GROWIN G WITHOUT
S CHOOLING
60
WeVe used a lot of GWS space to redeflne learnlng, to take back from the schools the deflnltlon of ttrls acttvity so that when we talk about learnlng now' we mean somethlng very dlfferent from what the professtonal educators mean. Through the storles weVe told each other ln these pages' weVe come to see leaming as acuve, ongoing, and fluid. WeVe come to see it as something that people are good at and don't need to be made to do. - -where does thts redellnltton of learni:r$ leave teachlngf Is there a place for
Pat Montgomery wrltes about ffnding tcachers fn
thls lssuc's Focus,
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
@p.2-3 In Memodam: George Dennison Sub Drlve Update
Recent Publicity NEWS & REPORTS
p.4-5
North Carolina Abandons Tests Germany Family's kgal APPeal Trying Swedlsh Schools DISCUSSION: Frustrattons in Learning p.6-7 CHALLENGES & CONCERNS P' 8-lo School Klds & Homeschoolers,
Isolatlon, Dtsabled Chlld, Sibling Confllcts, Speech Dilllcultles ARG UMENTS AGAINST TESTING p. I l-12
WAT CHING CHILDREN LEARN p. L2-L4 Recordlng an Album, Handwrltlng, How We lrarn to Talk, Dolng What They Love
FOCUS: FINDING OUR TEACHERS p. l5-18
Thoughts from Mel Allen, Merrltt Clifton, Pat Montgomery, Jud Jerome. Jonathan Rowe and Nancy Wallace BOOK REVIEWS
p.Ie-22
1988 DIRECTORY & RESOURCE LIST: Familtes, p. 23-30; Teachers, Lawyers, School Districts, P. 3l; Professors, Resources' P. 32;
Correspondence Schools, HelPful Rlvate Schools, Homeschooling Organlzaflons, P' 33-34
teachers tn the ltfe of the self-dlrected learnef John Holt's "Notes for a Talk to Students' (see page 15) suggests that there ls. He says, "One mlght say that one of our important life tasks was to flnd our true teachers, to make our own untverstt5r.' By describing hls search for people from whom he thlnks he can learn something, John remlnds us that teaching, ln thls sense, is as much a part of human life as learnlng. We..flnd our teachers, we make our own unlverslty - John's verbs here are active ones with good reason. Pat Montgomery, writing one of the responses to John's'Notes'tn thts issue, says, "[Professionau teachers don't expect that other people wtll be able to determine what they need from them.' Professional teachers, tndeed, expect that theg will have to be the ones who determine what ought to be learned, and whether or not lt has been learned successfully. The nature of thelrJob demands this. They have to sssend.guess their students imagine their needs, rush to meet those needs. In John's universit5r, on the other hand, lt's the learners who decide whether another person has something to teach them. For this lssue of GWS, we asked several of John's frlends and colleagues to respond to hts "Notes' by describtng the ways ln wtrlch they have found teachers ln thetr ltve$. It's not surprislng that these responses took a personal form. when we talk about real teachers, we often mean people who have been tmportant to us ln many ways. Often, we don't even thlnk of them as teachers until long after our lnvolvement with them has ended, or changed form. In these response!, the wrlters were forced to articulate and make consclous aspects of a relatlonship that they may not have been aware of at the time. In doing so, they have helped us to redeflne teaching, to make tt, ltke learning, into somethlng acuve and ongolng. Many of the teachers these writers describe are si$niflcantly older or younger than they are themselves. They write about learning from an important older frlend as children, and learning from young chtldren as adults' With these stories, they remind us how limiting the age-segre$ation of our societlr can be.
when Merrltt clifton writes, "I recogntze my teachers when I flnd myself takfng to them tn my imaginatlon as well as ln actuallty," he sug$ests that teachJrs do not have to be aware that someone thinks of them that way. When they are aware of lt, though, there can beJust as much tn lt for them as there is for ihe learner. I can't remember who said, "We teach what we want to learn,' but tt's a wonderful way to describe the mutuality of the relationshlp between
teacher and learner. Ftee of all those worrles about what should be leamed and whether or not lt's been learned, a teacher ln John's university can enJoy the mutual tnterest and oqploratlon. So, of course, can a parent ln a homeschooling family, which ls whyJohn's metaphor has so much to say about how adults and children can live and work together. If each of us ls worklng to make our own unlversity, then we're all leirnlng from and teaching each other, often ln ways v/e don't recognize. You can't prevent teaching - ln this sense of people learnln$ from each other - any *or. ih"tt you can prevent learntng itself. This lssue of GWS focuses on flnding *.y of bringing thts thinking to our consclous understanding, teachers "J "ways the writers are talking about somethlng that weVe been but ln many addressing ln these pages all along. - Susannah Sheffer