GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING
22 Though the official publication date for TEACH YOUR OWN was Aug. 3, it began to appear in bookstores in Boston (and apparently elsewhere) early in July. A number of peop le from different parts of the country h ave already used the tear-out page at the back of the book to ask .for a sample of GWS, and so far three of these have subscribed . The publisher tells us that advance orders from bookstores'have been good. By the end of July, we had sold a bout 70 copies from the office. A good start. You can help the book by telli ng as many people as possible about it, inclu ding local libraries, books~ores, newspapers, radio and TV people, etc. David Brudnoy has already interviewed me about the book for his WRKO radio show here in Boston . In GW& #21 we suggested that readers ask some of their local radio talk shows to interview me by ph'one about TYO. This has already brought us one radio intervi ew, from the "Morning Magazine" show on station WOAI in San Antonio TX . Many thanks to the reader/s who he lped , bring that about . We had a recent phone call fr.om a mother who wanted to unschool her children and who hea r d about us from her librarian . Another good reason for , making' sure that librarians know about us. Pat Montgomery, of the Clonlara School and the Home Based Education P~ogram '( see MI Dire c tory) was on the Donahue show on June 25. Also on the show were the head of the Los Angeles school board (saying that the schools were great) and the hea d of a small private . schQol in a low-income black 'coll\{Tlunity, also in L.A. It was quite a battle"and Pat got in some good licks. Since some of the stations that carry the Donahue show run it one week after the original showing, others two weeks after, others three weeks_ after, and so on all the , way up to an eight or ten week delay, some of you may still be able to catch the show. If a station , in your area car ries Donahue"ask them what their delay is., Or ask the Donahue people, at 2501 Bradley Place, Chicago IL 60618, and mention that you are inter ested in home schoo l ing. The lead story in ,the July 'el issue of Gifted Chi l dren Newsletter ( 530 University Av, Palo Alto CA 94301) is a very favorable report on home schooling . The story will con tinue in the August issue. ' ' In GWS #21 we to ld about our visit from Mr. ' Onuma of Japan. When he returned to his hame island of Hokkaido, his local pa'per printed a story about the trip, complete with a photo 6f myself, Donna, and Peggy (Tim was out of the office that mor ning). Another young man from Japan, Hisashi Urashima, read the story and
came in to visit us last week during ' hrs trip to the - U.S. He showed me many pictures of the school t~ teach English, the "English House Joy," that he started in Obihiro in Hokkaido at t h e age of 24 and has run for ,four years. He also publishes 'an English language annual magazine, Northern kighti' He would like v~ry much to ear rom any h~me schoolers who are also interested in Japan, and any Americans going to Hokkaido can be sure of ~ warm welcome. His (and the school's) address: 11-14, S-5, W-17, Obihiro. Delighted to learn the other day that there is an active unschooling group in Australia, in and around Mel bourne. Their address is Alternative Education Resource Group, c/o 84 Andersons Creek Rd., East Doncaster 3109, Australia . They sent us a copy of an excellent folder of materials that they publish for home schooling parents, with much good advice about how to deal with education authori ties (who from their samples seem quite cooperative), model letters, and so on. I plan to meet with them during my trip, and will have more news about them when I return. --- John Holt COMING SCHEDULE
A schedule of John's Australian trip appears later in this issue . Sept 15, ,1981: "When Does Teach ing Help Learning?" Utah State U. Conf., Park City, Utah; Contact George S. Innis, College of Natural Resources, USU, Lngan UT 801-750-2459. Sept. 14-23 : Promotional , tour for TEACH YOUR OWN . Tentative stops in Seattle, L . A. , San Francisco, Chi cago, Cleveland, New York. Oct. 15 (date tentative) : Meet ing/workshqp, The Children's Museum, Boston waterfront. 'All interested in home-schooling are invited to meet with John Holt and Museum's Resource Staff to get acquainted, , ~hare info, and discover the Museum's many , resour ces. Contact Litty Medalia, Workshop Co-ordinator, 5 Warren Square, Jamai ca Plain MA 02130; 617-524-2225. , Oct. 17: "Schools in Crisis" Conf,; C~nter for Family Studies, Salt Lake City. Contac~ Thomas Ladan ye, Freemen Institute, 3740 W. 1987 South, S . L.C. UT 84131; 801-973-1776. Feb lL, 1982: Waterloo County Teachers Professional Development, KitchenerValhalla Inn, Cambridge, Ontario. Cont"act P<\mela Constable, Glenview Park Secondary School . THANKS
, We want to thank the many volun teers who have helped GWS recently. Half a dozen people have spent time in our offfce doing some of the un exci~ing but necessary work needed to keep us going - assembling sets of back issues, rubber stamping, photo copying, etc. Susan Benedict even taught herself how to use our word processor and belped us store materi al for GWS. Another half-dozen people have picked up work (mostly renewal mailings) at the office to do at home. And 20 people around the coun try just finished , typing up names and addresses for us. / _ Many more ,people have offered to volunteer, which we appreciate - ' a l l ' your names are in our file. Sometimes it's frustrating not to be able to take advantage of your skills and willingness, but we'll do what we can. If John is able to talk about
TEACH YOUR OWN and GWS on some major TV shows, we may need lots of help answering mail. And · if you get any ideas about specific ways you can help us"we'd love to hear from you. --- Donna Richoux THEY KNEW
John recently found this short clipping that he saved from the New York Times 18 or 20 years ago: --GAFFNEY, S.C. (AP) - Four , youths appeared in General Sessions Court in connection with a series of ~reak-ins. Judge Frank Epps, learning that they had quit school, gave them the choice of returning to school o~ go ing on the chain gang . Without hesitat ion, all four chose the chain gan'g . CRANK
Leopold Kohr, perhaps the first modern philosopher SO write about why small institutions are generally bet ter than big, writes in his interest7 ing book THE BREAKDOWN OF NATIONS that E. F. Schumacher, when someone called him a crank, replied, "Some , people call me a crank. I don't mind at all. A crank is a low-cost, low capital tool . It can be used on a mod erate small scale. It is non-violent. And it makes revolutions." GOOD NEWS FROM KY.
From Ruth McCutchen (KY) : ... As you can see by the enclosed article - our dream is a reality! We're legal! We may very well have opened a Pandora's box, here in Kentucky . No one seemed t '\:) know about the new state regulations that went ' into effect back in, October when our troubles ~eghn. Bot~ my lawyers somehow misse tern' I've attached a ,copy of ,the regu latio~s to my application, etc. Feel free to use anything that I've enclosed in GWS. I begah · working on approval the first week in May and received approval on May 28th. So . you see it was wonderfully, incredibly easy' . Prospective "home-schoOlers" in Kentucky should write or call: Pat rick West, Jr., Superintendent of Non Public School s, Room 1"89, CapItol Plaza Tower, Frankfort , KY 40601; phone 564-2116. He will mail them an application form and a copy of the new regulations.,. ' From the Loufsville Times, 6./2/81: ... F'o r 2\; years, Abigail, Rebek,.. ah, and Deborah Alison McCutchen, ranging from 7 to 12 years old, were afraid of being d{scovered. They stayed cloistered in the home until 2:30 p.m. every weekday. They cl,osed curtains to shut out prying eyes. They d~dn ' .t want anyone to know that when other kids headed to regu lar schools in the morning, the McCutchen girls remained at home in their self-styled school. In their nouse filled with bo'oks and lined with maps of , the world and pictures they drew, the girls read constantly, made puppets, put on plays, balanced checkbooks, baked muf fins, listened to Beethoven. . But their secrecy didn't work.
2 Paranoia turned into reality. Last mother says, that she has been teach~ October, somebody - they don't know ing herself to read for months. In who - turned them in to the Jefferson April, she was finally reading books County school autho~ities. on , her own . Her mother and sisters First, school social workers help her when she needs it. Within a arrived. Later, legal notices came. month, she's completed 10 books on Eventually, -school officials charged her own. She says she's thrilled . them with truancy. At a hearing in "It's fun. I'm not used to it," Juvenile Court in January, a judge she said Friday. !'It feels good to gave them until June to prove they know I don't have to go up to them were not breaking a state law requir and say, 'Will you read me a book?'" ~ng children under 16 to attend ... Ms. McCutchen doesn't believe school. a flood of parents will follow her But now, thanks to a 1979 state example, although she knows about two Su~reme Court ruling [see GWS #12, dozen in the metropolitan Louisville l5J, and the new state regulations area with small children who are that followed, they don't need to interested. worry. Last week, the state agreed But many families can't handle that the McCutchen home is a school. it, especially with two parents in a And yesterday, Juvenile Court Judge family working. Ms. McCutchen is Thomas B. Merrill dismissed the divorced but does not work outside case ... the home because her ex-husband sup~ That makes their home the fir~t Rorts the family. Other families home school in Jefferson County to be wouldn't want to have their children approved by the state, local and around them all day, she says. state school officials say. One other But Ms. McCutchen says. she's hav approved home school - with one stu ing a ball, learning right along with dent - is operating in Pike County, them. Their work room is filled with said Patrick West, consultant for non plants, books, encyclopedias, a type public schools with the Bureau of writer, a sewing machine. The walls Instruction ... "This is really no big are lined with maps of the West thing," he said. Indies, Newfoundland ahd the Ameri . .. "I'm glad it's over," Deborah cas, and crayon pictures of every Allison, 12, said last week. "That description . In the bedroom, a globe used to be our dread - that somebody sits on the hearth. Maps and homemade would ask: Where do you_go to sc hool? posters cover the bedroom walls, too. Now we don't care. We'll be glad to Ms. McCutchen believes their tell them." lifestyle is ~e?ching ' her daughters The Supreme Court decision that to grow up creative, .curious, and made it possible dramatically changed independent. She's never been worried the authority of the , state to approve about what they're missing in school. schools. The court ruled that Ken She says her children tested out tucky cannot tell private sc hQols . at about grade : level in the ,standard what teachers or books or curriculum tests used to measure achievement of they must use. public - school children. For example, New state regulations, ~hich testi placed Deborah, 12, at a sixth evolved ' from the ruling and. went into grade, fifth-month level. She was e ffe'c t last October, require the bare above her grade on fractions in the minimum of a schQol. It must fell out math test - even though she has never an appli~ation blank anQ promise to had a sit-down class in fractions . offer six hours of instruction for She learned it all in the kitchen, 175 days a year and teac h. reading, Ms. McCutchen said. "I thought J: hat writing, grammar, spelling, math, his was hysterical." . tory, and civics. Further, fire and And Rebekah's comprehension of health offi~ials must inspect and readln~ passages was measured at a approve the facilities. seventh-grade, 'second-month level . The girls' mot her met all those She didn't do too well oh letter iden requirements, and the school is now tificqtion, however, says Ms. McCutc h called "Learning Through Living." Ms. en, b~cause s he had no id~a what a McCutchen, named principal and head cursive capital "Q" looks lii<e -"a teacher, believes her kids get more style she never uses, Ms . McCutchen not less - instruction than kids in says. Overall; tests put Rebekah at a regular schools. fourth-grade, fifth-month level ... "I don't feel I'm lying by sa'y ing that," she said. "I feel that every hour of the day is learning AND GOOD NEWS FROM VA. time. The minute their feet hit the floor in the morning, they're learn Attorney Peter W. D. Wright sent ing things. I feel that is accurat~, us this s tory fro~ the Richmond, Va . , even though we don't sit down and News Leader, 5/19/81. It is the first have classes." ... case we've heard about tha~ tises this Learning best takes place, she particular ' legal argument, and we hope that it will be a -help to other says, when kids are attracted to what they want to learn apd choose it them GWS readers. Mr. Wright (2702 Parkham seINes. That's why (heirs is a free Rd, Suite 210, Richmond VA 23229; 804 270-0250), who acted for the Hawkins form school. They study or read when they wish. They learn fractions by family, says he's wi11ing to help cooking, about current events while other home-schoolers. discussing newspaper articles. They listen to Vivaldi or do ballet when COUNTY PARENTS WIN BATTLE OVER CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL - Tammy and they want t o . The whole family con Eddie Hawkins . ,. go to school at sumes books. They troop to the lib rary every week, retu~ing home with their home in the Clarendon sub ~iles of books. , dlvision [in Chesterfield County, Va.] Last Friday, around'9:l5 a.m., It took a court hearing late last mon'th t-o prove to Chesterfield for example, Beethoven's "Emperor's school administrat-ors that , what Mr. Concerto" filled the house. As Rebek ah, 9, ate breakfast and created and Mrs. Hollis Hawkins -were doing cl~thes for her paper doll, Abigail, with their children's education is 7, came giggling into the kitchen to legal. ask her mother to help her find ,a Judge John H. Thomas ruled that small gold bug hidden in eac~ pa*e, of the mail correspondence school in a big Richard Scarry book. WfiICh the teenagers are enrolled She was sO drawn to reading, her falls into the accepted de~cription
of a "~rivate school" and, threfore, satisfles compulsory education laws. ... The Hawkinses had decided to take their c h ildren out of Richmond publ ic ' sch'ool s, where they bel ieved Tammy and Eddie were not getting a proper education and were being ph ys ically harassed by other children. After much discussion among Richmond school officials, Tammy and Eddie were allowed to stay home and study that year, but were warned t hat they would have to return to public school during the 1980-81 school year. Be fore the school year began [illegi ble], the Hawkinses [moved to] Ch es terfield, a move they said they had been planning for years. Tammy decided that she would remain at home in the American School accredited by [illegible - probably the National Home Study Council] and alma mater of Donnie and Marie Osmond . The four-year $519 tuition had been prepaid and besides, Mrs. Hawkins said, "She had gott~n used to studying at home." Eddie, however, said he wanted to try Chesterfield Schools . . . Eddie's problems began when Chester field's preliminary testing showed that he was eligible'only for sev enth, or possibly eight!: grade. "He was supposed to be in ninth grade, " Mrs. Hawkins said, "and there was no way" I was going to put him back. " The Hawkinses decided to keep Eddie at home in the correspondence school. Chesterfield schoo l officials did not agree with that move, and ear lier this year, sued the Hawkinses on criminal charges of not providing a proper education for their children, Mrs. Hawkins said she " was scared" at the thought of having , to go to court but added, "I had decided that, no matter what, I wasn't going to h ave Eddie go b~ck to public school. We were ready to take it to the Supreme Court it: we had to." That wasn't necessary . Afte r more t han $1,400 in attorney ' s tees and two days 6f ' work without pay fo~ Hawki n s, Eddie will be allowe d t o study' at home . Mrs . Hawkins said the children probably never will a tt end public schools again . . . She said the fa mi l y cannot afford to send their children t9 any of the area's pr i va t e sc hools. , Tammy, who works , part-time in a local fast-food restaurant, said s he may enroll in a college correspon dence course to stlldy Englis h. "I want to be a writer," she said . . . CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL RESULTS
From an article by T.E. Wade (see "Books on Home Education," this issue) in the April-May 1979 Journal of Adventist Education (Mr. Wade used to be the Director of Studies of t h e Home Study Institute): '... Home Study Institute , has been teaching young people at home since 1909 .•. Two years ago we reported a study of more than one thousand standardized reading test scores from our . files that showed our students reading Qetter than 81% of students at the same grade leVels. But that information was not enough. We wanted the candid.opinions of the parents of our students. So we found as many parents as we could from ' t he 171 Nofth American s t ude n ts promoted t6 various grades in 1976 . Here are [~ome ,of] the statements a nd the~rcentages of people expr ess ing an ~pinion who either agreed or strongly agreed: successfu~ly
GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOL ING #22
3 ... The parent functioning as both parent and instructor did not interfere with the child's learning - 97"/•• Th~ home instructor's background plus the information i n the HSI pro gram were ,sufficient f or the teach ing needed - 95% . The child probably learned as well as (if not better than) he/she would have in a regular ~lassroom 95%. The social development of the child (getting along with others, et cetera) has not been jeopardized by studying a t .home - 96% . It 'is interesting to n'o te that · 23 of the 118 quest~onnaires returned indicated that t h e person giving the daily instru~lon - usually the mother - had no more than 'a high school education. Only 39 ha& any sort of teach er training . ... We wanted to know how well those students who had transferred to standard classroom schools for the following school year were doing. We mailed 57 questionnaires to the cu r re n t scnool principals and received 53 responses. " How wou ld you classify the current academic achievem~nt of t h is student? " we aske d . For 80%, t he response was "excellent" or "above average." Then we asked, "Compared to other new students at your sch ool, how is this boy or girl developing socially?" 66-801. of the question nqires were marked "mixes well wit h other children, relates well to teach ers, is well - mannered and c,ourteous, and contributes to t he cl.ss discus~ sian.'"
Nine out of ren o f ~he respond
ents indicated that iTom their view
point, the fact that the c h ild stud
ied through Home Study Institute
caused no particular problems beyond
wh at wou l d have been expected as a
result of changing from another
school .
Most of the questionnaires from
both parents and schools had encour
aging commen t s ...
to remember every difficulty they have ever had. I've only noticed this recently, after many, many repeti tions. Now I consciously try to 'insert,the opposite view after an hour or so. I t h irik wheri the discus ' sion goes back and fort h between plea sures and probLems, people get a much more realistic p i cture of what home schooling is actually like ... [JH:] As I wrote to Ann, she's quite right about . it being important to print stories about problems and worries related to home-sch ooling. But we can't do it if people don't tell us. We certainly don't censor out stories of problems, quite the reverse - we go out of our way to print such stories wh en we get them . Maybe this letter will stimulate more people to wr~te us about such. ' problems . TWO COLO. GROUPS
From Betsie Weil, 2609 South
Blvd, Oolorado Springs CO, 80904:
... We have formed a group called the Colorado Springs Home Schoolers and would be interested in having more folks join ui. Calls can be made to Sh errie Simmerman at 630-8512 or me at 473-3898 .. . And from Nancy and Fred Dumke,
1902 S Oneida, Denver CO 80222:
. .. Interested parents/parents
to-be i n t he Denver area have formed
a group called the Colorado Home
Schooling' Network. We meet once a
month to exchange ide~s and support.
I will be conducting a seminar in
August about home schooling t hrougH
Denver Free University. We hope to
increase our membership thro'u gh the
seminar .. .
PA. NEWSLETTER
PROBLEMS
From Janet Williams, RD 2 Box
181, York Springs PA 17372:
From Ann Bodine (NJ): ... 1 am beginning to feel that
GWS is too positive and glowing and
doesn't give enough recognition to
the problems and hard work of home ,
schooling ... But what can you do if
, that's what people write you? ' I'm not say in g~that I t h ink yo~ distort what people write, but , perhaps a more open discussion of problems would encour age more people to write about their problems . , One parent I know had written several paragraphs in GWS - all glow ing . When he told me about the prob lems they had had (I don.'t mean with authorities, I mean wi thin their own family), I asked him whether he had mentioned any of those problems in his letter t o you. He said he didn't think readers would have been inter ested. ... 1 have noticed with our month ly Family Schools Association meet iqgs that if a discussion starts out wit h a "Isn't home sc hooling wonder ful " tone, it tends to stay that way for hours, as if people are intimida ted and afraid to mention any ' diffi ctilty they are having. On the other hand, if it starts out with a "Home schooling sure is exhausting for the parents " tone, it will stay that way for hours. Perhaps hearing others dis cuss their difficulties causes people
GROW ING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #22
... In Pennsylvania we are begin ning to reac h ou t to each other . On May 3rd J6e and Lorraine Clark hosted a picnic (primarily for t he greater Philadelphia area) . On May 31 we had a picnic here (primarily for t he grea~er Harrisburg area.) Both were well attended with children greatly outnumbering adul~s. Both times I was fascinated by the cooperation and friendliness of the kids. At one point there were seven 2-4 year olds in the sandbox at once. The older ch ildren organized t hemselves into a girls vs. boys ballgame. All this by supposedly "socially deprived" child
reduce the sense of , isolation affect ing all of us. Once we have formed our grassroots . groups, then we can reach out to , (1) , receive ref.erral? from the Dept. of Education, ' GWS" etc; (2) provide moral (and finan cial?) support for fam~lies suffering legal hassles; (3) join into alterna tive "schools" if 'necessary or desir able; (4) d,e velop an advocacy ser vice . .. MARYLAND GROUP
From Manfred Smith (9085 Flame pool Way, Columbia MD 21045): . . . Just had an unscho'Oling meet ing last Sunday. A lot o~ new, commit ted people. After a period of general discussion, things began to develop rapidly : 1) We are planning to incorpor ate as a non-profit educational alter native. The aim here is, provide as much legal cover and tangible support to home-schoolers-a5 possible - I am in the process of lining up as many certified and qualified personnel as I can. 2) Have established a monetary fund ($10 per family) to help pay for ' incorporation, buy materials, legal fund (?) , etc. 3) Meetings will include a rota ting facilitator . . . 4) Decision by consensus ... Com mon interests that are pressing should find easy consensus. Thrs promises to be an ihterest ing venture . .. USEFUL CENTER IN CALF.
The MARIN COMMUNITY RESOURCE CEN TER (Camino Alto & Sycamore, Mill Val ley CA 94941; 415-383-1233) is offer ing a place for home-schooling fami lies to meet, learn together, use or borrow material, arrange field trips; etc. The director, Jan Frangione, writes : . .. 1 envision some families using the Center's field trip program only, others taking part in the lang uage program, others developing a tutoring situation, others having their chrldren at the Center on a con sistent 2-3 ~ays a week basis: the combinations of time and --use of the Center, its materials and director are numerous. Fees will be kept as low as possible with an aim to making the Resource Center available to as many families as possible in the greater Bay Area . . . The Resource Cen ter is registered with the State of California as a private school and participation in any of its activi ties means your child is a school student . . .
re.n!
. ... We will print a quarterly newsletter for the PA . UNSCHOOLERS NETWORK (PAUN) ... I am committed to doing this for 4 issues (one ye&r) .:. Beyond that I cannot see. We will charge no subscription fee - but dona tions would be gratefully accepted ... . We will gladly include anyone on the mailing list who takes the time to send a request. , PAUN will offer information about Pa . . laws, new legislatio~, legal cases and history . Given the size of this state, we cannot have a statewide support group but must depend upon a netwOrk of smaller groups working independently . The ini tial purpose of the newsletter is to
RESOURCE IN NY
From Anna Marie Fahey of the CHRISTIAN HOMESTEADING SCHOOL, RD 2, Oxford NY 13830: .. :Enclosed is information about the program we offer to parents inter ested in teaching their children at home. We invite anyone to write for further information .. . The Homesteading School is 70 acres of hilltop woods and meadows in rural New York ... We have chickens, ducks, cats, goats, cows, bees, a dog, and a horse . Buildings are small and are made of logs .. . We are living from the land much as we are teach~ng
4 people to do.
: . . A Homesteading Week is an
intensive week of lnstruction on home steading subjects (7 to 10 hours a day) .•. Basic Homesteading Week is limited to 15 and is required for our other programs except Carving, Home b irth, and Home Education weeks .. . One encoura~ing thing we have noticed is that at our Home Birth Associati on meetings, almost all the parents who h ave given birth at h ome are now teaching the ir children at home o r are planning to do so. In fact, it has proved to be the most talked about subject other than h ome , · birth ...
ALTERNATIVES IN ED. Every time we get an issue of the Alternatives in Education newslet ter fr om West Virg1n1a, we mark all kind s of wonderful stories we'd like t o quote in GWS. But eac h time some th i ng pr eve nt s us - generally, we run out of space, or we run out of time. So this time we are determined at lea st to remind people of the exis t ence of thi s great little paper, in hopes that many of our readers will also becom e their r ea'ders. Like GWS, Alternatives' in Educa ti on is larg ely made up of reader con IrrDutions - letters, suggestions, announcements, resource lists, book reviews. Although some of the content would only interest those in West Vir ginia or : neighboring sta t es, there are still many letters · about learn ing, living, and home-schooling that have much more than local appeal. Alternatives in Education, which is about 16 18 mimeographed pages, on l y costs $2 for four i ssues a year. . Definitel y worth the money . We asked Deirdre Purdy, one of th e people who work on the newslet ter, whether back issues were avail able. Sh e wrote, "We have samples of the current issue we'd be glad to send for SO¢. Back issues are all gone. If we run out of current iss ue s, we will send the October issue." The paper's new address is Rt 3, Box 305, Chloe WV 25235. - DR
REACTIONS TO BOOKS We are thinking about putting toget her some kind of booklet reprint ing the book reviews we've run in GWS. This is still very tentative we'r e not sure how much work it would be, or whether it would be worth the time and effort, or what it would lo ok like. But it ' s still a real pos sibility, a nd the main point would be to s hare with as many people as we can our thoughts and feelings about the books on our Mail-Order Booklist, Not everybody gets and reads the back issu es of GWS (t hough we're delighted at hOW man y do), and even those who do may forger-what's in them, or lose them, and so on . . The reason we're telling you about this now is that we thought some of you might li~e to contribute t o suc h a booklet, We would be very interested in , h earing your reactions to any of the books on our Mail-Order Book li st - what you got out of the book, why you think othe r people would like it, what it was like to read the book for the first time, wh at it's like to read it to your kids, what long-lasting effect the book has had on you~life, or any thing else you'd like to share. The mor e spontaneous the better, the more specific th e better. Any l ength is
OK, from one sen~ence to several pages. You don't have to worry about spelling, punctuation, etc., - we can fix up little things like that . By the way, since the ultimate purpose of this booklet is to get peo ple to buy the books, and to keep the books alive, in print and in circula tion, we will naturally be emphasiz ing·the positive aspects of the books . If you don't like a book and want to tell us why, well, that's fine, we'll be interested in hearing it. But we don't expect to print many ' of those kinds of comments. On the other hand, if'you like a book but think it has certain lim(tations, drawbacks, etc., feel free to tell about those things too . One final note - of course, we welcome your response no mat~er what age you are. But because peo~le are often concerned about what ' age of per son can appreciate a particular book, we would welcome hearing your age if you would like to tell us, or how old you were when you first read the book . Looking forward to hearin~ from you . - DR
HOMESCHOOLERS ON RADIO Dave Van Manen (CO) writes: ... We are very excited about another big step made in finding ot h er people bel(eving in or sympat he tic to home-schooling. At the last meeting of the Home Schooling Support Group, we all agreed to make phone calls to a listener-participation radio show this past Monday. It wa s a great success' For an h our and a half, 99% of ~ll calls dealt with home-schooling. Helene started it off by calling and voicing some of our ge ner al philosophies of home-scho o l ing. The h ost, h aving a background in teaching, asked some probing and good questions . He was generally very accepting, and even seemed to agree wit h most of what we said. The rest of the s h ow was car ried by a h andfu l of home-schoolers and a significa nt number of the steady listeners· phon ing in remarks and questions (whic h we would conveniently call in and answer). Almost every caller was s up portive of the general concept of home-schooling - we were all very sur pri.sed. At one point, during a segment dealing wit h the legalities, a sc h ool administrator from the local district phoned in and stated that Colorado has made provisions within the laws to deal with the home-schooling "prob lem" by setting up a bunch of rules and regulations for h ome-sch ooling , Well, we certainly made a point of his use of the word " problem" - a reflection of how the schools view home-schoolers - as PROBLEMS. I'm sure he heard us loud a nd clear . Our intention in doing this radio show was not to argue and scream and shout ~bout the schools' problems; we simply wanted to let the community know that we are here, we know what we are talking about, and we intend to exercise our right to educate our children the way we see fit . After the show, we called up the host, asking about the possibility of having us on the show as guests .. .
HOME SCHOOL LETIERHEADS A number of GWS readers hav~ told us about the advantages of h av ing official-looking letterhead sta
tionery,for their "home schools." For, example, Barbara Lafferty ( NJ ) wrote, "When purchasing te~tbooks, a schoof letterhead - which isn't very expen sive to have printed and can be very useful in correspondence - from a fam ily's home school affords you the ben e·fi t of' receiving the school dis count, which is anywhere from 10% to 39%. Also, a Dook of 'Purchase Orders,' which can be purchased at any business supply store, is help ful. Some book companies require a purchase order Signed by a school 'official. '" We remembered Carol Kent's let ter in GWS #15 about buying a hand printing press, and asked the Kents if they could print letterhead sta tionery for ot her GWS readers. Carol wrote back: ... It would be pleasure to do so . The paper is 8~ x 11" handsome white pebble-textured bond with match ing #10 envelopei. I can provide 25 printed sheets, 15 plain, and 25 printed envelope6 for $6 postpaid . Please print or type the name, a dd ress, and telephone number of the institution and the name and title of the director as they should appear on the letterhead. For an additiona l dol lar I will print a slogan at the foot of all forty sheets. Make checks pay~ able to Carol Kent, 115 West Koenig Lane #208, Austin TX 7875 1 [ new add r ess J •••
FAMILY BOOKS & JOURNALS Carol Kent also sen t us a long, lovely description about her son Rob ert's fascination witn trains (bo th re al and model trains ), which we intend to run in a future GWS. She told us it was from the "family' book," and when we asked her to tell us more about that, she replied: . .. Our family book is ba sic ally a s tory book, written b y David and me. These stories are about the 'i mp o r tant events in th e history of our f a m ily, written at the time they hap pened. I ha ve a ls o written some s t or ies aboUt my own childhood as I am reminded of them by what happens t o my own children. These are personal, and not written for anyone in particu lar. There is no regularity about it, so it is not really a journal . Although we h ave our scrap-books, books . of drawings, and photo albums, the family book is something else, a collective autobiography of o ur ~ami ly, which the children can add to when they begin to write stories of their own ... Also, Norm Lee (NY) wrote: . . . Enclosed is an article, "How to Write a Homestead Journal" that we put in Homesteaders News a year or so ago ... You might suggest it for home schoo l ers . A daily i nf ormal journal about things associated with the learning things that occured during that day ... may help home-schooling people glue things together. At a minimum it aids in focussing on what's important during the day, putting eve nts in per spective, perhaps 'even learning from them, and - o h , yes - improving writ ing by the only method known to work: by writing. TV can ' t compete with a journal read three or four years later to the children, either, My own boys would sit ent hr alled as I read my journal -
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5 sometimes about events tha t didn't involve them, so~etimes a bout things t h at did - an occasion that trigge.,;e d discussion , renewal of forgot t en pro jects, or hysterical laughter. But warning: a journal is great for the health - but terribly habit-torming . ~'ve been hooked for many years . [From Norm's article : ] . .. The journal records feel ings" moods, joys, fears, events, views, and re actions to people, books, work, weath er, everything. It's no t a secret diary, but ,an open letter to oneself - an open door for ' people to know you better. (The bonus is d iscovering that you know yourself better . ) Use a separate notebook, and a new page for each day - but dOd't num~ ber the pages ahead. When you really warm up to a subject you won't want to feel cramped for space . At first keep talking and let h e r roll . Choose the most outstanding f ea ture or . event of the day and talk about it as if writing to a friend. I f it helps, write, "Dear I do my writing during the peace and freshness of early morning. Others like to look bac k over the day and commune with pen and notebook in the hush of evening . A homestead jour nal can change your pa c e, change your views, and change your life ... CREDENTIAL THROUGH TV
From Iowa ': . . . We have not taken the "big step" yet, but are moving closer to it all the time. At present I am tak ing a course, the first of two I will need in order to renew my teaching certificate. This is a TV course two half-hour programs per week for 15 weeks; a study guide and child psychology text; plus three objective tests - a very painless and conveni ent means to an end f or my situation. Our son is in first grade now, and is going through many of the things othe~ GWS letters have men tioned. He taught hims elf to read before kindergarten (I mean com~lete lY - we had nothing t o do with ~ t Ofrectly, and it was real reading with understanding, not just recog nizing a few, words.) But now he's con vinced that he "learne d to read" in school' There was no provision made for his needs in kindergarten-or first grade until we f inallj went to the school and pleaded with them to at least ~ something different ... He was given a dozen busywork pages each day (which the t eac her admitted were only to keep the children busy while she worked with other groups) and getting into trouble because he didn't get his work done ... He's the type of person who li kes to have everything "just right . " His hand writing is beautiful - and he'd rath er spend ' time making it look nice than rush through to get everything done . I can't bring myself to tell him, "You must do sloppy work to get it all done and make them happy." ... OFFERING SHELTER
An interesting offer from Ann Bodine (83 Knollwood Dr, New Provi dence NJ 07974): .. . If you ever hear of any child ren who are in danger of being forced into school by local authorities, and if the parents would rather send' the children away for a f ew weeks or months while they get the problem
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ironed out than to have the children go to school while the issue is being settled, I would be happy to take those children . I don' t really be lieve i t will ever · come to that for anyone, but if it did, or if the author~ties were using the threat of taking children away until the plan was apProved, it would get the par ents out of hot water to be able to say that the children had ' moved out of state. The real problem, would be for a child too young to leave the parents . I wondered what I would do if they had told me to put Jonathan in school until they approved the plan. He is too little to be away from us, except for one or two nights with very good friends. I might have had to enroll him in the least offensive private s~hool I could find and then keep him home as much as possible as sick . .. MAVERICK LD. EXPERT
Jennifer Seip (21 New Rd, North
Hampton NH 03862) wrote in 1978:
. .. 1 have worked in education for the past seven y~ars, since I got out of college. I had a B.A . in Soci ology but was very interested in teaching "special" children, particu larly emotionally disturbed. I was an educational counselor in a special camp, and a teacher's assistant in a school for the emotionally disturbed. Then I moved to New Hamp ~hire and worked as an aide in a "Learning Dis abilities" classroom. 5~ years ago I was hired as a Title I Director/Learn ing Disabilities specialist. I became certified in elementary education and learning disabilities. ... 1 have given you this (per haps boring) background because I want you to know where I'm coming from and what experiences I base my statements on. I am probably the only L,D . specialist who despises the field of learning disabilities. . . . 1 am supposed to test, label, and correct children - make them bet ter . My principal considers me a fail ure at this. ~ will not test, I will not label, and I will not say there ,is something wrong with a child . I will not absolve the educational sys tem of its guilt. I will not patch up its ever-increasing leaks. I know a great deal about percep tual strengths and weaknesses and the falsity of these tests and the pro grams that are supposed to work. And I know this knowledge is worthless in teaching - except to help you find out that it's worthless. . . ,1 know even more about the teaching of' reading - all the skills and latest remedial methods - and I know that all this knowledge too is useless. It's great for ' wasting time with kids and making yourself feel like you're doing something and "the kid must really have a problem if he still can't learn." I find that if I don't garble my tutors' minds with reading skills and "training" and just tell them to use their own intu ition, that they are far better "teachers" than any reading special ist. And once they get over the i r lack of confidence from not being a trained professional, I think they come to see it's true' ... A 12-year-old girl I worked with last year was many years below grade level, and nobody could teach reading to her. She had gotten stuck in the cycle of failure. After I stopped trying hard to teach her basic reading- "skills," we read from
a book of her choosing that was "too hard" for her. We took turns' reading and when she got to words she didn't know (there were many) , ' I told her to simply ask me if she wanted to be told the word. It was sometimes very hard for me ,n ot to slip some teaching in - not to have her sound it out, etc. We we'n t on like that for perhaps a month . One day she came to me, obvi 'ously feeling very good ,about her self. We talked about the good things that had happened to her that day and how powerful she felt. We opened the book and she read the entire page cor rectly! I could see her lips moving ' to sound out words, her eyes moving ahead to get context clues - all on her own initiative. She exhibited all the reading skills tha~ ~ests said she didn't have., She didn't need to 'be taught, she didn't need to learn skills or how to apply them. She could read' All she needed to do was to do it ... You mention many times in GWS your interest in telling the truth about learning disabilities. I 'can help with thiS, and also with helping pa·rents . see how capable they already are of teaching their own children . I'm interested in being a resource person for such parents ... Jennifer's letter turned ,up rece'ntly in a pile of old papers, and Donna wrote asking how things were go ing now. Jennifer answered: · . . It was wonderful to get your letter. I had wondered what had ever happened tO ,my letter John said he was going to quote from ... It pleases me so much to watch the home school ing movement grow over these years. I can't think of a better reason to .have my letter overlooked' . · .. Yes, you can still put me down as a resource person for learn ing disabil~ties, and you , no longer need to keep my name confidential. You see, I no longer work in educa tion. I quit my job as Title I Direc tor two years ago. And I will never work in a school again. · .. LearnLng is one of the most beautiful parts ' of living and the schools are destroying it. How can that not be one of the most emotional issues to someone who sees that?? Especially wh en I made it my life's wo rk, when I s pent eight years learn ing how to do it better, learning how people learn, and learning how I can help people wh o th i nk they can't learn see that they can. And then as my own personal values integrated with what I realized was happening in education, I had suddenly "idealized" myse l f out of a life's work ... People don't understand why I d on't just set up a better school ~ some friends of mine with money have even asked me to. But I know I would only be compromising - I would not be happy. They don't see that the very premi s es behind setting up a school are against my values about learning. They believe kids won't learn "enough:' unl es s c ompelled to learn in a certain place at a cert a in time from certain people ... I tried private tutoring of kids with learning problems, but it was extremely frustrati~g. The kids and parents were still locked into the beliefs and value s ystems of the s chool. I'm no t going t o settle for less any more. I believe that when you settle for less (because you don't think you can get what ,you want), you greatly decreas e your opportunities for getting what you