Growing Without Schooling 73

I

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING 73

i

Ernma Roberts ls lnteMcwed about her lovc of theatcr wtth lntensc lntcrests, issue's Focus on

ln this

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: News &

Reports p.3-4

Homeschoollng in Flance, Meeting wlth Admlntstrators, Driver's Llcense I-aw

The Intenentlon [fuestlon: Is helplng other parents generous or ofrenslve? p.4-5 Challenges & Concerns p.6-7 Struggltng as a Stngle Parent, RelaxingAbout Readlng, Are We ExpecttngToo Much?

Snubbed by Peers, Looking for Feminist

Homeschoolers

Watchlng Chlldren Learn p. 7-ll When Math ts Boring, WhatWeThinkAbout

Children's Wrlting, Stud5ring Shakespeare, Graphic Deslgn, Reading FOCUS: Young People

Wlth Intense

Interests p.17-22 Famllles Wrltlng Together: Intervlew wlth PeterStlllman p.22-23 Older Homeschoolers p. 23 Complete Llsts of certified teachers, helpful lawyers, professors, psychologists, school districts, and resource people p.25-27

Many of us have told reporters or curious friends that one advantage of home education ls that it can allour a chlld to become lntensely tnvolved tn a pa.rticular lnterest. Children at home have the ttme and the opportunlty to pursue an lnterest sertous\r and, often, to become highly slidlled at it.

Desptte the prtde with whlch we often talk about tttts' lt seems to me that we are also confused about children who choose to devote themselves fatrly slnglemlndedly to one thtng.

Have they ln fact chosen to be so dedicated, or are they respondtng to subtle or overt pressures from the adults around them? Is It normal for children to work so hard? Don't they wlsh they had more tlme for other thlngs? Instead of speculating about answers to these questions, for tltls issue of GWS we have talked directly to nine children who are ln various ways committed to an tntense pursutt. We wanted to flnd out.;from thern what such a life ls like.

I want to make clear, rlght up front, that tn tntervtewtn$ these young people and presenung thelr vlews ln GWS we are not holding them up as the only ctrildren in the GWS readership who have lntense tnterests - there are surely a great many more, and perhaps they will write ln response to what they read here. Nor nre we suggestlng that betng lntensely commltted to a parttcular thlng ts better than havtng a vadet5r of loves and lnterests. It is slmply one of the paths that children who are allowed to make cholces about their lives can take. Because it ls one such path and, as well, a path about whlch it ls easy to have mlstaken notlons, we are devottnS some space to lt here.

In llstenlng to these young people talk about their declsion to work so hard, I found tt lnteresttng to think about what they had ln common with one anottrer and what was different. Their lnterests were certainly varled: muslc, tce skating, horses and blologl, computer programmlng, dancln$' art, theater, and books and readlng. Some of these lnterests take up more tlme simply in terms of logistlcs - travellng to and from the skating dnk, for example - than do others. Some tnvolve a certaln amount of pracUce tlme stmply to keep ln physlcal shape. But I was lnterested tn how, despite the dlfferences between skattng and programmlng, or danclng and blologr, these chtldren kept echotng each other as they talked about why they were comfortable havlng such an lntense lnterest, and as they tnststed that they had chosen lt themselves.

It ls also worth listenlng to these children because they show us that young people can and do choose hard work' and that' at the same tlme, thetr work does not have to be separate from their play. Amella Cor<, whose love ts horses and blologr, says' 'You dont thtnk of lthe work] as a hardshlp tf you're enjoylng tt.'

Slmilarty, Rachel Barton, who spends the equlvalent of an adult work-week on the violtn, says, "Violin is my pleasure and career and hobby and whatever else all together.' Rachel also told us that she resents lt when some people, asklng about the time she spends on the vlolin, lmply that she practlces only because she is made to. The question, she says, makes it sound as if "I want to play the vtoltn but I don't want to do the work" Rachel knows that wantlng to play the vloltn means wanthg to do the work involved.

She knows that work and pleasure can go together. This understandtng ls what she and the other young people ln ttris lssue can Susannah Shelfer offer us.

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througlrout the spring months.

We regularly get letters asldng about colleges' admissions policies regarding

Mandy Maher ansvrcrs the phonc ln our office.

OFFICE NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS [SS:l Merloyd Lawrence tells us that Learnlng AU The ?Ime, the new book collecdon of John Holt's wridng, has been added to the Early Learning Book Club.

And wlrtle you're thtnldng about new books of John's, let me tell you that my publtshers have begun to think about markettngf A Life Worth Euing: *lrcted Letters oJJohn Holt, and although the book won't be out undl later this year, now ls the time to let us know if you or anyone you know would be lnterested in revlewlng the book. We're also interested in hearlng from professors who mlght want to use the book in their college class; this would be a possibllity for anyone whose teaching covers the tristory or sociologl of educaflon and educattonal reform, as well as the history of soclal change and, for that matter, anyone teaching courses on biography in general.

We owe a big thankyou to those helpers who fllled ln when they were needed during the busy days of our bookstore's Christmas rush season: Jonathon Alsop,

Tricia Giovannone, and Steve Rupprecht.

They made lt much easler for our shipping department to fill so many orders so

qutckly.

Now ls the time of year to suggest books that we mtgfit consider addlng to our fall catalog. The more you can tell us about why the book is special and why it rnight be appropriate for us, the more likely we will be to follow up on your recommendatlon. And please tell us the name of the publlsher, if you know tt. We will be acquiring and evaluating books

homeschoolers. The November-December 1989 issue of Talk Abut lzan*g 125 Belmeade Rd, Portland ME O4lOl), a Malne homeschooling newsletter, contains the full text of a long and interesting talk that the Senlor Admlsslons Olffcer at Harvard gave to homeschoolers ln Maine.

The talk addresses most ofthe quesdons that homeschoolers seem to have about college, including the one about whether a higfr school diploma ls needed for admlssion. (I can't reslst quottng the answer here: 'No, sir... Irtrst of all, no one who applies has a high school dtploma. They don't get one undl after they're admitted.

The kids we've admitted are Just graduating now [in Junel. But we consider anybody who applies. We sometlmes get people from public schools who are graduatlng a

year early. People apply from frretgn

school systems whlch don't have Amerl-

can equivalents. So that ln ltself ls not held against a student at all.J The full text of this talk ls too long to reprint tn GWS, so I recommend that those of you who are curious about college admlsslons order a copy of thls lssue of Talk Abut Learning.

Eclitor Earl Stevens says that he would appreciate it if those requesting a single issue send $3 to cover his expenses.

A reader writes: 'I have sent letters [to GWSI on different occasions when I saw an article about homeschooling ln a magazine, but I never recelved any acknowledgment that you recâ&#x201A;Źlvd the letters, and no menflon of the ardcles was ever published

in GWS. I have seen serreral articles sinc.e then, but I haven't bothered to brtng them to your attentlon, slncâ&#x201A;Ź I do not feel my letters will be acknowledged.' We don't hear this sentiment expressed very frequently, but when we do it is distressing because we are ln the awlsrard posidon of literally depending on your letters and at the same time bekrg unable to acknowledge many of them. kt me say again what I said in GWS #57, ln the hopes that tt will make our sltuatlon here clearer to arry of you who have been feellng as this writer has: It should be clear from a look through any issue of the magazlne that we cnuldn't put out an issue lf we didn't receive letters and ardcles and local newsletters from our readers, slnce thls material is what makes up the largest part ofany given

SUBSCRIPTION RATES GOING UP We have decided that we will have to raise the price of a GWS subscripdon, ellectlve June l, 1990. The last time we ralsed our rates was ln.June of 1986, when the prlce lncreased from $15 to $2O. We've managed to hold steady at $2O for quite a whtle, but rlslng costs now mean that tt is dme to increase the prtce agatn.

We haven't yet set the new prlce, but we wanted to give you ample time to renew at the current rates of$2O for one year, $36 for two years, and $48 for three years, and to encourage friends and reladves to begin subscribing while these rates are sUll in effect. Even lfyou now have a subscription thafs good for the next two years (for example), you can still take advantage of the lower rate and extend your subscription for up to three years. And now ts the perfect tlme to gtve the gtft subscrtpflon you've been meaning to glve, or to encourage others who have been talldng about subscriblng to do so.

Given the amount of material you receive in a year's worth of GWS issues, we still thtnk that the magazine ls a bargain. As John Holt always said, there is enough material in each lssue to equal a paperback book, and you know what those are selllng fcr these days. Meanwhile, do take advantage of the lower rate whlle you can.

lssue. We read and think about each piece of mail that crosses our desks. Often we show letters and clippings to one another.

We may not mention every news story about homeschooling that we receive becausewe receive so many, butwe read them and store them for posslble tnclusion ln a future edition of our collection,

Home-schding in tlre Neus.

But the dilficulty is this: we have to

choose between answering your letters as fully as they deserve, and doing the rest of our work. There are only a couple of us

here in the ollice (all working without secretariesl), and thousands of readers.

Though we do, in fact, respond to a great deal of the mail we receive, we could never respond to all of tt and also publish the nragazine, run the bookstore, and do all of the other work we do. We like to think of ourselves as responding to your letters through our work, and we hope you can feel that thls ls so. When you wrlte or send us something to read, know that we appreciate it even if we cannot always tell you so dAectly.

After I said this to readers in GWS #57, one suggested that those who simply want to know that their letter was received might enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard with a space for the person to whom the letter was addressed to initial it and write the date on which it was receivd. This reader enclosed such a postcard wtth the next few ltems she sent me. Ernd as far as I know it was a fine soludon for both of us.

WE NEED AN INDEXER The volunteer who had been working on the lndex to GWS #61-70 has become unable to llnish the Job, so we need someone to take over as soon as possible.

Working on the lndex is a bigJob, and does require a fairly long time commitment, but lt can be very rewardtng for those who want to learn about indexing and who want an excuse to read through recent lssues of the magaztne a4;ain. If you are at all lnterested tn this Job, please call or wrlte us so we can discuss it.

CALENDAR April 2 1, l99O: Connecticut Home Educators Associafion conference in Hlgganum. Workshops for parents and children. Susannah Sheffer will be the gpest speaker. For information: Nancie O'Sullivan, 203-255.4043.

April 28: Northern Califomia Homeschool Association conference at Sacramento Ctty College featuring Jean Ltedlolf, the Colfaxes, Tom Armstrong, Helen and Mark Hegener and more. SASE to NCHA, 2214 Grant St, Berkeley CA 94703.

April 28: Wisconsin Parents

Associa-

tlon 7th annual conference on home

educatlon, ln Stevens Point. For informaUon: WPA, PO Box 25O2, Madison WI 53701, or call Mellssa Rice, 715-341-6378.

We are happy to print notices of major homeschooling and related events, but we need plenty of notic.e. Deadline for GWS #74 (events tn May or later) is March lO. Deadllne for GWS #75 (events ln July or Later) ls May lO.

CROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #73

NEWS & REPORTS HOMESCHOOLING IN FRANCE We

rqefixdtleJlrst issue oJks

Enfants DAbord (Children nrs4, tle newsletter oJ the rcwlg-Jormed Fterrch homeschoolbtg organlzatlon Some

e;crrpts,

b:rrnsLo;ted

fiom the

F-rertr'fu

ChMren Ftrst was born out of the dilliculties encountered by a family tn the @urse of tts search for materlals on homeschoollng. OnAugust 8, 1988, ttwas legally tncorporated as

a' f 9ol-type'

organizatlon.

After an inidal statement, some bibliographtcal research, a flrst meetlng on homeschooltng, the publicatlon of articles and announcements ln varlous newspapers! and the results ofthese acHvldes, Children Flrst e:dsts and proves lts usefulness, tf that ls still

GWS#72.1

MEETING WITH ADMINISTRATORS

necessary, every day.

We'r€ going to add to the sum of available news on this subJect, publish a form letter to school admtntstrators as some of our supporters have requested, as well as

lists of possible homeschooling methods.

Tesfimony from Monlque Chi{Ioleau (parent): ...We know that school is not obligatory. So then why are there so many di{ficultles ln belng admttted as educatorparents? We have six chlldren, four of lhem of school age. WeVe been holding school at home for them for about five vears. Glven how far awav we are, and how hqororr" the condltions liere are tn the wi--nter, this lets them do thetr schooling wtth less lost time, less fadgue and stress, in a pleasant way of thelr own choice and as part of their lives.

But what blah-blah, what tlrtngl and useless proc.edures with the authoritles ln order to be accepted. What visitors (police, etc,) and audits and verlllcations for flve years - lfs not so easy, How do we get together to help ourselves? Have you succeeded in gaining acceptance?

The netusletter llsts the addresses oJ the otficers oJ tle grcup. It's rat clear ruhich is the centol address o-f tle newsletter ttself, bul try tle prestdent o;f tle grcup: Dollores Fob:.'Sr:.nchez, B Grde Rue 26OOO Valence, Ftance.

AIso, tFe Decemfur lssue oJEducation

Otherwise, the Brttlsh la nesclrdlng neusletter, contains a relatd tlcm.

Andree Rofurts-Keeru wla apryars to Brttrsh lamesclooler rrrw ltutttg trt F-rance, wrltes:

b

a

...If one wants to homeschool, there seerns to be little dilhculty, legally. One

merely has to tefiorm the Inspector Academlque of the area, [andl they send a form asking nrasses of questions whlch you're not obliged to answer, but if yog do it all helps to keep good relaflons with them. Some day they arrange to visit your children - ofllcially, at ages 8, lO, and 12.

Most people I know say that the Inspector

ls normally pleasant and helpful, al-

Lesally they have to check that your child is iot bein! abused or'misused-' Legally a Darent has the rtAht to homeschool, on iondition that th6 Hds are being properly looked after. From a soclal polnt of vlew things are very dlllerent howerrerl ISS: I gathEr the wrlter ls referrlng to the fact fhat homeschooltng ls not yet socially acceptable h France.l ...One thing ks Enfants D'Abord wants to do ls llalse wtth EO, to make each other stronger from a European polnt of vlew (after all, ln GermanY and SPafn homeschoollng ts tllegal we would hope to chanAe thetr mtnds and laws rather than they inangtng oursl) [SS: Actually, it's not clear that homeschoollng ts tlegal in Spain; see Elsa Haas's letter about thls trt

though I suppose one thlng that is important is your approach to them/him/her.

Nat:rg Hent wrcte In the Daembr Neuu Jerseg lJnsctwlers Netrpork

Ea9

lAalupdate: In September, I was asked to speak at a meeting of the New Jersry Associafion of School Administrators. They asked me to narne a'good dtstrlct' and a "bad distrlct" for homeschoolers, so that the administrators from both could be lnvited to speak also.

The princtpal from the 'good districf

of Toms R:iver outlined hls district's treatment of homeschoolers and answered questions. He probably isn't personally excited about home educadon, but he apparently does hls best to be helpful. He ohirs the-school curriculum and books to families to "foster a good feeltng of cooPeration.' He testllled that he has found no problems tn eight years of having homeschoolers tn hts dlstrtct. His words later tnspired at least one other district to begin offering books and gutdes, too.

Clifton got rny nomination as a 'bad district,- but wasn't able to send a r€presentadve to the meeting.

What stunned and delighted mewas

the c.ordial rec.eption I recelved. These administrators *ere there because they were unsure of thelr rlghts, dutles' and obligadons. They also asked the same questions that I've answered for parents at

wery'new people' meetlng IVe errer done.

I was stmck by their sincrere concern tltat they were doing the rtght thfng and their real lnterest ln seelng 'behind the scenes' in home educatlon.

One admlnistrator admitted that he had never realtzed a family mtght use teachers other than the parents, and he was impressed wtth the idea. Another who said he'd fecl better with yearly tesdng told me that he appreclated the dilferent DersDecllve that I Aave him about that. I 3nggi."t d that sudh a rullngwould have a

damaging elfect on the tdeal situadon we enJoy, of lettlng a chtld learn at his own

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Pace.

An attorney from the Department of Education outhned the Department posldon, wh,lch realllrmed what we've been advising. You $ve the school a currlculum gutde to show equivalency, The school doesn't monltor or test or visit.

GROWING WITHOT]T SCHOOLING #73

The school doesn't have to supply materials, but may choosc to. ...The attorney also reported a general feeling in the Departrnent that lf they pursu.d more stringent requirements for.. homeschoolers, those requtrements would probably have to aPPly,to private. schmls is well.-That was a battle that nobody

thought worthwhlle.

Several admlnistrators asked me after the rreeting tf they could refer homeschoolers to the Network for

guldanc.e. I was deeply lmpressed by the

-ptrlt of inquiry and cooPeration at the meeting.

WAY AROI.JND LICENSE LAW KatJtryn Blowlt (N) urftes br neq)onse to Vtta Wallace's btter in GWS

#72, "Izt DroPouts Have Mtnr's Ilcenses':,

I'm from Texas, which ls one of the states with the law restrictlng :myone under 18 who ls not attending school from obtatning a driver's license' I'm l5 and I've found away around this hideous law.

I'll soon be able to get my llcense even though I don't attend school' A year- or more ago the governor of Texas, Bill Clements, declared homeschooling a form of private school [SS: See GWS #571.

Thlrefore, the law doesn't apply to Texas homeschoolers sir:ce we're not considered dropouts.

'When

I called the DePartment of Public Safety ln Austln to llnd out if homeschoolers could get drlver's licenses they said yes, .ui long as you can Prove vou're homeschooled. When I asked what *oUa U. sulflclent proof they said a letter from a pa.rent or tutor stating Just that would do.

ALLOWED TO MAKE CHOICES IN CLASSROOM A reoder urites: I read an article in our newsPaPer about a teacher ln our city (populadon about 4O,OOO) who ls using some nontraditlonal methods ln her classroom. Students can read where the ltght suits them best: under a table, tf they like, or by the wtndow for natural lighting. They are

allowed to use the bathroom when needed and can snackwhen they are hung5y. She satd tJle students who need more help get it because the others are allowed to be more self-directed, which they enJoy. She also satd discipline problems went way down after thesi changes were made' I should menflon that this school is one of the

GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLTNG #73' Vol. 13 No. l. ISSN #0745-5305. Published bi-monthly

by Holt Associate. 2269 Msschusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA 02140. $2OlF. Datc of Issue: Fcbruary 1, 1990. Sccond-class postage paid at Boston, MA. POSTMASTER: Scnd address changes to GWS, 2269 Massachus€tts Avenue,

Cambrtdge MA 02140.

ADVERfiSERS: Deadllnes are the l5th of oddnumbered months' Contact Patrick Farenga for rates.

4 p@rer ones and has a commitment to changing its tunage ofbeing one of the bad schools. I talked to this teacher for about a half an hour, told her I was excited to see such things happen tn a pubhc school.

LOCAL NEWS For q4dresses oJ state andlnal organizations, see GVlrS #72 or ott

Honesclaolbtg Resource llst, auailaile Jor $2.5O. Cellfornla:'More homeschoolers Iiling R-4 Prlvate School Allidavtts have been contacted by school ollicials ln more coundes thts Fall than eser before,' Ellzabeth Hamill urrote ln the Dec.emberpanuary lssue of the NORTTIERN CALIF1f,RMA HOMESCHOOL ASSOCIATION Nerus.

(F'Iling affidavlts is one way of homeschooling legally tn California.) For ex-

ample, Alameda County officials retumed the allldavtts of familtes who had marked "NA' in response to the questions about fire and health inspectlons, and asked families for the narnes of lnspectors or

ollicials who sald that flre and health inspections were not required. Elizabeth adds that some farnilies gave thls informadon; others told the school olliclals that such lnformatlon ls not required by law and that the affldavit is technicallv and legally complete wtthout tt.

Gonncctlcut: I-ocal school boards are interested ln seeln{ home education legislation passed, and the Connecdcut Assocladon of School Administrators ls wridng proposed legfsLatlon, accordkrg to an artlcle tn the I l/s0/&glssue of the Meriden Record-Joumal No legislafion has actually been lntroduced, however,

and the arHcle also quotes a state representadve saying that the subJect "may not

receive much attention"

in the next

legislattve session. According to the CONNECTICUT HOME EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION newsletter, homeschoolers are learnlng about the legislative process so that they can be ready ifany bill is in fact proposed.

Manltobe: The Department of klucatlon has proposedthanges to the portlon of the provincial Public Schools Act that alfects homeschoolers, according to the October issue of the MANfrOBA

ASSOCI,ATION FOR SCHOOLING AT HOME ne-wsletter. The proposed change speciffcally acknowledgbs that home-* schooling should be regulated by the

Department of Education rather than bv

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Dept. GW, Tuscany Rd., Baltimore, MD Zl2l0

local school divlslons. Accordlng to

THE INTERVENTION

regulation sttll need to be formulated, and a committeâ&#x201A;Ź of MASH members will try to become involved wtth ttrts pnocess.

Pcnnsylvenle: Howard Richman wrote in the Fall lssue of the PENNSYLVANLA HOMESCHOOLERS newsletter:'While there have been no prosecutions ofhomeschoolers under the new law, there have been several attempts by school districts to impose their own additional requirements [on farniliesl such as home visits, special testing requlrements, or quarterly

QUESTION: Is helping other parents generous or

M^{SH, the speclllcs of the departmental

progress reports. Wtrlle some parents have submitted to arbitrar5r requlrements, others have refused.- Howard adds that no families are belng prosecuted for refusing to go along with an arbitrary district policy. Some familtes have asked Joseph

Bard of the Dlvision of Mvlsory Servic.es

of the Department of Educatlon to correct the school districts' mlsunderstanding of what the law allows them to require of families, and this has been successful.

lWashington: Kathleen McCurdy wrote in the November-December issue of the Family Leaning Elaharge: "A c,ouple of months ago we recelved a panic call from the mother of a handicapped child.

She had called lthe department of servlces for the handicapped in a local school distrlctl to request the use of certain materials that were available through the school dtstrict and which the chtld's therapist had recommended. But the school olficial took tlre opportunlty to lnform her that handicapped children could not be home, schooled, as the state had charge ofthem starting at age 3."

Kathleen wrttes that the FAMILY LEARMNG ORGANIZATION discovered that this school of[clal was basing his claim on a letter written bv an assistant superintendent which satd that a parent may choose not to take advantage of the school's services for the handicapped and that the school may, ln such cases, flle a due process hearing request to make sure that the chfld's educatlonal needs are belng met. The matter uras settled in a meetinâ&#x201A;Ź between Kathleen McCurdy and the school ofllclals, at whlch the director of the Departrnent of Student Services told the origfnal school olficlal that he was misinterpreting the superlntendent's letter and that he should provlde the homeschoollng mother wtth the supplies she needed.

Wigconcin: The December issue of the WISCONSIN PARENTS AssoClATIoN newsletter descrlbes proposed legislaUon

that would require homeschoolers to

report annually to the local attendance ofllcer, prove to the local public school

The JoUowing

"reasonable cause" for suspicion, and face prosecu[on for truancy tf they failed to sadsff the administrator. A subsequent rnatling from WPA says that homeschoolers, by writing letters and calling their

legislators, succeeded ln persuading the ad hoc committee to drop the homeschooling

provisions from the bill.

WPA ads that thts ad hoc committee still feels that homeschoolers mav need greater reeUlation, so WPA wlll c6ntinue

letters are frr response

to Jan Hunt's letter

ln GWS #69 ("Al[ow Other Adults to Interuene") and Gail Nagasako's letter in GWS #71 (Helptng

Otler Motters afi. Children").

Ftottt lftda Zidrich (CA):

I am not surprised that mothers whose babies cry in supermarkets usually reJect Gall Nagasako's advice to "leave your shopplng cart here and go outside to tend to your baby." From frequent experience I know that a babv who screams ln the supermarket is usrially not Just hrrtgry - that need can be lilled irunediately, from right under Mom's shirt - but tired, and needs to be got quickly home for a nap.

Why would a mother want to nurse her baby on the pavement before a noisy, smelly parking lot, or in her own hot, cramped car, only to have the child resume screaming when placed ln the car seat, and then return, wlth or without baby, perhaps to flnd her shopping cart gone? How much more helpful Gail would be tf she carried the mother's hand basket. or pushed along her cart, to the checkout, or gave the mother a cut ln line.

Ttrls reminds me of why I love ethnic restaurants. So many immigrants from the Third World seem to accept children uncridcally, and to truly empathize with their parents. I'll never forget the night at

an Indian restaurant when mv infant son - fed, dry, and not at all sleepy - screamed craselessly and mysteriously until one of the uraiters olfered to take him outside.

Since most of the dinner crowd had vet to arrive, several of the restaurant's employees were idle. So the cooks and waiters

tmk turns walking my son up and down the sidewalk in front of the restaurant while my husband and I enjoyed the respite.

Although Gail doesn't directly criticize the mothers she meets, she does so

tmplicitly. This is like telling a child who

has Just tripped and fallen that he should watch where he is going. He doesn't want advlce, he rrrants a hugt Perhaps we should remind ourselves that to give a helping hand ts to do something, notjust to talk.

And Jrom

While

admlnistrator that thelr currlculum and hours of lnstrucflon comply with the law if the administrator clalmed to have

to monitor the situadon.

offensive?

I

Jan Sheldon oJ Cali,Jornia:

agree that'intervention' may

be tndicated ln some circumstances, I nonetheless feel that the declsion to lntervene must be carefullv considered. It is by no means a casual aci. In extreme cases, the public nafure of such intervention could result in the parent feeling

publicly humiliated (ultimately by the

child), the punlshment for which might be further abuse of the child later, in private.

This is not to say that it is nerrer appropriate to lntervene, simply that one needs to observe the situation carefullv in order to determlne whether and how [o intervene.

I think one must be careful not to make a crusade out of intervening between

GROIffING WITHOUI SCHOOLING #73

5 parents and chlldren ln noncrltlcal

situations. The causes ofa baby's tears are legion. Should a stranger presume to be more concerned about an unhappy baby one than the own mother? Indeed. on urL babv's baby's u4uJ o vwr! ut4r should never make assumpflons about another's parcntlng on the basls of an isolated ir:cident. As Painful as it ls to hear a baby's cry or an angry Parent's harsh words, we must be very careful not toJudge too harshly on the basls of what

reallv amounts to lnsufBclent or clrcumstaniial evldence, or to presume to lorow better or care more than the chtld's parents about what the chtld needs or wants.

There are no perfect parents. We have

all done or sald thtngs to our children that we later rcgrel To be publtcly berated by a total stranger, however polttely, ls not really very helpful. A.s beaudful as chtldren are, there are no perGct chlldren either. If we assume that errery crylng baby is the vlctlm of an lncompetent or uncarlng pa.rent, we comrnlt the same lnJustlce tow'ard familtes that we accus€ the educadonal establlshment of commltting agatnsl us as homeschoolers.

Shall rve who advocate homeschooling set ourselves up as superior parents, on the basis of having chosen such an 'enlightened' form of ratstng and educaUng our chlldren? Is lt not one of the tenets of homeschooling that parents themselves are more concemed about and competent to raise and teach thelr own

chlldren than any other lndivldual or

instltutlon?

Meantngful, constructlrrc lntenren-

tion ln noncrltlcal sltuatlons comes from

friends, hmtly members, and varlous professlonals who know and care for all the pardes tnvolved, and who have some understanding of the larger plcture.

Jan Hwtt responds: There seems to be a common assumP-

tion here that lntervention ls necessarily hurtful and crttlcal. It need be neither.

There ls a world of difference between ofliclous, hurtful crltlclsm ('How dare you

tr€at your ctrlld like that?") and helpful intervention done ln a carlng way ('It can be really hard to meet thelr needs when you're so busy. Is there anythlng I can do to help?') There ls nothtng lnherent ln lnterventlon whlch requlres one to be offenslve. The sheer act of offerlng asslstance to the parent, or comfort to the child, need have no ollending qualltles at

all.

I have successfully tntervened by

olfering to find a mother's groceries, helping a chtld pick up dropped toys, and helptng a mother dress a ttred toddler. All of these women were genulnely grateful, thanked me for helping, and lmmediately began treating their children with greater compasslon. We ccn lntervene ln a positive way, and gfve the message that we care about both the parent and chtld.

The wrlters of these letters make a second corilnon assumptlon, that the cholce we have ls to g[ve a message to the parent (and the chtld) or to glve no message at all. But 'Svtng no message' ls not irr fact one of our choices. We give as clear a message by walking past a dis-

Walktng past, we gtve the meseage to_the chfld that no one cares about his sufferlng' and to the parents we gtve the message that w€ approve of thetr actlons.

My prevlous statement on lntervendon lmplted that I advocate lnterventlon

ln

errery case,

tncludtng, presumably' that

of a merely sadJooldng chlldl of course I do not. But there ts a blg dlfference between a ctrlld crytng for no appa.rent reason and one who ls cr5rlng because he has lust been hft hard, lnsulted, or comlbtely tgnored. But erren |f a baby ts crytng for mysterious nearpns, the parent mtsht sUU welcome an olfer of asslstancc. e imple offer to help, spoken pleasantly' ts nonJudgmental and, ln my e:gerlence' aluravi welcomed. How unforhrnate that the taboo agalnst publlc lntervendon has prevented parents from helptng each other

ln stressful sltuatlonsl

The wrlters have rtghtfully reminded me that babtes cry for many reasons and nrc shouldn't assurle that the Par€nt ls at

fault wtth only clrcumstanual

evldence.

Yet my frlends and I have wltnessed some really damagtng Parentlng: slaPPtng, hltttng, shovlng, arm-yankfng, Ptnntng against awall, serrere verbal abuse, negauve labeling, hurtful comparlsons to stbllngs, etc. These chlldren acc.ept thls treatment because thcy are too young and lnexperlenced to stand up for themselves.

Should we, who are older and wlser, slmply walk past an obviously abuslve sitl'iUonZ At exactly what polnt upuld these wrlters step ln? Only when the child ts r€c€tvlng a s€vere phystcal assault? But assault takes rnany forms. Just because emotlonal abuse leaves no outward scars does not mean that we have anY less responstbtllt5r to these ctrlldren. Those of us who can necpgnlze damaging treatrnent have a moral obllgaHon to steP ln (and agatn, thts can be done ln a helpful way).

There ls one mor€ reason for lnter-

Many people who I thtnkmight be offended by my corffnents will happlly acc€pt an otfer of help from my chlldren, Matf (13) and Usa (l f). At flrst, we would be out shopptag and would hear a baby crylng, and Matt or Llsawould say some-, *rtne Ut<e, 'Oh, I hate to hear a baby cry." mt"Ilv I suggested that they go over and do somethlng. It has almost always been well recclved. Thcy are both very comPetent with babtes and small children, and have many dmes amused them for ten or flfteen mlnutes whlle the mother ftnished shopplng. I flnd that even the bables .".ift t[e- more readily than they would me, a strange adult.

I also thtnk tfs imPortant to saY posldve thlngs to parents when you see them treatlng thetr children well. Once, at a swtmmtng pool tn a Publlc Park' I watched a father wtth a two year old who was clearly nen/ous about the water. He was so gentle wlth her that lt was lovely to watch them together as he held her ln his arms and moved around tn the water undl she relaxed, and then, still holdtng her securelv, swooshed her back and forth.

Soon sfre was laughtng and enJoying herself. Ttren he took her to the swings and contlnued PlaytnC wlth her ln an alfectlonate way. It took me a long tlme to get up enough oourage to speak to htm - I was afrald he would thlnk I was strange but finally I dtd. It surprised me how much he appreclated my comments. It turned out that h'e was a shlle father, and I could tell that what I sald meant a lot to htm. IVe also had a few strangers praise me for trytng to meet my chlldren's needs' and I stlll treasure those comments.

The HOW TO Series

By Raynond E taurita 18 Booklets fllled with lg-

venlng that is nearly always olerlook$ tn these dlscusslons, but wtrlch I consider to be the most stgnlllcant the Melong ellect lt can have on tle cl{Ld, Matry adults tn counseling sesslons sdll remember vtvtdly the one time that a stranger stepped tn on thetr behal[, and how much tt meant that someone cared, and that the chlld's own feelings of anger were recognlzed and accepted. Ttrese adults have stated to me (and to other psychologtsts) that this one lntervendon chantgd tlvlr

nonsanse teaching of sPelling' grammar and language: - each wl3€ sasy-to{rasP

ally healthy adults of tomorrow, who will then treat thelr own ctrildren with dfgnity,

Ctrecf nerafor free catalog

ldues and gave them hope. Are we to bypa."5 the opportu*ty to make such a prolbund dllference ln the llfe of a chtld?

Even ln the unfortunaG case where the parent ls offended, the lnterventlon may sdll be like John Holt's proverbial 'pebble ln the shoe'and help the parents to be more alert to the nature of their lnteractlons with thetr chtldren.

Psychlatrlc case historles clearly show that today's psychopathic adults were yesterday's abused children' We cannot take a tlme machlne back to help yesterday's children, but we can help the children of today grow uP to be emotlon-

love, and compasslon.

F-buILg,

an addttbnal ermment Jrom

Teresa Pttnon (Ort):

traught child as we do by lntewening, GROWING WITHOLN SCHOOLING #73

hssors - quizzasWanswers - helptulhints - by a srccassful 30 Par

larBuage bacher HOWTO EXPI-AIN ABOUT: Bookfr2 - Prepositions, Conluncfr ors & lntef ections Boolc4 - lrregular Verbs Book*S - Adjectives Bootcll4 - SPelllng Demons Book*15 - The AlPhabet Book*l7 - Pronouns Book*l8 - Contractons Each Booklet - $3.00 (Please add 15o/o for Postage) Namc Address Leonardo Press P.O.Box €3 Yorfilown Heights. NY 10598

-

6

CHALLENGES AND CONCERNS the testing for learning disabilities and handicaps began wtttrtn days. Of course, he tested way above average, as I knew he

STRUGGLING AS A SINGLE PARENT Roni Lalifurte (MD) writes:

would.

I wonder lf there are any groups of sin$e homeschoolers who support each other emotlonally or live together to help each other flnancially. I do not like to ttrink of puttturg my childr€n through

I have been a homeschooltng stngle parent for four years. In thts time my two children and I have flourtshed. We have a large homeschooling communi$r wtth which we interact. I love belng with my children, observing them, and shartng learning with them.

For the past ficuryears we have had a

another year of school and hope to be able to avold lt.

There ls a grcup: The Home Fdttcators

daycare business. We met people who wlll always be a part of our llves. We've given love and nurturing. My chtldren have seen

Stgle Parert Netutork, c/o Lawa Htchad NIIA, tuBcx 58746, *attleWAg9rcA -1746: 2O6-432-1544. Abo, see tle llst oJ slngb parcnts wrder "Resource Papb' anwtlg our lists at tle back oJ this issr.re,

the day-to-dayjob oftaktng care ofa baby successfully. We have also been volunteer visitors to the neighborhood nuring home. We have met some wonderful older people who respond positlve! to us.

The main potnt of thls letter, though, is that being a single parent and homeschooling is very dilllcult ffnancially. The different home buslnesses that IVe undertaken have not provided a liveable income. I wonder if I'm not creative enough to have thought of one that could support us. Our situation seemed to be defeatlng the whole purpose of homeschoollng. I couldn't even allcrd the transportadon to take us to a free museum. Our outings consisted of the library and the park. Our interests could not be pursued because of lack of money. And my stress level was extremely high because of this. If my children wanted to go lce skating, horseback riding, to the movies, to a show, etc., I said we couldn't alfond tt. I wondered what this was teaching them about potency and proble m-solving.

Something had to change, and the only thing I could oome up with was to get an out-of-the-home Job. Ttris required putting my children lnto the neighborhood public school. It was a painful decision for me. I am looking at this as a one-year learning experlence. I had hoped

HOW CAN RETIRED PERSON GET INVOLVED? Jan Kau.ffman oJ Callfornia writes: I am a grandmother of two (soon to be four) toddler-age children, all of whom live a great distance away, and have Just retlred from a high-pressure Job in the

computer industr5r ln the hope of changfng careers, perhaps into middle-school sclence education. I plan to contact homeschoolers nearby to get adyice and become friends, but have questlons in my mind about how a person like me without my own children to homeschool rnight become lnvolved in the homeschooling communlt5r. flo you have any suggestions?

Or maybe readers of GWS mlght have some good input.

[S.S:] Some suggesflons:

l. Make a list of all the things you do or have an lnterest ln - and certalnlv not lirntted to what you have done prof6ssionally. Computers might be one example, since you mentioned them already, but I'm sure there ar€ many others. Maybe you

that my children would learn first-hand

like to bake, or to draw, or to fix things.

Maybe you like to read particular kinds of

what school is all about, vet not become hurt by the experience. fiowever, after two months we have all learned tl.at this is not possible. While the teachers are wellintentioned, they are misguided, The activities they design for the children are ridiculous and irrelevant. Because my 7 year old couldn't read, I especially wanted to keep him out of school. As I prcdicted,

books. Of course, I'mJust guessing here, but the polnt ls that I'm sure you have plenty of slidlls and interests whtch tt would be possible to share with homeschooling children or famlhes. You could

think about doing thts informally

.\

,''li\ A: A

AI \:=4 -f=i1

oflering a workshop for homeschoolers on a par$cular subject or

actlvity.

2. If you like being

with chlldren in

J

,/ lt\

---)

Llrl 4 I +'ha*r|r:---l;-':.-...-

-

h// in Bov

-

perhaps by wrfting a slmple letter to local newsletters in Cahfornla letting them know that you're there and have the followinS skills - or more formally, perhaps by

general, you might want to go to meetings of homeschoolers ln your area occasionally, to see what's going on and what acfivides are being planned. Maybe an extra adult would be a brg help at the group's

next field trip or at its

next meeting. Often, giroups appreciate people who are willing to watch and play with young children while the parents talk. Of murse, these groups probably have lots of other volunteer tasks that need doing, which nury or may not interest you.

3. Perhaps you'd like to correspond with older children in other parts of the countrlr about their homeschooling, or

about subJects that you have particular experience in, or about whatever else comes to mind. Many homeschooled chlldren are looking for pen-pals (see the pen-pal section in GWS), and you could be a special ldnd of pen-pal. Maybe you'd want to look through the recent pen-pal lists in GWS and see if any of the children mention interests ln science or other areas you're familiar with.

RELAXING ABOUT READING Marg Van Ibren NA) turites: Did I tell you that we "held back' Helen thls yeaf? lt was an idea another homeschooler near here gave us. They've

done lt with all their children. In Virginia one can walve kindergarten very easily; then this mother has told the schools they'll have the child wait another year before starting first grade. I'm calling this Helen's second year of ldndergarten, and am keeping records as I did lastyear. The gpade num-bers don't mean anything to us at home, and if she's ever tested she'll have another year behind her. It also keeps me from being nervous about 'Will Helen read this year?" I don't care when she reads, but I'd likely be concerned that the school people would expect her to read in first grade. So, no pressure on me means no pr€ssure on her,

When Helen was small, I thought I'd like it if she were an early reader. Well, she's not, and it's helped me to see that such things are not important. She is not exc.elling outstandingfy at anything, but she learns all the time.

She does read some words - she often

learns to write them ftrst. She has reinvented the Spelling Word List. All on her own she'll write down all the words she knows, and tleen copy some new ones, often from book covers - tltles, authors, publishers. Sometimes she'll work with them for some time before she asks what they are.

ARE WE EXPECTING TOOMUCH? Dorvto Richoux rurttes: Here is a passage from the forthcom-

ing book A ljfe Worth Liuinl: *lected

Letters oJ John Holt (edited by Susannah Sheffer; Ohio State University Press) that shook my complacency, as I suspect lt will that of a few other GWS readers. It's from a letter John wrote in 1973 to his friend PeggrHughes:

...I have an odd feeltng that whatever we do in environments we share with children, we ought to do because they seem like the most senslble, interesting, and humane things to do in the here and now,

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #73

without hoping or expecdng too much that thts wlll cause the children to grow up to be this or that ldnd ofperson or do thls or that or the other thing. In other words, I thtnk free schools make a gireat mistake il they thlnk of themselves as lncubators for later world changes. They may perhaps turn out to be such, or they may not; the experienc.e of Summerhill has certalnly been that the people who crme out have not been poltucally acdve ln any way, though I'm not offerlng Summerhlll as an tdeal and tt ts probably not as good an environment as the Lllle Skole, But, llke George Dennison, I've been troubled by much of what has been wrltten ln the free school movement ln Amerlca about the liiinds of people these young people were going to be. They might tum out to be ln many ways rather convenflonal people, we would perhaps hope easler ln thelr skln

than most. I know a lot of people, tncludtng my dear friend Jud Jerome, who are Itving tn rural communes of one klnd or another, at least partly tn the hope that thls will help their children be very dilferent lidnds of people. I suspect that the tlme is going to come, and I suspect lt wlll be a traumatic time for many of the adults, when a lot of the ldds, having grown up happily in these places, will spltt for the big city and the wide world to see what lt is like. No doubt they will ltnd many things about it that they don't like, but I doubt whether the chlldren of c.ommunards wlll necessarlly be c.ommunards, lf you see what I mean...

[DR.l I am sensitive to the crlticlsm ln thls passage because I like to thtnk that I am working to make the world a better place, in part by helping people to keep their children out of school and by keeping my own child out. Don't most homeschmlers feel that we are attempdng to ralse a generaflon of chlldren who will be better equtpped to deal with the future than tf we tumed them over to traditional schools? I don't see how one can take responsibllit5r for educating anyone wlthout such an underl5ring premlse.

The question becomes, where do we draw the line between'hoping or expecttrrg' and "hoping or expecting tm mrrch'?

Perhaps the dtsttncflon ls between expectlng certain baslc traits and behavlors and expecting speclllc proGsslons, poliucal beltefs, lnterests, or abllldes, There are certain qualities I would like to see in my chtld that I am certaln can be fostered or extlnguished depending on how she ls ralsed - such as betng fle;dble, independent, conc.erned, courteous, observant, capable. Ifwe succeed ln that much, lt's hard to see what she could do with herself that would disappotnt me.

We'd be very lnterested to hear your thoughts on thls, especta$r from famlltes wlth grown-up children. Did they head tn directlons surprising to the parents?

I also want to say how excldng I found the manuscript of A Lfe Worth Llatry, Perhaps modesty forbids Susannah from tootlng her own horn, so I will be glad to do so for her. She has found an astonlshlng selection of materlal by John - all new to me - revolving around the questlons of how soclety works and how to flnd one's role in lL I cannot walt untll the book ts publtshed later this year so I can have my

own iopyl lt's an lrnportant book I hope

many people wlll

QUERIES

see.

Ii.llian Sly (BC)

wr-ttes:

Adrlanne Nelson-Cavtglia (PO Box 1954, Morgan Hill CA 95O38-1954) wrote ln the Dec.emberfianuary issue of the

Northern California Homeschool Assoctatton News:

My lO-year-old son Matthew wants to audidon for the Natlonal Ballet School. If he's accepted he'll be olT to a boarding school three thousand mlles away. There are school classes from 9-3 errery day, as well as three hours of ballet errery day. He has always been homeschooled, in the organic leamtng style.

I am a 13 l/2year old homeschooler who has been havlng problems with ldds around my own age, who attend public school, snubbing me once the school year has started. I'm wonderlng if any other homeschoolers close to my age have wer had the sarne or a slmilar problem, and if so, would they be willing to share what happened and how they handled it with

year. Our choices seem to be: not let htm go; let htm go and spend maJor $$ on phone bllls and alr travel; or uproot the whole famlly from our ceuntry home on Vancruver lslands and move to the Toronto area so we can be close to h,im. I don't llke any of these cholcresl I'd love to hear from anyone whose children went from homeschooling to a boarding school situaflon, How did your family handle the lmmense changes?

Barbara Cymoszlnslid of lllinois asks:'Amongyour readers, are there any

I'm thrilled that he's afmhg so hfgh, but I'm horrifled at the thought of seelng hlm for less than two months out of the

who conslder themselves to be femlnist homeschoolers? Even marginallf I'd really like to hear from thern'

Please send.us coptes oJyour culsurers

to these readers so that ue fiay cr,nslder prlnttttg tlemln aJuhre tssrrc oJ GWS I'et us knour uletlvr ifs OK to use your nanre'

WATCHING CHILDREN LEARN ASKS ABOUT NUMBERS Marg Van bren MA) wrltes: I wanted to share wlth you some of the quesdons Helen (6) has asked about numbers. She asks a great many multiplicatlon quesdons: 'How much ls 6 sixes?' for example. She also asks about addition and subtraction, and recently she realized that the more closely she herself is lrrvolved, the more easlly she understands things she ffgures out more easily how old she will be when her baby slster Alice is live than how old her other slster, Greta, will be, for example.

She lorows a lot of numbers. By that I mean that she seems rea$r to knour 6: that 2+4=6,2x3=6, 6-l=5, etc. - all ofthose 'number facts' that relate to 6. She has also showrr a great lnterest in fractions.

And for a whlle her favorlte number was a

hundred mlllion: 'How far ts IOO,OOO,OOO lnches?" 'How long would lt take to c.ount to IOO,OOO,OO@' "Are there IOO,OOO,OOO people?" We get out the calculator and tell her how far IOO,OOO,OOO lnches is (halfway from here to Californta), and whaterrer else we can tell her aboutwhat she wants to know.

She's come across the tdea of inltnity when she told us what she thoughtwas the highest number, asked if that was true, and we sald numbers don't stop. She was very uncumfortable about that tdea, derrled that lt could be true. We let tt drop.

We very seldom conect arrything the cblldren tell us about numbers, or spelling or anythtng else, unless they add, "Is that

true?' or "Is that rlght?'

Helen has also estlmated amounts,

8xl3 for example. She asked, 'How much

ls 8 thirteens? About a hundred, I thfnk.'

She has also esdmated length, with ribbon, quite accurately. We never have lessons tn arlthmetic (or anything else); we answer questlons. We do not answer statements (no unasked-for correctlons).

GROIWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #73

We have been surprlsed by Helen's

trterest ln numbers. I have never felt

oardcularlv c.omfortable with math, but

I

io a lot ofhguring,

often by hand. My husband Mark enJoyed math for years in school, but now feels tt was probably Just as bad as everything else. He's sdll c,omfortable with it but generally has no great lnterest ln doing it unless he needs to.

WHEN MATH IS BORING Chelsea Chapman (AN writes:

I read with interest Kim KoPel's thoughts on math tn GWS #72 ("Overcom lng Fear of Math"). I have always hated math. Hated lt lrr such a way that at the end of each long winter of schoolwork, my slster and I would tear, laccr:ate and otherwlse deffle our old rnath notebooks. Ifs

not that I hanre ever found math pa.rdcularly hard or lmpossible to understand, Just deadly boring. Sometimes, while worklng on a long algebraic problem, I Ilnd myself almost asleep or drawlng endlessly ln the margins. Other times, I {Inish dill}cult problems by holding my

8 breath untll I'm done. That certalnly speeds things upl During the fewyears I spent in grade school, I (and everyone else) thought of math as a useless thtng taught by teachers to use up the half hour between reading and lunch. It took me several years to get rid of this preconceived notlon but with my dad's help, I began to understand that math ls not useless. I sttll don't like tt but I realize that math ls life. It ts the only Ianguage that can be understmd universally. Anything can be descrlbed by an equation.

I understand Ktm's forgetttng thtngs she had no pracdcal use for. Havtng a good reason to learn somethlng is really Lnportant. For e:<ample, I would really like to learn navigation but I have to learn trigonometqr first. The length of the word put me off in the beginning but tf learning trigonometry will help me navlgate, lt ls just something that must be done. Kim ls right - you must overcome your own problems, but havlng a goal to work towards or a râ&#x201A;Źason for doing tt certainly helps.

LEARNING THE TABLES Kalla Morris (BC) wrltes:

I don't like math at all, and ifs really hard for me, especial$ multiplicatlon tables. I was supposed to know them ln grade two. I used to go to school, and thafs

what my teacher told me. But I never got past the four times table. In thtrd grade, I did a whole set of math books, startlng at grade one and going until grade three.

Still, I was prett5r useless at lt.

When I was 9 my dad sald I was getttng old enougfr to llnally learn tt. I dtd, up to the seven times table. Somehow, over the sununer I forgot them all. Then, last year, my mother got a lidt called Math-tt by mail-order. It rvas greatl lt's sort of a game that helps you learn the tables, and you hold your breath to play tt. I thlnk I've Iinally really and trr.ly learned the tables

WHEN PEOPLE ARE FORCED Arue Brosnan (NY) wdtes: Most kids that I know do kno'rr how to read, but it very often ls a chore to them.

The library bec.omes a terrtldng building to them, a second school, only no one's

forclng them to go so they choose not to. A few months aglo when I was gotng to the library I persuaded one of my frlends to go too, and she enJoyed the bicycle ride, but onoe we got to the library (and I was ready to slt down and read a book about black holes) she began httttng me wlth questions: 'F<rund all your books yef? Ready to go? Can we get out of here?' I sald, "What ls urong?'Her answer unlocked the door to the mystery I've always been wondering about: "Well,'she sald, "when I have to do a proJect for school I always come to the library, so I never câ&#x201A;Źme here otherwise because lt remlnds me of dolng proJects or reading a book for school.'And these are the same projects deslgned to get lidds lnterested tn readtngl People tn schools still don't understand that nobody ln the world ls enthusiastic about somethlng that they are forccd to do. When I read Klm Kopel's letter in GWS #72 I was happy to know there's someone like me. I've never ltked math, have never been able to IInd a use for tt, and am only moderately good at tt.

My mom leaves me alone about it and never makes me do lt, Once ln a whtle I wtll rummage around and flnd a workbook and do a page, maybe from a sense of dut5r. I've been waldng and watting to llnd out when I'm going to need thts stulfl Oh, I know the baslcs. I can go to the delt and not be embarrassed by havtng to llgu.re out my money for llve mlnutes. But IVe never seen a reason to go lnto anythfng higher than divlston. I thfnk my mom knows that I'm not a math whlz, but she doesn't care, or maybe she's Just walttng, like me, for a math bursl She's bothered, though, by my piano playing. Because I taught myself, and because all I wanted to do was play songs, I sldpped all chords, ttrntng, scales. Now, I can read muslc fast as a wlnk, and play, but the only problem ls it's my version of the song, and lt drlves Mom crazyl I like the way I play.When I try to explain how I play, people say, 'Well, can you read music?" and I'll say a variation o[, 'Yes, butJust notes,' so they end up with the concluslon, 'Oh, you play by ear."

I say, 'Well, sort of.' I can never play a plec.e of muslc right undl I've heard tt. If I'm in the car and somethlng comes on the

radio, and I'm only half llstentng, I go home and start playing some music, and Ilnd out I must have heard tt before because I'm playing it dtlTerently now. Or

cLo'rLo-rzr.;

fiom Claudit Brosnan\ Alle's

The letters from Vita Wallac.e ['kt Dropouts Have Drlver's Licenses'l and Kim Kopel tn GWS *72 made me see clearly that as homeschoollng has gained public recognition there has been too much emphasls on parental teaching and not enough on children teaching themselves.

To a person cornlng new to homeschooling the baslc tdea of self-education may not be all that apparent. Thls is why the letters by homeschooled ldds are a step in the right dtrecdon. I liked Vita's letter just because it was a dynamite great letter. She should be a lawyer - no, she should be a legislator. And from the exchange between Kim and Susannah I realized that there is a lot to gain from listening to what homeschooled kids say, and in spending less time on parents gtvtng each other advice.

Maybe math ls a subJect better leamed all at once at a much later age than ls taught ln school (rnaybe about i5, like Kim). But as my daughter Anne says, she doesn't make a fool of herself at the dell. Also, when shoppkrg, I can send her to pick out the com oil and she can find the one that costs the least per ounce and decide if a coupon ls a good deal or if something else ls better. She doesn't have any

trouble cooking Mth fractions, dividing

or addtng them. So I suppose she knows more math than she thinks. So, let us say, maybr-

Jormd math should wait until

15.

Susannah asked whether parents feel guilty when thetr child doesn't learn something. If you think of all the knowl-

learn a small amount, well, how can you

Create y()ttr ()tvn ltotrtt'sr:lrool crrr r icrrlrrrrr witlr "#E-fiJ tIre trclp Cl"Iar. Sr'lr,,l I t.rrr. l.-drrcati'lr l)r.<;rarrr, tlre well-l^lirrr<-r,rl --i},,,,,ag.=[,,,r;, gr--Itolrre sclrool l)r()granr <lfferirrg flexible rlr "$

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statrdard al)l)r()aclr.

Our graduales receive our private sclrool diplonra and frrll transcripts. t289 Jewetl Ann fubor. Mlchlgan 48lOi

And

mother:

edge out there, ln milltons of dillerent areas, of which each of us will only wer

Home Based Education Progranl

'f

playtng tt better. It's like that with Tchatkovsky. I used to think his pieces were really bortng until I learned how to play them rtght.

I've nerrer heard the opening theme of the Wtlliam Tell Overture, yet I play it well enough for my standards. Dad says, "Beautifull" and Mom says, "Anne, if Rossini were here he'd have a fitl' But she doesn't make me learn to play it correctly.

Maybe once ln a while she'll sit down and try to tell me to do it a certain way, but not too often. She's probably afraid I'll lose interest ln the plano.

As wtth math, I'm watdng to flnd out when I'll start needing to do it right. I'm not even worrled about what will happen lf, when I want to teach myself the right way to play the ptano, I'm unable to forget the wrong way. For now, my wrong way is the right way.

(3131 769-4515

Nl=,

Prt Monlgomcry, Ph,D. Dlrcclor

errer hope to take responsibtlit5r for all of that? I say feel guilty about the stuffyou

haven't yet learned yourself, if you must feel guilty about something, but don't think thatyou or the school are able to decide (or Justilled in decidingf what another person should spend his or her learntng effort on.

It is most tempting to jump in and meddle when a child says, 'I'm boredl I don't have anythtng to dol'The secret, which someone wrote about in GWS long ago, is to stt the chtld down and tell her to watt there until she ffgures out something good to do, Thts worked magically for us.

GROWING WITHOLTT SCHOOLING #73

9 Of course lt's sort of a Joke ln our family by now, but we sflll need lt occasionally.

F-haILg, Arwte amments

on her

mother's letter: When an adult comes up and asks, 'Why aren't you ln school?' you're supposed to soften tt by saylng, 'My mom (or dad) teaches me at home.' If you say, "I don't even go to school. So far, I'rc taught myself everythlng I want to know,' they think youVe mn anuay from school or are a lunatlc, Whereas the other way, they thtnk your parent's a teacher and you get private lessons.

The usual adult person ln America thinks tt's terribly hard to teach yourself somethlng, and if you want to learn somethlng, youVe got to llnd somebody to

teach lt to you. Thts leads to the tdea that lidds are dumb unless taught or unless they go

to school.

My mom satd that she supposes I know more math than I thlnk. That is true, but the thtng ls, there ls a difference between real math (lfvhg and worldn$ and stuck-on-the-page black and wbite numbers. When I have to do that, tt balnes me and I do everythlng wrong. Thafs why I said I hate math. I'm afratd of taktng a test on it, but if they said, "For the math

part ofthis test I wantyou to go to the grocery and get the most for your money,' I'd Jump for Joy. I never realtzed how many thtngs that my mom has done or told me came from GWS. I thought she made up 'Go slt lnyour chaA until you thtnk of somethlng to do' because she couldn't thtnk of anything for me to do, And I thought it was the dumbest thing in the world, but I did it and I guess it cured me because for the rest of my life I got used to ffnding myself somethlng to do by thtnktng about it. I often wonder what I would have tumed out to be ltke tf my mom had never read GWSI

WHAT WE THINK ABOUT CHILDREN'S WRMING Narcg Wallace (NY urltes: I loved the Focus section on when leamtng is frustradng (GWS #71). It was exciting to see chlldren openly, honestly, and clearly writtng about thelr own genuine concems, and all writhg as tf they were certain they had tmportant thtngs to say and would be llstened to. As a grown up, I norerfeelas lfI have enough opportunltles to hear what chtldren thlnk and feel. It's not as lf I don't remember my own childhood. I do. Perhaps that's why I have

an tnkltng of how thoughtful chlldren really are and how ltttle they are heard.

I'm $ad children's wrtting ls appear-

ing more and more frequently ln the pages of GWS. For rne, thls ls usually some of the freshest and most lnteresting material ln the magazine, I love the way chdldren seem so free to write in and set the record straight when they dtsagre.e wlth something theyVe read or have declded something needs further clarlllcadon, I hke the solicited pieces on spectllc lssues (such as tn thls Focus) Just as much. It's good to know that children feel they can have a volce ln GWS. Thetr attltude ls reassuring, because even though we mtght slncerely

want to hear what chlldren are saying, we don't always allow them the tlme or sp€rc€ to say whafs on thelr mtnds. Thls has to do, I'm pretty sure, wlth our mlstaken noHons about what ctrlldren's wrtUng ouglrt to be.

Because we tend to conslder chlldren's wrfdng to be, most approprtately, elther cute made-up stodes or rhymtng poetry (thts ts what I most often see published trt rnagazlnes of chlldren's wrtdng or ln chlldren's sectlons of homeschoollng newsletters), we rnake tt dtllicult for children to be as aware as th€y rnlght be that they are as capable asi arryone of wrttlng about what concems them most, It's as lf we are continually saytng to chlldren, 'Ifs OK for you to have imagNnattons, but not ideas.'

GWS has gradually become a place where chlldren can wrlte ln as fellow citizens, and where other chlldren can read thts wrttfng and realize that they can do tt too - that they don't have to be Itnfted by adult expectatlons of what chdldren's wridng ts. What's especia$ interestlng to me about GWS as a forum for children's voices ls that althouglr it rnay have speclllc secdons devoted to concerns that ldds are ln tJre best posidon to wrtte about, lt ne\rer makes a potet of publish-

lng ktds'wriung per se. That is, children's writing ls never ghettolzed into a specific section having nothing to do with content but havlng everything to do wtth the age of the wrlter. Thls means that tt ls the con-

tent of the wr'tdng that matters. When lidds write for GWS they are wridng because they have something to say. Their writing ls not dlstinctly chtldren's writtng at all, but simply wrtting.

The children's writing tn GWS has helped me seeJust how guilty I have been, wtth my own chdldren, of dellntng thetr wrftfng tur terms that limited them or limtted my perc.eptlons of what they were capable of. I always found lt easy to think of Ishmael as a wrlter, and I'm sure I encouragd trts wrtting as a rcsulL He wrote plays, poetry, and storles (all wonderful). I loved every word, and still do. But I also loved the sheer bulk of the wrtdng he produced (as dld the school authorities, who never read a word, but admired hls towerlng stacks of paper). Ishmael's piles of fantasy writtng were easry evldence that he had a healthy childlike lmaginadon.

When he occasionally wrote letters to the edttor of the local paper, I dldn't consider that to be wrtttng. Pollttcs, perhaps, but not a creadve endeavor, as I was sure children's writtng ought to be. (Question: Why ts tt that only children and students are e4pected to produce creadve wridng?)

Vita" meanwhile, Itlled page after pa.ge with print, too, but the storles and poems she wrote were feeble attempts, although they dfd please the school authorldes.

Mostly Vita kept busy writing letters, dtaries, and lists. I don't think I ever consldered Vlta's hsts to be legftlrnate writing. I dtdn't mentlon them ln school reports, In our famlly of writers, I was pleased to see somebody doing other thlngs, as Vita dfd - art, muslc, gardening, math - but I was relleved when I could honestly tell the school autiorlties that she had written a poem or story.

It seems almost ludicrous now that I dldn't conslder what she was doing to be serious wriilng, worthy of mention tn the

GROWNG WITHOUT SCHOOLING #73

school reports. In letters she could be so entertainlngl, so funny. Her descrlptive sens€ was amaztng. Even her lists could be

beautifully written.

Recently I have been wrlttng fiction, and like most wrlters, I need first readers, people to tell me what works and what doesn't, what ls lnterestlng and what lsn't, and wen what ls grammafical and what bends the rules Just a little too far. Vita, rny non-wrlter, has emerged as my perfect reader, and it couldn't be stmply because she loves to read. I know now that there's no wEry she cpuld care as much as she does

about clartty and style

h

wrtttng if she

weren't a writer herself, no way she could be such a sflckler for correct grammar.

The other day, while flipplttg through a ntagazlne, I came across an ardcle written by my mother. I stopped ftpping, natually, and began reading ln earnest'

My mother writes mostly polttical pieces.

Ttds was polftfcal, too, but lt was also

qulte personal, and beaudfully wrttten.

When I told her so she said, 'I don't regard what I do as brtttng' tn the sense that you do it. Real wrtting ls a way of interpreting the world. What I do ls wrtte to express opinlons, much the way other pe.ople (probably my ancrestors) shout out the window." I wanted to say, "No, no, no. Real wridng ts Just that - oPirrions shouted to the world. And bestdes, an opinion always

lmplles lnterpretation.-

Wrtdng ts wrttlng, Perlod' To talk about real wridng, or children's wrtdng' Itmlts us and ltrnlts our chlldren. Maybe

tt's only because I so rarely have a chance to hear lidds speak out that I llnd the children's pleces in GWS so inter€sting, so

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lo refreshing, and so moving. The irony is that if GWS ever decided to further encourage kids to speak out by reserving a special section for their writing it might rob them of the very thing it wanted to give them, The reason children's writing works so well in GWS is that the children have no sense of thems€lves as child

writers, They are simply folks with opkrions worth shouting about.

YOUNG WRITER SPEAKS TO CLASS MIka Perrlne oJ Wisconsirr wr{tes: I was asked by a friend of our family to speak ln her English class at our local college, about my writing career. She wanted me to talk abolut Neighbrhd, Neus, a bi-monthly newsletter of writing by homeschooler that I edit, and how I write, and writing I have published in natlonal magazines.

At ftrst I was really nervous about lt and consldered turntng down the offer, But then I came up with a solution. I made a few phone calls and it was worked out: my friend Nica and I would speak in front of the class. Nlca is a homeschooler who

writes a lot and co-edits Neuus

with

Nelghbrhd

me.

We outlined our presentation and got together materials we would need: books, rnagazines we were published tn, and old issues of Neighbrhd Neurs, About two weeks later, we arrived at the college. Our friend introduced us to the class and we started. We e:<plained that we were homeschoolers, which gfves us the freedom to wrlte what we want, when we want. We talked about Neigttbrhd Netos and how it gives us an audlence. We showed and explained the magazines we had gotten published tn. We told that we were read to and read a lot ourselves, and that it aflected our writing. When we were flnished we were surprised that our presenta-

tion had taken only half an hourl

Then the class asked questions for a while. A lot of the questions had to do with homeschooling, as many of them had never heard about lt before.

At flrst I had been nervous, but then I realized lt was Just talldng - and really, it

was funl

STUDYING SHAKESPEARE Jonathan Klbler (CAl torites: TWo years ago,

my mother introduced

me to Chaucet's Canterbury ?bles, the plays of Shakespeare, and Efraouulf. I went on to study Shakespeare by myself. I went

l-

to see several productions ofShakespeare's plays, and I notlcred that they were

LOVES GRAPHIC DESIGN

all produced dillerently. In King Lear, five

actors from England took all the parts.

The production of Mrcbth that I saw was like a theater in Shakespeare's time. It was outside with the stage in the center and the audience sltting around lt. When I sw Haniet" Hamletwas played by a woman and erreryone wore modern clothes. I think that thls was supposed to symbolize that Hamlet was really portraylng not Just Hamlet's problems but everybody's problems.

I also learned about Shakespeare lrr

other ways. For Chrlstmas last year, I

rec.elved several Caedmon tapes of the plays. I can listen to them whtle I do other things like clean up my room. Also, Ttre

Dtglish on PBS had an episode about Shakespeare. They showed that Shakespeare colned a lot of new words that are now popular trn the English langrage. F\.rrthermore, I enJoyed visiting the Shakespeare Garden at the Hunting;ton Libnary. At thts garden, dlfferent plants are grown and beside each plant is a sign displaying a quote from the Shakespeare play or sonnet that mendons that plant.

Flnally, I watched a video of. Hanlet starring the famous La.urence Olivier.

I like Shakespeare's plays so much that I decided to produce some of my own.

The three plays that I dld were Haniet, A Midsummer N{qht's Dream and a pa.rody of Kttg Lear. I used stuffed anlmals for the actors and read all of their lines for them.

I performed them for my family and a friend who was visitlng from the east Sltory oJ

coast. I also lnvented a Shakespeare Quiz computer game, I wrote lt in B,{,SIC, the c.omputer language that I was learning at the time. I wrote multlple cholce questions about the plays and the player typed in the number that corresponded to the correct answer. I entered lt ln some 4-H fairs through the 4-H computer club and won some blue ribbons.

If anybody else ls lnterested in studying Sbakespeare, I can recommend some good books that I own and read a lot.

First, The Silver Burdett Press has a great series called Shnkespeare Jor D.reryorr, These books tell about the history of the plays and what world errents were happenlng when the plays were belng written.

They have wonderful plctures and are very easy to understand. Second, Fannrite Tales Jrom Shakespeare, published by Rand McNally, tells the plots of five popular Shakespeare plays. It has marvelous illustrations. Third, there is the Rfi,terside Shakespeare which is quite a thick book. It has a complete script of wery Shakesp€re play and all the words of every sonnet. Before each play it shows pictures from that period and tells what had happened in history.

It tells the plot ofeach play tn prose and explains hard words at the bottom ofeach page in footnotes.

In my study of

:-

\i

Shakespeare I have leamed quite a lot. But I know that I have much, much mor€ to leam.

GaiI Meehant oJ FLorida wrttes:

This is our first attempt at homeschooling our l3-year-old eighth grader, Patrick. These ftrst two months have been settling-in time with me itchy that we're not making huge academic strides. My son says, howwer, that we are far beyond where his public school class would be.

He has found that he is not comfortable mentally if he fails to have his "thinldng time" errery day. This is not a new observatlon for him. When he was a toddler (and then on up until school) he would rock on his horse for hours every day' He has observed that when he was small he could imagine things so clearly that they seemed real enough to touch.

This abtlity dimmed and has not returned full force as a result of my mother having purchased a TV which he watched from tlme to dme. After several months of watching, he retumed to his personal thinking time (rocking when he was a little Gllow, swinging now that he's older) and discovered that his imagining had sufTered what appears to be irreparablyl Patrick is interested in becoming a ga.rne

deslgner. The challenge has caused

hlm to become very irrvolved with compu-

ter proglrammlng and graphtc design (he's always been a rnarvelous artist). To this end, we bought an Amiga 2OOO computer for him. It ts a fabulous machlne used by professional animators and designers.

The animadons he has produced in the four months he has had the machine have impressed professlonals and that, of oourse, excites him to greater achieve-

ment.

What a differenc.e since he left schooll He has gone from a depressed underachiever to an enthusiastic, smiling person. He has a long way to go before he reaches hls stride, but he is a changed person inJust these few months.

Patrick watched tris older brother

(our mtddle child) educate himself to become a professional muslcian. He took note of Steve's success and [stened care-

fully when thls older brother told him to put fatth in himself and teach himself because the teachers he would nrn into in school would do more harm than good tn most cases, and in the least case would

provide little substantive help, Patrick

has listened to this well because hls brother provided such a graphic illustratlon ofwhat can be done studying on one's own. So he is inclined to do well at homeschoollng because he does not believe that the only way to learn is through a teacher.

Slnc.e Patrick ls lnterested in a career in art, I called the Rhode Island School of Design and was informed, curtly, that only a student with a high school diploma would be considered. Of course. this was an admlnistrator talkfng. I haven't spoken to the president of the universit5r who, one would suppose, might have a ltttle bit of creadvi$r. We have a technical vocational school here from which one nury graduate with a regular high school diploma. It offers advanced classes and meets the credit-hour requirements of the state of Florida. The problem is, one must be 16 to enter, and one must come from an

GROWING WITFIOUT SCHOOLING #73

ll accredtted tdgh school prlor to entrancte.

Also, how do we rnanage to teach chemtstr5r or physlcs when urc obvlously have no labs arailable? Even blologr ts better with some lab opportunitles, don't

you thlnl0

ISS:I Gn:en

lster usllh some

urote qaht aJeu weeks oJ

tlese quesflons:

ler

ourn arrsuars to

Rtght after I wrote to you, I realized that I had worded my questlon to the technical lnstitute tncorrect$. When I spoke to them about Patrtck studldng there, I neglected to ask whether he could take lndividual classes wlthout necessar-

tly completlng the entlre currlculum

wtrlch would lead to a dlploma. When I spoke to thetr guidance counselor he satd that of course Patrlck could take any tndtvidual course he ltked, tncludlng Chemlstry, Phystcs, Calculus, etc. The counselor also explained that Patrtck would not have to come from a regular school, but could begin any tlme after he becomes 16, and could even begln at 15 were he to get a recommendation from the school he would ordlnarlly attend. Even thoug;h tt ts unlikely that Patrtck will seek thts opportunigr, tt ts good to know about all the alternatives.

I happened upon a marine btologtst with a Ph.D. that tncluded some education credlts. He has furvited Pat to come use his rnicroscopes and ask questlons any time he likes. WeVe been over once, but Pat is not anxious to do much of thls. Hts mind is Just riveted to his computer rigfit now.

A frtend of ours ourns a movie company whtch works here at the new Universal Studios. They are starttng producflon on a new movle and have made arrangements to have Pat follow them around from start to llntsh. I ptck up the scrlpt tomorrow mornlng and he vlsits tlre set

thtngs I'm learntng tn my classes. Much of what I have learned valldates my deartyheld beliefs about ctrlld-dlrected leamftxg.

Donna Glbson's letter ln #71 ('Phonlcs and Trust') made me stop and thtnk.

As home educators, we know our chlldren are natural learners. But we often become nervous uraltlng for the 'results.' Espectally ln readtng, unftfng for our chlld to put all the pleces together can be very hard for some of us when lt doesn't happen by age 6 or 7. IVe leamed a few thlngs tn my classes that I would have appreciated knowlng three or four years ago when I was at thts potnt wtth my older daughter.

For starters, the'experts' have done somethlng I can agree wtth. They have redeftned readlng as the lnteracdon among the reader, the reade/s backg;round knowledge, the prtnted lnformatlon, and the context of the rreadtng sltuatlon. No longer ls word-calllrg (lust saying the name of the word) consldered reading, and phonlcs, except ln lfrnfted usage, ls headtng out. The emphasls now ls on getttng rneaning from a text, on the deeper thlnklng proc€sses that must take place for readtng, as a dynamlc actlvlty, to happen.

On a pracdcal level, these ldeas have found expresslon ln the whole language approach to teachlng reading. Thls approach tntegrates the hearlng, sPeakrng, readtng, and wrtUng of language. For example, young neaders are helped to write stories based on thelr own experlences.

Invented spelltng ls encouraged; lt can be changed tn the edtflng proctss. Also, dtctatlng storles to an adult is llne, if the physi-

cal act of wrtttng ls dilllcult for the child.

Although this tdea is not new to many

Frtday.

We would never have belteved tt possible for him to actua$r participate in a professional movie at his age, here ln Orlando. He Joined the local movle club, but what they did was so amateudsh and

their behavior so lnfantile that Patrick flnally dropped out in disgust. Now he's

getting the chance he's drearned about.

WHAT READING SPECIAL. ISTS ARE SAYING Jo Hlnsdale (MI) wrltes: I've been working on a master's ln educatlon for the pastyear and a half. I started this for several reasons: to see what I could learn for use with my own kids, to have personal legal protection, to flnd a way to beneftt other home educators, and to build brtdges where I could between the educatlonal establishment and the homeschoollng communtty.

Surpristngly, I have met wtth little opposltion. Many professors have been supportive ofmy philosophy, and the teachers in my classes tend to be apprehensive yet open to the idea of home educadng. They understand the power of

experiential learntng, yet often feel their hands are ued by the system ln which they must operate.

When I read GWS now, I often thlnk of

GROWING WTflOUT SCHOOLING #73

GWS readers, what made me saY'of

course' was the realization that a lot of liilds need a speciflc experience about whlch to wrlte a story. I had alwaYs exoected mv natural learners to be founts of'ltterary dreatfvtty because they had neger been stifled. Not so. Some ldds are spontaneous wrlters; mine needed a nudge.

Once helped to llnd a spe,clfic ldea based on thelr lives, they were able to wrtte' Whole language learntng acknowledges that chlldren learn from the linguistlc clues ln a text. Longer sentences that have a natural rhythm have been shown to be easler to read than the artiffcially short and choppy sentences found ln basal readers. Who cares about readability formulas? lrt ktds learn to read from real books. Ftnally, this message ls getung out.

Tradttlonal educators are realizing that we read for meantng, then what we read must hold our lnterest. This is whY

if

Donna's son had trouble reading the silly s€ntences she made up for him. My daughter felt the same way when I tried those out on her a fewyears ago. She could read words like 'mountaintoP' in the context of an krterestlng sentence, but not meaningless phras€s about fat cats.

The last thing I want to mentlon is this: when your child does beg[n to read, and she asks you what a word is, lfyou don't feel lt's a sltuadon ln which you should simply tell her the word, ask her, "What would make sense?'This way your under\dng message ls that reading is a prooess of getting meaning, not Just naming words that are a collection of sounds.

GROWING WITHOLIT SCHOOLING #73

JOHN HOLT'S BOOK AIIID MUSIC STORE PUZZLES OLD AND NEW: HOW TO MAKE AND SOLVE THEM

FIFTY-FIVE MEN: THE STORY OF THE CONSTITUTION

by Jerry Slocum and Jack Botermans #1276 $19.95

by Fred Rodell

Puzzles Old and New is exactly what the title

TZZTWR

ffi'&ffiULS) H{}II' TO MAffi Al\iD SOIVI THTM

says

it is:

an overview

of

puzzles both old and new,

lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings, and including detailed directions for how to make and how to solve most of the puzzles in the book.

Puzzles is a fascinating,

instructive book, well worth a place in any library. It is not only an excellent'tainy day" book but also a wonderful leaming tml, for the authors have researched their subject well, and give you the history of every type of puzzle in ttre book.

The book is separated into ten major sections: put-together puzzles, which include such old favorites as tangrams; takeapart puzzles, like those boxes that have no apparent lids or indeed any openings at all; interlocking solid puzzles, including such devilish puzzles as The Third Dimension; disentanglement puzzles, such as those frusfating wire puzzles that one sometimes gets as prizes at birthday parties; sequential movement puzzles, such as The Rubick's Cube; puzzle vessels, pitchen or cups that seem nearly impossible to drink from unless one knows the secret; dexterity puzzles, such as mizes; impossible object puzzles, in which you try to discover how two objecs were put together; and finally, folding puzzles, puzzles in which one must fold apiece of paper with one picture on it in order to make anotler picture.

The vast majoriry of the puzzles in this book are from the l9th and early 20th centuries, the pre-TV years and the heyday of puzzles. They come from all over the world, and many are incredibly detailed.

My favorite puzzle (and one of the easiest to make) is probably best known as "Inslant Insanity." The puzzle consists of four cubes, each face of each cube having one of four colors (or suit of cards) on iL As the book says, "The problem is simply to arrange the cubes in a snaight row so that all four colors appear on each of the row's fow sides." Although this puzzle came out about twenty years ago, it was first patented in 1900. It's a lot tougher than it looks or sounds; I've been playing with it for quite some time and I sti/t haven't figured it our

-

Emily Murphy

ISS:I Several people have asked us where ro get the SOMA cube puzzle that John Holt writes about. Well, Puzzles Old and New shows you how to make one.

#lA6 $12.95

In high school I disliked U.S. History so much that I once got the lowest gade in the class on an exam, an occurence my teacher thought odd. He came over o my desk and asked me, "What happened? Were you sick?" He looked so concemed that I temporarily overcame my fear of teachers and their authority and answered with ttre truth. "I didn't read the textbook," I said.

"It's boring, just dates and events. Nothing real."

I don't remember the end of the sory. I suspect I read the assignments from then on, only because I was the type to cower before the threat of a bad grade. But the point is, history canbe dull. Or it can be fascinating. It depends on the books we read on whether they make history come alive for us. 55 Men does this by showing us real people making history happen. In this readable book, we can hear for ourselves the once-secret debates that resulted in the drafting of the Constitution. And the author suggests inriguing answers to some important questions.

Whowere the Founding Fathen?'"They were essentially hard-headed men of affairs," Rodell says. "It is a mistrke to think of the.se men as visionary dreamers, playing around at Philadelphia with absract conceptions of political theory, pulling a whole concept of government out of the air like a rabbit out of a hat." Perhaps not magicians, those 55 men, but they did accomplish something amazing during that summer of 1787. Their states had sent them to Philadelphia to make a slight revision in the Articles of Confederation. Instead they scrapped the whole thing and wrote the Constitution. Why? Rodell says that they had a purpose their states didn't suspecL They were monied gentlemen who needed a strong central government to help them stay monied, and they went to Philadelphia to protect their economic interests.

The foreword to this reprint of the book (which was originally published in 1936) warns that Rodell's economic interpreadon has been disputed. But his theory seems plausible when we remember that the Revolution was fought as much for economic reasons (against "taxation without representation") as for abstract ideas of freedom. The 55 men were wary of democracy, Rodell tells us. The people, James Madison said, "are liable to err through fickleness and passion." Furthermore, in a rapidly-growing nation the poor would soon outnumber the rich, and rule by the people might eventually lead to laws aimed at a more even distribution of wealth. Thus, the Founding Fathers wrote into their document many provisions to protect the rich against the "injustice" of popular laws.

How did these men gain ratification of the Constitution they weren't even supposed to be drafting? By acting so quickly that most of the public didn't even lnow what was happening. A neat trick. Those who did know - and might otherwise have objected - were persuaded by the inclusion of Article V which

.Iohn Holt'r BooL and Muslc Store

2269 Massachusetts Ave.

$anted the power of amendment. And as it happened, the amendments have brought the Constitution closer to democracy than the 55 men intended.

Rodell dedicates his book "To the School Children and The Politicians - for the same reason." I would add: to homeschoolers, both parents and children - for reasons Rodell hadn't foreseen. The book made me ask more questions and think about the Constitution in new ways. The past is dead unless we see with our minds the sruggles, erors, achievements, and yes, passions (there were plenty displayed on the Convention floor) of real people. Perhaps if my teacher had handed me Rodell's book after my timid confession, I might have remembered more of what happened in that history class oflong ago.

-

Mary-George Simonirch

DEALING CREATIVELY WITH DEATH

by Emest Morgan #1236 $9.00 Among the consequences of our indusnialized society has been the depersonalization of life's two most significant milestones: birth and death. Both these events, which until recent times occurred traditionally at home, among loved ones, were gradually taken over by medical specialists, with family members reduced to helpless and passive bystanders.

Within the past few years, however, a reversal of both trends has begun. Home birth has become an increasingly popular option. Meanwhile, a growing hospice movement has shown us that home death, in addition to easing the dying person's hnal days, can be a healthy and healing experience for the survivors. Dealing Creatively With Death is the most thorough, most compassionate, and altogether the best book I've seen on ttre subject.

In this sensible and sensitively written book, Ernest Morgan addresses virtually every aspect of death and bereavement, from practical details to emotional and philosophical considerations.

First written in L962, the book is now in its eleventh edition and includes updated sections on AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, suicide, and the loss of a child. Among the topics discussed in detail are death education, tre right to die, home care for the terminally ill, dealing with grief, family-planned death ceremonies, and simple burial or cremation. Eight appendices, comprising more than a third of the volume, provide an extensive list of related reading material; names and addresses of hospice organizations, memorial societies, and other support groups; information on anatomical donations and living wills; guidelines for simple burials and several beautiful examples of memorial services.

In addition to a wide variety of specific, practical advice, Morgan offers many moving and inspiring stories of personal experiences. I was especially touched by his account of his own wife's death from cancer and how caring for her, both before she died and in preparing her body for burial, helped him to work through his feelings of loss and grief. He writes from a deeply held reverence for human life, human dignity, and individual choice; one has the sense of talking with a very wise and compassionate friend.

I first read this book last year, shortly after a beloved uncle

Cambridge, MA02l40

died from cancer. My uncle knew he was dying and asked repeatedly that he be allowed to die at home. Pressure from other family members, reinforced by pressure from the medical establishment, made it impossible for me to honor his wish. He died in a hospital, heavily drugged (though his cancer was not of a painful kind), barely aware of family visitors, tended by strangers. Afterwards, his funeral service and burial were carried out by the funeral establishment with an impersonal, almost assemblyJine efficiency. My grief was intensifred by anger that my uncle was cheated out of dying as he chose, and that I was cheated out of bidding him goodbye in a meaningful way. "It shouldn't have to be like this," I kept thinking.

It doesn't have to be like that. Ernest Morgan helps us to find humane and meaningful alternatives, ways in which we can honor life while facing the realities of death.

Katlrerine McAlpine

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LETTERS OF E.B. WHITE edited by Dorothy lobrano Guth #1266 $14.95

You could argue that I was already predisposed to love this book, even before we decided to add it to our catalog, because I love E.B. White and I love books of letters. It's true. But there are good reasons to love both of these things.

Good reasons to love E.B. White are his wonderful, fluid prose, his humor, his gift for storytelling. Amanda BergsonShilcock says elsewhere in this issue that she recently discovered that classics are simply books people have loved and continue to love. E.B. White's children's books - Stuart Little, Charloue'sWeb, andThe Trumpet of the Swan - are indeed classics by this definition. I haven't stopped loving these books just because I'm no longer a child, and I've also enjoyed discovering, as an adult, that E.B. White wrote much more than just these ttrree books. His humor and his essays have kept me going for years. He is one of the finest prose writers I know.

Good reasons to love collections of letten are that they show us our favorite writers at work, help us see what it was like to write what is now a classic. They often contain some of the writer's freshest writing, because they are written dtectly to someone else, out of the feeling of the momenl And they give us a sense of what else was going on at the time the books were being written, both in the writer's mind and at the world at large. How did White learn enough about the Philadelphia Zoo to write the scene inThe Trumpet of the Swan that is set there?

How did he come to know so much about the behavior of spiders? Why did a librarian refuse to add Stuart Little toher shelves? Collections of letters take us behind the scenes, and they help us remember that a person wrote those books that we love, that they didn't just spring full-grown on the bookstore or library shelves.

Here is prt of a letter White wrote to someone who asked

why Stutrt Linlehadended so inconclusively: The ending of Stuart Liule has plagued me, not because I think there is anything wrong with it but because children seem to insist on having life neatly packaged. The final chapters were written many years after the early chapters and I think this did affect the

John Holt'r

narrative to some extent. I was sick and was under the impression that I had only a short time o live, and so I may have brought the story to a more abrupt close than I would have under different circumsCances' My reason (if indeed I had any) for leaving Stuart in the midst of his quest was to indicate that questing is more important than finding, and a journey is more important than the mere arrival at a destination' This is too large an idea for young children to grcsp, but I threw it at them anyway. They'll catch up with it eventually...

Maybe one of the reasons children love While's books is ttat he does throw ideas at his readers without worrying about whether they are too large 0o grasp.In any case, I suspect that many children will find these letten about White's books interesting. The collection isn't dominated by leBers of this sort, by the way; ttre book spans most of White's life, including his college years, his career at The New Yorlur, and his later years on the farm in Maine. But the nice thing abut a collection of letters is that it can be dipped into and explored in a variety of ways. Children might want to browse through the book looking for letters about the books they've read; adults might prefer to read it straight through. Either way, I urge you to discover this Susannah Sheffer wonderful collection for yourselves.

-

BOOKS: FROM WRITER TO READER

by Howard Greenfeld #1222$12.95 Here is another, very different kind of look behind the scenes of writing and publishing. If you want to know how books get made - how they get thought of, how they get written, how they get accepted by publishers, how many people have to work, and in how many ways,0o turn manuscripS into published books - I can think of no better starting place than this book. It begins with the writer, takes us through the publishing

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house, the editor, the illustrator, the designer, the production departrnent, the proofreader, the printer, the warehouse, the bookstore, and finally to the reader. And I've even left out quite a few steps in there - this book is amazingly comprehensive, and each chapter is clear, to the point, told me lots of ttrings I didn't know and clarified some things I had known a little bit about. The illustrations that accompany all of these stages in the process facsimiles of manuscripts and contracts, photos of printing presses, sample book illustrations and cover art - are worth the price of the

book alone, so vividly do ttrey bring this world o life.

Unlike some books that talk about how real-world things happen, this one does not try to simplify where simplification would give us less than the whole picure. For instance, in talking about how novelists work fte author makes it clear that there is no one way common to all:

Many writers are actually led by their characters, having no idea of where these characters might lead them by the time the story is completed. In a sense, the characters they create in turn create ttre plot. Other authors carefully plan their stories or plots before beginning the long job of writing them. They outline each development chapter by chapter; they make brief sketches of the characters for their own use; they make physical plans of a house or town that may serve as the setting for their story. However they work, the noveliss must become deeply involved in the lives of the characters they have created...

I am amazed at how much of this richness and complexity, this sense that there are many ways to do what is being explained, Greenfeld has managed to pack into this clear and snaightforward book. The style is so accessible, and yet the information is so

detailed and interesting, that it is impossible to tell whether this behind-the-scenes book is intended for children or aduls. It is of SS potential interest to all.

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A STORY LIKE THE WIND and OFF PLACE

A

FAR-

by Laurens van der Post #1290 $17.90 When John Holt liked a passage in a book, he would place a tiny strip of paper against the binding as a bookmark so that he could find the passage again. Many of the books lining the

walls of our office are filled with these little markers, as is the office copy of A Story Like the Wind. As I come across one of these markers, I like to guess what in particular caught John's eye. The first marker in this novel about Frangois, a white 13year-old growing up on a farm in what is now western Zimbabwe, is obvious:

...His parents cared more than most that their son should be well educated. Yet they had not just a fear but an absolute conviction that the sort of schooling at even the best schools available in the country would be so unaware of "the other person" in children that Frangois would be cut down to a common paEem and leave school like the the human equivalent of a machine coming from a remorseless conveyor belt in a large factory, exactly like thousands of others. ...The authorities, the moment they became aware of the fact, did their utrnost to force lpierre-paul Joubert, Frangois's fatherl to send Frangois to what they called a recognized school, but pierre-paul was able to resist them successfully... His professional qualifications as a schoolmaster remained and could not be denied. There was, he was able to demonstrate, no law against private schools. So all pierre-paul had to do was to claim that he had opened a private school at Hunter's Drift. That it had only one pupil was no fault of his...

The next was easy to spot, too, in a description of the Bantu people who shared land with the Joubers:

...Very often Frangois would see Bamuthi's oldest

girl, barely ten, combining pounding [grain] with t]re

care ofher baby brother. She carried him securely, tied to her slim,long back in a shawl... So at home would the black baby be rhere rhar although its head wobbled in the process as if it would fly from its neck, its eyes remained shut in the happiest of sleeps. No child was ever too small to be included in ttre life of family and tribe, and Frangois never saw an infant excluded or left to its own devices, no matter how early the morning or late the night. Everybody belonged absolutely to everybody else in a way that passed all European understanding...

In other cases it's harder to ascertain why John marked the passage, but they mosdy appear to discuss the process of

gowing up and the importance of the respect given to Frangois

by Mopani, an old family friend. There are so many thoughful observations interwined with this story that it is not possible to list them all.

Cambridge, MA02l4O

The story itself is wonderful. Although Frangois has his parents and his Bantu friends, he is somewhat lonely, and during the book he acquires several close friends to fill the void - a dog, a secretive Bushman, and a new neighbor, a European girl.

Various events that have shaped his resourceful nature are told in flashback, and we see how he deals with his father's serious illness; and how he teaches the city girl, Nonnie, to love the wild.

The only reason we did not add this book to our catalog long ago is that the frst volume ends with a unexpected, bloody massacre that kills off nearly everyone! It was too shocking an end for such a beautiful story. We did not know of the sequel , A Far-Off Place, anul much later. It takes up the days, weeks, and months that follow, as Frangois and the other survivors elude ttreir enemies and make an arduous journey across desert and swamp !o safety. With this second volume, the story becomes entirely complete.

When I picked up the books again a yqu or so ago, I wanted to double check that they did not fall on the wrong side of any racial or political issue. Because these are books about whites in southem Africa, I wanted to be sure no one could accuse us of supporting apartheid, say, or colonialism, by adding them to our catalog. I was reassured by everything I saw. For example, the Jouberts left South Africa because of its racial policies, and established their homestead with the native people as profitsharing partners. Frangois' admiration and envy of the local people and their wise customs never wavers. In the inEoduction, Van der Post writes of how lucky he was as a child growing up in Africa to hear the myths and legends old by the indigenous people, and how these inspired this novel. As he says: The older I have become, the greater has grown my awareness of the debt I owe to this fast vanishing world of

Africa and the grcater my conviction that somehow

it.

must

be recorded, so that it should always be there to help thaw the frozen imagination of our civilized systems so that some

sort of spring can come again to the minds of men... Modern African societies, I regret h oy, have so lost their own natural way that they even tend to disrust anyone who tries to redirect them, as I have tried to do, to what is valuable in tlpir own beginnings. To tell them that the balance has never been fairly struck between the primitive and the civilized in any society as yet is believed, by many in Africa, to be just a form of intellectual patemalism, if not a trick to keep them in a "backward state of mind" for selfish European ends...

-

Donna Richoux

John Holt's Book and Music Store News Price changes from Fall 1989 catalog:

#154 Best loved Songs of the American people now $16.95 #1234 Cooperative Sports and Games Book now $10.95 #3456 Making Things now $14.95 #470 Mathematics: A Human Endeavor now $27.95 #1270 Mipam now $12.95 #509 No Contest now $8.95 #1284 Secret House now $12.95 #33O4 What Do You Care What Other People Think now $9.95

17

FOCUS: YOUNG PEOPLE WITH INTENSE INTERESTS somedmes an hour when I can do whatever I want'

WttotJotbus are edtted transcrlpts oJinteruiews conducted by Suscnnah Shelfer - utthnine goung people wta huse an lnterest to ttthich tleg dewte a great deal oJ fime.

PLAYING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Interulew usilh Sarah Barton (II): I play the cello, and I'd say I spend about fort5r or lifty hours a week on it - that's just practic'e, and then I have a two-hour lesson each week and about 6-8 hours of orchestra. I started playing the cello when I was 7 - I had started the vtolin whenlwas 2 l/2, because my older sister started vlolln then, and when I was that age I wanted to do ever5rthtng ltke her' Do you remembr usltg goubgan tle ello?

I didn't Ike the vio[n because lt was too high and screechy, and I just didn't like the sound. We were changing music schools, so I thought I rnfght as well change to the cello, too, and I liked tt a lot better.

h

gouJeet tl:rlt gou mode a dectsion at any poirtt to coffunit goursel;f to the cello, to sperd as muchtlme on ft as you do, or did x evobse groduallgT

It sort of came gradually. When we started homeschooling, that made a big dilference, because when we were ln school we couldn't spend that much flme on music. We started homeschooling when I was 6 - I had sldpped a grade, so I had just finished first grade.

Did gou loue

tle

cello rlght au)ag, or did

it toke a tuhile? '

So you don'tJeel tl'ot gour t{e Is

tm busg, tm crowded?

No. I'm the only ldd my age that I know who has a schedule that's really complex, but lt doesn't feel crowded'

Do gou see gottrselJ conlinuitg b ploU as intenselg as gou do

rwu?

Yes. I'd llke to have a solo career, but that kind of thing is sort of who you know, so I'd like to be the principal of an orches-

tra.

Is there angttl@ else you'd like to tell people abut thts?

When you're really tnterested i-rr one thing - I don't know if this Is true with other thtngs besides music, but I can relate to muslcians of all ages. I had a really lnteresting conversation wtth an 8 year old, and I can talk to adults about it too' When you've got a conrnon ground it doesn't matter what age you ate'

Irterubw wLh Rachel

Bartonc

I spend about swen hours a day pracdcing the violin' two

hours aweek at lessons, and six hours at orchestra' Then I have playing background music at a Jobs to make monry - things like when I was I i"tty ot playing in an oichestra. started IPlaFng S tiZ. iV p"t ttt" have told me that when was a toddler my mother took me to all these classes - swim cLass, gymnastics class, story hour at the library - and there was a violin teacher a few blocks from our house, so I did that too. I was really good at it' and I loved tt. Right away I felt like, 'This is tt.'

Are gour parents musiclants?

practice?

My dad's side lsn't at all, but they're all very coordinated, which'musicians need' My mom sings in the church choir' They wanted me to be a math whiz, which I guess I could have been, but I wasn't really into lt.

lots of people, when they don't have one particular interest' don't really understand lt, When you're llttle, maybe your

rrursrlcrlarrs

I loved tt rtght awayl Do people erser ask gou

whetler Vour prrrents moke gou

parents cnuld make you do something you didn't want to do. But when I pracdce, I'm up tn my rrmm, I'm alone, but I'm Practlcing.

If I didn't want to, I wouldn't have to. My parents gave me a choice when we started homeschooling about whether I wanted to continue playlng.

Artd

youknetu right away that

tle

Do you

thi*

in tlv

they're swprised tl:u:t tteg'w got sttch sericus Jamtlg?

They're mostly Just pleased and proud. I think they sort of take tt as lt comes.

answer wos ges?

Yes, it's always been really fun.

Do youfird tlvt X's adults tuho ask you those questircns atlcut tuhether Wur prrrcrts make gou practice, or ts X other

kids?

It's usually adults. All the ldds that I know - not Just the ones from muslc school, who of course have music, but kids that I know from church or from the netghborhood have some ldnd of thtng that they're focused on, even lf lt's not as intense.

Do gou ever wlsh gou had. more time Jor other thirtgs?

No, because I enJoy what I'm doing. I do have time for schoolwork, and I'm in a church youth group that does stuffevery week' Since we've been homeschooling I've had more free time -

GROWING WITHOUI SCHOOLING #73

'p /x

t,

x--1 q

v

l8 Did. gou

tbrre

on

etpr make a consclbus drctslon to spendso mrrch

muslc?

I don't know; it was Just sort of happenlng. When I was in thlrd grade I was still ln school, and I was alriady taking off half

days because I didn't have enough time to practic.e otherwise. We realized that the schoolwork I would have done in school that fay was taking me one hour tn the wenlng, so we thought about homeschooling. Also, the school wanted to put me in tle gifted program, which would have been three hours of homewort plus the whole day ln school. I could have become really academic, but

I didn't want to.

Do gou erser thlnh "U I dtdn,t spend so ntrch time on musrb, I'd. hal;e nare tine for otter thtngs?"

Did gou askJor lessons uhen gou usere E, or did gour parents atrange Jor tlem?

I asked for them. I had a friend who was tJle same age and was a really good skater. She was doing spins and skating around the rink, and I said, "Can I try thaf?' and asked for lessons.

Do gou er-terfeel

During the summer my schedule was arranged so I didn't

have any time to talk to anybody or anything - it was tm busy. I'd have swim team ln the morning, and then I'd come back and have

to get ready for skadng. The rink ln our town, Columbia, isn't open ln the summer, so I'd have to go to a rink in Baltimore and it would take an hour to get there. I always knew I loved skating and didn't want to gfve it up, but the schedule was awful, so we're going to change things around now. I'm going to skate in the mornings instead of the afternoons, and I'm not going to go to the swim team practices urnymore, I'm Just going to work on it by myself. I1l have more Ume to think and rest and have a friend come over. I have the weekends to do other things, too. I take pirano lessons once a week, and I may actually get some time to

Well, I have enough time to go out wlth friends. I have all klnds of muslcian friends - a lot of them are in college. A couple of years ago I was really lnto art, and I did a lot of cricheting'and calligraphy. I had time for that. Violin is my pleasure and career and hobby and whatever else all together; there hasn't ever been anything else maJor that IVe wanted to do, but if I get interested ln something as a hobby, I have flme to do it.

practice.

People ojbnfird tt d!ffrcult to br;lieve ttnt a yow.tg Wrson can hanp chosen to spend so much time on something.- -

bcoming so

When people used to say, .Do your parents make you prac_ tice?" as tf I want to play the vlolin but I don't want to do the work, I found that such an lnsult. Sometimes I would get irritated and say that my parents'life would be so much easier if I didn't play the vlolin and just went to school.

Is

{t possibla to

put

blrto

utoltn?

umds tte satisjaction oJ plaglry tta

Well, the coanle answer ts that I'm maldng a lot of money at it, or I could say that thls is what I'm good at. But really it's Just playing lt for myself that ts satislrtng. It,s like sports _ b.i.r! to do something lncredible with your body. That's half of what"bl" the vtolin ls, and the other half is actrng; it's all emotional, and you're trJdng to convey that emodon to the audience without using words. It's dilficult to do; you have to feel it and make lt obvlous to the audienc-e.

Dogouhaw angtttug

else to add?

When I read homeschool newsletters I see that the difference between me and other homeschoolers is that I didn't homeschool because the publtc school was particularly bad (although they were glvlng me in six hours what I could have done in two hours).

I'm homeschooling because of my pardcular interest. We're Just learnlng the basic subjects - leaming what we want to learn-with_ in them - through the Clonlara program. I know some home_ schoolers dlscover an interest after they start homeschooling because now they have a lot more time. In my case. I homeschooled because I had alreadydiscovered *y fo.rr" and I needed

more Ume.

ICE SKATING InteruIew with Janie Smith (MD):

I skate about eighteen hours each week, at different rinks. I started on the lce when I was 2, but I didn't take lessons until I was 5, and I didn't get serlous about skadng until I was about g or 9. I llrst competed at 8, and I began to get serious after I competed bec3us-e I thought lt was a lot of fun. I was also swimming a iot, and I think what helped me make the decislon to concentrate on skatlng was that swimrning has four basic strokes and that's about it, but skattng has a million things that I'll never learn. I'll never get bored with tt.

tm busg?

Is tlere a certain

gd.

kind. oJ satisJaction thot comes

at one patticutar thttg?

uilh

Yes, there is. I'm not athledc enough to go to the Olympics or anything, but it's nice to get good enough to feel that I'mgood enough, even though werybody elsâ&#x201A;Ź rnay be a lot better.

What do Vou saA when people ask lf your parents are mal<tg

you skate?

In the skating world there are parents who are pushing their kids to get gold medals, and when the kids don't do a good 1ob they come off the rink crying because they feel like they lei werybody down. But I'm not pushed, because I can enjoy myself.

If I come home and I haven't done my best that day I don,t feel like I let everybody down. I feel like maybe I can do better the next day. l,ots of times when you're not pushed you can do better, because you're not afraid that something's going to happen to you ifyou don't do your best.

If I safd tomorrow, 'l thtnk I'll stop skating,. my mom and dad might be a little sad that I dectded I hated the whole sport, but theyd say, 'Sure.- It's so expensive - renting ice dme, buyrng skates, getting them sharpened.

I

understand you're earning so'le morag to help with those

experFes...

Yes, I'm helping with the group lessons. I earn credits for dotng this which go towards a unit of time on the ice. It,s nice to be able to help out my family a little bit. I can't really get another Job because I'm not old enough - maybe a few little things, but they wouldn't pay as much as this does, because it works out to about $5.5O an hour. Also, I feel good that I'm helping all these people in the classes, because one teacher can't do very much with 6 or 7 or sometimes even 12 or l5 kids. It's kind of like school, although most of the teachers don't act like teachers in school, But if you have a couple of helpers lt's like having more teachers.

Sometimes I can remember learning what they're leaming, and I can say, 'This is fun,' or'l had trouble with this.' I can see it from the other kids' polnt of view.

WhaL unuld. Aou saA to reassure a

child fubtg

so

parent wla unrried abut a

Jeused on somethbtg?

Sometlmes being focused on something doesn't mean that you know why you're doing it, But I think if you know why you're dotng it, it shouldn't be a problem. I like being on rhe ice, I like

GROWING WITFIOTJT SCHOOLING #73

l9 compeUng and belng watched by people, so I don't ask, 'Why am I doing thts?' I think lf you choose it yourself, lt's fine. If I had a really relaxed schedule, I umuld die of boredom. Keeping busy rnakes me enJoy the relaxed days that I do have.

DRAWING IrteruIew wXh Carcg Newman

(BC):

Some weeks I spend a lot of tlme on art - elght hours a day and other weeks I mtght not do anythtng with tt at all. I'm havlng my work prtnted, and I have to go up to the olllce quite a blt to see the protot5pes that thcy're urorktng on and dlscuss all kinds of thtngs, so therâ&#x201A;Ź are a lot of dlfferent aspects to what I do. It's not Just sttting down wlth a plece of paper and a pencll and drawing.

I've been worldng errer sfurce I was out of the cradle, but I only started focuslng on Indlan art about two vears ago.

Whot

luppnd

then?

I was approached about dolng some Indlan design paintings for prtntlng, at the sarrrc tlme that my father was approached. I tried tt, and ever slnce then IVe been dotng them. My dad's a natlve Indlan so I d had some experlence with lt before.

b

people ever ask gou uhg gou spend so much ttme on art?

I don't get that as much as'How much time do you spend?' and "Are you golng to pursue lt as a career?' I don't know if I'm golng to commlt myself to art for the rest of my life and make lt a career, but lt's certalnly a posstbtlity.

h

gou wlsh gou had. norc ttne Jor otler things?

If I want more Hme for other things, I make more time. I'm dolng as much art as I want to do and as much of other things as I want to do.

You wrcte

h Glfils {68

o,bcrut

havW a show...

IVe be-en tn fcurJurted shows, where the works were for sale.

Was tt hatd. to

m*e thal tansttton

to

wortd?

tle

really know anythtng and neither did the rest of my family, so

it

was sort of trtal and error wlth the horses sufferlng for lt, but we dtdn't ruin them or anything. I had a frlend whose pa.rents had horses, and then she had a pony that she rode and took care of, and it seemed so wonderful that I really wanted to do some*ring like that at my house. I got really exclted, and my pa.rents helped me to make lt come true. They found out about the YMCA and made the arrangements.

Dtd tlag unnder uslether tt was more thrrn handle, or

wletler

tlvy

Vou utere serbus aDrrut fuing

could.

willltg

to do the

work?

They did make sure that I was really tnterested, that tt wasn't Just a pa.sstng thing. They saw that other things that my frlends had been lnterested tn durtng that tlme hadn't interested me, so they were aware that I wasn't gotng to go hopptng oll to somethlng else right away.

Wherc do gou see gourself gotrrg wlthtlds?

I don't know whether I want to have a career ln horses. Right now I ffnd tt hard to think of one because I don't want to be a professional rlder and I'm not sure lf I'd like teaching. I've thought maybe I could work on a stud farm or something like

that.

Wtnt unuld you say to sorneore ula askd., 'Why ore gou talcttg on srrch a blg respottslbiltty at gour age?'

It doesn't present ttself as a responsiblltt5r tf you're enjoytng It. You don't thlnk of lt as a hardshtp. I'm Just maktng myself and the horse happy, and I don't Gel ltke I'm shutttng myself off from other thlngs because I'm lnterested in other thlngs as well, e\ten though this ls my maJor area of lnterest. I like llnding out how horses work. It's Just so fascinating how all these thtngs fit together, and lfs made me think more about how my own body works and how people ln general work. It all makes sense and it goes clrck lnside my brain, so lfs a nlce feeltng.

commerctal art

COMPUTERS AND PROGRAMMING

Well, in my casle tt was Just prints that were being sold, so I wasn't real$ loslng anythtng, and I was able to keep a few prints for myself too. It uas qulte ffnancially rewardtng, and lt gave me enouglr money to pursue my own lnterests.

HORSES AND ANIMAL BIOLOGY InteruIeu wtth Anvlla Cox oJ MichlgarL

I really ltke anlmals, especlally horses, and I

working wlth them and malrtng them happy. I have a friend's horse at my house, and I take car,e of her. That involves taHng her out to the fleld every mornlng, feedfng her, grmming her, bringing her in at nlght, mucktng out her stable, managing the hay, buytng grain. I enJoy

spend a couple of hours a day tal,ring care of tlre horse, and more

than that readlng a lot offactual books about horses and horse care, and I IInd out a Iot about horse btologr - the muscles and how they work and flt together. A couple of years ago I took a slxweek course on horses offered by Michtgan State Universtty and heard lectures on feedlng, the dlgesflve system, paraslte control,

wound care, and thtngs like that. Some friends of mine were told about lt through thetr 4-H club, and lt sounded lnteresdng to me but I was too young to take tt. It was supposed to be for ages l E and up and I was 12 then, but I went anywayJust to listen.

When dtd.

Flveyear:s ago, when I was 9. We got two horses from aYMCA camp for the wtnter - actual$, that was bad because I didn't

goulbst &ome lnterested fn horses?

GROWING WITI{OLN SCHOOLING #73

Interuteut

uith Randoll Kern NVN:

I usually spend two or three hours a day at the computer, wrtdng dilferent plecâ&#x201A;Źs of software, getttng systerns runnlng. My father and I are computer consultants. We doJobs for people sordng their mailing llsts, writing computer systems. When a client asks me for help I spend a lot of dme thlnktng about how to solve the problem.

How did. the consulting busfness start?

The local newspaper was havin! problems setdng up their computer, so the club I was tn dectded to try to help. It turned out the software they were uslng wouldn't do what they needed, so they htred me to write a program that would do what they wanted to do. So our business came from people who needed something done that I could do.

Hou do people respord to Aoq as a goung person?

Really they don't pay much attentlon to my age. Vtrtually all my clients have been my frtends, or they meet me ln person so they know rtght away who they're talldng to.

Wten dtd. gou bgtn umkhg with amputerc?

I've been programming for about slx or seven years, so I

20 started when I was about 6. One Chrlstmas I uras taking a walk ln the wods wlth my mother, and when we got back my fatherwas setttng up a computer. I started plaSdng some games on lt, but then I got ttred of that because you can only do one thing with ganes. That computer happened to have BASIC on tt, so I pulled out the manual and started ustng it. Then a couple ofyears ago we got an IBM computer and I got busy wtth that.

b Wu tlink

gou lotew at tIE tInE amputers uns gottg to b go.tr thttlg?

tlvt

unrking with

I knew I ltked tt, but I dtdn't do it that much. tt was Just for fun. Well, tt sttll ts fun. I g;uess I really got gotng when we got the

ACTING AND THEATER Irteruiew wtth Entma Robe-rts

(MA):

When I'm in a play, I probably spend between six and eight hours a week ln rehearsals, and there are always extla rehearsals and other things you need to do, so lt comes to a lot of ttme. I try to see as many plays as I can, to get an idea ofwhafs going on, and I read books about acUng and people who act" I also take danc.e classes, whtch helps a lot ln theater. I've taken a few theater classes, but I don't take them on a regplar basis.

Are you alusays

tt

some

plag, or do gou hotx stretches

u.rhen

bigger computer two years ago.

Vou aren't acting tn arrythlrtg?

DId gou etEr make a câ&#x201A;Źnsc{ous @nul:d;bner.t fo spend as mrch titrle as you do on X?

I have been acttng continuously since sometime last year, but I tend to have a month ln between performances.

It's been so conslstent that I haven't really thought about lt; it's Just been part of me.

Hotu do your parcntsJeel

on one 0&q?

abut gour sperd@ so mtrchtlne

Sometlmes they think I'm not doing enough of other stuff, but they're pretty easygoinC. I play the viola - I'm the first chair ln the viola secdon in my orchestra - and we live on a farm here,

I do do other things. When I've got a cllent and I've got a problem to sobye, I do spend every bit of time that I don't need to be doing somethlng else at the keyboard, but I wouldn't say I so

overdo lt.

How can paltle tell

IJ

a chlld is

sonteth@?

bUg

pushed to pursue

It's slmple. If you'r,e betng pushed, you don't like to do it, you feel miserable. Sometlmes if a cllent calls up and says, "Help,' I have no cholc.e, I have to respond, but that's not my parents pushtng.

Do gou see gourselJ conllnutrg utth computers?

Oh, yes. I'm starting to flnd people who know more about programmtng than I do, so I'm findtng people that I can learn stuff from.

sald.

Wlenyouwrote us aLetter thatwe prtted in GWS #62, you tltot ma:thuuas easlerJor you bcantse o;[ your unrk lulith

cofiU)uters.

Yes. In fact, I came up with my own way of solving simultaneous equatlons because I found I needed them - not the way it's

commonly done, but lt worked. It was slow, but tt did it. Another thtng I ltke ls model rocketry, and when I got into it more than Just building models and shooting them off, when I tried to find out what was going on in terms of numbers, the computer was helpful. I found a couple of books full of equations and just tried to understand tL At that time I didn't know what algebra was or anythtng, but the concept of letters representing numbers is very baslc ln computer programming. And I flgured out the concept of limtts, which ls a basic conc.ept of calculus, even though I didn't know about calculus.

What unuld. Vou saA to sonTeone

hlstory?" or sometltug ttnt's

uta aske{ -Wlnt abut

wry d[fferent fiorn whot gou,re fu well-rounded?

t'LrohEd. ht? Do gouJeel anA pressure to

Someone at a music camp did ask me something like that. I said that I probably wouldn't spend ten years ln school learning about hlstory, but there are parts of it that I do want to know about, and when that happens I get a book and read about it.

How did. gou fucone bterestd.

h

rcttng?

I was about 6 or 7 (I'm 13 now) and I saw a sign at our local library about local theater, and I told my nxrm I wanted to try it. I liked it a lot, and then we found out about other communitSr plays, and I rea.lly got lnterested tn it and thought, 'Wow, this is what I want to do with my life.'

Do gou thirik you knew, at tha,t time, ta us much unrk octing was?

I doubt it. In my llrst play I didn't try to develop a character, I Just played it like myself. Acting is a lot harder for me now than it was then, because I'm trytng to develop the character and get into more interesting stuff. I'm pushing myself and trying to do more. I'm trying to do everythlng as well as I can, and I think when I was younger I was Just ln lt for the fun of tt. I think when I reallzed it was work, I realtzed that I w.anted to do lt, that lt was really exciting.

How did. you learn abrut dewloptq a character, irlu:r:llL,ed tn acfug?

unrk tlwt's

obut

t]rc

Probably from obseMng other actors, working with the adults tn the plays. Also, acting classes teach you about lt.

Can you describ the sattsJoction oJ actirg?

I ask myself that a lot. I don't know. I guess it's that you get a neat feeling when you do something and the audience responds.

You work so hard to produce it - for six weeks, or whatever, it's been the center ofyour life - and all of a sudden other people are

appreciating it.

h

you et-ter wlsh gou had nore time Jor other things?

No. Sometimes I'd like to take other things related to theater, like voice lessons, and I'd like to have more time to do that. But when I'm in a production, that's all I want to do. When I'm not in a production I think about doing other things.

Do people ever question gour spending so much time,

so committed?

fuW

Most of the people I know are connected with theater - that's how I meet my friends - so they don't. If someone did question it, I would say this is my life, this is what I do, you may spend a lot of time doing whatever you're interested in, and this is probably going to be my career so right now I'm Just packing it all in, getting all the experience I can.

What abut tlre question o.f wlether gour parents are pushing gou? People oJten tltnk, with acting especially, thnt X's tte

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #73

2L pat?r.ts

wlu

to dernte so much tln:c to

urant the child to surceed..

That's not how lt ls at all for me. Sometlmes Mom pushes me a llttle btt by saylng, 'kfs go to this auditlon'' when I don't want to go, but tt's mostly nE saying, 'Mom, I want to go to this

audltlon,' What hopptls when stre slâ&#x201A;ŹPrests X bud gou don' t uaft to go?

Just recent! she wanted me to auditlon for Pinocchio, and I dtdn'twant to, and then at the last minute I rvanted to but I'd

mtssed the deadltne. So sometlmes she's rtgftt about what I want' She usually lets tt go, though, or maybe says, 'OK' but I think you're mlsslng out.'

Some people sag, nr/hat abut uell-rounddress? Isn't it lrrrxrrtanf to krrc u: all tcb:rds oJ things, artd rat Just one tftug?'

It's lnteresHng, because theater covers so much, there's so furvohved wlthtn the one thing' Somedmes I wonder lf I should be spending morâ&#x201A;Ź dme on academlcs, but I tell myself that I'm getdng the experlence that I want rtght now, and that I'm leamlng a lot from lt. Sometlmes I say to myself, maybe I should do somithtng totally dtfferent, but then I wonder if tt would get ln the way of what I really want to be doing. I feel that if theater ls the center of my llfe then that's what I should be doing.

much

It's Jtuutg that seem to lmE

don't

papb think kids should fu usell'rortrded' but tlv sane erytatation oJ odul*. Adults seem to

l'essons every dag?

In ballet, when you move up to a new level, there are more classes, and a lot of ieople qult because there's so much to do and they have problems with homework and stulf llke that' That's why homeschooling ls abig thing to me, because I can do my sclioolwork and then have a speclal quiet time before I go to ballet. Thafs really helpful. Then I have the energy to go to

ballet.

Wlutunuldyousor4 lf soma ne a'skdgo* raw, whg you

spend so mtch ume on datrcIng?

I'd say that thls is what I want to do, and I don't mean to take away from my soctal liG, but this ls what I want to do'

Wlut

{ soneffig

satd. 'Hou do youlototo that tlais Is tohat

Aou want to do? You're so gottttg...'

I'd say that I really enJoy it and I've done lt all my life' I went through a lot of dtfilculties but this has been my answer for a

long time.

Were those diffrcutties u:tth darctrg ltselft Yes. There's a lot of comPedtion, and frtends sometlmes laugh at you during class and you feel really bad' That's really hard. But I have to step back and thtnk, 'Well, I know who I am' and weryone makes mistakes. Even they do.'

reollze gou can't do ewrytl&tg.

Has danctng led gou fn/o anything else thot ma4

Yes, people thtnk ktds should tqr dillerent things. But I thfnk I am well-rounded enoug;h. When I was ln Brightonkach MenoIrs,I learned about the Macedonian Wars, because lt was in the play and I satd, 'What's that? I should read about lt because

my character talks about lt.' So sometimes you learn about all kinds of thtngs because they're mentloned in the play and you want to go read about them.

fu related

to

It? I love to look at books about danc'ers, and I love to go to ballets. I also have been doing liturgical dance, and that sort of makes me go on with ballet because tt's really lmportant to me'

BOOKS AND READING Interuiew with Amanda Ebrgson-shil,cock (PA):

DANCING InteruIetu wtth Chrlsty Kaslevlch oJ Perusylvania:

I take ballet lessons for an hour and a half a day, Ilve days a week. IVe studied at a professional school for about six years, and been danctng for about nlne years' I became interested ln lt when I watched a Mr. Rqers Program on television that Suzanne Farrell was on. I told my mom that I wanted to be her, and so she took me to Swan Lake, and I trled to dance lt afterwards' Then I asked for lessons.

Dtd gou lann antg ldea at

tlv ttne

Frrw mtrch und< dancing

usas?

Nol Whengou rcallzed lu,w mttch work lt u)cts, u)ere Aou sure gou u:antd. to d,o tt" or dtd. gou ever rrcorsidefl I've always wanted to be a dancer, but sometimes it was hard because my frlends would say, 'You're always at ballet," because I couldn't do a lot of social thlngs.

Is tlrat stlll a

datv@, to toke

prcblern?

Not really, because I have a lot of friends at ballet, and I have a lot of frtends I see at the study grouPs we're involved in. We have a wridng club, for example, wlth another homeschooling family' It's really neat because I like to write a lot and I didn't have a Iot of that ln regular school.

Was tlere a Wttrt at uhich gou rnade

tlp

consctlcus decislon

GRO1WING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #73

I spend about two or three hours a day readtng' Some days I can read a whole lot more than that because I have more tlme' and other days I hardly have any dme to read, but that's about average. I started Paging through Laura Ingalls Wilder books and recitlng the parts I already knew out loud to myself when I was about 5, bui t didn't start readlng full-length books untll I was about 6 or 7. Rec.ently IVe been able to do other things wtth my love of books, like volunteer at our local library.

How didtlPtcome obut?

My sisters and brother and I have set uP our own ltbrary with our books here, so I was used to worlidng with card catalogues and stamping the date on the books, and I enJoyed that so much that I thought, 'I know you can't be paid at the library until you're 14' but maybe I can volunteer.'We went up to the library and asked whether they would be interested tn having another volunteer' They're always busy so they satd yes. I go two or three tlmes a week and I baslcally do everythtng that a page does, and more' A page shelves books and checks them in and out. I've done some other *o.. unusual Jobs, too, like helping set up their exhibit on books about food.

Are gou dlscor:ering rew

fuks

bg tDotklng at the librarg?

Yes, and I also discover old favorites that had kind of slipped to the back of my mind. I also like to discuss books wtth the librarians, because they know all about the best new children's books that have come out' Sorrretimes people will ask the children's reference librarian about a book, and lf she's not quite

22 sure about lt she'll ask me. Once she remembered the author's name and I remembered the name of the series, so between us we got the person to the right

shelf.

Wlenu.te usere setdtg up thts hterview, you told me tlut gou ttanght not alt llomeschoolers wta lare reding take the nert. steps wlth X. Whnt did. gou nvantbg

that?

I think generally homeschoolers don't think of themselves as being made to read, because they don't have reading assignments or what's called SSR ln schools

me, and lots of people have somethlng that's very important to them. I think reading often leads lnto other things too. I don't know anyone who's read the Laura Ingalls Wlder books and hasn't at least tried to cook those r€clpes ltke rnaple sugar snow. I don't vlew readlng as a stopphg plac€; lt can be a stepping stone to new thlngs. It helps you flnd out about thlngs you're lnterested in.

People don't always understand that I

had to do twelve minutes of SSR a day. She sald lt was so awful, and I couldn't believe it. I understand that some people enJoy readhg more than others, but to be so upset at havtng to read for twelve minutes - tt amazed me. I think homeschoolers don't have that weird relationship with books - they pick up a book because they want to, not because they have to. But not everyone takes the next steps that you can take with readir:g, Iike helping others with it or worklng with books in a library or bookstore. Another homeschooler I know ls worHng te a bookstore, and I've Just started helptng an adult frlend who works ln a bookstore and runs book falrs at schools. IVe helped her take lnventory and phone ln book orders. So there are things you can do lfyou love books that go beyond Just reading.

$meone mtght sag, 'IJ you're olwags

fuks, gou netser by a that's had.for Vou or that's dllferent Jrom what gou usually read..' cltrcsbtg gour ou)n

tuk

For a long dme I didn't rcad Littb Womenbecause lt was a cliassic, but then I picked it up and I ltked tt so much that I've trted to read all the classlcs I can get my

hands on. IVe realized that generally books are called classics because people have enJoyed ttrem, not because tfs good for you to read them. Recently I started reading the books tlrat have won annards like the Newbery award and the Caldicott medal, Just to see what people are recommending.

I've been gtven books as presents that I dldn't erten open when I got them, but I

We l-mked a bng ttme Jor a

abul utrlttrg at lame that ute

bk

could.

enthusdastically add to our catalq, atd tue'ue finollg Jound. one. Peter Stilbnan's Families Wrlting [#1244, $15.95 + posL/ {.s abutJust what lt sounds l{ke tt's abuL

ard lt's also abut strengtlentng

Jarntlg

Life and corarurnir,o;tlon anang Jamily memfurs. nE fuk isJull oJ sttggested actltsities

and sanpbs of wrilhg Jron

dults and. children- Here, Peter Stillman talks obut some oJ the eryertences and. conceffr abut children and. wrtttttg tlnt

led hbn to write such a book:

Sucennah Sheffer: How can wridng help lmprove farnlly life?

Pctcr Stlllmau: I think that a famity that understands the uses of llteracy, and doesn't think lt's only to pass tests or to make clever talk at cocktall pardes, will see that tt can be enlightening, liberadng - at least this has been my experience tn my famtly. And with wrtting, spectflcally, you can create artifacts, things that say, 'I care about this family, I care about the people I llve wtth." Thts can be done ln all sorts of wavs - writlng to each other, wrlflng in a famiiy Journal or having a read-arouhd where you read from your own Journals. I talk about some of these ideas ln Fanllies Writing,

SS: You talk tn the book about using writing to cr€ate a famtly hlstory, a way of

recordlng thtngs that would otherwise be

- this is going to make me sound llke an old curmudgeon, but I really d9 worry about the weakening or softening of family bonds, and a family history can be very important. My cousln Just sent me one; it's a wonderful newsletter that deals with the family history.

PSI: Yes

want tt to be.

What ttnuld. gou so.g to sonwne usla oskedgouwhg gou spend so muchtime on

You also talk about families using wridng to work through things in

I'd say that readtng is important to

SS: So a famfly newsletter ls one thing people can do.

PS: Yes, and of course a family newsletter can be almost anythlng you SSI:

the present.

P{l: Writing, because of lts mechanlcal nafure, requires a slowing down, and

that can lead to !€llectlon. There's a storv lrr Fcmtlies Wriltg about a mother and

daughter who would write it out whenever they had an argument, arrd the mother said it's hard to stay angry on paper. If you've come to see, for yourself, that u/riHng is a way of discovering things, then you can find out all sorts ofthings by wridng about a disagreement. In the process of writing "l'm sorry" or "Here's where I stand on the matter'vou can find

\Fhen the chlld has somethtng that she wants to say, that's when she'll worry about correctness. out somethturg you didn't know you felt, or that the other person has a good polnt. But I think lf you alurags attempt thts ktnd of thing, tt becomes contrived and strained, It's perfectly healthy to blow your stack somedmes and not to wrlte about tt. But if you genuinely come to feel that wndng is useful, you will often ruant to write about things that happen.

I'm concerned that people will look at the things I'm suggesting in Farnilres Writing as drills or exercises, as qutckIlxes. I don't mean them to be thought of that way. Unfortunately the publisher put something on the cover about "60 ldeas to help your family,'which tends to support the idea that these are a bunch ofdiscrete

actlvities.

lost.

thtnk IVe slnce opened and really enJoyed about half of them. There are some books that I wouldn't ptck out for myself, but that I try because somebody gave them to me. Lately I've been trylng to brlng home one or two new and dlfferent books from the ltbrary each Ume.

readtng?

person who is intensely interested in something ls only interested in that. I think tt sort ofgoes up and down - I saw a g,raph once of a heartbeat, and I think that's how lt ls for many people with tntense interests. It fluctuates. Somedmes you spend a lot of time on it, somedmes you're busy with other stull

FAMILIES WRITING TOGETHER: INTERVIEW WITH PETER STILLMAN

- Sustained Stlent Reading. Once someone

I lorow at ballet class complained that she

have lots of other interests, even though I love reading. You shouldn't assume that a

SS: What would you like the book to do, then?

PS: I d like lt to straighten out some misunderstandings about writing, especially the one that says to write you have to be a Writer with a capdal W. The schools have perpetuated this over the last c€ntury and a half.

SS: How do you think the schools have perpetuated that when, on the one hand, we do require

school?

ewryMy

to

write in

FS: We require everybody to write irr a certain uray. We teach kids that their own language is not the correct language. The emphasis ln schools today, despite all the enlightenment, is still on correctness, I'm looking at a manuscript right now by a woman who deals with so-called learning

GROWINC WIIHOI.IT SCHOOLING #73

23 disabled ktds ln Caltfornta" most of whom happen to be blacks and chlcanos. She's getUng marvelous wrtung out of these lidds because she's asldng them to talk about the folklore of thetr own ethntctt5r. She's putilng back what the schools have stolen.

She's saytng, 'You do have a languagg' and you havl rtch exPertences.'The textbooks say, 'You haven't had any experlenccs worth talklng aboul We're gohg to provtde you wlth the language to wrtte irt and the subJects to wrlte aboul'

PS: Publishlreg starts on the refrlgeratordoor. Everybody ought to have an irudtence'rtght there ln thelr famllles. A drl I descrtbed tn Fanili€s Wr{tirg has 6een putttng out a farntly newsletter slncr she wbs 6 or 7. It goes out to farnlly members all over the country. You can also have a famtly Joumal - anerybody wrltes somethtng tn tt and then lt gets clrculated among famlly members who may be tn far-llung locales, and then lt comes back agaln.

SS: What advtce do you have for parents who mtght also harrc thls sarne feeltng that to wrlte you have to be a

9S: We get letters from Parents who really belteve ln the notlon of lnvented spelling, the ldea that wrtttn$ doesn't have to be correct rtght away, but thelr chtld

Wrlter?

PS: Stop stresslng correctness. When the chtld has somethlng she wants to say'

that's when she'll worry about whether the apostmphe ts tn the rlght place. I have a quote from the wrlter Pearl Buck. She was betng tnteMewed for an English lournal, and the quesdon was, 'Did you ieam the convenUons of writing ln school through classwork, through prlvate study, or througfi other means?' And her answer was, 'No.'She sald she learned to wrtte by readtng. The next questlon was, 'What did you gatn from school git:ammar lnstructlon lthat wasl of ln0uence ln your wrtting career?' Buck's answer ts, 'Nothing.'

SS: Sometlmes parents tell me that they hate to wrlte, and they don't know whether to make themselves keep a Journal or somethlng ltke that Just so that

thetr chtldren wlll see them writing.

If

parents feel that thts ts false, what can they do?

PS: Asldng a chlld to help you with your wrldng ls not a phony acttvlty.

Saytrtg'watch me wrlte' ls not a good approach, but asktng for help can be real.

Also, the parent can always transcrlbe what the chtld dtctates, as a way to begin

wrltlng.

SS: Chtldren often don't have access to real wrlters at work, don't have a chance to flnd out what lidnd of work lt is.

Pt9: Yes, thafs tmportant, although that can be taken the wrong way also, because the way one wrlter works is not the way the next one works. I think the tmportant thfng to oonvey to ktds ts, 'I conslder you to be a writer. I'm not golng to harangue you about lt, but when you wrlte somethlng I'm probably going to want to read and talk about lL'You shouldn't say right away, 'How oome you didn't use any apostrophes?' That will c€me [n dme, but when you begin with it, It's discouragtng. lf anybody trid to take a rough draft of mlne, they'd have to take lt over my dead body. I thfnk of sltuatlons ln

school - the teacher comes along and says,

'Let me see that now,'and the poor ldd throws hls body over the paper. It's a natural reacdon, lfyou aren't ready to show the wrldng yet. But we grab the paper anyway.

SS: What about helptng ldds flnd

audiences for thelr

wrtfln$

won't wrlte wtthout the correct spelltngs.

'What should I do? I'm comfortThey ""y, this, but mY chtld tsn'L' able wtth

PS: I thtnk every wrlter has her own style, her own way ofapproaching a blank piec.e of paper, so I would glve such a chlld the spelllngs, lf that's what's of lnterest or

concern to her. Or gtve her a dlctlonary.

But don't let her go so far ln favor of corr€ctness that she forgets the lmportance of gettlng something down that she cares about,

I also think that flnallY tfs an

edttor's lob to take care of thtngs ltke spelltng, and mothers and fathers should funcdon as edltors.

SS: It's always lnter€sfing to me that

the way an editor does that ls so quallta-

tlvely diflerent from the way a teacher does it, and yet somedmes, having grown used to the teacher, we get the two confus€d.

PS: I want to make lt clear that I'm not saytng kids are born skilled at compoiing. But lf we ask for skills first" ther/re Aolng to understand wrlting as rori.thittg you do for somebody else, or for some textbook, not as something you use

to say, 'Thls ls who I am,' or -These are

my

conc.erns.'

OLDER HOMESCHOOLERS ENJOYS WORKING FOR

DIPLOMA . Flom Yarcn Golfunan

(II):

Klm Kopel's letter ln GWS #71, "Whether to Work for a Dlploma,' especially tnterested me. I have a stmilar story, but with a different outcome. I am 14, and have been learnlng at home ln a very unprogrammed w"y for the pa.st ffve years. I enrolled ln Clonlara's Home Based Educatlon Program ln November 1988, at the ninth grade lwel, stnce lt looked like a great way to earn a htgh school diploma whlle contlnuing to do more or less what I was doing.

When I got the currlculum, I was pleasantly surprised by the reasonable requlrements for graduailon. I felt I would have no trouble with the equlvalency exam and research paper. Electlves would be a cinch, slnc.e almost anythtng can be considered an elective, so the only subJects that had me a bit worried were the required ones (math, sclence, Engltsh).

Keeping track of my ume was another thtng that concemed me, since I'd never been a good log-keeper.

The flrst few months were quite lnteresting. I hadn't altered my learnlng style to fit Clonlaras requirements, and lt showed. Vtrtually all of my Ume was spent dolng electlves. I dld manage to get ln some of the 3OO requlred volunteer servlce hours, mostly by chanting the Torah at my synagogue and dolng volunteer work at Holt Associates when my famtly vtstted Massachusetts.

I felt guilty about not spending more tlme on math, science, etc,, but not enough to really do anythtng about lt, Onc.e ln a while I would try to cuc€ntrate on those areas, but I wasn't motlvated enough to serlously pursue them.

Thls state of affalrs, wlth some lmprovement, contlnued untll about a month ago. At that poln! accordtng to my calculatlons, I had completed all the electlve credits. One the down side, the

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #73

required ones, wlth the exception of lq:ial Studtes (a favorite area of mlne) and P'E.' were nowhere near completlon. On the up slde, howerrer, I now had only to keeP tr:ack of the slx rernaining required sublects.

Now that I was keePtng track ofJust slx sublects, I was able to concentrate mor. oit them. I set goals as to where I uranted to be at the end oftheyear, and came up with plans as to how I was to achleve those goals. I set the followln$ main goals: t. To graduate from Clonlara bv the summer of 1990, so I don't have to dorry about htgh school an5rrnorq 2.,To b. at leist at an average I lth grade level ln sclence and math by the summer of '9O: and 3. To contlnue growing muslcally.

It took me about a Year to flgure out that Clonlara really means tt when they sav 'do vour own thtnS.' It also took me ab-out that long to understand that the whole point of thelr credit system ls to prove thatyou have been alive, and ln a consclous state, for a certaln amount of flme, The realizailon that You have complete freedom as to horo you collect thosl hours, as long as you collect them, struck me like a bombshell about two weeks ago. It made me feel a lot better

about my situation.

Clonlara has lt set uP like this: The student or the parent fllls ln a monttrly grid, stating how much dme each day tle itudent spent ln each area ofstudy, and the datly and monthly totals. I dtdn't thlnk the grtd was very clnvenlent, slnce many calculations have to be made by the person who fills lt tn (wtth the sltghtest irror meaning a long delay whlle you IInd the bu$. My dad had the solufion to this problem, whlch was to recreate the Cdd

using a spreadsheet program on the computer, and setting lt up so that the c$mputer would do the calculatlons automatically. I am now worldng more elllctently than ever, and enJoyin$ tt. The really great thtng ts I'm dolng what I enJoy doing and earning a dtploma while I'm at

it.

24

ADDITIONS TO DIRECTORY Here are all he additions and changes to he Directory that we have received since he last issue went to press. The complete 1990 Directory was published in GWS #72.

Our Directory is nof a list of all subscribers, but only of hose wtp ask to listed, so lhat oher GWS readers, or other interested p€ople, may get in toucrl with them. lf you would like to be included, please send he entry form or a 3x5 card (one famiv per card). Please take care to include all he information last name, full address, and so on.

Please remember that we can't control how he Directory is used; if you receiw urnvanted mail as a result of being listed, just toss it out. tile pint birthyears of cfrildren, not ages. lf we made a mistake when converting your cfiild's age to birthyear, please let us knor.

Please tell us if you would rather have your phone number and town list€d instead of your mailing address. We don't have space to list both. lf a Diroctory lisring is fottowed by a (H), rhe family is willing to host GWS travelers who make advanc€ arrangements in writing. lf a name in a GWS story is followed by a state abbr€viation in parentheses, that person is in he Directory (check here andin#72). We are happy to forward mail to hose whose addresses are not In the Dir€ctory. Mark tre outside of the envelope with name/description, issue, and page number. lfyou don't mark he outsid€, we open fte envelope, see that you want somehing foruarded, and hen have to readdress the lettsr and use our own postage to mail

b

ir.

When you ssnd us an address cfiange for a subscriptbn, please remind us if you are in the Directory, so we can change it here, too.

AL === 41qg1YA H6ME EDUCATORS. PO Box 16091, irobile 36i t6 (chanoe) Kathie & Al

=:

SHULTZ (Pe|c,tng, MartiryS2, Kadna/84) 4810 Psanr€€ Cl, Tuscatoosa 33105 Ric & Cynttria SMITH (Hannah/8s, Emma/88) 1355 Beaumonr Dr,

=:

irontgomery 3611

AK:

1

Kart & Nancie ELLTS (Anika/Ba) pO Box

(lr,/targarita/81) 86 Wesr Sr Apr A, Salinas 93901 === Stanley Yrcnne CRANE (Keviry82, lr,leghann/85, KollirVSS) 123 Lorimer St, Salinas €Kl9Ot f,il6lsy FUGATE (Christopherto) PO Box 7482, Spreckets C1962 (change) Bill E Jill HEASLEY (Bm,*J-n, LogaM/9, [,lcKay/84, Tyl€r/85) €12 E Buckingham Way, Fresno 93726:= Patricia MIUAMK (Johilts) PO Box 721 1, Spreckells 94t962 Roberr OTT & Lenore HAYESOTT (NiO€l/84) 22ge.;4/.ona Av, Long B€ach 90803 === Bob & Dsbbie STAGGS (|.au:a/A2, Michael/87) HC - 1 Box 5952, Yucca Valley 92284

=-

=:

=:

CT === Kimberty ENDAHL & Ma* TSOCANOS (Nina-Alexandra,r84, Nikolas/86, SebastiarySg) 1 1

Witl & Thea HOFFtvtAN (Briann8)1430 Camino Amapola, Siena Visra 85635 === TUCSON HOME EDUCATIOiI NETWORK, pOB 59176. Tucson 85732-8176 (change)

CA, NORTH (zlpo 94000 & up) === Debi & Bitl ALAMEDA (Nlandyn9, Molly/83) PO Box 10572, So Laks Tahoo 95731 === Q37y & tlbtisa CLARK (Amy/ 85, Nidrola9SS) PO Box 884, El Dorado 95023 === Karen CLAUSSEN E DaMd BOSTEDER (Nichotas/83) Star Houte 1, McArthur 96056 === Glen DAIS & Debra CALDWELL-DAIS (Jared/84) 240 poptar, Manteca 95336 (change) (H) === gsstu 9g4t{ (Christy/8o) 181 12rh Av, Santa Cruz 95062 (H) === Sam & Jackie DICKER (Michaet/84, Jessi@/A7) 275 14th Av, Sanra Cruz 9g)67 (change) (H) Steven & Kathleen EMMER (Nhnhe|v/gs, Eilioyg8) 469 Corte Madera Av, Corte Madera 94925 (H) === David E Margaret FRANK (JoMarie/66, AnnMarie/68, D,,/gal, JaclvSS) PO Box 102, Walnut Creek 94597 (Hl === Judy GfLLfGAN & David KLINE (Zacharyt&,Caiilitv 8il, Sandy/8s) 1416 ilonarch Ln, Davis 956j6 (H) === Jon & Dana LEVINE (Nathant6, fvleganng, O,ven/ 85) 916 Pendegast St, Woodland 95695 (H) === lilary & Todd PHOENIX (Sarah/BS) Z07-725-6228 (Fonuna) Leonard & Barbara RI-ITER (Aaront77, ApriU80, Jeremy/82, RacheySs) 22() Botling Dr,

-=

:

Novato 94949

CA, SOT TH (dps io 9fO00) === Janer AStAtN

Nll === Charles & Shalisha MULL|GAN, 5313 A Heritage Way NE, Albuquerque 87109 === Tom & Sandy SHEALY (David/81, Nathad8s, Joanna/80) 1065 Fairway Terr, Clovis 88101 NY === 563ys1 HOTCHKTSS & Dave KAMp (Galen/8:l) 133 Leroy St, Porsdam 13675 (H) === Tom & AnnMarie LOUGHLIN (Jenna/8o, Brian/grtl, Erict8Tl 1O5 W 4th St, Dunkirk 1 4048 (H) === Kathy & Gary RICHARDSOI.I (Samanrha/B{l 6925 Babcock Hollorv, Bath 14810 (cfiange)

Charles St. Darien 06820 FL === FAMILY LEARNING EXCHANGE.2O2O Turpentine Rd, Mims 32754 === Gwen & John MEEHAN (Patrickr/6)i 520 Brierctitf Dr, Ortando

NC === Bob E Karen iTCALISTER (Jenny/8|, Wtlv84l 2222 ilonza Dr, Albermarle 2800j (H)

ct, Augusta 30906

OI.I === HOME BASED ED. LEAGUE OF PERRYSBURG (HEtP), c/o Terry Endsley, 13947 s Pt Rd, Perrysburg 43551 === Maggie & Jim MEYER (Ericz6, Annt81, Serena/8s) 1i054 CR 54, Findlay 45840 === Amy VANORIO (Joshua/84) 2108 Kemper Ln. Cincinnati 45206

lO === Jsyng SORRELS (Ryan/84, Jiilayne/8s) 1802 W Washington, Boise 8i!702

OK === Laura &. Phitip WESTERVELT (Amandaz6, Abigail/79) Rr 1 8ox 142, ireridian

32806

GA === lvhrk & Velinda MITCHELL (Emityn7,

M€rritttg, Cory/8o, Mirianv82, Eir€ne/8s)

gOO4 Erik

73058

lL === William & Karherine BLANCHETTE (Candace/8s, Andrew/88) 209 Aquarius Dr, Shitoh 62269 (H) === Michael & Kathryn COLBRESE (Egarv 72, Anna-Matial73, Paul & Michael/Z4,EriN7S, Colleen E David/76, Michaela/79, Daniel/8l, Johryeii!, Adam/"/6) 2607 2'7rh Sr N, East lvloline 61244 === Don & Carol HURTIG (Jennie/8l, Amanda & parricu 82) 15O0 Tyrell Av, Park Ridge 6O068

UO === Robert & Audrey BANKS (Brendanflg, Alyssa/81) 2018 Sutfolk Rd, Finksburg 21048 (H) (change) Delayne & Daniel COATS (TiffanynT, Benjamin/81, i/blly/86) 2939 A 2nd Army Dr, Fr lileade 20755 === Timothy E Sherri JACKSON (Shelley/86, Stacey/88) 5O4t Eass Ct, Watdorf 20603 === Laura LYNDS & Charles BRENTON (Ametia/86) 316 lst Av SW, clenbumie 21061 === Wayne & Sandy WATKfNS (linn2, Jasrrnn9) 4501 Roop Rd, Mr Airy 21771

:=

277, Kasilof 996t0

AZ:

(MichaeySo, Erin/8 1, Khai83, Douglas/86, Gregory/88) 9 Blueberry Ln, Nashua 03062

t

MA === Janis & Chris BAKER (Srephanie/58, Michae/82, Alexander/86) 25 &mes Way, Scituate 02066 === Sheryl & Quint CALDWELL (John/82, Brandon/84, Brinany/8g) 234 Middle St, W N€wbury === Michael & Diane D'ABCANGELO (Jutier75, St€phani€r/7, Elizaberhtg, Michelle/81, Michael/Bit, Jimmy/8s, Joseph/86) 94 Hillside Av, Menimac === Dave & Sue GIULIANO (Jess€/7g, Jenna/82) 31 euail Trail, Westport 02790 === Ina & Joseph LoVANGIE (Danien6, Joshuar7g, Joseph/82, Jesse/8s) pO Box 27 4, W endell === Heather LITTLE -ANDRADE (Jesse & Raquel/82) 2878 Elm Sr, Dighron 0271S === Faith Jones OZAN (Aydin/84) 7 Lincoln St, Newburyporr 01 950

MN === Lsslie LAVANDER (Joyl8O) 9037 14th Av South, Bloomington 55425 === Bill & Susan REES (Davidtg, Dana/841, Aleta/8s) 5652 N pike Lake Rd, Duluth 55811 === Kathy & John SZYITTANSK| (John Jayng,]lhltklg1, Maryl83, new baby/go) RR 2 Box 109D, Alden 5600{l === Linda WINSOR & Andrew PROKOP (Louis/84, Evan/87) 1927 James Av, Sr Paul 55105 (H)

MO:= 6s1y & Jean BLACKWOOD (car€rhr6, Gile982, Tegan/87) Bt 3 Box 290A, Carthage O4896 (H)

:96u61

PA & Barbara PAGE (Charley/'3, Alexander/8S, Christian/87, Oliver/89) 205 W Virginia Av, Munhall 15120 === Ron & Marilyn PEREIM (Joshn3, |1iFlly-AnntT7, Jockz$ 9801 Slenron Av, Philadelphia 19118 === Bilt & Lorena PTETRANGELO (Lorat79, Wlliam/82) 56 Paul Cirde, Gten Mills 19342 Pattj & Kevin VAN BUSKIRK, FD 1 Box 868.

Newloundland 18445

:

SC : Jim & CarolYn BROWN (Jenny & Catherine/7g, Rachel/82, Julie/8it, Laura/86, RoberV 87) 1637 Yellow House Rd, Wadmalaw lsland 29487 (H)

TN :.1u6y HARDTN & Bruce BOTTS (Kimreyr 83) Rt 11 Box92,Greeneville3TT4S

W == Cheryl & Scon SAUTER (Kyte/8s, Tyter/ 87) RR 1 Box 101-8, West Danvilte 05873 (H) VA === Jerry & Carmelta CTEMNY (Grace/83, Caralina/86) 12767 Gazeb Ct, Woodbridge 22192 === Sally & Franklin DOMINGUEZ (Benjaminr6, DanieltS) 7022 Stanford Dt, Alexandia22oT WA === Rod & Arlene PAYTON (Robertr/s, Shannonf/6, Ch ristopher/8o, Steph6rVS6) 20939 Kaster Bd NW, Poulsbo 98370 (H) === Susie & Joe WINTERSIECK (AzaJ83. Allan/87) PO Box 1547.

Vashon lsland 98070 WV === Mary Ellen SULLIVAN & Don FTSHEL (Jake/8 t , Doug/g2, Ma/85) Rr 2 Box 1 1 3, Mannington 26582 (H)

=-

Wl Jim & Jan ERDI\IAN (^lbrtint76,Vtnlln8, Ryland/81) 1317 lvleadorv Hill Dr, lvlenomonie 54751 (change) (H) John & Ellie THOMASON (Adele/81, Becca/8s) Rt 1 Box 91-8, Mason 54855 (H)

:

CANADA: NS === cail REBBECK & Erock ELLTOTT (CassiM/g, Banie & Rory/8i!, LeigVST) PO Box 1138, Antigonish B2G 216 (H)

ONT === Herb & Barb JONES (Oliver/81, Anna/ 85) RR 1, Gananoque K7c 2V3(H)

NH === 4116u1 & lvlarie GALLAGHER (Christopher/81, DanieU8g, Sara-Beth/85) 8 Hayes Pt, Portsmouth 03801 === Doris & Paul HOHENSEE

LOCATIOIIS: John & Beverly GOLDEN (Judith/8 1, Gabriel/8i|, Zachary 186, Racfrael/89) PSC

OTHER

GROWING WITTIOUT SCHOOLING #73

25 Elsa Box 868, APO New York 09291 (Crrtr) HAAS, APRENDEB SIN ESCUELA (Spanish GWS), Horaleza 4, 5 izq, 28004 fihdrid, Speln Judith LYE, Seragaya-ku, Tokyo 158, Khalid & Tenie MSHEED (AMullah/8i|) PO Box 25239, Riyadh, 11466 (Studl Atable) (H)

=: (H): Japan:

The following organizations whos€ addresses were published in GWS il72 are no longer active: Kentucky Home Schoolers Parent Educators ol Pennsylvania

COMPLETE LISTS OF RESOURCES Once a year we print our comPl€te lists of helpful teachers, lawyers, professors, psychologists, sdrool districls, and rosour@ people. As wih our Dir€ctory of families, we print addilions and cfianges to heso lists houghout he year, so please condnue to sEnd them in. lf you?e sending us a dtange of address for a subsoiption, Ploas€ let us know if you're on one of ttese lists so hat we can change it her€, too. We're aiways intgrested to know whether p€ople appreciate having his infotmetion available, so do l€t us know wheher hese lisB are baing used.

CERTIFIED TEACHERS Here is our complets list of c€rtified teachers willing to help homeschmlers:

AZ - Kahleen KNEZ, Western Navalo Reservation, PO Box 889, Tuba City 86o45; Special Ed CA, Sotih (Zlpc to 94000) - Tulu ANDERSON, 6949 Fisk Av, San Diego 92122i 61*45*1086 === Lynne BEHEIM, 3128 Jam€s St, San Dego 92106 Karen BISHOP, N County Pl, 22O4 El Camino Real, Suite 312, Oceanside 92054 === John BOSTON, PO Box 92, Escondido 92025;61974s 1522:- Ruh BOTHNE, 17355 lrlelody Ln, Los Kahleen BOYD, Gatos 95O30; 40&353-3620 10315 llarcus Av, Tujunga 91O42; sl€m & cftild devet Karen CANTO,23i] N llay Av, lvlcnrovia 91016; 818-3591669 === Marybeth CRAIG, 16033 Amber Valley Dr, Whinier 906O9; 213-94t1.4131 === Monica CROCKETT, 4037 Cheshire Dr, Cypress 90430; 714670-7225 === Sandy DOERFEL, PO Box2713Cl1, Escondido 92O27 Judy DUBY, 331 81 Paseo lrlolinos, San Juan Capistrano 92675; 71 4-661 - 1 049 === Herb HAMMER, PO Box 45918, Los Angeles 90045; 21&281-6025 -== Jim SKEIE, 1t1816 Daphne Av, Gardena 90249i 213-324-9n7 CA, Nonh (Zlps 94000 & Up) - Margaret ARlGHl, 6015 Mauritania Av, Oakland 94605; 415653-5098 === Teni CHRISTL, 144 i/blitas Rd, Marilyn D€VORE, Danville 94526; K-7 Spec 1919 B St, lvlarysville 95901 === Sharon GREENE, Roy SHIMP, 2164 E PO Box 52, Carlona Cheryl Bellewe Rd, Merced 95it40 (Secondary) STEVENS,2a86 Pebble Beach Loop, Lafayene 94549 (K-12, spocial ed) C:o - Xara BERTHOLF,3780 CR 129, Hesperus Sandra GUENTHER, 2923 Sunset Dr, CO 81329 Jaelee JONES, 3 Stonemoor Dr, Golden 8(H0l Mikelyn WARD, Pueblo 81005;3O3-561-3510; 13400 Rd 32. Planeville 80651:78$6378; K-12, r€adin9 CT - Geotlrey SMITH,365 Bellevue Rd, New Haven 0651 1; 20$787-5659; Eng, math, 7-1 2, admin FL - Charlone THIEN, 12201 Old Kings Rd, Jacksonville 3221 9: 90/,-7 *Oa72 lL - Bonnie VERHULST, N Bruns Lane - B, Springfield 62702; K-9 lN - Rebecca BICKELL, PROSPERTTY SPRINGS SCHOOL, Rt 1 Box 221, Anderson 46012; Spec Ed & Deaf Ed === Linda OWENS,7262 Lakeside Dr, Indianapolis 46278; K-8 lA - Richard E Sharon CARGIN, 25 6th Av NE,

=:

:

=:

:

t

Ed:

95528:

=:

:

LD:

::

LeMars 51031 llE - Barry KAHN,35 College St, Portland 041O3l'207-797-8866 === Kathi KEARNEY, Box 69, New Sharon 0a955; ME & W K-12 llD - Frances IIOYER, 4017 William Ln, Bowie

20715

tA - Adele GARLICK, RFD 1, Southbridge 0155O; 248€521 === John JUDGE, A.l.D., 1 1 2 Mt Dr. Denise KUHN, l-lope St, Lowell 01831 EDUCATIONAL POTENTIAL SERVICES, 235 Woodland Rd. Mihon 02186;3t13-073O: ffpmas iIAHER, 30 Park St, Wakelield 01 880; 61 7-24$7634 Faih Jones OZAN,7 Lincoln St, Newburyport lhrio PAGNONI, T6 Emsley Ter, Mehuen Wendy SPMTTLER,460 S. Main St, Andover 01810 === Linda G. VlElRA, 545 Hammond Linda ZUERN, Bor 519, 5 St. Chestnut Hill 02167 Depot Rd, Cataumet MA 02534 - Mike BENNETT, 105 3rd Sl, Ontonogan 499*t-1300 === Fran BURKE, Rl Box 254 County

:=

: 01950: 01844:

:

tl

Line Rd, Thompsonville 49683, 616-2694282; dem & special ed K-12) === Catol CLAUSS, 5268 1 Mile Kalhy DONAHUE, Box Rd, Barryton 49035; 286 Boundary Rd Rt f,1, Houghton 49€91; 90G.1826393 K-12 ==- Rita EBELING, 86'l E Birchtree, Claymont DE 19703 (certified in Ml) == Sharon JORDAN, Rt 3 Box 86, Bear Lake 4961 4; 61 c8895920: K-6 === Dinah MORRISON,572 Military, Battle Creek 49015: 61 6-963-2877; 7-12 === Muriel PALKO, 321 N William, Ludington 49431; K-l2 === Janet ROELLE,9300 Warwick lvleadows, Grand Blanc 48439; K-8 MN - Jeanne BOUROUIN, HC 2 Box 3780, Ely 55731 === Linda WINSOR, 1927 James A\€, St. Paul

I

K-8:-

55105 MO - Karen FOSSE, Srar Rt Box 82, Washburn

PA - Debby BELL, 116 N Lincoln St, Palmyra 17078; language === Dsborah DOERFEL, 1360 Arline, Roslyn 19001 === KANE, 167 Maple St' Gordonville 17529 (English 7-12, Reading K-12) === Rick KEPHART, 1 HiOh St, iilalvern 19355 (slem) === Kathy O'DONNELL, 625 W North Sl, Carlisle 17013 (music K-12) ==- Beh STONE,988 Siddonsburg Rd' Lewisberry 12339 TX - Linda JONES, 3301 Hemlock, Temple 76504; elem UT - Brdher James PETRAIT,514 24th St' Ogden 84lo1; 801-39$5627; science VT - Martha ANDERSEN, RR I Box 6.|4' Huntington 05462: Katri KEARNEY' 49 Gamage Av. Auburn ME 04210; ME & VT K-12 VA- Scon CHRISTIAN, Rt 5 Box 358' Maninsville 241 1 2; 7O3532-37 8O WA - FAMILY ACADEMY (teadrers all over WA state), 14629 2Oh SW, S€atde 98166; 2&246-9227 #243, === Karen FOGLE, 14241 NE Wdnil Duvall Woodinville 98072: Debby HALPERIN, 4536 48lh Av NE. Seanle 98105 === Julie & David Loyd, Waldron 98297; (Julie: elem, Spanish, math; David: dem, high school, English, Spanish, Social Studies) === Denis WICHAR, Cascade Jr High Schml, 13900 NE 18th St. Vancouver 98684-7299;256-6052 === Susie WINTERS|ECK, PO Box 1547, Vashon lsland 98070

Wl - Cheryl & Bruce BISHOP, 5148 Bluff Ct' Sturgeon Bay 54235; elem. === Donna lvlAHR' 561 N lrilain St, Oregon 53575; Soc St K-12 === Alison lvlcKEE,5745 Bittersweet Pl, Madison 53705; elem, vis. impair CANADA - Leslie AYBE-JASCHKE, 10409101 St, Peace RiverABTSS 1K7 === HeTbJONES' RR 1' Gananoque, Ont K7G 2V3

65772 MT - Bonnie BILLEB, Rl 1 Box 169, Ronan 59864 NE - Tara SENNETT, 1941 L St, Lincoln 68510 (math) NV - Pat & Jane BRUNKER, Home Schooling Consullanls, Las Vegas; phono 878€670 NH - Sally EMBER, 284 Watsr St, Keene 03431 NJ - David JUSTICE, o00 Wesdield Rd, iiloorestown 08057 (MJ & PA; special ed) === Gwin HUTCHINS, 94 E Spring St, Som€rville 08876 === Sandy MADKIFF, MINOTOLA ACTIVITY CTR, 207 Coari Av, Minotola 08341 ; 609-697-1 643; K-1 2 Eng Nll - Kara BERTHOIF,3780 CR 129, Hesperus CO 81329 (certified in CO E NM) NY - Lyman BARRY,9297 Shaw Rd, Nunda Diane CHODAN, 14517: 716-1168-2650: science RD 1 Box 462, Rome 13440 === Lucretia GABRIEL, 1 2 Fainray Ct, Albany 1 2208; science === Joyce HOUCK, RR 1 Box 148A, Brant Lake 12815;518-494n72i elem. === Kathi Kearney, tt605 Whinier Hall, 1230 Amslerdam Ave, New Yotk 10027 === lvlartin MILLER, Aikens Rd, RD 1, Watkins Glen 14891; malh, sci, accounting === Vicky QUINTANA,3il6 E 90lh St apt. 1A, Nert York 10128 === lvbrian RONALDS, LEARNING CTR BOOKSTORE,207 S lvfain St, Canandaigual4424i 71S394-8798 === Natalie TATZ, 3320 Bainbridge Av, Bronx NY 10467; 212-654-7918 (elem) OH - Paul HILSTON, 3420 Williams Ct, Avon 44011',7-12 science === Elizabeth LOWER, 5022 Wabash Dr, Fairfi eld 45014; 51 3-863-2891 (tvbntessori) === Robert E. i/|ASOtl,218 Mulberry, Granville 43023:K-12 === Candace MILLER,439 S Cole St, Lima 45805; K-B OR - Mary MAYFIELD, 24874W Brush Creek Rd. Sweet Home OR 97386: 503-367-2474i r12 === lrlolly MORELAND, Mustard Seed Educational Services, 5705 SE Woodward, Portland 97206 === lda REMBELINSKY, 1709 1gth Ave f5, Forest Grove 971 16: 503-357-71 30 === Marcia SPANI, ALOI-IA KIDS ACADEMY, 4640 SW 182, Aloha 97007; 5O3642-4094: K-8

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #73

=-

HELPFUL LAWYERS CT - Frank Codrran, 51 Elm St, PO Box 1898' New Haven 0650&l 898; 203'86$7380 DC - Nancl LeSourd & George Grange ll, 1 925 K St NW, Suile 3oO, Washington 20006-1115; 202862-2000 Hl - Tom DiGrazia, DiGrazia Law Otfico, 415-A Uluniu St, Kailua 96734 lD - Lyle Eliasen,202 ldaho St, American Falls 8:1211: 208-22&5138 lA - Craig Hastings, 315 6th St, Ames 50010;

51+/J2-2501 KS - Austin Ksnt Vincent, 1 108 Bank lV Towers, Tooeka 66603: 913-253- 41 22 KY - Theodore H AmshotfJr, 1012 S 4th Av, LouisMlle 2O203; 5o2-582-350O llD - Ray Fidler, 8O5 Tred Avon Rd, Baltinrore 21212 === Paul Kimberger, 3905 B€xley Pl, Madow Hghts 20745;3O1-89959i13 === Dale R. Reid, 709t Brangles Rd, Marriottsvi lle 21 I 04 ; 3O1'549 1 322 MA - Eugene Burkart, 267 ltloody St, Waltham o21g: 617-89&53:17 === Susan Ostberg, The

Common, Box 246, Harvard 01451;617-456'3688 : John Sandelli, 112 Sladen St, Dracut 01826;617' 957-5528 lll - Norm Peny,8976 US 31'33, PO Box 241' Benien Spgs 4910gi 616-47 1 -2848 ilO - Robert Baker, On the Square, Sarcoxie 6a862: 417-548-3321 === Arnold T Phillips, 1221 Locust St, St Louis 631 03; 31 4-231 -4901 NY - Dustin Ordway, 110 Torrace Pl, Brookleyn 11218i718-972-9121 =- David Pullen,48 W Main St. Fillmore 14735:71&567-2229 =: Seth Rockmuller, RD t B ox 172E, East Chatham 12060; 519392-4277 OH - David A. Haffey,3835 Dayton-Xenia Rd, Beavercreek 45432 === James Peters, 107 W Court St, Woodsfield 43793i 61 4- 472- 1 681 PA - Thomas E lvlartin, 201 S Broad St, PO Box 392, Kennen Sq 19i148; 215-444-0285 ==- |v'€irk Semisch, 56 Warden Rd, Doylestown 18901

26 TN - Philip Carden, 607 N 14rh Sr, Nashville 37206; 615-22&0416 TX - Tom Brandon,7601 Xavier Dr, PO Box stl'l .|42, Ft Worth 76133 Wl - Jack Umpleby, N 88 W 16848 Main Sr, lvfenomonee Falls 5{X}51 ; 41 4-25'l -9440 WY - Gerald lvlason, PO Box 785, Pinodate 8841;?07-*7-2134: tMlliam H. Twichell, PO Box 1 219, Pinedale 82941 i 307-87-241 4 Canada - Lloyd Greenspoon, RF #1, Gore Bay Ontario PoP lHo

PROFESSORS AND OTHER

ALLIES The lollowing people are willing to hslp homesctrooling families in developing curriqllum, evaluating progress, or in ofrer ways:

Lary Arnoldsen, Box 10 lvhKay Bldg, Brigham Young U, Provo UT 84802 Graham Ashworth, 423 Fox Chapel Rd, Pinsburgh PA 15238:412-963-880o Dr. Stephen Coilin, The Secret Garden, P.O. Box 1731s,Tucson AZ 85731 Gay Eastman, 2122Kendall Av #2, Madison Wl 53705: 608-231 -'l 875 Steven Hall, M.D., Strong Family Practice, PO Box 189, Suong ME 049€13 (physician) Joe Jernberg-Briggs, Phone 21 6-262- 4O7O, Wooster OH; sdrool psychologist, r€ading specialisr Hal Jindridr, Psychologist,555 W. Middtefietd, #S301, iilounrain View CA 94043: 41S9699981 Prof. Richard King, Ed. Dept., Univ of Victgoria, Box 1700, Victofia BC, VgW 2Y2 Michael Masny,43 Burncoat St, Leicester iiA 01524; 617-892-8O12; certified schml psycfrologist & social worker.

Dr. Nadine fulcHugh, Educational Fellowship of Christian Schmls, Oral Roberts U., 727 S Lwis, Tulsa OK 74171

-i

HIS'.I'fJIMATH

41 TURNER

CT.

PRINCETON

NJ 08540 r (609)921-7377

THE DIFFERENCE between medircrity ANd EXCELLENCE is AND DAD MOM

tr Send me a tape of songs & coloring books for $20.

City, State & Zip

Michael J. Murphy, Assoc. Prof., U. of Saskatchswan, College of Education, Saskatoon, Sask., Canada S7N 0W0 Dr. Donald Musin, Dominion Sdrool of Education, PO Box 6321, Lakeland FL 33803; 813-747-1476 Dr. Paul Nash, Schml of Ed, Boston Univ, Boston MA 02215 Dr. Robert Newman, Assoc Prof Emeritus, Teadrer Education, Syrao:se U, 137 Hughes Pl, Syracuse NY 13210

Joseph Pappalardo, Ed.D., Westfield State College, Wesdield MA 01086: 413-568-331 1 Sam B. Peavey, Ed.D., 2307 Tyler Ln, Louisville KY t!0205; 5O2-4592058 Edward Pino, 189 Antelop€ Tr, Parker CO 8O134 Bruce Quanington, Dept of Psychology, York U, 4700 Keele St, Downsview Ontario iISJ 1F€ Nancy Reckinger, 908 Ridgecrest Cir, Anaheim Hills

cA 92807 Jack Robertson, Prof. Emeritus, New York Univ, PO Box 55, Greig NY 13345 Prof. Albert SchaE, 6097 Sherman St, Philadelphia PA 1S119 Paul Daniel Shea, M.A., Ed.D., 145O Beacon St..

Suite 801, Brookline tvtA 02146; 617-277-42i4 Dr. Peler Stiller, 48 Einstein Dr, Princeton NJ 085404952 Chester S. Williams, Assoc. Prof./S€condary & Higher Ed., ETSU, Box 5518, Texarkana TX 75501; 21 4-838-5458

HELPFUL PSYCHOLOGISTS CA - Hal Jindich, 555 W Middlefield, S-3O1, Mtn View 94043: 415-gtt9-9981 MA - Michael t\itasny, 43 Burncoat St, Leicest€r O1 524: 61 7 -892-801 2 (certjfi ed school psychologisr and social wofker) === Dr. Susan Ott, HC 81, Box 104, Petersham 01366 MO - Michael and Jayne Stake, 9O1 Dielman, Olivetti 63132 NC - Linda Brannon Shamblin & William Shamblin,219 Wildflower Rd, Asheville 2880+ OH - Richard George, 1201 3oth St NW, Canron 44709 === Jo€ Jernberg-Briggs, 216-262-4070, Wooster (school psychologist, reading specialist) PA - Dr. Bob Conroy, RD 5 Box 286, Smok, Corners, Williamsport 1 7701 TX - Steven Gutstein, PhD, 4550 Posr Oak Pl, Suite #342, Houslon 77027 i 7 13-621-7 496

FRIENDLY SCHOOL DISTRICTS The following is a list of scfrool districts that are willingly and happily cooperating with homeschoolers, and who are willing to b€ listed in GWS as doing so.

One reason for such a list: we want to encourage and reassure school officjals who may be hesitant about approMng home schooling and let them know that there are other districts enjoying good relatioships with their homeschooling families. Also, families who are willing to move to sscape a ditficult situation with scfrool officials would hav€ at least some ideas about where to go.

We will only list thes€ school districts under the following conditions: (1) The tamily has to be nor jusr satisfied but p/easedwith he coog€ration the schools are giving lo their home schooling etforts. (2) The schools themselves have to be happy about being induded in the list. lf they are uneasy about it, or fear that it may get h€m in trouble with someone, we'd raher not subject them to that risk.

So - if your district is cooperating with your homeschooling, and you would /rke them to be on this list, ask them, and let us know if they say to go ahead.

8y the way, we would also like to list school districts that would like to help homeschooling tamilies, but have not been able to do so becaus€ no families have yet asked them.

CA . Anderson Valley Scfrool District, Anderson Valley Way, Boonville CA 95415. Phillip Thomas, Elementary Principal.

Butte County Office of Education, 2120 B Robinson, Oroville CA 95965, James H Scot, Principal, Home School Program Lodi Unified Schml District, 8i)S W Lockford St, Lodi 95240; 209369741 1; Ron Alsop, Asst. Supt. of Elem. Ed. Loma Priea School District, 23800 Summit Rd, Los Gatos 95O3O; a08-35$2389; Dr. Kenneth Simpkins, Superintendent: Dr. Ruth Bothne, Independent Home Study Program Director ilbnterey County Office of Education, 901 Blanco Circle. PO Box 80851 . Salinas 9i1912: Bill LaPlante, Dir€ctor of Altematjve Programs San Juan Ridge Union School District, Oak Tree School, 18847 Oak Tree Rd, Nevada City 95959, Donna Soldano, Administrator.

MA - Barnstable Public Schools, 230 South Sr. Hyannis 02601; 58-771-2211. Jane Sheckells, Curriculum Director.

Bamstable Schmls, PO Box 955, Hyannis, 0m01; Contact Dr. Angela Castoria.

Cambridge Public Scfiools, 159 Thorndike St, Cambridge A21 41 i 61 7 - 498-9233. Contact Mary Lou McGrath.

Lowell School District, 89 Appleton, Lowell 01852t 454-931 . James Mcjt{ahon, Asst. Supt. for Curriculum Development.

Rockland Public Schools, Rockland 02370; Supt. John W. Rogers.

Scituate School District,606 Cushing Hwy, Scituate 02066; 508-545-5369; Vida Gavin, Dir. of Soecial Services.

Southern Berkshire Regional School District, Sheffield 01257; Director of Guidance, Paul Shafirotf.

PA - Southwest Buder County School Distrid, RD 1, Harmony 16037; Ron Snyder, Supt.

RESOURCE PEOPLE The people listed bolol have experience with the following subjects, and who are willing to correspond wilh others who are inlerested. As with all of our Resource lists, we appreciate additions and correctons.

Adoption: Kathy Donahue, Box 286 Boundary Rd Rt #1, Houghton Ml 499i11; 906-482-6391 === Lury lgnizio, 19504 Hiawatha Rd, Odessa FL 33556 === Walter & Mary Marschner, 109 All€man Dr, Lafayette LA 70500 === Suzanne lvlortensen, Box 272, Skidmore TX 78389 (interracial) === Jenny Wright, Quaker City, H.C. 60, 8ox 50, Charlestown NH 03603;603-543-0910 Blindness: Donald & Kathy Klemp (sonts) Rt 1, lxonia Wl 53036 === Ruth Matilsky, 5 Brianrood Dr, Somerset NJ 08873 === Alison lvlcKee, 5745 Binerswe€t Pl, Madison Wl 53705 === Naomi Rice, 3205 NE 64th, Portland OR 97213; g3-287-1828 Deatness: Deborah Doerfel, 1360 Arline, Boslyn PA 19001; teacher === Molly Moreland, 5705 SE Woodward, Portland OR 97206 === Alison Parra, Zacateros 77-5, San Miguel de Allende, GTO, lvhxico 37700 Down Syndrome: Elaine Bechtold, 10827 Rosedale Av N. Rt 1 Box 233, Loreno MN 55357; 61 2498-7553 =-= Gary & Diann Foster, 1167 Lone Valley Rd, Campbellsville KY 42718 === Glenn & Marsha Salisbury, 7923-126th St E, Puyallup WA 98371; 206841-8589 Home Computers: Doug Calsbeek, Box 185, Orange City lA 51041 === Ted & Martha Laux, 1853 EasI Shore Dr, lthaca NY 14850 === Jam€s O. |vlayot,26824 Howard Chapel Dr, Damascus MD 2O872-1247i 3O1-253-5467 or 937-2303; 2400b 8/ltV 1=== Mario Pagnoni, T6 Emsley Ten, Methuen lvlA 01844 === Sheryl Schuff,8156 Lieb€r Rd, Indianapolis lN 46260: 317-259-4778

GROWING WITFIOT-IT SCHOOLING #73

27 lmmunlzatlonr - Maggie lvleyer, 1 1054 CR 54, Findlay OH 45840; 419859-2302 (whooping cough) Kathy Donahue, Box Learnlng Disabllltlee: 285 Boundary Rd Bt #1, Houghton Ml 49931; 906Sharon Graham,22500 Bifle Range 482-6398 Rd. Co\,€lo CA 95428;707-983{513: Kris Hallberg, 644 Comstod Av, Elmhurst lL 60126 Lestie Sue Himet, pSC 4349, ApO try py lrihColgin, RR 1 Box 145, Cunningham KY 42035 Cheryl & Gary (speech & language pahologist) Stevens, 2,186 Pebble Beach Loop, Lafayene CA 94s49 (Specia.l Ed.) tonteeeori Homo Education: Gloria Hardson, Box R, APO New York 09678 Physlcal Handlcapc: Janna Books, Box 309-8, Kahy Donahue, Route 2, Santa Fe NM Box 286 Boundary Rd Bt #1 , Houghton Ml 49931; Karen Franklin, 3S]9 Winfield Rd, 906-482-6391 Saunny Boynton Bch FL 3i'4t16 (Jessica/80 C.P.) Scott, 1901 Barker St, Lawrence KS 66044 Slngb Parentr: === Kim Delauter, 150 N. Wendy Flanders, PO Avery, Pontiac Ml 48054 Janet Hoftman, 44 Box 7854, Reading PA HOME Bailey Ave, Patchogue NY 11212 EDUCATORS SINGLE PARENT NETWORK, c/o Laura Pritchard. PO Box 58746, S€anl€, WA 981381746;509-486-1351 === Jane lvlara, 1557 Wilson St, Diane ilhNeil,3131 Cty EE, Eugene OR Baileys Harbor Wl5/.20,2: Cahy Payne, 401-4662834, Rl === Deborah Phillips, 400 Raymondale Dr, S. Pasadena CA 91030 -== Karen Turner, PO Box 942, Gualala CA 95445 === Carol Ann Stockton, 2307 Amy Vanorio, 2108 N 63rd St, Seade WA Paula Walker, K€mp€r Ln, Cincinnati OH Rt 2 Box 38, lrlontgomery Creek CA 96065 Christine Willard, 14854 Sutton Dr, San &se CA

:

:

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:=

:

87505:

:

=-

=:

19603:

=-

97402:

98103: 45206:

=:

95124

Travel: HOMESCHOOLERS TRAVEL DIRECTORY, NHA, PO Box 58746, Seanle, WA EDUCATION 981 3& 1746; so+486-1 351 OTHERWISE Visit Exchange, Helen Holland, Inholms Farm, Plumpton Green, Sussex BN7 3DE, England Lois & Jim Blumenthal, Travetlng F.mllles: PO Box 725, Summerland Key FL 33042 === Arlene Haight (B€cky/58, Mattr/3) 4150 So US f1, RD 2, Palm Bay FL 32905 === Karen Holguin, PO Box 20 1 0, Sparks NV 89431 Gloria Harrison, Box R, APO New York 09678

:

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Twlnr::

CATALOG INFORMATION Our fall catalog was bound into GWS #7 I .

Separatc coples of the catalog arc scnt out with yourbook orders, and ale available upon request.

Pleasc ask about obtatnlng quantities ofour catalogs for dtstribuuon at local errents. libraries, or othcr places where tnterest ts llkely.

On r€quest, we wlll photocopy and mail the GWS rwlew of any ltcm ln our catalog. Send 5o ccnts plus a SASE for one; add 25 cents for each addlUonal.

WHEN YOU WRITE US Pleasc - (l) Put scparatc items ofbusinegs on separate shects ofpapcr. (2) Prrt your name and address at the top ofcach letter. {3) Ifyou ask questlons, enclosc a sclf-addresscd stamped erwelopc. (4) Tcll us lf lt's OK to publish your lctter, and whether to usc your rrame with the story. Wc cdlt letters for spacc and clarlty.

Barbies: Karma (6) drawlr4l. drcss-up, Barbtes; Vanessa {a) d,olorinfg, Barbies. storlcs === Michacl VANIAN (lO) lO16 Minter, Glenwood Sprirgs COI skateboarding, skling, colns === RIGI{TSEII, RR I Box 5OO, Rosedale lN 47874: Rlck (1O) skatcboardlng, trucks, Nintendoi Amy (12) mysterlcs, shells, art:= Donica CHRISTENSEN {lO) Rt 2 Box 371, \l/ashburn WI 54891; folk muslc, banJo, ar:lmals === Chrlstina BROWN 114) 45{]f2 8th Av, Rock Island lL 612ol: miniatur€s, sdckers, pcnpals =: I^and HEINTZBERGER (f 2) 447 Tarr Rd, Paris I(Y 4O361; fishtnXl, horseback rlding;. hlstory -= Aurora BOYD {8) l32l 4th st, Molhe IL 61265; babics, crafts, pcnpals === HURTIG, l5OO Tyr€ll Av, Park Rldge IL 6OO68: Jennie (8) icc skaUng' Ftends. viollc Patrick (? dinosaurs, colorlng' bikcs: Amanda (7) horscs, insects, ice skating

years ofusc around thc world to help chlldren dwelop a strong foundaflon, bulld self-conff-

dencc, and rcach their maxlmum mathematical poten$al. Sclf-paced work also helps ttrc chlld enrlch cognitsve skills and dcvelop habits of ncatness, attcntlon to task, and strong workplaruring shlls. Pleasc write for informaflon to The Ncw Lcarntng Ccnter, IOO Dot'set St' Box 190, South Burlington VT O54O3.

Sccular Homeschoollng Group to form ln Western North Carolina. Thosc inter€sted please contact Kathryn at 7O4-697'4372' WANT Tfi RENT apartment/rcom for rnother arrd elevcn )rcar old dauglrter rn apenlrh' .pc.Ll4l country or nclghborhood. ScPt. fg(}O for 6 months. maybc rnorc. Adele Abrahamse' 714 hcust Avc., Charlottcsville' Virginia

DECLASSIFIED ADS

22901.

Rates: 70clword. $l word/boldfac'e. $Smlnlmum.

Pleasc tcll thesc folks you saw t}re ad fn GWS.

FRENCH FOn TOTA

FREE Sclcncc llegpzlnc loaded with cxpcrtments: TOPS ldeas, 1OO7O SMullno Rd, Canby

oR97013.

AII}EBRA FOR Std CRADERS & ItPl 4x+2=2x+lO is now child's play wlth thls patcnted, vlsual/lrincstletic s!/stem. Used ln I,OOO homes mtlonwide. Order HANDS-ON EgUAffONS for $34.95 plus $4.5O SEIH from:

BORENSON

AIID ASISOCIATE9. Box

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DublinPA 18917.

CHILDRENS RECORDINGS, Mail order Records, Tapes & Vldeos invltes you to send for our free 32 page catalog ofover 2OO tltles. Featurln{l the best

- 'Irarn Along Wtth Your Child.' (Ages 2 I l2'lol. Sttmulates total learnir4; capacity, Unlquct Cas€Gttes, original songs and

dtalogs. Parental g;uide. colorlr4book. Easyl Funl Guaranteed. $19.95 (+$2 s/h)' Opumalcarning L-anguage Land,88-D Bclvedere St, Ssn Rafael' CA 94901. l-ffi-672-1717 {outstde CA).

FRtEf Expanded 40 Page catalog. Whafs New? American hlstory biognrphles, Teenage Entrcpreneu/s Guide, Family Storytelling tlandbook. largcr selectlon art books' supplies and kits. fun rnath and sc{encc books. Plus continued great sclccdon rcadlng, wrtttng' geography workbooks, urrit studlcs, Teachlng Guides.

LEARMNG AT HOUE,

tux

27O-G73,

Honaunau. Hawail 96726.

recordtng arttsts of ch.ildrens muslc, stotytelling, and educational activltiesl PO Box 1343,

ARCHTOITGY and Cultural Anthropologr Re-

Eugene. OR9744O.

books. Frec catalog. A-M'E., 2 I 08 Kemper Lane' Clnctnnatl Ohio 452O6.

SICtl SOFITARE E:IPANSIONI Yes, our Home Educator's Catalog now includes programs for AII computer types, along wtth IBM compauble systems and MOREI HOME SCHOOLER PRICES. Wrlte for frec catalog: SCS, PO Box 1369, Dcpt. G. Concord MA07742.

Urth3 lndividualized s€lf-learning. Internation-

ally known patented mastery system gfves ach child the opportunity to work at his/her own speed at home from basic counting and number tracing up lnto collegeJwel wotk. Provert lr! 30

sourc€s, Hands-on lcarntng kits and acflvl$r

Bccrwrr Ctndler - Our family hobby. Hand dipped palr $6.5O, singlc hand mllcd honey comb wax $3 ppd. Fragrant, undyed $ow. 628 Cltrus Ave. Ordedo FL 32765.

HOUESTEAITERS NEfg back lssucs - thc 'booka:dnc' of self-reliancc. For ordcrtng lnfo, s€nd SASE: Norm Irc Publlcatrons, 8427 W' Glendale Av # I I 7. Glcndalc AZ 853O5.

IENTRY FOR FOR DIRECTORY

If you would like to be tn the Directory andlwnse notAettold us, send in this form, or use a postcard or 3x5 card (only one famtly per card).

Adults (flrst and last names): Organization (only if address is same as family):

Children (names/birthyears): Full Address (Street, City, State, Zip):

PEN-PALS Chlldrcn wrntlng pcn-p.b should write to thosc llstcd. To b€ llsted, send name, age, address, and l-3words on lr:tcrcsts === Megan LEVINE (lO) 916 Pcndgast, Woodland CA 95695;

decorattng, fashtons, camplng -= CL,AUSSEN, 72O Ash, Pocatello ID 8dl2Ol: Levt (l l) Irgos, reading. machlnes: Carnlllc (9) piano, Scouts,

No Are you tn the 1990 Dtrectory (GWS #721? Yes If this ls an address change, what was previous- state?-

-

Are you willing to host GWS readers who make advance alTangements ln writing?

Yes

GROWING WITHOLN SCHOOLING #73

No

2A

HOW TO GET STARTED Herc arc somc ways you can ffnd out the legal sltuaflon ln your statc. l) Look up the lawyourself, ln a public librar5r or law llbrar5r (courthousc. law school. etc.) Laws ale lndcxcd; tqr'school attcndance'or 'educaflon, compulsory.' l9 states have reviscd thelr homc cducatlon laws slnc-e lg82 so check the recent statute changes. We havc prlnted or

summadzed thcsc ncw laws ln ourback lssues.

2l Ask the statc dcparhncnt of cducation for arry lews or reguladotrs p€rtaintng to homeschoollng and/or startlng a privatc school. In som€ state.s (partlcularly CA, IL, lN, Iff) there are fcw rcguladorrs conccrnlng prlvatc schools and soyou can callyourhome a school. lfyou arc conccrned about revealingyour namc and address to the state. do thts through a frlend.

3) Contact statc or local homcschooling grouF. Thls llst was last prlnted tn GWS *72, and ls updated and sold scpanatcly for $2.5O as part of our'Homeschoollng; Resourcc Llst.' Some groups have prepared handbooks or guldellnes on lcgel mattcrrs, Often, thesc groups can tell you morc about thc legal cllmatc lrr a statc tharr anyonc else can - whethcr new leglslation ls pendtng for cxample, and horv the present law ls beingenforccd.

4) Contact other famllles llsted ln our Directory. This ts parttcularly useful lf you live tn a state that leaves homcschooltng declslorrs up to indivldual school dlstrlcts. Whcn you cutact thesc famtltes, help thern by havtng done some rcscarch on yorrr orr.'n ffrst.

5) ln general. tt trs not wlsc to start by asldngyour local school distrtct they usually don't krrow the l,aw cl0rcr. Bettcr to gather the facts llrst on your o\[n.

RENEWALS At the bottom ofthls page ls a form you can us€ to r€ncrr' your subscrlpflon. Pleasc help us by rencrvlng early.

How can you tell when your subscription erpires? I.ook at thls sample label: JIMANDMARYSMTTH 27 0t 74

16MAINST PIAINVILLE

NY

OI I I

I

Thc numbcr that ls undcrlined tn the e><ample tclls thc numbcr of the ffnal lssue for the

subscriptlon. Thc Smiths' sub expires wlth Issue #74. the next lsuc. But lf wc were to recelve thelr renewal before we sent our flnal account chaqges to the malling housc (Aprtl 1), they would qr.rali$ for the frec bonus lssue.

Rcncwal ratcs arc th€ same as for ncw subscrlptions: $2O for 6 lssues, $36 for 12 lssues, $48 for 18 lssues.

SUBSCRIPTIONS SubscrlpEons start with the nert lssue published. Ourrates untllJune l, l9(D are $2O for 6 issues. $36 for 12 lgsues. $48 for l8 issues, GWS ls publlshed cvery othcr month. A slngfc lssue costs {3.5O. Forelgn pa1ments must be either money orders ln US funds or checks drawn on US banks.

We can't afford to accept pcrsonal chccks on Canadlan accounts, cven lf they have 'US funds' wrlttcn on them. Outsldc of North Amcrlca, add $lO per year for alrmail (othcrwlsc, allow 2-3 months for surfacc mail).

EecL l.'ucr: We strongly ulge you to get thc back lssues of GWS, cspectally tf you plan to take your chlldren out of school. Many of thc ardcles are as useful and lmportant as when they were printed, and we do not plan to repeat the infomatlon ln them. All back lssues are kept in

print.

Ratcs: $125 plus postagc (scc chart on pagc 15) for a complete s€t. For any other combination ofback i:ssucs, mailed at onc time to one address, the cost is $2 cach plus $2 per order.; lndcrcr to GWS (spcciff ltem numb€r): #38O lndcx to GWS #l -3O, $2.5O; #382 Index to #31-4O, $2i #384 Index to #41-5O. $2; #385 lndex to #51 -6O, $2:#3al Set ofall Indexes, $5.

Blndcn are avallable with rods that hold GWS

without obscurlng any text, Gold letters on

ffier. #SX) Binderwlth 24 rods (holds GWS #l24), $lO: #328 Binder wtth 18 rods (holds 18 laterlssues), $9.5O. #326 Set of4 Bt:ders and 78

means you gct orrc colry ofeach lssue, 2X means you get 2 coptcs ofcach lssue, 3X means 3 copies, etc.l

lx 2X 3)( rx $( 6X

I year 2yrs.

6lss. l2tss,

3yrs.

$20 rX|6 t348 1360 $70 S78

$48 $90

$36 $64 $90

$l 12 $r30

l8iss.

$126

$r56

$180 $216 7)(,8X, etc: $12 pcrp€rson pcryear. $144

Please serrd ln the rrames and addrcsses of members ofyour group sub. so that wG can kecp

ln touch wlth thcrn. Thanks.

GWS wer forurdcd la lS77 by John HolL Edltor - Susarmah Shcller Managlng Edltor - Patrlck Farenga Contrlbudng Edltor - flonna Rlchoux Edltorlal Assistant - Ilrtary Maher Edltorlal Consultant - Nancy Wallacc Offtce & Subscrtption Manager - Day Farenga

Book Shipper/Receiver - Kathy Munno - L€nard DlgSrur. Mary Maher, Phoebe Wells Shlpping Asslstant - Gtnger F)tzsimmons Olftc.e Assistants

Holt Assoclates Board of Dlrectors:

Arm Barr, Patrlck Farenga (Corporate Presldent). Tom Mahcr, Donna Richoux, Susannah Shcffer Advlsors to the Board: Mary Maher, Stevc Rupprecht. MaryVan Doren, Nancy Wallacc

Cog|rriglt @199O Holt Assoclates, lnc.

All rights rescrvcd.

rods (holds cWS #1-78), $35.

Add prcttng .nd dcllvcr:r chergc for all items e:(cept subscrlpttons (sce page l5).

Addrcr Chengcr: If you're movlng, let us

9sF

1Et?

irF

knowyour norr address as sq)n as posslble, Please enclose a recent label (or copy ofone).

qB EJ€

lssues mlssed because ofa change ln address may be replaced for $2 each. The post olllce destroys lour missed lssues and chaqges us a notificatlon fcc, so wc can't alford to replacc them without charge.

g

Group Subrcrlptlon.: all copies arc mailed to one address. Plcase pay wlth one chccl. Here arc the current EFoup rates (lX

SUBSCRIPTION AIID RENEWAL FORM

-l

<6t+ >fE

rh

A AP - ?t8 glq

Usc this fiorm to subsribc or rens to GROWNG WTHOUT SCHOOLING. For rencwals, placc thc labcl from a reccnt is-euc bclow. lf possiblc. If not, print thc lnfo. Cllp and scnd with your chcck or money order in US funds. Or, you may now subscribc or renew by phone with Mastcrcard or Visa: call 617-864-3100,.

Thanks.

New _

subscription

Renewal

_

Cift subscrlption to bc sent to namc shown.

Account Numbcr (for rcnewals): l

Namc: I

Expiration Code (for renewals):

i-

Address (Changez ycs/no)

\__

City, State, Zip:

_

6 issucs.

GrouoSub:

$2O copics of

!

2

FX9

isucs, $36 issucs. $

l8 issucs, $48

sHs <;Q

(re chart)

It is OK to scll my name and address to other organizatlons

nEh

cL73 GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #73