GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING 63 In GWS #29, we publlshed excerpts from a paper that the theoretical physicist Davtd Deutsch had wrltten about how young people could learn physics by apprenticeship rather than by studylng lt in school. For thts lssue, we asked several GWS readers lnvolved ln other klnds of work to consider how the apprenticeship model might work ln thelr case, or how it had already worked tn thelr experlence. Our decislon to focus on those kinds of work - ln this case, mathematlcs, wrlting' medicine, archltecture, computer programming, and blologr - that seem less eastly adaptable to the apprenUceshtp model was a consclous one: we wanted to challenge ourselves and our readers to thtnk in new ways, to realtze Just how broad the appllcation of thls model can be.
A child dolr4 what mathematiclans do - no0ctng patterrls. Mathematlcs ls one klnd of work dlscusscd in this ls.sue's Focus on the apprenticeship model, L9-22,
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: OFFICENEWS p.2 NEWS &REPORTS p.3-a
NEW HOMESCHOOLERS p.5 CFIALLENGES & CONCERNS p.6-9 Feeling Isolated, Dllllcult Child, Don't Knock Teachers, Patronizlng Adults, Culture's Emphasis on Children's Frtends
DEALINGWITH OFFICIALS p. lo-12 RESOURCES & RECOMMENDA-
TIONS p. 12
David Deutsch descrtbed the apprenttceshlp sltuatlon as an opportuntty for a young peron to 'partictpate ln the physlcs culture'; ln other words, to do what phystclsts do, to ltsten to thetr talk, to begln to understand thelr way of thinktng. Stmtliarly, Flank Smlth, tn his book Insulttolntelligence [avail. here, 18.95 + post.], wrltes thatwhatyoung people need is a chance to belong to varlous clubs - the spoken language club, the ltterary club, the physlcs club, and so on. Smlth's clubs are not excluslve; they're slmply the group, or the culture, of people who do a parttcular thlng. Adults who talk to bables, who respond attentlvely to their flrst sounds, who demonstrate ln countless ways that speech ls meaningful, are gtvlng babtes a hearty welcome lnto the spoken language club. Ltkewlse, adults who gtve chlldren access to the 'communit5l of practttloners,' as Aaron Falbel calls it later tn thls lssue, of whatever lt ts they do - math, physlcs, carpentqr' anything - are saylng, 'This ls what we do, and tf you want to do lt too we wlll give you whatever help you ask for.' The fact that apprentlces have a chance to seewhat older people do is significant, even leaving aslde for a moment the question of thetr acUve partlctpatlon in that work. J.H. van den Berg, in The Changing Nqfitre of Man[also avatlable here, 5.5O + post.l, wrltes about "t]re xrvtstbtllty of adult life.'Young people ln our soclety often have very little sense of what there ls to do, what club they might want to belong
THOUGHTS ABOUT MATH p. 13-14
to.
FOCUS: THE APPRENTICESHIP MODEL p. 19-22 How apprenttceshtp can work ln math, medicine, wrtting, computer program-
slzes that ln any work, the young apprenttce "should be truly productlve from the beginning. He should be worlidng on real problems and not on invented exercises with no purpose other than 'education.''
ming, architecture and biologr
A
CRITICAL I,OOK
AT
LEARNING
DISABILITIES: INTERMEW WITH GERALD COLES p.23-25 THE USE OF RITALIN IN SCHOOI-S p.25-26
OLDER HOMESCHOOLERS p. 26-27
CHILDREN IN THE WORKPLACE p.27-24 WATCHING CHILDREN LEARN p.29-32 Stories Help Problems, The Need for Privary, Unafraid of Mistakes ADDffiONS TO DIRECTORY p.32-35
But of course, getting to help is also important. Deutsch empha-
Worktng on these real problems, and learning from the feedback that the work itself provides, is a kind of education for which there ls no
substltute. As Jonathan Rowe makes clear later tn this issue, one can also apprentlce onself to books, or to people who are unaware that they are being thought of as a mentor. Certain books, and certain lrtnds of sltuailons, can glve young people the feeltng of being part of a communlt5r of practitioners even if this ts not directly and immediately the case. Though weVe focused tn this issue on how apprentlceshlps can work in lields which we usually think of as suited only to the school model, this is not meant to tmply that lt ls never appropdate to go to school to learn more about these klnds of work. We're trylng to show that one doesn't have to go to school by default, out of the feeling that "math (or whatever) has to be learned that way." In fact, people who know that it's possible to learn math ln all sorts of ways will likely choose school only when there's somethin$ very specific that they want from that erperience, something that they think ls best gotten that way. Perhaps this knowledge on the part of young people, this feeling of the range of choices, will be, if nothlng else, what succeeds in changing the schools. - Susannah Sheffer
2
OFFICE NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS to Gl[ll *61€() is also available for $2 tncludlng postage, thanks to the volunteer efforts of Peggr Roberts. Pat, Day and Lauren Farenga went to the Nattonal Coalition of Altemadve Communit5r Schools conference at The Farm ln Tennessee, where Pat spoke about
Our subscrlption figures were up to 4780 when we malled GWS #62, the htghest that number's been ire a whlle. Welcome to our new subscrlbers, and thanks to all of you who showyour support by renewlng.
The l98a lrrge-Ty1rc Dlrcctory ls now avallable for $5, lncludtng postage. Thts Dlrectory contalns the same ltsttngs as GWS #6O, but the type is much larger so browslng through lt ls easler. The lnder
Homeschoollng as School Reform. I taped a radio show about youth sullrage with Ian Hunter, who produces the HeardButNot Seen show for the Canadlan Broadcasflng
Company. The show will have already afred by the ttrne you read thts, but I wanted to let our Canadian readers know tlrat Ian Hunter seems to be a real ally, someone whose work ls well worth suppordng. Also, at just about the tlme you'll be reading this issue, I'll be on a lOday trip speaktng to homeschoolers tn Seattle, Spokane, and Victorla, British
Columbla. I'm looking forward to meethg many ofour readers there, and expect to
write more about the trtp for the next issue ofGWS. - SS
Many people assume that Holt Associates is a non-proflt organlzatlon, but we're not. We've been for-prollt since John Holt incorporated Holt Assoclates as a private educational consulUng firm tn l97O ("for proftt' is the technical term - lt doesn't mean weVe all been gettlng richl) ln 1977, whenJohn founded GWS, we supported ourselves through hts lecture fees, book royaltles, our mall-order book business, generous voluntecr help, and GWS subscrlptions. As our overhead costs lncreased, however, John's lecture fees decreased (his btg paying audience, the college circult, wasn't tnterested in homeschoolln$, and we had to start loolidng for otherways to make ends meet. Now, in 1988, we also want to thlnk ln terms of our
long-term stabf[ty and growth. We want to be sure that we wlll be able to condnue our current work, as well as develop new proJects and reach out to new audiences. Several years ago we explored the
possibftty of creating a non-profft organlzation called Frlends of Homeschooltng as a way to accept tax-deductlble contribuflons and then use them to support our work. But we were later advised that tt would probably be illegal, in ltght of our tax laws, to transfer funds from a non-prollt organlzation to a for-profit group whose purposes were so simllar. We were also advtsed that it would be dlfflcult to t4l to change our edstlng org€rnizauon into one with non-profit status. We reallzed, too, that by not acceptlng government funding we could pursue
lndependent research and reach crltical concluslons free from any pressure to adhere to erdsttng go\rernment pollcles (or the bellefs of a slngle benefactor, should one come forth). So we dectded tt would be best to remain as we are, which allows us to preserve our autonomy but requires us to forego some of the advantages, like cheaperpostage rates, taxbreaks, and the abiltty to accept tax-deductible contribu-
tions, that non-proftt status would bring. Over the years we've let you know of ways that you can support our work (the most slmple of which are subscriblng to GWS and patronizing John Holt's Book and Muslc Store), and we have always been grateful to you. NowweVe come up with three ways (descrtbed tn the form below) for people who have the resources to do this to gtve our work substantial support. We plan to lnvest these contributlons (and we're in the process of investigating socially-responsible ways to do thls) to begtn to establish a basis for our longterm health and secud$r. We also want to emphasize that we always appr€ciate the smaller donations whlch several of you make from time to ttme, and which go lnto a fund that allows people who would not otherwlse be able to allord GWS t: becpme subscrlbers. It's OK to photocopy this form or wrlte the tnformatlon on a separate sheet - we don't want you to have to cut up your lssue ofGWS.
YES, I would IIke to contribute to the long-term growth of Holt Associates and its work. Please make me a: PHIIANTIIROPIST/LIFETIUE SITBSCRIBER. I enclose a pa)ment of $IOOO, and understand that I wtll recetue GWS for my lifctlmc (or as long as GWS ls published) and my chloce of any-foruof the publlcaflorrs listed below (circle cholces). BENEFA9IIOR. I cnclosc a pa3mcnt of $5OO, forwhlch I w|ll receive a S-year subscdption to GWS _ (addcd on to my current subscription) and my choice of any tlwee of the publlcatiore listcd below (circle choices). PATRON. I enclose a payment of $lOO, for whlch I wtll receive a one-yer subscription to GWS (or oneycar extenslon to extstlng subscrlption) and my cholce ofany two of the publicatlons listed below (clrcle choices), Name:
Complete Address:
I would/would not (circle one) likc my name to be listed once a year in GWS In acknowledgment of my
gift
Choose from thesc publications: Escape From Chlldhood. Instead of Educatlon, Never Too I2te, Frecdom md Beyond, Evcryone Is Ablc, Homeshooling in the Nws, Responding to Chlldren's Writing, Mathplots, Should I Teach My Kids at Homc?, Who Does What When (See our catalog for descrlptions of thesc
OUR BACK ISS UES In GWS #6O, we satd that the cost of reprintlng back issues of GWS had increased signiffcantly, and we appealed to readers for thoughts about whether you wanted the back lssues to remain available, and whether you would be wllllng to pay a htgher price for them. The response was overwhelrningly ln favor of finding some way to keep the back issues in print, and several ofyou sald that you would pay a htgher prlce and enc€urage others to do the same. One response, from Vicki Scott
(TE, sums up this vlew: 'I feel, as you do and John Holt did, that the back issues are essential to presenting a complete and yet growing anthologr of unschooling-related readlng and analysis. Therefore, I think you should deffnitely contlnue to oller them,
increasing the costs as needed. I myself own all the back issues. Originally, I ordered them with my support group, using its money. Once I began reading them, however, I realized I couldn't bear to part with them, so I bought them myself. I do encourage others I meet and introduce to GWS to buy the back lssues, but they need convincing, Often, frightened by the cost, they wlll be very hesltant, and prefer to borrow mine. Nevertheless, I think it wlse for you to malntain a stock of these back issues and to promote them within the curent lssue by htghlightlng specillc lssues. Even ifevery support group and library bought a set and the amount of lndividuals who got them lessened, there would still be a good market for them." We hope Vickl ls right, and that
groups will declde to keep back issues of GWS among the materlals they make available to new homeschoolers. We make a point of including the issue number in references to earlier letters or writers throughout each current issue so that new subscribers, in parbcular, can tum to these back issues to involve themselves in the ongoing discussion. We've decided to raise our prices to $2 per issue plus the usual $2 per order. We will also ofter a complete set of back issues - however many that is at the time - for only $lOO, instead of the $125 or so that it would be ifwe added up the issues at the individual rates. We hope this wlll encourage people to order the complete sets, and at the same time enable us to contlnue to offer them. These prices will take effect on September lst, so you have until then to order back issues at the old rates: $ I per issue plus $2 per order CROW1NG WITHOUT SCHOOLINC #63
NEWS & REPORTS helpful to write into the law requirements
TESTING IN WEST VIRGINIA In GWS #57, we prlntedpattoJtle
neu West Vwtda laus whir'h tcp'k etfect last Julg. The lN, requlres lamesclwlers to take an awuual statdardlzed test, afunlnlsterrd at tlv tnal pudlc schml or by a Ltcensed psgcholqlst or soreorle auttarlzzd bg tle test publtsher or ctnuttg srytetutendertLChlHren utth composlte
tle 4oth percentlle are rqulrd to take part h a remedtal prcgrat& and. { theg Joil to score abrp tle 4oth percenfrle qabv homeschcollrtg rru,st b dtsconltutd- Honleschooler Marg Elen Sullfuan rww rttrltes: scrnes belout
For those ofus who did not want to send our ctrildren to the school for an
an:dety-productng test that would determlne our future tn homeschooling, three optlons rematned. We tried the flrst one ofthese, but no one could flnd a s5rmpatheflc psychologisl One psychologlst who was contacted said he would admlnlster the tests at a charge of $75 per hour, and that hts secretary would actually do the testtng. I trled to work on the testing comPanles, the next optlon. It seems none of them really say who ts quallfied to admlnlster thelr tests. McCraw-Hlll, who publlshes the Comprehensive Test of Baslc Sliiills that the schools here use, flatly refused to state who they consldered qualilled. I wrote to the Oflce of Measurement at the Universit5r of Ftttsburgh, where I once worked admlnlsterlng tests. They agreed that the test publlshers don t speclry who may gtve the tests, although The Psychologlcal Corporadon {Stanford Achlerrement Test) does have nrles governlng the purchase oftests. The wonxrn who wrote to me noted that classroom teachers often administer these tests wtth no speclal tralning and that my experlence in proctortng and my Master's degree tn educatlonal research would certalnly qualS me. But thls was Just her
oplnlon.
So, we were left wtth the flnal optlon, "a person authorlzed by the county board
or supertntendent," After all thts work, we
were .g3ln left at the mercy of the often
antagonlsdc school authorltlesl In our count5r, we weFe able to deal agreeably wtth the superlntendent. TWo parents attended a one-day workshop on admtntstertng tests. The superlntendent acc.epted proof of their compledon of this class as guitable qualillcaflon for them, and my letter from the OffIe of Measure-
rnent senred to quall$ me. We tested each
other's chtldren and several others, The testssrere ordered and scorcd by theWest Vlrghfa A.ssoclatlon of Chrtstlan Schools, a reputable organlzaflon operated by a former state superintendent of schools. We haven't recelved the scores yet, but andety has dlsslpated some. It ls dtsheartentng that tlre new law we worked so hard to pass Last year ts still not the answer, as some homeschoolers wlll beJust as open to harrassment by local school authorltles as they were before. Ttrls probably means we go back to the capttol again next wlnter. It mfght be GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #53
for betng qualffied to adrninlster the test, tf thts would not be too restrictlve. It seerns a precrdent needs to be established, and the test publlshers (CTBS, at least) are unwilllng to do thls.
HOW TESTING WAS OPPOSBD IN NC In GWS #6O, we reprlnted an artble Jrom the FallTest Examiner (N Box 1272, Haruard $rnre Stafiorl Cambrldge MA 02238) abut the North Cataltna leglsla' th:e decislon to dtscontfuue Jundlng Jor the Califomto Achiersement Test Jor Jbst
and
second graders, and
lnfact to ban tle
prttcllrrrse of all rann rctererced nruultiple' chotce tests Jor tJwse grades. In tle latest lssue oJ tle FailTest Examtner, Page Mccullough oJ the Adanttc Center Jor Research In Ed:rrcatlor- tlv gtoup tltot organlzd, the oppostTlon to tlrds testblg In North Catdtno" lu.dtes abut ltow the grcup achletted thls utctory:
The North Carolha campaign to stop norm referenced standardized testhg in the first and second girades began five years ago when the state's General Assembly voted to start usfurg the Callfornia Achievement Test (CAI) in the early grades. ACRE opposed the use of the tests
for many reasons: normed group achievement tests have low rellability and cpntent validity for young chlldren; the scores provided little useful informadon to teachers; the currlculum was becomlng 'test-drlven'; and too much time was spent on tesung. Our work to repeal thls mandate has been as much a state of mtnd as any set of techntques. We knew we were ln for a long battle because many pollticlans and parents want accountabilfty and they see these tests as a good way to get lt. The new testlng program also enJoyed the fervent support of the Govemor and State Super-
lntendent of Public Instructlon. In such an unfrtendly atmosphere,
ACRE began the campatgn by researchtng
the lssue, monltorlng relevant boards,
educattngl parents and teachers, introduc-
lng ourselves and our posltlon to the legtslature, building a consdtuency, trafnhg cltlzens to lobby and "walting for
daylight."
... When the legtsl,ature was ln sesslon, we monitored relevant commlttec meetings and made our position known.
Not more than a dozen leglslators supported us at first, but we learned how the General Assembly worked and we became
famtliar
faces. ACRE educated parents and teachers about the lssue whenerter we could. We held
workshops and publlshed ardcles about the issue ln our newsletter. We created our own "Parent and Citlzen Test Revlew Commlsslon,' wtrich publclzed our posidon. With these efforts, we bullt a small group of dedicated teachers who were wllllng to learn to lobby. In 1987, a member of the North Carollna Associatlon for the Education of Young Children persuaded a respected and popular leglslator, who had young chlldren, to turtroduce a btll to stop testlng
altoAether in flrst and sec.ond grades. By this-time we had a different govemor, who was not lnterested tn the lssue, and legislators were beginning to hear complaints about the time testing was taking and the stress lt was causing young
children.
ACRE and the NCAEYC's Years of organiz:rrg paid offas teachers testified before legislative cornrnittees and our phone trees went lnto high gear. ACRE presented our position paper, signed by many elementar5l teachers. Our most persuasive arguments were that young children:rre poor test takers, so the results are not reltable, and that the test ignored very important goals of our currlculum whlch cannot be tested with paper and pencil tests. The unanlmous vote for the bill in the Senate represented a major change in perspectlve by lawmakers. However, the bill stalled tn the House when opposition from the state suPerintendent and the former govemor surfaced. Our leglslative allles then attached a provision to the educadon approprlaflons bill ellmlnatlng the requir,ement for testing, and thls provision was enacted into law. ... Our campaign suffered from the usual lack of tlme and money. Slx years is a long tlme to sustain a volunteer group and we are no match for the personnel at the disposal of the bureaucracy and the test companles. Our work also suffers from a lack of parental supporL whlch ls a serlous flaw. Parents have every right to
know about their child's Progress ln
school, and we have not done a goodJob of
olfering alternadves to the lousy measures now being used. [SS: Perhaps some knowledge of the alternative methods of erraluatlon that homeschoolers use and have succeeded in making part of their legally available cholces would be helpful here. It would be hterestlng to see homeschoolers Joinlng with other groups on the testin! issue.l Our strengfhs in this campaign tecluded an astonlshlngly perststent gpoup of volunteers who became increas-
ingly skilled rn lobbytng
ire
a timely
manner. We did our homework and knew a varte$r of arguments to use and with whom to use them. We were pragmaUc and non-pardsan and tn the end had voters from the Black Caucus, [beral Democrats, and consenratlve Republicans. F'lnally, we owe a great deal to three experienced women lawmakers who were wtlling to work hard and trade chips for t}is lssue. Our concluslon ls that a successful campalgn must be prepared for a protracted battle, organlze a coalltion that
can derrelop stgnillcant publtc support from crlflcal sectors, dlltgently monltor relevant state bodles, ftnd the persuaslve arguments and evldence to lnfluenc.e decision-makers, and locate legislators dltfng to take the lssue as thelr own. GROWING WITHoUT SCHOOLING #63, Vol. I I No. 3. ISSN #0745-5305. Pr:blished bi-monthly
by Holt Associal@,729 Boylston St, Boston MA O2f f 6. $2olyr. Datc oflssuc, June l. 1988. Second-class postage pa.id at Boston M,{POSTMAS'TER: Send address changes to GWS, 729 Boylston St, Boston MA 02l f6.
4
CHARGES AGAINST TEST COM. PANIES Also.from tlre FatlTest Examiner: Charges ofconsumer fraud have been
filed ln all flfty states against four major K-12 test manufacturers by Dr. John Jacob Cannell of West Virginias Frlends for Education. Cannell charged ttrat tJle tests a.ne a fraud because thelr results show that all states, 9096 ofthe natlon's school dtstrlcts, and 7A96 of all elementary students score above average. The allegedly fraudulent tests are the Callfornta Achlevement Test" the Comprehenslve Test of Basic Skills, the Stanford and Metropolitan Achievement Tests, the Iowa Tests of Basic Sktlls, and Science Research Assoclates' SFIA e:<am. Cannell is demandlng that test publlshers ident$ school distrtcts that use their tests, update the norms without charge, and make clompensauon for misrepresentations.
WHY TEXTBOOKS ARE FLAWED The March 1988 Alaska Home Learners Gazette rcprlnted an orticle that had oppearedJlrst irr tle 7/ 1/86 HartJord (C?) Courant ard. then In tle Wo'sillo (AK) Valley Sun: Researchers say clumsy, unclear
$rridng ln schoolbooks is prerralent from all maJor schoolbook publtshers ln all
subJects for all grades, and the bottom line
is few chtldren are moflvated to read them, a publtshed report satd. Schoolbooks are cmclal to the educaflon of Anrerlcan chlldren [GWS note: Really?|, but there ls evidence that they are serlously flawed, The average chrld wtll read about one hundred schoolbooks, whtch cost a total ofabout $2,OOO, by the end of turclfth grade. P. Kenneth Komosld, execuflve dinector of the Educatlon Products Informatlon Exchange Insfitute, a schoolbook consultlng company, calls schoolbooks'medtocre products lncapable of contributlng very much to the achlevement of exc.ellence ln education." Arthur Woodward, a schoolbook expert at the Untrrcrsity of Rochester, says most schoolbooks are so flawed that'I don't see how children can learn anything from them." Some executlves ln the $1.4-blllton-ayear schoolbook publlshlng buslness do not vlgorously defend thelr books, and a few agree wlth some of the cdtlctsm. InteMews wlth researchers and publlshers tndlcate four maJor reasons why the schoolbook marketplace encourages poor v/rtdng and deters good wrtting. These are: - Publlshers and textbook wrlters prepare thelr books accordlng to 'readabillty formulas.' These formulas are mathematlcal equauons based on a vade$r of thlngs lncludtng vocabular5r and sentence length, and are supposed to make books easler for children to understand. But researchers say rellance on the
formulas makes schoolbook wriHng artless and more dtlftcult to read. - Schoolbooks are often quicklY wrltten or rervrltten to obtaln new copyright dates whtch school olllclals demand. Ttre schools look at new coPy-
rtght dates as proofthat books are up to date, but thls dmeltness puts publtshers
undera pressurâ&#x201A;Ź thatoften leads to sloppy
wrltlng.
- Mrny schoolbooks are assembled by editors from bits and pleces written by teams of 2O-2OO people, rather than written by authors. - Few schoolbooks are written by professional wrlters. Many of the writers are former teachers, moonlighflng teachers or publishtng house editorlal employees.
SCHOOL IN FRANCE Julie Stiller, urho is llDW irt
Flantr'e,
writes:
I amAmerlcan, my husband is French, and the chtldren (2 and 4) have Itved only in Amerlca until now Slnce we're livlng in the middle of the countryslde now, a bit out of theway, we declded to send Pascal to the closest village (pop. 4OO) preschool so hls French would lmprove at a faster pace, so he would meet some frlends, and to g[ve the chtldren a break from each other slnce they are always squabbling. Well, school ls school no matter where you are. I spent one mornlng there, and when I asked Pascal what he was doing, he explained and said, 'I do tt that way because that's what the teacher wants." In other words, there was no
lntrlnslc motivation comPelllng him
to
do thls work. Some of his other comments were, 'I hate rules,' "If I go to school long enough, perhaps I can become more vlolent, llke the others," and 'I satd yes to the teacher, but I really meant no." He made another lnteresdng comment one day. The teacher had told his father ttrat he was good tn math, and we told hlmwhat she had satd. He asked, "But how does she know I'm good in math? We nszer do any math at school." At school they had been worlidng on sets in an abstract and out of context (wlth daily Me, that ts) way, whlle at home Pascal has been adding and subtractlng coins, stones, etc. He also does a lot of measurtng' This
he conslders 'real' math. We will probably condnue with hts school Just unfll Easter vacaflon, sincre lt really ts helptng his French quite a lot and tJlen take him out. These days, Pascal is asking for arcrything - piano lessons, readlng lessons, wrestllng lessons, gardenlng lessons. I am often overwhelmed, not knowtng where to start. It ts doubly hard tn a forelgn countqr slnce I have to devlse all my own matertals in Engltsh.
Often I feel tnadequate. Yet he learns, and Just as often I am surprtsed by how much he knows or has llgured out from my meager efforts.
STATE NEWS For addresses oJ lrcal organ%atlons, see GIVS #ffi or our homeschrcAng resource llst, at:allablc Jor $2, Colorado: Senate Bill 56, whlch we wrote about ln OWS #62, passed out of both houses of the legtslature and became law on lVlay loth, accordlng to Tlghe Yovanoff of the COI.ORADO HOME EDUCATORS'
ASSOCIATION. The law will take effect ln July of thls year.
We don't have the full text of the law at press ttme, but CHEA tells us tl at tt requlres parents to not$ school dlstdcts of thetr lntent to homeschool, rather than to seek permlssion. The House added several amendments, tJre most stgnificant ofwhich are: (l) a relatlve designated by the parent or guardian is an acreptable lnstructor for the home-based educadon program; (2) standardized testlng, ushg the same test as the local publtc school, is requtred for grades 3, 5, 7, 9 and I l; (3) parents must glve these test results to the local school or a prlvate or pa.rochial school, and students' composlte scores must be above the l3th percendle to be able to continue homeschoollng, but students whose s@res are lower than this may retake the test or choose another from a llst ofapproved tests. The law doesn't give any restriction about who may admlnister the tests. North Dalota: In GWS #60, we said that the Attornâ&#x201A;Źy General had formed a task force to study how the present compulsory schoollng law affects nonapproved private educatlon, lncludtng homeschooltng, Many recent court cases challenging the state's requirement that homeschoollng parents hold teachlng
certficates led to the formaflon of this
task force, which c.onslsted only of professlonals chosen by the Department of Edu-
cation. Acc.ording to the January-March lssue of The Home *hml Court Repoft the task force came up wtth several alter-
natlve quallffcations for homeschool
teachers, one of whlch was a Bachelor's degree. The task force presented these
proposals to the legislature ln the form of House Btll 1523, which was then defeated by one vote, The task forc.e's flndtegs may sttll allect the state Supreme Court's decisions ln several of the pending court cases, hovrever.
Pcnneylvrnle: PAFIENT EDUCATORS OF PENNSYLVANTA" the state's lobbylng group, wtll hold (will have held, by the tlme you get thts lssue) lts fourth
annual leg;lsladve breakfast tn Harrlsburg on May l8th. Parents and chtldren will speak on behalf of House Btll 1364' whtch is current$ ln the process of being amended and renamed as part of an "omrdbus' blll (a combtnation of several bills). kaders of PEP are watting to see whether the amendments wtll make the new bill more or less favorable for homeschoollng.
CALENDAR Auorst 12-14. 1988: Fourth Annual Clonlara Home-Based Educaflon Program
conference in Ann Arbor, Mchigan. For lnformadon: Call the Clonlara olfice,
313-769-4515. Auorst 17-19: Nattonal Conference to
Aboltsh Corporal Puntshment tn Schools, at the Hyatt Regency ln Chlcago. For_ lnformadon: January H. Scott, Conference Coordlnator, Naflonal Commlttee for Preventlon of Chtld Abuse, 332 S. Mtclrtgan, Sutte95O, Chlcago IL6O6O4; 312-663-
3520. We are happy to
run announc'ements
of maJor homeschoollng and related
errents, but we need plenty of noUce. Deadltne for GWS #64 (events in September or later) ls 7 / lO. Deadltne for GWS #65 (events te November or later) ts 9/lO.
GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #63
THOUGHTS FOR NEW HOMESCHOOLERS TRUST YOURSELVES Rosemary Hoh (Isolated in Po,rtu'
gal,'
GWS #57) wrttes:
It,is nearly the end of our first year of homeschooling our six-year-old daughter. Although we faced two matn problems at the outset - our lsolatlon in Portugal, with no contact with other homeschoolers, and a great deal ofantagonism from the Americans that we had found here - these problems worked themselves out. It has been an excttlngyearl Our two supporter have been GWS and my sister, who is also a homeschooler, ln Arizona. 'Are we cmzJl enough to do it next year?" we are often asked, You betl In fact, we'd be craz5r not to, We have learned alongside Dorothea, ocploring areas we had a spark of lnterest tn way back when but somehow nwer really had a chance to get lnto when we wer€ in school. Rlght now we are all leamlng to do calligraphy and hoping our garden will produce huge watermelons. Some advice for homeschoolers just starting out: 1. Draw upon other people and thelr variety of interests. They can teach more than books can. 2. Ifyou feel you need a prepared currlculum, buy one, but don't feel bound by tt; instead, expand on it. We used Calvert although we reallze now it was unneoessary. We wanted to prove to others (rnayte to ourselves as well) that our daughterwas bekrg educated. We didn't use the curriculum that much, and a lot of the workbooks are unopened. Instead we read extensively (I read aloud since Dorothea doesn't read herself yet), cooked, worked outside and played. Dorothea's father is determined to lntroduce her to computers (l am illtterate ln thts area) and they do thfuegs on the computer together. 3. From time to tlme you may hear'I am bored" or "There's nothing to do.' At these dmes I recommend one thlng: keep the televlsion off. The tlme will quickly
pass and your child will ffnd somethlng
interestlng to do. 4. Realize there will always be people who will hold dfflering views on what educaUon ls; it is not up to you to change
their minds.
5. Above all, trust your child and trust yourself. Life ts the very best teacher.
SINGLE PARENT flom Verortque Ldhfurte oJ MaryIand:
After two years of homeschooling, my daughter (9) has recovered from heryear and a half in public school. She reads, writes and draws voluminously (and above'grade lwel"). My son (6) ls learning according to his own time-table. He does complicated math problems mentally because he is s'tll perplexed by the arbitrariness of 6, 9, p, b, d, etc. Whlle I am well aware of his brightness and skills, I am sure the schools would not be. As a single parent, I looked forward to the time when mv children would reach school age so I could get aiob and become financially secure. When that time came I GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
lsallzsd I could not commit my children to the publlc schools'attitudes and envlronment. Instead, we began talidng care of a six-month-old baby girl. In the year and a half she was with us, we learned more than any number of years in school could teach. She became a slster to my children. They took such good care ofher, physi-
cally and emotionally, that they still
suffer over her having moved slx months ago. I know she and her family wtll always be in our llves. I feel grateful to live in an area where
many homeschooling families are avallable for support. Fortunately, nlnety perc€nt of my conccrns are "old tapes" playing from my school experience. The remalning ten percent I chalk up to ltfe, which is never perfect. But wtth our family, friends, and your line magazine, we've definitely taken a step ln the right direction.
FROM SCHOOL TO HOME. SCHOOLING Janice hindle wrote in tle April {ssue oJ Vemant's karning at Home newsletter: On homeschooling a child who's already been to school - we antlcipated problems, but they never materialized. In retrospect, here's what I think helped: We let our daughter (then 7 and lrr her second year at a prlvate school) know that we wer€ explorlng many optlons for the coming year. Of course, this didn't c.ome out of the blue, because we'd all had problems wlth school from the start, and even though she ltked, or thought she ltked, her school she was often unhappy there. We let her participate in our erplonatlons, whlch included a vlsit to another school. butwe made lt clear that while her thoughts and feelings were important to us, it was our decislon, since as her parents lt was our Job to look after her best
interests. I don't belleve ln burdenlng young chlldren with the responslbility of maldng tmportant declslons (and they know this is lmportant, however reversible the declslon may be). I felt a lot of relief on her part, after months of tension, once we stopped asking, 'What do you want? What do you think is your problem with _ school?' and instead began
saylng, "We knowyou're unhappy and we're going to help you." In short, let t}le
young child know that you're taklng charge to protect him or her (not officlously, of coursel) Before we made the decision. we
vistted another homeschoollng farnily
with a girl the same a€ie as ours. They were wonderful, lnteresdng, and supportive. Just meeting nice'normal- people dotng this 'strange' thing was all it took to convince m5r daughter (and husbandl) that homeschoo[ng was a reasonable option. I suspect that the longer a socially-oriented chtld (like my daughter) spends ln school, the longer the perhaps subconscious
impression that school - no matter how unpleasant - is normal, lasts. The only way you can challenge that tdea without arousing antagonism and insecurlty is by making hends who don't fit the conventional school pattern. Most children, ltke most grownups, want to feel that they fit into some lidnd of community, I believe. So it's worth seeking out other homeschoolers fuJorehard. ln a social context, to give the child a posidve idea of homeschoolers before he or she has to start thinldng, "Hey, I'm a homeschoooler whatever that is. Sounds weird." If your child is a good reader, I would encourage hlm or her to read GWS, Nanry Wallace's BetterThan School etc. We all tend to accept, as part of life, what we see in prlnt. I personally would not announce, "We're going to homeschool this year," without havtng thought through Just how we would do that. The younger the child, I thlnk, the more concrete an lmage ls needed of what homeschoollng will be Itke. I'm convlnced we had an easler flme because, even before we said we would homeschool, we were (unintentionally) painting a rosy picture with conversation about things wewould do if we homeschooled - speciffcally, sports and social actlvities that were previously out of the question when we were on a school schedule. We also talked about what our daily routlne mtght be like, In other words, we weren't comparing a known, school, with a total unknown, homeschool. Also, knowing that we had approval from the state rnay have helped lnvest us
with the authority our daughter associated with "real" teachers.
clor;,Lo.rzCI Home Based Education Program Create yortr ()wn lrortre sclrool currictrlrrnr witl tlre lrelp of Clorrlara Scltool I lorrre IJased [-ducation Prograrn, tlre well-balarrced home school l)rogranr oflerilrg flexible or standard approach.
Our graduates receive our private school diploma and full transcripts. l2E9 Jcurclt Ann Arbor, Mlchlgan rlSl(X
(313) 769-rsr5
Prl Montgomcry, Ph.D. Dlrcctor
6
CHALLENGES & CONCERNS HUSBAND DISAGREES An
OhIo reader wrftes:
I am much more comfortable rvlth a relaxed approach to homeschoollng than my husband is. He ls constantly threatentng to put the kids ln school, especlally our I l-year-old son. He believes our kids should always be at least at their grade level ln every subJect. He fears they won't be able to flnd decentJobs or get into college if they don't graduate from a 'real' school. This makes for dlsagreements and someflmes full-blown arguments.
It
seems so ironic to me that mY
husband and I have these battles. He ls the one who gave me the strength and encouragement slx years ago to start homeschooltng our son. He even gave me my first John Holt book. He is the one who had horrible school experlences, and who belleved in homeschooling for all the other reasons - schools tumlng ldds tnto
nonthinking shecp, the poltttcal tndoctrtnatlon, tJre cultural biases and preJudices and the 'wonderful' sociallzatlon that
goes on. With our klds, though, he ts worrled that when (I say f0 they enter malnstream schools they will be put back a grade level or two, either as a punishment or because they will get tested and found laclCng in some so-called important subJect area. He thfnks they need to have practice tn taldng tests and havlng to follow rules even when the rules are
senseless, because he feels they need to be
prepared for all the horrors of school so that they won't be so lost when they do go. He says there is one thing worse than having to go to school, and that's havtng to go longer because ofbeing put back a grade.
Our son is very shy and unsure ofhow to act around people. At home he will sometimes come up wtth really deeP thoughts, and he has taught himself a lot of electronics, but I have to admit he is behtnd lidds tn school in things like handwriting, spelling, geography. I know he would hate school - whenever he hears us discussing it he'll ask me lf we're going to 'get rid of him.' If he were ln school he'd have a whole new set of problems, and I don't think they would be minor. But in some ways he desperately needs contact with other people. It seems like one easy thing to do would be to find some other homeschoolers and get together with them, but thls would be easier if we were a mtddle class family. It's very hard for me to be able to get out and drive anywhere. We can't afford to go to museums or concerts or classes, except Scouts. I've wrltten to some CWS readers in Ohio but they never wrote back. I am going to try wrtting to a few others to see if I can find urnyone
in a similar situation.
FEELING IS OLATED F\om Lgrne Knowles (CN: I would llke to read more about those isolated homeschoolers who have suffered
from burnout, and what they have done about it. I am a longfime, c-orrunttted homeschooler. Our chlldren are lO, 8, 4 and 2, and there is one more on the way. I krou my older children would not be better off in a publlc (or conventlonal private) classroom, nor do they want that. However, it ts becomlng tncreaslngly difftcult to malntain my sanfty. Academlcs are not the problem, though I do get concerned at tlmes because we follow no curriculum and our oldest (a boy) refuses to do math or any writing, though he loves to read a lot. The problem ls more a lack of support. Though we have wonderful homeschoollng pen-pals, we have never found any local homeschooltng fi:lends. Playlng with the
schoolchildren of friends in our small rural community has not worked out,
because erter since those 'friends' reallzed that I am truly not gotng to enroll my children tn the local school, we are perceived as a threat and not tnvtted to their houses anFnore. It is just too weird for them. The only friend I have left is a very supportlve woman who has no
children and lives far away. In the last two and a half Years we have moved away from our farmstead twice, hoping to find a good homeschool community or more educational choices' Neither move worked out for varlous reasons. We have thus far avoided big clties because we love the country life, but we have nearly reached the conclusion that a big city is the only place we will be able to find a large support group, as weII as classes and cultural opportuniUes. We are hoping to make that move, but right nowwe are exhausted from so much moving around. Many of our famlly members sflll don't know we homeschool. We haven't told them because we know they would nerrer understand. That means we do not assoclate wlth family anymore. MY mother died two years ago. She did know we were homeschoollng, and consequently made sure that I would never be trustee for my own children's c.ollege money (that she set aslde for them). I know she believed I would spend it elsewhere because she thought I would not l€t my children go to college. Thls has hurt me tremendously, but when I fecl I would hke to see a counselor about my mother s mlstrust or losing my friends, who can I go to? There are probably very few counselors out there who are going to understand whY we homeschool. [See "Additlons to Resources,'GWS #621 My older two, a girl and a boy, fight constantly. They really need at least one good buddy each, but this is so hard to find. In my experience, you may meet a homeschooling famfly and get along well with the parents, but this doesn't mean the children necessarily click, and vicc versa. It can be frustratlng. I don't want to sound overlY complaining, but I feel the need to point out my emotional difficulfles with homeschooling. For us, it means we cannot
particlpate ln our cornmunity h€re. Movtng is expenslve, and if we do lt again
we will have to make sure lt ls the last tlme. I devote a great deal ofenergy to
loolidng for friends for the children, searchlng out support and classes, wrltlng to pen-pals. I have no time left for me. Because I have two very young bys as
well, I can't help the older children wtth proJects very often. I feel they would have some lnterest irr urriflng or math tf I had tlrne to present lt creattrrcly. I have not found a tutor with alternaUve educadonal values, either. We have twic.e Joined homestudy programs through the publtc schools, and each tlrne lt was dlsastrous. They pushed their currlculums and seemed to spend their money on thlngs other than what I needed - I was lucky to get crayons. In each case, the last straw was thelr lnsistence that I have my
children tested, which I do not belleve ln and which ls not mandatory tn Calfor-
nla.
I would love to read ln GWS about others who have had problems slmilar to mlne.
[SS:]
I responded:
It seems such a shame that thlngs lrt your area are as they are, that the other parents won't even glve your lidds a chance. I don't thlnk we often hear of an entire community being qulte so resistant. I wonder whether there's any way to salvage any of those relationships. Do you thlnk the parents think you're gotng to try to tell them what to do, or that your ldds will make thetr ldds feel bad for gotng to school? Some people seem threatened by homeschoolers when they (mistakenly) think that homeschoolers are going to criticize tftefr choice or make them feel that they aren't good parents. How could you communicate to these parents that this isn't your lntent? I'm not sure, Maybe It doesn't seem worth tt at this polnt to
you. The next thing I wonder is whether tl:re whole communit5r is unwelcomlng, or whether you rnight be able to flnd adults
uttthout chlldren who would be recepflve yours. I suggest this because I'rrc often heard of sltuaflons tn whtch a netghborhood adult who has never thought about homeschoollng per se is receptive to the idea of having an apprentlc.e, or of slmply lettlng a couple of ldds vislt or watch them at work. People are so often ea€ler to talk about what they do, to share what they love. Could this be a way of opentng up the communlt5r somewhat for your chtldren, and broadening their base of things to do? If the older ones, particularly, had some to
kind of connection like thts, it would glve you a break, and gfve them a fecling 9f belongrng and ofoutside contact and stimulation.
The other thing is to think of creative ways to usethe good pen-pals thatyou say you have. Some people ln lsolated situations find that long-dtstance contacts are, at least for a while, their main or even sole source of support. The quesflon ls' how can you get the most out of this? Are you famillar with the Gingolds ln northern California? I imagine you might be. GROWINC WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #63
7
Their florneschders Jor Perce newsletter is an lnterestlng way that one famlly has solved or at least addressed the problem of beire! very geographically tsolated. Through the network the kids have found so many other kids around the c.ountr5r who share their lnterests that I know thry feel a sense of comrnunit5r even f the ldds aren't all rlght there. I'm also thinking that tJle rnail might be a way for your kids to connect with other adults. The writing work that I do with a couple of klds ls done almost entirely through the matl, wlth an occasional phone call or in-person meeting. I bet you could find, through GWS or other meErns, adults who share some of your kids' lnterests (or potential lnterests - things they would lilce to know more
about) who rnlght be interested in some ktnd of apprendceshlp-by-matl arrangement (I don't mean that this has to be formal), The kids don't have to actually write letters, although this of course might make themwant to. But they could make tapes, too.
I know this is very, very hard, but I do encourage you to do some ofthe thlngs you want to do right now. By pursuing some of your own interests, you will be modeling for your children a Me of self-education and resourcefulness, and they'll see that thelr mother ls an lnteretfur6l and tnterested person. It's OK to have your work while they have theirs. They might develop an lnterest tn what you're lnterested tn, or they mtght not, but you can respect each other's work and sometimes do lt side by stde, even if you're not doing the same th-lng. You could also try to host something that other people would consider worth traveling for, which would of oourse lnvolve some work, but mtght be easier for you than travellng yourselves. If there's some lnterest or sldll you and the children have to share, or some went you'd llke to organize, maybe you could adverUse this through the local homeschoollng newsletters there. There are some letters about lsolation ln cWS #6O, and a good letter about burnout tr: #57. Check the lndexes for others. Good luck, and let us know if any of these suggesflons work.
I4me wrote back: Ttranks for the concerned letter. As far as the general community here goes - lt is not a town ln the usual sense. It ls avery spread out rrral communtty; ereryone is far from everyone else. Most people keep to themselves anyway and lve been left alone, certalnly not harrassed ln any way. The dilference ls thelr soclal llves, tf they bave ldds, center around church and/or school, so the children have thelr soctal needs taken care of. School ldds are often rather blase about seeing my lidds. They're around other chlldren constantly, too much ln my oplnion, so my ldds feel
expendable. No one calls therq because they don't need my ldds ltke my klds need them. Also, that negatlve soclallzatlon sets ln early, and the school ldds are very
competltive. Yes, I harrc a couple of older filends
nearby, wtth grovm children and grandchildren. They're ntce, to be sure, but that CROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
doesn't help my liids because they really need frtends fairly near thelr own ages at
this polnt (I'm referring to Anthony, lO, and Jenny, 8.) Their stbltng rlvalry ls very intense and they're around each otherJust too much, ln my opinion. WeVe traveled to homeschoolers' meefings in Sacramento, nearly two hours away. It's too far to go very often. The chlldren want friends nearby. I have some wonderful pen-pals, tncludtng my dear friend Pam Gingold, whom you mentioned, Our situatlons are slmilar, except that my children are Just not writers. They like to get letter but not to wrlte them. They want to really play
with other klds. and I understand this.
We travel to other states once or tudce ayear and that helps me and everyone else, as well as belng a very educaUonal change of pace. We often meet other homeschoolers along the way. Soon we're gotng to Arlzona and New Mexlco for a month - very excltlng, our second trlp there. Though I don't llke the home-
schooltng laws of etther state, we are considerlng moving there lf we can sell
our place here.
''DIFFICULT'' CHILD TrudI Hoplctts (AZ) wrcte Last gean Philip (8) has been a handful since he was a toddler. He's always been demandtng and, I hate to say tt, dlfficult for me to get along wlth. As the oldest of four children, he seems to be parttcularly Jealous of his 6-year-old slster, He's Just plaln nasty to her at tlmes, although they can play together creatively at other tlmes.
I belleve in the phllosophy that is
espoused tn GWS, but ltJust doesn't seem to be worlidng in our fam$. Phlltp seems to be bored. For e:<ample, rtght now he wants me to take dlctaEon for a story, but
I told hlm to write tt lrtmself, wrttlng the
sounds as best he can. He trted lt for about four words, asking me for the spelling at wery letter. I finally lnslsted that he Just do it hlmself. He threw down hls pencll and satd, 'l don't want to do lt tf I can't spell it right.'Thls from a boy who has never been to school and whom I have not pushed. He ts, ltke hls father, what ts known as a perfecdonlst. I don't want to forc.e him to do math or pracdce reading, and he doesn't do these things. He's not able to read, but thafs oK. I understand that when he's ready, he wtll. However, he seems to have nothlng to occupy hts tlme,
except to bully his slster and brothers. ffhat is an exaggeradon, but so lt seems to me at tlmes.) It's not that we don't provide the opportunifles. We have a plano, some goats and chickens, art supplles, lots of books. My husband and I try to plck up on Philip's'interests. Ftlght now lt's rock huntlng, so weVe gone on ouflngs ln the desert and to rock shows, and ofcourse there ls the library wlth tts books on rock
identification.
One thing Phlltp mtsses is a friend to play with; there are no nelghborhood boys, although he perlodically spends an overnight wlth some friends from the neighborhood we lived ln last year. At our church there are no boys his age. Anyqray,
our day-to-day ltvlng ts not very pleasant overall. I ffnd myself yelltng at him qulte
often, whlch I hate, He gets sent to hls room qulte often. I pr:zzle over why he ls so
unhappy.
A few steps we're taldng: l) L^ast Wednesday nlght he went to a boys'church club, at a larger church than our own where there were lots of boys hds age. He loved lt, came home kind of wild, but exclted, 2) IVe ordered some vttamlns for
our chlldren thlnldng perhaps there's somethtng rnisstng from our food, although we do have nutrltlous meals and
snacks, 3) IVe made an appotntment to talk to a nurse whose oplnlons I respect. I must say I feel gutlty about all of this. IVe wanted to homeschool stnce I was prâ&#x201A;Źgnant wtth Philtp. After readlng Hous Children Fa4 my whole unpleasant school experienoe carne back to me. I didn't want my ktds to go through the typtcal school experlencc. Howwer, my husband and I have asked ourselves lf Phtlip needs the tradtdonal school set-up. Phtltp and I toured the local publlc school last week. I wanted Phlltp to conslder thls optlon and told hfm if he wanted to try school next year he could do so wtth the understanding that he could quit tf he wanted to. He was \rague about tlre tour. I
don't thlnk he wants to go, I Gel frustrated as I read ln GWS about all the happy and sucrc.essful famtltes, and wlth my corffnttrnent to the conc.epts of homeschooling, because there have been no tang;tble, visible results for us. Recentg, ux eeJc<d.Ttudtlf tlE sihtodonhadclwqd at aIL Slte wrcte:
I'm grateful that Phi[p has been home brstead of at school, so that I could spend more ttme wtth htm. I felt last year that I verv much wanted to form a better relattonsf,ip wlth him and that teachtng htm at home would beneflt us both. Besldes, I couldn't lmagine sendteg such an unhappyyoungboy to school; hewas bound to get more frustrated. There have been dmes, as I satd, when I have been so tempted to call the school down the street and get him enrolled, but we stuck lt out and I would say thatwe had a pretty good school year, but wtth enough frustratlng days to keep me hopping. I suppose a few thlngs that I dtd helped Phtllp, ln addttlon to not sending hlm to school. We delayed any formal currlculum undl thls year. I use tlee Hewttt-Moore currlculum preclsely because they adhere to thls philosophy of wattln! unttl the chlld ls ready. I am trylng to get to lolow Phtltp better and help hlm dlscover hls lnterests so that as he enters trls teen years he wtll have somethlng to draw hls energr. Thls past year has been our best year yet, and I'm looktng forward to the future. I have always been divtded about whether to g[ve our learnlng envlronment some structure or let it be open. IVe trted both. What sults us best ls one-and-a-half or two hours of sit-down, 'do school' time, four tlmes aweek. He lsJust now, at 9, dolng some readlng on hls own. Itwas somethtng that I llarned to wait for, as I read in GWS and was relnforced by Hewttt's philosophy. But undl a few weeks ago he
insisted (and we tncorporated thls tnto our school) that I stt wtth hrm, and lf there
8 wae aword he dtdn't know I had to teU htm; he wouldn't begln to sound tt out on
hls own. What can I saf? Is Phlllp not a selfleamer? Did I blow tt? Some of your readers wlll no doubt blame me for the touchy relaUonshlp my non and I have. I know that I haven't always handled thlngs wlth patlence or great lnstght, I'm readlng the back tssues of GWS and flnd it excitlng to read about a 2 year old using a hammer. If I had given Philtp a hammer at 2 hewould have put a hole tn the wall. All chlldren are dlfferent and we must approach them as best we know how. The tendency ls to blame oneself, but the blg lesson IVe learned ls that lt's not all my fault. Certainly the chlld's personalit5r enters tn here. I have three other chlldren who seem to learn on thelr orvn much more successfully. I would love to hear from other parents br slmilar clrcumstances who have despaired many tlmes but do not give up because they love thetr dilncdt child.
DON'T USE TESTS TO JUDGE Morc Jrom Julie Stlller
bt
Fllrattce:
Shame on you for reprinting the artlcle, -Teachers Aren't Passing" IGWS
#591. Slnce we homeschoolers don't want our clelldren Judged by formal tesflng, please don't gfire the lmpression that we can hrrn around and Jusflff our casle
agalnst publlc educaflon wtth the results ofstandardized tests given to teachers. To Judge the qualfty of a teacher by a slngle tesf scor€ is rtdlculous, and to infer from a batch of low test scores that most teachers are poor teachers and therefore most schools are poor schools, well... such reasontng will come back to haunt us ln our struggle to break up the monopoly on leamlng that the schools have. lf we say that the standardlzed test scores of public school teachers are valld, then the state rnay say that the standardtzed testtng of homeschool teachers ts Just as valld. In a battle of opinlons I always prefer to be on the posltlrrc stde. That is, I don't want to wtn by runnlng ttre other slde down, by tnststtng how bad or urrong thcy are, I d r:ather concentrate on dotng what I
thtnk ts rtght and letflng tts lntrlnslc
value speak for ltself. For example, I don't bother to answer all those questlons other parents ask ("Is
tt legal?' 'What about soclalizatlon?" etc.). I stmply act surprtsed and say, 'What" you harrcn't heard about homeschooltngf Ifs the newest ln learntng. Ar$cles about tt are errerywhere.' I talk Itke thts to leave them wtth the lmpression that excttln! things are happening ln the fleld of educadon, and to leave them wlth the naggtng feeling that 'Gosh, all thls ts happenfng and I'm not aware of lt.' Ntne tlmes out of ten, they start to notlce arflcles about homeschoollng, or they brlng up the toplc agaAr themselves.
DON'T KNOCK TEACHERS Julte Logd (CN ntdtes: Whtle I agree wtth most of the GWS potnt of vtew, I have contlnued to be
uncomfortable wlth the almost hosdle attttude toward people who work ln schools. I suppose thls ls because I'm a former teacher, and I don't rule out golng back to work someday. In my years as a teacher, I came to believe that the instltuUon of school is monolithlc, degrading to both teachers and students, tends to sterilize knowledge and therefore ltving, and fosters the belief that one must be an expert to be clmPetent. But lt's there, and for some people, It's what there is. As the percon on whom thirtY-two tmmigrant 7 year olds depended for love, entertainment, bathroom passes, and a passport tnto the Amerlcan Way of Ltfe, I felt lnadequate. How ls lt possible to rnake eye contact with, to hug, to teach English to, to discover whip marks on, to work on borrowing and carrytng for the hundredth time tn a fresh way wtth, to suggest a weekly clothes washlng to, to decipher a tearful message in a mlxture of Black Engllsh and Spanlsh from, that manY chlldren, errery hour? Ifs not. Not nearly possible. You do what you can, and sometrnes lt seems that lt's been worth it' But tt shouldn't be that way. What do you do when one of your liids doesn't fft, maybe keeps falling out of hls seat, gouglng holes in hts paper and his desk, stutterlng, punchlng hls deskmate,
pen, tnlurins himself wlth paper clips or pencil tnjudng
points, sto.ming out of the classroom for no clear r€ason. You know that lfyou took hlm home for a couple of months he'd be OK or at least better. But he is ln school, and so what a relief when the psychologlst dvsfunctional' and savs. 'Oh dear, dear. he is dysfunctional' says, vou will have a whole hour wtthout him you every day whlle he goes to special ed. Maybe the psychologtst can do something.
You can't. And the parents? Most ofthe parents I talked to had a reverentlal respect for The Teacher that I found trtimidatlnt. I was prepared to say, "Glven that your chlld ls stuck here ln school, how can we make the best ofit? Here's how I encourage her strengths, here's what you can do to help
her overcome her dilflculties. What do you thfnld" That sort of stulf. Instead I found myself explahfng thtngs that I consldered to be irrelevant. 'Why don't you glve spelltng tests? Why ls academic lnstructlon ln Spanlsh unttl rhy child learns Engltsh? Why do you forc.e glrls to play wlth boys durlng PE? Why don't you allow candy bars tn class?" Well, none of thls would be necessar5r
f lnstmctlon were one-on-one. Maybe Kid X tr.ould enJoy a spelllng test tn that
sltuation. Maybe Kid Y would love the challenge of belng taught ln a forelgn language. But the dynamics of a classroom
are entlrely dilferent. The dlstrlct mandates that a carefully researched list of facts and cnnc,epts be shoveled lnto the ldds, at a prescrlbed rate and wlth vtstble, testable results. It can b€ done, but who would choose that for themselves? Or for thea beloved chlldren? I thfnk tt ts lmportant for homeschooling parents to realize that a classroom teacher isn't herself. She's the representatlrrc of the dtstrlct, and a slave
to the necesstty of managtng a large group ofpeople who are dependent on her for more than ts really decent. She ls these
thlngs desptte havtng absorbed the ldeas
ofJohn Holt, Jonathan Kozol, George
Dennison and Sylvta Ashton-Warner. The degree of compasslon and educaflon that goes on ln the classroom is of course partly dependent on the teacher's person-
ality, ptrllosophy, and skill. But the lnstitutlon of school gives the overridlng flavor.
LARGE FAMILIES Luann Claussen
oJ
ldala writes:
I urould like to see more ln GWS on homeschoolers with large families. I crome from a family of ntre children, so my own of four children seems only medlum-sized. Nevertheless, it is a handful for me. I would be interested to hear how others nranage time schedules, chauffering, housekeeptng, many varied lnterests and levels, and tlme for oneself. My oldest is nine so I am not yet in the situation of leaving the younger ones with him. We go places together, but sometimes Just find staying home easier and preferable. I wonder lf others ffnd that in a large
famrly the ctrildren play more often with each other than with outside friends.
PATRONIZING ADULTS F)omPeggg Webb (NY:
CherylJust
(CA) asked lrr GWS #62
how other folks handle watchtuxg their children get ignored by other adults. This has been a sore point wlth me slnce the dayswhen Lena, now 5, began toddling along the streets ofSan FYancisco. Then lt was relaflvely harmless and easy to avold, but sttll a slgn of things to come. koPle Just didn't see her, or if they did it was to pat her on the head ltke a dog, coo about her looks, etc.When she began to speak, lt got a llttle more dtfflcult and sometimes amuslng. Her attempts at engaging adults ln conversafion would begtn wtth the other person assumlng that strangely modulated stng-song voice we\re all heard directed at children. Lena would look at me and ask, 'Mommy, why is she (he)
talktng like that?'
In more recent tlmes, IVe found myself ln the frustrattng role of lnterpreter, and for no reason other than the tnabiltty of many adults to conslder converslng wlth a chlld. [.ena wlll say somethlng and the other person wtll gtve their answer to me or ask me a question about what she sald. Whenever posslble, I'll try to draw kna back tnto the conversation, but it always leaves me feeling sad and mad. When Lena trles to paY for somethlng, ask a quesdon about some merchandlse, give her own order ln a restaurant, etc, I tqr to subtly announoe her lntenflons to pave the way: 'OK, Lena, It's your hrrn to pay," or'What are you golng to have to eat, lena?" whlle I'm eyeballtng the other adult to achlerte some lirtnd of mental wavelength. Wtth my eyes and the look on my face I'm trytng to say, "Recognlze her, pleasel'I guess that soon Lena wtll recognjze thls as the lnterference lt really ls and tll have to stand back and grtt my teeth as she ffghts herway through the World of Btg. It hurts me, though. GROWINC WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
I I guess the way to look at it is that our chLlldren have at least one envlronment ln which their thoughts and opinions have
equal import and the challenge is to take advantage of or create other areas where this canbe so. Also, I talk with kna about how some people arejust not used to including children in their lives. There's a fine line I try not to cross here. By maldng too much of an overt fuss about this lack of consideration, I feel I would be passing on a negative message to l:na about how to deal with it, so the best I can do ts talk it over with her, pave the way whenerter possible and, unfortunately, continue to seethe inwardly.
CULTURE'S EMPHASIS ON CHILDREN'S FRIENDS Frcm Suzarute Chiasson oJ Pervtsgl-
vanta: There is an issue that has been touched on in GWS repeatedly but that I would like to see more on from a partlcular slant: the societal hang-up about chlldren's friends. It seems so obvlous to me that the constant whine from Parents of adolescents about 'peer pressure' is an
outgrowth of their compulsion to secure for small chtldren a clique of similarly raised tots, and thetr endless harplng on friends, popularity, soclalizatlon. I'm sure that this is a recent phenomenon, Partlcularlv - where small children are concerned. Our eldest, Alexandrta, almost 5, has taught herself to read, draws, sews, plays with dolls, blocks, etc. She has a brother, Nicholas, who ls a year younger and who is her willing companlon every day. Both children are arnazingly ardculate, having never been talked down to. Alexandria plays with her cousins, and is exposed to a limited but dlverse number of people on a regular basls. The problem is that she ts tncredibly anxious to make 'friends,'i.e. play with other girls her age. She speaks in an open and (to us) engaging fashion to other little girls and is regularly rebuffed. This is very palnful for all concerned, as she ls very sensitive and takes things very much to heart. I am willing to go to great lengths to help her, but sociability has never come easy to me, and my own overtures generallv fall as flat as hers. I dread the ldea that she is burdened with much of mY personality, and I would welcome suggestions on thls. The problem is also that televlsion and many chlldren's books put an lncredible emphasts on chlldren's fi:lends. They show groups of children Playing together, and these children are never stbllngs. To play happlly wlth a brother or sister ls unheard of. We've been readlng tl:re Uttle Flouse books each night, whlch are among the only books that show a famtly meeting the social needs ofyoung chtldren. The other issue related to both the
socializatlon issue and the patronizing wav that adults talk to chlldren is this: I-ait week Alexandria came home from dancing class burning with the question, 'Why did the teacher keep asking us if we had boyfriends?" Few things irritate me as much as this. Why, tn this age of teenage pregnancy and sexual preoccupation, do people perstst in burdening young chilGROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
dren with the conc-erns of the teen years? for urese these ahead ror of years aneao are plenty ol There ar€ lidds to grapple with the artificlal emphasis our Jociety places on attracting the opposite sex, and the questionable vlrtues which are supposed to achieve this. Alexandria's confusion was more direct. She didn't understand the emphasis and giggling surrounding the qord , LrrAli'ter:d-ard asked the teacher why she dtdn't ask if they had girlfriends too. Thls dtd not ellclt a response from the teacher and so Alexandria concluded that the teacher was silly for asldng such a question of a group of flve year olds. Still she was confused, and I could see another area of concern opening up long before lt needed to surface. I would like to see GWS deal wlth the problem of being dtJlerent for young children who have not dweloPed the emotional and lntellectual resources to take pride in lt. No matter how secure we ar€ in our values that run clunter to societ5r, the culture does fllter through and lt carries an awful lot of weight. These intelligent' sensitive children that we pride ourselves in raising are particularly aware of the dichotomy, and at an early age. How to heal this rtft for them without comProrntsing our values or rendering them dependent?
SEX-ROLE STEREOTYPES Glen Dlbkson oJ fuffish Coll;rr$ia rurites:
she's reallv famillar wtth ls that of a daddy, anl she knows that llttle gtrls don't Erow up to be daddlesl) Oin the other ('mascultne') hand, Helen's qulte vocal about her llkes and dislikes,'and not the least bit shy about expresslnA anAer toward us. (Helen glves us
miny oppottunittes to help her learn to , erpr6sj anger appropdately. Dealtng-wtth
a healthy, fvely two year old ts a lot llke batting pracdce: Every day, Helen tosses out about four and a halfdozen opportuntties - which we can htt, swing at but mlss' or lgnore - having to do wlth the apqryprlate expresslon of anAer, the ltmtts of her po*.t, the ltnrtts of o-ur power, etc.) She's heartentngly stubborn, likes dtrt and bugs and rocks, and doesn't gtve a damn what her halr looks llke. But she's also shy around strangers, lones the comfort of Mommy and Daddy's arms, and ls usually quite gentle. It's a pleasure to have ftnally gotten around to wrtttng to CWS. GWS has more of a sense of ctmmuntt5l than any other publlcaflon I've seen. The Waldorf Perspective A quarterly journal with curriculums for preschool and grade school; philosophy of child development. hactical activities ccntered around the seasons and festivals.
Childhood
Resources. Four issues for $20. Sample issue $5. Write: Nancy Aldrich, Rt.2, Box 2675G, Westford, VT 05494.
I was fasclnated by the dtscusston of sex-role ster€otypes tn GWS #61. Belng a career househusband undoubtedlY contributes to mY fasclnation.
Katherine McAlpine writes,
'I
think
there's more pressurle on boys to c'onform to stereotype, and more pressure on the parents of boys to promote that conformity." I agree. I thtnk that the mascullne stereotype ls more dltricult to insdll than the feminlne, and there's thus more fear that the masculine won't, in fact, be
instilled.
I don't mean to tmply that tradltional womanhood lsn't dtlllcult (long hours of housework and chtld care wtth ltttle outside support) or unnatural (the alienatlon of half of the populatlon, for reasons of gender, from the workings of the outslde world). It seems to me, though, that tradttional manhood ls more dilllcult and more unnatural. and that tradtttonal men :rre worse off ficr tt than their female counterparts. Well, I have to own uP to my own preJudlce. I'm a man who has felt himself the victim of the male stereotype specilically, the expectation that what men do in the world must lnvolrrc the exchange of goods or servlces or sldlls or ldeas for money. Others maY see the female stereotype as Just as dilTicult' When I look at Helen, our two Year old, I see the same phenomenon that the
writers tn GWS #61 see ln thelr children: Helen's dnterests often appear sex-stel€otyped, but Hel,en isn't. She likes reading and drawing and talktng and playing with dolls and toy animals. She shows little interest or ability in gross motor skills on the playground, like climbing ladders and ustng btg swings. She says she wants to be a mommy (although the only other career
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DEALING WITH OFFICIALS MEETING WITH LEGISLATORS In the latest issue oJ Pennsylvania Homeschoolers, Houdrd Rlcfunant urote
abtX fun groups oJ lomeschmlers meettg tulth tlelr Wtstators to encour' age tlem to support the state's lameschrcItng bIIL Others unrktng to pass leglslatlon mag JUd. tlese exanples useJul:
Homeschoolers fur Reading held a successful meeflng with Representatlve Davles, one ofthe strongest opponents of home education on the House Educadon Commlttee. Although Davles ls stlll not suppordve ofhome educadon, he ls much less strongly opposed than he used to be. The meettng came about on almost a
momenfs notlce. Btll and Shari Girten,
homescheolers in Davies's dlstrict, had been trying to arrange a meeting wlth him for months. They kept calllng the office, only to get the runaround. F-tnally, Bill sald to the secretar5r, "My wife and I are counting on Ftepresentative Davies to repesent us, hls constltuents. Why won't he even meet wtth us?' Flnally, Davles got back to them and said, "I'11 only be able to meet with you next Friday.- They had only four days to get the meedng organlzed. Bill qutckly called Betty McElroy, the leader of the Berks county homeschoollng support group. It turned out that the group already had two ffeld trlps scheduled for that week, and Betty didn't thlnk that many homeschoolers would be able to make it to three events irr the same week. Blll was desperate and called Susan and me for advlce. I suggested that he organbe the meetlng like a mtni legtslative breakfast and ask the news media to attend. I thought homeschoolers would certainly show up tf they knew that the medta would be ttrere. Bill and Shart called the newspapers and televislon and explained what a good news story this would be. 'It's a controversial lssue, and Davies is not in favor of homeschooling. There wtll probably be an
lnteresting confrontation,' Btll said. The Readtng newspaper balked. 'We won't have a reporter available,' they said. "It doesn't rnatter," Bill replted. -There will be several other members of the press there anyway.' "Well, we might get a reporter there,' they sald. "We got another call about thls, too." Bill didn't menflon that that call was from hls wifel About twent5r famtltes attended the two hour meeting. The format was baslcally show-and-tell. One family produced a musical in whtch they lntegrated an array of subJects thetr chlldren had learned. For the last half hour the group held a quesdon and answer session. When the homeschoolers asked Davies about his posiflon, he carefully rode the fence. Another group met recently with Senator Kelly in Greensburg. Not all were homeschoolers - the group included an art teacher who works wlth homeschoolers at the Greensburg Art Center. Before the meeting, the group planned their agenda: ftrst they would talk about the bill, then about socialization, and flnallv about the
advantages of homeschoollng. Senator Kelly was surprised at how many people showed up for tlle meetlng eleven adults and twelve children. He was also surprlsed that they were from all parts of hts distrtct, not Just from one little area. The meetlng went ahead as the homeschoolers had planned. One parent showed some samples of her children's work. Another showed her currlculum and plctures of homeschooltng get-togethers. She also told hlm about some rough encounters that she had had with her school dlstrict just because she did not
have a college education. At the end of the meeting, the homeschoolers asked Senator Kelly if he would support House Bill 1364. He satd, "l am strongly ln favor of thls issue. I wlll vote
for thls btll, I wholeheartedly support this concept." He said that he would talk to other senators about tt.
ADMISSION TO MUSIC CON. SERVATORTES Nancg Wallace (NV wrltcs:
Like a child experlmenting with the shock value of say'ng a "bad" word out loud, I often find myself telling people, 'I know lt's hard to belleve, but Ishmael has decided to go to school next year." Is the school that Ishmael has chosen reallv so dilferent from tradittonal school, I wonder"? In chooslng to go to school, Ishmael never had any intentlon ofworrytng about grades or agonizing over algebra. But there came a flme when, much as he loved his family, he reallzed that neither we, nor the people and resources in lthaca, were enough to feed his muslcal ambitions.
Although he dtdn't lmmediately narrow hls optlons down to school, he soon realized that going to a music conservatory would make the most sense, espâ&#x201A;Źctally gtven hts age (16). Where else would he have such easy access to other muslclans and teachers, or have such convenient opportunittes to play chamber music and hear his own music actually performed? I remember asking, 'But Ishmael, aren't you gotng to miss us?" 'Yes, terribly,' he sald, 'and especially Vita. But it's the only way I can do what I want to do.'After that I knew that even though I'd miss him, it would be OK. When Ishmael was 15, he took the SAT. Ibowing that most colleges don't require a high school diploma for admisslon, we figured that those scores, plus our own records of his work and a letter from the school district explainlng that he had achieved the equivalent of a high school diploma, would be all he would need to sads$ the admissions people at any university he might choose to attend. It never occurned to us that there might be a problem, so on his l6th birthday he 'quit school" and began dwoting himself full tlme to music (he was writing an opera) and to finding future teachers to study with. He never thought about applying to lnstitutions, as such, but rather of llnding the ideal community of musicians. Over the next few months he played
for some of the pianists he admlred most in the world and showed his scores to "real' composers, seeklng advlce about where and with whom to study. He fkrally decided on two schools: the Curtls Instltute of Muslc ln Philadelphla and the Mannes College of Muslc in New York Ctty - both wtth musiclans that he was eager to study with. Curtis was a long shot, since lt accepts so Gw students ayear, and so he was really banlidng on Mannes. How shall I describe our surprise and disappotntment, then, when the admisslons dilector at Mannes wrote to say that Ishmael couldn't even be considered for acceptance at the school until he had received a high school diploma or passed the GED ftrlgh school equlvalency exam)? The Ithaca School District, I knew, wasn't about to glve Ishmael a diploma, and although taking one more silly test wasn't such a btg deal, in thls state you aren't even allowed to take the GED until vouVe turned l9 or have been out of schoo-l for two years. I called several people in the school district to see lf some excepdon could be made tn Ishmael's case, potnting out that tehnically, he had been "out of school" for a lot longer than two years, but nobody seemed lncltned to be helpful. I also wrote a long letter to Mannes, invoking the name of the Colfaxes, homeschoolers who had been adrnitted to Haward, and using a violintst frtend of Ishmael's as an example of someone who really had quit school ln tenth grade and yet was accepted at every major conservatory ln the country (Mannes ls not considered maJor). For weeks we heard nothlng. Then, thanks to the intervendon of one of the composltion teachers, the Dean called to say that Mannes would, after all, consider Ishmael's application, but only on the condldon that he pass the GED wlthin the year. That would still have been lmpossible, except that the next day we found our miracle: Pregnant glrls in the Ithaca School District are allowed to take the GED at any time, as long as they llrst complete a preparatory course. Ishmael couldloin the course, the district agreed, as long as we paid a tulflon Ge. ('And this ls a public school?" I thought.) I arranged for him to Join the class in April, after his auditions (part of the standard admlssion
requirements at all muslc conservatories)
were over wlth. Meanwhlle, Curfls showed no apparent lnterest ln Ishmael's academic background at all. Maybe that's because at least half of Curtis's students are foreign, so their backgrounds are
varied.
In early March Ishmael went down to New York City to take the three days of
exarns, interviews and auditions that Mannes required. Oddly enough, he loved every minute. He found the exams interesting, and the faculty actually discussed the results with him. Slnce Ishmael had studied music theory wlth his compositlon teacher from the time he was 12, and long before that on his own, he learned from the tests ratleer than feeltng lntirnidated by them, and his piano audition went better than he could have hoped. A week later, he heard from Mannes: he had been accepted with no stlpulations, CROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #63
u and they had even offered him a hefty scholarshlp. Not one menflon of the GEDI I called the school district and told them
that Ishmael wouldn't be Jotntnt their class of pregnant gtrls. Ishmael was accepted at Curtis, too, and for several neasons he decided to go there instead of Mannes. He went back to his usual musical routlnes, and yet I ffnd that I am left feeling more dlsturbed than otherwise. I mean, what if Ishmael hadn't
studied music theory and compostflon for all those years and so hadn't done so well on the Mannes exams? Almost surely he d now be sitting tn some boring classroom reviewing long divlsion ln preparafion for the GED instead of playln! Brahms and rehearsing strgers for hls opera. Mannes's silly stipulation would have kept htm from music - the very thing they value iust the wav full time attendance ln school i*itft Ue. resulung dtploma) would have kept hlm from studylng muslc as ln-
tensely as he was able to ln order to do as well as he dtd on the exams. How llke the experience of a black person applytng for a Job ln whlte America, I kept thtnktng. To really make lt, so to speak, you have to be betterthanyour whlte counterparts. The only reason that Ishmael "made lt" at Mannes ls because he was "better" ttran thetr other appllcants. Is thts the way it has to be for homeschoolers? Will it always be that wa5/7 I wonder. I wonder what will happen the next time a homeschooler appltes to Mannes. Maybe Ishmael wlll have broken down the barriers. I hope so.
PART.TIME SCHOOL MAY WORK FOR SOME In GWS #61, Katlileen McCurdg u;rote
obut dv
FAIilILY LEIIRMNC ORGANITATION OF WASHINCTI)Ms otfer to Mp
superhtendents d,eal wtth issues tftat inr;olue honeschrclers, Slte descrlM a superhterdent wta dldtt't lotolw wluet}er to allow a nather to setd. her chlW to
schd. htso or tluee dnes a unektor pafttlme trsbltctlort KatJieen adulsed hltn "that thts unuld b dlsrupttr- to the
classroom and tFat lt hafiIy seemed to
fu
the child, uas fit school so mrrch oJ the ttne... Tle btent oJ the part-ttme stndenl prcvlslon was,.. rtot to serue as an optlonal babgstttbtg seruIre." honeschaling
{
Jon Hurtt (BC) anrments on thls:
I c,ouldn't agree more that school shouldn't be used as a babystttlng servlce, but tn vtew of the fact that that ls exactly the purpose lt serves for most schooltng familles, lsn't lt better that school be used for part-tlme nather than full-ttme babysttttng? That ts, I wonder tf there might be certaln circumstances ln which (or certaln childr,en for whom) Part-flme school babysftdng rnight serve a useful purpose, other than simply taktng a speclflc counre or two, For tnstance, it might help a chlld who wantg to homeschool but feels reluctant to make a sudden, total change. Part-tlme school could olfer such a chlld a current basis of comparison (rather than havlng to compare present experlences of
homeschooling to past memorles of school), and tt rnfght help the rest of the famtly to make the change more gradually GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
with regard to their schedules, thelr work arrangements, thelr lnformation and
a trtclry dlscussion. Although we have found the consultants, durlng the three
shouldn't that be rewarded by allowtng part-tl.me homeschooling, rather than insisdng that the child remain ln school full-ttme untll the mother ls ready to homeschool full-ttme? One last thought: wtq are part-tlme students seen as disruptive? In the real world, new people are always enterlng one's Me. Shouldn't chlldren be glven an opportunlty to leam to meet and get to lmow new people tn a welcomlng wa5/? lf handled ln the proper spirtt, couldn't tt be seen as a way around cllques and fear of stranfers? Victoria has had a Part-tlme program, and it offered an tdeal solution for many famtltes. The chlldren were glven a schedule of toplcs and fteld trlps available, and were free to particlpate ln whdchever program was of lnterest. Why should we thlnk of school as an
years weVe been dealtng with them, to be i'ery lrberal tn thetr educatlonal phllosophles (for example, Kate didn't read unttl she was 9, but there was never anY pressure about thts), they evtdently felt the need to glve some stmcture to theA assessment, and they seemed to be perplexed about why we would obJect to as benlgn a structure as they had been proposlng. When we sat down and talked, lt went more easlly than I had expected. We talked back and forth a bit about Ptaget and environment and the dangers of protectlveness and not cuttlng Kate off from a prorntsing futur,e as a blochemist. But when all was satd, it appeared that they were agreeable to a new format, tnvoMng perhaps Just one vlslt a year, wlth our famlly doing readtngs of our cholce, showand-tell of our own devlsing, and no pressure to cover all the subJect areas. IfI feel strongly (and I do) that we wtll do no written math exercises thls year, then we don't need to demonstrate math to sult the school board.
school could be one way a family could move toward homeschooling.
ANGRY ABOUT PROCEDURE
attitudes lfnecessary, and so on.
Suppose a slngle mother has shtfted
from full-time to part-time work to do
part-time homeschooltng. Wouldn't that be a change in the right direcdon, and
all-or-nothing lnsfltuflon? Part-tlme
VISITS FROM OFFICIALS
Julta Mason wrote In the February
Clubhouse News, a neusletter Jor TororXe
area famesctwlers:
Last September we had a vlslt from our area school superintendent, He stayed only a short tlme, and matnly asked if we thought ever5rthlng was gotng well. We menHoned that we were unhappy wlth the structure of the vtsits from the educatlonal consultants who comE to our house hvicre a year. Thelr assessment of our chlldren seemed to us to be taklng on a strong resemblance to testlng. The consultants would brtng little boxes of plastic shapes and plastic money and Jars of beans and toothpicks, and then set ltttle problems for Kate and Luke, evldently to see the process of thelr problem-solvlng.
Luke enJoyed these encounters because he loves games and trlckery of all ktnds, but Kate felt put on the spot and somewhat mysflfted. When we told the suPerlntendent ofour deslre to stop these tests, he was lmmedlately agreeable and satd he had asked the consultants to do them, part$ because he assumed we would want to hanrc a rough tdea of how our chlldren were dotng ln reladon to thelr peers, We explatned tlut we dtdn't feel the need for this lnformation, and the matter was left there. In JanuarSr, I sent ln one of my hvtce-yearly reports, whlch gave a rambltng account of our adventures and my most recent rellectlons on educaflon in our fam$. Sevenl weeks later the educational consultants telephoned and set up an appolntment to come and assess the children. There had been a communicadon gap between the superlntendent and the consultants, and they evldently planned to come wtth thelr usual armamentarium. When I reallzed this, my husband and I went to see them at thelr olllce lnstead, so that we could try to work out an altemaflve. I must say lt seemed to me befcne the meettng that we mlght have
Susan Ratner oJ Oltto usrltes: We are happlly homeschoollng our chlldren, ages I l, 8, 6, 4 and l. Usually I am very positive and happy about tt. But this week, I had to deal wtth our local school system agatn, and I am very ar45y' I want to have legal approval and so have gone through the necessary stePs. We have had legal approval foreach ofthe ffve
three years we have been homeschooltng so far, The problem is that we homeschoolers a.re forccd to go to the rrcry system we are rebelltng agatnst (or dtsagree wtth), and ask for Permtsslon to go agafnst lt. We don't want to have to ask them. and therr don't want to have to deal wtth us. Wheri lssues of tesung, methodologr, expectaflons and ptrilosophy start to come up, underlytng hosultty can begfn to surface. We're deallng wtth two clashlng phlosophles of how chtldren learn. The school system aPPltes tts methods of evaluatlng success to our system and ends up concludtng thatwe arc unsucressful. Butwe are the ones who can best ludEe our success. When I shared our succcsrls with our school dtstrtct, they used my wrltten rePorts agalnst me. They used them to prove mY fatlure. TheY looked at everythfng from a completely dlfferent polnt of vlew. What had proven to be asucctssil method of assessmentln our prevlous dtstrtct has prorrcn to be a disastrous method here. The superlntendent implted that urc are not suctessful unless we are dolng what they are dolng, ln tlre way that they are doing tt. If I wanted my chlldren to be dotng ercactly what the chlldren tn school are dotng, tt would hane been a lot easler to send them there. For e:rample, the Curriculum Dlrector admonished me because my thtrd grader ts not wrtttng ln cursfirc, and ln thetr schools they do curslve ln sec-ond grade. In fact, she ts learnlng curslve, has been tnterested tn lt foryears, wrltes gorgeous letters, but hasn't yet stnrng all the letters together. She's focus[rg on perfecttng each rndvtdud
L2
letter of the alphabeL I know that soon she wtll start puttrng all the letters together. They focused on this llke it was a maJor problem, and made no mention of the fact that during thls homeschooling
year, she went from readlng simple storles to suddenly being able to read novels. She ts so exclted by her new reading ability that she has devoured about twenty novels tn the past few months. That she dlscovered theJoy of readtng, has a whole new world open to her, and has total comprehenslon of what she reads meant nothlng to them. If I succreed (from the school's point of vtew), they would have to reevaluate their system. They can't do that so they can't have me succeed. If I fail, then they can lust reassure themselves that I am wrong -ana tfrey can feel e\ten more sure that they are rtght. At least tre Wellesley, Massachusetts, where we used to live, the school people spoke honestly about the fact that lhey dlsagreed wlth me, but equally
honestly about the fact that they thought our home educatlon program was a great success. Ttrey respected us. In LoveLand, Otrlo, they are downrlght nastY. How do urc 'get permlsslon" from thosewho don't understand us? Because of m5r frustraflon wlth worlCng wtth the school system here, I feel compelled to search for another way to get approval or to legally homeschool. I'd love to hear from other GWS readers about thls.
SUCCESSFIJL ARRANGEMENTS Clvrlotte McCant (FI) wrttes: My husband ls a construcfion englneer, !x) we move around a lot. When we moved to Epptng, New Hampshlre tn the fall of '85, I had been homeschoollng three of my serren chlldren for two years, and between the stress of teachtng them, carlng for my four preschoolers, and the morrc to a new state, I uras burned out, fur all honestlr. I chose to put the chlldren ln school when we arrfired. When we went to the local elementary and mtddle schools where they would be gotng, I was metwlth much courtesy and tnterest, as well an uncertalnty as to how to handle me. Both princlpals satd they had had chlldren wlthdrawn to homeschool, but they had never had anyone reenter. So, havlng no guldellnes to go by, they declded to talre my word about the chfldren's grade lwel and gave each child a two-week trtal to see how they ftt in to each grade. We had a few good months. Howeraer, by the end of the school year we had moved agatn and ure urere concerned with the
qualtty of educaflon the chlldren were gettlng ln the new schools, so I dectded to apply for permlsslon to homeschool the followlng year (f 986-84. I began by cdltng the school dtstrtct superlntendent to let hlm know my ttrtentlons and ask hls advlce about how to go about applylng for permlsslon. He was very courteous and iupportlve, tlrough onoe again I would be setting a precedent as thls had never happened before ln hls dtstrlct. Sttll, he knew tt uras legally OK, so he dld the necessary research and sent me the forms
to c.omplete.
New Hampshlre's appllcatlon looks ovenrrhelming when taken as a totali$r,
but once lt ls broken down lnto segments is really falrly stmple and does make
it
sense. In retrospecl I canunderstand how thev rvanted at least an idea of what I was plairnfrg to teach (why are we so reluctant to share our dreams with officials?) and it
did gtve me an opportunity to outline what I planned to accompllsh with each of my chtldren over the year, somethlng I really did beneflt from, though I would not have done lt lf the chotcc were left to me. I was then asked to have a conference wtth the pdnctpals of my chtldren's grade levels. Both were lnterested ln and lmpressed wtth my plans and offered their full support ln any way I could think of. I used a currlculum and was able to show them achral books I would be using, Both said they could not beat it. I also had to meet with the school board, and that too was something I had dreaded but whtch turned out to be a great deal of fun. Yes, I actually enJoyed tt. They were very lnterested tn why I would want to homeschool (most Parents want to get rtd of thetr ktds). They requested that someone from each school come out to vlslt our home at least once every nine weeks (vrtth advanc'e notic.e). I think thts was the dlstrict's requlrement, not the state's, and I probably could have fought tt, but I chose not to. A.s lt was, they nwer came to vlsit beficre we moved to Florida ln January. The school distrlct asstgped each of my children a teacher in his correspondtng lrade level and they took the Iowa Baslcs Test with their classes (again, the districfs requlrement, but one I think I could have gotten around rf I had chosen to). The lidds were also tncluded In fteld trtps and other fun actlvifles, and were free to pardcipate in sPorts activlties, band, etc. We returned to Florida ln the middle of the year, where we finished out the year as homeschoolers. We were living way out ln the country, and thls year the older ones in particular wanted to return to school to be with and make new frlends' I stlll consider myself a homeschooler and antlclpate posstbly homeschoollng agatn some tlme down the road. Each time I put the chtldren back ln school, I spoke with each teacher after a few weeks and recelved nothing but excel-
lent reports on thelr soclallzatlon and
academlc acc,omplishments. In fact, serreral of the teachers had real praise for the homeschoohng we had done. One teacher said she would do it herself lf she thought she could get such good results. I have come to bellerre that tf homeschoolers approach those fur authortt5r ln a @urteous, non-mllltant arrd non-sarcastic manner, we rea$r have nothtng to fear. I do know that there are some very uncooperaflve people in the school system, Just as there are ln all walks of Me, but I really have come to see that "a soft answer turneth away wrath.' If we are courteous concemtng thelr reallstic (to them) doubts, we will be laying the groundwork for a softening on thelr part. Then, tf we truly do have to stand up for what ts legally ours, we wil nnd ourselves ln a better posldon to do so.
RESOURCES & RECOMMENDATIONS SOURCE OF TEXTBOOIG Carla Emery writes that TEXTBOOKS Frf,R PARENTS (Box 2O9, Kendrick
ID
83532 is back in business after being on hold for serreral years. TEXTBOOKS FOR PARENTS offers new textbooks from over forty publlshers, and the free catalog (SASE apprectated) helps you â&#x201A;Źrnswer quesdons about which materials you want. Carla says that tt is very diltcult for her to obtaln new stock durlng the summer months, so she encourages those interested in textbooks for the fall to order them soon.
ART MAGAZINE KIDSARTNEWS (PO Box 274,Mt Shasta CA 96O67; 9l6-926,-ffi76) is available for $8 a year, and lncludes articles about artlsts, suggested activities, and a
color prtnt of a different work of art ln each tssue. Artlcles ln the latest lssue lnclude, 'The Art of the Sketchbook," 'The Notebooks of leonardo da Vlncl,' and 'Creating Your Own Cartoon Character.'
TRY LARGE-PRINT BOOKS F)om Karen Jrckson (FI): Gweneth (lO) has wanted to read books by Charles Dickens for two years but has been put offevery time we got the books at the library because the print was tlny and her eyee Just couldn't cope wtth it. We ftnally carne upon the idea of borowing the large-prlnt editions of the books
from the state libraqr. Library stalf admttted that many others, includtng librarians, often borrow the large-print editlons because they are easier to read.
PLAYS & BRAILLE BOOKS Jill Bastlan (MI) recommends
Plays
rnagazlne, whdch publishes one-act plays foryoung people (Plays, Inc., l2O Boylston St, Boston MA 02l 16), and SEEDLINGS, a catalog of Braille books for chtldren. She says, "I volunteer to type books ireto our
computer whtch are converted to Braille for this new, llttle non-profit business." Maybe others would llke to do this, or see what Bratlle is llke. 8447 Naqrgrove Dr, Detrolt Nil 4a221.
ABOUT SIBLING RIVALRY Nancy Lotzer ffi recommends IIe Flit
Me Ftrst by Loulse Bates Ames (Dembner Books), saying, 'Thls is a great book about the fighting and btckering that goes on in every home betwecn brothers and sisters. At tlmes it feels as though the author must
have been sitttng tn our llvlng room while she wrote this book."
Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taughl -
WinstonChurchill
GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
I3
THOUGHTS ABOUT MATH retired math teacher, for the right formula to solve it. Our answers are always approdmate, slnce we round numbers olf
REVELS IN NUMBERS F}om Juiie
lngd
(CA):
a lot as we go, and trSr to focus on the
Charlte ( ) has always ltked numbers. I'm good at math but dlstrust tL Charlle revels ln numbers. When he was tirry, he used to run around the hous'e shouting "Wahl" Much later, when he became
c.omprehenslble, we reaLzed that he was countin6l, but could only c-ount up to one. As soon as he could put together twoword sentences he'd count thlngs, tlds
tlme up to two. "One ltghtl' TWo peoplel" -TWo baby-goatl One mommy-goatl' For a couple ofyears, he seemed to be content
with thls. Then recently, when hls fourth btrthday was condng up, he dectded that
four year olds ought to know how to count. He began asldng me to ldenti$ every number he saw. We'd be drtvlng ln the car, and hed ask, "Mom, what's a one and a four and a slx and a three and a zero and a one?" '146,301,' I'd say. (I'm pretty good at thls, now.) He asked me to count up to lOO, over and over agatn. Charlte doesn't llke to stng or chant, so he d nwer Jotn ln or attempt to flll tn tf I suddenly petered out to make a left tum or sometJrlng. But after a few weeks, he d yell at me from where he was playlng with his trains, 'Morn what comes after 79?' and ld know hed been counting to blmself. He's counted for me a few dmes recently, and although he gets mlxed up ln the teens, he can get to IOO quickly and accurately. Occasionally he demonstrates to me that he adds small amounts as a matter of course. He'll say, 'I'm gonna draw eight turblnes on thls plane, four on one wlng and four on the other. No, walt. I'll put two on each wtng and two on the tatl and two on the nose, lsn't that ridlculous?" I hope he nerrer finds out that thls ls supposed to be dtlftcult. Nolrr he ls worldng on really blg numbers. 'Mom, you know how many I love you?' "No, hon/?' "A googoll A googoldy thousandy slxty llve eleven two thousandl" I can't wait to see where thls leads.
CRAZY QUESTTONS Ftom Katltleen Phnkett-Black
NV0:
One of the things we enjoy dotng ts fignrtng out the answers to crazy and 'lrrelevant' questlons that come up, often at mealtlmes, so the litds can see us dotng math Just for the fun of it. 'How many peas would lt take to flll up thls whole table and the spacr under the table?" Chrtstopher (5) asked one day last summer as we were radonlng out the small first hanrest of fresh peas. "Well, how btg is one pea?'we asked, and wtth that and the slze of the table to work wlth, we carne up wlth about56,O00 peas. "How btg rvould a tape measure long enough to reach from here to Pepln (lO mtles away) be lf tt was r,olled up?" Lortn (8) asked one mornJn6l, and got to see us both get tnterested and challenged by the
problem, tqr varlous ways of looklng for the answer, get frustrated when they dtdn't worh and ftnally write to my mother, a GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
problem-solving process rather than the arithmedc. Another advantage ls that Bryce (thetr father) and I usually use dlfferent methods to get the solutrons, so the chlldren get to see that there lsn't only one way to do tt.
TEACHING HIMSELF ARITH. METIC F-rom
Maggle Sadowag (MA):
When my son Solon was 3 or 4 and I was flrst reading letters ln GWS from parents whose chlldren had taught themselves arithmetic, I was highly skepfical. 'These parents are exaggerattng,' I would thlnk to myself. "Certatnly some chlldren teach themselves to read,
but what child would reinvent multiplicaflon tables or flgure out borrowing and
carrying?' But the process was already well underway in my o\un house. Solon, now nearly 9, has continued to be as fascinated with numbers as he was when I wrote about htm in GWS #48. He has definitely
taught himself arithmedc with very little help from anyone. From time to time I enJoy rereading
Nanry Wallace's thought-provoktng
article, 'Why Study Math" (GWS #54). Whlle music mysdfles me as math does her, I am very good at compllcated basic arlthmetic and rate trigonometrlr as my liavorite trigh school subJect. Nancy's son Ishmael's main passion ls muslc; my son ls passlonate about numbers. Although lt ls not obvlous that he 'pracflces" arlthmetc several hours a day as Nancy's children do muslc, I see many slgns that he constantly views the world through a fllter of numerlcal relatlonships. No one has taught him to do that; as he has gradually shown me, we llve ln such a number-rich world that any child whose lnterest ls sparked can find lnterestlng problems to solve all day long, Just as Solon has done. Here are some of my favorite examples: (Age 5): Solon ls playtng a game wlth some soup cans at the natural foods store we own. I watch closely without him notlclng me. 'Slx take away one" (he slides one can to the other side of the shell) "leaves flve. Five take away one (sltde) leaves four." At'one take away one' there ls a long pause. I struggle not to say, 'But l-l?' It ls one of my proudest moments as a parent that I say
you know thatl What's
nothing. A moment later I get my reward: a glimpse of how exctting numbers are to hlm. 'One take away one'- dramatic pause followed by a rich, trtumphant shout - 'leaves ONE MILLION, the curtain rlses and the show beglns againl" (Age 6, traveling in Greece): "Tlckets are lO drachmas each and there are 4 ofus so that's 4O drs. And ifeach ofthe 3 ofyou makes 2 round trips wlth me on thls little f..ry (" 3-rnlnute ride between island and mainland) I'll get to go 12 tlmes.' 'I made up a game where only a quarter of the people speak Engltsh, so a quarter and a
half speak Greek."
(Age 6, unsollcited comments while llstening to stories): "Slnce lt takes 2 hours to fill one, they could fill 5 in lO
hours.' 'lforanges are 5 for lO pence, they cost 2 pence each." 'You say lt's five rnlnutes to eleven? I say lO:55." (Age ?: "Thls costs $2.75 at half price so I Just ftgured out it used to cost $5.5O.' 'Mom, lf 4 people tn the class you teach each pay you $5O and you get to keep threequarters of the money, you'd have $15O. That's easv for me to do ln mv head.- 'Can I have 6 $tato pancakes? Tliere're only 9 for the three of us? (He continues without the sllghtest pause.) "OK, so you and Jack can each have I l/2.' (Age 8): "Mom, did you know that when there are 4 people, like you, me, and the two kittens, that you can make six arrangements? There's you and me, you and Fudge, you and Caramel, me and F\dge, me and Caramel, and F\rdge and Caramel.- After the light was out one night, I heard Solon ask hlmself, 'How rnany tens would there be in a million? I know there are 1OOO thousands, so there'd be IO,OOO hundreds, IOO,OOO tens and a million ones. That means there'd be half a mfllion twos, a thlrd of a million threes, a quarter of a million fours, a fifth of a milllon fives and a sixth of a million sixes.' The only time Solon wrltes numbers
down ls for phone numbers and keeping score in games. He rarely uses a calculator and never does hls figuring on paper - I'm not sure he knows how He has never used textbooks, flashcards, or worksheets, and we hardly ever suggest problems for him to figure out. For a while he was an avid fan of '3-2- I Contact' and "Square One," two TV programs with lots of arithmeilc. Because of the way he works, I have very little useful lnformaton about how he has
actually learned all this arithmeflc. But come to thtnk of lt, I have little
useful informatlon about how he's learned most of the mlllion and one thtngs he knows. How did he learn to walk? How does he remember the names of at least
fifty transformers? Why dtd he know how to tle his shoes one Monday morning when he'd been totally frustrated in his attempts only the day before? I think we do young people a great fuxjustice by constantly underestimating how enormously intelhgent and capable thry are, howeager they are to learn all they possibly can, how hard they're wilItng to work to knowJust one more thtng, how easy it usually is for them to learn almost anything they're genuinely interested in. We notice that adults have much more lnformatlon about the world, and somehow think this means children aren't as smart. Confusing knowledge and intelllgence in this way leads us into crossing that ever so fine line between rlghtfuUy admtring competenry in anyone of any age, and being se:dst {'She's a good mechanic for a woman') or adultist ("For a 6 year old you sune are good at that,") I fully understand why Solon loathes our customers who tell htm, usually tn a sappy tone of voice, "Oooh, you must be really smart to run a cash
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register at your age.' tve also noticed that we tend to be most surprlsed about what children have been able to learn when they master somethlng ttrat most peoPle think of as belng dilncult (whether tt really is or not) orwhere we ourselves have been made to feel stuptd or bad about ourselnes. Ttrus we calmly aooept that chtldren know hour to us€ telephones or t)pewrlters but are astontshed when they ftgure out how to add tu/o-dfft numbers on thelr own or work a cumputer. I am reluctant to ask Solon manY quesflons about hls methods of dotng
artthmeuc for fear of tamperlng wtth his elegant system of teachtng htmself. I do know tlrat he's had lots of experlence with monery: at our stor€, wtth hts personal purchases and bank account, and through hls trvlce-a-year used toy sales where he
regularly takes tra over $l0o. (tle keeps track of the odgtnal prtce he pays for toys, adds on the sales tax he pald, subtracts 4096 rvlth a calculator, then rounds ofrthe answers to ffnd the amount he wants to sell them for,) I also know that he sees us use numbers a lot and that he's nerrcrbeen gfiren reason to thlnk arithmedc fs hard or beyond hlm. Onc.e ln a wtrlle, because he knows I'm fueterested, he'll share wlth me how he's gotten a certaln answer. A few eramples: '600 drachrias must be $4 because 3OO drs ts $2.' "9 + 7. Nine ls 2 more than 7. So put I on the 7, that's 8 + 8 =16.'"Flve l5's are 75? O}r, yes, of course, because 2O ffves are IOO and flve 5's less would be 75.' Solon's days are full of a varlety of thtngs he enjoys: frlends, art, computers,
bllre, swimmfng, many toys and constnrcdon sets, betng read to, u/rfdng stories and poems, shrdylng maps and turnptke toll cards, etc. As far as I know, he never categorlzes hls acttvltles by thlnldng of them as geography or arithrpdc or astronomy. I don t thtnk he nodces that he's lood at arlthmetlc any hds
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more than he thrnks about how competent he ls at breathfng or speaklng Engbsh. If he were asked to name hts ctrtef lnterests, tt'e unltkely that he nrculd erren mendon numbers. They are stmPly a very lnteresttng but taken-for-gianted ptece of tris ltfe, llke the slqr above and the ground below. In one way I uns rtght to scollat the idea of ctrlldren teachlng themselves artthmetic, but only because I sornehow assumed they would sttll learn tt tn the way tfs presented tn school, wtth lots of strange nrles and borlng drtlls. Chlldren who teach themselrrcs to read alnost certalnly don't do tt by saylng thlngs ltke, "kfs see, the sllent e on the end of thls word makes the vourel say lts name,' nor do chtldren teach themseh'es to mulUply by retnventtng the multipllcatlon tables before they start. Solon can eastly add numbers such as 47 +58, but he doesn't do lt the 'proper' uray, (Errcn the proper way depends on what year you wene born or what culture you llve tn. Solon has dlscovered ltis much easter to add 29 + 48 tf you thtnk of lt as 3O + 50 rrlnus the 3 you lust added on. In Greece I hanrc seen LhtHren taught that rnethod ln school but as far as I know it ls not common ln thls country.) Solon solves problems by ustng a system he's ftgured out for b'imself, one that truly makes sense to hlrn My guess ls that h the process he's made hls knowledge about numbers hls own, a lrcrrranent part of hts ltfe, ln a way that would be the enr5r of any school Program. Perhaps most tmportant of all, he not
only thoroughly enJoys himself as he
Ilgures all thts out, but gets to feel proud and pleased about htmself at the same ttme - the very best foundatlon there ls for ever more learntng,
GOOD USE OF A TEXTBOOK Susan Rtcfunan wrcte tn tlv sPrhg
issne ojl Permsglt:lonla, Honeschders:
A fewweeks ago Jesse (lO) noflced that the next secflon ln the math textbook we use wan on readlng dtlferent types of S5aphs, somethlng that has alurays been easy for hirn He satd rtght olf, "Oh, I know they always have readtrg graPhs on achlevement tests,' mcantng that he wanted to work on them a blt so that hed be all set for thts year's test. But the graphs tur the bookwere so turdpfd, so downrtght stupld - graphs of how tmaglnary students tn a flfth grade cLass gotlo sc-hool (btcycle, walk or bus)' Crapha of the favortte colors of llfth and sixtli grade shrdents, and so on. I reallzed that we didn't have to feel bound to worldng wtth these contrtrrcd graphs. Jesse could make h,ts own on a toptc of lnterest to htm. He could graph somethtng he wanted to llnd out about, and possibly see how graphs are actually useful ln sorttng out teforrnadon. That same day we somehow stumbled onto the Almanac and began rummaging through lt, somethlng both Jess€ and hls brother Jacob really enJoy. I can't even remember nout qulte how tt got started, but soon we were looHng for answers to questlonswe had about the U.S. Census, and then Jesse was portng over all the charts and tables about populatton growth ln the U.S. Much more complex chart
r€adfng here t}an hls math text olfered and here we knew the statlstlcs nrere r€al. (We have our doubts about the accuracy of rnath book problems; sometlmes nrc\rc felt burned when we'rrc found that thea statisflcs urcre totalbr made-up and
phony.) I told Jeese ttnt hts challenge was to use any of the lnformation he found tn the Alrnanac to make hls own bar graph. He chose to show tlre changes of populatlon in the odgfnal tlrlrteen states from l79O (the tirne ofthe {lrst census) to l9OO. In an hour hewas done - and proudl I think he leamed much rnore than hewould have had he shrdtously completed the textbook
chapteron gaphing. He had to declpher charts and tables of staflsflcs, and sort out what krformaflon was relevant to hls chosen toplc, Then he had to declde on a format to use - where to llst the states, where to llst the populaflons, horv to differenttate between the l79O and l9OO statlsdcs, how to set a reasonable scale. Ttre rrrost rraluable lesson came as he
was actuall1r fllltng tn the blocks wtth yellow and blue. He began realtzlng wtth excltement how a graph redly sloros lnforroaflon ln a new way. As Jacob said whlle uratchlng tt all, iJust readtng tt in a table tn the Almanac doesn't let you see it all at once.' The graph garre Jesse a plcture
(fsnt that what 'graph" means, anywalr?) of hls results, and he marveled over his new flndlngs for a good whtle. 'Hey, look, you can Just see that New York rcally took ofr, but Vlrgtnia sure lost tts placr as number one,'and 'Nowyou can see why I needed to go all tlre way up to seven
mtllton.'
Jesse has now made several rrpre graphs, all wtth the same enthuslasm. Hes graphed the populatlon growth of Pennsylvanla from l79O to the present, and then Georgtas and Floddas gowth, careful to use the same scale as he us€d for Pennsylvanla so he could rea\r compa.re results. He's pored over these growth curyes wtth a hlstorlan's eye, wonderlng why certaln tlmes saw laqge boosts tn
populatlon why at other times grrowth slourcd dowrr. He also made avery useful graPh of nenr and renewal subscrlpfions for
Permsytwnta Homesclwlers, usfur! data
collected over the last two years. He already handles the checldng account deposits, so thts was a natural for hlm. Now, tn all honesty, I probablY wouldn't harrc thought of the idea of sug4lestlng thatJesse make hls own graphs tf there hadn't been that graPhfng untt tr the textbook, That was the good use of tlre book. It got an tdea going. I'm $ad we let the textbook be a leaping off place, not a swamp to traP us lnto llstless, endless mlndlessness.
For more about math, see Aaron Falbel's 'The Mathematics of the Ordinary," page 19 of this lssue.
Our catalog also llsts several books about both mathematlcs and arlthmettc.
GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
JOHN HOLT'S
BOOK AIYD MUSIC STORE REAL PEOPLE, REAL LETTERS, REAL HISTORY MEMOIRS OF A MEDIEVAL WOIUAN By Louise Collis #474 $7.95 The Booke oJMargery Kempewas dlscovered ln 1934 in a country house in Yorkshtre. Dlctated about 1438 - whtch makes lt the earltest autoblography wrttten tn En$ish - lt ls the story of a remarkable woman. A mayor's daughter, she marrled, had fourteen children, went lnto buslness flrst as a brewer and then as a mlller, then completely aban-
doned her family for an incredible career as a spirltual adventurer. A shrewd and worldly woman tn many respects, the illiterate Margery made headway among the rellgious of her tlme wlth her 'plentyuows teerys and many boystows sobbyngls.' Occaslonally accused of heresy when she overdid lt, she perfected her faltffLil performance durtng a pilgrimage to Jemsalem which she narrowly survlved, and considered herself well launched on the path to salnthood. There was no turnfng back, and the remainder of her life conslsted of varlous other pilgrimages until in old age, "wtth swoons, wtth horrible roarings, cryings and shriekings." she dictated what is the most vivtd, detatled and colorful picture of life ire medieval En$and one could tmagine. lntending to skim through, I gave up at Chapter One and had to read the book aloud to the entlre famfly, who loved it. With all her adventures and the rich detail, the sotry would make delicious fiction, but tt ls real, and Collis fills in Just enough of Ume and place to let us see Margery's surroundtngs as her contemporaries saw them. In the end, alas, Margery Burnham Kempe comes across as nothing like a salnt, but for what she was - the eyes and ears of medleval life tn England. Authentic history ls sometlmes moving, sometlmes hllarlous, always enJoyable, and Memotrs oJ a Medteual Woman ls one of the finest pleces of authenttc hlstory IVe ever read. I highly recommend it. Kent
-D.L.
LETTERS OF A WOITIAN HOMESTEADER by Elinore Pruitt Stewart #432 $7.95 Thts book was not lntended to be a book at all. It ls a collectlon of letters Eltnore Pn:ttt Stewart wrote
to her friend and former employer tn Denver, CO about her homesteadtng experiences in Burnt Fork. WyomIrg, circa 1909. Elinore is a natural storyteller. a lover of nature. and a wonderful wrtter who, despite her own conslderable mlsfortunes, flnds deUght in the world. She seems to be open to everythfng that can happen, relaUng ln humorous and touching detatl the weddtngs, deaths, births, and adventures she encounters. The author's engaghg personality comes through tn every page; because thls ts a book of letters I was soon struck by the sensatlon that this author was talldng to me personally. When her husband is ldlled ln a rallroad acctdent, Ellnore Pruitt travels west to seek work to support herself and her two-year-old daughter, Jerrine. After worldng as a housecleaner and laundress ln Denver, she decldes to move on to btgger things. She accepts employment wlth a well-to-do Scotch cattleman. Mr. Stewart, and moves to Wyomhg. Once there she files a clalm for her own homestead, and settles lt. At thts polret we get a vtvtd picture of her life ln the West, and clearly women dtd more than ratse chrildren and keep house! Several
Holt'a Boston. I\4AO2l 16
months after starting herJob for Mr. Stewart, Elinore and her daughter take thetr first vacation: she packs a gun, a horse, and some provlsions and heads for the mountains: I wish you could once sleep on the klred of bed we enJoyed that night. It was both soft and ffrm, with the clean, spicy smell of the pine. The heat from ourbig ffre came tn and we were warrn as toast. It was so good to
stretch out and rest. I kept thinking how superlor I was slnce I dared to take such an outingwhen so many poorwomen down in Denver were bent on making thetr twenty cents per hour in order that they could spare a quarter to go to the "show." l went to sleep with a powerfirlly self-satislied feeling, but I awoke to realZe that pride goeth before a fall... ...Such a snowstorm I never sawl The snow had pressed the branches down lourer, hence mybumped head lwhen I awoke]... I began to thturk how many ldnds of idtot I was. Here I was thlrty or forty miles from home, in the mountafurs where no one goes in the winter and where I knew the snow got to be ten or flfteen feet deep. But I could never sâ&#x201A;Źe the good of moping, so I got up and got breakfast while Baby put her shoes on. We had squirrels and more baked potatoes and I had dehcious black coffee...
Eltnore decides she must hunt for some food for the day, and leaves Jerrlne alone at the camp, cheerily playlng wtth a towel rolled lnto a baby. On her hunt she spots smoke from another camp and decides to get herself and Jerrine to tlrts camp ln a hurry. Once there, she meets Zebulon Plke, a mountain man, who wentually warms up to hls newfound company and serenades them wlth hris selftaught fiddle tunes. Ellnore meets many people like thts, by chance, or through loosely planned vislts. The hospttallty wlth which she and some of the other people tn the book greet people ls amazing. Food, shelter. and conversatlon are all readily avatlable to strangers ln Ellnore's home, and sudden vlslts brought on by emergency or circumstance are greeted wlth acceptance, tf not downrtght good cheer. What's parttcularly uptfting about tltis book ls Ellnore's atUtude towards ltfe. Whlle the lsolaUon she and her famtly someilmes endured seems severe to our modern eyes, Elinore ts a model of how to enJoy one's own company. She is constantly open to challenge and tnnovaUon ("I found that I could make catchup, as dellcious as that of tomatoes, of gooseberries."), and when you read about her envtronment you realize how vital thts ablllty needs to be to enJoy betr:g a homesteader. She wrttes at the end of her last letter tn the collecUon: I have trled every ldnd of work thts ranch affords, and I can do any ofit. ofcounse I am extra strong, but those who try know that
strength and knowledge come wtth dolng. I Just love to experlment, to work, and to prove out thlngs, so that ranch ltfe and'roughfng lt"Just sult me.
Thls ts so much more t}tan hlstory, so much more than llterature; lt ts a trre sllce of ltfe that nourlshes the reader on many levels. In another htstory book that we sell, A SampW OJLtfesfuIes (#680 $7.95). the authorvrrltes tlrts about 17th Century women, and I thtnk lt aptly appltes to Ellnore Stewart's account of her ltfe ln the 20th century: Ltterary and romantlc noUons of the helpless female, dtmly subJect to male domlnatton, and a legal nonenUt5l prove to beJust that noflons - when the storles of real women who helped make thts countrlr become known..
-Pablck
Farenga
LETTERS HOME by Britt Barker. #431$4.50
Throughout Letters Home, Brttt Barker often laments the fnabilfty of words to convey what she ts orperlenctng. I know the feeltr:g. and yet tn ttrls serles of newspaper columns that Brltt has wrltten about her apprenttceship situations and traveltng adventures. the descrlpdons are as vlvld. as close to the actual o,perlence, as they can be, whlch ls lucky for her readers. TFavellng wlth Britt, we can practtcally taste the Itallan gelato she ls eatlng, hear the howls of the wolves she ls tracldng. see the peaks of the Swtss Alps as she takes one last look at them before falltng asleep. Above all, we can feel her excltement as the pursuit of the work she loves (btologr and muslc) takes her tnto challengtng and sUmulattng sltuattons, often far from her home tn Ohlo. GWS readers wil already be famlllar wlth some of the details of Britt's experlences. because she and her mother have wrltten about them here on several occaslons. Letters Home beglns wlth Brltt's apprenticeshtp lro Canada. contlnues through a famfly camptng trlp, and then goes wlth her to Europe, flrst on the wolf-tracking proJect h Italy and then to her lndependent travels tn other countrles. Brltt explores the apprenttceshtp model (whlch we discuss lr: greater depth tn thls tssue of GWS) ln several ways, sometlmes tn arrangements ln which her role as apprenUce ts clearly deflned, someUmes ln tnformal exchanges wtth people she meets durtng the course of her travels. Here ls Brftt right ire the mtddle of tracldng wolves tn ltaly, havtng found exactly the ldnd of experience she had hoped the proJect would olfer: It was thrflfng to be ln such close contact.
John Holt'g
to be actually communicating with our wild brothers. I felt so close to these creatures, truly our ldn, as thetr howlings echoed through the mountahs. Agaxt Paolo lBrttfs colleaguel howled though never elqpecting an answer the second Ume. To our astonlshment, the wolves answered agah, their long drawn out walls even more eager than before. For at least five minutes they sang, the sounds ft[ing my soul with awe and an lndescrlbable feeltng of closeness with the wild that crept throughout my body, brlnging tears to my eyes. As the howls ftrally dfed away, the last echoes drtfUng away tnto the mountalns, a brllltant meteor soared across the slry. An owl began to call - long, loud reverberatlng calls lnto the nlght... the moment was maglcal. Letters Home indirectly anslvers quesUons about how homeschooled teenagers can move lnto the world beyond thetr home and tmmediate communlty, and how young people can flnd work worth dotng. I can't help wtshtrg that for thts collecUon Britt had gtven a little more lnformatlon about her life before this book beglns, and perhaps about homeschoollng ln generd, to g[ve less famlliar readers some background and context. Knowtng that Brttt's travels and apprenticeshtps are a continuation of her nontraditlonal educaUon and approach to life and work helps us appreclate the signlflcance of her story, and helps other homeschoolers use aspects of her experience as models for themselves. b: fact, what Brttt has to say about flndlng and pursutng meaningful work has relevance for all young people, homeschooled or not. Even tf we occaslonally have to offer a btt of background or explanaUon when we show thls collecUon to others. lefs do all we can to pass tt around and make Brltt's example avallable. Susannah Sheffer
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MORE FIRST IIAIIID ACCOT'NTS OF OUR HERITAGE DIARY OF AN EARLY AMERICAI{ BOY,
small farm ln the early l80o's. Many beautlful pen and xnk drawlngs. #244$5.95. ISHI IN TwO WORLDS. Theodora l(roeber. ln 1911 the last Callfornta Indian to cltng to Stone Age ways went to llve at a clty museum. His gentle, dlgnllled deallngs wtth modern llfe make fasclnaUng hlstory not taught ln school. #39O $9.95 A SAMPLER OF LIEESTYLES, Mary Bakke. A record of women and men tn pre-I800 New Dr$and, collected from diaries, papers, and other prlmary sources. #680$7.95 THIS IS THT WAY IT USED TO BI IN THE EARLY 19OO's, MarJorte Launence. A deltghtful example of the ktnd of ltlstory we llke: how ordtnary people lived thelr dally llves. The author wrltes as lf telltng her memorles to children - ldeal for reading aloud. #760 $4.50 WOMEN OF TEE WEST, Cathy Luchetfl. Eleven ptoneer women's tates (f83O-f 91O), told through thetr letters, dlarles, and photos. A great vlew ofa . #844 $17.00
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John Holt'a Boston, MAO2I 16
GREAr NORTHERN?
IN MEMORIAM
by Arthur Ransome #316 $4.95
For many years we have been selltng books by and
writing about the ideas of Dr. Robert S. Mendelsohn. We
This is the last book in the wonderful Suollorls and Amaznns series we import from England, and the only comfort I know to assuage the sadness one feels at reaching the end is to start over again with the first book and reread them all. Cheerfirl and intrepid Nancy, motherly Susan, spunky tf forgetful Roger, and all the rest - how well we come to know these children and long to know about their new adventures. I wish I had read them as a child; I think I would be a different person. It certatnly was a regret of my mother's that I never would read them, as they had been her favorites. She spent all her summers on a lake ln lowa, satllng boats and playing pirates with the netghbor boys, and now that I know the series I can certalnly see how important and lnfluential they were for her. (As I sald trr GWS #51, I found Chapter I of the flrst book hard to read - I wtsh I had gone on to Chapter 2, I would have been hookedt) ln Great Northern?, the elght children of the earller books are together with the Blackett's Uncle Jim ("Captain Flintl on a sailing voyage along the coast of Scotland. Dick, who has a passion for birds, discovers a rare bird's nest, and, in his attempt to veriff what he saw, tells a blrd expert about it who turns out to be an egg collector. For the rest of the book, the children work desperately to prevent the collector from ffnding the nest while still allowing Dick to photograph it. I am always lmpressed with the way these books mingle fantasy and reality. It is the chlldren's love of adventure stories that causes them to go out and have adventures. Sometimes not much "really" happens and yet they have material for more fantasies; other times they are drawn furto real discoveries and even danger. Or to exhaustlng hard work which they embrace because lt was their own idea. I also am frequently struck by the good relattons among the children. These children were only together dudng vacations - even many of the siblings would have attended different boarding schools. Why ts there no squabbling? Did the children feel they had to make the most of this precious time together? Did the ldnd of free outdoor play they engaged ln, away from parents and schools, allow for indtvidual differences wlthout frlcUon? Orwas Ransome inaccurate, was he romanticizing the way children are? In the 1920's and 3O's he w"rltes of. and tn trls own childhood (tum of the century), did children behave differently than they do in postwar Amerlca? The famtltes ln the E. Nesblt books get along well tn the same manner the older ones look after the younger ones, and although there may be some exasperatlon or inattention, there ls not the constant llghting that so many of us expect these days.
Sometlmes we have had trouble gettlng these books from England, but we have plent5r tn stock rlght now, and I advise any of you who have been thinlidng of completlng your sets to act now. One never knows when they wlll go out of prtnt agatn, and furthermore we have had to cut some wonderful children's books from our catalog because
have recently learned of tris death on April b, lg88 and are deeply saddened by thts loss. John Holt was a great admirer of Dr. Mendelsohn's work. When John was tn a hospital in lllinots betng treated for cancer he asked me to set up a meetlng for trim with Dr. Mendelsohn. I was able to reach Dr. Mendelsohn at home and speak to htm dlrectly with one phone call - such accessibilit5r, espectally for a doctor and publtc llgure, ls amazlng - and to my dellght he was as btg a fan of John's work as John was of hls. The meettngJohn had at Mendelsohn's home buoyed hts sptrtts tremendously tt was clear that not only could Dr. Mendelsohn be compasslonate and knowledgable in hts writtng but, most tmportantly, he was that way ln person.
The newsletter Dr. Mendelsohn founded, The Paple's Doctor (PO Box 982, Evanston IL 60204), will carry on hts
work and contlnue pubhshing lts tmportant tnformaflon about modern mdedlclne. In our small way, we wlll help to continue Dr. Mendelsohn's work by selltng and promotng his books: Coryless&cns of a Medlcal Hetettc #222 V.95 and How To Ralse a Healthy Chtld....In Spfte oJYour futor _P.F. 95.
A
MUSICAL LETTER
...I am deeply honored to see the three Portra{tsbooks [$a.SO each: set of 3 $12.50) included inyourcatalog, and I do hope that many homeschoolers wlll try
them. As Mr. Farenga mentloned ltn the revlew of Portralts, GWS 621, I am a homeschooling father (of Jolte, 8; Jemma, 3), and wlll be dellghted to answer any homeschoolers who wrtte me wtth questlons about the pleces, or about muslc ln general. Sometlmes young students especlally are amazed to ffnd out that composers are real people...ltke the young boy who sald, 'You're a composer?t I thought you had to be dead to be a composerl" .John Lampliln
59 Rt. 306
Suffern. t{Y lO9Ol of low sales. I don't want that to happen to thts serles. A final note - some of you may wonder about two books we do not sell, PeterDuckand Mtsw Le, whlch sound like part of the Srvallows serles. They are really qulte dtlferent. They are like the llnd of adventure storles the Swallows
children like to tell - fantasles about meeting plrates, for example - not reahsilc storles. We don't care for them, though some ofyou may. Her.e are the ones we carry, tn chronologtcal order: Sunllow s antd. Amazons, $4.95 Sutatloutda.Ie $+.gs Whder Holtday $4.e5 We Didn'tMeanTo Go ?b Sa $4.95
Plgeon Post Secret Water
Tte
Plcts And'171e
Martyrs
$4.95 $4.e5 $+.gS
-DonnaRlchoux Edtted & Deslgned by Pat Farenga
l9
FOCUS: THE APPRENTICESHIP MODEL THE MATHEMATICS OF THE ORDINARY Ftom Aaron Falbr;l ("l-eatnW a New Language," GWS *59): One of the things that has become palnfully obvious to me, over the past few years I have spent working witJl Se5rmour Papert (author of Mlndstonns) at MIT, ls t}le enormous dtlference between the type of mathemadcs folsted on chlldren in schools and the sort of lntellectual acdvlty enJoyed by actual mathemaflclans. School math ts basically a dead subJect, containlng ossified, decontextuallzed facts and symbol manlpulation techniques that are, by themselves, nelther much fun nor very useful. One has to wonder whether most schoolchildren grow up belieuing that mathematicians sit around all day doing word problems and long dlvlsion exerclsesl What is lt that mathematicians do, if not this? They wonder about tlle world. They are particularly sensidve to pattems or regiularities they obsewe, and they make conJectures based on them - or as I like to say, they 'have hunches.'Then they try to find out whether or not their conJectures make sense by constructing arguments (called proofs) using already-proven ideas (called theorems) or agreed-upon delinidons and assumptions (called axioms or postulates), piectng these elements together according to the rules of deducUve logic to demonstrate that their conjechrre "follows' from what ls already known, or, alternatively, that one encounters a contradicdon. This is not qulte as straightforward as lt sounds. Mathematicians are constantly ln danger of taklng a rnisstep and falling into the trap of maldng unwananted assumpflons, using faulty Iogic, orJust "getttng stuck' and not knowing qulte where to tum. Much of what guides mathemadclans in their work can only be called tntuldon or aesthetics, maldng mathematlcs a truly creadve, human acttvtty like any other. Other mathematlclans are constantly looktng out for flaws in each others'reasonlng, trying to avoid pitfalls, or, when they occur, picktng each other up out of self-dug holes they have fallen into. In a way, constructing a mathematical argument is like building a house of cards. One mlsplaced card can cause the whole butlding to come tumbling down. When asked to define'mathematics,' many mathematicians mlght say, "Mathematics is what ls contained ln all those books over there." Thds sort of definltion makes mathematics lnto a thing, nearly a commodi$r, or at any rate some type of str4ff I am taktng a different tack in sa5dng that mathemadcs ls a human ertdeansor - it's what mathematlcians do, The stuff that ends up in the textbooks is the result of their work. Moreover, the ability to understand the formallsms of mathematics (the stuff in the books) does not make one a mathematician any more than the abtltty to read musical notation (the dots and lines) makes one a musiclan. Both mathematlcs and muslc are activittes. One does mathematics. One malces music. As John Holt argued ln lr:stead. oJ Ed'ucattorl academlc disciplines ought to be thought of not as nouns but as verbs. 'A mathematiclan," wrote G.H. Hardy (trimself one), 'like a palnter or poet is a master of pattern.' This statement, which so well captures what doing mathemadcs meErns, provides the key to seelng matl..ematics not as an esoterlc activity, but as an ordinaqr one. We are ever5rwhere surrounded by pattern; patterns ofshape, of motion, of language, of behavior, of sound, of history.,. of practically anything that has Jorm of one sort or another. The act of perceiving, recognizing,^ classtrying, describin6i, capturlng, analyzing, mulling over, or playtng wlth pattems involves a t5rpe of formal thtnldng that lies at the heart of the mathemaflcs of the
ordinary. I have for a long tlme been meaning to reply to Nanry Wallace's provocative "Why Study Math?' in GWS #54. I want to quesuon Nancy's and Bill Hoyt's descrlption of mathematics as a language. I would say that mathematlcs often &l:oh.res a special language or symbolism, but I would not say that that's what GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #63
In GWS #29,
Dauid" Detrtsch wrote about people coutd learn phgsics bg how goung apprenticeshrp. Fbr this tlssue's Foctts, we asked seueral GWS readers to dtlscuss horl Aourtg peopLe could. learn ottrcr kird"s oJ work rn a simrlar rrtanner, or tww tteg themselues had leqrned rn this waA. TtE uriters here come at the question Jrom ffvrnA argtes and perspectlues, and" we twpe that in fuhtre i.ssues others oJ gou wilL
join
them-
mathematics is. As the semanticist,A.H. Korrybsld once satd, -The map ts not the terdtory.' Mathematlcians use a speclal language to aid their thtnking, to give a sort of robustness or rigor to their wondering, but lt's the wondering that's the mathemaUcs, not the language or symbolism used to represent it. To say that mathematics ls a language ls, for me, to turn lt back lnto a noun. l,anguage is a type oftool, a very exprâ&#x201A;Źsslve one at that, but tools themselves are not actlvlties. They help us to do things better, as, lndeâ&#x201A;Źd, the language or "grammar' (to use Bill Hoyt's excellent term) of mathemadcal thought does. School math has been designed to fit into school's way of doing things: tt can be written on a blackboard, copied into a notebook, eastly made lnto qulzzes and tests, and graded. As Sqrmour Papert has argud, schools lrave denahtred math - they have taken something that was once an activity, that was once do-able, and turned it into a commodit5r that needs to be administered. Gettingl out from under the shadow ofconventional school should be sufficient to escape from the penumbra of school math. Yet, some of my colleagues at MIT have been quite critical of free schools and some homeschooling families who seem to be compromising their principles when it comes to mathematics, falling back to the old worksheets of arithmedc problems. Even A.S, Neill of Summerhlll once remarked ln an inteMew, 'You'd have to keep mathematics las it isl. You have to learn mathematlcs from books.'Ttre error here ls in taking school math as a given lnstead of treating lt as a creation of school. It's hard to see how compudng quadratlc equadons ln and of itself can capture the lmagination of any reasonable person, $omeone, and tt rnight as well be me, has to come out and say this, Using such equations to think about how obJects fall under the influence of gravity (when one comes to wonder about that) ls another matter altogether.
The important question for me, given my view of mathematics of the ordinary, is not how lt can be taught, but how it can be
lived. I don't think we need to find special 'math-speaking" tutors when lt comes tb the mathematics of the ondinary. Most young children are not interested in becoming specialists ln mathematics. But it is in their nature, indeed, in pracfically everyone's nature, to wonder about the patterns and regularities they observe in the world, What we can do is to make this wondering, this particular style of thinking, more visible and accesslble to children - to bring it out in the open, to wonder out loud. I want to emphaslze agaln [la[ the mathematics of the ordinar5r goes beyond Just thtnlidng about how we use numbers. Thinking about a knittlng or weavlng pattem not only involves rnathematics, lt is mathemaflcs. Thinking about games like chess, checkers, Go, tic-tac-toe, Nim, and vadous card games ls mathematics. Wondering about how the Rubik's cube works, or
varlous other puzzles, is mathematics. Thinking about and inventing magic tricks is mathematics. So is thinking about
20 paradoxes, maktng maps, buildtng models, lnvendng and decipherlng secret codes, learntng how to Juggle, experlmentlng ln the ldtchen, maldng an anlmated film, thinktuxg about muslcal rhythms {to use Ishmael's and Vita's beauttful example in Nancy Wallace's ptece). Our maln task, then, ls to oPen our eyes and rsalizg hev,,' much of the mathematics of the ordinaqr can be found in the activtties we are alreadg dottg, As chlldren get older, some of them mlght want to do mathematics in a more focused and deliberate way. They might want to go bryond the mathematlcs of the ordtnar5r and concentrate on one or another of the subspecialties of mathemadcs. Here it might make sense to seek out a'specialist,' as one would wlth any sldll that requlres a speclal (i.e. out ofthe ordinary) degree of competence. This is, in fact, the only way that people ln matltemaflcs and the sclences ever really learn anythlng about thelr true work: by participadon in an lntellectual community, a communit5r of practidoners. As more and more sociologfsts and phllosophers of science are beglnning to ftnd out, these activltles are lnherently social and community-based. Thts ls preclsely the polnt David Deutsch makes inGWS #29. At 20, I was luclry enough to obtain a summerJob at a maJor high-tech research laboratory in Connectlcut. I was hired to construct a computer animation system, and later on, a 'paint" program, using the most advanced, state-of-the-art equiPment available at the tlme. Though film antmatlon had been a hobby of mine for some time, I had no experience whatsoever with computer graphics. However, between consultlng a few reference books, looking at other people's programs, and aslidng my coworkers for help and feedback when I needed tt, I got thejob done' I would guess that I acquired the equivalent ofseveral graduatelevel courses, in terrns of the knowledge and skill lnvolved, ln those few months. While university students "studytng' computer graphlcs were slaving away at thelr problem sets and crammlng for exams, I was doing real work (I was getttng something done) and, needless to say, learning very much ln the process. (Some of the most important things I learned were that I grew bored with that type of work after a few months, got dlsgusted with the way 'corporate politics'was treating people, and made the important decision that computer graphics was not somethtng I wanted to pursue as a career. These are things I would not likely have
learned tn school.) I want to emphasize one very important aspect of my short apprentlceship at that research lab: No one "exposed" me to the things I e;perienced. To expose someone to something means to do something to them. That's not what happened at that lab in Connecticut. What did happen was that they gave me access to their facilities and to themselves, that is to say, to thelr research communit5r. That they did so in spite of my lack of "experience' was to their credit. They got thetr proJects accompllshed, and I learned some new skills and imPortant things about myself. I would advise homeschoollng Parents not to look for apprentlceships for thetr chlldren because they thtnk 'mathematlcs will be good for them' or because they want to "exPose their chtldren to mathematics" but do not themselves feel competent to do the exposing. I malntain that exposlng ln this sense is wrong. What we can and ought to do is provide access to
various types of work for young people, lf and when they want such a challenge, ifand when they are ready to make the sort of commitment that such an arrangement entalls. Otherwise, wlth respect to mathematics, we can rely on the mathematlcs of the ordinary, the mathematics all around us, to give children plenty of food for formal thought'
MEDICAL TRAINING INVOLVES APPRENTICESHIP Ftom Rofurt KW oJ Pennsgluanla: The apprenticeship model is actually very much a part of the
current system of medical trainlng, for we still follow the old Chinese proverb, "l hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do
and I understand,' Perhaps nothlng better lllusttratce that tt le possible to learn medicine by apprentlceshlp than the unusual story of Judah F. who, at 18, was taken under the wlng of Dr. Robert Z. atOhrlo State Medical Centen by the ttme he recelved hls BA at 22 he had spent approximately 15, OOO hours on the wards and in the operatlngi room. He then entered Harvand Medical School because he had to, and wlth all the other freshmen duttfully began hts basic sclence and precltntcal work; at the same tlme, however, he was appointed an attending surgeon at Children's Hospltall He subsequently went on to become the youngest full proGssor of surgery tn the htstory of the medlcal school and has made slgnlftcant contributlons ln cancer research.
It's possible to learn mediclne by apprendceshtp, but it's not possible to pracdce tt tn this country wtthout going though the usual system. hor to about lglO many physlctans leamed on the job; some did well, others were tnept. Now everybody goes to medical school whtch, combtned wtth varlous llcensing procedures, should produce a reasonably high lozel oftechnical competence. In general, most doctors are rather effectlve ln dealing with werything except uncertainty, questions, pain, suffering and death. In the vast majority of medical schools the lirst two years are taken up by lectures, labs, reading, memorization and examinatlons. Much ls forgotten after the e:<am. A falr amount will be recalled later, and most students say to themselves, -Ihis
ls potentially relevant; I'll try to keep some of it in my mind, and
I do have to pass the Naflonal Boards." But tn general, there are probably too many words, ldeas, lists, facts, books and lectures in the first half of medical school. No one knows any longer what is truly basic in a rapidly expanding fleld where everybody is errentually going off ln his or her ouin dlrectlon. A few schools have therefore elimlnated all lectures, and have introduced students to padents on thelr ffrst day and then relled on the students'drive, mottvadon and curlosity to eventually cover the relevant material. This ts certainly an apprentic.eship rrodel, and it includes questlons, discussion, observatlon, g;uidance, and reading on one's own. In the average medical school, things change drastically in the third year and stay that way through the completion of one's specialty training. All begin to work with padents and thereby focus thetr learning on real-liG problems. Facts, ideas, questions, problems and solutlons are palpable, visible, meaningful and relevant. Lâ&#x201A;Źctures are much less frequent, exams still exlst but are more clinically focused; essentially, the apprenticeshlp model is at work from the third year on. Always a problem, though to a lessening degree as time goes on, ls a tendency to worry about pleasing the authorities who have a fair amount of control over one's future. Therefore, all young phystclans have to learn, ln addttion to figurlng out how to pass their courses, how to thlnk lndePendently, ask challengtng questlons, remain open to rapid changes, know when one doesn't know, flgure out where to get the answers, de$ authortty tn ltfeand-death matters, and learn the three most imPortant words to use with patients, which are 'I don't know." As John Holt said' 'The true test of lntelligence is not what we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't lsrow what to do."
WRITERS ''GO TO SCHOOL AMONG THEMSELVES'' Ftom Jono;thant Rowe ("Commuritg Spaces," GWS #62):
After college, ln a second-hand bookstore ln New York, I happened upon a book called Tle WrlttenWordby Gorham Munson. Munson was a prominent writer tn the l93os who taught a course on writtng at the New School. But he was skeptical of the classroom approach to his work. "Writing can only be selftaught,' he wrote, adding that writers "go to school among themselves." This has been my experience, both as a writer and as someone who has tried to help younger writers' The way to be a wrlter CROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
2T
is to write. The basic mechanlcs are fatrly slmple. Beyond that' lt's mainly trtal and error, belng around people who wrlte (vla print if not ln person), and breathlng tn the air. I wouldn't say that courses, consultants, and the like are totally without value. For some, these may be the only ways they know to enter the communit5l of the craft. But more often than not, it's Just cultural habtt that makes us think that lf we want to
do something, we have to take a course ffrst. My frlend Jack ts a carPenter. People are always askrng hlm to fix thtngs, from electrical wtring to windows. I asked him once how he learned to do so much. "The only dllference between me and other people,' he satd, "is that I'm not afratd to try.' Formal schooling works a lot of mtschief' Many of us learn that writing is a chore, ltke long-dtvision or push-ups. Diagramming sentences can do to one's Gel for the language what dissecting embalmed frogs can do to one's sense of life. One high school English teacher erren made us number our sentences, and woe to us if the margins weren't the rtght width. In my case, thls kind of tralning contributed to a massive case of writer's block that bedevtled my college years. In college, students have a capilve audience - the professor. They write to show how much they know. In most cases, their writing role models are atroclous. About ten years ago a pucldsh researcher at the Universtt5r of Pennsylvanla tested some academlcs on how they rated various pieces of writing. Ftnding: the more obscure and full of Jargon, the better the academics thought lt was. ffhe name of the textbook in the requtred freshmen writing course was 'fhe Wic and Rhetoric oJ E:qostlton- Academics can't bring themselves to say something as sirnPle as "How To Say Things
Clearly.') On the Job, by c.ontr.-ast, there's a crucial reality check - a reader whose attentlon must be earned. At newspapers and magazines, that reader hovers over every tyPewrtter and word processor. I ftnd tn worlidng with younger writers that I often talk less about wridng than about readers. How to connect to what they already know. How to anticlpate thelr questions. How to hold their interest. The strangest tdea ofall ls that ofJournalism school. The need for it is totally beyond me. Anyone who can wdte a sentence should be able to wrtte a story. The best way to leam to do lt ls to be around people who are dolng tt well. Teachers do appear. As I work wlth younger wrlters, I'm begtnntng to understand this, There is somethlng about an tndividual wtth an avld wlsh to write that almost compels those who can help to do so. The truly fortunate ones flnd that teacher or editor of a writer's dreams, I once knew such a man. His name was Neil Millar. He was humble and brilltant, a man whose merry wlt had no barbs, who lnstructed by lffting up instead of runnlng down. Netl had a knack for maldng you Gel more who you are. But soon after I got to know him, he passed away. I sHll learn from Neil. But probably llke most people who write, I have served my apprentlceshlp ln varlous ways, rather than to one tndtvldual. There have been writers who became models. And casual shop talk - a writer's e€rr pounces hungrily upon hlnts and clues. A reader's response, also, espectally from a friend who ls frlend enough to be honest. The mere act of handtng a manusript to a trusted edttor can cause one to grasP tmmedtately what ls wrong wlth lt before a word ls spoken, But my most merciless teacher is what I wrote last month or last night. It's the gnawing awareness of falling short that pushes us up the moun-
tain, if anything will. We can't watch writers work, the way we watch a dry-wall rnan or an electrician. But we can learn from being around them, from what they say to us. Early on, encouragement is the main thtng. For me, I thlnk lt was my tenth grade Engltsh teacher, a former script writer of some sort who had taken refuge in a rural classroom. He had a literar5r, almost exotic alr. He once scribbled a little comment at the top of one of my essays, to the effect that I showed ability as a writer. Coming from someone from that farolf and mysterious world of New York, thls came to me almost as avolce through the clouds, even though I did not act uPon it
GROWINC WITHOLJ'I SCHOOLINC #63
dtrectly for a long tlme. My former coU."gn. Phtl was another teacher' When Phll shut htmself lnto hls cluttered of[ce' hls tyPewrtter clacked ltke a freight tratn. (Will word processors e\ter evoke such fmages?) You could pracUcally see the stearn comfulg under the door. Phll's drafts were a tangle of cross'outs and inserts, held together wtth staples and scotch tape' But Pbd always came through. Thls ts what separates the writers from the would-bes. By th. tlrne Phil had worked over the fffth galley Proof, he had a flne plece of work' Neil Millar used to say, "A real writer ls a r€writer.' He felt luclry lf he ended up uslng ten Percent of a llrst draft. I once read that John Kenneth Galbrafth often goes to ten drafts before he feels he's gotten lt right. I take great comfort ln such revelaflons. A wrlter frlend once told me of a crrst5r old edttor who used to yell at h,tm, iJones, you buried your lead." I bury my leads all the tlme. I was born wtth a perverse genlus for starHng at the wrong place. But at least now I'm aware of lt, and try to repalr the damage.
Another wrlter frtend once menuoned that he trles to reduce an arttcle to a stngle sentence before he starts to \rrtte' I thtnk of thls as "Middle C.'Then there was Josh, who helped me lay out a little monthly tablold I once edtted. I can stlll see htm merrt$ wtelding hls Exact-O kntfe to a precious strtp of galleys at 2:OO AM, chanttng his motto, -There's no such thtng as a story that can't be cut." I would never admlt this to my editors. But Josh was rtght. And I can sHll see my former editor Charlle, poundtng hls table, demandtng that the story have an argument, that lt make a polnt. Charlie detested cautlous and conventlonal thtnktng. He wanted to 'light up the sktes.' Ftnally, there was Bonnte, one of a small wrltlng group that met weekly for a whlle. Bonnle's poetry took lntuldve leaps that made me feel ltke a plodder. It helped me see that prose log;lc ls Just one steP on the ladder, not the top. Any person who wrltes could produce a llst of apprentlceshtps like thls, and longer. It has been my good fortune to work for two indtvlduals - a soclal crusader and a mavertck edltor - who have made lt one of their misslons ln Lfe to tl:aln young actlvlsts and journallsts. At both workplaces, the more experlenced help the less in like manner. Havtng started out ln such setttngs, I almost lnstlnctlvely fall tnto that role now - both roles, ln fact' I have observed that the apprentlceshlp ethtc operates much more at small publicadons than blg ones. Partly, tfs because people at small publtcatlons feel morle responstble for the whole. At big ones, there's the feeltng that someone else will do tt. Btg operadons wtth big budgets have a habltual resPonse to problems: hlre a consultant. Some large publlcatlons foster compedflon among their writers, so they are looktng to outdo one another rather than to help. This ls a shame. There's enorrnous sadsfactlon tn seeing a young wdter wrestle wlth a story undl tt's ready to be publtshed. The thrfll of seelng one's own by-llne tn print, trt c'ontrast, fades pretty qutckly.
ARCHITECTURE NEEDS MORE ROOM FOR PLAY Flnm Ron Ostbrg (MA):
Today archltectur€ ls spllt tnto two hosflle camps. One makes art by mantpulatlng symbol and form. The other makes butldings by manipulattng people and procedures. Neither is wrong but neither ls, ln and of ltself, architecture. In earller tlmes apprentic.eship was an approprlate way of becomtng an archltect, but a great deal of technologr and bureaucracy lles between us and the Renalssance. Today the art of architecture ls addressed by graduate professlonal schools, practical aspects are leamed ln an ofllce, and the locus of actual constructlon has moved from the guilds to hlghly industriallzed
product manufacturers.
But in its essence, architecture's most lmportant ability ts to lnspire. At lts best, architecture does much more than nurture; it enters the realm of art. As such lt comments on life, lt postulates forms of renewal and provldes a stage for each Person's attemPt at
22 wholeness. Howerrer, as art, archltecture ls eubJectlrrc. No one can explaln whlch forms lnsplne, much less how to conceive them. So how can tt be taught? I belleve form and symbol come from the soul. They tnspire because they are a reflection of that soul and express the emoflons tnvolved in the quest to flnd lt. Teachlng architecture ts aldn to wrtting dlr,ections to the Holy Grail;
pretendous and futile. In its essence, arcldtecture lnvolves play. It ls at play that we create a world (of fantasy) from mud, old pots, fragments of plastic toys, and worn-out sheets. It is at play that we create a place (ofreality) from concrete, glass, carpet and hardware. But an architechrral ollice does not encourage play. Efllcient producUon and flnancial success are threatened by it. Also, and thls ls a sad tmth, an olfice can be 'successful'without setttng offon a Quest. Neither soclety nor clients demand that archltecture be art. So, in absence of soclal and business demand for inspiring archltecture, proGssional schools have taken on the responsibllity of 'teaching.' They haven't done a bad Job. Many have very playful studlos. If thetr role is to be reincorporated with the ollice to create a new, hybrtd model that might make apprenticeship easier, then schedules, Ges and attitudes have to change' Room has to be found for play.
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING WITHOUT FORMAL TRAINING Flom Scott Logsoru Apprenttcestrlp, and related arrangements, always seemed to me to be the most lmportant part my educatlon as first a programmer and then computer scientist. I first learned to Program at age I I when my stepfather started talidng me to hls olfice on weekends and taught me the computer languages Basic and Fortran. Within a year or two he was paying me out of his own pocket (I wanted to be an official employee but alas, child labor laws made that impossible) to spend summers worklng as hls personal prograrnmer. I don't recall him teaching me very much, espectally after the ffrst year. Most of what I was leamlng I got either by readtng the manuals or by dtrect experlence. Even as a teenager I credited a lot of my intellectual development to that e:rperlence, by whtch I Glt I had learned a lot about how to thlnk clearly. ffhe wonderful thing about writtng progyams ts tlut you get direct feedback on the clarity of your thought: either the program does what you intended, or lt doesn't, period.) I daresay that by the time I graduated from high school I was more skilled than most professional programmers, and I had not had a single mtnute of formal tralning. Then olf I went to MIT for a BS tn Computer Science (a larger field which includes programmlng, much as the discipline of music lncludes instrumental sldlls). It would be an e:<aggeration to say that none of the material presented in my courses was relevant to my later work, but even the "core" computer science courses were certalnly less relerrant than MlTs reputation would have led one to expect. And even at the time, I recall observing, with others, that the greatest value we were flnding tn betng students came from what we were learnlng from each other, ln a kkrd of mutualJourneymanshlp, as we dlscussed the progress of our pet projects in the hallways and lounges.And then, after I graduated and began worliilng on commerclal software projects, I was rather taken aback to discover how much more I had to learn that had not been taught, nor even really hinted at, ln the courses. In the eight years that I have been working ln the software industqr, it has from time to time crossed my mind that I would like to have a young apprentic.e myself, to pass on the good fortune I recelved. I even lnltiated a search ficr one once when I was ltving ln the Boston area, but didn't follow through. Now that I am settled on the West Coast I would like to try again. So I encourage interested lidds in the viclnity of Santa Cruz to contact me at I 19 Tree Frog Lane, Santa Cruz CA 9506O; 408-429-838 1. I don't really have any ldea how we'll work together, or on what; I guess lt has a lot to do wlth your interests, but give me a call and let's see what happens.
SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL ARRANGEMENTS Flom Abta Karstad and, fted
*hueler
(OnL):
Our freedom from instltutlonal constralnts makes us plausible supervisors for teenage apprendces. Aleta is an artist and biological illustrator whose most charactertstic work is hlghly detailed portraits of plants or anirnals ln transparent watercolor or lnk, directly from nature. Fred is a quantitaflve muserun biologtst who works mostly wlth amphlbians and reptiles, but also with birds, mollusks, cattails, and crayfish. Before we rf,rere parents we llved for several years in three-
adult households and found that all three adults could work on their own whtle supporting the work of the others. In the course of the past four years we have had four teenagers travel or live wlth us, two explicttly as apprentlces in blologr and lllustration, and two only for childcare. Without meaning to be harsh to any of them, we can describe them as a l6-year-old long-term homeschooled girl from an isolated family, a l3-year-old televisionraised second cousln, a l5- year-old lizard keeper who seemed bored with school so hls parents were consldering homeschooling, and a skillful serious-minded l6-year-old babysltter. Three of these relationshlps have been dillicult, which has taught us something about selecting and getung along with apprendces. We had not expected to have so much difficulty with apprentices, partly because when we both were teenagers, we would have welcomed this Ldnd of instruction, and did value the apprenticelike jobs we had. An apprenticeship is more llke employment than conventional schooling is, as neither the state nor the parents arâ&#x201A;Ź paying the teacher. Apprentices pay their teachers by helping with tasks that are educational for them but tedious for the teacher. Apprentices living in the teacher's household must also make an adult contribution to the worlidng of the household. This wlllfurgness and cooperation is evidently difiicult for many teenagers, and requires careful screening of potential aPPrentices. Teaching and learning between indlviduals ls such a fundamental human lnstlnct that there ts ltttle to descrlbe about lt, but apprenUceships may be hard to arrange in a societ5r in which this is not the usual model. Our experiences have led us to come up with some sugges-
tlons: For the potendal teacher: l. Be sure that you have plenty of work that will be both useful to you and instructive to the apprentice, and that the apprentice has free access to the literature ofyour subject, and to other workers in your field. 2. If the apprentice is to live with you, be sure that you can provide satisfactory privacy, food, and other personal requirements, but be wary of proc.eding with an apprenticeship in whtch these requirements are too different from your own - an lndica-
tton of incompatibtltt5r.
3. Be sure that you are able to delegate authority, and are prepared to tolerate mistakes and setbacks. 4. Be sure that you arâ&#x201A;Ź sensldve to slgns of concealed misunderstanding or defensiveness due to tntlmidation. You may be tall and bearded or talk in an olf-hand polysyllabic Jargon for reasons entlrely unrelated to intimidation, but still terri$ a
potential apprentice into silence. For the potentlal apPrenttc.e: l. If you are going to live with your teacher(s), be sure that you are able to llve cheerfully and comfortably with people other than your immediate family, and that you have verified this by successful month-long visits in the households of friends or relatives. 2. Be sure that you have leamed all you can on your own about the subject. 3. Be sure that you are skilled ln listening to other people talk to each other, and that you participate in decision-making in your family. Instmctlon rnay not always be direct; you may be asked to pick things up indirectly. 4. Be sure thatyou can understand and accept praise and CROWINC WTTHOUT SCHOOLINC #63
23
criticism from someone who is much
better at what you are doin$ than you are: "OK," or "Smooth it down a bit over there,' or "Have you checked Wildllfe Absttacts?" may be all you will get ficrwork that would be showered wlth praise or A's at home or school. The highest praise available wlll probably be, -That's done as well as I could have done it.' 5. Be sure thatyou are prepared for the drudgery your field may irrvolve, and not just the romance of lts products. Ftshing may be aI bright air, Ilashing fins and pan-fried fillets, but../islerles are grams of secondary benthic production per squar€ meter, half-dtgested stomach contents,
and mathemadcal models of population struchrre. Original work in any field requires lots of tedious repetitlve tasks that must be done exactlY right' For getting the potenual apprentice and teacher togethen
The best way to begin an apprentlceship, we thtnk, would be a gradually lntensrying reladonship between people who already know each other in a communlty' but this ls rarely posslble. Our experlence suggests some ideas for long-distance
investigation of compatibility for the kind of llve-ln apprentlceshtp arrangement we're familiar wtth, b€yond a simple exchange ofletters: l. Be sure that the apprendce admlres and understands the teacher's work, and that the books the teacher thlnks are good introducdons to the lteld are excltlng to the apprentice. 2. Exchange referenc.es, on both sldes, of people who would be able to comment on each partictpanfs suitability for the
arrangement. 3. Wrtte a contract-llke document that outlines the responslbilitles of each part5r. 4. Begin the live-ln apprenticeshlp by short visits, ifpossible, or be very careful that all the above conditions are met lf thls is not posslble.
lDRll Apprerficeship In Crqft ls a marvelous book for anryone serious about olfering or embarlidng on an aPPrenticeship.The book is $9.5o ppd. from STUDIO POTTERBOOKS, Box 65, Gollstowrr NH O3O45. Recommended Readtng about learning Disabilities (see lnterview at rtght):
Eueryone
Is Able: Eqld@ the Mgth
oJ Leanlng Dtsablltltes, a Holt Associates publtcation ($3 + postage)
InTfwtr OwnWay, by Thomas Armstrong ffarcher Press, 1987). Granger. (avatl. here, $f6.95 + posL) The Mgth oJ tle Hgpero.ttre Chtld, bY Peter Schrag and Dtane Divolcy (Pantheon 1975). Currently out of prtnt, but worth searchlng for. TeachYour Own by John Holt. Chapter on "karnlng Dtlficultles." (avail' here, $l1.95 + post.) GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
A CRITICAL LOOK AT LEARNING DISABILITIES:
AN INTERVIEW WITH GERALD COLES
fume readers mag tunse olreadg seen Cerald Coles's The Learning Mystlque: A Crtdcal Look at kaming Disabtlldes tr:anthelcrn 1987),
an llrrl;rirtont
neus
fuk
whlchwe lape to addto our catalq uhen X
oonclusions
abut learning disabllitles ' ha;w signftcant ranlfica-
as you tr./.ll see
tions Jor olloJus, so bt's do whr;t we can to irusolrn panents and. schmt edtrcators In tlre discussbn tl'nt Jollotus:
Sueannah Shelfcr: Can You summarlze the lnterpretaflon of leamfng disabllities that you're rcJutittg?
Gerdd Coleg: I'm refuttng the posldon that the educational underichievement of mflllons of klds is due to a neurolog;lcal defect ln thetr bralns, that there's some kired of neurolog;ical glich that tmpedes their ability to leam baslc
losers, and that all we can do is provide them wtth the best educatlon that they'rc able to attatn. The idea that all children are able to succeed requtres such a change of assumptlon and commltment and method. SSI: If schools are stratilied because soclet5r ls stratifted, wouldn't we have to
remove stratiflcation from soctety flrst? GC: I think that's true, but I think tfs true for werythtng. In other words, I don't think you're going to r€move racism or sedsm from ihe schools unttl everythtng changes ln soclety, but on the other hand, these are all parts ofeverythtng, and I don't thtnk we should give uP on schools because of thts. In an immedlate sense, there are ldds who are betng vtcflmlzed trt school right now, so that has to be
skills, prtmarily readtng'
SS: Why ls the neurological explanation so attractlve?
GCt The explanation came lnto the schools in the l96os, and was allowed to
come in, so to speak, because it fit so well with the whole history of the way chlldren
who don't do well ln school have been conceptualized. To put thls in cutext for a minute, there were a number of crltlcisms or demands on schools at that time - groups were accusing schools of being sexist, raclst, classist, and a vadety of alternaflve proposals were put forth. When you look at the htstory of those demands, you see that very few of them actually made thetr uray lnto schools ln any permanent fashlon. The reason that they dldn't was that they requlred schools to make constderable stmctural changes, whlch schools were unw[ling to make. The theory of learntng dlsabtlitles, on the other hand, didn't do thls. It simply asked the schools to recognlze another defect tn chlldren - there's a whole hlstory of recogniztng defects ln chlldren, and respondlng to them accordtngly; before LD it was IQ, which of course ls sfill popular. Parents were challengfueg the schools to
explain why thelr mlddle-class klds
weren't doing well tn school, and the neurologlcal explanatlon became an attr:acHve way to explatn thls. It had a posidve facade - it made the schools seem child-oriented, tnterested ln diagnosis
and treatmenl SSI: Why do you thlnk schools are so reslstant to structural change?
GC:
I thlnk lt's tnherent.
Bastcally,
schmls reflect the social organlzatlon trt whlch they're imbedded. Built into them is the assumpflon, as it ls in society, that
there are golng to be wlnners and losers. .Just as society accepts unemployment or underemployment as part of the scheme of
things, and is resistant to the nodon that there could be full employment and a decent standard of ltvtng for all people, so too do schools assume that there wtll be
lTradltlonal LDI llterature was Just not explalnlng the problems, or the source of the problems, of the PeoPle wlth whom I worked... and
practlcal pollel$ have been made on the basls of lthe
llterature'e assumlttlonsl
that have alfected of klds.
mllllong
addressed. I thrnk people who ,rre concerned wtth thts lssue should 0ght for
immediate pragmadc reforms and
stmchrral changes wlthln schools and soclety.
One of the thtngs that I trted to do ln the book vas explaln how these thtngs like the neurological explanadon - seem lodcal and senslble ln the eyes of the pJrdcipants. t trted to get away from thg idea of a consplraqf, people deslrtr4; to do
tnlustlce to kdds. Educators, for example, are trainea in such a way that a theory like thts makes sense to therru and tn fact we're all acculturated to the notlon of winners and losers. Schmltng has been used as an lncredlbly powerful soclal tool to explaln all ttris - we thtnk thatf you have more schooltng, you'll get a better iob, and so on. To me the most perniclous -thtng about thts ideologl ls that tt makes sense to people. Ifs oppressfue for losers to think that there's a senslble reason for thetr betng where theY are. SS: Why dld lt occur to You to be skeptlcal of the neurological elglanaflon' then?
GC: For the last flfteen Years IVe worked dtrectly with cblldren, teenagers and adults who harrc had very sertere llteracy and leamtng dtfftculHes, so I don't lust deal wlth theory and research. When t began loolidng at the LD llterature tn the early '7Os, I looked at tt wlth a fatrly
24 open mlnd, wtth the e:cpectadon that lt would shed llght on the problems of the people wtth whom I was worldng. The more I got tnto the literature, tlre more I saw - and I thrnk thls is a corunon experlence among teachers - that you look at the LD lnterpretaflon ofldds, and then you look at the ldds you're worklng wlth, and there's no fft" 'Itrat was the flrst thing that occurred to me, that the literature was Just not explainfng the problems, or the aource of the problems, of the people wlth whom I worked, Then, I began to see that all klnds of unfounded claims were belng made on the assumpdon that the llterature ttself was valid. Now, f this were Just an academlc, lvory tower debate, I wouldn't have bothered wtth it, butofcourse pracHcal policles harrc been made on the basls of ttrts that have alTected milllons of lidds. So I began to untte crtttcally of thts e:glanatlon, wlrlch eventually led to the book.
9Sl: You cite so much research about thts tn the book, but ls there any way that you can suglgest brlefly to our readers why there's no hard evldence for the neurologl-
cal oglanaflon?
GC: kt me flrst say that I took the trouble to be as comprehenslve as I was because the LD proponents are always looldng for a way to sllde away from
crltlclsm, so for examPle lf you crlflcize
EEG research, theyll say, "Well, yes, that's tme, but lefs look at the CAI scan research,' so I wanted thls book to be a comprehenslve crlflque of the maJor explanauon of learning disabilities. I also trted to do wlthout the proGsslonal Jargon so that tlre bmk would be accesstble to more than fcurteen people tn the ffeld. So, when you look at the research you
ftnd wonderful llndtngs that are proclalmed at one polnt - and thts ls gotng back ntnetyyears - and the subsequent regearch that attempts to replcate and support these flndtngs butlalts to do so, You also flnd that even wlthln the [terature that ts attemPtlng to substantl' ate the neurologlcal explanatlon, there's evtdencc that leamfng dllftculfles ar€ not caused by chtldren's neurologr but by thelr lnteracflons wlthln contexts. For example, there was a studY ln wlrtch "norrnal" ldds were trafned to do a perceptual rrntor task, and the graduate etudents who were tt:ainlng them were told
that one group was normal and the other was learnfng dlsabled. At the end, lt turned out that the normal lilds who were thought to be leamrng dtsabled wound up dolng the task more poorly than the other group - they acted as f tlrey uere leaming dtsabled. Thts is an example of the Hnd of evldence you IInd orrer and over agaln, that an lnteracdon, ln thts case wtth an tnstructor, can tn fact create some Hnd of leaming dtlficulty.
Stl: How signlllcant do you think chlldren's nesponsea to c€rtaln lnteractlons are - feeting that they can't read becar.ise they're treated as though they can't, for example? GC: I tlrlnk ctrlldren do respond ln the way that they're responded to, although of course thls is a complex ques-
tton and other thtngs may be furvolved. Some klds are treated as though they're dumb but theyJust don't buy it. But I thtnk for the most part cNdren seem to
tncorporate others' perc€ptlons of them into their own perceptlons of themselves. But lt goes deeper than this - lt's not Just that some people respond to kids as if they'r. dumb. As ln the perceptual motor study, people can tnteract wlth klds tn such a way that they become dumb. I think
I could teach a first grade class - and of course I don't suggest that anyone do thls, but lf I set out to do so, I could make each of the kids in the class feel and act lntellectually tnept. People are very fragile in that
way.
8S: It seems that our e:<pectadons about the task ltself ar€ tmportant too.
If
we thtnk of readtng as a very complicated, dlfflcult thtng thafs golng to take a long tlme and a great deal of elfort to learn, children ptck this up and adopt the same
attltude. GC: There are a number of ramificatlons of that. One ts that there's a tremendous amount of focus on readtng methodologl, and you can say that we haven't found the right method yet, or you can say that the problem ls not tn fact one of method. I thlnk the way thls plays ttself out ln the classroom ts that wtth a concentratlon on method, there's a loss of conccntration of what educatlon should be - tt should be enJoyable, tt should lnvolve a chlld's interest, bolster conlldence - all of those lngredients that lrlrolve seeing another person as a whole person, a person wlth a mind and interests and deslres and so on.
I was talking wlth someone l,ast week who ls worldng with a lid who hasn't been learntng to read. The school wants to classtff trlm as havtng a language dtsabtllty, and the parents haven't gone along wtth tt. The main problem appears to be that the school ls uslng a very heary phontcs, decontextualzed approach, and the lidd ls not learnlng wlth that approach, but the school ls tnststlng that thts ts the method to use. The woman I spoke wlth
who has been worktng wtth the famlly has been dolng a lot of readlng wlth the child, havtng htm wrtte storles and not worry about spelllng, and so on. The Potnt ls, when you have thls sense of ttne constralnts, of the dtltculty of the task, of the need to have the ctrild get into one narrow methodologl, you're settlng up a lot of condldons that are gotng to guarantee
fallure. SS: I don't know tf you're famlllar with Frank Smith's work - he makes the
point that lt's much harder to read things out ofcontext, harder to read an lsolated letter or word than one thafs tmbedded trt somethlng meantngful, and that ln Iife we seldom ifever read letters orwords outof meanlngful cutext. GC: Yes, I think thls has sPeciflc
cognitive advantages, because it makes sense not to live ln crontext and then go lnto an arttltcial mode of lnstructlon that decontextuallzes everythtng. It's also important not to bring a chlld lnto an experience ln whtch you're sa)dng, 'What
you are, and what your world is, ls unlrnportant to the real work at hand,' SSI:
You mentloned tlrne constralnts.
One thing that comes up a great deal in the
homeschooling movement
is that not
every child ls ready to read at, say, 6, and that if we Just waited until a much later age to consider these thlngs, wed have far fewer ldds who were even thought to be
leaming dtsabled. GC: I think that's true ln a couple of ways. A chlld may not have the interest, the experlence or the cognltive ease that he or she would have in a couple ofyears. The ottrer thing ts that if you expect that a child has to have mastered a body of work withtn the next nine or ten months, you're limtttng the educafional experience of the chlld, because even lf the child ls lnterested tn and able to learn to read, the child ls also lnter€sted tn other thtngs, but usually doesn't have ct'cumstances in which to pursue those other lnterests. 8Sl: At a heartng for home educadon legislation, a leglslator asked, "What about learning disabilitles ln home educatton?" and a woman testified that leamlng disabiltles are a product of group instmcUon, that tf the teacher didn't need werybody to be at the same place at the same time, they would be better able to deal wtth differences. This is kind of the other side of what we were saying earlier, that urc need some ldds to be wlnners and some to be losers; in another sense, we need all lrdds to be the same. GC: What happens ts that the teacher winds up teachtng for the largest grouP tn the classoom, and wtnds up ignoring in one way or another the liids on elther of
the far ends of the spectrum. SSI: It occurs to me that the neurolog$cal explanatlon was saHsfirtng because lt
dldn't seem to blame einyone, whereas your theory could be seen as blamtng people. GC: Well, I trled not to do that. It's saSrtng lnteractlons are tmportant, and of course there arc people
true that I'm
who are te lnteractions wtth chlldren that are cr€atlng problems, but ln general I'm very sympatheUc to teachers, to their overwhelming powerlessness within the system, to the ways tn which the lnstltutlon llrnits thetr abiltty to practice thelr art and craft. I tried ln the book not to blame as much as to explain why certain things go on. SIS: So you would advocate stnrctural changes that would glve teachers in schools more autonomy.
GC: Yes, and also changes that would make teachers more able to think about educatlon. Take this conversatlon that we're havlng. Youd never hear a conversatton like thls in school, there's no encouragement for lt. So teachers need ways to reflect upon and to crlflcize how educatlon ls done,
GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
25
HOW NOT TO SOLVE A PROBLEM: THE USE OF RITALIN IN SCHOOLS Where are children getting the ldea that drugs are an appropriate solution to a challenglng sttuauon? The followlng series of recent artlcles on how the drug Rttalin ls being used to address the needs of children who have been dtagnosed as hyperactive or sufferlng from Attentton Deflclt Disorder suggests one answer.
DISASTROUS CONSEQIJENCES Ftom an afllcle bg fubraVladero b. EducatlonWeek,
10 / 2 I / 87 :
Adella Lorerzo consldered her 7-yearold son, Mtchael, to be a'normal, healthy boy.- She thought nothlng of his raclng hls btcycle up and down the street or banghg fn and out of the screen door on their ground-floor aparknent ln their suburban Los Angeles community. ... Mlchael's teacher and prlncipal at Balboa Elementary School here thought differently. In repeated phone calls to Ms. l-orenzn, ln conferences, and te notes sent home almost daily, they lnststed that Mtchael was not like the other chtldren ln hts fir:st grade class. They said he needed "medicine'to help him learn, and urged Ms, lprenzo to take hlm to a doctor who cnuld prescribe lt. But Rttaltn, the medicadon Ms. I,orenzn eventually obtatned for her son, had dlsastrous consequences for Mlchael. He stopped eating and lost wetght. He complained of stomach aches and was unable to sleep at night. And he told his mother of halluclnatlons fur whlch he saw "somebody cutting up a baby." The final straw for the young mother came when she
vtsited Mlchael in hds classroom. She found him, she satd, ln "a dazed stupor,' ... The Lorenzos' ls not an entirely isolated story. It is one piecc of evtdence in a growlng debate over the use - and alleged mlsuse - of a powerful sttmulant to keat
hyperacflve chlldren. As sales flgures for the drrg - called Rltalln - cltrnb, and reports of alarmtng stde elfects conunue to surface, a growtng number of parents
and physlctans are asklng critical quesdons: Is Ritaltn belng used to treat a speclffc ctrildhood dlsorder? Or is tt being used to sedate unmly students? ... An estimated 3 to lO percent of the nation's 45 millton schoolchildren, mostly boys, are thought to suffer from lAttentton-deficlt Hyperacflvlty Dlsorderl, whlch ls characterlzed by an tnabtlItlr to concentrate, and, in some cases, tmpulstvlty and hyperacttvlty. Pedtatrtclans and psychlatrists say Ftttabn ls'the drug of chotcr' for treatl-ng these youngsters because lt alds concentration by somehour sflmulattng the brain's system
for filtertng out unwanted stimull. In a classroom setting, for example, tJre student is better able to tgnore theJanttor worldng tn the hall or the blrds llylng outslde the wlndow. ... To gauge the prwalence of such behavlors [t]rat seem to tndtcate hyperacUvttyl, medtcal experts say they rely heavlly on the observatlons of the chlld's classroom teacher. But as teachers become lncreaslngly famtllar wlth the dramafic behavioral lmprovements that Rttalln can brlng about in some chlldren, the Gar is that they will begln to see the drrg as a "m.dc ptll' or a "cure all." .., ln Georgia, concern over the hlgherGROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
than-average Rftalin sales has drawn the attenfion... of a special legtsladve cornmittee and a study group formed by Superintendent of Schools Werner Rogers. The drlvlng force behtnd that concern was LaVarne Parker, a suburban Atlanta mother whose son's experlence wlth the
drug was similar to Mlchael lorenzo's. She said that her son, Melvin, who was then lO years old, was also hallucinatlng and attempted sulcide after taldng
Rttalln.'The doctor satd, 'I'll take you to court before I let you take that kld off the drug,'' Ms. Parker recalled. "And the teacher said, 'Oh, no, I think he needs it." No longer on Rttaltn, Melvln ls currently earnlng B's ln school, Ms. Parker sald. She took her story to the local news medla, and the publtcity prompted more than 2OO phone calls from other concerned parents, roughly halfof whom sald schools had also pressured them to obtatn the drug for thelr chlldren.
'IVe seen school distrlcts that have a
llst of preferred physlctans who are best described as havtng the fastest prescrlptton blanks ln the West,' satd Dr. Mlchael
lartne, a chlld psychlatrlst tn San Antonio. In Michael Lorenzo's case, which is typical of parents' storles elsewhere, school officials are vilorously denytng that they "coerced' Ms. Lorenzo tnto puttlng Mlchael on the drug.
stimulant works is not lorown. And tt has been known to cause side elfects, tncluding suppresslon of growth and appetlte. Some parents challenge the criterla for dtagnosing a child as hyperactive. According to a dlagnosdc manual of the American Psychiatric Associadon, the crlterla lnclude "making comments out of turn, hiling to wait one's tum in group activifles, tnternrpting the teacher durtng a lesson, dtlficulty r,emaining seated when expected to do so, and excesslveJumping the potenflal for misdtabout.'Th.y on these criteria is great. agnosls based""y 'It's a rather subJecttve area based on the erraluator," says Andrew Watry, executive dlrector of the Georg;ia Board of Medtcal Examiners, which has been lnvestlgatlng the use of Ritalin tn that state. 'Thls ls a problem where people need to be lnformed consumers," he says,
'not to blindly put their chlldren on medicatlon because someone suggested after
a lS-mtnute lnterrriew.'
it
Chtld advocates, physicians, psychxatrtsts, and parents all say the drug is often used wtthout explortng non-medlcal, more long-term opflons, such as counsellng. "Ifs an easy out for teachers to contaln behavlor wlthout solvlng the problem," says Carole Brlll, dtr,ector of kgal SeMces for Chtldren, ln San Franclsco, a private advocacy group for children.
'Educators can't prescribe," noted Vic Pallos, a spokesman for the Glendale school district. 'What the principal and other stalf members dtd do was counsel the parents to have the boy evaluated by
THE EASY CURE
an outslde professlonal.'
.Flom an arllcle by llnd,o. Wtlllo.lrl.s br tle Wall Street Journal, 1 / 15 / 8:
USE HAS INCREASED Firom ant artlcle bg Cathedl
Cathollc Unlversl$r's National Center for Famfly Studtes and a speclatst ln the
... Thomas
Foster
rnThe Christl,an Sclence Monltor, 1/28/
88:
...Forthe past 25years, doctors have prescribed [Rttalinl for chlldren diagnosed as hyperactlve. But recently Rttaltn has been the center of controversy, Parents have been ordered by school olficlals to place thetr chlldren on that medicatlon or see them expelled. And many of the parents are unhappy wtth the drug's effects.
...Ritalin, or methylphenldate, ls rated according to abuse potential by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Class II controlled substance. So are oplum and cocaine. In the last two years, the use of Rttalfn has grown 97 percent, accordtng to the DEA. which sets nurnufacturing quofrs. "WeVe gotten dozens of phone calls and hundreds ofletters
complalntng about the ovemtiltzation and overprescrtbing of the drug all over the country,' says Gene Haislip, deputy asslstant admlnistrator for the DE{-
,..The drug appears to enable ftdgety
children to concentrate. But, says Wlllam E. Pelham Jr., dinector of the Attendon Deflcit Dtsorder Program at the Unlverstty of Ptttsburgh, prectsely how the
J. Long, dtrector of
modern-day prressures on children, says he belierres Flitalln is frequently prescribed for kids who aren't truly hyperactlve but are lnstead responding to stress. Those pushed to grow up too fast and take care of themselves too early, he notes, 'respond by belng aâ&#x201A;Źlgressive and inattentlve.' Moreover, some kids who spend a lot of tlme ln day care learn to compete for
attention. Such behavior can lead them to be misdiagnosed as hyperactlve, Mr. Long says. And for parents and teachers, Ritalln can look like the easy cure. *They want to see things llxed quickly,' he says, 'and we are ln a drug-taktng soclety. When we have a headache, we reach for asplrin.'
SHAKY FOUNDATION AndJrom Gerald.
Col,es's
Mystlque (see lrxeruleu,
The karning
abw):
Given the htstory of the field's other claims, no one should be surprlsed to learn that the statements about the beneftcial elfects of drrgs on... LD were totally without foundatlon. First, MBD lMinimal Bratn Dysfuncdonl - a term used to descrlbe the btological basis of LD and a
26 medlcal category used to prescrlh Rftalin - came under continued crlflcism and ln l98O was eventually exclsed from the third edibon of the Diagnostic and Statistlcal Manual of Mental Disorders because of tts totally ambig;uous deflnltlon. A task force had attempted to make the deflnition more precise but had ended up wlth a list of ninety-nine of its most prevalent "symptoms," among which were:
hyperactivi$r, perceptual-motor impairments, general coordirnation deflcits,
attendon disorders, impulsivity, memory disorders, general awkwardness, slowness
in linishing work, qulck faflg1ue, social boldness and agression, extreme sensitivity to others, impaired ability to make decisions, and, the primary symptom, LD. ... The failure of the term "MBD'to descrtbe maniftstations of the biologtcal basis of LD betrayed the shalry foundation on whlch the prescription of Ritaltn rested. In fact, "Ritalin' was written on hundreds of thousands of prescrlption pads not because research supported
ldministering the drug but because there was ln the air an "frn;rressicn" from laboratory shrdies that lt facilttated cognttion. Several remarkable flndings contradicUng this impression were reported in an lrnportant 1978 rerriew of both short- and long-term studies on the use of s$mulant drugs wlth children who were hyperacdve and Iearnlng dlsabled' Few studies had been done over three decades, from lgzlo to the mid-l97os, to determlne how stimulant drrgs lnlluenced Of a total of seventeen studies, almost all had been poorly designed and controlled, and eleven were short-term studies of
between two weeks and three months. Worst of all for drug advocates, whether the studies were short- or long-term,
whether they met basic sclentific crlteria or not, all the concluslons converged: 'stimulant drugs have llttle, tf any, impact on long-term academic outcome." Their maJor effect seemed to be "improvement ln classroom manageability'' ... In all, support never odsted for the clatm that Ritalin aided in locating and treatlng a btologically based condition, reduced learning dlsablllttes or h5rperactivity alone, or provided anY extra beneffts when used in combtnatlon with nondrug methods. Howerrer, none of thls sufftclently deterred CIBA [pharmaceutical companyl from promottng the drug or physlclans from prescrtbing it.
DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH The Cttizens Commlsslon on Human Rtghts, a grloup alflliated wlth the Church of Sclentologr and very acdve in oPPoslng the use of Ritalin tn schools, says that there has been a 97 percent lncrease ln Rttalln sales in the last two years, and encourages parents to do thelr own research about the posstble slde-effects of the drug by reading Physicians Desk ReJererre and other medtcal dictlonarles. CCHR also encourages parents whose children have been diagnosed as having Attention Deflcit Disorder to ask to see the lab test whlch produc.ed thls result, as lt ls highly probablE that no such test actually e)dsts.
OLDER HOMESCHOOLERS DEEPER
S
ELF.CONFIDENCE
F-rcmJervtg
Wfgft
(NH), who wrote
abut tnutng Ler gounger chlldren utth ler ln tle orchand h GWS #62: Vanessa (now 19) uras helptng us
stgnlflcantly tn the orchard by age a, and started prunlng her own trees at about 14. She's been patd for pnrntng slnce she was 8, and for ptcldng slnc-e she was 5. She pruned with us thls year for a month and is now about to leave for a three-month trip to Scofland, Ireland, France and Spain with her frlend Gabriel, a homeschooler from Canada. I miss her. Ifs qulte somethlng to be a mother to an lndependent 19 year old and two young chlldren (2 l/2 and 3), at the same tlme. Vanessa seems happy and self-
assured these days. I based a lot ofmy selfconfidence at her age on havlng done well in school, and then went on and chose work which didn't depend in any way on that. She's got a deeper self-confidence than I had, based on her e:rperiences shadng our work and getting to know a bunch of people - mostly adults - well' She wants to try other work (she's not that fond of pruning, llkes picklng better). She doesn't seem beterested ln college or credentials. I worry some about what she'll do next or tf she'll feel unprepared in some maJor ways, but tt's really largely out of my hands now. I make suggestions and she rarely takes them, but c-ontlnues to be more level-headed and self-confldent ttran I was at her age.
golng back to school for that most oftclted reason: the soclal Me. But Kevln really dtdn't want to attend classes, so we worked out a solutlon that seems satlsfactory for the time betng. He rides the local trlgh school bus to and from the school nelgfrborhood twice a week thereby getting a chance toJoke and chat with his friends dudng the two hour-long trlps. He spends part ofhis day at one ofseiren posslble librarles and another part at his uncle's apartrnent, somefl.mes doing a bit ofshopping, and maldng his way around
town by publlc transil I do tend to worry sometlmes about how he ts going to make ends meet ln the future lf he nerrer works on a diploma or
degree. I was reassured a few days ago when I met an old friend whose two sons quit school in grade 9. They are now ln their late twenties and both dolng flne. One is especlally sattsfied with trts lot - he works for a log house buildtng contractor. Without prcvious tratning, he took to the work like a duck to water. Hls mother commented thatwe se€m to harrc talents that are lnborn and nattrral and Just need the right atmosphere for thetr expresslon. She advtsed me to slmply help Kevin flnd ways of dotng what he likes to do. She says there are still employers around who aren't mesmerlzed by the propaganda
about school quallfications.
LIMITLESS OPTIONS
Marg funton urcte In tle March ONIIARIO HOMES,CHOOLBre nerpsbtten Our two older gtrls left schml when
SELF.DIRECTED AT 17 Fteda Dauies (Ont) u:dtes: Kevln ts now 17, and contlnues hls self-dir,ected way of leaming and dotreg' At
the moment he's qulte lntenslvelY dweloptng hts own role-Play'ng game
tnvolvtng space exploratlon. He has done this kinil of ttring before, but each tlme the results get more sophlsttcated and complicated. I thlnk I mentloned years ago tn GWS how he was turned offthe three Rs when they were force-fed to htm durlng hls short school career, and how he apparently learned to read later than most, at about age 9. (I say apparently because thls is when he showed other people he could read - perhaps he was readhg to hLlmself earlter.) Anyway, hts wrtttng followed much the same pattern. Even when he was 12 or 13 he wrote only.h short, lnfrequent bursts, Now he's uslng a word-Prooessor with ease and wrttlng longer and longer pieces for trls games, And a few evenlngs ago, thts former math-hater stated that he n6w hkes math. He has learned math
vtrtually entlrely through the necesslt5r created by everyday acdvides. I'm always
arnazed at how fast he can calculate in hls head while I'm fumbltng about on a plece ofpaper. Often he can flgure faster than a
caltuLtor. He's now ddebptng algebraic formulas for hls games though he's never had formal tmtnlng llr the subJect. Ttrere have been some thoughts of
thw were I l. Both were ln the slow strearn Itnackl and headed for baslc level pro-
Erams ln htgh school [SS: The Canadian Svstem has three tracks: advanced, slneral and basicl. Their self-esteem was
mintmat - our reason for bringfng them home. (Onewas adopted atage lO, so other factors bestdes school had damaged her self-lmaAe). For'flve years we let them do Just what they felt ltke. We offered very ltttle external structure, Just encouraged them to follow up on thelr lnter€sts, not lle ln bed all day orwatchTV. We lnslsted on
thelr contrtbutlon to and lnvolvement ln the upkeep ofthe household, and ure took
them'*ttliut regularly to be part
of
our
work outslde the home. On thelr own lnltlaflve, theY dld volunteer work for the hospital, an animal refuge, and a day-care/resource center. Ttrey acted tn ltttle theater and earned mon€y at a vartety oflobs. DesPite strong hints 0 tded but couldn't keep quiet on ttrls), they dfdnt read orwrtte much. As soon as they were 16 and the Mtntstry correspondence courses became avallable to them, they both started worldng on thetr hlgh school credlts. Tonla enJoyed these and made qulck headway while stlll actlng and volunteerlng. Grace dldn't llke lt at all so I suggested school.
Eventually they both enrolled tn hlgh
school, Stncc we'd morrcd, the prevlous board's suggesuon that they go lnto basic level at the locd vocatlonal school no longer sttgrnattzed them. They rc-entered GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
27 fee.l.ng confident, tndependent and exhlbtdng an allveness not often seen ln high school halls. It's been a year now and both gtrls are getting avernge marks ln advanced courses. They enJoy the social ltfe at school although they are slightly older than their classmates. I get the lmpresslon that their teachers enJoy tlrem because they take their studies serlously and participate fully, a natural consequence of their betng there totally by cholce. One teacher's comment was that Tonia is .very poised.' I happened to mendon to a couple of thetr teachers that thev'd been labeled slow learners. The looked incredulous and said I must have been mistaken. I was a bit sorry I d mentloned it because then I c,ould almost see in thelr eyes a shift tn their perceptlon of my gtrls, now that they had this new information. I learned agah Jus,t how tnflexible the images are of the three types of student - slow, average arrd gifted. We've found the attltude tov .rd our
girls'background to be posltive -nd openly curlous. WeVe lnquired at a couple of colleges about entrance as mafure students and found them willing to be very helpful. TheyVe outlined the best subJects for the girls to concentrate on until they are 19 so that they can enroll in the college oourses of thetr choice. The high school has cooperated somewhat reluctantly in letting them take these courses wlthout regard to trigh school dtploma requirements. All thts leaves Tonla and Grace feellng that thelr range of future optlons is almost llmttless.
my parents or aryone else had forced
me,
lt wouldn't have been tlle enJoyable experience lt has been. I'm not saytng tt
was sinple or that I always knew what to do, because at times I was scard or embarrassed and didn't know what the teacher was asking, But don't let these things stop you because ifyou Just thlnk
Regtna O'TaLe
of Vtgbia turites:
I would llke to share my experience of gotng to school after six years of homeschooltng. I enJoyed homeschool very much but was at the age of feeltng that being the only one in the house was not excitlng. I was on a swlm team, which put me kr an environment with lnids my age and was a challenging sport, but still dtdn't sutt my ambltlons. Because it was an after school acdvi$r, the other klds, who had friends there and at school and dtdn't need to meet people through the swlm team, dldn't want lt to last as long as I would have liked. So golng to school seemed Just the thrng I'd like. But lack of confldence stopped me. I was scared that I wasn't as smart as the other chtldren gotng to school. From
talking to them I knew that they drllled and drilled and had homework each dav. In homeschool we dtdn't drlll at all. I didn't even study language arts and spelltng. So you can understand my fear. I talked to one of my friends, who went to the school I would go to, about what they did - the homework and the kinds ofthings they were expected to know. She explained everything I wanted to know and encouraged me to try it. After pondering for months, I made up my mind to go.
I wasn't worried about if I'd make friends or not, but lucky for me my friend had a party and invited kids who would be in my class the comlng year. From the beginntng I have loved it and am glad I made the declsion to go.
If
GROWINC WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
thinldng about going, I'd love to answer any questlons you'd like to ask me.
CHILDREN IN THE WORKPLACE IN A RESTAURANT Flom Panela Jofuison oJ ldd]1o: Our sonJared (13) works four to eight hours a week at the restaurant his father manages. He has been a homeschooler for flve months, and has been going to the restaurant for about three months. He enjoys it, and it gives him time with his
father, who says he is as good aworkeras the eighteen year olds he htres. Jared does Jobs that ane more 'unskilled," such as stacklng wood, cleantng the parking lot, painting curbs, vacuuming, prepartng food, and washing dlshes. He usudly goes ln before the other
workers arrlve and is usually finished by the tlme the customers come, although not always. The other workersr lncludtng the owners, know he comes in, and as far as I know no one has crtticized tt. He gets a great deal of sadsfaction out of this arangement. He is usually a heary slecper, but voluntarily and quickly gets up at 5 or 6 AM when his Dad calls htm to be ready. He comes home at 2 or 3 and does
GOING TO HIGH SCHOOL
about the bad things that could happen,
you'll never get anywhere: I go to a Prlvate Catholic school and I don't know tf you'll have that chance, but if it's public or private and you are
hls schoolwork for that day without complainlng, often working undl 7 or 8 to "catch up.' I write out a study schedule for him a week in advance, and when he comes home from the restaurant he picks up the schedule and flnishes tt that day.
Homeschool and the "Vo-Tech" tratning he gets works out very well for him.
YOUNG HELPERS F}om Mike Wtlllanson (KS): I enJoy the company of elther Iktie (6) or Betony (4) at work with me at least oncc a week. Our famtly has a drycleaning business and two days each week I take a delivery route. That's when one of my helperl comes with me. As working "ny about kids parent will testi$, the best part at work is the extra one-on-one time lt allows. My wife, Elaine, is wtth the
chtldren all day, but wtth full-time drycleaning work arul a commercial apple orchard it ts hard for me to have that crltlcal dme with them. Sometimes, when I'm tired or feeling overworked, I'll say to myself, "Oh well, they get lots of time with their mother," But I knou that's not rlght. They need tlme with both parents. Our solution has been for me to take one or the other (occasionally both) to work with me, and to work together as a whole family at much of the orchard work. For us this has worked fine. I enJoy the days I have a helper. It seems
absolutely natural. My customers also delight in seeing the young faces, although too rrany of them give the kids candy. Our kids usually bring along a duflle bag
containlng a snack, storles, aJacket, plengr of paper for drawlng, and that speclal bear or blanket. If you work for a large business or c$rporaflon, the odds are agalnst bringtng a child to work successfully. But with many small businesses, the option is real. Several
ofour
employees have done
it, to
the benefit of everyone involved. The children have to be careful not to disrupt the work envlronment, but in our experienc-e that hasn't been a problem. Rather, the young persion urants to help, and does so effectlvely. It also brightens up the work room for everyone.
Eaine W,flliarr'son
odd.s:
I rvanted to mendon that over time our daughters have set up numerous play stores. They currently have an elaborate store selling everything from Indian com to sflckers to kite string. I have noticed that they have provisions behkrd the counter for kecping "their children' with them at work.
FAMILY IN THE OFFICE F-rom
Joyce Rfcharrdson oJ ldala:
Our children have been accompâ&#x201A;Źrnying us to my husband's optometr5r offlce fior five years. I take the children and work there two days a week from 3-7 PM. We started when the children were 2 and 4. Nowwe have three - lO, 7 artd 4. We are quite satisfled with the arrangement. I would prefer not to work outside the home, but since economlcs requ{re lt, worlidng for my husband wlth my chlldren nearby ls the best possible solutlon. The children have learned to play very quietly ln a back room. They have legos and other toys and books. Sometlmes they do some of their schoolwork ln the olhce. They do very well there, but do get tired and bored sometlmes. Sometimes the children work for the office, too. They walk a block to the post ollice to buy stamps, or to the printer's to make copies. They also do filtng, with supervision, take deposits to the bank whlle I wait ln the car, emp\r wastebaskets and take trash to the bin outslde, clean mirrors and windows, stamp envelopes, sort mail, turn olT the display lights at night. They have also been helpful by entertaining small children on occasion while their parents see the doctor. The patlents seem râ&#x201A;Źceptive to havlng the children present. The children are not allowed to be loud, or to lnterfere wlth the patlents when they are with the doctor. If a patlent lnitiates a conversatlon with the
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children, they are allowed to remaitr in the waiting room to talk. For our children's safety, and for the pattent's right not to be pestered bv unwanted child conversation, the chlldren have been taught to look for a nod from me before talking wlth strangers in our office. But most of the time they are not in direct interacdon with the patients. In general, they are polite and friendly with adults. They have learned to be conffdent about talldng to bank tellers, postal workers, etc. They have told me it makes them "feel big" to do real work at the office. They have felt that they can câ&#x201A;Źntribute to the family. They are paid for thelr work, but almost all the money is put away for future missions and schooling. Thel, do receive a small arnount of their .^riittg" to spend as they please' Paying them helps our tax burden. Having them with us at work has worked for us.
ANOTHER ADULT TO HELP Ftom Doruu. Rtclaux: Norna (now l) and I have been cornlng to the ollice about one afternoon a week slnce she was three months old. My husband has a friend at work named knard who was lnterested tn Holt Assoclates and wanted to volunteer for us, and who also wanted to spend dme with children. So, on Frank's suggestlon, knard has been meettng me at the ofhce and looldng after Norna on the days I come in. His schedule at the Harvard lab is fledble enough for hlm to do this. This ls great for me - it allows me to get a lot done dudng those short times without being too far away from my baby. I ftnd that my concentration style tends to be all or nothlng - I am capable offorgetttng all about Noma whlle absorbed ln, say, solving a c-omputer problem, and gelting absolutely nowhere on tt if I have to think about her.
Lronard often carries Norna around
the cttv-anwhile he does errands, and he eye on her as she pokes around keeps the ofllce. She has always liked watching people and commodon, so she's EPPy. Lauren Farenga, ayear older, is often here too, and the two children seem very lnterested ln each other. I've nodced that because ofnaps and errands they don't actually spend all that much tlme together - maybe that keeps the lnterest uP. I can keep Noma ln the stroller during the hour's commute to the office' which, as Mary Van Doren learned before me, makes it much easier' One bus, one train, short walks at each end. Almost always, people on the train are delighted to sel her; they talk to her and make funny faces.
At home, I do Holt work a few hours a
week. About a month ago I started Paying a
neighborhood 12 year old to play tuitlt - Norna for two hours, twice a week, while I work on the computer, Other times, Noma ls asleep or her flther ts looking after her.
To plck up or drop offwork at the olfice, I drlve downtown wtth Norna ln the carseat, phone from the alley across the street, and someone comes down. (Parldng is nearly impossible in our busy locatlon.) It's still hard for me to accept that I can only accomplish about 2O96 of what I used to be able to do - erten though I knew beforehand that that was going to happen' In the old days, I could have an idea and carry tt out, like that - pow. The tdeas sHll corne, but I can't do much about them, I suppose that the desire to accomplishthings on one's oln terms could be a large part of why so many women now put their babtes ln daycare and go back to their iobs. I have to remind myself that in iaising a child I am worldng on a crlmpletely dilIerent sort of project, with a hilferint timetable and'dilierent rewards. And, as IVe outlined above, I can sdll flt in some of the old-style work, too.
NO KIDS ALLOWED Becky Olson (AZ wrltes: We recently obtained a job cleaning restrooms during the coun$r fair' After two days the bosses gave us an ultlmatum: either we find child care olf the falr grounds for the lO- 12 hour day we worked, or one ofus had to quit. Their reasons included insurance and the Health Department. I really felt thetr reasonlng was ungrounded, but I didn't Gel like fighdng with them about it. I quit and my husband Paul kept on working. We lost about $55O, but tf we had pard for chtld caFe we would have lost almost that much,
and had to be separated for ten days. It certalnly wasn't worth lt. I really feel that the only reason they were upset was that 'You don't bring children to work.' They didn't even want to try to see our side. What made me really angry was that these people sit around complaintng about worthless young people vandalizing, etc. Here we were offering our liiids a paylng Job, useful work, and we wene ln the wrong' But as I said, I didn't think the flght was worth lt and I was quite certain I would never change their minds.
REAL HELP
A reader sent us tlrts column thot Shaplrro wrote lrt the Match
Bang
Computer/Electronic SeMce News: As a young and ambltious fteld engineer, I often worked on weekend standby to make extra money. During one on-call-weekend, I grabbed the beeper and the answerlng seMce phone number and took my daughter roller skating' As Murphy's law would have it, I did receive a service call while we were at the rink. Fortunately, my curlous 8 year old was anxlous to accompany her father on the
call.
Upon arrival at the customer site, we learned that two field engineers already had trted to repair what seemed to be an interrnlttent read problem on a disk drive. I knew the repair was going to be a challenge, slnce the other engineers had not been able to flx the drtve. While I searched for the problem, mY
daughter showed great interest tn what I was dolng wlth an oscllloscope and a dtsk drive exerciser. She wanted to see what made the disk drive tick. Wtth her little head inslde the disk drive, she asked quesdon after quesdon about all the components she could see. Patlently, I took time to answer her. Then, Just when I thought the lnterrogatton was over, my daughter asked about a small white label inside the disk drive. I looked inside to see where she was pointing, but I couldn't see what she was loolidng at. I turned ofr the power and asked her to reach ln and remove whaterrer it was. Out came a mangled label, which had fallen from the disk c-ontalner onto the area where the heads roll in and out. My Juntor field engineer had used her power of observation and solved the mysterious read errors, dtscovering that the disk drlve was not damaged after all' Proudly, my daughter announced, '.Just
call me an5rlime for the tough ones, Dadl'
MODERN PIONEER FAMILY Jmnte Ettcr
oJ Oregon wdtes:
We're not a family who brlngs our children to work outside the home, but a famlly in our support grouP ls. Carolyn and her husband Jan operate an electronlc repa.ir and calibration buslness, whtch is alio expanding to the sales and servic'e of computers. TheyVe been running it for four years and home-schooling for five. At 0rst they worked out of their home. When the buskress moved to an
outslde olllce, Jan, Carolyn, Ifirk (4) and Eric (8) were there all day. Carolyn was the receptlonlst and bookkeeper. When I asked her how she could school under these circumstancnes she sald, "Kirk was still young and would go back to slecp once we got to work. Eric would sit on my lap at my desk and we would do hls schoolwork for an hour or so. I would answer the phone as we worked." The boys would also play independently in a back room set uP for them. Now, wtth a new comPuter sYstem, Carolyn and the boys are home three days aweek and ln tlle office two. The reacdon from customers in the office has been varied. Some are recepdve to the idea while others are annoyed and opposed to it. When nonsympathetic customers are at the office, the boys go to the play room, shut the door, and are very quietl At flrst, a salesperson the familY employed would not erren acknowledge the He has now come to accept boys' presence. -and addresses them by name. The tn6m
other employee, a technician, has always been positive about the ldea and somedmes brlngs hls own daughter to work
with htm.
Carolyn says, '\l/e're like a pioneer famfly, where errcryone worked together.
We are a
mdern day little house on the
freeway."
WE WAI{T TO HEAR about how other adults (besides parents) are involved in chlldren's homeschooling - relatlves, familv friends, and adults chtldren have met on thelr own. What ls the nature of the adult's involvement (formal? informal? limited to a particular area?) Please write. GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #63
29
WATCHING CHILDREN LEARN STORIES HELP PROBLEMS Ruth Matilskg (NI wdtes: You asked about how telling stories has helped me withJacob (5). Jacob has had some mixed feelings about hJs younger slster. Laura was coliclry for several months and woke up (and condnues to wake up) several tlmes a ntght. This meant that when I wasn't involved with her I didn't feel like doing a whole lot of other things. Jacob reacted by developing a particularly grating ear-splitting scream that he would use at the slightest difflculty - ln an argument wlth hts older sister or Just when he was really frustrated. This peaked when one day I heard him screamlng and lgnored hlm for a while, thinldng that he and Sara were fighting. Then Sara came into the room
and said, "Where's Jake?" and I realized he must need help somewhere. Sure enough, Jacob was sfuck ln t]le bathroom he couldn't open the door. Ttris brought us to the boy who cried wolf. I told him the story but changed it to be about a little boy who screamed and screamed unttl the dav he screamed for help and nobody cEune. Then I told hdm the story about'the boy who forgot.'This was about a little boy who seemed to always forget some household rules. Then there was 'the boy who dtdn't listen" and "the bov who
couldn't do things." As I told these storles. I started to conslder the situadon from the little bov's point of vtew and I realized some thingsabout the way I was relattng to Jacob. 'The boy who crled wolf was feeling some real pressures, and erren though the mommy didn't think she was shouting a lot she forgot that to a little boy, a mommy's "loud'voice seems llke a real vell. So the little boy figured if his mommy could yell, why not hlm. -The boy who didn't listen" is actually a little boy who gets very absorbed ln hls own acilvities and when hds mother barges in to tell him to wash hls hands for dinner, she sometimes doesn't take lnto account that his attentlon is elsewhere and that she is lnterrupting his traln of thought. I also reallzed that this boy does very often listen, and in the stories the little boy and his mommy talk about how they can understand each other better and apprectate the nlce things that each ofthem do. 'The boy who couldn't do thlngs,' I realizsd, sees hls baby slster getting cpnstant attention - mommy dresses her and feeds her. Probably looks like fun, so why not become helpless at things that were formerly done with pride? But the mommy needed all the help she could get and so she got real annoyed when she had to help the older boy. I wish I could say that this storytelling has solved all our problems. It hasn't, but I do feel that I have more of a handle on what is going on. The sibling issue is similar to the housework lssue ["Involving Klds in Housework,'GWS #561 ln that our culture is not set up to deal with older siblings. Ideally, the birth of a new baby would be a natural time for older children to reach out to the extended GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #63
farnily for the nurturlng that heretofore they'd rec.etved exclusively from the mother. It would be a natural time for a child to extend his world. This has happened to a limlted extent in our case. We are frtendly with our neighbors, and the chlldren are happy to have the attention ofother adults. Jacob reached out to some of the older glrls on the block who for awhtle gave htm a lot of attention. But the double whammy has been that as Laura has gotten older, she is the one who is r€celvlng the lion's share of attenuon from people who come by the house. And she's still nursing round the clock and still requlres constant surveillance, so I'm not a whole lot more free. So we have our ups and downs. Jacob asks for stories a lot and as I write this letter I realize that I need to start telling them again. Our whole famtly ts ice skatlng now. I wrote about Sara's skating years ago when shewas 4 (she's 7 l/2now). Jacob started thls year. Up to now he'd taken toys to the rtnk and amused htmself while the rest of us skated. And two weeks ago, at22 months, Laura made her skating debut. Sara got out the smallest pair of skates, put them on l.aura and started pulllng her around the rink. I was sure laura would hate it, but I was wrong, She loves lt. Sara told someone, 'I want my sister to skate.' When I watched the two of them I thought how neat lt ls that they have the tlme to do
somethlng like this together. Ordinarily
Sara would have been tn school ever since Laura was born - tt ls such a gfft for t]rem both to be able to get to know each other.
doing a lot ofresearch on the Scotch and Irlsh, because I'm golng to rveave a tartan for myself as my next project.We had a hard tlme figuring out the pattern, but I think we've finally got it. It seems that whenerrer I do one thing, it leads me to something else, Sometirnes tt's hard to answer people's quesdons about the waywe homeschool, because they're always asking, 'Do you have PE? Does your mom teach you art?' and stuff like that. We don't break things down into categories. Take weaving for example. I have to figure out mathematically how to warp the loom, how much yarn I'll need, etc. So that's math. Then we have to warp the loom so that the pattern wlll cpme out rlght - more math. And then when I'm weaving, I'm having my craft lesson for the dayl I think that certain subJects by themselves are polntless, unless you c€rn use them for something. A friend of ours who homeschools like us said a woman once asked her what she did when the gtrls (she has three girls who are old enough to really be dolng
"school' things) wantd to leam something she didn't know how to do. She said, "Well, what do you do when you want to leam something?' I thought that was pretty good. One day, when we were at an Irlsh
dancing program, I was tired of betng asked whv I wasn't in school. I'd like to say, "Why aren't you at work?' To me it's a rather personal question, sort of like asldng someone why they decided to have ktds.
THE NEED FOR PRIVACY NO CATEGORIES Kim Kopel (MO) urites:
I'm the oldest ln our famtly (13), and then there's Burt, 12, Sara, 6, and Katie, 3. Mom has always homeschooled us. So far neither Burt nor I have wanted to go to school. Sara lsJust "startlng" school, but I don't think she has ever said she wanted to go to school. We don't have an ongoing schedule, and Mom never pressures us to do things we don't want to do. Actually, I don't know if there's ever be€n anything I didn't want to do, really. There are a lot of thtngs I'm lnterested ln, but there are also things I have to leam, like basic math, geography, history, English and science. Right now my main interests are weaving, wrtting, music and physics. I'm very interested in motors and machines, and I'm going to try to build one. Of course, it'll be out of a book, because I don't know much about them yet. I think I might like to be an electrical engineer. My uncle is a lab techniclan and he knows a good btt about physics and chemistry, so I could take "lessons" from him. I'm also interested in geometry, but so far I haven't done much of it. I started weaving in the fall of '86. I took lessons at an old. historic house where they had a lot of crafts. Slnce then I've woven quite a few things (Burt likes to weave too, and he helps a lot) and have a floor loom here at home. Latelv I've been
Nancg Wallace (NY uritr's:
If ever two chlldren could b€ thought of as glrinea pigs it's my own, so when I read Jean Rezac's marvelously direct letter IGWS #621 descrtbing her anger at
her mother for "watchtng and recording' her interests and actlvitles and, among other things, writlng to GWS about them, I really had to stop and thtnk, once again, about our own situaflon here. After all, almost all of my own work as a writer involves 'watching and recording" the ways in which Vita and Ishmael learn, and I often worry that, like Jean, they might really begrn to feel (if they don't already) that my wridng is an invasion of their privacy. So far, though, I'm prett5r sure they read my stories about themselves the way thcy fltp thmugh albums of their baby pictures, with each new irnage
giving them a jumping point for their
reminiscences. Far more intrusive, in a way, seem to be the reports (long paragraphs for each 'subJect area') that I have to send in to the school four times a year, not to mention the constant note-taking that I do ln order to prepare the reports. Not only do I generally know what Vita and Ishmael are reading or worldng on, but the very fact that we must report to the school at all and chop up our lives into 'subject areas,'at least on paper, means that I could easily fall into the trap - as Jean suggested that her own mother has - of watching to see if
30 they are "making progress or learnlng somethlng." The other day Vita came into the kitchen to tell me about her idea for a flower album. "Ifs going to be so neatl' she said. 'I'm gotng to take pictures of the flowers in our garden rll summer long and then arrange them in a book according to when each one blooms. And you know, like the other flower books we have, I think I'll write captions underneath each picture, glving the name of each flower, the date when lt flrst opened and anything else I can think of.' She was literally flushed wlth excitement at the thoughf -That sounds Sreat,'I told her, really meaning tt, but then, without thinktng, I added, "We can call lt 'science.'' "Yeah,' she sald, and turned her back on me to open a box of film. I felt terrtble. Somehow I felt as if Jean's letters were rlght there, staring me in the face, Of course, Vita and Ishmael really do know that I respect their work enough to support tt and help them ln any way I can. As much as anything, that has meant not intrudlng upon it to ask that they do math or social studies or other specifically school-type work on a regular basts. Still, they must be aware that I tend to be concemed about how the material for my paragraphs to the school are shaptng up, espectally in the last few weeks before they are due. They must be aware that there are times when I wish that they'd do at least somethlng that could be consldered math, or whatever. All winter long, Vita was working hard on music and art. Shed done enough reading and wridng so that I knew I could pad out a paragraph on 'Ianguage,' but science was a total blank. Naturally, the first thing I felt when she told me about her flower album was relief. Now I had my paragrapht I was angry wlth myself for letting the thought of the school report spoil the pleasure and excitement that I might have shared with Vita, and I
couldn't help but think, fleetingly, that she went to school every day and did science there, I wouldn't have to worry about whether what she did at home fit
if
into that category. I don't think that Vita minded all that much, though, other tlran to feel annoyed, as I did, at the insidiousness of the school distrtcfs requlrements. She knows that my school reports provide the necessar5l barrier between our lives and the school authoritles to allow her to carry on with what she considers to be her work. I thfnk Vita feels enough confidence in me to know that I trust her instincts to learn, and that whether she does sclence or not over a gtven pertod of time really doesn't matter to me and that I don't look at anything she does with an 'evaluating attitude' (as Jean said), other than to love
it.
Still. when Vita turned her back to me and began ftddling with her film, I thtnk she must have been reminding me that the work was golng to remain hers, to share or not as she felt like it, "Write about it tn the school report," she was sylng, "but don't expect me to tell you more about it untll I'm ready." While Vita understands and supports the need to write detailed school reports, she also needs to know, for herself, that she has the freedom to shape
the reladonship between us - to shane as friends and collea4;ues, but also to hold back when her work, or even Just her state of mfnd, demands it. She needs to feel certain that she can protect her privacy, not just from the school district, but from me. I wish that the clrcumstances of our homeschooling - the need to write up those school reports - didn't make it necessary for her to guard thls freedom so carefully. [SS:]
I
replied
You raise rnany lnteresting points
here, one ofwhich, lt seems to me, has to do wtth the relatlon between freedom and prlvacy. In GWS #62, Jean satd that she didn't feel free to do what she wanted to do when shewas belng observed with a pardcular attitude - in other words, without the assurance of privacy when she wanted or needed tt, she couldn't feel really free. This makes a lot of sense to me. I did a lot of things tn childhood that I dtdn't have to show anyone or talk about until I was ready to (whlch quite often meant nwer), and when I lmagine not havtng had that prlvacy, I reallze I would have hated lt. On the one hand, thinking about how we work, the process that went into things, our development over tlme, and so on, ls fasctnattng, and I thtnk that tf it's engagd
in in the right sptrit children lind it so as well. But sometimes it can be like "pulllng up weeds to see if they'râ&#x201A;Ź growing," as.Iohn said. Somettmes it's tnappropriate and even harmful to be asked to erraluate what you've done - usually that's most true when you're right ln the mtddle of doing the thing, I think. So we have to respect the balance (often a delicate one) between doing and exarnlning, Do you really mean lt, though, when you say that you don't look at Vita's work with any attitude except loving it? When you wrlte about her work, aren't you looking at it ln a deeper way, trying to understand how it came about and what that means? The trick, lt seems to me, is Iiguring out how to do this without
lnvadlng Vita's prtvacy or appropriating her work as your own, and maybe what you mean when you s:ry she trusts you is precisely that you've managed to do this successfully. Glenda Bissex's GNYS AT
llRK [avail. here, 6.95 + post.l is a good example, I think, of a mother and son working out a successful balance. Glenda Blssex was lnterested ln her son's growing llteracy, but this interest was part of her general interest in him, and - thls is probably cruclal - she came to lnvolve him ln her work of trytng to understand him, so that he saw it as a collaborative rather
than invasive
activit5r.
But it's funny. As you say, if you sent your kids to school you would ln some ways be able to give them more privacy at
home. You wouldn't need lo collect things to put in the school reports. It may be trre that gfven the way homeschooling arramgements are so often set up, all we can do is rninimize this interference as much as possible. I think that saying, 'We could call that flower album science" is significantly different from saying, as you might have, 'Vita, we have nothing to list under science, why don't you make a flower album.' I think the latter would
have been much more contrfired, lntruslve and therefore harmful. Categorlztrrg according to school requlrements seems less bad tf it's done afterwards, ln t]le spirlt of, 'OK, it's school report dme, let's see howwe can putwhatwe\re done these past few months into that form.' With this tn mfxd, I have an ldea that milht work for some familles: What about
enllsting children's help when lt comes time to write up the reports? You say that Vita understands that school reports are an irrttattng but necessaqr buller between her chosen Me and the potendally much greater lntrusion of school ttself. She knows you don't thtnk ln school terms; you're her ally, worldng to protect her work from that kind of lnterference. So you could say, 'What do you thlnk would quali$ as 'science' from among the things you've been doing lately?' In tlds way lt could become a ldnd of silly game that had to be played a few times ayear but dldn't have to do wtth the way elther of you really saw thrngs. It also rnight grant Vita (and other children in other farnilies) greater prlvacy brluseen report flmes - you wouldn't have to thtnk thts way except on the few occasions when lt was specifically necessary. I hope others will wrtte about how
they handle this.
ATTENTION TO WORDS Katlieen Plwrkett-Black NV| wrltes: I've been meaning for awhlle to write
in response to the question tn GWS #@
about llstening to what chtldren say and payrng attention to what they ttrink, and was reminded of that intention again when Christopher (5) commented this mornlng, 'Lots of tlmes ln storles when they're talldng about laughlng they say somebody 'breaks tnto peals of laughter.' I wonder why they say that?' He has been paying close attention to words and their exact meanings ever since he began to talk (and before too, no doubt). When he wâ&#x201A;Źrs very young, one of hts favorlte quesflons to ask was 'What does mean?' Sometirnes he asked about 'hard" words, as one rnight expect, but -usually they were everyday ones - 'once,' "much.' The one I remember disflnctly is "any.'Try it now, quick - what does "any" mean? I fumbled around, using the cop-out of gtvtng examples, finally coming up with "some" as the closest definition, Then we
turned to the dictionary and found five
deftnitions.
A few months ago I had a long (and at
the time infuriattng) conversation with
him about the exact meanlng ofthe phrase "scrap paper" - whether a particular piece of paper I had referred to was really scrap paper, whether Dad, who was not home at the time, would think it was scrap paper, whether I thought Dad would think it was scrap paper. I was in a rush to do somethlng at the time, and it was onlV llter thatl was able to admit that he had not been maliciously trying to bug me, but honestly interested ln the way PeoPle use
words. Luckily my occasional irritated responses have not discouraged his interest, and I hope I will pay closer attentlon to my reactions in the future. GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #53
3t
LET THEM LEAD Pcrt Sffeet wrcte tn tle March/APril Is sue oJ Tennessee's Homeschooling
Familtes: I constantly have to be reminded bY my children that lt's OK to let them lead the way in thetr experlencing of the world. When you're trying hard to 'provide resources and a rich learning envlronmenf for your chtldren, it's easY to
overdo lt. For lnstanc.e, when I was new at "flnger foods for toddlers,' I had frtends who gave lnterestlng narnes to the equally lnteresttng shapes of food they came up wlth to entlce their small chlldren to eat. One popular narne was "apple boats,' descrlbtng half an apple with the core and seeds dug out so that there ls a hollow left ln the center. WeVe always made and eaten such apple shapes but somehow I nwer qulte got around to introducing them as "apple boats.' Somewhere ln the reoesses of my mfurd I saw thls as a mlnor failure - after all, a really good mother would have provided more richness, more stimulatlon, more fun in eatlngl But the ottrer day Connor, now 4 and able to describe verbally thes'e things he has been eatlng for tJrree years, asked me to make hlm an apple to eat, and said, "Make tt one of those where you're wallrtng along and you fall tnto a dltch.' I had a flash of recognitton that had I named these cultnary deltghts lbr htm, Connor nerrer would have had the opportunity to c.ome up with his own wonderfully creadve fantasy about bls 'apple walks.'
''I DIT''
Pat Fatenga urites:
Wtth a child of my own, and sinc€ John Holt was childless, I am sometlmes asked lfJohn Holt's observadons and theories apply to liG wtth my own chlld. Reflecting about l,auren's leaming, and ours slnce she was born, I have developed even stronger feeltngs about thls question than I had before, For many months Lauren couldn't pronounce the -f sound: Matt Nesbary and Pat Gould were always'Map' and 'Pap.'We were never dlsturbed by her mispronunclatlon, and gave it ltttle attention. The most we dld was to say thelr names properly when we used them: 'Yes, Matt and Pat are your friends.' In retrospect, we wer€n't at all one hundred perc€nt conslsGnt wlth even thls teaching method, because Lauren's rnlspronunclatlons fast became part of our liamtly usage, and we often found (and sflll flnd) oursebes speaklng to her uslng her own mtstakes, saylng thtngs ltke: 'Ntclid Map go byebye.' As usual, there was no warnlng for the moment of rerrelation. I was puttlng Lauren ln her car seat and she asked, 'Go bye-bye Ntckt Matt?' Lauren often asks to see her ftends when we out her fur our car. But dld I hear a -f? "No, we're golng to the office,' I replted. "Pat and Snanal' Lauren shouted. The 'T'was comlngl out loud and clearl On occasslon people will try to gtve GROWINC WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63
la.uren a lesson irr pronunci,ation. For many people pedantry seems to be the only way to publicly relate to a child, and it seems mean and awkward to correct these people as they are trying to talk and create a relaHonship wlth [.auren. Besides, Lauren is learning to handle these people as she needs to, sometimes Playing along
with their rote drills, other times walking awav from them to us; on occassion I've
ask6d someone who is particularly
pressing to cool it with Lauren, but usually we don't. Day and I are learning to have far more faith tn a toddler's abillty to learn than we everhad. Fortunately, despite our forays tnto babyspeak and the spontaneous classes she found herself lrt with some folks. Iauren was still able to
discem from our many other oramples of real speech that we say "Matt," not "Map,' when referring to Matt Nesbar5r. So much of a young child's - or anyone's - learning goes unnotic€d by us since we are not the
ones iniUating it. Lauren is forever showing us the meandering and someilmes obscure routes our learning often takes, For e:<ample, for a while she liked to walk around the house playlng with a Sltnlry, a metal cotl toy. She developed the habtt of putting one end ln her mouth and walklng all across the tlle floor of our ldtchen, letting one end dangle behtnd her ltke a tatl. One night I was picldng toys up off the floor and came across the Slinlrry. Intrigud, I put one end of the Slinky tn my mouth, let it dangle to the floor, and walked around the ldtchen. I couldn't believe my earsl Rtch, bell-like tones rose from the coils in rhythm to my movements across the floor: the sounds traveled rlght up myjaw bone to my ear, produclng a strange, amplifled sound. All along I thought she was showlng some stgns of being unclear about the concept of how to use a parflcular toy, how to carql thtngs, somehow developtng poor motor skills, bad habits. Instead she was experimentlng with the tonal qualliles of rnatter, exploring the world of sound, further tuning her use of her mouth and ears.
lf our best efforts as concemed parents can often get ln the way ofour children's elforts, what about all the trlcks people in schools perform for thetr students to atd thetr learnfng? How much more often are a busy teacher's helptng hands capable of mlslnterpreting and mtsJudgtng a child's motives and curiositles, pleasures and palns?
Now approachtng the 'terrtble twos,' whlch we find fttng but far from terrlble, Lauren ts learnteg about confidence, selfesteem, and accompllshment. The other night she put on her paJama top by herself. Flushed with success, she yelled, 'I dltl' Once agaln, Lauren ls demonstrattng for me John's key points about how chlldren leam and how eastly we can disrupt their posldve, independent leaming habtts. Chtldren learn thlngs because they want to, because they want to proclaim, wlth all the self-esteem they can muster, "I did tt.' Not to pass acourse, not to compete and
wln, not to please some authori$r. Coercion, competltlon, threats, and brtbery are lgnoble reasons for leamtng and it ls no wonder it takes our schmls so many precious years to teach
children readtng, writing, and artthmetic using these methods. Can't the satlsfaction and Joy of doing a chosen task be enough? John Holt wrote about these lssues; Lauren constantly remlnds me of
them.
DO WE STEP IN? Flom JiIl Bastlan MD: Heather (12) heard a plece ofclassical music played on a computer, found a friend who had the shect muslc for it, and asked my plano teacher (college student and friend) for help with the fingering. Then she spent the next three days masterlngl the ftngering and rhythm, all from memory because she refuses to learn to read music. I had almost despaired again, because unlike many other homeschoolers, Heather is lnterested in clothes, make-up, hairdos, romanoe books, rock music, and boys: typical pre-teen girl. In flact, she was attemptlng to spend nearly all of some days and weeks thls winter preoccupied with (reading and talldng about) these concerns. Since I was one ofthe "studlous' ones thlrty years ago, my mother despatred of me, She and Heather are better suited. So, how to proceed. Do we still let her have free rein of her learnlng program for the rest ofthe year, or do we steP in? My husband Doug encouraged me to let her remaln tn charge, but I'm still making subtle suggesdons. I s$ll insist on reading aloud to her - preferably somethlng that has a btt more Lterary value. WeVe had some serious personal and family discusslons in the last week, and today looks like spring has arrived. Whaterrer the reason, she has suddenly started wrtting a new novel (she's busily
typing in her room right now).
LEARNING TOGETHER Ftom fuckg Olson (,W):
The T\rcson Unified School District
gives out a baslc curriculum to home-
schooling parents who are interested. A friend ptcked one up for me. Rachel (l l) and I went over the math secUon of the grade she would be in. I was totally amazed at the amount of math she knew. and she quickly plcked up the baslc concepts of things she hadn't come tn contact with prevlously. Flachel and Joshua (8) are raising mice and gerbtls to sell. Although I would never say tt ls a moncy-maktng propositlon, they do get spending money from it pertodtcally. They are also babysttting with me and maktng some moncy there. Micah (2 l/2) ls learning to count and this prompts Mandy (6) and Taclrary (5) to get involved with numbers. Tacbary ls startlng to wrlte and asks me to show hlm how to prlnt letters and spell words. Mandy ts picking up reading slowly. She has a much easler tkne sounding out words than Rachel or Josh ever dld. Josh somedmes doesn't remember a word from one line to the next, while Mandy tries to memorlze the new words. TWo totally dilferent approaches to r€adtng.
32
FRENCH WITHOUT FEAR F'rcm
Judg Stiller btFtance:
Aaron Falbel ts absolutely rlght about learnlng a new language {GWS #59]: you don't need books ofany klnd and you must not let yourself be bothered by the fact that often you won't be able to understand much of what ts golng on. I would also add thatyou must gve up the fear of making mistakes whlle spealdng. Durlng my first few vislts to France I was afraid to speak tncorrectly. Realizlng I was getttng nowhere, IJust decided to speak no matter how bad the grammar was, and belierre me, there were tlmes (and sfill are) when it was very bad. I started to speak better when I began nofldng the rnistakes I was malidng. At first, friends and family were correctin6l me all the time. They thought they were helptng me, but I soon asked them to stop, explaining in a nice way that what they were dolngwas not helpful, and that lt was in fact e:<asperating to be stopped every few words. I couldn't have a normal, freeflowing conversation. Luclidly, it was also a bother for them, urlng to be llstentng to my grammar and not to the content of my sentences, So no one corrects me anymoFe (or very rare$. I am the one who asks for a correctlon when I want it, and I ask less and less because I prefer to learn by listening alone. When I learn somethhg new, I don't start with the basics and build to more complex ldeas. Most of us do things that way. I did for a very long time, but it was borlng and so much llke school. Now, I dectde what I want to do - knftflng, barnfng an lnstmment - and I plck out, for example, exactly the sweater I want to make. It may be llsted 'for experlenced knltters only." I don't care. I do lt because It's the one I like. Sometlmes I don't succeed as well as I would like, but I am always very happy to have done tt, and I always learn so much more along the way than tf I spent endless hours ln bortng repetltlon befdre getting to what I really want to do.
SOME TELEVISION IS OK Nancy Mwder oJ Ftorda wrltes:
In response to the intervlew wlth Marte Wtnn l"The Elfects of Televislon,' GWS #6U: I have observed mY 7 Year old uslng the TV to watch Programs on nature, sclence, world culture, arts and music (classical and opera - she refuses to hrrn off the opera), Through this 'wlndow on the world" she ts able to discuss wlth us, and other adults, what she has seen' Yet, after a good program, she wtll turn olT the set on her own. In rny oPlnlon, thls ls not only educatlonal, but she has learned the responslbtllty of turnlng tt olf. My husband and I rarelYJustwatch TV - usually we are reading and/or dlscusstng the program wlth Torrte. If the program ls on a channel that has adverds' ing, lorrte turns olf the sound untll the ads are over.
Each person and each famllY ts dt{ferent, so I don't thlnk you can generallze and say TV ts bad for erreryone.
ADDITIONS TO DIRECTORY Here ls a rumm.lt/ of the addtttons and changes to thc Dlrectory that we havc recclvcd slncc we published tlle complctc 1988 Dircctory rn GWS #60. Our Directory ls not a llst of all subscrlbers, but orrly of thosc wt|o ask a b llste4 so that other GWS readcrs, or othcr lnterested people, rnay get tn touch wtth thcm. lfyou would lkc to bc tncluded, please scnd thc cnt4r form or a 3:<5 card (one fanily pcr card). Vr'e print birttlqans of chlldrcn, not ages. If wc rnade a mlstake when convcrtkg your child's agc to btrthyear, pleasc lct us know. Please tell us ifyou would rather have your phone numbcr and tourn listed instead ofyour
mailing address. If a Directory llsHr4l ts followed by an F4, thc farnily is wtlllqg to host GWS travclers who make advance arrangements in wrttlng. lf a namc tn a GWS story ls follorved by an abbreviation ln parcnthescs, that pcrson ls ln the Dlrectory (check hcrc ondrn #6O). Wc arc happy to forrpard rnail to thosc whosc addresscs are not ln the Dtrectory. Mark thc outslde of thc ern'elope wlth name/dcscrlpuon, lssuc, and page numbcr. If you don't mark thc outstdc, wc opcrr thc rwelopc, sec that you want somcthtng fnwarded, and then havc to rcaddress the letter and use ourown postagc to mall lt. When you scnd us en address change for a subscriptlon, please remlnd us lf you are ire the Directory, so we can change lt hcre, too,
AL =- AIABAMA HOME EDUCATORS' 819 Jor5mc Dr, Montgomcry 36f 09 (change) := Davld & Barbara BRASFIELD, AIABAIVIAHOME EDUCAIORS-TUSCALOOSA AREA, Rt 3 Box 633. Cottondalc 35453 === Phil & kc GONET Uessi/80, Patrick,/a3) THEVOICE. Rt3 Box37B, Tallassee 36O7a (change)
AK === Davtd & Annctte JANKA fiolly/8s) PO Bow lO22,Yaldoz 99686 (IO =- Carol RYAi{-AUBE & Btll AUBE (Annle/8l' yagglela4' Scan/Ss) PO
Bo:<
871962, Wasllla 996a7
$)
AZ =- Gerrc & Mary Kay ARNOLD (Jullebeth/69, Mlke/71, Robcrt/7s) r2423 N 65 St. Scottsdalc 85254 (It === Rachel GAI & John PALMER Nr1/8213624 N Forgcus, Thcson a5716 := Trtrdl & Bcn HOPXINS (Phllip/78, Cathcrine/8o, Nlcholas/82, Johnml/e+l 614 S El
Dorado Rd, Mesa a52O2 (chanCe) := Ilnda NESS (Forcst/7a, Echo/80, Arlel/84) 8og W Nopal Pl, Chandler 85224 =: Deborah & Richard OVr/ENS (Davrd/75, Russell / 77'RJch / 79' Peter/8l, Lyon /a4l l24l W 1O St, Tempe 85281 === Irn & Mary ROTHFIELD (Becky/7l) SOAO N Via Condesa, Tircson 85718
AR:= Ted & Dlane BEILBY lErnl/a2, Alrcia/83) Star Rt Box lO, Sh:rkic 72578 (changc) C'A NORIII l?jltl. f.tl'Oo(t & up)
:=
glgvg
& Pat BRISTOW Mcgcn/8o, Alanc/A2, Al:na'la7) 429a I*[tr Av, San Josc 95124 === Wlllam & Susan BURXE (Jessr', 177, CaltllnlSl) 465 Dtamond St. San Ftanclsco 94114 (Hl =: Glcn &DebraDAIS (Jarcd/e4l 12oo lsth St, Santa Rosa 954O4 =: Glerrn & Wcndy EARLEY (Andrew/82) Apt 13 1698 Onterto Dr, Sururyvale 94OS7 (change) === Terry & FaYe EVITT (Rachel/82, zakartahl80 47a78 Fcrnald St'
Frcmont 94539 := Kathy &Jim FRANDEEN (Blair/84) 2OOl Pau Hana, Soquel 95O73 (charge) === Ertk FREEIAND, PO Box 297' 17154 Bodega Ln, Bodega 94922 =- Patty
HOLMES & Ker'ln McGOVERN (Sharfi/76, Justln/78, Kerrtn/8lf 3293 Folsom St, San Francisco 9411O === Cheryl JUST (Tlcvor/81. Brett/82) 2O8lO Almaden Rd, San Jose 9512O === Julie & I.arry KROGER (Tia\'lsl83, Mada Rosc/8Z 555 John Muir Dr #615, San Francisco 94132 === Robcrt & Julie LERIOS (I-auren/8{1, Jordano/an 184 Plne St. SanAnselmo 9496O Ron & Ltnda MAHER (Dantelle /79, Calcb/8t|,
-= Sarah/86) 376f Rocdlr{g Rd, Ceres 953O7
=:
Werrdy MARTYNA & Blll LEIAND (Br1ll/79,
Mflca/a2) 25O Homcstead Tfall, Santa CYuz 95()6() (I4 =: Kurt & lrnt ROSSBACH (Chcync/ 82, Kclly,/861 10239 SunolWay, Sacramento 958127 === Arrn & Hyman SILVER (Isabella/&1, Charlotte/86) 562 Brtght St, San Flanc'lsco 94192 (changc) === SOUfi{ VALLEY HOMESCHOOLERS ASSN, Box 961, San Marfln 95046
(Erlcl7g, Aurora l&2,Dexncll 85) PO Box lO27,Mt. Shasta 96067 ==Xaren TURNER (Ramman/76,Drl's€n/7a) PO Box 942, === Karen TIETIIEN
Gualala 95445 (II)
CA SOITTII (zlgt to g4dx)) =: Maurlcc & Marltyn BEIDLER (Joshua/78) FO Box 3Ol. La gufnta 91253:= Pancla & Mtchacl BOSWELL (Shalcsa / 76, Jotdan/7a, Marlnda/ 8O, Carraan/8{t, I{aydrea/86) 14551 Blowcrs St, Ltranford 93230 (chaqge) -: Gcorgc & Sandra BUCK (Adam/8o, Hctdi/82) PO Box 5852. Carmcl 93921 (Hl === f,dfls1 & Shirtey CRAI\{ER (Kemy/7n l3O Castlcton Dr, Claremont 917ll === Dave & Mafle HARTWELL (StePhen/80, Shcnpood/84) 619-279'-7072 (San Dtego) =: Kerureth & NancyJOSEFOSKY [Ken/63, Dan/65' John/66, Chrls/69, Fred/73) SAN DIEGO HOMESCHOOI,ERS,
35al MtAclare, San Dlcgo
92fff
(changc) =: John & G KIRIil.AND (Tfacy/8s, Aloca/87) FO Box 3O764, Santa Ba6ara 93130 =: Emery & Pat LCTCKWOOD (Melllssa/8o, Melarde/8lD 15185 C Marqucttc St" Moorpark 93O21 := Julle & Davld LOYD (Charlle/84, Pcter/86) 7216 Garnet St' Alta Loma 9l70l (changc) G4 === Ramona & Preston MELTAR (simorrita/8l, Sarah/8s) 38459 5 S;tW W72, Palmdalc a355,0 =*b€f,t & Janet MENSCHEL (Camber/80) lO75 Carlsbad Court, San Dlego 92114 G{ := TIna & Bryan NEWTON (AJa Marte/84) 23445 Rhea Dr. Morcno Vallcy 929a7 === Rlck &Vicld PETERS (Jonathon/76, Elllot/ 79' Aaron/ A3, Clairc/85) 9826 Hamdcrt St, Ptco Rlvcra 90660 === Kcn & Rta STEEK (Paul/76, Carm€n & Crdy/78. Skyc/80) 27533 Pampltco Dr, Valeucla 91355 (changc) =: Erlka THOST & lhomas REAPER ftrtstan/86, Clatercc/aV 3866 CenterAv. Santa Ba6ara Jont $IARE (Altson/79, li/.eganl 931 lO -= Jlm & 32, Bridget/86) 6046 Rlvcrton Av, N Hollywood 91606 ===Max &KarcnWEISS (Elle.n,/75' Dan/ 79) f891 Rlngsted Dr, Solvarg 93463
cD === COLORADo HoME EDUCATORS' ASSOC. l6f O lTth St Box 372' Derwet 80f2O2 (change) === Joc & f}cc HUBBERT (Andrcw/75l PO Box 6, Rsmah 8O832 := Pavl & Pat LUCIN (Matt/8f , Kal.c/A4l PO Box 5291, Woodland Park 80a66 (changc) CT
=:
Robcrta & Jay FOSTER (Alyssa/78.
Jay/79) 2ol7 Norfolk Rd, Torrlnglton o6790 =: Wayne & Patty GATES (Brandon/82) PO Box 54' Ashford 06278-0054 (tO =: Mark & Ipulou
XANE (Comelta/82) l3 Fox Run Ln S' Ncwtoqm
0647O === John & I{athy LcDONNE (Kyle/80, Janfrre/84) 44Henry St. Manchester 06040 (I4 := Flan UTflN & Chuck TAUCX (Meghan/82' T$cr,/Ss) 35 Mlnute Man Flrll, WcatPort 0ll := Paul & Laurlc MA.STROPOLO (Ltal8':]' Anttal86) 224 Brewstcr Rd, Brlstol := Grrr8ler WIISON & Paul KRASHEFSKI (Justtn/a2, Sabrlna,/86) 147
GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #63
33 Lakcvlcw Dr, Stalford Spgs 06076
(IIl
FL =: Psn4" & Mary BURNETI (Katherrnc/82, Milcs/a5) 6th St atAvE, PO Box 381, Mclntosh 326At =: Melody & Cafty COOPER
(Aaron/8o, Crystal,/8:t) 5407 Scmtnolc Av, Tampa 336(X === Louis & Sharon DEPPE (Ambcr/82, Mandy,/8s) 2l2O Platnffcld Av, Orargc Park 32073 (H) === Bob & Tlna FAREWEII (Ellzab€th/83, Eric/86) 39OO Chalet Suzarmc Dr, Lakc Walcs 33t]53 GI) ==dvltke & Amy GFJGGS (Mtkc/77, Jake/ai|) 355 S Htghl,and Av, Grcen Corc Spgs 32043 =: Jamal & Diana HU*SEIN (Satah/8o, Mahmoud /841 lilO Bahama St, Tttus\dlle 327eO GI) === Willram & Gail JORGENSEN (Brcnt/8 I , Lancc/a4) 28 l 5 S
27 St. Ft Plcrcc 3498f := Kathcrlne KIGER, PO Box 5338O8. Orlando 32853 === Nancy & Charlcs MUMER Mctorla/8O) ll9 Mtdway Island. Clcarwatcr 33515 =: C & M STOUDENMIRE (Tlara/83, Tlana/84) 149'8 Old Hospltal Area. Pcnsacola 325O8-lOOl GA =- Mary Ann & Stanley CAII-THEN (Bccky/7s) 26O Donald Lamb Rd, Morcland 30259 (ID =- Susan & Kurt CONOVER (MacAdam/78, Kalen/80, Cady/83) 3469 Chestnut Dr. Dorovtllc 3O34O
HI =: Stu & Suc DOUGISS (Molly/8:t) 786997F Mamalahoa Hwy, Holualoa 96725 (I4 === MAUI HOMESCHOOLERSASSN, c/o GaiI Nagasako. 242-A225 (Gafya/80, ID -= Jean & John CIFAI,A vanny/82, Dtane/75lBox 1O74, Challls 83226 1gt === Toby & Chrls RHUE (Joshua/85, Caltlln/ 8A 29O E. 2OO N. Soda Sprtngs 8i1276
IL:=
Bruce & Sharon BOYD (Branduln/
Aurora/8l. Mar!ahl84) l32l 4 St, Moline 61265 (I4 === Greg & Ltnda BRUNET (Ktm-
78,
berly/8s, Ahssa/87) 1546 Rcverc Clr, Schaumburg 60193 --= Nancy & Mardn FAI(O F-tsa/67, Laura/69, Nancy / 72, IMalglarct | 77, Robr,rt | 821 3il7 Ridge, Elmhurst 6O126 =: Chuck & Mary FRJEDL (Nathan/76, Adam/791 1313 Cleveland.
(Arny/83, Lynn/86) 23 Brlar I$c, Gerre'va 6O134 === Kathy & Bob KRUCK (H€tdt,/80, Kanc/ 83, Julic/85) 34713 S Chlcago Rd, Wilmiqgton 60481-9731 (H) === James & Robln TENNANT (Noah/8a) 53O Laurel, Wlmette 6009l (I4 === Davtd & Trtsh WAGLER (Rochcllc/76,Venya/7A, Bethany/8l, Maria/8€t, Petcr/81 OS 467 Ethel St. Wlnfleld 60190 =- Dana & Shawna WHITMAN (Corby /73, Joshua/76, Marcus/83) 2O2 W Garffeld Av. BartorMlle 61607
IN=== Mary & Tom CO\MAirI FJ/74, Nathan/77, Jash-Paul/8o, Jakc /A2l 1626 Flancls Rd, Franklin 46131 === Chsrlotte DUDLEY (Rob€rt/82, &rnl84) 5O7 S Indlana St, Grecncastle 46135 (IO =- Cam & Savtlla HUFFMAN tKatrlna/78. BcnJamtn/79, Patrtsha/ 8O, Tlewa/82) JACKSON CO HOME EDUCATORS, 715 W Sprlrg St, Bro\rnstown 47220 (Hl =: Paula & John TI{ATCHER (Avqy / 79, Ifiilka /
83) 735f Wrndfrec, Bloomlngton 474O1 =: Tom & Lynn WEISS 0turt/79, bry / e3' Kelly/8s) l43OO Brorntng Rd.. Evansvtlle 4771I
IA =: Hourard & Patrtcla ROWE {Matthew/ 73, Jasnln/ 75, Jeannette/78, Amy/8O, Calvln/84) 319 W 6th St, Muscadne 52761 I(g
=: TonyMFIlL 9O7 Caldwell,
Goodland 67735
I(Y === Mtchael & Rosalyn FARLEY
GROWING WTTHOI..N SCHOOLING #63
(|ngela / 7 9, Matthcw/8o, Adam / A61 4Ol 7
Greerrllcld In, Owensboro 42301 =- David & Barbara FRENCH (Luke/81, Rachel/83. Sarah/ a? 313 Maple St, Vlnegrovc 4O175 === Mtckcy & Ctndy GREENE {Mrndy/8o, Aprtl/8:l) 322 N Wllson Avc, Morehcad 4O351
IA
=== Suzarr COLEMAN
lBrlly/82,
Tlmothy/86) 417 Willowbrook Dr, Grcetna 7OO56 := Rhonda & Murphy SERIGNET (lvLJ/78, Dcrnck / 79, Rachel/8 I, Justh/as) FO Box I 58, Potrete Ala Flachc 7OO82 Ett
Ut =: Ken & Jancttc CHRISTIAN (Grant/ 79,U.V/AOI Box 984, Blue tltll O4614 === Jason FTELD & Debbte CHRISTO
(hchary /741 PR * |
Box 282O, Exeter 04435-9758 (IO
E) === Robert & Audrey BANKS {Brendan/79, Alyssa/8l) 579 Sllver Run Vallcy Rd, Wastntnster 21157 (changel GD -= Heather & Randy BURDIN (Aaron/8o, Chtlsten/a2l 73420 Brownwell Rd, Ft Meade 20755=== Nell & Ltnda CRANDALL QoylTl, Justln/86) 3O8 Poplar Dr, Lusby 2O657 G4 === turn & Don DeARMON (Belle/8 l, McCam1rc / A4l 241 Dill Av. Frederlck 2l7Ol (IIl --- Dantel & Sandra GROVEMAN (Alycla/76, Israel/77. Joharunh / 7a, Jwd.ah / 79, Danlcl/8f. Abraham/83. Chavia/86) 265O Cory Ter. Wheaton 2O{X)2 := Tom & Susan
HILFERTY Uoshua/76, Ellsabeth/78, lsalah/84)
98 Mori:son La., Conowlngo 21918
Ull
=== Susan & Peter BARNES-BRO\Ir'N
@lena/7T 195 Hayward Mtll Rd, Concord 01742 === cary & Judy BELUZO (Nicholas/79, Ashley/
8l)
2O Adams St, Westffeld OlO85 === Dcborah CALDWELL & Chester PENDLETON (.John/65, Rob/68, Kate/a3l) I 4 Metcalf St, Rosllndale O2 I 3 I (II) =: Brlan & Suzannc CLAUSER (Noah/72, Arlo/76. Ernma/8l, Jerorne/84) 137 Old Amherst Rd, Bclchertwn ol0oT === Patricia DAI\iIARIS 6tcssc/8f , Gabrlel/86) l4l Center St, Cawer O23tlO === Shanna DIPAOIA (Marlssa/8f) f OO Fedcral St, Belchertovrn OIOOT === Norah DOOLEY & Robert FAIRCHILD (Sira/a3, Julla/ 84) 358 Washtr4;ton St, Cambrldge O2l3g === Nancy & Mlchacl FIERO (Mlkala/76, Nathan/78, Maflk/8z, Narln/8s) 87 Sncll Avc., Brockton O24O2 =- Sandy & Dave FOURMER (Bcthany,/ 79, Will/8t|, Jorrathan/ 84 84 Old Bay Rd, Belchertown olooT === Adele & Davtd GARLICK (Shayna/8s) RFL #1, Southbrldge Ol55O (changc) === Stephcn & Chrls GRANMS (.lcsstca/74. Rosemary/82. Sarah / Aa, Jo,l / e7l South Ln #1, Granvllle Of O34 (Itl -== Don & Suc GRANT (Nanoll/8l) 24 Thrmbull Rd, Northampton olo8o catl & Bob GRAY {*th/77,Lca}r/
-= 8O) 7r GulfRd, Bclchertoun OIOOT (I4 ===
Augusttne & B€atrtcc MEDEIROS (Betg-Ann/ 79) SE Mass. Home Educators Support Group. PO Box 4329, Fall Rlver O2723-O4O! (changc) === Cynthta MONTOYA (Chrlstopher/84) 121 N Maln St l-2, Belchertown OIOOT === Susan & David MUNRO (Khantl/8l, Noah/8:!) rO4 I Fcderal St. Belchertown OIOOT =: Don & Jcan MURRAY (tegan/ 72, Tata & JanngJl. / 7 4l A7 FayerweatherSt, CambrtdgeO2ISA === Fred & Chrlstlnc PARI(ER (Pam/7f , Sarah/73, Vanla/ 84) PO Box 324. Cohassct O2O25 =- Sharon & Andreas TORNARITIS (Anthony & Ntcholas/84) 8A Porter St, Wobum Olaol := Ian & Martlyn WELLS (Carl/8!t. Naoml/84) 24 Mysttc Av, Melrose O2176
fI:=
Barbara & Evan BASSETT fEthan/ 76, Erln/7g, Elliott/a3) Rt I Box 252, East Jordart 49727 G4 === Fran & Tlm BURXE (Amy/ 77 , C.al'i/a0, Kathryn/82) HOMEFOLX Center of CLONIARA HBEP, Rl Box 254 County Llne Rd,
:= Dan & Sharon /69, Carmen/7l. Allison/8l,
ThompsorMllc 49683 (I4 DENK (Ramona
Ransom/84) 1747Woodward SE. Grand Rapids
=: Kathy &John ftOI{AHtlE (E;ric/8z, KaUe/83) Box 54 Rt l, Lake Ann 496S -= Karl & Rita EBELING,29595 Herb€rt, Madison Hetghts 4807f GO === Ltsa & Kcn I(ANDER (Beth/8l, Jacob/83, Adam/86) 622 WMarn, Brighton 481l6 (I!t === Debbie MORRIS, Rt 2 Box 463A, Union Clty 49O94 === Jolur & Muriel PALKO (Slmon/76,7e/841 4O3 Plcasant, lonla aeea6 {change) (IO 495O6
MIt:=
Susan BREWER, FAMILIBS
NURruruNG UFELONG LEARNERS, 2452 Southcrest Av, Maplcwood 55f 19 := Chrts & Susie FRENCH (Sarah/8o, Brian/85) RR f Bo:r 65. Trary 56175 === Nancy GRIIVERJoe I(ELLY (Mavls/8o, Antonra/aO) laol E gth st., Dulutl 55a12 =: Krtstln & Blll HENAI( (Brandon/83. ?-achanl/a5'E,lrzabf,th/8? I l77o Runncl clr, Eden kalrle 55347 (I4 =: Michacl & Hatdet IRIilIN (Alec/69, M|chelle/72, Danlel/82, Chrlstopher/85) 7136 Chester Av, Northffeld 55057-931
I
(Mlchael/72, UO -= Joseph CIANO Chrlstiaan/74) Rt 5 Box 63O, Ava 65608 === cary & Bccky COLVIN lJenrn/74,Je*sa/76, Julie/78, Joarura/al) Rt 3 Box 32, Emlnenc€ 65466 (IIl === Ron & Judy HIRSCH (Josh/69, Shaurn/69, Jai/74) HCR #5 Box l5O, Theodosia 6576r G0 === Albert & Cynthta HOBART
(Rob€rt/69) Rt 3, Box 163, Rolla 654O1 =: Jocelyn & Steve KOPEL (IKirr:./74, But/75, Sara/8l, Kaue/a4) 545O Bradbury Dr, St. Louls 43129 === Ellcn & Steve MICHEL Ftlandy/76, Patrick/78) 3146 Pords. St Iruls 63116 (10 === Davld & Sandra MOUNTJOY ftablthalTl, Amory/78, IGllsta/8o) frelos, Rt3 Box387, Pleasant Fllll 64O80 =- Tom & Julie O'DAY (Maghann/7g. Kathertnc/81, Brldget/a4. Ttmothy/87) 3995 Marietta. Florlssant 63033 (change)
lpJeremylTS, MT -= Davtd & Beth BROWN Elcanor/80, Esthcr/a4, Ernily/aa) 333 Collcge Ave Sp 29, Kaltspcll 59fi)l =: FIATHEAf,
VALLEY HOMESCHOOI.ERS ASSN, 257 -5123, A92-/,(J,52,755-2036, (Kalispcll) === Chuck & Emily RINGER (Wlllax /76, ?nb /79, Tahmina/82) Box 75. Jollet 59O41 NE
=:
Rlch & Debt EDELMAIER (Sarah/
79,lanla2l Rt I Box la, Garland 68t]6O := fhrane & Kathy IANGE, ORD-BURWELL
CHRISTIAN HOME SCHOoIS, Rt 3 Box 73. O!d 68862 := Jamcs & Tara SENNETT (Gtlrla'/&2) l94l L St. Ltncoln 6851O =: Dlck & Rosc YONEKURA (.Iosh / 7 4, Itbl / 77,Tessa/80, Darcy/ e3l 7741 E Avon Ln, Ltncoln 685O5
lfv =:
Cary & Jeanne FIAHN (Tara/73,
Amy/7V l3$lArvlllc St., r ^aVegai 89102 NH === Stcphanie HURLEY & Robcrt BOLT (Ellssa/8{1. Julia & Ifttstrn/86) Upper School St, New lpswlch €O7f 04 := Jerurlfer WRIGFIT & Starr McCUMBER [Vanessa/69. Davtd/85, Willls/
Ouaker City, Charlestown 03609 (II) := Mark & Susan YEAGER (Ilallna/8f , Morgan/84, Beverly/8? 12 Stwerr Way, Litchffeld O3O5l
a5|
(change)
NJ === John & Jean BANGER Alison & Elizabcth/8 f , Rachel/8:1, lanl8S) 34 Church St, High Bddgc 08829 =- Jcan JOHNSON & Jack KATZFEY (I.ars/80) r -B Hlbben Apts, Faculty Rd, (John,/ -= Barbara IAFTERTY 81. Steve/65, M a* / 70, l<sihy / 7 4, Paul / 7 5l lo7
Hnceton O854O
34 Surrey Road, Voorhees O8O43 (change) === Ruth & Terry MATIISKY (Sara/7g,Jacobl92, Laura/86) 5 Brtarwood Dr, Somerset 08873 === Christine THOMPSON & Charles BARRANCO (Chrlstopher/83, Emily/86) l60 Homecrest Av, Ervlng Townshlp 08638 NM === Laurel & Chuck GLYMPH (Slerra/ 83, Aaron/a6) 3304 Solarrldge St, Las Cruces
88oor GII === NEw MEXco FAMILY EDUCA-
TORS. 678 Lisbon Av SE, Rlo Rancho a7124 (change) =: John & Irri ODHNER (Lukas/al, Chara/8t!, Micah/85) 4O(X) Montgomery NE LO Albuqucrque 87lOO -= Pamela & John RANDAII (Sara/8r, Rachcl/83, lalrt/ a7l 419
County Rd 5569, Farmington 87401
llf
==- Jean FI\7Z\NO & Stan KENNEY
(Eric/8l, lan & Sonia/83) Jessup Rd #3, Flortda lo92l === Dietmar & Virglnia JAECK {Gururar/ 79, Alana/83, I(ristoff/85) RD Box 74, Hartwlck 13348 === Llse & Rtchard KNOUSE Uennifer/ 85, Arthur/87) 666 West End Avc 2OR, Ne$' York lOO25:= Mary Ellcn & Greg NEAL (Melissa/ 81. Jesslca/84, Jorrathan/86) PO Box 156, Ncw
Flaven 13121 === Malcolm & Sylvia PHILUPS (Jim l 76,Bnanl79, Micah/85, Josiah/8? RD 3 Box 233A, New Berlin f34ff Gtl =: Kathy & cary RICFIARDSON (Samantha/84) RD I Box 251. Bath l48ro === ROCHESTER AREA HOMESCHOOLING A'SSN, 4Ol Parsclls Av, Rochester 14609 (change) === Madelelnc TODD & Michael BARRON (Katie/8f , Clayton/83, Michellc/86) 212-227-1156 (New York Clty) (II) === Susan & Randy WALKER (Jasmlne/83l 9383 Ace Rd, Hemlock 14466 === Mr. & Mrs. WEINER (Mona/8r. Isaac/8i!) 341 E 5 St, Neur York lOO03 ===LigrdaA'JERN, Box 619.5 fhpot Rd. Cataumct
1253
NC =: Claudia BARBER & Garry BUETTNER (Dani el / 74,Davld' / 76, Adam/aO' E,ltzafu,tJr/ezl MEHSMD rO-O3, FO Box 1228!], Re,search Trlangle Park 277o€ (changel GO === John & Robfn CHALK (Jennte/79, Miller/8l'
Morgan/8t!, Leslie/87) 34OO Pennlngton Ln, Wrrston-Salem 2710,6 === KetJi & Stefant oSHIMA (Mfho /77,JoJl/AO) PO Box 35, Edngrvtlle 2a727-Oo35 tH) := Greg & Lynette SHAULL (Rcas/8l) 3Ol Lily Dr, Kernersvllle 27244 OH =- Ronald & Nancy DORTON (Rcbecca/74, Deborah/76, Dantd/76, Sarah/84' Jorrathon/87) 66a5 Gfilcr Rd., Hillsboro 45l3tl =- Barbara & Joseph GRAHAM (charllc/79, Arrnte/8l, Laura /A2, Indrew/A6) I l9il Wcbster Rd, Jeffcrson 44047 lIJ,, -== Pat & Gary HUSS (Megan/74, Abby/78, Whitney/8:]) 239t) Coventry Rd, Columbus 43221 === Jtm & Rosalee SCHNECK (Peter/76, Armtka/8f , Able/ 85) 231 Mohican Av, Orrville 44667 =- Gll & Barb SFIERMAN (Jermtfer/a3, Colleen/a5) 2169 Mars Av. Lakewood 441O7 =: Davc & Nancy WINTERS (Megan/a3, Matthew / a4 lOtA2 Brtdgewood Rd, Pcrrysburg 43551
Ol( =- Mark & Llnda ASIIION (Kathryn/ kllllary / 76, Courtney/8l) 9o7 Cheryl Ctrcle' Larvton 735O5 := Joyce & Earl SPURGIN (Catherlne/81) THE FAMILY LEARNTNG CONNECTION, PO Box 1938' Durant 74702 7 4,
OR === Davtd & XIm BALDWN (Jonathon/ 82, Mlchellc/84) 34O26 Bachelor Flat Rd' St. Helens 97O51 === Jarrlc & Andy FAIRCHILD (Robyn/8r, Ned/8i), Emlb/ea) Rt I Box 253'
=-
Richard & Suzanne GREEN Monlca/76) FO Box 562. Chrtsttnas valley 9764r G0 =: I(aren & Alfrcd HARDMAN Enterprlse 97a2e
,
(Wlly/8r, Kyle/86) 57O Hamllton Rd, Jacksonvtlle 9743O GD === Marllyn LOWE (Abra/82) 465 Ltocoln, Bandon 97411 === Susan MAAS & Gary THOGERSON (Bryan/83, E;rlk/861 27526 SE Carl St, Gresham 97O8O === Brenda & Marlfn NEISON (Mark/8o, Beverly/a2, Danny/ 84) 469f Cedar, dstorla 97103 === 5611y SHLIMAKA &Jack PRUITI @cho/78, Jaspcr/al, Marvl/8s) 225 Mathcr Dr., Port dord 97465 (chaqge) === !,yls & Ellzabcth SIANLEY (Katrlna/87) 2575 SW 325th Av, Hillsboro 97123 (IO =- Roderick & Susan STEVENS (Mofica/76. Ryan/8f ) U7l NW Lyrnvood Dr, Roscburg 9747O =-- Michael & Candace SYMAN-DEGLER (lsaac/73. Vaness a | 7 6,Luclert | 79, India/82) lO€D Brooksidc Dr, Eugene 974OS === THE TEACHING HOME. PO Box 20219. Portland 97220-0279 (change)=== Peter & Janet WEIDMAN (Kade / a2,Matt / 85, Robbie/8? r83 Wcst Grand. Astorta 971O3 PA =-= Dee CARIAIiI (Steve/7O, Glerm/73) 3356 E Blvd #5, Bethlchcm f 8Ol7 =: Fullis& Bob CONROY (Mcredtth,/80, Ftona/8t'. Sllas/8s) RD 5 Box 2a6 - Smoky Comcrs, Wllllarnsport r77ol (Hl := Harold & Janet DUNN-DAVENPORT (Ma4garetl79,llatc/A2lRD 2 Box 19. Montrosc l88tol === Davc & Jan HINXLEY (Matthew/8l) RD 5 Box 36, Montros€ lSaol := Janes & Nancy HUtIfA. 1777 Clemcns Mlll Rd, Flarleywille f 9438 === Hannah & N. Zwi LEITER (Ruth/8l) 3OO MadisonAv, Scranton 18503 === John & Kathy O'DONNELL {Davld/8s} 429 S Pltt St, Carlisle l70l3 === Mcrrtly WILLIAMS & Richard SUMMERS 6braham/82) 23O S 2l St'
Phtladelphia l9lo3
RI =-- Barbara & Mikc SIMPSON (lsaac/74, Ab[arl/7s, David/8l, Mlde/83) 22 Columbia Ct.. Middletown O284O (I4
VA === Tom & Ann BROWN (Todd/75,
Mcrls/78) Box 452, Irttsburig 22551 (H)
Uason/&l,Jasmlne/86) Rt I Box649, Rrrccllvlllc 22132:= Marlan & Roy SFITBR (Vffgtrrta/77. I-aurel / 79,Brcnna/ 81, Glcnn/83. Gretel/85) HoMEscHooUNG FAMILIES 9526 Rockport Rd, Vlcnna 22lN =: Robcrt & Pegg/ SueTRUETT(Joshua/81, Isaac/83, Hannah/86) 782o Brook Rd.. Richmond 23227 WA === David & Mary GRAHAM
SD =: Jean BOGGS & Jay SCHIAGEL Oacob/a6) Rt I Box 146A, Columbla 5743t1
TN := Joyce DICKERMAN & Art STEWART (Joellc/79, t{aron/8S. Justrn/86) Rt 5 Bot( 219 Spces Rd, Cltnton 37715 (changc)
TK =:11o- g Cathy GOSSAGE (Sarah/ 75. Chrlstophcr/78. Rcncc/8l. Anthony/a3) SOIO Staglecoach. Garland 7g0d.3:= Mary Bcth & Mtchael MACKSEY (Arlana/77, Alcxandra/8l) 6524 Butterlleld Ct. Plano 75923 === Mlkc & Llsa METCALF Uudlth/78, Jcsslca/80) lSOl D,ogwood Tf, Corsicaru 75f lO === Chuck & Suzame MORTENSEN (Stcwart/70, Reagan / 75' Garett & Ashlcy,/80, Andrew/8l) Box 272, Shdrnore 78389 (IIl =- Sharon & Marttn NEISON (Sarah/78, Vlrgtnta/80) 4 r 59 Wedgmont Crrclc S, Forth Worth 7613€l =: Jcarrte & Tkn OLIVER (Corlna / 821 rc Box 1629' & Ed RODRIGUEZ Wtmberley 7A676 -=Jcan L)'dlal8s) 3mg (Trmothy/7a, BcnJamrn/81, Tangleryood Dr, Commcrtc 7542Af.IJ):= Steve & Bcverly RUSSO {Galornar / 77 , Paxton /8 I , Brcdy/8s) Rt 4 Bo< 212. ForrGston 76O41 =: Tom & Mlchelle WOODRUFF (Jordan/8I. Mlcahl/83, Grace/86) Bo< lO6O, Shallorrrater
79363
Y1'-= Mark & Collccn IARMERE (Chrlstopher/82, Jessica/85) PO Box 55' Lyndon Centcr O585O := Gerald & Ltnda STIGALL (Audrty/7g. Mlndy/82) 47 N Main St' Wndsor O5O89 (chaqgel
(&rome/
77,Doudas / 7a, Franc.csca,/8o) I I l7 N 3l St,
Renton 98O56 (t4 =: Paula FIARPER-CHRIS'ISNSEN & Stcphen CHRISTENSEN (Paul/78, Amanda/8o, Sam/85) 23416 SE lTth Pl, lssaquah 98(D7 (change) =: Gerry & DaIc UNK Uoslc/72, Patrrck/a4) S 4715 Glcnrosc Rd. Spokanc 99223 tlf,t := Etner & Natalle MORTENSEN (Artel/75, Scraphtna / 76, lkllqt/ 87) 560 E Houston Rd, Coupcville 98239 := Katllcerr & Kclth NEAVOR (Amanda/&,1<arll82, Karol/8s) 141 Bcthel St, rl/allaWalla 99362 := Patfl PTTCHER & Stwe IIALL (Becca/8l, hura/ 84) 54OO-2lst Avc NE, Scattlc 981O5 === Kath & Darr RAYMOND (Scth/7s, Valllc
/79,Lydlal86l
811 U St, Port Towrrscnd 98368 (H, := Peg[y TttFTE (Jcgse/8o, Errn/83) Rt 2 Box 764, Orovlllc 98844 (tI) === Sherry WII^STON (Krlsd/76,
Shaun/77, Aaron/81) SOUEISOUNDA.SSOC OF HOMESCHOOUNG FAI\iiIL|ES, 4.33t1 S 26lst, Kent 98(X|2
Wlf
=-
Ann BOIANO & DanyVAN
LEEUWEN (Slmon/76, Rubcn/7g)
8C === Paul & Dell CERMEROTH X.|6,a/76, John/791 2948 Brookrtdgc Dr, {ockHtll 2973O (Rachel/8O) 4r === Waytc & Bccky HENRITZE fndigo Hall, Georgctown 29440 (ID
=:
Davtd & Mary FREED (Mtchael /75, ltarcn.l68,l 1825 Wcst Grac! St, Rlchmond 23220 (El -= tarry & Lce HETIICOX (Rebecca laO,Iavra/A2, Hanrnh/8s, Ansil/87) Rt 2 Box 419, Warrenton 22186 (I0 =: Mark & Tammy MALTBY (Joscph,/8i', Julran/85) 128 N Madlson St, Staunton 24401 =: Richard & Nancy REAVES
Rtl
Box 28oA'
Blll &Marlannc HUGHES (Gre$cryl77,clarc/7g1Rt 7 Bo:< 67A. Ncw Martlnsrrtllc 26155 0l) === Bill & f,)tane LEED (Elam/78, Emma/8O, Woody/8l , ElUah/86) Box I l4A, Frlars Hlll 24939
Weston 2645.2(g)
TI
=:
=== BRYCE BLACK & Kathlccn
PruNIGTT-BIACK grrin/7g, Chrlstophcr/82'
GcofhcylSn Rt 2 Box 2O5, Arkansaw *721 lHJ Pat COWAN & Ttmothy BELL (Wlnoqt/7s, BcnJamln/78) Rt I Box 37A, Itfiason 5rf856 (I4 := Wllllam & Chcryl DAIIZ 0.orelcl/78, Valerlc/
:=
821
73f
S
Bald St., Grccn Bay Sul€Dl
(dtange)
Jlm & Jan ERDMAN (Ivlarnnl 76, WllU 7A, -= Ryland/8f) Rt 4 Box 298, Tomah 5466o (dtangc) 6O27 Sun Vallcy Pkuy,
Llnda HUGDAIIL, -= Orcgon 5.3575 (lt) := Jlm & Susan ROZANSIil (Bmmy/t]4) 38{tO S 4{t St #32, Mlwaukcc 5322O
CANADA! LEBREDT Mlke WOODS BC -= Catherlrrc @prtl/S:l) Box 483. Toftno VOR 2SO =: Erlc & Carol SIEPHANSON tHddl/7s. Adaml77, Pctq I SO, Jocl/8{t) l72l Garnct Rd' Victorla V8P 3CB := Lynnc & Nava THUNDERSTORM lrafl7f' Revcn/8O. Rox/a? Gcn Dcl' Tclcgraph CleckVOJ 2WO GO === I.ec WEHR\IIEIN & John GILBERT (Sacnard/8f . Sascha/8ti, Oban/86) 2l Huron St'
VlctorlaVSV4Vg Eft XAN === Charles & ulY SMAII (tc&/81' B€nY/83, Sharma Joyl86) lo3l Dorchcstcr Av'
wnnlpqg RIIM ORr FD IIFT
=:
Robcrt & Vlcld RUS$LL (Jachc/
:=
Strannon & John GRESHAM
80, Marla/84) 989 Gltzcl St.' Yellon' Knfe
XIA
2C7 t'J' OllfT
GROWING WTII{OUT SCHOOLING #63
35 (Sara,/82, EllynSa. Hallcy/86) 35 Ellen StW' Xltch€f,rer N2H 4Kl =: Cathednc & Rodolfo HENMGS (Atden/81, Pado/a6) 78 Btngeman St, Kttchener N2H 2Sl === Alex & Mary MOLNAR (Nicholasl 74, E,trllrly / 77, Rachel/8o,
Martha/a:l) 23 Dill St, Kttchencr N2G ll,ll GII === Kay & Scott MCOLL (Arny/8:}, Illa/86) 334 Peel St, New tlamburg NOB 2GO === Phll & Mary Lynn SAUNDERS (Joey/80. Angcla/83, Brtan/85, Tlmmy/88) RR I LaSalette, NOE lHO (Aaron/81, (El -= Helmi & John WIEBE Samuel/85) 73 Peel St Apt I, New Flarnburg NOB 2GO SASK === Fred & Gwen FUNK, SASKATCHEWAN HOME.BASED EDUCATORS, Box l13, Neville SON tt0 (charr€le)
OTIIER ITCATIONS === Art & I*slie HICKS (4 children aged 2-8) Flt Ops. 8ox8778, Tamuning, Guam 9691 I := Tom & Beth
Box 18. Garland NE 68il60; cats, piano, stamps === PETTY.I6SOO N Stalllon, T\.tcson AZ 85737: Allyson (8) baseball, coollng, catsi Jesse (lO) baseball, astnonomy, pets === RAMPOM, Rt I Box I15, Mountaln lron MN 5576a: Jaseph (lO) computcrs, readtng, natur€: Arrna (9) rcading. rrature, cootitng === BAKER, I l3O E 74th. Cleveland OH 441O3: Allan (lO) fly-ffshing, hockey, mathl Z,anc (6) hockey. Milcs Davis === WISE. 2937 NE Flanders, Portland OR97232: Autumn (5) reading, animals: Laurel (9) letters, animals === Sara I('EY (8) 43a Ollle St, Cottage Grove WI 53527: sports, rcading. anirnals-= Mandy MAHER (12) 30 Park St, Wakelleld MA Ol88Oi cats, dancing, wrlting
WHEN YOU WRITE US Please - (l) R.rt separate items of busincss on separate sheets of papcr. (2) h:t your namc and address at the top ofeach letter. (3) lfyou ask questlons, enclose a sclf-addressed stamped envelopc, (4) Tell us tf it's OK to publiph your letter. and whether to use your narne with the story. We edlt letters for space and clarlty.
PEACE [Lloyd / 72, Philtp / 7 41 rrltda Amazonas, Colombia === Jack & Mary SEAGROVE (Joe / 73, Amy / 75, ttltchelle/78, Jeff/ 82, Allison/85) 569th PSC, AFO New York 09178 fWest Germany) === Rob & Barbara SHEPPARD (Ellte/ao, Martha/83, Alffe/87) 65 Oxford St, Rugby, Warwickshire, Errsland CV21 3NE (II) === Ehvan VECELLIO & Sitah PARSONS g,orten/ 78, Elia/ 80. Ianthe/84, Amaya/86) 'Darama' Upper Bulll Crk Rd, Byabarra 2446, Vla Wauchopc NSW, Australia === Dietnar & MarA/ WALTER (Carrie/8l, Ingo/84. Stwen/a6) Flnkeweg 14, 731 I Hochdorf West Germanlr -= Nancy & Burgcr 7..APF Ntvten/77, Melanie/84) Am Waeldchen8, 6240 Koenigstein 4 West Gcrmanv fitl
lnGWS.
ADDITIONS TO RES OURCES
Home school your chlldren wlth outstsnding
Ccrtlffed Teachers Willing to Help Homcschoolers: Fmn BURKE, Rl Box 254 Count5r Lfnc Rd, Thompsonville MI 496a3; 616-269-4282 (elcm & spccial cd K- 12; also experience with muslc, camplng, coop€rative games) === p;1" EBELMG, 29595 Herbert, Madison Hghts MI 48O71 === Julle & David LOYfr. 7216 Garnct St. Alta Loma CA 9l7Ol; 714-987-a295 (Julic: elem. Spanish. nath; David: elem, high school. English, Spanish, Social Studlcs) -= Kathy ODONNELL, 429 S Pltt St, Carlisle PA l7ol3 (music K-12)
eclectlc curriculum, the classlcs,
PEN.PALS Chll&cn santlng pcn-pab should witc to those listcd. To be ltsted, scnd name, a€ie, address, and l-3 words on interests === COOPER, 5407 Seminole Av, Tampa FL 336O4: Crystal (5) dance, cats, pottery: Aaron (8) sports, colns, space === METCAIF, lSOl Dogwood Tr. Corsicana fi 751 10: Ivlary Judith (9) ice skatlng, kltterrs, babies; Ma4rJessica (7) roller & lce skattng === STUMP, 4461 E Pinal, T\rcson AZ 85737: Cryrstal (91 karate, teddybears, rock muslc: Tamara (8) horses, rock music, ballet ===
RebcccaWILLOW(15) RFD I Box l5O, Ltberty ME O4949: dance, art, acting === Gretchen KLAUSNEYER (13) RFD 2Box346, Belfast ME O4915; dance, art. plano === Justin KRASHEFSXI (6) 147 Lake Mew Dr, Stafford Spgs CT 06076; ffshing, soccer, swimmtng === l\itsur€en CFIAMBERS (9) I lO Blackhauk, Aurora IL 6O5O6; reading. antmals, bicycling -== Jarcd DAIS (4) l2m l5 St, Santa Rosa CA954O4; Honda ATC, painUng, baking := 66ptt MORRJSON (9) 5713 Bluwood Ln, Knoxville TN 37921; coim, stamps, reading === Doug DYS,ON (12) 514 Stiles Av, Rldlql Pk PA 19O78: karate, boattng, biking === Meredith CONROY (8) Rd 5 Box 252K. Williamsport PA l77Ol: gmnastics, reading, animals === Sarah EDELMAIER (9) Rt f
CROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #63
CLASSIFTED ADS Rates:
7otlword. $l /word boldfrcc. $5
mtnimum. Please tell these folks vou saw the ad FREE CATALOG
- Nc* productr cvcry
prtntlngt Teaching Guldes that support famt$
values - 5 subjects. pre-K - 6th. Practlce standardlzed tcstlng lst - l2th. Science exp€rtment card boxes, math manlpulatives, foreign language, early lcarnlng, maps, songbooks. K-8th. LEARNING AT HOME Box27OG63, Honaunau Hl 96726.
Alpha Omeg;a C\rrrlculum. Buy I subJect or all. Mlx and match grade lwels. Catalog gf .OO. H.S. Glerrn Dlstributors, 6605 Bass Hv6r, St Cloud FL
32769. A BOOK oF FANTASY AND ADVENTURES by rOO students from alternative communit5r schools and home schools. $5.75 from NCACS, 417 Roslyn Rd, Rosllm Hts NY I1577.
CHILD'S GARDEIII OOUMIJNITT,
a
child-
centered community now forming: to live togetler to help each other provlde for our children deeply nurturlng, empowertrrg and joyous childhoods. to prcvidc for each other comaraderie, inaplradon, support, healing, deep and close tsiendshtp, and to provlde for our world a model of how we all miglrt be in a tn:ly loving world. More dctails, lncluding location, will be decided togcther. For rnore tnformation: Gary & Carolc Sugarman, c/o Steln, 2465 Emplre Grade, Santa Cruz CA 95O6O: 408-458-1416.
THE GROWNC E)(PERIENCE.' Grant proposal ts destgned to help indivfdual homeschoollng families set up a greenhouse to be used as a focus for skill learnirg througlr life experience. lf interested in funding or know of sourc€s contact Susan Wintersieck, Box 5853, Carefree AZ a53772 6o2-4aa-3€.22.
FOIIR FAUILIES SEEK OIIIERS to llnanclally sharc stewardship of IOO acres ofbcaudful land near Mendocino, CA. We have establlshed a basis for an earth-centered nrral communlty with a balance between tndtuidual homes and shared facilities. Wc are concerned with homeschooling, cottage lndustries, small scale organic farming, arrd a lovtng envirorrmcant for our chlldrcn. If interested, send SASE to Comptche Community Farms. Box 5254, Santa Rosa CA954O2.
readlng FLORIDA DISNEY COI\IDO 2 bdrm, 2 bath, comprchenslon drtlls. emphatic phonlcs. washer/dryer, phone, microwave oven; hot tub. Controlled paperwork. Sample work, tests mallcd pool, temis, Eplf. Speclal rates. 314-487-0184. once Ircr quartcr. COVENANT HOME CURRICU a Bro-okffcld Wl 53OO5. Seek contact wtth others dolng delayed readlng &
-1V3T
""*oun,
BooKs, NAn RAL DRoD;;
;;;r ff.:"?'::"f F*'ffiiitJHl'",ffi:#] WIIII.AM'S
WOMENF'OLK AND FAIRY TALES.
2053.
DOLL. and other thought-provoklng books. Journals, thumb planos, morc. Free Catalog: CALICO COTTAGE, PO Box 6OG, Montvale VA
24722.
NOT ON THE NEWSSIANDS revlcws ovcr IOO newsletters and magazlnes about rratural chlldbtrth. chtldrearing, health and nutrition, and alternaHve careers and lifestyles. $f O. lO4 Auditorium Blvd, Winom Lake IN 46590.
-trlfeO-OV'SCJfilOL-neelG l-ne-w d-irector. For a small Investment you can have an cxcellent curriculum and well advertlsed school H.Tm-eEfica-uon-Iv1"g-rr.T Gi-tc t---r-. f*-e 16all se t for fall enrollments. Jay or Keith 916-292- page catalog of homeschoolrrrg books md
-tvfaC-rc
3209.
publications.Box lo83.TonasketWA98855.
t-I ENTRY FORM FOR DIRECTORY
If you would like to be in the Directory and have not yet told us, send in this form, or use a postcard or 3x5 card (only one family per card). Adults (first arul last names): Organization (only if address is sarne as family)
Children (Names/Birthyears) Full Address:
in the 1988 l)ircctory
No
_
If this is an address ch{rngc, what was previous state?
_
Werc you
(GWS #60)? Yes
_
Are you wllling to host lravcllng GWS readers who make advance arragements in writingl2 Yes _ No _
36
Herc are some wayrs you can ffrrd out thc legal situaflon ln your state. l) Lookup the lawyourself, tn apubllc llbrary or law llbra4r (courthouse, law school, etc.) Laws arc tndocedl try'school attendance'or "educaflon, cornpulsory.' l8 states have rwlsed their home educaton laws slnce 1982 so check the reccnt statutc change. \l/c havc prlnted or summarized thesc newlaws tn ourbacklssucs. 2) Ask the statc deparhnent ofeducaflon for
3) Contact statc or local homeschoollng groups. This list was last prlntcd ln GWS #6O, and is updated and sold scparately for $2 as pafi
Llst.' Some
groups havc preparcd handbooks or guldcllnca on leg^I matters. Often, thesc groups can tcll you more about the legal climate ln a state than arryonc else can - whcther ncw lcg;tsladon ls pcndfng, for cxample, and how thc prcscnt law is bcin6; crrforccd.
yrs. iss,
3 yrs. 18 iss.
$36 $64 $9C, $ll2 $r30 $144
Please send ln the names and addrcsscs of mcmbers ofyour group sub, so that we carr keq> ln touch wlth thern, Thanks.
cwg Edttor - Susanrrah Sheffcr Managhrg Edltor - Pab:tck Fareqga Ccrtrlbudng Edltor - Dorrna Rchoux Edltorlal ,q,sststant - Ma4r Maher Editorial Corrsultant - Nancy \lralhcc Book & Subscrtptron Manag;er - Day Faraga Book Shlppcr/Recelvcr - Patrtck Gould Bookkceping Asststant - Jcrome Puzo Holt Associates Board of Directon: Patrtck Farenga (Corporate kesident), Mary Mahcr. Tom Maher, Dorma Rlchoux, Susarmah
subscribcrs only: non-subscrlbcrs pay 93.50 Per lssuc. Indca to cWS #l-30: $2.5O; to #31-4O, $l; to #41-5O,$1.50; to 5r-6O, $2. Spcclal: all four tndqcs. $5.OO. Thcsc prtccs tncludc postagc. Blndcrr arc avatlable wtth tods that hold GWS wtthout obecr:rlnglarry t€xt. Gold letters on covcr. Blndcr can hold GWS #l-24 ($lO) or l8 latcr tssucs ($9,501. SFclaI: 3 blnden wlth rods to hold GrrVS #f -60, $26, Add UPS drarges for dl blndcrs (scc ccntcr pagcs). Ad&cr Chrrgc.: If youre movtng, let us lmowyour ncw address as sx)n as possiblc. Pleasc cnclosc a reccnt labcl (or cpp)r ofonc). Issucs mlsscd bccause ofa chengc tn address mry be replaced for $2 cach. The post office dcstroys your mlsscd lssucs and charges us a noflffcaflon fec, so wc can't afford to rcplacc them
RENEWALS At thc bottom of thls page ls a form you can usc to rcncw your subscrlpflon. Plcasc hclp us b5r rencwlng carly. Hour can Jlou tell when your subscrlp0on
t2u5
JIMAND MARY SI\{ITH
0t 64
NY OIIII
Thc number that ts underllned ln the cxamplc tells the numbcr of thc flnal tssue for
30(
cost $l perlssue. plus $2 pcrorder. Forcxamplc. GWS #l-62 would cost $64. Thesc ratcs are for
don t knory thc law clthcr. Bcttcr to gathcr thc facts ftrst on your or*rr.
PIAINVILLE
$2o $36 $48 $60 $70 $7e
2
12
$48 $90 $126 4X $156 s( $180 o( $216 7X, 8X, etc: $12 pcr person p€r)rcar. 2X
Our ratcs forback tssucs: any combtnatlon
lt ts not wisc to start by
27
lx
year iss.
of back lssucs. malled at onc dmc to one addr,ess.
asldrgyourlcal school dlstrlcg thcy usually
16MAINST
I 6
prlnt.
4) Contact othcr famllles llstcd ln our Dlrcctory. Thls ts parflcularly uscful lfyou llve ln a state that lcaves homcsdtoollng Egglauorrs up to indMdual school dlstrtcts. Whcrr you contact these farnilles, help them by having done some r€scarch on your own ftrst.
exp@
etcJ
Subscrlpttons startqrlth thc next lssue publtshcd. Our cuncnt ratca are $2O for 6 lssues, $36 for 12lssucs, $48 for 18 tssucs. GWS ls publlshed crrcry othcr rnonth. A slrglc lssue costs $3.50. Forclgn prlrmcntr must bc clther money ordcrs ln US funds or chccks dra\rn on US banks. We can't allord to accspt pcrsonal chccks on Canadlan accounts, even tf they have 'US fi.rnds' wrltten on thern. Outsldc of North Amcrlca, add $1O pcr year for atrmall (othcnvtsc, allor* 2-3 months for surface mail). BrcL Lrucr: Wc strong;ly urge you to get thc back lssucs of GWS, espcctdly lf 1ou plan to takc your chtldrcn out of school. Many of thc ardclcs are as uscful and lmportant as whcn thcy were prlntcd, and we do not plan to r€pcat thc lnformadon ln thcm. All back lssuca are kcPt ln
ftend.
5) In gencral,
you get 2 copl€s of eadr lssue, SXmeans 3 coplcs,
SUBSCRIPTIONS
any laws or r€guladons p€rtalnlng to homeschoolirg and/or stardng a privatc school. In somc states (parucularly CA, IL, IN, Iffl thcre are few rrgulauons concemlng; private schools and so you can call your home a school' If you are concerned about reveallng; your mme and address to the state, do this througfi a
of our'Homeschoollng Resounc.e
chccl. Hcrc are the cutrent grouP rates (lX mcansyou gct onc copy ofcach lssue, 2xmcans
subscrtpdon. Thc Smiths' sub exptrres wlth Issuc #64. thc no<t lssuc, But lf we urcrc to rccelrrc thclr rcncwal bcforcwc scnt our ffnal accor:nt changcs to thc mailhg housc (carly August)' thcy vould qualS for the frcc bonr.rs lssuc. Rcnewal rates arc thc samc as for new subecrlpdons: $2O for 6 lssucs, $36 for 12 lssues' $48 for l8 lssucs'
HOW TO GET STARTED
Sheffcr Advlsors to the Board: Stcvc Rupprccht, Mary Van Doren, Nancy Wallacc
H{ ;. N)
{
OH
a
=@
1
95
BP!"
o\
ct
wlthout charge. Group Subrcrlptlon.: all coplca arc mailed to onc addrcss ' Plcasc pay with onc
'thc
'|l
SUBSCRIPTION AND RENEtrIAL FORM Usc this form to subscribe or renew to GROWING WII{OUT SCHOOLING. For rcnervals, place thc label from a reccnt lssue bclow, lf possible. tf not, prlnt thc lnfo. Cllp and scnd wlth your chcckbr moncy order US funds. Or, yciu may now subscrlbc or rcncw by phone wtth Mastcrcard or Vlsa: call 61 7-437- 1583.
I
in
Thanks.
_
New
subscrlption
_
Renewal
Glft subscrlptton to bc scnt to name shown.
I I I
I
Account Number (for renewals): Name:
Expiration Code (for renwals): Address (Changc? yeslno)
gEE
City, Statc, Zlp:
_
l2issucs,$36
6issucs,$2o
GroupSub:
coPles
of
issucs, $
_
lSlssucs,$48
FEF
8vE
(s€c chart)
It is OK to scll my mme and address to otler organlzatlons.
GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #63