Growing Without Schooling 95
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Anne Morse is interviewed for this issue's Focus, "Trying School And
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Inside this Issue: News & Reports p. 3-4 German Update, Driver's Insurance, Publicizing Homeschooling
John Holt on Teachers and Learners p. Writing to School Officials p. 6-7 Volunteer Experiences p.
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Veterinarian's Oflice, Rehabilitation Institute' Opera House, Historical House, Retail Store, Inner-City School, Pottery ApprenticeshiP
Challenges
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Concerns p.
10-11
Custody Dispute, Memories of a Dropout, When Kids Resist, Breaking Vicious Cycle
Slatching Chlldren Learn p.
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Developing Resourcefulness, t earning by Observing
FOCUS: Trying School p. 14-19
Resources
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Recommendations p.
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Additions to Directory, Pen-Pals p.
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Homeschooling in a culture where most kids go to school is very different from homeschooling in a culture where that is the usual course. As it is now, kids who homeschool still have to deal with school in one way or friends who go to school, or another - maybe they have they see school dominate young people's lives in movies and books, or they have to take standardized tests or keep records that divide their learning into school subjects. All of this makes homeschoolers aware what kids in school are supposed of school's values measures success and how school learning, to be failure, what kind of social life is expected' In one way or another, homeschoolers have to figure out how they will stand in relation to these values: will they try to ignore them as much as possible (which is still a choice and sometimes an effort)? Will they worryr about how they measure up or fit in according to school's standards? Will those worries affect what they do as homeschoolers? I think all homeschoolers have to think about these issues at some point in t-heir lives, to varying degrees and perhaps not always fully consciously. Some may return to these questions more often than others. While some may make peace fairly early on with the fact that their approach to learning and socializing doesn't match school's approach, others rethink this frequently, and reevaluate it at various stages of their lives, sometimes by experimenting with new approaches to homeschooling and sometimes by experimenting with school itself. For this issue's Focus, we interviewed live long-time homeschoolers who had tried school for a short time and had then gone back to homeschooling. We interout, viewed kids who had had this particular pattern pattern speaks of how that because out again in, and to the issues I've just described. I know that other homeschoolers take other paths - some were in school, left, and never went back; some were homeschooled, tried school, and liked it enough to stay in. WeVe had stories about both these paths in GWS before, and we will again, because they too are interesting. But kids who have tried school and then left a$ain are apt to have a particular perspective on how homeschoolers come to terms with the fact of school in our culture. They can talk about why homeschoolers sometimes have the impulse to go to school and about how they can use that experience to bring a new understanding back to homeschooling. No one else can really decideJor homeschoolers how much they will care about, or change their activities according to, school's standards and values. But perhaps these interviews will stimulate the thinking of others wrestling with such issues. Susannah Sheffer
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