;fitK Growing Without School ing UJ T^6
85
$4.50
f}oes homeschoollng deprive chlldren of access to gloup ecperlences? Of course not. Anyone who tnvestlgates homeschoollng ln even the most cursoryway wlll come acnoss mentlon of Scoutlng troops, 4-H clubs, sports teams, theater groups, urtttng clubs, and all sorts of other groups. Sometimes the groups are part of large organlzatlons fiike Scouts and 4-H) and have long been avallable to ldds ln school, too. Sometlmes (as wtth the wrltlng clubs) the groups are speclflcally homeschooltng groutrs, made up of homeschoolers and formed ln response to thelr needs or lnterests. But what lf the group a homeschoolerwants toJoln lsn't anallable? For thls l,ssue of GWS, we talked to hds who have gone one stepbeyondJolning pre-odsflng groups to form groups of thelr owrr. These ldds dtdn't gtve up because no one ln thelr communlt5r or ln the local homeschoollng group had yet organlzed a parflcular acflvtty. They declded to be the organlzrrs, to forrr the sorts of groups that they had orlginally wanted toJoln. A,s Chrtstlan Murphy sald about why he and hts 1
slster oqganlzed an envlronmental club for local homeschool;-'
Membcnr of thc homcschoolcrs' crrvlronmcntal club tacklc thck ffrst m NIdsWho Ha\rc Organtrcd Groups, pallca 1923.
proJect. Scc ourFocus
Inside this fssue News & Reports p.3-4 Report from Carnegle Hall, How Many Homeschoolers, Cooperattve Dlstrlct
John Eolt on Assesstnent and Sclf-Eeteen p. 5-6
ers, 'If we wanted to be ln one, we would have to start lt.'They dldn t walt for someone else to turn thelr wtshes tnto reality, -but lnstead got busy maldng the realtty themselves. Ttris ls a -,.sklll. and an attltude, that can sewe homeschoolers ln manyways. The organlzers found that lt lsn't hard to start a group, and that others tend to be grateful to the organlzrer for taktng the - lnitiattve. But helplng others doesn't even have to be an
o4anlzefs prlmary motlvatlon. Ernlly Ltnn wanted very much to meet other older homeschoolers, and she formed an older - - " homeschoolers' group as a wzry to address her ou:n deslre Luckll5r, others were feellng the same way, and Eml$s creatlve soluHon to her onm problem ended up helptng other ldds, too. ' Ifyou startyour oqrn group, you get to declde what the group wlll do and make the rules about how lt wlll be run. This ls very dlfferent fromJolning an already establlshed orgarfzatlon llke Scouts, and from these ldds'rcports lt seems to be both an advantage and a challenge. They llked belng able to make the group treto preclsely the ldnd of group that they and the other ldds wanted. flhe organlzers emphaslzed that they dldn t uant to let thelr status as organlzer or leader glve them the power to make all the declstons. All spoke of wanttng the members to be ftrlly lnvolved tn the runntng of the group, saylng thtngs llke, "For each meeflng, we would swltch leaders, because vre dtdn't want onlyone penron to be ln charge," and '\ile trled to compromlse a lot.') On the other hand, the ldds often stmggled wlth how best to run the group - should everythlrg be done by consensus? What lf the oqganlzer trled so hard not to be an authorltarlan leader that nothtng seemed to get done at meettngs? These aren't easy issues, but they are the lssues that adult groups struggle wlth, too, and when people say that group experlences are valuable they are often referrtng to oractly these sorts of efrorts to work thlngs out. Clearly the beneflts of organlzlng your own grouP outwelgh the dlfficultles; tn return for the efrortyou get an enJoyable group acttvtty and the feellng - whlch may even outlast the group Itself - that lfyou vrant somethlng tn your llfe you can take steps to make lt happen. Susannatr Shefrer .
How Mothers Flnd p.7-9
Tlne for Themselves
Challenges & Concerne p. lo Betng Judged, Meetlng People from
Different Backgrounds
Watchlng Chtldren l.earn p. I l-14 Reading, Electronlcs, Astronomy, Photognaphy, Stnglng, Muslc lessons, FYench
Book Revlcws p. 15-18 FOCUS: Ktds ltrho Eave
p. 19-23
Ortanlzed Grouln
Book Dlscusslon Groups p.24-25 Resources & Recommendatlons p.25
Volunteer Experlences p. 26-27
Elnsteln the Autodtilact p.27
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