Growing Without Schooling 50

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SGROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING

50 On Wednesday Feb . 5, Margaret Anna Young Van Doren was born - or, as we all call her, Greta. Now six weeks old as I write, she has been a very peaceful baby from the start, and I feel lucky to be among those at the Van Doren home for the birth. The next weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting Nancy Plent of the UNSCHOOLERS NETWORK (NJ), and staying at her home, where I also met Manfred Smith of the MARYLAND HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATION and Madalene Murphy, the active Pennsylvania home­ schooler who indexed GWS #31-40. At the "Home Based Leadership Confer­ ence" in Princeton, Feb. 17, I was asked to be on a panel, where I said a few words about the way John Holt had encouraged people's energy to go toward positive results instead of infighting and bickering. I enjoyed saying hello to several readers, and got well acquainted with John's friend Susannah Sheffer as we drove to Swarthmore to spend that night. Next week Pat Farenga goes to speak at an Alternative Schools con­ ference sponsored by Bucknell Univer­ sity. The topic is to be, "Homeschool­ ing and John Holt's vision." On March 16, Pat did a telephone radio show for a Miami station, and it ran for an extra hour and a quarter because there were so many calls' We're rather excited to now offer special binders to hold the back issues of GWS. John always thought of GWS as a "reference work, being published volume by volume," and that's just what it feels like when you put your back issues in these . The metal rods hold each issue in place without obscuring any text; see center insert for details. Sandy Kendall of our book depart­ ment has left in order to work on renovating her parents ' house, and to write and illustrate a children ' s book . We wish her well and know that she ' s not far away if we need her . We ' ve been enjoying the presence of Shane Baruch (11) in the office several days a week. Shane entertains us with jokes and riddles, creates art, does some schoolwork, and is gen­ erally lively . He particularly likes to scrutinize the mail for unusual stamps . --- Donna Richoux

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

is now talked about more openly in education and legislative circles, though still in cautious terms. In this issue our colleague Sandy Ken­ dall interviews the Curriculum Direc­ tor for Barnstable MA, one of our oldest "Friendly School District" listings. There is a note of co-oper­ ation in this public school district that is refreshing and innovative; other school districts would be wise to follow its lead . The U. S. Department of Education is taking an interesting pOint of view concerning teacher certifica­ tion . We have read about several states that allow people to teach full-time in classrooms before they have earned a teaching certificate. In a recent Boston Globe article (2/18/86) Education Secretary Bennett offers his thoughts on opening the teaching ranks: "'Provisional certification should be given to people from other career fields who want to become teachers,' Bennett said in an address to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. 'Candidates,' he said, 'should be competent in a subject area, have decent character and be interested in ~ommunicating with the young . .. I say open up the profession to anybody who fits ' these three criteria ... ' He suggest­ ed candidates could undergo 'spot' evaluations in the classroom to determine whether they should receive permanent certification." Homeschooling parents should not have much trouble meeting Mr. Ben­ nett's criteria and they should note Mr. Bennett ' s words when their abili­ ties as "qualified teachers" Come under fire. Despite all his talk about parental involvement and open­ ing the teaching ranks, Mr. Bennett is cautious about homeschooling. In a lengthy interview with the Washing­ ton Times (1/2/86) he asserts the position that the state has a "mini­ mal interest" to assure "education" is occuring in a place that calls itself an "educational institution" and that the "so-called school is not being used as something else - that is, that you draw a distinction between the home schooler and the par­ ents who want to keep a kid out of school to do something that doesn ' t have anything to do with the child's education ." Mr . Bennett doesn't define "education," but it's a good bet he means predominantly formal classroom lectures and situations, with an occassional class trip thrown in for good measure. Homeschoolers and wise teachers know learning can take place anywhere, any time, not just in an "educational institution," and they need to be alert to their children's learning schedule, not the state's schedule. At least Mr . Bennett is aware of homeschoo l ing and his sword can cut both ways . Homeschoolers can use his research and comments to help over­ come common objections to homeschool­ ing . This is demonstrated in the latest study released by the Dept. of Education, What Works [available free from CONSUMER INFO, Pueblo CO 81009). In the report are 41 suggestions, which are backed by the Department's own research, that they claim will work to help children learn and schools to function better. The excerpts I read in The Christian Science Monitor (3/4786) are ~nterest­ ing. The ma~n thrust of the report is "Parents are their children ' s first and most influential teachers. What

parents do to help their children learn is more important to academic success than how well off the family is ... " The article continues, "Other findings show that children who a re encouraged to scribble at an early age are more inclined to write later on; and that they learn science bet­ ter when allowed to do hands-on exper­ iments." Though these techniques and the proof of their success a~e old famili­ ar friends to GWS readers they are only now officially being touted as "What Works." Some people consider this report a smokescreen by the Reagan administration to justify their proposed 21 % cut in education funding, and perhaps to a degree it is, but no matter what the political nature of the report is, the fact is that homeschoolers can claim they've been doing - and we have been print­ ing - "What Works" all along. --- Patrick Farenga

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

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

To honor the memory of

JOHN HOLT 1923

1985

this book is given

w________________ by _ _ _ _ _ __

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


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Growing Without Schooling 50 by Patrick Farenga - Issuu