GG WITFIOI.]T S Issue 113
When Kids l{ave Different Learning Sryles Homeschooling in South Africa Involving Children in Work Learning Exchanges
#f
â‚Źontzna News & Reports p.3-5
Unschooling in the News, Homeschooling in South Africa Learning Exchanges p. G7 Homeschoolers are trading with each other for help with writing, science, and more! When Children Have Different Learning Styles p.
&ll
Stories about children in the same family learning reading and other skills in very different ways Challenges
& Concerns p. f 2-15
MotherWins Right to Homeschool, Explaining Homeschooling, Effects of Test, Children and Chores FOCUS: Why Fathers May Resist Homeschooling p. 16-19 Three fathers explore this idea
Involving Children in Work p.20-22 An author ofyoung adult novels describes how her daughter is crucial to her work Watching Children Learn p.2T27
Architecture Walks, History Walks, Volunteering at Museum and Working with Potter, Trusting the Additions to Directory, Pen-pals p. 29-30 Book Reviews p.
Issun #1
l3
Nov.,/Drc.'96
3l
9c)t6
FouNoro IN 1977
rvJouN
Holr
Eorron - SuseNNen SHrrrun r PusLtsHnn - Petrucr FenrNce' Boorxrrpnn & Euronrel AssIsrANT - Menv Manr,n t Opptcr MeNecnn Dav FenrNce . SugscruptIoN Melacnn - ReNoI Krllv t SttIppINc Malecrn - PHrr- CneNsnaw o C,q.reLoc Orutn Pnoclsson - Srrw Coss . Clrm - KIna Wrsn . Coupurr,n AoMINISTRAToR - GtNcrn Fttzslt'tt'tot'ts o Orncp Assrsrar.rrs -JrNNtrrn FI.rzsIItIt'.toNs-Geucr,n, Dawr Lrest, Mamolr Wtnsrrn
HoLr Assoclc,rEs Boenn or Dtnrcrons: MeunnEN Cerrv, Dev Fe-nrNce, Perzucx FalrNca (Conronerr, PnrsrnrNr), MaRv MeHEn, SuseNNeH SHErrsn Aor,rsons ro rur Boeno: Tor'a M,tHrn, MenvVelv DontN,
NercvWan-qcr
GWS h-LusrnqnoNs sv EN{II-y LINN Col,sr pHoro rs or KIN Ltptr.tqr-SrrnN ar,rnJoNau. Snr FOCUS, p. 16. Grosing Without Schooling #l 13, Vol. 19, No. 4. ISSN #0475-5305. Published by Holt Associates, 2269 Mass. Ave., Cambridge MA 02140. phone 617{643100 fax 617-8649235 email 76702.3703@compuseNe.com. Sub. price. $25/yr. Date ofissue: October l, 1996 Secood{lirss posage paid at Boston, MA and at adclitional mailing oIfices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to GWS, 2269 Mds. Ave, Cambridge, MA 02140 ADVER'IISERS: Space resenation deadlines are lhe lst ofodd-numbered months Copy dcadlitres are the 15th. Write for rates.
2
If we've had a difficult or painful experience as a child, how
do we assimilate that experience as an adult? Do we say, "It was hard, but I got through it, so my children can too"? Or do we vow, "There's got to be another way!" As you'll see in this issue's Focus, long-time homeschooling father Manfed Smith suggests that men may often choose the former approach, which may then incline them to resist the idea of homeschooling. "In a strange way," Manfred writes, "school can become almost a perverse rite of passage for men, something that they had managed to do in spite of all the obstacles thrown in their path as opposed to because of the obstacles." Having survived it, they expect that their children can - or perhaps it's "should learn to" - survive it too. We decided to ask cwo fathers who are very involved in their children's homeschooling to reflect on Manfred's comments, to explore the roots of some fathers' discomfort with homeschooling as well as to explain why they themselves feel differently. When I talk to people about homeschooling, it strikes me that for some, it's incredibly difficult to admit that some aspects of schooling, or growing up, were not only harmful but were actually unnecessary. 'You mean I didn't have to go through that?" is a hard truth to accept. As Alice Miller points out in ,For Your (hrn Good, people will go to all sorts of lengths to avoid having to confront that possibiliry. It can be easier to insist that one's experiences were necessary, and therefore are equally necessary for one's children, than it is to accept that there is another way and to allow children that alternative. One thing the fathers in this issue make clear is that it's easier to offer this alternative - this liberation - if you've already examined and at least begun to come to terms with your own previous experience.Joe Kelly describes how it was initially difficult, at times, to allow his daughters to stay home from school, because he had not had that option as a child and part of him felt like sayrng, "This is school! You have to gol" But once parents examine their own experiences, they can begin to find, or recognize, other possibilities. ThusJoe describes other rites of passage, other ways of marking a young person's growth. One doesn't need to reject, out of hand, the entire concept of a rite of passage. Instead, as with so many other things as well, homeschoolers manage to reclaim the concept in a more natural and authentic way. I think of the homeschooler I know who chose to design her own coming-olage ritual at age 16. She created a ceremony that was tailored to her own particular passage and that took place at exactly the time she felt it appropriate unlike school's graduation ceremonies which often come before, or long after, the students feel ready. In this as in so many other areas, it turns out that there is indeed another way. The fathers in this issue suggest that even if some may start out resisting homeschooling, it's possible to move beyond that to a point at which their children's freedom becomes inspiring rather than frightening. - Susannah Sheffer Gnowruc Wnsour Scuoot-tNc #1 13
. Nov./Dtc.
'96
/l/*t
E,ftlqortt
Unschooling in the News ISS:l The popular press seems to have discovered unschooling. Reporters nowadays often call and say something like, "I understand there's a new
kind of homeschooling going on. where the kids don't use a set curriculum." I admit that I kind of like letting these folks know it's not unschooling that's new, it's their coverage of it. I don't necessarily say this outright, but I can hear their surprise when they ask how long we've been publishing GWS and I say, "Since 1977." Not such a new phenomenon after all! Of course, it's wonderful to spread the word that young people really can learn without assignments or grades or other similar school trappings. Sometimes reporters interview a grown unschooler for their story, and such interviews illustrate quite vividly that unschooling works and that it's been around long enough for a 19- or 20year-old to have been doing it all his or her life. A nice example of such an article was one written by Mike Bowler in the 7 /6/96 Baltimore Szre. This is a good one to pass along to skeptical relatives, Here's an excerpt: Jamie Smith never went to school until she earned a perfect 4.0 grade average last year in her freshman year in college. Well, not school as most of us know it. Smith was educated at her Columbia [MD] home from the day of
her birth
19 years ago
until she took
three courses at Howard Community College before enrolling full-time at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She never took a formal examination until she tackled the Scholastic Assessment Test and scored 1,320 out of a possible I,600. She never got a grade in any subject until she entered college and never was placed in a school "grade" - never a fourth grader or a high school sophomore. ... Said her UMBC calculus instructor, Bonny Tighe, 'Jamie GnowrNc
Wrrsour Scsoor-rNc #113 r
largely taught herself higher-order mathematics. She has a perfect score in this class. If I had whole classes like Jamie, I'd be a very happy woman." ... ForJamie Smith, being educated meant lots of reading, a minimum of textbook work in such subjects as mathematics, and many field
trips. ... She said she was "quite independent" by the time she reached high school age. "It would have been silly to give me grades by that time," she laughed, "because I was the one who was grading me." Her father took her to his public school [where he is a middle school Social Studies teacherl several times a year and allowed her to sit in for a day. "I saw so many students who felt forced to be there," she said. "For me, home education meant finding myself and learning to love learning for its own sake." Smith demolishes two stereotl?es about homeschooling. One is that without the socialization that goes with
formal schooling (particularly in high school), without the proms and the sports and the prep rallies, homeschooled students arrive at college stunted. "I never missed any of it," Smith said. "I was involved with a number of activities - skating, swimming, Girl Scouts, had lots of friends and some
bofriends...." Said lVice Provost at UMBC] Charles M. Woolston, "We're finding
it's a stereotype that homeschooled students aren't well socialized. More and more of them appear to be well ahead of their age group in social mat-
urity, andJamie is a good case of that." The other stereotype is that homeschoolers have a major problem with the teenage rebellion all kids go through: their teacher is the natural enemy. Smith denied she went through a rebellious stage, and her mother, Jeanne, concurred. "Of course, you're going to have disagreements; everyone does,"Jeanne Smith said, "but the rebellion period is
Nov.,u Dnc. '96
probably worse when you're in school." Jamie Smith said she would feel herself "getting dragged down" when she heard her teen friends complaining about their parents. "I was always close to my parents, and I never felt the way some of my friends did." ...
Homeschooling in South Africa Kate Durham writes from South
Africa:
I am the Secretary of KwaZulu Natal Home Schooling Association in South Africa. We are in a unique situation in this country where new education laws are being drafted at both the national and the provincial (state) level. For the first time in our history, home tutoring is recognized as a legitimate education alternative in our education laws, which is great. What is not great, though, is that we will be subject to an approval clause and various other conditions which will make home education available in name only to the majority of families wanting to choose this option. Kate sent us a coNry of an articlc she for a South African nauspaper. The article begins by summarizing the success of homzschooling in the United States and then goes on to sa): wrote
Many South African parents are concerned about the qualiry ofeducation in the public schools and would choose private schools with lower teacher-pupil ratios, but these are expensive. Parental choice should however be a reality for all parents, not just the well-heeled elite. This is why home schooling is expected to become a significant trend in this country. The home schooling movement Africa] is also fed by a growSouth [in ing number of parents who perceive public school systems as being hostile to their religious beliefs and traditional morality and who wish their children to be brought up within these traditions. Parental concerns about drugs for instance are particularly under the spotlight at the moment in this country. Parents have a vested interest in their children's education
.3.
and given the option will choose schools that are safe. effective and compatible with their values. Historically home schooling has gone unacknowledged in South African law, and parents who wanted to home school applied for exemption from compulsory school attendance. Exemption was seldom granted and consequently rnany of the estimated 1300 home schooled South African
children are doing so "underground." The draft SA Schools Bill released earlier this year was the first to recognize the value of home education and provide for it. Home Schoolers have taken note of further changes to the home school clause. Section 50 in the amended SA Schools Bill that was released this week, and endorse these as a move in the right direction. However, while Section 50 recognizes home education, the conditions stipulated for registration vest excessive discretionary power in the hands of the Head of Department. Such registrations will rest solely on the discretion of the Head of Department who must satis$r him- or herself that such a registration would be in the interest of the learner and may also set any other conditions that he or she sees fit. By placing the power to decide the interests of the child in the hands of the Head of Department, the Minister is substituting a bureaucrat's judgment for that of the parents. Not only is this contrary to the generally held assumption that parents will act in their children's best interest and should be allowed to do so, but would also fly in the face of the Department's desire for
Nrws & REponrs
greater parental involvement in the education of their children. It is disturbing to note the unreasonable treatment of the home education model by the implied assump tion that this parental choice may not be in the interest of the child but that compulsory attendance at public or independent schools automatically would be. This would explain why the Minister does not find it necessary to apply this same condition to registration of the child in every school. Considering the likelihood of exposure to negative influences ranging from violence and gangsterism to drugs, peer pressure and anti-social student behavior, it would be more pertinent to the interests of the child to establish the value of registration in many schools that parents are compelled to send their children to. Furthermore. this treatment of the interests of the child begs the question, does the Minister believe ordinary parents to be
incompetent in making decisions regarding the interests of their children and that they should defer to bureaucrats lwho are] backed by state power? Equally unacceptable is the provision which will allow the Head of Department to lay down any other conditions. This would not only apply to reasonable conditions such as those relating to academic assessments, but would also allow the Head of Department to specif conditions that would make home education available in name only - for example, if the Head of Department specified that only parents who are certified teachers be allowed to home school their children.
aD,JUH''H^H'IfiE BHHtr"?b I
tor"n rroNAL
*
ALTERNATT,E' FoR
4
I
TuE AUT,DTDA'T
Independence High School is a Washington State Approved Private School
that
issues official high school diplomas and transcripts. We welcome students K-'12 who leam independently and would like the opportunity to design their own cuniculum, work at their own rate, and develop their own leaming style. Our long distance leaming program allours students from other states and/or those traveling globally to earn high school credits. We
provide home school assistance, custom curriculum, and annual assessments. --ProMding creative altematives in education since 1980.
BBEAK AWAY FBOM LOCK.STEP CURBICULUM AND ATTENDANCE.BASED EDUCATION Fax 360-595-1 1 41 Anytime! Phone 360-595-2630 Emailorion@nas.com Mail 121 Alder Drive, SedroWoolleyWA 98284
The power to determine conditions of registration should properly rest with the Member of the Executive Council as it does with other schools and not with his or her subordinate. South Africa has a unique opportunity to create a schooling dispensation which is not only equitable but which is also in tune with international educational developments. ... Just before this issue of GWS went to press, Kate sent us an update and ako gaae us somefurther background about homeschooling in South Africa:
Under our previous government, we had compulsory school attendance laws that applied to all children except Black children. White children espe-
cially were herded into schools. It is my personal belief that this was an effective way of perpetuating the myths and fears on which apartheid survived. With the birth of our democracy, elections and a new government, and of course, for the first time, a Bill of Rights, came a whole series of new laws to address the imbalances of the past, and among them new education laws that would attempt to equalize the delivery of education to all children. Black schools were horribly underfunded and in a shocking state, and so it is in this context that new laws are been drafted. The first policy papers started coming out the first half of last year and since then there have been several. Home schooling got a mention in a document called the Hunter Report. The idea of home schooling as an alternative model in the delivery of education was dismissively trashed. Shortly after that, in response to requests from home schoolers in this country to the U.S. group, the Home School Legal Defense Association, who sent an issues alert to their members, numerous letters from home schooling families in the USA were received by the South African ambassador to the U.S. requesting that home schooling be legalized in this country. At the same time, submissions were been made at every opportunity by organizations in this country and letters from ordinary citizens were been sent to the relevant authorities. It is our belief, though, that it was the
GnowrNc WrrHour Scnoor-rNc #1 13
r Nov./Dnc. '96
* concern and letters from ordinary American home schooling families who brought about the change in heart in our Department of Education. The next report that came out acknowledged that there were a variety of cir-cumstances in which home schooling might be a reasonable option and promised to examine the relevant laws of other countries in or to determine the most suitable framework for the recognition of home schooling in this country. The second draft Bill was released mid-August. The second draft was only marginally better than the first. The public hearings on this the second draft of the SA Schools Bill were held in the first week in September and I went down to Cape Town to Parliament representing my province in making a submission to the Parliamentry Committee on Education. We objected to the current home school clause for the reasons I described in my article. We were also able to point out that under the previous government, a home schooling couple had been imprisoned for six months and their children placed in orphanage, for home schooling without permission. We had home schooling families sitting in the public gallery and at the end of our time before the committee I said to the committee, "This SA Schools Bill is about the children." I then pointed to the home schoolers in the public gallery and said "There are the children being taught at home and there are the parents that will sit in jail youdon't amend this Bill." It was admittedly melodramatic but the point really hit home to those on the committee. One of the political parties that two months ago had been very unsympathetic said afterwards they would support us and several Members of Parliament commented that we can't criminalize parents for home schooling. We will hear the outcome in a few weeks or so. If the home school clause is not amended to a form that will be acceptable to home schoolers, we are going to be heading for a stormy time. Kate's email address is ogfarms@ aztec.co.za. IJ readers uould like to help furlher, Kate will be able to suggest whctt would be most useful. GnowrNc
Wrrsour Scnoor-rNc
#1
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Nnws & Rnporrs
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Office News [SS:] I've just returned from the Ozark Cooperative Warehouse conference in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where it was fun to meet homeschoolers from that part of the country and to explore some of the connections between homeschooling and natural foods,/ alternative medicine. During the same weekend, Pat and Day Farenga spoke at the Home=Education Conference in Sacramento, one of the largest annual homeschooling conferences. They enjoyed meeting and talking to many subscribers and GWS friends, and welcomed the chance to talk with David and Micki Colfax and two of their sons. Drew and Reed. Several readers who placed orders
for Herbert Kohl's book The Question is Collegewere disappointed to learn that our limited stock of this out-of-print book had run out. The good news is that your interest in the book helped me secure its inclusion in the Heinemann-Boynton/ Cook Innovators in Education series. The Question is Collegeand another book by Herb Kohl, Reading: How To, are scheduled for publication in the fall of 1997. (They'll be preceded byJames Herndon's wonderful books, which are due to come out in March of 1997.) Meanwhile, those of you who are still interested in thinking about the college choice may be helped by other resources available here: Pat Farenga's
booklet
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Nol, the GWS Issue Packet "Life After Homeschooling" (which includes stories about homeschoolers in college
and homeschoolers who chose not to go to college), and our consultation services (ask for our packet ofinfo). We have several new books available through our catalog this fall, and several new book sets (combinations ofrelated books offered at a discount) with specially written guides to go wirh them. Current subscribers should have received our S-page catalog supplement announcing these new offerings. If you didn't receive one and would like t<i, just ask us to send it. We apologize for omitting the address of Pen-PalJunAieg described in GWS #112. It's PO Box 2920, Bie Bear City CA 92314. Subscriptions are $6,2 yr, or send a 32( stamp fbr a sample. I
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Learning Exchanges
Luz Shosie (CT) writes:
community where all people are teachI ers and we are all learning all the time. What if we could all learn and teach what we were interested in, work and play together on projects and ideas we choose and we control? We now spend millions of tax dollars on a school system that is open only some of the time to only a few people to do a very limited variety of activities that are strictly controlled by the government. Why not cultivate a community with real learning for everyone and demonstrate that learning doesn't have to be expensive or cut off from the rest of life?
Jmagine
a
John Holt advised us to imagine the kind of world we wottld like to live in and then, as far as we could, start Iiving as if that world existed. A couple ofyears ago, Ijoined a learning exchange that was started by Heidi Priesnitz, a homeschooler in Canada. I found a woman in the town next to me who wanted to teach drumming and learn more about gardening, and soon we were meeting and exchanging all kinds of information and skills. It was a great idea, but most of the PeoPle listed in Heidi's learning exchange were far away from me. I wished for a more local resource until I figured out I'd better create one. I started by sending a questionnaire to all the families listed on the mailing list of our group, Unschoolers Support. I asked them to list things they'd like to learn, teach, share, or exchange. Now we have Connections, a list of people from all over Connecticut who want to share their knowledge, ideas, goods, services, activities.
A crucial difference between Connections and school is the matter of choice. In Connections, whatever is learned is at the learner's request. It's a voluntary arrangement. We list what is being offered and what is being sought, and then it's up to each person to use our mailing list to 6
contact someone. People then make their own arrangements about time and place to meet, methods to use, compensation, etc. I don't take responsibility for anything beyond listing the names, and I made that clear both because I didn't want to be in an administrative position and because I believe people can be responsible for whatever they choose to do. That means that I can't guarantee that anyone who is offering to teach something will indeed be a good teacher. That's up to the learner to figure out. They might say to the person who is offering flute lessons, "I'd like to try out one lesson and see how it goes." But it's also a mutual arrangement between the teacher and the learner, so the teacher has the ability to say, "This is what I offer: a series of five lessons ..." or whatever it might be. Both parties have the ability to say what they want and what they will give and to make their own structure. I also don't take responsibilry fbr success or failure of the arrangethe ments. If someone called me up and said, "I tried to take lessons fiom soand-so, but it didn't work out well," I would respond, "It's up to you to end
it if you want to, or to take it as far you want to." I realize that son-re
as
people might expect a situation such as what would exist in a school, in which it would be possible to complain to the administration if a teacher wasn't successful. But again, I'm saying that the responsibility for the learning,/teaching arrangements rests with the people involved. I'm simply making the information available so that people can find one another. My husband Ned and I have recently started another learning exchange called Guilford University (Guilford is the name of our town). This one is not limited to the people in our unschooling group; this is open to the wider community. We have published two lists: subjects that people are seeking and subjects requested. In this case, we don't publish the names and phone numbers, because some people might not want that information widely circtrlated. Instead, when someone finds a subject they are interested in, they call me up and I give them the name, address, or phone number of the person who wants to share that subject. We have put notices announcing
G.U. in our local paper, on local access cable TV, and on the library bulletin board, and have gotten some responses. Our goal with G.U. is primarily to get our ideas out. Ned and I had been doing a lot of letterwriting and making videos to put on the local access station, in which we were criticizing conventional schooling. People would ask, "What's your alternative?", so G.U. is a way of showing one alternative. It's a way of getting people thinking about the idea that there is another way of learning that doesn't depend on school.
Exchanging Writing Help, Farm Work, Biology Lab
Visits Diane Metzler is a horneschooling mother who has used the Connections list to uork out seaeral exchanges. We ashed her to tell us about them, and she replied:
I had listed myself as offering help with grammar and composition aud as seeking opportunities fbr a biology
Gnowrsc; Wrrrrour ScHoot-tNc #113 o Nov./Dr<:. '96
class or lab. I fclt I n-as ltltle to give sorne in{irr-tnati()ll to pt'o1lle rvlltI
$'antecl lo help tlrcit- clrilclrerr tvith l'r'iting. bccattsc peciplt' ottett collnlcnt olt ltou' rvcll mv tlirtrghtcr- rvritcls. L'-r'en n'hctr she tlied scltool firt' otte
sculestcl'irr ninth grrrrlt', the l.nglish tt'acher ke pt irskirre hcl' horv slte lcamecl to n-t-itc so n'cll itr hotttttschoolitrg and wllat otrI approach harl bt'ern. She clidn't knorv ltorv to cliagrarrr 'but she $'as allle to \rritc, sclltences ancl shc urtcl thc teachet-hacl scveral cliscussions aborrt u'hlit lr-e di<l at h()ltlc ancl the I)l.ocetis \\'e \\:cllt thrtttrglr in
n'r'iiing. I thotrglrt I cotrlcl ofl'cl other' pnrcnts sourc iclcits altottt resttttrces \\'(' hacl usecl and sonre slurtples of tny
childrcrr's n'riting.
\\'hen Lr-rz's list lr'as ptrblished, al)othel' nlother callecl rne askirlg for' hclp n'ith her sotr's rvritins. \\'t' liad ai:tuallv rnet a ycar earlicr at att rrnschoolcrs' picnic, itttc[ ortt' sotts, tllto u'erre both the siune irgt' (I2), h:rcl g()tten ulottq.. t'eallv rvt'll, but Iirr onel rcilson ()r' ;1n()tl1ef, u'e lladn't lleetl able to ect toge thcr. \\'her-r shc' callctl, I rnentiotred tlt:tt I u'as t-cseat'ching clifferent lornrs oi Chinese exct'cisc, arrcl strt' lold nrt: that sltc was tlfl'ering a n'orkshop at a ccnter firl l-rolistic lre:rlth tllc next cl:r'. f'he u,ot'kshop itas in Qigorru, a {irt'rtr of cxcrcisc, and I r-cnrember-ed tlrat shc ltad listetl hersell'as offcring this <in Lrrz's list. I'rri taking herr- r:lirss norv. attcl it's gfeat.
Mcunu'hile, \{e g()t togethcr so that I cotrld shale n-itlr her sotne rcsoul'ces aborrt rvriting. I blotruht a l<lt of'books u,ith me, inclucling a book 'I-lt.xttLgh callecl 1.annr itt{ (}ratnmtr Writing, by Sanrlrir Bell (avail. fi'ont l.clucators Pirblishing Sen'ice, 75 Nloulton St, (lirnrbriclgc N'LA 02238), r.vhich I lrave firrrnd vcrr helpltrl. I shotve<l her sotne of'rtrv chilcllen's finisl-rerl nriting projects :u-rcl lold hcl a bit aborrt hon' thel hutl u'rittctr thertt and hou l hacl ltelperl. I rvirs leallr.jtrst lrving to give lrcr a st:trtinlf place, an<l I thir-rk she got sorne good ideas fi'orrr
()ilr colrYersati()ll. Ber:arrse orrr-bovs got alottg s<t rr'cll, rve cleciclt'<t thiit rvc corilil set trlt -I'his fanrilv has a irnoth('r cxchltrtge.
lalm, artrl ther li:rcl listc<1 "Falrri l-ilt' runcl Skills" ttncler "Oficline" otr Lttz's (lnourrt; \\'rruot"r S<:nooLItt; #113
list. \{r'son is vet-r' iutet'ested irr this, str tnice ii rtrortt.h, lri"ll go ()\'er tl)('l'e al)(l lrt'lp n'itlr tlre attirrtirls ot.u,it.h 1tr.ojects
likt' builtling a clricken c oop.'ftlcr otlrcr titnt's a nr()llth, thcir-son lvill c()nle ove r to ()ur ltrtust' itrtd tlrc l>ols rvill clo scit:ttcc exJ)eritn('llts togt'thet'. I'rrr enthttsi:rsti<: ltbortt st'ience, ancl lrcr':rtrse I eclit tht: state ltornes<'h<tttlirlg^ rrcu'slettt:r, I get inlirnnlttiou allotrt all kincls ol'scienc:c r('sollr('cs. \\i' have lots of bo<lks abottt expct'imetrt.s, inclttrli rrs 7}lr l;lying' ( )ir cus ry' I']l4,slr,t ( :ivail. fi'omJohn I{<llt's Booksttire, #l (i78, $19.95 + $4.50 s/h), u'hich I love. Lirst vcar I rras als<i able to find a nonder-[rrl lab opportutritl' {or rtrv claughter. ()ne of'the lathers itr Luz's rrrrscho<lling gr()ttp h:rs his txtrt lab at Yale Univcrsitl, and tnt'<laughter rvas abler to rv<lr-k r'r'ith him scveral titues a nr()nth. 'l'her cli<l dissectious, attcl she rvirs ablc tti ask lrim qtlcrstions when shc canrt' ilcross solllellring irt lrer' biokrgl tcxtbook that she dicln't rrnderstancl. His fiicus is stuclving brairr cclls, looking firr-clires ttt hon t() cttr('
u'ttlk togcthel on crrltrrring l>l'ain ct'lls, an<l Irc shorvt'cl hcl ltrlrv to kt:ep it lab book iinrl takt' rtotes. \\'e hatl lookc:rl at a list ol'liibs that ttrc rtinth graclers \\'ere g-oing to rlo at tlre local lrigir s<'hool, ttr scc il'wc shoultl tn t() (l() :rnv ol'thc sarlte ol)('s. but rtrost ol'tlteut rr't're things like usine colot'ccl papel clips ttr
cyrile psr', so thc,v clicl sortte
sirrrulate DNA st'qrrencirrg. I think that Daniellc:'s expelietrce ol'seeitrs ho\\' a leal scicrttist rvorked lvas tnrtclt rttoret l>t'neficial to ltcr'. She strbseqrrctttlv cltangerl her own fcrcrrs to ntarine biolo{r', itnd shtt \\'ent t() :t treat-bv ircltt:rt'ittnt uitIt sotttt' ( )l.ller h ( )rnescltoolecl Lctt uaget's. Otlt: of the nrothers lratl at't'atrgetl lirr a
biolosist irt thc a(luaritlln to oll'er a class ftrr homeschoolctl tcetragers. From thcr-e, Dirrrielle \\'cllt ott tc) \()lunteer irt ir lOcal llatttre ccrttelr. Slttl n'cnt thror,rgh a trainirrg progrittrl ther-c in ivhich shc learecl to give l)resentations l() otllc| school kicls. Shc
also kcpt lter on'tt fit'l<l.jtitrnral in rvhich slre skctchccl plattts antl aninrals. It sccrns t() rlrc that tro ttuttter n'hltt n'e'r'c tric:cl to rlo, rve'r't' itln'irt's firun<l a \\'av t() rlo it. Yorr.jtrrit llllve to keep askirrg anrl asking ('\'cla()rle r-ort kttorv. I
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flere are some of the subjects being offered or being sought on the Connections list. You can see what a wealth of knowledge and interest exists among even a small group of people: Adventure education Appalachian trail hiking Art & architecture Biology class,/lab Bagpipe music Banjo lessotrs Book discussion Computer mentorship Farm life and skills Food co-op, starting Garden plants and advice Genealogy Grammar and composition Home-based business experience Photography advice Poetry teacher Reading aloud Science experiments Sign language Spanish study group or
tutor Tai chi Typing Video production Yard work