GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING
16 The Mother Earth News article appeared on schedule, and as I write this we have h ad over 600 responses: more than 400 with subscriptions, and most of the rest with orders for books or samples. My article in ~ Ch010~y Toda~ has brought in several telep one ra io interviews. We've also had some nice response to Louise Andrieshyn's fine article in the latest issue of Mothering, some of which we quote in this issue. We have just sent out a follow up mailing, including the front page of GWS #15 and our latest booklist, to all the thousands of people who ex pressed interest after the Donahue show . We thank the many volunteers allover the country who helped us with this mailing, which the three of us in the office could never have done ourselves. And to those volun teers who worked long hours with us in the office or in their homes near by, folding, stapling, labeling, sort ing - Karen Kimball, Jane O'Brien, Sylvia Pigors, Rachel Solem, and Shar on Winfield - our very special thanks . Many of you will remember that in May, 1979, the CBS one-hour TV show "Magazine" did a program on home schooling, featuring the Turano and Van Daam families and the U.S. Commis sioner of Education. Not long ago, CBS called up to say they would be running that show again in early Sep tember. This GWS will probably not reach you before the show is aired, but I thought you might like to know about it anyway. Nancy Wallace (NH) has an arti cle on home schooling coming out in the Sept. issue of Blair and Ketch um's Country Journal. There w~ll be a short interview with me in the Sept. issue of Boston magazine . And US News and World~t plans to have a sec tion on home education in their Fall Education issue. My editor (and neighbor) and I are working hard on my unschooling book. It is too long - I have to cut 25% out. But every day's mail brings new material that I want to put in. Frustrating' We still don't have-a definite title yet; when we do we'll let you know. News in this issue: two impor tant court cases, one in Minnesota and one in Missouri; success stories from Pa., Kansas, NY, and elsewhere; and GWS readers in Va . and Pa. are preparing for legislative action on home education . Hope you folks around the coun try have been surviving the heat. --- John Holt
COMING LECTURES Oct. 1, 1980: Univ. of Wisc., La Crosse, WI. Aft. meetings, evening lecture. Contact: Ken Maly, Philoso
phy Dept . 608-785-8000. Oct. 29: Illinois State Univ., Normal, IL. Aft. meeting, 8 PM lec ture. Cont: Tony Chambers, Student Activities Ofc, 309-438-2151. Nov. 20: Tentative - Iowa Assoc. of School Boards, Des Moines IA . Con tact Wayne Beal, 515-288-1991. Nov. 21, 22: San Francisco, CA. Future Schooling Conference, prob . closed to public. Center for Independ ent Education, 747 Front St; 415-433 4316 . Apr. 24, 1981: Music Educator ' s National Conference, Arena of Minnea polis MN. 11 AM mtg . , Arena, Minnea polis Convention Hall . Cont: Gene Mor lan, 1902 Assoc. Dr, Reston VA 22091.
GWS LEARNING EXCHANGE? From two readers: ... Maybe some of your readers who have specific knowledge or skills would consider listing their names in GWS so others could write to them with any questio.ns they might have in that particular area. We, for in stance, recently purchased a rock tumbler and would be interested in locating someone who knows something of lapidary. It seems like there may be a large untapped resource poten tial available through GWS which could be developed ... ... 1 am a computer programmer/de Signer by profession and am interes ted in contacting other home school ers who are using personal computers as a resource for their children's learning ... These readers are, in effect, suggesting a Learning Exchange by mail . As I guess most GWS readers know, a Learning Exchange (L.E.) is basically (1) a list of people who have ideas and skills that they are willing to share (2) another list of people who want to learn about vari ous ideas and skills. Someone, A, knows about car repair, so that name goes in the Sharers file under Car Repair . Someone else, B, wants to learn about car repair, so that name goes in the Seekers file under Car Re pair. Every so often someone matches the lists, tells the A's who know things and the B's who want to find out about those things how to get in touch with each other. It then is up to the individual people to find ways to get together. Most of these L.E . s are locally based and work mainly by phone . The original and probably still largest L.E . is in Evanston IL - we have men tioned it once or twice in GWS . I asked them a few years ago if they would be interested in listing people from outside Evanston, who could then get in touch with each other by mail. They said No, perhaps because they had all they could do just to keep up with the demand in their own town. But the idea of a mail L.E . is still a good one. Unfortunately, this is not a project that we can take on here at GWS. To keep up to date and publish the kind of skills directory described above would take more time and GWS space than we have . But it would be a wonderful project for one or more volunteers - perhaps a group of home schoolers in one area - to take up. We could publish their address in every GWS, and people want ing to share or seek out skills could write directly to them. The group
might someday publish their own L.E. directory, which people could order from them . If any people or groups of peo ple around the country are interested in taking on such a project, please let us know . I think it ought to be a small group of people; it could be come too big a job for one person. But in any case, we hope someone will have arranged to handle this project by the next issue of GWS.
CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS From Phi Delta Kappan, June 1980: . . . Registrar Willard French of the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) movement in Lewisville, Texas, said his organization will help launch 800 to 1,000 schools this year . Consultant Connie Blanton of PCC [Pensacola Christian Correspon dence School, 5409 Rawson Ln, Pensa cola FL 32503] said that as many as 2,000 schools may be started with her organization's support. Bo t h groups use mail-order "pur chase agreements" and ship materials and start - up guidelines to fundamen talist churches and individuals wish ing to open schools. Blanton said more than 500 of the 8,000-odd PCC schools are simply parents teaching their kids at home ...
NEWS FROM N.C. A North Carolina reader wrote: . . . A friend of ours who is a teacher's aide with the Charlotte school system was attending a school meeting where someone from the Dis trict Attorney's office was the speak er. He noted that there were over 3000 truancy cases waiting to go to court. Since there is not space on the docket to deal with all these cases, they have simply been dropped' The Charlotte court system is c .lly dealing with serious crimes as far as I know: murder, rape, burglary. Porno graphy is not considered a serious crime and has also been dropped, un fortunately. The City police, accord ing to the official, are told that they can arrest truants if they wish, but they must understand they will never go to court in the Mecklenburg County courts ...
TEXTBOOKS - CHEAP From Deborah Schwaback, Box 136, Gilbertsville NY 13776: ... 1 think I can offer to help you out with one problem people seem to be having. I started a RIF Pr o ject in our school and was sold ( for $1) the complete school textbook deposi tory. This includes used textbooks on almost every subject ( two or three thousand of them) which I would be happy to dispense to interested par ties who want to send me a list of their requirements by subject and level. I would like to charge 75¢ per book to cover shipping, and the resi due would go into the RIF funds ...
A GOOD RESOURCE From Barbara Lafferty (GWS # 15): . .. As you suggested, I finally wrote to our N.J. Congressman request ing his assistance in obtaining the
2 DANTES GUIDE TO EXTERNAL DEGREE PRO GRAMS and received my copy yesterday. It took less than two weeks to obtain the Guide. Within the past year I have re quested and received from the Con gressman the following: (1) The 1978 Agriculture Yearbook "Living on a Few Acres" (2) The 1979 Agriculture Year book "What's to Eat? And Other Ques tions Kids Ask About Food" (3) The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Pre vention Act of 1974 (a 37+ page book let) and (4) the Dantes Guide . All the above were obtained free of charge. Apparently our U. S . Repre sentatives and Senators are an excel lent source for some otherwise un ~vailable materials .. . HELPFUL SCHOOL
James Salisbury, 9748 Yorkshire, S . Jordan UT 84065, writes: ... Please list us (under my name for the time being) as a private school "that would like to cooperate with home schoolers, if any were to ask them" according to your GWS mail ing. We are a totally non-profit organization (legally under the Uni versal Life Church - our own charter - to give us the advantages of a paro chial school) and we actually encour age people to s tudy at home even in favor of coming to our school. Our teachers are state certified ana-the school will be accredited in the fall by t h e state . We will gladly h elp peo ple get through the legal hassles of getting out of school and help them find materials to study at home. These services are free of charge . We also have a tutoring service whereby they pay a tiny monthly fee to check in with our teachers once a month and they can get bona-fide diplomas, etc . We like to think of ourselves as a referral service for de-schooling society .. . AMERICAN SCHOOL
From Grace Trudel (WV): ... We have decided on the Ameri can School, 850 E 58th St, Chicago IL 60637. It is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools . It costs $519 for four years of high school and all textbooks, with very reasonable payment plans the down payment can be as low as $29, with monthly payments of $20 . . .. We have chosen the American School because it does not require a supervisor for examinatIOns. Going purely on intuition, I feel that the tests will have to be more creative, more like open-book tests, if there is no supervisor. I think tests that depend on how many facts you've been able to memorize are the stupidest kind, and it seems ugly to me to have a policeman-type supervisor watching to be sure you don't cheat. We'll let you know more about it next year after we've had some practi cal experience with American School ... NEWS FROM KANSAS
From the Lawrence (KS) Journal 6/15/80:
~orld,
RURAL LAWRENCE COUPLE EDUCA'~ ING THEIR DAUGHTER AT HOME - Caught up in daily red tape and paperwork, some times Donna Mae Flory probably thinks things would be a lot easier if she
let her 15-year-old daughter Janice return to Lawrence High School. But the rural Lawrence woman's convic tions about the "immorality of the teen society of high schools" has kept her knee-deep in paperwork to legally keep her daughter out of school. "They try to make it hard on you," Mrs. Flory said in a recent interview . "But it's better than having her around all the sex and drugs at the high school. Four of her girlfriends who are only 14 years old have already had babies . " Since December, Mrs. Flory and her husband, Ivan, Rt. 5, have re ceived permission from the Kansas Board of Education to instruct their daughter at home despite a state law that mandates compulsory public school attendance until age 16. ... The Florys' case first came to light last November when a truancy review hearing was scheduled in Doug las County Juvenile Court when the family decided not to send Janice to high school at the start of the 1979 80 school year. Mrs. Flory said at the time that she had applied for and been denied a waiver of the Kansas Compulsory School Act. Such a waiver allows per sons with certain religious convic tions to provide private education for their children, .. ,As a result of the truancy hearing in November, Janice was or dered back to school by Douglas County Associate District Judge Mike Elwell. When her parents refused to send her, she was issued a contempt of court citation and sent to a juve nile detention center in McPherson. But Janice returned to Lawrence the following day when an appeal of the citation was made by the Florys' attorney . Charges of truancy were dropped by authorities after the state board okayed the exemption. The board's ruling was based on an A ri1 1979 0tinion by Atty. Gen . Ro ert Stephan t at said two sections of the state law mandating school attendance until rne-age of 1 were unconstitutional. The sections in question state anyone providing home instruction must be certified by the state board of education and that a minimum of 15 hours a week be spent in academic classroom activities . According to Stephan's opinion, those requirements are unconstitu tional. No alternative requirements have been adopted by the board and state legislators have not acted to change the law . ... Under conditions set by the state, the Florys must provide Janice with at least 25 hours a week of in struction in math, sewing, homemaking and English. Janice takes an accredited high school correspondence course from the Chicago-based American School. The girl's daily activities must be logged so state and Lawrence School District 497 auditors can be s ure she is complying with state law, Mrs. Flory said. This means keeping track of what activities Janice does every day, from getting up at 4:30 a.m., to fix ing breakfast, to babysitting, to studying, to working with her mother in a house-cleaning business to work ing in a garden at night ... "I'm the teacher. I have to keep down where she is at every hour," Mrs. Flory said, noting the state board of education has audited her records and confirmed that Janice is meeting state requirements. "She ' s
t
getting more out of it here than she would at high school smoking pot." Janice is now finishing her spring correspondence classwork and will return to her studies in the fall. However, Janice plans to drop all the state required classes except mathematics when she turns 16 in October ... Although Janice says that she is "a little tired" of all the publicity she has been getting, she said all the red tape was worth it. "This is better," she said. "I can go on with my life and do my work." ... READING AT THREE
Prem Freeman (NJ) writes: . . . Aram (almost six) has been reading more than half his life. Really reading' We read. Books and games are around. The library is often visited. Since he was a baby he would be read to before naps and night time sleeps. Just when I had decided not to encour age reading at an early age (at least 3 years ago) he approached me very earnestly, asking help to learn how. Believing in him, we began quite casually playing with magnetic let ters and word cards . Spotting words all around his world was fun for him too. Slowly, definitely, he began to read at what most people thought was an astonishing speed. The real wonder happened last year though, We were on a three month trip re quiring much waiting in airports, train stations, etc, as well as spend ing much time in transit and together when we got places. Some Disney com ics were with us . Maybe a third of the words in them were known from past reading. "Mickey and the Beanstalk," a forty-page epic complete with giant thrills, got to be a worn favorite. We read it every day for a c ouple of weeks. Then Aram told us he would read it to us. Expecting to be asked a lot of words we were shocked when he carried on frame after frame per fectly, and in his usual captivating way he has when telling stories. He had memorized word for word over ten pages! In a matter of days he had put to memory the entire book. Now he had something precious and he began "read ing" to anybody who would listen. How many friends we made over "Mickey and the Beanstalk'" He knew that we knew he had mem orized and wasn't readin~, but some how after he had mastere more comics we saw one day that he was slowly matchin~ the memorized words with the lettere words. This ~s when the real spurt took place. In his own way he really taught himself. He mus t have figured out that memorizing words was more to his benefit than whole books. Now he picks up virtually any thing - be it an encyclopedia or an adv enture comic (the kind with four s yllable adjectives) and contents him s elf with th e sheer joy of reading. He is a continuous reminder of how un planned natural evolvement takes care of everything, when we let it ... MORE CHILDREN AT WORK
Molly Farquaharson (OR ) wrote: .. . 1 was interested to read in GWS #14 about the woman who tock her baby to work with her. I took my 2 year-old daughter Meadow to work with me for six month s last fall and winGROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #16
3 ter while I worked in a natural foods store. I wasn't being paid very much so financially it worked ou t very well not to have to pay a babysitter, plus I don't like to leave my kids anywhere very long. I think Meadow learned a lot about stores by spending a lot of time in one . She saw a lot of the mon ey and goods exchange, so learned a little bit about money. She would watch while I would count the money a t the end of th e day and would play with the pennies and "count" them too . Sometimes friendly customers would give her a penny of their c hange. Money still doesn't mean very much to her but she does ha ve an idea what it's for. Another thing she learned: what a scale was for. A lot of the pro ducts were in bulk, so I had to weigh them. She watched and one day she started using an egg scale to weigh pieces of her puzzle or a cookie or a book or whatever she had on hand. She also liked to scoop out beans or flour or whatever into bags for me to weigh out. I discour aged that a bit except when it was something we need ed . Occasionally one of the customers would let her help fill up their bags, which s he enjoyed. I think an older child would learn a lot about density of things - a scoop of rais ins is hea vier than sunflower seeds, for example . I know I learned a lot of stuff like that' And of course she met a lot of people. She's still pretty shy with people at first, but she did learn about dealing with other adults and especially other little kids. Some times she would share her toys, some times she would give him/her an apri cot from th e bucket (c halk it up to overhead) . We both met quite a cross section of interesting people. During t h e times there were no customers, I would read to Meadow or help her dra w or play with her puz zle . If s he could help me put things away I would get her to do that, especially after a delivery. I would think that an older child would really profit from being in a work situation like that. There is a lot of math involved including fractions, measurements in pounds, ounces, pints, etc, noting the differ ent densities of various foods, pri cing the food at whatever percentage mark-up, making change, and so on. Not to mention the interaction be tween people, customer and worker, student and teacher (going both ways across the counter) . People were usually pretty under standing if I had to deal with taking Meadow to the bathroom or calming down her crankiness or soothing a hurt. It gave the regular customers pleasure to see this little girl help ing or just keeping me company. Natur al food stores that are pretty casual lend themselves to having moms or dads and kids working together, for what is more natural? That particular store has since closed due to abou t eight food buying clubs starting in the area (another great opportunity for learning a lot of things ), and I've just had a baby, so I'm being a full time mom again. I'm hoping to find another job though that would allow me to take both my kids to work. I may have to make my own job opportunities. Some people seem to think it looks "unprofessional" to have kids along at the job, but I don't see any thing wrong with it. I remember walk ing past a lawyer's office pretty regularly a few years ago and seeing
GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #16
the secretary with her small child in the office. She did her job and was a mom too, no problem. Of course it helped that the lawyer was the dad' I guess he didn't worry much about the "unprofessional" look . . .. 1 have a friend who also took her two-year-old son to work while she drove the pickup that took Christ mas trees from the field to the land ing to be measured and shipped. He learned a lot about where Christmas trees come from' His dad was one of the cutters. ... Mostly I think it is a ques tion of finding the job that would lend itself to kids being there or of pushing to have one's present job be that flexible if it is a remote possi bility. There was a recent article in Motharing about a woman who had her cnrr ren with her at her health food store. Anyway, I hope this is useful to you or someone. I ' d like to see more of us working with kids along if it is appropriate. There is a great deal to learn on all sides . .. From a Tennessee reader: ... In regard to "Baby on the Job," my husband and I are able to keep our son with us . My husband is a cabinetmaker . He spends time teaching this skill to Kish . But about six months ago he took a job as a truck driver. This en ables us to travel a lot. We feel this will be a valuable tool in un schooling. I am an Instructor of Cosmetol ogy . Five yea rs ago at the birth of Kish, I started working as a fill-in. There are several schools around town that call me when someone needs a day off. I always take my boy with me. He enjoys the people. We have time to read, play, or talk. He goes out with students to lunch or on an errand. We believe it is great for all of us. And both can be continued when we finally get to the farm ... WORKING AT HOME
Peggy O'Mara McMahon, who is now editing Mothering magazine writes: . :.I:was pleased to see that you also are encouraging a combination of work and real life and including children in the work experience. What better way than through a family busi ness? Already Lall y (6) and Finnie ( 4~) help to open the mail with us and sort the appropriate letters into the appropriate boxes. The women who work with the magazine all work at home. I have divided the jobs of the magazine into small ones that can be done at home in about 10 hours a week. We meet once a week when each comes separately to our home (where the office is) to get her mail and talk over any questions or problems. Being that we are all busy mothers, we don't waste much time with small talk. We have a staff meeting after each - issue goes out and try to have some social events together occasion ally ... MEET J. P.
From Kathy Mingl (IL): ... My husband qnd I are very in terested in your "unschooling" ideas. We had been leaning in that direction already, but didn't know that other
people had gotten so far along with it . We have a little boy, now 27 months old - our first child - who is as bright and independent a little person as you could ever meet. I gave birth to him at home (doctor-super vised) because I had heard bad things about hospitals and didn't want to subject a poor, helple ss little guy or me, either, for that matter - to an experience like that. I had a bad time at school, and I've had my doubts about subjecting an innocent kid to that sort of thin g, too. ... Through some sort of sloppy planning we found ourselves having a babt and remodeling a house at the same time. I helped my husband with everything - painting, plastering, roofing, cement work - the whole bit. Part of the time I was pregnant out to here and holding up my end of things with my fingertips (all I could reach the thing with, without sitting it on the baby's head), and the other part I was working one handed, holding our son in the other arm. From the very first, he hated to be left out . We couldn't leave him with someone else, even if we had wanted to, because I was nursing him. I couldn't take time off to raise him because my husband had quit his job to work on the house full time (as an investment) and needed my help - I work cheap. Jason Peter Joseph (also known as J.P., or sometimes the Twerp) was part of the deal, ~ike it or not. Even before he could get around by himself he wanted to be in on everything. If we left him in another room while we worked he had a fit. As soon as he was mobile he moved right in on the action, grabbing tools out of our hands and applying them deter minedly to whatever project we had been working on. He was impossible to divert; in self-defense we had to show him how to use them or we would never ha ve gotten anyt hi" g done. (We tell people there isn't a thing in that house that we could have done without his help.) We found that the only way we could keep him safe was to show him how to use the tools and machines properly, and he's become re markably competent with them. He used to t errify relatives and old ladies at garage sales by zeroing in on any screwdriver he could get his chubby little hands on - his favorite toy and he never hurt himself with one that I can recall, which is more than I can say for his mother. We've finished and sold the hous e now, but we've taken him to machinery auctions with us, and peo ple have b 2en amazed at how at home he is with machines and tools. He really freaked out one guy when we picked up a machine. J.P., age l~ or so, insisted on being in on the act ion, and when he was finally allowed to, settled down to remove all the bolts he could reach in such a busi nesslike way that the former owner, watching him, was moved to exclaim, "My gawd, the guy's a machinist'" J.P. is also interested in art, writing, and music. He is a sturdy, self-determined little man. I've been amazed at all the things a baby can do for him self if he's allowed to. I never saw myself as a mother-type per son, and I don't think J.P. sees him self as a baby-type person, either. The only ideas I had about raising a child are that (1) he should learn to respect other people's rights as well as uphold his own, and (2) he shouldn't be afraid to use things only to accept responsiDITity for the consequences and clean up his own
4 messes . I think it's working out all right. Even formerly doubtful and horrified relatives (does ever*one have those?) have had to say t at we must be doing something right with this kid - they've never seen one,so yo ung who can understand so much. We~re kind of proud of him - not that we've had all that much to do with it . When he yells "J.P . do it'" at me when I start to help him with something, I wouldn 't presume t o in terfere ... , When I was in first grade, I attended what must have been about the last two-r oom schoolhouse in exis tence, and my teacher was a warm, won derful, motherly lady who had taught retarded children and knew that lit tle kids need a lap once in a while. They closed that school down the next year and shipped me off to 2nd grade in a bus (I remember being terribly concerned that I had no way of get ting home by myself if I needed to they could at least have told me about taxis.) This new school was h~ and there were about a million RIGS, all of whom seemed to know all sorts of things that I had missed, somehow - you know, I've felt that all my life - and no one was interes ted in me at all. The teacher was young, fresh from college, and burst 'ing with theories about how to mold young minds. She did not like me - I guess I didn't mold properly. I liked her at first, but I didn't like what s he wanted me to do. I won't go into the bewilderment and humili ation of that episode . When I asked my parents if I could stay home and not go to school an)illOre, I was told that if I didn't go to school I'd be taken away and my parents put in jail. I was 7 years old . Do you know, I'm 30 years old, I've been out of school for 12 years, and I still have nightmares about be ing in-scnool? ! had one just last night, 1S a matter of fact. . .. Most adults treat children with the most appalling lack of re spect' I may yell at J . P. when he makes off with my tools or leaves me a mess to clean up, or I may get angry and impatient with him when h e's irrational and tell him to go take a nap and come back when he's fit to live with, but I sure as heck don't patronize him. Two is a difficult age . I was in terested in the account in GWS #11 of the two year old violinist who took off if one more second of cor r ection was offered than she was ready to accept. That's J.P., all right. You can help him - he's basically a pret ty reasonable person - but you have to be awfully diplomatic about it. I always ask if he needs help, even when it's obvious, and I make it a point to mention that adults run into the very same sort of problems. J.P. is a bright kid - not in
the sense of being brilliant - that's
a different sort of thing - but com
petent and aware. He follows verbal
instructions as well as most adults.
He has a firm grip on the "how" and
"why" of things. He often has trouble
because he can see the difference be
tween adult actIVities and what his
body is capable of, and it frustrates
him terribly. He started trying to
walk at some ridiculously early age 2 months or 2 weeks or something,
long before his muscles could possi
bly cooperate. By the time he was
ready to walk he didn't believe-Tt.
He held on to my hand long after I
knew he could walk alone if he tried.
When he finally suddenly realized he
could do it, he was at it all day long, with or without an audience (al though J.P. always prefers an audi ence) . ' We're always impressed with his efforts, because we compare them to that of other 2 year olds (or 3 or 4 year olds.) He compares them with adults' efforts, and his standard is perfection. Now, what could you teach somebody like that, beyond (eventual ly, I hope) not being so hard on him self? I've always found that J.P. lis tens best when I explain something from the standpoint of being interest ed in the thing with him, instead of putting the spotIIght on him and his performance . When he painrs-I ask if I can watch, and make interested com ments. In exchange, J . P. graciously allows me to assist in the creative process in small ways - keeping the wash-water clean, removing completed artwork, wiping out sullied colors, etc. And I really do find it interest ing to watch him. We do have to insist on order and using tools correctly, because he is only interested in our tools. I said to Tony just yesterday that I think J . P. only learned to talk in order to be able to talk us out of our stuff. Why does it always have to be the very tool you're using at the moment? ... J.P. also keeps his crayons, paper, and paint in good order. He washes his hands for supper and takes a bath himself. I just adjust the water and lift him in and out. He doesn't do all these things willingly all the time, you understand, just competently. He's generally filt~y. He also knows just about every p oy for getting adult cooperation there is ... ANOTHER HELPER
This story unfortunately got separated from any name or address . Thanks to whoever sent it' ... We had had dinner on the cof fee table - after dinner my friend ' s husband volunteered to do the dishes so we could talk. Aaron, the 20 month old baby, was asked to clear the table. Fascinated, I watched him as, piece by piece, he carried silver, glasses, containers for food, butter, salt, pepper, etc. to his father in the kitchen (a short way from the living room and not closed off ) . Dur ing this process his mother started to hand him a large plate filled with bones and table scraps, but inadver tantly she showed him her fear that he wouldn't be able to handle the plate - so he refused to take it . She put it back on the table and contin ued to hand him other, smaller dishes and objects. Finally he had carried everything to his father except my glass (from which I was still sip ping) and the big plate. Aaron walked back to the table, pOinted to my glass and when I indica ted that I wasn 't finished and would keep it, he realized that he would now have to deal with "The Plate." It was beautiful to watch this c hild struggle with himself. He'd touch the edges of the plate, then let go - draw back, come forward, grasp it - let go, then finally he placed his tiny hands firmly on the edges of the plate, gingerly lifted it - and so, so carefully, a step at a time, carried it to his father. His mother and I watched silent ly as he did this wonderful feat and
as he handed the plate to his father, unable to contain our joy, we gave him a big hurrah! CRIME IN SCHOOL
From Family Circle: SCHOOL CRIME - Crime Stopper Fact: Help your children plot a dir ect route to school that lessens their chance of being bothered . Streets with the heaviest pedestrian and auto traffic are safest . Identify businesses or "block mother" h omes where they can take refuge. Tell them to avoid shortcuts through alleys, parks, vacant lots and othe r isolated spots. If they ride the bus, advise them to sit as near the driver as pos sible. Few schools today are the havens of safety most older adults probably remember from their childhoods . Your children's chances of encountering- crime are greatest when they ' re en route to, at, or com~ng home from school. According to one Government study, at least 282,000 of the na tion's 21 million secondary - school students are physically attacked each month, and 2.4 million have something stolen . A quarter of the nation's grammar-school children report being afraid that "somebody might hurt them," and one-third of seventh gra ders surveyed at a typical metropoli tan school say they are fearful of be ing hurt or bothered in school . ... Teach them to conceal valu ables. They can carry money in their shoes; pack lunches with books in a small backpack. If lunch is served at school, see if you can pay for it a week or month in advance by check so they needn't carry cash. Don't let them wear expensive jewelry or clothes to school as they're bound to attract the notice of thieves . Be cautious in warning your chil dren "never" to fight back. If they're outnumbered with no chance of successfully resisting, that ' s probab ly good advice. But a child who meek ly caves in to any affront is only asking to be a victim again and again. Knowing some principles of self-defense and fighting to win can sometimes discourage bullies. If you are away after school, arrange to call your children at the time they should arrive home. If they're not there, know the names and phone numbers of the friends the y walk home with so that you can con tact them immediately for information on where your children are. What to do if your child becomes a victim of a school crime: 1. Press your school administra tor for immediate action. In some jur isdictions, school officials are responsible for a child's safe t y get ting to and from school, as well as on the premises . Administrators are often reluctant to act decisively, especially when an offender is a s tu dent . The best way to keep a problem frum escalating is to indicate force fully at the outset that repetition won'e be tolerated. 2 . You have a right to call the police if your child is robbed, beat en, threatened, molested or otherwise harassed, even in the school build ing. School administrators rarely in volve the police voluntarily and may try to discourage you from doing so because of concern about their school's image. But schools are pub lic property and your child is enti tled to the same police protection
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5 there as elsewhere. The theft of lunch money, for example, may in fac t constitute strong-arm robbery and may most effectively be dealt with as such . .. VA. LEGISLATIVE STUDY
From the Roanoke. Times, 6/80: · . . This month, a committee of Virginia legislators will begin study ing ways to clarify the state's school laws. They will try to define a private school . They also will try to set guidelines for home schooling . Under Virginia law, private schools not accredited by the state are not required to h ave certified teachers and state-approved curricu lum . But parents who teach their children at home must be certified by the state as a qualified teacher or tutor. Here ' s the loophole that Vir ginia legislators want to close: Since the state doesn't define a pri vate school, a home school without qualified teachers could be declared a private school and thus be exempt from state regulation of curriculum and personnel. · .. Fredericksburg Delegate Lewis P . Fickett Jr . , a member of the study committee ... and some other law makers say the state should not pro hibit parents from teaching their children at home just because they don't hold state certificates . "We should prote ct the right of parents to give t h eir children private or in dividualized tutorial education .. . pretty much on their own terms," Fick et said. "A well-educated person should have the right to educate his child at home . " · .. Several Virginia legislators say they are looking toward some form of registration for non-public schools, while others are asking for minimum academic standards. Yet other states have had trou ble even registering private schools. In Michigan, for instance, more than 60 private schools, mostly Christian oriented with as few as seven stu dents, refused to comply t h is year with the state's routine request for basic information. A few years ago, only a handful refused, says Ralph Turnbull, a consultant with the Michi gan Department of Education . Michigan law does not define a private school. Kentucky attempted to impose min imal regulations on private schools, and was resi s ted in the Kentucky Supreme Court by a group of parents. "We lost badly," says Edward Fossett, an attorney for the Kentucky Depart ment of Education, of the court's de cision last September. The state lost any right to set minimum requiremen t s on non-public schools, whic h the court declared were exempt from com pulsory attendance laws. Now the state is trying for some form of basic registration. .. . lVirginia ) educators and leg islators involved in an upcoming study of the compulsory attendance laws appear firm about ensuring the state's interest in educating all children as they clarify the sta tutes, but want to avoid a fight wit h religious groups .. . So the school people are now try ing to "clarify" the law in Virginia . Of course, what they really want is not to "clarify" home schooling but to forbid iti or surround it with re strictions that make it virtually im-
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possible . Same with laws about pri vate sc hools, ' of which Virginia is full. They will try to make priva t e schools so expe n sive - elaborate fac ilities, minimum numbers of students, etc. - that only people with a lo t of money can start them. To most peo ple, t h ey will give no choice but to send t heir c h ildren to t he local pub lic sc hools, however bad they may be . They will, in short, try to do indir ectly what Pierce v . Society of Sis ters forbade t hem to do directly, ~ make the public schools an effec tive monopoly. We must not be too surprised by this. Education in the U.S . is a $150+ billion a year business, and most sch ool administrators are simply businessmen whose ch ief concern is to ' protect t heir businesses, and so their own jobs and careers, any way that they can. They are not going to let any of their conscripted custo mers escape without a struggle . Abbey Lawrence (VA) writes: · . . 1 am composing a lengthy let ter to send to my state legislators, the State Board of Education, the jOint committee mentioned in the arti cle, and anyone else I can think of. Please urge your Virginia readers to do so . In separate articles recently I read that 1) the Virginia Education Association is urging compulsory kin dergarten; children "do better" in later grades if they've learned to be obedient little robots in kindergar ten, and 2) the VEA last year spent more money than any other group lobby ing t he state legislature . Our so called "educators " are a deeply en trenched bureaucracy whose primary in terest is in enlarging and strength en ing itself . As parents and taxpayers we must exert strong pressure on the powers that be if our rights and op tions are not to be further eroded. An index of bills, resolutions, etc. can be obtained on request from t he state legislature; this includes actions taken or under consideration on any given issue. Also ask for a list of the members of the State Board of Education, standing commit tees, and members of the joint commit tee studying HJR #94 . Write letters. It is a rare politician t hat won ' t be influenced by a barrage of mail ... Another Va . reader, Rose Jones (see Directory), who has been teach ing her boys at home for a year, sent us more information on the legisla tive study, and also wrote to the other families in the Directory. She says: · .. It seems to me to be a rare opportunity for home schoolers and un schoolers to have substantive input into Virginia's legislative stance on this issue . My own feeling is t hat I wish they'd leave the law alone as it stands. I don't see how we could have it any better than it is: i.e . , call one's home a private school and be left alone, as has happened in my own case . . ::1 plan to go to Richmond for the h earings, if at all possible, and if I cannot, I will submit written comments . I hope some of the others I have written to can go, too . · .. To be notified of the meeting dates or to attend the sessions or submit comments in writing, you can get on the mailing list by writing to: Robin Whitaker, Division of Legis lative Services, PO Box 3AG, Richmond VA 23208 . . . . There is a six-page memo randum which you can request from Rob
in summar~z~ng "the background of the study, the competing intere sts in volved, various suggestions for stan dards governing private schools, issues involved in prescribing stan dards for public schools, some statu tory options and some interested or ganizations." .. . 1 learned Friday that the first meeting of the commit tee is planned for Sept. 16 . .. MORE FROM VA.
The Washington Post, 7/6/80: ... Vicki and Ronald Painter con verted the family den into a class room and use it to teach their 6-year old son Edward - a public school dropout. .. . "I'm not saying thi s is for everyone, but we believe it is best for Edward," said Suffolk's Mrs. Painter, who began her home school last year after her son went to kin dergarten in public school. "It's a lot of h ard work for me," s he said . "You must be dedicated . But we think it is worth it. Our son is bene fiting." . .. The Painters had to fight no legal battles . The Suffolk school .board gave them permission to teach Edward at home, provided he had home instruction 180 days a year. "Compulsory school attendance is important, but before it can b~ en forced, someone must define what a school is and what a public school is,'' said Superintendent Forrest Frazier. "We feel we have a n obliga tion to the taxpa ye rs that until it is defined, we're not going to waste their money with court fights," he said. ... Thomas Watkins, a Hampton attorney and a member of the State Board of Education, would like some guidelines spelled out. But he says it could be difficult and pOints to a major problem. In setting specific standards for a private sc hool, the state could be intruding in the affairs of private religious schools - a step legislators are reluctant to take and one some say the state ' s courts would likely block. ., .Carl Rheim, assistant state superintendent for curriculum and in struction . .. is particularly worried about a lack of safeguards that [home schooled) children are being adequate ly educated. "What happens if these children decide they want to go back t o public school or college ? How are they to be judged for the A's and B's they were given by their mothers?" Rheim said he respe cted the par ents' motives, but questioned their chances for long-term success . " They may begin with the greatest of inten tions, but after a while, what's go ing to happen ?" h e said . "I think i t would be very difficult to set up five hours of daily instruction at home and maintain it." State Del. Howard Copeland (D Norfolk), a member of the joint legis lative committee formed last winter to examine the matter, says "the re l.igious aspects can be resolved," by the legislature. "But I'm not sure we can accomodate those who simply don't want to participate in public schools and reject traditional private schools." He said, "What we ha ve to do is assure that all children are recei ving quality education. I think a par ent should teach their child at home, but the child s hould also attend school . "