Growing Without Schooling 50

SGROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING

50 On Wednesday Feb . 5, Margaret Anna Young Van Doren was born - or, as we all call her, Greta. Now six weeks old as I write, she has been a very peaceful baby from the start, and I feel lucky to be among those at the Van Doren home for the birth.

The next weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting Nancy Plent of the UNSCHOOLERS NETWORK (NJ), and staying at her home, where I also met Manfred Smith of the MARYLAND HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATION and Madalene Murphy, the active Pennsylvania home­ schooler who indexed GWS #31-40. At the "Home Based Leadership Confer­ ence" in Princeton, Feb. 17, I was asked to be on a panel, where I said a few words about the way John Holt had encouraged people's energy to go toward positive results instead of infighting and bickering. I enjoyed saying hello to several readers, and got well acquainted with John's friend Susannah Sheffer as we drove to Swarthmore to spend that night.

Next week Pat Farenga goes to speak at an Alternative Schools con­ ference sponsored by Bucknell Univer­ sity. The topic is to be, "Homeschool­ ing and John Holt's vision." On March 16, Pat did a telephone radio show for a Miami station, and it ran for an extra hour and a quarter because there were so many calls' We're rather excited to now offer special binders to hold the back issues of GWS. John always thought of GWS as a "reference work, being published volume by volume," and that's just what it feels like when you put your back issues in these . The metal rods hold each issue in place without obscuring any text; see center insert for details.

Sandy Kendall of our book depart­ ment has left in order to work on renovating her parents ' house, and to write and illustrate a children ' s book . We wish her well and know that she ' s not far away if we need her .

We ' ve been enjoying the presence of Shane Baruch (11) in the office several days a week. Shane entertains us with jokes and riddles, creates art, does some schoolwork, and is gen­ erally lively . He particularly likes to scrutinize the mail for unusual stamps . --- Donna Richoux

PARENTS ARE EDUCATORS This marks fifty issues of steady publication, fifti issues of your letters and networking, fifty issues of testimony to children's ability to learn, and the last eight years of John Holt's life and work . A l ot has happened since John printed GWS #1 in 1977 . We've seen homeschool­ ing go from being a semi-clandestine activi t y to a n i n creasing l y accepted alternative to school . Homeschooling

is now talked about more openly in education and legislative circles, though still in cautious terms. In this issue our colleague Sandy Ken­ dall interviews the Curriculum Direc­ tor for Barnstable MA, one of our oldest "Friendly School District" listings. There is a note of co-oper­ ation in this public school district that is refreshing and innovative; other school districts would be wise to follow its lead .

The U. S. Department of Education is taking an interesting pOint of view concerning teacher certifica­ tion . We have read about several states that allow people to teach full-time in classrooms before they have earned a teaching certificate.

In a recent Boston Globe article (2/18/86) Education Secretary Bennett offers his thoughts on opening the teaching ranks: "'Provisional certification should be given to people from other career fields who want to become teachers,' Bennett said in an address to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. 'Candidates,' he said, 'should be competent in a subject area, have decent character and be interested in ~ommunicating with the young . .. I say open up the profession to anybody who fits ' these three criteria ... ' He suggest­ ed candidates could undergo 'spot' evaluations in the classroom to determine whether they should receive permanent certification."

Homeschooling parents should not have much trouble meeting Mr. Ben­ nett's criteria and they should note Mr. Bennett ' s words when their abili­ ties as "qualified teachers" Come under fire. Despite all his talk about parental involvement and open­ ing the teaching ranks, Mr. Bennett is cautious about homeschooling. In a lengthy interview with the Washing­ ton Times (1/2/86) he asserts the position that the state has a "mini­ mal interest" to assure "education" is occuring in a place that calls itself an "educational institution" and that the "so-called school is not being used as something else - that is, that you draw a distinction between the home schooler and the par­ ents who want to keep a kid out of school to do something that doesn ' t have anything to do with the child's education ." Mr . Bennett doesn't define "education," but it's a good bet he means predominantly formal classroom lectures and situations, with an occassional class trip thrown in for good measure. Homeschoolers and wise teachers know learning can take place anywhere, any time, not just in an "educational institution," and they need to be alert to their children's learning schedule, not the state's schedule.

At least Mr . Bennett is aware of homeschoo l ing and his sword can cut both ways . Homeschoolers can use his research and comments to help over­ come common objections to homeschool­ ing . This is demonstrated in the latest study released by the Dept. of Education, What Works [available free from CONSUMER INFO, Pueblo CO 81009).

In the report are 41 suggestions, which are backed by the Department's own research, that they claim will work to help children learn and schools to function better. The excerpts I read in The Christian Science Monitor (3/4786) are ~nterest­ ing. The ma~n thrust of the report is "Parents are their children ' s first and most influential teachers. What

parents do to help their children learn is more important to academic success than how well off the family is ... " The article continues, "Other findings show that children who a re encouraged to scribble at an early age are more inclined to write later on; and that they learn science bet­ ter when allowed to do hands-on exper­ iments."

Though these techniques and the proof of their success a~e old famili­ ar friends to GWS readers they are only now officially being touted as "What Works." Some people consider this report a smokescreen by the Reagan administration to justify their proposed 21 % cut in education funding, and perhaps to a degree it is, but no matter what the political nature of the report is, the fact is that homeschoolers can claim they've been doing - and we have been print­ ing - "What Works" all along.

--- Patrick Farenga

NEW LAW IN MINNESOTA Minnesota is the first state this year to pass a new homeschooling law. In late March, the legislature approved and sent to the governor a bill that would allo w parents to home­ school their children for the next two years, with no requirements, and would set up a task force to study the issue. The task f o rce will recom­ mend new law in 1987. - DR

GIVING JOHN HOLT BOOKS [ DR:) The first work I did on the new "Macintosh Plus" computer was to create this bookplate for anyone wishing to give John Holt's books to friends or libraries. It is reduced

To honor the memory of

JOHN HOLT 1923

1985

this book is given

w________________ by _ _ _ _ _ __

WHAT'S INSIDE - JH Memories: 2 --- Late read­ er: 3 -- - young graduate: 3 --- Geologist home­ schooled: 3 --- Teen: 4 --- Okla.: 4 --- Ala.: 5 --- Court (NO, MI, OH, CA, CO, Alta, MA): 5 --- Indiana: 6 --- Other local news: 6 --­ Legal insurance: 7 --- Truancy harassment: 7 --- Interview/ Barnstable official: 8 --Single Parent: 9 --- Teachers: 10 --- Old CO law: 10 -- - Arranges publicity: 10 --- Reprint­ i ng: 11 - - - News 1etters: 11 - - - Mom 1earn s: 12 --- JH / history, cars: 12 --- Baruch / First months : 13 --- Falbel/Alternative Curriculum: 14 --- Progress reports: 14 --- Tests: 19 --­ Housework: 20 --- Stress: 20 --- Fighting: 21 Teen loneliness: 22 - -- Consumer help: 23 --- Kids & handicapped: 24 --- Writing: 24-25 - -- Encyclopedias: 26 --- Model houses: 26 Tape recorders: 26 - - - Math (JH, Richman) 26 - 27 --- Music : 27-29

2 here - actual size is 3x4". The back­ ing is peel-and-stick.

We will send one of these free, on request, with the purchase of any book by John Holt - though we recom­ mend only TEACH YOUR OWN, HOW CHILD­ REN LEARN, and HOW CHILDREN FAIL for libraries, as our other "home-made" Pinchpenny editions would not likely be accepted. We will also supply free bookplates to those running statewide campaigns to place John Holt's books in every library (see following letters) . For anyone else who wants a bookplate, we ask 50¢ to cover costs.

By the way, Delacorte has print­ ed another run of TEACH YOUR OWN in paperback, and, as is customary, is raising the price. But we still have about 100 copies of the $8.95 edi­ tion, so if you order now you'll save $2.00.

From Sandy Hanson, 208-1225 Nelson, Vancouver BC V6E lJ5; 604­ 684-5605: After reading "Putting Books in Libraries" in GWS #48, Lois Roy and I of the VANCOUVER HOME EDUCATION NET­ WORK have undertaken the campaign in British Columbia. We feel this is a wonderful way of honoring John Holt's memory and making his books more wide­ ly available. We welcome all who are interested in joining in on this pro­ ject to contact Lois Roy (4180 Prince Albert, Vancouver BC V5V 4J5; 876­ 2794) or me . ..

From Candace Syman-Degler (26409 Valley View Dr, Cheshire OR 97419; 503-998-2115), who, along with Sheri Clemen, is working on placing John Holt's books in Oregon libraries: .. . We have no central location where we can take a lump donation and have it distributed allover the state . However, a helpful woman at the State Library suggested that we put an article in the State Library newsletter which goes to 800 librar­ ies allover the state. We had only a few days to meet the deadline . .. The article was published in the March magazine and we've started to get responses from librarians. They say such nice things about John Holt, and say that they get many requests on the subject of homeschooling ...

Donna Mahr (561 N Main St, Oregon WI 53575; 608-835-3436) who began all of this, has run a notice in a library system newsletter, offer­ ing TEACH YOUR OWN and HOW CHILDREN LEARN free to interested Wisconsin libraries.

Some other readers' notes about library donations: ... 1 was really glad to see you have hardcover copies of HOW CHILDREN LEARN so cheap [$2.98 plus postage ] .

I'm giving it to my library ... When I gave the library TEACH YOUR OWN (and saw the librarian personally, to see if she wanted it) she said, "Oh, yes' We want it' Isn't John Holt wonder­ ful'" - SUSAN PRICE. .. . We are dairy farmers and truly struggling financially - I just don't see how to find money to donate - but after reading about the idea in GWS #47, I went directly to my local library and donated my co~y of TEACH YOUR OWN . I certainly don t need to

refer to it often any more and I'll know where it is if I do .

Along with John Holt'~ books, I think a copy of your BOOK AND MUSIC CATALOG should be donated. It is per­ fect for small rural libraries, especially - wonderful books in gener­ ally low budget editions. When I showed my copy to the local librarian (town of 350) she was quite excited by it, and quickly chose several books to order if and when she gets some money. - LINDA PARRISH. · . . The Santiago Library System in Orange County has asked me to pre­ pare a list of books, supplies, and materials for homeschoolers so they will best know what to purchase for each of their branches' Of course, GWS and TEACH YOUR OWN top the list.

- NANCY OH (CA). · .. Thought you might like to know - we give a library grant to Oakland University every year . I've asked them to buy any of John ' s books they don't have, or other homeschool books, with the money this year. You should receive an order from them soon. We thought it would be a great way to remember John, as he spoke there in December '84. - JILL BASTIAN (MI) .

[DR:] Though I don't see the letter now, another reader said her family gives a subscription of GWS to the local library, and it is frequent­ ly used. May we again suggest that other readers follow this example.

For not very much money, you will be reaching and encouraging would-be homeschoolers in your community .

A BABY GIFT An idea from Jane Williams (CA): · . . A cousin of mine recently had a baby. Rather than sending a baby toy, garment, etc . , I sent a copy of HOW CHILDREN LEARN . To me this was truly a gift for the child. If the parents read it and learn from it, their baby's life will be so much richer for it. You might pass the sug­ gestion on to other GWS readers. So many of the books on the GWS booklist would make appropriate baby gifts . I sent a letter along with the book, explaining a little about John and his philosophy, hoping to arouse their curiosity to read the book.

Then I told them if they liked what they read, I would be able to recom­ mend other books with similar philoso­ phies . In addition, I gave them a copy of the JOHN HOLT BOOK AND MUSIC STORE ca ta log ...

A FRIEND IN JOHN HOLT [DR:] Jane Jacobs, author of CITIES AND THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, and a friend of John Holt's, spoke at the ONTARIO HOMESCHOOLERS' memorial ser­ vice for John in October. When I asked her about it, she replied: .. . The memorial service that the homeschoolers organized here was very touching and heartening; it came through so clearly how much John and his work meant. There was a lovely enlarged picture of him at the front of the church hall, and his cassette about the cello was played . Through these, and the comments and music by the children, especially, one really felt his presence. One of the child­ ren spoke with great conviction about

the rights of children . He'd have liked it .

I didn't write my comments, so can't send you a copy of what I said, but what I dwelt on was John ' s utter naturalness and openness. I said I'd never known anybody who had dispensed so thoroughly with defenses. He had none of the hard armor of dogmatism or cultishness, none of the soft air­ bag defenses of sentimentality and unrealism, and none of the defensive­ ness of false modesty either; he took open joy in the successes of what he was doing . In sum, his way of Kein~ was entirely in harmony with w at e was dOin~ .

In is cello talk, he speaks of the "thin, hard sound," and how un­ pleasant it is, how one has to fight it, and how glorious it is when the sound becomes warm and resonant. His own personal sound was so warm and resonant .

I also spoke of a joke I told him on the phone while he was very ill, and how bravely and spontaneous­ ly he turned it into a joke about "the wolf of cancer," without sound­ ing macabre, but rather conveying how he was interested and unafraid. He really was brave . I said how glad I was that so much of him hadn't died, but that I couldn't help mourning deeply jus~ the same; he wasn ' t a replacable cog . He would have said to that, nobody is .

I still find it hard to believe that he isn ' t around. I still think of things that would interest him, and get a shock, anew, to know he just isn't around. I'm so glad you're carrying on . ..

From the short speech Jerry Mintz of the NATIONAL COALITION OF ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS gave at the memorial service for John Holt in Quincy, MA: . .. It seems to me that my life as an alternative educator is intrin­ sically intertwined with that of John Holt . I am sure that I am not alone in that feeling, yet the few contacts that I had with him over nearly a twenty year period seem so signifi­ cant and so personal. I always felt I had a friend in John Holt if I ever needed him . Such was the quality of the man that I am sure that there are hundreds or perhaps thousands of others who feel the same way .

The first time I met him was in the late 1960's when he spoke at Goddard College . At that time I was interested in starting an alternative school or working at one. I spoke to him after his talk and told him of my interest. Some time later I had organ­ ized the fledgling Shaker Mountain School when I received a letter from John Holt. In it he said that he want­ ed to keep in touch with people like me, and he asked if I ever found a job at an alternative school. I wrote back to him and told him that I had started Shaker Mountain School . He then put us on his list of recom­ mended schools, which in itself may have helped Shaker Mountain survive its early years.

A few years later I visited him in Boston and had a spirited discus ­ sion with him about the benefits of schools versus homeschooling. We dis­ agreed, but I never felt for a second that I didn't have his full support.

Therefore, it was natural for us to call on John in 1982 to help us organize a Vermont Alternative Educa­ tion Network. He came to Burlington and spoke at our Memorial Auditorium,

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

3

charging us just his expenses . The VA EN got organized, and it, in turn, has spun off an independent statewide homeschoolers' organization.

While visiting us he chose to stay at our emergency youth shelter .

I'll never forget an incident late that night when we were talking a run­ away into the shelter by phone, and the only phone was in his room. Our director was about to bring the phone out of the room in order not to dis­ turb John, but he insisted that he wanted to hear the conversation. Even at 1:00 A.M . , after a long grueling day, he still had interest and enthu­ siasm .

When we wanted an important speaker for our NCACS Convention this year, we again turned to John Holt, who again came at his costs . Although some of us found what he had to say familiar, it was great to hear a home­ schooler say afterward, "Now I re ally understand it . Now I know what to tell people. I'm so excited."

After his talk I told him that I had agreed to become Executive Sec­ retary for the NCACS, and he was very enthusiastic about the possibilities.

Just last week I called his office to get a letter of support for a grant application I was making.

They told me th at he was not doing well, and was not conscious most of the time. Two days later Pat Mont­ gomery called with the word that John Holt had died .

Even though we knew how sick he had been, it didn't seem possible.

Although I had only met him four times, he ce rtainl y was a friend to me. It's hard to accept not being able to call upon John Holt in some hour of future need. Perhaps the best way we can remember him is to re­ double our efforts in making a better life for children, and trying to be the friend that he was to all of us ...

ANNOUNCEMENTS CAN ANYONE REPLACE TAPE? Somehow we lost our master of the tape "John Holt Talks To Swedish Teachers," which we sell through our catalog. If anyone has a copy of this tape, would you be so kind as to loan it to us?

We wil l duplicate it and send it right back . Thanks.

TRAVEL NETWORK CHANGES HANDS: After a year ' s work as coordinator of the GWS TRAVEL NETWORK, Leigh Taylor has passed the job on to Dick Gallien (Rt 2, Winona MN 55987; 507-454­ 3126). The Travel Network lists GWS families who would like to host visi­ tors. To be listed, or to get the list for your travel plans, send a SASE to Dick.

SUMMER PROGRAM: The NATIONAL COALITION FOR ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS is offering a residential pro­ gram for students from alternative or home schools, July 7 to Aug. 3, 1986, at UPATTINAS SCHOOL in Pennsylvania.

"The program will be a democratically governed community ... There will be a variety of projects, learning experi­ ences, and travel." For more informa­ tion, write NCACS, RD 1 Box 378, Glen ­ moore PA 19343; 215-458 -51 38.

By the way, Jerry Mintz of NCACS told me that a majority of the organi­ zation's members now are home school­ ers, and that most of the alternative schools that belong to NCACS are also connected with homeschoolers in some way.

ORIGINAL SOURCE OF STORY: In GWS #49, we ran a short article we called "Pl a ns Her Own Day" which I saw in

GROWIN G WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

the newsletter of the Nevada group HOME SCHOOLS UNITED - VEGAS VALLEY. Shelley Ashcroft, editor of Creative Learning Magazine, says that the story had been written by one of her staff members for their Sept. '85 issue, and we are happy to give them proper credit . Creative Learnin~ Maga­ zine, which is full of suggeste acti­ vities for homeschoolers, is availa­ ble for $9 per year (sample, $1) from PO Box 957, Wrightstown NJ 08562.

BACK ISSUE OF ATLANTIC: In the last issue I recommended a long and very interesting article called "The Case Against Credentialism" in the December issue of Atlantic Monthly.

Reader Donna Faturos (NJ), who finds it difficult to get to a library, reports that Atlantic (2400 N St NW, Washington DC Z0037) will send the issue and bill you $3 - call 202-955­ 2472. - DR

ents felt a concern for her moral up­ bringing, she never attended a public or private school.

Swann's parents wanted to in­ still proper values and provide her a high level of education and decided tutoring would allow their daughter to achieve these things. Her mother continued the tutoring through the elementary levels.

At age 12, Alexandra began her Independent Study Program with BYU. Alexandra attributes her academ­ ic success to three h ours of study each day and to her loving family.

"I don 't have too many friends outside of my family," said Swann .

"But there are ten kids in our family and we enjoy going on picnics and tak­ ing care of She thoroughbred horses on our farm . . . .

GEOLOGIST WAS HOMESCHOOLED LATE READER TESTS HIGH I was talking to Wanda Rezac (MA) on the phone, and she said some­ thing about her husband wanting the children to be tested every year, to be sure that the home schooling was working. Remembering a note from Wanda that we had printed in GWS, I said, "You had a late reader, didn't you?"

"Yes, my oldest son didn't start reading until he was 81;;. " "How did he do the last time he was tested?"

"His reading level was 11th grade, plus . " He was 10 at the time.

"It's the most reassuring thing that ever could have happened ."

Wanda says Ronnie can read any­ thing now; reading is merely a tool for him now, as it would be for an adul t. He lik es to read the Wall Street Journal and other financIal news, and is writing to mining compan­ ies about stock. He reads the funnies every day, and recently finished a book about the Resistance movement in World War II. As Wanda said in GWS #4 1, the TinTin comic books (available here) were responsible for Ronnie's sudden inte r est in reading .

She and I thought about what would have happened if Ronnie was in school all that time. "He still rever­ ses some of his letters, b ' s and d's - he definitely would have been con­ sidered 'learning disabled' by any of their standards ." How many children in school, in the history of Special Education, have gone from non-reading to 11th grade level in two years - once they're labeled "dyslexic"?

- DR

YOUNG COLLEGE GRADUATE Larry Arnoldsen, who is on our "Professors & Other Allies List " (GWS # 48), sent this clipping from a Utah paper, dated 1/31/86: ... A 15-year-old girl from Canutillo, Texas, is the youngest student ever to graduate with honors from Brigham Young University.

Last June, when she was 14, Al exandra Swann completed a bache­ lor's degree from BYU thr ough the Independent Study Program .

She is now working on a master's degree through home correspondence with California State University at Dominguez Hills, and hopes to have this completed by next January. ... Swann began her home study at age five when her mother taught her to read and write . Because her par ­

[ DR: 1 The latest book of John McPhee, one of my favorite writers, appears in the New Yorker of Feb . 24, March 3, and March 10, 1986. Called RISING FROM THE PLAINS, it is about the geology of the Rocky Mountains, and about David Love, the eminent 70-year-old geologist who made many discoveries about his home state, Wyoming. McPhee makes geology (o r any subject) alive and absorbing, and an added bonus for us this time is that, as McPhee says on the first page, David Love was educated mainly by his mother.

The Love family owned a large ranch in the center of Wyoming.

McPhee points out, "Geologists tend to have been strongly influenced by the rocks among which they grew up."

The Swiss, with their mountains, specialize in one direction; the Dutch, with deltas of sediment, in another. "Wyoming geology," he says, " would above all tend to produce a generalist, with an eye that had seen a lot of rocks, and a four -di mension­ al gift for fitting them together and arriving at the substance of their story - a scenarist and lithographer of what geologists like to call the Big Picture."

Here are some of the sections about Love ' s homeschooling, and how his boyhood on a ranch led to his lifelong l ove of geology: . .. From time to time, other schoolmarms were provided by the dis­ trict. They came for three months in summer. One came for the better part of a year. By and large, though, the boys were taught by their mother ...

She had the 1911 Encyclopedia Britan­ nica, the Redpath Library, a hundred volumes of Greek and Roman litera­ ture, Shakespeare, Dickens, Emerson, Thoreau, Longfellow, Kipling, Twain .

She taught her sons French, Latin, and a bit of Greek . She read to them from books in German, translating as she went along . They read the Iliad and the Odyssey. The room was at the west end of the ranch house and was brightly illuminated by the setting sun. When David as a child saw sun­ beams leaping off the books, he

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50, Vol . 9 No.2.

ISSN #0745 -5305. Published bi-monthly by Holt

Associates, 729 Boylston St, Boston MA 02116.

$15/yr. Date of Issue, Apr. 1, 1986. Second­

class postage paid at Boston MA.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to GWS, 729

Boylston St, Boston MA 02116.

ADVERTISERS: Deadlines are the 15th of odd­

numb ered months. Discount for ads in 3 consecu­

tive issues. Contact Patrick Farenga for rat~s.

4 thought the contents were escaping .

In some ways, there was more chaos in this remote academic setting than there could ever be in a grade school in the heart of a city.

[From the mother's journal: 1 The house might be full of men, waiting out a storm, or riding on a round­ up. I was baking, canning, washing clothes, making soap. Allan and David stood by the gasoline washing machine reading history or geo­ graphy while I put sheets through the wringer. I ironed . They did spelling beside the ironing board, or while I kneaded bread; they gave the tables up to 15 times 15 to the treadle of the sewing machine . Men­ tal problems, printed in figures on large cards, they solved while they raced across the room to write the answers . .. and learned to think on their feet. Nine written problems done correctly, without help, meant no tenth problem ... It was surpris­ ing in how little time they fin­ ished their work - to watch the butchering, to help drive the bawl­ ing calves into the weaning pen, or to get to the corral, when they heard the hoofbeats of running horses and the cries of cowboys crossing the creek.

[McPhee continues: 1 No amount of intellectual curiosity or academic discipline was ever going to hold a boy's attention if someone came in saying the milk cow was mired in a bog hole or that old George was out by the wild-horse corral with the big­ gest coyote ever killed in the region, or if the door opened and, as David recalls an all too typical event, "they were carrying in a cow­ boy with guts ripped out by a saddle horn . " The lessons stopped, the treadle stopped, and she sewed up the cowboy . ... She also made note that while David was the youngest person on the ranch he was nonetheless the most adroit at spotting arrowheads and chippings .

When David was five or six we began hunting arrowheads and chippings .

While the rest of us labored along scanning gulches and anthills, David rushed by chattering and pick ­ ing up arrowheads right and left.

He told me once, " There's a god of chippings that sends us anthills.

He lives in the sky a nd tinkers with the clouds . " One fall, their mother went to Riverton, 65 miles away, to await the birth of Phoebe . For her sons, 11 and 12, she left behind a carefully pre­ pared program of study. In the weeks that followed, they were in effect enrolled in a correspondence school run by their mother. They did their French, their spelling, their arith­ metic lessons, put them in envelopes, rode 15 miles to the post office and mailed them to her. She graded the lessons and sent them back - before and after the birth of the baby . [DR: David's siblings grew up to be a chem­ ist and an engineer . 1 . .. There was an obvious and close relationship between bedrock geology and ranching . David would not have articulated that in just those words, of course, but he thought about the subject much of the time, and he was drawn to be a geologist in much the way that someone growing up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, would be drawn to be a fisherman. "It was something to think about on long

rides day after day when everything was so monotonous," he remarked not long ago . "Monotony was what we fought out there . Day after day, you had nothing but the terrain around you - you had nothing to think about but why the shale had stripes on it, why the boggy places were boggy, why the vegetation grew where it did, why trees grew only on certain types of rock, why water was good in some places and bad in others, why the mea­ dows were where they were, why some creek crossings were so sandy they were all but impassable. These things were very real, very practical . ..

Everything depended on geology. Any damn fool could see that the vegeta­ tion was directly responsive to the bedrock . Hence birds and wildlife were responsive to it. We were respon­ sive to it . . . Much of it meant life or death for the animals, and there­ fore survival for us ... " Among the figures that appeared on the horizon and slowly approached the ranch - and sometimes stayed indefinitely - were geologists. The first he met were from the United States Geological Survey. Others worked for oil companies ... Geolo­ gists who came to the ranch were reconnaissance geologists of the first rank, who went into unknown country and mapped it with an accur­ acy that is remarkable to this day.

In David's words: "They raised a magic curtain. They showed us things we'd never seen .. . " David's mother owned Joseph LeConte's ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY . He read it when he was nine years old.

Did he grasp structure and strati­ graphy then? Could he have begun to understand faulting? "To some extent, yes," he says. "After all, we could see it out in front of us." ...

TEEN HAPPIER AT HOME From Annie Wegner of Washington: ... Two years ago we began to homeschool our three older children, then ages 13, 11, and 9. Our eldest, Saraya, and I had always had a vola­ tile relationship with confrontations and tears and tension almost every day. She would waken with a shouted "I HATE SCHOOL" and proceed to growl and whine through breakfast, general­ ly running late and having to return just after slamming the door (I always made her and the others close doors civilly) and then make her way to the bus stop muttering angrily . .. . A trip to an allergist helped somewhat; she is allergic to house­ dust, pollens native to our area, and suchlike things . No foods, supposed­ ly. However, from my own reading, I have become aware of things like refined foods, dairy products, and wheat, and cut all of us back on those . There has been improvement.

But the major factor is Saraya's present state of productivity, health, maturity, and general glori­ oSity (for lack of a better word), I believe, is the TIME she has now to sleep, read, converse, think, create, practice piano, learn to sew, exer­ cise, and grow . . . She is relaxed and knows where she is going. She is excellent with hair and wants to be a licensed cosmetologist so she can make money, but she wants to pursue English literature as a hobby, and engage in volunteer work on a large scale to help people in ways she feels are important. There is a big change here, and more than can be attributed to normal maturation .

.. It has been a struggle at times. John Holt ' s books and GWS have been a great help, as has the encour­ agement, support, and concrete sugges­ tions of the certified teacher we employ for legality and help. Our stress was multiplied somewhat by the fact that I had a l~-year - old and a busy daycare business in my home when we made the decision to homeschool .

So, obviously, the children have had to learn to fill their time when I was otherwise occupied, and the results are very satisfactory.

Saraya is taking algebra, Eng­ lish composition, and French through the University of Nebraska . After many weeks of letting things slide, she has worked out a schedule of how she will finish her courses by a spe­ cific time. It has helped, certainly, that her dad and I have let her know that nothing else in her future train­ ing can take place until these cour­ ses have been passed. She bears out so well now what John Holt said so frequently, that children want to GROW UP . She eagerly plans her future, but not out of an "I've got to blow this joint " attitude. Rather, it's with the spirit that life offers so many great possibilities, and that with some realistic planning and intelligent action, she will build herself a great life .

We are friends . When I have to correct or discipline, it is out of regard for my friend. She now knows that, and appreciates it . One day we were driving with a friend, and Saraya made the following comment: "Sometimes I am with other girls who are complaining about their parents, and I want to join in and be mad at you guys for something, but I can't' You do so much to show you love us, I just end up sympathizing with the girls who complain, and feeling for­ tunate to have you . Nobody else seems to love their kids like you guys love us. Isn't that sad?" I find such com­ m~nts very rewarding . . .

OKLAHOMA THREAT NOT LIKELY [DR: 1 When I wrote attorney John Eidmore about the Oklahoma Education Association's goal of requiring home ­ schoolers to be certified teachers (GWS #49), he replied: ... As elsewhere, the Oklahoma Education Association is working t o crack down on home and private schools here. I don't think they will succeed, but we are ready to fight them . The fact that the public schools are being asked to take a funding cut this year may convince them that they have other more lucra ­ tive things to do than fight with home and private schools - if it doesn't convince t h em , it should con ­ vince the legislators.

We have met with State Super­ intendent John Folks, and he has as­ sured us that he does not intend t o introduce any legislation concerning home and private schools - but I don't think he would do us any favors, either . Our main opposition will come from the OEA, plus a few superintendents and social workers .

We have also been meeting wi t h legislators on a group basis and one-to-one basis, and have had some legislators speak to our home school groups . These have been productive and have built good relations.

Each year , usually around October, I get a few calls from rural pa r ts of t h e state where prosecu t ors and superintendents are threatening

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

5

homeschoolers - in some cases out­ righ t lying t o them about what the l aw says . I have a le t ter on file from a local superintendent telling a home school family that they have to be certified teachers and be state­ accredited or they are in violation of state law - a bold - faced lie' But on the whole we are left alone, and our l aw is probably t h e best in the nation.

I can assure you that under no circumstances would we give in to cer­ tification, degree requirements, or exemption for religious groups ­ homeschooling is a right for ALL' Here in Ok l ahoma I have spoken to home school meetings consisting of half fundamentalist Christians and half back-to-earth people, and it was wonderful to see how much they actual­ ly had in common' I personally think the worst t ha t could h appen here would be a registration and testing requirement . And I think we can avoid even that . . .

GOOD NEWS FROM ALABAMA [DR:) Because of the highly pub­ licized Pangelinan court case last year, I was not sure how anyone was managing to home school in Alabama . So this note from Lee Gonet of ALABAMA CITIZENS FOR HOME EDUCATION was reassuring: ... We have been able to teach our children without any state inter­ vention if we follow t he "rules": 1) ~ can hire a private tutor, who must be state certified, to super­ vise the homeschool (the law is too vague to require the tutor to do the actual teaching). The tutor must file attendance reports if requested but that is all . Many teachers are work­ ing with our group and meet with the parents once a month if at all' Com­ plete freedom from testing, curricu­ lum requirements, approval, etc .

2) Churches are setting up home­ school satellite programs throughout the state . Churches are exempt from any and all state intervention . No state-certified teachers, no testing, no curriculum requirements are placed on the church school . Of course, each parent must work within the guide­ lines of the church school they are registered with (which may be very flexible or very structured).

We feel this set - up will not last long, though, and that the AEA or the Board of Education will make a move within the next two years . We are growing by leaps and bounds but they have too many of their own prob­ lems to deal with us now . . .

a lawsuit in federal court. Within a few weeks, she and the others working on this, including two Christian home­ school groups, had collected almost $5,000 toward legal fees.

As we reported in GWS #49, one truant officer in Oakland County, James Faust, has declared his inten­ tion to take every homeschooler in the county to court - even though home schooling is permitted by reason of two State Attorney General opin ­ ions, in 1961 and 1979.

One of the cases Mr . Faust ini ­ tiated was d~smissed at the pre-trial hearing; the child had been back at schoo l even when Mr. Faust reported the case . In the other case, the judge has ordered the school super­ intendent to obtain the state's cur­ rent position on homeschooling, from the State Attorney General, by April 3.

Pat Montgomery says she antici­ pates the federal lawsuit to be filed in April, but this depends on part as to what happens in the above Oakland County case. She says that other truant officers across the state are following James Faust's example and prosecuting homeschoolers .

Meanwhile, State Representative (and homeschooler) Tim Walberg has introduced House Bill #5356, which is similar to Georgia ' s homeschool law.

An outbreak of conflicts and court cases in Ohio, which is one of the states (like Massachusetts, Con­ necticut, and New York) where it is up to each district to approve or dis­ approve of homeschooling . A quick summary: Our readers told us of two fami­ lies going to court, Leah Hudson of Findlay and Patty Burdette of Fred­ ricktown.

The Learnin~ Edge, newsletter of CLONLARA SeHOOLMI}, reports that six families in Ashtabula and one fam­ ily in Canfield are appealing, in Juvenile Court, their superinten­ dents' denials of their homeschooling applications. Also, two homeschooling families in Mount Vernon, and another in Mansfield, have been charged with failing to send their children to school .

And the HOME SCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION says that one of its families, the Svobodas, is appeal­ ing to the Ohio Court of Appeals, and another, the Schmidts, to the State Supreme Court' The Schmidts had enrolled their children in a "Chris­ tian school which was authorized by the State Board of Education to approve home schools," rather than seek approval from the local superin­ tendent.

COURT NEWS Just heard that the Supreme Cour t of No rth Dakota has decided one case in favor of a home schooling fami­ ly, the 5heIOons, and ruled against another case involving four families: the Larsens, Patzers, Lunds, and Reimches. Chris Toman of the NORTH DAKOTA HOME SCHOOL ASSOCIATION will send us more info on these cases . She also says that the group has submit­ ted a homeschooling bill which the l egislature will consider this fall.

North Dakota has been one of the few rema~n~ng states in which it has been difficult to homeschool legally.

To stop recent harassment of Michigan homeschoolers, Pat Montgom­ ery of CLONLARA SCHOOL has called for

GROWI NG WITHOUT SCHOOL ING #50

Also from the HOME SCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION newsletter, 3/86: . .. GOOD NEWS FROM CALIFORNIA - A California municipal court judge in New Cuyama declared California's com­ pulsory attendance law unconstitution­ al as it applies to home schoolers, and dismissed charges against two HSLDA families.

HSLDA board member and attorney J. Michael Smith, along with attorney Jerry Crowe, represented the Darrah family and the Black family .. .

The judge, Barbara Beck, delayed the trial from December so she could research the compulsory attendance law further. . .. After oral arguments, the judge read a prepared statement say­ ing that the state law was vague and

unenforceable against the Darrahs and the Blacks . She said the families had complied with all provisions of the state law, including the filing of a private school affidavit. The judge said on the record that she intended for her ruling to protect these fami­ lies from further prosecution until the Legislature cleared up the matter . . .

The prosecutor has recently revealed that he will appeal the decision ...

Although this is a very favor­ able decision, it is not automatical­ ly binding on other school districts .

It will be of help in other cases, but it does not prevent the filing of charges against homeschoolers in other districts . ..

According to the 1/86 newsletter of the NORTHERN COLORADO HOME SCHOOL ASSOCIATION, the Ockenga family of Thompson Vally, CO, showed up 10 minutes late for their court date (due to a flat tire), so the judge ruled them in default and ordered them to send their children to school' The Ockengas have not complied and are filing an appeal, saying the judge did not comply with proper pro ­ cedures for default judgements .

A Christian school case was argued before the Alberta Supreme Court in November '85, and a decision is expected in April or May. As we reported in GWS #33, Pastor Thomas Larry Jones ran an unapproved private school in the basement of his church.

Particularly notable in this case were the Provincial Judge's words, "Giving an arbitrary power to grant or withold certification [ of private schools) to the superintendent of the public school system, the chief com­ petitor of the private tutor and the private school, offends the notion of fundamental justice . .. " (As John Holt used to say, it's as if you ' re allowed to buy any car you want, as long as the purchase is approved by General Motors.)

And in our own state of Massachu­ setts, a Plymouth District judge has ruled that home schooler Karen Roussell may continue to keep her daughter out of school . The Plympton school superintendent and school com­ mittee had refused to approve Karen ' s home schooling proposal last fall because she has only a high school education, but she taught her daugh­ ter at home anyway, using Calvert materials.

On March 12, the judge ordered the case to be continued until June 18, and Karen's daughter is to be tested .

Both Karen and her attorney Gene

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Burkart (see "Friendly Lawyers," GWS #48) say that the testimony by Dick Rapacz was extremely helpful . Dick was a professor of education at Boston University for over 20 years, and a longtime friend of John Holt's.

As it turned out, the Plympton super­ intendent had once been in one of Dick's graduate courses' - DR

the county and do not think legiti­ mate homeschoolers have anything to fear from him . But I still wish some­ one had left a good thing alone and not forced their views of rightness on the rest of us .

Knowledge is power. Everyone should have a photocopy of Indiana Codes on equivalency and compulsory education. This is still the best state to home school by law . . .

STORY BEHIND INDIANA "GUIDELINES"

[DR:] In GWS #48, we asked if anyone in Indiana knew about an official-looking definition of "equi­ valent instruction" that the school board of Michigan City had used for a homeschooling policy. Where had it come from? Since when did Indiana school boards have any power to control private schooling?

Marian Bever (IN) responded: ... First, there has been no change in Indiana law, therefore school boards do not have the authori­ ty to make such requirements .

About the guidelines: This is my understanding of what Joyce Johnson of the INDIANA ASSOCIATION OF HOME EDUCATORS related to me over the phone . Steve Goldsmith, the county prosecutor in Indianapolis, told Ken Johnson and some other persons repre­ senting non-accredited Christian schools that he was going to write up some guidelines for his officers to use to distinguish between homeschool­ ers and cases of educational neglect.

He then showed these to this commit­ tee and asked for their suggestions .

The committee reviewed it, made some suggestions, and gave it back. Gold­ smith then drafted his guidelines.

Joyce said that Goldsmith shared his guidelines on a state level, either with superintendents or with other county prosecutors, she wasn't sure.

That's probably how they got to Michi­ gan City ...

And Faye Jenkins (IN) also wrote: ... [In 1984] a meeting was called by the INDIANA ASSOCIATION OF HOME EDUCATORS to explain these new guidelines to the "troops." A pair of deputy prosecutors were invited to explain away our fears and a large group of nervous parents showed up.

After many detailed questions and answers about each item on the list, one not-so-articulate parent stood and asked the question my hand had been raised to ask - "Was this the law?" A very faint "No" was heard from the deputy prosecuting duo and that about ended the questioning.

As you surmised, school boards don't make laws in Indiana, and nei­ ther do prosecuting attorney offices . ... But a parent can go through endless hassle from school boards and the welfare department before it gets to court and actual law is read. ... A copy I am sending to you was given to a friend of mine when she removed her son from Indianapolis Public School District in the fall of '84 - with the same "definition" at the bottom. [DR: Again, no identifica­ tion of source - nothing says this is merely one county prosecutor's opinion.] . . . Apparently Goldsmith's definition is spreading - most likely because the school people don't know what they do well enough to write their own definition.

Steve Goldsmith has built a solid reputation in Marion County by prosecuting criminals. I do not recall a single homeschool case in

OTHER LOCAL NEWS

For addresses of state and local organizations, see GWS #48, or our "Homeschooling Resource List," $1.

ARKANSAS: The ARKANSAS CHRISTIAN HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATION says the state's efforts to arrange testing for homeschoolers, in accordance with the recently passed law (GWS #47) was "a nightmare from an organizational standpoint." The State Dept. of Ed. official in charge of testing pointed out that his work load was increased by this task, and the legislature had not provided him with any extra money for staff. Test cost will be $35 per student . One family, Doty and Phyllis Murphy, have decided the new law is unconstitutional and are trying to gather funds for a lawsuit.

CALIFORNIA: Jane Williams (CA) writes, "I talked with Ja1jlet McCor­ mick of the State Dept. of Education the end of November .. . Janet said the state, her department specifically, is now challenging the Private School Affidavit applicants who have organ­ ized for the strict purpose of pro­ viding a cover for individual home­ schoolers who do not wish to make their presence known by filing their own private school affidavit forms .. .

When a school district brought such an organization to the State Dept. 's attention, she would contact the applicant and request that they sub­ mit the names of all the enrollees in their school .. . For subsequent years the 'school ' would have to provide a site, and its administrators prove that it really was a school providing independent study to their enrollees . " COLORADO: Rep. Mike Bird did not submit his proposed homeschooling bill (GWS #49) because he was told by the Education Committee that he could not kill the bill if it was amended adversely.

FLORIDA : Karen Jackson of FLASH writes, " Homeschool activities in Florida seem to be quiet . . . The Dept. of Education tried to get a bill introduced, but no one would sponsor it . The main problem seems to be one of interpretation of last year's bill (GWS #46). What problems I have heard of generally have been resolved when parents deal assertively with the county school systems . For the most part, school officials had just mis­ interpreted the law or were ignorant of it ...

"We have no newsletter .. . Vari­ ous members take on tasks as they need to be done. One member, for exam­ ple, is on this county's school advis­ ory committee; another coordinates a group GWS subscription; another keeps a computer list of homeschoolers; and I accept phone calls and answer let­ ters . We trade jobs when someone wants a change . .. We take pride in the diversity of membership - ultra conservatives, liberals, medical pro­ fessionals, home-birthing families, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and many ethnic groups'" IOWA: As in several other states:-rowa legislators were working on a home school bill as we go to

press. Last fall a "Governor's Task Force" studied homeschooling and recommended that homeschoolers be tested annually and that the require­ ment for certified teachers be elimin­ ated. The Senate Education Committee considered 4 or 5 bills, and the one that passed the Senate in March was the most restrictive . "Nobody is happy with this bill," says Patti Rowe (IA), "not the homeschoolers, not even the teacher's union ." It would require that a certified teach­ er be with the student four hours a week, that parents pass a teacher examination, and students be tested twice a year. Now the bill goes to the House, where Patti feels it is not likely to pass .

KANSAS: Bonnie Sawyer writes in Kansans-ror Alternative Education, " From all ~ndications, no home school legislation will be passed this year .. . Those favorable to home educa­ tion don't want to bring it up for discussion [before the House Educa­ tion Commmittee] because they feel they can't get the votes needed to pass it favorably to the full House. ... A few legislators have heard from home schoolers who are against any of the bills ... The legislators see this as indecisiveness on our part . " KENTUCKY: Libby Morley of KENTUCKY HOMESCHOOLERS writes, "Not much news on the Kentucky front ... It is my theory that states with un­ stable or hostile situations have much more active groups. This year we have not even put together a state newsletter because there hasn't been enough information sent in' Both Louisville and Lexington have active support groups, and I'm sure that alleviates some of the need for a state group.

"Public opinion is sometimes more hostile than the law . One father in a small Ky. county lost his posi­ tion as an intern minister when he took his children out of public school last fall . They moved to Lex­ ington and are still homeschooling."

MARYLAND: After only a few months ' work, the homeschooling bill has passed the state House of Repre­ sentatives, 80-50. "Many are amazed that this bill passed through the com­ mittee and the House the first year," says Manfred Smith of MARYLAND HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. "It has taken other states years to get favorable homeschooling legislation." The bill at press time requires parents to notify the local district of their curriculum and goals (but not seek approval), as well as the educational level of the child, and for the child to evaluated annually by a certified teacher. The bill goes next to the Senate, with only two weeks remaining in the 1986 session.

MISSOURI: Laura Rogers, lobbyist of FAMILIES FOR HOME EDUCATION, says the homeschool bill is on the Senate Floor. In its current form, it requires home schools to (1) provide 800 contact hours of education, (2) teach reading and language arts, math, science, and social studies; and (3) maintain records of enroll­ ment and attendance. Because of past harassment by social workers, a clause was added specifying that cases of educational neglect would be turned over the prosecuting attorney and civil court, not 'juvenile court, and the burden of proof would be on the state . Laura says the legislative session will be over April 30, but if it is passed by the Senate and goes to the House she think it wil l move quickly, as homeschoolers have already lined up supporters there .

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

NEW MEXICO : New Mexico has become t he latest state to lower the compulsory school age to 5, making kindergarten compulsory. The measure was part of an educational reform package passed in March.

OKLAHOMA: The OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN HOME EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION had a " Home School Exhibition Day" at the State Capitol on Feb. 18. Homeschool­ ers created displays of work and pro­ jects to show in the Rotunda, and also toured the Capitol and met with legislators.

OREGON: Pat Putnam of HOMESCHOOL­ ERS 0r-rANE COUNTY says she's thrilled with the testing policy the state worked out to implement the new homeschooling law (GWS #47 ) . Children must score above the 15th percentile, or maintain the same relative percent­ ile score . No child would be ordered into school on the basis of one test score; parents would be put on-notice if the child scored low one year, and if s/he also scored low the second year, the parent could appeal to the state for a different evaluation.

Currently-certified teachers, or any­ one who has passed a graduate level course in testing, are qualified to administer the test, and there are seven tescs from which to choose. A copy of the policy can be obtained from the State Dept. of Education .

PENNSYLVANIA: Andy Peterson of Grove Clty and his lawyer, John Sparks, are challenging the Depart­ ment of Education's requirements for private schools. They say the require­ ments (at least 5 students, more than one family, on-site inspection) are arbitrary and have no basis in stat­ ute or official regulations .

TEXAS: The State Board of Educa­ tion nas-proposed rules that would require non-public schools to have (1) teachers who hold at least a bac­ calaureate degree from an accredited college, ( 2) curriculum comparable to the public schools, and (3 ) "continu­ ous contact" with students. Many Texas homeschoolers call their homes private schools . About 400 protestErs showed up at the Board's March i-8 meetings. There will be a public hear­ ing on the rules on April 10, and probably further hearings after that.

VERMONT: According to a series of memoes sent to us by Kathy Blair of LEARNING AT HOME, VT . , Douglas Walker of the State Department of Edu­ cation surveyed homeschoolers and school su?erintendents in 1985 about the state's homeschool regulations.

In October, 55 homeschoolers, legisla­ tors, and educators attended a "Home School Forum" to consider the issues further, and a small group met with Walker in January. In consequence, Walker proposed on Feb . 10 that: par­ ents be allowed more options for eval­ uations; that applications for second and subsequent years be less detailed than the first year; that the state, rather than local dis­ tricts, continue to handle home study applications; and that the state pro­ vide an orientation program for super­ intendents and principals "to create an awareness to and sensitivity to the Home Study Program." The state accepted these recommendations.

Meanwhile, homeschoolers have been working on a bill which has passed the House Education Committee, 9-2. However, the committee added requirements that parents submit a "course outline," and that students be evaluated annually . There is also a "revocation procedure" which implies that if someone suspects you of not educating your children, the state can hold a hearing and then

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

order you to send your child to school for the rest of the year .

Kathy says, "Not all homeschool­ ers are happy with this legislation.

Many feel it is too much of a com­ promise ... Those of us who support this bill are of the opinion that we'll be fighting forever if we don't restrict the DOE in some way . " - DR

CALENDAR We are willing to print a calen­ dar of major homeschooling events .

Guidelines: (1) the event should be open to anyone interested in home­ schooling; (2) i t should have state­ wide, multi - state, or national orien­ tation.

Here are events from May-onward.

The deadline for GWS # 51 ( events in July & later) is May 15. For GWS # 52 (Sept. - on), deadline is July 15.

Mat 3, 1986: WASHINGTON HOME­ SCHOOLONVENTION, Woodway High School, 23200 100 West, Edmonds WA. $lO/single, $15/couple. Contact Janice Hedin, 206-432-9805. (This replaces one in GWS # 49.)

June 14: 3rd Annual State Conven­ tion, CHRISTIAN HOME EDUCATORS OF CAL­ IFORNIA. Sacramento Comunity Conven­ tion Ctr. For info, phone 714-537­ 5121.

June 14: KE NTUCKY HOMESCHOOLERS Annual Picnic. 12 noon. George Rogers Clark Park (near lodge ) , Thruston Av, Louisville. Contact J. Montgomery, 10208 Bluffsprings Tr, Louisville KY 40223 .

LEGAL DEFENSE FUND When we first heard about legal insurance programs for homeschoolers, we were skeptical. Couldn't a few big cases wipe out all the money collect­ ed from the members? Would lawyers be too eager to go to court when they knew their expenses would be paid?

Might not lawyers make things worse for the family involved, and for--­ other families in the area?

Well, the HOME SCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION has been running for several years now . At the "Home Based Leadership Conference" run by Ray and Dorothy Moore in February, four lawyers spoke - John Eidsmoe of ORU; Sandra Wise, who works with the top-notch :onstitutional lawyer William Ball; Michael Farris, presi­ dent of the HOMESCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION, and a fourth whose name I did not catch . I was pleased with what I heard; all were well-informed about home schooling and much of their legal analysis and advice sounded like points John Holt would have made .

The HOME SCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION later sent me a copy of their newsletter, which had a summary of their activities for six months begining August, 1985. Out of 183 cases where HSLDA families had turned to the association for help after being contacted by school officials : 117 4 49 13

were were were were

solved without going to court resolved in court (dismissed) unresolved and not in court unresolved and in court.

Membership fee is $100 per fami­ ly per year, and the HSLDA will pay all attorney fees if you go to court (you may have to pay court costs and other incidental charges).

The newsletter speaks of refus­ ing coverage to some families, and my guess is that, just as medical insur­

ers will turn you down if you are already ill, HSLDA will not accept you if you are already being prosecu­ ted.

Michael Farris writes, "Onl y one HSLDA member family has ever been jailed in the history of our organiza­ tion. Without warning, a father and mother were both arrested, booked and jailed in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is gener­ ally considered, even by us, to be one of the safest states . .. But this matters little when a father and moth­ er are in jail. HSLDA hired and paid an attorney, the parents were released, and the case was won."

As he said at the conference, one reason he started HSLDA was to make sur e la wyers get paid' It is too easy in a field like this for a la w­ yer to wo rk man y , many hours on a case - mo re than the family can afford. If we expect la wyers t o become knowledgeable about homeschool­ ing and to work hard on these cases, then some means has to be found to pay them.

For more information, send a self-addressed, business size env e l­ ope to HSLDA, PO Box 2091, Washingt o n DC 20013 (phone 202-546-2335 ) . - DR

PREVENTING TRUANCY HARASSMENT From Linda Mills ( TX ) : Th i s is my response to Gayla Groom-Slatton ( GWS # 49, p . 5 ) : Yes, we do keep our kids at h o me during "school hours." They're either in the house, in the back yard, or by my side. Anp it Ma~Me Furious' By what right does one group of human beings threaten to arrest another for being vi s ible during certain hours o f the d a y?' But in 5~ years we've f o und no solution .

In Pl e asanton, Tammy did go to the store for me after she was about 15 . But th e younger kids - never .

Here in San Antonio, Mike ( 16 ) does the same - occasionall y . But eve n when the younger kids are with me, people seem affronted to see them. I get so tired of being asked, "Is school out today?"

Still, I'm more willing to keep a low profile than to spend the time, money, and emotional energy in court. We have to live in the world we're in while working toward making it better.

This is my pet peeve, and I ho pe you get a big response ...

Reader Maggie Elliott suggests: How about getting a few pads o f "school passes" printed up ? Th e y should look official and officious, so get 'em typeset . Have the school's name printed at the top. The form might say: "HIGH TOWER PREPARATORY SCHOOL Activity Pass - ( Name) has been grant­ ed leave from oncampus attendance for the purpose of (activity). ( Date, sig­ nature, title, telephone) . " Having the blanks not only makes the form more ad 'ustable, but also Ha v e Yo u Hea r·d?

The T im be r doodle n ow GUARANTEE S the lowes t pr i ces o n o ur comp l e t e li ne o f : *C u ise n ai r e Rods ~ Boo k s *F i sc h e r tech n ic Bu il d i n g Sets *P r eschool Workboo k s *Ed u cational Colo r i ng Boo k s *Lau r i Ea r l y Lea r ning Puzzles ..S heeps k ins FREE CATALOG -- WRITE TODA Y The Timbe r doodle - -E161 0 Spe nce r Lk Rd S helto n WA 98584

8 gives the impression that the school is larger than it is and needs forms .

On days your kid is learning away from home, you might want to answer your phone with the school's name, if you're especia lly nervous about the truancy issue ...

[DR: 1 After Gayla raised the question of police harassment, I ask several parents of older home school­ ers about this . Nancy Plent (NJ) said that a securi t y guard at a mall once beckoned to Eric (13) and asked him why he was there. Eric started his answer with " I don ' t go to school," which seemed to be make the guard angry. Luckily Nancy was standing close by and came to the rescue.

Since then, Nancy and Eric have talked about what to say and not to say in such situations.

Carol Draper (MA) says that when her oldest son, now 15, began home­ schooling four years ago, he was afraid to go out on the street alone because he might get questioned by authority, until Carol wrote an explanatory letter that he carries in his pocket.

Meg Johnson (NH) says that CHRISTIAN LIBERTY ACADEMY (IL) gives its students an "I.D. card" that they can put their pictures on, laminate, and carry in their wallets - but her children have not felt it necessary to do this.

We wou ld be very interes ted in hearing more about how families have coped with this question - or whether it has been a problem at all .

TALK WITH FRIENDLY OFFICIAL Sandy Kendall, on our staff,

writes :

I recently went to Barnstable, MA, one of the towns listed in the "Friendly School District" section in TEACH YOUR OWN and GWS, and spoke with Jane Sh£ckells, the Curriculum Director for the elementary level.

She had been involved with the fi rst home schooling request in Barnstable, when Elaine Mahoney took her two ele­ mentary age girls out of school in 1978. Knowing Barnstable had accepted and cooperated with home schooling families for several years, I wanted to know how the school had reacted to the first request, and what has gener­ ally been their philosophy and method of dealing with home schoolers.

(From the interview:

1

SANDY KENDALL: A lot of people who haven't started homeschooling, but are thinking of it, feel very intimidated about going to their school board or administration . They just don't know how to begin or how they'll be received. Had YQll ever thought of home schooling Defore it was actually proposed to you?

JANE SHECKELLS: No, we hadn't.

It presented itself when the Mahoneys came. Then we began to think about it . Really, we have been open as a school system to working with par­ ents. As long as I've been here ­ nine years - right from the superin­ t endent through the school committee, we've tried to ' have parents involved in committes, in planning, in setting goals for the system, so we've been open to that kind of thing . Even though we feel it's our responsibili­ ty to provide the educational format, it's a partnership .

SK: So you weren 't shocked?

JS: No. We've always had private schools; kids have gone to private schools, whether it's been a paro­ chial school or a one of the other private schools here on the Cape.

That's an option parents have. This is just another option that they were taking advantage of . So I don't think we were resistant to talk about it.

Like anything else that's presented, we were willing to talk about it.

SK: And what sort of require­ ments do you have for homeschoolers?

JS: Basically we do the same thing with any parent interested in homeschooling. We worked it through with the Mahoneys and it seemed to work well, so that's been our model.

The parents or parent come and really talk with us about why they want to do this. We have to feel that it's going to be a good learning situation for the kids. The state requires that we monitor what happens in education.

That's our job. Our assistant super­ intendent back then used to say, "Our job in these kinds of situations is to walk in the shoes of the child."

Once we can feel the kind of situa­ tion they ' re describing, the philoso­ phy, then we get beyond the philoso­ phy of ~ they want to do it to what they plan to do. If we feel that me­ child will certainly do as well as he or she would in a public school set­ ting, then we don't think we have the right to say they can't . If a person presented an argument that we felt was a very narrow, negative kind of reason for doing it, and we felt it wasn 't going to be a healthy, growing experience for the child, then I think we'd have some problems .

- which I often send when we get requests from people who see us in John Holt's book, asking what our procedures are. This form says what we do, that approval isn ' t given auto­ matically, and so on . Later we set up a contract with the parents and the school committee approves it.

At the very beginning, the first time, we required the parent to have a consultant teacher . We felt good about why she wanted to do it, but we just weren't sure. So she arranged for a teacher who met with her every so often to help her planning. The teacher was available to meet with us also, to facilitate a smooth begin­ ning. At the end of the year, it had gone so well we decided we really didn't need to put that requirement in the contract. So we haven't done that with the other families .

But we have asked, what are you going to use for your guide? The Mahoneys went to Calvert home studies plan. Elaine sent for it, I looked it over; the books and ideas were like what we would be following as a guide. So we had no problems with that. One family that was with us for just a brief while last year ­ there's a school out in Michigan -SK: Clonlara?

JS: No, we really haven't. We've probably had five or six requests.

There was one that we were very uneasy about. And part of the reason was we couldn't pin the people down .

JS: That's it - they used those materials as their guide and were registered in that school like a cor­ respondence class. So whatever format is easiest for the family, that we feel meets the state's requirements, we have them use that.

We had one other family that moved here from another spot in the state and was with us for last year and th e year before; they've now moved to Falmouth . They did their own planning . They both were very educa ­ ted people, one of them is an artist at home now, but had been a computer engineer. They wanted very much to have a much more open, less restrict­ ed kind of format . So they laid out what they were going to do, and it really was great . We had no problem with them forming their own guide .

SK: As to what they were going to do?

SK: Do these people have to go through standardized testing?

JS: What th ey were going to do.

They were here some, they were down in the Caribbean some; there was a lot of question in our minds . But we were willing to go along with it for the rest of the school year. They came in to us during the year. We never could get their plans down in writing - we never could get them to firm up why they wan ted to do what they wanted to do, and we had a lot of questions . We finally went to do some home visits and found they never were home. Well, they just sort of disappeared from the school system ­ we've never heard from them since. So we have a feeling that we had a right to be concerned'

JS: No, we have not made that happen, although we began to think that if homeschooling was going to crescendo, we would consider - not the standardized test which is what we use - but the state Basic Skills Test. We felt that families ought to be assured that they were meeting the basic skills that the state was using as the standard . But, push never came to shove, so we didn't do it . This is at the elementary level. Some parents feel very strongly, and I agree with them, that standardized testing doesn't test the kinds of things they're doing at home. I understand where they're coming from . I think there are also fears that if their kids don't do well, we'll take away the privilege . So there's a lot of ambivalence about that, as well as very strong feelings on the part of some parents.

At this point, the school commit­ tee has been willing to go on my say-so . I visit the homes once or twice a year, talk with them, see what the kids are doing, they read to me, I see their journals, they tell me the books they have been reading, all this kind of thing. If I felt ­ and there never has been a case where I didn't - that they were getting close to the equivalent the schools

SK: Have you ever turned down any request?

SK: Do the families have to pre­ sent a written curriculum?

JS: Well, we have had them put in writing what it is generally they want to do. As elementary director, I'm given responsibility, if they're elementary, to meet with them first, and talk about it afterwards with the assistant superintendent . I follow up all the details; then we go together to the school committee to make a recommendation: yes, we think this request should be granted .

We use a letter - really, a form

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

9

wou ld give i n the academic areas , th e n my eva lu ation would be positive .

My backgroun d is early child h ood with varied teac hi ng expe r iences, so I t hink muc h of wha t home schooli n g is today - the value of it - is teachi n g the c h ild in an environment which is posi t ive and individualized . I am posi t ive l y o r ien t ed t o that . And because I was positive , I think it h as he l ped influence other administra ­ t ors and the schoo l committee.

SK : We r e the r e any people on the schoo l commi t tee who were hesitant?

J S: There really weren ' t . On the schoo l commi tt ee it went right t h rou gh the first time . And on the others, eve r yone we've taken seems t o have been handled very , very easi­ ly . And the school committee has changed; i t isn't all the same peo­ ple . I t h ink part of it is tha t t he atmosph ere on t he Cape is very condu­ cive to varied lifesty l es: we ' re used to people t ravelli n g here and there, s t a rt i n g new business, wo r king at h ome .

Sometimes the reason for home­ sc hoo l ing is not even a philosophical reaso n. We h ave one student who ' s an ice skate r . She is in competition leading toward possible Olympic in­ volvement ; that gets very demanding.

She now is in home schoo l format, and that is based purely on the fact that the child has a gift . That's a family decision, based on a skil l that the child seems t o have and a desire the paren t s h ave to provide specialized t raining . So in that case, who are we to s t and in the way of the child, if th e family want s to go this way?

SK : Do you have any thoughts about when a family first presents t heir case, if there ' s anything t hey could say to a schoo l committee that wasn ' t qui t e so already geared to ­ wards it or had never heard of home­ schooli n g?

JS: Well, I think one of the h ardest things is for educators ­ t his is rea lit y - to think that par­ ents can do this kind of job . But after all, the parent is the child ' s first teache r . I'm very much into P iaget, Dewey - a combination of phi l ­ osophies . ..

But I think when a parent comes and wants to take on this r esponsibil­ ity, I thin k the concerns are, " Hoy.. qualified are they? What kind of back­ ground? Do you let a high school grad ­ uate do i t ? Th en why did I go through fou r years of college and two years for a Mas t e r' s? What about all these wonderful group experiences we pro­ vide? You ca n' t grow up in isolation , you have to be par t of the world ."

And so , even though the law says we can 't r e quire socialization, we s t ro n g l y suggest i t a n d we e n courage th e pa r e nt s . It isn ' t in the con ­ tr act , bu t we say to them we feel t hat we want to know what you're plan ­ n ing t o do . No o n e h as called us on t his, saying you ca n' t do more t han r ecommend . Chi l dren are into Scouts, 4-H, o t her t h ings. Tha t' s the o t her b ig t h i n g t ha t I still feel very strong l y about, tha t I always ask when they come. What are you going to do to invo l ve other kinds of things o ut si de of t h e h ome , fo r citizenship respo n s i bi l i t ies? This is really what t he gro u p experiences lead to, to be a responsib l e member of socie t y .

I th ink wh a t parents are go i ng t o use for ma t erials is no t the most essen t ia l . Libraries - I ' ve been pres ­ ide n t of th e Libra r y Board and th ere-

GROWING WI THO UT SC HOOLING #50

fore I'm a ll for getting people to use libraries. There ' s a wealth of information there .. . I'm not as con­ cerned about first-hand math and sci­ ence experiences, those kinds of things, because they get more of that in the home setting anyway.

But I would have concern and probably t h erefore wouldn ' t recommend them if they had a too narrowly focused home school . I guess some of the religious concerns that become so narrow a focus concern us . Where are they going to see or expose them­ selves to interacting with some other ideas, which I think is an important par t of life . I would have equal con ­ cern about a missionary family living in far-off Africa . I ' m active in our church group, and a lot of our mis­ sionaries send their kids to other cities or towns when they reach a cer­ tain age, so that they aren ' t finding just the family stimulus . They may be away from home most of the time, but on the other hand, they are going to be citizens of a world or country larger than a family unit .

So I guess that those are the concerns I hear people raising .

SK: Are you ever in touch with officials from other districts, who have appeals or want advice?

JS: We get a lot of requests from others. In the Falmouth school system, several families have started out homeschooling there . We were sup­ portive in getting that going . They even made a policy based on our con­ tract . But it ' s not just the same.

For instance, one of the differences betwee n Falmouth and our own policy : we have a more open policy. We consid­ er a child who lives in Osterville [part of Barnstable school system] still a part of the Osterville schoo l environment. By that we mean if there ' s an event going on in Oster­ ville - speakers, concerts, mini­ courses - if a parent wants to come and bring that child, we send them a news l etter from the school informing them of these things; we keep the doors open. But the onus is all on the parent . If you want to take advan­ tage of the openness, then you let us know . You be in touch with the school . We ' ve also tried to tie them in to a class, if they want to, at that grade level. If they're second graders we try to let them know that second grade is going on a field trip, and so on.

Falmouth has none of that. A pare nt called me recently and said she wanted her child to be part of an art class . She said, "I understand you're open to it . May I bring my c h ild there? " But she lives in Falmouth' SK: Stepping on toes?

JS: Yes' I said if you were part of Barnstable . . . Well, s h e felt her taxes were paying for it, the cost of Massachuset t s educa t ion. I said that ' s fine, but you have chosen to step out of that system . I gave her the State Ed . Department phone number and said why don ' t you call and see if you can get an answer there, since I don't know all the legalities of that .

SK: Does Barnstable count home­ schoo l ers as " enro l led" for state aid pu r poses?

JS: Originally we did, but there ' s a very complicated formula fo r determining aid, it ' s not just a

simple enrollment count . So for the few children involved, it was not worth going through all the paper­ wo r k. In all other ways, home schooled c h ildren are considered enrolled, but not for state money.

SK: Do you feel like a pioneer, or like you're alone?

JS: Well, in this area, yes.

These are letters we've received . can't let you see all of them as I try to keep things confidential. But I hear from so many : here's something from Nashville, Tennessee, he was doing a doctorate and had a question­ naire . Here's somebody from Columbus, Ohio ...

SK: These are people considering moving here?

JS : No, they just wanted informa­ tion . They ' d heard that we had been involved with it. Sidney, Ohio ... Ft. Lauderdale, Florida .. . You see, our name is listed in John's book as a cooperative school district . Pennsyl­ vania .. . This was a lady from Hous­ ton, Texas, the Harris County Depart­ ment of Education . They were consider­ ing going into homeschooling. She ' d read TEACH YOUR OWN and was interest­ ed in cooperating with parents teach­ ing at home .. .

SK: Have you ever had people move here just to homeschool?

JS: No, no, we haven't. But these letters come from allover the country. And then I get phone calls.

It has sort of died down a little.

Other than this lady from Falmouth with the art situation, I bet I haven ' t had any queries for the last year .

SK: What do you think of the future of homeschooling? Do you think more people will be doing it?

JS: I think there will always be a few, but I am not as optimistic as John was, because I think, especially from our perspective here, the econ­ omic situation is requiring both par­ ents to work ... Unless there ' s a real dedication, and money, they really can ' t do it .

SINGLE PARENTS ARRANGEMENTS From Tia Grove (BC): . . . Everyone who writes for GWS seems so real . You've all made a big impact on my life . ... 1 wanted to take my son (7) out of school, but didn't see how I could, since I clean houses two days a week. I can take him with me some, but not much . I spent some time try­ ing to figure out how to talk the principal into letting Noah spend only part of the week in school . Then I realized that what I needed was a baby - sitter, not school' We are now two weeks into home­ schooling . Noah comes to work with me one half - day and spends the other day and half-day with two different home­ schooling families . I think that he is in a much better learning environ­ ment at these two homes than he would CO-OPERA TIVE GAMES

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be at school . The children have all been homeschooled for a year or more, and all are obviously very self­ motivated people. Their influence has been obvious to me, even after two weeks.

The only problem I'm having so far is the disapproval of both my partner and Noah's father, combined with the pressure of testing and other monitoring by the school.

Though I know there are many ways around the monitoring in B.C., I feel I have to cooperate with the schools in case my ex-husband decided to try to vary our custody agreement.

phone call from the listing, 2 had received one response, one received "limited" response, and the last had three responses. None of the seven were making a living by assisting homeschoolers, and this helped me to consider tutoring to supplement the small income. . .. 1 want to say thank you to everyone who works so hard to keep CWS in print. I am so pleased with the format, and encourage you to continue to give reader letters the importance you've provided in the past . We can learn so much from each other' . ..

[ A month later:] I've found a way to give up most of my house­ cleaning jobs and still earn the income we n e ed to survive. I'm look­ ing after a couple of children, and sometimes their 9-year-old sister.

It's hectic and more tiring than I expected (it's been a long time since I had 2- and 4-year-olds) . But it's a better kind of tired for me than house-cleaning. And since they come from 12 to 8 PM, Noah and I have most mornings to work together on "school­ work." ...

[From a later letter: ] . . . Things are going very well here in Oregon .

We had our first official homeschool­ er's field trip this week. Twenty-two of us went to a local bakery. We saw hamburger buns, hot dog buns, and loaves of bread being made . We got right up close to the noisy machinery - exciting' And we each received a loaf of bread at the end of the tour.

Our picnic afterwards yielded plenty of ideas for future trips. These fami­ lies really are happy to have someone around to organize these outings. I'm happy to do it'

TEACHERS WORK WITH HOMESCHOOLERS From Diane Sontag (see "Addi­ tions to Resources"): ... Two years ago I wrote you for information about using my teaching certificate to assist homeschoolers, asking advice about the economic real­ ities of such an arrangement .

Excerpts from my letter and your reply are in CWS #40.

I remember you said that many certified teachers had writte~ CWS for information and then never fol­ lowed up with letters about what ideas were eventually helpful. Those words have been haunting me ever since, and I vowed to let you know how I did use the information you provided.

I am happy to report that three weeks from now, I will be moving to Eugene, OR to do exactly what I have been dreaming of doing for the past several years. Using the CWS listing of homeschooling organizations, I had several home schooling families to con­ tact during my 1985 summer vacation on the west coast . A form letter with an SASE to the organizations in Wash­ ington, Oregon, and California brought many interesting replies and new ideas about the alternative us e s of a teaching certificate.

After talking with families about their needs, and looking realis­ tically at my economic needs, I have decided to combine two part-time jobs. For the homeschoolers, I will be organizing and leading weekly field trips, and providing part-time instruction in the form of special workshops and learner-directed pro­ jects . The other part-time job is to do individual tutoring for schooled children. I am doing this now, with great satisfaction and adequate success, and look forward to continu­ ing this in Oregon. My emphasis on individualized and self-directed learning attracts the type of tutor­ ing customers who are best for me ­ those who are not concerned about grades, but about real learning.

Perhaps these parents are future home­ schoolers?

I contacted a dozen of the peo­ ple on your "Certified Teacher" list in 1984 ... Of the seven who replied, 3 had never received a letter or

And from Betsy Kraft, also in Oregon: . . . You asked in CWS # 49 about teachers working with homeschoolers .

I will share my story.

I taught first and second grades for eight years. During that time I had two babies, returning to work three months after their births .. . We lived such a crazy, two-income rat­ race life that we just didn't hear our children crying out to us.

In the fall of ' 83, when Jerome was 4, I enrolled him in a Montessori school . Luckily it was then I decided to read two books my sister recommend­ ed - HOW CHILDREN LEARN and HOW CHILD­ REN FAIL . Jerome became a pre-school dropout after three weeks . I could feel myself rapidly changing as I read most of the books John Holt refers his readers to. I knew this would be my last year "teaching." ... The next fall I operated a small private school out of our home.

There were seven students, ages 2~-7 (our daughter Kelsey was the young­ est). This was a year of letting go of old ways, and by spring I was con­ vinced that our children's play had been their most valuable schooling.

For this school year I decided to have two days a week when home­ schooled children could come out to our farm to do things together. The idea was to give the parent a day off while the kids did some group activi­ ties and enjoyed the farm. There is probably some value in touching base with an experienced teacher, too, at least to be told to relax and just "let it happen." A five-hour day was reserved for 7-8 year olds and a three-hour day for 5-6 year olds .

Kelsey, now 4, and Jerome, now 6, came both days. By March I dropped the longer day, which has been better for our family's needs.

Both days were full (10 child­ ren) without advertising . I charged $1.25 an hour, keeping in mind that (1) most homeschooling families live on one income, and (2) I should charge only what our family really thinks i t needs.

I feel this plan met the needs of many area families. For us it has been another in-between-as-we­ continue-to-change arrangement. I am

leaning more toward cooperative oppor­ tunities for our children, and we are learning to live on a lighter income .

I find that much of my teaching experience has had to be un-learned and was not applicable or even healthy for children. Hopefully I have been able to sift out my helpful skills and toss the garbage . ..

LAW: HOMESCHOOL WAS FIRST CHOICE An interesting fact from a 12-page analysis of the homeschooling law in Colorado, written by attorneys William Moritz (3315 Red Onion Cir, Colorado Spgs CO 80918) and John Eidsmoe: ... In 1899 the Colorado Legisla­ ture enacted the first Compulsory Edu­ cation Act which stood until it was replaced in 1963 with the current Com­ pulsory Attendance Law. Section I of the [1899] Act reads as follows: That in districts ... in this state all parents, guardians and other persons having care of children shall instruct them or cause them to be instructed in reading, spell­ ~ng, writing, English grammar, geo­ graphy, and arithmetic .

The intent is clear, the respon­ sibility for education in the state of Colorado was vested in the parents and if they could not instruct their children, then they should cause them to be instructed elsewhere or by some­ one else. From the language of the statute it appears that not only was home education an acceptable alterna­ tive, it was the preferred alterna­ tive ...

HOMESCHOOLER ARRANGES PUBLICITY From the WISCONSIN PARENTS ASSOC. NEWSLETTER, November 1985: What can I do to help make the future of home schooling more secure?

How can one individual make a dif­ ference in preventing or at least minimizing a legal or legislative challenge to the freedom to home­ school that we in Wisconsin now have?

An outstanding answer to these ques­ tions is being provided by one of our members.

This homeschooler (let's call her Jane) and her family moved to a relatively small community in August .

When she heard that a newspaper re­ porter wanted to write an article about home schooling but was having trouble finding families to interview (most in the community were new home­ schoolers and apprehensive about pub­ licity), Jane, after consulting with her husband, volunteered . To prepare for the interview, she listed four frequently asked questions: (1) Why are you homeschooling? (2) What about the children's socialization? (3) Does a parent have to be a certified teacher to homeschool? (4) What about college for the children?

Rather than just presenting her own thoughts, Jane wrote out comments on each question from " authorities" such as Raymond Moore, John Holt, Christian Liberty Academy, etc. She was careful to draw on a variety of different sources, and in this way avoided a personal argument with the reporter because Jane was not pre­ senting just her own ideas.

The reporter began the interview by saying firmly she had only fifteen minutes, but she was so intrigued by

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

11

Jane's presentation that she spent an h our and forty-five minutes with Jane and wrote one of the most positive n ews articles on home schooling we have seen . She also feels home school ­ ing should be viewed as a viable ed­ ucational alternative . Publicity like this does a great deal to educate the public and win allies for homeschool­ ing o r at least encourage people t o be openminded on the topic.

Jane has also organized a home­ schooling support g r oup which meets monthly . The group will spend one meeting discussing each of the four questions Jane formu l ated. (Obviously she's already prepared to make an in­ troductory statement on each ques­ tion') In addition to the many ad­ vantages support groups offer to their participants, they make a valu­ able contribution to home schooli ng in general . New homeschoolers are more likely to get started on the r ight foot, and many individual problems can be avoided altogether or at least dealt with early. Shou l d a challenge come to homeschooling in general, people are already in touch with each othe r and ready to act .

Why doesn't each one of us make a New Year's resolution to follow Jane ' s example and do somet hin g posi­ tive for the homeschooling movement.

Think what one individual can do .

Think wha t all of us working together can do .

REPRINTING GWS STORIES

Q. I publish a smal l newsletter for a local support group and was wondering what your policy is regard­ ing others reprinting or adapting your articles.

A. F in e, as long as you give proper credit . We like to see the ideas we print here being spread, and we can use the publicity . You should at least give the full name of GWS, and it would be a kindness for you to put our address and subscription rates as well, either with the story or in a separate resource section.

You should probably say who wrote the piece, and give details if we reprint­ ed it from somewhere else.

Some t imes people ask about using GWS material in their correspondence to school officials, such as home­ schooling proposals . Yes, yes ­ please borrow freely, and don't worry about giving credit (except where it might add a touch of prestige and sup ­ port for your position) . Much of what we have put in GWS over the years has been just for this purpose .

The times we would be most con­ cerned about copyright protection would be when material is quoted in major magazines, books, texts, etc.

For examp l e, wh enever passages from John ' s books are reprinted in antho­ logies, Holt Associates gets a small royalty fee . - DR NEWSLETIERS WITH GOOD STORIES Twice before we have received local home schooling pub l ications that have so much good GWS -t ype material ­ more than we could reprint - that we have suggested that readers subscribe or get back issues . One was Deirdre Purdy's Alt ernatives in Education, which she is starting up again see following letter. Another is Susan Richman's Western Pa . Homeschoolers (RD 2, Kittanning PA 16201; $6/yr, back issue $1.25 . ) As usual, you ' ll find a number of excerpts from th is delightfu l paper in this issue of GWS.

GROWING WITHOUT SC HOOLING #50

Now there's a third . The Spring ' 86 issue of The PENCIL Sharpener, the newsletter of the eastern Pa . group, is jus t wonderful . There are half a dozen long articles I wish we had room to reprint, such as editor Susannah Sheffer ' s piece on being happier on the fringe of her fa th er's theater rehearsals than in the center of " child" activities; and Madalene Murphy on how her family has enjoyed usually - humdrum visits from the piano tuner, plumber, electrician, etc . And two striking stories (one we are reprinting) are interviews of-child­ ren, conv ersa t ions that allow t he CfiTldren to tell th eir interesting experiences without getting bogged down in the mechanics of writing.

Susannah says that PENCIL will be happy to send copies of this back issue for $2 . 00; subscriptions are $7 . 50 for 4 issues. Address, 314 Bryn Mawr Av, Bryn Mawr PA 19010 .

sent off to school.

John discouraged down-rapping the schools, but I have a hard time adhering to that . .. I think parents who send their kids to school think they're doing the BEST, where actual­ ly schools can be very destructive, wasting the s t udents ' precious time, teaching them poor learning habits (study only for the test and the grade), and teaching the students that they won't learn anything unless they 're taught, that the subjects taught in school (a meager sample of human knowledge ) are necessary or even basic. And that's what happens to the best . The "worst," that is, those who do poorly at this game, which basically requires talents at symbol manipulation, are rejected and labelled ...

Alternatives in Education will be $3/issue, $9/year. There are back issues available, for $1 . 50 each on a first-come first-served basis .. .

BEGINNERS NEED ENCOURAGEMENT...

From Deirdre Purdy (Rt 3 Box 305, Chloe WV 25235), who used to pub­ lish a very good newsletter called Alternatives in Education: ... Yes, I'm starting Alterna­ tives in Education a gain. I get maybe a d ozen calls a month and letters ask­ ing for help, information, advice, and spend enough time on the phone and writing letters to put out the newsletter, cover the information, ask for money, and just send a copy.

Sound s crass put so bluntly, bu t my motive's really to use my time more effectively . And there are many topics I want to cover that only my own newsletter gives me space for.

Otherwise, I end up explaining over and over about the legalities of WV homeschooling, and never get beyond that .

I notice more and more as my children get older that the children in GWS, and homeschooling children in general, don't . Don't get any older, that is. I ' ve attended so many meet­ ings about home schooling fu l l of bab­ ies. Check out the GWS Directory .

What percentage of kids were born in the last five years? And I ' ll bet that stays pretty constant. Too, I've seen it among my friends and neigh­ bors. When the kids were little to­ gether, 80% were going to be home­ schooled, it was 60% by kindergarten, and by the time they were 7, where were al l the kids? In school. For many, many reasons, of course.

The most important letters to me in GWS have always be en the ones from parents of older children, teenagers, young adults, saying it works, they will learn, they do grow, without and even in the total absence of sc hool­ ing . .. I think people really need to be strongly encouraged to homeschool.

Maybe for some that means take it one year at a time . Others need to know that it's not a lways .easy - far from it . Every thinking person has doubts.

Others are really encouraged seeing older children.

And it seems the same things need to be said over and over, in many different ways . About teaching not being learning, for instance .

About socialization and becoming civil beings not being the same . The things th at John always said so well .

The more people there are interested in homeschoo l ing, the more need for newsletters that can cover many per­ sonal stories, and the more likeli­ hood that someone ' s voice will reach the doubter before the children are

,..wHAT DO LONG-TIMERS NEED? From Nancy Wallace ( NY): . . . You asked what I thought the concerns of long-time homeschoolers are . I ' m not sure, really. I mean, to be long-term means that we probably have dealt with the testing/evalua­ tion business, we've dealt with the whole problem of being legal vs . underground, and we've probably settled into some sort of academic or non-academic routine that we are sat­ isfied with. Of course, there are the usual issues - social life for teens, preparing for ' college, work experi ­ ence and so on. For me though, as a long-time homeschooler and as a read­ er of GWS, what I like to see are those very detailed letters about how children - of whatever age - learn things. GWS #49 had some that I real­ ly found interesting - Kathy Mingl, Theo Giesy, Suzanne Alejandre, Jocelyn Maskerman .. .

With Suzanne Alejandre's letter about Niko discovering that he could read, and the one about her experi­ ences in Spain (the kids learning Spanish and French and keeping up with German) - well, I found them both really faSCinating. Not because there's anyone in this family who still can 't read, or because we might ever really live and work in another country and have all those language opportunities, but because I somehow feel that the things she had to say still apply to things that we'll have ro-Geal with in the coming years with Vita and Ishmael. How do you learn new instruments and yet keep up with the old? Will Vita just someday discover that she can improvise on the piano the way Ishmael can?

And I guess in general, letters like the ones from the people that I mentioned help to give me a broader perspective on home schooling, help me think out and test my own ideas, help me when I talk to other homeschoolers or interested would-be homeschoolers .

At the same time, I think that it's really good to print letters by people like Penny Barker, for exam­ ple, so that we get a concrete pic ­ ture of what life is like for parents and kids who have oeen at this f or a long time. Though letters like that

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12 would almost surely be of even great­ er help to beginning homeschoolers since they would then have a way to imagine what it'll be like for them later on . ..

THEY WATCH MOM LEARN Cindi Bigelow wrote in Western Pa. Homeschoolers #15: ... 1 recently decided to study Greek. I have studied other lan­ guages, but never one where I had to start with a whole new alphabet . It certainly gives me a new perspective on what my beginning readers are go­ ing through, and respect for their efforts. As I look at the type-set letter, and wonder which squiggles are important and which are just type style, I realize how difficult the precise maneuvers of our alphabet are to the beginner. As I memorize all the sounds the letters and their com­ binations make, and then try to fit them all together to read out a sen­ tence, I begin marveling that these highly energized children will sit still long enough to struggle through reading word after word of sounds to finally blend them into recognizable words and finally sentences.

As I struggle along, a beautiful reaction has taken place. I study right along side of the children, and also in the evening. While they see me exerting energy to learn (every­ thing else I study involves reading only - to their eyes - this involves writing, practicing sounds, etc.), they are becoming more interested in language studies, and seem less frus­ trated with their more difficult stud­ ies. Watching Mommy study seems to make them more agreeable to study . . .

"ONLY INTERESTED IN HOT RODS" From some unpublished writing by John Holt in 1968, based on questions he was asked when speaking to teach­ er's groups: ... 1 am often asked, "What about the student who is not interested in anything?" There is no such person.

Everyone, young or old, is interested in something, be it only himself. The student who appears to be interested in nothing is protecting himself by not letting us know what he is inter­ ested in. What we have to do is con­ vince him, and it is not always quick or easy, that whatever his real inter­ ests are, they are as legitimate a starting place and center of his edu­ cation as any other interests . When students really believe that we care about what they think, they will begin to let us know and we can go on from there. This is true even of stu­ dents far more psychologically dis­ turbed than would be found in any nor­ mal big school.

Q. How can I teach, for example, history, to a boy who is only inter­ ested in hot rods?

A. I doubt that any boy is only interested in hot rods, but assuming for the sake of argument that he is, this is as good a place as any, and better than most, to start the study of history. In the first place, auto­ mobiles, like everything else that exists, have a history, and the study of this history leads one into the study of many other things. In the second place, who could deny that few of man's inventions have done more and in as short a time, to change his way of living and the entire shape of

the country?

I can well imagine that a boy interested in automobiles might be interested in anyone of the follow­ ing questions, none of them the least trivial . Who contributed to the in­ venting of the automobile? What inven­ tions led up to this invention? (Here I have in mind the development of the internal combustion engine, which as far as I know was not designed with the automobile in mind) . Who were some of the early automobile makers?

What were some of the kinds of automo­ biles, like the steam car, that lost in the auto competition? Why did they lose? What changes might have taken place if they had won? How did the automobile companies grow? At what point did mass production enter the picture? Where was mass production invented? What were its effects in the automobile industry? What obsta­ cles did early automobile users face?

What did they do about it? How has the automobile changed our ways of living and the face of the country?

And so on. And these are the barest beginnings of the questions that could be asked and that an interested student might ask. .. . A high school student himself provided part of the answer to this question. He was speaking, to a group of teachers and administrators, about his own schooling which he had dis­ liked and resisted . At one point he said that he and a lot of his friends had been very much interested in auto­ mobiles and automobile engines, and he wondered why they could not have been encouraged and aided to learn something about the history of automo­ biles and the internal combustion engine .

Q. Suppose he never wants to go from the study of the history of auto­ mobiles to the study of real history?

A. Why is the study of automo­ biles "less real" than the study of kings, generals, politicians, sea captains, or anything else? Anything that helps a student understand the way that changes take place in human life helps his understanding of his­ tory . In fact, it is just this sense of cause and effect in human affairs that is so missing from most school history courses. .. . We would not get anywhere if we thought of the history of the auto­ mobile as a kind of interim gimmick to draw the attention of boys away from automobiles and to the "impor­ tant" matters of conventional his­ tory . Most children are very quick to sense such hypocrisy and they react by instantly turning off. The fact is that the automobile is a legitimate and important field for study. Treat­ ed as such, it may lead many enthusi­ asts to a consideration of many other aspects of human life.

Q. But after all, these boys are going to have to get into college, and if some boy spends all his time puttering around automobiles, he is just going to be a mechanic the rest of his life .

A. The words "just a mechanic" contain various assumptions which themselves need a little thought .. .

We still seem to be suffering from the prejudice that work with the hands is somehow ignoble and unwor­ thy . This is for many reasons a great mistake . Aside from anything else, we desperately need in our highly techni­ cal society really skilled and crea­ tive workers .

But it does not follow, in any case, that a boy who is passionately interested in engines will be only a mechanic the rest of his life . I sus­

pect, indeed, that a great many of the men now earning their living as mechanics are not in it because they once loved machinery, but because after a schooling in which they for­ got how to love anything, they fell into this kind of work because there was nothing else for them to do.

In the past ten years or so there has grown up and flourished in this country a multi-million dollar industry - the hot rod and custom body industry. The men who created that industry and run the leading firms engaged in it, are, by any stan­ dards, prospering, probably more so than the average young engineer with a job at General Motors . But these industries were started, not by peo­ ple who had gone through the usual technical mill, but by people who had developed their skills by actually working on them. In other words, I strongly question the notion, even in our high technology, that new busi­ nesses, new inventions, new develop­ ments, can only be produced by people who have had long academic training .

The facts are otherwise . . .

FOLLOWING THEIR INTERESTS

By Peter Bergson (PA), in the Fall '85 issue of PENCIL: ... When my daughter Amanda, who was just 7 at the time, showed a great deal of interest in the creek life on our property, we asked if she'd like to study it further with someone who knew far more about such things than we did . Out first step was to arrange some informal "class­ es" with her Uncle Ed, who happened to be a middle school science teacher with particular expertise in environ­ mental studies.

The following summer we followed Amanda's lead one step further, this time through Ed's involvement with the Schuylkill Valley Nature Center.

Amanda and I met with the Director of Volunteers to explore how Amanda might join the adult volunteers in their work at the Center . With one of these adults acting as her sponsor, Amanda joined the team for a year of active learning and assistance. Iron­ ically, one of her primary jobs was to lead groups of schoolchildren (mostly preschool through third grade) on fieldtrips to the Center's various ponds and trails, and to con­ duct classes for them along with her adult sponsor. Amanda was also given several projects to complete, includ­ ing putting together a natural egg­ dyeing exhibit at their annual Spring Fest . . .

From Gayla Groom-Slatton (OR): ... I've been learning some inter­ esting lessons lately about kids and my expectations . For example, this morning, Cord (3~) asked me to read him various phrases off the Cheerios box. Great, I think, he's wanting to learn to read . Well, yes, but ...

After I'd read him several requested phrases, he said, "But where does it say, 'There's a coupon. ins ide for free candy'?" Not what I expected, but what he was interested in .

And do you know what has spurred him to memorize his numbers? He wants to be able to punch in the numbers on the T.V . remote control so he can change channels to watch He-Man or some other show I wish had never been invented. But it ' s what he's interest ­ ed in .

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

13

Even Dain, at age six months, is at it . Sure, he likes to bang on the piano keyboard, but what really rivets his at t ention are the hinges on the music rack. I pay $35 a month to rent a music rack? But it really doesn't matter - he thinks it's won­ derful.

-----Xnd today put an orange slice in his mouth, and he acted like I was feeding him rat poison . Then I placed the very same orange slice in front of him on his high chair tray, and he couldn't get it to his mouth fast enough .. .

And from Toots Weier (WI): ... In GWS #36, I responded to an earlier article John wrote on "super­ kids" (GWS #33) . One point I made was that Forest (then 8) never had a vast assortment of interesrs:-Forest is now 11, and while his interests have changed, they haven ' t increased in number . He is happy with just a few interes t s, and beyond that he ' s will­ ing to ch eck into something different now and then, without getting too in­ volved (if at all) . Currently he is enjoying models, mostly of ships.

Recently he purchased a Jacques Cous­ teau "Calypso" model - which looks very interesting' I ' m excited for him to work on it - I think it may just lead to exploring some of Cousteau's adventures, which may lead to - who can tell?

Forest still loves to read, and I feel he gains so much knowledge from the large assortment of books he chooses from the library .

We ' ve been on the farm here for only nine months now and he has changed his attitude from not wanting to go in the stinky barn to develop­ ing a genuine interest in the animals (especially the cows) . Now, we didn't try talking him into it ever, he just developed a sincere tenderness towards all the animals and somewhere in that time, became curious about the how-to's of milking. Suddenly Forest is out in the "stinky barn" as much as my husband Stephen, and he's capable of doing as much, too - when he's interested ...

WHALE POSTER SPARKS INTEREST

Susan Richman wrote in Western Pa. Homeschoolers, Fall 1985: . .. When we first moved into our old farm house last fall, I put some posters on the walls to liven things up a bit. One was of all the whales of the world, and I hung it in what I thought was a good spot - low down on the dining-room wall, visible just as the kids would go into our "project room" (we like that term better than "school room"). I imagined the kids might notice the poster regularly, ask questions about whales that would spur us on to read the many whale­ related books we owned (I admit here a bias towards whales, MOBY DICK being one of my favorite books).

Nothing happe ned . No reaction, no noticing, no follow-up. Perhaps the kids just "weren't interested . " Perhaps I could have let the poster slowly peel from the wall and quiet­ ly toss it in a wastesbasket, forgot­ ten. Another "Oh, well" experience.

But somehow something else hap­ pened . I found another very similar whale poster, this one from an old issue of National Geographic, and I hung it up in a wholly different loca­ tion - our upstairs bathroom wall (a

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLI NG #50

drab wall in great need of improve­ ment, but low funds for doing so).

THIS time the rection of the kids was wholly different . I think every night when we were all assembled for teeth­ brushing, someone pointed out a whale on the poster, asking a name, compar­ ing sizes, types, reading the small print, wondering and questioning.

Jacob (5) always a lover of the minia­ ture, became enraptured with the dol­ phins, the smallest of the whales .

Soon we were reading books on dol­ phins aloud at bedtime, and Jesse was reading some on his own during the day . We read SEABIRD by Holling Clancy Holling, telling of the old whaling ships. We read WHEN THE WHALE CAME TO MY TOWN, by Jim Young, the pOignant story of a dying beached whale, full of the mystery of the great creatures. We read part of a Jacques Cousteau book, WHALES MIGHTY MONARCHS OF THE SEAS. We were especially moved by a chapter about a beached baby whale that the crew tried to save . Whale articles were re-read in Ranger Rick. We also read most of Rachel Carson ' s poetic clas­ sic, THE SEA AROUND US, and imagined the deep sea struggle of sperm whale and giant squid . We even saw a tum­ bling group of dolphins this summer off the coast of Georgia where my mother lives, and we stood, awed, before whale skeletons at the Smith­ sonian .

And all this had its impetus from a poster merely put on a differ­ ent wall ...

THE FIRST BREATH

From Wendy Baruch (see GWS #49): The emotional cord of school dependancy had been cut, I took a deep breath and stopped ushering Shane off to school. I didn't ask any­ one, and I didn't tell anyone, I sim­ ply had to do it . In the state of Massachusetts it ' s against the law to homeschool without prior approval .

That law seemed crazy to me. I just couldn ' t bring myself to abide by it, so I didn't even try. I just let him stay home.

The days went by and Shane would watch television or play with his tool set . Sometimes he'd let me read him a story. To me he didn't seem to be very eager to study anything.

After 2:00 he'd go out and play with his regular school friends, and I'd be left in the lurch about the quali­ ty of his new life. It doesn't take long for just a few years of school (or semesters for that matter ) to accumulate blocks in the mind of a child. I knew that after so many years of schooling (nursery school since age 2) it would take him a long time to get used to freedom and natur­ ally initiate studying. I had read about other homeschoolers struggling through their first year and tried to have patience during ours. It was hard for me to detach myself from the need to be sure that he was getting enough stimulation. I kept finding out that the more I prodded him the more I got in ~he way . He was so good to me those days . "MOM, you sound like my teacher". God forbid I had taken him out of school only to re­ create it in my own home; I kept hav­ ing to back away. Farther and farther I went into a role of observation. I had to learn to trust him.

The most striking changes I began to notice were in his identity.

His sense of who he was changed rapid­ ly. There were a lot of children in

the neighborhood where we lived then, and all of them knew what we were doing. Shane had to deal with them in a place that didn't involve me. It was from the streets and playgrounds of our neighborhood that his first important lessons came . All of the children were amazed that Shane wasn't going to school. Sometimes he'd bring them to the door . "Mom, will you please tell Ricky that we're homeschooling?" I would confirm. This always led to some interesting conver­ sations. The kids usually asked good questions and then still amazed went back off to play with Shane. I tried to be very kind about my dislike for school because I knew that these kids were stuck there .

The news was spreading through the neighborhood and Shane was becom­ ing very popular. Before we started to home school he had been a child com­ monly picked on by the block bullies.

As the reality of freedom started to take hold, Shane became empowered .

His integrity began to grow; he stopped playing with the children who always hurt him. He talked to me about how they were bad. He started to care about himself in ways that I'd never seen before.

After a few weeks his teacher called home worried about his atten­ dance . I really felt bad when I heard in her voice that she was wondering if Shane was all right . I had been so intently prepared for confrontation that this really threw me off. When I told her that we were homeschooling it had the same effect on her. She felt attacked personally even though we never had any problems with her or her class. L took a lot of time on the phone to tell her that this was just our decision as a family and in no way reflected how we felt about her teaching. She said she was sorry to lose Shane, and I could hear hints of understanding in her voice, even so, she told me she'd have to tell the principal. I told her I realized that it was her job, and the conver­ sation ended.

I took another deep breath try­ ing to swallow my fears . Pandora's box was open: Now on top of all the learning Shane and I were doing I had to start educating the authorities.

I had to start thinking like them so they could understand. I went to my typewriter and began trying to explain .. . It was overwhelming, and I very quickly started doubting what we were doing. I turned to Shane, and found myself saying, "Shane, I'm go­ ing to read to you now." He said, "Not now, Mom." "Shane, you ' ve got to let me read to you now because we ' re homeschooling" - completely in dis­ regard of his activities. My fears compelled me to take control. Now I had to prove that he was learning. I had to have structure to document for the authorities. I had to pervert what we were doing . Shane immediately took a fit and lashed back at me in defense. His sense of what homeschool­ ing was had been sharpened by these first few weeks. Homeschooling was doing what he wanted to do . It was learning in-nis own ways, on his own time. I had sa id t ha t; I had been doing that; and he couldn't let me take this away . He fought hard for his new rights, while I battled blind­ ed in my fears. This was a real intense emotional scene . It was ugly and painful.

When I saw that we were beyond rationality I started to back off .

What's going on here? What am I afraid of? What happened to all the joy and trust that we've been feel­

14

ing? It was obvious that thinking like the authorities so I could explain this to them had brought me back to that original fear. "Without forced education there would be ignor­ ance." This is their fear. If I couldn't deal with this fear in myself I would never be able to deal with them. If I couldn't assure them that learning was happening I may have lost our case, and with it our freedom. I had to find my faith. I had to let Shane be. Again I had to back away into the-observer's role. I started taking notes of the learning I saw in his play. The paragraphs that came from these observations became the root of my curriculum report (the approval document) . From these notes I could search out other activities that he would like and use them for curriculum planning . In this way I could keep our freedom and sub­ mit a planned curriculum .

AN ALTERNATIVE CURRICULUM Aaron Falbel, an MIT graduate student who works with Seymour Papert (MINDSTORMS) in the area of learning research, gave us a copy of a paper he wrote with William Higginson called "Hoopla About Curriculum."

Aaron and his colleague were sketch­ ing some ideas for a project to take place in the Boston public schools.

We thought these ideas might be valu­ able for homeschoolers who are look­ ing for an alternative way to think and write about "curriculum": ... Instead of asking what know­ ledge is truly essentia l (the answer to which no one real~y knows anyway), we ask: What types 0 activities, topics, areas for exploration are likely to engage children both emo­ tionally and intellectually? What types of things do kids really care about? What matters to them?

An afternoon of brainstorming produced the following certainly-not­ exhaustive list of topics: 1. Their Bodies - Children are interested in their bodies, especial­ ly with regard to their strengths and limitations. They are acutely aware of their weaknesses and are concerned about their size, strength, speed, endurance, accuracy, etc. They enjoy devising tests for all of these: meas­ uring how fast they can run, how much weight they can lift, how big they are, how many times in a row they can perform X. As they grow, children are particularly interested in how their bodies are changing and how those changes enable them to do more things (or sometimes fewer things) . They are especially interested in those "con­ troversial" topics like sex, defeca­ tion, even death.

2 . Animals - Most children are interested in animals, perhaps be­ cause they are alive - unlike most of the dead subjec~ey encounter in school . Perhaps it is because animals (at least some of them) are weaker and more vulnerable than the children themselves. Children enjoy watching animals, petting them, playing with them (if they can) . . .

3. Games - Of course children like games. But it is clear to them that games don't belong in school, or if they do, it is only during speci­ fied periods such as recess or gym.

The message is clear: School is not supposed to be fun - school is for work. Fun can happen at home, if there is time (after your homework is done). If perchance games are intro ­

duced into school, you can be certain that they are specially designed "edu­ cational" games. But it doesn't take much to realize that children learn much from games which are not designed around "educational content" - team sports, card games, puzzles of all kinds (e.g. Rubik's Cube), games like Concentration, magic, and so on .

4 . Food - This one needs little explanation. Kids like to eat. Many children would probably enjoy cook ­ ing, if given a chance, knowing full well that cooking (usually) entails eating. The chemistry of cooking and baking is a fascinating subject . What makes bread rise (or not rise)? How does a tiny, hard kernel of popcorn turn into such a big, fluffy thing?

What makes it jump? Is it alive? Why is it shaped the way it is?

5. Color - Children are attract­ ed to colorful things. They enjoy spectacular displays of light, and enjoy gazing at colorful objects.

Color is closely linked to many aspects of art, photography, computer graphics, chemistry, human psycho­ physiology, etc . ..

6 . Motion - Children are inter­ ested in things that move, things that are active, dynamic, visual.

This does not necessarily mean that they wish to "study motion" as an overarching theme (as in "Motion Month"). Movement, as Sherry Turkle [author of THE SECOND SELF} has noted, is often connected to child­ ren's notion of "being alive." They like to construct moving things and " give life" to an inanimate object . . .

7. Communication - Children like to talk . It is a shame they get lit­ tle chance to do so in school, or when they do get a chance, it is usu­ ally in the form of answering the teacher's question or "holding a dis­ cussion . " Children are rarely given the freedom to communicate the things that really matter to them. When we give them that freedom, we may find that they have much more to say than we ever imagined. Of course, talk is only one mode of expression. There is also writing, art, film, video . ..

8. Music - Children love making noises (of all kinds) . They enjoy singing and playing musical instru­ ments, when given the opportunity to do so in their own way. The work Rena Upitis [Canadian educator} has been doing seems to support the child-as­ composer, without burdening children too early with details of notation and correct musical form.

9. Crafts - Aside from genuine human relationships, and perhaps even more so, children yearn for compe­ tence. They are attracted to people wno-possess skills of all sorts, but especially craft skills. As has been stated on other occasions, we believe such activities should surround the skills and hobbies of the teachers .. .

The type of learning we are referring to here is perhaps similar to what Paul Goodman called "incidental learn­ ing," or learning by virtue of being around (or perhaps being apprentice to) persons with specific skills.

10 . Drama - Children enjoy put­ ting on an act, acting foolish, or, at times, serious. Children's drama can be a tremendously rewarding exper­ ience when children are allowed to take an active role in planning the production (unlike most school plays) . They learn much from assuming the role of a character, from putting oneself in another's shoes, as well as from the sheer mechanics of put­ ting on a production, especially from the teamwork involved.

11 . Money - Adults seem to be

extremely interested in this topic and so it should not be surprising that children are as well . Children should be given the opportunity to manage (or mismanage) their own finan­ ces, to run a store, to make finan­ cial decisions concerning what items the school should purchase, etc.

A teacher looking at this list might say, "Yes, these are good top­ ics. Dealing with money requires math, drama requires reading, communi­ cation requires language skills and writing, food involves chemistry, ani­ mals biology ... " and so on. But this would be to miss the crucial point.

These topics are valuable in and of themselves . They are not "motivation­ al containers" in which to package cleverly the same old school mater­ ial. These topics or activities are part of the fabric of children's lives in a way that abstract disci­ plines like science, math, history cannot be ... If those school subjects really do have value, it is in what Wittgenstien called "the stream of life," and not the stream of curri ­ culum . . .

PROGRESS REPORTS [DR:} John used to suggest now and then, to families whose home­ schooling was to be monitored by the local school district, that they send a monthly progress report to the superintendent - even if s/he had not asked for it. Better to assure the school people that of course lots of educational activities are going on than to have a long silence from fall until spring testing time. "Tell them more than they want to know, " John would say.

I was reminded of this by the arrival of a packet of neatly typed progress reports from Diane Chodan of New York (see "Certified Teachers Willing to Help Homeschoolers . ") When I asked her about these, she replied: . .. The progress reports just grew naturally. The first was just a way to fill out a short letter, as a kind of thank-you to the superinten­ dent who handled this. He was kind to Anneke (7) - really talked to her.

Part of our agreement was that he was to visit and he might look at my plan book again. So the second month, I decided to save him the trouble of having to ask to look. I figured I'd just tell him . (He hasn't visited yet. I think Anneke and I will do an invitation on "Print Shop" [computer software ) and ask him to come this month. We've got completed workbooks and lots of LOGO procedures to show him. ) The reports help me, too . Some­ times we have bad days here and waste time . When I see a broader view, I know that even with my shortcomings we're still ahead ...

I would be willing to help peo­ ple in New York State do what I am doing. I think I could help them with the jargon and such things as lesson plans ...

[DR:} Here's a sampling of the progress reports, to help others decide whether they, too, would like to use this format as a way of work­ ing with t h eir local districts. Diane typed the letters on a computer, put­ ting her name and address in the upper right corner and the superinten­ dent's name and address on the left: CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

JOHN HOLT'S

BOOK AND MUSIC STORE

HOMESCHOOLING IN THE 1985 NEWS

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ALPHABET ART, Leonard Fisher. #37. 13 alphabets

Ever wonder what the American press-at-Iarge thinks about homeschooling? We compiled articles from across the US and Canada; some have been quoted in Growing Without Schooling already, but many have not. Each article is reproduced exactly as it appeared, including photos.Get several copies for your school board, State Rep.,or a nay-saying relative! Suggested Donation: $2.50 A terrific way to organize your back issues of GWS. These handsome brown vinyl binders have a 3" metal spine that can hold 18 or more issues (see chart below) and have "Growing Without Schooling" imprinted on the cover. Can only be shipped UPS; consult chart on order form for shipping cost.

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THE DOLL BOOK, Karin Neushutz. #33. Wonderful insights on children's play and the importance of

GWS BINDERS

John Holrs Book and Music Store 729 Boylston St. Dept. 2 simple toys, and how to make a number of dolls. By a child psychologist and mother. $8.95 DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN, Betty Edwards. #17. Why most people find it hard to draw accurately and how you can quickly Ieam a better approach.

We've tried some of the suggestions, and they work! $9.95 FACES OF GREECE: A Permanent Calendar, M. & J. Saddoway. #38. Can be used for this year or any year. Many children will love to look up the day of the week they were born, etc. The wonderful photos of Greece alone are worth the price of the calendar.

5.5"W x 11"L. $3.50 A FAMIL V, Carl Larsson. #47. Soft, warm portraits ofthis famous Swedish painter's large and happy family. Two texts, one simple, one detailed, tell about his life.

Peaceful and lovely. 15 color plates. Hardcover. $10.95 FINE POINT COLOR FELT PENS. #38. Artists call these the best media for the unskilled; points that stay firm, vivid colors, snug-fitting caps, a wallet-like holder. These handsome sets will invite much use. Set of 12 colors: $6.00. Set of 24: $12.00 GOOD IMPRESSIONS CATALOG. #43. A terrific catalog of rubber stamps that can be used to illustrate work created with our Print Kit (below), or to personalize and embellish correspondence, labels, memos, etc. $2.00 THE GRAPHIC WORK OF M.C. ESCHER. #16. Collection of beautiful and extraordinary prints, deservedly famous. Impossible buildings, tricks of perspective, interlocking creatures. Introductory notes are by Escher. $12.95 THE GREAT COMPOSER CATALOG. A 1986calendar, in full color. Has a fairly easy musical contest with prizes. $7.95 INDIVIDUAL CHALK BOARD.#37.

No frills, kid size - 9.5 X 13 足 durable, long lasting, excellent for use in math, handwriting, spelling, language, and drawing. $3.50 (Price includes postage.)

..

VIOLINS. #37. New and upgraded violin kits. These outfits are personally chosen and set-up by our Luthier so they arrive at your door ready to play. Each outfit includes a violin (good copies of the old masters, made in China), bow (fiberglass with horsehair), fine tuners for easier tuning, rosin, chin rest, and a nice sturdy case. Full & 3/4 size: $145.001/2 & under: $135.00 Prices include UPS delivery.

HOULDER PAD. Forourviolins. This is adjustable to fit all sizes. $7.50 MAKING THINGS: The Handbook of Creative Discovery, Ann Wiseman. #38. Over 100 craft projects for children, many of which can be done with materials and tools that are around the house.

Plenty of drawings and well-written directions. $7.95 MODERN DISPLAV ALPHABETS, Paul Kennedy. #25. who says there's one correct way to make the alphabet? This collection of 100 actual typefaces, from formal to whimsical , will intrigue inspire children of all ages. $4.50 PENTEL WATER COLORS. #37.

Colorful, creative, non-toxic paints in tubes. $3.50 (Price includes postage on this item.)

PRINTING KIT. #36. Contains a rubber type alphabet, tweezers and ink-pad. A great way to learn spelling and design. $11.00. Extra large for small hands: $21.00 (These prices include postage.)

INSTRUMENTS AULOS RECORDERS. #33,38.

Sturdy plastic and easy to learn.

Comes with its own bag, cleaning rod and fingering chart. (Prices below include postage.)

16

Sopranino Recorder $9.00 Soprano Recorder $10.00 Alto Recorder $15.00 KOLSTEIN'S ROSIN. #40. The best rosin for making your playing easier and better sounding.

VIOLIN ROSIN: $6.95 CELLO ROSIN: $6.95 PIANICA. #33. A combination of a piano and harmonica. You control dynamics and intonation with your breath while playing as many notes as you fingers can hit at once or individually. Durable, 32 key instrument with its own case. $49.95 (Includes postage.)

PITCH PIPES. #39. We have three types: The Chromatic Pitch Pipe contains all the notes from "C" to "C," which makes it especially good for sight-singing. The other two are smaller and give the pitches for tuning a violin (A-G-D-E) and Spanish guitar (E-G-A-B-D-E).

CHROMATIC WITH NOTE SELECTOR $9.40 VIOLIN $5.00 SPANISH GUITAR $5.50 SEIKO ELECTRONIC METRO足 NOME. #33. This pocket-Size device gives a beep and/or flash of light anywhere from 40 to 208 times per minute. It can also be set

John Holt's Book and Music Store

729 Boylston St. Dept. 2

Boston MA 02116

to give a different tone or flash for the first beat of two (or 3, 4, 5, or 6). Especially helpful in learning music with tricky rhythms. 9 volt battery included. $69.95 (Price includes postage.)

Film "We Have To Call It School." By Peggy Hughes. About the Ny Lille Skole (New Little School) in Denmark. A vivid, touch ing , and true film portrait of children in a meeting , living, andQQingplace.

16mm, BIW,45min. Please write for a more in-depth description . .Bent: $75.00 per day of use, plus UPS charges.

MUSIC BOOKS BEST LOVED SONGS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, Denis Agay. #30.

Nearly 200 famous ballads, spirituals, folk and show tunes, with piano accompaniment and guitar chords. Wonderful collection. $11 .95 A COLORING BOOK OF COMPOSERS, David Brownell. #28. Very interesting and informative short biographies of a number of famous composers, each with a black and white sketch. Vol. 1, Monteverdi to Mendelssohn, $3.50. Vol. 2, Brahms to Bartok, $3.50 CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF MUSIC, Michael Kennedy. #33. Thousands of interesting facts about music in one very readable volume. $12.95 FOR CHILDREN, Bela Bartok. #41. A collection of pieces, at first very simple but becoming more difficult, written for Send order to: puantity

beginning pianists by one of the great 20th century pianists and composers.

Fascinating music. Vol. 1, $4.25 HOW TO PLAY PIANO DESPITE YEARS OF LESSONS. Cannel and Marx. #21 . Common sense and jokes that will banish anxiety over making music. Simple techniques for playing popular songs. Enormously encouraging - for beginners too. $14.95 MIKROKOSMOS, Bela Bartok.

Exercises for beginners that explore the fundamentals of piano playing.

Each piece has a title that clearly defines the point of one or a group of exercies. A small bar of music printed below the title refers to the technical problems presented in the exercise.

No formal instruction is presented since it assumes "Every teacher knows such exercises and should be able to invent them." Helpful preface and appendix.

Vol. 1,$4.25 MRS. STEWARrS PIANO LESSONS: #21. The most sensible, logical and easy introduction to piano playing we've seen. Can be usefully combined with Suzuki instruction. LESSONS Book 1: $8.95; READER Book 2: $8.95 THE NUTCRACKER, Warren Chappell. #33. Picture book based on the story

by E.T.A. Hoffman. Themes from Tschaikovsky's score appear on some pages; beautiful illustrations. $5.95 PETER AND THE WOLF, W. Chappell. #33. Another picture book by the

author of the above, this one with themes from Serge Prokofieff's score. $5.95 READ BY EAR - An AII-In-One Recorder Book, Richard Perry. #39.

An excellent beginner's instruction book for all recorders. Uses a Suzuki approach to music. $3.95 THE SINGING BEE, Jane Hart, ed. #47. 125 of the best-known children's songs: lullabies, finger plays, circle games, nursery rhymes, you name it.

Easy piano & guitar arrangements.

Nice pictures on every page.

Hardcover. $16.50 STEWART PRE-SCHOOL PIANO. #31 . Stewart piano for the pre-school child - with clear and practical advice for teachers.

STUDENT BOOK: $4.50 TEACHER'S BOOK $4.50 SUZUKI MUSIC BOOKS. #32, 37.

The first books in the world famous Suzuki teaching method. See Records and Tapes to hear the music from these played. $5.25 SUZUKI VIOLIN, VOL. 1 SUZUKI VIOLIN, VOL. 2 $5.00 SUZUKI PIANO, VOL. 1 $5.95 SUZUKI PIANO, VOL. 2 $5.95 SUZUKI CELLO, VOL. 1 $5.95 WOMAN COMPOSERS, Carol Plantamura. #38. A coloring book with delightfully told stories by a renowned soprano. Covers women from the Middle Ages to today. $3.50 THE YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO PLAYING THE PIANO, Sidney

Price Each

Title/Description

[DPSCflart:

For orders totaling Upto $10.00 $10.01-$19.99 $20.00-$29.99 $30.00-$39.99 $40.00-$49.99 $50.00-$74.99 $75.00路$99.99 1$100.00 and over

Iclude: $1.95 $2.95 $3.95 $4.95 $5.95 $7.50 $8.25 $11.00

(ShiP via:__US mail (see below) ) UPS (See left)

Subtotal:

5% Sales Tax Postage charge: For 1, 2, or 3 books or tapes: $1.20; .40 per (MA residents only): additional item. Records: $1 for 1; add .50 per additional record.

Postage (see left): OVERSEAS SURFACE MAIL:1, 2, or 3 items, $2.00; 4 or more, $1.00 per item. Please send money in US FUNDS or checks drawn on a US bank. Outsidethe US UPS only delivers TOTAL Enclosed: to Ontario and will not deliver b a PO Box.

17

Amount

John Holrs Book and Music Store 729 Boylston St. Dept. 2 Harrison. #35. "The first thing is to fall in lovewith the piano ..."

Fascinating insights on studying, playing, and performing. $5.95

RECORDS FOR CHILDREN, Bela Bartok. #43. the songs are performed by the famous Hungarian pianist Zoltan Kocsis, an expert on Bartok's music, in the same order in which they appear in the music book. 2 record set, $19.96 THE JOHN PAYNE MUSIC CENTER STUDENT SAXOPHONE CHOIR. #43. A studio-recorded 45, featuring 36 saxophones from all ages and background play with the John Payne Quartet. Inspriing proof that anyone is capable of making music. $3.00 KOKKONEN 4TH SYMPHONY. #43. A beautiful and original work

by Finland's greatest living composer. Also includes his interesting 2nd Symphony.

Performed by the Finnish Radio Orch. under Okku Kamu. $11.98 NEW MORNING FOR THE WORLD, Schwantner. #45. A powerful new piece for orchestra and speaker, based on texts by Martin Luther King . On side 2, Copland's "Lincoln Portrair and Walker's "Eastman Overture."

Performed by the Eastman Philharmonia under David Effron. $8.98 PLATERO AND I. #39. The story of a little Spanish boy and his pet burro, sensitively told by Ray Sealey, accompanied by two very talented teenage guitariSts. $11.50 RESPIGHI/MAHLER/BIZET. #43.

Performed by the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra under Eiji Oue. the GBYSO, one of our finest youth orchestras, here plays fine performances of "Pines of Rome" by Respighi, "Symphony #1" by Mahler, and "Carmen Suite #1" by Bizet. A two record set. $15.00 SUZUKI CELLO SCHOOL. The music that goes with Vol. 1 of the cello lessons. $12.00

T APIOLA CHILDREN'S CHOIR. #30.,31. Almost unbelievably beautiful Singing by one of the greatest choruses (child or adult) in the world.

SOUNDS OF FINLAND $9.95 CHRISTMAS MUSIC $9.95

TAPES HOME SCHOOLING AT THE HOMESTEADER'S GET­ TOGETHER. #29. Delightfully informal and wide-ranging discussions at the home schooling workshops of the 1982 Homesteader's News Good Life Get-Together. You will feel you are there. Vol. 1-3, $6 per cassette, 60 min. each.

JOHN HOLT'S 1983 INTERVIEW. #44. Covers much ground, including: how JH came to his ideas about children and learning; why the free school movement wasn't more successful; how can schools cooperate with homeschoolers; etc. 60 min. cassette, $6.00 JOHN HOLT-AND CEI.,LO AT HOME. John invites you to join him for an evening'S practice, during which he plays the cello and talks about it and the music he is playing. 60 min. cassette, $6.00 JOHN HOLT'S INTERVIEW IN ENGLAND. #28. John Holt discusses a wide variety of subjects relating to children, learning, schools and their problems, education and its true

18

social purposes, youth violence, and home schooling. Vols. 1-3, $6 per cassette, 60 min . each.

JOHN HOLT'S WRITERS WORKSHOP. #29. John Holt talks with a group at the 1982 Homesteader's Get-Together about writing and how to do it better. Vols. 1 & 2, 60 min. cassette, $6.00 each .

JOHN HOLT TALKS TO SWEDISH TEACHERS. #28. A speech in Gothenburg, plus answers to questions about how children leam and how we can best help them.

60 min. cassette, $6.00 JUKE STRING BAND. #41. JH wrote, "An exciting and beautiful collection of blues, country, and jazz music, made in the 60's by some astonishingly talented high school students whom I had the good luck to be teaching." 60 min. cassette, $6.00 ROSS CAMPBELL PLAYS SWEDISH FOLK VIOLIN. #44. The music itself is fascinating , more somber or mournful in feeling than most of our fiddle music, and expertly played by our former colleague. 60 min. cassette, $6.00 SUZUKI CASSETTE TAPES. The music that goes with the lesson books we well.

SUZUKI PIANO SCHOOL, Vols. "I & 2 combined $15.98 SUZUKI VIOLIN SCHOOL, Vols.

1&2 combined. $15.98 UNIVERSAL MUSICAL FAMILY. #28. Darlene and Steve Lester and their boys Nathan (10), Eli (7), and Damien (3), play and sing a delightful and beautiful collection of original songs. Damien's version of "Home On The Range" is unforgettable. 60 min cassette, $6 WALLACE FAMILY CONCERT. #29. Nancy and Bob Wallace and their children Ishmael (10) and vita (7) play piano, cello, viola, vi~lin, and sing in a concert of clasSical music, at all levels from skillful (Ishmael) to just begin~ing (B?b). A delightful family portrait. 60 min. cassette, $6.00 © 1986 Holt Associates

Layout & Design: Patrick Farenga

19

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 Dear Mr . Bell: For the month of September, Anneke attended 24 out of 25 sched­ uled days of school. On September 21, she did not attend her swimming class . She was extremely congested which of course makes swimming almost impossible. She was having difficulty concentrating, so I cancelled lessons for the day.

She now has a half-hour piano lesson each Wednesday from 6:30 to 7:00 PM. The Spanish class I had scheduled was cancelled, so we are using a series of language records have . In addition we will be trying to use PBS for language.

So far, we have read three of the Oz books, and have worked through Lesson 8 in the Open Court System . We have done a lesson a week in spell­ ing. In math, we have done short prac­ tice drills each morning. I am using a skill book in division currently for this. In her workbook, we have reached page 42 . In science, we fin­ ished the first unit on the scientif­ ic method. I gave her the unit test for that. We have done some work with animal care, since we recently acquired a cat. In social studies, we completed an "All About Me" booklet, and Anneke chose to learn more about Poland. We read a Polish folk tale, and in art did Wycinanki (which is Polish paper-cutting). We have read about communities in other lands and have located these in our atlas. We have done some studying about apples, trying different types and visiting local cider mills. We also visited a winery in western N.Y., and sampled some Concord grapes. Anneke has done some work with LOGO, especially cre­ ating new procedures.

Sincerely, Diane Chodan Dear Mr . Bell: In October, Anneke attended school on all days scheduled. This was 27 four hour days or equivalent to 41; weeks.

In reading, Anneke has finished two more books in the Oz series. She has averaged 50 pages per day of read­ ing. Baum, the author, is very fond of double entendre and we have ana­ lyzed carefully these word jokes. We also have been trying to understand word meanings from context clues. In addition, there have been moral dilem­ mas in this fantasy world which have made interesting discussion topics.

In the Open Court series, we have fin­ ished Lesson 12.

We are still progressing at the pace of one lesson per week in spell­ ing. In math, we continue with the short drills mostly aimed at develop­ ing proficiency in long division. We are up to page 63 in the math work­ book. Anneke is becoming adept at fraction work and conversion to deci­ mals . She also understands what she is doing when multiplying a fraction and why this makes the answer smaller .

In science, we are working on safety topics such as bicycle safety, water safety (drinking and swimming) and fire prevention .

In Social Studies, we have done several special things such as making cider molasses (from an article in Early American Life), discussing tele­ vision and modern music (U.S . News and World Report), attending a perfor­ mance by Chinese acrobats, seeing a travel movie about Poland, and travel­ ing to Cackle berry Castle in Camden.

I have let Anneke do cooking and baking to reinforce planning and fol-

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

lowing directions . When I cut the recipe, she is able to compute amounts (like 1; of 1/3 is 1/6) and then convert (cups to tablespoons).

This fits in nicely with her math.

Anneke's writing has been focussed on thank-you cards since she recently had her birthday. We also received a card from the author Bever­ ly Cleary in reply to a letter Anneke wrote to her. We are beginning a study of parts of speech. We go to the Jervis Library every other week to choose books. We also attended a performance of Babar.

We are now watching "Parlez-Moi" on PBS and using language records in both French and Spanish.

Anneke is a Brownie again, and the troop does craft projects. This month she also attended two Saturday programs at the Children's Museum in Utica. We are continuing with horse­ back riding, piano, and swimming lessons.

Sincerely ...

Dear Mr. Bell: For the month of November, Anneke attended school 26 four hour days or the equivalent of 4 1/3 weeks.

In reading, we have finished two more Oz books . We are also continuing in the Open Court series. We have fin­ ished Lesson 16. This seems to be a proper place since the last thing we read was a poem about Thanksgiving.

We are working on multiplication and division of fractions, conversion of fractions to decimals and per­ cents, and matrices. I have begun to introduce operations with negative numbers .

We finished the science unit on Safety and Anneke took the unit test.

We have just begun a unit on plants.

We baked bread using a children's book from the library which explained the process. We learned about feline leukemia and had our cat immunized.

Because of the volcano in Colombia, we read about volcanoes. We visited the Peabody Museum (Yale University, New Haven Ct.).

For social studies, we attended the Festival of Nations in Syracuse.

There we saw folkdancing, talked to people, and sampled food. Because Anneke is a Dutch name, she found some books about Holland and did some reading. Anneke has also been inter­ ested in a book about the presidents of the United States.

In language arts, we have attend­ ed performances of "Pinocchio" and "The Snow Girl" in Syracuse. We have learned more about Eleanor Estes, one of our favorite authors. Many of her stories took place in New Haven, Ct. We went to the library there which had a film strip and cassette about her. We also were given a pamphlet and made copies of newspaper arti­ cles. Anneke has written her a letter.

We have finished the spelling book, and I am now reviewing.

We continue with our riding les­ sons. The last swimming class was November 16. Anneke finished about half of the requirements for intermed­ iate. We will sign up for next semes­ ter and probably swim on weekends whenever possible.

Anneke is still taking piano les­ sons, watching PBS for French lessons (I bought a copy of the scripts) and using records in French and Spanish.

Several Thanksgiving craft projects were done in Brownies. Anneke is still mastering LOGO. She can work with variables and randomly assign pen colors and background colors.

Sincerely ...

Dear Mr. Bell: For the month of December, Anneke attended three full weeks of school .

Because of the Christmas season, many activities were holiday related.

Nevertheless, I believe they were edu­ cationally sound as well. We did a good deal of baking . I tripled a recipe for fruitcake . Anneke computed the amounts and weighed and measured ingredients. We made several differ­ ent kinds of cookies. One type called speculaas is a cookie that Dutch children receive on St. icholas Day. We read about St. Nicholas Day and tied that into Social Studies. Anneke tried to do a Christmas Tree in LOGO, but it didn't come out quite right.

She also typed a list of addresses into the Compaq . We were able, with Peter's help, to generate labels for Christmas cards. We saw a ballet about Rudolph at the Syracuse Civic Center. Art projects have been Christ­ mas related, and in music, her teach­ er assigned her Christmas carols.

In reading, we are trying to emphasize the Open Court series a little more and move more rapidly in that. Anneke was given the test for the first half of the book . She re­ ceived a 94, and I reviewed her err­ ors with her. We finished the math workbook . I gave her a test on that as well as the extra material I had introduced. She received a 95 on that. We finished our review of the spelling book.

Anneke was able to attend a Girl Scout workshop on handicaps (Walk a Mile in My Shoes) . We also attended a program at Ft. Stanwyx which showed a revision of Our Goodly Heritage, a diorama abou~ the history of Rome, NY. Anneke received a letter from Poland which we had translated. We have started to receive Penny Power, a children's consumer magazine [CWS #22], and Cobblestone, a children's history magazine [CWS #20] .

For science, we did some work on green plants . We have also been iden­ tifying the birds that visit our feed­ er .

In Language Arts, we watched the Alice in Wonderland special. (We own the annotated edition of the book . ) Anneke spends large amounts of time reading for pleasure, although I don't call it scheduled time.

We continued riding lessons and French. We had the use of a Macintosh computer for a time, and Anneke spent much time with that .

In January, swimming classes start again . We have also signed up for a series of four ice-skating lessons and a course in Basic program­ ming for children. We will need new books for math and spelling, and I will identify those in my next report.

Sincerely ...

PARENT CHANGES TEST SET· UP

From Kathy Cole (ID): June '85: .. . After readi ng TEACH YOUR OWN, we quickly decided that we needed to homeschool. Since I am a certified teacher, we had very little problem obtaining permission to go ahead.

The only requirement that they have placed upon us is that our child­ ren be tested by a teacher in their system on a quarterly basis, and that they take the Iowa Achievement Test.

Partially because Jackie has test anxiety, we feel that this setup is not working to the best of our inter­ ests . She did terrible on the Iowa

20 Test because she was in a cold sweat for the enti r e week she was taking it ... The superintendent has n ot given the teacher required to do the testing any type of guidelines; there­ fore she is testing them on what she has been teaching, whi c h is not neces­ sari l y what we h ave bee n learning . I was wond ering if you wou ld have any suggestions as to how we might handle this. There is also another family in our area that is having a similar problem . . .

working with her spelling.

"Writ ing - Jackie has really shown litt le c h ange in her hand­ writing . It is still very neat and readable . " 3 . The teacher and I meet and discuss any problem areas and she offers her suggestions .

As far as Jackie ' s test anxiety, I have been talking to her about how to make tests fun and showing her ways to make th em easier. I have tried to give her a "t est " at least once a month to show her that she can indeed do it ...

[DR: In my reply, I wrote:) .. . You s hould put your foot down abo ut the tests that are related to the classroom. This is absurd and inappropriate . As the judge said in the Mass . Perchemlides case, the ki nd of te sting or eva l ua tion must logical ­ l y be related to the instruction the parents have been providing . If n o thing else, I'm sure ~ could write up tests with the same sort of questi ons th e teacher h as been ask­ ing, but related to subjects your c hild has been learning . I suppose it's reasonable for the teacher to look it over t o make sure it ' s a valid t est, not "Wha t color was Paul Revere ' s whi t e horse?" The fact that you a r e a cer t ified teacher should make it easier for them to respect your ability t o evalua t e your child's progress .

About the Iowa test. We have long recommended that parents buy or o th erwise get sample tests so that children can get acc ust omed to the format.

You s h ould insis t on the best conditions possible for the standard­ ized testing - you administering it in your home would be ideal. There is research to show that children score higher wh en tested in th e same loca­ tion as where they were taught.

Propose alternatives to testing, suc h as keeping a portfolio of your c h i ld' s work, meeting with an agreed­ upon evaluator (perhaps this class­ room teacher, perhaps someone else), writing progress reports, etc .

I wou ld advise that you write a l et t e r to the superin t ende nt stating yo ur objections and making specific proposals for some o ther sort of eval­ uation. If you sound reasonable it's easier for him to say yes than no, for if he says no, he h as to come up wit h some equa ll y reasonable further alternative . . .

[Kathy Cole wro t e later: ) Jan . '86: ... The method which the sc hoo l and I have agreed upon is th e following: 1 . Every nin e weeks, Jackie meets with the he ad teach er after school with her learning materials.

During this visit, s h e reads from her own materials, works math problems of the kind s h e has had a nd is presently working on, a nd discusses what other activities she ha s been concerned with .

2 . I write an evaluation of the progress made during the last nine weeks. An examp l e of the method I h ave devised: "Reading - Jackie has progressed greatly this past nine weeks in her personal reading. I no longer l isten to her read aloud each d ay, but at least once a week. When s h e finishes a particular book, she enters it in her Book Report Journal . " Crea t ive Wr i t i ng - as usual, s he excels in thi s area . I h a v e been

MORE ON HOUSEWOR K From Barbara Palmer (IN): . .. The two letters about house­ work in GWS #48 especially caught my eye . Housework is not my favorite thing to do . I would much rather sit down and play with my kids, or read a book , th a n clean, bake, or sew . . . I knew I ne eded help .

I have four children, ages 8 , 6, 4, and almost 2, and so things are not calm . .. My children realize, because we have talked about it, that since I do spend a lot of time doing " school " things with them, usually most of the morning, that they in turn need to help me do some of the household chores .

Every morning after dressing and breakfas t , we all have our jobs to do. The kids take turns clearing the table, and then I wash th e dishes .

Sometimes one of the kids will volun­ t eer to wash dishes i n exc h ange for my h elp o n their job for th e day .

Then each day we focus on just one room to thoroughly clean . One day it will be the bathrooms. Since we have three, each child is responsible for cleaning sinks and mirrors in one, Mom helps with toilets and tub, and about once a month we do the floors, too. On the day that we do the family room a nd l iving room, the oldest t wo are responsible for the dusting of furniture, and we all pitch in togeth­ er to get the room in shape for vac ­ uuming . Cleaning their own rooms is a n o th e r day's job, and emptying the many smal l garbage cans found through­ out the house is done on anot h er day.

This may sound rather comp li­ cated, but basically, I just decide in the morning wh at job needs doing the mos t, and that is wha t we do that day. It takes at the most about half an hour, and then we are free for the rest of the day to do school and play . J u st before Daddy gets home from wo rk , we do a quick " Daddy pick- up, " which helps to put our house back in order from our day's projects. When life gets complicated, some jobs do go for a couple of weeks wit h ou t getting done, but eventua lly, each room gets thoroughly clean . ..

From Marta Clark (KY) : ... 1 really don't like housework much and am not very fussy, but there are limits. Toys are a big problem and getting worse with every Christ­ mas, bi rthd ay, Easter, Valentine's Day - you name the holiday and the kids ge t presents from someone . Last year I sorted th e small stuff into containe r s - "Cars and Trains," "Fi s her-Pr ice people," "Animals ," "Legos, " etc . - and put th em up wher e only I can reach th e m. The wooden blocks (we made dozens of them ou t of 2x4 ' s) are on a set of l ow shelves, as are th e books, stuffed animals,

sketchbooks (much neater than loose paper), and most art supplies . A very large toychest ho ld s the other big stuff. The rule is, only one or two types of toys at a time. So even though it frequently looks terrible, it can quickly be sorted and put away . Before we did this, the child­ ren had to take out everything to find one particular toy . It was as difficult form them to playas it would be for me to work in a room wh ere cooking and sewing things, books, bills, letters, and tools were all jumbled together. They have liked the arrangement since the day we did it . By now, the toys do not even have to be out of reach. They enforce the system themselves, except when friends come over .

As far as my housework, I do what I can until 9 AM, then quit for the day, except meals. Dusting and corner cleaning get done when we have company. We have acquired the "nor ­ mal " appliances ove r t h e last few years, so housework doesn't seem like much of an ordeal any more . ..

And from Ma r y Van Doren: I can never seem to catc h up with housework, much less keep up, but I'm getting a little closer . Our basic problem is t oo much stuff.

We're swamped by clutter. Don Aslett ' s book CLUTTER'S LAST STAND has really inspired me . I read it nearly a year ago, and still haven't cleared out every th ing . I take a look at it from time to ti me to keep gOing. As h e says , de-junking takes time. It's taken us years to accumu­ late all this st uff - I can 't really expect to be able to get rid of it all at once .

What really help s me is that de-junking works . The more I get rid of, the better I can take care of the rest of it. When John lived with us last summer, he stayed in the play­ room. I had to clear out a lot of toys. When the kids were out, I threw away broken things, put aside books I don ' t like (and refused to read) to sell, collected a l ot of excess stuff to donate t o Goodwi ll, and organized wh at was left, s toring some thing s upstairs to rotate with the rest . I didn't get rid of any real favorites, and nobody seemed t o miss anything.

This has to be done periodically . Th e kids could finally see wha t they had, and seemed to enjoy it all more .

That success inspired me to go through my clothes - if it didn't fit, I didn 't like it, or if I hadn't worn it for a year, out it went . What a relief to be able to get at the few things I wear all the time anyway .

Now I'm working - slowly - on clearing out books , children's clot hes, papers, more toys, and mis ­ cellaneous junk. We seem to have an awful lot of miscel l aneous ...

[More ideas on housework in GWS #29,31,33,34,47 & 48. )

DEALING WITH STRESS In GWS #49, reader S . J . asked, "Has anyone out there experienced problems with homeschooling-related stress? . . This fall I began having a variety of physical and emotional symptoms ... My 7-year -old son is a world c l ass t a lker and question ask­ er ." The family lived in the country with no su pp or t g roup or phone, and S . J . felt like her son's only resource.

Her e are some of the r eplies .

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

21 From Laurel Fantis of Illinois: · .. Both of my sons (4 and 7) are world-class talkers and question­ askers. It is to be expected . So am I. It was made clear to me early in life that my talking was unwelcome, so, throughout my life it has burst out only on rare occasions . · . . My husband and I have layers of prejudices, habits, inhibitions, and insecurities on top of our true

selves. We struggle to remove those layers from ourselves and to not put

them on our children . We need time with each other, my husband and I, to talk things out. We need time alone to think things out. Our uninhibited, unprejudiced, and mostly secure child ­ ren want to talk all the time .

I was 37 years old before I ever said, "Shut up." I had always said, "Please be quiet," quietly . .. Little boys are so caught up in their own thoughts and desires ... If they are going to get along with other people, they have to know what other people think. They have to be quiet long enough to listen. I think I am doing them a favor when I demonstrate that other people, even mo t hers, have needs and wants .

Some of the other things I say to them are: "I want to think my own thoughts now, not yours." "I had to keep my thoughts to myself when I was young and the more they stayed in my brain the better they got. So now, when I talk I say very good things."

"I want to read (or write) now . I'll talk to you later." "Leave me alone now; there are plenty of things you can do without me."

What I have stopped saying to the boys is stuff like, "Be quiet and listen to the birds, the wind in the trees, etc . " When they do listen, it stimulates them to talk even more and I still have to ask them to be quiet so I can listen. I have learned to say exactly what I mean and not dress it up. I want my children to say what they mean and I have to be a good example .

I heard Quentin Crisp, the fam­ ous British homosexual talker and wri­ ter, talk about his childhood . He said families are terrible things and do terrible things to children . What he meant was that he talked all the time when he was little and finally a fami l y member slapped him across the mouth . He said he was warped for life. I don't slap my children across the mouth, but I did notice that even slapping hadn ' t shut Quentin Crisp up for long, even if it did warp him. He is still a world-class talker and questioner . He seems to not be terri­ bly sensitive about other people, though he is totally sensitive about himself. The slap made him hate. I try to find ways to quiet my children so they don't learn hate, but learn sensitivity . · .. Right from the start my hus­ band thought homeschooling was great.

Of course it was great. He wasn ' t stuck at home with two kids and he didn't have to do any of the work . So I told him that if he wanted ME to think homeschooling is great and con­ tinue with it, he'd better do some­ thing to help me out. He spends much time with the boys . When he has a day off, he checks their minimal work. He does the bedtime work and helps with dinner. He sends me out of the house, he takes the boys off so I can have solitude and they can have a break .

Each month we get a l ong with each other better .. .

The boys love it when I get feisty, tell them off, set them

GROWI NG WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

straight, and just generally confirm that I am healthy and kicking. They accep t what I have to say just as I have accepted what they have to say, good or bad. When I really do want to think and when they really are too intrusive I count 1- 2-3 . They know there is a blast-off at the end of it and they quickly find something else to do .. .

vior . Once my older daughter saw that r-ardn ' t mind getting up and dealing wi t h a sibling problem, even that I didn ' t mind sitting on the couch with crying kids around me and doing noth­ ing (because I didn't know what to do), she stopped totally in her har­ assment of her little sister . .. I no longer feel knotted up or exhausted at the end of a day - even a day wh en the kids have been uncooperative, fighting, etc ...

From Debra Hamby of N. J.:

.. . One way I have adapted to the routine is to get up an hour before the children. During this time I lis­ ten to the silence, talk to my hus­ band, read, work on my quilt . I don't always do this but when I can at least get 15 minutes alone at the start of each day, it makes every­ thing seem to go more smoothly for me. Perhaps you could try a quiet time during mid-day . If you have a cassette player, your son could lis­ ten to a story tape in his room for 15 minutes while you unwind with a cup of tea . . .

From Wanda Rezac of Mass . : ... 1 have found that the only way to develop true patience is to watch and acknowledge your impatience without trying to put on any facade.

In this "watching" experience, I have been very much helped by a meditation exercise taught by a man named Roy Masters - he has a radio program.

An example from our life . One day I was sitting on the couch nur­ sing our baby . My second child was going upstairs, and on her way past her younger sister, she deliberately bumped her and hurt her. I immediate­ ly felt irritation . In the past I would have tried any number of ways to either (a) show more love to my second child, assuming her action reflected a lack on her part of self-esteem, (b) punish her to make her be "good," (c) I don't remember what, but I'd have tried lots of things in these situations.

I remember this time just sit­ ting still and watching my frustra­ tion. I just sat, did nothing, and watched . Sure-enough, the more I watched, the more I saw that I did not really have that much concern for my daughters, but that I was irrita­ ted that they had interrupted me and that I would now have to physically get up, comfort the younger, and deal with the situation. Once I saw thiS, I could rub my daughter's sore and do nothin~ about the rest.

W en a parent reacts to a situa­ tion with an emotional frustration, no matter how well hidden, an energy is given off, and that is the payoff for the kids. I have found that my kids do all kinds of things to irri­ tate me in order to get this energy gOing. They certainly don ' t do it con­ sciously - but they do~. Once -1-­ qu~t giving out the energy of frustra­ tion, there was no more payoff for the kids, and they stopped the beha-

And Luba Karpynka of Calif.: ., .1, too, get saturated with my two boys (4 and 7) and my work . I go by one rule: Not only the children but I too must get satisfaction with homeschooling . I recharge myself once a week by getting out, treating my­ self to a hearty lunch at a restau ­ rant or bringing a picnic to a park, and sitting there about two hours reading and writing. I always bring books, paper and pen and occasionally my Walkman with soothing music. If I lived in the country, I would go out under a tree someplace too far to hear domestic goings-on . This change of atmosphere is crucial: I can't get totally recharged in the house while everyone's out because I ' ll always put my eye one some chore that needs attention. . .. Ever since I gave my boys their own desks with drawers, pens, papers, tape and scissors, they fre­ quently sit for hours making their own stapled books, cut out and hang up signs and pictures, and work on academic exercise books . These times help give me freedom, often from the minute they rise in the morning. .. . Every day I insist everyone take a noon rest for about one hour .

I separate the boys in different rooms where they lie down, draw, read and listen to a tape, while I medi­ tate (which is more recharging than sleep, unless I'm ill) . By the way, I've taken a room all for myself, which has proven to be a blessing . ... Sometimes when I need to do other things or rest, I let the boys play at the sink (pre-dishwashing) .

Also they spend hours constructing vehicles and what-nots with cushions, benches, pots, etc ... They tape their own voices and music. They watch worthwhile programs on the VCR only at times (2 hours maximum) when I need to work alone ...

INSTEAD OF FIGHTING From an article that GWS reader Beth Bolling wrote for the Friends Intelligencer, way back in 1 943: . , . When I was six years old, my parents lived in a neighborhood where there was a shortage of girls among the children. For several years I hap­ pened to be the only girl among the six-to-ten-year-olds who played regu ­ larly together. My companions had their share of fist-fighting among themselves as well as with other

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22 "gangs" - activities from which I was automatically excluded because I did not have what it took in either desire or physical strength.

I did not like the boys to fight. I didn't like being left out, but I liked still less, I admit, being included to the point of being the victim - which happened upon rare occasions' I knew that I would only be humiliated should I try to fight back. Some way had to be found out of this dilemma, and fate came to my rescue.

The method which I happened upon I used in at least three instances, with three different boys . As the boy started hitting me, I pulled myself together to look squarely at him while I tried to keep from crying or dodging his blows . After striking me only a few times he became uneasy and looked at me searchingly, then turned his eyes away and without a word ran away as fast as he could . At our next meeting, however, he found some way of showing me that he wanted to be friends, and in each of the three instances the friendships turned out to be real ones . . . . 1 am now the mother of two children. Nanna is eight, Tom five years old. When I was, through them, again confronted with the fist-fight problem, I remembered, and wondered whether it wasn't possible to teach little children about true human dig­ nity - that there is another way, that just hitting back leaves us where we were before, that no one gains anything through destruction or injury, and that no one ever really is pleased or happy about it afterward.

So I proceeded to tell Nanna about my own childhood experiences and suggested that she try my method some time . I touched on the subject again only when she told me of fights she had been in, and even then just lightly. Several months would pass without any mention of this in any way. For several years nothing hap­ pened. Occasionally she would come home to tell me that she had tried to do as I suggested - "but Mommy, it doesn't work. You just get beaten up i f you don't hit back'" To this I would say casually: "Well, maybe so.

I don't know," adding, after a moment, "I'm pretty sure, though, that you were scared to death. Of course, if you are scared it doesn't work."

But miracles do happen' One day a few months ago she told us at sup­ per time that on her way home from school she had been struck down by a big boy . Instead of crying or running away she had gotten to her feet and had stared silently and persistently at the boy - whereupon he had fled' That she reported the incident so calmly meant to me that slowly but surely the idea had been taking root during these several years and had become her own. .. . At the time this happened her father and I took great care to give her story no great importance, for we felt that if we elaborated upon it and hashed it over with her she would lose the feeling of having solved a problem independently, and thus be less likely to try again.

Later on, however, we did have some discussion, during which little Tom caught on - not exactly in prac­ tice, but intellectually, much to the distress of his little friend and playmate, Billy. Tom would start off on a long-winded lecture like this: "Now, Billy, if some one hits you, you mustn't hit back, for then you'll

be in a fight, and some one has to stop sometime, and ... " - a lecture which Billy knows so well now that when Tom gets to "If someone hits you," Billy explodes and bellows at him to stop.

During all this I do nothing.

The idea has taken hold and must be left alone to mature soundly. At one pOint, however, I did wonder whether I should interfere, but decided not to . Tom greeted me one day with this: "You know, Mommy, I hit Billy and Billy hit back' " Such are growing pains .

Just the other day I discovered that Billy does know the rest of Tom's lectu~The two of them came and told me that a big boy had wanted to prove his superiority (that wasn't quite their way of putting it) and that they had gotten to their feet and stared at him, whereupon the boy had disappeared . And Billy was by far the more excited to tell me about it' It seems to me to be very worth while to teach this "other way" to little children ... I would stress (not to the child, but to any adult ready to embark on this idea): Be sure to treat the whole idea casual­ !y . Let there be no more discUSSIOn man the child demands. let it be known - definitely though casually ­ that it is kour way, and that al­ though ~ now it to work, it is possible that it doesn't work for some people. Otherwise it cannot become the child's own way - a way of life as natural and matter-of-fact as brushing teeth, as desirable and truly civilized as human kindness.

[MVD: 1 I think the ~ Beth Bolling suggested this very effective form of de f ense is actually more important than solving any particular problem. Children want to be what we are and do what we do. They don't like being instructed and told how to do things right (that would mean they must be wrong now).

John Holt did this kind of sug­ gesting all the time . What he usual­ ly said when Anna, or any other child, asked how to do something, or did something he found unacceptable, was "We do it like this " or "We don't do it that way." He never said, "That's wrong," and seldom said, "Do it this way." He let children know ­ and really believed himself - that children had their own ways of doing things, even if those ways aren't generally acceptable. It allowed the children dignity and, in many cases, a choice of how to do things.

When we can really accept child­ ren as people, we can make casual sug­ gestions and describe our own meth­ ods, allowing them to take it or leave it - allowing real learning, not giving instructions .

COMBATTING TEEN LONELINESS From Dick Gallien (MN), who is now running the GWS TRAVEL NETWORK (see "Announcements," p. 3): ... 1 agree with Janey Smith (GWS #43) who said, "You know, if home­ schooled kids opt for school, I bet it's almost universally out of loneli­ ness." In a 1983 Philadelphia radio interview, John Holt said he was not bothered by a 13-year-old home school­ er returning to school "to meet some girls," because he is doing it on his own terms and is free to leave any time. I agree with that difference but am still bothered. Such a tiny

minority have made this traumatic break with society and then to give in when they are just starting to blossom ... School, especially junior high, is still the poorest environ­ ment in which to socialize or experi ­ ence life. School is still a game where everyone is blindly trying, as John Holt used to say, to get from Philly to Chicago by heading south. I do consider schools a phenomenon that homeschoolers should observe, along with zoos, prisons, and mental insti­ tutions.

As the father of four schooled children, ages 23-31, whose only goal is "big bucks" .. . and as a father who is lucky to have a second chance with four children, ages 5-13, and is enjoying growing with them in an edu­ cationally unstructured and uncon­ trived environment, I am not about to helplessly give up when they reach the restless years and to say, "If you don't like being home alone, go to school." I see that as a gutless, unimaginative cop-out on the part of the parents and kids. Just shuffle on to that orange cattle truck, let them stick the bull ring in your nose so you can be easily led around for the rest of your life. ... John built us a solid founda­ tion, but his dreams for all people will ~ot reach their full potential unless we find various ways to bridge the gap between childhood and adult­ hood. To search for these missing links, so that my kids and others may continue to grow free, in the ways he envisioned, is my work, that which I will gladly do without pay . ..

I can start a newsletter for teens and parents. There are many iso­ lated teens and their parents spread over this country. My kids would have to bike 100 miles to find homeschool­ ers of similar ages. Maybe there are some closer . We must find them . Write me at length about your hopes and dreams for bringing isolated home­ schoolers together. Let's hear your philosophy . Don't try to ride the fence or tiptoe through the tulips ­ say what you believe . The purpose is to match up those on similar wave lengths, so you can get together . ... Travel - There are no ex­ cuses. Anyone can afford a used bike .

A bike, plus energy and this entire country is available. I envision groups of bikers who at times put signs on their back like the old Burma Shave signs . "LAKE WOBEGON MN." "TO ORLANDO" "LOOKING FOR" "WORK" "NONSCHOOLERS" "PLACES OF INTEREST" etc. In over 100,000 miles of hitch­ hiking I have never had anyone even get wise with me . We have a nation of desperately lonely people who want to be helpful. If we travel with a wide angle vision and attitude like Peter Jenkins' A WALK ACROSS AMERICA, we will find interesting, friendly peo­ ple . Most local papers would do a story on our travels and we could check school attitudes, plus do some observing, by asking to visit with classes.

One trip I plan when my kids are a couple of years older is the freight train from Minneapolis to Seattle. We'll take our bikes on the train and climb Mt. Rainier. One of my sons did that alone when he was 18 . There are endless possibilities.

This is a level of education, adven­ ture, and socializing which you will never find in school. . .. 1 drive a truck, not that I find social significance in what we haul, but for selfish reasons . My boys have been in nearly every state and have seen more of this country

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

23

and its people than t hey would during an eternity of school. On a typical three-week trip l as t spring, my l2-year - old and I t ook h ams from Austin, Mn . to N.J. - TV cable from Freehold, NJ t o MA - McDona l d ' s fish from Gloucester, MA to NY - Kodak from there to Loredo, TX - spent Easter weekend in new Braunfels, San Antonio and Loredo - wa lked into Mexico - t ook chemicals to Eldorado, Ark. - rice from Greenville, Ms . to Philly - dropped the trailer at Jessup, Md . and spent the weekend park ed with the tourists by the Washington Monument in D.C . - beer from Baltimore t o Detroit - and Libby glass f r om Toledo home . We traveled in an '85 Pe te, 350 Cummins with double sleeper, fine radio and tapes of books. Such trucks are an amazing contrast to the underpowered heaps I started in over 20 years ago ...

There is such a demand for dri­ vers that one can work when one wants to . I have n't been out for over six months, yet it is nice to know that if I call them today, I will be gone tomo rr ow. I don't think of driving as wo rk, for we make each trip an adven­ ture. Besides the everchanging scene, we can usual l y get a good talk show on th e radio, Larry King or All Things Co n side r ed . Talking books are a chance to hear books we would never find time to read. There is usually a f l exibi lit y and freedom which allows o n e to visit or explore along the way. When we se ll the cows we will ha ve to drive more for a while, but it will provide a perfect c h ance to check some tourist ideas we 'v e been think ing abou t . We would also be glad to stop and visit homeschoolers, if you tell uS where you are .. .

TEENS SOLVE CONSUMER PROBLEMS The book FREE TO TEACH by Joe Nathan tells a few fascinating stor ­ ies about young people working to solve real problems. It was published in 19 83 by Pilg r im Press, 132 W 31 St, NY NY 10001; price on that edi­ tion is $14 .9 5 .

Here i s one such section . The organization NCRY, men t ioned in the first paragraph (which we a l so men­ tioned in GWS #37 & 45) is now a part of INSTITUTE FOR RESPONSIVE EDUCATION and is mostly inactive due to federal cutbacks; however, they do still sell some booklets on "youth participa­ tion." Address, 605 Commonwealth Av, Boston MA 02215; 617 - 353-3309 . ... If I had a chance to create it, my children ' s school would include a varie t y of learning experi­ ences patterned after the environment in which they learned to walk and talk. I 'd insis t on " youth participa­ tion projects . " These programs have been developed and promoted by a group called the NATIONAL COMMISSION ON RESOURCES FOR YOUTH. NCRY was fou nd ed by a remarkable juvenile court judge, Mary Conway Kohler.

Kohl er believes th at there are better ways to assis t learning and develop­ ment of responsibility. Her group descr ibed four important characteris­ tic s of youth participation projects : 1 . Young people help to solve a real need.

2 . Young people work cooperative­ ly with an adult, and help make deci­ sions abou t th eir project.

3 . There is an opportunity for refl ec t ion and consideration of the proje c t' s s uc cess .

4 . Youths gai n skills as they

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

work on their project.

To this list, I'd add that the group's work includes a specific product. Youth participation projects have been used with children as young as six . ... One youth participation pro­ ject in our school was part of a class I taught on juveni l e and consum­ e r rights and responsibilities . The s tudents read a variety of material, wrote reviews of articles and books, visited courts, and interviewed employees of the Better Business Bur­ eau, Minnesota Consumer Protection Agency, Minnesota Public Interest Research Gr oup, and Mayor ' s Informa­ t ion and Complaint Office . They also helped solve actual consumer prob­ lems . Two cases are typical of the more than 250 which the students han ­ dled, successfully resolving about 70 percent.

In the first case, an area woman wrote to ask the students' help in obtaining a radio she claimed was owed to her by a car dealership . The class began by listing possible first steps . These included writing to the woman for proof of her al l egations, calling the Better Business Bureau, calling the dealership, or picketing the dealership . After some discussion of each alte rn ative ' s strengths and weaknesses, the students voted to write the woman. They knew how easy it is to complain; responsible action requires proof . (A note: I retained the right to veto any action students selected, but never had to use the power during the three years the class functioned. The students and I didn't always agree, but their ration­ ale always was logical. Often I was unsure about which of several steps was most appropriate. My veto was only for potentially illegal, unethi­ cal, or dangerous actions . They never picked a st r ategy which worried me.)

Several students in the class of 38 volunteered to "take the case ."

That meant they would be responsible for carrying out steps the class agreed upon and keeping the group informed of their progress. The stu­ dents wrote a letter to the woman: Your case was brought up in our class and we have agreed to work on it. We have discussed it and we would like a copy of your contract.

From there we will write to you and tell you our next step.

Sincerely yours, Consumer Action Service Students The woman wrote back and en ­ closed her copy ot the cont r act, which indeed stated that the dealer ­ ship owed her a radio. The students made several copies of the contract and sent the original back to her .

Then they went through another brain­ storming discussion and selection pro­ cess to pick a strategy. After consid­ ering several possibili t ies, they chose to call the dealership's owner .

They had learned that starting at the top can be useful.

Before making any phone calls, the students rehearsed . One student played herself,·another the dealer's secretary, and a third the dealer .

Through this r ole playing, the stu­ dents quickly learned to accept being put on "hold" and to handle attempts t o divert them from the person they wished to speak to.

Finally, one student talked with the dealer .

"Hello, Mr . Jackson, this is Kurt Johnson from the Consumer Action Service. We received a letter from

Mrs . Zuma lt regarding a r adio whic h was to have been put in a car she pur­ chased on October 15. Apparently the radio wasn 't available th at day, so a n otation was made on the contract that it would be put in. Mrs . Zumal t says she has been trying to get the radio for th e last four months, but has not made any progress. Can you help her out?"

"H mmm, I 'll need to know more about the situation, Kurt . Can you give me her name and th e date of the sale again? I'll be glad to look into it ." Kurt did this. " Now, I ' ll need a few days to take care of it, ok?"

"That's fine, Mr. Jackson. May call you early next week? " "Won't be necessary, Kurt. But appreciate your interest ."

"We appreciate your help, Mr. Jackson, but our procedure is to check back . When would you like me to call ?

"Well, how about four days? That should give us time to thoroughly review the problem and take appropri ­ ate action ."

The student reported back to the class. While pleased, the group had learned to be wary of promises . They elected to write to the woman to tell her what had happened.

A week later, a letter arrived for the students: Mr. Jackson, the owner, called us Friday night about the radio and, because of the holiday, I was able to go and have them install it on Monday . They were very pleasan t and even gave us a much better unit than they had planned to because the other one wouldn 't fit . Thank you all so much for your help. ... Many adults have asked me whe­ ther other adults treated the stu­ dents seriously in these cases. The answer is almost invariab ly, yes . We used letters as often as possible.

Sometimes the students made phone calls, but only after careful prepara­ tion and practice . In a few cases, though, the youngsters ' age and stat ­ us clearly was an issue . One taxiderm­ ist refused to respond t o the class 's letters. When contacted by phone, he laughed at th e students and dared them to do anything about his lengthy delays in returning animals to their owners . The students finally turned this case over to the State Consumer Protection Agency . ... Students learned importa nt lessons from these and more than 200 other cases. First, they applied and strengthened academic reading and wri­ ting skills. They used those skills constantly and came to understand the necessity of accurate, clear writing and careful, thoughtful r eading .

Their consumer actio n activi t ies we re probably more valuable than reading a chapter about consumer problems a nd answering questions at the end . Also , they learned they could be helpful t o others . The students wrote a booklet about the class. When the national Sunday newspaper supplement Parade Magazine r an a n article abou~ c l ass, more th an 5,000 subscribers sent in a dollar to get a copy .

Learning that they could help others changed the students ' views of themselves; they saw themselves as capable, productive people . The class demonstrates that improving stude nts' self perceptions can coincide with their acquiring basic and app l ied skills . Students who don' t have those skills won ' t "feel good " about them­ selves regardless of how many sensi ­ tivity groups and trust building exer­

24 cises they participate in. Too much "touch-feely" work has been done in schools which ignores this basic prin­ ciple .

The students learned how they can use law . Without these activi­ ties, many youngsters have the atti­ tude expressed by one of the consumer action students on the first day of class: "Law is just a way rich people keep us in our place . " In fact, stu­ dents learned that laws can help pro­ tect them from people with more power and wealth than they have - and that this is an appropriate use of courts .

Our kids took a number of cases to small claims court. In one, stu­ dents pOinted out to an incredulous judge that the law on which he was basing his decision had just changed.

The students were working on a case involving about $820 . 00 worth of dam­ age to a friend's car. The judge explained that the small claims court had authority to award up to $750 . 00.

The student told the judge that the legislature had just given these courts authority to award up to $1,000 . 00. The student won not only the case, but a congratulatory phone call from the judge ...

KIDS WORK WITH HANDICAPPED For the PENCIL Sharpener, Spring '86, Susannah Sheffer interviewed Amanda (9) and Emily (7) Bergson­ Shilcock, about their work at St. Edmonds Home for Crippled Children, a residential center for mUltiply handicapped children and teenagers (most are in wheelchairs and range from mildly to severely retarded): SUSANNAH: How did both of you get the idea to work at St. Edmonds?

AMANDA: Well, Morn had been tell­ ing us "Bedtime Priscilla Stories," and in the stories, Emily and I and Priscilla, who's suppose to be our friend in the story, started volun­ teering there. Every summer we hear the noise of their fair, so Morn just put it in the story that we volun­ teered there, and it kind of just grew.

S: So putting it in the story gave you the idea to actually do it?

A: Yeah, and then Emily wanted to do something like my SVNC [Sc huyl­ kill Valley Nature Center] volunteer­ ing, so Morn said why don't all three of us go and volunteer at St. Edmonds. And since it's just down the road, after dinner on Wednesday nights now we pack up and go.

EMILY: We bring materials from Open Connections [The Bergson­ Shilcocks' school] so they get to use things - they don't have to corne over here.

S: Describe what happens on a typical night when you're there.

A: We go into a room where there's a pinball machine and a big fish aquarium - a lot of the little kids are amazed at how easily the fish move - and usually a bunch of the volunteers and a few of the child­ ren are already there E: I think it's nice that a lot of the children - well, not a lot but the ones that have seen us before ­ they remember our faces. They don ' t remember our names, usually, but they remember us and they say, "Oh, I remember them from last time'" A: One of the kids, Donny, he's - I don't know - between 15 and 18, and he just loves working with the Cuisenaire rods, so Morn brings the wooden frames and has him fill them up.

S: Do you each work one-on-one with a particular child?

A: Well, we do that some of the time and then we switch, and go around to different children.

E: We don't go there and say, "Today I'm going to volunteer and be with Lynn," we just decide, "I think I'll go and be with Lynn, because she's not with anybody right now," or something like that.

S: So you're the one who decides what you're going to do that day?

E: Well, it depends. If I say, "Lisa, do you want to do magnetic marbles?" and she says, "No, I want to do a puzzle," then of course we don't do magnetic marbles, we do the puzzle .

S: So you respond to her. Tell me some other materials you bring that they especially like.

E: A lot of children like the magnetic marbles, and those square puzzles where you have to move the pieces around, and Cuisenaire rods.

S: Was there anything about St. Edmonds that wasn't the way you expected or imagined it to be?

A: Yes. I guess this seems kind of dumb or something, but in Morn's stories, I had always imagined most of the children who went there to be white - Caucasian - and most of the children who are there are black.

That's something I didn't even con­ sider.

S: How about you, Emily?

E: It was just totally different from the way Mom described in the story. Like I though they wouldn't have fish, and there wouldn't be as many children ...

S: Tell me a challenge that you've faced working with the child­ ren there.

A: At the beginning, it was a little difficult for me to understand what Lisa, one of the children, was saying, and I had to really work hard to get over that, and now I can under­ stand her speech just as well as I can understand yours.

S: How'd you get so you could understand?

A: Mostly how people learn to do things - practice .

E: We would listen to what they said, and if every time we carne they said, "Uh, uh," we would know that might be "Amanda," if they said it to Amanda.

S: So you figured it out by con­ text. How'd you get them to trust you?

E: We just kept being nice to them and asking them questions and stuff and they were just very sur­ prised that children would corne and play with them, 'cause we were the first children volunteers they had had .. .

S: Do you ever tell them stuff about your lives?

A: Rosie used to love to hear about [our younger sister] Julia, and when we finally brought her in, she couldn ' t stop hugging her' S: I wonder if you've learned anything about yourselves, or your own abilities, from doing this.

E: I didn't know I could work so young' A: I didn't know that I had so much patience that I could use - with someone like Reuben, his hand is flailing all around, and it's very difficult for you to get him to grasp a rubber stamp and make him press in the right pad or whatever and put it on the paper exactly where he wants it, and it's hard to see people dis­ appointed, and that's where you learn to use your patience.

S: Has any part of this work

given you ideas for other work you'd like to do?

E: I would like to work in a pet shop . I saw their fish, and I thought they were very interesting, a nd that gave me the idea of working in a pet shop, like maybe if people wanted to buy a dog I could tell them how much it was, and get it out and stuff, and I would really like that.

A: It made me more confident

that I could work at several jobs ­ it didn't actually give me an idea ­ I've often thought of writing a fic­

tion story, like a Sherlock Holmes

story, about the children of St.

Edmonds without really using their

names.

WORD PROCESSORS & CHILDREN [DR:] I have wonde red how the advent of word processing on horne com­ puters would affect the way children learn to write. Here are several stories we've received .

From Freda Davies (Ont.): ... Kevin (14) had another one of his "leaps" lately. Up until -a few months ago, almost all of his writing was in the form of lists and charts and labelling on building plans and maps. He wrote sentences here and there, but never any sustained com­ positions. About a month ago he want­ ed to write some explanations of cer­ tain aspects of one of his adventure games. I had made a chart on the wall of the controls for our word proces­ sor (PaperClip for Atari), and with that, away he went. He had a diction­ ary beside him to check spelling, and soon turned out an interesting two­ page effort. (We have a computer spelling checker, but he prefers the old fashioned way.) His sentences were quite complex and almost always grammatically correct right from the start. It seems he has absorbed know­ ledge of writing from speaking and being spoken to, and from reading and being read to. I haven't actually "taught" him how to write in the con­ ventional way. He still hates to be told how to do anything and wants to figure it out for himself ...

More from Tia Grove (BC): . .. I'm having Noah (7) write three sentences (on the word proces­ sor so he doesn't have to print) in a continuing journal letter to his grandmother (who writes back frequent­ ly). The next day he prints it out and edits it with my help. Then he writes three more for that day. Every week or so we print the whole thing out and mail it off. I make a spell­ ing list using any words he misspells and we work on it casually during the day . He is finding it easier to do his three sentences and is remember­ ing periods and capitals most of the time. It's easier to put them in the first time than to go back and fix them up later . He is getting quite adept at using the word processor, which is a professional model and quite complicated ...

From an article Susan Richman wrote in Western PA Homeschoolers: ... Jesse (8) turned to other wri­ ting - longer 200 word pieces telling about his new goldfish, our monarch butterfly hatchings, his new stone buildings dotting the woods and yards. We began a helpful way of re-

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

25 writing and editing (an idea I got from Madalene Murphy in her work with her son Christian) . I'd take Jesse's first draft, type it out on our com­ puter/printer exactly as he'd written it, same invented spellings, lack of capitalization, lack of punctuation.

I'd print out a copy with big print, and quadruple spacing - plenty of room for Jesse to make corrections and changes . It seemed much easier for him to make changes on these print-outs, as there was not the aesthetic trauma of marking up and possibly ripping his own paper . He'd sometimes go through and change all the small " i ' s" to capital "I's," or go through and add in punctuation marks, or find all the words that rhymed with "all" that he'd spelled "01 . " I might ask him to try to find ten words that he thought might be misspelled, and see if he could fig­ ure out closer spellings. He often could. If he knew a word was not quite right, but didn't know what to do with it, I'd underline the letters he'd gotten right, saying, "Hmm, four out of six letters are correct, one needs to be deleted, and one ex­ changed for another." Figuring out correct spellings became a sort of game, a type of code cracking ­ almost fun ...

And from Nancy Widby of Calif.: ... The kids certainly have an appreciation for our word processor since it makes writing so much easier and quicker. In fact, Mairead (6) recently wrote a piece for the PTA Reflections contest - open to every­ body yet very few kids probably have the energy or creativity at the end of that eternal school day to write something for an optional contest.

The subject was "FROM LIBERTY'S VIEW" and Mairead took that to mean what the Statue of Liberty might look at: "The Statute of Liberty can see the ocean . She can see New York. She lets people know we are free. She is important because she stands for America . When people come from anoth­ er country, they can see her and think they are coming to a free world. Her light stands for freedom and joy . " What a terrific accomplishment for her - but what a long piece to copy by hand . After writing the above, she went to the trusty word processor and typed it out, then glued it herself onto some poster board and added some great illustra­ tions. It won first place in the school but ended there because the judges didn't believe she had done it totally herself. The winning wasn't the important goal, but Mairead couldn't understand why somebody wouldn ' t believe that she had done it by herself when she had even signed a slip to that effect. An ironic twist, that knowing how to use a word proces­ sor would work against her ...

SPELLING INTERRUPTS WRITING

[DR:] For some months we have been investigating books on writing, looking for the best possible ones to put in our catalog. One that we are considering (but have not yet decided to carry) is THE ART OF TEACHING WRITING by Lucy Calkins (Heinemann, 1986). Her good suggestions are based on a number of years of encouraging children to write freely in class­ rooms .

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

One passage about spelling struck me, not only because the advice seems sound, but also because it refers to an idea John Holt gave in a couple of his books: ... When I first taught young children, I encouraged them to use word banks, lists of key words, and picture dictionaries as resources dur­ ing writing. If they wanted still more assistance, they could line up beside me for spelling help or they could dictate the story, and I would write it for them. I am, to this day, convinced that none of this was harm­ ful to children. I was warm, suppor­ tive, helpful, and above all, well­ intentioned. But I do not recommend any of these things any more, and I want to give my reasons.

First of all, I have begun to realize that concern for spelling com­ petes with concern for content. When children continually interrupt them­ selves during writing to worry about or search for a correct spelling, they often lose track of what they wanted to say in the first place.

These interruptions produce a stacca­ to sort of writing, and they prevent writers from finding their own pace and rhythm. Whether children get the spelling word from a dictionary, a word book, a list of key words, or from their teacher makes little dif­ ference, because in each instance they interrupt writing to worry about spelling. I would much rather they learn, from the start, to focus on content and language during a first draft. Therefore, if I wanted pri­ mary-school children to find correct spellings in dictionaries or word banks, I would ask them to do this after drafting and revision, when the piece was done.

"But what if the children just callout the words they need, and I write them on the chalkboard?" teach­ ers ask. "That takes no time at all."

I have two problems with this system . First, teachers spend all their time writing words on the chalk­ board, and this time could better be spent observing children, conferring with them, and enriching the class­ room environment . Second, why should spelling be the teacher's responsibil­ ity - we know teachers can spell.

Isn't it more important for children to have the chance to visual~ze the word, listening to jts sounds and hypothesizing on a way to spell it?

"But my kids kefiP asking for spelling help," teac ers tell me .

I tell them, "That's because you keep giving it." If we are clear and consistent, children stop asking for spellings and become independent wri­ ters. It is when we provide intermit­ tent reinforcement, sometimes giving out spellings and sometimes not, that children keep on asking. I want to be very, very clear about one thing. I am not saying that spelling or punctu­ ation does not matter. What I am say­ ing, instead, is that it's more impor­ tant for young children to be learn­ ers of spelling than for them ~ US) to produce correctly spelled texts . Also, concern about spelling belongs in the final stages of the writing process ...

Western Pa. Homeschoolers #15: ... This book has really made a lot of difference in our writing at home. It has helped me see better the ways in which I can support Jesse and Jacob and Molly as beginning writers: how to listen better to their ideas of how their writing is progressing, how to be a better sounding board as Jesse tosses around possible ideas for stories, how to not over-react to details (spelling, punctuation, neat­ ness, etc . ) when he's only on the first draft. Often now I ask Jesse to read aloud to me from his drafts, while I sit across the room, so that I can respond first to the sense and meaning of his piece - I can't react with a critical eye to spelling errors that I can't see. Jesse often picks up small errors himself when he reads aloud to me like this - sees where he's left out a word, or writ­ ten the wrong word by mistake. I also discuss my own writing with the kids more, writing at the same time with them, sometimes, on a joint project.

In our "Animals of Richman Farm" book we all wrote sections, all of us con­ tributing our own voices and memories to make a larger whole, better than anything we could have done separate­ ly.

Another emphasis in the book at first eluded me, as far as trans­ lating the idea into home schooling terms . Graves and Stuart put a lot of emphasis on sharing writing with others, telling of lively classrooms where children can borrow hardbound copies of books written by class­ mates. Then it hit - why not share more writing among home schooled chil­ dren? The BACKPACK [W. PA children's section] certainly does this, but even more we are now trying to send more writing through the mail to specific friends. After all, as Jesse said today, that's what the mail is for, sharing writing. And whenever we visit a family these days, seems a child is always bringing me some wri­ ting to look over, and it's always a delight, and something I always call my kids over to see . Brian Coughenour showed me his new animal journal.

John Stephen Fredland showed us the very long sports adventure book he's been working on for several months, and the Kissell girls showed us their handbound journals. We're beginning to get writing in the mail too - a wonderful book by Willy Moffat about a lonely fir tree wishing he were a Christmas tree, and a whole series of memories of his summer trips by Luke Wilson. Takes a bit of time, of course, a bit of effort to xerox our kids' writing, or write out extra copies, or bind a small book, but the rewards are coming in and making it all worthwhile . I also think it can help kids (and parents') to physical­ ly see another kid's rough drafts ­

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SHARING WRITING

Another book on writing that we are considering but have not yet decided on, is WRITE FROM THE START

by Donald Graves and Virginia Stuart (Dutton, 1985) .

Susan Richman writes about it in

u ... co

"'Zl~-= POSTOffiCE BOX ~L TONASKET, WA

~~'V~

26 to see that others may not print neat­ ly either, or spell expertly, or what­ ever, but what good stories they may have to tell' Another thing that Graves points to again and again is that teachers and parents who want their kids to write need to write themselves, they need to go through the process, often time-consuming and difficult, of try­ ing to get their own thoughts on paper. There's lots here to encourage the adult who has felt for years that writing is not for them, that they just can't do it. The teachers in Graves' study often began finding their writer's voice when they began keeping journals and personal written observations about individual child­ ren who were in their classes. Like­ wise, I think many of us parents are finding our true writer's voice when we begin writing about our own chil­ dren . I always think that when we write about our children it's like a special gift for them - we're letting them know that they are important enough for us to take the time to keep our memories about them in writ­ ing. And our newsletter gives us all a place to share with others, others who are not critical but who will love hearing our stories ...

ENCYCLOPEDIA BARGAINS Barbara Palmer (IN) writes: .. . 1 noticed the question about encyclopedias in GWS #46 . We pur­ chased a set last year which we real­ ly like. It is the NEW BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE, published by Grolier Enter­ prises. We bought these for a couple of different reasons. First of all, the total cost was about half that of Britannica and a few of the others we looked at. And secondly, we were able to get them all at once to use, while paying only $9 . 97 a month for three years, which fit into our budget.

Also, these books are written with the child in mind, having simply beau­ tiful pictures, and just enough infor­ mation to answer a question, yet it allows you room to research a topic even more, while some encyclopedias try to cover too much . I'm not sure if the price is still the same, but I would recommend this encyclopedia to anyone . We have already used it many times, and know we ' ll use it more ...

And from Linda Werner (PA): .. . In GWS #49 a reader wrote that the 20-volume WEBSTER ENCYCLO­ PEDIA could be purchased for $148. I have found the same set for $99 plus $2 . 95 shipping costs (NY & NJ must add sales tax) .

To order: send check for full amount a n d request Item #493446 . Send to PUBLISHERS CENTRAL BUREAU, Dept 408, One Champion Av, Avenel NJ 07131.

I was lucky enough to receive a set of the Webster Encyclopedia for Christmas. Comparing it to World Book, I have found two main differen­ ces . The first is that the paper is not the heavy, glossy kind used in World Book. It is, however, as good as you would find in any hardback book. As I have taught my children to love and respect books, I don ' t feel that we are losing anything on account of the paper .

The second difference is that there are fewer colored pictures.

Often the maps or pictures are the same as Wor l d Book, bu t are in black

and white instead of color. You are still getting the same information.

We use our encyclopedias quite often and would lose many opportuni­ ties to take advantage of learning situations without them ... I would highly recommend the Webster Encyclo­ pedia as a cheap, but good, source of information . . .

BUILDING MODEL HOUSES In GWS #49, V. L. asked whether Clonlara or other home education pro­ grams would be a good source of sci­ ence and social study projects. Toots Weier (WI) replies: As your current program is work­ ing fine for you with the exception of science and social studies, I suggest you first consider the cost of enrollment in a home education program . .. I would suggest looking into books or supplements which would give you some insight on science and social studies.

Although I don't own one, I have heard raves about Sara Stein's SCIENCE BOOK, which is available through Donn Reed's THE FIRST HOME SCHOOL CATALOG. John Holt's Book and Music Store carries the latter for $10 - and well worth the price' In THE FIRST HOME SCHOOL CATALOG you ' ll find a treasury of available items useful in the homeschool from books to globes and much more.

Some dear friends sent us the SMITHSONIAN FAMILY LEARNING PROJECT 1986 Science Calendar. More than just a calendar, it includes fun and inter­ esting experiments and activities for each month. It's all you may need to inspire projects of your own ideas .

(Available from LEARNING EVERY DAY, Rt 1 Box 5, Fairfield WA 99012.)

And don ' t overlook what's avail­ able from your local library .

Another friend mentioned in a letter to me an idea that some folks shared with her: Making a year-long project of building scale-models of various homes (Japanese paper house, log cabin, etc.) And using the pro­ ject as a jumping-off point for his­ tory and social studies.

It sounds like so much fun, we plan to start on it ourselves by mak­ ing an igloo . I had originally planned on making it out of (of all things ' ) sugar cubes . I believe the perfect squares won ' t do, though. We got an interesting book from the library, ESKIMOS by S. Purdy & C.R. Sandak . Not only does it give direc­ tions for making an igloo (using styrofoam, not sugar cubes), it includes how-to ' s on dolls, games, tools, etc ...

IDEAS FOR TAPE RECORDERS Linda Butler wrote in Western Pa. Homeschoolers, #13: ... We use the tape recorder for two guessing games: "Guess What?" and "Guess Who? " "Guess What?" is simply a collection of sounds recorded for the child to identify . To make it easier for a very young (pre-3) child, have him accompany you or his olde r sibling who does the taping.

Some good sounds are: light switches, doors opening and closing, toilet flushing, water running, starting car, footsteps, birds, etc . " Guess Who? " is a collection of voices for the child to identify.

Another fun sound experience is making our own "environments " type

tapes . One calm summer evening I taped 30 minutes of cricket chirping by hanging the microphone outside the bedroom window . Another time I taped a spring thunderstorm from start to finish. Ocean waves make nice tapes, too. A little experimentation will make clear recordings. Wind blowing on the mike causes distortion in sound; anything hitting the mike sounds terrible. My first thunder­ storm recording sounded like an ele­ phant stampede (raindrops hitting the mike were loud) until I found a way to protect-rfie mike (in this case I kept it inside the screen door) .

My kids like to tape their friends when they come to play. This activity is especially good for one of those have-to-stay-inside days .

I've used a tape recorder to play duets with myself . For example, I'll first play the soprano recorder part and record it. I'll replay the recording and then play along the alto part . I've also used this method to play guitar-recorder duets, and myself singing in harmony .

Reading stories onto a tape can be a fun family activity . My husband and I have taped stories for our children. We each take turns reading the different characters' voices . A family of readers might enjoy putting on a radio play.

Correspondence by tape is also fun . For a young child who cannot yet write fluently, a "tape-pal" could be a joy. Jessica recently made such a tape for the 2~-year-old daughter of a friend of mine. Even Rachel (2) spoke a few words . Making and sending tapes to grandparents is certainly a lot cheaper than a long distance tele­ phone call . Besides talking, the children can read, sing, perform on instruments, all of which can help draw the family closer together . ..

Also from Cindi Bigelow in Western Pa. Homeschoolers #15: .. . Our youngest son Aeb (3) recently had a birthday . .. We got him a child ' s tape recorder, out of sheer desperation to protect our family machine . He had some tapes, and we added to the collection, along with the recorder . It must have been a suc­ cess, as he spent his birthday money on more tapes. Two of his brothers separated with a blank tape each for Aeb. What a blessing' I have found the blank tapes to be the greatest part of his present . When I read a favorite (but short) story, I switch on the recorder - then he can listen to me read it wheneve r h e wants; and, he also now recites stories into Ene recorder. He tells his feelings to the recorder, and listens back - some he doesn ' t like the sounds of and is changing, other fee l ings he is hold­ ing on to. He also gives newscasts (I can remember writing a neighborhood newsletter in my youth), and prac­ tices favorite songs . I never real­ ized what a great tool a tape record­ er could be, and I'm sure there's more we can learn to do with it . ..

WHAT MATHEMATICIANS DO [DR: 1 John Holt told this story in a 1971 speech to the Science Teach­ ers Association of Ontario. I don ' t believe he ever put it into one of his books or into GWS, though i t looks vaguely familiar to me - but that may just be because I've seen it somewhere else around the office . If any of you recognize it, do please

GROWING WITHOU T SCHOOLING #50

27

tell us where you saw it. Eve n John couldn't remember sometimes wh at s tory was in whic h book, although he was better at that than the rest of us. . .. 1 studied mathematics at schoo l as all good students do, and I could get B ' s abou t as regularly as I wanted them . What deflected me was becoming aware at the e nd of my year of advanced sophomo re ca l culus that though I could do i t, and remember the proofs and the theorems, and do the problems, and ge t a lot of that stuff straight, the fact was that I didn't have the faintest notion what mathematics was all about . I had the body of knowledge - I was good at go­ ing to the knowledge-pile and taking away wh eelbarrow-loads of it, and delivering them up on examination.

But, I didn't know any mathematics . I h ad no idea what this whole symbo li c sys tem was about, why anybody had invented it in the first place, what they had do ne with it, nor what I might do with it. . . . 1 didn 't discover wh at mathe­ ma tics was about, that is to say, what mathematicians do, until I was abou t 34 years old . I was in Colorado t eaching school, and in the middle of a long tr ip in the Southwest I s t opped on a rainy day at the ranch of some peop l e I knew. I was looking aro und the magazi n e rack for some ­ thing to r ead, and I hit on an old copy of Scientific American. Looking through th at I came on an article abou t Leonhard Euler [pronounced "Oiler"], the great mathematician , and the way he solved the famous prob­ lem of th e Konigsberg bridges . Euler was a court mathematician at St .

Pete rsburg . (There is something love­ ly about the idea of a court mathema­ tician. I am trying to imagine a cour t mathematician in residence at th e White House and I can't seem to bend my mind arou nd that.)

Eul er was h omesick and people in Konigsberg wrote letters to him from Germany .. . Everyone was writing about the probl em of the bridges . Konigs­ berg is a city on both anks of a river. In the river are two islands, a big one and a little one. On the big island there are two bridges go­ ing to either bank. And on the little island there is one bridge going to either bank. Then there's a bridge between th e islands.

over th ose bridges, without h av irg t o wa lk over t h em, is a mathematica act of the most extraordinary importance.

All the other acts t hat followed in that proof are really lesser acts.

Fortunately, the man writing the Scientific American article had got hold o f some of Eu l er's diaries. And with them, instead of giving us the final proof, he let me go on a little journey with Euler, as he speculated about this problem and thought about how he might solve it, abstracted it, symbolized it, and did all the th ings you have to do . Finally, Euler began working it out, and he had a hunch and he tried it out and it didn 't seem to lead anywhere . And he had another hunch - he tried that out and it seemed to lead him somewhere else .

He began perhaps to see a way ... He did some calculations, one thing and another, and he wound up with a formu­ la - from which he could not only prove that in this case the problem of those bridges could not be solved, but that he had a general formu l a for so l ving al l such problems .

This, so I ' m told, was the begin­ ning of the branch of mathematics called topology. And I came to the end of that article with - only I can't describe it in words - with this extraordinary feeling of delight and expanSion, a fog lifting and light shining . Which is of course a par t of science - to see clear l y what you hadn't seen before.

So, I came to the end and I thought: So that's what mathematics is about' So that ' s what mathemati­ cians do' And then I thought: Why, that's beautiful' That's wonderful' That 's great!

Then I thought: Why didn't any­ body ever tell me that? I've taken some pretty high - powered mathematics courses at high-powered schools and colleges for years, and there hadn't been even so much as a glimme r ing of what I finally saw there. Why didn't anybody tell me that was what math ema­ ticians do?

So I think it would be very interesting for young people to find out more about what scientists do when they do science, instead of find­ ing out what they came out with at the end'

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

PIES ARE NOT FRACTIONS John Holt wrote in WHAT DO I DO MONDAY? (now out of print): . .. It is a mistake to use pies and pie diagrams to introduce child­ ren to the idea of fractions, for the very simple reason that there is no way for a child to check, either by inspection or measurement (unless h e can measure angles), whether his ideas about adding fractions make any sense or not. Give a child a 6-inch ­ long strip of paper and a ruler, and ask him to find what half of that piece of paper, plus a third of that same piece, would add up to, and he has a fair chance of coming up wit h the answer,S inches . He can see the reality of what he is doing . This is much less true, or not true at all, of pie diagrams .

I remember once carefully mak­ ing, on cross-ruled ( graph) paper, a rectangle nine squares long by three squares wide, and then asking a fifth grader to show me one-third of it .

Into the middle of this narrow rec­ tangle he put his old fami li ar one­ third pie diagram, then looked a t me with great satisfaction . Of cou rs e , I tried to tell him that pie diagrams only work for pies, or circles . This obviously seemed to him like one more unnecessarily confusing thing t hat grownups like to tell you . All his other teachers, when t~ey wanted to illustrate fractions, rew pie dia­ grams; therefore, pie diagrams were fractions. Of course, in time I was able to persuade hi m that when he was working with me h e h ad to use some other recipe, some other system, that I happened to like. But his real ideas about fractions, such as they were, did not change . ..

A MUSICAL EVENING INVENTED A SUBTRACTION METHOD In response to " Nothing Sacred About Arithmetic, " GWS #49, Susan Richman (PA) writes:

Someone had raised the question: Is it possible to take a walk so that you cross everyone of the bridges once, but no more than once? The th i ng swept like wildfi r e, and there we re all kinds of wa lkin g parties .

People would pack up their lunch and s tart over a ll these bridges. The whol e to wn was in a n uproar about it.

Leonhard Euler read about it and was charmed by it , and began to think abo ut th e problem. In fact, I suppose he said to himself, "Let's see if I can solve that problem ." And the say ­ ing of that, Let ' s see if I can solve that pr oblem, was a mathematical act .

To say that, in fact, was the most im portant of all the mathematical ac ts tha t he did i n finally working on that problem. Even t o ass um e that yo u can solve a problem about Konigs­ berg without being in Konigsberg, to solve th e problem without wa lk1ng

answer, of course, of NEGATIVE 7.

Then you subt r act the 50 from the 80, and get 30 . ADD 30 and (-7) and you get, 10 and behold, 23.

Jesse readily understood it all a t the time, al th ough he doesn 't use this method himself. It's just my little fun invention .. .

... 1 also want to share a nifty way to do subtraction without borrow­ ing, that I figured out on my own .

Jesse had been figuring out his own very effective ways of handling such problems in his head, and we had never s h own him the "standard" way to do such problems. But he was getting bogged down, and it seemed ti me to try to look at things anew . I was delighted with what I came up with (I was the one seeing the problem anew', and I have never seen it done this way anywhere else .

It does depend on a person under­ s t anding the idea of negative numbers (whic h I guess most 3rd grade kids aren 't supposed to know anyt h ing about , bu t Jesse does) . Anyway, back to your example of :

82

-59

In my way , you DO sub tract the 9 from the 2. (Why do all the books say you CAN ' T do that?) get tin g an

Still more from Susan Richman: . .. Over the weekend we had our 3rd Annual Potluck Supper for ho me ­ schoolers in the Pittsburgh area ...

Eac h yea r we are able to add some­ thing new to the evening, in addition to a great mea l and two discussion sessions for parents . This year it was a "Music and Performance Share­ in" for kids' and parents' participa­ tion (kids given priority, as we could only schedule a half-hour for the whole thing).

It was WONDERFUL' I think we did some things right that might help other groups in planning somethi ng like this.

First, we described the idea in our notice about the supper that ran in our newsletter, especially lett ing people know that beginners as well as advanced were welcome to perform, and that the audience would be very sup­ portive and ready with lots of applause . We signed kids up as they arrived at the supper, having them put down th eir names, and what they'd be doing o r playing. This li st became our order of p erfo rm a nc e .

We decided t o h old the concert i n a downstairs "parlor" room of the churc h we were meeting in, and this

28

turned out to be a good idea . We felt the large parish hall room (even though it had a very nice grand piano in it) was just too large, too encour­ aging of running about and other play. (We set out simple art supplies and lots of toys there for kids to use.) We also thought that not every­ one would be interested in hearing the little concert, and should have the choice of not attending by stay­ ing upstairs .

I was delightfully surprised to see that just about everyone (24 fami­ lies) decided on coming to the " share-in'" I asked a mother who I knew had had lots of experience with Suzuki lessons and impromptu concerts to be the MC. Besides announcing each child and the name of their piece, she also helped all the kids under­ stand about proper concert manners, so that everyone could feel confident of playing for a polite (as well as enthusiastic ) audience.

Somehow, as luck would have it, we had exactly a half hour of music ­ a good length of time, we all felt, as it didn't drag and was over before anyone got antsy. Kids played piano, violin, and recorder, at all levels from very beginner to quite advanced.

One little girl who is just 6 played a very fine Bach Minuet on her tiny violin, accompanied by her 8-year-old sister on piano.

For some kids it was the first time playing for a real audience - I was astonished when my Jacob, 5~, seemed to have no stomach flutters or nervousness, just sat up straight and tall and played his "Mr . Froggie in the Pond" on his soprano recorder. He was all smiles afterwards' And Jesse (8~) did just fine with "French Child­ ren's Song" on piano, and I managed not to make my usual goofs on the lit­ tle recorder duet that Jesse and I wrote together this winter .

By chance, the final number was a 7-year-old boy singing a song his folksinger/storyteller Dad had writ­ ten, accompanied by his mother on gui­ tar . It was a delightful song called "Sing Me A Song I Can Sing Along," and we were all soon singing right along with him on the chorus. What a special way to end the "Share-in," letting us all feel the good unity that singing together can bring.

I think all the kids there were inspired - both those who actively participated and those who clapped and smiled in the audience. There were a number of kids who chose not to play, perhaps feeling they weren't yet good enough . I'm hoping that next year they'll be right in there shar­ ing, too ...

MOM SHARES LOVE OF MUSIC From Andrea Kelly-Rosenberg (ME): Dec. '85: ... I abandoned the piano almost entirely and worked daily on the violin. I found that developing my own practice discipline on an instrument as new and as diffi­ cult as the violin was unexpectedly troublesome. I would get impatient and push myself too hard, then rebel and not practice for days - only with great effort could I get back on the horse, so to speak, and pick up the instrument again. I would get discour­ aged. But gradually, slowly and with the help of my enthusiastic and lov­ ing teacher, joy took over and I started to love it, love the instru­ ment, love even the mistakes and the hard work it took, and takes, to make each small step forward into music.

Meanwhile, what were my kids doing? Nothing much. Noah (now 6) thought my violin lessons were horri­ bly boring, group class (which I accompany) even worse. He declared that he hated the violin, and intend­ ed to be a drummer. Laura went to one lesson when she was 2, with a 9-year­ old nanny to play with her, and spent the entire lesson on the floor scream­ ing . (It didn't rattle my teacher, who has three children, in the slight­ est.) My growing joy didn ' t seem to be catching on.

I tried not to think about this, to just focus on my own pleasure in music . But I did occasionally have guilt attacks. I didn't think that Noah hated the violin because he wasn't destined to be a violinist (because he loved it at 3), but because his confidence had been destroyed by a Suzuki program that was competitive, pushy, full of razzle-dazzle and bereft of joy. He wanted to play the drums, I knew, because he had tried to match the beat of our records on his toy tam­ bourine and was successful. I mourned the fact that he had lost this feel­ ing of confidence with regard to the violin. But I did promise him a drum.

We went on like this for over a year. Whenever possible I got sitters for my lessons. But this fall, when the high school kids went back to school, I had no choice but to take my kids with me. Laura was 3 by this time so I trusted she was past the screaming-on-the-floor stage. I explained to them that I needed un­ interrupted time with my teacher, packed some snacks and a basket of Legos, and off we went . After my fourth fall lesson, Laura said, "I'm a big girl now, so I think I should take my own violin lesson." And she did - I now split my half hour with her. She loves it.

My guilt with regard to Noah increased . And then one afternoon, while he and I were cuddled up by the fire and Laura was asleep, the thought came to me, "Cello," and I said, out of nowhere, "Noah, would you like to play the cello?" "NO," he said . "At least," (reconsidering) "I don't think so." But I heard him say to his---rrIend a few days later "I'm either going to play the drums or the cello . " And when he went to a cello recital a few weeks later, he was sold. "I defini~ want to play the cello, Mo~ But the best was yet to come .

Laura had her Suzuki record on and was sawing away with great pleasure, chattering as she went. ("This is my recital, my name is Sarah . Pretend you were watching me and you were my mother . You have to bow after every song. This is going to be a long song." Etc., etc.) Noah said sudden­ ly, "Hey, Mommy, can I use your vio­ lin for a cello?" He put it between his knees and began to play . After a little floundering, he was able to match the rhythms of the pieces on the record and his eyes sparkled.

Later he came into the kitchen and said, "Oh, I am so happy' I can play the cello'" I was happy too' Rob and I are, of course, tremen­ dously comm i tted to preserving that confidence at all costs now, as we recognize it is vital to anything resembling music.

I feel, after much soul­ searching, that the real problem with music education in this household was my own lack of faith and trust. I wanted music badly, but did not have the faith that music was possible for me or my family. When I began to real­

ize this, through pursuing my own music discipline, I was able to slow­ ly, and by an act of will, change my attitude that has infected my child­ ren and filled them with enthusiasm about music . . .

March '86: Laura (3) has been taking v~olin since October, Noah (6) has had five cello lessons. .. . 1 longed to be a musician as a child . I was given piano lessons, liked them, but never got very good and always thought it was because I lacked talent. It is only in the last few years that I realized that it was because I never practiced. My parents never forced, bribed or bullied me, but they did nothing to help me learn to practice either. So I am curious about what positive steps can be taken, what alternatives tnere are to bullying.

The first thing I have done is to pursue my own violin study vigor­ ously and with genuine joy . I do not wait until the kids are out of the house or busy or in bed to practice I practice every morning, during my and their prime time. They play or draw or work with clay or look at books - or sometimes ask to practice too. If they ask, I stop my practi­ cing to practice with them.

Laura receives a list every week from her teachers of things she is to work on - Make 10 Perfect Bowholds, for example . She is very seldom inter­ ested in doing them. What she loves to do is to play the first Suzuki piece, the Twinkle variations, with me. Usually there is some fantasy involved - she is a world-famous vio­ linist, the crowd is cheering wildly, etc. The really interesting thing is that although she refuses to consci­ ously work on her bowhold or her elbow angle, as she plays with me her hand is inexorably making itself into a perfect bowhold, closer every day, her elbow gets closer and closer to the exactly right angle, and she is able to play even the most difficult variation correctly. So I no longer worry about the little practice tasks unless she asks me to do them. She happily does them for her teacher, by the way, and her teacher seems per­ fectly content with her improvement .

Noah is also more interested in music than in seemingly (to him) unrelated practice tasks. He will do them, however - I think this is out of simple adoration of his teacher and wanting to please him. The main thing I have learned from practicing with Noah is not to correct him. The teacher explains many technical points to me during his lesson, and I am tempted to pass them on to Noah while he practices, but he hates it, and I can see why . One of the plea­ sant things about practicing is the solitude, the chance to work uninter­ rupted, to listen to and love your instrument. If my husband were to cor­ rect me while I was practicing, it would drive me wild' But Noah does want me there.

What he seems to want me to do is to simply listen and be totally delight­ ed with everything he does. I sit and smile, I clap, I cheer, I say Bravo .

I use what the teacher has taught me to bring out the particularly good points of his work, and I keep my mouth shut about the rest, unless he asks for help or is obviously baffled about why it doesn't sound right. ("You're on the wrong string.") This approach was hard to develop - it takes discipline and great humility .

I ' m not as important as I thought I was' It rather reminds me of what a

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

29 good midwife does - humbly allowing the baby to be born rather than try­ ing to control it . But it works so well (so far) that I could never change. It inspires Noah, it makes him want to practice .

-r-Dnly do one other thing regard­ ing Noah ' s practicing. If he does not ask to practice while I am practi­ cing, I will ask him as the day wears on, "Do you want to practice?" I accept his "No" with complete cheer.

(This attitude also took discipline to develop.) If he says "Yes," I will try to find a time, and I'll say things like, "If you want to prac­ tice, we'd better do it now, because soon it will be suppertime, and then bedtime." He is very amenable to this approach, and will generally stop what he is doing to practice.

So that's what I'm doing and how it's working so far. Of course, I also playa lot of beautiful records, both from the Suzuki curriculum and others . I try to play only things I love, and I try to actively love them while I am playing them - I don't want an atmosphere of apathy to devel­ op around beautiful music. When I think back to the musical influences of my childhood, it was not so much the music my mother played over and over that affected me as it was her intense involvement with it, her rap­ ture. Clearly, I thought, this was something that needed my attention, if it could affect a grown-up like that ...

[DR: 1 I read the part of Andrea's letter about Noah seeming to want his mother to clap and cheer, to Shane Baruch (11), who was in the office. He felt, and I agreed, that maybe Noah just wanted his mother to pay attention, not necessarily to praise him. I wrote this to Andrea, and also pointed out that she used the word "practice" instead of "play" - was this a deliberate choice on her part?

Andrea responded: ... 1 think you and Shane are right about Noah really just needing attention, not praise. Being overly addicted to authority's approval myself, I have a tendence to pass that addiction on. The last few times he's played I ' ve just paid attention, and that's seemed to be just fine, and more relaxing .

As to the "playing" vs. "prac­ ticing" - I had to give that one some thought . The reason I say "practi­ cing" is really because I can find no good reason not to. There are none of the grim connotations connected to the word that make a change in terms desirable . I love to practice. There is a deep satisfaction to the work I call "practicing" that I do not get from what I would call "playing."

When "playing," I do not watch my left hand position in the mirror to see if I am positioning it for maxi­ mum strength; I do not take out diffi­ cult measures and play them over and over. I make an effort to carve out time every day to practice (and the laundry can just sit there in the dryer and be quiet about it), but I play when the time makes itself . I love both practicing and playing, but I could not be satisfied with only playing .

I am sure my kids do not make that distinction at all. But I use the adult term anyway, and eventually I hope to pass on the deep satisfac­ tion of " practicing" to them, as well as the wonderful fun of " playing."

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

every week ...

Also just read the little book you sell about the man in France who transformed a barren wasteland into lush forest (THE MAN WHO PLANTED HOPE AND GREW HAPPINESS). Jacob especially has a gardening love, and it was the perfect book . Both boys have heard about the Tree People in California, too, which helped them appreCiate the story. How important for kids to hear about people who have made such sig­ nificant positive change in our world by such simple means. A spirit of per­ serverance so worth emulating. SUSAN RICHMAN (PA) .

[DR: If this distinction works for Andrea, fine . For anyone who is bothered by the term "practice," as I am, as it implies somehow that "This doesn't count, it isn't real," may I suggest the terms "work" and "play" instead . 1

ROCK MUSIC, NOT CLASSICAL From Keith Organ (Ont.): ... A peeve I have concerning musical preferences as mentioned in GWS - my kids are learning how to play rock 'n roll, not classical music. My own preference, in fact, is for rock, blues, and such. Whenever rock 'n roll is mentioned in GWS it's in a derisive tone - as if it's an unfortunate teenage affliction, like acne.

Rock is a powerful force for the good - recommending peace and promo­ ting understanding. Forget your pre­ judices, homeschoolers, and listen to Twisted Sister. They're singing our song ...

. .. We LOVE our Quadro set. The best investment for city dwellers with no tree to climb' Our boys are 3, 4, and 5. Thanks for your wonder­ ful items . - PAM ROSSETTI (MA). . . . A few months ago I ordered the Africa jigsaw puzzle and we have had a wonderful time with it. It turned out to be interesting to our oldest, Emily (13), and yet Clare (6) was able to put it together . Emily enjoyed playing the game of closing her eyes while I removed a piece and then she had to try to tell me what the missing country was. Christian (9) and I talked a lot about Libya and South Africa, as well as Ethio­ pia, while he was putting the puzzle together. - MADALENE MURPHY (PA) .

CHEERS FOR OUR CATALOG ITEMS ... 1 have bought a good many of the excellent books on your reading list, most of which I have really enjoyed. However, the most recent book I have enjoyed is A HOUSE IS A HOUSE FOR ME - it is superb' . .. It is really a thought-provoking book even for an adult, and the illustrations are great. - JOANNE BEIRNE.

CATALOG INFORMATION

For a copy of our catalog, send a SASE .

On request, we will photocopy and mail the GWS review of any item in our catalog .

Send 50¢ plus a S.A.S.E. for one; add 25¢ for each additional.

We will pay $2 in credit for used copies (in good condition) of John Holt's WHAT DO I DO MONDAY?

. . . We LOVE the Bela Bartok record of tne-pieces in FOR CHILDREN. Most are beyond my fledgling piano ability, but I have several worked out now, and hopes for many others.

The music in the book LOOKED impossi­ bly difficult when I first saw them, and sounded even more impossible after first hearing them . But after the tenth hearing or so, they weren't sounding so bizarre, I realized I could easily follow along in the book while the record played, and I was soon picking out melodies and chords.

Has inspired lots more courageous improvising, too, for all of us. I was at first put off by the high price of the two-record set, until Howard made me realize how cheap it is considering we're all teaching our­ selves and not paying for lessons

•

HOW TO GET STARTED

Here are some ways you can find out the legal situation in your state.

1) Look up the law yourself, in a public library or law library (courthouse, law school, etc.) Laws are indexed; try "school attendance" or "education, compulsory." 16 states have revised their home education laws since 1982 (seven of them in 1985), so check the recent statute changes . We have printed or summarized these new laws in our back issues .

2) Ask the state Department of Education

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30 seals; Rebecca (13) reading, animals, acting Need help with TESTING? Wish you had WORKBOOKS and COMPUTER LEARNING MATERIALS K-12 learners --- KOPEL, 827 Teson Rd, Hazelwood MO 63042: Burt (10) sports, rocketry, nature; Kim (11) can really use at home? Want TEACHING GUIDES ballet, horses, sewing; Sara (4) stickers, that encourage choice making? Free catalog. dolls, writing -- - Jamie BEAM (10) RD #1 Box LEARNING AT HOME Box 270-G50, Honaunau HI 96726 l47GG, Avonmore PA 15618: dogs, reading, cook­ ing - -- Dawn SHUMAN (9) 226 E Gorgas Ln, Phila­ RENT l5-l8mo $325 /mo Lge 3Br2Ba l59Ac Avail o/ a 9/ 1. Wds, Fields, Horses,Ducks,etc 417-683-3094 delphia PA 19119: reading, sewing, peace --­ 80WDEN, Rt 3 Box 270G, Cleveland TX 77327: Ken ­ nan (7) fishing, computers, swimming; Nokoni OZARKS FARM-23.6A,4Bdrm,Barn,Well-$36,000:lnfo / Foto w/ SASE-Cheneys,RR1,Box l12,Houston,M065483 (5) computers, dolls, dancing; Camille (3) books, stickers, ponies --- Abby HUSS, 2399 Coventry Rd, Columbus OH 43221: music, gymnas­ STAY-HOMISH TRADING POST: an advertising/trade tics, reading - -- Seth PITZER (9) 3489 Larrick paper for home learners . $7.50/yr./6 issues.

Rd, Leesburg OH 45135: fishing, farming, soc­ $1.50/single issue. STAY-HOMISH TRADING POST, Box 436 (GWS), Snohomish, WA 98290 cer --- deGASTON, 13574 Road 35, Madera CA 93638: Pathricia (9) 4-H, rabbits, crafts; FAMILY BUSINESS - work together marketing tapes Eric (7) cars, bicycles, reading - -- Misty that teach kids safety, obedience, honesty, etc MOTT (8) RD #2 Box 111, 8lairstown NJ 07825: Non-denominational. Sample tape and info. $2.50 cats, reading, art --- MORTENSEN, Box 272, TAPES, 13509 Gordon Manassas, VA 22110 Skidmore TX 78389: Ashley (6) Cabbage-Patch, skippers, dancing; Garrett (6) dinosaurs, BUSY PARENTS CARE! CREATIVE KIDS NEED MORE! sports, camping; Andrew (4) Go-bots, legos, Make your child's parties special with our drawing - -- STEPHAN, 148 Mitchell Av, Cincin­ WHEN YOU WRITE US proven booklets: "CREATIVE PARENTS*CREATIVE nati OH 45217: Katie (6) drawing, cats, puz­ KIDS-UNIQUE PARTIES" & "BUSY PARENTS EASY KIDS Please - (1) Put separate items of busi­ zles; Rosie (6) animals, computers, dolls --­ PARTIES" Send $2.50/booklet to SPECIAL MOMENTS, ness on separate sheets of paper. (2) Put your Anna DeBLOIS (6) 12 Reservation Rd, Andover MA PO Box l740-323-G, LaMesa CA 92041 Make checks 01810: singing, roller-skating, dogs - - ­ name and address at the top of each letter. to M. Pleshe. RECEIVE FREE STICKER PER BOOKLET ANDERSON, 4238 Lynn Av, S Edina MN 55416: (3) If you ask questions, enclose a self­ Korin (7) animals, spanish, reading; Tomika addressed stamped envelope . (4) Tell us if Creative Learning Magazine isn't ABOUT home it's OK to publish your letter, and whether to (5) laughing, swimming, piano --- Charles schooling, it IS homeschooling! 27 regular fea­ DOBSON (7) PO Box 116, Rainbow Lake NY 12976: use your name with the story. tures help families learn together. Sample $1. dinosaurs, roller & ice-skating --- Ariel One year $9. Classified ads 50¢ / word, display LANNEN (6) Box 579, Woods Hole MA 02543: art, rates available. CLM, Box 957, First Floor swimming, bicycles --- Andrea LAIN (6) 486 W ADDITIONS TO RESOURCES Wrightstown, NJ 08562-0957 Leroy Av, Arcadia CA 91006 : dogs, insects, books --- BOND, 16502 Blackstone, Detroit MI These people have experience in the following areas, and are willing to correspond 48219: Amanda (9) gymnastics, drawing, cook­ ing; Tim (6) guns, jets, dinosaurs; Andrew (5) with others: ADDITIONS TO SPEAKER LIST Single Parent: Karen Turner, PO Box 942, tinkertoys, sports, painting --- FRANK, 516 For more listings of people willing to Gualala CA 95445; 707 -884-4257 --- Twins: Mary High St, Sebastopol CA 95472: Laurel (12) speak about homeschoo llng and related sub­ ice-skating, acting, reading; Emily (8) Cunningham, 76 Head Ln, Hannibal MO-o14Ul jects, see GWS #43 and later issues. Or, send dancing, stories, pretending a self-addressed stamped envelope for a free Certified Teachers Willing to Help Home ­ copy of all "Speaker Bureau" listings . schoolers: Karen BISHOP, N County pi, 2204 EI To arrange for speakers, contact them CamIno Real, Suite 212, Oceanside CA 92054; WANT ADS directly. We should make clear that being on 619-721-7577 --- Gw i ~ HUTCHINS, 53 N Clark Av, this list does not constitute a recommenda­ Somerville NJ 08676 --- Diane SOMTAG, 1315 Jay Rates for ads: $5 per 1i ne (up to 47 spaces). tion. Please write us about any experIences, Please tell these folks you saw the ad in GWS. St, Eugene OR 97402 --- Evelyn KIM, LEARN-AT­ good or bad, you have with the speakers.

HOME CONSULTING SERVICES (K-H), A-16 Crenshaws To be listed, send us your name, MATH MOUSE GAMES-set of 8 games to learn / prac­ Mb Ct, Charlottesville VA 22901; 804-973-3068 tice math. Levels K-6 . $18 postpaid. Also other address, phone, a brief self-description, and --- Thomas MAHER, 30 Park St, Wakefield MA 01880; 8-12; 617-245-7634 --- Diane CHODAN, RD math games . Send LARGE SASE for details: Cathy any other important information (distance you're willing to travel, fixed fee if any, Duffy, 12531 Aristocrat, Garden Grove CA 92641 1 Box 462, Rome NY 13440 special programs).

LIVING HERITAGE ACADEMY: K-12 Teach your child PATRICK FARENGA at home. Diagnostically prescribed, self con­ PEN PALS WANTED 729 Boylston St, Boston MA 02116. 617 ­ tained, self instructional, continuous progress Children Wanting Pen Pals should send us curricu l um, high achievement results, permanent 437-1550.

President of Holt Associates. name, age, address, and 1-3 words on interests records kept, diploma issued, low tuition rates I can provide parents and school teach­ LIVING HERITAGE ACADEMY-GWS P.O. Box 1438, - Tim ST . CERE (9) 7158 53rd St N, Pinellas ers with information about homeschooling and Lewisville, Texas 75067 Park FL 33565: reading, history, animals --­ our magazine GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING, John JOYCE, 635 Barbara Dr, Grants Pass OR 97526: Holt's views and ideas on education, and ways AUSTIN TEXAS, Homeschooling family desires Alex (10) stamps, stickers, pen-pals; Laura to make the world of adults accessible to local contacts. Planning co-op school.

(14) reading, music, animals --- DODD, 116 children . I like to address these topics in Non-fundamentalist. Vicki (512-251-6080) Richards Dr, Oliver Springs TN 37840: Amy (7) speeches: Homeschooling: Who does it, How and dolls, clogging, stickers; Mike (14) T1994A, Want to live walking distance to other homescl­ Why; and John Holt: HIS hfe and work. I'm ChiCubs, chess; Erin (11) bal l et, skating, C-Lauper -- - Rachel MARLEY (10) Mahoning Manor ers?Network formlng.Send SASE to Making Contact open to suggestIons for other tOPICS. My fee A2, Punxsy PA 15767: crafts, stickers, art --­ 3543 E Bellevue Tucson AZ 857l6/ ph:60Z-327-S667 is $300 per day plus travel expenses. Right now family and business make me unwilling to Sara KANTER (9) 34 Clay St, Cambridge MA 02140: sewing, reading, crafts --- TURNER, PO Serene 19th century experience for ages 6-12 on travel far and be away for more than a day.

Contact me directly during business hours to Box 942, Gualala CA 95445: Ramman (10) comics, our hilltop farmstead in an Ohio Amish neigh­ see if we can arrange a talk to your group. borhood . The Barkers (homeschoolers for 10 drawing, crafts; Drisan (7) comics, forts, reading --- GREENSPOON, RR #1, Gore Bay, Ontar­ years) The Country School, R3, Mbg, OH 44654 CHERYL GORDER io, Canada POP lHO: Benjamin (9) reading, sci­ clo Blue Bird Publishing, 1428 WBroad I am seriously ill; have 6 yr. old twins who ence~; Noah (7) computers, science, con­ #202, Columbus OH 43222; 614-275-6275. want to continue homeschooling; need full-time strux --- Blossom BITTING (10) RR #1, Bass Cheryl Gorder is the author of HOME help with desire to be involved in learnin9 at River, NB Canada EOA lCO: reading, stickers, SCHOOLS: AN ALTERNATIVE, a book explaining the art --- ME~6259 N 3rd St, Philadelphia PA home; rural setting about an hour from Boston, 19120: Jimmy (6) go-bots, dinosaurs, woodwork­ MA; can offer some meals, salary. P.O. Box 288, issues involved in homeschooling and helpful hints for starting a homeschool. She and her Upton, Mass . 01568-0288 (Tel. 617-529-4097 . ) ing; Veronica (5) make-up, studying, bikes; husband are homeschooling their ll-year-old Stephanie (3) dolls, coloring, dancing --­ daughter.

KIDS AND COMPANY-wonderful toys & clothing! We MIKITA, PO Box 157, Fortine MT 59918: Cory She and her family are traveling through seek aware IndIviduals interested in exploring (12) models, coin / stamp collecting; Josie (3) the United States, promoting homeschooling in their own earning potential by joining our drawing, singing, dancing --- BILLINGS, 204 general, and her book in particular, through Bedford St, Abington MA 02351: Daniel (10) ani­ growing group of consultants . Fun learning ex­ mals, woodworking, science; Benjamin (11) mys­ perience for whole family & profitable as well! radio and television interviews. She would be happy to speak to groups in areas that are con­ teries, Boyscouts, G. I.Joe - -- Dan AHEARN (12) Domestic & imported educational activities, 2610 Jewett St, Highland IN 46322: bird-watch­ games, toys, baby things & natural fiber cloth­ venient to her itinerary. She will be in all 48 continental states and Canada within the ing. We wholeheartedly suggest this as a family ing, crafts --- Patrick BURLE (10) 1821 Elm next year, so her plans can easily include project! PO Box l15-GW City Island, NY 10464 Tree St, Charles MO 63303: tumbling, weights, most any area if arranged early enough. No or call 212-885-2189. Thanks, Alice & Susie helicopters --- WILLOW, RFD 1, Box 150, Lib­ charge for speaking. erty ME 04949: Gabriel (7) drawing, lego, for any laws or regulations pertaining to home­ schooling and / or starting a private school. In some states (particularly CA, IL, IN, KY) there are few regulations concerning private schools and so you can call your home a school .

If you are concerned about revealing your name and address to the state, do this through a friend .

3) Contact state or local homeschooling groups; we printed this list in GWS #48. We also keep the list updated and sell it separ­ ate ly for $1 as part of our "Homeschool i ng Resource List." Some groups have prepared hand­ books or guidelines on legal matters .

4) Contact other families listed in our Directory . However, they may suggest you do some of the above steps yourself.

5) In general, it is not wise to start by asking your local schoolCffstrict; they usually don't know the law either. Better to gather the facts first on your own. - DR

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

31 Cheryl is quite experienced with speak­ ing on the subject of homeschooling because of her numerous broadcasts, some of which are in nationa l syndication on Christian radio and in reg i onal syndication by CTN (Christian Tele ­ vision Network). She has also appeared on sec­ ular broadcasts. She will speak on any phase of homeschooling the group wishes.

Ginny MILLETT (Kristine / 77) 2260 University WORK (LEARN) 7741 E Avon Ln, Lincoln 68505 Blvd N #95-0, Jacksonville 32211 NH - Bill FARKAS, A CHILDREN'S HOUSE, 31 10 - Bennett & Molly BROWN, IDAHO HOME FranklTn St, Keene 03431 --- Betty WETMORE & EDUCAT~S, 3125 Black Hills, Boise 83709 - - Terry DEMPSEY (Harlan & Virgil / 82) 3 Kirk St, Mark & Alice GRANNIS, HOME EDUCATORS OF IDAHO, Nashua 03060 3618 Pine Hill Dr, Coeur-d'Alene 83814 --NM - Will & Thea HOFFMAN (Brian / 79) 3347 David & Barbara STOUTNER (Soren / 78, Camilla / MajestTC Shadows Way, Las Cruces 88001 80, Thora / 82, Mary / 84) PO Box 293, Coeur NY - Joy & Paul COHEN (Michael / 83) 83 d'Alene 83814 (change) Amhersr-St, Brooklyn 11235 --- Mary & Christ­ IL - Ronald LYMAN & Diane MOHR (Paul / 82) ian FOKINE (Daniel / 81) Shelter Island 11964 Rt 1 Box 200, Golconda 62938 --- Jeri SISSON, --- Kathleen GORDINIER & Peter DIVEN (Mischa / ADDITIONS TO DIRECTORY ILLINOIS CHRISTIAN HOME EDUCATORS, PO Box 261, 81, Toran / 83) 8963 Wayne Ctr, Rose Rd, Lyons 14489 --- Richard GREEN, HOME SCHOOL ENCOURHere are additions and changes that have Zion 60099 --- Timothy & Deborah MARTIN, 2923 AGER, 55 Gifford Av, Poughkeepsie 12601 --come in since our last issue . The complete Dir­ W 71st St, Woodridge 60517 IN - Barbara & Larell PALMER (Jason / 78, Barry & Martha LASH (Rachel / 80, Hannah / 81) RD ectory was published in #48.

Kendra779, Jeremy / 81, Richard / 84) WABASH Our Oi rectory is not ali st of a11 sub­ 1, Alfred Station 14803 --- Amy & David MANTELLS (Sarah / 83) 275 Yarmouth Rd, Rochester scribers, but only of tnose who ask to be list­ VALLEY HOMESCHOOLERS ASSOC, RR 53, Box 260, 14610 --- Phil & Kathy NEETZ (Joshua / 78, Caleb ed, so that other GWS readers, or other lnter­ Terre Haute 47805 KS - Barbara MICHENER (Galen/77, Arthur / / 80, Naomi / 84) 1167 E 98th St, Brooklyn 11236 ested people, may get in touch with them. If --- Susannah & Doug WHITE (Jennifer/74, Sara / you wo uld like to be included , please send the 84) RD-r, Perry 66073 75, Caleb / 83) WESTERN NEW YORK HOMESCHOOLING KY - Mark & Cathy MORGAN (Andrew/78, entry form in this issue or a separate 3x5 card or postcard (only one family per card).

Adam / 8~ Gage / 85) Rt 1 Box 96C, Dover 41034 NETWORK, 85 Albany St, Buffalo 14213 --- Bill & Libbie MORLEY (Betsy / 77, Robbie / 80) NC - Deborah JONES & Fran EDGERTON (Cait­ Note we are now printing birthyears of 3522 Greentree Rd, Lexington 40502 lin / 80~Zachary / 84) 3232 Lee Rd, Clayton 27520 children, not ages. If we made a mlstake when convert i ng your child's age to birthyear, MD - Linda GOODMAN, 12825 Jingle Ln, NO - NORTH DAKOTA HOME SCHOOL ASSOCIASilver-Spring 20906 --- Craig & Sandi ROBERTS TION, T006 3rd St SW, Mandan NO 58554 (change) please let us know.

(Erin / 76, Shawn / 78, Brian / 81, Tara / 83, Kevin / Please tell us if you would rather have OH - Diane & Carl JAHNES (Megan / 78, Ben­ jaminiST, Jeffrey / 83) 3970 Pert Hill Rd, Hope­ your phone number and town l isted instead of a 85) Rt 2 Box 586, Knoxville 21758 mai 1i ng address .

--MA - Charles & Betty BURGER (Susan / 83, well 43746 -- - Marcia MANTEL, CHRISTIAN HOME If a name in a GWS story is followed by CharleS785) 31 Kirk St, Housatonic 01236 --EDUCATORS OF OHIO, PO 9083, Canton 44711 -- William RUFF I N, Box 36347, Cincinnati 45236 an abbreviation in parentheses, that person is Peter & Beth FURTH (Salim / 82, Keziah / 85) 3 in the Directory. We are happy to forward mail Francis Rd, Wellesley 02181 --- Kathy &Garth (change) --- Shari WISEMAN, CHRISTIAN PARENTS to those whose addresses are not in the Direc­ JOHNSON (Valerie / 80, Carolyn / 82) 71 School St, EDUCATION ASSOC, 310 Bluebonnet Dr, Findlay tory; mark the outside of the envelope with Shrewsbury 01545 --- Donna & Gary SOLOMON (Jar- 45840 rod / 74, Lonny-Seth / 78) 526 Country Way, Scitu­ OK - Richard & Laura CHURCHILL (Sarah / name / descriptio~e, and page number .

When you send an address change for a ate 02066 (change) 84) 54"Sb E 71 #178, Tulsa 74136 subscription, please remind us if you are in MI - Douglas & Jami BOND (Amanda / 77, Tim­ OR - Steve & Kay GOODSELL (Kimberly / 74, the Directory , so we can change it here, too.

Kelly/77, Lindsay / 80) 426 SE Edwards, Dundee / 80, Anarew / 81, 01ivia /84) 16502 Blackstone, Detroit 48219 97115 (change) --- Lloyd & Marie JENSEN (Soren AK - Rex & Lyndell GOOLSBY (Bridget / 79, MN - Lowell &Audrey DITTBERNER (Fore st / / 79, James / 80, August / 82) 11878 Greensprings Sean / 8~ Curtis / 82, Ryan / 85) PO Box 56847, 79, SeTena / 82) Rt 1, Box 43, Parkers Prairie Hwy 66, Ashland 97520 - - - Pat PUTNAM, HOMENorth Pole 99705 56361 --- Dick & Nadine GALLREN, GWS TRAVEL SCHOOLERS OF LANE COUNTY, 38040 Pengra Rd, AZ - Henry MILLER, G.A.T.E. School, 1725 NETWORK, Rt 2, Winona 55987 --- Wayne & Debra Fall Creek 97438 N Date-'43, Mesa 85201 - -- Linda & Allan NEUROTH (Jessica / 81, Scott / 82) 519 Winona St, PA - Robin & Linda HARCHAK (children / 77, RIEKEN (Forest / 78, Echo / 80, Ariel / 84) 8231 E Northfield 55057 --- Rick & Becky WIRKKALA 79, 81'-RD 4 Box 259, Duncansville 16635 --Plaza Av, Scottsdale 85253-7349 (change) (Amy / 74, Ann / 77) Oxford Hill s #26, Cannon Linda HOLZBAUR & Ken RITTER (Grace / 81, Nathan­ CA , South (Zips to 94000) - CHRISTIAN Falls 55009 (change ) iel / 84 ) 6755 Glenloch St, Philadelphia 19135 HOME EDOCAIOR5 OF CALIFORNIA, PO Box 28644, MO - Carol Brown (Joshua / 77, Anna / 80, --- Glenn & Rebecca PROUDFOOT (children / 80, Santa Ana 92799-8644 (change) --- Dominique & ZacharYl83) LITTLE PINE Y SCHOOL, Rt 1 Box 20, 83, 85) 310 21st Av, Altoona 16601 - -- Ron & Jonathan COLBERT (Devan / 83) 443 S Cochran Newburg 65550 --- Ilene & James BURGENER (Can­ Kathryn RICKERS (Emily / 76, Thomas / 80) 813 #104, Los Angeles 90036 -- - Raoul & Margarete dia / 76, Celestia / 78, Hsarmony / 79, Isaac / 82, Aylesbury Dr, Lancaster 17601 deGASTON (Pathricia / 76, Eric / 78) 13574 Road RI - Gerry & Jack BARRY (John / 80, James / Jaime / 86) Rt 2, Newburg 65550 --- Jean & Ray­ 35, Madera 93638 --- Jim & Cindy GILBERT 82, Micnael / 85) 17 Cedar Cir, Kingston 02881 mond BURLE (R.J. / 72, Edward / 74, Patrick / 76) (Jacob / 82) 6605 Tanglewood Rd, San Diego 92111 1821 Elm Tree Dr, St. Charles 63303 -- - Mark & TN - Joyce DICKERMAN & Art STEWART (change) --- Luana & Gary HOLZER (William /83) Jonna KRUEGER (Grant / 80, Benjamin / 83, Christo­ (Joelle779, Aaron / 83) Rt 5 Box 219, Speas Rd, 18527 Edgebrook Ln, Huntington Beach 92648 --­ pher &Timothy / 85 ) 21 Becky Thatcher, St. Clinton 37716 (change) - - - Gary & Barbara NICHDavid & Carol KRAJCAR (Timothy / 82) 1881 Arroyo Charles 63303 --- Dale & Gwyn PRESTON (Hannah / OLSON (Nathan / 76, Travis / 79, Adam / 82, Luke / 85) Dr, Riverside 92506 --- Barbara LAWSON, W!ND­ 79, Nahum / 81, Elias / 83, Jacob / 85) 3230 S Ninth 3916 Cambridge Av, Nashville 37205 SONG LIFESCHOOL, 424 N Anaheim Blvd, #101, St, St. Louis 63118 TX - Bonnie DETTMEN, FAMILY HOME EDUCA­ Anaheim 92805 (change) - - - Dale & Agnes MT - David & Beth BROWN (Jeremy / 78, Elea- TORS Or-DALLAS, PO Box 280584, Dallas 75228 LEISTICO (James / 73, Laurene / 77, Susan / 79) 313 nor / 80~Esther / 84) 333 College Av, Sp.29, --- Tom & Tereisa MORRIS (Brandon / 83) 5737Somerset Pl, Lompoc 93436 - -- Cathy LEVESQUE, Kalispell 59901 --- Debbie KERSTEN, MONTANA 64th St, Lubbock 79424 ABILITIES RESEARCH ASSOC., 2650 WTrojan Pl, HOMESCHOOLERS ASSOC NEWSLETTER, PO Box 23352, VT - MOUNT CARMEL ACADEMY, RD 1 Box Anaheim 92804 -- - Kolina MacRURY & Patrick Billings 59102 1737, waterville 05492 - - - David & Elizabeth AMPE (Megan / 82, Shane / 85) 894 Durkin St, NE - LINCOLN EDUCATED AT RESIDENCE NETSWIFT (Gabriel / 78, Abigail / 82) Box 161, Pitts­ Camarillo 93010 --- Ted & Linda SUTTON (Alex / 81) PO Box 1525, Running Springs 92382 r---- - --- --(cha nge) --- Bruce & Deborah ULLMAN (Shannon/ ENTRY FORM FOR DIRECTORY 79, Ursula/81) 81 Teasdale St, Thousand Oaks 91360 --- Scott & Anne WEINERT, 8849 Caminito If you would like to be included in the Directory but have not yet told us, send in this form or use a separate po stcard or 3x5 card (only one family per card).

Sueno, La Jolla 92037 --- Dave & Hanni WOOLSEY (Nancy / 74) BUCKINGHAM SCHOOL, 17800 Hatton St, Reseda 91335 ADULTS: CA , North (Zips 94000 & up) - Janet 8RENDLIN GER , 149 ~ WStadium Dr, Stockton 95204 - - - Pam & Crai g GINGOLD (Jeremiah / 76, Serena / 78) SIERRA HOMESCHOOLERS, PO Box 74, Midpines ORGANIZATION (applies only if 95345 (change) --- Rose & Daniel GRIMM (Wendy / addres s i s same as family ) : 77, Billy / 79, Therese / 82, Danny / 84) 27 Wawona St, San Francisco 94127 - -- Jack & Lana CHI LDREN, NAMES/BIRTHYEARS: MITCHELL (SariAnn / 75, Jonathan / 76) 8418 Jasper Ct, Stockton 95210 --- Brant & Laura NEAL (Mel­ anie/75 , Maralie / 77) 735 Clinton Dr, Stockton 95210 --- Michael & Pamela THOMAS (Jeremy / 78, Julian / 81, Sean / 83, MaryLizabeth / 85) 37 Rose Ln, Redding 96003 -- - Ronnie & Neil WESTREICH (Ariel / 81, Leah / 85) 14440 Esterlee Dr, Sara­ ADDRESS: toga 95070 CO - HOME EDUCATORS RESOURCE EXCHANGE (HERE)~PO Box 13038, Aurora 80013 FL - Larry & Sue DOLAMORE (Kate / 84, Jac­ Have been in Direct ory before: Yes No

lyn / 82'-2224 Red Ember Rd, Oviedo 32765 --­ Roger & Cindi TRUNK (Dorian / 73, Darius / 81, If thi s is addre ss change, what wa s previous state?

Orion / 83) PO Box 526, Satsuma 32089 --- Ken & GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

32 ford 05763 VA - Terry & Kim GROOTERS (Brianne/B5) PO Box~O, Montvale 24122 --- Randy & Mary WASHINGTON (Char1ie/80, Missy /8 1, Mi1es /84) Rt 1 Box 265 - A, Axton 24054 WA - Gene & Sandi HALL (Ky1e/81, Cassan­ dra /82~1719 Monroe Av SE, Renton 98058 - -­ Kathy STEVENSON & Paul MOLNAR (Sarin/78) 1131 Havi11ah Rt, Tonasket 98855 WV - HOME SCHOOLER NEWSLETTER, PO Box 266, GTenvi11e 26351 - -- Virginia & Woodrow McQUITTY (Woody/71 , Pau1/75) Rt 2, Box 327, De l barton 25670 --- Dr. Phil SUITER, WEST VIRGINIA HOME EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION, PO Box 7504, Charleston 25356 WI - Tom & Loren CASWICK (Kevin/77, Cor­ ey/81)~R 1 Box 89A, Barneveld 53507 --- Bill & Cheryl DANZ (Lore1ei/78, Va1erie/81) 731 S Baird St, Green Bay 54301 --- Caren RUBIN & Jack WILLIAMS (David /82, Ben / 85) 2640 N Birch­ wood Av, Appleton 54914 CANADA

---BC - Terry FAUBERT (Jody/77) Gen Del,

Lund VON 2GO --- Tia GROVE (Heather/75, Noah /

78) Box 211, Sooke UOS 1NO --- Alex & Juanita

HADDAD (Nico1e/78, Tacy/80) RR 7 Duncan V9L

4W4 --- Ron &Maureen PARKER (Kimber1y /8 1,

A1 1iso n/83) 462 Church St, Comox V9N 5G8

NS - Candy BALLARD (Shane/83) RR 1, Anti­ gonish~2G 2K8 --- Paul CHIASSON & Beth WRIGHT (E1 i / 82) Box 122, Arichat BOE lAO --- Gail REBBECK & Brock ELLIOTT (Cassin/79, Barrie & Rory /83) PO Box 1138, Antigonish B2G 2L6 --­ Leslie & Deiter KLAPSTEIN (Erin/81) PO Box 140, St. Francis Xavier Univ, Antigoni sh B2G 1CO --- Gail & Mark RUBENSTEIN (Wi11/73, Zack/ 76, Rebecca /82 , Aaron /85) PO Box 1091, Port Hawkesbury BOE 2VO --- David STINSON & Janie HUMPHREYS (Ju1ie/82, Laura/84) RR 1, Antigon­ ish 1B2G 2K8 ONT - Dora FORCE, A HOME SCHOOLERS NEWS­ LET T ER~68 Butler St, Woodstock N4S 3B2 --­ Laura & Keith ORGAN, THE LIVING SCHOOL (Virgil / 70, Find1ey/ 73, Emi1e / 75, Zoe / 77, Tao /7 9) RR 1, Wi1no KOJ 2NO QUE - Andre &Marie BOURQUE (Caro1ine/ 76, HeTene / 79, Marie-C1aude /80) 4203 Wilson, Montreal H4A 2V1 SASK - Randy & Brenda BABICH (Natasha/ 78, Natfian/81) 1172 Grafton Av, Moose Jaw S6H 3S5 --- SASKATCHEWAN HOMESCHOOLERS, 1710 Prince of Wales Av, Saskatoon S7K 3E5

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How can you tell when your subscription expires? Look at this sample label: 12345 JIM & MARY JONES 27 01 51 16 MAIN ST PLAINVILLE NY

01111

The number that is underlined in the example tells the number of the final issue for the subscription. The Jones' sub explres with Issue #5 1, the next issue. But if we were to receive their renewal before we sent our final account changes to the mailing house (early June), they would qualify for the free bonus issue.

Renewal rates are the same as for new subscriptions: $15 for 6 issues, $27 for 12 issues, $36 for 18 issues, unti 1 May 31.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Subscriptions start with the next issue pub 1i shed. Rates unti 1 May 31, 1986 are: $15 for 6 issues, $27 for 12 issues, $36 for 18 issues. GWS is published every other month. A single issue costs $2.50.

For all subs or orders of GWS (not books), please send check or money oraers pay­ able to GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING. Foreign payments must be either money orders-;n-us-funds or checks drawn on US banks. We can't afford to accept personal checks on Canadian accounts, even if they have "US funds" written on them. Outside of North America, add $10 per year for airmail (other­ wise, allow 2-3 months for surface mail) .

Back issues: We strongly urge you to get the back lssues of GWS, especially if you plan to take your children out of school. Many of the articles are as useful and important as when they were printed, and we do not plan to repeat the information in them.

Our rates for back issues: any combina­ tion of back issues, mailed at one time to one address, cost 75¢ per i ss ue, plus $2. For exam­ ple, GWS #1-49 would cost $38.75 (49 x 75¢ is $36.75 $36 . 75 + $2 ; $38.75) These rates are for subscribers only; non-subscribers pay $2.50 per lssue.

OTHER LOCATIONS - John & Cindy DRING (Megan/ Index to GWS #1 -30 costs $2.50; to #3 1­ 76, 51mon7 77, Ethan / 83, Gwendo1yn /85) Home 40, $l~se prices include postage).

Farm Rd, Moycu11en, County Galway Ireland Address chanaes: If you're moving, let us know your new a dress as soon as possible.

Please enclose a recent label (or copy of RENEWALS one) . Issues missed because of a change in ad­ As we said in GWS #49, GWS rates will dress may be replaced for $2 each. soon be going up. But you still have until May Group subscriptions: all copies are mail ­ 31 to take advantage of our current low rates. ed to one address. Here are the CURRENT group At the bottom of this page is a form you rates (lX means you get one copy of each can use to renew your subscription . Please issue, 2X means you get 2 copies of each

issue, 3X means 3 copies, etc.): 3 yrs.

1 year 2 yrs.

18 iss.

12 iss.

6 iss.

1X $15 $27 $36 2X $20 $34 $45 3X $25 $45 $67 . 50 4X $90 $30 $60 5X $75 $112.50 $37 . 50 $90 $135 6X $45 7X, 8X, etc: $7 . 50 per person per year.

Please send in the names and addresses of members of your group sub, so that we can keep in touch with them. Thanks.

AFTER JUNE 1, 1986, rates wi 11 be: 1 year 2 yrs.

3 yrs.

12 iss.

18 iss.

6 iss.

1X $48 $36 $20 $90 2X $36 $64 3X $126 $48 $90 $156 4X $60 $112 $130 $180 5X $70 6X $78 $144 $216 7X, 8X, etc: $12 per person per year.

After June 1, cost of a single issue will be $3.50. Back issues in quantity will be $1 per issue, plus $2.

GWS was founded in 1977 by John Holt.

Editor - Donna Richoux

Managing Editor - Patrick Farenga

Subscriptions & Books - Steve Rupprecht,

Sandy Kendall, Wendy Baruch Office Assistant - Mary Van Doren Editorial Assistant - Mary Maher Copyright Holt Associates , Inc.

RENEWAL FORM Use th i s form to renew or extend your subscription to GROWING WITHOUT SC HOO LING. Pl ace t he label from a recent issue below, if possib l e. If not, print the i nfo. Tha nks.

Account Number:

Name:

Expiration code:

Address (Change? Yes /N o):

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YES, PLEASE EXTEND MY SUBSCRIPTION FOR: 6 issues, $15 Gro up sub:

cop i es of

12 issues, $27

18 issues, $36

These prices good till May 31. Later rates above.

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(C l ip and send with your check or money order in U. S. funds to: GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING, 729 Boyl ston Street, Boston MA 02116.)

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #50

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