GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING
59
ln Ftedotn and Bqond., John Holt wrttes, 'Another cons€quence of deflntng ti educatlon lui schoollng ls that as we put more and more of our educatlond reR sources tnto schools, we have less and left over for those lnstltutlons that are truly open and educatlve and ln whlch more and more people mlght learn for themdoes lt mean to say that we put all our educatlonal resources lnto schools? Are these resources really so llmtted that there lsn't enough to go
x selves.'What h around?
Apparently. At GWS we recent\r tnvestlgated the percentage of federal and local funds allocated to schools, llbrades and museums, and found (as you will see ln thls lssue) that schools recelve much more than the other two combtned. Ifs clear, then, that we're putttng more of our fmarclolresources tnto schools than into other educattonal lnstttuilons, whtch ls certainly an lmportant indlcaUon of our priorlttes. When llbraries (for ecample) recelve less money, there are fewer thlngs that they are able to do, and they get the message that thelr activities aren't A child at the Mr:seum of Comparatlvc Tl,ologt ln Cambridge, Mags. Muscums are one of thc altematives discussed in thls lssue's focus on breaking the school monopoly.
INSIDETHIS ISSUE: NEWS &REPORTS p.2-3 New Office Staff
Challenging German Schools New Jersey Suwey Results
CHALLENGES & CONCERNS p. a-5 Speech
Dilltculty
Sibling Conlllcts Relative's Questlons DISCUSSION: Reading. Writing. and the Nature of Coercion p. 5-7
WATCHING CHILDRENLEARN p.
S-9
Correctturg Mlstakes
Computers Kids in the Workplace THINKING ABOUT EVALUATING 10-l I Family's Goals School Report Thinking about Rewards
p.
FOCUS: BREAKING THE SCHOOL MONOPOLY p.29-30
Interview with Norman Henchey Museums: An Alternative Model HOW ADULTS LEARN p.3L-32 Learning a New Language, Playing
an Instrument, Flndtng Work
Without Credentials ADDITIONS TO DIRECTORY p.33-34
muchvalued. Even more tmportant than thls - and I think thls was what John was saylng ln Fteedom and Begord - ls that the rest of us get the message that the most valuable thlngs happen ln school. Or, to put lt the other way, we declde that what happens outside of school ls worth less than what happens inslde. In this issue of GWS IVe deliberately chosen several storles about adults ustng resc,unces outside of school to learn what they want to learn, and set these storles ln the context of McGlll Professor Norman Hencheyls dlscussion of school's 'monopol5r on learntng,' to slmultaneously encourage us all to recognlze thls monopoly artd see that some people are challenglng tt. GWS has always demonstrated that children can learn outside of school and can reach adulthood by alternate routes. It's my feellng, though, that we also need to get adults angry at the way school has captured our collectlve imaginaUons. Norman Henchey, ln this issue, says that school's centrallt5l ts going to become 'turcreastngly unacceptable. There's going to be a demand for the allocation of funds to other areas.'Who's golng to demand thls? It s€ems to me that if lt will be anyone, lt wtll be adults who, tqether wtththetr ch{Idren, want to see attenUon given to other aspects of their communitles besides schools. In other words, I think we wtll have to feel frustrated not.Just for our children but for ourselves. We will have to actlvely m{nd that our libraries our struggllng to stay open or that the schools are full of orpenstve equipment whtch ls avallable to only a small segment of the community. When this bothers us enough, we wlll begln to demand that reallocatlon - both of funds and of mental attentlon. Thts mental attenUon strikes me :rs belng as tmportant as the flnanctal attention. We can say that one is a product of the other - because so much of our mon€y goes tnto schools, we don't have a chance to see what librartes or museums could be if glven enough support. And, too, because school claims our imaginaUons in so many ways, we drcide that it's most centrd and most deserving of funding. Thts ts why a few examples of people learnlng outslde of school go a long way. Aaron Falbel, wriilng in this issue of GWS about learnlng Danish without classes or dictionaries, suggests that what people need to learn a language is a welcomlng communlty of people who speak that language. How can we make thts available to more people? This ls a different ktnd of questton from the one that asks, "How can we lmprove language lrstmctton tn the schools?' Also tn this lssue, Allen Fannin wrltes about flnding work without having academic credentials, and an article ln Tte.Etoston G&ebe describes several other people who have also done this successfully. These people have had to think tn new ways. They have had to ask themselves - as homeschooled children ask themselves - 'How can I llnd what I want to knoW? How can I get to the people, books or actlvlties that wlll help me?'As more of us decide to us€ soctet5r's other resources, we ll want these resources to be better supported, more readilyvalued, and more accessible. We'll want, to paraphrase John Holt's descrtptlon of an ldeal societ5r, a world in which knowledge, skills, and informaUon ts wtdely available and freely shared. When we're sure about wanting thls, we can turn our attention - as many of us in the homeschoollng movement are already doing - to moving direcfly and swtftly toward lt. - Susannah Sheffer
2
OFFICE ANNOTJNCEMENTS aooooaoooaooooaoaa [SS:l We're happy to welcome tnp new
stalTmembers to our olllce: Day Farenga to the Job of Book and Subscrlptlon Manager, and Patrlck Gould to theJob of Book Strtpper/ Rccelver. Day, who has for gome tlme worked as a producer of corporatc slide shows (and who has talren most of the photographs we've used fnGWS) says that shewasr€luctatrt to be away from [.auren, now l5 months, for so many hours a day, and she ts glad to be able to gtve her energr and slills to thls ofnce, where the whole Farenga liamll5r now works together. Patrick (we're now a tnrc-Patrick office), a long-ttme fan of John Holt's books, called us atJust the rlght moment - as Sue MoJtca was preparlng to leat e the olllcc to devote more Ume to homeschooltng - and asked lf we had any work for htm. Patrick is now comblntng paclrtng books here wtth worklng wtth handicapped people in Cambrtdge. Glnger F'ltzslmmons and her children Jenny and Alex have gtven us badly-needed help during thts transitional pertod. Thanks also to Carol Guerke of Delaware, who came to Boston to help us for a couple ofweeks at the end ofAugust, and to Connle Nesba4r for her work on the fall mailing, an enorrnous Job' We're addlng to our llst of self-published materlals a l2-page booklet called RespondIng to Chldren's Wrlttg: Bmnhg an Acth:e Reader oJYow Chlld's Worlc, which I wrote as a way of making avallable ar prtnted form the matertal I'ne been showlng people and talktng about tn workshops at homeschoollng conferences. The booklet includes samples of wrtttng by children of several ages, dlscusses how we can best respond to such work, and looks at tssues such as
'Inrrcnted Spellfng,' 'Revlslon,' and 'Adult
Wrtters at Work.'The prtc.e ts $2.5O plus postage (see chart lnslde catalog).
Our complete fall catalog ls contained ln thts lssue, lncludtr4 rnany new Utles whlch have not yet been revterved tn GWS. If you're uslng our catalog to purchase hollday gtfts, please order early to avold disappointment. A prlnter error caused the pages in some coples of GWS #58 to be mtssturg and out of order. Ifyou recetrrcd one ofthese lssues, please don't hesttate to ask us for a replace-
ment.
CALENDAR October 22. 1987: Holt Associates Open House: Basketry Workshop, led by Wendy Banrch. 6 pm, at our olllce. Phone before clrnlng: 437- 1550. November 19: Holt Associates Open House:'How Volunteers Can Joln Our Work.' Volunteers wtll help wtth a speclflc proJect
whtle dlscusstng ways to partlclpate ln our work, both at home and ln our olllct. 6 pm, phone437-155O. We are happy to run noflces of maJor homeschoollng e1rcnts, but we need plenty of notrce. Deadlle for GWS #@ (ercnts ln Januaqr or later) ls Novernber 15. Deadltne for GWS #61 (errcnts tn March or later) ls
.Ianuary 15.
NEWS & REPORTS CHALLENGING THE SCHOOLS
IN GERMANY
Motgg Wolter (Cemonfl u:rltes:
The long delayed qrmpostum'Das Menschenrecht auf Schulvermetdung"
fttenlly, 'Ttre human rtght to avold schol')
flnally took place June 27, tn Flegensburg tnstead of Munlch. That meant an 8-hour round trtp ln one day for our family. I am very glad I made the effort to go,
although there were only about 25 parttctpanb present and Bernard Bartmann, the inltliator and homeschooler who left Germany for Austrla to avold mandatory schooltng (see GWS #53, #56), was obvlously dlsapppotnted at the poor tumout desplte his valiant efforts at publlclty and apparent posltfirc feedback from many flamilles. In his speech he satd he assumed that the only explanatlon for such apparent disinterest is that people are "plain scared' to conslder any
profound alternadve to thetr chlldren's present school mtsery. Bartmann's extended and patnful attempts to challenge mandatory school laws ln Germany were, wtthout exception, met wtth superclllous dtsapproval, and hewas gfven a hard Ume at errery posstble corner, undl emlgradon was the onl5r self-respectttxg way out for htm and his
famtly. He descrtbed the enormous dllference Just a few mtles away across the border ln Austria several months went by before anyone errcn brought up the questlon of hls chlldren's schoollng, a talk was errcntually scheduled ln the most casual and frtendly way, and all hts homeschooltng plans were accepted wlthout the least dtlltculty. Such
treatment, alas, ls sdll unthlnkable tn Cermany 0n fact, errcn though he has legally left the country, he's sdll betng serrrcd summons for court appearElnc€s and back flnes, etc., for each chtld each new school year). Talks were gtven on the hlstory of unlversal mandatory schooling and on the legal aspects ofdeschoohng ln Germany (bleakl bleakl). It was tnterestlng to learn that other European countrles such as Denmark, Holland, France and Austrla have no mandatory school laws on the books, although nearly everyone attends public schools. The presentatlon that moved me the most was from a mother, Chrlstlne SimonHolsten, who had Just recently organized a
cltlzen's lroup called 'Mutter gegen Schtlnot' ('Mothers agalnst school dlstress'). She vividly descrtbed her lncreaslng an:dety and sadness at her 9-year-old son's suffertng from the school day - all the ktnds ofthlngs GWS has longbeen r€pordng on: boredom, $6falrty, finrstradon. stress. Her petiuon to the Mlnlster of Education, signed by some 6O spontaneously aroused frtends, beglns thus: 'We mothers can no longer accept the dally practtcc tr our schools. Day after day we have to send cheerful and usually contented chlldren to an tnstltutton they dtslike. In the afternoon we get back mostly dtsturbed, bumed-out, frazzled chlldren. Our attempts to help our chtldren dwelop thelr abtlifles for a strong, creatlve, peacefu l, responslble and lndepend-
ent Me durlng thelr lbst 6 years are destroyed by schools tn the brtefest tlme, We do not want to sllently tolerate thls sltuatlon arry longer.' T?re resoludon goes on to demand baslc school reforms, such as decentralzatlon and less€ntng of rtgfd cpntrols, etc.; the part that lnterests me the most ls the demand for general acceptance of 'altemadve forms of educatlon, be tt experlmental schools, small tnltiatlves or private instructlon of any kind. I frankly don't see much hope that any of the well-taken potnts Frau Stmon-Holsten makes will be tn any real way attended to by school authoritles; occaslonally one can be luclcy wtth a brave and gifted teacher, but generally the teachers' hands are too well tied here to allow for any real fledbillty, and the educatlon superstructure is far too conseryatine and top-heary to change radically, pardcularly when such mothers as these are in the vast mtnortty. Nevertheless, lt was movtng to hear the woman speak glowtngly of the'unexpected posltlve reactlon and warm support' she has recelved from many, many other mothers, all of whom were suffering for and with their children and were beglnnfurg to wonder whether it is incrritably neoessa5/ to do so. They are beginning to ques$on "the holy authorlty of school.'This is certainly a profoundly irnportant beginning. I want to help this woman in her eflorts if I can. At the moment IVe only gathered signatures for the pefidon. which, more trnportant than the political gesture (almost ntl, I suppose), rntghtencourage anopen dlscusslon of the subJect with a dillerent handle than sfmply my personal ideas.
My main lmpression after this sjrrnpo-
slum was that there is preclous little hope that a legal homeschooling altemadve will be possible here ln the near future. On the other hand, there were protesung voices, no matter how dny, and the proof of their erdstence was upMttng. Claudia Barber's report (GWS #57) of thetr dilficulttes and harassment shows, though, that for Germans and us long-term Amerlcan residents, any loosening of the law will be an uphill battle. I also came away with a feeling of great relief that we do have the Waldorf school altematlrrc relatively nearby, wtth tts tdyllic rural setting, attached worlidng stock farm, and profoundly dtfferent program and ideals compared to the state schools. I'm going to have to work hard to keep a posldve attltude and an open mind about the school, and not let my doubts and resenratlons add to the tenslons of somethlng so very nerv. Carrie (6) has enJoyed a lot offreedom to work on her own proJects and play wtth frtends in a flexible way. She has now been accepted to the speclal 6-year-old preschool cliass at the Waldorfschool for the fall, and she's exclted about tqring tt (parttcularly about the ldea of learning to card and sptn wool, and weave complicated thlngs). And we'll all get a taste and better insight into the Waldorf phllosoPhv.
GOOD NEWS FROM PORTUGAL
Rosemary Hdt" rDlro wrcte Wt sPt1ltg that her Janflg urcts unsure abut honle' schaling h the Anerican mllttoty cotruruu' GROWINC WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59
3
nitg
abrud flsdated h turtugol"' cWS
#57), runa udtes:
After months of thfnldng and rethtnk-
ing our optlons, we hanre dectded that
homeschooling ts the best choice for our family. We llve among a small group of Americans and quite a few Britlsh folks with whom we have regular contact. Because the group ls so small, the mtlitary does not send teachers or have a school on the base. Our government picks tJle best school from what is available in the area, and if we send our children there, the government pays the tuition. If we send them to another school. we pay. This year we were given the choice of three schools - an American International, a
Christian International, and a Brttish/ Catholic International. To me, none was notably superior to the others. The hardest pa.rt of deciding not to send Dorothea to any ofthese schools has been telling our friends and answering their questions without making them feel that they are bad for putting their children ln school. I anticipated that the hardest person to explain our decision to would be the administrator of the Christian school, who is also my friend. His response wasi great, but so
unexpected. He said he was 'all for it'and would be happy to show us some of the books he had about it by the Moores. In addition to that (and that was wonderful in itselfl he said I could bring Dorothea to any special activities going on at the school. I may brlng her for the field trips, the special Christmas programs and/or the sing-alongs on Friday
afternoons.
NEW JERSEYSURVEY RESULTS From the results oJ tlw suttxg New Jersey Unschoolers Network
tlut tle
onductcd
1986 andJust rrcntlg puilished- The results are drawnJromtle 129 responses received Comments arc by Natr'y Plent
in
How often does your child play with
other children? Almost daiIy....................43 Several x a week..............48
Weekly............................. lO As I can arrange it...........23 (one rrral)
of tlre families who answered this question said their children played with others at least several times a week. 27oh said their children play only 730,6
weekly or on a sporadic basis, as it was
possible to arrange play time with other
families.
This can be a spectal problem of livtng ln a rural area with Gw or no chlldren close bv. Families new to homeschooling often havJto
find communtty activities, clubs, or support
groups to provide companionship for their children. And sometimes in the beginning it can be lonely.
But the 'isolation' that many critics picture for the homeschooled child simply
doesn't exist for most. Some with large farnilies don't feel the same type of need as a nrral family with only one or two children might feel. One who told us that her children played with others as she could arrange it added that'it is hard.While another whose chlldren had outside company only once in a while dtdn't feel deprived because there were three ofthem GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59
whose ages were close together.
One famlly sltuadon allowed only weekly play because the mother was worldng so nrany days. 'Before I worked outslde tlre home so much we saw other familtes se\reral tlmes a week. Hopefully, we wtll resume thls ln a few months. In the meandme, though, I feel my boys are gatntng valuable soctal experiences leamtng to lnteract lovingly
wtth thetr own brothers."
Would you rate their sociallzation experlence as:
Superior........ Average.........
.......7O
.......M
Inadequate.................................7 Dillerent for each child.............3 Borderllne Superlor/Average,,,.2 The question of children being adequately'soclallzed' has always been at least #2 on the list of things outsiders want to know (#l usually being "ls that legal?'). 92% felt that their children's socialization was average or above. In fact, the handful of "inadequate" responses are even further diminished by quali$ing remarks written by two mothers. In one case, the mother said her chlldren had been exposed to too much peer pnessure too
early, and this made their present social situation seem inadequate to them. Another who marked "lnadequate" had spectal problems that would erdst outside of homeschooling. One ofher daughters ls hyperactive, and another is functionally retarded. Homeschoolers often say that the school brand of sociallzadon is one very good reason to keep their children home. They don't want to see them peer dependent, captive to fads, and going along with the crowd. They fear that their children wtll have a hard time retaining home-taught values in the face of much indifference to honesty, kindness, thoughtfu lness, generoslt5r and many of the other gentle vlrtues. And they're aware that children ln such a loosely supervised situation (as compared to home) are often thoughtlessly cruel to one another. These famllles are realistic enough to understand that they can't keep their
children isolated to protect them from lndifferent values. But thev do belleve that the lncreased time at home, away from the "socializing' in0uence of school, wtll promote superior character development and a stronger sense of self-esteem. We might point out, along with the many excellent reasons parents gave us fcr
believtng that home was doing Just fine in this department, that many of the famous people that our children study in school are people who had little or no formal schooling, and little or no formal sociallzatlon. We've gotten carried away with thts tdea of group soctallztng and stopped really thinldng about what it does take to make a child a social being.
to be fanrcr:ably treclfned toward homeschoolers. The remalnder were tn varylng shades of gray; only one district wasJudged to be
hosttle. TVrclrrc familles reported that there were other homeschooling families in thetr
district, as rnany as 15 in one. 19 had some use of school services and materials though one sald they were not able to 'comfortably' use school facilities. Some of these parent evaluations may go back to contact with the school a few vears ago, and lt's possible for a school to c[range attttudes in that time. A new prlncipal or superindendent who knows nothing about homeschooling or is hostile could rerrerse these attitudes. Still, we are
grate l to have a
list and hope that wery family reading this report will do their fellow homeschoolers a
favor and keep the Network informed about what districts are and are not friendly. The actual list was long, and we decided to publish it in an issue of the newsletter rather than in
this report. In other questions in this sectlon, we had hoped to learn about any excepdonal @urt cases we might have missed hearing about, or gather a list of attomeys who have acquired expertise in helping homeschooling families. It \vas a major disappointment that this didn't happen. Sbll, with so many apparently c.ooperative districts, our legal needs are modest.
Is your curriculum: Self Made?.... ...........49 Composed from various sources...7O
Correspondence school.................34 ............22 Other............ Teacher Supereis€d........................ I Many checked olf more than one choice tn this category. Some who satd their materials were seU-made added that they were used ln c.onJunction with schoolsupplied materials or purchased guidellnes.
TEACHERS AREN'T PASSING F\om an AP story in CaltJornfo's 8/28/ Tribune, sent in bg
AZ San Gabrtel Valley (CA): Cathg
htle
A governrnent study says competency tests are loroclidng out 28016 of the applicants to teacher education programs and 17% of the graduates applyrng for licenses to teach. But Chester Flnn Jr., research chief of the U.S. Department of Education, says passing scores are still set so low that they may be letdng lncompetents into classroom jobs. The shrdy, 'What's Happening in Teacher Testing,' \vas released this week by Finn's olfice of Educational Research and Improvement. It found that in some states, teacher."s can still be certified even if they miss more than half the questions on the NaUonal Teacher
Examinations. The attitude of my school dlstrlct is: Cooperadve... ......................22 Very cooperative..................2 I
Barely cooperative.........,.... lO No response.,, ..........,......,..... 2 Extremely cooperative.........
Initially hostile.................... Indi{ferent.....
cROwINc WITHoUTS'CHOOUNG #59. Vol. lO No. 5. ISSN #0745-5305. Published bimonthly by Holt Associatcs. 729 Boylston St, Boston MA O2l 15, $2o/yr. Datc oflssuc, Octobcr l, 1987. Sccond-class postage paid at Boston MA. POSTMASIER: Scnd address changes to GWS. 729 Boylston St, Boston MA O2l 16.
Hostlle..........
ADVERTISERS: Deadlines are the lSth of odd-
Of the 59 districts rated, 7596 wereJudged
numbercd months. Contact Patrick Farcnga for ncwlv-rcvlscd ratcs.
4 ...[css than a quarter-centu4r ago, no state tested teachere. North Carollna lmposed the flrst teat |rr 1964, followed by loulslana ln L977 and Florlda ln 1978. Most of the tests are atmed at ensurlng that teachers are Itterate and possess at least rudlrrentary vrrtflng and math skllls... TWent5r-slx states now test prospectlrrc teachers as a cerflIlcatlon r€qulrement, and 18 are plannlng to do so soon... The study satd that tr lO states uslng the NaHonal Teacher E;ramlnatlons, appltcants only had to answer an arrcnge of 47 quesdons correctl5r out of lO4 to pass. 'Glrrcn that the tests at€ not dllBcult and that the passtng soores appear to be relattrrcly low, one urculd expect vlrtually everyone to pass teacher cerdflcadon exarrdnatlons. Yet thls ls not the case,' the report sald.
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'
rcgardlng the 'Admlnlstrailon of an
Establtshed Systcm of Home Study,' accordlng to the Septcmber dordo
Homesclwllng Netr.r.ork Neusletter. The rules say that pa.nents must submtt an annual notlllcatlon of tntent to homeschool, along wtth an lnstnrctlond plan and provlslon for erraluatlon (for wtrtch the onl5r opflon seems to be standardtzed testtng). Parents must also affIrm that they wlll estab[sh a record system for each chtld whtch lncludes attendance data, test results, and tmmunkaflon recprds. Florlde: In July, the gorrernor slg;ned the law whtch extends the Florlda Home Educadon Act of 1985. Says Karen Jackson of the FLORIDAASSOCTATION FOR SCHOOI,S AT HOME, "It's the same as the old lawwtth one excepUon - lt does not expine. We don't harrc to go back and flght the same battle. Attltudes surely changed ln two yearslNcs YorL: Homeschooler Seth Rockmuller sent us coples of two btlls whtch were lntroduc.ed tnto the legfslature thls past sesslon. Both btls dled fn commlttee, but wtll automadcally be retntroduced tn 1988 unless the sponsors wlthdraw them. The llrst blll would amend the educatlon law by spect$ng that the Commlssloner of
of Educatlon,
Seth also sent us coples of two recent
Altematives ln Education ffivLD
of Educatlon adopted Emergency Rules
of the Commlssloner
iD
pegcirnn
A bo.d
sclooltng r?sourle IIst, olr,lla,ble Jor $2. Golondo: OnAugust 13 theState Board
of a home school, th€y ar€ actlng as agents
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tics for childrcD
fur ddtesses of state ardlaal
orgottlzollons, see Gll4S *54 or our lomc-
Educadon can determlne 'equlnalency' of a home school through 'vlsltation' and "supeMslon' poruers. The secnnd btll lncludes the further speclflcatlon that when superlntendents determlne the equtvalency
mor€ for hon,tc school-
iag femilics
STATE NEWS
Freel6 pagc informativc Cetelog.
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9tt55
amendments to the Commissloner of Educaflon's curr€nt regulaflons. The amendments requhe homeschooled ctrildren to take Pupll braluadon Program (PEP) tests tn reading, urfflng and math, and prellmrnary competency tests ln r€adfng and wrttlng. Seth says that the regul,adons hanrc been adopted on a temporar5r basls; at GWS's press ttme thetr permanent adopflon ls stlll pendlng. A bullettn from the NEW YORK STATE HOMESCHOOLERS A^SSOC IATION says that at an August l6th meettng, homeschoolers e:cpressed unanlmous oppostdon to these regulauons, and plan to remtnd the Board of Regents that the PEP tests \ver€
ortgtnally tntended to ptnpolnt chlldren
who needed remedlal help tn readtng. The regulaflons should lnclude the speclflc statement that these tests are to be used solely for thls purpose and not any other Iandl tf remedladon ls tndtcated by the tests, the regulattons should lnclude the speclffc statement that the remedlal work wlll be done ln the home setttng." Soutb Dalote: The School Admlntstrators ofSouth Dakota passed a resolutlon that they may tntroduc.e lnto the leglslature, accordlng to the March-June lssue of ?he Home *hrcl Court Report. The resolutlon says that the admlnlstrators "support the r€qulr€ment that all chlldren of compulsory school age attend a school accredtted by the South Dakota Dlvlslon of Educatlon.'
Wrrhlnglon: Homeschooler.Ion Wartes nrrltes that on June l8th, State Representatlrrc Delhrrc met wlth representatlves from homeschool groupo to diecuss posslble 'ughtenlng up' of the homeschool law. Jon says, "It qutckly became appar€nt that Rep. Delhvo rvas reapondtng to one dlvorced noncustodtal parentwho was concernd about the fact that the custodlal parent was horneachooltng the ctrtldren. Homeschoolers suggested that tlghtenrng the law mlght be counterproductlrrc because lt would tend to drlve homeschoolers underground, and that there needs to be better documentatlon of 'bad' sltuatlons.'After the meettng, Rep. Dellwo wrote to the homeschoolers agreeing that legtslatton would be counterproductive. Wlrconrln: The Untverstty of Wsconstn/Madtson has lssued a report recommend-
tng a law r€qulrtng cerdflcadon of homeschool teachen or regular student tesdng, accordtng to the March lssue of the PrtDo;te
School Ner.osl,etter (as quoted ln TIe Learntq Mga t}re newsletter of CLONIIRA HOME BA,SED EDUCATION PROGRAM.
COURT NEWS Bdtleb Columble: The Central okanagan School Dtstrtct dectded notto proceed wtth charges of School Act vloladons against homeschoolers Arne and Cathy Straume, accordfng to an ardcle ln BC's Kelowno
&urler. The Straumes' provtnclal court trial
had been scheduled for late July. Homeschooler Vlcld Llvlngstone, who sent us the
cltpptnt, wrltes, 'One result of thls ts that we are now fonntng a provlnctal home educatlon associatlon, Many homeschoolers will come out of the woodwork.' Iosr: The August newsletter of the IOWA HOME EDUCATORS ASSOCLATION reports that on August 2O the Ioura Supreme Court found tlre Tlrrcke faxrnly rot guiltg of vtolattng the state's compulsory educadon
law. Ohlo: On March 25 the Ohto Supreme Court upheld the convlcdon of the Schmidt fanrtly (see GWS #55), actordtng to the MarchJune lssue of The Home *ltrpll Court
ReprL The Schmtdts had been found tn vlolatlon of the Compulsory Attendance Statute.
Attorney Mlchael Farrts of THE HOME SCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION
argud that thls statute was unconstihrtlonal and should be found vold forvaglueness, but the Supreme Court held that ttwould not rule on the constltuttonal arguments because the Schmtdt farnlly dfd not go through the usual admlnlstradrrc procedures of requesting appronal, betng dented by the superintendent, and appeallng to Juventle courL IISLDA argues ln lts newsletter, howerrer, that "the c.ourt relled on the prosecutor's version of the facts wtrlch asserted that the family did not meet wlth the superlntendent and follow the admlnlstrattrrc procedure but blatantly tgnored the law. The facts presented at trlal, howerrer, show t}rat the Schmldts had, on the cutrary, met wtth the superintendent several tlmes, and the superlntendent made clear to them that they must be cer$fied ISS: not actua$r requlred by Ohio lawl. Instead of denytng them and followtng the admlnistratlrrc procedure, he menely brought charges." The ortglnal record of the trtal was appently destroyed, so theJudge "c.ould not compare the prosecutor's verslon wlth the actual record." GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59
CHALLENGES
& CONCERNS
SPEECH DIFFICULTY Ftom Cheryl Just oJ CdiforniaOur son Brett (5) haswhat most people who feel they need to point this out are beginning to call a speech problem. We don't look on his speech as a problem. What he does have dilliculQr saying is his 'Rs'. Brett is Bwett, car is cawr, Trevor is Trerrawr. He is also not very clear in his speech. Vowel sounds are a blt garbled. Mostly, though, his R-sound makes his speech di-fhcult for others to understand. TWo things I personally think could be a part of thts: l) When heuras 6 months to I l/2 years old he had a constant ear infection. fluid behind the drum.
Consequently he heard his early sounds as if he were underwater, and 2) He has two cousins, brother and sister, who said their Rsound the same way. The boy is 6 and still talks this way but ls improving. His mother said that all hls new words that he learned in kindergarten were spoken with a clear Rsound, while old words still were said the same. Another possible cause ls that Brett is the second child, 17 months younger than his outgoing, outspoken, quite aggressive brother who speaks a lot for his younger brother. When my husband, Kevin, said hewas having trouble understanding Brett, and he thought the cause was that Trevor and I spoke for Brett too often, we made an outright ellort to stop. Thls has helped us understand him more, but the Rs have not tmproved. My questions: l) Is this truly a concern? 2) Are there exercis€s that can help, if nceded? 3) Wouldyou suggest a speech therapist at thts potnt? (Brett ts a bit shy around new people) and 4) Is this a problem others have noticed wlth their chfldren. and do they grow out of lt? [SS:l See John Holt's arficle in GWS #23 about the speech ofhis nephew, then 5, which had been full of what we think of as errors. John wrote that a couple of months after he d noted down these errors, they had disappeared. We'd like to hear from anyone who has observed a child grow out of these speech
mistakes, and also from anyone whose children have had some kind of speech therapy.
SIBLING CONFLICTS Flom Nona Perez oJ CalfJomiaMy two oldest sons are only 16 months apart and as dilferent as night and day. One talks non-stop, the other has a hard time even sayingwhat's bothering him. One wants someone to play with, the other wants to play alone. They arg;ue often, pick at each other,
and quite often make llfe miserable for the rest of us. At tlmes, they cooperate amazlngly well, but at the drop of a pin they're at it again. I try to stay out of it as much as I can, as I feel they should find their own way of getting through thelr dlsagreements. But at times lt escalates into vtrhral war, and they wind up yelllng, ercn hitung, often dlsturbing the baby's nap. At these times, dependlng GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59
on the situatton, they are elther separ:ated for while, each sent to a solitary place to sit and think, or they are sent to their bedroom together until they can tr€at each other humanely. Sometlmes thls works and someumes it doesn't. It often lnterferes wlth the compleUon of a proJect, or with a job they are supposed to be doing, such as cleaning their room, or wlth getting ready to go on an outlng. I struggle with thts issue a lot. Maybe I worry too much, and maybe that emphasizes it all. I have a great desire for my children to grow up caring about each other, rather than pulling away and avolding each other. a
HANDICAPPED INFANT F}om Georgla Stone oJ North CarclttaI want to encourage families who have a handicapped child, and also to hear from €rnyone who has a child with the specific problem of Robin Sequence (sometimes called Pierre Robin Syndrome), a breathing disorder. My oldest of four children is 7 and the next two are 5 and 4. The newborn is really struggling and I stay up much of the night feeding her with a special bottle. She cannot breastfeed, although I'm giving her
breastmilk. My three oldest are handling the situation beaudfully, learning to do more and more for themselves. It's amazlng what interesting things they ffnd to do without mother around always supervising. Joanna, the oldest, models clay and draws, creating animals and landscape scenes that constantly arnaze me. She wants to help me with the baby and llttle by little I'm teaching her how to manipulate theJawbone to help her breathe. The boys, Barton and David, are enjoying different books I've bought and kept on the highest shelf, waiung for the "school year' to begin. Barton has been coloring and learning about birds in Roger Tory Peterman's special coloring book. David, who loves anything concerning Indians, has been devouring any books I can find on the subject. In some ways I spend more Ume with the children now, in constmcdve ways, because I must stay by the baby's side constantly. They come to me with questions and things to do.
Another thing that I flnd interesting is that they don't desire TV. They enJoy legos, books, colors, paste, paint and clay, along with simply enjoying each other. Ifanyone has suggestions about taldng care of a child with Robin Sequence, please
write.
A
RELATM'S
QUESTIONS
Cerelle Simmons of Texas writes: When we took Ariel (then 7) out of school at midterm last year and began teachlng her at home, I was only moderately concemed about the local superintendent. Ariel had been attendlng a prlvate school in another district: there was no reason to belleve the authorities would come looklng for us. It was the thought of having to confront my mother-
inlaw that
froze mewlth gullt and dread. To say that she was appalled by our decision is to
vastly understate her reacdon. My husband and I c.ould do little more than to tqr to reassure her that we had Ariel's best interests at heart. In the end, we agreed to disagree and let tirne be theJudge. To anyone facing a similar family situatlon, our progress report at thls point should sound encouraglng. In the last sixteen months Ariel has blossomed in many areas, but her increased social conJidence ls so pronounced as to have elicited several favorable comrnents from the same grandmother who predicted social ruin a year ago. In school Ariel was promptly labeled a loner {a condition not well-tolerated in socially-ccnscious private schools, as we discovered). ffsl la^sl teacher was the first to admit that she was a loner because olher 'giftedness,' and that she indeed had very
little in corunon with her second grade classmates. Now that Ariel regularly meets people of all ages, one or two at a Ume, and in natural (as opposed to contrived) circumstances, she is regaining her old poise and friendliness, and her trust ln adults is being restored. We wltnessed these trends in actlon last month when we attended an art fatr ln Fort Worth. As we vistted each booth, Ariel stopped to chat wtth the ardsans, asking them questions about their work whlle volunteering her own ldeas and experlences. At one booth we met a delightful ex-art teacher from Virginla, whose wonderful line of party hats had really caught our fancy. As we were all admiring her designs, she suddenly asked if our children attended a 'special' school, and when we laughingly admitted that they did, she said, 'I'll bet you're homeschoolersl' She then went on to explain that after five years of traveling around and observing lots ofpeople, she had become adept at recognlzlng children who either attended alternative schools or were taught at home. She said the dead glveaways were direct eye-contact with adults, a certain body language distinct from that of schooled
children, and an unmistakable rapport with
their parents.
Besides being an incredible boost to our morale, her comments forced us to stop and think. The healthy changes taking place in Ariel had come about so gradually as to go almost unnotic€d by us. Was this the same
Pure Seeduor
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6 chlld who walr so palnfully shy and selfconsclous lastyear that she could only look down at her shoes when meetlng nenr people? That was when urc realtzed Just how far she d
come. To get back to my mother-tn-law, she asked Arlel not long ago tf she unuld ltke to get back to school. Artel sald she absolutel5r wouldn't. lhen she asked herwhat she was
leamtng ln math, and Artel replted that urcd been trylng out a llttle algebra (knowtng full well lt would sound lmpresslve comlr4l from a thtrrd g[ader). Soon after that exchange, my mother-ln-law admltted to my husband that whatureurcre dotng seemed to beurorldnglout well for Artel.
TALKING ABOUT EXPERIENCES Havlng a baby ccrtatnly glves me somethlng to talk about wtth frlends and acqualntances. I IInd tn rryself a tremendous lmpulse to glrrc adrdcc to people who are expecdng children or thtnldng about havtng them, and certainly they seem eager to hear anything that might make their llves simpler, but IVe noflced somethlng odd. The words that pour out of me are so often cast ln the'second person' - "Do ttris, you don't hane to do that.'
Ttrls, erren though I know, tntellectually, that I myself am helped most by orperiences told ln the../hstperson -'We did thls, and thls ls what happened' - or ln the thtrd. As edttor of GWS, I nodced I uras almost alurays turned olf by any subrrlsslon wrltten tn that teachery second person. Who areyou to tell me to do these thlngs, I urould upnder. And I began to see that ln tnformal conversatlons and organized groups, the flrst-person storles others told me made the most tmpact and led to more clarlty and less bickerlng. So I'm rather astontshed and embarrassed to hear myeelf talktng thts way. Is it from dl those formaflve years when I thought I uras golng to be a teacher? When I was rcry young I GU tnto the habit whenever I learned anythrng new, of mentall5r teachlng It to someone elsc, of explalning to an trnagtnary listener
talk.
- tnternalkfng
teacher
Yet I think I really must be a novlce at achrally "shartng my orperlence,'as the New
AgeJargon has tt - lfs not often that IVe felt I've had expcrlences worth sharing, nor known very many people I thoughtwould want to hear. I'mJust not used to talklng about myself. Well, I lmagtne my frlends (and indeed, many people) are fatrly good at ffndlng whaterrer ls of value ln what ts satd and lettlng the rest vanlsh lnto the atr. But I sUIl lntend to watch how I speak, slnce I nrould llke to make my experlence as helpful as I can for others. If any of you have dealt wtth a slmtl,ar problerrl I d love to hear about lt. It occurs to me no$r that sure$ the temptatlon to talk ln the bossy, teachery second perspn toorle's children must bc orrcrwhelmtng, and perhaps that ls where some of you have dealt with the lssue.
-
f)onnaFllchoux
AGES
- ALL SITUATIONS
New, expanded catalot' ztc
Pastimes(GS).Perth,Ontario,Canada
OUR ''EARLY READING''
BIAS Frolm
PeftW Badcer (OII):
I can cer:atlnly tdendfy wtth the homeschoolerwho sald to Susannah tn GWS #57, 'I can't tmagtne that lt ls normal for 4-yearolds to wrtte voluntarlly.' Susannah suggests that lt ts a matter of 'learnlng at our own pace' that ls tmportant here, but I belterre lt to be a matter of the programmtng we've all been through that tells us whatourtwenileth ctntury, rvestern culhrre deems tmportant and normal. For a Yequana Indlan to begtn
r€adlng at 4 or even 12 mllht not be consldculturc, or for a Bushman chlld of the lblaharf to spend most of hls day curled up wlth a book atop a rock would scem 'abnormal' to hls famlly. However, ln our malnstream Amertcan culture, tt is normal to see small children wlth books and is becomlng more and rnor€ @mmon to see them actually readtng these books at 3 and 4 year:s old. I have nodced that when somethlng becomes more and more common, lt ls errentually ctnsldered normal wlthout much thought to the actual tntrlnsic worth of the behavtor. Kt[Ing lnsecta, espectally flles, and eatlng sugar are both conslder€d normal ln the malnstr,eam Amerlcan culture, but docs that rnean that urc want our children to automatlcall5l accept fis behavtorZ Many of us now hanrc our eyes oPen to keeplng our children wtth us from the tlme they are tlny bables (encouraged by the reasearch ofpeople [ke Jean I,iedloff), whereas te our mothers' generaflon lt was consldered normal to expect a baby to stay tn hts pla5rpen or crtb most of the ttme. It ls not that we as lnrents are constant\r pushtng ouryoung children into r€adtng and rvrfUng but that our endrt cultur,e ts dotng lt. From my own obsenratlons of orrcr SOOO chtldren, I feel that socle$r's emphasls on ear$ reading and ered. normal by hts
wrtflng ts allecttng the fundamental derrclopment of our chlldren and we need to be aware
of thls lnlluence. Anthropologlst &lmund Carpenter bellerres that the s€nsory envlronment ls totally dtfferent today from that of preltter-
ate man, stmp[ because rpe harrc learned to read. He says that fn'strtfttng from speech to wrlung, rturn gave up an ear for an eye and transferred hls tnterest from the spirttual to the spa.ttal, from rerterentlal to referenflal." Brtttsh btologlst Lyall Watson wrltes of the pygmy of the Iturt who lhres hts Me ln such dense forest that he cannot see very far, so that sound has become much more funportant than stght - hls expertence ts ananged by a dlllerent klnd of sense Me. Watson says that 'We vtsual creatures even hear wlth our eyes nrc llsten to music, wldle the multisensory pygmy rnerges wIthIL The earacrcepts
lnformadon from all directtons slmultaneously, so better llsteners than we canr wraP themsehres ln thelr envlronment more
about nature, ecology, adventure, language' history, math' space, world problems & more.
ALL
DISCUSSION: READING, WRITING' AND THE NATURE OF COERCION
K7H3C6
easlly.'
What I'm wondertnt ls lf we, as Parents, reallze how we alfect the lives of our chlldren by leading tlrem lnto the world of reading and *rtUt g so young that the senses other than slght may not have ample opportuntty to
establtsh themselves as strong tools. Watson says, 'Srmply because we read a lot, which means employtng only one sense - and that one ln a hlghly restrtcted way - we have destroyed the harmontc orchestraflon ofour senses. We have programmed ourselves ln a uray that mtght make tt totally lmpossible for us to respond to arryttrfng that wasn't bullt on
the same blas.' We need to ask ourselves tf readtng and
$'rldng are actually that lrnportant to b€coming a centered, capable and sattsfled human belng. From the time most of us were small chtldren we have been rewarded ln sonrc way fcr our ellorts tn reading and wrtfing because of the strong cultural bias tourards early ltteracy. Because of this orlentadon, when a 3-year-old runs to hls parents saylng heJust read ttre words on a street stgn, they are dellghted and give much posidve relnforcemenl On the other hand, if the parents of the same child see trim pttchlng stones (an tmportant sensorial step ln learnlng spa.dal relatlonships and phystcs) hls behavlor ls at best ignored and he ts admontshed wlth "Don't throw rocks.' Soctety's coerclon can be very subtle. A chlld learns that he ls popular when he does certaln thtngs and not so popular when he does othens. Once a chlld succumbs to external rerlrards, he qutckly learns to earn
them by placing lmportance on particular actv'lfies. Although many homeschoolers reallze that later readtng and wrlting is not harmful and may, tn fact, be benelicial, we are one and all harboring an early literacy scrtpt dating from our own school experience ln chlldhood. Thts attitude must be examlned ln our behavtor as have other prejudices we have had and abandoned intellectually (e.g., test results, streaming by ability, sexism in soctal rcles). In my serrenteen yeaf,s of work with ctrlldren, my own as well as the 4OO I live wtth here on the farmstead each year (schooled and homeschooled allke), I have become convlnced that the abstractions of reading and wrttturg should not be taken on so early as fs happenlng today since tt actually takes chlldr€n away from the world of lirsthand expertence. Chtldren thus learn words and concepts that have no basis in their own experience. Thetr knowledge is like a house butlt on sand. Early chtldhood is not the tlme for bombardlng the child wlth concepts with whlch he has no empidcal e:<perience. Htstortcally man has created verbal concepts to ,epresert hls e4terlerres. When Susannah speaks about her
toluntary' wrlttng arrangement with
Amanda (GWS #56, #54, rs she aware of the subtle coerclon she ls uslng on Amanda by gtvlng her a great deal of attendon for the storles she has wrltten? I'm wondering if Susannah gave no feedback, would Amanda conUnue to wrlte or would her interest in this project fade tnto other thturgs. If this were to be ihe case, I should then assume that the wrlflng ls not somethlng Arnanda feels naturally compelled to do from within so much as somethlng she finds she can do to get serlous attendon from an adult. Thls takes us tnto the lssue of -Ttre EIIect of Rewards' also dlscussed tn #56. In school the teachers' fanorlte students are usually those who can GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59
7 read and wrlte so competently that they make the teacher feel he ts dotng a goodJob and tn turn glves the reurard, the "A', thus beginntng
the mutual admlladon socte$r. These are tdeas that I thtnk should be explored if we are actually attemptlng to think in new ways about the educaflon ofchildren. Homeschoollng can, ln fact, encourage all of the same'values as the school system unless we decide to step back and take a long look at what we are supporttng.
DEFINING COERCION [SS:] I agree that we ought to ask ourselves whether what we have been taught to
consider normal is in fact best for us and for the lives we want to lead. I sometlmes find myself looking skeptically at an ldea that appears strange and then remtndtng myself about all the other strange things I do believe. As Penny points out, our culture's emphasis on reading and wrtttng should not be exempt from this ldnd of consideratton. But the nature of school's emphasls on reading and wnUng ls not idendcal to the emphasis tur the culture as a whole. School rewards us for readlng and wrttlng but seldom gives us a chance to use these sktlls ln any meaningful rvay. Outside of school, however, print ts always meaningful. We use lt to ask questions, record events, tell stories. We post notices, explain things to each other, write to faraway ftends. Children see us laugh, cry and make declsions tn response to what we have read. We may forget, in our
rightful indignadon at school's narrow
values, that there are plent5r ofreasons to read and write ln thls culture eranultlrout the promise ofgood grades and teacher's praise. Jean Liedloff, observing the Yequana Indians and then wrtttng about them ln ?fte ContinuumCorcept was stmck by how naturally the Yequana adults assumed that the children would take part tn the culture they belonged to. The Yequanas would find tt strange to see a chlld readlng at an early age, as Penny says, because Yequana chtldren don't see adults readlng and have no r€ason to thtnk it culturally trnportant. They're
right. But in our culture children harrc every reason to want toJoln us in our use of written language, and to feel hvited to do so by the print that they see ever5rwhere. I don't worry when a young child is busy wtth other things, Eu; rnany young children are, and doesn't turn his attenfion to making sense of prtnt for a while. But I crrtainly don't thtnk lt strange, either, when young children are curlous about the words that they see all around them. If we only observe chlldren ln school, we can't tell whether chlldren would learn to read if they weren't foreed lnto lt or rewarded for it. We can't tell at what age they would
naturally take an lnterest in the actlvtt5r.
Only when we look at chlldren who are allowed to determlne when and how they will learn (as most chlldren in school, of course, are not), canwe begin to understand the range
of what is 'normal.' I tried to say, in the ptece tre GWS #57, that when we look at children outside of school we ffnd that they learn to read at so many dillerent ages that the age alone is uninter€sting. I cannot lnfer, from the knowledge that some chtldren who are not forced into llteracy achlerre it at later ages, that those chlldren who read atyounger ages GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59
have been made to do tt. It's tempttng to thtnk that because some have been forced, all have
been forced. But what exactly ls coerclon? What ls volttion? How can we tell the dtlference? How can I be sure, looking at my wrttlng arrangement wtth my friend Amanda to which Penny refers, that tt ts lndeed a voluntary asSoctation between two people? I am interested tn the nature and extent of our influence on chlldren, On the one hand, thls lnfluence ls enormous, Children get from us a sense of how things work and what is inportant, and our responses to their choices ar€ slgnlflcant. We can certalnly
encourage or discourage them in ways that matter. But I cannot believe that our relation-
ship with children operates solely according to what modern psychologtsts call 'behavior modlfication.' I cannot believe that children are so subject to adult bellefs and prejudic-es that they ficrm themselves entlrely in response to our positive and negative
reinforcements.
Several years ago, talldng with a young cellist who was just beginning to become known in the world of music, I asked her if she had grown up ln a musical community and ifshe had been much encouraged as a musician when she was younger. "Not much,' she told me, explaining that when she was a child no one she knew played muslc seriously or dreamt of muslc as thelr adult work. What made this cellist a muslcian, then? We can trace some of the sources of our work, but not all of them. Some part of why we love what we love is simply mystery. - A further questlon to ask is whether this cellist was btter o;ffber;ause she had no one around to encourage her. One could argre that because she became a ccllist anyway, the amount ofsupport she had or didn't have was irrelevant. Maybe. But I know ttrat she was exhilarated when she moved to a city in which music was erre4nvhere and ln which her talent was taken serlouslv. She thrived on the companlonship of othlrs who loved what she loved. We llve ln the world with other people, and these other people, by their responses to us, encourage certaln things in us. Is thls coercion? It's difficult, on the face of it, to tell. Much of tt has to do with the structure of the relationshtp ttself. I am as certaln as I am ofanything that Amanda's use of me as a reader and critic of her wrtttng is voluntary. I base this claim on several thtngs, most of them events in the stmple history of our work together. Though I've described thls work in earlier writing, I want to trace agaln the events which brought it about, thinking this ttme about lts voluntary nature, Amanda. already my qood
frtend and aware that u/rtdng was my se;Jous work, asked tf I would comment on a drafi of a story she had not yet shown to anyone. I agreed. We repeated thls several tlmes before Arnanda asked tf I would be wllling to establish the twlcre-weekly telephone dlscusslons of her wrlttng whtch I descrlbed h CWS
#56. Throughout the past months, Amanda has asked for varlous forms of specific help, all of wtrlch I harrc glven. 'Could you tell me if thls paragraph ls clear?' she has asked me. "Will you type up thts rough draft for me so that I can revlse lt?' From the very begtnnlng, I could have said no. Unlike adults and children ln school, Amanda and I are not bound to each other by structural requlrements which demand that we work together eyen if neither of us galns from lt. Because of thts, Amanda knows that I will give her only as much as she asks for, and no more. I don't call her up in the middle of the week to say, "Weren'tyou supposed to be finished wlth that story by nord?' I don't inslst that Amanda work with me until she reaches a certaln age or level of skill; if we stop worktng together, it wlll be because Amanda says, 'l don't need this anymore" or 'I'm concentr:adng on other things now" or "l want something ltke this, but not this
exactly.' Would Amanda stlll be u/rittng if I had not agreed to be her regular reader? Would she stop now if I suddenly withdrew my help? More important, would she be better olf if I left her alone? When a child who ls alreadg uritvlg asks me, 'Will you read what I have written? Wtll you work wtth me so that I can improve tt?' I don't thlnk tt my buslness to question her modvation. I assume that she would not have asked for my help tf she did not genuinely desire tt. Sure, I could refuse her. I could let her flnd response elsewhere, or not at all. But wh5/? When Amanda wanted to learn more about ecology and consenration, her parents helped her set up an appr€nttceship with the stalTof a local nature center. When she wanted to learn calhgraphy, she found a calligrapher and arranged for lessons. Amanda uses me in much the sameway that she uses other adults in her liG, who help her with the many activltles that make up her current work. When chtldren ask us to help them with what they have alleady determined is tleir untk, and when we are sure that the structure of the situation allows that request to be truly voluntar5r, let us not be afraid to respond wholeheartedly.
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WATCHING CHILDREN LEARN ''SOUNDING Su.e
she knew lt. And she knew that I was on her slde ln her elforts to leam to read.
The buslness ofanswedng questlons can
would tndeed prepare them for a hlghtechnologl future. The answerwas a resoundlng no, 'About 3OO,OOO peoplewere maktng
get suclry though - to tell a kld what he wants to know but no more, so he won't get bored and tumed off. When the answer ls more than one word, tt can be hard to know where to stop. Still, answering quesilons ls a very basic part of home schoollng. When I spoke at a conference flve years ago, someone asked me tf homeschool should be asslgned to certaln days and times, and I said, "I answer my children's quesdons seven days a week.'
notes. 'Experts ln the buslness were convinced that, although there was a temporary shortage of programmers, in tlme the number necded would become smaller, not larger. Although nrany more people would be uslng csmputers ln the future, mostwould be uslng appllcatlons prograrns {another term for tool or productivity software) written by others. In fact, this ts already happening in the
IT OUT''
Grant (PN wdtes:
I would Lke to respond to Susannah's comments ln GWS #57 on correcting mistakes. Whtle I agree wtth the princtple of what she says, I feel that it depends a lot on the
parflcular chtld and the particular clrcumstances. For example, my oldest daughter, Stacy (8), constantly has to overcome her lntense fear of failure before she can learn anything (despite the fact that she has never been to school). So ire learning to read, for example, when she came upon a word she was not sur€ of she would sound it out in her head but refuse to say it out loud for fear she might be wmng. Instead she would ask me what the word was. One of my maln objectives in her case is to build her confidence in her own abilities. So I would tell her that I would gladly supply the word - but only after I heard her sound lt out. With much reluctance she would tell me what she thought the word was. Most of the time she was correct, as I knew she would be. I always explained to her urhy I wanted her to sound it out. Gradually she became confident enough to attempt new words on her own. Another reason that I insisted that Stacy sound words out for me was so that I could idenUff areas of confusion. Since on her own she would not attempt out loud any word that she was not sure of, I had no wEry of 'llstening in' on her attempts, and therefore of tailoring my responses to meet her needs. This is something that ls done almost automatically in most cases, but because of Stary's personalit5r it sometimes has to be more deliberate. [SS:] I appreciate the desire to show a child how competent she already is, and to this letter I would only add that ln some cases a child mtght be able to make that inferenc.e herself. If, when she asks what a word is, she receives the answer she'd suspected was correct, thls tts€lf rnight help her feel surer about herguesses.
And.Jrcm Mna Utten oJ Neta York:
I too have crtnged to hear a mother whose ktd asks her what a word is sav 'sound tt out.' Of course if the lidd could sourid lt out he would. And lt's certalnly faster and easler for the parent to say one word than to go thmugh that whole "Sound it out" song and dance. At the school where my eldest chtld started they told us that some ldds learn to read by phonlcs and some by sight. They dldn't belleve there was one right method. TheyJust looked at the kids and what worked
for them. Thls reasoning uras beautifully tllustrated for me Eul my flrst child learned words by sight and my second by phonics. B5r the Ume my son finished first grade he could sound out almost anything in English. My daughter, on the other hand, came to me for years asking, 'What's this word?' I always told her the word and she'd go back to her book. But what I nodced after a while was that she neuerasked me the same word hrrice. She asked for ltwhen she needed it, and then
There's mor€ to homeschool than that, but It's as good a start as I know.
COMPUTERS
MEANS?
-
ENDS OR
Flom an artlcle CarcI Kent (TX sent us cdled "Computers tn the Scttds," by Pamela McCordrck and. Arnry Russe4 urhich uas jirst publLslred Ur tle Sumrcr/ FalI '85 Carnegfe Quarterly: Carnegie Corporadon, whlch has long had an lnterest in the educational posslbili-
ties of information technologies, commissioned Marc T\rcker to look at wavs ln which computers could help shape the liarning ana teaching prooess... T\rcker discovered that computers were being used matnly for drill and practice in baslc skills - somethlng that could often be doneJust as well with paper and pencil and much more elfectively with peer-group tutoring. The other principal use of computers was ln courses in'computer literacy.' Says T\.rcker, "Schools have been c.onceived of as places that oller courses ln subject areas. Accorrdtngly, schools begin to develop oourses ln the workings of the computer and ln the nrdlments of prograrn-
ming.'
'
Yet, as T\rcker points out, neither of these appllcatlons permlts students to use the computer the way a rnanager, awrlter, a phystctan or a composer would. Such
professionals generally have llttle or no interest in how the machine works, and they do not get involved in the destgn of programming. Their goals arc to achieve professlonal results - a quarterly projection, a novel, a dlagnosis, a sonata - as qutckly and effectively as posstble. For them, the computer ls a means, not an end. It ls a powerful tntellectual assistant that can do the dogwork, suggest altemadves, attend to possibflities that mtght be overlooked, remember and rearrange ldeas, replace guesswork with precision, and ftnally, free the intellect to make new leaps to unknown places. ...When T\rcker asked school superinten-
dents, principals, and other educators why c€mputer llteracy, as they conceived it, was taught to chlldren, thelr answer often was that chtldren were being prepard to take thetr places in a htgh-technologr soclety one in which skills ln computer prograrnmlng would be essendal for career advance-
ment.
T\.rcker called on professional organl"ations such as the Associatlon for CompuUng Machlnery, the world's largest professional compudng soclety, and other electronlcs industqr associatlons, and he asked them whether teachlng students begtnning BASIC
thet lfvhg as progranrmers tn 1983," he
workplace.'
Yet the assumptlons that computer mastery means prograrnming skills and that everyone should have them have been so deeply tngrained in the mlnds of educators that they have only recently been questioned.
In Tircker's view, real computer literacy should stgniff mastery over a powerful tool of tntellectual and creative endeavor. A pencil is such a tool. But computer llteracy clurses have becrme tantamount to "courses ln the pencil': the structure ofthe pencil, how to sharpen pencil points, the history and social lmpact of the pencil. "While this is interesttng, what children need is pencils to help them achierre something else.' [SS:] Carol Kent adds: "I wonder if some homeschoolers who provide computers to their youngsters are not making the 'school' mistake described so clearly by these authors. It seems awaste of the child's time and of the family resources to obtaln a computer and game software to familiarize a young child with it tur advance of his ability to use a computer as a tool for his own work."
{ilDS rN THE WORKPLACE \ *-
MafiIyn fusner oJ New Jerseg:
When my parents began their business
and thetr family thirty-three years ago, the two came together often. My brothers and I grew up well-acqualnted with ollice procedures and with the business of business. We chlldren were at home in the olfice. We stamped checks, learned to ftle, figure percents, and work the switchboard. As very young children we sorted and boxed materials by tens and hundreds, used scales, ran errands. Not much later we learned proper phone techniques and made supeMsed sales calls. All of thls was firr fun, not Ibrced work. My parentsJust made us part of their world. Having access to business gave us invaluable skills naturally, and we all now have an ease and conffdence about the work world. Today my daughter Morgan visits the same firm - much larger, computerlzed, without rnasses ofstock underfoot - and is learning in the sarne way. For all of her live years this has been her second home (though I am home with her). Most interesting, though, is the fact that other children are also comfortable there. One father who takes care of his toddlers during the day regularly brlngs them to their mom's desk. On snow days or conference days at school there is often one 9-yearold or another typing the day away or runnlng errands for her parent. The presence of children in the busy, large olfice ls never GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59
\\ frowned upon. Morgan !s someflmes ve4rl nolsy and cLmbs on my mother or father{ durlng sedous phone calls. People on the/ other end are often surprtsed - other gra/d/ parents are often envlous.
ON THEIR OWN F}om Borbara Nge (V'l):
What I [ke about GWS ls not how precoclous the chlldren in it are, but how they do learn the necessary academlcs when they are ready - some read at lO, some mulflply at 12. These are the stories that gtve me courage to conflnue to be dilferent and to accept the dilferences fue our children. I work outside the home full-time (someU.mes 80 hours aweek) and my husband Ken stays home. The children are very selfsullicient, having to get thet own snacks and entertaln themselves since Ken is usually busy outside the house gardening, bullding, etc. I do miss not being able to spend more tlme with the children teaching them thtngs, but then they have so much time to slt and think and wonder and create. Because the chlldren are home all the tlme, Ken and I take some time to be by ourselves. On the mornlngs I'm home, we go out for coffee and leave the children to play or work. When we come back we usuallv ffnd them worldng at the c€mputer or ex6rcblng or readlng. Cameran (8) rnay have all her dolls downstairs lnvolved ln some compllcated play. Jeremy (l l) may be writing to some c€mpany about a comtc book order or designtng a maze for a mouse he plans on captudng. He made hls own cage, complete with a ladder and Geding dish. He's read all kinds of books about keeptng mtce. Stnce they don't have set classes at home, they enjoy the discipllne of thetr karate class. At fust I hesitated about enrolItng them ln the strtct,'Yes slr,' iNo slr' atmospher€ of the class, but then thought I'd let them dectde. Jeremy doesn't like critlcism, erren constructfi/e criticisr4 and vacillated about Jotning, Cameran loved the acflvity and screamtng and wanted to Jotn immedtately. .Ieremy did Join, and now you can soe hlm concentrating on €very mo\rc, Ustentng attentlrrcly to the teacher and
practicing his patterns at home.
MAKING PICTURE DIARIES Flom Cerelle Sirnmons oJ Texns: Insplrcd by notable dlarlsts from Samuel Pepys to Ishmael Wallace , we trled forages to keepJournals. Somehowwe never could get really comfortable wtth any of the standard formats (we tded splral notebooks, hardbound composltlon books - the gtrls even gave commerctally-made dtartes a t5r). Then I remembercd the sketch books I kept from ldgh school and college; they were the closest thlngs to dlaries orjournals that ever worked for me. In the margtns around the sketches and doodles went embryonic poems, random thoughts, self-conscious witticisms -
ccrtalnly not a convenflonal dtary style, but put together they dld document those years of
my Me.
I{nowlng Arlel to be unreservedly visual (I used to tnvlte her to wdte about somethtng, and she urould fnevttably producr a plcture GROWING WTTHOI..TT SCHOOLINC #59
lnstead), I gu.essed thatwe needed to get the llnes olfthe paper. So off we marched to the art supply store, where we bought sptralbound sketch books. The ftrst ntfht, Artel
dutlfully lllled tn half a page wtth wrldng,
and then drew a marvelous pie-graph chartlng her actlvltles for that day. Now she always lncludes one or more drawlngs when she:e<ords a day ln herJournal, and enJoys tt For l.aurel (5), the unltned pages glve her enthuslasflc scrawl room to flow. She chose a smaller sketch book slze. and wrttes from I to 3 sentences about her day (when she writes - not one of us ls particularly compulslve
about wrlilng wery day).
WORKING ON A MUS ICAL Ftom Kathleen Hatleg oJ Oklahonta: Thls summer I accepted an olTer to choreograph the musical F'tildler on the Roo/ for a local communlt5r theater. Slx weeks of rehearsal and two wecks of performance virtually took over our llves. Watchtng the producdon take shape from the very begtnnings of my sitting at home with sketch pad, notebook and muslcal score, staring blankly lnto space, through the ftnal stage of lights, costumes, 27-plre orchestra and special effects, was a wonderful experience for our boys.
Shaman (lO) spent the
frst couple of
weeks plcldng out the mustcal numbers by ear on the viobn. Then the director gave him a sccrre to take home and he spent many long
hours cop5dng the violin parts lnto a muslc notebook and learnlng them all by heart. He was also enlisted to help with set patntlng, and worked wtth the light technician cutting colored gels and fitttng them into the ltghts. Chris (5) and Ram (Z learned mostof the songs and much of the dtalogue by heart. We have done some contrlved slngtng at home, but nerrcr have they exhtblted the same level of enthuslasm. I have never imposed "memorlzadon exerclses' on them, and I assume they would reJect the ldea wholeheartedly. But somehow the fact that this multitude of adults found the memorlzaflon and repetltion of words and songs krterestlng gave the process a vdtdity, a usefulness. Ram also got out his vlolin, which had remalned ln the closet untouched for months, and spent many hours actlng out'the fiddler," picktng out pleces by ear. Even Dad got enlisted in the acilvl$es (more than he bargatned for), with a couple of walk-on parts, rewlrlng the lighting system, and butldlng sets. There were some obvlous "educadonal" side eflects to thls whole experlence: we learned a btt about the hlstory and customs of Eastern EuropeanJews, the pogroms ln Russla, the Bolshevik Flevolution, and the many forces that brtng about soclal and cultural change. The children also now have a clear understandlng that a play, movle or TV show does not somehow spring lnto edstence easlly, as a ftnlshed product, but ls the result of long, grueltng hours of totl, trial and error, fmstration and pracdce. And they had the opportuntty to lnteract with a huge \rartety of adults, all of whom had stepped out of thelr normal datly roles for a couple of months to act ln the play. The only negadve part of the experlence was when Chrts Gll off the top ofour pickup truck onto hts head. What was he dolng up there? Why, hewas
on the roofl fFortunately, no bgbS ltp fSdleq narm was done.l
REAL.LIFE MATH A rcader uxltes: Just a qulck story about myyounger son to remlnd us not to limit our thinldng in terms of what children can do. We recentlv moved and spent some money renting trulks, trallers, etc. I was talking to my son (6) about this one ntght and he was asktreg how much it would cost us to move. I said aloud (more to myself than to him) that we spent about $50 for the trailer and $lO8 for the truck, so
probably lt would be about $3OO altogether. He thought about this for a bit and then said something on the order of 'Oh, that means you are expectlng to spend $ 142 for the next truck on Saturday.' Now I ask you, would a problem llke that be likely to appear in a first grade arithmetic book?
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(BC):
A frtend rec.ently purchased a toy cash register for her 3-year-old son who enjoyed playing store, but she found it to be alimidng experiencc rather than a creative one for htm. Wtth the new cash register, he sold only those items pbtwed: a balloon, an apple and an ice cream cone, whereas previously he had sold such wonderful items as hats, dinosaurs, space ships,
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THOUGHTS ABOUT EVALUATING FAMILY'S
G
OALS
Ftom Madalene MurphA PN: As I write up my llnal very brlef collection of the year's accompltshments to send to our school dtstrtct, I ftnd that I am feeltng basically good about what went on ln our household thls year, and I am trying to get a flrmer grasp on why I feel this way so that it may help me in those moments of doubt or exhaustion or par:anola when ever5rthing about homeschooling looks particularly bleak and burdensome.
I thlnk evaluatlon, that word that
smacks of tests and grades and destructlon of self-esteem, ls stlll an irnportant lssue ln homeschooling. We have reJected so many of the standard, easy ways of measuring how the children are doing, ways that can tndeed damage self-esteem and detract from the iearnlng process ltself, but we still need to be
able to look back and feel satisfied with what is going on. And I'm not so much talldng about ways to convince a school district that a particular homeschooling program should be approved butways that parents can tell that things are gotng basically OK. The series of articles about standardized tests in GWS #57 was important because it presents specific arguments about why the
aura of tnfallibility that surrounds standardized tests is not based on reality. That is somethlng that rve all need to be reminded of. Even though I have been convinced by
argument and experlence that the tests are
unreliable and don't test the really important things, I stlll breathe a sigh of reltef when our children test well. But if I am to resist the easy enticements of the standardized tests, I need somethlng with which to replace them.
I also flnd myself having to resist another easy means of evaluation: comparisons, Whenever I'm ln conversation wlth other parents of children who are in school, I often size up what's happening with my children in terms of what I'm hearing: how many books their chtldren read vs. how many my kids read, at what age did their kids learn dlvlsion, etc. It ls a very tempting attitude to take up, and I have gained some very helpful ideas from such discussions, but ultimately basing your o\rrn feeling of worth on someone else's accomptshments is very slippery ground and forc.es you elther into running after the unreachable goal ofbeing better than any school situafion you might hear about or havlng to always find someone worse offthan your ldds in order foryou to feel good about what's happening. I thtnk I felt genulnely good about this year because I got a clearer idea ofour own goals as a famtly learning together. I saw real growth this year ln terms of these goals. Tom and I want our children to be self-directed
leamers, and we saw them solvlng problems creatively and making declsions for themselves based on careful consideration as well as feeling a sense ofJoy in discoveries they were making. We also want them to have those "basic" slidlls to be able to negotiate their way in the socletSr we now find ourselves in, and I saw progress in this area: Clare (8), for example, has gone from reading a ltunited number ofwords, and only when Tom and I suggested that she read aloud, to brtnging home great plles of easy readers from the
libr:ary and eagerly reading them dl herself. She ls even taldng some tentattve steps lnto the forrnldable wllderness of books wtth more prlnt and fewer plctures, If I compared her with her agemates, I rnfght be somewhat discouraged, but a comparison agalnst herself - what she could do last vear or even last month - shows phenomenai progrcss. There are a number of other goals for the chtldren that Tom and I are begfnnhg to lsolate, but I also felt good about the year because I had a clearer tdea of what my own role should be: not only advtslng them tn setttng thetr goals but also helplng them carry them out. Sometlmes thls meant dolng nothing at all, keeptng my hands offand my mouth closed; sometimes lt meant that I made sure there was space and tlme for them to work on what they planned for the week (l tried to avold those overscheduled weeks where too many classes or visitors or errandrunning trips, no matter how stimulafing each was individually, would leave us all feeling as if we had accomplished little by the end). But somedmes helping the children meet their goals meant that I reminded and even insisted that certafur things be done.
I had a signiflcant conversation with
(l ) one day last spring. Our congressman was sponsoring an essay contest that Emily had been very lnterested tur entering. The deadline was approaching and I thought she might have forgotten about it. I mentioned it to her and she replied somewhat impatiently that she didn't want to talk about it. I asked her lf thts meant either she didn't want to enter lt any more or she didn't want me to remind her, and she quietly replted, "No. It means I'm gotng to have a tough time starting out and I need you to push me to do it." This is my least favorite role, but it was a genuine request for help, so we dectded on a day she would begin, and on that afternoon I plumped up my patience, handed her pencll and paper, sald, "Begin'and then accepted no more excuses for delay. I was also willing to sit and let her bounce her ideas off me unfll she found a focus she was comfortable with. (She did, by the way, win the contest and will spend a week on Capitol Hill as a prize - a surprlse happy endingl) All in all, not errerJrthing went perfectly; there are sdll plenty of problems to be solved and areas for improvement, but I Glt last year there were far fewer episodes when the kids, whtny and teasing, seemed to wander Emily
aimlessly (a very different situation from the free-wheeling fooling around times we sUll had plenty o0 as well as fewer tlmes when I
felt I was fcrclng my own priorldes of what must be learned on the children because otherwlse they would be 'so far behind."
I think tt is tmportant that homeschooling parents make as clear to themselves as possible what basls they are uslng to evaluate how thlngs are going. Ifyou say that all you really want for your child ls that he be happy, but what you secretly want is that he graduate from Yale with honors at 16, you will always be disappointed with whatever happens in your homeschooling if tt does not move toward that goal. As Paul Krapfel said so well in GWS #57, whenyou gllve up the cutand-dried reliabtlity of glrades, you "begln experlenclng the ever-maddenlng, everdelightful lnteracdon between lnner standards and outer.performance.' This
applles not only to homeschoolhg chlldren but also to thelr parents, It ls lmportant, howerrer, to determlne what vour real standards are.
REPORTING TO SCHOOL Ftom the sclence sctlon oJ
he
report
thrrtBecky Rrtpp (Cl) sent to ler sclwl dtsHct odter tle tanfly's../trst year oJ otfrclal honescltmllng :
Theboys, Joshua (6), Ethan (5), and Caleb (3), make frequent trlps to thelr father Randy's laboratory, where they've been introduced to mlcroscopes, tlssue culture, incubators, autoclaves, pipettes, laboratory glassware, and the llke. We've taken them several times to the Californta Academy of Sciences. We're also collecting a substantial children's science library, now including the Brown Paper Schoolbooks, Nadtrewatcku Wlorirlg Nature Wtth Your Cfuldren, Sara Stein's Tlrc *ience B@k, nE Golden Tleasury oJ Natwal History, Weild. and. WonderJul Animols, tlre Audubrn Erlcgclopedia oJ Anbral LlJe, tlre Wonders oJ tle World sciencâ&#x201A;Ź serles, Charlie Brown's Super Book of
Questions and Answers, Scrlenceurorks, Fdunrks, *ierce Eryerbnents You Can FAt, The Yourtg *tertlst's Guide to tlp Stars ard Planets, Ttv Wag Thlrrgs Work, Ileld guides to trâ&#x201A;Źes, wlldflowers, blrds, and stars, and mtscellaneous shorter books on clouds, sound, tnsects, sea anlmals, dkrosaurs, machines, etc. Generally we simply try to follow/keep up wtth the children's scienUflc lnterests, which are leglon, Favored toplcs thls year have included: DINOSAURS. We've read and re-read a large number of dinosaur books; Josh sttll asks for dlnosaur books whenever we go to the hbrary he has cleaned them out). The boys harrc drawn dlnosaur puzzles, built a model Tlrannosaurus skeleton, drawn pictures of dlnosaurs using Ed Emberley's dinosaur drawtng book, and leamed a good deal about extlnctlon, cold vs. warm blooded anlmals, carnivores and herbivores, and
evolutlon. SEA ANIMAIS, The boys hanrc shown a contlnual tnterest in ocean life. WeVe taken them to Stetnhart Aquarium several tlmes and on many trips to the real ocean (lt's a thrill to llve so near it) to explore beaches, rocks, 6dal pools. We've read several books about the sea and tts inhabltants, and a tremendous hit last month was a real sea sponge, which Randy brought home for the boys to use in the bathtub. ASTRONOMY, A trip to the Planetarlum set olf lnterest in star-gazing. We've identlfied constellatlons, looked at the moon and Mars through blnoculars, read a number of
books about stars and planets, and puta star map above the boys'beds. The boys have made their own book of the solar system, wridng the names of each planet (Josh), maldng drawings of each planet (and posslble
lnhabttants), then topplng tt offwlth drawings of thetr own lmaginary planets,
NATURE. We take nature walks about once a week, usually on Sunday mornlngs
with Randy, idend$ring and dlscusslng what we see. The boys have made leafand rock (continued on page 27)
CROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59
27 collectlons, pressed flonrcrs, blrduratched, started an earthworm farm, kept brfef$) Ilr,ellles, caterptlLars, and salarnanders, dlscussed lttterlng, polluflon, and conserrratlon. WeVe taken a number of hlkes ln state parks, lncludtng tu,o trips to Mulr Woods. We've ldentllled plants and wlldflowers, acqutred a cactus and Venus flytrap, sprouted carrot tops and bean seeds, and read a number ofplant and gardenlng books. WeVe also ratsed erght baby chtcks and leamed about food chalns wLth Whot Arldtnols fut workbooks from The Nature Compa.ny. BIOITGY/CHEMSTRY. The boys are lnterested ln how thelr bodtes work, so weVe read a number of ktd-lerrel physlologr books. We've bullt a model human skeleton and started learnfng the names and functlons of the bones, have used a mlrror to look at our teeth, and the boys had x-rays shovm/ explained to them at the dentlst's olllcc. Sp-ecial favorltes harrc been books on discases (Gerrns Make Me S{clc, No Meosles, No Mumps Jor Me) and the boys lroeow about bacterla, vlruses, fungt, anflbodles, and the irnmune system. We\rc studled yeast ' seen pictures oftt buddtng, looked at tt under the rnlcroscope, trted growing lt at \arlous temperatures - and used lt to makebread and pretzels. We'rre also done many of the experlments from Vtclid Cobbs' *lence Eperiments You CanEal: made rock candy (sugarcrystals), shrdted pH uslngred cabbage, made carbon dto:dde gas wtth baldng soda and vlnegar, etc. Joshua enJoys PBS sclence programs and nrc'rrc repeated a number of expertments seen there, notably onJet propulslons and surface tenslon.
BAD TEST QUESTION Mory Allce KraE MN wfites: We parttcularly enJoyed the artlcle tn GWS #57 from Susan Rtchman on comparlng standardlzed tests., Ourdaughter Greta (6) took the flrst grade SRA test ln June. One of the readtng comprehenslon quesdons began wlth a brlef story about a boy who helps hrs nelghbor Mrs. Green by babysttttng her toddler whlle she goes shopplng. The toddler repeatedly gets lnto mlschtef and the boy, Btlly, ls rellerrcd when Mrs. Green returns. Gretawas asked to read thds and choose which statement best descrtbed the story. She chose 'Bllly helps Mrs. Green shop.' When asked, Greta explalned her answer: "Mrs. Green could never have gotten any shopping wtth that baby arcund. She would have thrown e\rcr5dhfng on the floor and made a blg mess ln the store. Bllly helped the mom shop by staytng home wtth the baby so she could go.'Sounds reasonable to me, but lt ls wrong. The correct answer ts, 'Btlly has
trouble babysttilng.' When will thls nonsense bc seen by
people for what lt really ls? I plan to do everythlng I can to s€e that Gr€ta ls ne\rcr subJected to thts again.
THINKING ABOUT REWARDS Ftom Valerb Vaughan ME): Whenerrcr I am scarchtng for a homeschoollng soluflon, I always ask, 'How does. thts relate to the real urorld?' Havtng read wlth lnterest "The Efrect of Rewards' (GWS
CROWING WTTHOI.n SCHOOLING #59
#56), I asked mysclf, -How are we reqnrded lrt 'real Me?' I harrc tdenttfled s€\reral types of non-materlal rewards and how they apply to chtldralstng/ homeschoollng: f) Flrst, there ls the reward of the goal met, the Job well done,'Cleantng the houee produced a clean house, carvtng bow and arrow pnoduces aarne, etc. No other reward ts nccesaary lf you really rvant the rcsult. 2) The reward of self respect: acknowledgement fiom others, whtch ls dllferent from prafse, and sclf-acknowledgement fYay, I drd rtl'). 3) The unexpected rcurard - many flmes ln real lfe I am surprlsed by a renrard that was not anttctpated before settlng out to do somethlng. I dupllcatc thls experlenc= for my son: sometlmes I wtll pay him qfter tleJdct for babysltttng, whlch ts somethlng he does often and volunteers for wlthout betng asked. Rarely do I say, 'I,fyou wtll babyslt, then I wtll pay you.' 4) The reward ofconfldence that I can do somethlng whtch mustbe done but lsn't necessarily somethlng I want to do. Thls rervards also tncludes avotdtng something negaflve. For e:<ample, my son 'has to' clean thC chtcken coop perlodically. It must be done to anold the smell and posslble dlsease' I rewad my son by potnttng out hls maturtty tn hls wtlltngness to do what must be done, desplte personal prcfer€ncts. 5) Sometlmes a reward for dotng somethlng ls rpre rcsponstbllttg. Often for ctrtldren thts ls a much destred reward. 'Slnce you harrc leamed how to read, nowyou can read to your brother,' or'Nowyou can sort the farntly rnatl.' I,ty son does not anallze ttrls as work vs. play, but as proof that he ts growtng uP - whlch I belleve
2+2+2+2+2+2. Then I had hlm tell me 2:<6, whtch he had already memorlzed. He saw tnstantly how much fasterwas the memorlzed fact than the uiork of addtng over and orrcr. Thafs the essence of multlpllcatlon It's faster than addlng, What gr€ater rcward for learnfng multlp[catlon? 'If you know this, thcn you can do tftat easler.' And that's the essenc= of learnlng the lntrlnstc rcward ls enough.
QUICK PUBLICITY IDEAS You mentloned ustng lfbrary dtsplay cases as a way to spread the word about home schooltng. Last Februar5r I put together a cl
whlch was on dlsplay in our pubhc library for a month. We tncluded books on homeschoollng, coptes of GWS, coples of our local newsletter, and coples ofthe legal statute and Oregon homeschoollng regplaflons, We also tncluded samples of our chlldren's work, and avartet5l of curriculum samples. We left a of lndex cards with contact names for tnterested tn pursufulg homeschoolfurg further. Another form of free advertislng ls the local 'Community Calendars' that most local newspapers and televlslon statlons llst as a public s€rvlce. we have gotten numerous oontacts thlsway. - l.aura htchard (OR) Susan Oates of North Carolina, who
r
a'fabrlcs by mall' home business, wrttes,'I'[ be more than happy to use as 'package stuffers'any GWS flyers you can
send me. I thfnk many of my customers would be tnterested.' Ifany others ofyou thtnkyou rrould be able to use GWS flyers , please let us know.
chlldren really deste.
6) Related to responslbtllty is the reward of greater lndependence or declsion'maklng: 'WLen you harrc learned to use and care for your hatchet, tlenyou may go lnto the woods and bulld that tree housc you want,' and'The reward for keeptng your room clean ls
flGflQPsoDusTs Much More Than Toys
another shelfor contalner to keep your ttrlngs ln, and gou get to plck tt out at the
. \\0Ril) s rl\EsT El)t1:\Tlo\$
store.'
.
Rewards are so easlly related to what
we're aheady doltg ln 'real ltfe,' I've never seen the need to 'dangle a carrot' in front of my son wlth toys, money or other thdngs rot dtrecdy rclated to the goal tn mtnd. Maybe some people are dllTerent and need that
.
BOOIiS
tTElrs t'0R
TOYS.
(;rll$, \\l)
l\It\TS TllROLl;tl Ttt\s R\t]ILI'N ,\\I) HI)II;TTI0\TL
CHILD TLSTEI) ToR DI
PL\l fAlL I . AtL t \(:o\l)lTlo\rltr (;t rR\\TEEI)
-9--0'l-l call or *rite fttr our free cdtdk)8 ('t0J) CO tlol.l() lre.. Littltton. \\'. Shepperd 56-r Dept.
lrit].
carrot to motlrrate themselves. Lucldly, my son ts qulte self-motlrrated already - was he born that uray or dtd I foster what ls ln eraery
human natunalf?
. Curriculum Outline
I suppose some people could malce a good
argument for money/materlal things as a viable reurard for dolng somethlng. Thetr logtc ls that the'real ntorld' rewards an adult
wlth a paycheck for worktng, Once I was
asked by an employer to llst what was most important at my Job. I llsted 'acknowledgement for Job well done' and 'good envlronment ln the workplace' over 'money and Job securlty.' Everyone's prtorltles are dilferent, but I thtnk problems arlse when rewards are arbttrary and not related to life values. I belterre that wtth homeschoollng we can change that Whenerrcr my son wonders aloud to me why he ls learntng somethlng, I take advantage of hts very human deslrc to have thlngs go qutckly and eastf. One day we were struggllng wtth mulupllcatlon and he asked why he had to memortze tables. I had htm add
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GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59
29
FOCUS: BREAKTNG THE SCHOOL MONOPOLY RETHINKING COMPULSORY SCHOOLING
that's wrong. Schooltng has become a mnrrcnlence, llke day care, and the demand
rcader Maxlne Ma&lllurag senl us anartlcle jomthe 5/5/87 Morfieal Gazette tn tuhlch Norznan Hertheg, a proJessor oJ adnlntsfal1rrn ard fiIcg shrdbs at McGlll Unhnrstty, lu:,as tXeruleud
SS: What about the clatm tbat soclety doesn't r.rant young people out there appren-
/SSJ
GI,IXS
brteJlg atlout lns recertt qrrcsttonhg oJ tle vtability oJ crrnpulsory schoolfrg ln Queb. Wand,rtg to lpar nore abut Frojessor Hencley's u:rlk atd, to discrlss the Issue wtth hi:m ln greater deptE I te@rwled hftn at his o;ffice at McGilL What Jdlou.ts is a banscrpt oJ our consersatlon-
Surannth Sheffcr: Can you summarlze for our readers what you said in the artlcle about compulsory schooling?
has lncreased down to the preschool.
uclng, gettfng hvolved tn things?
NII: I thlnk that's true. Whatwe hatre done ls lnsiltuflonallze and segment our ages. We don't want tlre old people either. S8: I was very lnterested to see ln the arttcle that you refute the idea that compulsory schoollng leads to a classless soclet5r.
NIf: The evldencc ls thatwhat the hldden currlculum does, through a varletSl of mechanisms, ts to stmply re-sort classes.
Norman Heachcy: I safd that the ortgtns of compulsory schoollng were basically to
protect chtldren from abuse - the abuse of ignorance, the abuse of vlce - and that as time went on thls became extended so that schooling became not only a servlcc betng offered but, tncreaslngly, the maJor route available for learntng, and then, ulumately, the only legttimate route, for most people. The consequence ofthls was that governments became more lnvolved - the whole ttrtng became modeled on the industrlal method of offering servlccs. The question becomes, now, should we not rethink the whole nodon? I see a couple of problems wtth compulsory schooling. First, it seems to me that we harrc slammed the doors on all the alternatlrrc routes to adulthood other than the secondaqr school. People who don't 0nd themselrrcs comfortable with tJrat partlcular approach to growtng up are dropouts, people forwhom spectal prograrns are desig;ned to help them come back in - but the whole notion ls that there's somethlng rvrong wtth them. I thtnk many of the reports from your countql and mtne about what's wrong wlth secondar5r educatlon have not patd sullclent attentlon to thts. It's not only a rnatter of tmproving the schools, it's a matter of provtdtng a number of other routes to adulthood. There used to be appren-
dceshlp programs, formal and lnformal learning servlces, opportunities to do public service other than the army - a whole vartet5l of things mtght be presented to young people. SSI: It seems that there's a ktnd of cultural short-term memory that prerrcnts
people from concelvlng of somethlng other than compulsory schooltng. What's your feeling about why there's often reslstance to the proposal that vrc loosen compulsory schooling requirements? NH: In Quebec the requirement ts very recent - lt goes back only to 1943 - and lt came after a very long debate, tnterestingly enough, about the degree to whtch the state has the right to tnterfere wlth the rlghts of par€nts. The arglument was that schooling, whlle tt was a good and valuable thlng, was not something that you should require. I thtnk that here the attitude now ls that we stmply assume lnstihrtional treatment for anythtng CROWING WTTHOI.,TT SCHOOLING #59
don't drag people screamtng for ten years into amuseum to make them cultured.
"We have slammed the doors on all the alternative routes to adulthood other than the secondary school... School has got the monopoly on learning... We have to rethink the basic structure."
Sometlmes tt does allow people to move from one cliass to another, tf they're talented, or their parents are shrewd, or they happen to line ln the rtght place. But in terms of the general structure, I thfnk tt simply rearrangles classes. I argue, for instance, the maln funcflon of I-a.un, tradidonally, was to sort students. Then Latln went lnto a decllne and we began to use mathemaflcs to sort students. In Canada, tncreastngly, lt's the French Immersion program. The problem I have wlth all this ts that, as I see it, the school has got the monopoly on learntng. SS: I don't know f thls ls as true ln Canada as lt ls here, but tn this country the beltef that compulsory schooling wtll provtde at least a chance at equality ts so bound up wtth the Amerlcan vlslon that it's dfiftcult to argue otherwise. NH: There's no doubt about that, and when Ivan Illich first came out with trts book Desclwllng fuiety, one of the critlclsms of tt was that even if hls ldeas were to be tmplemented, the rtch would still be able to take care of themselves whlle the poor would be llllterate. Thafs based of c.ourse on the assumpdon that people who don't go to
schml are going to be tlltterate.
What I'm advocatlng ts the openlng up of a serles of alternatlves for people. There's a whole set of services that are available -
health services, cultural servlces - but we
SSI: So do you suggest giving young people a cholc.e about whether or not to attend
tradittonal schools? NII: Yes, I think that one could lmagine, Ilrst of all, publtc schools ollering a variety of leamlng servic€s, some of whlch would be tn the model of the tradtttonal school, some of wh,lch would be more llke a free school, some of whlchwould be work-study, or
tutorlal programs.
SS: Wouldn't there then be a ranlidng of those cholces, so that tt would still seem best tf you got all your learntng ln school?
!tH: It would have to come from the marketplace. Ttrere would be people ftnding good ltves for themselves in society, coming from a variety of routes. Private schools and home schools have had to demonstrate this. SL9:
Who haveyou b€en saying these sorts
of things to? NII: Oh, not too many people. There's not too much responslveness. The reaction is kfurd of ltke a voyeurlsm, but as a serlous thfng tt makes people very an dous. We try to talk about thls sort of thlng ln courses in the unt\rcrstty here, because we try to getyoung people to see themselves as moving lnto a professlon of teachtng, in which they rntght not be classroom pracfltloners only, but also, as more and more of ouryoung people are dolng, urorklng ln buslness, language schools, cultural organlzadons. One of the concerns we have here ls that there's such an enormous budget fled up irt compulsory schooltng that there are very few resourlces for other thtngs. Simply pollucally, IVe been argulng, thafs going to
become bxcr€asingly unacceptable, there's gotng to be a demand for the allocation of funds to other areas. Before we do thatwe need to rethtnk the baslc stnrcture. SSI: Harrc
you taken any steps to work for
thts? NII: My argument ts basically in the area of pollcy maktng and plannrng, that if suppose we wish to move ln this direcuon by theyear 2OOO, now ls the tlme to start thfnldng about lt. lf you watt until the demands are pr€sslng lt wtll be too late - it wtll be done hurrtedly, tt will be done badly. It wtll take some tlrne to support other alternattrrcs, but I would llke to see some of the resources that will be freed up then reallocated into homeschooltng, lnto
voluntary' organizatlons. SSI:
a
Ltbrarles, too, are a gmd example of
public resource.
NII: Yes, serreral of the libraries here are doing very good work with computer literacy, for example, and are feeling kind of persecuted because there's no money and no protectlon, and tf budgets are cut they're the first ones to be cut.
30
Often, the best way to discover a nation's priorities is to look at its budgeting decisions. Henchey suggests that if we want to support non-compulsory educational institutions such as libraries and museums, we will have to reevaluate our financial priorities. A look at some of the budget allocations in the United States demonstrales that he is right Federal funds appropriated in 1986 to
libraries: museums: oublic schools: public
$96,406,000 $24,116,000 $7,500,000,000 (source: Appendix to the 1988 Budget of the US Government, 1986 statistics)
On the local level: Percentage of Boston, I\,fassachusetts city budget for 1988 going to oubliclibraries: l.4Vo
nublic
schools:
27Vo
goes.
NH: Yes, though if you find that all the school svstems ln Canada have been abolished lt inight be an exaggeration to say that I
did it.
MUSEUMS:
AN ALTERNATIVE
MODEL
Norman Henchey says that librarles are
one example of a public educatlonal resounce
that is non-compulsory and, consequently, not a ftnanclal prtority. Museums are another. Like ltbnaries, they don't compel people to use thelr servlces, don't requlne anything (except in some cases a small fee) for admlsslon, don't tell you that you have to view one exhibtt before another or spend a certain amount of time tn the building, and don't test you on what you learned while !'isi[ng or glve you any kind of c.ertlffcate when you leave. Unlike libraries, but like collcgcs and unlversities, museums comblne the research and acfivity of the behlnd-thescenes stalf with the teaching funcdon of the exhibits. For years, I thought that a museum was only what it showed to the public. Then when I worked at the American Museum of Natural History ln New York City during the summers I was 14 and 15, I discovered that ln addltlon to the publlc exhlbtts the museum, behtnd the closed doors oflts olfices and Laboratorles, was a world of sclentiffc acttvt$r. It was not just a place to exhtbtt science, lt was a place where many peoplewere doing sclence. In many ways, thts is also a descrlptlon of a unlversity. Universit5r professors traditionally combine thelr own research and writing wtth passing on to thelr students what they have learned. But schools Gst, grade, and grant degrees, thus putting the students - the university's visitors - lnto a
kind of relationship with the instltutlon that people in a museum never have to enter tnto.
stalf of the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphta, which exhtbtts litera4r archives, told me that when vlsltors use the museum's collection for thelr owrr research, they sometimes point out errors, make suggesdons, pass on new lnformatlon. This ldnd of exchange, though posstble ln a A woman on the
else.
Recently I became curious about whether
other museums stmggle for autonomy the uray the Museum of Philosophy had to. I spoke wtth Donna Richoux's husband Frank Ross at the Museum of Comparadve Tnolog tn Cambrtdge, Mass., who told me that because the Cambrtdge Publlc Schools fund many of the museum's exhibits, thelr sctence
curriculum is actually starting to determine much of the exhibits'content. The museum is forced to teach what the schools think is trnportant more often than what the museum scientlsts genutnely want to share with the
(source: City of Boston Budget Office) (contirued trom preulous page) SS: Well, let us know howyourwork
the college had - or strlved to have - what Norman Henchey calls a monopoly on learnlng, and the odstenc€ of a museum of phtlosophy, whose foundtreg purpose was to malre phtlosophy available to everyone, threatened that monopoly. More tmportant, the college was able to force the museum to leave. Ifure put all our resources lnto schools, It seems, we also put all our thtnking there, so that lt becomes hard - both in pracflcality and tn our lmagteadons - to have anything
university, ls rarer. Knowledge tn schools typlcally flows ln on$ one dlrecdon: from teacherto studenL Museums, then, are ltke schools ln some ways, but the ways tn whtch they are dlfferent gfrrc them the potentlal to be irnportant models for us as we thlnk about how people can find work worth dolng and colleagues to Joln them tn that work, The summer I uras l8 I was luclry enough to be pa.rt of an experlment tn formingJust such a model. I was a tourgulde at the Museum of Phllosophy tn New York, whlch, durlng its brlef season of operadon, tried to demonstrate phllosoptrtcal concepts and encourage pldlosophtcal trunnng through appealtng exhtbtts and lnteractlve expertments. CrounCs of chtldren passed through our tiny space that summer, laughtng at our opttcal llluslons, clamortng for a chance to recreate the wax-meltlng expedment that led the philosopher Rene Descartes to conclude, ,'I think, therefore I am,' and settling back tnto pr:zzled reflecdon at one of the guides' thought-provoldng questlons. Ttre founders of the museum dldn't set up the extribits only to attract lnterested vlsltors. They also hoped that by opening the museum they would be creating a place where people who uanted to dlscuss philosophy - to gather with others, to questlon and argue, to read and then talk about what they had read would be able to meet outs{de a unlversity,
where philosophy tradtttonally belonged. For a while, this isJust what happened. We gathered tn the small olflce - some of us as young as 14 and some as old as 65 - to talk about phllosophy, sometlmes contlnuing the conversatlons over dlnner or whlle keeprng an €ye on the young vtsttors the next day. Often, what we told the vlsltors during the tours was a reflecflon of the dlscusslons we rvere having behlnd the scenes. We would say about a pardcular odrtbtt, 'I would interpret It this way, butjustyesterday my colleaglre over here rvas saytng..." Our vlsitors got the sense that philosophy was an activity ongoing, Iluid, and excitlng. The museum closed at the end of that summerwhen the college that had gtven tt space for those months clalmed to be unable to do so any longer. It seems strange, perhaps, that the college wouldn't urant to make room for an organkadon that celebrated somethlng that they, h theory, also valued. But
publtc. Scott Lloyd at the Museum of Hologra-
phy (3-dtmenslonal photography) in New York Ctty said something similar. He
explalned that years ago the museum was very much a center of research, was in fact the only place where people were worklng to derrelop holographic technologr. Now, because the museum must concentrate on daneloping lts exhlbidons to get funding whtch often comes from the schools - less energr has been arrailable for the behtnd-the-
scenes acflvlty.
It's fmstratlng - and very significant that these small museums find themselves havtng to make so mErny concessions to the schools. Scott Lloyd told me that when holo-
graphy was flrst lnvented ln 1947, no one knew about lt exc.ept the people ln laboratories who were developing it. "The muserun has become a way of spreading informadon about holography,' he said, "We have no secrets." No secretsl Ifonly schools could have thts attitude, or support lt in museums. A frlend of mtne, now in graduate school, says that people ln her departrnent arc careful to keep from each other the ideas they are dweloplng. 'You don't talk about what you're thfnldng wtth people in your own department,' she tells me. 'You never know what they might do with it.'And I remember suggesdng to a professor who visited the Museum of Phtlosophy that by making philosophy seem exclting and accessible, we might be sendlng a more tnterested group of sfudents to hts college classes one day. 'Yes,'he sald, 'But I don't ltke all this talk about philosophy betng somethingyou can do anywhere. It kind of reduces the quality of it. People are forgetttng that philosophy is meant to be an
academlc dtscipltne.' And schools are forgetting that before they were unlversally compulsory, phllosophy, and aU the acuvities schools nowclaim as thelr own, were more like$ to be "done
anywhere.' Availability, accessibiLtSr, secretiveness - these seem to me to be the real lssues confronting both museums and schools. If we dectde that we don't want secrets, let's begln to put our energy, lntelligence and financial resources into educatlonal models that are as genutnely publlc as mus€ums ane destgned to be. - SusannahSheffer GROWINC WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59
31
HOW
LEARN
This section focuses on adults who have learned something new without going o school or found interesting work without school credentials. Several of the stories remind us ttrat aduls learn best when they are acting lil<z chil&en.
LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE
Aarcn Falbe,L uia recenilg spent close a Aear at tle Ftisrcole 7O h Dernlr.rk (tle Ng lllleskde oJ the flm'We Have to Cdll tt *h@l), wrote a}rlut tle ePedere oJ leanlng DontslL Tte Jdlou:ing ts ercetptd Jrom a lorger artfr;le: tD
Myth: lamguage learning is a unlque t5rpe ofexperienct that cannotbe regarded as archet5plcal of other sorts of learnlng sltuations. Thls ls because chlldren are somehow'geneflcally disposed- to language learning. It ls a speclal ability that thry lose as they grow older, as erridenced by the fact that chfldren leam languages much better and faster than adults. My own experiences tell me that tltis view is wrong. That ts not to say that I can prove it is wrong fieavtng aside for now the question of whether one can 'prorrc' anything). But I can say that there was a host of othei thtngs that I had to learn tn Denmark in addition to Dantsh, and that learntng Danish dldn't feel any dtlferent from, say, learningl to thlnk about prices in lrroner instead of dollars, learning to flnd my way around Copenhagen, learning to thtnk tn Celsius instead of ln Farenheit, learnfng various social customs of the Dantsh people, or even tr5rtng to make sense of the seemingly chaotic school envlronment. I did not keep a little book where I wrote dorvn newwords I learned, made no attemPt to read up on Danlsh grammar, dtd not carr5r around a pocket dlcuona4r, and trted hard (though not hard enough) to stay away from dictionaries altogether. What was left for me to do was to llsten very carefu$1, to concentrate very hard, and mostly to rrrlt let X btler ne tfiru.t I ddn't wderstand. nost oJ wtratu:as golng oru Thls capaci$r to be content with only a partial or mturlmal understandlng characterlzes mor€ or less the
weryday situadon of the small ctrtld. Adults are very quick to panlc as soon as there ts something they do not understand cpmpletely - they feel out of control, wlthout bearings, unable to proceed untll errcrythlng has been cleared up. And it is thls anxlous, panic-stricken state that ellecdvely slams the brakes on learnlng. When people ask me how tt ts that I leamed to speak and understand Danlsh in a relatively short period of time, I usually say that 'I was tn a gr€at learning environment' or that'the chtldren taught me.'But perhaps
these statements are misleadtng. None of the children took on the role of 'teacher.' No one gave me Danlsh lessons. One mightassume
that the chlldren helped me to learn by constantly correcttng my mistakes. But tn all the time I spent there, I cannot temembr one shgle hstance uhere theg drd thts - they simply nerrcr dld. And I must hanre made dozens of mlstakes. Occasionally, though rarely, some of the adults did correct me when I satd something so outrageously wrong that th€y felt theyJust had to. But most of the time I learned to speak by spealdng and to
understand by ltstening. GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59
Thg problem with the phrase 'how I learned to speak Danlsh' is that it implies that tt happened tn the past. But this is not so, for I am most dellnltely sttll learnfng Danlsh. I started spealidng Danlsh the moment I got ofrthe plane and have been golngever slnce. Ofcourse, when I first arrtved ln Denmark I could not spea.k very well. In facl I could not speak a single word of
Dantsh. When I llrst arrived, coil/ersaflon sounded [ke one endless stream ofsound. As for my own pronunclation, I had to try to get used to spealitng tn 'the back of my throat," as if I were swallowing half the sounds. As
Rasmus Hansen (one of the founders of the school) Joked wtth me at the beginning, 'Danish lsn't really a language, you know. It's actua$l a liind of throat disease.' Some sounds, like the famous 'soft d,' I couldn't figure out how to say at all. At lirst it sounded hke an'1.' Even today, I can hear tJlat my vowel sounds aren't exactly right, yet I don't knoqr how to make them sound 'more
Danlsh.' But over ttme thtngs somehow lmproved. I say'somehow'because I can't for the life of me tell you how tt happened. During my ftrst ureek or so ln Denmark, I was somewhat
consclous of the newwords I was learnfng. But as tlme woi€ on I was 'figuring out' less and less. Rather, I was Just absorbing'whole pattems of speech becaue theywere lmbedded in meaningful sltuatlons. Thus, like a oneyear-old, my Srst worrds and phrases were centered around food. Some chtldren helped me more than others slmply because they hung around me more than others. Nkre-year-old Erra was a btg help precisely because she could speak no Engltsh. And she was one of the few children who wasn't afrald of me tn the beginning, perhaps because she herself hadJust leamed Danish the prevlous year, havtngJust cpme from Sweden. She knew what I was golng through. T\ro boys sPent a good deal ofttme wlth me because they wanted to practlce thelr already excellent Engllsh. Both had learned
English wlthout any formal lnstructlon whatsoerrer, mostly from watching British and American TV shows. Christofler (l l) and I spent our Ume together readtng Danish chlldren's books. What I found particularly striktng was that his 'teaching method' precisely resembled that of Rasmus Hansen [SS: Which John Holt described in lrrstead oJ Muationl. That is to say, sometlmes I would read and Christoffer would say nothing undl he could tell that I was not sure of a word. Then, if I looked up at him or explicttly asked hdm for help, he would tell me the word. He would never use the teacherish ploy of telling me to "sound it out,' knowing full well that if I were able to sound it out, I would have done so already. Other tlmes I would ask Chrlstoffer to read and I would listen to htm, Just to get a feel for the flow of the language. Christoller had no stake in how much I learned or how fast. He qutte honestly didn't care. He was clontent to help me learn, not to make me learn. Such a difference makes all the difference. Likewise, I relied on Kim when I had quesdons regarding pronunciation. I soon realized that he gave excellent advic.e. It was
Ktm who ffnally taught me the trick wblch helped me @nquer the'soft d.' I would write down some words that caused me trouble on a plece of pa.per. Then I would ask him to pnonounce them slowly. F'tnally, I would try to say the words myself, and then togetherwe would try to debug rry pronunclation
problems. Wtth Eva the sltuatlon was still more fnformal. She was a marvelous teacher preclsely because she was not teaching. She was pla)dng and trying to lnvolve me in her fantasy play. She would not gtve up if she saw I was not understanding something. She would try again and agatn, or at times use stgn language or pantomtme to get her meaning across. Again, her business wasn't helping me to learn Danish, but playing. These were the circumstanc.es ln which I did most of my learning: I was trying to do somethtng that uuolr.red Danish. The amount of fime I spent tn leaming of a more dellberate nature, as with Christoffer and Klm, was very small. I read wtth Christolfer maybe four or five times, and wlth K1m, two or three tlmes. When playing with Eva or other children, I qutte literally could not Gel myself leamlng. Yet each month I dld become aware of the fact that my abilfty to communicate in and understand Danish was markedly better
than the month before. At the end of Februa4r, I told Eva that I would bake her a cake for her birthday as thanks for teaching me so much Danish. She looked at me rather q:Jzzlcally as if to say, 'Danlsh teacher? What on earth is he talking about?' I thtnk my remark made her feel guilty for r€ceiving a cake for something she dtdn't do. For the rest ofthe day, she ran around aslrtng me to narne obJects tn Danish, so as toJusdS in her own mind the gift of a btrthday cake that thts cmzy American was prepared to give her.
PLAYING AN INSTRUMENT lirom Maureen Chen o;f New York: No words can even begln to exPress mY rec.eMng Mrs. Stewofi's Piana upon Joy -Izssons larratl. here, $l2.OO + postl.ltwas the book I had been waiting for for 12 years. In
the summer of 19751was taldng an lntermedtate Chlnese oourse at Columbia Universit5r. One day for dlversion from the seerningly endless vocabular5r and transladon drills,
our lnstructor distributed song sheets cutaining Chinese chlldren's folk songs'
These song sheets used the same numeric
notadon as Mrs. Stewart, wlth the addition
of a few symbols, such as the repeat sign. The
lnstructor explained that along wittr other cultural r€forms such as the slmplified wrlting system, the Chlnese Communists had fuotroduced this new muslcal notadon because conventlonal western notadon was
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32 too dilllcult for children to leam. After explatntng thls, our lnstmctor, who had a wonderful sfurging voic€, started to stng. I, who was complete$ muslcally llltterate at the ttme, could not follow the words - the combinatlon of lyrtcs ln a dilferent language plus an unfamiliar music notadon uras too much for me to clpe with. So thanks to Mrs. Stewart, another gap tn my lorowledge has been filled. It truly is a great sense of rellef to finally understand something that has eluded me for so long. I started transcrtbing some of my favorlte piano plec€s lnto numerlc notaflon. Each time I transcrlbe a piece, I play tt l2-2O times ln different keys. After transcrtbtng a few pieces, I trted playtng from the ortgtnal music and found that my tenslon lwel suddenly shot up. The conventlonal notation suddenly became unfamiliar to me and my fingers turned stllTat the keys. So I dectded to follow the prec.edent set by the Chlnese and not play from conventional notaUon any more. So far I have transcribed some simple pieces. I have not had the time to do any research into the Chinese system, whlch ts probably better for me as the pieces get mor€ complex, I can think about how I want to notate the dtllicult parts. Thus, I can exerclse my intelligenc.e more rigorously than If I Just picked up a book and followed someone else's system.
I conclude from this experlence that there are two aspects to learning to play an instrument: l) learntng to read mustc, and 2) of maktng the leaming the actual instrument produce music. Convenflonal notaHon is like a forctgn language. I flnd that my progress in playing ts directly controlled by my ability to read muslc. Ftemorrc the necessity of learnfng to read muslc, and I can spend much more time and energr on actual playing. And by using numerlc notatlon, I am much more relaxed when I play. Ttre numbers are very frtendly and famtlfar to me. I thlnk that tf I were a homeschooltng chtld and had all the time ln the world to learn, I would leam the conventional systern, but betng an adult- who had ahready wasted too many years in uscless pursuits, I want to get as much out of my available learning time as possible.
[DtL I agree wholeheartedly that readtng written muslc, especially piano muslc which may call for many notes to be played at once, is dilficult and stressful. It was not untll I dweloped my own system of play'ng by ear inspired tnitlally by Hotu to Plog tlE Pla.no Desplte Years oJ Lessons - that I errer felt I could truly make muslc at the plano.l
WORK WITHOUT CREDENTIALS Allen Fatturin oJ New Yoik wrltes: I am one of the relatively Gw people ln my age range (late 4Os/early SO's) who harrc little formal schooltng and who have managed to make their way tn the rvorld wtth little or no dtfflculty despite havlng no academic credendals. I was out ofschool from the begtnning of the last half of slxth grade undl the begtnning of the last half of eighth grade. In trigh school, I rarely attended for a full flve day week, olfictal school records notrvithstanding. Durtng my pertod out of school, lf there was one thing I remember doing durtng all my awake hours ltwas learntng. I suppose I
was out of school before the tnnate abtltty and vital destre to leam that ts present ln all chtldren had been destroyed. Gradually the real nrorld, as lt began to make mor€ sense to me, became more and more lmportant and less fear-produclng, At the same tlme school, when I dtd rehrrn tn the elghth grade, became all but completely trrelerrant to me. Htgh school becameJust a place to go when, rarely, there was nothlng mor€ lrnportant to do out ln the real world. As an adolescent I was ofcourse subJected to the same pressures as e\r'eryone else to stay ln school, go to college and'succeedaccordtng to the commonly accepted l95o's definlflon ofsucccss. I have never been able to determlne how and why I was able to restst those pressures and not suffer some of the personally de{astating psychologfcal trauma thatothers ofthat perlod seem to harrc had to endure. I do know that no matter how hard everyone trted, nothtng worked on me once I saw for myself that school was not and cannot errer be the only place ln which learning happens and that'regular' teachers are not the only ones from whom one can
learn. We askedAllentotellus more
obut
uhether his lack oJ acarlemb crederrtlals ernr prevented htmfom dotrg sonleilnng le wantcd to do, and lant le bamed uhot le wantd.tokrow orttslde oJ schrcL He rcplied: I have my doubts about howmuch the world really evaluates people accordlng to their diplomas. That ts, the world may ask for evldence of a dlploma but does not necessarlbr erraluate people ln any ktnd of ongotrg sense accprdlngly. In all my years of w<rrklng, I cannot remember errer betng asked to show hour I learned somethlng, only that I know somethlng that ls useful to someone else. There ar€ certaln posltlons, entr5r to whlch may be dlllcult for someone wtth no credentlals, but then agatn ther€ are lots of posifions where thls ls not true, Just because 4certain area may be closed to me does not mean that all ls lost. There wlll ahvays be other areas tn whtch my track rectrd wlll speak more strongly than a dlploma, such that many people wtll look at that record and assume the dtploma, an assumption I nelther conflrm nor deny. I guess lt was because I realized
that
living without credentlals urould be sttclgr that I concentrated so hard on learnfng as muchas I could aboutas much as I could so as to harrc so much to olfer that rrry lack of credentlals would be all but moot. I flnd that most people stop learnlng, essendally, once they have obtatned the htghest lerrel credentials that they can. From that point onward, they sit back and [ve offthat credendal. Society rarely dernands any mor€ of them. If I don't continuously learn, on the other hand, I won't survirrc. I harrc nothing to sit back upon. I therefore spend little or no dme doing what most people urould c-onslder leisure. On the other hand, whenerrcr I harrc a nagging curiosity about somethlng, no matter how trivial, I immedtately stop to satisfy it and
mentally file away that btt of lnformaflon
for later recall.
For example, I recently found a canoe of a type I had been wanttng foryears and could alford. It ts an Old Town wtth squar€ stem and sponscons (flotadon tanks) on the sldes. Foryears I have bcen curlous about how the sponsoons are made and attached to the hull.
I got on the phone, called Old Town Canoe Co., and asked for arryone old enough to know what I needed to know. I have been known to
spend an entlre mornlng on the phone calling people undl I found the one person, posstbly ln the entlre U.S., who could tell me somettrlng aboutwtrlch I have been curlous. Provlng myself to otlrers is much more
dtlllcult than contlnuing to learn. For starters, I thfnk my lack of formal schmling worry about being ignorant of somethlng. School penallzes lidds for thelr mtstakes. I learn from them and do not put myself down or allow others to put me down for havlng made them. Because I long ago realtzed that my lack of credentials would cause people to deny me a chance to prove myself, I found that I had to dwelop my track record tn pdvate and prove myself to myself firsl In many lnstanc.es I would derrelop an lnterest ln something, learn the hell out of it, and then drop in on a bunch of people who had been dotng thts thing for years. I would knour as much as they knew and they would have no ldea ofhow I learned it. Ifl had trid to get tnto that same scene at the "entqr lerrel,'doors would have been slammed in my nerrer led me to
face.
There are ttmes when I have done things for no monetarlr rehrm for the sole purpose of leamlng something that I would never otherwlse have learned. This added to my tr:ack recrord. As I got older that record got longer and longer unfll now I am well beyond the potnt where people urould erren dare to ask me about my credentials. In fact, I am llnding
increastngly that my abilities with no credentlals are makfng people question the rralue of thelr own credentials. I have elected for the past thtrty-four yers to be selfemployed [SS: Allen runs a weaving milll whtch allows me to control my actlvities in a way that a'regular'Job might not. Learnlng for me did not bec.ome Just like breathtng - tt always was. What ltttle tlme I spent ln a classroom showed me that it was not a good place to learn. I know of no way that tt could be set up dilferently, despite clalms to the c.ontr:ary, to make lt function better. It cannot be a good place for leaming and strll be a classroom. What I had to leam was not to feel urorried because I was not leamtng ln a classroom. This ls @mmon to everyone who learns learns outside the usual channels.
SUCCESSFUL WITHOUT
DEGREES Itom an aftlcle tXled "Upuadly Moblle WltlautaDegree," lnThe Boston Globe, 9/ 1/ 87:
Elalne Miller is a member of a comparatirrcly unpubltcized class of succrssful professlonals ln Massachusetts: People who have succeeded without a college degree. Upon her graduatlon from high school, Miller won a scholarship to Boston Universit5r but did not go because she was unable to negotlate Itvlng and trarrcl e:rpenses. She is now the
partner for whom Mrs. Millefs mulllns, a new and burgeonlng chain of mulltn shops, is named. ...As Mtller sees
lt
what she is doing is
all part of a process: accrmplishlng professtonally by contlnuing her educaUon. The two go hand-tn-hand. Miller is pa.rt of a group that tncludes some of the most noted people ln Amerlca - President Harry S. Tfuman, GROWING WTIHOLN SCHOOLING #59
33
Mark T\ryaln, Robert Ftost, mystery wrlter P.D, James, destgner Ralph Lauren, edltor Helen Gurley Brown, Walt Dtsney, Lucllle Ball, Rod McKuen, Ellzabeth Arden, Sterrc Martln, alrltre magyrate Eddle Rlckenbacker, poltttcal cornmentator I.F. Stone, Buckmlnster Fuller, barltone Robert Merrtll, cosmetics enterpreneur Mary Kay Ash, actor Richald Thomas, author lpuls L'Amour, cartoonlst Charles ("Peanuts') Schultz, author Roger Tory Peterson and Hollywood executlve Barry Dlller. The group also tncludes a current presidentlal candldate, US Sen. Paul Slmon (D-IU). A.sked ln a telephone intervlew how the lack ofa degree alfected his lfe, Sen. Simon sald: "It has had no eflecL l\rc
received 28 honoraqr degr€es, wrttten I I books and been sent feelers about 25 tlmes to be presldent of a college or unlrrcrsl$r.' ...Educators and crltlcs are dtvtded on the beneflts of a degree, which, th.y say, doesn't necessarlly cerfl& educatlon. Some
critics say the contempor:ary emphasls on specillc careers and sldlls has derralued the degree to the point where
it has become
nothing more than a credentlal. Caroline Blrd, a Vassar graduate and author of "The Case Agatnst College,' says, "College is a crcdentlallng alfatr, Colleges select people who can write, thlnk and succeed to begin with. There's a theory that tf you took half the entertng class at Haruard, gave them the money for thelr educadon and told them to get lost, te 20years theywould be just as succrssful as the ones who stayed and graduated. There is no way to attrlbute what you've acoompllshed to college.' Bird argues that the college degree resembles a high school diploma tn that 'without a dtploma, people ln an upwardly mobile soclety can't be told apart by companies that rntght u,"ant to hire them. A company doesn't harrc to ask so many quesuons about you ifyou have a degree or a dlploma. The whole potnt ts that the degree doesn't do as much for the indMdual as it does for society."
PEN-PALS Chll&ca nntlng pcn-pelr should rwttc to thosc listed. To bc llstcd, send namc. agc, address,
and l-3 words on lntcFcsts
=:
Adam KOHLER (6)
HCR 32, Box 176, Kccnc NH O3431: mqglc, robots,
supcr-hcrocs === Adrlanne NEISON-CAVIGLIA (l l) 2OO-9rl Burnctt Avc, Mor;gan Hlll C.A 95O371 danclng, rock collccflrg. acflng =: FOWERS. Rt I Box l22l-A-8, Madtson VA 22727:Patty (V aft, ballct, Broqrrrlesi Xrtsttn (4) ballet, artwork, storybooks === WATI(JNS, HCO I Box 47F,29 Palms CA 92277: Brcnt (9) pcts. uEldng, readtrg; Davtd (8) building, horscs, karatc; Carl (5) pcts,\rrlttng,
=: SLY, Kcrnp Lakc Rd, RR #4, Sookc BC Canada VOS INO: An&,srr (lO) stampe. gmrrasdcs. magic; Mattherv (8) cvoludon. music, lego: Hcathcr
ADDITIONS TO DIRECTORY Here ls arc the addttlons and changcs to the Dtrcctory we havc recetvcd slncc thc last lssue. GWS *54 has the complcte Dtrectory, and #57 has a summary of thc addldons and changcs up to that dmc. Thc next complctc Dlrcctory wlll bc publtshed
tnGWS#60. Our Dlrcctory ts not a llst of all subscrtbcrs, but only of thosc ru,tw ask b be lrsbd, so that othcr
otlcr lnterested pcoplc. may gct ln touch wtth thcrn. tfyou would likc to bc lncludcd, plcasc scrrd thc cntry form or a 3:r5 card (onc farntly pcr card). Wc prlnt btttlryiears of chtldrcrr, not agcs. lf wc madc a mlstakc whcn convertlng your chlld's agc to btrthyear, please let us knor. Please tclt us tfyou would rathcr havc your phonc numbcr and tovn ltstcd tnstead of your malltqg addrcss. lf a fllrectory lls$ng ls followed by an (I{). thc famlly ls wtlllng to hoet GWS travelers who makc advancc arrang,cmcnts ln writlng, If a rramc ln a GWS story is followcd by an abbreviaflon tn parenthescs, that pcrson ls ln the Daectory {check herc ondrn #54, #57 and #58). Wc ale happy to fonvard mall to thos€ whos€ addregscs ar€ not ln thc Dlrectory. Mark thc outsrde of the envclopc wlth name/descripdon, lssue, and pagc number. If you don't mark the outside, we open the cnvelopc, scc that you want somcthing forwardcd. and thcn havc to readdress thc letter and use ourown postagc to mail it. When you send lrs an addrcss change for a subscription. plcasc remind us if you are in the Dircctory, so wc can chargc tt hcre. too. GWS readcrs. or
AL=: Davld & Bcllnda RICFIARDSON (Dardel/ 74, B,c.rrgam.lr: / 75, Bethany/79. Andrcw/8 l. Joshua/ 841 3208 Cotton St. Montgomerv 36llO
rll( === Tom & Sally McGUIRE (Becky/75, Rosic/77, Gabc /7g,Rafe/SllBox 918, llalncs 99827 (Hl
AZ *= Tom & Kcnly COOTIAN (Rachcl/69, Ellzabcth/7 I, Ruth/72) 6536 C.E. Calle La Paz, T\rcson 85715 (changc)
(l!
=== $t6v6
Er
J6an
I.{DIOURE (Dtllon/z9, Dustln/82) Bo< 4578, New Rlvcr Stage ll, Phocrrlx 85O29 ffi := Dcbblc YOUNG & Davtd TAFT Fatowa/8l, Drlsana/84} 233{, Mallard Ct, Gtlbcrt 85234 (I0 CA NORTII (Zps 94OO0 & up) === C. BAYAIIf,) & Laura POTTER (Wintcr/8f , Coopcr/83, Story/87) 5471 Bctty Ctncle, Ltvermorc 94550 === Jill & creg BOONE {CHsde/78, Paul/8O, Curus/8il} PEMNSUIA HOMESCHOOLERS, 2427 Grandby, San Jose 95130 (change; ===.lohn & Jennifer CRECHRIOU Uoshua/8 l, Kaltlin/8s) I 8 635 Gazclle-Callahan Rd, Gazcllc 96O34
(ltl
=== Sharon & Davld FREEMAN
(T$crl8{,, Brctt/86) Box 157, Truckce 95734 =--= Joc & Carol I{AMILTON (Joel/82) 2O79 Valparaiso Avc., Mcrrlo Park 94025 === Jill LITTIJWOOD & Jamcs KAHN (Laura/a3, Jordan/861 PO Box 79O, Columbia 9531O (chargc) (H) === Frcd & Bonnie SELIIiTROM lKnttrr / 76, Gary / 791 P. O. Box 282, Wilton 95693 =: Pam & Phil STEARNS (Joseph/ 79, Arrna/7O) 7162 Via Colina. SanJosc 95139 CA SOIIffi (ZtF to 9/[OOO) === Tom & Mary BURNETT {Lucas/76, Jacob/8o, J eremy / 7 8, Charles,/85) 8276 Denver St., Ventura 93OO4 -== Gaylc & Jtm GEER (Matthew/8o, Joirathan/84) 2O8lO Clrculo BaJo. Yorba Ltnda 92686 === HOME STUDY ALTERNATTVE SCHOOL, PO Box 10356, Newport Bcach 92658 === Susie KAUFMAN (Jarrctt kmon / a2\ 6914 Kester Avc, Apt. IO6, Vm Nuys 91405-3541 =: Kip & Cascy NULL (Jason/ 73. Mlchacl/75. Christopher/8O, Kiera/83) I 6562 Patrlcla l,atte. Huntington Bach 92647 -== PARENTS FOR HOME DEVEI.OPMENT, T848I Robcrts Rd. Rfvcrside 92504 === Karen RASKINYOUNG & Bill YOUNG Ueremy/84) 8106 Teesdale,
You Are The Best Teacher Your Child Will Ever Have!! Time spent with your.child can be the most precious time of all. Make these cherished moments even more meaningful by introducing your child to "Help!" Special Time -Together Series, the Educational Series for Preschoolers at Home, ages 2 to 5.
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building
(5) ballet, My Llttlc Ponlcs, gmnas6cs =: Corcy HOrcOMB-HOCKIN (6) E?OI2O Lkrcoln Rd, Ods Orchards'q/A 9OOrl7; Maclntosh computcr, gamcs, AIt === LCIgh PENNEBAI{ER (8) PC' BOX 16O, StAr MS 39167; art, ballct, rcadtr4g =- Rob CHURCHILL (l l) HC 60, Box 194O, Lakerrtew OR 97&90: readlrg & wrltlng fantasy === HOIGUE, 191135 l46th Avc SE, Rcnton WA 9805a: Elalrra (9) cats, stamps, Barble Dolls; Redora (6) dogs, gulnea ptgs, squtrrels === DITTBERIIER. Rt I Box 43, Parkcrs kalrtc MN 56361: Forest (A tr€chousca. vtoltn, lcgos; Sclena (5) legos, dolls, flowers =: Krlstt WILSTON (lO) 43Sil S 261 St, KcntWA9SOtl2: muslc, drawlng. rradtng
GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLINC #59
fl VfSt Send me Set I on a trial basis at the Postpaid lntroductory Price of$12.95. About every five weeks I will rcceive a new set for only $12.95 plus postage and handling. - VeSf Sendme the specialcollectiqrof Sets l-6atthe Postpaidlntroductoryprice of $69.95. !
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."*frpi?i,.,'[@ Depl.8GS, Box 250, Amhersl, NH 03031
34 No. Hollywood 91605 === SAN GABRIELVAII,gf HOMESCHOOI-ERS .f86 W Irroy Avc, Arcadte 9lOO6 =- Jonathan TIABOR [,ar'a/791 138{l Hclrx Vlcw flr, El CaJon 9:lO2O (changc) =: Mcrcdlth & Charles THOMAS (Kclly/8o, Danal84, Ernlly/86) 33175 Acapulco Dr, Dana Polnt 92629 === Bob & Dorma LJYENO (Stsrre/8o, Davld/86) 923 Orchld Way, Carlsbad g200g === Tony & Malgtc MOIA
(Justirr/ 73, Joshua / 7 5, J o*.ph/ 78, Jalmc/8O, Jenny /821 PO Box 1941, Hcspcrta 92345 === Pctcr & Mary WOIX 7OO E Oak St, OJal 99023-2855 (charlge) === cary & Sharon ZACTIARIAS (Jared/ 76,Jordan/a2) 1316o Olathc Rd, Applc Vallcy
923)8 {changc)
GO:=
Joc & Ltnda KONSIAIiZER (.tcnnrfcr/
74, Jessc/76. Mchssa/80, Jamle/8f) 844 6th St, Las Animas 81O54 CT === Thcrcsa & Dwliht NEEDEIS (fhea/a2, Corrie/85) l3l4 Chcshlre St, Cheshine O64lO (change) === Herrlck & Susan STICXNEY (John/7g) 63 Spindrlft l^anc, Guilford O6437 FL =: Gary & Lcslle COTTON {Analyssa/76, Gabriel/78, Jcnnal8l,Katye/ A2) I I 5O Old D{:dc
Huy. Tttusvlllc 32796 --= Antolie & Lury IGMZIO (Graham/8o, Dr€w/83, Clarrc/84| FO Box 294, Odcssa I<E'ILY 1Ma1al79) 4f 73 Grcen Acrcs Lanc,
JacksorMlle 32223
GA := ga61t g Bob MORRIS Meganl77, Rob / 79, Andrcw/44) 2l I Earlwood Dr., Dublln 3lo2l (Hl === Steve & Llnda RIGELL @lna/81, Josh/a4) MOUNTAIN HOMESCHOOLERS. Rt I Bo:r 1426. Clayton 3O525
g HI -= 361sy Paul KOEHLER @ttk/82, Megan/84, Evan/87) 95-7OG Holani St, Mililanl
96789 ID === Flck & Llsa THOMFOSON (John/7g, Jarnes/8l, Paul,/8{|, Ellzabcth,/8d f 575 East 34OO South, Wendcll 83t155
IL=== Tom &Wcnda BERRY (Oulnn/82.
Caltlln/8s) 2949 Wtllour Rd. Homarood 6(N3O:= Chuck & Nancy BIDSER (Scan l76,Mlllrdyl78, Tlacty/8r . Joyl8{t. Aaron/85) 21222 N l9 St,
Barrtngton 6OOIO (Hl =: Jcfr& June F'L,EMING (Justln/78, Jason/8o) 6 l.arch Dr, Olncy 62450 === John & Sue FOSS (Iarcd/79. Danc/$) 48/f8 Rt 2 South, Orcgon 6f
06l
=== Rctrccca&WcslcyFOX
lJqtilfcr / 7 4, Mark/75, Wcslcy/82, Jonathan/85) 3442 Wlnhaven Dr. Waukegan 60087-1405 (changc) === Karcl 6REENBERG & Gcorgc W|IJ.I,AMS (Gator/82) I lO5 Walkup, Carbondalc 629O1 :=Storcn & Laurlc SI\IAER Uenna/8i|, Nona/8fllO3o8 Washlngton. Oak Laurr 6(X53 lN := Thomas & Marlan BEVER (Mark/78,
Davtd/8U R. R l, Box354,Wlldnson46186(I4:= GREATER IAFAYETTE HOME EDUCATORS. 9iI6 N lgth St, LafaJrcttc 47904 (chanlgc) === Arur & Alan HUSIER (Argcla/8s) 123 Rockland Dr, W l-afa5rcttc 47906 G4 === INDIAIILA ASSOC;ATION OF H.ME EDUCATORS, PO Bon 50524, Indianapolis 4625O (change) := Daru &AI JENKINS (Angeltque/aS, Joshua/8? PO Box 4O571. Indtanapolts 46240 04 =- Pcnny MARSII & John KLYCE |Tedla2, John & Jctr/A4l 89lO Shelby St, hrdlanapolls 46227 := Nctl & Susan WETNTROB (Ellzebcth/81. Tcddy/8:)) 46O4 North Tlllotson Avc. Muncle 47304 := Mlchacl & Lcsllc WESTRUM (Madcltne/8O..larncs/ 81, Rcbekah/a5,Rachel I A7l Zlon Ftcc School. lnc. 16ol Fox Farm Rd, Warsaw 46580 IA -= Davld ROUIH, HOMESCAIOOLING MARXEIPTACE NEWSLETTER, R 2 Box ll, Fontancllc 50846 I(A === Clndy & Davld BRUBAKER (Ryan/76, Josh/78, Dcrek/80l 65Of Odcssa, Wldrlta 67226 KY:= Stcphcn ERlillN Patrlcta MITCHELLER\VIN (Stephcn/72, Bcnjamtn /73, B;rcrfranl 76, Ryan/82, Klcran/85f Routc I, Box I lO. Hazcl 42049 =: Marty & Jcan STOVALL (&ffcryl8l, Michacl/ 8{l) l4OO La Fontcnay Ct, Loulsvillc 40223 LA: Jcrry & Susan DAIILEM (7acharyl78,
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Jeestca/8O, Nathan/8l) Rt 2 Bo:< 688A, Many 7lM9 =- Lconard & Ellcn FONES (Eltzabcth/8l, Emlly/851 512 Evcr€ttc St, Ncw Ibcrla:= Sandra & Russcll RISSMAN (Tanya/73. Vranta/75, Russcll/76, Vcna/79, Wandra/8I, Stcfcn/84) 246f Huy 3O8. Thlbodaux 7O3Ol XE === Jarris & Wtlllam BRINTON {Marlah/ 8l, Gracc/85) RR I Box 4O5O, Mt. Vcmon O4352 =: LcSteT ROZINSKY & Binney BROCNETT (Chandra/83. Ncvln/861 RFD I Bo:< lO9O, Llmcrlck 04()48 (IO === Chrct)m & f,)waln SIMPSON (Mtchal/ 80. Jalmc/8!!,
UD:=
Jarret/85) R.R. l. Gorharn
O4O3a
Don &Jcan NORTHAM (Chris/76, Erlc 177. Jcfrrer!/8q f I 5O5 Cornwall Rd, Frtcndship 20758 (IIl === Pat WEBBINK (Andrew/84) CENIERING INSTITUIE, 6IO9 Broad St, Bcthesda 20816 EI) =- Iori YATES & Brad HOPKINS (Zakl 83, Skylcr/8s| Box 159, witman 21676 (Ill Ull === ABINGTON ACADEMY. 176 Matn St, Yarmouthport 02675 (chaqge) --= Frank & Jane BERIiIARDO (Lauren/78] PO Box 221, Wcstpod 02790 := Annc & Paul BONAPARTE-KROGH (Maryl8{1, Ikuc,/8s) Greenoug}r Hlll, Decrflcld 01342 === Geolge & Anne Marte INGLIS llan/77, Brlgtttc/8o, IttkelA2l 58 Bennett St, Brlghton @ 135 := Carole MIr r FR (ldam /731 I 7 Cottagc St #3. Saugus 01906 (change) === Phll MIrcHELL & Allda ROHR (Dakota/8t!) 34 coldsmlth St f2, Jamalca Plain O2l3O === John & Maryann PREVITI (Mcrccdes/74, Jllll 77, 7zn / 83) 388 Westminster Hlll Rd, F'ttchbury Of 42O === Jacqueline & Robert SEVERIM (Mtchael/75, Ctvisttn / 77, Aaron/8 l) Box r84 Htll Rd, A.shfteld Ol33O (H) === NancyWATSON (Enlly/82) 6 Marston Lane, South NaUck 01760 {changc) MI =: Mike BENhlETf. tos srd St. Ontonogan 49958-f gin (changc) === Edvnrd & Janet ROELLE
Matt/76, Jason/77, Ethan/8o)
93OO
Warw{ck Mcadorrs, Grand Blanc 48439-833a (dtange) := Ed & ShaTonVANOVEREN (&shua/ 79, Krfsd/82) l23l Correll N.W., Grand Rapids 495(X := Sterc & MarceyWALSiH (.Justtn/8l, Lcah/8tt) IO4OO Ellis Rd, Clarkston 48016 UN === Ibthy & Bob DOLEZ{L (Katrina/7s, Maryrosc/77, Thercsa/8O) Rt I Bo:r 381, Cambridge
(r0 UO := Dr & Mrs CUNMNGFIAM (Caleb & cofby/761 Rt 2 Bor( 127, Hannibal 63401-9519 (change) := Phtl & Collccn HENRY $tlolly/77, Grcrchcn/79, Forrcst/84) SPRINGFIELD AREA HOMESCHOOLERS, Rt I Box 193, FatrGrove 65&18 55OO8
(trl
NH
=:
Dale & Victd SMIT}I (Zach
rt /7t ,
Matthew/77, Nathan/8l) P.O. Box 478. West Osstp€c O389O-O478
NJ
-= Karot MENDE-FRJDKIS
& Larry
FRIDKIS (Katc/86) 4O Ltnderr In, Plainsboro 08536 === Doug & Mary SCHNORR {BccLy,/8I, Wtlly/8a) 32O Bcnson Pl., Wcstffeld O7O9O === James & Jacquelyn STEI'/ENS Otmothy/8l, Lrsa/85) 26f ltramllton Blvd, Plscataway O8854 Nf =: Gary & Karen WILLIS (John/8o) 3396 Solartdgc, Iqs Qruscs 88OOl
ilY === Marq' & Stevc GOLDFIII\{ (Laura,/82, Andr6r'/85) 34 Chcrry St. I^akc Placld 12946 -= Iktherlnc HOUK & S€th ROCKMULLER (Tahra/69, BcnJamln/79. Emlb,/82) l8 Washlnglon Ave, Chatham f2O37 (changc) === Q61dy & Maureen LEWIS (Scan/8l, Edc/a4) Kellcr USArmy Hepital. HSUD Adm|rr. Res.. West Polnt 10996- I 197 (changc) =: Llnda TAGLIAFERRO & Fred THORNER
(Eric/8I) 248-44
71362-1252
Thcbcs Ave. L;lttle Neck
Mary TROMBLEY -= Brucc &Nicolc/86) Matthcw/82, 37 N. Mlliam
(Donald/75, St., Llttle Falls 13365 (changc) (El NC := Nancy & Stcphen FOCKLINGTON (Alcthca,/83, Hannah/86) ClearWatcrFarm Rt I Box 667. Frankllnville 2724a(Hl =: Susan & Malcolm SCHAEFTER (Joscph/78, Franccs/8l. Emlly/84) 6521 Hlghwood Pl, Charlottc 2821O
GROWING WTIHOI..N SCHOOLINC #59
35
OH:= Mlchacl & Karqr DICK (Raymond/8{1, Willtarn/86) lr18O Watcrbury, Lakdood 44107 =Fred & Jermlfcr DOOI.$I [rcsslca/84) lol27 Russellvtllc Wtnchcstcr Rd.. Wtrdrcstcr 45697 (Ill =: Davtd & Nan ERBAUGH Qa&aryl77,Noohl 47 S. Maln St, Wcst Alcxandrla 45381 (dtaqgcl Edan/78, Datc/8O) f 344 T\rp. Rd. 523, Ashland 448OS (changcl := Stcvc & 821
=== Dorts XEEFER
Sydncy MATHTS (Bcntlcy/7o,
I^aurcn/al, Adam/a4,
Evan/85) IOOO Sprlngfcld Park, Wyomlng 45215 GI) === Ed & Mery PEIERSoN (Juha/8 r , EVsc/ 8:t)1428 Woodland Avc, Eau Clatrc 45701 (changc) OI( =: XIm & Sr.rzcttc rI*TFIELD (Collccrr,/7a, Ibthlccn/7g) 29irl N.W. 2o6th, Edmond 73034 (IIl
OR:=
Blll & Ftanccs CHURCHILL (Rob/75)
HC 60, Box 1940, Lakctdcw
9763O:= Davtd &
Marllyn FIALL Mlchacl/8o, Tcresa/a2, Petcr/85) WHOLE EARTH FARM SCHOOL, 3661 Scrnlrrolc Rd NE, Silverton 9738f (changc) =: Jill HUBRARD & Bfll GRIFFTTHS (EVan/8O, Morgan/a6) 246W. 27th Ave, Eugene 974OS m := MoI! MORETAND
(Nicholas/a3) lgll NE Thompson, Portland 97212 PA === Arrr & Chrls DAMS (Caltda/&3, Jordan/a6) RD I Box 241, Ncw Park f 7352 (IIl := Glenn & Ursula EBLING (Stcphanrc/8l, Dadd/a3, Ahren/85, Mcgarr/8? 282A D,ogwood In, RD # I , Chcster Sprlngs lt)425 === Jay & Suc GRANT (Stacy/7g, Jcaslca/a2, Rachcl/as) 2983 Habcrlcln Rd.. Glbsnta 15O44 =: Ron& BarbaraJOCKERS (Aaron/78, Davtd/6 1, Jonathan/84, sarah /86) PO Box 376, Recders 18:152 (II) := Pat$r & Jeff KAPIAN (Sarah/7g, Andrca/8f) 224 Foxcroft Rd, Bmomall f9oo8 (change) (El === Danlcl & Mary Jean McDONOUGH (Joscph/84, Grctchcrr/86)
1888 Brett lanc, Saltsbu5g l56al := Randall & Clarrc ROSENBAUM (Janc/al, Harurah/8:!, John./ 851 26dt Hqrr St., Harrfsburg l7l02 := R. Vcrnon & Suzanrre SCHUL'TZ (Matthcw/76. Stcphantc/79. Jcsslca/8l, Nathan/a3) RD l, Box 1615, F€lton
17322 TN === Tom & Maurccrr ADAI!{S (}Icather/86) 724 Grcymont Dr. Nashvlllc 37217 === Llrda
LM[{G HERIf,AGE ACADEMY: K-12 Tcach your
BJom/8O) Rt2 Box488A. Crcnt22932 YA:= Mark DUSSELL & Nancy HILDAHL (Scott/82) 32450 NE l36th, Duvdl 98Of g (dungc)
chrld at homc. f,XagnoeHcdly prcecrlbcd, sclflnstrucdqral, con6ruor.ra progr€s! crrrrlculurn, hglr adrtcrrcmcrrt rcgults, pcrmandlt rccords kcpt, dlploma lesued. lotr hrlffqr ratcs. LwING HERITAGE ACADEMY, Dcpt G. PO Box 61O589 D/FW Atrport T,( 75261 -0589.
Robtn & Davtd GUTERSON Oaybr/8l. Tlavts/ Hcrry/8s) l3@4 Vcnlc€ Coop, Balnbrldgc fsland 981lO := Davld & Ncrrc HOGUE 0vfyhg/ ?O,V alenc/ 72,Elalna/78. Rcdora/81) l9it35 l46th
=:
8:1.
Sandl & Marty HORNE
Avc SE, Rsrton 98O58
(E*/82,IKylc/851 2024-=NW 62nd St, Sbattlc 98107
wldopcd mom loobng for couplc/commurdty/slnglc
=: Jultc & Davld LLOYE, (Charltc/84) 414 Upland Rd, Bcllerruc 98OO4 (changc) WI := Don & Kathy XLEMP 0kts/73.
mom to shar€ rcf,lt/mortgagc. &lcndshtp and good food tn Florlda. Roec Santancllo, 3234 NaylorDr. Ft. Plcrcc F'L 34982.
(changc)
Suzannc/75, Dan/ 76.Davld / 79, Rlchard/8o) Routc l, lxonla 53OI|6 =: Darrld & Stcphanlc SORENSEN (Abraham/8o. lsaac/a:l, Ruth/82, Rachcl/84) Rt 2 Box 261, Colfax 54730 (Il) =: Chcrtc & Mart STOIBER (Gfngcr 175,1<ar](./781P'O. Box r3O4. Eagle Tootslc WEIER (Forcst/75,Hotlmrr Rlvcr 54521
-= Bluc/78, Wlntcr/8l) c/o 9utstorf. 519 Rtvcwtcw Dr, Manltou'oc 54220 (changel WY === Kathy & Coruad ZEITLER (Tilcta/7f . Ho[y/SO, Ssrah / 8ftl
an
E. 4 Sr, Grlcttc 82716
0ft
CANAI'A: ALTA === John & Lawrcen Af,IIf (Bcnjamfn/ 82, Nlcholas/a5) Box 6, Edson TOE OPO (Yonas/75, Damac/76' BC -= Mla JONGI,IND Dobcs/80, Brltta &Vanya/83) RR2 SouthvtcwRd' Porrcll RlvcrVSA4Z3 (changc) (H)
McGINNESS
Uohn/8I, Jamcs/85. Wlllam/84
5318 Redstart St, Houston 77o€,6:= Paul & Shart SAIZMAN trcggy/?6, tuA7n 1328 Bamard, Brownsvillc 78520 (ID =: Grcg & Vlch SCOTT (Mlchacl/77. Davld/8Ol 27O flucotc, Bcaumont 77702 lchatlgcl UT
:=
Torn & Yvorrnc DcVRIES (Justtn/80,
Jcsslca/82. Maty/8{)448 WtllowAvc, SaIt lrkc Ctty 44107 Vt =: Pcter & Dlanc IIAZARENKO (Damon/ 7? PO Box 95, N. Fcrrtsbuqg 05473 (II) =- Nancy & Mark FOTVIN (Danlcl/7s, Jessc/78, Rcnc/a0, Marcel/a2) Box 878 Roblllard Rd. Starnford 05352 =: Katrlna YURENM R.R.l. Box 95, Plalnllcld
o5667
VA:=
J
I
KC & Rlck DICIflVIAN {Autumn/77.
*.k | 79,lay:l 79. Arnbcr/82, Calcb/82, slcn:a/84) Rt Bo< 66D. Marshdl 221 I 5 (H) := OAI( MEADOW
SCHOOL, PO Box 712. Blacksbu5g 24060 (chaqge) === Llnda OZER, NORTH VA HOMESCHOOLERS NEWSLETTER. 2519 Buckclerv flr. Falls Church 22046 (changc) === Etlccn RAIAN Phtlltp/73) 22*| Chcstcrt@vr Dr, Vlcrrra 22180 ED === 9111 g Irc SCIIARF (Mlartjur | 72, I,ttkc | 79, Lyrtrr / A2l 2A32 Young Dr, Oakton22124 (change) =: XIP & Lnl SORENSEN 0(crk/60, Nlcholas/69, Wrntcr/78,
GROWINC WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #59
I
subJcct ordl. Catalog$f . H.S. GlcrurfXstrlbutors, 7251 Bass Hury. St. Cloud FL 32769.
Altcriaflves In Educadon is a comprehcrrsivc gulde to homcschooltng, altcrnattvc schools, Icarmg
coopcawc! arrd cxctrangcs, Waldorf schools, Montceaorl mcthod. apprcrrflccshtps. vocational schools, eltcf,nawc collqgca, morcl $5 (plus $1.25 postagel from Box lO8{1, Tonaskct \trA 98855. Free f6 pagc catalog. Butld )'our child thc bcst woodcn swlng/Playsystcm out/lndoors and savc 75%. New book tncludcs lnstrucgorts. plans, matcrtal llsts, sources. $15 (plus $l postagg ctc.) Anami Rrbltshtrg, PO Box
3517,Tvc:pinlfla5722. OTIIER IrCATIglilg; === Clarc HARNEr & Stanlslaw ICACZAIIY (Pawcl/84, Stcphanle/86) (Vanadlsv4a/6) I l3 3l Stockholm, Swedcn (changc) === Clnthla & Motohlko MAXI (lschh/a4, Naoml/ 861 l3 Naka-rnachl, Nlshto-shr, Alchi-kcn JaPan 445 Gl) =: Ntgcl & I4ynda NORTON (Isatah/8s) FO Box 6O7. C.olonla, YaP. FSM, WCI 9694{l -= Kathlccn REAGN{ & Chrls ROCHESTER (Kathcrltrrc.lA, Chrtstopher/86f Forctgn Scrvlcc Inst' Ftcld School, FFO Seatdc.9876l UaPanl (Itt === Chrbtrne WII,trARD (Serah/82) 5 Comrvall Avc. Ftnchlcy, London Ng Encland (chaqgc)
BDRRYMAN poscph/8l, Susan/84, Ma*/A7l 2846 Pcrnbrokc, Mernphls 38128 (II) === Sbrah & Gr€g HOYLE (Aysha/8d!, BcnJamtn/8s) 3049 E Sth Avc,
Ituoxvillc 37914 (Hl Tr := ShellyASHCROFI (Adam/76, cara,l7a, Roscne/e0, RJ/83) a4la Oak Post. San Arrtorrlo 78251-2323 (changef := Pat & Rlta BURNS (Chcnqr/8o, Dantcllc,/84) 6 Sw Rd, Randolph AF'B 78f 48 === Al & Chrlsflnc CRISPIN (itlbcrt/84, Alo<,/86) 38f 6 26th, hrbbock 794fO === Bob & Joan F'LECK (Jcsslca/77, Todd/8O) P.O. Box I l. Colleyvrllc 76034-00I I (change) (gl =: Jlrn & Lisa
Alpha Onrcga Currlcuhm, No crrrollmcrrt. Buy
3t LulrAtt trmllylrrntnS'coop.'
Couplc
lntcrcstcd ln formlqg famlly educaflonal co-op for
purpecs of cxchanglrrg acadcmlc cxpcrtlsc arrd life skills wlth childrcn. 3f 4-352'7345. TII{,A'S SCIENCE NOIEBOOK, a sclcncc lcarnir4 cxpcrlcnc= for chlldrcrr agcs 4-9. Thc book featurcs
hands-on purzlcs. gamcs and cxlrrlmcnts' so chlldrcn leam by dotrrg. Rccommcndcd by Schoot Llb'miry Jo.anal and ?tte
Anetuan AsseiallonJor
tte A&nncenent o.f *lenrr'. Mone5Dack guarantec. $10.95 pp. Scnd chccks to: Symbtosls Books' 8 Mtdhlll, Mlll vdlcy CA 94941. CHILDHOOD-Thc Waldorf Pcrspccttve. A Jor.rrnal
wtth qrrrtc'ulums for home study studcnts' a bndcf,gartcn program for thrcc to ffvc ycar olds,
WANT ADS Ratcs: 7Oc /word. $1 /word boldhcc. $5 mlnlmum. Plcasc tell thcsc folksyou saw thc ad ln GWS.
NAT{JRALPRODUSIB non
FAIIIIES. guilts.
F\.rtons, Baby Shocs, Doll-matdrg Suppllcs, Cotton Yarns, Soapo, Glfts. Catalog and Sarnplcs $1. CAIIOO COTTAGEFO Box 6O. MontvalcYA24l22'
and phtlooophy of chtld devclopmcnt. Pracucal actlvldcs c,cntcred around thc scasorts and fcstivals. Resorrrccs for art suppltcs, books, toys, ctc. $2O per year (4 lssucsl our $5 fot a samplc lssuc. NANCY ALDRICH. Rt 2, Box 2675G, Wcstford VT 05494. (rnore ads on ncxt pagcl
ENTRY FORM FOR DIRECTORY If vou would ltke to be tncluded tn the Dlrectory and have not yet told us, send ln this form, or use a postcard or 3x5 card (only one famtly per card). Adults: Organlzaflon (only lf address ls same as famlly);
Chtldren (Names/Blrthyears)
:
Address: Have been ln Directory before:
Yes
-
No
-
If thts ts address change, what utas Prcvlous state? Are you wtlltng to host traveling GWS readers who make advance arangements tn wrlflng?
Yes-No
-
36 Stnglc, Chrlsdan mom w/eon 14 yrs) dcelrce posltlon that mects finarrclal nccds and allowe mc to homcschml. Lovlng & crrcrgeilc. BA Math. Elem. Educ. Certlffcatc, Cournclor of Dcaf. ldeaa: opcradng placc for favcltng horncschoolcrr. alEfrEttng a femtly w/homeschootng, Opcr to othcr ldcas, Prcfcr lfvc-tn. Wtlllng to travel. Molly Morcland, PO Box 245. Monmout OR 97361.
Hcrc ar.c somc ways you can ffnd out thc lcgd gituauon ln your statc. l) Look up thc lawyoursclf. ln a pubhc tb,rary or law librar5l (courthousc, law school, etc.l Laws arc iredered; try'school attcrrdancc' or'cducaflorr, compulsory.- 18 statcs havc rcvlscd thct homc education laws slncc 1982 so dreck thc rccrcrrt statutc drangcs. We havc prlntcd or summarlzcd thcsc ncw laws ln our back lssucs. 2l A.sk thc statc departmcnt of cducatron for any laws or rqgulatlons pcrtaining to homcschooltng and/or starflng a prlvate school. In somc statcs (parttcularly CA, lL. IN, KYI there arc fcw rcguladons conccf,nlng prlvate schools ald so you can eall your home a school, lf you .rrie concerned about nevealing your namc and address to thc state.tnquile through a frlend. 9) Contact state or local homeschooling groutrs. Thfs list was last prtnted in GWS #54, and ts updated and sold separatcly for $2 as part ofor:r alomcschoolkrg Rcsource List.- Somc groups have preparcd handbooks orguidelines on lcgal matters. 4l Contact other familtcs ltstcd tn our Dircctory, Horvevcr, thcy may suggest you do somc of the abovc stcpo yourself. 5) In gencrd, lt ls not wtsc to start b5r asklrg your local school distrlct tlcy r.rsually don t lmow the law clthcr. Bettcr to gathcr thc facts ffrst on your orrn. - DR
RENEWALS At thc bottom ofthls pagc ls a form you can usc to reneil' your subscripdon. Pleasc help us by renewing early. How can you tcll whcn your subscrtpdon exptes? Look at thls sample label:
t2345 JIMAND MARYJOIJES 27 Or 0Q
PIAII\I\/IIIE
IIY
suc. But
rst
lfyc wcrc to rccctvc thclr r,crrwd bcforc
wc scnt our ffrlal account changcs to thc malllng housc (carly f,tccanbcrl. thcy world qlralfr for thc
hccbonuslssuc.
Rcocsral ratcs art thc eamc es fcnar eubacrlpdons: lN2O for 6 tesueg, tl96 for 12 tssucs. ti48 for 18 lssuca,
bccauac of a
cadr,
ltc
OI I I1
Pleasc - (f) Put ecparatc ltcrne ofbuslncls on Ecparatc shccts of paper. (2) Rrt yanr namc and addrcss at the top ofcach lcttcr. {3) tfyou ask
qu€dons, crrcbsc a rclf-addresscd stampcd crnrclopc. (4) Tcll us lf ltb OK to publtsh your lcttcr, and whcthcr to usc your name wtth thc storry. Wc cdlt lcttcrs for spacc and clarltSr.
SUBSCRIPTIONS Subocrlpflons rtart wlth the ncxt lssuc publtshcd. Our clrrftnt ratcs arc rt2o for 6lssucs, !i36 for 12 lssucs. $48 fc lSlsoucs. GWSts publlshcd cvcry othcr rnonth. A slnglc lssuc cuots $3.so. For all subs or ordcrs of GWS (not booksl, plcasc scnd chcck or monc5r ordcrs pa,yablc to
Gro.lfng Wl|lout *hmEng, Forclgn pallmcnts must bc clthcr rnonc5r ordcrs tn US funds or drccks drawn on US banks. Wc can't alford to accpt pcrsonal chccks on Canadlan accounts. evcrr lf thcy have 'LJS funds' wrlttcn on thcrn. Outslde of North Amcrlca. add $lO pcr year for alrmatl (othcrnrfsc, allow 2-3 months for surfacc matl).
Brcl l..ncr:
We strongly
urgeyou to gct thc
back lssuca of GWS, cspcctally lfyou plan to take
your chlldrcn out of school. Marry of the arflclcs arc as uscful ard lmportant as wherr thc1r werc prlntcd, and nrc do not plan to Epcat thc lnformadqt tn thcrn. All back lssucs arc kcpt ln prlnt. Our ratcs for back lssucs: arSr comblnadon of back lssucs. mallcd at onc flmc to onc address, cost tll pcr lssue, phrrs $2 pcr ordcr. For cxarnple, GWS # I -58 would cost $60. Thcse ratcs are for subscrlbcrs only non-subscrlbcf,E pa)r $3.5O pcr lssuc. Indcrto GWS #l-30: li2.5o: to *31-4O. tl: to #4f -5O, $f .5O. Spccral: all thrcc lndcxcs. $4.OO.Thcsc prlccs lncludc postaglc. Blndcrr arc avallablc wlth rods that hold GWS wlthout obscurlng any tcxt. Gold letters on corrcr, Bteder can hold cWS #l-24 ($lO) or l8 latcr tssucs ($9.501. Spcctal: Sblndcrswlth rods to hold GWS #l60. $26. Add UPS chargcs for dl brndcra (scc ccntcf,
clurgc ln addrcee maybc rcplaccd for
poct olflcc dcstroyr your mtsscd tseucs and clrargcc us a noHficadon fcc, so wc cant allord to rrplacc thcm wlthout clrargc Group Aubrcrlptlonr: all coplcs arc mailcd to onc addr6E. Plcasc paywtth ottc chccl. Hcrc arc the curr€ot group ratcE (lX mcans you get onc cory of cach lssuc. 2X mcens you gct 2 coplcE ofcadr lssuc. SJKmcans 3 cuptcs, ctc.) lN2
WHEN YOU WRITE US
HOW TO GET STARTED
T6MAINST
dqr. ThcJoncg'sub cxptreswlth lsluc *60, thc
t
I Ycar 2yrc. 6laa. l2lss,
rx D< 9( 4X o( o(
t20 t36 t4{r t6() s70 t?e
{36 $64 $so $rl2 $130 $r44
3
l8lss, ''r3. s48
$90 $126 $156 $180 $216 7& 8K ctc: $12 p€f,pcrsonpcrJrcar. Hcasc acrd lnr thc namcs and addrcss€ of membcrs of your group sub, so that wc can kecp ln toudr wlth thcrn. Thanks.
cwer,.rr-ooa"anrezzty.rohnHotL Edltor - Susannah Shcffcr Managfng Edltor - Patrlck Farcnga Contdbutlng Edltor - Dorrna Rlchoux Flttorlal Assbtant - Mary Mahcr Edltorld Consultant - Nancy Wallacc B@k & Subscrlpdon Managtr - DayFarcrrga Book Shlppcr/Rccclvcr - Pat Gould Holt Assoclatcs Board of fXrcctors: Patrtck Farcnga (Corporatc kcsldent), Mary Mahcr, Tom Mahcr. Dorura Rlchorx, Susannah
Shcffcr Advlsors to the Board: Stwc Rupprecht. Ma4l Van Doren, Nancy Wallacc Coowloht 1987 Holt Asdat6
=
I
o c
1
-o
pagcsl.
The numbcr that ts underltncd tn thc cxamplc tells the numbcr of thc ffnal lssue for thc subscrlp-
Ad&crr Chengcr: lfyou're montng, lct us know your nar addrcss as soon as posslblc. Plcasc cf,tclosc e
ttccnt
a F o z= o
@
=
labcl (or coply ofonel. Issucs rnlsscd
-1
SUBSCRIPTION AND RENEIITAL FORM Use this form to subscrlbc or rencw to GROWING WTHOUT SCHOOIING. For rcncwatrs. place thc labcl from a recent lssuc bclow. tf posslblc. lf not, pdnt thc fnfo. Cllp and scrrd wlth your chcck or moncy ordcr US funds, Or.you may now subecrlbe or renwb5rphorrc wlth Mastcrcard orVtsa; call 617-437-15a3.
ln
Thanks.
_
Ncw
subscrlpdon
_
Rcrrcual
Glft subscrlpdon to bc scrrt to namc shourn,
Account Number (for renewals): Name:
Expiration Codc (for rcnenrals): Address (Changcf ycs/nol
@!@ ooF i<o
o>= =ao
City, State, Zip:
l2lssucs,$36
6issucs,$2o GroupSub:
coPics
of
lssucs. $
-!F
_
lSlssucs,t!48
@o6
(scc chart)
It ls OK to scll my namc and addrcss to othcr organl.-tlons.
CROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #59