Growing Without Schooling 65

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING 65 In his book Mindstorms; Children, Computers and Potuerji ldeas,

to Seymour Papert writes, "One of the main lessons learned by most people in math class is a sense of having rigid limitations.' Papert would like us instead to have a sense of possibilities, both about mathematics and B about ourselves. He would like us not to fear math, not to see it as alien, I not to see ourselves as incompetent with respect to it or any other area of human activity.

One of the striking things - and there are many - about both Mindstorms and the discussion with Seymour Papert in this issue of GWS is that the mathematics Papert loves and invites us to love seems to have nothing to do with the mathematics school teaches us to fear. It's as if Papert - like Aaron Falbel in GWS #63 - is talking about a different animal entirely.

We need to ask why this is so. Why is the mathematics that mathematicians do so different from the mathematics that math teachers teach? Why does the history of real historians seem to have nothing to do with the history of school history courses? John Holt wondered, in similar manner, in GWS #64. How come the things we're tattghtseem to bear so litfle relation to what people are actually doing?

The answer lies in the framing of that very question, in the divorce of teaching from doing. We think that teaching and doing are different, as we think that learning and doing are different. We think that there are mathematicians and then math teachers, historians and then history teachers. Listening to Se5rmour Papert or John Holt or anyone else who talks about what people are actually doing, one can't help wondering why this information never seems to make it into the schools. Why don't fifth grade math teachers know that mathematicians aren't sitting around reciting multiplication tables? Or if they know, why don't they tell those fifth graders?

Perhaps these questions are rhetorical, but they shouldn't be. In the discussion in this issue Papert says that we shouldn't ask how do we cure mathophobia - his word for fear of math and, by extension, fear of learning - but how do we avoid catching it in the first place. One way would be to get to see, early on, in manyways and from many people, what math - or an5rthing else - really is for the people who love it and choose to do it.

Papert also says, in these pages, that schooftng is a way of thinking that can be present just as easily in living rooms as in classrooms. Thus, if parents at home believe that you learn only by being taught, a basic premise of contemporary schools, they may be said to be involved in schoolrg just as much as people in school buildings are. The appeal of this distinction seems to be reflected in the choice many parents have made to call themselves home educators rather than homeschoolers sa1nng, through this choice, that they are doing something very different from schooling.

Seeing schooling as a way of thinking is useful and important, and helps us say such things as, "I had to unschool myself before I could really trust my child.' But I think that we can also say that certain structures support this way of thinking more than others. That is, school is a better environment for schooling than the home is. The language gets tricky here - what I mean to say is that certain aspects of school, as a structure, a set-up, an institution, are more condusive to schooling as a way of thinking than the home or the community is. The need to manage large numbers of children, for example, lnore easily gives rise to fill-inthe-blank workbooks than does working with a few children at home.

Which brings us once again to the idea that home education is ideal for experimenting, for testing new assumptions, for coming, up with ways of thinking that are not schooling. Many people can help us do this, and Seymour Papert is most certainly one of them.

Susannah Sheffer

a

Seymour Papert, who talks about computers and changing our attitude toward learning in this issue's Focus.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: NEWS & REPORTS Asbestos

p.2-4

in home schools,

North Dakota and Pennsvlvania court rulings CFIALLENGES & CONCERNS p. 4-6 Overcoming isolation, large family, allergies, testing conditions

THINKING ABOIJT INDEPENDENCE p.7 WATCHING CHILDREN LEARN

p.8-I2

Early speech, a reason to write, spelling, learning French, pathways into mathematics

and the learning Societv p. 29-30

THE MEANING OF COMMUNITY

p.3r-32 CHILDREN IN THE WORKPI,ACE

p.33-34 THE TOYWEAPON AUESTION p. 34 WORKING IN SCHOOTS p. 35-36

OLDERHOMESCHOOLERS p. 36 SPECIALIST OUESTIONS LD MODEL

p.37 RESOLIRCES & RECOMMENDA-

TIONS p.37 ADDITIONS TO DIRECTORY, PEN-PAIS p.38-39

-

2

OFFICE NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS OUR NEW OFFICE We're getting settled here in our new office in Cambridge. Thanks to the wonderful help of many volunteers, who helped us pack up the old office and unpack here, we were able to get back to regular business within a few days of the move.

Special thanks go to wendy Baruch for building us new bookshelves. We owe you, our readers and customers, a big thanks as well for your patience during this time, especially during the first couple of days when our new phones were not working.

We share this renovated house with four other ollices. Our space has two levels, which gives our youngest colleagues several hundred opportunitles to clirnb the stairs each day. We're enjoying being more accessible to visitors and volunteers, and more welcoming to children, and we look forward to a long life here.

NEW STAFF We say goodbye to Pat Gould, who gave us ayear ofhard work as shipper/receiver, and welcome Ann Barr. who has taken over that job, and Mary Maher, who has

joined our regular staff to help Day Farenga with the new computerized inventory system and other Projects.

Ann has for some time done volunteer work for us at home, and readers will recognize Mary Maher as a board member and long-time homeschooling Parent.

Between them, Ann and Mary bring us three new young helpers and friends Michelle (13) and Marie (l l) Barr, and Mandy Maher (13). The girls have been a big help to us already, answering phones and doing other jobs with great willingness and competence, including helping out with the younger children, Iauren and Norna. We're delighted to see our ollice becoming more and more of a multi-age working cornmunity.

OUR MAILING LIST POLICY A couple ofreaders have recently complained about receiving unwanted mailings as a result of being listed in our Directory. We want to clear uP any confusion that may exist about which r.railings are from groups to which we have specilically rented our list and which are not.

To date, we have rented our mailing list - in some cases, only portions of it - to the following groups: Oak Meadow School, Citizens High School, karning At Home, Revels, Inc, Holistic Institute, and Creative

Iraming Association. Any majlings that you have received from groups other than these were not done in connection with us.

As weVe said. we have three kinds of lists available for rental: Our 1988 Directory, John Holt's Book and Music Store customers who have given us oermission to rent their names, and people who have requested information from us during the past year. We do not

make our entire subscriber list available.

Before we rent a list to a group, we ask to see the piece of literature that they plan to mail. We have ngt had any reason to refuse a group thus far, butwe would have no qualms about doing so. We have no control, however, over groups or individuals who use the names in our Directory without renting ttrem from us. We certainly didn't establish the GWS Directory so that people could do mailings to homeschoolers; we want it, as you know, to be a way for homeschoolers to find one another. But one of the unavoidable consequences of making your narne and address public - in our Directory, in the telephone book, or anywhere else - is that you may get unwanted mail. We trust that

you will understand this, and simply discard any literature you may receive

that doesn't interest you.

Ifyou

have any questions in the

future about whether or not something you've received is the result ofone ofour rnailing list rentals, please don't hesitate to call or write us and ask.

MAKING US ED BOOKS AVAILABLE For some Lime we've offered used copies of James Herndon's TheWay It Spozed to Be, and we'd like to keep offering it. We need you to help us by looking for used copies and sending them to us. We will pay you $2 in credit per copy, and resell the books for $3.

We would like to make two of John

Holt's out-of-print books available in the same way:lVhat Do I Do Mondag, for which we will pay $4, and The Under' achieuing School for which we will pay $2.

NEWS & REPORTS ASBESTOS IN HOME SCHOOLS

Parents teaching children at home

are not required to perform the (often

costly) check on asbestos levels in their homes that schools must perform on their buildings, according to Dan Helsgott of the Office of Compliance Monitoring of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. A few local newsletters have expressed some concern about whether or not homeschoolers were subject to this requirement, so spread the word. The EPA s address is 4Ol M Street SW, Washlngton D.C. 204ffii phone 2O2-382-7425.

COMMON SENSE VS. SCHOOL LEARNING

Ftomthe 6/ 19/88 "Where We Stand

column that ALfurt Shanker, Presidert oJ the Amerban Fed.eration oJ Teachers,

urote JorThe New York Times: Most current school reform is driven by our countrlr's economic concerns. The assumption that almost everyone in our country makes is that, if we're to be economically "competitive," education is a key ingredient... The central idea is that students who succeed in school take their knowledge and skills to their workplaces and effectively apply them. Those who don't learn in school either don't get jobs or botch those they manage to get.

But some new research findings raise serious questions about these widely-held assumptions. The basic analysis is presented in'Irarning In School and Out"

by l-auren Resnick of the karning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh (the article appeared in the December, 1987 issue of the MtrcationoJ. Researcher). ...Resnick argues that school knowledge is very different from what is used on the job. People who used to say that "practi-

aaoooaaoooaoaooooaaoooaaoooaaaoaaooaaaaaoo'o W'E DON'T UIANT TO MISS any local newsletters or mailings.

Please make sure to change our address inyour files.

cal smarts" counted more than "school smarts' may not be wrong. Though aII the

evidence isn't in, it's possible, Resnick says, that'common sense outweighs school learning for getung along in the world - that there exists a practical

intelligence, different from school intelligence, that matters more in real life. " According to Resnick, there are four major differences between mental activity in and out of school. First, school Iearning is mostly done on your owrr, whereas most other learning is shared. While there are some group activities in school, "students ultimately are judged on what they can do themselves. Furthermore, a major part of the core activity of schooling is designed as individual work - homework, in-class exercises, and the like. For the most part, a student succeeds or fails at a task independently of what other students do (except for the effects ofgrading on a curvet) In contrast, much activity outside school is socially shared. Work, personal life, and recreation take place within social systems, and each person's ability to function successfully depends on what others do and how several individuals' mental and physical performances mesh."

On the job, in the farnily and at play we are expected to ask those close to us to show us, to explain, to help... In school,

asking others for help is called 'cheating.'

The second major difference, according to Resnick, is that school learning consists mainly of "pure thought' activities - what individuals can do without the external support ofbooks and notes, calculators, or other complex instruments." But on most jobs and in other situations outside of school, thinking is done with the use of such 'tools.' Many more people get the job done with tools than without. The problem is that schools continue to downgrade the very skills and approaches to learning that are most valuable on the work site.

The third difference, Resnick points out, is that school knowledge consists of manipulating abstract symbols, but thinking outside of school is always in a

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #65

speciffc context. We all know of people who didn't do well at math in school but succeed in the world of banking or investment, or are whizzes in batting averages or in figuring out the complicated match-ups in basketball and football championship playoffs.

Finally, school learning is generalized, but the knowledge needed outside is specific to given situations. Resnick points to specific dillerences between school knowledge and the skills leamed on the iob in a number of fields. For example, sh6 cites a study that "demonstrated that expert radiologists interpret X-rays using mental processes dillerent from those taught in medical courses, textbooks, and even hospital teaching rounds." There's mounting evidence, she concludes, that "points to the possibilit5r that very little can be transported directly from school to out-of-school use."

[SS:l One of t]re main reasons we reprint this sort of report is so that readers will be able to use it to explain and support their homeschooling choices or approach, to a school official or anyone else. We'd be interested to hear about the response you get ifyou do put this to such a use.

of what their colleagues are doing and

Susan Richman of PENNSYLVANIA

need to report inappropriate discipline,

HOMESCHOOLERS. The HOME SCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCTATION had initated the suit after the families involved had been denied

said Anita 'Ijarks, principal of Century Elementary School in Aurora. 'I hope most teachers we work with wouldn't *They're consider it 'ratting,'" she said. doing it because they care."...

RULINGS IN NORTH DAKOTA Several court cases have been pending

in North Dakota, a state which currently

requircs homeschooling parents to be certified teachers. Here is a summar5r of the North Dakota Supreme Court's four recent decisions, according to the Summer 1988 issue of the HOME SCHOOL LEGAL

DEFENSE ASSOCIATION newsletter: The Court ruled rrJauor of the Lund and Reimche families on June 22, on the basis of a technicality - that the State had failed to prove that the families lived in the school district in question. Often when a court can rule on this kind of technicality it does so rather than discussing the

larger constitutional issues raised.

HSLDA writes, 'Although the Lunds and the Reimches are therefore absolved of their tnrancy conrrictions, the decision sets no important constitutional prece-

dent for other homeschooling flamilics in

PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE Marilgn Bolven (IA) sert us this 8/8/88 Rock5r Mountain

afiicle Jrom the

Ncws:

Teachers who rule their classrooms through fear and intimidation commit the kind of psychological abuse of children that one day will be punished by the courts, a child abuse expertwarned educators last week.

Existing laws on psychological child abuse are vague but will be sharpened, and cducators will be required to report cases ofpsychological abusejust as they now must report evidence ofphysical abuse and neglect, predicted Maqr Krugman, a consultant who works with the Kempe National Center for Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and other organiza-

tions. ...Krugman defines'psychological maltreatment" as acts of rejecting, tcrrorizing, isolating and exploiting children. Such mistreatment can lead to sleeping and eating disorders, anti-social behavior, hypochondria, depression, underachievement. slowed emotional and intellectual development and even suicide, experts say.

Bccause teachers are in such close contact with children, they can spot symptoms that may result from stress at home. But some teachers may actually be causing such problems because they mete

out inappropriate discipline in their

classrooms, Krugman said.

She cited one instance - reported in Colorado - in which a third-grade teacher with a reputation for angry outbursts gathercd his class around a boy who had wet his pants and had them watch while thc boy wiped up the urine. ...Experts have a name for problems brought on by a frightening teacher: Educator-Induced -Post-Traumatic -StressDisorder. Teachers need to be more aware GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #65

the state.'

The Court ruled agaurst the Anderson family on June 28, saying that the teacher certification requirement did not infringe upon the family's First Amendmcnt rights, and was a "constitutionally sound means of regulating the adequacy of education.' HSLDA sees the one dissenting opinion, written by Justice Meschke, as 'the one positive dcvelopment." Justice Meschke wrote in his opinion that the state had not proved that the certification requirement was the least restrictive means for achieving its interest in education.

On July 19 the Court upheld the Dagley family's truancy conviction for the sarne reasons presented in the Anderson decision. Finally, on July 2l the Court sent the Melin family case back to the lower court for a re-trial because of the following dispute: HSLDA, defending the family, argued that the lower court judge

had found the family not guilty, so that "under the principal of double jeopardy, the State could not appeal their acquittals and reprosecute them for the same offenses. The State argued, however, that the charges against the Melins had simply been dismissed, and that no ruling on any lactual matters had occurred." The Court ruled in favor of the State, so the State can now bring charges against the Melin

family

again.

HSLDA plans to bring appeals of the Anderson Dogby, and Melin cases to tJle

U.S. Supreme Court.

COURT VICTORY IN PENNSYLVANIA District Court Judge Kosik ruled in favor of the homeschooling families in Jofut Jeffreg, et. aI. us. Tl:r.mas O'DorutelL

eL al. and will recommend that the present home instruction law in Pcnnsylvania

be dcclared unconstitutional, according to

permission to homeschool when they disagreed with their superintendents ovcr such issues as testing and teacher qualifications.

In his decision, Judge Kosik wrote, "The ultimate conclusion one must reach conceming tutorial educalion in Pennsylvania is that, absent definition in the statute itself and failing support from regulations promulgated by the Dcpartment of Education, the law providing for such education is unconstitutionally vague... A person of ordinary intelligencc cannot reasonably steer between the lawful and the unlawful to avoid criminzrl orosecution... There exist no standerds for determining who is a qualiffed tutor or what is a satislactory curriculum in zrny

district."

Homeschoolers have complajncd for a long time that the present iaw allows for great inconsistency in district policy - one district may be cooperative and anothcr unwelcoming, The recent ruling addresses this issue, saying, "Superintendents of school districts, while exercising a

legitimate and constitutional function of

managing their districts according to thc unique character of cach district, ncvcrtheless make their dccisions on an ad hoc basis, which can result in the dangers of arbitrary and discriminatory application. " Judge Kosik will dcclare the prescnt law unconstitutional by Deccmber 3lst.

Homeschoolers are hoping that this will give the legislature incentive to pass new

legislation this session.

OTHER LOCAL NEWS For addresses oJ state and Leal organizatiors, see GWS #6O or our Homeschoolfrq Resource List" auailable Jor $2.

Colorado: The Colorado Department of Education will no longer mcet with the Colorado Homeschooling Advisory Commiteee, according to the Tighe Yovanoff in the JuneJuly issue of the COLORADO HOME EDUCATORS' ASSOCI-ATION newsletter. The two groups

had been in communication for thrcc years, but Outgoing Assistant Commissioner of Education Roy Brubacher s:rid that bccause the new law [sce GWS #63) defines home education as non-public school, the Department of Education nlay no longer be involved in regulating it.

Tighe Yovanoff continues: 'Eileen

Waldow, chair of CHSAC, said CDE's withdrawal would be quite acceptable if CDE were truly out of thc home educartion GROWING WITFIOUT SCIIOoLING #65, Vol. t i No. 5. ISSN #0745-5305. Published bi-monthly by llolt Associates, 2269 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge MA 02l40. $2O/yr. Date of Issue, Octobcr I , 1 988. Second-class postage paid at Boston MA. POSTMASTER: Send address chmges to GWS, 2269 Massachusetts Ave,

Cmbridge MA 02l4O. ADVERTISERS: Dcadlines are the lSth of oddnumbered months. Contact Patrick Ftrcn(a for rates.

4 picture. 'But they are lrrvolved,' she sald.

They choose the test we have to use, they step in if the score falls below a certain point, and there ls the whole issue of entr5r [of previously home educated studentsl

into the publlc system."

K+ngas: TWenty-six homeschoolers met on July 23 to discuss plans for the

coming leg[slatlve sesslon, according to the August newsletter of KANSANS FOR ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION. The group agreed to prepare a rough draft ofa bill, modeled after Missouri's law, which will probably have been made linal by the time this issue of GWS is in readers'hands, The group also agreed to walt before deciding whether or not to tnitiate this legislation, as the state legfslature may change

considerably after the November elecfion.

New Yort: In GWS #64 we described the Board ofRegents' new regllations for homeschoolers, under which standardized testing was required wery other year after fourth grade, and each year in grades nine and ten. Seth Rockmuller of the HOME SCHOOLERS' EXCHANGE now writes that since the Regents adopted the regulations in June, a small group of homeschoolers have been worhdng to lnclude an alternative to tesung.

On July 28, the homeschoolers met with the Elementary, Secondary and Continuing Education Committee of the Board ofRegents and convinced a maJority of the members to add the new provision, 'Nothlng tn this subdivision [of the regulationsl shall preclude the use of other annual assessment altemadves agreed upon by the parents and superintendent."

Seth writes, "Only after a lively discussion between members of the commitee and Departrnent of Education stalf was it agreed to submit the new language for public comment and action in September, rather than to adopt it immediately. A majority of the committee members clearly favored the new language and the flexibility it would provide... The encouraging thing is that it does appear that homeschoolers can allect the [Regents'decisionmakingl process if they put their minds to it. The homeschoolers who kept the testing issue alive deserve a lot of credit and our appreciation."

SUPPORT GROUP IDEAS From Vicki Scott oJ Georgia: I was a support gtroup leader when we lived in Texas. Some ldeas from our group: Every other month we had new homeschoolers come to a very casual 'coffee' at someone's home. We'd each sav whatever we liked about our lidds or schools or home education and then the newcomers could ask their questlons, Our group itself was too large to have reeplar meetings but we saw a real desire to meet regularly for the newpeople, who seemed to have the same questions. These coffees kept rne offthe phone and able to help people more

efficiently.

In the month when we weren't having colfees, we d have a workshop on math or

writing or science or educational philoso-

phies. Everyone was welcome to bring ideas and materials. We hoped that people would leave rvith a fresh outlook in these areas.

CHALLENGES & CONCERNS OVERCOMING ISOLATION F\om Katlieen Loscrcco oJ New Mexico: We are a vegetarian, pacifist, nonchurchgoing, homeschooling family in a

rural ranching communit5r. Amazingly,

we are overcoming isoladon. My first ally was a teacher. Even though everyone knows we homeschool, we are known by members of the school stalf to be serious about education, because we made it a point to meet and tdk with teachers and administrators whenever the chance arose.

The teachers now almost consider us colleagues, not criminals or crazies. We attend about three evening programs a year at the school (art shows, Christmas programs, book fairs, etc.) as a show of token integration. As a result of our efforts, the school librarian's grandson, who used to harrass mv oldest son

unmercifully, is now his friend and says he wishes he could homeschool. So our efforts with teachers and other adults in the communit5r have filtered down to people's kids, breaking down many barriers. It also helps if the family as a whole is involved in communitv alfairs (Neigfrborhood Watch, Chambei of Commerce, any senrices for the disabled or poor, etc.) to dispel myths of being anUsocial or derriant.

Be supportive of kids and parents who are public-schooling. I've taught my kids to be proud of their differences (there are manyl) but not arrogant or judgmental.

Not everyone supports them or us, but they have digntgr and self-esteem to fall back on. We feel it is best not to hide our homeschooling, even from disapproving people, because it teaches us shame about who we are. Nor do we shout it from the

same day, so their relationship has been a special one for all ofus. The biggest

difference between them now is that my son has never becn to school and hers is walking around with one of those awful LD labels - "attentlon deficit disorder."

Ever since he was diagnosed two years ago I have struggled with my feetngs of wanting to help. I have wanted to give her books and information but I have stopped myself, somehow knowing that her reaction would be similar to Maggi's friends'. I have let her know that I have read things that olfer a dillerent view of learning disabilities, but that is it. I guess I have felt that for her to see it for herself would be the only way for her to have any real trust in those ideas. I do think she would come to me if she got to the point where she could no longer buy into the school's way of thinking, but until then, even though my heart aches for this child who I think would benefit so much if he were just removed from the institutional

environment, I can do nothing more.

I am reminded of sometJring John Holt wrote that impressed me so much I wrote it down in one of my journals. It goes something like this: "One of the saddest things I've learned in my life... is that people in chains don't want to get them off, they want to get them on everyone else. 'Where â‚Źrre your chains?' they want to know. 'How come you're not wearing chains? Do you think you're too good to wear them? What makes you think you're so special?''

LONELY IN SCHOOL I4nne Knotules (CA) wriles:

I also have told the kids that from my experlence, one's longest-term friends in life are more often family than schoolrnates, so they shouldn't overlook the cultivation of some important sibling relationships in their own backyard.

Erin (lO) has picked up a few mainstream ideas from his playmates, but it is inevitable. I made the mistake of trying to wait for the Perfect Playmate, who existed only in my head. Having kids around who are into guns, candy, etc. has given him a chance to define himself and his values, which are quite strong after ten years as a homeschooler. And I leamed to love and respect his playmates even if they weren't my tdeal - and Erin ls happier for it. The onslaught against our family's values is still minimal compared to the onslaught that school would provide.

What Susannah said about those who are the most resistant to the idea of homeschooling often being those who had bad school experiences ["When Friends Disagree,' GWS #641 certainly is true of some of my family. My sister was always very argumentative with me about homeschooling, pointing out the need for socialization and asking the children, 'Wouldn't you like to be in school?" (And this when the oldest was only 6 or 7l) She herself had a rough time in school. She didn't Iinish high school. She complained a great deal about it, and her high school was a dangerous place to be as well, with stabbings going on, etc. She did make friends in school, though.

In my case, I also hated school as I was always being teased by the other children because I was a chubby child. I made few friends, and high school was pure torhrre for me socially. I always knew I would ty homeschooling, long before I had children. That may have been sparked

FRIEND DISAGREES

by my ttrtoring of urban Indian children ln college. I just felt they didn't belong in the school environment. They fell through

rooftop, however.

Patti Blystone oJ Washington writes:

In response to Maggi Elliot ["When Friends Disagree," GWS #641: I have had a similar experience with a friend. Her 8year-old son and mlne were bom on the

the cracks; they needed to be learning about their own cultures. They obviously needed an alternative learning environment as they didn't Iit the mold you arc supposed to lit into in school. These were

children from economically poor, relocated Indian families and some spoke GROWINC WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #65

little English.

Most people promote school as a necessaq/ social experience, but many children fe,el left out there, as I did, for one reason or another. Many children in school have few good friends and are lonely in the midst of all those children, eaUng lunch alone on the bench; to me a much sadder situation than bein( an isolated homeschooler.

eating habits after we witnessed how wild Joshua's behavior was after eating or

drinking something with sugar in it.

We decided to homeschool because of Josh. We had spent hundreds ofhours trying to see his good side, to eliminate his poor behavior, without crushing his spirit. We knew no schooltcacher could ever take the time to know him beneath his difficult exterior.

Trudi, I do want to encourage you. It

gets better. We have begun to see

UNSUCCESSFUL GROUP A reader wrttes: I was very interested in Jo Hinsdale's lctter on the homeschoolers' co-op in GWS #62. LastJanuary our local support group begzrn a homeschool enrichment prograrn held every Friday morning from 9:3O to I I in local churches. Children could meet informally for arts and crafts, cooking, and playtime in a grm, with parents rotating as teachers. This seemed to work well, though there were problems with finding a regular meeting place and

thatJosh

is an exceptional child. He is growing into a loving, responsible young man, full of curiosity and interests. He really took off in his schooling this past year and I'm glad we're homeschooling him (although,

is what we homeschoolers want to get

to be honest, there have been times I've considered putting him in school to provide me with a break). He is gencrally patient with his brother (Caleb, 7) and sister (Naomi, 3) and generous with all.

Caleb is much more cauUous than his brother so they tend to balance each other out in adventures they undertake.

Two things have really helped me through these years. First, the belief that Josh was truly a gift thzrt God gave to us, and second, my husband's support. Wc havc proved a modcrating influence on cach other. Usually, one is calm while the othcr is going cra4z with frustration.

There is a down side to all this. and that is that it makes it easy to shortchange our times with the other children, especially Caleb. We are striwing for a bcttcr balance as Caleb is a unioue individual in his own risht and we'd like to know him better.

away from. However, several parents rcsponded to this by saying that children need to experience learning in a schooltype situation. If so, why are they home-

THE EFFECTS OF ALLERGIES

keeping costs down.

Then, in a short period of time, the meetings changed from informal gettogethers to specific 'school" times with the children divided into groups by their ages, being taught subjects of the adults' choosing, and even rym time became a formal group game time and not just friendly play in which the children could ioin. This bothered me because I feel that

ihis artllicial grouping and time-planning

schooling?

After only a few weeks, my son and I lcft the group, along with another family.

The group still exists, so it must bc meeting some people's needs. We all want what is best for our children, but are going about it in different ways. I am considering beginning our own co-op aftcr reading about the success ofJo's group.

VALUING A ''DIFFICULT CHILD''

Katlleen Neetz NW writes in respotTse to Trudi Hopkrrs's "DifJicult child," GWS #63: We too have a'diflicult" child. Each day is an adventure with Joshua (almost l0) but each yeâ‚Źrr we can look back and see

improvements

in our relationship with

him.

Joshua's birth was the start. It was a long labor followed by a Cesarean. After two subsequent homebirths and much birth counseling to others, I can testiS that the birth experience can color one's early attitude toward a child. Then, we all went through eighteen months of 'the

terrible twos." I've honestly tried to think of them as "terrific" but even the fading memory of that time shouts that they were tough.

We persevered in getting to know Joshua. He seems to need fairly strong absolutes that he can function between or he feels insecure. WeVe also chan[cd our

GROWINC WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #65

Betsg Brucker-Skelton writes: I read the story about the difficult child. and the intcrvicw with Gerald Coles about leaming disabiliUes in GWS #63.

From where I'm coming from, these problems are related and often go hand in hand with some sort of allergy, cither to food, chemicals or the cnvironment. Not all allcrgies are manifcsted in the nose, skin and lungs. Many rescarchers are finding that cerebral allergies are just as dcvastating.

Doris Rapp, M.D. has wdtten two cxccllent books, ?he lmpossible Child and Allergies and The tlgperactit:e Child, which go into detail about how to dctect and treat this physical problcm. Dr. Rapp has documented bcfore and after handwriting of children, and made videos of their behavior aftcr conducting an allerry test. One child, for example, was given an extract of his school's air. FIe withdrew, began throwing toys, got a headache, red ears, and an earache. FIis handwriting changed dramatically.

I fully intend on homeschooling my three year old for all the reasons you state plus the fact that many schools have pesticides, perfumes, coal heat and ot-her toxic chemicals that could create an environmental allergr with cerebral

manifestations. I know two families that this has happened to, who were forccd to homeschool. One child who startcd kindergarten suddenly got seizures, which several neurologists could not expl:rin and

which did not respond to drugs. TVro years later, a clinical ecologist found three times the normal amount of chloradene (school pesticide) in the girl's blood. When she was removed from the school, her seizures gradually subsided I

HOW LARGE FAMILY MANAGES

Trudi Hopkhs (AZ turi.tes in response

Claussen who asked rn GWS #63 lwtu others u-tith Large Jantilies manage the demands on their tilne: to Luonn

I have four children - the oldest is aimost lO. I don't go places very often either, but once a week, we rent a kids' video and my husband and I go out, aftcr dinner, to a coffee shop down the street, to talk undisturbed. Philip, the oldest, is in charge and gets paid for it. It's only for a short time, but it's been a godsend for Ben and me. I'm discovering my husband againt For the past several years I've devoted my life almost completely to the kids, but now I've felt very strongly thc need to develop other interests. Ifyou haven't had the opportunity yet, it would be well worth your effort to find a way.

I'm very disciplined about Lime. I gct up around 5 AM so that I have two hours to myself (this means I have to try to get to bed by 9:3O). In the past year I've laken

piano lessons, and Ive found that I can take an hour or an hour and a half to Dractice without too much harm to the Lousehold order. I'm fortunate in that the instructor comes to our house.

TWo aftcrnoons a weck, I enlist the

EDUGATIO]IAt

SOFTWARE RESOUFGE FOR HOilE S$flQ$fl,p$, (Home school f amily operated buslness)

. COMPUTEACH . WEEKLY READER SOFTWARE - STICKYBEAR . DAVIDSON . DLM . EDUSOFT . BRODERBUND . LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES . SIMON & SCHUSTER . And Much More!

E]rHE

FJ--- TEACHING /ffi*ffir CoMPUTER We will be glad to send you a complete software lrst for your specrf rc computer.

E vgS please send me your complete software list.

Name

Address Cf,,tdrun "g"aSppcrfy Co-puler Graoe le!el

Send lo; The Teaching Computer 67 Barbara Drive Centereach, NY 11720

6

kids to help me with housework. On Thursday afternoons, if it's not too hol we go to the park, or visit a friend. There aren't too marry neighborhood playmates, so on weekends Philip has a friend the night, or he goes to his house. He really needs that contact. Occasionally my kids play well together, and it makes me Gel so good, but more often than not they're

fighting.

Mondays my husband is off from work, and we try to do somethlng as a family. Sunday is devoted to church

activities.

I lind that shopping uses a great deal of time. I allow myself one outing to the grocery store a week, so I plan carefully. I use mail-order catalogs a lot. I never take four kids to a store together. It's a treat for them to go with us one at a time. My husband enjoys shopping, so I gladly let him do it, and he likes to take one or two of the children.

I have some deflntte, unresolved problems. I don't feel like I spend enough time with each child individually. I can get involved in my own projects to the exclusion of the kids. We haven't been involved in a lot of outside acdvities - we often don't have the monev for classes, camps or shows.

TESTING CONDITIONS

condidons include hours when the teachers know students are most alert and yet most able to remain composed and quiet, when the classroom is cool and comfortable, when testing time blocks and breaks can be flexibly arranged, when any

potentially dismptive students can be removed from the reâ‚Źtrrlar classroom, and when no outside intern-rptions will occur.

In many elementary schools, teacher's aides, oflice workers, or parent volunteers are on hand in each classroom to provide assistancewith pencils and test papers, questions, unexpected disruptions, opening a window, offering whispered reassurances to nervous or weary students, and so on. Special-needs students

are given their tests in individual or small-group situations away from regular classrooms, and by farniliar adults.

Any child who takes an achievement test, including a homeschooled child, has a right to such considerations in a testtaking situation. And so does any teacherl One key reason the test conditions are so important to public school personnel is that they want the test results to rellect well on t]le teachers and administrators.

Discussions well beforehand with the principal or person in charge of scheduling achievement tests could result in better testing situations for homeschooled kids. Even sending a representative parent to the test site for an inspection is wise

Borg Hendrbkson oJ ldalo writes: Sandy Masden's "Bad Testing Condi-

tions" (GWS #&l) makes me realize that homeschoolers could benelit from inside knowledge of public schools and how they work. As a former public school teacher and teacher trainer, now turned homeschool advocate, perhaps I can help.

Sandy said she understood that public school children take at least one week to

complete achievement tests with one subtest given each morning and each afternoon. This is generally true, although primary grade classes might complete all subtests in the morning - perhaps two subtests per day for three days.

Tlpically, a public school achievement testing period covers two weeks, with the second week reserved for makeup tests.

Teachers are free to schedule their individual class subtests as they see lit and are encouragd to schedule them ulpn testw conditions are opttmal Jor gd shtdent perJormance. Almost universally those

and also telling the principal the best time of day for the homeschooled children.

Requesting the same optimal test conditions that t}le teachers in the local public school maintain is certainlv reasonable.

KEEPING THINGS FAIR Phyllis Graudszus oJ Callfornia urrites.'

For a long time I put up with daily squabbling between my two boys, aged 6 and 8, over such things as who got to sit in the favored seat at the table, who got to sit in my lap for stories, who got to choose the first story, who got the bigger of the two apples, etc. We tried having them take turns, but it was often dilficult to remember who had done what the last time. So we did a lot of coin ftpping, but that often resulted in tears, since for some reason my younger son hardly ever wins at coin flipping. I even tried teaching them the value of unsellishness and that thev

Introducing the

NEWEST, MOST COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE to

planning ALL components ofyour home-school program

wilh CONFIDENCE

should let the other be lirst or have the best once in a while, but that only worked occasionally.

Then one day I finally had an idea that was so simple I wondered why I hadn't thought of it a long time ago. It has worked beautifully and has completely ended all of the squabbling. One of the boys gets to be what we call "child of the day" or "special chlld.' He gets to do all of the first, best or favored things that day.

The next day the other one gets to. They simply take turns being "child of the day."

To make it as fair as possible with

things that only come up occasionally, like sitting next to the window in the truck (we only go to town about once a week, and it just might happen to fall on the same child's special day for weeks in a row), we divide the fun up. 'Special child" gets to sit there for half the trip (whichever half he chooses), and the other child for the other

half.

OK TO PRAISE An Arkansas reader pntes.'

Regarding Wanda Rezac's comments

in cWS #56 ['The Ellect of Rewards"]: It

seems that she came to the conclusion that

not 'doing anything to motivate' her

child's interest in drawing one way or the other is the reason her child "draws until it's coming out of her ears." She says she praised her older children's drawings and hung them up, but that they then lost their interest in or skill at drawing.

We praise our 7-year-old daughter's drawings, display them, save them and run olf copies of them, and she also draws until it's coming out of her ears. We praise her endless ideas and attention to detail more than her artistic ability (she draws just like most any other 7 year old).

Because ofher numerous ideas and the detail in her drawing, I feel she could some day develop a special skill in drawing.

Our three older children (ages 14, 12 and lO) still do some drawing occasionally, but there is no strong interest there.

We likewise have shown appreciation for their efforts. Mavbe Wanda s older children's interests just happened to change. I don't believe they lost interest in drawing just because she praised and displayed their work. I think her 7 year old would probably still draw continually even if Wanda praised the work occasionally or displayed a drawing now and then.

I'm not one to go overboard with praise, but a smile and/or a hug with a

if or 'That's great'gives encouragement to her. It hasn't turned her off drawing yet.

'Thank you' and "I like

WHOSE FAULT? Kothy Riclurdson oJ Neu York wrttes:

for both the novice and experienced home-school parent ORDER YOI.JR COPYTODAY pages - $14.95 pp - lS-day return privilege info-packed 30Or Meadow Press, P.O. Box 447-83, Kooskia ID 83539 Mountain (208) 9264526 VisaMastercard FREE brochure for SASE

I spoke with a teacher-acquaintance last year about my homeschooling intentions. During the course of our conversation, she pointed out that ifa

child fails at homeschooling, it's the parent's fault. I countered with the notion that therefore it would be the teacher's fault if the child fails at school. No, she said in all seriousness. thatwould be the child's faultl

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #65

THINKING ABOUT INDEPENDENCE LET KIDS CHOOS E Ktn Kopel (MO) writes: I thought a good deal about Jill Bastian's letter, "Do We Step In?" in GWS #63. She said, 'Unlike many other homeschoolers, Heather is interested in clothes, make-up, hairdos, romance books, rock music, and boys: typical pre-teen girl."

Why would being a homeschooler make anyone not like those things, or like them? I've never been to school in my life and I like clothes and hairdos, although

I'm not much into make-up. I like good books (which doesn't mean they have or don't have romance in them), I like good rock music, anC I like boys (generally I like all people who are decent and nice, but as you get older, you begin thinking about guys differently. I'm not dying to rush off and get a boyfriend or date, but I do think about it sometimes, as something to look forward to when I feel I'm ready to become involved in that type of relationship.)

It seems to me that Jill is somewhat upset because Heather doesn't fit into the

piop.. homeschooler

stereotSzpe. She seems to feel that her daughter ought to be

doing more academic things - things that she, not her daughter, thinks are important. I don't think I'd be happy doing nothing but thinking, reading, etc. about those things Jill calls 'typical pre-teen girl' interests. But I guess my pride was somewhat injurcd by Jill's letter. She made it out that the things her daughter was interested in were worthless and wasteful. I will admit, there are bad books, bad songs, bad clothes, make-up and hairdos, and lots ofbad boysl But I should hope that a person is capable ofdiscerning the good from the bad, and choosing

appropriately. I certainly can, and do.

I guess that parents sometimes don't know what to believe. They don't really listen to the music their kids play, so how can they tell if it's OK? They just hear that rock is disgusting music. Some is, some isn't, which is the case with most things.

But there comes a point where you can't make choices for your kids anymorc. You havc to let them make the choices.

Flowever, this doesn't mean you take back your support, advice, and thoughtsl Up to a certain point, kids need the support of their parents, and their input, but the frecdom to decide for themselves.

I guess parents want to protect their kids from harm, but if you always have someone to think for you, you don't learn to use your brain. And if you don't make mistakes and learn from them when you're young, you'll make bigger and more painful ones later on.

BRANCHING OUT KatLerine McAlpine (?A? untes: This summer Nathanicl (lO) has spent almost every spare moment at the high school athletic field. which when school isn't in session is a popular gathering spot for joggers, golfers, tennis and volleyball players, frisbee throwers, and kite fliers.

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #65

The field is very much a neighborhood hangout and only a block from our house, so I don't worq' (too much) when Nathaniel disappears for hours at a time. Of course we've discussed in some detail what

isn't appropriate adult behavior and what he should do ifhe should ever encounter

that.

More and more I'm aware that home is no longer enough, my interpretation of the world is no longer enough for him. He needs to move out into the wider world, meet people who aren't me or connected to me, have his own experiences, and draw his own conclusions. Yet he still wants to know that I'm here for him to check in with. As eagerly as he bikes off toward the Iield wery day, he bursts back through the door just as eagerly, usually hungry, beaming, and talking a mile a minute.

Then I have to drop everything and hear all about his newest adventures, the people he's met, and word-for-word replays of every single conversation. He's noticcd that adults have two invariable questions: how old are you, and where do you go to school (in fairness, this seems to be a response to the fact that he's so confident

and articulate for someone his size). He's also noticed that some adults think it's fun to tease kids by putdng them on - i.e. seeing if they'll believe some improbable story - and though thc whys of this continue to puzzle him, he's become much sanvier about recognizing tall tales. He says his favorite people tend to be those in their late teens and earlv twenties because they treat him like an eqrr"l and don't talk down to him the way older grownups often

This has been a growth period for me because Nathaniel is redelining our relationship. IVe had to reassess my parental role and let go of some of the old protective impulses. It hasn't always been easy for either of us. For all my delight in his increasing independence, there's still this Iierce, almost primal urge to stand between him and the world and shield him from every possible danger or disappointment. He, too, seems pulled by contradictory forces these days, sometimes rebelling against all restriction, at other times wanting the reassurance of limits. There are days when he seems to question cvery utterance I make; if I'm not careful, I can get drawn into a half-hour debate on whether or not it looks like rain. So we're at a rattrer delicate balance right now. It helps to remind myself that challcnging me is a natural, normal, healthy thing for him to do, part of his process of detcrmining who he is and what he believes.

In the meantime I look for wavs he can spend mcaningful time with the young adults he enjoys so much. This is a challcnge, in that our income limits us to activities that are eitleer cheao or free. But this surruncr we found a wondcrful serics o[ naturc programs sponsored by our local state park. Wildlife is one of Nathaniel's passions. The instructors are all young and enthusiastic, and I made a point of dropping him off and picking him up, though this was often more inconvenient for me. We both sensed that it was imDor-

do.

tant for him to cstablish his own relitionships without good old Mom hovering in the background. Now he's hoping to sign on as a nature volunteer.

Recently he went into the used golf ball business, and it was interesting to watch the vcry serious and businesslike way he went about it. At first it was fun

FROM ''HIGH-NEED'' TO INDEPENDENT

just to collect stray balls, but

he soon

acquired more than he could possibly usc.

Then (since money is never far from his mind) he began wondering if he could sell them. I had no idca what sort of market might exist for used golf balls, so he spcnt the next week conducting a survey of golfers, asking how much they'd be willing to pay, and rccording their answers in a little notebook. Thc most popular answer, as well as the average, was 5Oo. Nathaniel spent the next two days working out different sales pitches and practicing them on me. It was hard somctimes to kceo a strajght face, but I didn't want to spoil things icr him by showing amusemcnt.

His first day in business hc made $2.5O, added three balls to his inventory, and was ecstatic. Othcr days wcren't so good, and he began planning his sales outing more carefully. Once he faced a tough business decision whcn a man said his price was too high but offered him 25c instead. Nathanicl didn't know about the art of h'ggling and was taken aback. I-le told me later that he'd acceptcd the man's offer but decidcd he wouldn't do that aeain becausc it wouldn't be fair to thc people who'd paid 5Oc. Now he's considering

branching out, having noticed that while only a fcw of the pcople at thc field play Bolf, everybody gets hot and sweaty. So we may soon see Nathaniel's Uscd Golf Ilall and Sugar-Free l,cmonade Conglomerate.

Karen Mende-Fhdkis (NJ) writes: Kate was a high-need baby. I czrrricd her a lot and she nursed frequently.

Today, at 2 | /2, she still doesn't slccp through the night, and likes to nurse to fall asleep and for comfort. She was always at our side and has just this past month begun to venture forth in indcpcndent acti's'ities. What a change it's beenl She knows how to operate the stereo and turns on Peter ond the Wo(f whenever she wants (usually three to four times a day). She now plays with other childrcn without mc, and initiates conversations with adults (strangers and friends alike).

YeIIow Moort Press Storytclling Books & Tapcs

Call or write for a free catalog Box 1316 - Dept.58 Cambridge, MA 02238 rc17) 628-7894

8

WATCHING CHILDREN LEARN EARLY SPEECH Barbara Hanor.ka urites Jrom Japan:

In Hous Clildren I-eam John Holt described two different methods by which children expand the use ofwords they have learned to say. The one all linguists talk about is the child who, having learned to say 'doggie,' calls other large fourJegged animals 'doggie." The other is the little boy who said 'toe" for toe, cold, coat and toilet, which sound like toe.

I was auxiliary aunt to k for two years while she was l-3 years old. The frst wordTae learned was Papa, which she pronounced Baba (there are languages that don't distinguish p and b). withjn 48 hours of learning to say Baba, she was using the word to refer to balls, bubbles and me, She could tell me and her father apart and knew that 'Papa' referred to him and "Barbara' to me when she heard t].e words, but she ligured "Baba" was close enough to each.

My daughter Kitty has expanded a word by meaning in two instances: she calls spiders 'bees" and she called nudity and all bodies of water'bath' until she leamed the word pool, upon which she

started to call non-bath bodies ofwater "pool" and nudity 'fuku (clothes) all gone."

One word she made up was "shee,"

which meant both "Iish' and 'hair." She applies the word 'shee" to both fish swimming in an aquarium and fish breaded and fried in a ffshburger, although it's hard to imagine how she could see any connection beyond the fact that I

call both "fish."

Although she has now learned to say

'hair" she condnues to call fish'shee'

and has expanded that word to mean stars, star-shaped objects, and starfish. This is hard to trace. Either I pointed out pictures of starlish until she associated the sound "star" with the sound "fish" and so applied "shee' to arrything I cdled star, or (more likely) her father, who ls Japanese, taught her "hoshi," the Japanese wond for star, and she thought it sounded enough like "shee" to include it.

I think the linguists who suggest that children usually expand the use of words to similar meanings are forgetting that children already know lots of words and the extent of their meanings before they learn to pronounce any of them. Having leamed Japanese as a second language in much the way that children learn thelr native langlrage, I know that it is much easier to recognize a word and know exactly what it means than to remember how to pronounce it. When you hear a word every day in context without ever thinking of what the closest equivalent in some other language mtght be, you learn exactly what it does and doesn't apply to, but you may not remember how to say it until you've heard it about two hundred times.

[SS:l l,ooking back at some notes I made months ago when my olfice friend Lauren Farenga s speech was much more rudimentary than it is now, I see that she

also named things in association with something they did, or some attribute they possessed. She called airplanes and flying 'whoosh," cars "bye-bye," and cats 'mao,' after'meow." She too understood us when we used the conventional word for these things, but I think we used her words just as often, not because we thought she wouldn't understand us if we didn't, but because we liked the way they sounded.

YOUNG READER Last geor, Diue Chdan (NY) urote that ler daughter Arveke 'read. at d very

eaig age, but mg husbattd and. I never Jorced her." We asked Aaw to tell us more aboutlaw thls came abuL and. she wrcte: Our lirst attempt to introduce books was a dismal failure. My husband and I bought one of those cloth books for babies.

Anneke refused to look at it. However, she loved emptying the magazines from the crates in which we store them. Since she apparently liked paper better than cloth, we found a paper alphabet book that was short and uncluttered. I-ater we bought her other paper books.

When she was about l8 months old, I was making supper and she was again emptying out the crates of magazines. She picked up Tlme and started leafing through the pages saying letters. I figured she was repeating the alphabet because of all the Sesame Street she watched. As I listened, however, I realized there was no order to her repetition of letters. I went over to investigate. I discovered that she was naming the letters that appeared in boldface at the beginning of paragraphs. I randomly pointed out letters in the ads.

She knew almost all of them, and it didn't matter whether they were on their sides or upside down.

Her father Peter bought her a box of plastic letters. She'd carqr them from place to place, lining them up and saying them. She also started touching and reading out license plates on cars. We used tojoke about how long it took us to get from our car to the store since we had to stop at many cErrs along the way.

We continued to read short books to her, mostly in waiting situations or when she brought them to us. She learned that letters were connected with sounds. The sound for F particularly amused her. I think I showed her C-A-T one day and then she wanted to know the letters for other words. It was almost as if she owned the word if she knew the letters.

This was not entirely an orderly

progresslon. At times, she stopped being interested in books. For example, when she was about 2 she became interested in stringing big wooden beads, and did it for

months.

Sometimes I didn't know whether to be happy or frightened. Articles in magazines warned of the dangers of pushing letter recognition. But I don't believe I was pushing. If she wasn't interested, she did something else. I had no regular lessons with her. I wasn't trying for a "super baby."

A teacher friend sent me some old

fashioned primers around this time.

Anneke could read them. They were not insulting to her since her language dwelopment was about at that level. She even acted out some of the little stories.

She liked looking at my cookbook because it had pretty pictures. One of the lirst words I heard her sound out was vegetable.

I had not done sounding out with her in any formal way.

She also liked the Peanuts characters.

She taught herself many words by reading these cartoon books. Sometimes we'd wonder what it was she was saying, since she accented the wrong syllable. Usually Peter figured it out. He would tell her how the word was pronounced and sometimes what it mearrt. She was three by this ilme.

Relatives have told me they wondered if I was doing the right thing by teaching Anneke to read. Some even gave me articles warning me of the danger of eariy reading. When I recognized how quickly she was dweloping this ability, I did seek advice. One psychologist told me I should "teach her to be normal.'A couple of teachers told me the same thing. My main point was that I did not teach her to read.

She showed an interest, and Peter and I gave her things to satis$ that interest.

Sometimes we told or showed her things, but the bulk ofit she picked up herself. I have never been sure what normal is and if I want my child to be that.

On the other hand, some people acted as if she wasn't far enough along. At nursery school, I was told yes, she can decode but she doesn't have a good attention span or comprehension. Or later, yes she can spell but she can't print (neither can most kids at age 3 or 4). In later grades, I was told again that I should make her normal and that I was her

mother so it didn't count if I thought she knew something. I think the thing that bothered me the most was that her abilities were viewed as a problem. If Anneke wanted to read, that certainly wasn't a problem to me. In reading and in other areas, I find her mind incredibly interesting.

One other reaction worth noting is that people said, "Well of course she knows so much since you are botJl teachers.'

There was no real condemnation in this observation, but I hardly thought it accurate.

My dad told me when Anneke was about 2, "You can't send this child to school." I thought he wasjoking, but recently he told me that he was absolutely serious and he understands why we homeschool now. As Anneke becomes older, her learning is even more her own.

We do follow a reading series (Open Court) and a math book (Saxon's Algebra). She enjoys some things I do not, Iike sewing and crocheting. She goes to GirI Scout camp by choice and chose to Join a swim team even though I was not thrilled by the idea. I try to support her choices, and usually I come to see some good in them.

Anneke has come to display some of the traditional academic strengths. She takes tests well, has a good memory, and

writes well. This is not all I want for her (that's part of why she is not in school) but neither should she have to apologize for GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #65

doing these things well. One of the funniest things that happened to me was that I was told at an interview for a teaching Job that I couldn't possibly understand kids who were having trouble in school since I was 'too intelligent."

That kind of reasoning is as ridiculous as putting too much emphasis on test-taking.

A REAS ON TO WRITE

Suzanute Alejand.re, wlase Jamily

Jrom Sparn to CaliJornia last Decemfur. turiles: motsed

Niko has joined the ranks of the employedl He was finally called in July for a newspaper route. He was so nervously excited I didn't think we could take any more when happily the route started the last week of July. He trained with the former carrier for five days and then in August he started all alone.

The difficult part was that the route of about fifty papers had to be completed by 6:3O AM. Since Niko had had this idea in the first place he has worked out all the details on his own. He puts himself to bed at 9 PM (or earlier), shuts the door if it is too noisy, and wakes up at4:3O. He has worked out a routine (with my help - we had a few tiffs since neither of us is naturally civil at 4:3O in the morning): Ile in his newspaper clothes, gets his basket which includes mbber bands, carrier list, bags for his bike, etc., wheels his bike outside, folds the papers, loads them on his bike. and delivers them.

When he retums he washes his hands using a special towel to dry them, gets his newspaper, fixes a bowl ofcereal and reads the funnies first and then whatever else he has energl for, and then he goes back to gets up, dresses

bed for a couple of hours, getting up around 9 or lO.

Since the route started Niko has changed dramatically. He has becn more than civil with his younger brother ke, he has been reading more than before (although he had been on a reading spurt this summer). He reads the newspaper, a golf magazine I started a subscription to this suruner, and various books.

Niko even subcontracted to ke the Sunday newspaper folding. Niko folds half and while he goes to deliver that half, ke gets up (with my help) and folds the second half. We shall see how well that works. The Sunday paper is difficult, and Niko is determined always to be finished by 6:3O, although most paper boys around here don't manage that.

Another activity we have enjoyed this sumner is getting toge*rer with the local homeschooling group. They meet every Thursday from I I until 2 or 3 or 4 and thcn from time to time they go camping, backpacking or meet on Saturdays with the fathers joining in. One topic that we wcre discussing in the group was when our children would read and/or write. Since ke still shows no interest in reading or writing (he is too busy playing GI Joe, swimming, bike riding or whatever), I could only relate Niko's latest erperience which happened as a result of his paper route.

I went with him down to the paPer o{Iicc after he got the phone call and the GROWINC WITHOUT SCHOOLINC #65

rrnnager gave us some paper work. Since we would have to come back anotlter time anyway I asked ifwe could just take the paper work home and bring it back the next time. I went ahead and filled the forms out once we got home but I mentioned to Niko that he should practice his signature and learn his address and phone number so that he could write them on a moment's notice. He got a littie huffo but he practiced them. Sure enough, when we returned to the office he needed to sign a few times (which he did easily). The second day of his paper route training one of the guards at an apartment complex asked him to write his name and address on a slip of paper in case there was a delivery

problem.

Niko is capable of writing anything but he hadn't gotten to the point where he thought it was worth his trouble. After those two instances he has practiced

voluntarily and shown me the results complete masteryl Another thing he has had to do is spell over the phone. When he has any type of delivery problem (the person who delivers to him forgets something) then he has a service number to call. He has to spell his neune, say and often spell his address and repeat his phone number. We decided to put a slicker on the phone to avoid aggravation at 4:3O in the morning but it was another instance in which Niko saw that those things were valuable. I think that this summer has been a turninA point for our familyl

COMPUTER HELPS SPELLING Karen *hadel utrote tn tle August issue oJ the CENTRAL NEW YORK HOME' SCHOOLERS newsletter:

....Joshua has never been formally

drilled or otherwise instructed in spelling;

therefore he writes phonetically, or by the use of invented spclling. Some of you may look at this story and exclaim how evident his lack of spelling knowledge is, but what I see is a child who on his own has acquired a fairly good command of

spelling, mainly through rcading and computer usage, ruithout tedious drilling

and weekly spclling tests where the words are often memorized just for the purpose of taking a test.

Before we purchased our computer I was seriously wondcring how spelling would ever seem imDortant to Joshua as he is a very practical child and won't be conned into doing anything he doesn't see the need for. Before lhe purchase ofour computer he didn't see the need to lcarn to spell, so I was patiently waiting for a necd to arise, and it did when the computer rejected misspelled entrics made as attempts at solving creative adventure word games.

Thus began our exploration with spelling. I spent much time yelling spellings from whcrcvcr I was in the house to where Joshua sat at the computcr.

Sometimes he would send his brother Seth as a messenger to write down the spellings.

I began to wondcr if I was really helping either of thcm by spclling every word that gave them trouble. Therc werc times when I felt as though the only thing I was

teaching them was that they should ask for the correct spelling of any word thcy didn't know rather than try to spell it themselves. So I eventually became impatient with Joshua, Seth azt myself and began asking them to at least start the words and try to spell them as best they could, and I would help out where needed.

I never pushed them to the point of frustration, but I sensed that thry knew more than they thought they did and sometmes I questioned whether they were simply being la4 by asking me to spell for them. I guess I lost my trust in their ability to use me as a resource person and to just let learning happen naturally. It really was taking place right in front of me, but I was hawing tr<ruble seeing it. I interfered Just to the point where I felt I was helping but not hindering their progress. I now believe I did this more for myself than for them, but at the time I convinced myself otherwise. If left alone I suspect they would have continued to progress with their spelling, each at their own level.

It is evident that Joshua is not at "grade level," but I believe he is establishing a foundation and confidence in his ability to spell that schooled children may not have. He and Seth have both been given time to digest the information they are learning and to integrate it individually without pressure.

WOULD HE STOP SINGING? From Palti Blgstone oJ Washington:

I was recently considering letting Sean (5) try Kindergarten this fall, perhaps just for the first half of the year, to give me some time with Seth (8) and Dylan (l). Sean is very outgoing and self-assured and I thought he would enjoy it for the

most Part.

One of the things that stopped me was worrying what would become of his sometimes annoying habit of singing or humming throughout the day. Both of the oldcr boys do it - while they are looking at books, digging in the sand, playing kgos, taking a bath or whatever. Often they are each singing a different tune but are so absorbed in what they are doing that they are oblivious to each other. It can be unnenring and yet I tell myself that if they are singing they must be joyful and con-

tented. I have even wondercd if it has somcthing to do with the crcative processes going on in their brains that m:rkes it impossible for them not to singl I rvould like to get ahold of more information regarding music and thc mind. Anyway, I

had a terrible vision of this delightful little boy being reprlmandcd for singing in the classroom. I'm sure he would then stop, and what an awful silence that would

be.

LEARNING THE BANJO Elizafuth Llalr.ill (CA) turites: llere are some intercsting statistics from Masters oJ the S"String Bar[o: In Tleir OtunWords and Musrlc, by Tony Trischka and Pcte Wemick: "Of the sixty-eight playcrs wc askcd,

lo about a third (twenty-two) took banjo lessons. TWelve of these took fewer than ten lessons, and six took over twenty lessons. Jimmy Henley took the most: slx years of study with his father... Naturally, this tabuladon refers onlv to formal lessons, not the informal-teaching that almost all players beneflt from at various times.

'Most of the players took up the banJo as teenagers, but the range ofages is wide.

Earl Scnrggs and Don Reno were playing as early as 5, while Curtis McPeake and Rual Yarbrough didn't take up the lnstru-

ment until 25 and 26 years old, respectively. The average age of starting to play was 14.'

I doubt that anyone could agree that

the starting age of these players has anythlng to do wlth how good they are.

Harrison (8) and I are learning bluegrass banJo together and enjoying tt immensely. It's led us tnto a variet5r of adventures, ranging from growing gourds to make primitive banJos, to buildtng a crystal radio and a mlcrophone to

broadcast our duets onto our own 'station"; from writing letters to famous players (and later Jamrning with them at big bluegrass festivalsl) to testifring before the City Council to grant our local coffee house a use permit.

LEARNING FRENCH TOGETHER j::t

Susan Rrchman wrote in tle Summer O""" oJ Pennsylvania Horneschool-

I've found myself wondering more and more about helping our kids acquire a familiarity with a forelgn language. Even the Colfax family, with their Harvard educated homeschooled sons, found giving thetr ldds access to forelgn languages was not an easy thing at home. WeVe now made a start... I settled on French for the kids, as it was my language in school, I'm very rusty at it, and nerrer was really proflclent, but I can still work my way through Le Petit Prirue, and my sister-inlaw who lives in Quebec and speaks fluent French says my accent is not halfbad. I felt that it would be easler to help the kids with a language that I at least had some

familiarity witJl rather than starting at complete scratch for all of us. ...I've slowly been gathering together

materials - a little primer of French folk feles from a library sale, a second hand record ofFrench folk songs, and atape/

book set called ?each Me Ftench designed

for young children. My slster-in-law gave the kids French books as a glft recently, and I found a great French dictionary at my sister's second hand book store, along with a French version of a Beatrix Potter story. I even picked up a French Book One text from a used book sale, to serendipltously discover that lt was designed to go with the folk song record I'd found slx months ago.

At llrst I felt I'd have to be there translating along for the klds as we listened to the tape, and because we rarely made time for this, weJust didn't use it much. Then I found an intriguing book

about language learning aimed at missionaries, especially those who might be going into areas where the language was completely unknown to outsiders. The book blasts the usual methods used to teach languages in schools, based on reading and abstracted grammar rather than listening and speaking.

Ahal This sounded like mv Suzuki books on music learnlng. The book went on to stress the enormous importance of gfeat quantities of passive hstening, Just letting the music of the language wash over you and grow on you and become

familiar. They mentioned the feeling that most people have when they hear someone speaking fluently in another language the most striking thing is how fast the people seem to be talking. They said that udth nothing more than lots of passive llstening, it's amazing how soon the new language at least seems slower. It begins to have bits and pieces ofsound thatyou can pick out and notice coming up again and again. You begin to know what to expect from the accent, feel where the pitch of the voice will characteristicallv rise and fall.

All this made sense to-me as I'm now watching baby Hanna.h learn about our language, and hearing her babble away in mock English inflections - now a questioning turn of phrase, now a command, now an exclamation of delight. She listens to the music of our language and slowly begins picking out the important words.

Most Just washes over her without her seeming to pay attention, but at times she focuses so hard, so intently, her little bud

mouth just itchy to try making the same

shapes we do, the same sounds, the same sense. It's astonishing to watch it happen-

ing again.

AIso I have the model of Howard's sister, Janice, who has always had a

knack for quickly learning any new language she needed. They did live in many different countries during their childhood, and of course that is more than Just a little help. But Janice did something else - she always learned to sing in any new language. She'd pick up local folk songs, teach them to the family, and be off and running. We'd found singing an

enornous help with phonics with Srâ&#x201A;Źf Spell Read. & Write, and also with Gram-

mar Tapes. Maybe it could be the inroad to French for us.

So I began just playing our French record and tape as background music every day, not trying to focus on it particularly or help the kids understand it properly. Just let that sound be there. And I began listening more closely myself, using my ears ratl:rer than my eyes. I was

surprised to find that I could actually

begin understanding. I didn't always need to run to the book to see the words in print, although the book certainly helped us

tremendously.

It's been several weeks now. and I'm frankly amazed. The kids and I now know several French songs very well, and we all stng them together throughout the day.

The kids first Just start humming the songs, maybe using "pseudo French" sounds, then they start asking me what the words actually are, I help them figure them out, and we're off ...The kids are all picking up vocabulary little by little as they get familiar

with the songs or the little dialogues on

our tapes... We're learning more about the

French roots ofour language, too, and seeing how many French words are similar to our English ones. (Just say it with a French accent and you've got itt) I also get to practice my French oral reading by reading aloud to the kids. They don't always even care if I directly translate the story or not, if they know the basic plot and I use lots of dramatic flare and gusto and hand motions.

We're Just at the very beginning stages, ofcourse, but it certainly feels like the right track. The kids are absorbing what French sounds like, are asking lots ofquestions about it, and enjoying this

new bit of the world.

Susan adds a postscript about ?he Learnables French tape, which is now avajlable here (see our fall catalog): 'Fascinating approach - tapes ofwords, phrases, sentences that go along with pictures in a wordless book. No attempt at reading in this early stage, or even repeating phrases initially. Just listen, look, understand. I think it would be too dry an approach as your whole prograrn (we love our songsl) but I can already see that The Learnables is terrific. There is a lot of repetition - this is not like the "Living l^anguage" sets that hurl a thousand conversations at you pell mell. Molly ( ) and Jacob (8) could follow along

effortlessly.'

HIS OWN METHOD OF SUBTRACTION Dianta Moskol oJ Pernsgluania wrttes: I wanted to tell you how my son, who is 7 | /2, has taught himself to subtract when it involves carrying. About a year and a half ago he asked me to write down some subtraction problems for him. I put down easy ones that didn't need carrying.

He kept asking for harder and harder ones. As I was about to show him the 'proper- way to carry ten over to the ones colurffr, he said, 'lrave me alone. I can figure it out myself.' Over and over he came up with the right answer.

I assumed he had ligured out the "normal" way, until this week when we were going over a Sconng Hrgh book in prepara[on for our district's required standardized tests. While he was doing the math section I encouraged hirn to write in the book if he needed to. He didn't and got all the answers right. I asked him to teil me what goes through his head when he's doing a problem.

The problem was 63-27 = _ . Here's what he told me he does in his head: he changes 63-27 to 6O-24, and then changes that to 56-2O. He had to explain it to me several times and show several problems before I understood, Hechanges the top number to a multiple of ten (6O, in this case) and subtracts the same amount from the bottom (he subtracted 3 from 63 to get 60, so he subtracted 3 from27 to get24).

Then he changes the bottom number to a multiple of ten (in this case, 20) and subtracts the same number from the top (24-4=20, so 60-4=56), leaving himself with a simpler problem.

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #65

II I then showed him the "normal" waY and he sajd it was too hard that way - he'd stick to his own wayl This all came about after one of my periods of wondering if maybe we should use a few of our many school books which lie unopened. I think I'll leave well enough alone. He has also taught himself the multiplication tables.

I'm afraid to ask him howl

PATHWAYS INTO MATHEMATICS

Nancg WoJLace (NY writes:

I was thrilled when I read Maggie Sadoway's letter about her son Solon's

fascination with arithmetic [-Teaching Himself Arithmetic," GWS #631, even though for a couple ofyears now IVe been convinced, in theory anyway, that all kids. if left to their own dewices, will love numbers and bccome as remarkabiY oroficient at arithmetic as Solon is. But iheories are one thing. Real life is another.

Take Vita. More than most kids, she, too, has been left to her own devices as far as arithmetic goes, and yet never in her life has she shown the fascination or the competence with numbers that Solon has.

Nor has any other homeschooled child I've gotten to know, although I'm sure that there are some out there.

Why is Solon the way he is? WhY is Vita the way she is? The obvious answer comes almost simultaneously with the questions themselves. Solon grew up behind a cash register, hearing people pose the same sorts of questions to themselves that he apparently poses to himself night and day: "One orange costs 25c. I have a dollar thirty in my pocket. FImm. That means i can either buy five oranges and have a nickel left to play with, or I can buy four oranges and have one of tltose yummy looking nut bars for 3Oc.- While that's all in a day's work for Solon, Vita rarely hcars a number mentioned, unless it's a time signature in a piece of music. It's just possible, I suppose, that she is as quick at ratios as Solon is, since ratios are what musical rhythm is all about, but as to the rest of his musings and mental calculations, forget it.

When I read Maggie's description of Solon, I found myself backtracking, as it wcre, asking (if only fleelingly), "Flave we short-changed Vita in some way? Should we have made some kind of effort early on to see that she. like Solon, had a chance to hang out behind a cash register orwork with numbcrs in some other real-life situation?" But then, imagining as I was Solon punching away at a beautiful antique cash register in the family health food store, I had to laugh. Schooiy me.

Obviously I felt insecure because Solon is so much better than Vita at precisely the

kind of arithmetic skills and menta-l

calculations that tte schools ualue. But does that make those skills valuable in and of themselves? Think about it: the way schools teach math, you'd think that they still hadn't noticed that here in the twentieth century we all have easy access to calculators, not to mention computerized cash registers. It's as if the schools are training this generation of kids, as in all past generations, to become nineteenthcentury shopkeepers.

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLINC #65

Watching Vita and lshmael lcam has convinced me that what Aaron Falbel said in GWS #63 is true - that'mathematics can be thought of as a kind of world view.'

And yet, although I was able to catch myself as I read about Solon's menlal meanderings, it's still all too easy for me to fall into the trap (iaid for me by my school experience and by our whole antimath culture) that math is, and only is,

the very kind of skill in arithmctic that Solon has.

David Grady, thc author of the GradY report on Personal Computers in American Education, wrote that for most of us in school, "tackling math was like learning to play a musical instrument... Wc never

head, then imagine it as though cut aPart,

with all its various sides laid out flat.

That's only the beginning. She has to do an incredible amount of careful work with a ruler as she transfers her mind's image onto the paper, so that she canbe sure that all of the edges on the various sides of her car will end up fitting together like quilt pieces when she actually folds the PaPer, into its final three-dimensional form. If that's not mathematics, what is it? And yet each year I have a terrible time convincing our school district of that.

Many times I have wished that Vita and Ishmael had been attracted to arithmctic the way Solon is. Yet is itjust for lack of a cash register that theY haven't?

Maggie gave me my first clue when she

became dexterous enough to focus on the melodies of what we were trying to play.

Instead," he said, we rcmained stuck on the "mechanics - the notes and chords - of arithmetic.' His point is that now we have

mentioned that Solon invented his own system for calculating and so doesn't calculate in the "proper" way. Once again, I'm afraid. school is to blame for standardizing learning to the point that we now believe that there a-re proPer ways of lcarning. What would have happened, I wonder, to the mathematical music in Solon's head if he had had to endurc school math classes and had been forccd to lcarn to calculate the school's way, much as Ishmael was forced to releam reading in llrst grade using the proper phonics approach? Most of us have long since learncd, by watching our owrt children learn how to read, that there is no one properway to learn to read. But

computers that can take us beyond the mechanics.

Solon, in his own waY, has, without a calculator, gained the skill to go bcyond the mechanics. That, really, was what was so thrilling about Maggie's lettcr. It wasn't so much that she was dcscribing a child who is a whiz at addition and subtraction, but rather that for Solon, those vcry processes (and hence the rriew of the world that thcy represent) allow him access to the melodics in mathcmatics that he apparently longs for. Oddly, if he were in school I doubt that there would be anyone who would appreciate that. His skill at caiculation would be all that was valued, and even he might, like most of us, learn to see mathemalics as just that narrow.

The aesthetic plcasure that Solon finds in calculating numerical relationships in arithmetic has providcd his pathway into the world of mathematics.

Vita and Ishmael have found very different pathways. Music has been one of their major approaches. Vita, drawing her violin bow across the strings and continually making judgmcnts about how quickly it needs to travel to accomodate the next batch of notes, is surely thinking as mathcmatically [in Aaron's sensc) as Solon. But for her, thcre is art, too.

Rccently she has been making threedimensional toys - cars, houses, bzr'lls - out of folded paper, using only one picce of paper for each toy, and cutting tabs with corresponding slits to hold thcm together.

Since she works without a pattem, she has to first visualize the car or whatcvcr in her

have we learned the same lesson with

arithmetic?

I certajnly hadn't when we first took Ishmael out of school. But by then, he had been thoroughly indoctrinated (not to

mention traumatized) by the school's "first you do this, then you do that" approach an) vay. Eventually he began to calm down around numbers, but to this day, he still rctains the belief that there is one right way to do arithmetic, and that the onlv wav to learn it is to be told how.

Rlthoulh Vita never had much formal instrucUon from a textbook herseif, she spent enough time looking over Ishmacl's shoulder while he sweated over textbooks to decide early on that pursuing arithnlctic was never going to satisff her creative hungering the way other pursuits might.

Children have the minds and Passions of inventors. They need to feel that they are in control of their own process of discovery. Maggie allowcd Solon to invent his own arithmetic - to discover his own systems for making sense of numerical

HOME EDUCATION PRESS

Homc Education Presg publishes books, guides, directories, and a bimonthly magazine Jor-families who make an active commitmeirt to their children's learning. I Home Education Magazine ....$2416 issues' $4.50/Current Alternatives in Educatlon ......'....".....'.$10.75 The Home School

Reader

.$12.7

5

Home School Primer .....'....'.'..'..'.'.......$6.50 The Networking Directory ...........'.'.......$3. 50

All

Prices PostPaid

HOME EDUCATION PRESS, PO Box 108it, Tonasket' WA 98856 Writc for our ficc 16 Page catalog

T2

relationships. Vita and Ishmael nerrer had that opporhrnity with arithmetic. Even if they had had a cash register and had spent time in a store like Solon, given my attitude (via Ishmael's math textbook), I

think it's likely that they would still

have

chosen music and art as their pathways into mathemafics, since in those areas they knew that they would be in complete

control of their mathematical discoveries.

CHILD.RUN CHALK BUSINESS Wendy Priesni2. wrote ha Child's PIay, the newsbtter oJ the CANADIAN AI,T-TANCE OF HOMESCHOOI-E,RS:

I recently received a press kit in the

mail from a compErny called By Our Kids Ltd (8154 Alfalfa, I-ongmont CO 8O5Ol). Its only product is sidewalk chalk, and ifs run by Suzanne and Ross Greiner, ages I I and 8 respectively. It was started by the kids in response to a desire to earn money for a trip to Disneyworld. Since their mom was already running a home-based business, it was relatively easy for them to set up shop manufacturing and marketing their home-made chalk.

Their mom writes, 'Since that beginning, they market the chalk through manufacturers reps, fund ralsing prograrns, and direct mail order. The profits eamed are now invested for their college educations, They have gathered a wealth of knowledge running their own business everything from what we do when someone doesn't show up to work on time, to being computer literate to process their orders, to learning how to ship international orders, and most importantly, how to keep going when you would rather do something else. They now have employees to help wtth their burdens."

THE EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTION Karen Mende-Fldkis (NJ) writes: I've noticed that when Kate (2 l/2) is interested ln something she learns it immediately, but when I push her she closes down. I'm learning to stand back and let her lead. I remember reading one of John Holt's comments in GWS #35. He was revlewing Anno's Counting Book and he

implored parents to let children lind the surprises themselves. When I read the book to Kate last year I dutifully pointed out all the discoveries. Now I am learning to keep my mouth closed and let her make her own.

The other day, when someone tried to teach Kate the proper way to catch a ball, they told her to cup her hands together and hold them in front of her bodv. After her 'lesson" she and I played a garne ofcatch.

After throwing a few balls to me, she walked over to me and pushed my hands together, sa5dng, -This is howyou do it."

When I told her that I don't catch that wav and prefer to keep my hands apart and then bring them together when the ball approaches, she responded, 'No, that's not the way." She then attempted to follow me, and was concentratlng on my technique instead of using her own methods.

Before all this instruction she was catching over half the throws of a big ball.

Now she is so busy concentrating on her hands that she can't catch anv. I'm sure all this will wear off and she urill return to just playing catch and stop trying to follow all these conllictinq adult rules.

INVOLVING OTHER ADULTS From Debbie Menta oJ Neu York:

Both Stephen (12) and Jon-Mark (1O) helped on our neighbor's farm all last year, and loved it. The instruction of course was informal but thev learned about being responsible and about what it takes to mn a farm. They were given a calf which they sold for a profit.

Another person involved in our

homeschooling is my mother. Until she got in a car accident, she came to the house wery Tuesday and gave the boys art Iessons. Thev looked forward to this and enjoyed it immensely. My uncle, a stone quarryman, is also involved in our homeschooling. He has taken the boys to work with him for years. He has taught both of them to cut stone with a chisel and they tell me they know a little bit about the pricing and the difference between a good piece ofstone and abad piece. My father has taught the boys about minibikes, three-wheelers, and a little bit about car engines. He taught Jon-Mark through changing the tire on his bike, and

Jon-Mark was thrilled with his accom-

plishment.

cLo'rLo.r.a Home Based Education Program

1289 Jcwelt

Ann fubor, Mlchlgan {8lOtl

(313) 769-4s15

There were five children altogether. We got together three days a week for about five hours. This worked quite well but we live about twen$r-two miles apart and tlee distance eventually wore us out.

All of these people have enriched our lives. I'm so thankful for their heln and encouragement.

ADVENTURES IN A CAMPER [DR:] When u.re last heardJrom Kathg Mingt (GWS #54), stre uas Ltving in a camper in Los Angeles tuith husband Tong and. sonJ.P. At Christmas slre sent us a card tuith a neus ad-d"ress, and. I asked tler if that meant that tteg hodJound. a rcal hone. I sai{ I alwags tlaught oJ them when I heard afuut homeless Jamilies usually in LA. - liuing in cars. She responded: Goodness. I'm touched - I didn't realize that anyone was feeling sorry for us while we were out here being cra.4r and having adventures. We're not suffering we just like to be different, to leam new things and invent new ways to do stuff that no one else ever thought of.

When I was very little, I found that standing on my head on the couch gave me an interesting new view of the world. I became passionately fond of the ceiling so uncluttered, so free, and belonging to no one but me. (No one else seemed to have any interest in it.) I 'played' on the ceiling, mapping out routes from room to room all over the house.

Now we're all living in a house that goes wherever we go, which is very

comfortable and convenient. Our main pr<rblems are not enough time and too much sh4fi J.P. (9) has benefited the most noticably from our venture. He's taken Scientology and study courses and been to school, on and oll each time gaining a little ground and then falling back, but not as seriously. The courses gave him information he needed, but the school experiences gave him confidence that he could hold his own. I suppose he would do OK in school now, but homeschooling is just getting to beJun Here's a little black and white copy of a box lid J.P painted the other day [SS: Kathy enclosed a copy ofa very detailed drawing of flowers and a butterflyl. He asked me to help him, and he listened to what I told him. I showed him how to analyze the composition, form (perspective) and shadow, and he got itl He's always been good at art, but so thoroughly unhelpable that it wasn't much use trying

to work with him.

You think explaining homeschooling is tough? Try telling someone that a house you câ&#x201A;Źrn take with you is superior to one that just sits there. Talk about blank expressions ; the "of course" of living in a conventional house is even more ingrained than the "of course' of sending kids to school.

Create yorrr ()wn lrorrre sclrool c:rlrriculurrr witlr

tlre lrelp of Clonlara Sclrool I lorne Bascd I:ducation l)rograrn, tlre well-tralarrced Ironre school l)rogranl offerirrg flexible or standard apl)roacll.

Our graduates receive our private sclrool diploma and full transcripts.

This pastyear, a friend and I taught

our children together for two months.

.;1tll

ql

Prt ilonlgomcry. Ph.D. Dlrcclor

GWS #65 continues on page 29, after the John Holt's Book and Music Store Fall 1988 catalog.

Copies of GWS #65 ordered as a back lssue may not contain the catalog.

GROWINC WITHOUT SCHOOLING #65

|ohn Holt's

Book and Music Store Fall

1988

$1.00

WELCOME! We have chosen these books for parents, children, educators and everyone concerned with leaming and growing in our society. This catalog was started in 1977 by the late John Holt; educator, author, and avid reader. Offering a selection that ranges from the latest books about how children learn outside of school to unique do-it-yourself items, we continue John's search for provocative books and materials that are often overlooked by traditional curricula and the mass media. We gamer our books from publishers and small presses from around the world, so much of what we sell is unavailable in your local bookstores.

Books added since our last catalog are indicated by a while you browse!

*

symbol. Enjoy yourself

-Patrick (she later wished she had done so longer). #132 $5.95

ANYTHING SCHOOL CAN DO, YOU CAN DO BETTER, Maire Mullarney. An kish homeschooler writes about teaching her eleven children until they were eight or nine

CONTENTS Alternatives to College Art & Materials Audio Cassettes

Children & Adults Children & Leaming Economics & Work Facts

ll

P.

10

P.3-4 P. P. P.

Gadgets

Pp.C7 P. 12 P. 1-3 P. 13

COMPELLING BELIEF: The Culture of

P.7

Learning Disabilities

P,3

16

P. 14

P.4 Pp. 8-9

New Titles Parenting Play Poetry & Literature

ll

P. P. 14

P.5-6

P.6

Puzzles Quadro Construction Sets Records & CDs

P. P. P. P.

Remembering Childhood Series

14 13

l1 l0-11

Special DocumentsTReprints Television

P. 2-3

Tests

P.4

Videotape Words & Writing

P.

t2

P.

t0

P. 12

-

ADMIs-

SIONS: A GUIDEFOR HOMESCHOOLERS. See NEW TITLES

Languages

Young Children

*collrcp

t2

h.3,

D<

#40. One of the most valuable legal resources, tools, or weapons for homeschoolers to have

#206 $4.95

ll

Growing Wirhout Schooling Health History & Geography Home & Garden Homeschooling lnstruments & Music Books

#284 $8.00

about homeschooling.

t2

P.5

& Science

HOME EDUCATION AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTIES, Whitehead & Bid.

books, materials, and resources, put together by homeschoolers. Revised second edition.

offers useful explanations for those who are curious, skeptical or doubtful

P.2

For A Changing World

CHILDREN LEARN AT HOME, Ro Kri-

TIVE EDUCATION RESOI.]RCE GROUP.

P. 14 P.

-

THE FIRST HOME SCHOOLING CATALOG, Donn Reed. A huge list of

in Australia, compiled by the ALTERNA-

p1

other successful people whose parents took responsibility for educating them at home.

Includes bibliography. #278 52.00

The best book we have had about how homeschooling has worked and what it has been like in one family. Their story is a textbook case of how to deal with difficult school boards. Hardcover. #156 $10.95

vanek. This 58 page survey of homeschoolers P. 5

Babies

By John Holt

BETTERTHAN SCHOOL, Nancy Wallace.

Farenga, President

American Schooling, Stephen Arons. Why schools feel threatened by homeschoolers, and why the conflictbetween individuals and institutions is so deeply American. #212$9.95

THE COMPLETE HOME EDUCATOR, Mario Pagnoni. Explains how computers work and how families can use them at home.

Also how and why the Pagnonis homeschool.

Mario is a public school math and computer teacher. Clear, helpful, funny. #216 $10.95

appeared in some time. It sums up and argues the historical and legal case for home-

schooling. #344$6.95

*HorrnscuoolrNc LENCE.

See NEW

FoR EXcEL-

TITLES.

HOMESCHOOLING IN THE NEWS, Holt

FAMOUS HOMESCHOOLERS, Malcolm Plent. An 8 page pamphlet looks at Thomas

Associates. Reprints of articles on homeschooling from major news magazines and newspapers. The thoughtful and open-minded tone of the articles make this a great gift for

Edison, Noel Coward. Woodrow Wilson, and

skeptics. 48 pages. #352 $4.50

2269 Mass.

Ave. Cambridge MA

02140

|ohn Holt's Book and Music

Store

BY JOHN HOLT HOW CHILDREN FAIL, 1964. Revised original text recently reprinted in paperback.

1982. New 1988 edition with an inroduction #262 54.95

by George McGovern. The original besr

;;';;^ffi;;;;;;;;";*fi;:"'/ "u.

children in the "best" schools / 'fff,*p^ ^ua" stupid by their fear of humiliation, by / '{*4ah*** s^r:r^ r,i / 1 -^L^^r'. separation ---^-^r:^- from lite, ^^^ school's andby f n* // , | tlre assumption kids will only leam / lN / ii *.' what they're taught. #356 $9.95 / N / ,'n

/*^

.

rN // n" HowCHILDRENLEARN,

f^'''

N/f' ' {: /n

/ IN PRINT! Why and how // ..-.rrlsoru compulsory schnolins schooling is or one | of the most authoritarian and I / ,::1:.1"" inventions of change it. This book lays the

// ff ffi & ^ / uio"rhomeschooling as rhe most t:L.,S tr A' f hopeful path for changing educarion. tLf

children figure things ou, thcir own satisfaction with little \-: or no hclp, before their intelli\ gence and curiosity is crippled by having to learn under orders, for praise and rcward. The original text, plus much important new material. #358 $8.95

FREEDOM AND BEYOND,1972.l) What frcedom means in daily life, and some of the tensions it creates; and 2) why schools can't cure poverty. and only make it worse. #302'$4.50' BSCAPE FROM CHILDHOOD, 197 4. ThC case for treating children like real people, norpeb and slaves, and for making available to them aduit righs & responsibilities. The

(Continued from page 1.)

LETTERS HOME, Britt Barker. A collection of this teenage homeschooler's articles written for her local newspaper about her adventures in the real world (at a time when her age-mates were cramming for tests).

An inspiring account of how she sought and found jobs she wanted without the aid of school credentials. Britt details her travels across Canada, the U.S., and Italy as she apprenticed herself to various scientists and naturalists engaged in field research. #431 $5.50

MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS, Gcrald Durrell. Hilarious adventures of the well-known naturalist as an unschooled boy, free to roam a Greck island, inflicting his passion for animals on his family. #502 $4.95

grounJ*ork for John's later rhinking

-

/ / *n7

SS.'S

nonmusical childhood, John came !o love music, and began to play the cello at age 50.

About music, teaching and learning, and above all, struggling to overcome self-doubt. #508 $4.50

TEACH YOUR OWN,

1981. How and why many people have taken their children out of school, and how they have helped them leam at home. Answers to most common objections. l,egal advice, courtrulings. The homeschooling handbook. THIRD PRINTING. #752 511.95

homeschooling, persuade many people to undertake it, and help many of those who do undertake it, to do il better. #694 $4.50

SURVEY OF WASHINGTON STATE HOMESCHOOLERS, Jon & Wendy Wartes.

These 1984 survey results, made for the use of legislators, are splendid and perhaps the best poftrait of homeschoolers available. 66 pages. #730 S10.00

*rtln

rHREE R's AT HoME.

See NEW

WE LEARN AT HOME, Katharine Houk.

Picture booklet made by a homeschooler about her 6- and 3-year-old. Give your kids someone to identify with! For read-aloud and coloring. #830 $2.50

WHO DOES WHAT WHEN, Kate Kerman.

An excellent guide to curriculum planning and record keeping in the home school. #838 $2.50

PETERSON'S INDEPENDENT STUDY CATALOG. 1986-88. Where to find hundreds of academic courses-by-mail (high school, college, or grad level). With general information on home study. # 546 $8.95

*SCHOOI.'S OUT.

SCE

NEW TITLES.

of

19 one

o

four page

reprints. #662$2.00

TTIE CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS OF HOME SCHOOLING, By John Holt.

Statement on parents' right to control their children's education. These legal arguments can be useful when dealing with courts and officials. #224$2.m

THE EDUCATION OFJOHN HOLT, Mel Allen. A superb portait of John done by YANKEE magazine in 1981. Reprinted with HOME SCHOOLING RESOURCE LIST. Updated frequently throughout the year.

Addresses for hundreds of correspondence schools or materials, private schools ernolling home study students, and national and local homeschooling organizations. #354 S2.00

KAHN FAMILY HOME SCHOOL PROPOSAL. An excellent, and successful, homeschool proposal to a school district.

Another useful model for all oarents.

#4r2 $4.00

LARGE-TYPE DIRECTORY 1988. Our complete listings of over 2000 homeschoolers for you to contact ttroughout the world. Same lists as appeared in GWS 60 but in extra large type. #423 $5.00 LEARNING MATERIALS LIST. Addresses of over 150 sources for books, games, magazines, products, organizations, etc. Most were recommended in GWS. Includes supplies for ar! computers, languages, math, music, science, writing. #424 52.00

LETTER TO SCHOOLS. A MA family's successful home schooling proposal. Quotcd in GWS #12 as a good model. Includes legal references. #430 $1.00

MASS. MEMO. Written by the legal counsel for the Massachusetts Dept. of Education for school officials in 1987. Discusses what procedures and standards must be used in considering home education. #466 $1.00

MOTHBR EARTH NBWS. Issue 64. 1980.

The complete issue containing "Teach Your Own Children... At Home," a six page interview with John Holt. Color photos. The 185-page magazine also includes many articles on raising food, building shelters, etc. #490 $3.50

Reprints are articles by John Holt and his associates that appeared in national magazines, such as

SHOULD I TEACH MY KIDS AT HOME? A Workbook for Parents. Kate Kerman.

This book should make many new friends for

("Why Teachers Fail"), etc.

Each set consists

permission. #252 $2.00

NEVER TOO LATE. 1978. How. after a

TITLES

The Progressive

0tnsrnrnoP --- EDUCATION. 1976. BACK

W / ^lll1",T';ll:1"^Y I:::l

1967. Revised 1983' 1967' 1983. How u::" nrlde

Paee 2

Dick and Jane"), Ms. ("The Cuteness Syndrome, Kitchie-Kitchie-Coo and Other hoblems"), U SA Today ("Homeschooling"),

MOTHER EARTH NEWS, Issue 85,

1984.

#40. Contains John Holt's article, "So You Want To Home School" and excerpts from Nancy Wallace's Better Than School . The comnlete issue. #492 $3.50

2269Mass.Ave. Ca

MA 02140

John Holt's Book and Music Store

PERCHEMLIDES v. FRJIZZLE. L copy of Judge Greaney's decision in MA Superior court favoring home education. Called "the most thorough and well-reasoned decision on this issue to date in MA or any other state." #544 $2.00

STATEMENT TO THE MINNESOTA LEGISLATURE. John Holt's testimony before the legislative committee considering changing the home education laws. #718 $2.00

LEARNING DISABILITIES OR LEARNING DIFFICULTIES? EVERYONE IS ABLE: Exploding the Myth of Learning Disabilities, ed. Susannah Sheffer. True slories from parents and LD specialiss !o make us challenge our prevailing ideas about LD and offering alternative ways for helping people leam. Includes a section on LD jargon commonly used school and what it Euly means. #268 $3.00

*TN TTTN OWN WAY.

*tun

SCE

NEW TITLES.

LEARNING MYSTIeuE.

See

NEWTITLES. (See back page

for subscription information.)

BACK ISSUES OF GROWING WITHOUT

TIIE MAGIC FBATIIER, Lori & Bill Granger. This

was in fact intelligent and capable. This moving story is also an important, thorough discussion of the "special education" sham. Hardcover. #454 $16.95

SCHOOLING. John Holt felt strongly that GWS should keep is back issues in print for reference use, like an encylopedia of learnerdirected education, and we share that belief.

Very little of what we publish in GWS loses its value over time. People often ask us questions which we have already addressed extensively, and instead of repeating ourselves we can direct people to the appropriate back issues.

This allows us !o move on to new thoughts and questions. We are offering these special packages for subscribers only. Non-subscribers pay a flat rate of $3.50 per issue.

YEARS 1-4 of GWS: The first 24 issues, printed in 19'17 -198L. Will fit in Binder 1 (see below). Nontaxable. #1204 $50.00 YEARS 5-7. Issues #25-42 (1982-84).

Will fit in Binder

2. Nontaxable. #1206 $38.00

is a true story about the authors'

fight to prove that their son, labeled "retarded" though he could read above grade level,

INDEXES TO GWS. All entries give issue, page, and column for locating information quickly. Index to GWS 1-30, #380 $2.50.

Index to GWS 31-40, #382 $1.00. Index to GWS 41-50, #384 $1.50. Index to GWS 5160,#385 $2.00. Setofall indexes,#381 $5.00.

(See also

BABIES; PARENTING)

DESCHOOLING SOCIETY. Ivan Dlich. A provocative and potent analysis of protracted schooling and its effect on our society. Why we need a society without compulsory leaming, and what it might be like. #240 $6.95 DIALOGUES WITH CHILDREN, Gareth Matthews. Mr. Matthews takes his Philosophy AndThe Young Child one step further as he documents children's responses to philosophical questions, such as, "Is time travel possible?"

"Can plants be happy?" Shows how adults can benefit from children's insieht. Hardcover.

#242$r3.50

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR CHILDREN, THE CHANGINC NATURE OF MAN, J. H. Van Den Berg. How modern childhood, and other destructive ideas, came to be. #200 $5.50

Howard Cohen. A thoughtful, carefully reasoned argument in favor of making available to children the righs and responsibilities of adults. #260 $8.95

YEARS 8-10. Issues #43-60 (1985-87).

Will fit in Binder 2. Nontaxable. #1208 $38.00

ALL BACK ISSUES. GWS #1 to cwrent (65-71 issues). Fits in Binder Set 3. Nontaxable. #1210 $100.00 (Save $32-$44!)

*?l:i;_

"5'&'' -3' .

,iJ:-,

Descriptions of all the items in each set can be fround inthe HOMESCHOOLING and SPECIAL DOCUMENTS sectiors, Pp. | -2.

#,",'..* --':ir-"'

THINKING ABOUT HOME. SCHOOLING SET:

STARTING TO HOME. SCHOOL SET

.

A

.

(Pictured above)

GWS BINDERS. Made of attractive, sturdy brown vinyl with GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING stamped in gold on the ftont.

(1) Binder with24 rods (Enough to hold 1-24). #330 $10.00 (2) Binder with 18 rods (Holds 18 later issues) #328 $9.50 (3) Four binders, TE rods (Enough for cws 1-78) #326 $35.00

cws

TEACH YOUR OWN

BETTER THAN SCHOOL

THE CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS OF HOME SCHOOLING

HOMESCHOOL RESOURCE LIST

HOME SCHOOLING RESOURCE LIST

PROPOSAL

SHOI.JLD I TEACH MY KIDS AT HOME?

LARGE.TYPE DIRECTORY 1988

HOMESCHOOLING IN THE NEWS

LEARNING MATERIALS LIST

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING .

ONE YEAR STJBSCRIPTION TO GWS

One copy of our latest issue.

You can order the above separately for $28.45 ORDER TIIEM TOGETHER AS SET #691 FOR $22.00

KAHN FAMILYHOME SCHOOL

Ordering all the above individually, which you may do, will total $43.95 ORDER THEM TOGETHER AS SET #693 FOR $35.00

2269 Mass.

Ave. Cambrllgg lv!1\ 02i40

AHA! INSIGHT, Martin Gardner. Dozens of brain-teasers with the answers clearly discussed. Gives you firsfhand experience at creative mathematical thinking. #104 $10.95

fohn Holt's Book and Music Store Smullyan. An entertaining series of paradoxes, brain twisters and more - all related to important concepts of mathematical theory. #420 $15.95

READING AND LOVING, lrila Berg. A perceptive Britishwoman contrasts the way a child picks up reading amidst a loving family with demoralizing school methods. #618 $10.95

*a

READING WITHOUT NONSENSE, Frank

vrarneMATrcAl MysrERy

TOUR, Mark Wahl.

See

NEW TITLES.

ARITHMETIC MADE SIMPLE, Sperling & MATHEMATICS: A HLMAN ENLevison. A traditional arithmetic curriculum for Grades l-8 all in a single book, with plenty DEAVOR,2nd Ed., Harold Jacobs. Our of exercises and answers. #l 34 $6.95

ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA, Harold Jacobs.

This textbook is "reader-friendly" anddefuses algebra terror. You can browse, looking for things that interest you, instead of feeling you must plow grimly along in a suaight line, understanding everything perfectly. #258 $23.95

FIITY CARD GAMES FOR CHILDREN, Vernon Quinn. A classic collection of games, solitaire, and magic tricks. Leam about numbers while having fun as a family or alone! #282$2.50

HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS. Darrel Huff. We are surrounded by misleading figures

Paee 4

favorite book about not just the techniques but the spirit and beauty of math, for children or non-expert adults. More than just a superb textbook. #470 523.95

MATHPLOTS 2, Kate Kerman. Written by a

Smith. Important book on why almosr all reading instruction hampers progress, and what real reading consists of. Much supporting evidence. Enjoyable and useful. #620 $13.95

THE WAY IT SPOZED TO BE,

James

Hemdon. Used copies of this out-of-print classic about a teacher's struggles in a difficult school. Funny and important.

certified teacher from her own homeschooling experiences, this book is packed with interesting and practical ideas and rare common sense. #472$3.50

#822 S3.00

SURVML MATHEMATICS. Williams &

TITLES.

Cohen. A math book that shows you, by reproductions of different kinds of legal and financial documents, how numbers are actually used in daily life. It makes arithmetic much more real and helpful. #73259.95

YOUNG CHILDRIiN LEARNING, Tizard

and graphs; this book shows you how to spot them. Entertaining, easy to read - and vitally important. #360 $3.95

#rRounlED

cHILDRTIN: A FRESH

LOOK AT SCHOOL PHOBIA.

See NEW

& Hughes. Important British study concludes 4-year-olds learn much more at home in daily life than in artificial nursery school activities.

For fightirg the trend to institutionalize the very young. Hardcover. #848 $16.00 YOUNG CHILDREN, Natural Learncrs.

Our first CWS supplement contains letters from parents of children from birth to 6, and various articles about how lcarning goes on before school. #850 $2.50

THE I HATE MATHEMATICS! BOOK, Marilyn Burns. lnts of ideas relating real math to the real world. Cartoons, jokes, activities.

Informal and fun. for children AND adults. #368 $7.95

re.

THE LADY OR THE TIGDR? AND OTHER LOGIC PUZZLES. Ravmond

From A Mathcrnatical Mystery Tour.

THE CAMBRIDGE PRB.G.D.D. PRO. (Continued from previous page.)

ESSAYS INTO LITERACY, Frank Smith. A collection that argues children leam to read "not from being corrected, but from wanting to do things the right way;' #264 $12.50

FOR YOUR OWN GOOD: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence, Alice Miller. Chilling description of violence against children and analysis of our need to

justify this behavior. The study of Hitler's battered childhood, among others, is a clear argument for treating children as people with real feelings and what can happen if we don't. #296 $8.95

GROWING UP ABSURD, Paul Goodman.

BACK IN PzuNT! Argues that the most serious problem of the young is the lack of a world they can trust and believe in, and of worthy work they can do. #320 $4.95

INSULT TO INTELLIGENCE, Frank Smith.

How schools and their methods insult our

intelligence and competence, and a close look at how learning and teaching really work. A good present for anyone still wondering what's wrong

with school. #388 $14.00

THE

LMS

OF CHII,DREN, George Dennison. A profound, moving book about kids - poor, non-white, distrubed, public school rejects - growing and leaming in a small school that fieated them like people, not problems.

Essentialf #M4 54.95

MINDSTORMS, Seymour Papert. How children are leaming programming by teaching a computer to draw pictures. Many useful ideas on leaming, math, and the mind. #482 $8.95

NO CONTEST, Alfie Kohn. Why competition is neither natural nor producrive, and how we can support intemal motivation instead. #509 $7.95

PHILOSOPHY AND THE YOUNG CHILD, Gareth Matthews. A philosopher shows us, from charming examples, how much important meaning is in children's questions and remarks. #548 $5.95

GRAM. Does your child wonder how s/he would do on the high school equivalency test?

These preparation books, written on a 5th grade reading level, give lots of explanation and practice. Popular adult education tool.

READI\G SKILLS: Answerinq multirrle-

choice questions about passages.?188 57.00

LANGUAGE SKILLS: SpoLtins errors in grammar, spelling, punctuaiion. #184 57.00

MATH SKILLS:

Fractions. decimals. percents, graphs, whole nos. #186 57.00

CRACKINC THB SYSTEM, A. Robinson & J. Katzman. What the Scholastic Aptitude Test is really about, and how to understand its ficks so that you can get high scores easily.

Far and away the best book we've seen on the subject. #230 $9.95 THE MISMBASURE OF'MAN,

Stephen

Gould. This well-known scientist and writer looks at the bizarre history of measuring intelligence. Not only an effective weapon against IQ testing, but powerful proof of how the expectations of even well-meaning scientists prejudice their rcsuls. #484 56.9-5

Cambridge MA

2269 Mass.

02140

]ohn Holt's Book and Music

ALTERNATIVES

TO

BEAR'S GT]IDE TO NON.TRADITIONAL DEGREES, John Bear. A comprehensive source book for hundreds of mail-order. non-resident, or short-residency degrees for your Bachelor's,

Store

lropold. A naturalist's diary - a plea to cherish the wildlife around us, on which we all depend.

Cited by many who work in the field of

COLLEGE

ecology as one of the most important books they ever read; maybe it will inspire your family as well. #682 $3.95

YOUR

.Hmnxf{

I:w, Medical, and assorted other degrees. The author offers his opinions and insights about many of the programs listed. AIso a complete chapter listing "Degree Mills" where you take the risk of buying the degree of your choice - no questions asked. #148 $11.95 Master's, Doctorates,

SAVING THE PEREGRINE FALCON, Caroline Arnold. A great explanation of how wildlife conservationists use modem science and nature to remedy a man-made problem, partly by intgegrating these birds into modern city life. Packed with dynamic color photos, set in large type, and written in a direct simple style with a glossary of technical terms (printed bold when they appear in the text), so readers of all ages can enjoy it. Hardcover.

iCRT,DNNIIAIS

*p,mN coLLEGE cREDIT FoR wHAT You KNOW.

See

Page 5

NEW TITLES.

#686 $12.95

YOUR HIDDEN CREDENTIALS, by Peter Smith. As homeschoolers know, and studies prove, at least 907o of what we know is leamed outside of school. Our personal learning is not always recognized by authorities, however, and this book (which focuses on adults and jobs) provides you with methods and resources for determining your unknown skills and knowledge, and provides you with ways to get credit for your experiences. It also contains a list of colleges that give credis and diplomas for experience. #854 $7.95

SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS YOU CAN EAT, Vicki Cobb. L*am aboutcrystals, colloids, microbes, and more by cooking real food. Easy directions, common ingrediens. #688 $4.95

THE STARS, H.A. Rey. Published in 1952, ir NONE OF THE ABOVE, David Owen. A brilliant examination of the myths, problems, and stupidities surrounding the SAT (college

CONCEPTUAL PHYSICS. Paul Hewin.

Written for college students who want or need to know something about physics but don't

entrance exam) and other standardized tests. #510 $7.95

plan to be scientists. Good enough for anyone who wants to understand physics. #218 $29.95

TEN SAT's, The College Board. In preparing

A FIELD GUIDE TO DINOSAURS. David lambert. More informafion than you would

for tests, nothing beats a chance to practice with real samples. Here are actual and complete SAT's plus advice on how to get readv for them. #?54 $9.95

believe possible about hundreds of dinosaurs.

THE book to tum to. Many drawings. #280 $9.95

*rUN

WITH ELECTRONICS.

See NEW

TITLES.

THE AMATEUR NATT.JRALIST'S HANDBOOK, Vinson Brown. An expanded and revised classic. Make the outdoors vour

classroom! #116 $10.95

BLOOD AND GUTS, LindaAllison. Same series as I Hate Math! Lots of suggested activities to get acquainted with your own body: muscles, lungs, hearg eyes, brain, etc. #164 $7.95

CARS AND HOW THEY GO, Joanna Cole.

One of the finest pieces of explaining we have seen. Light hearted color illustrations perfectly match the !ext. This book will tell you more about cars than is known by most people driving them! #192 53.95

CASTLE, David Macaulay. A beautitully illustrated book about how medieval castles were built lived in, and defended. #196 $6.95

CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENTS FOR CHILDREN, V. Mullin. How to make or find equipment for a home laboratory, and directions for several dozen experiments. Emphasizes safety. For older children. #202$2.'15

#rup KNow How BooK oF BATTERIES AND MAGNETS. TITLES.

*TNCAI, RESEARCH.

SEE

SCE

See NEW

$8.95

SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN, Richard Feynman. These hilaricius adventures of an ever-curious Nobel prize-winning physicist also manage to include a critique of science teaching and a glimpse of the work of physics. #728 54.95

UNDERGROUND, David Macaulay. A beautiful book about what lies under city buildings and streets, and how it got there.

Amazing pen & ink illustrations. #802 $6.95

NEW

NEW TITLES.

*uBssINc ARoI-ND wITH CTIEMISTRY.

has been in printever since, and deserves to be.

Informative, friendly, and very understandable, :lstronomy is made accessible to all. #716

BAKING

TITLES.

**rcssnvc

ARoTIND wITH DRINKING STRAW CONSTRUCTION. See NEW TITLES. PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS FOR CHILDREN, Muriel Mandell. Simple experiments about air, water, heat" light, sound, and other topics, using common household objects. #550 52.75

POWERS OF TEN - On the Relative Sizes of Things in the Universe, Phil & Phylis Morrison. The most interesting, imaginative, far-reaching, mind-suetching book on science we have seen. Great color photos. #572$19.95

A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC,AIdo

COIjNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS, Sarah Jewett. A woman writes about her stay in in the late 1800's. when paying visits and telling stories were the big entertainments. Her admiration for these hardworking people shines through. A forgotten classic. #228 55.95 a small Maine town

I NEVER SAW ANOTHER BUTTERFLY: Childrents Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-19 44, Hana Volavkova, ed. A very powerful book that provides a clear and painful look at life in Terezin. We also see the indomitable spirit, the adaptability, and the will lo live of these

children. #370 $6.95

I'M NOBODY, WHO ARE YOU? Emily Dickinson. A collection of Dickinson's poems, chosen for young people. Every page of this

2269lvIass. Ave. Cambridge MA 02140

John Holt's Book and Music Store

GEOGRAPHTC ITGSAW PUZZLES DYMAXION PUZZLE.TIis puzzle is based on the world map designed by Buckminster Fuller. Unlike other world maps, this color map equalizes the distortion

of the relative of the

shapes and sizes

continents and oceans,

providing one with a much more accurate flat picture of the globe. Since each piece can be joined to the others in a wide variety of combinations, new perspectives and connections leap out at you as you assemble the various triangular pieces. A visible demonsftation of Fuller's idea of a "one world island in a one world ocean." Contains 20 3.5" wood pieces. #578 $24.00 These well-made and accurately cut wooden puzzles are a pleasure to use.

A good way to leam the relative positions of the continents, countries, and stales. Pictured to ttre right is the 51 piece US puzzle.

Pieces assemble into their own frame. Each map is in full color and each puzzle has a finger hole or holes to push the pieces out. The Political World is very detailed; the Physical World puzzle is more suitable for young children since it is cut along the major land formations rather than political boundaries (as the rest are).

Size

Description United States

(krge)

United States (Small) Political World Physical World

Pieces 51 45 15

Number of

14x19 8.5 x ll 8.5 x 11 13.5 x 6.5

Oval 11

Pase 6 to make the alphabet? This collection of 100 actual typefaces, from formal to whimsical, will intrigue and inspire children of all ages.

#488 $4.95 ON WRITING WELL, William Zinsser. A clear, helpful and often funny guide to writing non-fiction. Useful for people at all levels of skill and interest. #518 $7.95

OXFORD PICTURE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN ENGLISH: Monolingual Edition, Pamwell. Pictures of 2000 everyday scenes with names of the objects printed below.

Designed for people learning English as a new language, but very useful and exciting for any beginning rezder. #532 $4.95

RESPONDING TO CHILDREN'S WRI. TING, Susannah Sheffer. A booklet about how adults can give genuine and encouraging responses to children's writing, without damaging their feelings of ownership and control. Talks about children of all ases. #666 $2.50

THEREBY HANGS A TALE, Charles E. Funk. Did you know that the word "belfry" originally had nothing to do with bells, or that "alarm" means "To arms!"? Several hundred word histories delightfully told - a natwal vocabulary builder. #758 $5.95

*WNT:[N FROM THE START.

See NEW

Order# Price

TITLES.

592

$35.00

593

$25.00

586

$17.50

"Personally I'm always ready to Iearn, although I do not always like being taught."

584

$17.50

-Winston

Churchill

of America's greatest poets. Illusuated with many beautiful wood-cuts. #670 $4.95 (Continued fiom previous page) book is a beautiful 8x10" drawing in full color with the poems printed right in the pictures. #372$9.9s

THD OXFORD BOOK OF POETRY FOR

CHILDREN, E. Blishen,

ed. The best

collection of poetry for children we have come across. Illustrated by Brian Wildsmith, one of the most sought-after book artists. #526 $10.95

THE SNOW WALKER, Farley Mowat.

Srange, absorbing stories about the Eskimos who live in the snow and ice of the Arctic. #704 $3.95

A TALE OF PIERROT AND OTHER STORIES, George Dennison. Beautifully written short stories. Includes the novella Shawno, which John Holt called "the finest and truest dog story." #746 $8.95

THE POCKET BOOK OF OGDEN NASH, A collection of his funniest and best poems.

Far-fetched rhymes, outrageous rhythms. #567 $3.95

ROBERT FROST'S POEMS. Even people who don't like mostpoetry will enjoy many of ttrese

plain-spoken and powerful poems by one

Eric Sloane. True story of a year in the life of a boy on a small farm in the early 1800's. Many beautiful pen and ink drawings. #2M $5.95.

cOODE'S WORLD ATLAS, Rand-McNally Over 200 pages of beautifully colored maps showing towns, roads, mountains, climates, population, etc. Wonderful to browse through. #312 $19.95

THE PENGUIN STEPHEN LEACOCK. BACK IN PRINT. A wonderful collection of many of the funniest pieces by this Canadian professor who is one of the finest comic writers of this or any other century. #536 $9.95

DIARY OF AN EARLY AMBRICAN BOY,

LETTBRS OF A WOMAN HOME. STEADER, by Eleanor P. Stuart. When her husband is killed in a railroad accident, the GNYS AT WORK, Glenda Bissex. How a child, starting at age 5, became a skilled writer by inventing spellings and correcting his own mistakes. Opposes conventional view that everything must be taught. #308 S7.95

writer takes her two year old daughter and becomes a homesteader in Wyoming, 1867.

Her courage, pluck, and humor come across vividly through these letters, as does lhe pioneer atmosphere and countryside she settles in. Beautifully written by someone who is very much self-taught. N.C. Wyeth illustrations too! #432$7.95

MODERN DISPLAY ALPHABETS' Paul Kennedy. Who says there's one corect way

#TUB MAPMAKBRS.

SCE

NEW TITLES.

Store ISHI IN TWO *onawnc WITH CHILDREN.

Book and Music THE MAN WHO PLANTED HOPE AND GREW IIAPPINESS' Jean Ciomo. A single

WORLDS, Theodora

shepherd, planting trees by hand, changes the ecology ofan entire region, and enriches many people's lives. #460 $2.50

)

Kempe, an extraordinary l5th-century woman who joumeyed all over Europe from England to the Holy Land. Drawing on contemporary chronicles and Kempe's autobiography (said to be the first written in English), these memoirs provide a detailed, colorful picture of everyday medieval life. #474 $8.95

?

t

kid size - 9.5 X 13 - durable, no lines, excellent for use in math, spelling, language, and drawing. #386 $3.00

the whites'

barbarity that drove his people into hiding,

delightful example of a kind of hislory we like: how ordinary people lived their daily lives. The author writes as if telling her memories to children - ideal for reading aloud. #760 $4.50

No frills'

INDMDUAL CHALK BOARD.

gentle, dignified dealings with modem life, and

THIS IS THE WAY IT USED TO BE IN THE EARLY 1900's, Marjorie Lawrence. A

NEV/ TITLES.

1911 the last

Indian to cling to Stone Age ways went lo live at a city museum. His

9, u:

See

Kroeber. In

Califomia

MEMOIRS OF A MEDIEVAL WOMAN, Louise Collis. The life and times of Margery

Page T

make fascina-

ting history not taught in school. #390 $9.95

By Carl Larsson. Soft, warm paintings by this famous Swedish artist of his happy family and country home. Two texts on each page, one simple, one detailed, tell about his color plates per book. Hardcover.

A FAMILY #272$10.95 A HOME #342 $13.95

life.

15

MAKING THINGS: A Handbook of Creative Discovery, Ann Wiseman. BACK IN PRINT! Over 100 craft projects for children.

Many can be done with materials that are around the house. Plenty ofdrawings and wellwritten directions. #456 $9.95

*NTOOBI.TNG BEESWAX. See NEW

TITLES.

By Walt Disney. Made for French children, these are cassette-plus-color storybook versions of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Cinderella," and "Three Little Pigs," entfuely in French . Useful page-tuming signal. Listen and leam!

excellent introduction to understanding any pictographic language and will aid any parent when confronted with questions like, "Why do they write like that?" or "Where do words come from?" #616 $5.95

CRAY-PAS OIL PASTELS. You and Your

CENDRILLON #198 $7.99

children will love the brilliance and versatility of these pastel crayons. Much more colorful and satisfying than ordinary crayons. Box of 25 colors: #234 $3.95 JUMBO SIZE CRAYPAS for little hands! 12 colors: #231 $2.50.

Bremen, Three Bears. The amusing cartoons make so clear what is going on, and there is so much repetition, that you can figure out most words; ifneede4 there's a glossary.

CAPERUCITA ROJA. #I90 $2.95

DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN, Betty Edwards. WhY most people find it hard to draw accurately and how you can quickly learn a better approach. We've tried some of the suggestions, and they work!

#246 $10.95

EL FLAUTISTA DE JAMELIN. #256 $2.95 LOS CUATRO CANTANTES DE

GUADALAJARA. #446 $2.95

LOS TRES OSOS. #448 $2.95 THE JOY OF SIGNING, Lottie Riekehof.

This is an illustrated guide for mastering sign language and the manual alphabet. From is opening sections about the history of signing to its fantastic, logically arranged and easy to use reference section (each sign is illusnated, its origin and uses explained, and its meanings clearly noted) this book is terrific! Hardcover. #410 S15.95

#TUN LEARNABLES.

SEE

NEW TITLES.

RBAD JAPANESE TODAY, l,en Walsh.

Cleverly introduces the Japanese written characters while explaining their origins. An

caps, a

wallet-like holder. These handsome sets

will invite much use. Set of 24: #540 $13.95

Simo, Wells & Wells. A guide to unlock your creative potential through sculpting with sand. Many photos of unique sand structures. Works just as well with snow.

Written by a sculptor, photographer and

SANDTIQUITY'

#162 $7 .99

By Hannah Hutchinson. Very simple versions of well-known folk tales, told in Spanish: Red Riding Hoo4 Pied Piper, Five Musicians of

call these the best media for the unskilled; points that stay flum, vivid colors, snug-fitting

PENTDL WATER COLORS. Colorful, nontoxic pains in 12 colors. #542$2.95

BLANCHE NEIGE ET LES SEPT NAINS

LES TROIS PETITS COCHONS #428 $7.99

PBNTBL FINE POINT FBLT PENS. Artists

Snrolrtrv, IT's A RENoIR,

Aline wolf.

mu5surn quality reproduc140 art postcari5 for sorting & tions of famous works matching games. Info about each on the back.

-

-

Teacher manual included: ignore or follow as you please. A parent published this kit after seeing her kids leam much about art while having fun with her own collection of cards.

#1r72$54;15

architect. #684 S4.95

STA-TITE PRINTING KIT. Contains

a

rubber type alphabet, tweezers, handle, and ink-pad. Creat way to leam spelling and design. Built for adult office use, but children can readily adapt it for their own "professional" purposes. #714 $23.00

2269Mass.Ave. Cambrid

MA 02140

ohn Holt's Book and Music Store

NEWTITLES

NEWTITLES

COUNTRY AND BLUES HARMONICA FOR THE MUSICALLY HOPELESS. John Gindick. An amazing how-to book complete with one Hohner harmonica and an instructional cassette. The clear, often humorous, instruction book will have you wailing the blues in no time. Read the frst few chapters, stail the tape, and blow! #l I l2 $12.95

AMERICAN HEROES: In and Out of School, Nat Hentoff. Young people who stood up for First Amendment rights in all sorts of ways. Inspiring: real heroes children can look up to. Hardcover. #1100 $14.95

AMOS AND BORIS,William Steig. A whale helps a mouse, who later returns the favor.

Beautiful story of friendship. #1102 $3.95 CARING FOR YOUR OWN DEAD, Lisa Carlson. Like the natural childbirth movement, this book helps you take control of one of life's critical events. Personal accounts of people taking charge of the final act of love for a friend or relative who has died. How to do the paperwork; explanations of cremation and embalming; comprehersive legal and medical

ETHICAL INVESTING: How to Make Profitable Investments Without Sacrifi cing Your Principles,

Amy Domini & Peter Kinder. The future depends on our making conscious and responsible choices in every area of life: how we live, work, shop, throw things away - and what we do with our money. Here's how to find investments that meet

your standards, along with a

complete guide ro the stock market (a fascinating topic for many young people). #11 18 $10.95

FUN WITH ELECTRONICS. J. McPherson.

A colorful book of experiments and activities.

Requires soldering & building circuit boardsgood for young teens. Make a real radio, burglar alarm, and amplifier. #l126 $3.95

GOOD WORKS: A Guide to Careers in Social Change, Joan Anzalone, ed. How to find work in social action fields: consumer protection, ecology, civil righs, etc. A dozen interviews with people on how they came to their present jobs, and detailed info on 600 agencies, including volunteer oppornrnities. Indexed by purpose and location. Great for young (and not

Iistings state-by-state. #1 108 $12.95

CLUTTER'S LAST STAND, Don Aslett.

The biggest cause of a messy house is TOO MUCH STUFF. From this book you'll get the strength to get rid of all the junk you don't need and to organize the rest. A lifesaver. #1110 $8.95

,ltlhll.ren

WWWW6WWW WW&WWW%

IMMI.INIZATIONS: THE REALITY BEHIND THE MYTH, Walene James. The most complete, up-to-date, and well-documented book about the controversies surrounding mandatory vaccinations. Especially helpful in showing how the germ theory ofinfectious diseases is NOT a well-proven fact, and what other altematives we have for understanding and maintaining health. #l136 $12.95

IN TIIEIR OWN WAY, Thomas Armstrong.

How to respond to children's different needs and leaming styles, rather than classifying them as leaming disabled. Important arguments against standardized testing. #1 138 $8.95

THE KNOW HOW BOOK OF BATTER. IBS AND MAGNETS, Heather Amery.

Another colorful book of simple experiments and activities, including directions on making a toy robot. Exciting for pre-teens. #1142 $5.95

THE LEARNING MYSTIQUE,

GeTaId

Coles. In this "critical look at leamins

RHYMES, Father Gander. New verses added to Mother Goose to balance the sexes; other poems are smoothly reworded to remove cruelty. "Father Gander reopened the world of nursery rhymes for our family," one parent wrote us. Full page color illustrations.

1vk.

Muffet

d fiend

Little Ms. Muffet sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey.

pages. #1132 $7.95

Alons carne a spider and

DRAWING WITH CHILDREN, Mona

of your experience for presentation to an accrediting institution. Includes lists of schools and testing services that will issue college credit. Many samples. #ll16 $8.95

that has sent three homeschooled sons to Harvard. Goes far beyond the media coverage they've received. #1 134 $8.95

Hardcover. #1 120 $12.95

how one homeschooling family navigated the college admissions process, with helpful suggestions for others. Approximately 100

EARN COLLEGE CREDIT FOR WHAT YOU KNOW, Susan Simko. All the how-to information you need for preparing a portfolio

HOMESCHOOLING FOR EXCEL. LENCE, David & Micki Colfax. The family

FATHER GANDER'S NURSERY

/artdur

COLLEGE ADMISSIONS: A Guide for Homeschoolcrs, Judy Gelner. The story of

Brookes. The author has such success with her students (age 4+), viewers refuse to believe the results are by children. Here she explains her system of seeing basic shapes (circles, lines) everywhere, and gives exercises. Much practical advice on teaching art. #l I I 4 $ 10.95

agriculture, wilderness, and technology. #1130 $9.95

sat down

besidE her-

And. she put it in the garden to catch msects. so young) people thinking about what to do

with their lives. #1128 $16.50

HOME ECONOMICS, Wendell Berry.

Modem professionals "will go anywhere and jeopardize anything for the sake of their careers." Thoughtful and beautifully written essays on the importance of family and community in preserving a healthy economy.

Valuable ideas tie tosether sustainable

disabilities," the author challenges the idea that such problems have a neurological basis, and proposes that we look instead at interactions between children and adults, and children and schools. A must for anyone thinking about the LD label. Hardcover. #1152 522.95

LEGAL RESEARCH, Stephen Elias. A clear, ttrorough outline on all branches of the law and how to look up what you need - whether to

FT

2269 Mass.

Ave. Cambridge MA 02140

john Holt's Book and Music Store

Paee 9

NHWTTTHES defend your right !o educate your children your way, or for any other reason. Readable, a touch of humor, generously illustrated. Takes away mystery and gives you power. Good for teens on up. #1154 $14.95

LOVE, MEDICINE AND MIRACLES. Bemie Siegel. What a surgeon leamed about healing from patients who refused to die when the doctors said they would. Essential for anyone close to illness, and important for everyone else, too. #1158 $8.95

THE MAPMAKERS, John Wilford. A surprisingly readable and engrossing book about the people who develop and practice the art of mapmaking, from ancient to modem times. You'll leam how much individuals, as well as changing technology, influenced the explorations and conquests we think of as "the history of Westem civilization." #1160 $10.95

A MATHEMATICAL MYSTERY TOUR, Mark Wahl. The author shares his love of math through a series of unusual ideas, projecs, and puzzles. Helps us see that math is not merely

arithmetic but a way of looking at the world. #1162 $19.95

MESSING AROI.IND WITH BAKING

CHEMISTRY, Bemie Zubrowski. Leam about the chemical properties ofbaking powder, baking soda and yeast by making real cakes and other activities. Easy, step by step instruction; lots of illustrations. Much room for flexibility and creativity. #l164 $6.95

MESSING AROUND WITH DRINKING STRAW CONSTRUCTION, B. Zubrowski.

How are houses, skyscrapers, and long bridges

built so they won't collapse? This activiry book shows how to make models capable of bearing considerable weight, primarily with drinking straws. #1166 $6.95

MODELING BEESWAX. You warm the wax in your hands to make it pliable, then shape it into animals, people, flowers, whatever you can think of. Then the wax becomes frm until warmed and modeled again. Very clean and relaxing to use; handy for trips or quiet play. Won't cmmble or lose the vibrant color.

Made of the finest natural and non-toxic ingredients. Set of 6 colors #1168 $5.80. Set of 12 colors #1170 $10.00

NONTOXIC AND NATLJRAL: How to Avoid Dangerous Everyday Products and Buy or Make Safe Ones, Debra Dadd. Wanr to avoid formaldehyde, plastics, and many other artificial substances that endanger our health and environment? A directory of hundreds of brands and mail order sources, and a discussion of almost everything in your

t:

THE LEARNABLES. (Picturedrighr) In rhis foreign language insftuction system, you merely listen to the words and phrases while looking at pictures, long before you attempt to speak. Mimics the way we all leamed our lust language! Used successfully by many homeschoolers. French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Spanish. Tapes come in a special binder. Exta books, tapes and advanced levels are available; info sent with order, or on request. Book I & 5 tapes, M2. Order#1144 French,

#l 146 Spanish, or #l 148 Orher

language (specify). home, from "Afghans, Afu," to'Yam, Yogurt."

Can't find this info anywhere else. #1176 $9.95

THE PHILHARMONIC GETS DRESSED, Karla Kuskin. Funny and appealling combination of story and pictures about what it takes for an orchestra to be ready to perform. A perfect read-aloud or beginning reader book. #1178 $3.95

THE PIANO HANDBOOK, Gregory Pond. A piano technician shows you how to evaluate if a piano is worth purchasing, even if you can't play one. With a flashlight, measuring tape, and this book in hand, you can avoid disappointment. Also learn how to main[ain and sell vour piano. #1180 $6.00

RISING FROM THE PLAINS, John McPhee.

2 stories intertwined: (1) ttre childhood and

family of a homeschooled Wyoming boy who became an eminent geologist, and (2) the dramatic geology of the region, where mountains rose and fell with incredible speed. You may not grasp every technical detail but the impact is tremendous. By a brilliant writer of

\1j1\,;ii

l|A8tts

,,',.,,

: ' one family's homeschooling experiences, with much helpful advice for others. Many of the book's stories first appeared in GWS, and there's lots of new material. too. #1194 $7.95

THROUGH GRANDPA'S EYES, Deborah Ray. A young boy learns how his blind grandfather experiences the world in this wonderful celebration of the other four senses.

Lovely for young children. #1195 $4.25

TROUBLED CHILDREN: A Fresh Look at School Phobia, Paricia Knox. A parent researcher challenges common interpretations of school phobia, and offers altemative solutions. British perspective. #1 196 $6.00

WRITE FROM THE START. Donald Graves & Virginia Stuart. How children can become fluent rvriters by leaming from each other and from adult models. Many examples of ilvented spelling and of how children's writing develops over time. Also about how people in school leamed to change the way they thought about writing. #1202 5450

ULTRASCOPE. Open a new world of discovery and exploration without spending hundreds of dollars. A unique design makes

non-fiction. #1184 $7.95

SCHOOL IS HELL, Mau Groening. Funny but biting sarirical cartoons about life in school. For adults or older teenagers ready to laugh at their

difficult school experiences.

#1 186 $5.95

SCHOOL'S OUT, Jean Bendell.. An English homeschooling mother writes about her family's experiences and the role of homeschooling and schools in general. the perfect balance between first-hand experience and advice. #1188 $8.95

SIBLINGS WITHOUT

RMLRY,

Faber

&

Mazlish. How can you help children solve disputes without making things worse? How can you praise or criticize without fanning jealousy, anger, or tears? Good ideas drawn from parent groups. Also looks at adult siblings. More respectful of children, less forced than their earlier books. #1 190 $7.95

indeJJ.rrbr",

you would binoculars easy for even small children. At 60X and 120X, use the snap-in mirror to provide light. Each kit comes with a sturdy hinged slide for holding specimens, and a mask for slide projectors to cast enlarged images on a wall. #1 198 $12.95

PREPARED MICROSCOPE SLIDES. Box

THE THREE R's AT HOME, Howard & Susan Richman. The rich and detailed storv

this student microscope

lightweigh! and affordable. 3 magnifications give high quality images. Ar 30X, you can remove the mirror and point at light source as

of

of

12, professional quality. Plant and animal parts. Colorful and intriguing. #1182 $12.00

02140

2269Mass. Ave. Cambridge MA

*AUOS AND BORIS.

SEE

NEW TITLES.

ANNO'S COUNTING BOOK, Mitsumasa Anno. Instead ofreading (there's no text), you

fohn Holt's Book and Music

Store

WALK WHEN THEMOON IS FULL,

and death, happiness and grief, in a much

Frances Hamerstrom. A mother takes her two chlidren for a moonlit walk each month, sharing her joy and respect for nature with them. Some of the best pencil drawings we've

larger sense. #458 $7.00

ever seen. #820 $6.95

talk about the beautiful illustrations and count the objects. Each time you look, you will see more and more that you hadn't noticed before.

Wasn't sure he was really a bear, that is. A lively philosophical story. #146 $2.50

*lvrnRrcaN

BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL, Robert

OF SCHOOL. See NEW TITLES

while

rrERoES: IN AND or-rr

*TTTO ANIMAL FAMILY. RandaII Jarrell.

peacefully picking berries. Unforgettable pictures and phrases in this read-aloud classic.

For young children. #166 $3.95

BACK IN PRINT! A hunler, a mermaid, a bear, a lynx, and a small boy make up a loving, believable and memorable familv.

IN CHRISTINA'S TOOLBOX, Dianne Homan. A young girl uses tools to fix and build

TIIE ANNOTATED ALICE, Martin

things around the house. Nice model of female competence. #374 $4.00

DANIEL'S DUCK, Clyde Bulla. A young farm boy caryes a duck to display at the county fair, and in the process leams how to appreciate his work and people's response to it. For young children. #236 $3.50

#narHpn

cANDER's NURsERY

RHYMES. See NEW TITLES.

MANY MOONS,

James Thurber.

A king's

daughter falls ill and says she will only get well if she can have the moon. Perfect fen up to 8, though older children can enjoy it for is Thruberish wit and irony. #464 $4.95

#rHB PHILHARMoNIc cETs DRESSED. See NEW TITLES.

READ IT YOURSDLF BOOKS, tadybird Publishing. For years, parents and leachers have recommended these little English picture books for beginning readers, and we see why.

The folktales are well-told with a limited vocabulary. Full color watercolor illustrations.

Sold in sets only.

LEVEL 1. 3 books. About 6 or less words per page, much repetition. Old MacDonald, Mulberry Bush, House Tlw Jack Built. #610 $8.85 LEVEL 2. 8 books. Up to a dozen words per page. Billy Goats Grufr, Hansel & Gretel,6 more. #612 $23.60

LEVEL 3. 8 books. About

2 dozen words per

page. Rapunzel, Puss in Boots, 6 more.

#614 $23.60

*urnoucn

NEWTITLES.

cRANDPcs EYES.

see

HOOD, Howard Pyle. The best account of the famous legends, from Robin Hood turning outlaw to his gallant death in Little John's arms. Pyle's own illustrations. #476 $5.95

ROBIN HOOD. Jamie Smith. A child's selfpublished fantasy of what would happen if Robin Hood were living in 1987. An exciting tale, and a helpful model for other young writers. #486 $3.00

THE BEAR THAT WASN'T. Frank Tashlin.

McCloskey. Mother and toddler, and mother

THE MERRY ADVENTURES OF ROBIN

THE MODERN ADVENTURES OF

#128 $4.95

bear and cub, bump into each other

Pase 10

#1104 $5.95

Gardner, ed. The

full text ofA/rce's Adventures

in Wonderland andThrough thz Looking G/ass with all the original Tenniel illustrations. Includes full annotation running concurrently with the text for easy reference. lram the meanings of all the jokes, games, puzzles, tricks, parodies, obscure references, and curiosities lrwis Canoll reveled in. #130 $8.95

ROLLER SKATES, Ruth Sawyer. An adventurous child roams 1890's Manhattan while her parents are abroad, and makes many friends, young and old. Won 1936 Newbery award, now back in print. #674 $3.95 SNOW TREASURE, Marie McSwigan.

Based on a story circulated during WW II, this book will captivate and excite young children and teenagers. In the winter of 1940, a group of Norwegian children help their country by smuggling millions of dollars of gold past Nazi guards by hiding it in their sleds. #702$2.50

STICKEEN, John Muir. True story of the lifq-and-death adventure of a man (Muir himself) and a small dog caught in ablizzard on the top of a great glacier.726 $3.95

CADDIE WOODLAWN, Carol Brink. True

*uNnrnsrooD BETSY, Dorothy Fisher.

BACK IN PRINT! Charming story of a shy

advennres of a bold" red-haired pioneer girl in 1864 Wisconsin - some funny, some dangerous, some touching. #182 $3.95

nine-year-old growing brave and happy on a Vermont farm, where the adults treat her seriously and value her help. #1200 $4.95

THE COMPLETE FATHER BROWN, G.K. Chesterton. All the Father Brown stories, the famous English detective/priest, under one cover. Exciting, amusing, and instructive mysreries for children and adults. #214 s9.95

GREENLEAF. Constance Bernhardt. The story of a child's growing up from the ages of 4-13, as the child might have told it. Unique and lovely. An amazing recreation of a young person. #318 $5.00

TI{E INCREDIBLE JOURNEY,

By Arthur Ransome. Captivating series about the self-created adventures, some in sailboats, some on shore, of a resourceful and imaginative group of English children who enjoy being together. These have inspired several young readers to create their own adventures.

Sheila

Bumford. A cat, a young l-abrador retriever, and an old bull terrier travel hundreds of miles to rejoin human friends. The dangerous nip is not only exciting but completely believable, and by the end there won't be a dry eye in the

SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS #744 $4.95 SWALLOWD ALE+74254.95 WINTER HOLIDAY #8 42 54.95 WE DIDN'T MEAN TO GO TO SEA

house. #378 $2.95

PIGEON POST #558 $4.95

THE LITTLE BOOKROOM, Eleanor

SECRET WATER #690 $4.95

Farjeon. Original, gentle fafuy tales by a writer who is never condescending. One of John Holt's special favorites. #440 $5.95

PICTS AND THE MARTYRS #554 $4.95

#824 $4.95

GREAT NORTHERN #316 $4.95

THEMAN WHO KEPT CIGARS IN HIS

SPECIAL OFFER!

CAP, Jim Heynen. Beautiful, almost mythic down-on-the-farm tales: about animals being bom, getting siclg and dying, and about life

ORDER 4 OR MORE RANSOMES AND DEDUCT 50e PER BOOK.

2269 Mass.

MA 02140

Ave. Camb

TIIE TINTIN BOOKS by Herg6. We've added four new titles from the popular cartoon

adventures ofTintin, a resourceful boy detective, Great mixture of slapstick and susperlse. More actual,.e ading than many children's books.

BLACKISLAND #762$6.95 THE BLUE LOTUS #76456.95 TTIE BROKEN EAR#766 $6.95

EXPLORERS ON TIIE MOON #7'10$6.95

fohn Holt's Book and Music Store 1893 classic quoted extensively by John

Holt

in HOW CHILDREN LEARN and reprinted through his effors. #158 $8.95

CHILDBIRTH WITH INSIGIIT, Elizabettt Noble. This reassuring book will convince you that women know how to give birth if ftey listen to themselves, not to conflicting theories and well-meant interference. Much info.

#2@ $8.95

TI{E CONTINUUM CONCEPT,

Jean

FLTGHT 7t4 #772$6.9s LAND OF BLACK GOLD #778 $6.95

Liedloff. A very important book on why we should raise our babies the way primitive peoples do, with almost constant human con-

RED RACKHAM'S TREASURE#780 $6.95

tact. #226 $8.95

TTIE RED SEA SHARKS #782 $6.95 SECRET OF THE TJNICORN #784 $6.95

TINTIN AND THE PICAROS TINTIN IN TIBET #794$6.95

STORIES THEY'LL REMEMBER. Frank

#788 $6.95

CONFESSIONS OF A MEDICAL HERE. TIC, Robert Mendelsohn. Why you should be extremely skeptical of doctors, hospitals, and modem medicine, and what to do instead. By an experienced physician. #222 54.95

THE AFRICAN CHILD, Camara Laye. A young African tells the story of his happy childhood in a pre-industrial uibal culture,

showing us a very different world from which we have much to leam. #102 $2.95

THE BOOK OF SMALL, Emily Carr. This well-known Canadian painter shares her vivid memories of her girlhood in British Columbia in the late 1800's. Touching, tue-loJife picture of how a child sees the world. #168 $4.95

THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE, Forrest Carter. True story of a small boy growing up in the Tennessee mountains, with his loving, dignified Cherokee grandparents. #254 $10.95

HOW TO RAISE A HEALTHY CHILD...IN SPITE OF YOUR DOCTOR, R. Mendelsohn, M.D. How to take advantage of necessary available medical care, and mostly how to avoid common practices that can be harmful. #364 $8.95

IMMUNIZATIONS. Reprins of articles about the dangers and controversies surrounding compulsory vaccinations that have appeared in MOTHERING magazine over the last six years. This is a newly revised update

for 1988. #373 $7.00

*InrlrultzATloNS:

#500 $6.95.

THE AMAZING NEWBORN, Marshall and Phyllis Klaus. Dozens ofphotos and fascinating text on what is now known about how much newboms can sense and do. Wonderful not only for couples expecting their first chil4 but for preparing siblings for a new baby. #118 $10.95

THE BIOGRAPHY OF A BABY, Margaret W. Shinn. Loving and meticulous description of an infant making sense of the world. An

#r 192 $5.95

*gnrrxcs wITHour

RIVALRY.

see

NEW TITLES.

WHAT'S A SMART WOMAN LIKE YOU DOING AT HOME? Burton. Dittmer & Loveless. Plenty! Today's mother is neither a "mere housewife" nor forced out the door to work full-time - despite media impressions to the contrary. With facts and personal stories, this book strongly supports those who choose to put mothering first. #836 $7.95

The Reality Behind

the Myth. See NEW TITLES.

*lovE, See

MEDIcINE AND MIRAcLES.

NEW TITLES.

MY CHILDHOOD, Carl

Nielsen. Imported from Denmarh this is a beautiful and occasionally very funny memoir of the great Danish composer. A spirit of happiness breathes from this book as he describes his family, poor and crowded but rich in love and music.

L,ord. Children rarely listen to lectures, but they will listen to first-hand experiences from your own life. This marvelous little book gives you confidence in your ability to tell stories that transmit your values effectively. And the author does it, not by lecturing you, but by telling stories about people telling stories!

THE FAMILY BED, Tine Thevenin. A strong argument in favor of having babies and young children sleep in the same bed as their parents.

Another good book on alternatives to modern child-raising methods. #274 S7 .95

THE HEART HAS ITS OWN REASONS: Mothering Wisdom for the 1980's, Mary Ann Cahill. A supportive, practical book for mothers who choose to stay home with their children. Good advice on how to cut costs at home. #336 $8.95

OF CRADLES AND CAREDRS, Kaye [.owman. How to eam money and srill spend los of time with your children, Explores bringing kids to work; job sharing; staggered hours; parrtime work; and more. Many real examples. #516 $11.95

GRASSROOTS FLJNDRAISING, Joan Flanagan. Over 300 pages of advice on how to raise money for any social cause - even in a poor area. Improve communiry spirit and get

resuls! #314 $11.95 MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING, Viktor Frankl. What 3 grim years in Auschwitz death camp showed the writer (a psychiatrist) about courage, decency, dignity, and hope. #462 56.95

OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY, Stanley Milgram. Frightening evidence, based on wellknown experiments by this Yale professor, of people's willingness to inflict pain under orders. #514 $7.95

WEAPONS AND HOPE Freeman Dyson.

The most original, realistic and helpful book that has been written about the problem of war and nuclear weapons in many years. A must for all concemed with peace. #832 57.95

2269Mass. Ave. CambridgeMA 02140

John Holt's Book and Music Store GUIDE TO HOME ENERGY, Mother Earth News. Valuable articles on bio-gas plants, woodstoves, trees, solar & wind energy, etc.

Maybe it's not a

cAsH FROM SQUARF-FOOT GARDEN-

"hot topic" now,

ING, Mel Bartholomew. Sell yow garden produce to restaurants for top dollar! A clear and thorough guide to a method for eaming money at home - just what unschoolers need. #194 $9.95

#crurrnn's

but those who leam about altematives will have an advantage immediately and in the future. Lots of

LAST srAND. see NEW

info for the price -

TITLES.

an incredible

bargain. #322 $3.9s

FOUR SEASONS GARDENING. BACKIN PRINT. Norm and Shenie Lee. The shortest, simplest, most practical manual about intensive raised-bed gardening we've seen. You can harvest 2 dozen crops in January, even in the

*NoNroxrc AND NATURAL. See NEW TITLES.

norrh. #300 $2.00

people to work toward "appropriate technology." #7@ $5.95

CITIES AND THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, Jane Jacobs. A bol4 refreshing, and wholly unconventional book about how cities generate economic growth and health.

One of the best books about world economics it will stir up many thoughts. #210 $4.95

FOUR ARGUMENTS FOR THE ELIMI. NATION OF TELEVISION, Jerry Mander.

A former advertising executive states persua-

#nrnIc,c,L INVESTING.

THE PLUG-IN DRUG, Marie Winn. A new

starving; why our aid programs make this worse; and what we could do. Hunger is a fashionable issue these days - this takes you beyond the trite slogans. #286 $4.95

GOOD WORK, E.F. Schumacher. His last booh about imaginative, practical, small-scale ways people can work to reduce poverty and suffering in the world. #310 $7.95

*coop

of the classic study about how television disrupts family life and why it's the act of watching and not what you watch and revised edition

FOOD FIRST, Lapp6 & Collins. TheREAL rq$ons why people all over the world are

woRKS: A Guide to careers in

Social Change. See NEW TTTLES.

*novrn EcoNoMIcs.

see NEW

TITLES. SHADOW WORK, Ivan Illich. How the modem industrial world has replaced productive work with a kind that produces nothing, not even money - yet is still compulsory.

WHOLE FOODS FOR TTTE WHOLE

FAMILY,

Roberta Johnson. Simple and timesaving family meals for anyone interested in whole foods cooking. 900recipes contributed by [a Leche League members. #840 $10.95

WORMS EAT MY GARBAGE, Mary Appelhof. Tells how you can use worms to eat your organic garbage and convert it into the most fertile of all growing mediums. An ecologically sensible way to handle garbage, even in rhe city. #846 $6.95

Holt Associates, it shows how teachers and pupils interact in an open environment where the learning is directed by the children, not the teachers. 90 min. Specify VHS #828 or BETA #826 when ordering. $25.00 "Children are good at learning. They don't

sively why the technology of TV will always lead to negative and distorted content, and how viewing may harm your health as well as society as a whole. #298 $7.95

TITLES.

SQUARE-FOOT GARDENING, Mel Bartholomew. By following this very simple metho4 anyone with a small space, even on a roof or patio, can have a productive garden.

And those with big zueas can work less and have more fun! Sensible advice on all aspects of gardening, with useful charts. #710 $l 1.95

need to be made to do it, or shown how. Thcy

ECONOMY OF CITIES, Jane Jacobs. Why cities began, how they work, and why a world without cities would not be desirable or even possible. #250 $5.95 See NEW

Paee 12

that matters. Contains several families' personal reflections. #564 $6.95

IJNPLUGGING THE PLUG.IN DRUG, Marie Winn. A how-to book about organizing a

no-TV week in your home and community.

Breaking the TV habit is easier to do with support from friends and family, and this book draws heavily on real-life examples to show how itcanbe done. #801 $7.95

want lo, and they know how."

-John

Holt

BOOKPLATES. These are free upon request to anyone who purchases TeachYour Own, How Children lzarn, or How Children Fail.

Otherwise order #170 and send 509 per plate.

HEARING PROTECTORS. These do not give absolute silence, but cut down noise (by 20 decibels) well enough to take a nap in a noisy house, work with loud groups of children, etc. Not elegant, airport workers wear them, but they are effective. #334 $17.00

STETHOSCOPE. Children and adults are usually unaware of the activity inside their bodies, but with these quality stethoscopes you can try to identify every gurgle and pulse you hear. Can lead to much leaming. #720 $7.00

WHAT TO DO AF'TER YOU TURN OFF THE TV, Frances Lapp6. Modem ideas for

*UT,TN,ISCOPE.

old-fashioned family fun. Word games, romping, cooking, crafts, music, wdting, imaginative play, and more, collected from families who actually do them. #834 $7.95

SeeNEWTITLES.

SCE

NEW TITLES.

*pnnpanrD MIcRoscoPE

sLrDEs.

AULOS RECORDERS. Sturdy plastic and easy to leam. Comes with is own bag, cleaning rod and

#692$5.95

SMALL IS BEAUTIFLJL, E.F. Schumacher.

WE HAVE TO CALL IT SCHOOL, A Film

fingering chart.

Why small human enterprises are more efficient and humane than big ones. The modem classic that inspired thousands of

by Peggy Hughes. This is an excellent documentary film about the Ny Lilleskole in Denmark. Filmed in 1972 and produced by

SOPRANINO RECORDER #I4O $8.00 SOPRANO RECORDER #142 $9.00

2269 Mass.

Ave. Cambridge MA 02140

(Continued ftom previous page.)

ALTO RECORDER #138 $I3.OO PIANICA. A combination of a piano and harmonica. You blow in the mouthpiece while playing as many notes as you want. Invites experimenting by all ages, even the very young. Families who take it everywhere find it indestructible. 34-key instrument with case. #552 $63.00

PITCH PIPE. Our chromatic Pitch Pipe conlains all the notes from "C" to "C," which makes it especially good for singing. Or use it to tune your violin, guitar, or other instruments. #562 $tz.OO

BEGINNER VIOLINS. These instruments, made in China, sound as good as much more expensive instruments. Excellent for beginners, they come with a fiberglass bow strung with horsehair, fine tuners, chin-rest, rosin and sturdy case.

#808

414

&#810 314,#8121/2 sizes $160

#814114,#816 1/8,#817 1/16 sizes, $150

All violin prices include careful set-up, adjustment and examination by our luthier before shipping.

fohn Holt's Book and Music Store ADVANCED VIOLIN. We now offer a better violin for the advanced player. These instruments are finely crafted of select tonewoods and classically styled after the Italian masters.

Responsive and sensitive to play, each is equipped with top grade fittings and sharp adjusted by our luthier. They are finished with a golden brown !o reddish brown vamish. Also included in the price are: A Glasser bow with horsehair. These are round sticks, very durable and warp-proof with grip and good mountings, and top-grade horsehair.

Hill-style oblong case. Built of sturdy veneer and covered with a black or brown vinyl exterior. Interior is French fitted with plush material. Holders for two bows and a covered accessory compartment. Fully adjustable shoulder strap for carrying and security.

Complete se! shipped to your home ready to play: #809 $580

OFTHEAMERI.

CAN PEOPLE, Denis Agay. Nearly 200 famous ballads, spirituals, folk and show tunes, with piano accompaniment and guitar chords.

A wonderful collection. #154 $14.95 CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF

MUSIC, Michael

Kennedy. Thousands of interesting facts about music in one very readable volume. An indispensible reference for musicians and those interested in the history of a certain instrument, composer, or work. #220 $13.95

#couNrny AND BLUES HARMoN. ICA FOR THE MUSICALLY HOPELESS. See

NEW TITLES.

FOR CHILDREN, Bela Bartok. A collection

will banish anxiety over

making music. Simple techniques for playing popular songs. Enormously encouraging - for

Our violin for advanced players.

beginners too. #362 $16.95

MIKROKOSMOS, Bela Bartok. Exercises for beginners that explore the fundamentals of

MRS. STEWART'S PIANO LESSONS: 25

for Beginners. The most sensible, logical and easy inuoduction to piano playing we've seen. Can be usefully combined with Suzuki instruction. LESSONS Book 1: #494 $12.00; READER Book 2: #496 $12.00

Beautiful pictures on every page. Hardcover. #696 Sr7.95

STEWART PRE-SCHOOL PIANO. Mrs. Stewart piano for the pre-school child - with clear and practical advice for teachers.

STUDENT BOOK: #722 $5.00 TEACHER'S BOOK: #724 $5.W

Iessons

*TTTB PIANO HANDBOOK.

TITLES.

See

SUZUKI MUSIC BOOKS. The firstbooks in the world famous Suzuki teaching method.

SUZUKI PIANO. Book 1 #734 $6.50 SUZUKI PIANO, Book 2 #736 $6.50

SUZUKMOLIN, Book I # 738 SUZUKMOLIN, Book 2 #739

NEW See

PORTRAITS, by John lampkin. Witty and instructive piano pieces for beginners that quickly become more advanced. Each piece conveys a sound portrait, such as a Toreador, so the pianist learns to convey emotion and atfitude in one's playing, as well as leaming the techniques needed to do so. Set of all 3: #568 $9.00.

Vol 1 #569 $3.50; Vol2 #570 $3.50;

Vol3 #571 $3.95 READ BY EAR - An All-In-One Recorder

pianists by one of ttre great 20th century pianists and composers. Fascinating music.

Book, Richard Perry. An excellent beginner's instruction book for all recorders. Uses a

1, #292$4.75. Book 2, #294$4.75.5et of Books 1 & 2,# 290 $8.95. Sct of all books and rccords (see RECORDS): #299 930.00

Suzuki approach to music. #608 $4.95

THE SINGING BEE,

HOW TO PLAY PIANO DBSPITE YEARS

finger plays, circle games, nursery rhymes, you name it. Easy piano and guitar arrangements.

OF LESSONS. Cannel and Marx. Common

lauren Farenga playing our 1/16 size violin.

V)

sense and jokes that

of pieces, quickly progressing from the simple to the more difficult, witten for beginning

Book

(,

USE SECTION 1 ON ORDER FORM FOR ALL VIOLIN ORDERS.

piano playing. Each piece has a title that clearly defines the point ofeach exercise.

Helpful preface and appendix. Book 1, #478 $4.75; Book 2 #480 $4|15

BEST LOVED SONGS

Page 13

the best-known

Jane Hart, ed. 1a5

S6.50

$6.50

AUDIO CASSETTES for special pricing on book and tape sets.

FOR CHILDREN, Bela Bartok. The songs are performed by the famous Hungarian pianist Zoltan Kocsis, an expert on Bartok's music, in the same order in which they appear in the music books. 2 record SEI, #288 $22.00 NOW AVAILABLE IN

CoMPACT D[SC! #1122 $22.M of

chil&en's songs: lullabies,

TAPIOLA CHILDREN'S CHOIR. Almost unbelievably beautiful singing by one of the greatest choruses (child or adult) in the world.

CHRISTMAS MUSIC #750 $I2.98

2269 Mass.

Ave. Cambridge MA 02140

John Holt's Book and Music Store

Page 14

leam and how we can best help them. 60 min. cassette,

THE INCREDIBLE LLMINOUS UNIVERSAL MUSICAL FAMILY SINGS ROUNDS. The homeschooling Lester family has made a new tape, this huge collection of a cappella rounds. Their pristine voices and quality recording will please your ears, and the familiar tunes will appeal to the young and young at heart. The lyrics are printed on the tape liner so you can join in or create your own family-sing-alongs. #805 $6.50

THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN. We recently

#3!X $6.00

JOHN HOLT'S 1983 INTERVIEW. Covers

T-shirts are only available in Blue 507o colton,

much ground, including: how JH came to his ideas about children and learning; why the free school movement wasn't more successfull how

5070 synthetic fabric. Specify on ordet form which design you want (#1 is on the boy on the

right; # 2 is boy on left) and what size from below. CHILDREN'S SIZES: 6-8. 10-12.1416 ADULT SIZES: 34-36, 38-40, 42-44, 46.

Non-taxable. #747 $8.50

can schools cooperate with homeschoolers; etc.

60 min. cassette, #398 $6.00

JOHNHOLT'S INTERVIEW IN ENG. LAND. John Holt discusses a wide variety of subjects relating to children, leaming, schools and their problems, education and its true social purposes, youth violence, and homes-

discovered this commercial recording made in 1972. John Holt and Robert Farson talk about what rights we ought to make available to children, what this would mean, and why so many people are resistant !o these ideas. 60 min. cassette. #668 $11.95

chooling. Vol.

SUZUKI TAPES. This is the music that is in

$6.00 per cassette. 60 min. each.

1

#400, Vol. 2 #402, Vol. 3

#404, $6 per cassette. 60 min. each.

JOHN HOLT'S WRITERS WORKSHOP. John Holt talks with a group at the 1982 Homesteader's Get-Together about writing and how to do it better. Vol. 1 #406. Vol. 2 #408,

Suzuki music books we sell, played by professionals. These tapes will encourage you play more by ear than from the book - the chief goal of early Suzuki instruction. Piano Tape; Vol. 1 & 2 on one tape, #133 $12.95. Violin

Tape, Yol. l#741 $12.95. Violin Tape Vol.2' #743 $12.95

SUZUKI SPECIAL: Order both Piano books and tape, #735. for 523.45- SAVE $2.50 Order both Violin books and tapes, #737. for $35.00 - SAVE $3.90

PICTURE PUZZLES. This collection of colorful brainbenders is chock full of optical EVERYBODY WINS, Jeffrey Sobel. Children can play together while competing with themselves instead of each other - this book gives 393 games that show you how. A great source of activities for young children (ages 3 10, but can easily be changed so any age can

SPACES FOR CHILDREN, Peter Bergson.

How to build indoor play areas with multiple levels, trapdoors, ladders & more - in very little space. You don't have to be a pro: kids will love'em. #706 56.00

partake and have fun), sfessing playing with rather than against each other. #266 $8.95

SPECIALOFFER

Buy

any three tapes below for $5.00 each.

HOME SCHOOLING AT THE HOMESTEADER'S GET.TOGETHER. John Holt recorded these delightfully informal and wide-ranging discussions at the home schooling workshops of the 1982 Homesteader's News Good Life Get-Together. You will feel you are there. Vol. | #346,Yo1.2 #348, Vol. 3 #350, $6 per cassette. 60 min. ea.

ISHMAEL WALLACE CONCERT. An astounding example of a homeschooled child flourishing when allowed to follow his own interests. l5-year-old Ishmael displays his virtuosity as he plays works by Copland, Franck Ravel. He is joined by his younger sister Vita on violin for a work by Husa. The finale is Ishmael's composition, Sonata for

Cello and Piano. Two 90 minute cassettes, excellent recordings, #392 $12.00

JOHN HOLT AND CELLO AT HOME. John invites you to join him for an evening's practice, during which he plays the cello and tall:s about it and the music he is playing' 60 min. cassette, #394 $6.00

JOHN HOLT ON HOW CHILDREN LEARN (Formerly titled 'Tohn Holt Talks ro Swedish Teachers). A speech in Gothenburg, plus answers to questions about how children

illusions, mazes, mixed-up and hidden object games, and many other activities for young children. Great for kids travelling or anytime! #556 53.95

QUADROS. We offer these outstanding consftuction sets cheaper than any retail outlet.

Don't be fooled by cheaper knock-offs - Qua&o is the world's first and best large scale expandable climbing system in kit form - safcty tested and approved worldwide. Quadro is an exciting holiday present and two gifts in one! Each kit comes complete with indoor wheels and a Mini Design kit exactly like the full scale kit, so you can experiment with small models and then build them life-size!

Your home can shelter a playground, clubhouse, gym, push-car, whatever you can imagine. All ses are compatable with each other, so you can combine them to cteate ever-increasing projects. The three basic and

kis, Universal, Junior,

and Starter, are in color

build many different and challenging structues.

The new add-on Safety Slide has 5" high safety rails.

It is 5'6" long and attaches to your Quadro structure.

Great for toddlers and up. Each Quadro comes backed by a full one year waranty on all parts. Send a business size SASE for a FREE color brochure describing all the Ouadro ses and accessories we

seu.

@

UMVERSAL SET, 141 components, 10 panels IUMOR SET, l18 components, 4 Panels STARTER SET, 88 components, 4 panels 3-D MINI KIT, 660 components, sturdy storage box MOBIL KIT, 2 wheels, hubcaps, steering PANEL KlT,4 panels SLIDE, 5'6" long UNIMOBIL, mini mobil set w/169 pieces

#604 $349 #596 5270 #602 $1 89 #603 $145 #606 $68 #s98 $30

#600 $1 15 #601 $39

2269 Mass.

Ave. Cambridge MA 02140

John Holt's Book and Music Store

Page 15

Bill items to (if

Ship items to:

different from ship to):

Address

Address

State-

Zip-

State-

City

Zip-

Phone

lt

is_OK_NOT

OK to rent my rutme and address to organizations similar to Holt Associates/Growing Without Schooli

SECTION

SECTION

Use

this

ONLY

You can retum any item (except wind instruments) to us in new condition for exchanee. replacerhent or refund within two weeks of your receipt-of it. Postase costs are not refundable.

for Growing Without

Schooling!, Quadro Sets, and Violins.

Section I

Use for all other items.

o insure Christmas delivery please order by Dec. 5.

Packing & Delivery for Section 2 (See chart): 5olo Sales Tax (MA residents only; no tax on GWS or T-shirts): Apply Credit(-) Oebit(+) Memos (please enclose orginal copy).

For Customer Service or to order by phone call 617-864-3I00, M-F, 10-4 E.S.T. MC and Visa Onlv

PACKING

&

Section 2 subtotal:

DELIVERY

TOTAL:

We ship UPS whenever possible. We only ship via U.S. Mail to Canada and P.O. boxes.

If

Section 2 subtotal is

Charge

Uo to $6.00

$1.00

Method of Payment

$6.01 !o $12.00

s2.00

(in US Dollars only)

$12.01-$29.99

$4.00

$30.00-$59.99

$6.00

s60.00-$89.99

$9.00

$90.00-$149.99

$11.00

ovER $150.00

$15.00

OYERSEAS Bv Surface Mail

tr Check or money order payable to Holt Associates tr Visa tr MasterCard tttttttttl Cardnumber

I

tl

|

| |

|

For Office Use Only

Exp. date

Send 25Vo of Section 2 for shipping via surface mail.

Air is available. Please call for rates.

OVERSEAS I GWS prices include delivery via

UPS 2nd Day

AIRMAIL

I surfacemail. $15/l yr. airmait.

Prices subject to change without notice. if necessary.

Use additional sheets of paper

=

ka

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING

FI

ft

is a bi-monthly magazine for people who have taken----or want to and have them learn at home.

In it we discuss such questions as:

take-their children out of school

How can I take my children out of school legally?

How can I best help them learn at home?

How will this affect their social lives? Their future? can I fit my children into my working life?

-.Ho* How can young people find meaningful work?

How can I learn what interests me without going to school?

-

Parents tell how they took their children out

How to find out the laws in your state; reports uouble when

of important legal decisions; how to minimize

dealing with bureaucrats, lawyers, and judges.

LEARNING RESOURCES

-

,,11.\;'ar

.r.i{taltrs

o

ESCAPE FROM

CHILDHOOD John Holt's book about children's righs and why we should be careful not to treat them as cule love objects, slaves, or pets. See page 2 for more descriotion.

MOMMY IT'S A RENOIR! The most fun you can have with masterpieces of art without going to a museum. See p. 7 for more de-

scription.

Ideas on math, reading, music,

art, languages, etc; sharing work with children; recommendations for books and innovative materials.

DIRECTORY

Hundreds of readers who ask to be listed; most include children. Also, lists of friendly school districts and other allies" Use the order form on the other side of this page to enter your

subscription. Group rates available, call or write for information. See order form for overseas airmail delivery. There is NO tax, Packing or Delivery charges for subscriptions.

Single issue of GWS. #1000, $3.50.

1 year subscription to GWS. #1001, $20.00

PHOTO CREDITS

P.l Ed Braverman; P.6 Ian Woofenden; Pp.3,14,16 Day Farenga; Pp.\, 2, 3, 13, l6 John Suiter.

Catalog by Patrick Farenga.

Thanks to Donna, Susannah, Our new home at 2269 Mass Ave. Cambridge, MA 02140

Day, Sue B., and all the Holt Assoc. who heloed!

. ,,.,.

,*s

more description.

How people leam and how other people help or ARTICLES hinder them; the myth of "leaming disabilities"; and much more.

LEGAL INFO

description.

The Suzuki Method for languages - no textbook grammar or written exercises for the early years, but you'll be speaking the language in no time! See pp. 8-9 for

school, and what they did next: others write about leaming outside of school settings.

publish excerpts from his letters and newly-found manuscripts.

.

I

The unique design makes it versatile and sturdy for the young scientist. 30X-60X-120X magnifications. An inexpensive, portable unit for indoor and outdoor use. See pp. 8-9 for morc

THE LEARNABLES

of

The best way to find out what JOHN HOLT'S WRITING John Holt was thinking during recent years. We continue to

A fine starters microscope for under $15.00!

Tiit

What will you find in GWS?

LETTERS

THE ULTRASCOPE

#o> P1.o-xA e#U rnxiu Y:'D x'n?

3Jvâ&#x201A;ŹUs g2-

PAlJ

<3*

>=,;

aCl l'J ?

E> o5

29

FOCUS: COMPUTERS AND THE LEARNING SOCIETY: A TALK WITH SEYMOUR PAPERT lSS:/ Seymour Papert's Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (available here, #2182, $A.gS + post.J is, fn tle qutlwr's words, "abut an end. to ttte

culture that makes science and. teclvalqg alien to the vast mqjority oJ peopb." ft looks at how ue might use computers [f tte thirk oJ leorning as acttue rather than passiue, integrated. rather than Jragmented, and. at what th* might meanJor

our

soctety.

Pat Farenga and I met witlt &gmour Papert at his home in Boston to explore some oJ these issues and to bring hem beJore GWS readers. Aaron Falbel. a sfudent oJ Papert and, Jrequent contributor to GWS, was also presenL

One note: LOGO, the prqram that Papert and his colleagues developed i.s mentioned onlg briefg here. LOGO is o. concrete example oJ tle ideas put Jorth in

the discussrbn thntJolbws, and readers tolw qre interested in tle details oJ hotu this program unrks canfnd. them in the book Mindstorms.

Susannah Sheffer:

I'm curious

about the distinction you make between using computers to maintain the status quo and using them to change it - particularly with regard to math.

Seymour Papert: Why ask the qucstion with regard to math? Why not with regard to school? The essence of what's wrong with school is this thing

called instruction, and everything that goes with that: having people follow a curriculum, having them learn fragmented knowledge that's been meted out in small pieces. Clearly, this is something that doesn't work very well, and there's no reason to believe that it's a good way.

SS: Why not?

SP: Because it's an unnatural wav of lcaming. It carries with it the idea thit knowledge rb fragmentary, and that you learn by being taught. This is true irrespective ofthe social structure of school even in a school without classes or agedistinctions, for example, if your concept is that knowledge has to be dlspensed, you have a fundamentally wrong concept, and ofcourse it's a concept that is essential to contemporary school.

SS: Have we carried that same assumption over to our use of computers?

SP: Computers clearly can be used, and I suppose most of the computers in school are being used, to further that assumption. All the uses of computers as aids to instmction do this.

SS: What would be an example of that

- programs that involve filling in the

blank?

SP: Filling in the blank, dispensing information, any situation in which the computer decides what you need to do next, GROWING WITHOI]T SCHOOLING #65

and when you've made a mistake.

SS: Why have we used computers this

way? l-ack of imagination?

SP: Yes, I think the concept of school demands that we use them that way.

SSi: Which do we have to change first, then, our use ofcomputers or our concept of school? If I understand vour work correctly, you say that changing the way we use computers might be one way to change

our concept ofschool. But can we change the way we use computers if we still think about teaching and learning in the old ways?

SP: Insofar as computers are used in school to support the same concept of

instruction as dispensing information,

The concept of deschooling society ls much deeper than get-

ting rid of school buildtngsi it's really about deschooling the mind. they support the status quo, yes. And I

think if your readers install computers in

their homes and run these same programs, they may be saving their children from some ofthe disadvantages ofschool but they're still instituting in their homes the essential epistemological content of schools, the same way of thinking about learning.

SS: Yes, just as Aaron said in GWS #63 that there are ways of thinking about math that are just as limiting whether you're at home or at school.

SP: I don't think the issue is whether you do it in your living room or in the classroom, if the assumptions are the same.

SS: I'm wondering though, if because those assumptions about teaching and

learning are so lirmly ingrained in school, it's harder to make chanqe there.

What are the challenges you face-if you walk into a school and say, "Guess what, there's a whole different way of using computcrs, it's founded on different assumptions." How do people hear that?

SP: Slowlyl I don't know by what route school is going to change or disappear, but it's going to take a long time because these assumptions aren't only in school, they're in the whole society. I think the concept of deschooling society is

much deeper than getting rid of school buildings; it's really about deschooling the mind.

SS: Which is why I wonder whcther it works to say, 'Here's a different way of using computers, a way that will empower children, let them be active," etc. Wouldn't the response be, "Why do we want that?'

SP: So ultimately it becomes a question of social philosophy. In the end it's going to be a political decision. I think movements such as yours are important as models, and I expect we necd many difGrent kinds of models, for moving towards pluralism. I think computers do have a lot to do with this. I think they plant seeds of different approaches to

learning things, to doing things you didn't think you could do before, and I don't

think this is limited to school. Writers using a word processor may ffnd they can handle things they thought they couldn't, and businesses, offices, may be taking on more complex jobs. So these are seeds of cnange.

Aaron Falbel: So it's almost as if

these tools have to resonate with certain

social philosophies and movements before they can really make any change. I remember in 1986 you wrote a short paper called, 'The Computer as Trojan Horse."

You hoped that the computer would sort of infiltrate the existing social system and make people start asking quesUons. Do you think this happens? I mean, there are two routes we can go with computers. We can become even more dceply entrenched in the status quo, do the same things we've been doing all along, only more powerfully, or there can be some sort of friction and we can say, maybe what we've been doing all a-long isn't that great, maybe lhere are new possibilities.

SP: My sense is that in this decade, or this quarter-century, there's been a lot of movement toward a more pluralistic approach to knowledge - its use, its acquisition, whether with children or growrrups. There's more talk about this stuff, more people who are actively engaged in thinking about it. I think computers are an element in that. They've given people a sense of a possible bridge into forbidden areas of knowledge, areas outside some-

one's normal expertise.

But I think it's meaningless to ask what the computer can do, by itself. It's part ofa whole process, part ofwhat we decide to do with it.

SS: You trlk about comDuters in terms of empowcrrnent, in terms of how they can help people feel that they can do things they ncvcr thought they could do.

It's funny, because I think there are a lot of people in 1988 who still fccl rendered so powerless by the computcr, or maybc it's powerless in the face of the computer. I think a lot of people still see the computcr as part of a whole trend in society that makes them feel more alienated. not less.

30

fuain, which comes first - maybe the

reason some people are so afraid to touch a computer is that their schooling made them feel so lncompetent, so afraid of anythlng new. How can the computer be used to empower people who are afraid even of getting near it?

SP: I think that breaking that barrier can be an empowering event, and ifs very seldom reversible. People who lind they can use computers for their own purposes feel empowered and stay that way. People who feel disempowered by the computer I think generally are people who in any case feel alienated from knowledge, who feel locked into a small, restricted area.

SS: I don't know.

I thtnk some people

part ofthe technological era, a whole way of looking at things that renders people less inportant. They feel something like, 'I used to be in control, and now the machine is in control.see computers as

AF: But that attributes causality to the machine, says that it is in itself dehumanizing. What does that mean?

What does that mean to sav that a technol-

ory is in itself dehumanizingf

SP: Certainly in some areas of work, computers can be used for a sort of professional degredation, in some kinds of work

that previously required individual initiative. In selling insurance, for example,

there was a time when the insurance sales-

rnan trying to sell you a policy had to

think quickly about what sort of needs you might have, and now that it's highly computerized you can enter a series of characteristics into the machine and it spews sometJeing out, which is essentially degrading. There is that side, and certainly computers can allow that degredation to happen. But they can also allow the opposite to happen. What's changed with computers is that more things can happen, there's more chance for improvement in all sorts of directions.

ought to be acting to bring about the change they'd like to see happen. You can see speclllc programming, for example, as opening doors or as lockingyou out of doors you couldn't get into anyway.

SS: For some of us, thinking of educational software. all we can think of is

the very basic kind of fill-in-the-blank stuff that we know is bad. What alternatives are there?

SP: Well, I think LOGO in its various manifestations is meant to provide kids with a constmctive use of the computer. Of course if people make their kids use LOGO and then ask themselves. 'What is this doing for their understanding of multiplication tables?" or anything else that nanrow, they would undo whatever good

Locodid.

SP: I see the computer as breaking

down assumptions about the way things have to be. It doesn't break them down in any particularly good or bad direction. It's up to us to decide what to do. With respect to school, the idea that there's a fixed set of knowledge that people should have is becoming lncreaslngly absurd, for example.

SSi: How do

you account for books

like Cultural l)teracg, which argue that there rls a fixed set of knowledge that people should have?

SP: It shows that people are very upset and concerned about these issues.

SS: How can we tip the balance - you keep saying that computers can be good or bad. What are the ways to use it that can make it an active and empowering thing?

SP: The computer is neutral, but I don't think ure ought to be neutral. People

whereby the presence of computers, even if you don't touch them, makes mathe-

matical, scientilic, technological kinds of things seâ&#x201A;Źm more friendly, more personal to children. You can get a better idea of what it's like to do mathematics.

SS: lt also helps to learn that all sorts of things besides multiplication tables count as mathematics.

PF: You wrote that computers can help fade the line betwern teachers and learners, but meanwhile there seems to be a big movement to increase that barrier, and to make teachers more profes-

sional.

SSi: Is LOGO something anyone can get access to?

SP: Well, computers are still relatively expensive - although not as expensive as television sets or cars.

SS: I mean the software - I think some people have the feeling that you can't

get all the really fancy stuff if you're not part of the schools.

SP: No, you can get it.

SS: One interesting difference between schools and homeschoolers with respect to all this is that many homeschoolers already hold the views about children and learning that you're saying computers can help us see.

Pat Farenga: And in

Mind.storms

you emphasize that the children have extended access to LOCO, it isn't just fortyIive minutes of 'computer" and then on to "math.'Homeschoolers have that kind of time to play around for long periods.

SP: Yes, in some sense the existing structure is threatened by what I'm saying about computers. But for the people

who do believe in a more empowered life for children, the more they see what forces are at work the more they may intervene and try to make change. I think it's unlikely that schools will uniformly change into something better, but I think some schools might - some schools are.

SS: Where does your hope lie - in the belief that we are increasing the number of people who are making schools better, or that we're moving toward deschool-

ing?

SP: I think we mustn't think in terms of schools but in terms of school-

ing, of that attitude toward knowledge.

SS: What would societ5r look like once the majority of people's attitude toward knowledge had changed?

SP:

you picture kids in 1988 never touching a computer and still growing up without being mathophobic - the word you use in Mirrdstorms? Or is a computer essential to avoiding mathophobia?

SSi: Can

SS: Is it necessarily better to be able to do more things? What if we're doing things, and they're bad?

who are now doing mathematical kinds of things with computers, who would not have done anything mathematical otherwise. That's clear$ happening.

There's also a kind of ripple effect,

SP: I do think that kids who grow up with access to computer technology, and

who are able to use it in constructive ways, will pretty obviously be less mathophobic.

We see many examples of people who were mathophobic and who got out of it through interactlng with computers - it's a new, personal access to mathematics for them.

SS: I guess my question is, are there other routes out of mathophobia besides the computer? I'm thinking again o[ Aaron's writing in GWS #63, in which he talks about so many entryways into math.

SP: Well, don't ask the question, how to get out of mathophobia, ask how do we avoid getting into it. I think we get into it because of the alienated nature of mathematics in our culture, and the permeation of computers into the culture does create a

set of conditions in which that alienation rnight not exist. I think we're mo\ting in that direction - there are millions of kids

I don't know. For a long time in places called

we've put children

schools, and they've spent a lot of time

with people their own age. I don't see any reason to suppose that thafs a good thing

it is a good idea for children to spend mzrny years in a communitlr that meets together, does things together - or maybe not. I don't know whether we'll keep tl.e distinction between children and adults. Why should there be a phase in which you're defined as preparing for life, and then at 18 you to do. But perhaps

start living?

WeVe got very strong preJudices against what we call child labor, which have historical roots in the nineteenthcentury exploitation in the sweatshops.

But this needn't be the case. I think we're still living in the shadow of that nineteenth-century exploitation, so it's hard to see whether the idea of protecting children by keeping them out of the workplace has any meaning anymore.

Maybe if we broke that down we'd go back to the exploitation, or maybe if we broke it down we could find a much more harmonious way of making less of a distinction between work and play, childhood and adulthood, learning and teaching.

CROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #65

THE MEANING OF COMMUNITY REAL.WORLD COMMUNITY Jonathan Rou:e ('Comtnunity Spaces," CWS #62, Writers Go To Sclrool Amorg Tlemseh;es," GWS #63) urites: I read in the paper recently that they're moving the old post oflice a couple of towns over from where I lived as a bov.

It used to be on the tiny, tree-tined main street, with the drug store and the grocery.

Now they're putting it into a shopping center out by the highway.

The story got me thinking about how our own post ollice served as a hub for the daily life of the community. The town was really just a hamlet, with the post office and library at one end, general store and garage at the other, and a scattering of houses around and between. There wasn't much going on. In winter in particular, the days could be flat and bleak.

The mail broke the monotony. It was something to look forward to, something to do. It came in twice a day, and was distributed by 8:45 AM and 3 PM, more or less. Folks would be there first thing in the

morning, sipping coffee in the front seats ofpick-ups, or reading the paper, or

lamenting the Red Sox or the way the tourists were becoming totally disrespectful.

Why, did you hear how those college kids tore up the old Peters place?

The postmaster was second only to the telephone operator in his acquaintance with the affairs of the populace, which meant there was alwavs some new development to discuss. Often, after picking up the mall, folks would stop by the general store for a paper and a quart of milk, completing the circuit and becoming thoroughly informed of the news of the day. A lot of it was gossip. But then too, word got around pretty quickly when someone was sick or in the hospital, or needed help in some other way.

Getting the mail provided a social ritual that was especially important to the older folks. It gave them business to attend to, a real reason to be up and about. It made them functioning parts of the world along with everyone else.

Young people like me got to be part of this daily business as well. Picking up tl.e household mail, or buying a postal money order to get a basketball hoop from the Sears and Roebuck catalogue, we could overhear the gossip and banter, pick up bits of inlormaUon about fertilizers. the rental business, or the town zoning board, pieces of the puzzle that was the adult

world.

For years they've been talking about closing this and other rural post offices.

Thankfully, that hasn't happened yet. But what they're doing two towns over worries me nevertheless. I wonder whether the old folks and kids will be able to get to the shopping center as easily as they can get to main street. And I wonder what will happen to their sense of communit5r if they can't.

The culprit here is the peculiar men-

tal disorder we call 'economic thinking."

The economic mentalit5r sees only what it can count - in this case. the cost ofdelivering X number of letters to Y number of GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #65

locations. Everything else is frivolous, an 'externality," to be worried about by somebody else.

But if they do close these post omces,

loneliness and isolation will increase.

The glue that holds such localities together, already brittle, will erode that much more. Sensing the fragmentation, from this and other causes. the towns or the state will likely determine a need for a "Senior Citizens Center' or some such thing, to replace what post olfices and local groceries and the like have provided as a normal part of life. And then people will scratch their heads and wonder why taxes are so high and why people don't seem to fend for themselves the wav thev used to.

understand why my mother likes this world of wasted time. this world where time is ldlled... I think she'd call this world of wasted and killed time 'the community,'and I think she would call the world of tirne saving and leisure time "the system." ...We have removed pleasure from our work in order to remove drudgery from our lives. Addicted to the pursuit of pleasure because we're saving time through systems - but at least, we say, the system way glves us choice. I work in a system - a university: a system in pursuit ofexcellence dedicated to maximzing choice... But my mother knows better than that. In her cornmunity, she, her friends and neighbors, know things in many ways. They know through experience, they know through stories - which are often the way

Something very similar happens to a communit5r when a factory closes or small farms shut down. These serve social functions as well as purely economic ones. In fact, they are the matrix of what we call 'communit5r." This doesn't mean we should subsidize icebox factories or keep post offices open when there are only two people left in town. It means only that our reckoning ofcost and gain has to include more than it does now.

This is a countqr that has more things than it needs (in most cases), and lacks

you use words to tell about experience.

They know through dreams, they know through prayers, they know because of what their mother told them. But the system called a university rejects all those ways of knowing. You can't put a footnote that says, "My mother told me so." And yct the great knowing of communit5r has always come from experience, prayers, dreams, stories and tradition - all reiected

increasingly the institutions that give texture and cohesion to life. So it hardly seerns radical to suggest that we give more weight to the social loss before deciding to

ways.

close a farm or a factory - or a post office clowTl.

THE SYSTEM VS. COMMU. NITY From a tr::lk that John McKnight, oJ tle Communttg UJe Project at Northttsestent Universitg, gove in Holgoke, Massa-

chusetts this June: ...My mother went on to tell me that today, people learn in schools. Securitlr is a police problem. Family troubles are social work problems. Justice is a lawyer's problem. Health is a doctor's problem.

Play is a recreation director's problem.

Infancy belongs to child care workers.

Food comes from McDonald's. Money comes from banks and comorations.

Homes come from Century i l.

She says, 'l don't like this world, because in it there is nothing to do." She lives in a world that is now a terrible vacuum, because all its meaning, and purpose, and work, has been taken away...

She says, "lt's no wonder so many people get divorced. Families have nothing to do." Groups don't exist for magical purposes. They exist because they have a place, and a function, and work to do. And so it may be that those workless groups

called families naturally dissolve.

In my mother's world, people who sit, rock, chat, play checkers, knit, and listen for the orioles in the lilac bush, are living life. But in the hollow world they say of those people that they are killing time,

wasting time. People who are younger and have the advantage of time-saving devices, appliances, communication systems and transportation, must find it hard to

by this place that's mnxtnizing

cLatce.

It's the one place tlat only allows one way of knowing. The community allows all And this system called the university pursues excellence to maximize our choices. That means we set up the highest possible barriers against people getting there. Ifyou walked up to the president of my universit5r and said, "How many students did you admit this year who have been labeled by human ser'r'ice professionals as retarded?' He would tell you, "Nonet We have an intricate system to see that that would never happen. We're pursuing excellencel" Choice, excellence, individualism. are the system's justifications for eliminating diversit5r and creating jobs - that is, work without pleasure... Because diversi$r takes time, is slow, unsystematic, common and incorporative, it is like democrary. Democracy is about diversity, not choice. It's slow, messy, conflicted - but totalitarianism is fast...

[PF]: The Comrnunity Life Project is examining how labels such as mentally retarded, developmentally disabled, physically disabled, mentally ill, elderly, keep people out of community life and in systems organized to provide senrices for their needs. The project has published a report called The Gift oJ HospXalitg: Openvtg the Dcr.rs oJ Comrnunitg llfe to People With Disabihlrlas (for a copy, send $4 to the Publications Dept, Center for Urban A{Iajrs and Poliry Research, Northwestern University, 2O4O Sheridan Rd, Evanston IL 60208).

The report says that "social services were designed with the best of intentons: to protect and serve people who might otherwise be ignored or victimized," and

that it is an 'indisputable right" of people to have resources that enable them'not only to survive but to live a full, vigorous life. The problem is clearly not that

Child's Garden Community It is during childhood, we believe, that nearly all qf us in this civilization substantially lose ourselves. And so, at Child's Garden, it will be the nu494ng and honoring and protecting of our children and the healing of the children inside us which will be our most sacred and central tasks ... We will begin with ourselves: nurturing and healing our own families, creating together a model for our world of how children might be - of how we allmight be - in a deeply loving world ... Later, hopefully we'[have a healing center for other families as well ...

Child's Garden is a community soon to be bom. Many practical considerations, including location, will be resolved soon, together. For more information: Gary, Carole & Ian Sugarman 22285. El Camino Real, #14, San Mateo, CA 94403, (4151341'2852 services exist to support a liG llke Judith's [a quadriplegicl. The problem arises when the senrices take over the life they're supposed to be supporting."

It isn't hard to apply this concept to our school systems. Many homeschoolers would probably be more comfortable making arrangements with school systems if they believed the school's services were to support, rather than take over, their children's time, and their time with their children. I see schools as the place ln our culture in whlch we become accustomed to the idea that organized senrice systems are preferable to what McKnight's report calls, 'the free space of human

relationships called community.'

Perhaps

if

homeschoolers recognize that their cornmunity encompasses not only people teaching their children at home but also other groups that feel disenfranchised by our social service systems, we can create awider base of support for keeping our children ln our communitles.

INCLUDING CHILDREN Dale Vostilsanos CT) wriles:

Susannah Shelfer's remarks in response to Beedy Parker ["Thtnkfng about Community,'CWS #641 hit upon what I feel is a cridcal nerve. Living in suburban Connecticut, having the luxury of staying at home, I find myself more and more appalled at the ways ln which virtually the entlre population has made concessions in the quality of their lives, in exchange for monetar5r gain. In this neighborhood, almost every household is double income, most children experience either daycare or hours alone at home, and it generally seems that anything that can be bought has been bought. The only

thing these kids don't have, because no

monetary value ls attached, is time with their parents. Perhaps the most darnaging of all ts the example the parents set - of grownups unhappy wtth thelrJobs yet seeing no alternatives, too tlred to make use of leisure time creatively.

Peggr Webb ["Worktng Through Dilliculties," GWS #641 refers to an auto accident with the palnful statement, 'the accident was my fault.'The number of things to whlch we must now pay constant attention in driving has created a situ-

ation where the smallest dlstraction. for

the most minute fraction of an irestant, câ&#x201A;Źul cause terrible destruction, and often death. Yet we accept the private car system, the lack of public transport, the inaccesstbili$r of almost everything except by car, as inevitable.

The stress factor in our lives and our

children's lives threatens to dwarf all else, and I feel that homeschooling is one of the most lmmediately effective ways of combatdng it. We can pace ourselves. We don't screarn at one another in the morning.

There's no mad dash, no forgotten lunch, no staying up till all hours to do homework that's only busy work. We can travel during off-tralfic hours, visit places on school days. Our stress is related more to the experimental nature of homeschooling - we can't guarantee the outcome for our children, and although neither can the publlc school system, whatever happens will be our JaulL This will be our family's second full year of homeschooling. We were fortunate in spending much of Sasha's early years in Greece. We found, as others have mentioned, that in southem Europe, the children more readily play with others of dilferent ages, and are included in most, if not all, activities that adults take part in.

The idea of visiung adult friends without the ktds was met with horror when I mentioned it, and most quite frankly couldn't see how one could go without them, or more pardcularly why one would wish to.

Not only do children of all ages accompany thetr parents to restaurants, they aren't expected to sit quietly. They get up as they please, and Join the other kids in the aisles to play, or, ln good weather, go out in the paved area ln front ofthe restaurant. Some places even put in playgrounds, and kids are trusted to watch out for one another, come in for a mouthful whenever they feel hungry, and socialize as they see fit.

BUILDING TOGETHER the discussrlon r.r,as about sqfe and. tnteresting places Jor childrenConstance Bemhard.t (MA) urites:

ISS, One aspect

oJ

abut communiQ rn GWS #64

In the small town of Pepperell where I live, the cornrnunity found one way to come together and bring together people's talents when in June we built a Big BackYard, a colossal playground for children

and gathering place for adults.

A few people in Pepperell had heard of Robert leathers's idea of a playground designed by children and funded and built by the communit5r. I-eathers built the first

such playground in lthaca, New York. In January of 1987 we in Pepperell met with him for the first time. In the ffrst phase, kathers meets with the children of t]le community to work out a design. In our communlty the children wanted a tyrannosaurLrs rex slide, an amphitheatre, and handicapped access to most ofthe playground, in the form of an air tube telephone system and many wooden walkways throughout the playground. kathers and his people then check the initial design for safety, make any necessary modillcations, and draw up a materials list. The second phase is Organizatlon Day. This happened in Pepperell a year after our flrst meeting. We agreed on the final design and organized committees for fundraising, tools, volunteers, food, and childcare. The Big BackYard would cost $48,OOO to build. The committee necded to ralse this sum before the build, scheduled forJune

l-5,

1988.

Although local businesspeople were slow to donate at first, the comrnittee persisted and the momentum ptcked ,rp.

fhe

community started to come together.

Through events ald donations, $52,OOO was raised. We have placed the leftover funds in a maintenance account. With routine maintenance a Big BackYard is built to last twenty-five years before

major reconstruction is needed.

We had almost perfect weather the week of the build. Over lSOO peopleworked during the five days. Skilled workers sawed and hammered, and the less-skilled shoveled gravel and sanded all the wood areas of the playground. Children between the ages of lO and 13 worked beside their parents. Children between 14 and 17 worked alone with parental permission.

The Army Corps of Engineers stayed for the entire build, erecting the huge support poles and sharpening people's tools. The Lions Club donated the use of their tent, grills, tools and refrigerator. The elementary school cafeteria and kitchen were open to prâ&#x201A;Źpare free meals for all workers.

The school glm and several classrooms

opend as childcare areas.

The energy level was so high; everyone was working hard. As it turned out, our Big BackYard was finished one whole work shift ahead of schedule. Early on Sunday evening balloons were released and a swarm of children engulfed the Big BackYard for the first time.

Marry Perry, who made the ffrst call from Pepperell to Leathers, said she knew very Gw people in Pepperell when she made that call. Now she knows practically everyone. She is now Chairperson of Pepperell's Parks and Recreation Commission, and is committed to public recreation prograrns 4nd places for people to come together. Her next project is to de-velop a community recreation program in which families can participate together. She will be happy to talk to anyone about building a Big BackYard. Her phone num-ber is W8-433-9421. If you want to contact leathers directly, his address ls Robert S. kathers, Architect, P.C., 9Og Wyckoff Rd, Ithaca NY 1485O; phone: 607-277-1650. were

GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #65

33

them simply, without judgment. But what

READING GUIDES

keeps adults who cannot or do not read

from asking the kind of question the man

[SS:l One recent morning I was

stopped by a man whose trrck identified him as being from the gas company. He was, I imagine, making the neighborhood rounds, checking meters.

'Excuse me,' he said, 'How do vou

spell'do,' like in 'l do'?"

"D-O," I answered, and he thanked me and drove on.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this simple exchange. Mostly, I'm

struck by all the things that drdn't happen. There was no apparent shame or embarrassment in the man's voice, no sense that he felt foolish for having to ask the question or guilty because it was something he otrght to know. And my answer, I'm glad to say, was just as briefas it should have been. I didn't ask why he wanted to know or why he didn't already know or if he'd tried to find out the answer

any other way.

This reminds me of John Holt's 'reading guides,' an idea he described in Freedom and. Beyord, and again in Instead oJ Education- --The guides,' he wrote, would wear some kind of

identi$ing armband, hat,

button, etc. so that people

wanting information could easily spot them. The understanding would be that when a guide was wearing his sign anyone who wanted could ask him either one of two kinds of questions. He could show him a written word and ask, "What does this say?" and the guide would tell him. Or he could sav to the guide, "How do you writi such and such aword,'and the Auide would

write it for him. Nothiig else; that's all the guide would have to do.

John went on to say that such a program would cost very little to start, that schools, churches, parent or student groups could do it, that the main money spent would probably have to be toward getting the word out, getting people to volunteer to be guides and letting everyone know what the guides were for. He also suggested that we could have a telephone switchboard for the same purpose, as we now have telephone switchboards or hotlines for so many things. We wouldn't need to test the guides; it would be OK for a guide to say, "I don't know that word, you'll have to ask another guide.'

I've always loved the idea of reading guides. I love the ease of it - no f;ancy literacy program - and the flexibility. Guides would only have to wear their identification when they felt like being available in thatway. What stands between us and the successful implementation of such a prograrn, it seâ&#x201A;Źms to me, is not so much the

organizational details and initiative as

it

is the shame and, at the other end, condescension that was not present in my exchange with the meter reader but is present in so many such interactions. To have a successful reading guide program, we'd have to feel comfortable asking such qucstions of each other, and answering GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #65

from the gas company asked me is precisely the intemalized sense that such questions are shameful, and the expectation of an answer that encourages that shame.

On the other hand, maybe starting a readlng guide program would be a way of announcing a change in attitude. Maybe by establishing such a program we would be saying, "This kind of information is

avajlable all over the place, and you don't have to pay for it with shame or embarrassment or boredom.' Mavbe if we meant that message, and were resiurceful in thinking up ways to cornmunicate it, we'd be on our way to having the kind of sociegr Freedom and. Beyond. imagines. Maybe my exchange with the man from tJle gas company is an indication that we're closer to that soclet5r than I thought we were. I don't know, but I'd like to keep thinking about lf

CHILDREN IN THE WORKPLACE AT MEETINGS Jane DwineL N7) turites: Our daughter Dana, lg months, has gone with us just about ever5rwhere and has, except for a few brief times, always been with at least one parent. We have several means of making our income and Dana has participated in most of them. I have worked as a teen parent home visitor and Dana was more than welcome at all visits, inserrrices and trainings and was a very important teacher as well (or shall I say visual aid?).

I was a staff RN in a nursing home for a while, and she visited me often (actually, visited the residents mostly) and on a couple of occasions used the facility's onsite day care. I would pick her up at 5 PM when the day care closed (l worked 3- l l) and keep her with me until 6 PM while the residents ate supper. She was always a welcome addition in the dining room.

My husband and I also work as guardians ad litem - a communitSr volunteer service ln Vermont assisting Juveniles through the court process. When Dana was a small infant she accompanied us directly into court, but since she has gotten bigger, more mobile and louder we do not bring her as the proceedings eue usually taped. But she still goes with us to all our meetings and trainings; she and the judge have a special relationship. It is a

wonderful court that is particularlv attentive to children's needs (bana ls quite familiar with the court's playroom). She also accompanies us on our visits to lawyers, SRS (the state child protection agency), and once even to the Correctional

Centerl She drops into my current office often for short periods of time when her father has something he needs to do without her.

I work part-time as one of two paid stalT at our local advocacy center for domestic violence and sexual assault. We have a play area and there are often other children there as well. She's a regular feature at board meetings and often attends the meetings of a board that my husband is

on, too.

I have also assisted at some homebirths that Dana also attended, and she has been a big hit at the childbirth preparation classes I teach, She and mv husband attend the classes on'Parenting and the Father's Role' so they can speak for

themselves.

We also have a small business making fresh salsa. Dana comes with us to the natural food store kitchen we use after

hours, and she comes on all our deliveries.

(One of her first words was 'salsa.") She Ioves plaldng with the pots and pans,

handing me onions, carrying containers and empty boxes and generally watching and participating as much as she can.

We also homestead and she is actively involved in animal care, gardening, food preparation, carpentry projects, wood stacking, etc. She wants to be around and help with all that we do.

She has never been a problem at anv meeting. I think it is because she's used [o it. We bring toys and books for her and are able to be with her as necessary and still pay attenton to the business at hand. We always ask if she's welcome and have never been turned down. I think people are too shocked and fascinated at the same

time.

As she gets bigger we see our ability to take her eve4lwhere decreasing but we have been able to mesh our schedules so that she is always with one parent or the other. We are aiming for the day when we can do all our work at home or indeocndently so our schedules can include her, and other children we plan to have, and can satisfy our own personal requirements for good work and money to live on. As Dana gets older and is able to participate more directly there will be more options for us as a family.

Some current child care books talk about behavior problems and sleep problems arising from too much acti'rity in children's lives, and say that it is blttcr to keep their lives quieter and at home. I'm sure this is different for every child, but I believe that Dana has thrived in this busv atmosphere. She is very relaxed and easygoing, adaptable to any situation. Besides all the work-related activities she's participated in, we've traveled, gone hiking, and visited relatives, and she's taken it all with a grain of salt. She's never been a

problem on public transportation, waiting in airports, being in the car, going to restaurants - acfually she seems to be fascinated by all that goes on around her.

PHOTOGRAPHY BUS INESS Karen Mende-ftdkis (NJ) urites: The more I read GWS the more confidence I gain in myself and my ability to homeschool Kate (2 l/2).lwas always embarrassed by my lack of a college degree and felt that I was missing something. I attended college but never earned a degree.

My husband, I-arry, skipped the experience altogether. Instead we married at l9

.A

and began our own commercial photography and printing business, run from our home. This year I retired my printer's hat to a new partner. My business responsibilities still include finances, advertising, and typesettireg. Kate is either asleep or with l-arry when I am working.

Kate has access to her father all day.

She often walks downstairs to help Daddy with his paste-up or lithography work.

Yesterday she told him, while situng on his lap at his desk, "Daddy, I like working with you." She then pointed to a photograph of a press in our Hamada manual and asked, "Is this our press?'and later, 'Can I run it?" He said, "Sure." She then opened the door to our press, removd an allen wrench, hvtsted it on the machine, amd announced, "I fixed itl"

IN A BOOKSTORE Flom Sue Radosti {SDj: We have the great luxury of owning our owrr business (a children's bookstore), so the decision to lnclude our daughter

Adrianna in our work was entirely up to us. She started going to the store with us at 8 months, when we were preparing for our initial opening of the business. She's now

l8 months.

The nature of our business made it easy to adapt tJ.e environment to a young child. We installed a playhouse and a fenced play yard in one corner for our young customers, and we also had to consider the same little pmple when planning which books ana toys could be on the lower shelves, so the store was

automatically child-proofed for Adrianna as well. Of course, there has to be some-

thing on those lower shelves, and she demolished a handful of books during the everyttring-goes-in-the-mouth stage, but that expense was minimal compared to the cost of a babysitter, which we didn't want anyway.

For the most part, our customers respond positively to Adrianna's presence. She is happiestwhen there are other children at the store. She chatters happily and tries to show them books. We've only had one unpleasant encounter, when a wornan was quite upset to see Adrianna playrng with one of our stuffed toys out in the entryway. I didn't worry about it too much, since it could Just as easily have

TESTING?!

'Testing materials and scoring

'No minimum shipment order *Two week scoring service

Call /Aotitude\ Free / Interest \

write or for

lmmodiato Delivery

Diagnostic

Personality Achievement

Mental Ability Subiect Specific Bureau of Educallonal Measuromonls Emporia State UniversitY Emporia, Kansas 66801'5087 (316) 343-1200, Ext. 5298

been a customer s child handling it. (And it's not as if the toys at a mall store are kept sterile and untouched by human handsl) The biggest challenge, ofcourse, is trying to accomplish any work with a toddler underfoot. That's a skill that any mother has to develop, so it's not much different for me at the store than at home.

My husband Van Iinds it very diflicult to concentrate, feeling that he has to drop whatever he's doing to respond to Adri-

anna.

We trv not to back ourselves into a corner whlre we have to choose between meeting Adrianna's needs and helping a customer. For example, we avoid leaving her at the store if only one of us can be there. We recently moved to a houseJust four blocks from the store, and tlat has simplilied things, making it easy for one of us to take her home if she's not happy, and making me feel less obligated to stay at work for long periods of time. That extra flexibility has made a big difGrence in my

attitude.

We would be willing to have our employees bring their children to work with them, but they haven't seemed interested. I do wonder sometimes, though, how we would work it out if one of them had a toddler too. Much of our success with Adrianna is due to our ability to come and go at will, and it would be more difficult, I think. to extend that same luxurv to our employees. A major reason for hiring parttime help, even on our tight budget, was to provide some stabilitlr in store operations, allowing us to be more flexible. Basically, we opted to hire babysitters for the store instead of for Adriannal Lots of customers comment on how

lucky Adrianna is to be growing up in a bookstore. (Many add that it will give her a great headstart for school.) Sometimes I'm not so sure. It bothers me a little that she is so thoroughly obsessed with books at her tender age. Books are by far her favorite toy, and she has rapidly gone from simple board books to picture books like Curious George and Cordurcg. She insists on us reading to her frequently, throughout the day and evening, and I really have to work hard to arouse her interest in other toys.

I had a science methods professor in college who always said that he would never make us read about something in a book without having first shown it to us in real life. We traipsed all over town and countqr, looking at the effects of acid rajn on tombstones, examining layers of sediment spreading out from a drainpipe, and noting the gradual erosion of dirt piles at construction sites. What a good princtple, I thought, for dealing with young chlldren: 'Let's go see' instead of "lâ&#x201A;Źt's look it up."

Little did I know about how many new concepts a young child encounters in books - and how rapidly. Adrianna knows the names of so many animals she's never really seen. And yet I'm amazed at how easily she makes the connection between real life and the often-stylized pictures she's seen ln books. On her flrst trip to the zoo this summer, we were no sooner inside the gate than her eyes went wide with delight and she declared, "El-phantl" The monstrous creature she saw certainlv didn't bear much resemblance to Ba6arl

THE TOY WEAPON QUESTION: ONE VIEW GWS readers peridicdlg raise tle question oJ wlether X's harn{ul to allotu child.ren to plag with tog guns. Nou.r Raclrel Gai oJ Ariznna turXes:

I am a motherwhose views on whether to allow a child to play with toy weapons have evolved from 'Over my dead body,' through a long phase when I allowed hlm to spend his allowance on them (within the limits of safety, and without any subsidy), to my present position which is that toy weapons aren't essentially any different from any other toys.

My son Uri began asking for toy weapons when he was 2 | /2 and persisted until he was 4 l/2, atwbich point I had to recognize that he was expressing a serious necd. There was no way to convince him that there are other, better toys. Ofcourse, during that period he built endless guns

from 'Duplos" and other construction

sets, avidly collected sticks which were used for the same purpose, and preferred toy weapons over anything else when we visited a blessed child who was allowed to own such items. In the face of such Dersistence I had to question my dogma. I'found

it increasingly difficult to treat his inter-

est as a passing whim or a trivial one.

A sticker reads, 'lfyou believe in peace, why let your kids play at war?'This assumes that there is a causal relationship between kids playing at war, and adults making/participating in real wars.

Presumably, playrng war games makes kids like and accept real wars later on. A deeper assumption (and a more disturbing one) is that children are naturally bad, and it's up to us to control their destructlve tendencies so they don't take over.

There is also the implication that coercion and indoctrination are OK, as long as thry're practiced on our own children, and

towards the "right" goal.

I grew up in Israel. Most kids of my generation had barely any toys, and I don't recall knowing any kid who had a toy gun. Still, we grew up, went into the army, participated in wars. My husband, on the other hand, grew up in NewJersey, played with weapons, and grew up to oppose the Viet Nam war. So playing with toy weapons isn't a necessarlr or sullicient condition for warlike behavior later on.

During most of recorded history the use of toys has been mlnimal, yet we know how prwalent war has always been. In The Continuum Concept Jean Liedloff describes a communitv in which male children get to have rdal *..po.r" lr.ry ear$, yet the societ5r comes across as very contented and peaceful.

From watching my son (and other children) for some years now, I haven't been able to detect any correlation between having/not having toy weapons and the amount of real aggression a child resorts to. I am convinced that my child hasn't become more violent since he has been allowed to have toy weapons. On the

contrary, he has shown a growing ability to get along wlth children of various ages

and temperaments.

GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #65

One mother told me that she objects to kids' playing with toy weapons because it encourages seeing the world in terms of us against them. I don't think this view is based on direct observation of how kids play with such toys. Anybody who actualiy pays attention will notice that there is no one way in which kids use toy weapons. They might use them to fight one another, or all players might choose to be on the same team, Iighting someone or something imaginary. Or they might use them to save somebody, or whack their toys, or to go hunting, or to hunt the hunters (of course, they do all of that without

store-bought toys, too). So they practice being each other's enernies, comrades, protectors and protected, and so on. The children are the script writers and actors, and they use the toy weapon as a prop to deal with a wide range of emotions and imagined situations. Many times tJee garnes are cooperative, not competitive.

Of course some kids, especially very young ones, have some dilliculty separat-

ing the real from the imaginary. Other kids have so much aggression that they are not able to refrain from hitting other kids. Parents or other caretakers should provide supervision when necessary. If we think physically hurting others is unacceptable, with toy weapons or anything else, we should have the right to stop it. I do think, however, that a child who repeatedly uses toy weapons to attack other children "for real' has a problem which has nothing to do with the prop. A plastic object is not a source sfaggression.

It only allows an expresslon of what's already there.

The view that by allowing toy weapons we condone the use ofweapons and violence in real life sounds to me very like

the view that giving information about birth control methods to young people encourages sexual promiscuity. It suddenly assumes that our language is so

crude that it doesn't allow us to differentiate between giving access to a toy (or information) while keeping our views

apart.

For some of us it might be dillicult to say that we allow toy weapons and mean it. If we say it in such a way as to lndicate that the child has a choice between the tov and our love and approval, we don't really allow the toy.

If the household a child is part of is one in which the adults are concerned about issues ofwar and peace, ifthey discuss these issues and try to lead peace-

ful lives (working hard on resolving conflicts with other people in peaceful ways, showing empathy towards people in dif-

ferent circumstances and of different cultures, working in some way to bring about a better world), tJle children are very likely to become compassionate and loving adults too.

We need to allow kids to be themselves even when we find ourselves being uncomfortable, or even embarrassed. It took me a while to overcome my embarrassment at the park or other public places witl.. a child who carts around toy submachine guns and whatnot. I had to remind myself that it's not a child's role to bestow glory on her/his parents. The good news is that by now I am not bothered by it (practice helps).

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #65

WORKING IN SCHOOLS DECIDING TO LEAVE Chris Dickson oJ Ontario rlrites: I've been a speech and language

therapist in school systems for fourteen years. Six years ago my husband and I listened to a CBC Radio 'ldeas" program and heard John Holt speak about homeschooling. It was a new and exciting concept to us. We hadn't yet decided to

parents wanted. I've been relieved of my duties as a volunteer at tlte Special Olympics after refusing to force a child to compete. I have come to a classroom to pick up a "dilliculf child for therapy to hear the teacher say in front of the class, 'Keep hlm all day, will you?" I've been critictzed for sending parents copies of their children's progress reports ["It just causes trouble'). Because I have one-onone time with the children, IVe been asked by special education teachers to help in-

have children, but we found Teach Your Ourn in the local library and some months

doctrinate mentally handicapped chil-

of GWS, I gradually began to feel uncomfortable with what I did for a ltu'ing. I

ear.

later decided that if we had children we'd give them the option of homeschooling.

I-a.ter, reading through the back issues looked at my relationship with the children on my caseload. I looked at the subtle, and the more obvious, ways in which I supported an institution which I did not believe was good for children.

Much of this analysis was prompted by my husband, who gently prodded me to do the soul-searching which was to lead to our long and difficult search for a half-time job for me outside the school system (l support our family with half-time work.

My husband is a househusband by choice).

While we were searching we had two children, and I became increasingly uncomfortable with my job. I thought often about the letter I would write to GWS when we finally cut loose from schools. This is that

letter.

As John Holt has written, a "helping professional" must walk a fine line if he or she is to be helpful at all. I've found that it takes lots of thinking and planning just to ensure that I am not being lurtJul. and then more thinking and planning to start actually being helpful. And I didn't have the latitude to be very helpful at all.

First I must be careful to be a guide and not a teacher, to open doors for these children but not to push them through.

Because their self-concepts are often low as a result of their communication handicap, I sometimes spend as much time prodding them to look at themselves differently as I do showing them how they can communicate better.

Second, I work only with those who want help, or with those so handicapped or young that they couldn't communicate a request for help. Third, I work only with children who are seriously impaired.

Fourth, I work with their parents whenever the relationship permits. By training the parents, I can alter the real environment in which the child communicates.

Working in a therapy room is working in a vacuum.

As a school system speech and language therapist, I have had many ethical challenges. I have been expected to change a little girl's voice which grated on her teacher's nerves (she raised her pitch when excited). I've been challenged when I decided to dismiss an unmotivated boy, with his overjoyed approval, after wasting two years of therapy on him ("We don't think a ten year old should decide things like that'). I've been encouragd to drag a five year old deaf child kicking and screaming to therapy neither he nor his

dren ("Help her to understand that she must obey the teachers'). And always I have found myself alone in o{fering troubled children a padent and respectful Despite my ellorts, I feel that I have hurt at least as much as I have helped, and that realizadon has been hard for me to accept. I have made radical changes in my therapy program and still lind myself

being morally compromised at every turn.

So we're moving to remote northern Ontario (where the employers are desperate enough to feel that a permanent halftime therapist is better than none at all) to work for the Ministry of Health. Working with adults and preschool children, I will not be free from the tightrope act of the helping professions, but I rvill be free from the schools. I look forward to enough autonomy in my future job to really do some good.

I'm deeply indebted to John Holt and to the GWS staff and readers for pointing me in the right direcdon as a therapist and as a parâ&#x201A;Źnt.

MOST TEACHERS UPHOLD SYSTEM Sue Radostr (SD) writes:

I'm afraid I can't resist responding to Julie Iryd's letter about teachers being slaves of the system ['Don't Knock Teachers,'GWS #631. I think it needs to be said that most teachers are not really slaves of the system but willing upholders of it. They have chosen their profession because they believe in how the educa-

tional system works and they uant to contribute to it. To assurne otherwise is like assurning that all military people strain agalnst tlee constraints and

purposes oftheir system as though they were all conscientious objectors. On the contrary, most of them also believe fervently in the system they have chosen to enlist in.

So there is a vast difference between the thinking of most teachers and most GWS parents, even if Julie herself is sympathetic to the concerns of homeschoolers. It has, in fact, been my erperience that teachers generally tend to be

"almost hostile- toward parents [SS: Julie Loyd had said she was uncomfortable rvith GWS's "almost hostile" attitude toward people who work in schoolsl, fussing when parents show no interest in their children's schooling but labeling them busybodies or overprotective when they wish to be truly involved. I once sat in a college classroom listening to future

36

elementa4/ teachers complain about

"interfering parents,' and when I Iinally blurted out, 'But it's ther chtldl' the professor responded that the child also belongs to the state, and in educational

matters the state has the greater authority. With that kind of clash of roles, there is obviously ferfile ground for mutual

hostility.

BECOMING CERTIFIED Kara BertlulJ [CO) urites: My children, Melissa (4) and Nevin (3), have been great at-home learners.

They love books, puzzles, play, talk, libraries, tools, outside, etc. Their days are filled with learnlng - on their own. Quite a contrast to the 7 and Syear olds IJust Iinished student teachingl I completed the requirements to be a certilied teacher in both Colorado and New Mexico Just last

month. Certilication assures minimal

interference in our homeschooling endeavors in Colorado. (Colorado law has recently become a bit more flexible conceming homeschooling; I wish it had before I went through the teacher ed. program.) Was it worth what we all (family and I) went through to get the certificate?

We'll see. I did learn a lot. My belief in the appropriateness of home-based learning has been reinforced many times. I know educational theories, strategies, methods and laws inslde and out.

I learned quickly that education majors were generally regarded by college faculty and students as 'the bottom of the barrel" academically. This was hard fior me to accept at first since I was used to being considered a'good' student. As I worked through the program, though, I could see why educatlon majors received so much critlcism. First, to be admitted to the teacher ed. program, one must pass the California Achievement Test (CAT), an eighth-grade level test of skills in math, English, and spelling. I got a perfect score on the test and was shocked at the number of people who failed. Most of these people purchased study materials and then passed the CAT on a second or third try not an auspicious beginning of a college career.

Next, one must pass through a sequence ofcourses in avariety ofsubJects

including reading, math, science, social studies, language arts, learning disabilities and handicaps, music, P.E., and art. I was amazed at the number of ed. students

who did not grasp the very concepts or skills they were preparing to teach. I was even more surprised at the attitude that it didn't matter lf teachers knew what thev

%11:::, '% cftttdftood ^':1i'ii,:{$i .,iilillj|: philosophy and

n %

9e rne wouorf Tfre WoAorJ eersputiue 7/727,,t7,,.

-'dnd

spiritual parenting, schooling and homeschooling. Nurturing the magical time of childhood. Send $20 to Nancy Aldrich, RR2, Box 2675G , Westford, VT 05494

were teaching. There was a tendency to excuse lack of knowledge by saying, -That's what we have basal series and the teachers' manuals for.' Most ed. maiors seemed to genuinely want teaching careers, but had little interest in being

tounding. Most of the time was spent on reading, phonics, and math. Science and art were taught about once a week. As of Januaqr, no social studies had been taught (the teacher claimed she didn't have time).

Day after day, the same group of 6-8 boys was made to stay in from the recess that they badly needed in order to "catch up' on unlinished work. I was miserable. I could

good teachers.

One of the most distressing instances of inadequacy came when I was watching a fellow ed. major conduct a science

not seem to cultivate any kind of working relationship with the teacher of that class.

After four weeks of ttrird grade, I was transferred to the second grade for the remaining eleven weeks.

What a di-flerence. There were still

experiment for our 'methods of teaching science" class. His demonstration was to heat a wire in a torch flame until it melted. He concluded by sa5nng that "any solid melts when it is heated.' I, playing devil's advocate, asked, "What if the solid is paper or wood or dynamite? Does it still melt?" He ignored my question. So, I wonder, will he do that to his students?

Aside from presenting science inaccurately, such a response could damage the ego of a sensitive child with a serious question. This is only one example o[ the many "lessons" I observed.

I spent l5 weeks student teaching. I started out in a third grade class. It was intense iust to observe what those kids were re{uired to do. There was no free time and the volume of paperwork was as-

piles of workbooks, but there was also free time and fun. The students laughed and talked and had energr left for getting into "trouble.'This class was at least bearable for the children and for me. The classroom teacher liked having me in her room and borrowed freely from my ideas and lessons. I felt like a partner in her classroom. I liked the students and I think they liked me. Did I really teach them anything? Who knows. I tried to teach in the gentlest, least destructive way I could. I leamed a lot from them. Where to go from here? HOMEI

OLDER HOMESCHOOLERS /Jsa Asher oJ Netu York wrote ttJune: I went back to visit my old high school last week. Nobody notices visitors there, especially now, with the term almost over. I can still remember when June was a rnagical month, the beginning of freedom. I saw a restlessness among the students as I wandered the halls. They wanted the year to be over and I reme mbered the feeling.

It seems strange to me now, wantirtg time to go past. Now that I am free, time seems in such short supply. I recognize June by the flowers, now. I used to know it by review tests, and restlessness.

My friends are surprised to hear what I've been doing, that I haven't gone to school 'at all" since I lcft in December.

"Are you workingf' they ask.

"No," I tell them. "l'm learning." "ls your Mom teaching you?'

'No, I'm teaching myself.'

They are unable to understand. I feel a

little as if I am lying when I tell them that.

I am not teaching myself as much as I feel I should be. I spend my time writing, reading, helping my mother. I speak with my friends on the telephone. This is not a waste of time. Human contact is important for me, and for them. They envy me, for having escaped the school, the peer pressure. They wish that their parents were like mine, letting me do what I want.

They forget that what I want is only to write and read. I never asked to stay out until midnight and I don't want to. But I feel free, knowing that if I did want to go, they would not stop me.

Parents often say, "l will start treating you like an adult when you start acting like one.'They do not understand that it is they who must begin. The old should do for the young only what the young cannot do for themselves. Do any more, and you will do it forever, and the

child will never need to learn.

Despite the freedom tllat I have now, I feel limited by my past. I spent a total of eighty-six months in public schools, attending for at least part of every gradc

but seventh. There are still two years before I would graduate, but I don't plan to go back. I am angry with societ5r for the time thev made me waste. I wish I could have the time back again, and learn the way I feel I should have.

Near the end of the day, the hallways empty as the kids leave early to go to the beach. They have to come back tomorrow, and I don't. I don't have to get up at five to catch a bus at quarter to seven. I don't have to stay up 'til one studying for a test on something I don't care about, don't need, and am going to forget the minute the bell rings. I will not have to struggle with locks that the school is allowed to open anylvay, fight my way through throngs ofkids who once spent hours Iearning how to walk quietly in line, eat a sixty-cent lunch not fit to feed to pets, let alone growing teenagers and children. I won't be fighUng for space in a tiny mirror mounted on a graffiti-plastered wall in thc girls room, where the door has been taken olI the hinges to expose any tell-tale cigarettes. I won't be sleeping through classes where I am supposed to be learning math, doodling through classes where I am supposed to be learning history, or daydreaming through classes where I am supposed to be learning lrrench.

I'll be sitting at home reading a book.

Since I am not in school, perhaps I will learn something.

We would love to hear more from

older homeschoolers, particularly about howyou may be drawing on the resources of the world bevond the home.

GROWING WTHOUT SCHOOLING #65

37

LEARNING DISABILITIES SPECIALIST QUESTIONS LD MODEL An Inportant article Jrom a1984 lssue oJkarning Disabilities Quarterly, a publication Jor tlose wit]tin the tradt'

tionc,l learning disabrlrtres field" hqs ortg just come to our attentlon In X Mary

Poplbt abut to end her tenure as editor oJ tle journd. urges her colleagues to become aware o_f tle problems oJ the taditional LD nuflel. $me excerpts:

Our obsession with objectively defining, veri$ing, diagnosing, and assessing students purported to have learning disabilities is obvious in every issue of the Quarterly and in most other special education journals. Despite all the quantitative research produced in this vein, there is no evidence that learning disabilities can be objcctively identified. There is no evidence that our supposedly objective criteria are more effective than simple teacher referral. Studies have shown that we generally use such 'objective criteria' for including or excluding the students we intended to include or exclude anyhow. We do not know that diagnosis based on teacher recommendations is more or less damaging than the elaborate, standardized, formal criteria we use today. Perhaps we should spend more time discussing and cxaming tlre real criteria and less time fabricating formulae and funding psychologists to force students into predetermincd, ostensibly objective, yet possibly

meaninglcss, categories. ...karning disabilities are not neural pathways run amuck; the manifestation of leaming problems is to some degree circumstantlal. No matter how fcrvently we wish that objective analyses could provide us with the answers to diagnosis and instruction. it is clear that either we are not presently capable of ascertaining the objective criteria or they simply do not cxist. If we are to be brutallv honest. we may define learning disabiiities as the result of some unfortunate interaction bctween students' neurologr, previous cxpcriences (both in and out of school), their expectations, interests, personalities, aptitudes, and abilities AND the experiences, expectations, goals, physical characteristics, personaliUes, interests, and abilities encountered at school. Objectivity is a slippery concept in any field, but attempts at discovering or establishing

objcctive criteria for verifting human problems is a convenient illusion behind which we can hide our incompetence in

instruction.

This brings me to the subject of what we have not bothered to examine in learning disabilities, what we have ignominiously ignored in our research, our diagnosis, our regulations, and our classrooms.

Imagine for a moment a young boy, Brian, agc lO, with a l3O Ig sittng in a learning disabilities classroom. What might we lcam about Brian if we were to read his diagnostic report? Probably that he cannot read or writc beyond a first-grade levcl and that he has trouble filling out math worksheets. How might we find Brian occupicd in the resourcc room?

Rcading "Nat, the fat cat, sat on the mat".

At best, this activity is boring. To most scnsitive obscrvcrs from outside special GROWING WITHOI"IT SCHOOLING #65

education (and a few from the field) the situation is absurd. Why is no attempt made in special education to assess and teach areas in which Brian might be competent or even crcalive? The horri$ing truth is that in the four years I have been editor of the LDQ only one article has been submitted that sought to elaborate on the talents of the learning disabled. This is a devastating commenta-ry on a field that is supposed to be dedicatcd to the education of students with avcrage and above-average intelligcnce.

Our entire feld is DEFICIT DRNEN; ure spend mrllirrns oJ dollars and. laurs Iookirl5 Jor defrcits, defrning them. perseveraling on t]'ern inaginttg that we are o@rcizirtg them. and sonTetirnes even

inventirtg tlem to rationalize our actiuities.

...Why do we not know if our students are talentcd in art, music, dance, athletics, mechanical repair, computer programrning, or are crea[ive in other nontraditional ways? It is not for lack of assessment instn-rments. It is because, like regular educators, we care only about compctence in its most traditional and bookish sense - reading, writing, spelling, science, social studies. and math in basal tcxts and worksheets. Even the few vocational programs in special education mercly extend the humiliertion felt by leaming disabled students in other curricula, as

they basically consist of programs originally designed for mentally retarded youngsters, who, lt is alleged, do not mind repetitive work. It ls time that we either become 'special educators" or call ourselves what we really are - 'intensive regular educators.'

It is no wonder that learning disabled adults are unable to find satisfactory employment. It is no wonder that after l2 years of this kind of psychological child abuse, humiliation and involvemcnt in activities at which they are not succcssful, leaming disabled adults are convinccd that there is nothing thcy can possibly do well. We have not the slightest idea of where to begin assessing nonacadcmic, cognitive abilities.

We have lost the ncrve to buck the system; and hypocritically, we have adopted the rules of a deficit-driven modcl that is not appreciably differcnt from the medical modcl we scom and pride ourselves on having'escapcd.- A fcw ofour students get away only parlially destroycd because individuals, generally outside of education, see thcir talent in nonacadcmic areas and work to promote and devclop it.

Most of our 'truly learning disabled students,' however, become increasingly depressed, disengaged, angry, and/or disturbed as â&#x201A;Źrny of us would undcr sinrilar circumstances...

RESOURCBS & RECOMMENDATIONS MONTESSORI AT HOME Gloria Harrison (Box R, APO Neu York O967& r'ntes: Ever since I sent my name to GWS as a resource pcrson for Montessori, I have

received several letters. Most of them request inlormation about how to set up a Montessori program at home for children of elementary school age. I'm actually more intercsted in helping parents of preschoolcrs, since I bclievc education begins at birth.

I was anxious to answer each lctter personally, but I soon found myself spending an hour or morc on each lettcr, and since my timc is limitcd, I dccidcd to put togcthcr a handbook which would answer most general qucstions. The handbook is gcared to parcnts of preschoolers and explains in practical terms how to adapt your home environment to a Montessori setting. I make thc point that there is no need to rush out and buy expensive equipment. I include a vcry comprehensive list of books and mailordcr firms. The handbook is $5 postpaid, and the resource list only is $3 postpaid.

I am mcntioning this not as an advcrtiscment for my book but so that people who writc to mc will undcrstand that if they want just gcncr:rl information on Montcssori, I will offcr them my handbook. If thcy arc alrc:rdy f:rnriliar with the method and want specific questions answcred, I will gladly answcr thenr for frce. Plcasc don't addrcss your letters to Montessori Ilomc Education. Our military address is for pcrsonal usc only,

and I don't want to give the impression that we arc running a busincss.

MATERIALS FROM NASA We received a press rclease from thc

National Aeronautics and Space Administration INASA) saying that thcy are making educational materials available through their new distribution centcr, thc NASA Central Operation of Resourccs for Educators TCORE). The matcrials scem to be mostly videotape and slide progranrs, and educators (including homeschooling parents) can request a catalog from NASA CORE, l-orain County JVS, l5 l8l Route 58 South, Oberlin Ol'l 4407 4.

GOOD LATIN BOOKS Katherine McAlpine (?M untes: On the rccommendarlion of Nancy I-otzcr (GWS #62) I trackcd down thc Eccc Romani l,atin series, and it's cvery bit as good as she said. The stories are entcrtaining, often very funny, and Nathanicl can't wait to find out *'hat advcntures thc four Roman kids will have next. Even thc workbooks are fun and include crossword puzz,lcs and word searchcs. The storics providc vocabulary that we can actually usc in our own convcrsartions (in contr:rst to stuff like 'Thc Roman troops attzrck thc fortrcss of the Grecks") and without having to memorize a lot of scary dcclcnsions first. Bcst ofall, thc papcrback formzrt makes it very affordablc. I think it's thc bcst forcign languagc course, o[

38

any kind, that I've seen.

FARM APPRENTICESHIPS The March. 1987 issue of The Penna-

culhre Actruist gives this address for informadon about organic farms ollering apprendceships: Ttth Placement Senrice, c/o Bonnie Barrs, 144 NW 76th St, Seattle

wA98l17-3015.

TYPING BOOK Susan Rirchman (PA) writes: We've come across a very good typing book designed for use by kids, and our boys are both using it and doing very well.

It's called Keyboarding Skills, by Diana Flanbury King, and is published by Educators Publishing Service, Inc. [75 Moulton St, Cambridge MAO2238l CostsJust $6.

It's designed for use either with computers

or typewriters. The extraordinary thing about this book is that, believe it or not, it teaches a child the keyboard in alphabetical order. I thought this was nutsy at first, but now I realize that by using alphabetical order, thqr build upon a mnemonic device that kids already have. What kid can easily remember "asdf' or "jrj jrj" but they all have the alphabet running around in their heads by the time they are seriously wanting to learn touch typing.

The book also encourages a lot of pracLice

CA" NORTII (Zlpr 94OOO & up) === 3;11 & Gail EASTWOOD {Michael/aO, Faith/86) Box 86, Redway 95560 (II) === Q6rsn & Howad FURER (Christirre/83) 230 Mitchell Dr, Boulder Creek 95OO6 (II) === Bnrce & Karen SMITH (Eliabeth/8O, JoArma/a5) 549 Center St, Watsonvillc 95076 === Brenda STAR & Clint

CALIAHAN (Amethyst/84, Aurora/87) 32 I Carrillo St, Smta Rosa 954O1-5f f f GD ===

Gary & Chcryl STEVENS (Colleen/75, Rudd,r7g) 2486 Pebblc Beach Loop, I:fayette 94549 (m

CA" SOUTII (zlp. to 94ooo) === Suzame & Richard ALLIANDRE (Niko/77,l*e

/

79l, AO2l Mango Av - 46, Fontana 92336 === Diane BENNET (Avery/8O, Evan/84, Wistan/8a) 561 I 79th St, Los Angeles 90045 === James & Elizabeth DYCK (Andrew/83, Lillian/86) f 4291 Rios Canyon Rd #7, El Cajon 92021 (H) === Mark & Barbara ENGLE (Enc/78, Jason/79) 66 Lynne tn, Salinas 93907 (H) === Tom & Beck]r LOWE (Abby/82, Mcgfrm/84) 3Ol Bald St, ojai 93023 === Dima & Eliseo RUIZ (Jessiah/82) 8890 Wheeler, Fontana 92335

CT === Dawn Marie LORENO (Alexmder/ 163 Lead Mine Brook Rd, Harwinton 06791 === Spiro & Dale VOSTITSANOS {Sasha/78) lO7 Helaine Rd, Manchester

al, Jolmta/86)

Flere m thc additions and changes to the Directory that we have received since the last issue. GWS #6O has the complete 1988 Directory, md GWS #63 has a summar)r of the additions and chmges between then md GWS #64. The next complete Directory will bc in GWS #66, Our Directory is not a list of all subscribers, but only of those wtw osk to be listed, so that other GWS readers, or other interested people , may get in touch with thern. Ifyou would like to be included, please send the entry form or a 3x5 card (one family per card).

We print birthgears of children, not ages. If we made a mistake when converting your child's age to birthyear, please let us know.

Please tell us ifyou would rather have your phone number and town listed instead ofyour mailing address.

If a Directory listing is followed by ,n GI), the family is willing to host GWS travelers who make advance arrangements in witing.

If a namc in a GWS story ls followed by m

abbrcviation in parentlrcses, that pereon is in the Directory (check here ond in #60, #63, & #64). We are happy to forward mail to those whosc addresses are not in the Directory. Muk the outside of the envelope with name/description, issuc, md page number. If you don't mark the outside, we open the envelope, see that you want something forwarded, and then have to readdrcss the letter and Nc our om postage to mail

it.

When you send us an address change for a subscription, please remind us ifyou are in thc Directory, so we cm change lt herâ&#x201A;Ź, too.

AZ === Gerry AIIEI^A & Sandy STOCK (Deva/ao, Maya/84) 8149 E 4th Pl. Tucson 857ro G0

AR === Tom & Julie O'DAY (Meg!ann/79, Katherine/81, Bridget/84, Timothy/87) RR #l Box277, Shirley 72153 (change)

MJ === Thomas & Cecilia NEHL (Matthew/ 85, Madelynne,/88) sOOf Eastbrook Ct, Utica

48087 (H) MN === Paul & Ruth OSMUNDSON (Caleb/ 82, Anna/85) 6748 Kingston Dr, Eden Prairie

55346 MS === Laura ELKINS & John ROBBINS (Allbriton/84, Adele/88) 612 S 8th St, Oxford 38655 MO === Richard & Shirley TAIIEY (Stwe/ 7a, Christie/86) 912 Camargo Dr, Ballwin 63Ol t

NH === John & Susan BROMM (John/76, Katherine/78, Elizabeth / 871 3 Beacon Dr, Menimack O3O54 (It === Michelle & Tim KINSELI-A (Ryan/81, Aidan,z83) 57 Long Flill Rd,

Raymond O3O77 NJ === Mily & Ted CAMPBEII (Allison/ 83, Nathan/85, Trevor/88) 35 Elm St, Allendalc O74Ol === Bill SUDIA & Cindy JONES-SLIDIA (Brianne/87) #2 Edgemere Av, Plainsboro 08536

o6040 GA === Gary & Dalene BETSILL (Matthew/84, Michael/87) lOOl Redbud Rd, McRae

NM === Ed NAGEL, NATLASSOC FOR THE LEGAL SLIPPORT OF ALT SCHIS, PO Box 2241, Santa Fe 875O4 (change)

31o55

and review.

ADDITIONS TO DIRECTORY

Suri & Candy S\STRI (Raky/82) lO Bicentemial Dr, Irxington 02173 === Arielle VERWEY & Kemeth SEARBY (Mriko/82) 348 Washington Av, Northampton OIO6O

HI === Jason & Jeanne AMAS Uoshua/84, Jessica/85) PO Box 275, Kapaa 96746 (II) JL === Steve & Kate CAMP {Rachel/87) lO8 N lowa Av, Addison 6OlOl (H) === Mark & Kathy CI{AMBERS (Maureen/79, Emily/8 I, Ellen/84, Bnan/A7l I lO Blackhawk, Aurora 60506 [H) === Paul & Phyllis ERICKSON (Stephen/8l, Michael/ 83, Joshua/86) I O34 E Jefferson, Wheaton

60187

IIY === Edward & Ann CFIAMBERS (Eve/ 5,Mae / 7 6, Joel80, Lilyl82,Will/88) 379 Kilburn Rd So, Garden City 11530 (fl === Peter & Dianc CHODAN {Arneke/77) RD #l Box 462, Rome 13440 === Astiid MLSSEN & Michael STOIZDR (Eric/80, Ala/84) west Main st (Rt lo), Ilobtrt I 3788 === Rodney & Jeanette SAGE (Julie/8l, Jenny/84) HCI 12lA, Olivebridge 12461 7

NC === Ken & Jackie KOCH (Adam/82, Ashlee/a4, Mikec/85) 814 North Rd, Elizabeth

City 279,0]9 IN === Paul & Martha McGRAW [Oliver/85) T\rrtle Creek Harbor, PO Box 70, Florence 47O20 G{l === Sheryl & Stephen SCHUFF (Emilie/79, Reuben/81) c/o The Hubbmd School,8l56 Lieber Rd, Indianapolis 4626O

&Julie NORRIS (David/83, Abigail/84, Hamah/87) 733 N 6th, Stcrling KS === Phil

({l

=== F-rank & Kathi LINDSEY

PROFIIE, Rt 2 Box 776,Elizabeth Ary 27909 === Bob & Llnda MORGAN (Daniel/73, Jonathan/75) l9O8 Wood Dale Terr, Chulotte 282o3

(H) OH === John & Judith ALLEE {Michael/72, Nancy/8O) 15o55 Brushy F'ork Rd SE, Newuk 43os6 G4

67579 tH)

I(r ==- cay & Carole UNDERWOOD fBilly/ 82) l8l6 Millers Ln, l.ouisville 4O216 (H) ME === Ed & Carol TOFANI (Jason/8O,

Aaron/8l) RFD #l Box 343, kbanon 04027

OK === Mark & Mary ROBERTS {Dcbra/74, David/78, Steven/81 , Karen/83, Alan/85, Timothy/87) Rt I Box I 12, Tecumseh 79873 OR === Altson CLEMENT & Chuck WILLER (Charlotte/83, Sasha/86) PO Box 518, Yachats 97498 (chmge)

Ivr, === Kath'leen CAPCAI{A & John

McINTIRE (John Paul/84, Alice/84) 5516 Plymouth Rd, Baltimore 27214 === Mitchell & Eliz-abeth GIAS,SMAN (Adam / 76, Chelsea/83, Joshua/85) 8534 Brest Itd, Randallstown 21 133 (H) === p.6.""a & RobeTITRUSSELL [Courtney/82, Weston/84, Lindsey/87) 2lO6 Forest Glen Rd, Silver Spring 2O9lO MA === Wendy BARUCTI (Shme/74) l3I2 rear Boylston St, Boston o2215 === Andrea & Dan BTACHLY (Sarah/78, Abigail/a0, Bcn/83, Emily/8s) 35 Rivcr Rd, Mattapoisett 02739 === Ginger FITZSIMMONS & Dan GAUGER (Jenny/ 79. Alex/81) 14 Concord Rd, Watertown O2l 72 (change) === Susma RODLEY (Adriemc/78, Aencas/8o) 368 Prospect, Cambridge 02139 ===

PA === Diana MOSKAL (Michael/8o,

Stacey/82) 1242O Frmkstom Rd, Pittsbugh r5235 === I,ee & Donna STEWART (Billy/8O, Srah/8l, Joshua/84, John/87) I 734 Mill Rd, Hilltom 18944 === Barry & Sharon TRAVER (John Calvin/77) 835 Grecn Valley Dr, Philadephia 19128 (H) TN === Jud & Crolyn BARRY (Sam/83, Emily/86) 2245 Bruce St, Kingsport 37664 === Kren & David FIENDIIY (Hans/8l,Ixnora/841 Rt 4 Box l3l, Rusk (II) === William & Judith MEEKER (Giacomo & Magnolia/77, Angela/a2, Theresa/86) Rt 2 Box 287, Fairview 37O62

TX === Rick & Koma MURRAY {Brandon/

GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #65

39 Zachary / 7 6, Chelsea/79, Courtrrcy/ 88) 360O Fountain Terr, Amarillo 79106 7 2.

VT === Micha RICHMOND & William oLESON (Joshua/77,E'lt)ah/8l, Abel/85) PO Box 34O. Bristol O5443 VA === Christopher & Frances STATINKE (Tristan/83, Ivan/85) 1805 Olmstead Dr, Falls Church 22C,43 (lf'l === Latry & Joanne TURNER (Jenine/8l) 3203 Burbank Lrr, Woodbridge

22193 === Mary & Mrk VAN DOREN (Flelen/a3, Greta/86) RR 2 Box 342-D, Ns Castle24127 (change) (Ir) WA === Liz & Jimmy SEDORE (Raina/82) 6833 Foster SW, Olympia 98502 (I{) === Susm SMITFI & Jeff WEDGWOOD (Josiah/86) 1837

l27Ave SE, Bellerue 98OO5 WI === Angel]frur BROWN & Eric PAULsoN (Luk/80, Ko/82) Rt I cTIl. G, Hillpoint 53937 === Nanql & Nick CISAR (Katjusa/8l) 2510 Kendall. Madison 537O5

CANADA:

BC:== Tim ROBERTS & Janet CURRIE (Meran /77, Elise/81, Stefm/85) 36-l l20 Summit Av, Victoria V8T 2P7 NS === Bruce & Carole SKINNER (Mark/ 69, Nicholas/81, Joshua/84, Sarah Cloud/87) RR #t Hubbards, BOJ ITO

ONT === Brian &

I:nore

KILMARTIN

(Jonathan/83, Cathcrine/86) 242 Mississaga St, Oakville LGL 3Ag === Wade & Teresa PITMAN (Matthew / 77, Lisa/ 78, Daniel /a I, Jeremy/84) 1235 Redbank Cres, Oakville L6H lY4 OTHER LOCATIONS === Anne & John l) 2 BullenAve, Mitcham, Victoria 3132 Australia 114 === Cml & Mac BROWN {Gregory/8l. Steven/83, Simon/ 8V 167 Totara Dr, Hamilton New Zealand (H) === pi6ns & Richard CFIAFF (Tamsin/85) Stourl. hchend. Shetlmd, United Kinsdom GII === Jill & Robert GILLINGS (Jon/79, Liam/83, 7nela5l Ballaglonney Farm, RonaElre, Castletown, Isle of Mm, British Isles === Ron & Marty WAGNER (Heather/73, Aaron/79, Nicholas /a2l Box24, APO New York O94O6 ffhe Azores) {chmge)

AUSTIN (Paul/8o, David,/8

ADDITIONS TO RESOURCES Certilied Teachere Willing to Help Homeschoolers: Molly Moreland, Mustud Seed Educational Services, 12890 SWWalker Rd, Beaverton OR 97005 === Vicky Ouintana, 336 E goth St, apt lA, NewYork NY 10128 These people have experience

with t}te

following subjects and are willing to correspond with others: Special Education: Cheryl and Gary Stevens, 2486 Pebble Beach Inop, I^afayette CA

94549 Deafness: Molly Morelmd, address above

PEN.PALS

singing, dolls, baby goats === Rabf SASTRI (6) lO Bicentennial Dr, L€xington MA 02173; shrks' nature. cars === Aeneas RODLEY-POLDIAK (8) 368 Prospect St, Cambridge MA O2139; turtles' legos, baseball 66;d3 === MURRAY, 3600 Fountain Terr, Amarillo fi 791O6: Zachary ll2l aircraft, space, basketball; Chelsea (8) Bubies' Jewelry, qcrcise === ft65ali6 I{AMILTON (4) t4830 Fossil Rock Rd, Athens OH 45701; books, anlmals, painting === SPAIilfl\{AI!, 10403 2nd Ave SE, Calgary, Alberta CANADA: Tammy (13) ballet, phone. acting; Ross (12) skateboading, dogs, basketball: Patti Ann (lO) baseball, cats, books; Jackie Sue (8) horses, dogs: Cathy (6) ballet, dancing, reading Remmington (4) basketball, cats, dogs === Rebecca OXLEY (8) 128 Wynmest Rd, Mr'lboro NJ 07746: skatebouding, horscs, reading === Victoria KVIATKOFSKY' Rt 7 Box 383, McKimey fi 75069: hoses, singing, plays

NEW| Star Machine, Starwatcher's Decoder Kit' Slryryatcher's Weather Set, Light Fantastics Optics Set, Telescope, Binoculars, microscopes from Bushnelll Teaching Guides PreK - 6th' Practice stmdardizrd testing, l-12. Science experiment card boxes, math manipulatives, music, foreign language, early learning, maps, science md art supplics. Workbooks K-8. FFDE CATALOG, LEAR"I\IING AT HOME. Box 27OG65. Honaunau, HI 96726.

Family Photo Wall Calendr accepts your photos, enlrgements, artwork above each month. Order sweral, enjoy creating meaningful gifts. $4.98.

Graham Family Buiness. PO Box 134, Jeflereon

oH44047.

WORK AT HOME - Distributors needed for scellent pilt-time busincss selling cassette tapes which build self-esteem, promote chuacter, deve'lop character. Details for I.SASE. Music Distributor, 8702 Mountain Breere, San Antonio,

TX7A25t.

WHEN YOU WRITE US Please - (l) Put sepuate itcms of business on sepdate sheets of paper. (2) Put your name and address at the top ofeach letter. (3) Ifyou ask questions, enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope. (4) Tell us if it's OK to publish your letter, and whether to use your name with the story. We edit le tters for space and clarity.

CLASSIFIED ADS Rates: 70s/word.

$l/word boldface. $5 minimum.

"*:'"'5'3Y:zga-''"-

plmt pine secdlings by hmd in Southeast from December lst to April lst. Must have reliable vehicle with camper or trailer md be ablc to do physically demmding work. QUALITREE, lNC. Mike Almd, 27O Pettits lac, Athens, Georgia 30605. 404-543-8424.

TREEPI-ANTERS wanted to

VOTE LIBERTARIANT America's third lrgest political ptrty supports freedom of choice in

education. The two old prties support govemmental control md subsidy of education. Send a message to washington - that you wmt to decide for yourself how to educate your kids md how to live your om life. Vote Libertarian. For free literature on thc Libertarian party md presidential candidate Ron Paul. wite: Libertarian Party ofSkag. Cty. PO Box 512, Anacortes, WA 98221, or your local or state Liberlarim ptrty.

---pntnv

i

CHILD'S GARDEN COMMUMTY: Displav ad, page32.

PRIORITY PARENTING PUBLICATIONS: support for the natural way you nuture your family. Monthly newsletter and resource book available. SASE for infomation. PO Box 1793, Warsaw. IN 46580-1793.

Empower yormelf to interact penuasivcly with the public schools - for program approval, inslructional resources, or reerollment. Send 259 stamp for FREE details. Mountain Meadow Press. PO Box 447-83, Kooskia ID 83539.

FLORIDA DISNEY CONDO 2 bdm, 2 bath, washer,/dryer, phone, mirowave oveni hot tub, pool, temis, golf. Spccial rates [314) 4A7-OlA4.

Alpha Omega Curriculum. Buy I subject or all.

Mix md match grade lwels. Catalog $1. H.S. Glenn Distributors, 66O5 Bass Hwy, St. Cloud, FL 32769.

DAYSTAR is a nondenominational, basics-

centered, personalired correspondence school the least expensive and most effective. Write Daystu, 18603 Higfiway l, Suite lO6, Fort Bragg cA 95437.

Home Educationlt'|aguine - wite for our free I 6 page catalog of homeschoo'ling books and publications. Box 1O83, Tonasket WA 98855.

FoRM FoR DrREcroRY

If you would llke to be tn the Dtrectory and have not y€t told us, sqnd fn thls form, or use a postcard or 3xS card (only one famlly per c6lrd).

Adults (first arldlas,t names): Organlzadon (""1y tr address ls same as famlly)

Chlldren (Namee/BtrthYears) F\rll t{ddrees:

Chlldren wantlng pen-pals should write to those listed. To be listed, send name. age, address, md l-3 words on interests === (6ffty BROMM (lO) 3 Beacon Dr, Merrimack NH O3O54; mysteries, nature. Brbies === Sarah BAILEY (6) 16l I Grmt St, Berkeley CA 947O3; horses, baseball, kittens === HENNEN, Rt 2 Box 458, Choudrmt IA71227: Peete (11): Malea (4)

Were you tn the 1988 Drrectory (GWS #60)? Yes

If thts ls an addrese change, what was Prevlous state?

Ane

-

you w[Xng to hogt trav€llng GWS readers who make- adrrance alragerncntg

h wrrdng?

No

Yea

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLINC #65

No

-

-

Q

HOW TO GET STARTED

subscription. The Smiths'sub upires with Issuc #66, the nst issue. But if we were to receive their renewal before we sent our final account changes to the mailing house (crly Dccember), t}ey would qualiS for the fnce bonus issue.

Renewal rates ilc thc same as for ncw subscriptions: $2O for 6 issucs, $36 for l2 issues, $48 for l8 issues.

Ilere are some ways you can find out the legal situation in your statc.

I ) Inok up thc law yourself, in a public librar5r or law library (courthouse, law school, ctc.) laws are indqed: trJr'school attendance' or 'cducation, compulsory.' l8 states have revised thcir home education laws since 1982 so check thc rccent statute chmges. Wc havc printed or summarized these nw laws in our back issues.

2) Ask the state department ofeducation for any laws or rcgulations pertaining to homeschooling and/or starting a private school. In somc states (particularly CA, IL, IN, KYf thcre are few rcgulations conccrning private schools md so you can call your homc a school.

If you are concemcd about revealing yor:r namc md address to the state, do tiis through a friend.

3) Contact state or local homeschooling groups. This list was last printed In cWS #60, md ls updated and sold separately for $2 as part of our'Flomeschooling Resource List.' Some groups have preptred handbooks or guidelines on legal matters. Often, these groups cm tell you more about thc legal climate in a state than myone else cm - whetfrer new legislation is pending, for example, and how the present law is being cnforced.

4) Contact other families listed in our Dircctory. Thls is padicularly useful ifyou live ln a state that leaves homeschooling r€gulatlons up to individual school districts. When you contact these families, help them by having done some research on your om ffrst.

5) In general, it is not wise to start by askingyour local school dtstrict: they usually don't know the law either. Better to gather the facts first on your owrl.

SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscriptions sttrt wit}l t}rc next issuc published. Our current mtes ae $20 for 6 issues, $36 for l2 issues, $48 for t8 issues. GWS is publishcd every other nonth. A single issue costs $3.5().

Forcign payments must be eithcr money orden in US funds or checks dram on US bmks.

We can't afford to acccpt personal chccks on

Canadian accounts, even if they havc 'US funds" written on them. Outside of North America, add $lO peryear for airmail (otherwise, allow 2-3 months for surface mail).

Back Issucs: We strongly urge you to get thc back issues of cWS, especially if you plan to take your children out of school. Mmy of the articles re as useful md important as when they were printed, and we do not plan to repeat the information in thcm. All back issues are kept in

print.

Our rates for back issues: any combination ofback issues, mailed at one time to one address, cost $2 per issue, plus $2 per order. A complete set costs $lOO. These rates ar€ for subscribers only; non-subscribers pay $3.5O per issue.

Indcxes to GWS. Speciff item numbcr. #38O Index to GWS l-30. $2.5O #382 lndcx to #31-4O, $l #384 Index to #41-5O, $l.5O #385 Index to #51-60, $2 ,381 Set of all indses, $5.

Blnders rc available with rods that hold GWS without obscuring my text. Go'ld lctters on cover.

#330 Binderwith 24 rods tholds GWS #124), $lO; #328 Binder withlS rods {holds l8 later issues), $9.5O; #326 S€t of 4 bindere md 78 rods (holds GWS #l-78), $35.

At the bottom of this page is a fom you can use to renew your subscription. Please help us by renewing euly.

How cm you tell when your subscription expircs? Ilok at this smple label: 12345

Add packing md delivery chuge from center of this issue.

Addresg Changer: lf you're moving, let us know your new address as soon as possib'le.

Please enclose a recent label (or copy ofonc).

JIMANDMARYSMITH 27 PIAIT{VILLE

0l

TIY

66 OI I I

I 6

RENEWALS

16MAINST

croup Subscrlptlons: all copies ilc mailed to onc address. Please pay with one chcck. Here ac the cunent gloup rates (lX means you get. one copy ofeach issue, 2X nrcars you get 2 copies of each issue, 3X means 3 copics, ctc.l

Issues missed because ofa change in address may be replaced for $2 each. The post office

I

destroys your missed issues and chrges us a notification fee, so we can't alford to replace them

The number that is underlined in the examo'le tells the number of the ffnal issue for the

without charge.

lx 2X 3X 4X 5X 6X 7X,

ycsr bs.

$20 S36 C4a 060 070 078

8X etc:

2ys.

12 lss.

Syrs.

1136 t n 0SO 0l 12 $130 $144

rt48

$ I 2 pcr pcrson

l8 lss.

0SO

$126 9156

sl80 s2l6 pcrycar.

Please send in the namcs and addresses of members ofyou group sub, so that we cm kecp in touch with them. Thanks.

cWS vras founded ln 1977 by John Holt.

Editor - Susamah Sheffer Managing Editor - Patrick Farenga Contributing Editor - Doma Richoux Editorial Assistant - Mary Maher Editorial Consultant - Nmcy Wallace Book & Subscription Mmager - Day Facnga Book Shipper,/Recciver - Ann Barr Oflicc Assistmt - Mary Maher Bookkeeping Assistmt - Jerome Puzo Holt Associates Board of Directors: Patrick Farenga (Corporate President), Mary Maher, Tom Maher, Dorrna Richoux, Susannah Sheffer Advisors to the Boud: Steve Rupprecht, Mary Van Doren, Nmry Wallace @

1988 Holt Associates Inc

gHH E

FF

%31€ F +lf

gF F r: o lia

'ald

C0q

-l

SUBSCRIPTION AIYD RENEWAL FORM Use this form to subscribe or renew to GROWNG WTIIIOUT SCHOOLING. For renewals, place thc label from a recent isue bclow, lf possible. If not, print thc lnfo. Cllp md send with your chcck or moncy order in USfmds,Or,youmaynowiubscrlbeorrcnwbyphone withMastercardorVisa:call 617-464-3100,.

Thanks.

_

Nw

Gift subscrtption to be sent to name shom.

Renewal

subscription

Account Number (for rcnewals): Name:

Expiration Codc (for rencwals): Address (change? ycs/no) City, State, Zip: 6 issues,

GroupSub:

$20

12 issucs,

coPies

of

$36

issues,

s8s

<ilQ

18 issues' $48

$

-

h3h

(se chart)

It is OK to *ll my name and address to other organizatlons

CL

65

GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #65