnvitation of the Departrnent of Education ln Washlngton D.C" attended an informal discussion arnong homeschoollng advocates and rePnesentadves of the educatlon establishment. Ed Nagel of the NATIONALASSOCIATION FOR THE LEGAL SUPPORT OF ALTERNATWE SCHOOIS and MichaelFarrls ofthe HOME SCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION were the primarlr panelists, and each gave strong presenta-uons of the legal and social support for homeschooling. An administratoifrom the Florida Department of Education then discussed his experience ofworking to create reguladons for the accountabifity of home i6hools, saying that he feels his department has created a productlve reladonshlp with Florida homeschoolers. The main topic discussed at this meeflng was how schools and homeschoolers ca.n avoid adversarial reladonships. The I

NATIONAL ASSOC TATION OF ELEMEAIIARY SCHOOL PzuNCIPALS caused some sparks to

flvwhen thev distributed their 1986-87 piatform, on-e plankofwhrich urges its memters "to support legtslaflon which enforces compulsory school attendancr and protrtbits at-home schooling as a subsdtute for compulsorv school attendanc.e." Whlle thts was alarmtn-g to hear, tt soon became apparent that the NAESP had done llttle research. Patricla Llnes, an analyst and attorney for the Departmentof Educadon, went through thetrobJections to homeschooling point by point and argued persuasively agatnst them. Attorney Michael Farrts sald that to avoid adversarlal relafionships between schools and homeschoolers, educadonal associrations must llrst acknowledge homeschoolers' rlght to

erdsL One olficial quesfloned the scant research thatis available on homeschooling

and expressed concern that the public doesn't hear about homeschooltng's failures. Ed Napel polnted out thatwhen a student in sch-ooi has problems, school olhcials can discuss and implementvarious remedi;al strategfeswithout having t]re student taken away from thelr tnsdtutlon (unless that's what they want). When homeschoolers have to deal with problems, on the other hand, if thqy ask the schools for help or advlce they risk having their child taken away. If schools openlv acknowledAe that homeschoolers have a'righi to eost, Ed argued, they wtll be creadng anenvlronment more conducive to open dlscusslon. Ed also noted that a concem about lostng funds from homeschoollng students might underlte the NABSP pladorm, but ttrls cpmmentwas neltllerdenled or acknowledged.

Fortunately, ttis unlikely (wen impossible) tlrat the NAESP wtll get tts way. The Departrnent of Education clearly recogpnizes thCleglttmacy ofhomeschooling; in the lssue brlefwe recetved at the meedng, the Department states that while homeschooltng is not for wery parent and child, "homeschoolers do contribute slgniflcantly to the enterprise of Amerlcan educatlon." Homeschoolfueg declslons art not, furthermore, currently the provlnce ofschool prtnclpals, but rather of iocal superlntendents arid school boards (and ln some states, none of these). GWS readers can help counter the NAESFs posltlon by CROIVING WTII{OUT SCHOOUNG #58

olfering support to prtnctpals who are

welcoriing-ti home-schooling, since these

principalsprobably feel themselves to be in the mlnority. Write letters to superintendents and school-boards commendlng the work of helpfirl or supportive principals, and conllnue to provide literature and a positive example ofhomeschoolers to those principals who are less friendly. - Pat Farenga

JOINING SCHOOL ACTIVITIES us

inJwv

to tell us that her

to meet to dtscrtss

FORMING COLLEGE ADMISSIONS POLICY I n M arch.

J oarue M alc orne oJ brne c ticut

plamtng

children to take Part ln. At one point I asked, 'What happensif somethingc'omes up in the middle of theyear thatwewant to take part in?" Aboard member's rep$ was, "Seewhat problems this is going to causel" Ohwell, we're not finished with themYetl

charl

ald

batd

un-s

wlvt]-er

lame schrcb rs unuld fu allotued to take part bt public schal acttuitie s. We suggestd that slle malce apies oJrclevantltterahre abut homesctreltg ond disfibute ft to tle schlcnlbard memfurs. Nter tfe meetitlg,

Jantnewtotc:

I attached a cover letter to the materials askingthe members to read thembefore the meetlng the next day. I ffgured that all of them knew dbout homeschoolingbeing on the agenda, but several members called to ask us w-hywehad delivered the materlals. They dtdn t wen know that homeschooling was on the agenda, and they knewvery little about

homeschooling in general. I had called our local newspaper to tell them what was going on. They â&#x201A;Źrre Prohomeschoolingand had been fiollowing the issue tn our area. Homeschooling covered t.Ile front page of the lssue that was to come out the day after the board meeting. I went to the newspaperofflce the nght of the meetingand got enough advance coples to glve to the chairman, ass{stant chalrman and secretar5r. This did have a positve effect. At the meeting5 the superintendent proposed the policy that "no homeschoolers be allorped to take part in any Public school actfirlfles." Every flme he gave a reason for barring homeschoolers from school actMtles, a board memberwould give a posltive response or ask, 'Why ts this a problem?" Manv made comments which had clearlycome fnimthe materialwe had given

them.

The board discussed the proposed poliry for forty-Ilve minutes, and then gave me tirne to speak. I told them that socialization is always brougfrt up as a problem concerning homeschooling, and that letting homeschoolers take part in school acdvities was one way to address that problem. I read a letter from a stxth grade teacher sa5dng that havlng homeschoolers pardcipate dld not inconvenience her teaching and in fact was a Dosidve erperience. I told about school

ilistricts that have friendly relationships with homeschoolers and howwell ttds is workingout. F'tnally, the superlntendent said that

each board would have to vote separate$ on the lssue. flhis was a district meeting rnade uP of threeboards.) Hewanted thewhole diskict to vote the same vay so that all three towns would have the same policy. I went to the local

meeting, where after much discussion they finally agreed that horneschoolers can take part ln non-academlc school activities (like irt and chorus), but not anyttring involving school buslng. I have to submitwith our curriculum a list of anythingwe want our

J ane W ilson (TN) wrote :

I've been asked by nearby Maryville ColleEe to help formulatean admissions

policiwhich irclcomes homeschmlers. I am io meetwith the Academic Dean, the Director

Admissions and Registrar to help them become famillarwith homeschoolers and to suggest ways that the college can encourage them to apply. I need some quick advice. Besides artlcles about the Colfax brothers at of

think of arry other lnlicrmadon I should provide? I hope to inlluence the c.ollege to go beyond merely accepdng homeschoolers - I'd like them to begfn actively recruiting them. Harv-ard, can you

[SSlIrepli& I advtse going one steP at a time. First, help the c.olleEe ofllcials feel comfortable considertng homeschoolers as applicants by gMng them a sense of what other means they mlght use toJudge such students besides a convenflonal school record. In time, particularly as they deal with actual homeschoolers, they may become so lnterested that theywlllwant to acflvely recrult them. But for now. I think it's marvelous that theywant to take up the question and have asked foryorrradvice. The polnt about Grant Colfax ls not so much that he got lnto such apresd$ous lnsdtution, but - pardcularly from the point of view of the discussion you'll be havlng that the Harvard admisslons olficerwas willing to look at Granf s liG as he had lived it up to then and see how tt had prepared him for college. Grant trad taken the SAT - many colleges will not give up this requirement evenwhen they don'tinsiston agrade point average - butwhat he had to offer, after that, were his experiences and hts descripfions of them. Now, I don't mean that colleges must accept students on the basis ofa conversation (although the interview certainly did inJluence Grant's admissions officer) but the question ls, howcan colleges find outwhat homeschoolers havebeen doing, what they ale interested in? Well, they can do this in much tlre sameway that elementary and high schools that are truIy interested do tt - by looldng at portfolios ofwork, talktngwith the student, reading letters written by others, etc. You might add that homeschoolers are often willing to take placement tests if the

GROWINC WITHOUTSCHOOLING #58, Vol. lO No. 4. I SSN #O745- 53O5. Published bi-monthly by Holt Associates, 729 Boylston St, Boston MA O2l I 6. $2o/)rr. Date of Issue, August I' 1987. Semnd-class postage pa.id at BostonMA. POSTMA'STE& Send address charges to GWS. 729 Boylston St, Boston

MA02r 16. ADVERITSERSI: Deadllnes are the 15th of odd' numbered months. Contact Patrick Farerrga for

newly-rcvised ratcs.

4 college ttrtnks tfs necessar5r. Also stress the very lmportant polrrt that homeschoolers who go to college go because there's sometldng there thattheywant, unllke so rranypeople who go stralgtrtfrromhlgh school to college wtthoutthtnldngabout lL Thts canonly be to thecollege's adnantage - presumably, actlve, curious, interesdng and tnterested people are

whattheywant. l.et us know how ttre meetlng goes.

Afur

the

nwtlttg, Jane wrote:

You gave rrr such good advtcel I had been madly collectlng lnformadon ofrrarlous sorts to shove at them, butyour suggesflon to make themllrst feel comfortable screeched me to a halt. I settled down, stopped worrytng about what I was golng to wear (ofall thingsl) and gotbackto mybastc ideas: that homeschooling ts challengtng and fun, that my years at Maqrvllle College were challenging and fun, and that therefore homeschoolers and Maryvllle College would

beagoodmatch. I arrtved at the meedng wtth my chlldren (6and 9) in toq and c.oncrntrated onhavlng ozeryone feel comfortable. The college people knew nothlng about homeschooltng, so I tried to gtrre them a feeling for wtrat tt was all about as well a.s for the variety of styles and reasons irrvolved. B5r tlre end of the meeffng the Dtrector ofAdmlsslons was asldng if there was away to get names and addresses of homeschoolers so that the college could

recmitthernStnce the meetlng they have become more and more enthuslasdc about homeschoolers, and have asked me to make

public thelr pollcy ofwelcomlrg thern The Dlrector ofAdmlsslons ls kslle Nier, Maryville College, MaryvtlleTN 378O1. Toll free number outsldeTennessee ts I -8OO-E181226: lnstdeTennessee | -80o-227 -2976.

[S:] I lope Jarc's exanple wflI erwrtrage otlws to apptoochaUeges wlth wtdchtleg arefanfllnr ard perhaps o;ffer ta

telp Jomunab a pd@ Jq lame scdd opfltcants, or atleastto a4trobrttie @Uege offbtals utth la nesclrrl;trg. Do let us krloltp

{goudot}tls.

STATE NEWS For oddtesses oJstate atdlrcal ory anlz.attorts, se GWS # 54 or our Homescdttg Re srllwce l[st, atnllaHe

$I.

Jor

Colorado: The State Board of &lucadon heard recommendattons for "changes ln the nrles forapproved home study programs" at heartngs in June and July and wtll present the new rules at a meeting onAugust 13, accordtng to Ttglre Yorranolf of the NORIHERN COI,ORADO HOME SCHOOL A,SSOCIAION. Among the proposed rule changes are: homeschoollng parents wlll roffg the school dlstricteachyearlnstead of asldng permtsslon as they must do nou[ parentswlll have Aree cholce about currlculum lnstead of uslnt the state's "establtshed systemof home study"; annual e\raluatlons of homeschoolers will conslst of a standardlzed testtngrades 2, 5, Sand lO (wlth testtng locaflon chosen by the Par€nt, not the school) and another method of erraluadon durlng the otheryears. Ttghe said that the Board of Educaflon wlll lnsfltute "emergency reguhdons" at theAugust meeflng stnce the actual reguladonswlll not

take elfect undl October l. Illlnolg: S€nate Btll 1202, whlch unuld dlsttngutsh home schools from prlvate schools and requlre home schools to reglster wtth local school dlstrlcts, was tntroduc.ed tnto the leglslature in late April, according to Dorothy Werner of HOUSE. The btll qras passed out ofcommtttee by a narrow rnarglri, andJustbeforeituras to come up foravoteon the floorthe State Board ofEducatlon attached an amendmentwhich requlred a "uniform puptl attendance acrountlng system," under wtrich parents of homeschool and school chlldren who failed to report where thelr chlldren aftend schoolwould be subJect to truancy charges. Homeschoolers, aided by prtvate school groups, successfully lobbied agalnet thls amendment, which was defeated tn late May. The bill itself, meanwhile, was returned to comrdttee, where lt remained, with no acHon taken, undl the end of the leglslattue sesslon. Iowr: HF 65O, whlch would have made "private lnstnrction' expltcitly legal (see GWS #56), passed ln the House and Senate Commltteesbutdld not make ttonto tlre floorofthe House before the leglsladve sesslon ended on May 9th, acc,ordlng to the newsletter of the IOWA HOME EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION. The bill ls on the calendar for nextyear's sesslon, and wlll not have to go back through the commltteeswhen itcomes up nextyear. Maryland: On June 24th the State Board of EducaUon passed a resoludon approvlng the Home Instrucdon Bylawwhlch wtll take elfect tn LateJuly. Underthe bylaw homeschoolers may keep aporfolto of materlals and be subJect to a revlewby the local superlntendent at the end of each semester or rnay frrstead choose to be under the supervlslon ofa state-approved nonpublic school. Mlnncgota: House E!ilI432 (seeGWS #56) pass€d tn May alter many homeschoolers tesdlled on fts behalf. Under the newlaw, parents must submlt an annual nodc= of tntent, provlde lnstrrcflon for l7O days a year, and submtt an annual lnstrucdonal calendar, accordlng to the lVIarchJune issue of The Honte *hrcl but ReporL "Ilre law requires that homesctrcoltreg parents elther be ccrttlled teachers, have a college degree, be enrolled wlth an accredtted educaflonal program, or have the ctrlldren take an annual standardlzed test. Sharon Htllestad ofTHE BASIC LEARNING NETWORK says the new law makes tht:gs easler for new homeschoolers, because lt clearly states that homeschooltng ls allourcd. Sharon said that sorrr people who have been homeschoolingfor several years wtth no state gutdelines, howerrcr, are finding ltdllllcult to conformto the new

regulafions. North Carollna: Homeschoolers lobbted successfu lly agalnst several restrlcflons ln the btll whlch was tntroduced lnAprll (see GWS #5? and ls nowbacktn commlttee, accordtng to homeschooler Lua Wells. The orlgtnal billwould have rcqutred homeschooUng par:ents to have a cnllege degree and to gtve 5 I /2 hours of formal instrucflon perday, and would have lowered thecompuGory sc-hoolagefrom 7 to 6. Allof these restrlcdons areabsent fromthe current

verstonof theblll. Oregon: The restrtcflve btll lntroduced tnto the Hous€ &lucaflon Commtttee (see GWS #52 was tabled in response to callsand letters from par,ents, according to theJuly Hcrrle,slc,faarllbrs' Voice (aWashington state publtcatton). This btll would have requtred homeschoolers to go through a lengthy and

much more diftcult registraflon process than is currently requlred.

COI.JRT NEWS Michigan: From the May ISth OaWnd. Press."'Oakland Count5r Prosecutor L Brooks Patterson said Wednesday that homeschool parents will no longer be dragged into court here. Educaflonal neglect charges were dismissed ln Oakland County Frobate Court by Judge Norman Barnard Wednesday against five Oakland Count5r familleswho teach their chlldren at home. The charges were dropped after Patterson made a special appeamnce... to ask that the charges be dismissed because the state 'set the nrles but doesn't enicrce them."'

North Datota:

Ftlve

famllles have been

tded forvtoladonof the state's compulsory attendance law since January, according to a matllng from the NORIH DAKOTA HOME SCHOOLASSOCIATION. At GWS's press tlme three ofthefarntlles havebeen fcund gullty and areappealtng tlre declslonarrd no rullngl has been made on the other two cases, according to Chris Kllcka of the HOME SCHOOL

LEGAL DEFENSEASSOCIATION. In several instances, the chlldren have been subpoenaed to testtfy agalnst thelr parents ln court. Ohlo: Judge Arthur O, Fisher ordered homeschooler Franklln Dean to enrolltrls chlldren in school by the beglnnlng of the 1987-88 schoolyear Ar a Montgornery County Juvenlle Court rullng inAprll, according to an artlcle ln the DogtutDafug News. At GWS's press Ume, Dean ls ln the process of tr5dng to establtsh lrts home as an unchartered private school so tlrathewtllnot have to enmllthe children ln publlc school in the fall, ac.cordlng to Otrto homeschoolerlouann RebbtnShaw.

CALENDAR August 27. 1987: HoltAssociatesOpen House: "IVot golng back to school: Aworkshop for newand prospecdve homeschoolers," led by long-tlme homesclrooler Carol Hughes. At our ofllce, phone 437- 155O. September 7: Dr. Ra5rmond Moore's semlnar on homeschooling fur St. Inuis, MO. For lnformaflon: Jo-Ellen McDonald, 3 l475.2-4990. September I 2: Minnesota Basic Leamtng Network's "&lucatlonal Extravaganza, " with Marva Colllns as kqrnote speaker. For lnformadon: Sharon Htllestad. 6L2-437 -3049. September 13: Northem Califcmta Homeschoolers Assoclaflon's 2nd annual 'Uohn Holt Memortal Muslcal Picnlc." l2-5 at Mneral Sprtngs tnTtlden Parh Berkeley. For lnformadon: Ellzabeth Hamill, 4 I 5-8481969. Seotember 14: HoltAssociates Open House: "RememberlngJohn Holt." We wtll mark theanntversaqr ofJohn's death aswe did last year, wtth a gathertng of old and new filends and a readtng of some ofJohn's unpubllshed work. At our olfice, phone 4371550. October 22 : Holt Assoclates Open House: Basket5r Workshop, led by Wendy Baruch. At our ofic.e, phone 437- 155O. We are happy to nrn noflc€s ofmaJor homeschoohng events, butwe need plenty of noflce. Deadline forGWS #59 (errents ir: November or later) ts September 15. Deadltne for GWS #6O (events inJanua4r or later) ts November 15. GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #58

CHALLENGES & CONCERNS DIFFICULTIES WITH GROUPS &re

no. G ing

old (CN urXe s :

In response to the letters ln GWS #56 about being ingroupswith school lddswho Just want to goof around, I want to tell you about my own experlences. I have been ln Brownles forthe past threeyears and although I loved belng together with my Brownie sisters wery week, I had quite a bit of trouble getting along with thern Each time we did some sort of project orcraft theywould runaround and slide onthe floororbangon the piano , and we would never get anything accomplished. I always had great ideas forwhatwe could do in Browrdes, things I can't do alone at home butwould be fun to do as a group, like put on a play that I wrote. But I dldn t ever get to do any of the things I thought up because the girls were always fooling around and

wouldn'tlisten. For example, I once thought up the idea

formytroop to haveanewsletter, and the leaders thought it was a Cir€at idea. But when I tried to get the other girls lnvolved they had no reaction. My first idea for the "Brownle Bulletln" was towrite "name poems." I flgured thiswould be easy foreverybody. Theywere invited to write down (or actually dictate to the leader) what they would like to be or do when tley grewup, usingeach letterof their names as the begirurlng of aword or sentence. But instead everybody keptyelling and scrcaming and telllng each other what they ought to be when they grerv up. And some of their answers were so dumbl Some of the weird things rvere "tnk gadget" and '}lam maker." It seemed to be that they didn't even thjnk or care about what they were putting down. It made me feel so bad and angry. They never careabout anything. They onlygiggle. The girls were excited to see their names and what theywrote in print though, and the leaderwanted to glrre lt another try. So for the nextissue my rnomand I thoughtup a new idea - we would make up a sort ofwork sheet (which is what they're used to ln school) for them to followdirecdons. Then thevwouldn't get so confused by erreryone tallidn! at once. This kept them quleter, but I was amazed by the quality of theirwork. I neverdo "school work" athome, so I'malways thtnlAng that kids in school are so far ahead ofme. But although I asked them fu n thlngs like to make a picture from the letters ln their names and to dnaw a funny self-portralt, they drew stick figures wtth purple halrand couldn't even answer simple questions like how old are you and when's your birthday. The on$ time I am ever with other lidds is in Brownies and I wanted to use that flme to work at accomplishing things and learn a lot ofvaluable lnformatlon. But for the other girls I think Browntes wasjust an extenslon ofschool and babysitters and people telling themwhat to do and when to be quiet. I

thought ltwould be fun toworktogetherbut they didn't really'urant to be there at all. I am really proud of my badges and ttdngs that I eamed, but I actually have seen some of the othergirls throwtngthelrbadges away in the

tr:ashl In September I startJunlor Girl Scouts and I hope that will be a more serious

organizauon. GROW]NG WTTI{OUT SCHOOLING #58

Ard fiom CfuIstopler McKee

ffi)

I have had similar experiences with ha neshmlers not really wandng to be at classes. Recentl5r a homeschooling parent olfered to do aclass on alr pollution. I dectded to take theclass. I had problemswlth the lidds clowningaround and teasing each otler. The

classwas sortof ruined forme. The method ofignoring people does not work too well. I agree with tunanda (GWS #56) that the kids keep pestering you ifyou ignore them. The method thatworks best for me is to tell them howyou Gel about the situation. It ts hard to get the courage to say what you feel but onceyou say it, tt really makes them ttrink hvtce before thry tease again. I gUess there are some ldds that like to tease and some that don't. lfvou are a kid who does not like to tease and sorireone is teasing you, tell them howyou feel about it.

Andjomalaterletter: I have been homeschooled all mv llfe. I have always wondered what school G llke. I have asked ldds who go to school what tt ls like, and almost the only thing they menflon ls recess. I would like to hear from lidds that are homeschooled now but havebeen

schooled before about their school experlences.

[SSlKallePeebles wdtes abut th[s in this {ssue (p. 30 ). Perhops otfters will onsuter Chrtstople/ s qtrcstiorl- bt Jutrtre issues oj GWS.

BEING A SINGLE PARENT F}om Kathe rhe M a^lp ine (fN) :

Afewwords on the lssue ofgetdngone's own work done with ldds around. Because we're aone chlld/one parent fami$, and because I've alwaysworked outofour home, we've had to cope wtth thls from the beginning. I'm avoice teacher arrd a freelance writer. From the time hewas 3, Nathaniel (now 9) understood thatwhen Mommy was worlrdngwtth a student, thls was hls ilme to pursue his own lnterests in hls room, Itwas harder for him to comprehend how my staring mkrdlessly at the t5rpewrlter (or pactng amund the house muttering to myself)

had any connectlon with keeptng peanut butter ln the cupboard. But he's learned. He's also come alongMth rne to buslness meeUngs, on trlps to the prtnter, the radto staUon, the recordlng studio, because we often had no babysltter and no other alternatlve. Sometlrnes I felt uneasy, uras afrald c.olleagues would percelve me as unprofessional. More often Nathanielwas treated llke vtsftlng royalty. He's been taken onexclusive gl.rided tours of radio andTV stadons, assorted office buildings, and prindng facllities. He's shot the breeze with corporate executlves and count4r music stars. I think he's benefited tremendouslv from achlally seeing me atwork. .Just r&ently he asked me about a proJect, '"[tr/haf syourword count so far? 9,OOOurcrds?That meansvou're -rl,nd 3/4 ltnlshed wnh a l2,OOO-word script. you've be.enworlidng for six days, so at lOf a word that meansyourdaily payavera€1es..," I hadn t realized he knewthis much about math. We haven't even begun "studyingl'

fractions. Though IVe tr:atned myself to concentrate through anythtng (including Nathaniel pracflctngdouble stops on his violln), there are tlmes I have to work like a demon to meet a tough deadline. He's come to respect that - notalways gracefully, buthe does cooperate. He enjoys helptngoutby fi:<ing a simple meal forboth ofus. And he loves to wash dlshes (an ecc.entrlclty that I don't dare hope wlll conttnue). I always try to show my appreciation in both word and deed. I don't rnean bribes. But I mlght say, "I expect to be flrdshed wtth this article by Friday. So Saturday's all ours. Want to go the park, a movie, or the sclence museum? You choose. " On another toplc, I was lnterested in Sury Dodd's remarks tn GWS #55 about her daughter betng "grtlled" by other children. We run into tJrls annoyance quite frequent$. The scenarlo goes llke thls: Nathanlel mendons, in response to some quesdon, that his mom teaches htm at home. The other person, elther anotherchtld or (more dlsgusdngly) anadult,

thenbegtns qulzztnghlnx '\llhatis 8 flmes

36? What ls thedeflnlflonofan anton5rm? Where is Argentlna? How many miles from the moon to the earth?" IVe had to teach Nathanlel a few assertlveness strateges, l.e. we don't play thos€ games. He's learning to say, '\Ve followourown currlculum. And we

don't need testsorqutzzes to provewhatwe know."That usually puts astop to thtngs.

Understand Spanish, French, German, Russian and Chinese All New

Language Teaching System.

Look at pictures and understand the foreign language almost immediately.

Beginner's Series

1,000 pictures and five 45-minute audio cassettes.

Complete Series 4,000 pictures and Twenty-one 45-minute audio ldeal For Home Sludy iIl

cassettes.

vl9

Write for information

9L Internatlonal Llngulstlcs Corporatlon 3505 East Red Bridge Road o Kansas City, MO 64114

(816) 765-8855

IVe Just reread Nanry Wallace's

HIGHLIGHTS OF BACK

"Rethlnking'Ietdng Co'" (GWS #56), and I want to add

ISSTJES We want to remind you of the material in these back issues, which we do not plan to reprint elsewhere. Please tell others that these issues are still available. (Prices for subscribers: $1 per issue, plus $2 per order.

hices for non-subscribers: $3.50 per issue.)

a few thoughts from thls slngle mom's perspecflve. I'm always getdng dlre wamings, from avariety of self-styled social workers, on the dangerof Nathaniels developing an "unhealttry attachmenf' to me. "He needs to be awa5r fr,omyou more ofterl" they say. Or "He needs awidervariety of male role models." Or "Muslc ls ffne, but he needs to take part ln more 'all- boy' acdvides llke baseball and football." The tmpltcaflon, of course, ls that if I don't watch tt, I'm golng to

tum htmlnto Chtldren's DrawlnEs... Enellsh Unschoolers... BeYour Own Experf I Ltvinp With l-oneliness... Young Magtcian,.. On a " cWSl #25:

Farm

GWS #26: Llncoln's Education... Teena{ers

at Home... WorldnE forCousteau... Bables at Jobs... TV... Refushg Labels #27: Elitism.,. Successfu I Currlculum... On Conflict.., Informal Routine... Modcan GIWS

Circus Family... First Boston Farnily

GWS #28: Unwanted Help... Repetiflve

Reading... The Flrst Monihs... Homeschooled Condudtor... 6-year-old Sculptor GWS #29: From College to Farm,,. School tur

Indta... Muldplicaflon-Game... Work. Plav and Social Life... karninEWhen Deaf

G'Wlt #3O: Handtcapped Parent... Baclrurard

Irtters... FieadtuxAv3: DoinE... Talklns to Yourself... BilnAlal Familv... SchoolS Weren't "F4ualEers"... African "Dlsc{pline" GWSI #3

l: ReadtnEvla Computer... Writlnp a

Curriculum... Griduates I aikStdls... ke;l Insurance. .. Recovering from "Special Ed.{ GWS *32: Self-Taught Computer Deslgper...

Single Mothet's Arran€emeits... Apprefrtices inGrmany... How MdiryAreWe?' ^

DealtngWlth ThouAhtlessness... Blamtng the Unco-nvendonal. - Leanrina Dtsabili1es... LeaminA FromTiavel.., GWSi #33:

I-anguage Through Ac-fi on

GIPS #34: Liklnq School is Not EnouEIe..

Spaceship School... Housework... "DEffniUon ofSchoolncase GWSi

#35: Homeschooler at Haruard... On

Teen Social Llfe... Mtnd not a Muscle...

Computer Vandallsm... Einsteln

#36: Thoughts on'DavAfter,',.. AStrele Parent's Year... Dtsapproviri{ Relaflves... Ii Defense offi.. . Chililir:n in ihe Workplace GWSI

(horrorofhorrors)

homosexual Or at the very least, a dependent "Mama's boy." I used to lie awake ntglrts

worqdngabout this. And I knowanumberof otherstn$emotherswho do the same.

Yet Nathaniel's oneof tlre most lndependent-minded klds I know. And he doesn t &Jcefootball; he ltkes music, wildlife, and hStory. Why shouldl forcehlmlnto actMfles he doesn't care firr because of other people s hangups and an:defles? What's more, why shouldn tourldds also be amongourbest friends? Whafs so unhealthv about that? Ofcourse male role moiels are trnDortant for a boy. But notJust any male figure, ior heaven's sake. (Charles Manson, afterall, was aman.) Qualitycounts. And I don'tthlnklfs all that important that a role model be som@ne we actually know. Mister Flogers can be a role model. So can a trlstorical person or even a character in a novel. In fact, unless you're Ilvlng on a desert island, there are role models practically ever5nrrhere you turn. There's a lovely, very moving lfttle book by Charlotte Zolotow called A Fatlar Llke That, It begtns, "Once I had a father. But he went auray before I was born. " As the ltttle boy's mother sits qutetly listening and

sewtng, he tells he all trls fantastes about hls absent father - what he'd look like, how he'd behave, all the things they'd talk about and do together. Enally he asks hls mother lf she thtnks hts dad wlll ever come back. "Probablv

not," she says. "Butyou knowwhat? I ltke your ldea of a father." And she assures hlm that he can grow up to become the lidnd of man he's described. I

like to thtnk that Nathaniel, like the

boy ln the story, ls creatlng hls own deflnldons of the man he wants to become. And so far, I see every eirtdence that thls ls exactly what he's dolng.

CONSIDERING SCHOOL FlomMurtelPallo(MI): Recentlyl vlslted avery atkacttue alternaflrrc school ln Grand Rapids. Ttrere was a strong emphasls on developlng sensitMt5r to envlronmental concems and strlvlng for\r,Drld peace. The atrnosphere was nrarm, frtendly and relaxed. I hked the place a lot. My son thought tt vras OK. Now

thatthere ls avlable altemative to

homeschoollng for me, I've been thfaldng GWll *37: LawverWith No School... Stress Alfects IQ... Teachlng Outside ofSchool... .Iohn Holt on Dtsctpllne... Museum Run B5r Ktds... Self-Taughf Muslclans

All back iszues of GWS

are kept in print.

aboutwhatitrpould beltketo send ourson to thts school He's been homeschooled from dav one, sothlswouldbeadramaflcchange. came to reallre thattherewould be an lncrediblevoid ln my Me tfmy sonwere to be away from home flve days a week And how

would his 2 l,/2-year-old stster handle tt? Stmon ( I l) and Zoe deltght ln each other's company. And what would happen to the other actMdes he's tnrolved trr? He would have to eltherdrop all ofthemto have dme for the farnlly, or drop farnily tlme for trts

acflvlfles. Would therebe tlme toJustfool around? Slmon used to be so dependent on havtngotherlidds around to playwith. Now he knows how to occupy htmselfforlong perlods. He ts always busy, tn a relaxed, unhurrted uay. I hesttate to deprtve himof

this time.

I guess homeschoollng ls so very much

part of our lfues that not homesdrooling would alter thewhole structure ofour f,amllv. Of course, tf Stmon reallywanted to go to schoolwewouldn't hold hfm back But ln sptte of a strong deslle for more contactwlth otJrer lidds, he sdll prefers homeschoollng. Thls surprlses me, ln away, because he doesn't seem to get enough attenflon and stimulation now ttrat therc ls a toddler tn the family. It takes a lot of energr to keep my toddler happy while worlidng one-on-one wlth

Simon. So, academically, Slmon has been prett5rmuch on hls own. We have cometo thlnkofschools as much more harmful places than we flrst thought. At one ttme ln Westem tristory, chlldrenwere regarded as troublesome. Then they were sentirnentalized, Now, in arvell-

lntendoned effortto portray lidds as they really are, awhole new setof assumpflons and ster€otypes has taken root. Thtngs like teasfng, boy-g[rl stlllness, and competld\rcrEss ar€ r€gafded as norrnal, lnerrttable parts ofchtldhood. "Real" ktds, espectally boys, are not supposed to like

vlollns or collectkrg starnps or thetr little brothers and slsters. As homeschooled ldds continue to glrow tn age and ln numbers, I thtnk these assumpdons will be questioned and a set ofnew, mor,e posldrle assumpUons will take theirplac.e.

TRYING SCHOOL tr)om Diarur Foster (IIY) : We have been homeschooltng for four years. I ^ct fell my husband Gar5rytelded to the pleas of three of our chlldren and placed them ln a prtrrate school for the 5rear. Since I work full-tirne as a regfstered nurse and Gary ls home and llstentng to them all the time, I said ltttle about the arrangBment. After a year, IVe found posttive and negattve aspects ofhavlng themtn school. Flrst the posldves: l. Ouryoungerchtldren, Pennt (6) and Psamantha (4) have establlsh€d a strong reladonshtp wlth their hther. Patricfa ( I 3) had alwqrs been thelr second motherand enJoyed gtvtng and recetvtng thelr attentlon. Now she was gone all day, so they dlscovered thelr father ls very capable of responding to theirneeds and wants. 2. Patrlcla and Plrtlip ( lO) came to the reallzadon that school ts not fun. The only suq)rlse to me is that tt took themuntiltf,e last nlne ureeks to dlscover thls. 3. It proved to ourfamllles and friends that homeschooUngdoes not make ldds dumb. Thts uras abtg shock to all of them. Another homeschooling farntly had placed two cldldren ln ttre same school as ours, and at the awards cerernony a fewweeks ago, the former homeschoolers took all academlc awards exceptone. Now the negatfves: 1. Meettng appolntrrrnts, malOng lunches, and getUng erreryone to school on tirne got very tlrlng. It was a dtffcult adJustrnent for all the chlldren. 2. The clrlldren no longer helped wtth housework orwtth our 77-year-old bedrtdden auntwho llveswlth us. GRO\ryING WTII{OUT SCHOOLING #58

3. I became llke abroken record, always saying 'That's the way lt ls at school," or 'You wanted to go, tt's the ruIe." My husband was more padent wlth their complaints. Patricla and Philip want to go back to homeschooling this year, and we are looking forward to lt. Pennl did want to go to school to "leam to read," butwhen a friend told her that the teacheryells sometlmes, she declded she will stay home and read. Patrick ( I 5) will probablybe AolnAto school. Hewants to and ioes we-ll. Psamanttra' ouryoungest daughter, has Down'sSyndrome. We planto homeschool her as well. I enJoy readlng about otherswho are homeschoollng their spectal

chlldren, andwlshyou heard more from them. Ifwehad lastyearto do over, would wedo it dilferent$? I don't lmow. I thtnk when childrenwant somethlng so badly, lt ts someflmes betterto let themlearnby e:rperlence - and now two of the cblldren, at least, are content to learn at home again.

FINDING OTHER CHILDREN FtomBarbaraNye NT): When we moved to a rather lsolated house inVermont, we found no cornmunity

support nor other homeschoolers with

ctrlldren the same ages as ours. We have no support from relatives. It is hard to go against the normandGWS ts ahvays awelcome and needed sight. We are alllliated with an altematlve school that ts very supporttve, and ourchlldren have gone there part-tlme over theyears. Our chlldren don't have many frlends thelr ages, whlch doesn't seem to bother them. It is hard to find other children as nice as our children. Do other homeschoolers llnd this aproblem?

CIJRE FOR SCHOOL PHOBIA F}om Arulrltta Morelg oJ Callfa nta-

want

to thank you fcryour article, "School Phobia: Illness or Real Fear?" (GWS #57) Our oldest son had had school phobia slnce he started school. We got through HndergartenMth onl5r a few days of pantc, but in first grade thlngs got worse. His teacher I

told us that he was manlpulatingl us, She strongly urged us to seek psychological counselfurg.

We decided to transfer trim from public school to a prhrate Chrlstlan sdrool. The first fewweeks were a nighhnare. He crled arrd

dldn'twant me to leave. Hls teacher, the prlnctpal/pastorand I trted everythlng bribes, threats, phystcal restralnt. Then one day whlle we were chastng trtm around the school parldng lot, trylng to get trlm back into the classroorrl the princtpal asked lfwe had ever consldered homeschooUng. At first I thought there was no way in

theworld I could teachourthree sons at home. But alter four months of sittlngwith hlm ln the classroom wery day (thts was the only way I could keep hlm ln school), my husband and I satd,'\Mhy not?" That was almost two years ago, and we have not regretted ourdeclslon. Our son is nowavery happy, secure 9-year-old. He loves to bake and garden, two Lrterests he could not pursue wtrile in school all day. Undl I read your ardcle I thoug;ht we were the only familywtth thts "problem." Thankyou agatn forallowlngme to realizewe are notalone. GROWING WTII{OUT SCHOOLING #58

DISCUSSI'N:tt%Y][Y'%"#NB1""t!ffl MORE INTERESTED IN LEARNING In ApdL Sbrra llnltprsify ouatdd John HoIt a posthurnous honorory drctorate oJ human serulces, Herbrt KolX author oJ36 Children and s erpral otler brlry'ts, acepted the drctorateJor Jofut and tlvn sent us a

tanxriptoJtle

renrotks he made

attle

ceremofw: In the summerof 196Tmvwife and I moved to Calfomla from NewYorkCtty. Right before we moved there were decisions to make everywhere, declsions my wife Judy and I knewwe should have made soonerand hoped would work themselves out without intervention. Should we take all our books? Where could we store or gpe away things at the last mlnute?Was there a friend we forgot to call? Were all the goodbyes we wanted to sav- sald? At that flme our oldest child, Antonia, was flve months old and demanded almost as much attendon as the move itself. The day before a maJor change ofplace has always been a tlme of panic for me. And that very day John Holt called us and said he d like to visit and have dinnerwith us. The pleasure of havlng dinner, of argu.tng wtth hlm about educadonal ideas and finding out about trls latest thinldng and his latest discoveries was trresistible. We invtted John toJotn us fordlnner among theboxes and sultcases. I don't remember what we trad fior dinner but can sflll seeJohn heading forTonia's crib. Hewas more lnterested in her ttran he was in talklng about ideas and fads ln educafion. John liked to look at young people and was the most astute observer I have ever encountered. He had a passion for understanding how learnlng happenned. Tonla and John played all eventngand well into the ntght. They both seemed delighted in the presenc.e of each other. John had a personal magic when he was not in a situadon of havlng to teach. He was much more interested tn leaming than teaching and that was the source of marry disagreements between us. I believe that children do not have to recreate the whole world, that there are many ttrtngs ure can shar,ewith them so that tlrev can become smarter and }dnder than w6 are. John, as I knew htm, belleved thatwe should leave kids alone and let them create tlre world. He was closer to Rousseau than to Dewgl; a libertarian anarchist, not a socialist. He saw the future in the baby and I saw the baby as not totally newbut partofaworld thatneeds to be

reconstructed. John did not believe in fundamental change. Hebelteved thatchange should come from within, from the famlly, from the dny world ofpeoplewho belteved asyou did. He also believed that insdtutions are by nature antt-human and preached a philosophy of withdrawal. Homeschooltng is justa small part ofJohn's fundamental commitment to the tdea that tndMdual decency could redeem

theworld. John hated violence and struggled to ffnd a way to be decentwtthout becoming involved lm conllict. This was at the c-enter of our . disagreements. I do not see any way people

can become liberated without struggle, paln

I?ANGE

and commltment to the llves of peopleother than themsefues. To me the past has a lot to teach; adults of good will have things to pass on to children and freedomis nota personal consideraflon but a c.ollective necessit5r. I hate vlolence as much as John did, but cannot rule out dellance to destroy oppression. The vlolence ofapartheld ls aproblemforall ofus all and there seems to be no altemative but vlolence to end lt. The premature loss ofJohndeprives us of the ability to argue issues ofviolence and education and beauty; of learningand fatling with someonewho rerrered and thought about the qualityofltving. The central things that anyone must feelwho was privileged enough to knowJohn are the lntensi$r and honesty of hls convicdons and the amazingway he could see very largp thlngs in small e'vents. What is wonderful ls that he strared them ln his books whtch have avoice wbrlch is unmista-kenlv

hisown.

LETTING FLOWERS BLOOM g oJ Herbrt Kohl's Jerome, long-tlneJriend. anad corre spordent oJJohn s (readers uill renemfur ltunjorn tlre..frst issues ojGWSJ,

fSS;/ I sent c

remo*s

to Jud.son

Judrespond& I

was foundering about what to wrtte for

t]..ls memorial issue unttl Susannah Shelfer sent me a copy of the remarks by Herb Kohl

and asked what I thought about them. I recognized lmrnediately a paradox. Most of us who came to be recognlzed as educadonal reformers in the 6O's and 7O's, and so, as it were, gathered in company under the aegis of John Holfs ttreless correspondence (and his practice ofpassing on photocopies ofmaterial he knewwould interest us), were at first school reformers. In my case the schools were colleges; itwas my article tn the November, 1968 issue of Life, 'The System Isn't ReallyWorking" that first put me ln

touch with John, and he wrote a compllmentaqr blurb for my book, Culture

At oJ Anarchy : Tte Reorl.sbl.rction oJ Anwican Htgher Leotntg, which grew out of that and other magazine articles. By the tlme I finished thebook, howwer, I râ&#x201A;Źalized thatif thecolleges madeeveryone ofthe radtcal changes I suggested, theywere sdll not a place foran honest man to earn a lMng. I quit - for my sake - and started a communewherewe ralsed ourctrlldren wlthout schooltng. Others, like Herb Kohl, rematned more or less in the system - for its sake, or, rather, for the sake ofthe kids caught in it wtthout recourse. John's first books were relevant to schooling. After he started GWS his writing was relerrant to deschooling. It is understandable to me that, though they rematned friends, Herb (whom I've nwer met) and John had very dillerent intellectual and soclal ommitrnents. Herb almost implies that John was opposed to teachhg. I would interpret him as betng opposed to unasked-for teaching (and I'll say more about teachlng in a moment). Herb also says thatJohnwas opposed to fundamental change. I would lnterpret him as seeking such atotal tr,'ansformadon of society that most, if not all, of our institutions , includlng schools, would disappear. But tlat

8 change cannot occur suddenly. It proceeds by \tery gradual, almost mtrute, lncrements. But Its goal is total and profound, Herb seems to be

concsned wtth more lmrnediate, hence

poltdcal, changes. The u,orld needs both lidnds ofreformers, but tt ts easy to see how they would not ag;ree on priorldes. Thougfr IVe nerer met Herb I(ohl, I rcspect hlm and have long consldered hlm to be

ac.o-laborerln ttre sameorchard over the

past 20 years or so. Hls clrnments help me understand these two dllferent lidnds of responses to theworld - lrts andJohn's - that have been confused ln my life over theyears. I am rernlnded of a dtalogue between ayoung acflvlst and an old plrtlosopher in Andre MalrauCs Man's Fate . They were ageed upon a vlslon ofwhat the nnrld should becorne. But the actMst sald ttwould not happen unless people got out and made lt happen. The phllosoper (srnoklngoptum, as I remember) sald sorrttrlng to the elfect that lf a vlslon was sound, ltwould errrerge. The nahrral forces of soclety and htstorywould brlng tt abouL Itwas ourf,ate. I'm caught between those approaches lnclnlng more toward the phtlosophels as I grow older and feel less tnllned (or able) to get out and make angthtug }rappn. Alter a couple ofdecades as areformer, I ffnd myself more tncltned to $rrlte poetry and let the world sanre Itself. Of course, poetry may be away of savlng theworld, but don't slt around urattlng for its effectsto show. I guessl anr" ltkeJohn, more like Rousseau than Dewey. I'm certalnly not a sociallst the last thtng I want ls erren more gotremrnent. I have - slnceearlychlldhood always been stmply appalled by schoolarg. And some of the clevenes9 the most chlldorlented, the mosthumanely manfpulaflve

HOME STUDY COT]RSES. Kindergarten through 8th Grade. High-quality home study courses developed by certified teachers at outstanding private school. Home is your classroom, you are the teacher. Success is easy with step-by-step instructions. No

prior experience required. Start any time. Transfer to other schools. All materials included. Program prices from $185.00-$520.00 complete. (Based on grade level and advisory teacher service usage.) 350,000 student users in over 80 years. Equal opportunity. Write or call for

-:l'r1#f,,l vnr,yr:rrr Establishet

t 1897 '

r.roo,. .J\

301-243-6030

Dept. GW87, Tuscany Rd. Baltimore, Maryland 21210

schooling has secmed to me the most appalllng. I sensed as soon as I encountered teachers that they were natural enemies. I felt about them as some people feel about Communists: you haveto be most onyour guardwhen they start acting sweet. I've known people who were teachers whom I personally Lked - so long as they dldn't start trylng to teach me. I was a college professor for over 20 years - undl I began to feel guilty about drawlng asalary from the lidnd of lnsdtuflon I phtlosophtcally opposed. I rrcnerate c.olleges and unlverslfles as seats of leamlng, but they are also lntegral parts of the System - the System that many ofus vlerved as evll ln 1972, when I dropped out. I haven t changed my mtnd about its evil but I am less incllned to spend my life and energy confrondng lt. Many ofmy dearest filends are academlcs. But tn my experiencc the best acadernlcs urere those who taught least, who were deeply committed to their flelds and whosederroflon to learnlngwas so lnfecdous that students ln thetr courses learned to

learn, to love learning. I havewrltten that theunrd teachllke the word..ftrck is an obscenity, for it seemed to makea tr:ransltfue out ofwhatcould onlybe lntranslttve. Neltheractlon ls, wtthout pewerslty, somethtngyou do to someone. Learntng, ltke maklnglove, ls somethlng people can do together - and I belterrc the Holt heritage ts, as Herb polnts out, to move the

emphasls from teachingto learning. That does rotimply leavtng drtldren alone and letHng them recreate tlre world, houterrer. Ctdldren learn from adultsJust as much as they do frombooks and experiences. Much of John's emphasls was uponways ofopenirqg the adultworld to children - maldng avallable thecultureua have irehertted to

enablechfldren to choose fromit tlrose aspects they see asworth learning. Our chfldren, growlng up inwhat Herb would call a libertarian-anarchist commune, Downtrill Farm, were not "homeschooled." Homeschoollng can be, I think, e\ren more pemlclous than public schooling. In many states parents who pracdce lt are rcqulred to follow currlculaeven rnore rlgld and arflflctal than those of the schools. And I am uneasy about some who use homeschooling for rellgtous tndoctrlnaflon. I don't llke lndoctrlnadon ln phystcs or poetr5r or relglon. My sense of how ctrildren grow best is ln an envlronment that encounages them to quesflon errrytldng adulb rnfght lorow about and to come to dtfier,ent concluslons from thoseofthe adults ifthafs howtheanswers to thelrquesflons brlng them to secthtngs.

AtDownlrtllFarmwe trted stmply to let our children bloom - and they dtd. The adult role - ltke that of a gardener - was to supply the condifions, the erMronment, ln which nature could happen. A gardener or farmer doesn t go out and grour something. He or she may supply nutrlents, may ellminate some weed and pests, but for the most part the job ls one of sta5rlng out of theway, prerrcntlng lnterferencc. As any garrdener knows, it's hard work - as hard as teachlng. Youanswer quesflons. You provlde leamlng materlals of immense varlety - many that the chlldren will never choose to use. I went through two years ofLatlnwlthone teenage girl - notone of my daughters - relearnlngwhat I had studled atherage. We read Shakespeare and

sclence and anthropologr together. I spent longaftemoons stretched on abed bestde my I l -year-old son going over algebrawlth htm, a strl. at 16, 16. bouglt bought at rt hls request. reouest. He and agtrl, got r r. Latel Iater. when I giotone, themselves a computer.

2-computer log cabin, with two color telerrlslon sets (one withjoy sticks for

we were a

PacMan). When they turn l6you take them to to\rm for their driving lessons. You make cars available to them so they can extend theA explorations into the bigworld olf the farrn You crlnge alot, wonderlngwhatthey're doing out there. You makeJobs awailable so they can earn mon€y and develop economic independence - as ear$ as possible. You incorporate them lnto your Me as fi:lly as possible - whtchls sometlmes embarrassing. Our ktds, as adolescents, spent a lot of time playlng muslcal bedrooms, switchtng roomnates or choosing to lfue alone, moving their record and tape collections, books and posters from roomto room in theold bam where they ltved away from their parents, and we crlnged about that, too. But the results were astonishing. As they rnoved offon thelrown to lndependent lives sdll ln thelr teens - they found otheryoung people theirage - schooledyoung people - tobe tmmature. That's my term, not one I heard from them; thcyweren't haughty. But they found thetr peers to be relatlvely helpless, unable to cook, repair thlngs, rnanage money, contnol their behavior, relate comfortably to older people, plan their tlme, avoid devastaflon ln thelremoflonal lives. Above all, they found them less able to learn to ffnd the resources they needed to know, to think for themselnes, to rralue the cultural treasure ofour heritage, Mostof the clrildrenwho grew up at flownhtll Farm have by now taken high school equivalency orams and gone to college and functloned there better than most products of schools because they had acquired the sldlls of tnrCependent learrfng th€y needed to take advantagp ofcollege resources. But thatway ofllfe ls not possible for most children ln our society (or any other). I doubt that ifs possible in towns, clfles, suburbs - where neigfibors lrrterfere.It's c.ertalnly not possible Ar the inner cides. If s not posslble ln families where tlrere are not well-educated (alas, well-schooled) adults, books, muslc, art, techrrlcal equipment, skills and knowledge. I amgratefi:l that there are at least a feur teachers like Herb Kohl passlonately addresslng the needs ofcblldren in sltuations where deschooling is lmposstble. If I could wish away schools altogether I would not do it - any more than I would wlsh away prlsons. For too longwe have lsolated chlldren from their famllles and the adult uorld, and pure chaos would emerge f we suddenly dtsmantled the stmctur€s r€qutred by thatisoladon. There would have to be, tndeed, a fundarnental changeln soctet5rbefore ltwould be possible to llve ln avoluntarisflc, cooperativeway, bound to our fellow human beings by afiectlon, repect and mutual understandtng, wtth ctrtldren relncorponated lnto farnllies and the adultworld. I used to thinkthattherewas somethingl could do to brlng about that betterworld. I made speeches. I attacked tnstltuflons. I tried to stlr people to acflon. But nourl am more tncltned to belteve that soctal change, llke leamtng, can only emeqge lfwe crncentrate on staylng out of the way and letttng tt happen all thewtrile supplldng nutdents and combattArg pests and urceds. I lilrc to thfnkJohnunuld agreewith me. Iwas lmpressed by thellrst lssueofGWSin wlrtch hewrote about the gradual process of soctal change, the slow gatherlng of small lncrements that ln ttme can tr:ansformthe world. That messagewas somehowcrtntng

GROWING WIIHOUT SCHOOLING #58

9 ficr me - comfort for my anxiety, my restless and impadent and generally futtle ellorts to makepeople and thtngs dilferent. John walked gently on the earth, and flowers bloomed where he passed. I am stlll too

agressive, too activist to do thatwell, but .;6hn helped to create and environment in which I can learn.

DEMONSTRATING AN ALTERNATIVE

fSS;/ I tlren sent bth Herbrt Kohl's and Jud J ercme's unds to M aM fu rutson

wlase f*ndship u:ithJohn to the

olso

dales back

i96o s. Md.fuI wrcte:

After one ofour occasional vtslts with

John, he sent us material on solar enerry, almost the firstwe had heard of it. I had been getting arrested in demonstradons against nuclear power. How much more elfective, John said, to use solar panels that would be seen by others, than to light against power companies. And he invented bumper sticker slogans for solar energ/. As wlth homeschooling, John believed in demonstraung a possible alternative rather than

fghtingthe other

side.

John told me that he could not understand why people tn the peace movements did not suppport education reform or tlte peace press print more material on education. I could not understand it either, because I always Glt my educationworkwas part of the Deace movement. As Ivan Illich has written, ihere will be no political change without educational change. John and Paul Goodman. author of GrowttgUp Absurrd, said many of the same things aboutctrildren and education. John wrote about thevalue offindingavocation or work you can believe in. Paul urged young people to become real professionals who would stand up for honest goals. ButJohn could never understand or feel close to Paul's combativeness, his tactic of foreverpickinga fight to brtng conlllct out lnto the open. John worked as part ofsociet5r, able to argue and inslst when necessaxy, preferrlng to Jotn forces r;ather than to lncrease divisions, thorougbly describing children, talrdng on what he couldchange.

Mabl tttite s readers to askJor a copg oJ her tta ughts on sdrnilantiras frr tle unrk o-f Jotn Holt Pail Gadnnn and luan IllicIL Send a SASE to

Maful Dervttsn;l fux 538,

TenpleME04984. George Deruljsonadds:

John dldn't seem to thtnk ofhlmself as a radical, but as a citizen. But what happened then was that thts led him into positions that were often, but not ahrays, to the left of the radicals. Maldng sense always seemed much more important to him than ffttinginto thts or that political category.

JOHN THE TACTICIAN Readers may by now be wondering how we at GWS answer the quesdons Herbert Kohl raises. I'll take some space to answer them here, necessarily mixing my own interPre-

tations with what John himself said, but try ing to reach as clear an understandtngas possible. In the revised FIow Children Leam John wrote, '.\Ve do not ask or or expect a child to GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #58

lnvent the wheel starttng from scratch. He doesn t have to. The wheel has been lnvented. It ls out there, ln front of htrn A[ I am saylng is tlrat a child does not necd to be toldwtat wheels are and what they are for, ln order to know. He can ffgure it out for himself, in his own way, ln his own glood dme. In the same way, he does not trave to irrvent the electric liiht bulb, the alrplane, the internal combusdon englne - or law government, art ormusic. They, too, havebeenirrvented, and areout there. Thewhole culture is outthere." The whole culture ls out there. People are part of that culture, and children use people to help them make sense of things just as they use the other tools that are available. When older people let children watch orJoln them as they go about theirwork, they are teaching. We can't stop thts kind of teaching from happening unlesswe forclbly take children out of the stream of thelr culture and prevent them from watchlngor helpinE artptle - whichis howsomewould describe the experience ofschool. John uras opposed to unasked-for

teaching, the gtvlng of ans\ iâ&#x201A;Źrs or

explanaflons before they are requested which says to the leamer,'You would not flgure thJs out, orknowitwasfunportant, unless I told you." But lf someone asked htm to demonstrate how to get a clear sound on the cello, htt a tennts ball over the net, make a sentence read more smooth!, John rpould respond enthustastically, happy to be able to help tJ e learner along trls way. In a letterwritten in 1975, John said, "I can no morehelp sharingmy ideasand pleasures than I can help breathing," John described hlmself as a teacher, and descrlbed a teacher as someone who shares ideas and pleasures, who lets others in. Those of us who want to do thls, he went on to say, those of us whowant to really teach, wlll have to flnd ways to do it outslde of school, since school makes real teaching as urll as real learnlng

impossible. TWo years later,

introductng Growing

Willput *hrrrli4g in tts premier issue, John wrote, 'Wewillbevery lnterested, as the schools and schools ofeducaUon do not seem to be, in the act and art ofteachlng, that is, all the ways in which people, of all ages, in or out of school, can more effecflvely share information, ideas, slidlls." GWS looks as closely at teaching as lt does at learnlng slnce the two cannot be separate. We look at how people can work together, learn from each other, show each other the thlngs they love. We ask how the world can be opened up to children, howwe can make "thewhole culture" that is out there even moreaccesslble to them. Looldng at society as it irs nowand as he imagined lt might be, John, tactical as vrcll as utopian, asked, "How do we get therâ&#x201A;Ź from here?" Jud Jerome says that John was seeldng "such a total tr:ansforrnatlon ofsoctety that most, if not all, of our lnstitutions, lncluding schools, would disappear." John wanted a deschooled socie$r, but even lf itwere posslble to pushabutton and make compulsory schools disappear, he would not have pushed iL To really have a deschooled soctety, John said, we hlve to get - lndividually and collecdvely - to a point atwhlch schools no longer make sense. In Fleedom and Bqondhe describes a future in which people cannot lmagine schools, cannot understand why we in our present urcrld "think that educadon should be, must be, separate from the rest of Itfe." Such are the peoplewe need lfwewant a

deschooled society, butwe won't get them by orderlng them to become thatway. We have to lnvlte and encourage enough change tn people's llves so that after a tlme many of them actually are tlrat way, at wldch point schools wlll be unnecessary.

Howdoweget fromhere to there?As Mabel Dennisonwrote, we have to demonstrate a possible altemadve. We have to show that the way things are ls not the way they ha'r,e to be. Ttrus, ln encouraging homeschoollng, Johnwas not only (although he was also) sugglesting to People that they could make their llves better right away. He encouragd those first ploneers to demonstr:ate thatitis possible to leam outside of school so ttrat others would see that it could be done. We are closer to a deschooled societ5r than we were when John started GWS. We are slowly - asJud says, "byvery gradual, almost mlnute lncrements" - brealdng school's monopoly on ourchoices and our

imaginaflons. Yet the strllrdng thfng about homeschoollng as a formofsocial change ls that its ellect ls both gradual andimmedtate. A famil5r who wants to take its children out of adilhcult school slhladongets to take practical and lmmedlate steps toward the irnprovement of their lfues. No one says to them, 'Walt around, we're tqrlng to change the world, Just hang tn there for a little while

longer." John, I umuld argue, walr more ofan acflvist thanJud's plch:re of hlm suggests. In one sense he was padent, willing to wait for thegradual lncrements ofchange to amount to something stgnificantand total. Buthewas also impailent. Hewanted to seechange, to feel tt happentng. Every tirne a famlly made thedecislon to homeschool, Johncould see how proficundly thts decision alfected thetr ltues. He could also see the homeschoollng movement. the sum of these tndivtdual acilons, as that serles of small changes wtrlch

would - tf anythlngwould - make possible the soclety he tmagined. George Dennison makes an lmportant point when he says that wbat was most lmportant toJohnwas maldng sense. Hedid, very literally, make sensewhere there

appeared to be none, see paths ln chaos, figue out wh,ich way to go. He gave his energr to homeschooling, to those gradual increments, because he sawitas theway to gletwherehe was golng and because hewanted to be sure that when he got there other people would be

with him.

SusannahSheller

. Curriculum Outline

FOR PRIMARIES

Language Readiness

. Math

Scie.nce

. . . . .

Music

Resowces

Creative Movement

Art

Field Trips Bulletin Boards . Statue of Liberty Unit

PATRIOTISM FOR PRIMARIES Tested teaching aid for school, home, childrens' church. Grades K-3 Sofrcover. $9.95 postpaid-

SEM Box 2L1248, Auke Bay,

AK 99821

10 (adrprttsenvnf)

SHOP TALK COLLECTION

PARENTING EXPERIENCES

FREE ISSUE OFFER As a parent, you can appreciate the importance of the experiences of other parents. There is a sburce of these valuable parenting experiences.

Introducing SHOP TALK Written by experts (you and other parents), this monthly newsletter will give you exposure to other parenting ihou[hts, vi^ews and experidnces. Iialso gives you an opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise.

Some Topics to be Covered . Breasfeeding Toddlers . Tandem Nursing . Homebirth . Homeschooling . Converting to Natural Foods . Family Bed .Immunizations

How to Get Your FREE Issue Just complete and return ttre order form to

receive your free issue of SHOP TALK. Offer is for a limited time, so act now.

FREE Issue Offer Give us a try. Accept a sample issue and see if you like it. If you do, you can receive an additional l1 issues (12 issues in all) for just $24. That's only $2 per month. If you are not satisfied, just write "cancel" on the bill and owe nothing. The free issue is yours to keep. Subjects of Interest to Parents Each month is filled with stories written by parents on a particular topic. One subject is presented each issue so you receive in-depth coverage of this topic. Also included is an on-going dialogue from past issues. Breasdeeding, health care, nutrition, alternative education, birthing practices, and other parenting concerns will be covered.

SHOP. TALK

5737 64th Street

hbbock TX794'U

FREE ISSUE ORDER FORM EPtease send me a FREE issue of SHOP TALK. Bill me $24 for a one year subscription.

If I would like to continue receiving SHOP TALK, I will enclose payment wittr the bill. If not" I'll write "cancel" on the bill and keep the free issue.

NAME ADDRESS

CITY/STATE@Offer good for new subacripiqrs in U.S. only and for limited time. Orden subject to Erblisher's acceptance. Allow G8 weeks for delivery of first issue.

GRO\ryING WTIIIOUT SCHOOLING

JOHN HOLT'S BOOK AIIID MUSI ;ll

NOW ON VIDEOTAPE!

WE FIAVE TO CALL IT SCHOOL 'We have to call it school. Kids are expected to go to school and they couldn't come here unless we called it school. Usually they come when they are seven years old and stay until they are fourteen. The word school doesn't really describe ttris place, because it doesn't say enough. The most important things we do here are not the thtngs people think about when they think of school. What we care about most ls a way a person glrov'/s as a part of this communit5l. This is the children's own world, the place where they spend most of their time. We want them to orperiment and learn through their own experience to flnd out how a human communit5l is made, to flnd out how to make one together, to find out how they can influence and change ttrings if they want to, and we want them to bring this idea about life into their later lives." With these words Flasmus Hansen, one of the founders of the Bagsverd Ny Lilleskole in Copenhagen, Denmark, opens this beautiful, reflective documentary about his unique school. Directed and filmed in 1972 by PegS/ Hughes, the first Holt Associate, thts fflm has so many good ttrings about how children learn, and how adults can help them learn, that it continues to deserve

our attentlon. A fewwords about the lilm as a lllm. The directlng and photography of Peggr Hughes is very professlonal and even more lmpressive when you know this is her debut in both roles. Her carefirl observations of children - listenlng to records, playing with water, preparlng the school's lunch - capture some incredibly charming and inslghtful details and behavior that go unnoticed tn busy places like the Ny Lilleskole. Jan Johansonn's pluclgl' playful original score complements the visuals nicely. However the movie was made tn black and whtte fifteen year ago and our original print is not in mint condition, so there are brief moments when you will see grainy orJumpy frames, but they are qulte few. When we flr:st marketed the movie' we would rent it to interested schools and organizations and, in addition, we advertised that Peggl Hughes would, for a fee, be willing to talk about the school and film. The last time we rented the lllm thls way was to the MIT School of Education. Slnce it ls so near our office, John Holt accompanled Peggl to the shoudng and also partictpated in the questions and zrnswers ttrat followed. When they returned to the ollice and I asked how it went they were both a bit dismayed slnce the most often asked question about the school and fllm was, 'W'here is the learning taking place?" To most of these future teachers the only way they could conceive of learntng is to have a teacher instmct the class, test the class, and grade the class; all typical school actions that one never sees tn this movie' These children

are learning by the oldest, most effective way known to manlidnd: mimesis. This is a term often associated with the theater, especially when it refers to the way actors learn their roles and writers tr5r to create their material by observlng, then imitating, what they see people doing in real life, and through repetition and thought' refining these things. The teachers at the Ny Lilleskole teach in this way' by their example, by doing things and involving the children in them, not just by lecturing. For instance, when the children want to learn how to build a stone-a$e hut, they aren't taken to a museum or shown books about it they go out and build one wlth their teachers- However the teachers do teach formally when they are asked to do so. We see Rasmus working with a child, reading at a desk, while he says on the film, '.We think that you learn best when you want it yourself' We wait to teach kids how to read until they ask to be taught." The constant background noise ofchildren talking and playing pervades the atmosphere of the film, and the teachers are seen participatireg tn what is going on. These are not wide-eyed ideallsts trytng to make a new type of school but rather veteran teachers who decided to serve the children's needs instead of the school's needs (Rasmus, at the time this movie was made, had thirty-five years of teachlng experience). Like many altemative schools, they take their cue for governing themselves from SUMMERHILL, holding weekly meetings where everyone has an equal vote on what will be done about issues that are raised. As Rasmus points out, 'The kids decide here all the things that ln most schools are decided for them by the administration." What can be better preparation for adult life in a participatory democracy? The option of simply not going to school and staying at home, or workin$, is not worked into their overall concept of freedom for children' but the Ny Lilleskole comes pretty close to enabling children to be responstble, self-regiulated people. Don't get the ldea that the Ny Lilleskole has no problem children and its teachers are so child-centered that they let them run amuk. We see bullies as well as children day-dreaming in this school. The teachers are quick to always make efforts to get the bully to channel his ener$r into something more positive than pounding classmates, in this particular case Joining a soccer team; they also point out how day-dreaming' skipping stones in the water, going for a walk, is not anathema to education but part of thinking and ffguring out how things work. Besides the school meetings, there are evening meetings with the parents who express their concerns and offer their help to make the Ny Lilleskole something different from what school was for them. With the advent of the VCR and the cheaper dupli(Please turn to back Page.)

729 Boylston Street

John Holt's Book and Muslc Storc

Boston, MA02I

CELEBRATING TEN YEARS AS ESCAPE FROM CHILDHOOD

than any of John's previous books. Today, people and critics are still sharply divided about the main quesUon presented here: What lf chlldren had the right to equal treatment under the law...the rtght to be legally responsible for their lives and acts...the right to work for money...the right to travel, llve away from home, choose or make their own homes... "Astonlshtngly cqenL [Escape From Childhrrlodl ts torrcttng In tts fuaut{ul respectJor child.rcn and its insistence on

tteir dtgnttg," -New

York Thnes

the right to do, ln general, what any adult may legally do? ESCAPE FROM CHILDHOOD is a "IVeJust ffnished ESAPE FROM very readable, tantallzlng, and arguCHILDHOOD... and I'm exicited ment causing book. John Holt presabout it. I think tt goes further and ents the case for the needs and rights deeper than anything IVe written. It of chlldren logically and reasonably. should bring me nto some interestAfter examining the historical backing klnds of arguments, and I dare say a lot ofthe professlonal defend- ground and soctal conventions of modern-day childhood, John looks at ers of children who have marked me the particular rights children should down as one of the Good Guys will change their mturds. So be it. At least have and the possible consequences of chlldren gaining that right, like the it should cure me of the charge of right to vote, the right to work for betng a Rousseauvian and ofbeing sentimental about children. I will be money, the rtght to legal and flnanclal accused of being crt-el and hearfless, responsibility. John once said, 'What determines which will be a refreshdng change." what sort of person a child will be is John Holt wrote thts tn a letter to how they are treated, not what they are Judson Jerome ln.l973 and he was right. ESAPE created more of a stir told" and this ldea grounds ESCAPE

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING BINDERS

Irarning" John writes: lir.it"Tft

hi"''#r,f

Haffi ff t$fl,1*L13.

A person's freedom of leamlng is part of hls freedom of thought, even more baslc than his freedom ofd speech. If we take from someone hls rlght to declde what he wtll be curious about, we destroy his fneedom of thought. We say ire effect, you must think not about what interests and conerns you, but about what interests and concerns us. ...As adults. we assume thatwe have the right to declde what does or does not interest us, what we will look tnto and what we will leave alone. We take this right for granted, cannot lmaglne that it rnight be taken away from us. Indeed, as far as I know, lt has never been written into any body of law. Even the writers of our Consfltuflon dld not mention it, They thought lt was enough to guarantee cltizens the freedom ofspeech and the freedom to spread thelr ldeas as widely as they wished and could. It did not occur to them that even the most tyrannical government would try to control people's minds, what they though and knew. That ideawas to come later, under the benevolent gUise of compulsory unlversal education."

This book forces one to think about children as people, not cute pets or love obJects, and this thought has

disturbing implicaUons; it also shovys us the promise of new relationships based not on controling others, but on enjoying shared experiences and responslbilities. $4.95

NEVER TOO LI\TE

The sturdy brown vinyl btnder plctured at the left can be ordered with orwlthout back issues of GWS. Blnders requlre postage - see order form. Binders wlth back lssues can onlv be shtpped UPS.

Btnderwlth 24 rods (Holds cWS l-24) $ro.oo Btnder with l8 rcds (Holds GWS 25 -

42o143-60)

FROM CHILDHOOD. For instance, about the "Right to Control One's

$9.5o

All back issues of GWS (l- 57) plus three blnders. 60 rods. $â&#x201A;Ź|5.m

GWS 1987 Dlrectory Our complete llsttngs of homeschoolers across the US and the world who

want to be contacted by others interested ln homeschoollng. The same lnformatlon as in GWS #54 but prlnted in more readable large type. $5.OO

John Holt. How, aftera non-muslcal childhood. John Holt came to love music and began to play the cello at age 50. In providtng us with his observailons and thoughts about how he learned about music. and later how to play an turstmment, John also provldes us with hls most autobiographical book. The prlmary focus of the book, however, ls best stated by John: "If I could learn to play the cello well, as I thought I could, I could show by my own example that we all have greater powers than we thtnk; that whatever we want to learn or leam to do, we probably can learn; that our ltves and our possibillUes are not determlned and ftxed by what happened to us when we were little, or by what experts say we can or cannot do."

About music, teachtng , learnlng, and above all, overcomlng self-doubt. 94.50

729 Boylston Street

John Holt's Book and Music Storc

Boston. MA 021 16

PUBLISHERS & BOOKSE REPRINTS .25 each. Complete set of 19 reprlnts: $2.OO John Holt was a brilliant essayist and these I - 4 page reprints of artlcles John wrote for leading magzlnes {LIFE, PSYCHOT OGYTODAY, MS. etc.) prove it. Whether he ls describlng the reasons why schools should help homeschoolers ("Schools and Homelschoolers") or crttiqutng Sesame Street ('Big Bird Meet Dick and Jane"), John's points of view are llvely , timely and important. Our reprints also consist of articles by others about learning, such as "Research on Homeschoolin$' "Homeschooler at Harvard" and our latest addition, Amanda Bergson-Shilcock's "One Homeschooler's Answers.". Here are the remalnlng titles byJohn Holt: "Sensible Phonlcs,"''Why Teachers Fail," "Imaginlng a Irarning Society," "IrgislaUve Proposal, "'The Cuteness Slmdrome, "'Thoughts on Countlng, "

lnaahing -

&gtan nd.i@6t l

plus "Successful Homemade Currlculum," and miscellaneous excerpts and reviews about educaUon books, homeschooling, & Holt's Obltuaries fl'tme, NYTimes)..

IS ABLE: the Myth of

Learnlng Dlsabllttles.

Our most recent publication. The storles parents have told us about the damaging effects of the LD label on their children, and the failure of the experts to reach consensus about what the label ls supposed to explaln, leave us very skeptical about lts value or accuracy. This booklet collects these stories as well as articles by LD specialists and others who questlon the assumpUons and use of the LD label, but who are given little or no space for thelr views by the educational establishment. After distinguinshing between a learning dilllculty versus a learning disability, the booklet suggests reasons to doubt the LD label. other

BEYOND by FREEDOM John Holt. Published ln L972 before homeschooling became part of hts thinldng, this book lays the groundwork for much of John's later involvement with homeschooling. "I have come to feel that the deschooled socie$r, a society Ar whJch learning is not separated from but Jolned to, part of the rest of life, is not a luxury for wtrtch we can wait hundreds ofyears, but something toward which we must move and

work as quickly as posslble." Ranging from early childhood to adult education. John discusses the existing alternatives to conven-

tional schooling and offers many

other imaginaUve and workable ideas, such as communlty learnlng centers accessible to young and old and adult gutdes to help children learn to read. John also examines why schools can't cure poverty and only make itworse. $4.5O

ffi8a

tiatrtn$rt

EVERYONE

Explodtng

f'aW

rr! &t!rat, trrtla* 4r,/r *rta{â&#x201A;Ź- do ItD @ n@r*s

SPECTAL DOCUMENTS Here is a sampling of some of our t:\ Llt\ i)\1.: t5 \$t 1..: ! r|lrrlirr: I lrr \lr fh ol l.r'rrrtrirL llis;thili{irq

most popular ones: HOME SCHOOLING

RESOIJRCE

LIST. Up to date address list of correspondence schools and materlals, private school enrolllng home study students, and naflonal and local home schooling organizatlons. $f,5O

LEARNING MATERIALS LIST.

Addresses ofover l5O sources forbooks, games, magazlnes, products, etc. Most were recorrunened ln GWS. Includes supplies for art, computers, languages, math, music, science. $2.0O

THE MOTHER EARTH liIEWSl lssue 64, 1980. The complete lssue contalning ways to look at so-called LD behavlor, and a section descdbing some corunon sSrmptoms of LD that educators look for. $3.0O

'Teach Your Own Chlldren... At Home," a six page interview with John Holt. Color photos. $3.OO

TIIE EDUCATION OF JOHN IIOLT. An in-depth portratt that was featured in YANKEE magazine. An exccllent portrayal of John and hls work. $2.OO

YOUNG CHILDREN: NATURAL LEARNERS.

HOMESCHOOLING THE NEWS. Edited by

Edited by Donna Richoux. This booklet ls made of letters and articles we have wanted to prtnt in GROWING WITHOIII SCHOOLING but for whtch we have not had room. All the storles relate to children from birth to age six

Patrick Farenga."But is

and how they learned somethlng. Through the storles ln these pages, a new picture emerges of what the role of the parents may be tn producing children who are happy, creatlve, and lndependent - parents

who trust their children's innate ability to learn, who provide only as much help as the chlld asks for, and who allow the child to become irrvolved tn their lives and work lnstead of narrowlng thetr world down to the traditional limits of childhood. It shows how home-schooling starts before age 5l $2.OO

homeschoollng legal?" "Aren't you socially deprlvtng your child?" When one gets such questlons about homeschoollng from anyone lt ls tempting to follow the discussion up wlth gtvtng the nay-sayer a copy of GWS or any other homeschoollng newsletter, The problem ls these crltlcs can claim these publications have a vested lnterest tn promotlng homeschooltng poslUvely. To get around thls weVe collected stories about homeschooling from the pressat-large, and thetr thoughtful, openminded tone make thls booklet a great glft for skepUcs. ArUcles from THE WALL ST. JOURNAL, WASHINGTON POST, tIY TIMES, THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS. THE MONTREAL GAZEI-IE, etc. 48 pp. $4. 5O

John Holt'e Book and Muslc Store

729 Boylston Street

Boston, MA O2l 16

GWS T-SHIRTS Anthony and Vincent Mojica show how dapper you can look in your very own GWS T-shirt. Check this chart and list the codes for desired design, color, fabric, and size. For example, CD\50B4-36 would be the Child/Sm shirt in blue, with 50-50 fakic, size 34-36. One code for each choice. $6 plus postage for any shirt. DESIGN

COLOR

To get:

Specify

GWS

Child/Sun Blue

Yellow FABRIC

1007o Cotton 50-50 cot/poly SZES: Children: 6-8; 10-12; l4-16

Adult

100

34-36:38-40;4244;46

Kate Kerman's books have been among our bestsellers for as long â&#x201A;Źrs weve carried them. We have now made arrangements with Kate to be the publisher of these books.

BY I(ATE KERMAI\T Fu,ld ,;rlli

ttnnbtr*rtuie

1i:t

\i,i)',{ ".:".t

MATHPI-TS 2. Written out of Kate's homeschooling experiences teaching math to her children. Thls book is packed with interesting and pracUcal ideas and rare

'lt'ja f#s'Wd W6t{ ,' tlu

WsW

& W hdt

s: \5

common sense. $3.50 SHOULD I TEACH MY KIDS AT HOME? A workbook for parents to help organize and direct their thoughts about what sort of education they want for their children. $4.50 WHO DOES WHATWHEN. An excellent guide to curriculum planning and record keeptng in the homeschool. 92.50

w.*,J,***o

)Tij

IWE HAVE TO... Con. from front page.)

cation costs of videotape we hope wlll take advantage of this offer and share ttrls film with as many people, in and out of school, as posslble. It can be used as a springboard for discussions about not only what schools can be, but for showing how children learn by doing and how adults can work with, instead of on, children. Spectfy VHS or Bcta. $25 plns poetagc. people

BUMPER STICKERS

BOOKPLATES

R:inted in red, whlte & blue; vinyl coated. $2.25 postpaid.

You Don't Have to Go...lp/' To GROW! $t Grcwing Without Schooling Wdrc GROWING

WII}iO|.I/. SffIOOUI{G

...and doing Greatl 729

Bothron stret, Bd.oo, M4c

These are free upon request to anyone who

purchases any book by John

Holt. Otherwise

MasterCard and Visa Between lO - 4 Monday - Friday

Call 617-457-l6es

please send fffty cents per plate.

Send order to:

Quantity Tifle/Description

UPS chart:

For orders totaling Up to $lo.0O

Ship

via:_US mail (see below) _UPS (See left)

$lo.0l-$r9.99

$20.0o-$29.99 $30.oo-$39.99 $40.OO-$49.e9 $50.OO-$74.9e

$75.OO-$e9.es $l0O.0O and over

Postage charge: 4.,o<.vllql,v9.."r.vv'.vvP

Subtotal: 5olo Sales Tax (MA residents only):

For l, 2, or 3 books or tapes: $1.5O; .5O per

[]'i! additional item. Records: $l for l; add .5O per additional record. OVERSEAS SUREACE SURFACE IvIAIL:I, IvIAIL:I, 2, or 3 items, $2.OO; 4 or X:'=X V/.OU rr-hr^---^- r money in US FUNDS or ^^ per -^- item. Please send more, dr $l.OO ---^ iis"ilpJi''iiii.r'.,o ffi""fu-il;"fr IIILIN UIAWII on aa us Ull VV bank. VAIA. outsid;d: VUEIqL UIs ul r'uu I

^$,t;lt" to ontario and will not deliver to a PO Box.

iw il!'. :

w @&ra'.,:r..

Susannah Shefler

. :::.:.':.'aa.:

Patrick Farenga and Lauren

Donna Richouxand Norna

sx \f\

Ellie Straus

Sue Mojica and Celia

-d

WendvBaruch

t.-

Ma4randTomMaher Celia Mojica weighing packages

l.auren Farenga

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, READERS! FROM THE STAFF GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #58

Photos by Day Farenga

ffix \

GWS: CELEBRATING TEN YEARS OF PTJBLICATION

EARLY DAYS IN THE OFFICE MAKING A NEWSLETTER F-lorn Peg

editor:

Dwkee, GWS's fvst nurnglng

The layout forthe firstlssuewas done before we vrentwith the btg typewriters [SS: wblch were slmilar to what was used up through #5 l that do the Laytng-out more or less asyou type. I remember the arduous typtng, tqdng to staywit}tn the columns, linlng up and la5dng dov,rn small cut-out pieces, tlren sticklngthemto huge pleces of paperwlth that &#)'@ cement, I can see the bottlewith the gtrrmmed-up neck arrd the

raggedy brush. John bought some of those

beautiful non-reproductng blue penclls, an enormous, wonderful, metal T-Square and a great steel mler. Webought hundreds of those stick-on letters, which cost a small fitrtune per package, and a beautiful, big square of wood for the layout work. I loved the tools, but anyone who's done layout work will sympathtzewith the efficrt thatwent into tfrat ffrstissue. We were a wild and happy grcup , wtth lots ofenergr to devote to each and every proJect. If it's even thinkable, and,/or possible, I can tell you that John ts wtldly happy to see you carrJdng on so thoughtfully, seriously and

magnlficentlywlth thework he began. John's reasons forstartingGWScanbe found on the ffrst page ofthe flrst issue, ln the ardcle called, "On Social Change,. John loved hts rebel-mlnorlty, and he had a never-ending wish to support, encourage and be part of them, and to assist tlrem on thelr vray.

SEVERAL THOUSAI\D LETTERS A few thoughts on the GWS lOth Annlversa4r, as 2-month-old Norna sleeps

bestdeme.

Tenyears ago, a college classmate and I told each otherweurculd hane reall5r worthwlrtleJobs by tlre ttme we were 25 - work thatrve trulywanted to do. Thatrnwhelped me declde two years Later to leave my teachlng Job and come to Boston toworkforJohnHolt. (I turned 25 that fall, so ]rou see I made my deadltne.) Iwantyou to knowhowmuchl gatned tn that morze, not onl5r frrom the chance to work closely wlth a remarkable man for sixyears, but also from all the cpntact wtthyou, the readers and contrlbutors. It has been rrw -

prlrrilqeto readwhatmustbe serreml thousand letGrs, and to wrlte serreral hundred myself tn response (ablt of awriter's block

was one ofthe flrst tlrings to gol). Of nec.esstty, what you have seen ln GWS ltself could only have been a dlsdllaflon of the mail, the sparkling nuggets that represented the whole and pushed dlscusslons fonvard. So I rras qulte awarethatltwas arareprMlege to see the entlne volume of tdeas, questlons, experlences, ardve on my desk each day. Some people, not so rpord -orlented themselves, have asked tf lt was not hard to read so much. Not at all; I found lt to be a real pleasure, as dtdJohn, and asSusannahdoes now. We fourrd tnmanylettersachallenge to

thlnk through problems

nrc had not before;

fr'..".r:)

=+) \':i::i/ /\ \@

Celebratlng IOY

and even the letters that asked the "same old quesflons" taught us something - f nothing else, that the quesdons were sdll out there. I amparticularly aware now howwhat you have told us has allowed me to enioy my iaughter so much. Your frequent meidonJ and recommendadons over the vears regarding home birth, breasfeeciing, the farnily bed, the "condnuum concept," etc., allowed me to establish a new model ofwhat is normal and natural, and to feel falrly relaxed and supported tn these choices, erren in thls craz5r modernworld. - Donna Richoux

YOU CALL THIS WORK? 'You're gotng to work nov/?" I satd. "Sure. I have keys." "But tfs 8:3O at ntghtl Shouldn'tyou show me this word processing stulf arrother time?" "Nah. Besides, I'llbetJohn's there. Come

on."That said, TlmChapman led me fromhis roomon the Fenwav down Bovlston Strâ&#x201A;Źet to number 729. Up on the fourti floorwas a tiny ollice, packed with books, papers, typewrlters and ptles of readlng matertals stacked fn

dtsarray throughout the general areaofthe baywlndows that overlooked Boylston Street. A mlddle-aged man sat ln the midst of the pfles, hunched over a large t54pewrlter, typtng furiously. Hewore green ear protectors that made hlm look like he belonged at Logan Ajrport unloading luggage rather than being the author/businessman I had heard so much

about. John removed trls earprotectors and stood up asTlmlntroduced meto htm.Tlm explalned that hewas golng to traln me on the word processor ln return for me tptng labels forhtm. John exchanged some small talk withus thenreturned to lrisumrk, andwe turned to ours. I was a blt shocked bv the informaltty of it all - afterall, I'd just inet the boss in hls olfic.e and he didn't even ask me what I was doing, where I went to school, or lf I had read htsbooks. Everythtngl knewfrom my pastumrldngexperlences told me thatany Job must entall drudgery, betng on someone else's tlme, monetary reward, and a "professlonal" atdtude. It took me some dme to get used to the idea that worldng for John Holt dtdn t mean going some placâ&#x201A;Ź to toil and curse, or toll and be stlent; ratlrer, lt meant accompltshtng c:ertatn thtngs tn as pleasant an atrnosphere as posslble. When I flnally landed a part-timeJob at Holt Assoclates I couldn't beheve it whCn, on my flrst day, Peg Durkee handed me keys to tlre offlcre and sald, 'You harrc to pack and matl all the urcek s book orders by erery Friday; thafs about twenty hours worth of work. Whatdays doyouwant torpork and for how long each daf?" Afteryears ofbaslc labor, in and out of schools, I nwer thougfit anyJob would entatl maldng my own schedule on the ffrst day - I was ahuays told a schedule by my employers. For all the lnformallty of the offlce, I soon realtzed that Peggr liept John on schedule for hts spealdng engagements and kept the oltce hummtng by keeping aU the comparSr's bills and buslness up to date. But Johnand Peggrcould accept thaturork dtdn't harrc to take eight hours a day - aJob was done when it was done, not when a clock sald so .

Yet some days it barely seemed like any type of olnce. Being caught gabbtng with Peggr and TIm (then laterrvith MarkPierce) over morningcolfee about the day's newswas nsrrer cause for alarm when "the boss" showed up - John alrvaysJumped in and offered his two cents about whateverwe were talking about. I-a.ter, when I became his business manager, he would walk in with hts Sony Walkman and plop the headphones over my ears so I could hear tris latest live recording. No matter how immersed in ourbookkeeping or correspondence I was, he made sure I took the tlme out to enJoy the music. 'Uust listen to the last movementl" he would say, "The Philharmonic played it beautifu lly last

nrghtl" In many ways the ofrce was an extension

ofJohn's home, especiallywhenwe had

visitors. Sometimes John uzould introduce his visitor around the olfice, then he and his guestwould pull up some chairs in the center of the olfice and startchattingwhlle the rest ofus milled about them tendingto our buslness. I rememberJohn introducingJirn Herndon to Ross Campbell and me one aftemoon. The four of us sat in the center of the olfice, surrounded by our shelves of irrventory, talldng about schools and city life. A favoritevlsitor and friend ofJohn's was a young conductor, Paul Hess. He arrd Paul could spend hours talldngaboutthe intrigues and beaufles ofbeing a classlcal musician wtrlle we packed books around them. We all got a ktck, not to menflon an educaflon, out of betng allowed to hear these conversatlons.

John, by trts example, saw to it that spontaneity never left the olfice. One Wednesday afternoon, afterhearing and readtnggood rerriews ofaJapanese film called Muddg Rirar,,Iohn and Donna decided to hurryand go makethe 2:OO showln Harvard Squarel Thts doesn't mean we dtdn t work hard, because we dld. Comtng trx early, sta5rlng late, orworldngweekends were howure made up for enJo5rtng Me on compar5r time. Throughoutall ouryearsJohn made HoltAssoclates a h"ppy, tnteresdngplacetowork, and I think, to a degree, he did thls deltber-ately stnce the company could never really afford to pay decent wages and he uranted to keep hrts good employees. When Mary Van Doren uranted to brlng her chtldren to the oftce (shewas the ffrst person to do ttds regularly), John dtdn't bat an eye: ln fact he enc.ouraged her. Mary Gray laterbecarne our ffrst colleague to brtng her chlldren to the oltce datly. To me, the ctrlldrenu,E nowhanre around us at theolfice flll some of the gap John left when he died. Thelr mlrth, spontanei$r, and quesdons add a dllferentcolor to wtratcan somedmes be rouflne paper-push-lng. But theolllce has changed, and sorrrtlmes vre're all too busy Just trylng to meet our deadlines; I know I sometlmes need to be reminded to "llghten up." RememberlngJoh4 dressed tn hts whtte tee shlrtand Bermuda shorts, maklngus stop work to eat the frresh stra\tberries orlamhe'd brought, always serves as an anfldofe for me when I look at our flnanc.es and decide to make HoltAssociates rrnre rigid and buslnessllke. Thls ls the spiritJohn leftthe cnmpany and *" n.

"*,otc*,o;[l:l

GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOUNG #58

''I LOOKED FOR TIIE LEADER AND IT WAS ME'' Thoughts from organizers, lobbyists and editors Nancy Plent of the New Jersey Unschoolers Nenvork wrote in GWS #49: "When I asked John Holt n 1977 what he could tell me about the legalities of homeschoolitrg in New Jersey, he replied, \Mhy, nothing. We were hoping you folks would tell us!"' Nancy, like so many othen who became leaders of local or national support groups, soon found that she could learn about the law, organize a meeting, edit a newsletter, give advice to others. The short history of the homeschooling movement is already a fascinating record of how people can organize themselves to share information, change the law, publicize their views - all while leading othenvise busy lives. We still count on "you folks" !o te[ us what's new and what's in the works, and as we read the great volume of newsletters and special mailings you send us each month, we're amazed at how much you manage ta get dane!

THE EARLY EXCITEMENT Ftom Nancg Plent

tle WSCHOOLERS

NETWORK(NJ):

Tenyears ago, I knew every homeschool-

erinNewJersey - all halfdozenofthem. It

was qulte a proc€ss findlng erren that many, and truthfullyl wasn't surewhy I had started looldng. I'd nerrcrheard theterm "support group," in fact, until somebody came to one of the mectings I'd set up and called tt that. It didn t matter how many people agreed or disagreed wlth me, thougfr, because t]rere wasnoway lwasgolng to send mysonEric to school. Etefore I'd learned that keeping htm home was legal, I'd spent hours hatchlr4; new schemes to avoid sending htm. The ffrst group of homeschoolers were all llke that: readv to de$ anythtng and anybody to do thls. After months of lonely mental schemtng and planning how I could dodge the shertlf who was sure to come fetch me, tt was a glddy feelingwhen I finally met people who could talkoutloud aboutthese ideas. The gfddy feeltngs gaveway to panlcwhen John Holt agreed to appear on the Donahue show, though. It was one thlng to gather ln secret ln a llvlng room, Ituras qulte another to let all of those potenflally dangerous people out tJrere

lmowwhat'wewere dolng. 0 don't knowwho tn parUcular I feared, but I was sure there would be A Lot ofThemt) Througfrout the whole Donahue show I wanted to put my hand overJohn's mouth on the screenand stop trim from spilltng the beans. I held my breath for a fewdays afterward, watdngforthat shedlf, a letter from the school, the sky to fall ln. Nothlng happened, except that cWS gqt an arralanche of mall, and routed the NewJersey letters to us aftertheyhad answered them, enabllngus to meet so rnanymorepeople. All those enthusiasflc letters felt surprisln$y like approval, and gave us all a lot ofcourage. WhenI advertised a meedng neanme I gave the name of a homeschooler mary miles away as tlre "publiclty chatrman." Any reporterwho wanted a storywould lntervlew that faraway 'chalrman" and lessen my chancres of sa5dng somethlng ttrouglrtlessly offenslvewhere the town school board could hearlL Othersgave myname to trrefrpaper. It wasa fewyears beforel'd talk to a paperclose to me, errenthougb, llloglcally, td talked to

Tte New Yq*?Tnres, the Assoclated Press news service and had been on a couple of outof-townTVshows. I remember a ldnd of tenslon when people got together at flrst, as tf thts ideawas so blg that tt dernanded that somethtng be

doneabouttt Ttrerewas much more talk then about homeschoolers starting thelrown schools, for ocample, than I hear today. Meetlngs went on for hours about nothtng tn partrcular. Probably they do today, too, but tt s€ems ttrat now there's a kind of pattern of GROWING WTIIIOUT SCHOOLING #58

"things to do"whenyou're homeschooltng a lot ofmodels to copy. There lsn't that feeltng ofhavlng to tnvent thewheelbeforeyou can

getrolling. Eric was alwaysone ofthe oldest klds at the meeflngs. Afterawhlle hehad no real lnterest ln them, and even the open house I'd started wtth such htgh elgectaflons dtdn't turn up arry ldds his age. I found myself dotng meetlngs for new people because tlrey needed

it, notbecausewedtd. Wtth the exceptlon ofoneortwo good friends made tn thoseyears, mycontactwtth homeschoolers today ts pretty much l{mlted to phone calls and letters, mostly tn connecUon wlth our newsletter. Increaslngly, IVebecome more ofa "teacher" or informatlon connecdon than a parficipanl Inthatcapacity, IVe seen changes in the people I meet. For one thlng, hardly anybody calls anymore lnawe over this novel ldeaWhen I'masked to giveworkshops locally, the people who come to them already know somettrtng about homeschoollng. There's not much hosdlity from strangprs, elther. Far back tn the Dark fues, tf the subJect ofwtry your ldds were tn the park on Monday momlng came up, you cnuld almost feel some people wtthdr:aw from you when you exptatned. Todayeverybody seems to knorrr somebodywho ls dotngtL Itwas startltng to read on the surveywe took last fall that six people said '\ve always

knew ttwas posslble." Always lmewl What a dtlferentperspecHve that mustbe. We groped tn largedark spacesand cameoutwtth ttny pteces of answers, one at a tlme, when we started. Nowthere's awhole gsneradon of people who 'lust know. " What an overwhelming Geltng, to have been part of a

changelikethaL I see some lndicaflon that the movement may be becoming a ltttle bland and

homogenized and maygo formoregroup stuf, less hacldng lt out alone, I tblnk some of that ls too bad , because when you arrlve on the scene and ffnd that sometblng ls already betng dorre one vray, you tend to follow sutL You aren t rcqulred to lrrventyour own verslon oflt from scratch, urhlch ts a spedal brand of excltem€nl But I guess nobody unuld want to go back to havlng no cutact elther. For those ofus u*ro happened "gah, to be tn the rtghtplaceat the rtghttime and able to get ln on the grourd floor, there's almost no dlrectlonthat tlrtngs could go ln nowthat would seem better than that flrst excltement.

HELPING HOMESCHOOLERS Flom Pat Montgamery oJ CLONIARA HOME B/.SED EDUCATION PRAGRAM:

Clonlara, Inc. ts the ollcial name, Just ttrat; not "school." The choic.e was dellberate.

When Jirn Montgomery and I founded Clonlara tn 1967, we envtsloned a tlmewhen ttwould evohre from a school to a deschool of the kind Ivan llltch, Paul Goodman and John Holt hatled. We had no cleartmagpofJust o<actly how ttrts \rras golng to happen or what such an unschool vnuld lmk [ke. ItJust felt like theuray to go. From the start we had to hustle for funds Just to corrcr operatlng costs. In the f:ll of 1979, Ed Nagel of the SATITA FE COMMUMTY SCHOOL passed on to me a btt of addcethatJohn Holtgave to hirn: "Setyour school up to asslst homeschmlers."That spurred the tdea forClonlaraSchool's HOME BA.SED EDUCATION PROGRAM. Here, ffnally, was a potentlal fundlng sourcc for the campus schoolwtrich grew right out ofour

ptrilosoptry. On our day school campus, I came lnto avemg;e of75 students and thelr parents each year. Now, througb HBEP, I contactan averageof l5,OO shrdents and par€nts peryear. Famtlies enrolled in HBEP live tn 45of the states and ln serrcn forelgn counbles. The famtltres I unrkwlth ln our campus school share stmtlar phllosophles, wtrlle the home educators eorolled ln HBEP have a wtde nartety of phllosophfcal

contactwith an

viewpotnts.

Bqtnning home educators are more sawSrnowthan tlreywere lnyear."s pasL The pioneers in thls mo\rernent hare marked tratls for thosewho are comlng after. It's a very exdttng thlng to wltness. My own responses to the querles of our enrollees has orpa.nded from one-to-one letterwrltlng or telephone con'versaflons to a neursletter

wtrlch has grourn from four to trpenty pages over the past ftrrc years.

There ls, unfortunately, a proprietary atdhrde on the part of school oltcials toward parents and shrdents. Thts translates fuxto an adversarial postule: "I own you. You vdll do a.s I say. I am the professlonal and you are beneath me." It has only been ln the last elghteen months or so that I have encruntered superlntendents ln any slzeable number (rneantng I can count them on tuto handsl) who recognlze and respect parents' rtghts. Home educatton ts both thecauseand efrectof change for all ofus, school offclals espectally. Clonlara has groun ln rnarryways, We

---..--..- Finally, Videos (e 9,:{ CGq6.

ffi ffiffi ,ffi ,we LlLsd{E: M

ffi

r't

that Teach! Ages 4-11 TEACHERS

6 parts $19.95 each

r-80u777-LION

l8 were lntroduccd

tnJapan by

a sertes

artlcles wrttten ln aJapanese newsPaPer by a reporterwho had been sentto Amerlcatovlslt free schools. Hewent flrst to John Holt, whose books had b€en translated lntoJapanese. John told theyoung man that he was "no longerlnvolved ln schools" and that I uras the person to call slnce I was then presldent of

TheNATIONALCOALfiONOF ALTERNATTVE COMMUNffY SCHOOIS. The

reporter did phone me riglet fromJohn's olfice. He vtsited Clonlari and serreral other altematlve schools. Thrls prompted rnore ar$cles and books and much tnterest on the part ofJapanese parents, students and teachers. Iwas tnvtted to address groups irt Japan ln 1982 and agaln ln 1984. I coau-thored abook, FleeSchols: Reallly and Dream wtrtch was publtshed ln Japan. SeveralJapanese sdrools admfre and lmltate the tdeas and pracflccs ln American private altemative schools. HBEP serrres nine homeschool families there now. HBEP has, of course, grown ln physical slze, Our olBce stalf has grown from one in 1979 to el{ht today. We now have a network of Clonlara S-atellite Schools - five ln Ohto and fourtn Mtchlgan. These are bmnch schools set up by parents and teachers to asslst home

educitors wtth

a rrade$r of servlc.es close

home. An arflcle in Worncur's Day thls past Aprtl brought ire over IOO requests for lnformadon per week for the followlng tuo months. "I am a newly-wed," wrote onewoman. "My husband and I plan on stardng our famtly soon. Please send me lnformaflon and reserve a space for

ourctrtld lnyour program." I see through the eyes of these new$-weds who are already plannlrg to nurture thelr family fn ways that

would have been unthlnkable ficrourown parents and grandparents. As Alan Hogan, the Australian televtslon director who carrr to film Clonlara in June, said at the end of his workday here, 'This homeschooling is the wave of the future, it is."

GTVING ADVICE Ftorn Sharontlfllastod oJ Mlnrr.sota's BASIC LEIRNNIG NETWORK:

In 1979 when I started homeschooling mv son. mv onlv contact wtth ltke-mtnded ptilple rvai thniugh cWS. I rememberbelng senl a copy of Homesteadss Neussln l98O' I was excited to see that tt featured homeschoollng. I discovered that lt contained a dtrectory of state contacts and eager$ looked for the Mnnesota contact. It was me. John Holthad glven rrle the responslbility and privilege ofbeing a homeschool leader' In the beginning I was veryevangelistic about homeschooltng. I held meetlngs ln my ourn home. I would flll a basket with matertals and go to varlous towns to meet wlth groups oftnterested famtlies. Mostof them were Just tlrtnldng about homeschooltng and the ctrtldren were prcschoolers or tn the prtmary grades. I ialked before several church groups, farmers and beekeeper."s, mothers who had had home btrths. I wai trrvolrrcd wlth the beglnning stages of homeschoolfng fur both Mlnnesota and-, for several months, Maryland. In the beglnnlng lt was necessa4r to hold regular support meetlngs to help famtlies

learn hou, to homeschool, stnc€ tt was a kind trlal and error leamtng experlence. This also kept up ercryone's clura€F, glnce we were crtdcized by errcryone from Grandpa. to the of

school board. Therewere lots ofunderground families in the early days, and there are sdll some. These chtldrenwere tr:ained to

tell

anyone who asked that they went to a private school. They did not leave the house durlng school hours. Ifs qulte a feat to keep the fact

thatyou are homeschmllng six chtldren a secret, but I knowa famllywho's doneJust

thatforyears. Thts pastyear I have led no meethgs at all. I advise people over the phone, put them ln touch with support groups that I knowof and keep themapprtsed of things through a sporadically-published newsletter. Occasionally people sflll c.ome to my home if they ltve nearby. MyJob now is more of a

referral servtce. There are lots ofsupport groups, lots of books, catalogs, and a lot more agreement that homeschooltng ts OK There has becn one very noflcable ctnnge in the last trvo years. I am getttngl more calls from peoplewho are removing teenagers from school. They take thelrolderchildrenout of school because "he ls l 3 and can't read" or "the teachers say he needs to take drugs because he is a behavtor problem" or "he thlnks he can learn more tf he lsJust left alone." The MINNESOTA HOME SCHOoL NETWORK has evolved lnto TTIE BASIC LEARMNG NETWORK We now have pald stalf. We will soon set up a learning c€nter whichwtll be avatlable to schoolctrlldren after school. We plan on donatlngbooks to schools and librarles, and have a large educafional extravagarza planned for September 12 whtch wlll be for both teachers and homeschoolers. I'm really excited about reaching out even further, helping more farnilles and enlightenlng more teachers.

"WE THINK YOU IT''

SHOI.JLD DO

FlomSusonRtchnanoJ

PEAINSYLYANIA HO M ES€.HAOI,EfiS :

Tenyears agg thls summer our son Jesse was bom, and that's also when I olllctally dropped out ofschool teactrtng. I was ahvays sometblng of a mlsfft as a teacher ln schools, but I dtdn t qutte know then that I'd flnd my ntche as a parent, teachlng and learntng with mv own ldds at home. Bv the dme he was 2 I f2, Jesse uras firmly arinounclng *rat he'd never go to school - no nursery school, no preschool, or the school where hls father taught. No school, About that flme I was vtsiting my mother ln Georgia and happened to catchJohn Holt onThe Donahue Show. I remember my sister and mother saying with dlsgust, "Oh nol Just see what that craz5r John Holl b up to nowt Have you ever heard of something so ridiculous?" I admit the tdeadid sound somewhat rldiculous to me then, but lt also woke up new posstblltfles and ldeas, and I couldn't get the thought out of my head. Homeschooling: no school. Atall. Ever. Contlnuing to learn with my lidds. No

rlgamaroleoftrytng to s€t upourown altemaflve school, wtth worries about money and stafflng. Soon afterward I found GWS, found one frlend who was serlously contempladng the whole ldea, and after a whlle I convlnced my husband Howard thatwe should do lt. He flnally realtzed how much lt meant to me, and tlrat it wasn't one of those declsions thatyou could comeback to ln etghteenyears. Jesse of course needed no convlncingat all - he'd held ftrmto his earlierfeelings about schooling. It's funny to thlnkofhowwe fellinto dolnga state homeschooling newsletter. In

March of I 982 I was rldlng with a friend down to see John Holt at a Pittsburgh televtsion

shrdio. Shebegan salnghownice itwould be lf someone would gather the names and addresses of evervine ln the audience that day. I agreed wholeheartedly. Then she said someone could even send out c.opies of that llst, so we could all stay ln touch. Agaln I satd, "Great ldea. " She conflnued, saylng it rntght also be ntce lf someone c.ould have a llle of sample curriculums and letters people had written to thelr school distrtcts. I agreed again, thinldng of course that shewas

thinldng ofdoingall thls herselfand tryin! to encour:age her ln lt. Then she added that maybe someone could periodicallywrtte up

somethtng aboutwhatwas avatlable ln the ffle and send lt out - ltke, perhaps, a sort of neursletter. Agaln I told herthatwas agreat tdea. Then she looked me squareln the eye arrd sald, "And we all thtnk you should be the one to do itl" What could I say but, "Great ideal" And so it began - a llttle 2-page noflce at flrst, then ffve pages, then we began getting more responses from readers and more contacts from new folks, and thingslust grew and grew. As a friend told me, IVe really found my

nlchenow. I somedmes look back at myself as a paid

teacherln schools and shudder. I was so green, so unaware, soyoung. I fancied myself as someonewho ltked to read aloud to groups

ofkids, forexample, and dtd ttprettywell. But though I tried to stock my classroomwith good books, the truth ls that I had never read

mostof them. And I thlnkwhatajokeitwas to imagiree that I, as a teacher, actually knew any of the children I taught. Compared to what I know about my own childrn, I knew nothtng about the kJds who came to my cliassroom. Thelr backgrounds and home ltueswereblanks to me. I dldn'tknowwhere they'd been, what they'd read, what they wondered about. Howdifferent to know a chtld indmately, my own child.

PENNSYLVANIA HOMESCHOOLERS has broadened ourfaml$so much. Weve certainly gained errery btt as much as weVe given out, and more. When I think of the

pallid, complaintng con/ersations of the smolgr teachef s lounge at school, and mmpare them to the friendly, open, in-depth

conversations and letters with homeschooling parents and become close frlendswlth, therelsJust no comparison. And our liilds have filends through this wonderful homeschooltng network that's formed in the past tenyear. We'rre beenwithfamilies that open up whole newworlds to us - the ballet, owrrer-built homes, plano, scienc.e ProJects we d never thought of, sculpdngwith old apple logs, groMng orchards of dwarf trees. One sure slgn of homeschooling coming of age a bit at our flrst Homeschooling Weekend five years ago, a session on "Older Kids" was clearly meant for anyone with a child over 7. Thls year the session ts called "Looklng Down the Road - Homeschooling tnto Htgh School," and ltwasn'thard to find a

numberofparents to lead iL So I lookabout me and thinkoftenyears ofchanges, and howgood lfs becn. I've seen Jesse grow from a toddler polnting chubby fingers at ptctures ofcows to acompetent readerwho finishes a book ln two days good

because heJustcan'tput it down. Jacob is almost 7 and ahvays experimenung, concocting new "mlxtures" and invenflons and dlscusskrg alr pressure and vacuums and trylng to read all the slgns he sees around him (thts, achildwho I knowthe schoolswould have qulckly labeled LD). And Molly, GROWING WTTTIOUT SCHOOLING #58

f' 19 representadves. We now have eight support gr6ups across Alabama and five more that are Fhniring to becorne chapters' These leaders handle all the mall, phone calls, meetlngs, fteld trtps and seminars for their area. They also atlend state board meetings and send

approachlng 4, ls wrttlng stortes datly, abso-

triteV teartess aboutputdng thoughts lnto prlni, and drawtng astonishlng plctures all the tlme. And now another one ls cornlng along, IdcHngaway tnstde, alnrcst ready to loin our Aang. I remernber onc.e wrttlng in a \nas about I I /2 how iournatwtren.lesse 'excltbrs ttu/as to show htm the btrds that came td our IHer. I wondered what good thtngswe'd belearningwhen hewas 4. It's gone on long beyond that now, and tf s still

current lnformaflon about their group's actMdes on to us for the newsletter. Ifrpe recetve an inquiry from someonewe simply refer them to the representative ln their area, knowlne thev wtll be helped. ThEsec-ond goal hai been to have photocopies availableof any lnformation homeschoolers mfulht be inGrested in obtainlng, so that we were not constantly handutriHng

veryexdtlng.

GROWING ACCEPTABILITY H elen He gener o;ftIome Educadon

Nlagazirrcufltcs: Forus, the stngle most tnterestlng aspect ofhomeschooltngtn thts country bas been tts rapid rtse to acceptabllity. Fhrcyears ago homeschooltng was a newword, one that most people had not even hearrd. These days

would be dtltcultto llnd someonewhohas notread orheard aboutthe ldea, orknenrat least one famlly who was teachlng their own chlldren. We see many parallels ln the home

bfthfng/nah-rral ctrlldblrth rrprrcmertt, so

much ln the news sevemlyears ago' llke homeschooltng, nahrral drlldblrth was met wtth reslstance from the "experts." Parents-tobe were told all sorts of scare storles. I know three dilferent doctors trted to dlscourage us from home blrth by ocaggeratlng the dangers. But the slmple realtty of awarrrl safe, personal birthing experlencc was too Prorntstng. Thts was wbat wewanted for our chlldrerL and forourselves. ln smch the same way, homescttoollng ts ffndtng tts uray around the obJecdons of educatlonal "experts" and authorldes and teto the homes of liarnilles who want to share the lorre of learnlng and Mewlth each other. John Holtwrote mar5rttmes aboutthe effect of the homeschooltng moneinent on soclety, and how the lnteresttn teachtr4 ourorrtn chlldrenwas aktn to many other dmnges happenlng concurrently. For us, watching those changes happen has been the most rervardtng part of ourJob. [SSl In ter letter to us, Helen adds : All ffue of us ldds were pretty much homeschooled. Momand Dad tookmeand my brotherout of school ln the nlnth and seventh gnades, respecdvely, partly due to our farnily's very frequenttnavels butmostly due to the bad atrnosphere they sawlnthe schools' They taught us to be self-sulBctent" to ffgure out whit we wanted or needed to know and then to go leam tL If s worked very well for all of us.

IMPROYING GROI]P'S ORGANIZATION Lee Goret oJ NABAMA HOMEEDUCATOFS: FJom Hfl

arvd,

As founders

ofAtIE and edltors ofT?E

Vofoe, our state newsletter, we had an over-

whelmlng demand on our tlrrr. We spent appro:dmately fourteen nolunteer hours Per uEk on media lntervtews, answertng rnatl and phone calls, planntng and attendtng lleld Hps, meetlngs and semlnars, comPlllng our nervsletter, etc, To mhe our lcb .aqler, weworked towards and acoinpltshed turc rr4lor goals tn the past threeyears.llee flr:st ts areachapter GROWING WTITIOUT SCHOOIING #58

letters. These are the ltems rpe found necessary to have: ( l) a form letter thanlcing them for thetr lnquir5r and letttng them knowwho they can co'ntait ln thetrafua for further lnformatlon; (2) The HOME SCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION's brochu-re and thelr one-pagle brtef on the AlabamaeducaUon statutes; (3) a ltst ofrnaterials that are arrailable from our organlzadon, whlch lnclude attendance liaws, proposal forestabItstring church school satelllte Programs, gldelnes forworlidngwtth a tutor, bylaws of Atlg, T'lE Vobe, books, and a home educailon brtefanswerlng the most asked quesflons; (4) a brochure errplahfngAlabama home educators' bellefs, acflvlfles, and statement of untty. Thts also ltsts court precedents and suggested readtng. These four ltems coverJust about any quesdons that one mlght have concernlng liome educadon ln Alabama and now all we do ls stulTan envelopel Ofcourse, there are manv more lobs to be done, but these two acc-oinpltshinents have saved a tremendous amount ofour tlme, and we encouragp others to tr5r the same. If anyone would llke coples of our handouts to use as samPles, send $ I and a SA,SE to AIIE, Rt 3, Box 36OD, MontgomeryAl

361lo.

FOI.JNDING PRIVATE SCHOOL Flom John Elcs ton oJ tle

*HAOL OF

HOMEI,&4F,NIIfi(CN: In Calfiomla, havlng a prtvate school ls one way to be legal. Stnce we established the SCHOOL OF HOME LEARNING, WC hAVC enmlled over 2OO children in l3O famtltes. The school arranges for arqfone to leam at

home, When drlldren enroll lnourschool, thetrparents become tlre school's kMted teachers and thelr home lts resource c€nter.

WeVe kepttnformed throughGWS and

the NAIIONAL COALXTION OFALTERNATTVE COMMUNITY SCHOOI.S NCACS). When a Callfornta newsletterwas not arrallable, we started one. Itls nowastatewlde organtzatlon wtth a malling lrst of oner 2OOO familles and frtends - the CALIF\fRNIA COALXTION OF PEOPLE FORAI.JTERNATWE LEARMNG SITUATIONS (CC-PALS). We have a telephone tree for qulck communlcadons, wtth ceordtnators ln turcnt5r counfles to help the neurcomer and dlssemtnate lnformadon. We gave our son Sean the cholc'e of home-

ccntered leamtngwhen hewas ln the publrc school's Sfth graile. He ls now 18. He ls able to adapt eastlv and qutcklv to new sltuatlons

and^can se6 the overallirictur.when solvlnga problern He has been succrssful tn college,

publtc speatdng and theworld ofwork. We 3ullget 6omments frompeoplewho rrret hlm for the flrst tlme a.bout hls senslttve, cartng and pleasant behavlor. He ts sflll growlng

wlthout schoollng, and

so are we.

Joseph McCurdy and Lleutcnant GovernorJohn.{. Chcrbc4g at the ffnat passagp of the blll that legallzed homcschooltng inWashington, 4/ I 5/85.

LOBBYING IN

1985

Frcm KatlilenM&wrdy LEARNING ORGAI{ITATION

tlw FA ilLY

NV'A)

When the bill whlch made homeschooltng legal tn Wastrtngton was passed by both houses of the legtslature, tt had to go back to the senate for c.oncurrence and Ilnal passage. Joseph Mc€urdy (then lO), who had Leen trlelprng 6is mother lbbby for the bill for weeks and weeks, uras on hand for tlat event, whtch took place on Apr[ 15, f 985, near the end oftlre sesslon. Joe had been sttttnglnthegallery for most of the dayu/atchtng to s€e tf theywould get around to "ou/ blll. Part ofthe time he heloed hts motherlobbv. When she sentanote m dsHng to speak to a legSlator, .Joe would nrn up to the gallery and watch until the rrote was deltveredbya page. Thenherpould race backdowntlre stairs and reportthat the senatorwas onhlsvrayoutto speakto her, or that he had stuff tlre note tn hts pocket and gone out to speak to someone else, or that all the senators had adJourned to a caucus meeflng and there was no polntn aiting any longer. Shortly aft er 5 pm word flnally came that thry "mrgtrt' get to ttrc bill that nigttt. Joe's motherJoined hlm ln the gallery and watched for another hour undl the presldent ofthe senate flnally plcked up theblll they

werewatttng for. Therewas awaveof excltementas tlleclerkbeganto read. Many of the leg;lslators had watched tn fasclnaflon as thls controverstal bill made tts way through the long proc.ess, The president of the senate looked up atJoe tn the galleryand mofloned

forhlmto comedown to thepodtum. An:dous$, Joe stood bestde him and watched as the debate proc.eeded. Nearl5r everyone trt the room had met Joe , and many loeeu/ hlm

well. &en the doormen and pages held thelr breath as the "JunlorlobbSttsf'wentup to wltness how tbe votewould come out. He had long ago memorlzed the roll call" and knew each leglslator's party allltadon, commlttee responslblltdes, and general atdtude toward the homeschool lssue. At orre polnt a senator tesdflng for the measur€ sald,'Thatyoung man standtng up there ltves ln my dtstrlcl He is a homeschooler and I want hlm to be legal. Please support tlds btlll" Then whlle the secretary called tlre roll, the prestdent handed the garrcl orrcr to theyounghomeschooler. When the 0nalvoGuras arurounced (34yeas,

20 I I nays) the president said, "Substltute Senate Bill 3279 has received a constitutional majority and is declared passed." Whereupon Joe,

grinning from ear to ear, got to hit the gavel rnarking its final passage. Since the passageofthe homeschool law, homeschooling has been growtng rapidly all over the state. People sffll call us to llnd out how to start, or for support and encouragement. After homeschooling for a few months, they no longer seem to need as much help. Support group meetings are often not very well attended. But the organtzed field

trips arrd otheractMties drawcrowds of parents and children. We have found a need for competency testing for meedng high school graduation requirements. Thoughwe would prefer to change the public's expectadons about the validity of tesHry;, diplomas, etc., some of us would nevertheless like to have such adocument. We believe competency testing is more practical than grandng diplomas based on attendance. Ifanyone has any informadon that would be useful for developing such tests for the homeschool community, pleasewrite to me.

Another phenomenon we have observed two classes ofhomeschoolers ln the state (and probably elsewhere). Group Abelieves in the all-sulficiency of the family and pracdces in varying degr€es what we have called natural learnlng - chlldren learning at their own rate through normal daily actMties, without prescribed currlculum. Group B often consists of orofesslonal educatorswho have become disillusioned with the school system, or famllies who would have preferred to send their children to a church school but due to various circumstances chose homeschooling as the nextbest thArg. They teach their children at home ln the setting of a minischool, rel5ring on carefully selected curriculum and somedmes partrcipatlng ln of late ts an opening chasm between

organized classes.

Itis nafural to expect that home educadon will be adapted to the many dilferent lifestyles ofthe families who pr-acdce lt. A condnuumof homeschooling methods is

therefore the norm. The danger that I see ls ln thegradual separadon ofthese two gnoups wtrich reJecteach otherand begln to attack and puteachotherdown. Itis lmportant that natur:al learners, or "unschoolers," recogntze and supportellorts to provide mor€ structur€d learning apprcaches for thosewho want them. It is also tmportant that those who engagein "school at home" try to understand people who prefer to "let nature take its course." Support groups, networks, newsletters,

parentworkshops, curricrrlum exhibits all have multiplied rapidly tn the state. At the second annual homeschool conventlon thls May, Ra5rmond Moore and David and Mtcld Colfaxwere guest speakers. All tlrr€e promoted the benefits of less stmchrre and more natural learning methods. Yet the halls were lammed with exhlbitors of curriculum. iearning aids, learnlng programs and methods. One unschooler said,'Youwould think thls was a teachers conventionl" Nearly flfty workshops were olfered. Over l5OO people attended and gathered str,ength and courage to go on just from the sheer numbers present,

THE "EXPERT'' PHASE?

Flom Suson Os tbrg oJ the APPIE COT]NTRY H OMBCHOOIINGA,AS OCIATI ON

MN:

Our association grew out of a rneeting of area homeschoolers ln 1985. We were tnterested in a support gfoup for adults and a social group for our ldds. We decided to limit the group inirially to peoplewith school-age homeschoolers because our ldds felt overwhelmed by all the fiamtlies with llttle ones - as lf homeschoolingwere onv for preschoolers. We met for two years, then stopped for a few months when erreryone grew too busy. After a long string of inquiries from new peoplewe have started meeting;again, this time tncluding anyonewho ls interested. The last two meetlngs have been very enjoyable. Many new people have come with children of allages. There seem to be many more people interested in homeschoollng than there were in 1985 and thev seem interested in hou.r to proceed rathe r ihan utetler to proceed. Although this is not necessarily reflected in the compositionofourgroup, I have met many more homeschoolers recentlywho are using or seeking structurd programs prograrns designed and somedmes supeMsed by "experts." I have also been told oftrajnlng courses available for homeschoollng parents given by curriculum suppliers or child dwelopment speclaltsts. I umnder fwe are enteringa new phase of homeschooling - the "expert" phase. Certainly these t5rpes of supportcan give parents conffdence and save them time, but I would hate to see homeschoollng become too crommerical or

structured. I hope GWS can continue to give parents conlldence that they can homeschool on thelrownwithout expensive materials and expert supervision. I would hate to see a tlme when a homeschooltng parent needed a certiflcate from a homeschoollng course (approved by the state) tn order to take a child out ofschooll [SS:l Indeedl Our goal is not to encourage sledsnflallsrn to extend lts inlluenc'e lnto the very acdvit5r that is trylngto oppose lt. There ls an lmportant (but perhaps at Umes too

subtle) dllferencc between aslidng others for help, or getdng together to share tnformadon and tdeas, and asldng people with certatn deg5ees orcertl-ffcates to tellyou what to do. Homeschooling is about trusdng ourselves dotng tlrtngs without flrst needingdegrees or certiflcates, so let's be sure to keep thls tn

mlnd.

HOW MUCH STATE INVOLVEMENT? J udg C,ebrc r oJ tlre Co lo rado Homeschooling Network n€u sletter wriles: The blggest change ln the last ten years has been acceptance or at least acknowledgement of the odstenc€ and viabtligr of homeschooling by all the people around us tlnt alfect us errery day - our relailves, neighbors and co-workers. This helps in our day-to-day actMdes, but it also has changed the viewpolnt of new homeschoollng farntlles. I thtnk as homeschooling galns acc€ptance there are more people who vlew lt as another gfi:enln thelr llves. lwas shocked the flrst tlme someone calld and satd, "How do I get the homeschool course?" The early homeschoolers had to spend so muchdme thinlidng about what was best for their children that thry ended up betng indivldualtsts who wouldn't dream of taking a\ of arvdg's idea of education. They also were shocked when they found that some

bureaucrat thought he actually owned their children and so they became purlsts who viewed ggvemment lntenrenflon of any klnd with agreat deal ofalarm. Th€y put a great deal of energr lnto deallngwith'ithe state." As tlee movement grows, I think there will be a

greater percentage of people who view "state" interGrence as Just another bureaucracy and give it llttle more thouglrt than theywould getdng a drh/er's license. There always has been a diflerence ofopirrion as to how much compromlse ls necessar5r or desirable, but the balance ofvtervpoints onthis may shift. Whether that will change the approach to homeschool laws, I don't lsrcw. Those who are alarmed tend to remain the the most acdve. Our group is smaller now than lt used to be for turo reasons. We still deal wtth people's

Iegalworrles abouthow much stnrcture is right for theirchjldren, but I don't thlnkuze see as much of the real relief of 'Thank

heavens, I've found someone who doesn t think I'mcraz5r." Sowe aren tas lrnportantin the lives of new homeschoolers. Secondly, there are many more gmups around. While that has been true here for a vear or more, we ar€n't qulte sure howtlratwiil alfectus in the long run. For a long tlme CHSN was ttre only grcup to contactin the Denverareaand sowe had qulte a dlrrcrse group. With the lncrease ln

number of groups, some people are loohng forward to the group becomlng more focused egaln as lt was tn the begtnningwhen it was

composed of peoplewho read about tt tnGWS. They want our g;roup to provide a clear voice to the communlt5l and educators aboutour

educational phtlosophy. ...I see two slgnificant splits ln thought for homeschoolers. Thellrst splitts between people who see no problemwith state regulaflons and those who feel a moral riglrt tn resisting all state interference. There ls, of course, a huge group of people ln between with all ldnds ofvariable ldeas on thls lssue. The second spltt ts betureen those who thlnk homeschoollng ls wonderfirl - as long as errerybody does lt the way they are dotng ft and those who say "If there s one thlng I've

learned, tt's that I can'tveryeasllyJudge what's best for another person and I can't even tell very well lf any'education ls talrdng place tn ar5r glven sltuadon."Thls canbe themost destrucdve spllt or the most trestgntffcant dependlng on the people lnvolved. I used to feel that therewas no hopewhatsoerrer for ttre educadonal tnsdtudon ln our

country, but that ttwould nevercrumble because of lts slze. I alvrays had the feeling that actually ltving the ltfe you thlnk ls trre has an uldmate effect on the svstem. But I didn't expect to see any resulti f.o* -y decislons ln my Metlme. Now I am feeling some hope that homeschoolingrnay cause others to address some ofthe educaflonal lssues thatJohn wrote about. We had a bill ln the state leggslature thts yearwhlch was ldlled. But ln thtnldng through some of the detalls ofthe btll a few legtslators had to face some serlous quesflons about the nature and consequences of compulsory educatlon laws, and I was pleased that we rpere lndlrectly able to brlng that issue up. More than pleased ,rea$r,because I think that wtren an tdea comes up tndlrectlylikethat, lts lnlluence ls much more powerhrl thanwhentt ls presented directlv. ' ...I depend ohCWSas gvtngthe most intellectually honssf , glear, dsralled informaflon on what i:s happening tn other states. Thls ls quite usefulln talldng;to others (Ike legislators) about the nature of GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #58

2l homeschooling, with homeschoolers who are discussing wbat dtrection homeschooling lrt our state should take and dealingwithin the homeschoo ling community.

''SEASONED VETERANS'' Fto'n.l im bleman oJ the DEIAWARE HOME EDUCATIO N ASSOCIA?ION;

began. Sometimeslam daunted by the task of

educaflngourfour

daughters (17, f f , 6 and 7

months) to be able to llve in what looks from here to be an increaslng$ bleak world: unemplo5rment, recesslon, a terrifically

o o

greedy, materialisdc and

polidcal! unstable society. Our personal lnvolvement in encouraging and "trainingi' other parents began in Minnesota ln 1983 when we becarne cofounders (along with Roger and Merle Schurke) of t}le MINNESOTA ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN HOME EDUCATORS. We were thrilled to see MACHE grow to 36O farniltes ln just over ayear. In l985we moved to Delaware, and were irrvolved with others in fcrming the association here. While our acflvifles herehave notyetbecome as organized as they were in Minnesota, we have over 8O families on the mailinglist and conflnue to receive calls each month from families as far away as Hawaii. We don't considerourselves experts, we rejust seasoned veterans who love homeschooling and homeschoolers. WeVe watched the dramadc increase in numbers of home educating familles across the countr5r, arrd the surge ofsupportgroups and organlzations to sdmulate further succ.ess. Keep up the goodwork, you "pioneers" across America.

10 YEARS

IN ENGLAND

Flom Saralr G uthrle oJ hgl.and s EDUCATIONOTTIERWISE: EDUCATION OTTIERWSE celebr:ated its

tenth annlversaqr lastyear, and lt was ten years ago thatwe took our eldestdaughter, Joanna (now lfl out of prtmary school. We

fromlondon to Sufiolkandl became thelocalcontact forEO. At thattlme. there

Really, the academic side is

pretty insignificant alongside the ability to makereladonships and rnaintain erno tional and physical health. Whether wewill achleve any of ttrts remalns to be seen.

Homeschoolcrs gathcr for all sorts of actMflcsl Here, chtldren cnJoy watermclon slices at thc end of the HoltAssoclatcs picnlc onJune l3th,

THE HOME BUSINESSWOMEN'S NETWORK last year and teach semtnars to help mothers set up homebusinesses.

CANDIAN SCHOOLS EXPRESS INTEREST FromWendg htesrib, oJ tlv

CAI'{ADIAN AI.IJANCE OF HOMNHAOIERS:

setup the networktn 1979 foranumber ofreasons: to alleviate isolation, to give credlbtlity to what was a reladvely unknown phenomemon, to provide deschooling familles wtth tnformaflon about resource materlals, and to act as alegtslatlve watchdog. We have, I thlnk, been relattuely succ-essful ln dotng these things. Medfa coverage has alwaysbeen easy to getbecause deschooltng ls so unusual. The families who I

have allowed the medla to irrvade thet privary have contrlbuted to the derrelopment ofaclimate of public understandtng, tf not acc€ptanc.e, of home-based educatlon. Slnce 1979, provlnclal and local home educatlon networks have spnrng up across the countrSl to help famllies who feel tsolated on thelr

was one other family learntng at home, and theywere ftfteen mlles away. Now there are over fortSr f,amilies ln my reglon. I get at least one inqulr5raweek fromparents lrrterested in or desperate to educate their children at

chosen patbs. And througb our newsletter, Chlld's Hag, wecornnunlcate wlth famtltes about resources and leglslaflon. I rerelve thousands of letters ayear requestlxg tnformatlon about home-based educatlon and, thts pastyear, have publtshed abook called School Fheewhlch helps answer

home.

famtlles'quesdons,

moved

Asparents become more lnformed about thelr rlghts to educate at home, the local education authodty ts bei:eg forced to change its atdtude, too. Unfortunately, there ts stlll far too much bullytng and mlsinformlng parents. I ffnd myJob as contactls to remlnd people of thelr rlghts and support them te their determlnaflon to armld school. Perhaps ourbtggest threatln the futurewlll be the nationalized curriculum,

it is ever

introduced. Then, for the flrst ttme, tl-rerewlll be a legal yardsdckby wtrtch to rneasure homeschooled children. Butwe'll liace that

whenithappens. In the meantime, there's agSoup ofabout fourteen EO ctrildrenwho rrreetweeklv fora day on a local estate, doing field studt6s under the eye of the resldent ecologlst. These sesslorr have grorrn up in an ad hoc, gradual way over the past couple ofyears. The children have a day out together, and the parents get a chance to have a quick chat someflmes a meeflng - about what they are doing. Whenu/e have theenergy, weorganize an extra sesslon on pottery, dance, drama music - wtraterrer ts arrailable fromwhoerrcr happens to be around. If s all very casual, whlch seems to be howEO famlltes llke lt. I flnd

myownoutlookhasbecome much

more relaxed (perhaps more c1mtcal) strce we GROW]NG WTITIOUT SCHOOIjNG #58

One maJor ctrange wtdch I have noflc.ed over the years ts that school boards, provln-

clal departrnents ofeducaflon, and teacher tralnlng tnsdtuflons ar€ now expresstng an interest ln home educadon Many have purchased my booh and I amcontlnually recrMng rcquests for lrrformadon and belrqg consulted by departments of educadon wtrtch are orierhaultng their polictes and procedures, The process of gafnmg respectabtllty and credibtlity ls a long one, and i thlnk that the home-based educatlon movement tn Canada has taken many steps along that road ln the past tenyears. Butwe are sdll a frlnge mtnority wtrtch must rernaln vigtlant about educaflon system pollcies protecting our right to employ dillerent ptrllosoptdes and methods from those onwhlch thepublic schools arebased. Courtcases and adversartal dlsputes are, unfortunatel5r, notyet a thing of the past in some provtnces. But as deschoollng famtltes become more sophlsticated and confldent tn thelr approaches to govemment, and as government slowly recogplzes the dtverslty ln Canadlan society, the cllmate continues to lmprove forhome-

basededucators. One tnteresdng outgrowth ofthe deschoollr4; movement for me has been

MAINTAINING UNITY hom Jo-Arue Beirne oJAusholda s New South Wales Homeschool Newsletter: Ourgroup haswolved and expanded durlngthe pastyearand ahalf. We nowgptup to thirty new tnquirles a month, though not all of these turn lnto subscribers. WeVe had good medta coverage

local papers, TV,

national magazines. We are leamlng (wlth plengr of mtstakes) Just howto handle these

people. Homeschooling ls alotofthlngs to alot of people. It often tncludes home btrthing health onsclousness, Iiattrers worldng as close to tlre home as posstble, But lt can mean onlJr one or none of the aborrc also. My personal tnterest ls to malntaln a reladonshtp between all homeschool groups. I hate dtvtston on rellglous and pollflcal grounds, We have a real problemwlthvery strrctured and very unstmcfured people wanting to argue about metlrods. Personally I s€e the educaflon system as encouraging and emphasiztng thts sort of rfiralry. It neatly dtvtded all of us lnto '\rlnners" and "losers" and we carr5r thatJealousy, selffshness, lack of fr eedom forerrerrrnre. If only the homeschoollng rro\rcrnent could avoid or at least defuse these compefl dve atfl tudes.

It's not ttrat I feel that school is a gmd gone wrong, but a wrong idea from the go. It's a nutty notion that we can have a place where nothing but learning happens, cut off from the rest of life. John Holt

Much More Than Toys

. ltoRl.l) s t't\EsL ll)t1;\Tto\.\L

ToYs.

ITEIIS fOR

l\f{\',ts'fltRot(;H

TEts\s

CHILD TI]STBD ['OR I)I R BITIN'

PL{Y |ALI'L .{tt t \co\l)tTlo\.{rl) (;t AR{\TEEI)

A\D IT'TiL{TIO\AL

Call or uritc frrr our frce catalog. (.JOJ)

home-based business movement. I founded

G$t$. .{\t)

BOOK\

Dept.

l{iu,

-9r-01-l

56+ \X'.oShepperd Are.. Littleton. CO ttOl20

,'.'--ffi li, i;,,1: t,

EVOLVING IDEAS, EVOLVING LIVES

\Celebratlng lOYear8

lvlany of you found yourselves redefining homeschooling, redefining education, as you went about the daily business of remaking your lives according to your beliefs and goals. The following letters describe this process.

OK TO MAKE MISTAKES F}vnJaneWllllanrs(CA): My ldeas on educadon harrc changed drasflcall5r stncc I flrst wrote to GWS orrer slx years ago. I was a public school teacher dropout and I knew l dtd not want to have my clrlldren attend publlc school. Prlvate schools had notbeen nrled out, however, tfl could find one that had a good curdculum and was able to malntain dtsclpltne. Homeschoollngwas gotng to be the alternattve only lf I fatled to Iind a prfuate school thatwas sadsfactory to both my husband and me. The thought of homeschooling dldn't frtghten me too much slnce I had asecondary teachtngcredendal ln Engltsh and htstory, and my husband, brother and slster-ln-laqr had other credentlals. Among us, I thought, we had all the subJect areas covered, so my children would stand a pretty good chance ofgetdng all the good teacblng we could gve them. I can almost trnagineJohn Holt and the GWS stalf shaktng their heads at my ignorance about howchtldren leam when they read my llrst letter asldng for lnformadon about homeschooling;. In contr:ast, today I am an advocate of noncoerced leamtng tre wtdch ctrtldren are fr,ee to followthelrownlnterests and are tnrsted to handle thetr self-educaflon. How did thls transfdon ln my thlnldngoccur? Obsenratlon of my own chlldren and how tlrey learned natur:ally whlle lnfants and toddlers, myown conrmon sense, trust lrr both my ctrildren and myself, and readingJohn Holt's books opened mymlnd tomuchofwhatl have c.ome to belierre and promote through my freelancc wrltlng today. C orrespondence with Karl Hess and the late Ftobert LeFevre has furtherhelped medwelop and expand my tdeas about the educadonal marketplace. My work today ls rooted ln conc.ern about

clrlldren's rlghts - muchofltln thearea of educaHon. Karl Hess, ln hls book Dear Anertu N'Im. Morrorv & Co, 1975), says about cornmon sense: 'The tmportance of the observaflon of

contradlcflons as a beglnning of wlsdom probablywlll appear a oornnon sense, commonplace thlng to most people. It should be. Ifs theuraycommon sense people testthe tnrth of many ordlnary sltuadons. " ObseMng conbadlcdons ln howyoung ctrlldren, my ctrlldren, learn rrahrrally throug! theA own tnltlattrrc and mottuation, versus the t5rpe ofcontrlved teachtgtowhlch I was exposed as a chlld (ard to whlch I so unsuccessfu\r ocposed my students durlng the short tlrne I taught), has shown me that the tnnate destre to learn ls prlmarlly what a cldld needs tn order to pursue knowledge. ReadlngJohn's How CltldrenFall and How Chldrenlzanhelped me to reallze that the contradlcdons I felt and observed were valld. John's books gaveme the self-confldence to pursue tn Me what I had belteved emodonally

forarrcrylongtlme.

Readfng the revtsed edttlon of Horr

Ctfldren lzanshowed me that erren a crncemed ttrlnker ltke John made lncorrect obsenratlons, by trls own admtsslon. Ibrl Hess ln DearArner{caalso wrltes of the mlstaken noflons he had about corpor:ate and

pollfl cal Amerlca. These were important books for me because ln them tun people I like and admtre lmmenselywereable to acknowledge that they make mistakes, In this perfect world of ours, at least the one we see through Madison Avenue adverdslng, we get the ldeawe're not supposed to make mlstakes, and that tfure do, we crrtatnly shouldn't let on thatwe have. We're supposed to blulf ourway through, hoplngwe won't get caught. School prepares us for thls. We aren't supposed to fail in school. Only dght answers are acceptable. Usually on\l one answerls correct - don't tr5r to see other sldes, Just memorize tlds answer.

SoJohnand Karl have shownme somethng more valuable than anything I had ever leamed ln school - that people make mlstakes and lt's OK. The lmportant thing to do is thtnk - try to figure thtngs out - and ln the process be prepared to reevaluate your ldeas. Why is this so tmportant? Fora long tlme I was reluctant to urrite about educadon,

children's rigfits, alternatlve parentingl, and many other subJects. Who's going to listen, I thought, andwhatif I'mwrongln my analysls? Now I reallze that one of the ways to ftnd answers ls through di:scussion, oral or

wrttten,

As an aslde, lf s lnteresdng that l-aura Ingalls Wilder lof llttle Han*fame) began teachtnA at age 15. She had a rather unmlv student older-than herselfwho would not ' learn hls lessons. It bothered her for awhile tnfiI slle reallzd. she canld. notmalce him Learrr. Ifs also tnteresdng tlnt l-aura taught three terms of school, needing to take a test each term for her teacher's ccrdficate, but naner graduated herself. Homeschooling is not slmply teaching subJects to children at home. Home is the placewherechlldren can learn ln a noncgerclve environment. Homeschooling is not necessaril5r the best educaflonal answer for our children, elther. I stncerely wish there were Iearning centers scattered around ttris countqrwhere people could apply for rrnnthly or annual membershtp. Members would be able to use the facilldes whenerrer thev wanted -Just like libraries. Some ceniers mightbe speciallzed and others migfitbevery dtvehsified. Someday this mighthappen, but undl lt does, home offers the best alternative currently available for me and my children. Whafs important ls thatwe don't stop searchlng foreven betterplaces and ways in which children can leam.

Israel M. Klrzner ts also responsible for plandng a mental seed tn me thatwon't stop growlng. He wrote a brochure wh,ich ts available from the FOUNDAT1ON F\fR ECONOMIC EDUCATION (lrvtngton-onHudson, NY 1O533) on'The Open-Endedness of Knowledge." He says that knowledge can never be concentrated ln a stngle mind. It is always dtspersed among many dillerent people. So our perspecdves and ldeas change aswecondnue to learn - and thiswill be forever slnce no slngle mlnd can know everythlng. So as a result ofwhat I have leamed I have started to write. It's OK for people to disagreewithwhat I saybecause from that dlsagreementone orboth of us should leam somethtng. When I began to teach I was surprised to flnd that now that I hadJolned the ranks of the coercers lnstead of the coerced, my emodonal fi:ame of mlnd was no better. In fact, ltwasworse. There ls some self-pride ln

being the persecuted. There ls only repugnanceln belng the persecutor. The eighth grade ktds I taught dtdn't want to be tn school. I certainlv didn't want them in mv class f they dldn:t want to be there. But lhey weren't allowed to leave. My school felt and looked llke a prison forchildren. Therewere actually bars on thewtndows and barred gates to theclassrooms. I had childrenwho could bare! read orwrlte. Parentswere calllngme asklngme how they should bedisciplining thelr own ctdldren. I watched a young mathemadcs genius persecuted daily mentally and physically - to the point that he needed an escort between classes. I obsenred ktds from "good" familtesJotn in the lauglter as this unfortunate ldd was made the butt of weryJoke these bored and mtsguided chtldren could perpetuate. I left teachlngat the end of theyear feeltng a fatlure. It took me ten years to get over ttrat feellngand come to the reallzadon that I had not failed but rather the compulsory educadon systemwas a liatlure. Again, John s books helped me see this.

LEARNING WITHOUT TEACHING F\otn Catletue KW tMD: When I firstconceived of homeschooling, envisloned myselfas a teacher, pouring knowledge into my little vessel, but in a calm and suppordve envlronment. I didn't know much about kdds or how thev leam at that time. As my ctrild has grown] he has consistently led the way and dlrected the learntng that he is ready forat that time. In fact, a subtitle to the concept of "Growing wlthout schooling" would be "lâ&#x201A;Źarning without teachlng" lnourhome, The evolution I

ofourhomeschooling has been more my evoludon as a schooled adult leamlng to stand back and let the process of learning unfold before myeyes. I have come to understand that most learnlng cannot be measured, and ls even lrMsible. Ideas and concepts will gestate for many months ln my lidds and then reappear in, somehow, a more rrature form than when n:sttntroduced. I see this happeningalso with thelrartand music, which theywill learre for good segments oftlme and then pick up ag2hwith total continulty and oftenin a more developed form. While I have been

worrytng that theyMll nerrerdrawor play music again, thework has been bubbling away in some very real but mysterious place, to emerge agaln atthe right time. I've learned that flme does not alwavs have to be linear, and results do not always have to bevalued over process. I came to itrls reallzadon through obsert/atlon of my son Kenny (6). He is avery dreamy ldd, alurays coming upwlth liantasdc ideas and lnvendons farbqrond tlle scope of possible accomplishment. In my adult way, I kgan to worry that he would sulfer psychologically from never actrlevlng any of his goals. One CROWING WTIT{OUT SCHOOLING #58

23 dsy I ysallzed that trls Eoalswere achterred trt th6proess of dreamrng and descrtbtng lrts lnrrcndons. For e:<ample, he spent a great part ofone dav talldnA about the mactrtne hewas gotng to;rake *Etuiould then make model alrplanes for htm. He came up wlth a sprtng and a couple of screws, and described the rest

tndetall througlroutthe day. Thatrvas

dlhe

drd. If Kenrrywere tn school, hewould be asstgned a proJect and he rpould be expected to nns_h tf Woulil he achleve more satlsfaction? I wonder. I prefer to belierrc that hts farran€ing frnagtnauonwlll alight on the proper concrete medlumwherr the tlme fs rtghL Somettrrrs myhusband orl udltry to help

Kerrnyffntshsome proJecl Outte often he qtrtckly loses lnterest because these proJects liarre become ours - thev have the rnark of

adultaccompltshment] I can thlnk of anotlrerway that I may have interfered rrnnecessartly ln myldds learntng. My lo-year-old Billy has Just come out of avery rich three-year interest tn knlghts. He made arrrprwith scraps ofold metal and a rtuet gun. As a btrthday treat, I arranged avtstt to the Sodety forCreatlve Anachrontsm and a very ntce fellow showed trlm all the armor they had rnade, wen gMng hlm a couple of rounded metal plates to use

forsomethlnE. He neveimade much armor after that.

The plates he d been €lven were of a much flner metal than he'd-been worlidng wlth, and thev lust dtdn t flt kL And I'm afraid hls

hori6made armor dtdn't qutte satis$ him after seetng adult-madeverslons close up. But he had been getdng tnto other thtngs anyuray, and Just the other day, after almost a vear, he got trts armor out, checked lt all over, Lnd satd,'Vou know, I made some really neat shrlf." So I don t think therewas ultfmately a negau\telmpresslon from seelng the adult armor. But I leamed that rny desire to take sornethtngfurther than ttneeded to go was umeoessary.

"NOTHING" WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO Areaderwdtes: I often felt a btt lost (gutlty, worried, uncertaln) when I ffrst start€d what came to be known as homeschooling wtth my daughter. I lareurwhat I dtdn'twant to do (send her to sclrool), but I wasn t really clear about what I should do lnstead. Soclally, errndonally, ptrystcally and mentally she had dwelopedfarbryond anyS-year-old I had encountered ln my tenyears of teachfng Hndergarten tn the public school system. But (I would ask mysell), uras everyday lMng enough "currlculum"? It had worked beauEfully so far. But wasn't there somethtng extra I should be dotng now that she was almost "school age ? We had never done arrythlng formal (we sflll don'$. I read and sang to herfrom theday shewas borr! we spent a lot of dme with extended famtly (rirostly adults), ure were lrwohrcd with music

and dance, and we tr:arrcled. In the beglnntng I don't bellerre I was ready to strnply trr.st my dauglrter to learn (as I do novd. Back then, ltwas more out of fearof

notknowtngwhatwasbest to do thatl dld

what seemed at the tlme to be close to nothlng atall. Onlyyears laterdld I realze that "nothtng" u,as exactlywhat I should have done.

What hclped me lrnmenselywas reading Joseph Chtlton P ancr-' s Mag tal CltM GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #58

words), computes, cooks, sews, babysits, plays chess, krrtts, crochets, changes the oil in our vehicles, spends endre eventngs performing chemtcalexperlments ln the garage, uses a 'bts tftne" telescope, travels' - Her honest frlends tell her how lucky she ls, and herJealous acqualntanaes hanrc, on occaslon, glven her a hard tlme, saylng 'You won't be able to get alob ifyou don't go to school" - the same llne, I suppose, that their

Ravmond and Dorothv Moore's Schod Can Wi& arrd John Holf s-Irrstead oJ Ezltrcation Therewere tlmes that Pearce's and Holfs works moved me to tears. I ctrr€sponded wtth Dr. Moore, and then I wtote to John too. I was also taldnggraduate courses ln educatlon durlng thG pertod, and I asked one of my orofessors if she thought a child c'ould learn io read tn the samewal she had lea.rned to talk. I got the tmpresslon that she felt the idea was worth irrvesttgadng, so my daughter becarrE my "gulnea ptg." I had an atttc firll of teachtng materials I had amassed from those tenyears of teaclring' But I was determrned to go througlr wlth the experlment, so I neverunpacked tlrem. I now fee-l relieryed that I left all those "R-bbtts" tn the atdct lFrom Frank Smtth's lrrsult b Irtc\Igerce, rcA*Ned tn GWS #57.1 I have to admtt I wasn't absolutely postflve, before lt actually happened, that my daughter would neally learn to read the same way she had learned to talk, butlwanted desperatelyto belierrelt so I could corMrrce my doubdng husband (and probably myself as well) that I was dolng the rlght thfng. Atffrstltvas hard to telllf shewas reallv readlnA because she had memorlzed so manl of her Evorite books word forword. Wfrai nnary convtnced my husband was the day she camehome froma Brownie meeflng and read to htm from a GirI Scout handbook. I was secretlylust as amazed as my husband' But I was aiib pleased and sausfied. Now, at

parents use on them -serve flme ln school,

SCHOOL

FtomNancg Wallaet'lY:

Although I usually say thatwe began homeschooltng when we took Ishrnael (now l5) out of second grade, I occastonally give people the ltne that homeschoollng really began for us the day he was born. Yet somehow thatJust never rtngs qulte trre, if only because psychologtcally ure had no c.oncepdon of what homeschoobng rrdght reallymean. At flrst, to be sure, wewere continually fasclnated by what baby Ishmael taugbt hdmselfand by the veryways tl.at he went aboutlearning things. Yetwe felthelpless and inadequatewhen lt came to sten thinldng about teachtng hlm ourselrrcs. When he was olderand I sathelpinglrimto sound out words, one by one, ln I)Lde fuar, (an "I-Can-

I t, mydaughterplays thevtolturand piano

at polnte lo.rel tn ballet, has sung solos ln the church chotr, ts brtdgtng to

Read-Book," no less), I felt totally embarrassed by the unutterable perversity of the Englfsh lang,rage (at leastwhen one ls trytng to make senseofltln terms ofalogical phonbuc systerrr). I remember thinldng,' Oh

cadettes ln Girl Scouts, has performed ln stage plays and danced wlth professlonal dancers, swims, blkes, skates, reads, urttes (sdll

makesuseof

BALL

$tone $'oo[.,

{r."

STICK - BIRD P'Lli'otion"'

ln"

B"x 5e2

\"* Jo'k

ll790

516 551-9164

r\ j.

Did you heor? The EPIE lnstitute thot BALL-STICK.BIRD bro

(t So thot's whY with

BALL-5TICK-BIRD there is no dyslexio ! Everyone to reod

ond loves

jusflS thelr havlntto

BREAKING TMS WITH

(bV ear), ls

the only in-compotible system

24 well, tt's not myjob to teach Ishmael how to read. Ttrat's up to his ltrst grade teacher.', In away, though, our feeltngs of inadequary and irresponsibility probabh worked./orus ln the end, srnce bf the Unie we did send Ishmael to school we were not onlv in awe ofwhat he knew, but we readlly gave him full credit for leamingitall htmsClf. We nerzer feared the burden and responstbtlttlr of becoming Ishmael's prlmar5r teachers because he had ob',.tously taken on that lob alreadv. At the same flm6, it took us onli one look into that drab lirst grade classroom-to m.ke us

realizewhat a rich, comfortable and nurfu ring environmentwe had created for Ishmael and his slster Vita at home. karning, we saw lmmediately, cannot take placeinavoid, and a teachercannot aytomadcal$ ftll thatvotd simply because she has a teachingcredenual and a chalkboard. At ffrst, it was hard not to be selfconscious\r aware ofourselves as homeschoolers. Our family life couldn't help but revolve around the consclousness thative were inrzolved ln a thoroughly untque and excltlng educational undertaklng as we found ourselves defending and explalning our decision to teach Ishmael at horne. And, faced with the immediate and sometimes horrllled

reactions of friends, neighbors and relatives, plus ourown natural uncertaintles about what we were doing and our need to talk honest$ and openly about it, we experienced a ratherdramatlc upheaval in our social life as we sought out and gravitated toward other liamilies "like us." (Thank you, CWSI) Butwewere even more conscious of ourselves as homeschoolers becausewe hadn't yet really broken our des with the school system. We continually compared our "school"to the publtc school. We sdll thought ofschool days as opposed to weekends, and il we, in our educational experiment, did math just as happily (or unhappily) on Sundays as o,n Wednesdays, still we felt liberated Monday thmugh Fdday when Vlta and Ishmael were free to play down in the brook o1 tag after us up and down grocery store aisles. We still told ourselrrcs thatour experiment was Just that - an experiment -and that itwas important for Ishmael to learn, wtthin reason, the kinds of things that other kids were learning in school, so that he could fft back into school ifhe chose to. Bob and I debated - always serious\r - thevalue of IearninA sulJlxes and prefixes or of alphabetizing long hsts of words. At the same time, we were lnvolved tn endless hassles with the school district as we tried to develop a curriculum and plan of evaluafl on that

no''onlil'i'1111'o"'

SPECIAL OFFER

o..."norflt r""o6." For GWS Members:

National Directorv at NCACS member price: ONLY $7.50! (Usually $12.50) Associate j.ii;se',m';l':1,s"."^naftl"e-tGft"ub^Ifr

scription at haHprice: ONLY $10/yr. SEND TO NCACS, R.D. I, BOX 378 GLENMOORE. PA 19343 (Offer eood until Oit. 1. 1987)

didn't totally comprornlse our homeschooling

expertment. We had to bevery much aware oT the teaching methods and mi.teri;als that were used ln school so that we could explatn, as convlncingfy as posslble, wtSr we lLlt that our methods and matertals umrlied best In our orvn unlque sltuauon. Perhaps tt was good that between fdends and school olflcta-ls we were forced to de8ne, explain and deGnd our newly-discovered educadonal goals and values, ln the process we gradually -since clartffed a great deal for ourselvEs. For the flrst several years I often felt incredibly frustrated because itwas so diflicult to set aside unintermpted tlme for our school at home. It was so g,eat lust to be together - to lie out in the lleld-and iratch the clouds floating by (maybe later looklnA up clouds ln the encyclopedia), to stt by t[e fire readirrg IJttl,e Hous e lntlv Big Wd.s, erren to cuddle up over a math textbook. yet because we dldn't have a classroom amd because I was uncertain of my role as a teacher, ttwas hard for me to ask my friends not to call or drop over ln the mornlng, or er/en undl 3 pm. (How long {'s a school day ln a home school anyuray?)

Later, aswebeganto spend mostofthe

day dolng muslc, lt Secame even more dfllcult, because lfpeople at least understood

in theory that itwas important forVitaand Ishmael to get their schoolwork done, they had no notion at all ofwhy it might be important for them to work on music for

several unlntem:pted hours each dav. The longerwe homeschooled the more interrelated all of ouractMties seemed, and the more disconcerting it was when our friends acted as tf there rvas some kind of dlstinction between schoolumrk and pleasure. I nodced ttratvttaand Ishmael looked cpnf- uled when people asked, "But what do you do for fun?" or 'What areyour hobbtes?" Foi the-m, everythlng that they did - playtngwith do[s, wrttlng stories, playing music, planflng the garden - seemed valuable and intCrestfuee.

Oneday ltoccurred to me thateven ifwE

fad laught Vtta and Ishmael

to alphabedze

longhstsofwords, theyumuld never, now, be able to flt back tnto school. After all, thev are at least three or fouryears ahead ofthetr public school counterparts, acadernlcally. yet although Vita and Ishmael are, in a senS, years ahead of most of the lidds their age, it seems almostcrude to say so, since they, themselves, nerrr c.ompare themselves to otherkids in such narrowacademic terms. Rather, they IInd lnteresilng things to delight and intrigue them ln almost everyone thqr meet. But it's also true that by rlgtd school standards, Vlta and Ishmael areh'tclearlv a certain number ofyears ahead oftheir peers. There are great holes in their knowledgie. They don'thave the Great l.akes orall the state capitals memorized. They don't know theyearthat the ptlgrtms arrtved on the Mayflower. They don't know how to dtagram a sentence. Yet they lorow many things that the schools don't even begln to mezrsune. Ishmael c9.n tellyou all about lknt's metaphyslcs or about the Me and thouShtof RanakrlshnaVlta can tell you about IIavaJo religlon and crafts orabout how to makeporcelain dolls' heads. They both love words and l"ng,r"g.. They care about ldeas, music, art and beautv in the natural world. They know not to be afraid ofwhat thry don't ftnow and to value what other people know and can tell them. We harrc now lost that datly consclousness of ourselves as homeschoolers. We all haveworktodo. Weareall leaming.

Then suddenlyweare shocked into remembering the everyday atfltudes about the dlsdncdon between chlldren and adults as opposed to those who know tt all). -(leamers Vlta spent a week tn the hospital recently and one dayvre overheard two d&tors talldnE about her tn the hallwav. hallway. 'The ldd ktd is ts real rcal" smart," one of them satd. "She's ldnd of a prodtg/ type. You can alrnost talk to her like a grown up. " fWrtte that down and put it in vour bookl" Mta said indignantly.) afterall theseyears, - Isdll lindoldmyself, eFandonlng presuppositons ab6ut how children learn that haveobvloush carried over from my own school days. Ttre other dav ln thecar, fore:cample, Vtta(now 12) began reading to Ishmael from a book offatv tiles. It occurred to me that I hadn't heard 6er read aloud foryears, maybenot since shewas six or ssrren. Yet now she was reading eastlv and expresslvely. "H.y," I thought, "do'n,tyo-u have lo pracdceradingaloud treforeyou cin read like that?"Then I remembercd -iure. rrw teachers had alurays told us thatwe had"to practlc€ our "oral" reading. yetwhenurc did pracUce, tt was always durlng our "reading group." Aluays, ure were put on the spot in front of seven or elght other lidds, all listenlng, Just like the teacher, for every mistakewe mlght have made. No wonderwe nerrer read aloud as lyrically as Vita was now doing. Year after year we r^rere too scared, and if an5rthing, proctbe made lt worset People still ask us howwe thinkVitaand Ishmael will do when they leave the nurhrring environment of home and go out into the realworld. Usually I give them my standard answer: 'The happier a person's childhood is the better able he will be to withstand to whateverpainand misery he mayhave to confront later on be llfe." But there's somethtag else. Despite the fact that the Irving Place Consenratory (home) ts still the centerof thelrlives, Vitaand Ishmael feel already that thewtderumrld ls thetrs to make ot, and they have no doubt that they

::f. _ - Ttdswasevt.tntJusttheotherday, when Bob read to thern troni O'ercyThomp6n's On

Grotuthand Form.It ts adtlDcultbook phllosoptrlcal, sctenUffc and mathematrcal. As Bob read, Vita and Ishmael kept stopping him, demandin€lexplanadons. Oiten,' Bob h;d studied thebookcarefully, 3ltloqgh he had no ready arswers. I realtzed that, liki me, he ls apt to sllde overwhat he doesn't understand, as if hiding from his own lgfrorance, Vita and Ishmael aren't like that.

Like 3-year-olds who are foreveraslidng, 'Why? Whf" thetr tgporancc doesn't bother thembecause thqr are so conlldent of ffnding answers. Yet, contradlctory as thls may s€em at ffr:st, Vita and Ishrnaei seem perfelt! comfortable wtth the ambisulty of ltvtre tn the mtdst of thrngs that thf d6n't understand. Vita sajd qutte matter-of-liactlv

oneday,'Youlcnow, I thfnkl'vercad Inde Womenat least ten tlmes, but for the flrst few Umes I dtdn't hane any ldea ofwhatwas golnp

on. IJust ltked the book and so l kept reaitni tt." Ltke babtes, Vltaand Ishmael dbn t seern" t9 be gverwhelmed by the enonnity ofwhat they don't loeow. Mostly they arenit even conscious of lt" as thq make thetrwav. steo by step, thmugh the fea soup fog of the ,'reil"

world.

Yesterday Vita sald, "It us€d to be that people urere surprised when we told them that

wewere homeschoolers. 'Canyou reall5r do that?' they would ask. But nori they usualh Just say, 'Oh,'when we tell them, as tttt's ttie GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #58

25 conrmonest thlng in the world. " For me, that is the greatest change that ten years has wrought. It is also the most hopefirl.

GATHERING COURAGE Flom J ill Wtilnore (New kalantd) : IVe been homeschooling in spirit since our first child was born, almost 12 years ago. It was t] en that John Holt's ideas suddenlv assumed new and overwhelrningly importint meaning fiDr me. It was a time when I was balanced betureen hope and fear. My own

childhood had been tense and fearful, and I carried that general fearfulness teto adulthood with me tke a garnmy knee that would suddenly giveway and let me down. It took quite afewyears formy husband and me to gatherenoughcourageand lorrc betweenus towantababy. Iwas firllof hope and determinadon to do betterthan mvown mother had managed to do with me, ana t had by then gleaned some understandings that I felt u,ould help me. But itwasn't untilThomas was born that I felt the dilemmas that must have faced my mother, and the incredible pressures ttrat are exerted upon almost all new mothers ln our soctety. Are you really saUsfied wtth yourselP And lf not, what makesyou thinkyou can manuliacture abefurg who will be more satisfactorf? How much must/may a mother glve to irer child, and why? Wtrat makes a chjld "spolled"? We had no really solld, reassurtng family patterns to go by, butwewere luclry. In my tremulous, new-born state (thatis howl Glt afterThomas's btrth), I was seized by the conviction that I nedtwtbefearfrrl of gtving my child "too much" - I could not spoil hlm

with too much attendon, too-frequent nursings, etc., as long as that attendonwas ln essence freely glven. I was convinced also that it need never become other than freely given, because my chfld possessed too great an innate toughness and resilience for him to be harmed by my wtthdrawtng attendon at tlmes to meet other needs. I felt tn my bones,

moreover, that I was not moru4facturlng a being. Forone thlng thfsbeinghad hls own opinions rlgfit from the start - tt really had to be

apartnership with each getdngcues from

theother.

Most of these convlcflons were confinned and supported, whenwer they wavered underthe contraqr oplnions of others, by thewrttlngs ofJohn Holt. I decided that the boundarles wlthlnwhtch one rnav brlng up healthy, sturdy children are lrr fact very verv wide. I thougfrt thouoht of examples, examoles. mn olno mngtng fromvery close nuclean nuclear farnilles to ltdbbutzldbbut type anangementswhere the children are fairly early parted from thelr parents for large periods of the day, to sltuadons where thechildrenare close to thelr rnothers all the time, but their mothers are occupied wlth essentialwork fromwhtch they take tlme out to tend the chlldren" as nrculd be the case tn many peasant communlfles. Oncr freed from thlnlftrg I hadto tend my cldld around the clock, I found I uantad to be wtth hlm most of the ttme. It was then a matter of tr5rlng to enlarge our lfues, lnclude more people ln our clrcle of ftlends, flnd more thtngs rporth doing fromwhtch our chlldren need notbe excluded. The focus shlfts from "howto bring up our ctrlldren well" to "how to llve well" whlch ls as lt should be. and the former tends to take care ofitself. Most of thls probably sounds self-evident GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOUNG #58

to those ofus luclry enougfi to have enJoyed, or achieved, alarge measure of love and freedom, but to me tn those early days it was a series of h5rpotheses to be tested. Our Me becarne a consclous, dellberate and optlmlstlc experlment. Need I say that the experlment worked - orurc Gel lt dtdl And as IVe satd, John Holt's wrltlngs, and a bit later, GWS, gave nre great hope and reason towtthstand

the constricUng pressures that I found all around us.

It sdll astonlshes me thatnowadays when I tell a new acqualntancc that I'm golng to homeschool, the response ls often approvlng, usually knowledgeable, and occaslonally, "I'm homeschooltng my ldds too." So homeschooltng has changed frrom a word I had toexplalnand amovementl had to defend to avlable alternadve that parents recognlze and sometlmes choose.

A WAY OF LIFE

FRIET{DS CHANGE OPINIONS F}om

downrtglrtconfidentl

homMatyVanbren(ME):

atli,een Eatle (CN :

I'mone of those long-time homeschoolers who has nweryet "officlalty" homeschooled. My older daughter isJust 5, and theCalifornlac-ompulsory school age ts 6. Of course, tn ttrls day and age - at least

my cornmunlty - I'm already unusual, slnce my chlldren have never been to preschool. All the otheryoung children I know, wtth only one exception, started preschool no laterthart age 3, and at age 4 attended at least three days a week. Most are ln flveday preschools by age 4. I was a homeschooler ln phllosophy before I had chlldren and even before I contemplated marrtage. I came to homeschoollng through readlng John Holf s books. I must have ffr:st becorne aware of GWS around 1979. At that Urne, I only dtscussed homeschoollngwlth a srnall ctrcle: my parents and slster, my bo5ddend (later to become my husband), and a few filends who were lrrvolved lneducation. Whenl had rnv flrst chtld, in 1982, and began to meet othir mothers and bables, I mendoned my alm to teach Mtndy at horne. Even my clos6st frlends seemed completely mystlfled. That could not be legallWhywould anyonewant to take on such an awesome task? (Several people who asked me that quesdon were fcrmer teachers. I'm not surewhy they thoughtttwould be more "avesome" to teach one chlld than to teach thirty or forty.) Most people smlled wlsely and satd,'You'll change your mlnd

whenMtndyts5."

In actual fact, my frlends have changed more than I have. Almost everv one of tlrem has consldered homeschooltrr-g at least enough to explain gutlfllywhy they can'tdo tt "I probably should homeschool, but lJust don't have the (tlme, courage, stamlna, bralns, etc.)" These friends seem to conslder homeschoollng the tdeal. Even the former teachers, however, feel that they are not up to the task. These friends also Gel that educadon through schools tf perfectly adequate. Ifthey thought as I do, that schools would rob thelr children of much of thetr creatMty, problem-sohdng abilfty, deslre to learn, and self-confldence, theyurould not send their chfldren to school, I'm sure. A close filend spent almost a year looking for a prfirate'school thatw6dd meet her daughtet's needs. She was wtlltng to pay Just about ar5r amount of tulUon, and she was wlIIIng to rrnve to be nearasultable school. But she couldn't find the rtg;ht school. I spent the year calmly saylng, "I'm gotng to homeschool. If s cheaper, we don't have to move, and we can educate exactly please." That Chrtstrnas, I gave my""lrra frlend the revlsed Hour Cllildren Leant- She dec{ded she should homeschool, and after rc:rdlullgffier

ThanSclpolshebegan to feel that she could do it - as a matter of fact. she became

The whole tdea of homeschooling ha" evolved over the pastfewyears from somethingwe thoughtwould be good forour

ctrlldren (thls goes back tenyearC or so, before wehad thern) to awayof ltfe; pa.rtofawayof Itfe, actually, which ts ttself sdll erroMng for us.

thnrk

Homts

the kev to all of thts to ralse our chtldren the best wavwe can, freedomforusand ourchtldren to ld.rn and grow at the rtght tlme. Wtth tlre children, I ffnd more and rnorc that we must ht them do what they feel they need to do. We never loeow whatwlll come froma partfcular acflvity. One e.rrample pointed ttrls out to me very clearly rec.ently. Helen (3) suddenly started' rnahng doll beds eveqrwhere, especlally tn the llnencloset. As trrttatlngas I occastonally found thls, I dldn't say anythlng I

Hom

aboutltand somehowwas ableto

learrc the sheets and plllowcases as thcy were, Layered wlth dolls. Now, suddenly Helen makes the other beds ln the house. I feel that she had done some tralnlng for lt on her own with the dolls and we were all lucky that I dtdn't lnterfere. She doesn't do Lt every day, but then ne{therdo I. WhenJohndled and tncluded Markand me lrr HoltAssoctates, we felt it was very lmportant to help c,ontlnue the urcrk aibest we could. We hanrc leftdtrectcontactwtththe olllce nowto move lnourowndlrecflons, and we feel rrcry comfortable wlth thls. While we would liketo help as muchaswecanfrom thts dtstanc.e, and maywant to be more dtectly tnvolved agatn ln the future, nrc hanre been conccntrafl ng more and more on developtng ln ourselves what may have been John's chlef legacy to all of us - tmst in ourselves and ln others.

I have come to understand, finally, and even to rcc"pq that in almost everything I believe and care about I am a memhr of a minority in my own country. This is certainly true of dl my ideas about children and education. We who do not believe in pulsory schooling, who believe that want to leam about the world, are at it, and can be trusted to do it, without much adult coercion and interfererrce, are surely not morc than lvo the population and pedraps much less than thar.. This doesn't trouble me any more, as long as those minorities of which I am a member go on gowing. My work is to them grow. John Holt, GWS #l

LOOKING BACK: THE EXPERTENCE OF HOMESCHOOLING THEY ASKED TO LEAVE F\wnThnctesyMN: In 1975 three of my chlldrenwere ln

school, unhappily. Danllewas ln sixthgrade, Darrln tur fourth, Suste ln ffrst. They knew that they went to school because the law said they had to, and thry knew frrom thetr experience that it was not a good place for thern- We dld notpretend thatitwas. When I told them that the Lawuras passed because people thought chfldren should have

an education, theywould say, "Butwe aren't, getdngan educadonatschool. We learn much moie it home. So the law ts not dotng what it ls supposed to. It should be changpd." Wewere sendlng the chtldren to school firur days a week, gving each a day to stay home. But

therewas nerrera daywhen they diln'twant to stay home. We said thatwe were not keeptngthemout more because that rnight learl to a court fight. They each declded that it would be better to rlsk a court ltght tban stay inschool. At Chrtstmas umewe took them out for the rest ofthevear. Because the ldds and I were out oftlr6 state for a couple of months, charges were notbroughtagalnst us. The next yearlheywanted to tr5r schoolagaln. We had

"movea

s6 they wodd 6e going to a dilferent school, and they hoped tturculd be better. Darrtn and Susle lasted only unfll Thanksgtvlng. Dantle ffntshed that year' Whenwe tookDarrinand Susle out aAatn, we vlslted John Holt tn trts olficc, and

bEgan a lhendshtp which we conttnued by phone and letter. In June of I 977 John wrote, iHere ls our Latest bralnstorm. I flnd myself urrittng letters, more or less about the same thleg, to a number of people, a growing number, many ofwhom are now begtnnlng to write letters to each other, and lt seemed to me that a newsletterwould be anray ln whlch we

could all exchangeourldeas and exPerlenc€s. I'mqutte exclted about tlris, harrc lots ofldeas for tirtngs to put ln lt, think tt could bevery

usefulto manypeople,"

WhenJohnstarted GWS, ourswas the

only honrschoo[ng family I knew and John wai the only support I had. My childrenwere 4, 8, lO and 12. Wervere homeschoollng quletly and wevrcrejust gettlng involved tn Sallet. When a "frlend" reported us tlrere was no longerany reason to remaln quieL We glve a newspaper lntervlew and then had a lot of newspipir and TV coverage. The publlctt5r let others know that homeschoollngwas an opilon to conslder. We got lots of calls, some olfertng supportand others asldng for suPPorL - -Afterwewere reported ure declded to make ourhome aprlrrate school' Ttrat resulted ln a court case wtrich rpe uion' Then theleglslature started constderlng how to change the law. Orlglnally thelr goal was to prevent homeschooltng. After fve years of iobbying by an lncreaslng number of homeschoolers, the Vtrglnta leglslature passed a reasorrable homeschooliqg law.

Now, tenyearsafterthe startofGWS, all my lods are qfute frdependent and self-

reltant They have ln common

a sense

responstbtlity, competence and reliabft ty tha-t make them trlghly valued at everyJob thevtake. Shortly after she started taklngballet, Danlle began to be lnterested tn a caneer dance. Wf,en she was 13, she started

performingwith a small modern dance group that performed fur schools. She has been performtng wlth similar groups wer slnce. She got her own apartment before she was 18, slncre

shewasdanclngwtth

a group based

Wtlltamsburg, forty miles from our house. When she was l8 she told us that she dtdn't need our financtal support any more and ttrat shewould tell us lf she needed help. Besides dancing she teaches ballet andJazz classes. She has never feltthe need foradiplomaWhen fflltngout the "sctroolattended" slot ln Job applicadons shewrites Brook School, gradecompleted: I2th. Darrtn also took ballet, and slnce hewas not in school he could watch rehearsals and help by runnlng the tape recorder. That led htni tnto theater technical work. He kept taldng ballet but was more lnterested in tech work as a career. He went to Aniloch College for two years, and durlng that time he began to thlnk that he did want to danc.e. He left college and spent the pastyearstud5dngat Boston Ballel He recently slgned a contract wtth Nevada Danc.e Theater for next year. Susle enJoyed ballet but never planned to be a ballerina. She has consldered mustcal theaterand modeling. She hasworked ln the groups that Danlle worked ln, both as a dancrr and as a tech person. Now she ls danctng ln a loungle. Next year she and Dantle

will bothdancewtth agroup that performstn

schools and forothercommunity gpoups' She doesn t know what she wants to do beyond

that. Antta ls wrtflng poenrs, a teenage rornance, and movlng notes to ftlends and famlly. She babyslts ficr ten famlltes, tlrough she ls cuttingback to have time forother thtngs. She makes beaudful earrtng;s whtch she g[ves to speclal friends and occaslonally sells. Had she been in school, I'm sure she would have been labeled "Iearning disabled" because she was a late reader. Leaming to read was not the way she wanted to use her tlme and energr. Therewere Hmeswhen shewould have found lt cpnvenlent to be able to read, but notenougfi tounrk onlt. Ttrts Pastyearas she has wrltten more, her reading has lmproved so that she can enjoy r€ading to herself. Ayearago, a frtend suggested ttnt she was readyto reallybegin r€adtrtgand that now I should uork wtth her. But she dldn't

want to beworked with. I thanked him polltely and knew I would condnrle to give

Anltaonlvwhathelp sheasked for, as I trad all along.-She has le'amed to read and is wridng her poems and book without any

pushlng or teaching. I made myself available to answbrquesdons and let her knowthat when she was ready she would be able to read. It has beenwonderfi,rl to watch all four children grow, learn and develop with no curriculum, no artilicial schedules and no comparison with "the norm. "

EARLY PIONEERS FtomAlturtHotuftMO): When we declded to teach Robert (now 14 at home, we wer€ llvlng h I€dngton, a suburb ofBoston, Massachusetts. Thlswas in 1975' and at that time we had ne\ter met, or even heard about, parentswho homeschooled. But wewere enthusiasdc about home education right from the start and andous to see if there

Ceiebra'Jng lOYears

were any other folks in the areawho shared

our interest in teactdng theirown children. We posted

anurnberofads invarious

supermarkets, churches and libraries around Boston. Alas, we didn't llnd any homeschoolers I'm not sure therewere any then ln Massachusetts - butwedid getacall fr,omJohn Holt. Amongother things he told us that he had gfuen up trying to change schools and was nowthinldngabout home education as a vlable altemattve. He asked us to keep notes on what we were dolng so he could wrlte about It some day. He said he'd gtve our name and address to sever:al homeschooltng parents who had written hlmfromaround the country. (He gave them our name rather than the other way around because he satd they had all requested anonyrnityl) I might add that a couple ofyears earlier, when I was a struggling and dlsillusioned public school teacher, I happened to read Holt's Horu ChildrenFall Wtrat awonderful book it was, and what a source ofstrength and sanltyJustwhen I needed it most. But I was taken aback, to say the least, thatJohn Holt hlmselfwould call and show an lnterest in whatwewere dolng, slnce at that dme tris books were often requtred readtng for student teachers, and I thought of himas an established school person. I guess the most grafl$lng thlngweive experienced overthe past tenyears has been the amadng growth of home education. It seemed clear to us dgfrt from the start that homeschooltng had a lot gaing for tt, but urc nwertmaglned that so many peoplein sucha fewyears would come to the same conclusion. I sUll can't get over itl But I'm glad it s happened. And ofcourse ltwas such apleasure to have Robert at home wery day. Hewas such a happy, outgloing child - so lirll of llG and curtostty - that it was always aJoy to be with

htm. Our homeschooling e<pertment ls far from complete. Robert is near$ grown now, so the uldmate outcome ofhls educadon is largely ln his hands. But I doubt tf I'll consider hts homeschoolinga success until he acquires what has tradttionally been known as a "liberal educadon." Incidentally, this is something most unlverslties claim to offer but probably don't, so the college degree so many parents seem to want for their chlldren probably won't satis$ me.

FROM A GROWN HOMESCHOOLER Flom Clvis toplvr Grant-DeRa s (CN : In spealdngwtth my parents about our twentyyears of homeschoolingand about the pros and cons, I find very, very fewcons' But a Ibw ttrings are very clear. The "outsider's" viewpointls usually gotng to be negauve,lf forno otherreason than tbatour society has the sad habit ofturning up its nose at anything that irwolves thinldng, or hard work. Thls hasbecome moreobvious to our farnily in the past fewyears, slnce I was trtt and serious! inJured by a trit and run (later caught) drunk driver. In spealdngwith our attom€ys, and reviewing past medtcal records, tt became clear that 'butsiders" vlewed us, a home school famfly, as being too GROWING WTITIOUT SCHOOLING #58

Giffi Cltildrcn Monthly

(aduerdsement)

Introducing Gifted Children Monthly, designed for parents of children who do things a liffle earlier, a little better, a little faster, and a liffle differently from most other children. Dear Parent.

"I think it's vitally important to you, your

Your child is unique. He or she possesses a particular combination of skills, talents and gifts that no other child has. And that's where you come in . . . Because of all the gifts your child possesses, the most precious one is yoz.

- and our nation - that we tap every available resource in an efon to help our children be everything they can be. And that's why there's Gifted Children Monthly. And why I'm involvedwith iton an advisory leveL I child

You make the difference One of the joys of parenting- as you know

is helping

believe Gifted Children Monthly caz help . . .

your child develop. Mentally. Physically. Emotionally. And that's where we can help you with your child. We're

Gifted Children Monthly.

Here's how..

Each month, Gif,ted Children Monthly brings you thoughtful articles about raising your child. Articles from experts in their fields.

o o o o o o o

issues

- that help you

Eight basic principles for effective parental guidance. Helping the underachiever get back on track.

Nine ways to develop your child's creativity at home and school.

IdentiSing the mathematically able student. Twelve study-skill secrets for school success. The right way to establish discipline in your home. What role should you play in your child's homework? You'll ftnd answers - from the experts - to questions like: What should you look for in a school's gifted pro gram? Is "brainstorming" tlte best road to developing creativity? What can you do about your child's nonproductive homework assignments? How can you motivate your child toward academic excellence?

Box 10149, Des Moines, IA 50340). We'll rush you a copy ofour upcoming issue to rnspectfree ofcharge and enroll you as a trial subscriber (10 additional monthly issues).

If youhke G{fied Children Monthly, you'llpay just $2.08 month (which is $8 offthe single copy price fior a full year's worth of issues)! If, on the other hand, you decide the

publication just isn't for you, simply return our invoice marked "cancel" and owe nothing. You'll be under no cost, obligation, or commitment. The free issue is still yours to keep. And that will be that.

Send no money now But, please. Mail today. And welcome. Welcome to more ideas, opportunities and challenges to help you develop your child's potential to the fullest. Welcome to Gifted Children Monthly. . . May we look for your reply by return mail?

r----tr YES.

(That's a savings of $8 off the single copy price!) If I decide the publication is not for me, I'll return your invoice marked "cancel" and owe nothing. But I may keep the free issue.

You'll findSpecial Repons thatdealwith subjects of special importance to you as a concerned parent How you can help stimulate your child's brain development. How keeping a diary can help your child experience selfexploration. What to do about sibling rivalry. How to help your child mature socially and emotionally and feel happy about himself or herself. You'll discover valuable consumer information, too.

Special Bonust

GROWING WTMOUT SCHOOLING #58

------1

Please send me my free issue. If I like it I'll pay just $2.08 a month for a total of I I issues.

Plus you'll find practical parenting /rps from other

See how valuable Gifted Children Monthly can be to you and your child. Try an issue on us. There's absolutely no risk or obligation. Simply return the form below (P.O.

resourceful parents.

Name

(Plce

Print)

Address

City

The heart of every issue is a special, four-page pullout section we call Spin-Off. It contains puzzles, projects, contests, and information desigrred to interest children and encourage them to think. To solve problems. To create. And to stretch their minds. It's all in Gifted Children Monthly.

youfeel it's worth a try."

- Steve Allen your Send for FREE Issue

multi-award-winning

publication desigrred for parents of children with great promise. To help you help your child be the best he or she can be. To reach their fullest potential. And make tle most of their gifts, whatever they are.

- Articles like these from recent help your child -

hope

State

I I I

zip

Please allow zl-6 weeks for deliverv ofyour free issue.

Gifted Children Monthly P.O. Box 10149, Des Moines,IA 50340

MHSS?

28 happy, and too close. One medical consultant noted on my chartwhen Iwas 7 thatmy palents and I were "\rery close, almost to the point ofbeing pathological." We all Laugh at the remark now, because other homeschoolers have told us that thev have heard similar remarks. Then I look al the world around me, and I see so many parents and children in negadve sltuadons, which have become the norrL and I can better understand howl can seemabnormal, since I adore my parents and enJoy their company so much, as I do the company of most adults. I find it sad that public education is considered the best or the normal educational alternatlve, even lf a student is failing. When the attorneys were negotlating my settlement in the acctdent case, the driver's attorney kept inquiring aboutwhether I was llterate, overlooking the fact that I have taken college courses, been acflrrc in my csmmunity, etc. Theirconcernwas that I had been homeschooledl I'm thankful that my parents kept good records, such as attendance records, lesson plans, dlarles of actMdes, photoJournals and the like, that proved lnvaluable tn gettlng me such a good settlement. It proves that homeschoolers should kecp some klnd of records, asyou don't knowwhen some mlsfortune may befallyou necessitating such records. I am also thankful that my parents were so aboveboard tre acknowledglngmy homeschooling. Rather than sneak around or hide me, they took me wery pl,ace they went, be lt clt5r council meedngs, Siera Club meetlngs, relig[ous gatherings, etc. When someone inqulred about myeducadon, my mom and dad would treat the subJect ltke they would any other lnterest or undertaldng of theirs, briefly explainhg the pros and cons and then quickly turnlng the quesdon back to the questioner. I am so thankful that my parents undertook to homeschool me. Ttrey spent many, many months researchlng the subJect and as I grewyear to year, they always inquired as to my ldeas about my educadon, and whether I wished to contlnue to homeschool (wh1ch I did), and what subjects I had a spectal interest ln, In readtng GWS and other homeschool publicadons I note that the long-term homeschooler seem to have this in cornrnon. In contrast I note thatwhile homeschooling ts growingin numbers, the burn-out rate seems much, much higher, and I worry that farniltes ar€ gettlng into homeschoollng for the wrong reasons. My motherassures me thatwtrile thls may be the case, tlre pendulum will swing back.

''I

BEGAN TO LEARN AGAIN'' FromAnne Lalvson(ON.

After 26 years as a student and then elementaqr school teacher, I gave birth to my daughter ln 1978. I was awed at her ability to learn, from the first days of her life. When she was about 18 months old, I discovered GWS andJohnHolt. I devoured theearlylssues, I began ta.ldng notes on my daughter's growth, I began thireklng through my past, I started (and nwer sent) many, many letters to GWS. I decided that homeschoohngwould be the path I would take wlth my children, and gradually I letgo oftheold ties that held me to the

schoolsystem. The unexpected result of becoming a homeschooler, and of pulling myselfout of

the school system, ts that I began to learn again. I bad to unlearnthe only tmportant Iesson I had gotten from my schooling: how not to be responsible for my own learnlng. I studled my daughters and thelr friends. I dredged up horror storles from my own past. I realized that ln fourth or llfth grade I had decided that I uras basically an tncapable person and needed to look constantly to my teachers for ldback on how I was doing. Today I have two homeschooled daughters, ages 6 and 9. They a.ne capable and ellicient learners, and waste no tlme when they decide to leam something. I sflll struggle wtth my tdeas about myself that prerrented me from learning for so long. But I have made greatprogress. I haverediscovered thatl have a great love of ideas, music, and art. As a child I had thoughts (that I gave up very early) of being a u/riter. I have begun to pursue these interests again. I sdll cannot take classes as I fall too quickly tnto the old pattern of letdng someone else do it for me; tnstead I struggle on

myown.

GETTING APPROVAL ABROAD F}om Suza nne AbJ andre

(Sp

afd :

My husband Richard and I first learned about homeschooling when we were lMng in California. I had become lnvolved with a [.a Leche l-eague group when Ire was I and Niko was 3. One day one of the mothers showed us an ardcle aboutJohn Holt. One thlng led to another, and soonwe startd a homeschoollng group, although at that ttme none ofourchildren were ofus an ardcle aboutJohn Holt. One thtng led to another, and soon we started a homeschooling group, although at that tlme noneofourchtldren were ofschool age. Six months laterour family moved to West Germany, and urc became determlned to homeschool, I thlnk tt uras the rtgtdity of the German system that completely convlnced us. In Germany GWS became ouronly support. Through the Dlrectory I recetved aletter from Karin Grahner-Debus and lt turned out that shewas the most trnportant source of information for us ln deallng wlth the German school olllcials,

When Nlko was 6 we recefued a computerlzed letterfrom the local German school notl$dng us that Nlko was to r€port to the school to regtster. FUchard wentwlth Nlko at the appolnted flme, lntendtng to tell the school that he dld not want to enroll Niko. He got as far as the school secreta4r who lnststed he answer herquestion and would llsten to nothing else. Her quesdon uras, "Doyou want your son eruolled tn the Cathollc sectlon or the Prrotestant sectlon?" Rtchard ffnallyJust leftand carne home shaldng hts head and saying thatwe should haveJust lgnored that notice. In retrospect I thlnk we should have ignored it, because tn dealingwith the German system of absolute mandatory school it is better to waste as much time as possible ignore flrst notices, cancel appointments, postpone undlyourchild has movd oris beyond schoolage. We nextwent to speakwtth the prlecipal. I told her very llrmly thatwe were Arnerlcans and weren't under herJurisdicdon. I must have sounded very mnvlnclng because she walved attendance for Nlko, It turned out later that she had made a big mlstake and got in trouble for lt later from her boss, the district superintendent. About a rnonth later we recreived alettersayingthatwe had been

wrongand she had beenwrongand Niko must report to school. I

linallywentto

see the

district

superlntendent, telltng him that the slnce the principal had gtven us the waiver originally, if Niko were to go to school now he would have to start tn mid-year, which would put trtm at a dlsadvantage. It worked - the superintendent gave us tl.e wafuer again, because of his principal's error. We had been ttrinklng of moving from Germany for other reasons, but thls school mess speeded things up a little. We moved to Spain in 1984, and fur contrast have never heard one word from Spantsh school ofllcials. I can rememberwritlngto Donnalong thatwhenwe moved to Europe, Richard,

ke and I were all suddenly on the same level. EVerythlngwas new, different, and often lrrcomprehensible. None of us spoke a word of German - we all learned together. The Niko,

boyswatched us leam, watched us become frustrated, watched us succeed and fail, Rlchard and I expertenced leamtngas achild does. Whenwe cametoSpalnNlko and Lee were at a dlsadvantage. Richard uas fluent ln

Spantsh and I had had a lot of class tlme in Spanish (useless for the most part but at least I could catchafewwords). But nowaftertlrree years Ntko and Lee are fluent - evenmore

fluent than Rtchard. Unttl thisJanuaryure had neverhad any extended dme when we worked on academic needs seemed to be firlfllled by all our acflvldes, but ln January we rearrangd our schdules and started having an organlzed school tlme every mornlng. Now Nlko and Lee haveJust left for a three-month vistt wtth thelr grandparents iix Califotnla. It's been sixyears stncc they were in the U.S. so it ls drrp for them to leam aborrt thelrcountry. As wewatched them go wlth the flfght attendant to lly a quarter of theway around the earth, Rtchard and I thought that ln followtn! the homeschooling ldeas we have prepared them to be able to undertake such an adventure at such ayounE age. Th€ywere ablt nervous, but they sci:med'so responslble, self-contatned and mature for 8 and lO year olds. We were extremely proud of

work Up undl then our

them.

TAKING OLDER CHILDREN OUT l'rom the Ardreut s Janllg

Tems :

We began homeschoollng ftve years ago thfs fall. Really, we made the declston to do somethtngdilferentat the end ofthe prevlous

schoolyear. We read John Holt s TerchYow Out;nand we made up our mlnds to homeschooL We nerrerwanted to send our children to the publlc schools anlrway. Welust didn't know thirewas an alternattve. When we began homeschoollng, our oldest son hadjust Sntshed tenth grade, our second son the seventh, our thlrd son the fourth, and our daughter lidndergarten, Our oldest son, Joel (2 f) fs f,nbhfng hls second year at the loel communl$r college. HeJust recent[ married. Jason ( I 8) Just enrolled ln the communtt5r college for tlre summer. He wiu being golng to Sam Houston State Universtt5r this fall on aplano scholarship, which he was given urlthout erren app\rlng for tt. Ra5rmond (15) and Sarah (l l) are sfill homeschoollng. Our method of learnhg fs rcry much inlluenc.ed by the vrltlngs ofJohn HolL GROWING WTII{OUT SCHOOLING #58

29 Putting it as sirnply as possible, we allour our

children to decidewhat theywill leam and when theywantto leam lt, We.uevery confident thatby the flme they areadults they will knowall that they need to know We are often surprised at the things they decide to study and how quickly they leam them when it is their decislon Neither of our older boys had arry trouble passtng the state test for the GED diplomawhen they reached I 7.

MEETING OTHER ADULTS Fturn l{erry Foraste (NY) : We made a conscious declsion to homeschool Charlie (now 8) when he was onlJt a few months old. His dad was a substitute

teacherat varlous schools in our area a{Iluent and poor, public and private - and was extremely disillusloned wtth all schools. It has be€n awonderfi:l eightyears, watchtng

our son grow. GWS has been a best ftend, ardvtngJustwhen I needed a ltttle boost or a few tdeas. It helps me to remember thatwe're not dilferent and we're not alone. We havebeen luclry tn thatboth sets of grandparents support our declslon. Most acquaintances think ifs OK "for now." They treat tt like a fad. Homeschoohng ln our area means not sendingyour child to Pre-K or nursery school. The head ltbrarlan ofthe children's roomat ourpubllc llbraryhas been

familtes.

Durtng the stx years, Heather has leamed at home fi:ll-tlme, gone to school full-time for short periods, and attended school part-Ume while homeschoollngthe restof the tlme. The local school olficials conttnue to caoperate with us, erren lf they do not enttrely agree wtth whatnrc are dolng. Several years ago, \rre becarne partof a support group. That group has ernlved as newpeopleJolned us and others left, but the group has been avery welcome and necessary part ofour llves. And then there has be€n our frlendsblp with John, and through him and GWS, many others ofyou. We hosted John hvtc-e on hls vlsits to Mlchlgan, I had read his books tn collegp; his ideas were already part of my teactrlng method when I taught tn publb hfgh school. But to meet hJ.m and listen to him lrt person and become lris frlend wasJust so

fantastlc. There are all those spectal memories: hls teastrg Heather by taldng the cherrv olf her lce cream sundae when she urasntt looldng; playtng hts cello ln our ltvlng room for rela:raUon, obllvlous to tlre rest of us; Pat Montgomery's oornment that she could [sten to htm speak for hours - I c.ono.rrred that Srst tlme I heard hfm durlng the b\z:rd at Oakland Untverslty. Most ofall, John has

taughtme tobe myselfand ltve myllfe tna

way tlnt ls meanlngful to me. Our family has been trlrtng to do that for several years now, an we are a lot closer, calmer, and happier because ofJohn and trls example to us.

an outstandtng supporter. She ls always looking for something new and lnterestlng

forus.

Homeschooling has helped us meet and Aet to know other adults who have turned out fo be resources for us. TheyVe met a chlld wtth a keen interest and have been happy to pass on thetr knowledge. Most adults comment on Char[e's abtllt5rto corwersewlth people of anyage. Most important, I know my son and hls younger brother and slster know hlm. We see blm wery day, all tlre tlme. I harrcn t mtssed anything. And Charlle knows what lt's llke to be a full-flme cooperating farnl! member. Chores aren't mag;tcally done wtrtle he's gqne for the maJorpartof the day. We derrourcverythlng ln

prlnt about

education, especlally home educaflon. We have an extenslve collecdon of educattonal books and textbooks culled from llbmry sales. But I rely mostly on GWS , Mothatng, and the local newsletters from Pennsylvania, NewJerse1r and NewYork. They provide my ongotng support. They "speak my language." As wlth any occrrpaflon, there's nothing llke a "trade" paperto keepyou up onourvocatlon. These newsletters have led us to orgarldrzea local support group here lnWestchester Count5randwe plan on star6nga newsletter ln the fall.

VISITING WITH JOHN HOLT l\urlt J tll B asttort (MI) : Itwa,s sixyears agoAugust that I found

John's Teoch Your Ourtat our townshlp library. By January of 1982, our daughter,

Heather, was learningat home tnstead oftn her llrst gr:ade classroom one block away. Then, wewerc unsure aboutwer5rthlng. Nou we take nearlyeveryttrlngforgranted, Thts is such a natural way to leam and to ltve, for all of us. We'r€ cerufled teachers, so legally ltwas much easler for us than for many other GROWING WTITIOUT SCHOOLING #58

ORGANIZING BEHIND THE SCENES

Flotn Maggle Nnwtdson M E) :

Homeschoollng has become a way of ltG for our famlly since rpe declded tt was rlght for us serrenyears ago. Our style has evolved and changed as ourchlldren have grown and I feel

veryfortunate to have knownabout homeschooling before our chtldren were of school age. When tlrqr were rrcry young, our homeschooling conststed of answerlng; quesdons, taktng them to rnany dfferent places, readrng mary, nrany books, helptng them wlth thetr ovm projects, havtng lots of art materlals wtthln tlretr reach, and slnglng together. Wlth each succcsslve chlld I nras able to become more and rnor€ ofa "factlttatot'' ratherthan havlng settdeas aboutwhat I

wanted themto leam. Many people are nenrous about following thelr ctrlldren where learnlng ls conc€med - it really ls an act of falth - but once you take that step lfe ts firllofdallyuonders. You watch the unfoldlng ofyour ctrlldren's mlnds and you get to know and appreclate the essenc€ of thetr lndlvtdual personallfles. Joe, our oldest ctrtld, ts nearly 9 now. I harrc found overthepastyearor so thathe needs somethlng more struchrred thanJust

"havlng thlngs anatlable." Our schedulels sUll prettv loose and he sdll has a of chotcc. Thls year he cpns:tderible "mount 8) vrcreable to tellmealot and Anna (almost ofwhat theyuranted to leam tn the comlng year and to suggest projects assoclated wlth those thlngs. I llnd that my malnJob nowts an tncredtble amount oforganlzatlon behtnd the sccnes. I also flnd ttrat educatlng myself fairlywtdely on thelrchosen sublects ls also frnpi,rtant-nor bnstanct, thry wint to study

anclent clvlltaflons nextyear, so I am readlngbooks on tlds toplc thatareaborrc thetr level of cemprehenslon so that I can round out, thelr readtng and answer thelr

quesflosn moreeastly, Thls ls no great hardshlp slnce I love theexcuseto do tt. I have found that I need to 'make aDpolntments"wtth the ctrtldren for math, liriguage and muslc lessons and to set specific tlmes at wtrlch we wlll do a sclence or soclal shrdtes proJect I have also had to ease tlrem tourard more lndependent study. Much as I enJoy dotng tblngs wtth them, I must have some drrr forbastcs llke dlsh-washtng, cbanrng, colong (whlch thry help wtth too) and know that I can do somethtng and get lt flnished before gotngto help one ofthemwtth somethlng. Betng constantly arallable Just

woremeouL

I often tell people that vrc wouldn t have tlme for school, and I know that I wouldn't be lnvolved ln so many outslde thlngs tf they were away all day. Both Joe and Anna ar€ very lnterested ln ballet so we make the 8Omlle round trlp to the ballet school2-4 tlmes avrcekand also go to rehearsals for performances. They are also rrcry trvolved ln muslc and need tlme at home to practtce thelr ptano, vfolh, guttarard shgfng. Th€y perform regularly atchurch and forspectal frrncflons. Apart from thdr lessons at home or elsewhere, thetr days are fllled wlth readfng mahng up plays, sewfng, dotngPtles of art work, and worldng on proJects theyVe come up wlth - for lnstanc=, ln the past few weeks.Joe has been settlngup aweather stadon outslde, choreographlng dances to muslc, rnaklng a model hauntcd house and a map of the nlght slry, grylng a snack cookbook, and expertmendng wlth an electronlcs lidL Anna has b€en rraktng dolls and doll clotlres and furnftur=, flgurlng out narladons on muslc she knows, drawlng reams ofcartoons ard helplng Errdly (5) make costtrmes for her plays, Emtly ts full of storles and plays and danccs and spends her days readtng and ln pr€tend garnes. My own "outslde" commltments hane grown to !.nclude performlng wtth a medteval

muslc consort, dlrecflng a chureh choir, teachfng pfarn lessons and betng a Qualrer representattrrc to an lnterfatth clergr group.

Children easily walking to each others' houses during the day . . . Five to six family lending library of books, tools, games . . . Homeschooling familie,s might create these and other oppornrnities for themselves by chmsing to live near each other. For information on gening in touch with other homeschooling families interested in finding ways to bring such possibilities into reality send SASE to nation-wide non-profit network

MAKING CONTACT CO Travianna Farms

Rr l Check V424072

INSULT TO INTELLIGENCE Frank Smith has ir.ritt€n *re best expose of' the educational establishment in recent years. Conunon serse and passion infrse this important book that slpuld be resd by everyone who questioru traditional school metlrods. $18.95 plus $1.50 posr Serxl to: HOLT ASSOCIATES, 729 Boylston Sr Boston MA @116

30 IfI dtdn t have so much time with the clrlldren durlng the day, I wouldn'twant to spend so

somedmes will be seen sportlht a Martirt

rnany evenlngs away. Somethtng stgntflcant ls the feedback I get from people where the chlldren are taldng

Serreral years ago Martln heard friends enthuslasflcally dtscusslng the end of the

lessons. Thes'e are typical comments: 'They seemmoreable to pay attentlon and carr5rout tasks,"'Thry have amore serlous atfltude and are very enthustasdc."'They are less crltcal ofothers." 'They harre a strong sense of self

and freedom ln expresslng themselrrcs ardsdcally. They are not tr:rhibited," Homeschoollng is more stressful for us slncewe hanre started havtng to be "accountable" forwhatwe're dotng. I'm not one of the homeschoolers who feels urc

shouldn t harrc to beaccountable atall but I do udsh ttntalteracouple ofyears ofproof that we take thls task serious!, our paperwork could dtmhfsh, as rpell as the costly end-ofthe-year evaluadon by a certiffed Malne teacher. I wtsh that I didn't have to draw up a

curriculum eachyear, but this seems to be an unacceptable ldea to the authorldes. I am learnlng to lnclude as fewspecifics as possible ln my proposals, otherwlse we panic tn May as we reread lt to seewhatwe didn't do. Our school superlntendent is very suppordve. He even chasdsed a state olffclal for trying to turn our applicatlon last year Into a'bureaucratlc nightmare," and he made

a statement to the newspaper to tlre elfect that he wtshed ctrlldren ln publlc schools were dotng as well as the homeschoolers tn trls

distrlct.

Our maln support now c.omes from a small group of other homeschooltng famtltes wtth whlch we meet weekly. Tlrts has been gotngon forthreeyears now, wlth the meeflng growtng to tndude a few stmctured actMdes usuallyart danc.e and music slnce theseare eastly shared wtth others. We ffnd that thls group, ln whlch there are about fourteen ctrtldren rangtreg ln age from I -9, gfves the chlldren a sense ofbelonglng. They are growtng up together and are suppordrre of eachotherand leamlng to dealwith each othet's personall$es. In the beginnrng our rnaln supportwas readtng because we were trJring to corne to

grlpswlth

newway of understandlng the

learnlng process and needed lots of reassuranc€. It's amazlng how qulcklywe have become the reassurersl I sdll enJoy readtng GWs and always fnd letters whrtch are thouglrt-provolidng, lnsptrlng and fi:ll of good tdeas. Those ofus who are "dotng lt" have to remember that urare tJre experts and there ls so muchwe can learn fromeach other.

DISREGARDS FASHION FlurnJanEldnrr.n(W0: One lnterestlng thtng to us, after flve years of homeschoollng, ts how much e,rrcryone (ctrtldrenand adults allke) enJoy Marttn's (lO) company. Seveml ttmes people hanre commented that they would ltke to have

styleafewdays later. school year. He came to us very conc.emed

thatw;might

have to qutt leamtng

forthe

suruner. Fortunately, that doesn't happen ln ttre "realworld" of homeschooltng.

READING PRIZES TIME TO REAI)

BUT NO

F}omHrlrloPe-blesMN: In the summer of 1977, when my firct child, Kafle, rpas an lnfant, I subscrlbed to GWS. IVereceived, read, shared, mulledover errery issue since then. I had been tnspired by

John Holt's Fleedom ord fugond It captured my imagfnaflon and put lnto words many ideas I had had. When Kafle was stlll a toddler, people dldnt really take myideas about homeschooling seriously. They ngured fd change my mlnd when she hlt school age and I'd be glad toJoln the malnstream. I tried

patiently to explain how lmportant I felt Holt's ideas were, but I felt very deGnsive during thoseyears. Kade ls now 10, Shewas homeschooled during ffrst and second gSades. While I someflmes had doubts and fearsr, we were mostly very happy wlth what we were dob:rg. Forthtrd grade, Kadeasked tobeable to try school out. She made frlends, made excellent grades, and uras well-ltked by the teachers, but ln the middle of fourth gyade she decided to leave school. She talked tt overwlth us arrd her teacher, set tlre date, and left ln Februaqr of thls year. My son, Byron, 7, ls not at all tnterested irl gotng to school, and we also have Eltzabeth, 4. Who knows how we'll proceed in the future? We'll take tt step by step, and try to meet necds as we see therrl

Katlekedesadds: In homeschoollng there ls more tlme to read. School givesyou prlzes for reading, but not enough flme to read. I ltke not going to school. There's rnore fun, more dme to do things I want to do. When I went to school from 8: 15 (when I left to catch the bus) until 4: l5 (wtrenl gothome), plusan hourof homeworkevery day (ln fourthgrade), there was notenough tlme for friends orother

things. Some ldds in schoolwere mean to me. I wasn't happy there. I was dfferent from them, so sorneof themteased me. Thry'd say,'You're always reading abook." Orwhenwewer€ worlidng on hard subJects, they made noises and would flght each other, though they were friends. Somedmes the person I'd sit wlth was worse, maklng noise, whtspertng durtng quiet tkne. NowI have two petwtrite mice, I'm learning to play the llute, I have two doll houses, and lots of plants to take care of. I get to read as much as I want to.

Martln tn thetrfarnily. Hels popularatCub

Scouts and lastyear, u*ren hewent to camp for threeweeks, a cpunselor told us that Mar6n uas trts liavorlte camper. Many of these people do not reallze that Marfln has nerrer'beeir "soctalized" by school. He ts almost funny tn trts dtsregard forand tnteroretatlon of liashion. When someone lauglis at trls halr or clothes, he often smtles andasks, 'What ls your problem?" It must be an unoornmon reacflon, because they usually

backoffand

''OUR LIVES ARE RICHER'' Flrom J aque W,zillian:s'on

($VV)

two elementary-age sons and an ever-curlous toddler, I wondered what had happened to my visionof thejoys and ease of homeschooling. It dawned on me, as I recalled our decision to homeschool, thatl'd had this nofionofour A year ago, homeschoollng

children betng so brtght and so surrounded by learnlng expertences that they'dJust leam on thetr own. At the most, I'd envlsioned ayear of "teachtng," I had assumed I'd condnue my professlon as an early ctrildhood teacher. In our ldeallsm, we had not seen the realit5r that homeschoollng takes tlme. Now, flnishtng our fffth year of oltcially homeschooltng, I am at home full-dme, the children are the maln focus of our llves, and weare baslcallv sadsfied wtth howlt has gone. Our children have learned a lot on their owrr but I've spent several hours a day on academlcs ln order to be sure they keep up to grade level. The frustration oftr5dng to have thechtldren meet ourexpectations has been the one conflnuing problem with homeschooling. We are stlll challenged by the ideaof really trusting children to learnwhat

theyneed. Our lives are far rlcherthanwe ever irnaglned ten years ago. As a family of five, we all have spectal interests. Intermeshing these

interests onadallybasts has been achallenge and real growth. Our dedicaflon to homeschooltng is onty part ofa larger dedication which includes home business, a self-reliant liftstyle, and aview of our lives as part ofa largerwhole.

''WE TOOK THEM EVERYWHERE" FlomDautdKert(TX: Our chlldrenwere all bom at home, a mawelous expedenc.e. We all slept in "the farntly bed" and Carol and I worked at home most of the drne. Homeschoollngwas natural for us. We learned from GWS in 1979 that others felt the same way, but the greatest assuranc€carne fromwithin. We had each spentyears abroad, arrd that great experience has had the effect ofdistancing us from our own societ5r's demands. We began to followourown insdncts with our childr€arlng. Basically, we didn't try to make our children live a Me aoart. We naner had a babysttter, and we took the chlldren eveqrwhere wewent. They leamed, quickly. The rrrcst striking thing they learned was the powerofer<ample. If I stayed up till 3 AM studying, there Robertwas too, doinghis best to stay awake and read. IfCarol printed letterheads at the press ln the livingroom, she had a line of children behind her uralting to do the same thing. The children weren't "demanding," theywere carefully observing and tmttadng. Currlculum was a laugfr; as soon as Susannah and Zachar5r learned to read, they studied what they wanted more elffclently than a teacher could have taught them. Next we learned how willingly and well an older child will teach ayounger. Our vocabulaqr comtng out ofour youngest child Clark s mouth was a thing to behold and to

consider. A great benefit of homeschooling is the immedl,ate ac:c.ess it gives to the adult world. When he was 8, Robert was sponsored for membership in a printing associaflon by 9Oyear-old Charles Colvin, who had recelved an aviato/s license from Orville Wright. What an interest in aircraft that sparkedl Another fellow prtnter and subscriber to Robert's monthl5r newspaperis a pilot forUnlted Alrlines. Susle was irrvited by Stanley Marcus to

prlnt an edttion

of Rockrvell Kent's ?fre

GoldenCf'rrinand to present it to htm ln Dallas, a great thrtll for her. TIed to a cliassroom, she could never have spent the flme. GROWING WTITIOUT SCHOOLING #58

3r LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER F\un Vlcbria Kibler (CN : MysonJonathan (lO) has nwerbeento school. My husband and I flrst thought of homeschooltng when he was 3. I belteve that we thouglrtthatwewere theonly people tn the world dotng thtsl I carmot thtnkofa ftend whose ocample we were followlng or a book that encouraged our decision. We stnply dectded that urc would educate our child at home. Itwas at thts ttme thatrpe started subscrtbtng to GWS (I don t remernber how I heard of tt. I thlnk I read about lt tn Motherlng). I found GWS to be the encouragement and support I needed to contlnue my resoludon to teach at home. My husband and I read each lssue carefullv- - the mag.\z txe was our only llnk wlth other homeschoolers. In GWS urc found lirrcly debates, John Holt's gentlewlsdom and lnslght, and resourcrs to furtherand deepen our goal of provtdlng an excellent educadon forourson. Jonathan scores at the hlghschool level onthe testtngthatwe choose to hanre done each year. He ls very popular wlth the other "guys" tn hls Sunday school class, YMCA Tlatlblazers and Gerrnan claos. He has manv hobbtesand lnterestsand the tlme to purerie them, But the rnost lrnportant benefltbf homeschooltng !n our famtly ls one that I never thouglrt of tr l98O rvtren we started to thlnk about leamtng at home. Our daughter was born a few months before our son's 6th btrthday, Arcryone congratulated us but e:rpressed concern that the childrenwould never "reallyget to knovreachotlrer" because ofthe dlfference tn tlrelrages. Ofcourse, everyone also sald I would hanre much more time wtth the new baby when my son was at school most of the day. Brerybody was wrongt Our chlldren certalnly do know each other and arevery good frtends. They have not competed wtth each other for my attendon because lwas always there. And therewas ahvays tlme. "How can you teach a ffrst grader wlthababl4" Iwas asked. IdldnL Jonathan

taught hlnselffor the most part during hls slstet's read books, llstened to records and

going on field trips to look at flowers, readtng about flowers, and makteg a florper notebook. Nafurally, Joanna has be.en a part ofthis. On a nature walk with her grandfather, she amazed htm by correctly identifying a dozen varieties of wildllowers, What is signillcant in these two examples is that neither lnterest ls parent-directed. I am not musical and could not name a ballet oropera dtleprlorto the chlldren s dlscovery ofthem (rprll can, ofcourse). Neltlrermy husband nor I have been very clerrer ln idenfl$ring llowers (nour we can) . The chlldren have learned fromeach otherand we parents have leamed from the ctrlldren.

JonollunKlHer adds: because I learn thtngs that I haven't known before. I have flgured out how to unrk wlth decimals and I have learned what squar€ roots are. I love to watch "Square One T[I' whlch ls a new show on public televiston. It has taught me thlngs about matlremaflcs that sometlmes my parents haven't taught me, My mother helped me to learn the metric system by gMng me a bath with metric measurlng cups. I have been pracUctng rrrasuring thtngs using cendmetres and metres, What I llke to do all day ls playaround outslde. I llke to play !n ourwadtng pool and us€ my tmaglnauon to make interesttng amusernent parks tn ourbaclryard. With homeschoollng I have enough ttme to play

outslde. I ltke to be wtth my slster and my parents. Wtth my slster, I llke to playwtth stuffed anlmals. Wegfve theanimals personalldes and dress themkrold baby clothes. In my spare ttme, I play ln the

amusement parks that I have buflt. Sometlmes I llke to make up movles and wrlte storles. I'm startlng a book called Amer{ca.' The Maglc oJ aC.ontinenLl enJoy typlng on

:yJ.*

dtlferent chlldren wlth dlfferent hlerests, but theyrrcry much enJoy each othe/s company and leam from each other. For orample, Joarura loves ballerlnas and tuhrs, ltke most llttle gtrls, She tnslsts on a c€rtaln amount of ballertna-play tn thetr datly play together. Through a more tnature lnterest tn ballet Jonathan has read the plots ofJustabout errcryballet thatedsts and has expressed a great lnterest tn danc.e and choreography. I wonderlf theworld ofballet (and lately opera) would hane opened to trlm lf he hadn't been ln close and respecdul contactwlth a slsterwho

lorrcshrhrs. Another orample: Jonathan ts worldng tourad getdng trls Floweraunrd tntheY\VCA prograrrL Thts has tnvohrcd planHnglflowers, GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #5E

Or*essorwhlch I am doing riglrt

BUILDING YOI.JR OWN Ftom Valede V aughan ME) :

accepted that" I amnot a psychologtst, but I "new,' Jonathan drqr on hls onm nesources and dtdn tbecomejealous orcranky- because he had had hls owri babytrood and toddlerhood necds met Weconcentrated on Jonathan's needs and trrterests durtng hts preschool days and reaped the reward ofa selfdtrected schoolboy. As I vrlte thls letter, the chtldren a.re playlng together, Not an unusual statement, but the chlldren are 4 and lO. Thev arc

alphabefically in aline ofdesks, lmiCng forward to afuture of remedlal courses to

make up firrwhathe didntleam.The homemade house wasn't built for someone else's qutck prollt and neitherwas the child's education. The house and the child's educatlon rlere built bv- someone who cared. who had to lir.ethere.

LEARNING NOT TO BE PRESSI]RED F}om Molra ard M bhael Noble s

My farrcrlte subJ ect ls rnathernafl cs

flrstyear. The baby came ffrst, and he

thlnk that dfdng theyear thatJoannawas

superffclal archttectural or educadonal design, madewithonly "looks" inmlnd. The house hasn'tbecn plunged arbitrarily upon the envlronment, with constant repairs required to patch up an orlginalty faulty foundation. The child has notbeen placed

HavlngJust moved to Malne from

Masschusetts, I uras recrnt\r irMted to vtsit wlht my neuz nelghbors. We were admfflng theirhousewhlch they had built thernselves when the husband asked me whv I had dectded to honreschool my older son (now S). Uy Zyear-old was wtth me, so I was preoccupled at tlrat moment; I answered the questlon off the top of my head. I satd to the husband wtrile I wlped the sourcreamdlp from rrry son's hands, "Oh, I suppose lt's the same as lf I were to

(CA)

We have tun children: Chrts (6) and Samantha (8). We made our declsion to

homeschool when Samantha uras about 3, so nelther of ttrem have been to public or private school. Ourdaughterleamed to read at 5 and has read as muchas shewanted stnce then. She reads all types ofbooks, from Nancy Drew mysterles to books onhistoryand blographles. Slnce her lnterests have been so varled, the only guidance we harrc g;iven ts to make sure thatshe has plen$r ofdillerent books tochoose from. Thlsyearwe decided to harrc a little more

stmcture lnourschooling

that shewould

learn more math and more about wrlttng both subJects she has dtsliked tn the pasL She ls now enJoylng math but sdll has dtlflculty wrttltrg. Our son ls very dtfferent from Sama, so our appnoach has nec.essartly been dlfierenL There ls more stmcturefortrlm

than therewas forSamaatthe sarne age. But, wlth Sarna, we don't push hlm to do more than he ts willtrng to do. We hane learned to allow them to gtve us lnput about tlrelr lessons. We harre learned that tf they are resistant to leamlng lt ls not because of contrariness but from a Lack of understandtng and the fear that sometlrlng is too hard for them. We have leamed to stop and let a subJect rest, so to speak One ofthe most lmportant lessons we have learned ts not to be pressur:ed or inlluenced by what other children are learningin school. We have noticcd many difierenc.es betweenourLdds and thelrfrlends who go to school. Ours are rnore lnqulsittrrc; they ask more quesdons and are much more crfrious about tlre world. They enJoy obseMng nature espectally. They interact well wtth adults and have many adult ftends. They both lorre as

books. They seem to be more compassionate and to show realcnncemforothers. Thevare able to entertain tlremselves. They are healthy and for the rnost part h"ppy.

askyouwl5ryou dectded to bulldyourown

house. Take the philosoptry fromthere."Then I vras olf to chase my toddlerwho uas talJng the sourcreamdtp to feed ourhost's cat. Ifs twoweeks later, and the toddler's asleep, so IVe got some thoug;htfrrl stlencc ln

whichto flntsh that corwersatlon Thatoffhanded analogr ofbutldtrg ahouse reall5r capsulizes the whole tdea of homeschooltng for me. Why do somethlng by hand when you could order tt pr€fabrtcated? In bullding a house, or in homeschooltng a child yourself, you harrc the dlrect e:(perlenc ofbdng part of tlrecreadon. You hanre the assurance of knowiqg what materlals were used - and they're netther pre-fab plyurcod nor pre-fab workbmks, The result tsn't a product of

FRIENDS THROUGH GWS C dttol *elbo,ch (NC)

ulte

Rtght alber our dauglrterwas born I met a womanwho told me about homeschoollng and GWS, and I subscrlbed rlghtaway. I have recelved each issuewlth tlre same senseof antlclpa.flon through slx and a half of the buslest vears of grrr Me.

about nature, ecology, adventure, language, history, math, space, world problems & more.

ALL

N.ew,

AGES

- ALL SITUATIONS

,e]p.alded.

c^atalog, 25f

32 Through CWS we heard of Pennsylvania homeschooler Laura Duncan's newsletter. Tte Jtbfur Jabber, and Jennifer (6) and Christoffer (4) have feltthe exhilarationof

being publrshed as well as the fun of correspondingwith an interesfing, lnterested, warm friend. We ordered and received work gloves for the children t}rough the generous

olferofTootsWeter (WI). We meta nelglrbor and kindred splrit who lives a mile away and read ourname inGWS. This sprlngwe tooka trip to Florida and stayed with several GWS farntlies. (Wewrote them all ahead and only contacted the ones who responded wlth interest.) And then there ts Dick Gallien who is blazing trails for older homeschoolers. We are enthusiastic about the possibility of travelingand possibleexchangps as the kids

growolder.

SEVEN SCHOOLS LATER F-rwtNancyKing(NH): Tenyears ago, I wasJust enrolling my son ln nursery school. Serren schools later, we Ilnally quit the school-search game and settled into homeschooling. I-ooktreg back over the past tenyears is

palnful, I sawtoo manylncldents ofabuse and cruelty to children - the sarne ldnd of e:<amples given byotherGWS readers, from dltto sheets with misspelled direcdons to teachers pulling children by the halr, pinchlng them into submtsslon, yelltng humiliating remarks at them. It happened in "excellenf' schools. It happened often. At age lO, my son Dusty thought back and

think there are ldds who have been hurtoverand overwhile learnJr4;, and so it would be hard not to assoclate learnlngwith satd, "I do

betng hurt. Those kids couldn't conc.entrate on leamlng because they're expecung to be

hurt. I remember being mentally beaten up by

the teacher." I remember the desperate questions Dusty used to ask "How do you get meanlng in llfe?" "Howdoyou ffx the heart?" I rernember hls ltttle song ofyearntng: Somewhere where thlngs grow green Somewherewhere lt ls clean Somewhere where you can go To leamanythingyouwant to know Somewhere where leamingis fu n

Where there's somethtng for everyone Somewhere where you can thlnk This place connects the link. "Somewhere' ls now at home. Thanks, Dusty, for telling me so much and helping me to understand your Me tn school. Thanks to John Holtarrd Mario Pagnontwho helped us to begln homeschooling, and to GWS contdbutors whose paragraphs provide id eas and encouragement. Happy tenthl

GETTING DISTRICT APPROVAL Ftont Cter Baternan (NV) :

trto school unttl

he was at least 8.

beach tnhaling every ardcle while my two little boys played that summer. I couldn't get enougfi, so I read wery book byJohn Holt and many, many other related books. I ate, slept and drank up thls new concept. When my oldest son hrrned 7, the legal school age in Nwada, I began my long, drawn out and frustratlng battle wtth the admlnstraflon of my school districL Forhrnately we always had a few school board members whowere s5rmpathetic to ourcause and had faith in us, so each yearwe managed to get approval for that term. Looldng back, the time I spent on all the letters and phone corrversatlons could have been so much more producdvely spent on my ctrlldren. I did ffnd ttme to read aloud with the boys. Myyoungest son taught himself to read at 5, my oldest dtdn t learn to read untll he was lO, when I took lrtm to the Unlversit5r of Nevada's summer readlng cllnic. After eighteen hours he had gotten the hang oftt. He reads anythlng and everythlng now. He devours Natlcnal Geqropl{ca,s soon as it arrl'ues and tells me about the articles blow by blow. He loves belng able to read and write wlthease now.

qutckly read Schd Can Waitand started discusstr4; itwith whoeverwould listen I

borrowed GWSfromaftend and ordered it,

lnsdtutton-centered. At the same time, our freedom to teach ourown chlldren mav conflnue to be respected, or may actuilly increase. Such a curlous historical process may be suggested by the events at our town meeting lastwinter. I spoke at some leng;th to oppose the creadon ofaplanntngboard. I said itwould create a new level of bureaucracy, make lt more

diltcult forpeople to bulld thelrown

homes, and would not prerrent the dwelopers fromdoingpretty much as theywish. The plannir:rg boarrd was approved by 13 votes to 5. Afterwards, I was approached by two ofthe three Selectman and asked to serve on the neur bard. One of them said he fully agreed

withmyposl6on.

So, in the mtdst of new regplafions and more government, there ls unease even among the sponsors and advocates. Far from trylng to suppress the opposlte vlew, they chertsh people who stand tn prtnctple agatnst regimentadon.They rnay try to protectus and

put someofus tn positlons ofpower.

A TYPICAL DAY Flom Judg M as b

STANDING WITH THE MINORITY F\om Stephen Coru.ttn

(C-11

For many years I had hoped to create an "alternatlve" or "free" school. Havlng bâ&#x201A;Źen both a student and teacher ln the publtc school system, I knew there had to be a better way. I had not, however, considered homeschooling as an opdon undl the mtdl97os when I actlvely began readirqgJohn Holt's books. The tnformailon and lnsplradon I gathered from them cannotbe measured. Later on John and I met acouple of tlmes and shared tdeas and feeltr:rgs regarding homeschooling. I felt honored and yet at ease

when I was wtthJohn.

BythetlmeGWS#I rrentto press Iwas already opening to the tdeaofhomeschooling. The more I researched it the more I reallzed it was conslstentwith how I wanted to lead my life. I feel strrongly that each tndMdual must decide for ldm or herself what ls the best path. To follow the majority, wlthout careful introspecdon and e.xplorailon, wtll usually limlt a person's growth and happlness. Yet to stand with the rnlnorlty - or even alone - can be scary. It takes inner strength, awareness and tnrst. From themid-l97os to themid-l980s I worked as a college professor specializtng in psychologr and educadon. In that capacity I was called upon rnany tlmes to dlscuss homeschooling. I have had the prMlege of assisttng other homeschoolers around the country in thetr quest for freedom of choice. I have always come awayenrlched by thelr concerns and by theircourage.

A GOOD SIGN

flrstbecame interested in homeschooling in March I 979, after watctrlng the Dorrahue showthat featured Ra5rmond and Dorothy Moore. I was convinced then that I would not put my 4-yearI

old

alongwith all theback lssues. I sat on the

Artlur H arueg

oJ M ahe url:te s :

In the unschooltng movement, some of the euphoria of self-dlscovery iswearlngloff, and we need to look at ourselves agaln. Local groups multiplted, court declsionswere favorable, and some improved lawswere passed. It ts quite posslble that our numbers wtll shrink as this era becomes more

oJ Mas s acfuts etts :

Here ts a typlcal weekday in our home school: Lydia (8) and TaJ (6) sleep ln a small room which makes it easy forthem to talkquletly when theywake up. Usually this quiet conrrcrsadonwakes me up lfwe don't use the alarm. I take a uralk whtle my husband Tom makes brealdast. LydfaandTal do their chores of Hlng the cats and setttng the table, and then settle down ln the Htchen to

drawundl I getback. We eat a lelsurely brealdast, then dlscuss the moming schedule. I declde some acflvlfles

and LydlaandTal declde therest.TaJ likes to have awrltten schedule so he cancross out accompllshed thfngs. The ctrlldren do thetr after-brealdast Jobs ofdtshes, beds and fflltng the wood-boxes in the wlnter. Then rve settle down to do the actlvl$r I havechosen. Ttrts mlghtbereadlng aloud, pracdctng math wtth flashcards, pla5rtng aword game, wrtttng a letter to Grandparents, uslng the $obe, orwrtflng a story about afavortte place orptcfure. After thts, Lydta and TaJ work on thelr own proJects. Lately these proJects have been drawtngs of thetr trrnglnary frtends' houses, maldng strck dolls tn their fatllefs shop, playlngwtth toy cars, or planntng out a play about Chtcken Llttle. Durlng thelr proJect ttme, I tr5r to get household stuffdone. We try to get outsldebefore lunch to

swlng garden, or catch butterlltes ln the ffeld. Thenwe lunch togetherwhenTomcomes in from the shop. Afterwards we rest in separate rooms forawhile to have some private dme. We read, sew, draw or wrlte. Ourafternoons are spent outslde planting weedtng, mowlng catchtng trsects, or taktngwalks. Sometlmes a friend wlll c,ome over for the altemoon or Lydia and TaJ wtllvistt a netghborhood frterrd's house. One afternoon a week we take a trlp to the nearest town, rdne rnlles away, for Lydla s ballet class. On another afternoon, TaJ has a gultar lesson kr the netghborhood. Late afternoons, the chlldren placttce their music. They usually watch Mr, Rogers arrd 3-2- t &rntocton'I\1. We all help make supper. Then I read to thembefore bed. We all thrirre on some routlne and are GROWING WTII{OUT SCHOOLINC #58

33 happiest betng here at home with each other. Lydia and TaJ talk together all day long, and with Tom and me during meals and when we're working together. The amount of conversaflon they harze ts amaztng to rne. But we also have lots of qutet tlme. This used to make me nervous. I'd thtnk thev should be doing something all the ttme. Aut lydia and Taj have shown me that thls "doturg nothing" tlme is important. We all need it to recharge. We've been homeschooling for three years. It's exciting, demanding, frustradng, lonely, here in a rural town, but fasctnadng.

I'mlearntng so much from thern I can't imagine sendtng them ollin a rush wery momlng and not seelng them all day.

''A GOOD BOOK AND A CHILD" F\ornA'tflpdlne(CN: Tenyears ago Iwas a professorat Rutgers University. Each day I tore myself away from our 2-year-old sonJohn to teachatthe universlty. So manyofmy students, althouglr intelligent and uranflng to do well, were simply bumed out. They dragged themselves around and were paralyzed at term pa.per time because theycouldn't thlnk of anythlng to

wrtteabout

Cradually, I came to the declsion that John should not have to go to school unless therewas somethingspectflc that he needed that he couldn't get outstde of school. I hadn't thefatntest ldeaofhow thts could be accompllshed legally or how to convinc€ my traditionaltst" European-educated husband, but I was determtned that when he reached 20 John wo'ld be an eagerembarker, not a hasbeen. A ferv months Later I leamed of GWS and our lives took a dlfferent turn because of lt. Myhusband andl read and dlscussed GWS and John Holt's books, I reslgned nr5r postdon at the unlverstty and started the NervJerse5r Family Schools Assocladon, rpe adopted trvo more chlldren (a dlrect resultofreadturlg GWS, although I can't explatn why CWS had that elfect o-n us), ana tie Uegan-to ttrtnt of ourselves as homeschoolers. Our favortte part of homeschooling has been the many bookswe have read toge-ther. I feel like the NewJerseyJournaltst, wtiose name I have forgotten, whowrote, "Some people like to curl up with agood book and a g rp of tea. I like to curl up wlth a good book and a child." Ifhomeschoolerswho have problems wlth academlcs nmuld throu/ away iratf thetr textbooks and curl up wtth a good book and thetrchlldren, they mfglrt be pleasantly surpdsed. We do occasionally make useofthe publtc schools. Rlght now Kadna, 12, and David, 8, are attendiqg publlc summer school errery mornlng for a month. Ttre program ts project orlented ratlrer than workbook oriented and trcludes more art, stnglng and p.e. than ls usual durlng the year. Also, slnc€ only afewctrtldren from each school attend theone summer school ln ourdlstrtct, the usual soctral clquesarebrokenup and lnone shortmonttrwon thave ttrne to re-form. John, 13, wtll soon begtn taldng a sculpture class at a nearby publlcJunlorcollege. If tt works out he wlll contfieue to take a class or two there each semester. GWS has beenabeacon to us through these past ten years. \4re have found lnsplraflon and frtendstrtp through lt and are alurayswllllng to help other homeschoolers GROWING WTruOUT SCHOOLING #5E

as we have been helped.

slmllarto thoseof the famous doctor. Thts ts howyou started coachlng rrr to trustyou and

JUGGLING WORK SCHEDT'LES FlomSueHatmfield(WA): We have never sentJake (6) orAlex ( lO) to school, andwe hope not to. When we flrst spoke to other people about homeschooltng, they thoughtwewere craz5r and unreallstlc. T1mes havechanged and people nowoftensay they admire us and wtsh they c.ould do tt. Of course qre're neither craz5r nor admlrable, and no matterhowmuch I stress howlittlewe do, we are not believed. Buen thouglr vrc thir:k of our lidds as pretty regular, vdth good points and bad, people seem to be tmpressed by them. We've been butldtng a house (an actMty the ldds take ltttle tnterest tn) for the past stx years, cartng for a large garderl carlng for our land and sharing the responsibtllty of earning enouglr wages to get by. Rtght now I amworlidng four days aweek at abookstore. The ldds spend sorrE tlrne there helptng or readtng. My husband Bob has almost full responslbi[t5r for the housebulldlng now, and care of the lidds and land. I would llke to be home more and hope to rearrange work responsiblllties ln the nextyearor so. Due to amblvalencc, weVe frequentf changled the amount of academlc workweVe

askedAlex to do. We havenerrerrequted more than a couple of hours a day, and most$ much less dme. At present he is expected to do math wery morning. Usually lf s done before the rest ofus are awake. Reading and basketball are the only acdvtties that he conslstentl5r spends a lot of ttme on now. We are t5dng to learn not to pr€ssur€ trtm to do thlngs he does notwant to do. He ln turn seems to be more open to unfamtllar actitrlfles. So

my feelings, but I was a slow leamer. You and your brotherAlon taugfrt me an tmportant thlngwhen tlre turo ofyou lnststcd on not attendlng preschool and lidnderglarten. I am sorry tt took me more than ayear to lsten to you. I am proud ofyou for perslsttng

undll

gavetre.

you remember what an oddi$r we were then?The ldndergarten prlnctpal tried to reform us, your fatherwas very unhappy and thoughtus trresponsibleand even sentme to a soclalunrker to try to restore some good sense to anoverprotecflirc mother. Our Brst support came from a book that a Do

Mer

lidnd bookstore owner told us about" Late Tlwt htly. Then we found Nancy Wallace's book , and that in hrrn drew us to Crul.utrg Wttlautscfnourg arrC errcnhra$r to

your correspondence wlth Ishrnael Wallace. SuddenV we found fdends, and wtrat a good

thlngttuast

Yesterday I was readlng the storles tn Gw.oIttg Wltloutsctrclfrg about Mary Mahe/s and NancyWallace's ecperbnces wtth hospttals. (GWS #5fl Suddenly I understood. Our horrrschoollng expertence was not only foryou and Alon. Aba lthe ctrlldren's stepfatherl and I have galned no less fromlt By freetngpu andAlon from authort$r and coerdon, we harrc fr,eed

ourselrrcs. Maybe the reason we feel so close to all ttrosewonderful parents and ctrlldrenwho wrtte to GWS ls that they have also been freed by their ctrlldren, and they harrc found the courage to deff authorldes and experts. Thankyou, Talya. for thfs great gtft, the courage to quesdon, thlnk ard act acrordlng to my corrvlctbn W?rat beaudful strldes we harrc taken together,

farJake has no requiredworkand he

leams what he llkes wlthout much help. He often plcks up on thirgs thatrpe thtnk he ts pa5rlng no attentlon to. He has escaped some of our mtstakes becausew€\rc already trted themonAlexand now knowbetterthan to ev

themagaln.

I began to readJohn Holfsurorkwell before the tncnepflon ofGWS, and my admtratlon of hLtm ls profourrd. I'm sure I couldn't hane surviried all thts tlme wlthout GWS to str:alghten me out every tnn rnonths.

A MOTHERIS LETTER IlaraBdrtsr(n0

sentus aapg

ota

letter sle ut ote to her da ughter Talg a

whoisru,wlnlsrar/c

5),

Whenyou urerc born, I dtd alotof thlngs wlth not much thought, folloMng the advice the advlce of the "experts" on mostofmy

dectstons. I really ttrtnt tfrat my ffrst stip toward becomtng a thlnldng person took plac.e when I was pregnant wtth you. I becarrr aware of not thlnlrdng urcll although I was fatthfirllyfollowlng my doctor's advtce. My sister told me about Adele Davis's books, and attemptlng to follourAdele Davis's advlce was my flrst attempt to betn charge ofrryhealth on my own. Later I learned to quesUon Adele Davls's advlc.e as well. Health was the flrst subJect ln whtch I learned to questton ercpert

oplnlon. Durlng my pregnancywlthyou I read Dr. Spock, assuming that he would turn me lnto the perfect mother. When you were bom you taught me better. You hadyourown ldeas on how you should be, and they urcre not at

all

PROMOTING THE IDEA Ftun,IoselphClaroMO): Myowno<perlences ln schol as achtld convlnced me that I rpoulC nerrcr forcc rrnr ctrlldren to be subJect to tlre tyranny ofairy school systerrl publtc or prlvate. I had vlstted the so-called altemadrze schools tn the slxdes only to dlscover that thelr only dlf,lerencrwas tn thelr'Mrdowdresstng" and that ttrey sUll dealt wlth classes and currlculurn When I met the woman who was to be themotherofmy two sons I tnformed her, durtng the courflng pertod, that I ryould rrot send my drtldren to school. It became clear to mewhen our son Mchaelwas 5 that she had not gfven much credence to my staternents. "Mtchael ls 5 noq" she safd. "Don't1ou thtnk he should be ln klndergarten?"The followtng year she sald, 'Don'tyou thlnk he should be tn ffrstgrade?" Wenrcre dlvorced by the tlrrrc Mtchael was 9, and slnc€ then I have been a full-Ume, slngle, rnale, home-educaflngparenl I harrc watched my sons leam many thfngs completely on thelr own I harrc watched them observe howtlreuprld functlons and then b:anslate those observaflons lnto urorklng hlryotheses about other funcflons, sometlmes rlglrt, somettmes not so rtgfrt. I harrc seen themdectde that ltwas tfune to learn to read and then proceed to leam to read. They often ask me to present them wlth a mulflpllcadon problem such as 87 x 343. I ltsten to them derrelop astrategr to getthe ansnrcr all ln

tlalrheads. Whenl ffrst start€d homescbooltngl

34 Kedahl8s) 3l Bates Rd, MtltonO2f 86 (change)=== Davfd & Sharvn KENDRICK (Cell^/ 69, Atrrr^/7s, Eva/76) 4o Brook St, Rehoboth o2769 === Patrie &

mudr a loner, but we moved about freelywtthout r€gard to school hours. In the communlt;r where we ltved tt was wtdely known that my chlldren dld not go to school, but I was left alone for seneral reasons. I lorew that law and c-ould quote lt. I was poliflcally acdve and verywell known. Feople knew me

btrtlrycar, pleasc lct us hlorr. Plca* tcll us ifyou would rathcr have your phonc numbcr and toum llstcd lnsteod ofyour

asaflghter. I amtyplng thts letterat apoolslde ln

abbrcnladon trr pmthcscs, that penon ls lrr the Dfrectory (dreck hcrc and ln f54 and #52. Wc arc happy to fonrard mall to thosc whcc addrcsses are not ln thc Dtr€ctorv. Mark thc ants{de of thc cnvelopewlth name/description, lssue, and page number. Ifyou don't mark the outsldc, we opan the cnvelopc, scc thatyou want somethlng foruardcd, and thcn havc to raddress the letter and usc ourm postagc to mail it. Whenyou send us an addres change for a subscrtp0on, plcac r€mtnd us ifyou are in the Dlrcctory, so we can char€e lt her€, too.

was pretty

Glernvood Sprtngs, Colorado. I was Just pleasantly tntemrpted by tum curlousyoung men who asked me what I was typlng. I took

thetlmeto tellthem, whldr sttmulated a

twenty-mlnute dlscusslon about homeschool-

ing. What has changed formels that I have evolved from being a loner to being a promoter. Whererrerl go (and our travel ts rather extenslve) I take the opportunity to meet other homeschoolers and to intnoduce others to the idea of homeschooling.

RESOURCES & RECOMMENDATIONS COPIES OF STATE LAWS THE RUTHERFORD INSTITUTE (PO Box 5lO, Manassas VA22 I 10) sells the llome EducatJrlnReprter at the costof$lO per state. We have not seen copies so I don't know how extensine the lnformaflon ts, but many ofyou may have reason to nd detatled lnformadon aboutyour state's laws and this ls worth lnvesflgatlng, Because laws and thetr

lnterpretadon are constantly changlr4, horverrer, reports suchas tlts should neverbe used as a subsdtute for current lnformadon from GWS and local groups. - SS

CRAFT SUGGESTIONS Areaderwrltes in response to LB.'s query about beads (GWS #55): "ARIIS INC. (Box4O7, SolvangCA93463), the makers of Tack/ $ue, offercraft lnformatlon sheets freewith a SASE (use an extra I 7c stamp). The sheets areon topics suchas malrdng rolled beads, rrnking doll heads, ustng grocery bags to look llke wood, Thls really seems wortlnrrhile to me. "

GOOD CIJRRICIJLI.JM Yolanda McKee of Floridawrites: "In response to YearofUpheaval" (GWS #57), harrcyou seen the KONOS CFIARACTER CIJRRICULLJM? If s terd-8c. If s fun, has a

hands-onemphasls, and has manytdeas. Itis also helpfu I for parents homeschoollng serrcral ages ofctrlldren. Address ts KONOS, PO Box 1534, Rlchardsonfi 75O8O."

ADDITIONS TO DIRECTORY Herclsarc thc addlflcsand chaqgcs to thc Dlrcctor5rwe harrc recctved stnce the last lgsuc. GWS #54 has the complct€ Dlrectory, ard #57 has a sumrnery ofthc addtttons and changcs betwecn thcrr and now. Our Drcctory ts not a ltst of dl subscrlbers, but onlyofthosc u*ro osktobellsted. so thatothcr GWS readcrs, or othcr lntcrcstcd pcoplc. may get ln toudr wlth thcrn. Ifyou would likc to bc rncludcd, pleascscrrd the cntrJr form ora3x5card (one liamlly pcrcardl. Wc print b{rfrgraors ofchildrcn, not ages. Ifwe madc a mlstake when conrrcrflngyor.rr child's age to

maillrgaddress. lf aDlrectorylistlrgls followedbyan (tI), the famlly ls wllllrg to host GWS travelers who make

Gcof KONTJE (EltJ ah / 79, Reade / 79, Nisa/&3,

Marlan/86) Stsr Rt 138 Chappaquidick, Martha's

advancc arrangerncnts ln wrtdrry. If

anameln aGWSstoryts follorrcdby an

AiZ === Tom &TarnmyDRAI(E (Steven/77, Bradley,/7g) 6847A E UghtrdngDr, Ti.rcson 85708 === Karlerr & Suzanne FIAI(E (Kathleen/al,

HlghRtdge63(Xg NE ===

Taml/8i}. Mdtssa/83, Davls/84) lOlTWOrdord. Tempc 8528i1 === John & Kandcc MCKEIIAR (Arrn/81, Megarr/&3, Joscph/84, Paul/86) 66f2 E Koralee, T\rcson 8571O === KaTenWALASEK& Ron HEACOCK UustTn/77,Morgan/85) 1466 E Hedrlck, T\rcson 85719 === Jantsc & RandyWOOTEN

(Joscph/77, Brian/8O, Shlrley/83, Dantel/85)

6aO

E Calle Bcatrh. Thcson 8571O

CA NORTII {Zlps 94OOO &up) === Mary & Davld GRIFFITH (Katic/84) 6850 E\MngWay, Sacramento 95828 (change) === Margarct & Edwad KUCZYNSKI (Jusun/82) 25At Regts Dr, Darrts 95616 ===June & Mike MILICH (Katc/821 lO84 Rver Blulf Dr. Oakdalc 95361 CrL SOIITII (Zps to 94OOO) === Sharon CHUNG (Keirln/67. Tanya/69, AlidalTl) 2512 GrcernvlchAvc, SantaAna 92704-6057 {changc) ==- Stsrc & Llnda EVANS (lrrren /79,*rsh/82, An&cwl84) 2467 Loy Lanc, Los Angcles 9OO4 l (f! === Blll &Werdle FIAINE$WFIALIIEY (Annle/81, Chrlstopher/ai!) 6588 Madrld Rd, Goleta 9tll 17 === LydtaJONES (Kevln/8o, Davld/8s) 6941

Walls€yDr, SanDtegogil,l l9=-Tcrd &Dave IAIN (Andrca/80, errgcla,/85) 2186 W IrroyAvc, Arcadla 9 lOO6 === Kollna MacRURY & FatrlckAI\dPE

(Megan/a2, Shane/8s) 1462 Paul St, Stml Valley 93065 (charge) OO === COITORADO HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. 5532 Bcdford Ct. Denver8o239 (changc) FL : Nancy MARAITIYA (Damon/75,

Daren/7V ll43gNE

Placc,MiamlS1316l ===

I.ou BECI(ER & Jerurlc WEST (Jacob/82) PO Box 647, Robcrta 3lo7a === MaTtaTURNER (Crystal/80, Amy/a4) 989 Harmony Rd, Aragon

30104 IL === Rcbecca & Wcslcy FOX Qennlfer / 7 4, Mark/75. Wesl€y / 82, Jonathau;r/A$ 3,442 Wlrfiaverr flr, Waukegan 60087-1405 (change)

IN: Tom & Ma:'lan BEVER (Mark/78, Davld/8f ) RRI Box 354, Wlldrrsor 46f 86 (change)

===Arur &Alan HUSIER (Angela/8s) PO Bo< 41 56, Lafayctte 479G3 Kg === Chrls Ml{Y {Davld/75, RebeLah/78, E,llzabriJ: / 841 2136 SW Brook8eld St, Topeka 66614 KY === Llnda & Ivtar* CLIFTON Uoshua/7a, Radrel/79. Joel/a2) I 97 Brccldnrldge Sq, Irutsvile 4O22O- 1435 (change) ===.1tsn61 & Dick FUTREII (Andrew/78, Brook/ao) 239 Reeves Rd, IUchmorrd

40475 LA === Dalc & Dorothy HUGHES (Dale / 72, Bess / 75, Joshtn / 77, Janrnfq / 7 a, Heathcr/8i|) Rt I Box 57-A, LakeArthr:r 70549 MD :: Torn & Marge GUINARD (Derck/82)

Daun/73,

30l-721-l

Vrneyard 02539 MI === Jan & Ray MEYER Fravls/8:l) 45O Sturgeon Bay Tr. , Levcrlng 49755 EI) mt: NancyGRLJVER&Joc I{ELLY fMans & Antonra/80) 4O3 W Mar:shall, Manhall 56254 === Jcrprnc & Rcrre PETSCHE (Janct/76, JJl79) Rt I Box I 49. Farwell 56427 === Rhonda & Carl SHUIZE (Jonathan/8 I, Talia/8a, Tarin/86) 1 B1OO Lakc RtdgeDr N, Maple Grovc 55369 UO === Lym & Jerry ENGLE (Lylel8 l. Sara/82) FO Box I I 71. Ava 65608 === Jolur & tois McKINNEY (John/82. Daud/a4. Vern/86) RR I Box 1 9. Nonpood 657 1 7 === Joe & Martha SALRIN (Cur:ranl8l, Heather / a2l Rt 2 Box I 09, Wlllow sprtngs 65793 (change) === p.syg Bev STROUP (Monica/76) 7Ol4 Deerpath Ridge, TWin Rivers Est,

106, Crofton

MA=== Eric & Judy BREWER fDaniel/al), Matthcw/83) 388Wlbraham Rd. Hamdcn OlO36 === Ellen EPSTEIN (lzryl82) 6l waverly St. Belmont O2l 78 === Peter & Be*r FUKIH (Sallm/82,

Richad & Debra EDEXMAIER

{Sarah/7g, lanla2) Rt I Box 18, Garland 6836O !w=== Rrrss &Lltrnre HOFFMAN (Allcla/83, Stdan/a6l PO Box I 13, Baker SSll I (tl) NJ === Pcrrny HUNTER (Brlan/7g, Jancs/86) D-7 Lawrence Apts, West Drlve, Hnceton O854O === Sue & Steve LEPTff Robcrt/8tl) 29 Clartdge PL, ColonlaOTO6T ===Malcolm & Dianc ROBERTSON (Bryce/79, Morgan/83) 461 -9 Bates Rd, Jackson 08527 (changc) NU: Phlllp & Mary C.AIvIPBEII (Ibte/81 , Bcn/84, Rosaltc/86) 771 5 Euclid Ave NE.

Albuqucrque 871 lO Nt'=== Tlna & Jim GOLDSTEIN (Sarah/8o, Rachel/83) RD 2 Box lO4 A. Earlville l*132 === Jeff & Athcna KILLMEIER {Kourl/82, I{outnl/8s| RD2 Bo( 18. unadilla 13849 := Stmon & Edna IITTEN

lArma/70,Dan/72,Rerfun/76, Emily/8f tl8, Altamont

f 2OOg

===

Martm

) FO Box & Farland

(Clorn/8o, Celka/82, Timon/85) 5 Rtucrslde fh, Iakc Pl,acid l2(XG := Waync & PeE€y WEBB [,enal8:l) Rd 2 Box 183, Klngston l24Ol OR === AnyAIUVOLD & Joey MONDELL,O (Flanest/82, Jercrny/84) a57lo f),oave Rd, Eugene 974O2 : Thom$ & Rottn Er r toT(Jeese/77, Torry/8o, Nlcholas/a6) I O7O Waters Creek Rd, WlldeMllc 9754t1=== Rlchard & caylaSIATTON {Cord/a2, Dain/8s} 4604 SE Centcr St, Portland VAN DIJK

972o6-3252(chargel PA === Lireda CIARK & Mltch GRALIAM

(Jsfca/8o, Dtan / &2, Melade / a$ 555 South Ave, Medla l9r0r6i3: Gary& Lcslie coTTON (Arralf'ssa/76, cabriel/78, Jcrrna / WWayne St, Butler l6OOl

A1, Katye / 821 317

:J€ff&

I{arriett Diller KinglSt, Chambcrsbur;g f 72O I (change) === John & Lols KAACHER (John / ffi , J arnes / 7O, Mtchacl/85) 2436 N. Ltne St, Colmar la9l5 RI === Normand & KaEn IABREOUE {Normand/80) 2l Ordord Avc, Woorrsocket 02895 ===Jtm &ElleenI\IANCE Uordan/8f , Robb/84) 82 Tlout Dr, Mtddletown O284O (Fl) =: Jelhcy & EvelynWELLER (I(rista/74, Scott/ 77, Amber / A7l I 49 Vlctory FIwy, keter 028112 SD === Sre &Van RADOSTI (Adriana/86) 1706 S. Pralrle, Sior:xFalls 571O5 {charge)

!{dam/8o, Michael/8r)

IN =:

59O E

Robcrt & Mary ALLEN (Summer

/79,

Lce/a2, Shelby/8s) 6()4 clenparkDr, Nashvtlle

372t7 TX === Dave &Julia ROSSEN (Steve/77. Kevlrl'/7$,Llse^/ 8l , Brian/83) 222O Via Dcl Norte, Carollton 75O06 === Carelle &Tomas SIMMONS (Arrel/78, Lauel/82,Hwntq/85) Rt I Box 62-A, Aledo 76OO8 VT === Jane DWNELL Sky YARDIEY (Dana/8Z RD I Box37, Irasburgo5845 VA=== Kevin & Marcla KOLB (Jenlr:f'fer /77, Rachel/79, Aaron/83) RD I Box 42O Spdngfuill, Callaway 24O67-96f 8 (charge) === Buf&&Fred

OSTLUND (lanl78, Seth/8o, Maureen/82,

GROMNG WTITIOUT SCHOOLING #58

35 lsorc / 84) PO Bor( 324, Sk€crs Glen 22a5O

Sharcn &John STRAUCHS (Ikrts/76 ,\fIarrylTal lO62O Runawa5rIane, Great Falls 22066 WA := Mary ER\IIN (Jamc /76. Chrlstopher/78) 1(I2 l9 Sharou St Slil, Tacoma 98498-3844 (drange) =: Rtdrad & Cathcrtnc HAYWARD, 914 Mason St. Bclll4gham *f225 Judy & Bryce JOHNSOP t&e / 7a,Wywrc/78) -= I r 3l lSt.h St, Belllr4lmm 9a225 =*Kathleen&Kctth ND{VOR 6manda,/8O, Karl / e,Karol/ 85) 927 Locr.rst St, Walla Walla 99362-3tr|6 WV === Stcfan CZAPSI(Y & Cathy MCNULTY |db,lg^11177, Cbde/79) 2lO Clydc St, Bccklcy2S8Or WI === L 56611 p6t91S & Dtarm SIMMONS tl.eahlTS,Ry/8l,Jnran/8fl Rt I Box l37,Macon 5i41356 : Terry & Llnda PARRISH 0aua/78, Tom/8O, Katc/8s) Rt2 Box 74,Iftndall54638:= Kdth &McllssaRICE {Sterltn/79. Ardrta/84 1958 Watcf,St. StcvcDs Potct 544a1

ADDITIONS TO RESOIJRCES Ccrtifted Tbachcrs Wllllng to Hdo Homcschoolcrs: Janet Rocllc, S}OOWarwtck Meador*s, Grand Blanc MI 48439 (K-8f HclDful Lswvcrs: Lloyd Grecnspoon. RR #f Gorc Bay, Ontarto, Canada POP IHO Profesors and Other Alltes: Dr. Peter Sflller, 3902 E.29th St, apt. Rl3, BryanIXTTWL

(mathemaflclan)

CATALOG INFO

BC === HOMELEARMNG RESOURCE

5S7 (changc)

** Gary & Rosernary HOLT (Dorothea/8r) USAE IBERLANTBo:(36, APO NY 09678-000I tForn:gall === Ben & Rebckah ISRAEL (Ra&ell8O) 2Ol8, Block I1287, Gtvat Eden, Zchron Yaacorr. Israel (change) === Robert & Ulfanna KLIM (Nlcholas/8l , Karl/83) H€lddb€rg HSi, APO t{Y

WANT ADS Rates: 7oflword. $f /word boldhcc. $5 mlnlmum. Please tell thcse folksyou saw the ad ln GWS.

Offi En I,o(n*TIONS

IrANT CREA'ITVIIY not proJects? Art pogram for

O91O2-OOO5 (Germarlv)

beglnners of all ages, SHORTAND SWEET - leanfng which lsjust that, ages 3-5. TEACHINC GUIDES rcally r.rsc the potentlal of famlly learntrg. TEST PREPARATION, good K- f 2 rrcrkbooks. FREE CATALOG. Sanplc gutdc $3. LEARMNG ATHOME Box 27O-G58, Honaunau I11 96726. Educafl orral, sclf-contalned, sclf-correctlng. mlnllessons on casscttca. 'Thc Ustcnlngllearncd' 5OO North Rd, Fcnton Ml 48430.

PEN.PALS Ghlldr,cnnrntlng pcnlnb

should wrlte to thosc ltsted. To be llsted, s€rd namc, agc. address, ard l-3words on lntcrests Noall CAVALII) (13) f 7-AAlvaCL Edtson I\LI- O8al7l skateboardlqg, bascba[, &awing := Natban ZII(ALA (1 O) 21 f Kossuth StApt 2, Rome l{Y 1344O; clcctrtdt5r, dlnosaurs, gardet|tng=== OSTI!{IVD, FO Bo:( 324. Slngcrs GlenVA2285O: Ian (8) plano. farm antmals, games; Scth (6)violh, rcadlrg, rabbtts* FLEDDERIOIIANN, 3e97 Plcasant Hil Rd, Galnegrrllle GA3O501: Shara (5) art, storlcs, cooldr{g Ltcbe Ann (8) drlldrcn, rcadlng. coobng; Joy (lO) readlng, music, b'allct: Et IIEIKES (O Rtf Box 140-d, StewartTN37f 75; playlng, blkes, t oats:= Bret MANSSUR {6) 26f g Pterc-c St, Flrnt MI 485031 dogs, baseball, srvtmmlnll: BO\ /DEN. Rt 3 Box 27OG, Cleveland'1X77327

lkrnan(g)

CHIIJ'IIOOD -TIIEWAIDORtrPERSPESIIVE. Ajournal wltl currtcuhrms forhome study studcrrts, a hnde€arte(| prognam for three to ftve ycarolds, and phllosophyof chtld developmerrt. Pracflcal ectlnlEcs cerrtered aror:rrd the seasons and f€sdvab. Rcsourccs for art suppltcs, books, tq/s, etc. $2O per par (four lssucs) or $5 for a samplc lssue. NANCY ALDRICH. Rt 2. Bo:( 2657G. Westford vT

LMNG HEFJTAGE ACAITEMY:

K- 12 Teach

your

chlld at homc. Dlagnosflcally prescdbcd. *lf contained, sclf tnstnrc,Eonal. contlrruous progr€sg o-rrriculum, higlr achlerrcmerrt results, p€rrnartcnt records kept, dlploma lssucd, lou' htldon ratcs.

LMNG HERITAGEAC3DEMY, Dept G, PO Box 6r0589 D/FwAtrport fi 75261 -0589. DOZENS of actMty,llcamlng ldeas around monthly thcrnc. Sample $l , year $9. Creadvc Lcam|rg Mqg--t'rc, Box 37568, San Antonlo TX 78237-0568.

NETWORIUNC - Wort out oflourhomc. Hclp othcrs whllc crradngan exccllerrt lncomc for yoursclf. Smplc, rcrrardlrgwort. Wrtte flr, Stephcn and RebcccaConvln. Box 594. NorfolkCTO6OSS. HOWTO STOCKAHOME UBRARY CIIEAPLYI is packcdwlth good ldeas forbrStgncrr and uscd books tnocpcnstvcly. $3.50 ($.7f CAresidents). Chcck/mongr ordcr/SASE for morc info to BluestockngPrcss, PF, PO Box lol4, HaccMlle CA

95667.

yourchild ltkc penctls? Dr:awlngi Urdque book dcvelops artlsilc end tmaghnttve sldlls udng alphabet. I{ceps chlldrcn 4- I 2 busy, qulct while creadvely lrvolved. Conccpts leamed easily keepiqg children happywtth pcr ctl & papcr. $2.5O Outet Books, Bo:( I 786, kovo IJT846G3-I 786. Does

GSTNNG STARTED WITTI HOME SCHOOLING . excrll€xrt lntrcductory gutde from edttors of HOME EDUCATION MAGAZNE. Also: I gB7 Resources Gtrldc. Each tN3.5O postpaid. Bo:< l08:l, Tooasket\I/A

94855. HOME EDIrcAION MAGAZINE - writc for 6lee hrformadon pa.ckct. Box 108{t, TonasketWA98855.

ALTERI\IIIMS

IN EDUCAflON - Alternattue and communlty schoolg, Waldorf and Montessori

Educadon, lcarntrg cxchanges, anc-lllary scndccs, apprendceshtps, rrahral and lrMted learnlrg, etc. Anothcr spcclal publlceflon by thc edltors of HOME EDUCAilONMAGAZNE. For lnformaflon on conHbuflorls oradv€f,flslng rates write to Bo:< 1O83,

TonasketWA98855

CHIIDREI| . Scnd $ f for cataloguc (applled towards ordcr). Toad's Tools, Dcpt.58, FO Box 173, ObcrllnOH.l4O74.

PARENTS GUIDETO BEGINMNG READING, $2.25. Moncy-backguarantcc. fuer: lntegnty Books. 7t139 Thomas Avcrnrc South, Mpls. MN 55/,'23.

NATIIRALPRODUCI1S FORFAUILIES. g":llts, Futons, Baby Shocs, Doll-mabrg Suppltcs. Cotton

I|EII FORIIOUEITACEAS

FIITIE TTOOLS F1OR

ffshtr{C,

rcadlng, models Nokonl (Z wrltlng, dolls, horoco; Camllle (5) playlng, dolls, anlmals =:YONEIruRA, 774I EAvon,LlncolnNE 685O5:Josh (I2);Abl (f Ol Tcssa (6); Darcy (4) : Jcsstc DUFTY (5) 27O Ulhite St, Horpell NJ O7737; dons. books, art : DrODrcE, Rd 2, Edlnborc PA f64f2: Scan (f4) dlrtttkes, farmlng, 3-whcclcrs; Joy (12) ardmals, blkcs, cabbagc patch tnds; Jason (9) S-whccl€rs, m49c, 4Hl Sandy (6) cabbage patdr hds, porrlcs, & inter€sted tnAl|ltsh peo-pal : Abtgail CZAPSIff ( l O) 2 f O Clyde St Becklcy WV 2580 l ; dogs, readtrg, ftends === Clyttc MCNLILTT (Z 2lO Clydc St,

BcckleyWV25SOr; fl.ayngt

24122.

05494.

Our revlsed catalog, wlth c|Irfent prlc€s, ls no\r' avatlable. Scnd a long SASE wlth two stampa. We wlll pay $2 ln crcdlt for r.rscd coplcs (in good condluon) ofJohn Holt'8 WhatDoI Ib Mondq? Orr rcqucst, urc wlll photocopy and mall thc GWS rc:r'icr* of arql ltcrrr tn our catalog, Scnd 50 ccnts plus a SASE for onc: add 25 ctnts for cach addldonal.

CANAI'/I:

CEMRE 18O56-59 Avc. Cloverdalc V3S lPZ gItE =: XIm & Vlncc DUFORT (Clalrc/8l , Abrahm,/84) 7OO De Normandlc. Bouchervtllc J4B

Yarns, Soape. Gllts. Catalogand Samples $1. CALtrCO OOTTAGEPO Box 6O. MontvaleVA

:ygp111y,

said ln thls tssuc, at thc trrd of thts ycar urc will discard all namcs in thc prcvlous dlrcctory and complh a ncw onc for I $8. fDeadllrrc Scpt, 3O) To bc listed, scrrd thlsform orusc apostcard or$r5card {onlyonc famfypcrcarrd).

Adults:

FO Box

gutrcaPlgs GROWING WTITIOUT SCHOOUNG #5E

FoR DTREcToRY

A.s urc

Organization (only faddrcgs ts sanre as

l9ll,Wllmlrrgton NY 12$17: Chcl$a (A s6r'lng, gardalng, rcadng Zachary (1O) football, lnsccts, ffshlng; Brandon (14) aeronautlcs. bfldng, astronomy: rtYAIv, 673() Galpln Blvd, Dtcelslor MN 54331: Jcnnifer (lq readlDg, \Drlttng, soccer; Ed (9) go-karts, mtnt-blkes. motors: Arme (7) dolls, dtress-up, soccec John (5) dress-up, chess, go-karts Sarlah BTNGHURST (71 760 Part Glcn, Martlrrez CA - 94553; horses, rnlcorns, rcadlng=: Janet PETSCHE {rO Rt I Box 149, Farwell MN 56322 ROSSEN, 222O YlaDel rcadtqg, drawtng, horscs : Nortc, Carrollton fi 75O06: Llsa (6) gmnasdcs, drawlqg, gubca ptgs; Brlan (4) sports, clknblng,

pnrnvrorua

-Ftnally. vtdcc that tcach and cntcrtalnwlth a tcachct'r luldc.

Children, Names/Blrthycare

familj:

Addrcss: Please checkone: l-----l[/e rlere in the last complete fllrectory. Plcasc prlnt the abovc

lrofo Ar

l98aDtectory(GWS#60) ;l=---j[hls

the

ls ancw crrtr5rorsubstarrtial address chartge to ourprevious llsftnef

please nrn fn the next posslblc GWS.

Also, areyouwllllqg to host trartclingGWSrcaders who make advane

arrar€€rn€ntslrrwrltlng?Ycs

36 ''Ihe Good Ttmc Growlng Show," a slx-part (24 mln. cach), arpard-wimlngls€ries, stars Pumets Mckcy ard Josh (using ltve childcn's votces) who brtng Blble-bascd arnvers to topcsllkc fear, obcdlcrrcc and forglverress. Only$te,e5 cach, plus shlpplrg. Bsvlewvideo of thls ard other tides. only $9.96. To order. c"ll White Lion Medta at l -8OO-777-L-|-O-N.

thcncxtlssuc. Butlfnrcwcrc to rcc€tvc thclrrcrrcrlal before urc scnt our ffnal account dranges to thc mailing house (earty Octobcr) . thcy would qraliS for the free borrus lssue. Renewal ntes are thc same as for new subscrlpdorrs: $2O for 6 tssues, $.36 for 12 lssues, $48 for l8 tssucs.

HOW TO GET STARTED

$2 cadr, Thc post olBce dcstro5myourmlsscd lssues and charges us a nodffcadorr fcc, so lv= can't afford to rcplace thern wlthout charge. Gruup Aubrcrlptlou: all coples arc mailed to onc address. Plcaspa,ywlth onc chccL Hereare the crrrrcnt€Foup ratcs (lXmeansyou get o(re copy ofcadr lgsuc, 2xmeensyou gct 2 ctpics ofeadt i*sue. 3X meann 3 coptes, etc.l

Here are somewaysyou can ffnd out the legal

lx 2X 3X ,t)( sx $(

Please - {f) Put scparatc iterns ofbuslness on

situaflon inyourstate. l) Iook up the lawyourself, tn a publlc ltbrary orl,awllbrary (courthor:se ,laur school, etc.) Latre a:r

scparate sheets ofpaper. (2) Ptttyourrrame and address at the top ofcach letter. (3) Ifyou ask questlons, enclosc a self-addressed stamped erwelope . (4) Tell us lf lt's OK to publlsh yor:r letter, and whether to u6e ]rour namc wlth thc story. We edit letters for spacc and dartty,

indexed; try "school attendarrce" or 'bducaUon, compulsory," I 8 states harre rcr'lscd thelr home educatlon larps sinc€ 1982 so chcck the r€ccnt statute chaqges. We havc prlnted cr summarlzed thes€ new laws in our back issues. 2) Ask the state dcpartrnent ofeducadon for arry laws or rcgplations p€rtatnlng to homeschoolirg arrd/or starting a prlvate school. In somc statcs (parUculady Ca, IL, IN, KU thcre are few rqr:ladorrs mncrnirrgprivate shools and soyou can rll your' home a sdrool, Ifyou are concerned about rcveallr4your namc ard address to the state, do thls thmuglr a frlcnd. 3) Contact state or local homcsdtoollr4; groups. This listv/as last p,rtnted tn GWS #54, and ts updated ard sold separately for $l as part of our 'Homeschooling Rcsource Ltst." Some groups have prepared handbooks or guidellnes on legal rnatters. 4) Contact other famllles ltsted ln our Directory. Hoqraner, thcy may suggestyou do some of the above steps yorrrself. 5) Ingen€ral, it is not wisc to startby aslOng your local school district they usually don't know thc law either. Bettcr to gathcr thc facts ffrst on

Subscrtpflorrs start wlth the netd lssue publishcd. Our curcnt ratcs arc 92O for 6 tssues, $36 for 12 lssucs, $48 for l8 lssucs. GWS ls publishcd arcry otlrcrrnonth. A strgle lssuc costs $3.50. For all subs orordcrs of GWS (not books), pleasc serrd chcck ormonqrorderspal'a.ble to Gran:hg Wttont Schooltng. Foreign paymcnts mustbc elthcr money orders in US funds or checks drawn on USbanks. We can't afford to accept pcrsonal checks on Carradian accounts, cvcrr lfthcy havc 'US fi:nds" written on thern. Outsldc of North Amertca, add $lO pcr5rcarfor airmatl (other ttsc, allow 2-3 months for

surfaccmall).

BlcL lrrucr: Wc str,onglyqgeyou to get thc back lssues of GWS, espcctallylfyou plan to takc you chlldrcn out ofschool. Many ofthc articlcs re as useful and tmportant as whcn they ulere prlnted, andnre do not plan to rcpeat the lnformationirr them. All backlssues ar€ kept lnprlnt. Ourrates forback lssucs: arry combtoadon of back lssues, maflcd at one dmc to onc addrc-ss, cost $t pcrissue. plus $2 pcr ordcr. Fore€rrplc, GWS #l 57 would cost $59. Thesc llates ate for subscribcrs onl5n non-subscribcrs pay $3.5O pertssue. Indcr to GWS #1-3O: $2.5O to #31-40, $l: to #41-5O, $f.5O. Spec'tal: all thrcc tndcxes, $4.OO. These

RENEWALS At thebottom ofthts pagcls aformyoucanus€ your subscripdon. Please help us by renewingearly. How can you tellwhenyour subscrlpuon to rerrew

er(P@

prlces tnclude postage. Blndcrr ale avallable wlth rods that hold GWS without obscurlr€ any text. Gold lettct3 on cover. Bindercanhold cWS #f -24 ($lO) or lSlatcrl*sucs {$9.5o). Spcctal:3bt:der:swlth rods tohold GWS #l60, $26. Add LJPS charges for all binders (see center

JIMANDMARYJOI\IES

27OrW T6MAINST

PIAI

2yrs, l2!ss.

Syrs.

$20 $36 $48 $60 $70 $78

$36 $64 $90 $rr2 $r30 8t44

$48

7X 8X

etc:

l8lss. $so

$126

$ls6

$r80 $216

$l2pcrpcrsonpqyear.

Pleasc send ln thc names artd addrcsses o(. mernbcrs ofyourgroup sub, so thatvre can kecp ln touch wtth thern. ft anks.

SIJBSCRIPTIONS

yourom. - DR

6lss.

lyezt

WHEN YOU WRITE US

slr foundc ll ln ll977 fi J ohr HolL Editor - Susarrnah Shcffer Managlng Edttor - Fatrlck Farcnga Contributhrg Edltor - fbrma Rtchoux Edttorld Asslstartt - Mary Ivlahcr Editortal Consultant - NancyWallac'e Intcrn - Elizabcth Eardlcy cwg

Book &

Sub*rlpflon Manager - ElearnrStrar:s

Adrninistrauvc Asststant - Wendy Baruch Book Shlpper/Recelver - Sue MoJlca HoltAssoclates Board ofDtrector:s: PatrrckFarcqga (Corporate kcsldcn$, lfiary Maher, Tom Mahcr, Dorrns Rldroux, $rsannah Sheffcr Advlsors to thc Board: Stcvc Rupprecht. Mar5rVan florcrr. NancyWallace I 987 Holt Assoclates

Inc.

eu qd =2 <l =1 = ^^l N5l

pages).

Addrcr Chergca:

The number that is wrderllned ln the orample tells the number of the ffnal issuc for the suhscripflorr. ThcJones'sub crcplres wtth Issuc #59,

knowyournew addnest

If)rou'rc movlng, lct us as soon

asposdble.Please

enclose a recent labcl (or copy oforr). Issucs mlgs€d because of a charge ln addrcss maybc replaccd for

STJBSCRIPTION AND RENEtrTAL FIORM orrenew to GRO\illNG WTHOTIISCHOOUNG. For rcrrewals. placc the label from a recrnt issue below, lf posstble. lf not, prlnt the info. Clip and scnd wtth your check or money orderinUS funds. Or, youmay nowsubscrlbe orrenarby pfronewith lvtastercard orVisa; call Use thls form to subscrib€

617-437-1589. Thanks. New

subscrlption

Gift subscrlpdon to bc scnt to namc shown.

Rcrrcwal

Account Number (for renewals): Name:

Explration code

{for renewals) : E!@

oor <to o>= =oa

Address (Change?Yes/No)

City,State,Zp:

--6issues,$2o Group

sub:

c'oplcs

lssues,l|S6

issues, -

l8tssucs,$48

335 @o6

$-ls63harQ

It ls OK to sell my name and addrcss to other o{ganizatioDs.

GROVING WTI1IOUT SCHOOLING #5E