Growing Without Schooling 55

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING -55 1987 begins the tenth anntueraryyear for GWS, and urc are planntng a special

commemor:ative issue, #58, whichwill be published in August, We'll beginworlidng on it in April, and we particularly tnvite GWS readers and homeschoolers to write us about your memories of ten years ago and your reflections on howyour lives have changed since 1977. We'll hunt through our subscriptton records and see lfwe can determinewho is the longest continuing subscriberl Plus we'll have an inside look at the history of GWS, and more.

Sadly, we continue to experience stalf changes. Afterhelpingus outwtth the lall and Christmas rush, Sandy Kendall has left to work as awriter, and our dear friend and coworker Mar5rVan Doren is planning to move soon to Maine where her husband Mark will be taldng aJob. We will miss themvery

much.

Got a letter from Bobbie Groth of Strlmer Crllege (PO BoxA5OO, Waukegan IL 6O079; 312623-8400) who says, "As the Dlrectorof Admissions at Shimer, I am attempting to make public an admissions policywhich welcomes homeschoolers." She describes Shimer as a small but vital "learning community"with an emphasis on classlcal educaUon and self-government. We certainly would be interested in hearing about other colleges that activelywelcome homeschoolers perhaps we could startasmall listinour Resource section. I belierae I heard once that BrighamYoung Unirrcrsity has such a policy c:rn someoneverifv this? --- furul.oRlchottx

SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE In 1986, HoltAsociates business Lncreased by $ I O,OOO, but our growth ls not keeptng up wtth expenses. In the past, most of

thedeficltwas made up outof.John Holfs pocket - and now out of his estate. We can't keep thls up forever.

In particular, our subscrlption count has stayed about the same - near SOOO - for four years or so. That ls, new subs acquired have been wenly offset by old subs not renewed.

This ligure counts ALL subscribers - a member ofagroup sub counts the same as an individual paying full price. In December'86, the count took a DOWNWARD tum, to 428O. We are nota membershJp orgarrizadon, but stillwe are strnllar, and we know that

manyofour readers have asense ofloSralty and 6ebngtng. If every subscriberwai responsible for gettlng ONE new subscrlption such as giving a gift, or getti:rg a friend to subscribe -wewould DOUBLE oursub figures.

The printing and malllng ofmore lssues does not greatly increase our costs of operadon. In fact, larger press runs lower the cost per issue. Ifwe pt IOOO new

subscripdons, for example, the extra revenue thatwould bring inwould go a longway toward coverlngourannual deficit. 2OOO new subscriptions would coverour deficit and give us abit extra to retire our debts, grow and

improvel In order to do this, we need your help. We know there's a lot of good will and good ideas out there - it's dme to translate them into results.

We are not merely askingyou to put money in our pockets. The more people who knowaboutGWS, who read lt, who are altected by it, the betterolfyou will be - the more like$ you will be to find the ldnd of supportand communit5ryou are looldng for.

Before I continue on the subject ofwhat you cando, letme talkaboutwhatwe're doing.

We know that the small prlnt ofGWS has lost us some renewals and discouragpd others from subscribing. With this issue, we have begun using a new process to put together GWS. Because time is short, we were on$ able to make the transition onto the new machines and put out somethlng that is a reasonable facsmile ofwhat vou are used to seelng. But clearly the Mactitosh technology is more flexible than our old way, and we will

toexperimentwith some deslgp changes thatwe hopewill improve the readabiJity and usefulness of our publicadon.

Some of the elements ofCWS's destgn were due to Lmltations ofour old machlnes, but otherswere deliberate choices. We are not going to totally change our appearance - Just take advantage of some newoptions thatare possible.

Anythlngwe can do to make GWS more attracdve and readable, wlthout sacrlflclng content or quallty, can only help to wln us new friends. We welcomeyour opinions about be able

ourchanges.

We will be brainstormftig here over the corning months on howwecan increase our subs to 5OOO, @OO, wenup to IO,OOO. Andwe ask thatyou look forways to make ttrts happen - and thatyou tell us about them.

Stop and thlnk right now of people you know - relatlves, friends, neighbors, colleagues, librarians, educators. Isn't there at least one personwho has been intrigued by your ideas regarding education, and who might like to get GWS? It doesn't have to be a hoineschooler or even a p.rrent. I can think of one person right away and I betyou can too. rlot that name down. Is thls someonevou could give aglftsubscripdon to? Hav6you wer shown this person acopy ofGWS? Have you ever suggested s/he subscribe?

We'll conflnue to announce ideas for this drive tJratwe gatherand generate, and report our progress in each lssue. Meanwhile, we

invite each ofyou to think about howwecan prevent a downward trend and break through the plateau we've been on. Participanng h this drive is your opportunity to contribute, on an individual level, to our real and long-

I

o 6 o

o

A

lFarewell to the Van Doren family, who have sewed lon the HoIt Associates Board of Direoon and lparticipated in GWS for five yean. Herc Mary and lMa* hold Helen and Greta.

valuable llsdngwithout strainingyourryes.

The l-arge-type Directoryis avallable for$5, includir:rg postage. I can't reslst polnting out, fcr those ofyou who wonder uhg we use that teeny print, that it took the Mahers over 6O pages to cover the ldentical materlal thatwe put on eCaht pages tn #541 - DR Eweryonc Ir Abb: fplodtng the Myth of lrarningDlrabllitiee. Ourl6full of new letters (thanks to all ofyou who answered ourrequest for stories) as well as arHcles from our llles, excerpts frombooks, and stories from GWS. page booklet ts

Of particular notels a two page secdonlistlng the "symptoms" that educators say lndicate

.

learning dtsabilities ['is dlsorganized; is easily dtstracted; displays furconslstencles in behavior") . A wonderful gtft for crtflcal

ftends and relatfues,

as well as belng an excellent lntroductlon to ourwork ln general.

Thecostis $3, plus postage (see centerir:sert for charges). --- Susannah Shefer

OPPONENTS COME AROUND Joge

Kirrullort/|.J"T) wrcte

Intlle

Nor.prnber Tender Ttrtor:

About nineyears ago our school district hired a new superintendent. One of the first things thts mandeclded to dowas stomp on me. He was convincâ‚Źd that home school would harm my children and tlrat itwas his responsibility to get in control ofus. In the two or threeyears hewas here, he and I, and an assortrrrnt of other people, "went the rounds" a number of tlmes, with a great deal of anger and noise. Then the superintendent rnoved on to Nevada, and then laterto CaltfornlaThis summer I was given a llyer

Wbat'e laelde: Support Groups:2: Hlgh Scores: 2 === GED: 2 === Good Answets: 3

:

termgrowth. -DR

Tutortng: 3 := Back to Homeschool: 3 === Local Cotut NeuB: 4 NeuB: 3-4 =: Raflrâ‚Ź States: 4 : : Calendar: 4 === Loss ofJH: 5: ftly3ay; $ === Self-Directed Learning: 5 === Caring for Others: 6 =: Frank Smith: 6 : Stsrcss ofEarly School: 6-7

OUR TWO NEW BOOKLETS

School ofFlard Knocks: 8

pleased to arutowte that tun netu Holt Assccirrtes publications will fu at ailaHe here bg tlw tine gott reeiln this issue oJGl,IilS. We're

Large-typc Dircctory. For all ofyou who have complatned about the mlcroscopic

print in the annual GWS Directory

Issue #54), Mary and Tom Maher have put together (see

a booklet c.ontaturing the complete 1987

Dir-

ectory in rqgular type. Nowyou can use that

:

JHlCompetition:

7

:

:

NO CONTEST: 8

Tcsh

8:

:

School

Stories:8-9 === "Smart"hds:9 === Gutdcs:91O === ftishrnan/pqringJob at 6: lO: MVD/Allowsnsss; I Q === py6 Patdr : lO === Foqrdllng School: IO === LarrringDurlngTrip: I I === Rlchman/ Borcd: I I =: Social Ilfe: 12 =: Book Reviews: l316 === Computcrs: 17- l8 =: Storytelllr4;: l$21 === OlderReaders: 2l === Violin at 3l : 2 I :

:= l,angoaget22-= Ifuitdng:22 =Siagtng: 22 =:Math: 22'23 : Helping Arrimals: 23 === HostinglTfavclcrs: 23 =: Skcpttcs: 24 : Resources, Opuorrs: 2I!-24 : Whole Earth: 25 := Tests: 25 :Wrlung: 25 Suerles: 22 Tapes: 22

:

) announcing a home school convention in Los Angeles, and guess who was listed among the speakers?That's riglrt this same superintendentt His own grandchildren are now being taugftt at home, two of his sons and theirwlves are leaders in the movement, and supporter.

Ofcourse I couldn't resistworking out a trtp to California. I did go without any malice toward tlre man; he hadn't really done me any great harm (actually I could hardly stop laughing) and he was very gracious toward he has become a

me, even told the audlence he had

first

leamed about homeschooling; from me.

So when things seem dilflcult, persever€ and endure. TIme reallvls onoursidel

Katlilre;nMcCutdg Nor:emfur FLEx re w sb tten And.

(VVN torcte

tuttJv

We'd like to share the following ,nctdent, as told to us by Mary Gardner: At a r€cent support group meeflng; there were a large number of new people tn attendance and among them was a gentleman

who spokeup and said hewantedtoshare something.

"Until reccntly I was aprosecufing attomey in Idaho," he satd. Suddenly there was total silence ln the room. Some people looked a little apprehensive. "In fact, not long ago I had to prosecute the case ofa homeschooling family," he added.

There was a collectlve gasp. Sudden! a young mother sitflng behlnd him let go with a bookoverhis head, saying "Shame onyoul" This broke the tension somewhat and the man went onwith his story. Idaho, you may recall, has had anumberof homeschooltrials in the last couple ofyears, including some families who went toJail over the issue.

He said the homeschooling motherwho was beingprosecuted had no supporters. Not evenarry reladveswould come to herdefense.

She was alone with only her strong convlcfionto sustaln her in thebelief that homeschoolingwas stmply the best thing for her child. He related that after the court hearlng, the case stuck in his mind. He kept thinldng, "How can it be wrong for a mother to educate herchfld?"

The thougfttwetghed heavlly upon hirnHe could think of nothing else and ffnally went to sce theJudge. They dlscussed the case for some tlme, and in the end they both came to the conclusion that the case should be dismissed, "Now my wife and I are homeschooling our chlldren," he concluded.

Wlrat cheering news that wasl One can onlywonder if the homeschooling farni$ in Idaho everheard the restofthe storyl

GROUPS IMPRESS SUPT. Susan Ricfurran, usrlllng in the wtxer Pennsvlvarrla Homeschoolers ne w sletter abutT ne thg wilh her disffic t s ne w

superlnterdent, said: Aswe talked he flnally safd what I'd suspected must be festering there under the surface, '\ilell, I don't doubt that if parents have the dme to do this sort of ttring well (and I can't see how many could ffnd this sort of dme), then home educaflon programs could be aflne acod.emtc educadon, " I took his emphasis to mean hewasworried about the social aspect of this "aberrant" way ofraising children. He said, grateful thatq/e had brought ttup, thatyes, thatwas what he was

most concerned about - the soclal life. So we sharcd with him some of the manyways homeschooling hmilies I knewwere ffnding to mert their chtldren's social needs. I had a copy of PA Homesclwlers with me, and opened to last issue's "Calendat'' page listing tlre wlderrariety of falrs, seminars and gatherings all across the state that homeschoolers cpuld attend. He really looked it over carefu\r - and he was lmpressed, He then made a surprtsing cumment 'Well, tfyou all harrc formed this sortofstructuretl'at children can take part ln, thenyou have actually, ln a sense, created yourown prirrate school. " Now ttris is not how I look at these gatherings, but the tmportant thingto rnewas

that this man (whowascertainly notkeenon

the whole idea of homeschooling) was so impressed with thls amount of netunrking as to gfve itthe supreme compllmentofsa]dng we were our own larger school - and therefore OK So we are partty sharing this information [in the nervsletterl on support gpoups and activides for the outside world's edification, to showthem thatwe indeed are notlocking

ourkids inclosets, but ratherhave many

ways to go out into the world, often with our fellow homeschoolers.

HIGH SCORES IN TENN. Suza Dodd (ff'I) sent us thJs'4P story 1 1 / 26 / 86:

fiom Nasfwile, ddtEd

Tennessee students who are taught at home by thelr parents have scored higlrer achlevement tests than publtc school students, the state &lucadon D,epartment

reports.

Home school students in grades 2, 3, 6 and 8 scored higher tn wery major area than the statewide average tests lastyear, results released by the Education Departrnent showed.

On the Stanford ActrlevernentTests, 75 second grade home school students scored 43 points above tlre national average - Ar the top 796ofall students ln the nadon. Tennessee public school students' reading average on the Stanford testwas 12 polnts aborrc the nadonal averagp but 3 I points below the home shrdents'scotes.

The home shrdents'average score on mathwas ln the top 396 nadonally, 15 points htgher that that for public school students.

Home students averaged in the top 47o on spelling, had the trighest possible marks on listeningand werewithln the top 696 for environment. Thelr scores were I I points trigher than the Tennessee average on spelling, 38 points higher than the rest of the state on listening and 24 points above public school students on envlronment.

Home school students also scored above the average in the state's basic skills test, but the dlllerences declined at the higher grade levels. In eighth grade math, home school students mastered 70.696of the math obJectives but that was barely above the average of69o,6 for public school sfudents.

PERMISSION FOR G.E.D. Ruth McCutclen {I{Y) wdle s :

D€borah, 17, recentlydecided to take the

GED. She took the pre-test and did well, but thenwe hita snag. In Kentuclry, if onewants to take the GED, one must obtain aletter from the last schoolone attended stathg that

lndeed one has been out of school for a full calendaryear. When the folks in the adult education departrnent discovered that Lteborah's school has been at home, they s€emed to lose theircomposuneand their ability to thlnk. In great consternation they sent us away, saying that theyumuld have to callFranldort to getamlhgon the matter.

During the followtngweek, I checked in rvlth them acouple of ttmes, onlyto betold that they hadn't reached the desired person yet, After aweek, I got flrm, staflng that since our school has legpl status as a prhrate school there should beno problemwith a letter comlngfrom our school. The personln charge tmmedtately sald she would dreck arrd get back to mevery soon. She dtd ell back

quicklywtth the news thatthe officialln

Franldcrt stated that the letterwould have to lastpubllc school Deborah attended - the one she left tn the thnrd gradel That letter alongwith soctal securit5r number and birth c-erflficate would be all she needed to take the GED at ttrls time.

This seemed to settle the matterin the mind of this localolllcialbut it c€rtainhv unsettled mg mind. Thee things dfstrirbed me: l) I didn't urant lt on any recurd, anywhere, that Deborah hadn't been in school sArce she was 9, especially since it isn't true; 2) I couldn t accept the tnGrencethat sucha letterwould allow - thatour schoolhas no legal standkrg in Ky - agaln, not tme; and 3) I was unhappy about the precedent that this acdon would create for other homeschoolers come from tJle

tnI(Y. Eventually, after running up no small

phonebill calling Frankfort, I gotto the bottom of the diltculty. I ffnally made

contact witl. the ollclal who was supposed to have handed down theedict on the letter. She was surprised to hear about the tnouble I was havingwith a rullng she'd nwer made; in fact, this was the ffrst she'd heard of the matter.

She apologized and assur€d rne thatthere would be no difficulgr about the letter mming fromourschool since lt is as legalas any

other.

When I called the GED people here, I was told that tt had been the secretary of thrs offlclal fromwhom they had re<eived tlrts furaccurate informadon. Therr didn't seem

partlcularly pleased that I hid gone to the "top" and quesdoned their authority. They did gractously admit that a letter from our school would be iust flne.

This-experlence reinforced somethlng I already knew but needed to be reminded of: if one is unsatisfied wtth'a local mllng on a matter, even lf lt was sald to have come from

hlgherup, oneought to pursuettas faras posstble. It also demonstrated orrce agarn that the more authority an olhctal has, the less

intimtdated he or stre wlll be by one's quesflons and the more llkel5r to be tn possession ofaccurate facts. (Are there any

otherldnd?)

Homeschoolers need to be aware of the nrles concerntng the CED. In KY, tf achlld wants to take the GED at 17, heorshemust not have been enrolled ln any school tlre previousyear, though I supposeone cuuld have enrolled, only to "drop ouf' a month later. The letter from the school can stateJust what theclrcumstanc€s are concernkrg the edt from the formal school experlence. In I(Y,

theoftctal in Frankfortwho has the final word on such matters ls Sharon Darling, who I believe ls the DlrectorofAdult Educadon in KY. Local olffctals who are freaked out should be dtrected to her, not her secretary, though she may have it sorted out by now.

GROWING WTTI{OUT SCHOOLING #55

3 al,rcltlJ Ue dfrlcultie s otpther lane sr,hded t@nagq was eryederctry h her etforts to b adnlltd to a GD or.rse. As ffte pp;/,atlot o;f lonesclnlodets glls olda, un mag b Jactry nate oJ tle se d$bultle s, tle sane

her daughtervrasn't readlng on grade lwel, and she also knew that the glrl would never stt sdll for the requlred arnount oftlme ln a classroom. She uras sure thatwlttrtn a month herdaughterwould bebeggtngto get out again.

By thattlme the schoolwould beconvlnced that they shouldn t let her go because she rvasn't up to grade lwel tn readtng.

ill4alTtv

The battle raged forweeks, undl the mother got the brtght tdea ofenrolllng her daughter tn a Sylvan Ttrtortng Center. (It

IDRJ In GIIXS

#

52, we prtuttd. a story

uag that tle$$t-fandltes to apprwch tlvlr suprhtetdents abi la nrrlscttorltg, years ago, unre tdd that ft uos lnrpos slile t

sane lessons qpplg - fu perslstent, atdfird otJt yowsQf tulut the laus really say.

GOOD ANSWERS Suq Md. (IN) utote In t]le lrcal newsletts Homesctrooltng Famllles,

1

2/

86:

...1n response to the quesdon,'What grade areyou tn?" my ldds have been taught to aruwer, "I'm tr an ungraded prograrrl I'm_ years old." I thtnk that people ask that quesflon as away of determinlng age, but many people can no longer relate to age glven tn gpars, only tn grade level. I obJect to school betrg used to categorlze ldds thls way, so I tell my ctrlldren not to answer that quesflon no matter how they're pushed. The grade level for

seems to be a chatn) . Her maln rea.son was to try and bdng her dauglrter up to grade lwel beforc school started so she could rntnlmize at leastone ofthe problems she knewrvould be comlng. (By thfs dme, the gtrlwouldn'tdo any school workwlth her mother, elther). But a great thtnghappened unexpectedly. The two hours arpeek of tutorlng, was all the "school" the glrl needed. She had school clotlres and

books, real school notebooks and homework, school frlends (though tutorlng classes are very srnall) and a real school teacher. She was contenL thetenslons rnelted, and the demands to go to school stoppedl The mother reports that the Sllvancenters say they have a homeschooltng family enrolled ar almost

wery branch. If s worth a tqrl...

whtch they're registered wtth the superlntendent ts fior record keeptng purpos€s onlSrand tnnouray llrnttsudraturc do, sowe don t use these grade levels tn cuversadon,

BACK TO HOMESCHOOLING

elther.

Justwanted to letyou know - Gabriel (8) ls back to homeschooltng. After threcyears at home rrye had dectded to try him atwhat I

My nearly

I2

-year-old daughter ts tlre

one most often aslred, "How do you make any

ffends?" Interesflngly enouglr, lt's most often asked by frtendsl Her response ls, 'Well, you're my friend, aren tyou?" Slnce thls has been asked tn the setdng of the ballet studlo where Ertn has marry hends, the quesdoner usua$r glves an embarrassed laugh and reallzes what she has done.

The only really negatfrc sltuauonweVe encountered slnce the lawpassed has involved our 7-year-old. Whilewaittng forher dance class to begln, she has been regularly grllled by the other ltttle girls: 'What's I 2x I 2?" and the llke. (I should potnt out that these are 6- and 7-year-olds who are not likely to know the answ€rs themselves,) We started out counsellngAmy to try to change the subJect butwhen she was unable to do thaL I talked to her dance fnstructor... She asked each gtrl wbere she went to school and potnted out that there are many dllferent schools and honre lsJust one of them and that Amy shrdied Just as they dtd.

As for deallngwtth famtly members and other peoplewho feel thcy have a right to crldcizeyou, I flnd tt helps to cultlvate a reputaflon ofbeing really dillerenL I once heard annrnan observe that lfyou're only a Itttle dlfferenL peoph wtll try to getyou back on the beaten path. But tfyou're reallg dtlferent, people wtll thfnkyou eccentrlc and therefore tnteresdng and will no longer try to reformyou. My favorlte aunt once said to me, 'Well, lt'sJustwhatl'd orpect ofyou, Suzyl"

2 HOURS OF TI,NORING N anry Plent

(Nl urcte

In Unschoolet's

Netqork#22:

VoIerIe V aughon (MA) wrcte :

consldered thebest school system (Waldor$.

Hewent for two months. It may be the best school system, but if s sdll schooll At school Gabewas told about the "rightway" to draw pictules; compeddon started to setln; hewas comlng home having leamed numerous "dirty words" at recess, etc. But our main reason for havlng him homeschool agatnwas thatwe missed him. Hewas gone from 7:3O a-m. to 3:3O p.m., and lt seemed every other moment ofthe daywas centered around gettlngr€ady for school, gotng to bed early so he could get up for school, paclidng lunch forschool, etc. We nwer had any tlme to do anythlng else like go shopplng together or the usual family actMdes. Gabe's l8-month-old brotherhad the vrcrst reacdon. When Gabe started school, he suddenly got very upset when Gabe was around, and thetwoof themhadbeen so companlonable before school started.

Thankgoodnessl had thecourage to take himoutofschool and ltsten to all the reladves' obJecdons agaln, Thlngs are back to normal. We can have our freedom agatn - the whole day to plan as we wtsh. Baby brother plays agatn normally wlth older brother. It's Jun again. Everyone asks me, "But didn't Gabe wantto stay at schoolwtth lrts friends?" No, he chose thts declslon, too. He llkes havlng all my attention when he's flgurlng out math, lnstead ofwaitlng forthe school teacherto

dealwith everyone else.

LOCAL NEWS Fbr addresses of state and lrcal ory antzatlots, se GWS * 54 or our Home schmlltg sur,e l;lst awlLoHeJor

k

$1. ...We menfloned last issue that seveml famllles were faced wlth the problem of havtngachlld who reallywanted to go to

schol.

...One rnotherhad extna reasonfor dragglng herfeet about saytng' yes." She knew GROW]NG WTII{OUT SCHOOLING #55

Alabama: The November newsletter of

AIABAMA HOME EDUCATORS reports that legtslators may lntrroduce ablll to clart$ homeschoolteg procedures durlng the comlng sesslon, and that "several boards ofeducailon

have informally agyeed not to pursue prosecuflons of homeschoolers in the state if proposed legtsladon could be introduced and some mtddle ground reached."

Callfomb: Horneschooler Elizabeth Hamill (see GWS #53) sent us a copy of the Alameda County Counsel's proposed revision of the state EducaUon Code, The rcvision would make lt impossible for any home schoolwlth fewer than tert students to qualify as a private school, and it prohtbits "home instrucdon of a minor pupil" enttrely, saying, "Because of thevalue of soclal lnteraction, clmpetidon, and exchange of ideas gained by students in assocl,adonwith theirpeers... homelnstrucflon in g5ades I through 12 ofa mtnor puptl by hls parent orguardianis unlawful." Eltzabeth says that homeschoolers plan to tr5r to stop thts proposal from being tntroduced as a blll, and to flght it ifit is tntroduced.

Kenres : The Dec.ember KansansJor Altematfi.te Edlrcatlcrt newsletter reports that representadrrcs from prlnate and home schools met lnTopeka on December 4th to discuss the possible introducHon of legtslatton. They agreed to propose a bill in the next legfslative session that specifically defines home schools, states that homeschooling parents shall maintain records (daily log, portfolio, record of waluailons, or materlals equivalent to these three), and prohtbits state agencl,es from dtctadng a statewide curriculum for private

orhomeschools.

Megrchurcttr: Homeschoolers have begun meedngto discuss the formadonofa statewide task force tn case leglslaflvework becomes necessaqr. TVrc people who would Itke to hear fromhomeschoolers about their experiences under the curent law, and thoughts about a statewide group, are Susan Ostberg of APPLE COLJN1RY HOMESCHOOLERS (Box 246, Haryard Ol45l; 456-3688) and Loutse Taylor (467 Summer St, Rockland o237o; 87 l-42LAj. Minncgota: In the Decembernewsletter Of thc MINNES,OTA HOMESC HOOL

NETWORK Sbaron Hillestad reported that pub[c school adminlstrator Dr. Lewis Finch proposed the followlng regulaflon at a task force meeilng ln Nowmben "All students of compulsory attendance age who are educated outside the publlc school system must partictpate tn any dlstrichvide assessment pmgrams conducted in the public school dtstrictwtthin wtrich the nonpublic school (tncluding the home educadon) is located."

Sharon asks homeschoolers with ideas for alternatives to standardized tesdng thatwill safls$ the state educators' need for "accountability" to send them to Bob and Bethany Newhouse, 435O Lake I and Ave N, Robbinsdale 55422.

Miesourl: Implementaflon

of

the

state's new law (see GWS #5O) is golng smoothly, with only occasional conllicts between homeschoolers and local school officlals, according to Stephen J. Fortney, lobbvist for FAMIUES FOR HOME EDUCAflON. Stephen suggests that parents GROWING WTIHOUTSCHOOLING #55, Vol. lO No. l. ISSN #0745-5305. Publrshcd bi-rnonthlybyHolt Assoctatcs, 729 Boylston St, Boston MA 02l 16. $2olyr. Date oflssuc, Feb. l,1987. Sccond-clas. postage pard at Baston MA" FOSTMASTER: Scnd address changes to GWS, 729 Boylston St. Boston

MA02ll6.

ADVERISERS: Deadltnes arc the lSth of oddnumbercd months. Contact Patrlck Farenga for newfurer'lscd rates.

4 rernovlng &tldren frrom federal\r funded "speclal" publlc school programs are most llkely to encounter reslstancr, but he says, "In every case reported to date, the parent has been famtllarwlth the law, or has been advlsed by FHE to stand on the law, and the tves-flgatlons, by allagencles, have been

&opped."

Ncw Jcrrc5n Nancy Plent of the UNSCHOOLERS NETWORK (2 Smnh St, Farrnfngdale O772fl ls conductfng a survey ln preparadon fora summaqr document about NI horneschoolers. Sheasks that homeschoolers wtro harrc not recchrcd the surrreysend forone.

Ncstcrlco: One of the requtrements of the Law passed h f 985 ls that homesehooling parents must have at least a bachelot's degree, or getawErlverofthe requlrement frrom tlee state. An arflcle ln the Albuqrnqrc lO / 26 / 86, repr;rts that according to the Deparhnent of Educaflon's coordlnator of home schools, "ar5r parent who has flled a wairrer for not harrlng a bachelof s degree can

Jqnu\

assumelthas beenapproved," desplte tlre fact that short staf[ng may have delayed an olficial response.

Pcnnrylventt ln the winter fuilasybranlo

issue of

llqesdwlers, Hovrald

Rtchrnan reported tlratthe Chrtstlan School Btll, whfch r€deflnes non-public schools ln thecompulsoryeducaflon law, passed at the end of the last legtsLaUve sesslon as a rlder on a teache/s unlon blll. Homeschoolers hope that thrs wlll help pass a slmllarbill whlch urculd grant tlre samefreedomto homeschoobrs, slnc€ the twobills share marryofthe same slnnsors, Howard says honreschoohrs plan to askthe sponsors to relntroduc= a horne educaflon btll durlng the

1987sesslon.

Tcnncrcc:

Iloncsctwltng

In the Decmber lssue

of

Fbrn4{es, Suzy Dodd reported

thatV. L. Stoneclpher, the tesflngcoordlnator and directorofpuptl spectal servtces for

Anderson County Scboob, spoke to a gSoup of homeschoollng parents tn November, and suggested the need for clarlflcaflon of the present law. Confusion eldsts, he satd, because the state requlres homeschoolers to take a nadonally-normed test ln grades 3, 6 and 8 but does not extend the sarre rcqulrcments to chlldren ln school. In

addiflon, testswtrlch are required ofboth schooland homeschool students are rrot gfven a'grade lorel" score, though tlreTennessee Lnr requtres that horrrcschml students stay wtthtn acertaln number ofmonths of grade

collabo rafl ng on a book

seeldngapubltsher.

Itrarhlngton: In GWS #54, we reported a possible ellcrt to "flglrten up" the homeschool law. Homeschooler Jon Wartes recentlv told us,'The effort was that of one assistani superlntendent in one school distrlct.

Carolyn Kunard, a homeschool leader from Everett, talked to the asslstant superlntendent and seemed to answer his concerns,"Jon says thatat the startofthis session, no btll addresslng homeschooling appears on the leglslaWe agenda, The PortTownsend School District sent us a descrlpflon of the unusually cooperadve arrangementlt offers to homeschoolers: "...It ts the phtlosop$ ofthe FortTownsend School Dtstrtct to malntaln posiflve rapport wtth homeschoollng famllies and to provlde support and asslstance whererzer possible. A cerHflcated teacheris avatlable to help famllles plan student obJecdves, dwelop curriculum, select elfecdve teachtng methods and matertals, evaluate and record student progress, and admtntsterand score standardtzed tests. The school distrtct dso provides educational materials (texts, rporkbooks, etc.) where approprlate and avatlable. . . Plans are also 'in the works' for a homeschoolers' newsletter, and for periodic gatherings or rrretlngs of homeschooling famllies.,. Future plans also include the dorelopment of an on-campus resource center."

Wlrconrln: The Decemberlssue of the Wlsonsirr Farents Association newsletter reports: "On December 5-6, 1986, the Polcy

and Resoludons Commlttee of tlreWsconsin Associaflon ofSchool Boards passed a resoluffon that" tfadopted by delegates to the WASB convenflon [tn late Januaryl, would coll for leglslailon gMng the flepartrnent of Public Instructton authortt5r to reviewarrd approve home-based trstmction.. A similar

resoluflonwas rotpas*d by theJanuar5l, I986WASB convendon.., WPAmay have

helped prevent the passage ofthe 1986 resolu$on, slnceWPAwas able to dlstrtbute a fact sheet to mostW,{,SB delegates prlor to their vote and some WPA members rpere able to contact local school board members and discuss the resolutlonwith them prlor to the convenflon. So let us build on a recprd of success." -SS

RATING THE STATES

level.

Suzv added that Charlene Becker of the state eddcadon ofrc.e lnformed her that the onlyagendes tlrat are authorized to test homesclrool shrdents are those ttrathave business llc€nses ard recelrrc most of thelr

tncpme ftrom tesdng. Homeschoolers are constderlng formlng such an agency.

Vcrnont: Members of the vERMoI.fT HOMESCHOOLERS ASSOCIATION voted unantmously ln December to support a homeschoolng btll for the 1987 legislattve sesslor1 accordhg to VHSA member June Schulte. The blll rcqulres homeschoolers to flle notlflcation and an outlined planwlth the departnrcnt ofeducadon at tlre start of each schoolyear, and a sumnraq/ of subJects corrcred at the end ofeachyear. Under thls blll, famllleswould also keep re<ords of each chlld's progressby one ofserrcml metlrodsof assessrrEnl Thebtllalso spectfles thatlf the state objects to a family's pla+ lt must do so wtthtn 45 days after the orlgtnal nodffcaflon

Junealso says thatWlSAmembers are

about

homeschoohng, forwhlch they are current\r

tlv

We Jotatd this bt the 7 / 87 rewsletter oJ F'I-ARIDA PARET'IT WUC.ilID.R'S

ASSOCIA:rIOM

Inarecent publicatton of the flome aI DeJense Assci,ation (DC), Chris

*t'apl Ia

Kltcka, Execudve Dir,ector, evaluated each of the fifty states for thetr home school laws.

Each statewas ranked and erraluated based on three factors: 0) The ma:dmum amount of freedom glven to homeschoolers vs. the amount of state tnvolvement; (2) the vag;ueness of the compulsory attendance

statute; and (3) thenumberof legalconllicts oeurrtng betwe€n homeschoolers and the stateat presenL The followlng chart designates the most favorable states toward homeschoollng, starsngwith I to the least favorable states

endingwtth25.

AL 15. AK 15. AZ 8. AR lO. CA 13. CO 20.

I8. DE 17,FL7.GA7. HI I5.ID 18.IL I.IN l.1A25. KS 18. I(Y t. lA8. ME 19. MD 21. MA

C'T

18. MI 24. MN2. MS2. MO2.MT2.NE4. l.IV4.

NH 17. Nt 16. NM lO. t{Y 17. NC l. ND24. OH 25. OK l. OR2. PA23. RI 17. SC 14. SD 7. TN 9.

TX25. UI5.VA l7.WA6.WI 3.VT

wY2.

ll.WV

12.

[DR] Note tlnt tirs is not anorderlng oJ each stateJrrcrn tle br,st one, Nwrtlrr 1, to tle u.rorst Number 50. RatJrrr, Clvis Kickagaw each state a sore uslng a scole o-f 1 to 25.

Ldchg at this, I tend. to agre in general with the rankirgs, tlottgh Im swprised Alnska got a 1 5 - I unuld" tw:e tlaught tt btter. krhaps tfu LegalfuJerceJdks hann teadof co$Ibts there tluttrse tw-te rwL And. altlough lowa dres tend. to b ad{Jtcult stote, tlerc ore spts (srrch as Des Mohes) tlvt are

jlendlier.

It s wry ffidcy

to

gereraltzc abut states,

atd I lwn lorg resistd. iL Peopb oJten ask us whal orc tlv

"gd or'bad states, and.

altlanqh I canthtout out sme rnnes lf pressrd" I olloags watntlnttlw sihtotbncort vary uitldn a sittgle state. Alsrl., circurnstances canchange quicWy, so these llsts will fu outdaled bJore gou lolrlw IL For row (eadg 1 987), I undd. saq Aou cald. fu s t moke us e oJ tle se ratirg s fo

mtsiderfng twn as Jalling irtto tlvee cat4obs: l -9 means baslcdlg'gd (tllough rqulrenerts btcreax wtth higher rathgs).

1O- 19 means'OK' - nostpople wlllb oHe to lvnesclwllegallg ultlout ta mrch nvtde,

b ewptlotts. 2O- 25 nlr'ans "fu prqaredJor boub/.e." D.r;n tlangh *me fanllies nug b peaeJully lame slr,trrnling in tlrese states, otlers are ln@,rdlbto.Idthis mag led to lnportartcourt decisions, tla ugh tlere nug

Iq islathn c anp.ig ns, e tc.

COTJRT NEWS Ohlo: Attornev Mtchael Farris of the *lrrll lzgal lkJense Assoc-iatfon

Home

argued the case of Schmldt us. the Statc oJ Ohio before the State Suoreme Court on January 7th. The Schrriat family had becn found in violaflon of the state Compulsory Attendance Statute, and Farris argued that thls statutewas unconstitudonal and ought to be found roid forvagueness. No decision has

yetbeenreached.

Rhodc lgland: A Famtly CourtJudge delayed undl March the trlalofPeterVan Daam, who has been charged with failing to send his turc oldest clrtldren to school, accordingto an ardcle ln the Providence Journol-Bulletirr TheJudge named a courtappointed counsel to representVan Daarrl but Peter has chosen to represent himself and wrote aletterofpmtest to the appointed attorney, a copy ofwhich he enclosed in his December neursletter, Rhode Islanders Jor

C-anstthttiunlFl€€donL - SS

CALENDAR Thurs. March 19. 1987: HoltAssociates Open House. Discussion: "The Mass.

Homeschool law: Will it Change? Should it?"

Special guest attorney Susan Ostberg. 6-8 pm, at our olllcc. Phone 437- 155O. Thurs. April 16: HoltAssociates Open House. Dlscussion: "Home Schools and Alternaflve Schools: Butldturg a Reladonship. " Special guests from the Sudbury Valley School, Framingharn 6-8 pm, at our o{flce. Phone 437- 1550.

April 22-26: Annual conference of the GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOUNG #55

5 littleTV, teaches dancc

National Coalttion of Altemative Community Schools in Escondido, CA For info contactJohn Boston. School of Home t-earning, PO Box 92, Escondido, 92025 or the NCACSoflicc, RD I Box378, GlenmoorePA 19343; 2 I 5-458-5 l3a.

May: HoltAssociates annual picnic: workshops and events all day long. Exact date has notyet been set. kt us know ifyou think you will attend, and help us pay the cost of renting the site ifyou are able to (suggested donation: $ lO per family, $5 per tndMdual).

Ifyou would like to help organize this event, callWendy Baruch at 437- 155O. Sat. June 20: Mid-Atlanuc Homeschooling Conference, organizd by ManH Smith of the Maryland Home Education Association (3O I -73O-OO73). Workshops and display tables all day. Susannah Shefferwill lead a workshop on "ContinuingJohn Holt's Work."

We are happy to run notices of major homeschooling events, but we need plenty of notice. Deadline for GWS #5,6 (events in May or later) is March 15. Deadline for GWS #57 (wents inJulyorlater) is May 15.

FEELING LOSS OF JOHN HOLT Frcm Claudia I had

card

B

arfu r (Ge rrnand

:

thought to send you all a sympathy

whenJohn died, but mv sense of

personal loss was so great I 6ouldn'tdo lt; I felt thatl should be getting sympathy. I heard John speak hvice, and talked wlth him briefly once - there are many, many people whose loss is much greater than mine. But, along wlth everyone else, I always knewJohn cared about me, and I ahvays thought that we could have been friends. His death left an empgr

placeinmylife.

Mv heartfelt thanks to all of vou for continiingGWs and doing such agreatjob of it. lrsing it on top oflosingJohn would have

beenawful.

RESPECTING PRIVACY Tun gears ago, Mirio.rn Mangiorte (NV) wrcte to us alplut ler conrern that her daughler, t]-en 13, unuld getotnr adozen torrrrnce nouels Jrom the Library and do

rwthttg else untilsle readmostoJ tlernWlenue askedreentlg lf the sihntton had clung

d"

M iria.tn re s ponded.:

I showed your letter to my daughter to ask heraboutwhat happened to her readingof ronurnce novels. Her response startled me.

She was very upset that I had written about her to strangers and that we were intruding upon her private life. Although I'm sure I shared with her my letters to GWS concerning her, at this poirat (age l5) she made it clear she was entitled to a private liG. I amwondering if otherparents who are unloading theirexperiences in GWS have mentioned this. I am nowaware of my insensitivity - perhaps others also should spend more time talking about this with those they are writing about. Children do have this way of growing up on you when you least As

forwhat she reads now - atalmost

16 -

she reads the same as any adult. Until she

Iinished herAmerican School high school course (Oct.'86) she really didn't have time to do much extra reading except the Bible. So,

from 13 to 15, thatcomprised herreading.

Now, she reads forinformationshe inspiradonal novels and the Bible, watches a needs,

GROWING WTIIOUT SCHOOLING #55

children, ls

and approved - orrather, agreedwtthwhats been written, and so you not onl5l have my permission to print this, but more lmportant, you have Shandra's permission too.

bruuwrotebaclc I thinkyou're quite right, there are times when people should talk over problems with the people involved rather thanwrite to us about them. Ofcourse, somedmes the process

ofwridng helps people to clari$ their thoughs and perceptions - if they didn'twrite about it first, they might not be able to talk about it. And it is also true that lt ls valuable fior others to hear about these experiences, even if they are negadve

orquite personal.

Butyes, your daughter certainly is endtled to privacy. We have always had the option in CWS of printing letters without identilication, and I hope that one of the things letter-writers take lnto account when they tell us whetherornot to use their names is how the otherpeople theywrite about might feel when they read about themselves in print even if it's manyyears later. Ifyou write something thatyou rvould be embarrassed to hand to the person right then and there to let themread (orread to them), thenyoushould thinktwice aboutallowlng us to identi$ the

letterin print.

TRUSTING HIS WAY TtaGrove(BC) wriles: It's interesflng towatch myselfgo through the progression from structure to trusting my child to leam what he needs to know. Whenwe llrst started, I was quite intirrddated by the prospectoftesttng. I was making Noah do about an hour or two of "schoohvork" each day. I would get frustrated and angrywhen he used school kid tactlcs to avoid the things he didn't like.. . I {inally let him alone when I reatzed that he trad a pretty good command of the math hewas expected to know for Crade TWo. The other daywewere working on simple division. We had the counters out for makCng sets with. But every dme Noah tried a problem, he started with the answerand then worked out with the counters whether hewas right. He always was. Neither of us could figure out how he was getdng the answer. I was afraid he dtdn't really understand what he was doingandwanted himto do tt "by the book." I finally let go and trusted his way. If his way doesn't work when he gets into harder problems, tJlen he'lljust have to do them anotherway.

NOT INTERFERING FtomMariankuerAN): I had made someattempts to interest (8) in piano and recorder ln the past few years, but each timewe began some lessons, the interestwould die away afteronly afew days. This past fall, he said to me one day, "Mom, could you get tlrc recorderbook down for me?" I did and he proceeded to use the fingering chart in the front of the book. py ftpping back and forth to the songs, he rnanagd to teachhimself to playseveralof

Mark

erpect itl

to younger

as capableas mostadults, and is quitelovely coming into her "prime," as she calls it.

Shandra, our subject, has read thls letter

them. The flrst day, he spent about an hour.

The next day he spentaboutan hourand a haif by himself, learntng to play more songs.

Now during the Christmas season, he has learned to play several Chrlstmas songs and generally does sorrrc playingwery day, though usually 15 or 20 minutes now. One day I heard him at tlle piano, picking out the same tunes he had learned on the recorder. He was also saying the names of the notes out loud. flheyare prlnted on the fingerlngchart.)

Then later sflll, I heard him playing the tunes on the piano on a dfferâ&#x201A;Źnt key, picldng them out by ear. I don't know how this wlll continue to dwelop, but I think he has a good beginntng and an interest, which I hope not to lidll by too much interference. If he asks rrle a question, I answer it and by not to make too many suggesuons. He has learned a little bit about

the sharps and flats by asklng.

I learned a slmilar lesson about waiflng arrd not interfering when my younger son, Davld (5), began wridng his name some time ago without rrry help, just by seeing the letters other places, or by seeArg his narne printed on things. In the beginning, he ahvays wrote the "A' upside-down, and made a lo\ver cnse "i."

Because of the readingl had done tnGWSand elsewhere, I did not say anything. This Thanksgivlng he was writlng hls name on something he had made with his grandmother (she did not say anythtrâ&#x201A;Ź, havingbeenwell-tralned by me ln thts respect) and he sald somethlng ltke, "Oh, theA is upside-down." Grarrdma helped htm erase it and he wrote tt rtght-stde-up and has done so ever since. Today I noflced thatwhenhe signed a Chrtstmas card to send to hls grandparents, he wrote his whole name ln upper-case letters. I don't know how he might have come to noilce thattnconslstencyin his writing but he seems to have corrected that, too,

allby himself.

SELF.INITIATED PROJECTS G

ha Prctnst

(MAl un'Ile s :

Myoldestson, Joshua, used Oak Meadou/s fourth grade currlculum lastyear.

(Excellent c.oursel) He was supposed to do homemade books for English. Maybe the thought of a whole book was overwhelrning he refused to do lt. I finally gave up trying to force him. Then one day wtrile playtng with legos he decided to create an adventure. I can't rememberwhose tdea ltwas butwe decided to photograph it at each stagp. He took all the photos himselfafter setting up each adventure carefi rlly, complete with background props. When the pdnts came back from the lab, he was so excited about putttng the words down in wrlting. He made a lovely book all wtthout my prompting.

Wealso studted the colordal pertod tn history. I found abook at the library called Cdonial Cr$ts Fq YouTo Mo.l<e by Janet and Alex D'Amato which gave lnstrucdons for a eolonlal home. Itwas verv detatled and

rutalud

ugpr[ooliDiplonrno ilanA

brcra

-

4L

'%#^r,#W

&dbrySi8t

Y

furumpla

?ur\t)nnemachu,Catg$vr ?g ofulsso, Conre,Tqs nns

6 boxwith balsarvood furniture. You paint the top ofegg cartons red, thencutand glue themas individualbricks to the flreplace, Italso gave patterns and dir,ectons for authentic cradles, hutch, windsor chalr, etc. It used TV dinner travs cut and bent for andirons and pewter dishei.

Then Joshua ffnlshed tt all by painflng the floor to look like awood lloorand he stenciled the walls. The supertntendentwas verylmpressed, Joshuaalso scored tn the 99th percenflle in the SRAtesting that Naflck, MArequtres. made from acardboarrd

ENCOIJRAGES INDEPENDENCE Judy C-ornellwrltes: .Because I was lary, my son Davtd (then interest in rrnking peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches one day, became our lunch cheffrom then on. As our ctrlldren reached an agewhere sometllng looked like fun and expressed an interest, the task'uras Orelrs, One less chore for mother. As soon as I could managp to teach them, my chlldren were on their own - bathing, dresslng, and choosfurg thelr own uncoordinated outffts (although I trted putflng things that matched together), maldng their own brealdast and lunch, watching the clock for times to leave, even washing tlretr own clothes. That happened one summerwhen I was tlred of nagglng about chores. Imarched allfourchildren - nonevet teenagers - into the laundry room arrd shoirrcd themhowto use thewasher: cold water, add towels to make fi-rll load when necessary, dark together, llght together, then dryer. I remember an lncident when a tearffnate's mother asked how I got Daryl's baseball uniform so clean. I laughed, "I don't know, ..

4), who expressed an

you'll have to ask him."

This letterwas prompted by thevlsltof my 6-year-old nlec, who upon my request and supeMslon, helped mebycutflngup raw carrots. I thought nothing ofit until I noUced her parents watching us wlth looks of horror...

CARING FOR OTHERS Perng Barker (OLn usrcte: . ..I was extremely moved by "Carlng for Mother" (GWS #41). Howvery, verywonderfUl to have ralsed caring childrenwho at I I and 14 are able to show concern and care for this person so preclous to them. I say to that mother, don t worry about the tlmeyou gve them to do other things - you'r€ g$ng them a mostvaluable gtft tnenabltng them to do all those thingsyouVe always done.

When Iwas I 1, ltwas necessaql forboth my mother and father and my older slster to workawayfrom the farmand Iwas lefttra charge ofthe housekeeplng, all meal planning, shopping lists, and preparatton of meals. I still remember golng up on the rooftopofthe farmhouse to peerat the road that ranalongthe ridge tnorderto viewmy mothet's old carmming home fromwork.

Then I would race down from the roofand preparc my mother's cup of teaJust theway she liked it and have it waitlng for her ln the ldrchen I had made tidy and welcoming. She ls gone now but one of my very happy memories is the lookon her face as she sat and drank that cup of teawith me. My cldldren and Fdchard often commenton my ability to put awonderfirl meal togetherwhen

there really seems to be nothing avatlable - I cando *ris because of thatgiftof experimentatlon in the kitchenwtrich my mothergave to me 28yearsago andwhichl've been improvlng on wer slnce.. .

FRANK SMITH ON SCHOOL (DF;I Tlere ts avry tnpftott neut fuk

tlnt ure plrrn to seL b'r. our catalq tlnsJall (un eryat to add. all our rera tltles at once rather tlrrc.n

indtbs atd.dabs). It s called Insult to

Intelligence and ifs by Flanksnth u:lo lins wriTten several otler tpg/cs that un sell ReadingWithout Nonsense, and Essays tnto Literacy. Mang oJ ftankSnith'spofnts about tle nature oJbarrnng ard tlE problems oJ schols sound s nurchtllce JohnHdt, f/s amadq - get deaig. te has anil:ed at lns optrdotts hdependentlV, Ad. like Jolvt trr lds eadier gears, lE ts btng listened to W

schdpapb.

MostoJ Insult to Intelllgence is adeuostaAry l@k at tle un'lrtbciks, tctds, acftfiy

sleets, amputer prqrans, and n ontlntJflI the sc}ro/s - tuhg tleg dsr'tunfu anduhy they ore prcllferolttg aternr greaterratcs.

Near tlv etd. oJ the d< lv desafu s tle Jeu ellutfin teaclvrs atd prqrans le loa u: s oJ IJ ang oJ gou are ln a psltiol. to rcvtew broks Jor otler publlcatlons, I hrye gou get a copy oJ Insult to Intelligence.from the publisler, fusar rcs lf de*nz s mtrch ofrentbn Also, many oJ gou might ask Aow lrr;al

llbmrians to oder XJor tlelr cdlectlons.

Publtsler Is Arbr House and prie is $ t8.95. l(s pre*rtlg auailaHe onlg inhatdow1 but let s lap soles ore sbrolrg erough to put In in

papaasuelL Herc'sagd.ercerpt

...When I was aprofessor of educatlon I used to tell my gpa.duate students - all far rnore experlenctd teachers ttran lwas - tlrat I

ogected to leamfrom themand that they would leam fromeach otlrerln thecourseof our studles. Many students dtdn't llke the nodon of learnlng from each other. Wasn't the lnstructor supposed to be the expert?

Mminlstrators among my students especlallywanted to get down to bustness. I should tell them what they were expected to learn, theywould then leam lt, arrd no one's tlme would be wasted, they told me. ...I umuld tell them that the{r next asslgnmentwas to read abook. Whtchbook, they would ask. I replted: any book that lnterested tlrem, that they thought worthwtrlle. Mostof the studentswould look puzzled, even anidous. Howwould I test them if they all read dtfferentbooks? I told them there vnuld be no tesq I would ask no

questtons. They responded: IJthere utflIfu ro qrestiotls, uthg slanid u:e reod the bk? I asked them to write a paper. What abouf?

They could choose. How long should tt be? As long as thcy thought approprlate. I knew that lf I said seventeen and a half double-spaced pages I unuld get serrenteen and a halfdoublespaced pages, whatever the toplc. And then the key questlon: Howrvould I grade them? I satd thereumuld be no grades. And the response was: I;f gouarerttgotttg tograde us, LDW s lauld. up usrlle ang thtry ?

These were not "disadvantaged" or leaming disabled students - not tn any formal sense at least. These were teachers, the cream of the crop, experiencrd, dedicated, and worldng for thelr masters or doctoral degr€es.

Where c.ould they have leamed that there ls no potnttn r€adhgabook unless someone ls

gohg to ask them quesdons; no polnt ln writtng something unless someone is going to give them a grade for lt? The answer, of course, ls fur school. It ls on} in school that people read tnorder to answerquestions or write to getagrade. These teacherswere demonstratingwhat they had learned and what they were teactrtng thelr own students.

My studentswere disturbed to thtnkthat they mjght lndeed be teaching ctrlldren not to read and to write, so theywent back to thetr 6q11slass1p611s to ftred out. Thcy gave children asyoungas second g;m.ders the sameirrvltation - read abook, write somethlng. And second graders produccd the same oblections as graduate students: If tlrerewtll be no quesflons and no tests, why shouldwedo it?...

STRESS OF EARLY SCHOOL Iieaders sent us fun reprts oJ a r'or{ercrce oJ t}E NATId{AI-.ASSOCIA?ION F€R THE EUICATION OF YOUNG CHILDREI,I,

hdd I{ov. 1 4, l9e6 InWastnrgton D.C. The

fust Is a l^A. TLrcs-Washlrgton ftstSerube story tJtatwas rqrlntd. rcrcss tlc counby: Pr,eschools are pushing chtldren too hard and too early to actrlwe academtcalty, L"dingto childhood stress, depresslon, burn-out and learning problems, tulo maJor educadon organlzatlons wamed Friday.

The problem of scholastic "force-feeding" of preschoolers has become pardcular$ acute over the past decades, olficials from the organlzatlons sald.

"Education is belng concelved of as a race, and tfyou start ear! you'll wln that rac€. . . It ls stlessfrrl for children, " said David Elldnd, president of the National A.ssociation for the Educadon ofYoung Ctrildren.

Elldnd's organlzaflon has adopted a strong posldon urglng that preschools reduce their emphasis on teacher-oriented, academic

lessonsand allowchildren to leamln aless stressfuI environrnent by lnidatlng theirown actMdes, talldng to people and soMng problems, such as balanctng blocks or puttlng

togetherpuzlgs.

The group's statementwas prompted by a growlngbody ofresearctr on the subJect and a doubllng of the numberof 3- and 4-year-olds ln school since 197O. Itwas released Frtdav in cor{uncdon wlth the Nadonal AssociaUon-of Elementar5r School Prlnctpals as part ofa conference here on early chlldhood educadon, attended by 60,000 educators.

The warning comes at a ttne when the naflon's publlc schools face lncr€aslngpr€ssure to provlde all-day ldndergarten and preschool programs and when ttre number of worhdng mothers and slngle-parent families ls creaflng an addtdonal need for the programs. There also are other forces atvmrk: a growlng number of dlsadvantaged chlldren forwtrom earl5l educadon is consldered essentlal to later succ'ess, and awav€ of '!uppte" parents looking for early academlc prowess

in theirchildren.

Elldnd sald these pr€ssures and research from the l960s stesstng the academlc potentlal of young chtldren has led preschools to commonV teach awaterd downverslon of ffrst-, second- and thtdgrade currtculum. 'Wtth tncreaslng numbers ofyoung children belng ocposed to these lnapproprlate teachtng methods, there ls real danger tlnn large numbrs ofyoung children will experlenc.e learningproblems at anage when, ln the past, most children were not eventn school," satd Elldnd.

GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #55

7 ISSJ Abont Elklnd's plvase

pm,ilems'' let s b

"Iarntug

rcmentfur wlo or what ca usd thern atd b cateJul rot to drctde tlwt a Sgardd wlo rcacts urdat;clrahlg to tle demotlds oJ eorly sclwlltg Is "leonbtg dlsatld ard ttus n ned. o1 twe oJ the st$f that dlsoHed. tffir tnthe first place. TItr other artlcle, anAssalatedPrress story, saldln sruue to

patt: EDUCAf, ORS, E)(PERTS CAUTION AGAINSTTEACHINC CHILDREN TO READ TOO EARLY. The forcc feeding of readtng wrlttng and artthmeflc on preschoolers often

underirtnes actrild's self-con8dence and can lead to learrrlng problems tn later grades, two educatlon experts satd yesterrday.

Nearly hblf of readtng pmblems found tn students result "not from starflng ctrlldren too latebut frrom startlngthemtoo early,' said child psychologtst Davtd Elldnd. "\[/henctrildrenare forc.e fed early on,

theybecome hrrned offwtth respect to educatlon," satd Samual Sava, executfue dtrector of the Nadonal Assoctatlon of Elementa5r School Pr:tndpals.'We flnd tt very dtfilcult to hrm these youngsters back

on"toleamlng.

..."Iherc are preschools that adrrerflse that tflour youngster wlll attend thelr preschool, he or she wtll become a llttle Etnsteln," Elklnd satd. 'There ls no evldence that thts early pressure works, pardcularly wtthg!fted ctrlldren. We have to re-educate parents to the fact that educadon is not a race' There ls no ffnlsh ltne. Educatlon ls a Melong proccss."

WHAT PARENTS WANT CaIA EarlE (CA) usrltes: I feelrrcry concerned by the

push-push,

busy-busyatflhrdeour soclety seems to be

pushlngdown toddlers' and pre-schoolers' ituoats. In ourcommunlty, as ln rrnny places nattorrrdde, the ldndergarten program l3 fiankly acknowledged as the old flrst grade prograrrt wtth fornral lessons, readtng and math lnstnrcflon. and lots ofdlttos to booL Whatts tnrly crary aboutall thts ls that nobody seerns tothink tlrts tsgood forlidds - lfsJust that there seems to be avlclous cycle named'Thaf s what theywant." A Hndeqgarten teacher spoke to me and a group ofparents aboutwhatwe should make sure our chlldren know how to do beforâ&#x201A;Ź enterlng ldndergarten Thts lrst hcluded how to say good-bp to rromwtthout tear."s, how to Ue shoes (thatwag partofthe "lrdndergarten currtculum" when I was 5), honr to slt sflll and llsten and follow dtrecdons for long Pertods of ttme. The ldndergarten teacher told us our

chfldrenwould be readlngby November. I heard marry parents murnblecrtdcal remarks about ttre schools hurrylngour chlldren and pushlngthemtoo fast. When I spoke up and asked the teacherwhy we now had ffrst grade ln hndergarten, slnc.e lt seerns to gg agatnst everythfng urc know about howyoung ctrtldren learn and whatyoung chlldren need, she sad anastonlshlngtldng: "I agrâ&#x201A;Źe that thls ls Just not good for chlldnen. But tf s what the parents wanL"There was an lnstant protest from at least half the parents there: "No,

ltlsn'tl"

couldn tqulte belterye that the educattonal lnsUtution, wlrtch supposedly prldes ltself on lts professionallsmand tratnlng [.\ile can teachyourctrtld becausewe harrc sttrdted chlld development and I

GROWING WTII{OUT SCHOOLING #55

so bl,atantly admft to gohgagatnst good educaflonal pracdces on the \rery dubtous basls that nonexperts (the rest of the communtty)'\uant tt

lnstmcflonal technlques') would

thatway."

*

e xannple s oJ tle fSS:J Ttds is one o;f tla schools' corglus lan arr uhich canefvst Tte

Jact that ntang pater*Jel ttat tlvlr hands

arc tfdfo the preJerences oJtle sclwl sy stem dns rrot nean tllo;t marry oJ thern unuld na chc,sr sr;rn:eltlldng rEry d!fferentior tleir chrltuen { theg Jelt sde doW s. A b get hto allege gou red to lntre done well in tlv most selec&:e tack at high school, rlhbh

Wu trtust hotse suaeded bt elemantary vhool" which lrt ht'r" requlre s the me ans

vM hckg tdu14 tulro cant blane parcntsJo u:anfltg to rnoke sue that thelr chM Is rotbJt ont oJ tle ntrudng?

p rcpr pre-

ned

Intact un ateJtdlng ant that gott don't to halr gotten on eanlg stott h. tle rae

toJoin hlater on One rensonure print storTes oJ ltone xded cfildren scottg htg h on standarttzcd tesb or gotning admissionto select{r.e schols ard. alleges Is to denlrinst ate that a chM ned rto.t erXe r tle oruanllonal scllrol sg stem at age 3 to b sr.rccessJul rr.rilhirt

ltlater,

{le

or she chooses.

JH ON COMPETITION I}om sore unltuillshed wdfrtg fo John

HdLdatdl9S:

...A number of quesflons that I nrn lnto ln spealrdng irrvolve the matter of

clmpeddon. I am qulte often asked, slrrce adults are c.ompedng aeFln5l sash other all the ttrne, lf lt ls not a senstble and rlght thfng thatctrlldren should be made to compete agatnsteach otherall the time ln school. To thls there are a numberofanswers.

In the flrst placr, though compeutton is perhaps as close as arrythtngwe have to a ktnd ofAmerican rellglon, there ls ln fact much less direct personal c.ompedflon ln adult Me than we ltke to thlnk. There are reallyvery fewsltuatlons ln adult life and workwhere one ls datly and hourly betng dt:ectly compared against a group of others wtth the results belng made known publicly, as is thecasewithcldldren ln school. Agreat many of us do our datly work either ln lsoladon fromother people or ln coopenaflon

wttl-them,

There are relatlvely fewplaces in

tndust4r, forexample, whereworkers are set ln contlrrual compedflon agalnst each other, Indeed, I thlnktt ls safe to say thatone of the tlrtngs labor unlons have unrked hardest to ellminate from lndustrlal work ts this lidnd of relentless personal compeUUon. Oplnlons may dlfrer as to whether thls ls a good tbtng or not, but tlre fact ls that tt is true.

Inotherwalksoflife, it maybe tme that, say, doctors, lawyers or archltects would dest'e competlflonwlth others, but only in ttris sense: thattf theydo thetrworkpoorly, fall to cure the padents, win the case or whatever, the cltents wlll eventually take thelruprkelsewhere. But doctors, lawyers, or otherproGsslonalswould not for an lnstant tolerate a sltuaflonwhere somebody publicly rated them ln comparison with other doctors.

Indeed, one ofthe chlefpracHces ofany orofession ls to keep such irrvldlous iomparlsons within the farni}. It mayvery well be trr.e that the doctors wlthin a

communltSr know that Doctor A is better than Doctor B, but they wtll nelther make such a

publtc statement themselves norgive their support to anyone elsewho makes it.

The only plac.e I can thinkofwhere

personalcompetltlon is wldely fostered and heard ofls in certaln kinds ofsales lndustries. A number ofbusinesses, such as lnsurance and retailtng, organtze their sales force into teams which c.ompete againsteach other, and whose sales ftgures are periodicalV made known throughout the b-p"try... Mostpeople find thG kind of

sltuadon highly distasteful. Even the

companies who use this way of $ngering up their sales force rarely apply it throughout their operadon... To put itvery bluntly, a business that treated its executtve force the way rrnstchJldren are treated tn schoolwould soon flnd it had no capable people worldng for

it.

In addition, even where people are in

ofcompetidonwith each other, their maln conc.ern is wlth thework they're doing. That is to say, the doctor considering how to win a case, or the archltect considering how to desigyr a building are not Primarily or erren lncidentally thinlidng aout some other some klnd

doctor, lawyer, or arctritect. They are thtnking about howbest to do thejob that needs to be done. Grown-up people at their work areonlyvery rarelyengaged to the degrec that children are in school in the bustness of pleasing other people.

Entertalners may be somethingofan exception, though even there, they are professionals tqring to do a particular thing dance, sing, make jokes - as well as they can.

We feel, and quite rightly, that any grown personwho spends mostof thetime tryingto please someoneelse ordowhat he thlnks someone else wants is somethlng of a sycophant. Yet this is indeed the nature of muchofwhat goes on in school. The business of the student ts, as er/ery good student knows, to glresswhat hls teacherwants and give it to hlm. Thls ts howyou getgood rnarks, and the rewards that gowith them. . . .Astde fnom all thls , the fact ls that even

wlthout our rnanufacturlng artificial competidon between children, there is an enorrnous arnount ofcompefldon in snrall ctrildren's ltues.., They desperately want and need to make some kind of sense of theworld around them, to llnd out how lt works, to acquire freedom and c.ompetence in it. Not only are they in a sense oompeflngagainst natur,e, t4ring to learn things that are p'zllng, and to do things that are difficult, but they are also compettngagFlnst all the larger, moreexperienced, more sldllful people around themwho knowand candoall ldnds of things thattheydo not knowand cannot do. Ifthey have brothers and slsters, they are probably ln lntense compedflonwith thern" as they may very well be wtth some of their frlends. ln short, ttrcre ls more than enoug;h competldon in the ltues ofchlldren.

There are in fact manv klnds ofdlrcct competldon agalnst other chlldren that children like. Spend some flme tnaplayyard, and you'll see children compedng agajnst others - running !:ac.es, playlng tag, scullling, wrestltng - they enjoy thts, and lt is lmportant to them. What ls very dllferent about nature, ecology, adventure, language, history, math, space, world problems & more.

ALL

AGES

- ALL SITUATIONS

New, expanded catalo8,

25C

Family Pastimes(GS),Perth,Ontario,Canada

K7HtC6

8 betw€en thle ldnd of competldon and ttre Idnd we folst on them, ts that they don't keep scone... Healthy chlldren don't go tn from r€cess sayfng thlngs llke, "I beatyou ntne dmes andyou beat me three times." Even where they play games where kecptng score ts part of the game, as touch football, they don't keep ltttle wrttten recprds ofhowmany Umes therr team bcat tha other team. Ttrts klnd of perrnanent record keeptng ts always an lnvention and lmposlflon of the adults...

What Blllyx. wants to knowtrs not

whethertre ls dotngsomethingbetter than or aswell asJtunmyY., butwhether he ts dolngtt betterthan he dtd ttyesterday. When children ar€ r,Eryyoung, learnlng to walk, talk, and acqulre rnany other sldlls, they ane very much avrare of thelrown progresswithout betng contlnually cnmpared to other chrtldren. What they do as they learn ts to compare thelr own performance wtth tlre clmpetence models that they see all around them, adults or older children.

And thts lswhatany serlous learnerdoes at ar5r age. I am awrlter. I urant my wrtflqg to beasgood asI canmakett, and to getbetter. I don'tneed to harrc people around rrE te[ing me that I am better or nnrse than other wrlters, Such people, tf there were arry, would be ofno use at aI. What I need to know ls how I canlmprove, and I canbest8nd thts outby comparlng myworkwtth the work ofother wrlters I admtr,e. In the same way, learning to play a muslcal lnstrument, I learn to compare the sounds I make wlth the sounds I hear rnade by good musicians. The standards agatnstwtdch chfldren measure thelr performance must lndeed come from the outsldeworld, frompeople more sktlled than they are, but the actual comparing must come from the chtldren themselves.

NEW BOOK ON COMPETITION An otfu)e h tJe 91186 Psychologr Tcday, adaptedjwt a netu fuk called No

Contest The CaseAgalnst Competidon by Alfu l<otn (HoWhton M{JIbl. Bad, supprts ad. Mens mang oJ tlese sane pottrds : . ,,Superlor performance does not requhe oompetldon; lndeed, ltusually seems to requtre lts absence. Although thisconcluslon challenges some wldely held assumpHons, lt has nowbeen conflrmed by scores of studies. ...One early study, a classlc of soclologlcal trrvesflgation, was conducted in 1954 by socfologtst Peter BLau of Columbla Unlverstty, who compaled two gyoups of inteMewers in an employrnent agency...

Members of the flrst group, who were personally amblflous and extremel5r concemd about producdvtty, hoarded Job

notlffcatlons rather than postleg them publtcly... Membersofthe second group, by contrasL rouflnely told each other about vacarrcles - and ended up ftlltng signfncantly

,.,Itls not slmply thecompedflrreness of an tndMdual that irndermine3 achlwement, A structure thatdemands compeflflon tends to havethe same

elfecl.. Inone experlmen!

performed by psychologtst Teresa amabile of Brlndets Unirrcrsi$r, gtrls ages 7 to I I vrere asked to make "sllly" collages, some compedrqg for prlzes and some not. Seven arflsts then Independently rated thelrworks.

The result the collages by the c.ompettng girls wereJudged to be sfnfflcantly less creaUve (thatis, less spontaneous, norrel, complexand varled) than those by the noncompeflng girls. . . .The case agalnst compefldon ls strengthened when one turns to educadon...

Davld and RogerJohnson, professors of educaflon at the Unlverstty of Minnesota, and thetr colleagues revleqred 122 shrdtes

conducted from 1924 to 1981... The remarkable results: 65 studles shorped that cooperation promotes htgher achlevement than compeilUon, 8 showed the reverse, and 36 showed no stadstically slgniffcant dllference. ...Some of the rather prlmitive experlments ln the l92Os rerrealed that people work faster at a semi-mechanlcal task *hen they are c.ompetlng than when they are no| but these studles also showed that the quality ofwork ls poorer under compefldve condldons. ...Clrtldren stmply do not leam better wheneducaflon ls transformed ireto a compeflflve strug;gle. To be sure, a teacher mayurant to turn a lesson lnto a compeflflve game to attnact and hold the students' attentlon. But the real appeal of thts strategr ls that tt makes teactring easter, not more effecflve: it clrcurrvents rather tlnn solves pedago$cal problems. .,.People seem to prefer c:ooperadon to c.ompeflflonwhen they bave tried both arr:angpments... As of 1984, theJohnsons were able to clte seven studles showtng that people prefer ooperatfue rather tlnn compefl tive or lndependent learning experlenc"es.. . After introducing 9 - and I Oyear-olds to cooperattue games, [TerryOrlickl found that two-thtrds of the boys and all of the glrls preferred thls ldnd ofrecreatlon to 1!rcus ralfare,,.

Many studles have shown thatwedo best

at the tasks we enJoy - those for whtch moflvatlon ls tntemal or "lntrinslc."An outside or"extrlnsic" mod\rator - such as money, grades, or the trapptngs of competiflve success - simply cannot make us performaswell aswe dowhenwe find the actMty rervardtrlg h ftself. ...One of the most powerful modvators is nelther mon€y norvlctory but a sense of accountabillty to other people. Thls ts preclsely what cooperadon establtshes: tlre knowledge that others are dependturg on you.

But under a compefldve arrangement, the only stake others have furyour performance ls adeslre to seeyou fatl...

moreJobs.

A

quarter-centuqr later, psychologtst

Robert Helmrelch of the UniversitvofTexas... found that sctentlsts wtth the -oit cttattons scored hlghonworkand rnastery scales but lowon compefltlrrcness.

Ttrls startled Helmrelch, who did not e:<pect competlflveness and achierrement to be antltlreHcal, but subsequent e4pertrrrnts proved ttrat ttwas no fluke... [In studtes of psychologfsts, buslnesspeople, students, and atrltne pilotsl Helmletch agatn found an trn ers€ r€latlonshtp between compeflUveness

andachlenemenl

SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS From the Orange County (CA) Regtsbr,

6/17

/85:

...VentrlloquistJlmmy Nelson satd he nwer flg;ured he'd want a college degree when he and hls dummtes, Danny and Farfel, were regulars on televtslon in the l95o's.

But Nelsonwas among 33 "graduates"

who pafd $lOOeachfordtplomas from the

UNWERSITYOFHARD KNOCKS in Philippi,

WV, overtheweekend.

"I've been very, very fortunate tn that I did not need a degree to get to the posidon that I have today," said Nelson, 55, nowan executfue wlth a savings-arrd -loan ln Fort

Myers, F1...

For almost 5O vears. the Unlrrersttv of Hard Knocks has cirurned out diplorn; - iled wlth adhestve bandaqes tnstead of rtbbons for those who harr fdirght their way to success without a sheepsliiin.

Nelson, who appeared with his dummies on the Milton BerleTexaco StarTheater, is the only cclebrtt5r tn the class of 1985, according to "unlrrersit5r" president PeggS Willdnson, a retlr,ed dress shop owner.

"Arryone canJoinwho ffgures they are succcsses in life and don't owe it to a college dlploma," satd Rtchwood newspaper publtsherJim Comstock, a 1934 Marshall Untversity graduate who founded the "unfuersit5r" after abuslness parbrerbegan covettng hts degr€e.

He said his mvthical universitv has about 7OO alumniurho have paid $iOO "tuitlon" each. That pays for a graduadon dirrner, a prom after the corunenoement, and other expenses...

SHE KNEW TOO MUCH Areaderwrites: ...I havealways beenagood test taker, knowtng somehowwhat answerwas expected by the testurriter. I have always scored very well on standardized tests.

As I took my state boards to become a reglstered nurse, the subJect aboutwhich I was most knowledgeable, having practiced mldwtfery, was obstetrics. However, whenthe test resultswere sent to me, the only secdon wtthout a high score uras the obstetrics secdonl Many of the multiple choice quesflons had no true answer to choose. I knew to mrrch to figure out what was intended to be the best answer.

LASTING HIJMILIATION Stephanie Judg (BC)

uote:

...I received an adult librarv cardwhen I was in the third gr:ade. Akindly-librarian had observed me hangingaround tlre adult collecdons, had handed me a book from an adult shelfto see ifl could read it (I could), and then promptly issued me an adult card (usually denied un0l high school).

I spent a long, long time making my lirst selection, and llnallv went home with Don Quixote. I read tt, tt[ea it, and wrote my next school book report on it. I got an F on the reportbecause the teacher told mel had not read the book. She brought a cnpy of lt to school, and, in frontofthe class, started aslidng me quesdons. The ftrst one was, 'What is the fltle ofttris boolt'?" I replied, "Don Oulcks-oaL" She asked me to definewords and explaln passages she had selected ln advance. I failed errery quesdon.

Shewas convlnc.ed thatl had notread the book. Shewas - I felt then - absolutely riglrL I hadn t read tt. I had sldpped hard words, even somewhole sentences. I had found many passages perpledng, and had had to thlirk really hard at tlmesJust to follow the thread of the storv. I vras so humiltated.

GROWING WTTHOT.IT SCHOOUNG #55

9 And now, after reading GWS back issues, itsuddenly hit me. I did read itl I read itwery bit as thoroughly as I read many thlngs now.

probably a misJudgement on my part, but I couldn't leave her with anyone who was golng

WhewlThanks, friends.

I have carried that incident around with me for 3O years. It's kind of embarrassing to adrnit that I hate the whole Quixote business' I dropped a course in uni\rersity once when I fouiri Cervantes on the reading list. I detest the Picasso print thafs on somewall in every other house I visit. When I lived in NewYork ard ManoJl-aMancha was a Broadway hit, I refused to go. I have neverbought flckets to a symphony orballetthat had aQulxoteon the Prograrrt Sil$? Well, tnconsequentlal over the whole of my life, ficr sure. But, as I learn more and more from GWS, I see thls event as one crystal clearralndrop in the mtddle of the thunderstorm of my public school experience.

At least I knowpreciselywhere thts whole "allerry" came from - what makes my stomach knotand chum whenever I see the word Qulxote...

So that ended Hilary's kindergarten career. She tells people she graduated, that she leamed everything they had to teach. She misses the arts and crafts, but that seems to be

SCHOOL HURTS READING FtotnNorthCarolina: Fiveyears ago, we enrolledJessie in our church school for first grade.. . At the end of the school year, a note carne home askingl me to work with Jessie on her "reading expression" during the surnmer. This one, I couldn't belierre. Thls was the child who read to 3-year-old Joshua every day, and no child hts agewill stt through aboringreaderl Confused, I asked herto read as she read ln school. She proceeded to read tn the chopplest fashion and in a monotone 'voice. When I asked herwhy she read thatway, she said lt was so the other ldds wouldn't get mad at her.

I spoke with her teacher about thls. She admltted that at the begtnntu:rg of theyear, Jessie had known all the words, and she had

encluragdJessle to pretend tle readingwas harder for her, so as not to hurt the other children's feellngs,..

ByAugust, I knewJessie would not be

refurningto school...

about it...

...One day, after a week and a half

WHAT ''SMART'' KIDS LOSE F-ro,m

Clantdio B arb r (Ge rno.rv)

:

In GWS #45, Andrea Kelly-Rosenberg mendoned tlrat not weryone leams ln school that s/he's stupld, some leam they're "smart" and therefore better than the "stupid" ones. I leamed ln school that belng smartwas my only asset. I was lousy at sports, dancing, getung along wtth people, doing anything with my hands. But I was smart - and proud of lt. I was so insecure because of all the thtngs I couldn't do, that I dung to my lntelligence as proof that I had some value. But I never felt competent to do arrythtng.

Years later, I worked for a few months as an electrlcian's helper and discovered all sorts ofwonderfirl things about myself. I could do skilled, somedmes dilllcult and physically demanding, work. I could get along

with non-intellectual, even seldst people who didn t think I ought to be doingwhatlwas doing. I could be asserdrrc when I had to. I also discovered that these people were not "stupid," as they and I had been told, that thry trad tntelllgent and lnterestlng things to say, that theydid tmportantworkarrd dtd ltwell. I learned more true thtngs about people, tncludtngmyself, tn those fewmonths than ln I 7 or so years of school, [SS:l Ttrts may be a good dme to brlng up something thatJohn Holt satd often: ktds who are good at the school game can sufferas much as those who are failures at tt, though perhaps in less obvious ways. Claudla Barber mentlons one suchwav, I rernemberthe qmiclsm and scorn wiih which my classmates at our hlgh school for the "academically gtfted" regarded ttris label. All that we had done to dernonstrate our glfts and

itwasallwehad,

of

liindergarten, Hila4r forgot what the homework was and wanted to call up the teacher. I explained that they weren't really serious about that shrlltn ldndergarten, and not to worrv about it.

The n6xt day she dragged me lnto class with her so that I could tell the teacher itwas my fault that she couldn't call and get the homework. So Hilary and I and the three boys all trooped in, tr€adngltasalark. Boy, were wewron$ The teacher lit into Hilary until her face crumpled and kept after her about irresponsibility, etc., until she had her sobbing. (And all in front of the class, and me.) I consoled herand thenleftwiththe bovs.

-

Bythe time I gothomethe shockhad worn offand my thoughts crystalllzed. I Put my mnning boots on and went back and got her out. I explalned to the principal that enrolling her in school in the flrst place was CROW]NG WTIIIOUT SCHOOLING #55

A HARSH GUIDE...

Janfuitl (BC) sentus acqty oJ tle bner slle wnte to tle *tpAntendert oJ Moto Veldcles otter aulsxto achfldrens '$etU Villoge":

school was to score well on its entrance exam.

That was something, but many of us felt, perhaps notquite c.onsciously, that itwasn't much. And yet, as Claudia Barber points out,

KalieClark(ON wriles:

to recover.

tomakehercry.

thus gain admtttance to this pr€sdglous

KINDERGARTEN STORY

"winners" and "losers" alke - are sdll trytng

A secret that "wlnnerldds" keep from each other is how tenuous they consider their position in that magic ctrcle. A friend tells me thatwhatshe remembers mostvividlv of her years as an extnaordinarily successful student are the occasional incidents of failure. It is as lfthose incldents revealed a truth forwhich the success was onlya mask.

Winnerkids, however, wlll do anyttring to avoid loolidng stupid orappearlng to have failed. There are many things thatl

remember not trying during my schooling, not because I'd had a bad experience with them but because I had no informadon about whether therrwere actMdes atwtrich I would excel. I tookilrts lack ofinformadon to mean probable failure, and the surewayto stay successful in school ls neverto venture out of tJre narrow confines in wtrich you've already

provenyourself.

Such caution is crippling. If s one of school's lessons fromwhich all of us -

...OnJuly 17, my S-year-old sonJason and I attended a class at the Coluood Safety Village... The concept ofa ctrild-scaled safety village ls an excellent one, and the desigp of thfs pardcularvtllage has been nlcely drawn.

Such awonderfirl tdeal But how poorly executed by the teactrlng stalf.

Flrst, the teacherrpe had tooka really harsh mtlitartstlc approach. He barked orders at these poor little children (ages 5 and 6); thetr resuldng arudety was palpable ln the air around us. (Why ts lt so dtllcult for teachers to leam that stress lnterferes with learnfng?) He spent agood thnrd of the tlme on unnec.essa4l, and ln some cases, ludlcrous, dtscipllne; fcre:<ample, before the class, he velled "Hands ofll Don't touch the carsl" itrese, ofcnurse, were thevery samecars they would be drMngllater. What possible damage could theydo by touchtngthesecars beforehand? If achild so much as looked away from hlm (anatural occurrence for children as tlrey do harrc shorter attendon spans than we do), he umuld shout, "Eles forwardl"At one point thts became simply ridiculous. He potnted to the village, sald "Nowover there tn thevillage..." Naturallyall eyes (krcludtng mrne) turned tn thatdtrecflon, whereupon he shouted, "Eles forwardl" If a child dared sayaword, hewouldyell, "Ratse your handl" One llttle glrl, who obgTed all tris rrles and always rals€d herhand, for some reason seemed to lrrltate htm. He kept telltng her"Putyour hand downl You'll getyour turnl" But she never did. Perhaps he stmply forgot, but thts was ernodorrally abuslve, and by the end of the class, she looked cmshed.

In general, he seemed far more concerned aboutkeeping the chlldren in line than in helptng them to leam about saGty. Yetthese were quiet, po[te chtldr€n who obvlously would have respondedbetter to arnore relaxed, trusttng approach. Ttrls harsh Joyless attltude could only make safet5r rules seem dull and uninteresdng. Hts bortng delVery lasted over thirty mlnutes, a long flme to ask clrlldren thls age to stt - especially on the e<tremelv uncomtrortable narrow wooden plank p-rovided. (Why can't they stt on thegrass?)

This long, boring lecture took so much time that the drive my chtld had looked forward to allweek lasted about fourorflve

mlnutes; he dldn't even get to go around the courseone tlme. The three teacherswere not teachtng butwere mostl5l concerned about preven$nga bumper car derby.

I cannot believe that the people who designed and sponsored this course really had this lidnd of outcome in mind. The deslgner obviously knew that "experience is the best teacher.

"

Why have a lecture at all? These

children are not from another planet" they have been observing tralhc stgns for several years. Why not take, say, six chlldren at a time as drivers, another slx as pedestrlans and brtng the course to Me? In our class, the ctrtldren not drlvingwere asked to cnunt signs ln an obvious but mlsguided attempt to keep them out of the way. At the end of the class, the teacher rnade abig fuss overthe onlychild

10 who counted the slgr.s correctly ; the other ctrlldren obviously felt stuptd. Wtrat on earth does counbnghave to dowtth safety? ...Our story had a happy endtrg. I complained to another teacher, and we were allowed to go thouglr the course ourselves.

Butwhat about all those childrenwhose parents don't protest, orwho are not present to do so?..

...AND A HELPFTJL ONE FrwnSheriClernen(ON: ..,After touring around the wonderfu I Untversit5r of Oregon art museum one rzriny spring day, we stopped for our usual purchase ofart postcards to place inourjournals to write stories whenwe neturned home. The docentlnthe giftshop had heard us talldng and soonwe were all talktngwtth her. She was lnterested in our homeschooling eforts and qulcklyvolunteered as to how thedocents would be extremely excited to glive us a speclal tour - as they do all the tlme wtth publlc schools. She was qulck to point out that they would be delighted to have an lnterested audlence - not tlre mandatory martyrs with whom they usually deal. She also ernphasized thatwhen I called for an appointrnent to ask firr the docents to bring someextra treasures out of their closet thatwould enhance the vislt as well as gfve the chlldren some addtuonal hands-on exlrcsure. We accepted her offer and spent another ralny fall afternoon ln her care.

Slrrce ttrts occurrence I always tnqutre of museum volunteers of any addtdonal information forus as a horneschool familv and they are ahrays happy to share thetr-time and the dlsplays with us.

PAYING JOB AT 6 SnsanRichrnan wrote tr Pennsylvania Homeschoolers,Wlnter 7 9 86: Jacob (6) nowhas aJob. He makes about $ I a week at tt, hts payday betng Frlday afternoon. I'm hts employer. HlsJob? Babysttting for Molly (3) whtle I have a concentrated @-rdnute piano pracflce time wtth 9-year-old Jesse. Tbis newarrangement lsworktng happtly forall of us. Although Molly would sometimes understand about not botherlngJesse and meatthepiano, and play happtly nearby, or look through books and draw, too oftenwe'd have an unhappy (OK, miserable) sc,errc where Mollywould uork herselflnto a rage trylngto cltmb up tn my Lap, bang on the keys, knock our books olf, etc. Also Jacob would somedmes seem to drift about durlng this tlrrr, often rather vacanfly gadng olttnto space curled up ln an arm chalr. I'm of coure not sa1dng ldds shouldn't hare peaccful quiet tlmes like thls, but lt was seernlng to me that Jacob wasn't partlcularly galnlngeither. Hervould rarely play acttuely durtngJesse's ptano ttme, but seemed to be in a suspended'Vaidng room" vagueness. And at times all of our exasperafion levels were rlstng dangerously, all my padence and Jesse's would be lost" Jacob's negrJob ts solvlng all these problems. Now tn lds thtrrd urcek ofwork, Jacob ts erren beginntng to plan ahead hts "speclal dme" with Molly: "Maybe tomorrow Mollyand I could make up apretend store," etc. Molly ts getdng fadflarwlth the whole

tdea, and often runs over to grab Jacob's hand, ready to go offto her speclal time wtth him.

They've been buflding with blocks, dressing

up ln outrageous outfits, playing pretend gameswithdolls arrd stuffed toys, tunaghlng all sorts ofdramas, TheyVe baked cooliiies and muIILrs togetherwithout arry help from me (Jacob ls our resldentcreative baker, his forte being carob werything, no recipes needed and italmostalways is edtble).

TheyVe lauglred and giggled and been happy

nowdurlng this formerwasted partof their d"y.

And Jacob ls also happy about earntng his own money. He's planning on buying a few small apple trees for our future orchard, and has also purchased a small set of colored penclls, and spends much dme delightedly countlng his money. ftIe hasn't needed any workbookpages orpretend money to leam about pennies, nickels, quarters and dollars he uses the real thing.) I know many, many famtlles don't fecl comfortable or rlght abou t paying their children forJobs around the home, and prefer glvtng ldds anr allowanoe so the ldds can have some nron€y. Myboys have alwavs beenbervlldered aboutthe idea of allouiances, and have neverwanted one, and they do do manyJobs for no pay (and fairly checrfully). ThisJob is an extra spectaljob that I especially appreci,aterJacob dofng, and the pay (25cents adme, if Mollydoesn'tcome tobotherusbefore ttre Umeis up) does seem to helpJacob take hlswork sedously arrd proudly. And as for allowances, Jesse recently said he thought allowances were sort of like "welfare for lidds" (we'dJust been reading a book aboutthe hlstory ofthe socialwelfare system in our country) and that he'd rather work for his money.

And, ofcourse, Jesse and I are having much more producUve piano tlmes now that Molly is not trying her darndest to "disturve" us. We know nowwe can count on a long stretch of concentr:ated flme to work together, without feelingwe're tn the middle ofathree rlng circus. Might be somethlng for some other homeschooltng famtlles to cpnsider when dealingwith seweral chlldren at once.

One caudon - one of my husband

Howard's early memories was of a day when he was, for some reason, buggilng hls mother whlle she was doing some sort ofwork, and hls mother, lno(asperaflon, finallyollered to pay his older sisterJanlcc adollarif she couldJust DO SOMETHING with Howard for a while and keep hlm out of her hair. Howard was terribly affronted , and felt that at least he should have been patd too. He certalnly dtdn't feel like coopenatlngwtth the scheme. I ttrink Howard at the time was a good btt older than Molly - shets notquiteawareofmonry matters pardcularly, although she knows she lsJacob'sJob. But for her, at this age, thtsJust makes her feel special and lmportant. Very lmportanttowork these thlngs out poslflvely, so that it doesn't feel llke blackmail or

trlckery.

riglrt now that's Helen (3), Mark and me. Mark and I get alittle more than Helen. We ffr:st started allovranc-es when Anna was 3. Then, lt solrred the "please-buy-me-thts' dilhculHes. Sometimes we spend some exfu'a money on fami\r treats or oudngs, but general[ our allowarrces coverall nonnec.essifles. And as far as I'm concerned, having and ustrg money ls the onlyway for ctrildren to learn about tt. As the children get older, theywill more than likely have pald Jobs with other people and maybe withtn the family, but I hope to conflnue allowances for all arryway. - Mary Van Dorrcn as now,

COPING WITH EYE PATCH Areaderwrites: Regarding the wearirqg of correcdrrc dauglrter (7) had to wear an eye pa.tch over her strong eye for seven weeks, and

devic-es - my

glasses wlth a falrly thick lens over the rpeak trled to emphaslze the poslttve aspect, l.e. eventually belng able to see better, without being too patroniztng. But it has been a really hard tirne for her. She says the glasses make eye. We

her look stupid, the patch itches and trrltates the sldn. For about two weeks she was almost bllnd wlth the patch on. However, she has beenrrcry mature about lt. Three days after she got the temporary $asses (whlchwere ugly frames and had a lens only ln one slde) she started a theater class. I sald that she did not have towearthe temporar5rglasses to the class. She chose to so ttrat her eye muld get betterfaster. I said. 'You knowthatsomeof the chlldren might tease you. " She replied, 'Thafswhat I'm afrald of." butwentahead and put the glasses on. As it turned out, no one said anything about itl She has had quite a Gw people ask her about the patch...

Anyt*y, I agree wtth Karcn Franklln ('Prostlresis ts Personal Cbolce," cWS #52) - tf Its necessar5l for treatrrrent" wearlt, lf not, leave lt up to the cholc.e of tl-re chtld. Ivty daughter understood what was gotng on and accepted thechoices.

I umuld say that thts is the ffrst ttne unhappiness has reallyentered herltG something that lsn t gpne when she wakes up in the momlng, somethlng that has to be fac'ed orrcr and orrer agaln. She has dealtwith It in a number of ways. She started taHng afternoon naps agetrr. (She has slnce stopped dotngthat.) She rreeded therelieffrom the eyestrainand unhapplness, I guess. Shewas reluctant to go out in public at flrst, but lsn't anJnnore. She oc.casionally says Orat she wishes she dtdn't have a rpeak eye. She crled a lot at flrst, about unrelated things, like her Itttle brother anno5dng her or not liking what I had made fordtnner or not gettlng anything in the mail... B5r now thtngs have settled down, but I don t think she wtll errer be "the same old girl" because she seems much older and more mature now.

ALLOWANCES FOR ALL We have a dtlferent vlew of allouranccs

tlran some others do. We feel thatvre allwork togetlrer as a famlly as much as posstble and that we can allow ourselves a llttle (very ltttle) of our family money to spend as we wish wlth no restrlcflons. Tttls system has rvorked especlallv well for us when we are short of have the freedom to spend a m6ney. \ir. guilt. Everyone who ls old little wtth no""tr enouglr to need mon€y gets an allowanct -

TEEN IN BOARDING SCHOOL KoIe Kennan (PN utrltes : We have been homeschoollng

our

children, Ada (14), Hannah (fq, arrdJesse (7), sinc.e they were babies. Ada took a c,ouple of years to attend publtc school part tlme ln third and fourth grades, becausewe had dectded to olfer our Lilds a cholcewhen therr

GROWING WTIHOUT SCffOOf-nfC *SS

ll turned 8 about whether or not to g9 to public school. Itwas qulte a shock to me when Ada declded at age 8 to go offto publtc school - my babvl Those wetrd schools, wtdch I knew wer6n't good places for peoplel However, as the Ilrst yearof herexperiment with the wlder world progyessed, I came to seeJusthow senslble shewas to plt herselfagatnsl soclety's norms, andJust how clear she was about her ourn values and how able to cope

wtth the conlltct between them and those of other people. She urcnt to 3rd gpade four days a

week, to 4th grade two days aweek, and then "dropped out' to spend more tlme wlth my hus6ind Ed, who-was talcng ayear offwirk, and to have more tlme for readlng.

Whenrpe ltved !n Mtchlganwe had dlscussed the posstb[tty ofAda going to a Quakerboardtng school as a teenagerbecause we wanted her to be tn a Quakerenvlronrnent durtng thoseyears. Afterwe moved to the Ptrtladelphta areawhen she was I 1, we thought perhaps tlrere was enoug! Quaker

envlronmentand thlngs to do around here that she mlght want to stay at home durlng

her trtgh school year:s after all. But rpe dectded to go atread and lvsetlgFteThe Meetlng School, a small Quaker boardtrg school tn Nanr Hampshtre, parttcularly as Ada was not happy wlth the lack ofwlnter weather and mr:al atrnospbere tn the Ptdladelphla suburbs. So, aftervislflnlg tlre school last January, Ada declded to leave home at age I 4 for a boardlng school experlence.

My lnlHal reacdon was somewhat simtlarto the one I had when sherpentolf to publlc school -'Whatl My baby leave home?"

But by the tlme she actually went away, I was used to the tdea, and could see tts advantages, not only for Ada but for the rest of us.

Ada has been atThe Meedng School for three months now, and I amrrcry pleas€dwtth the way thtngs have worked out. ForMa, I thtnk ttds has been an exc.ellent opporfunlty to b€ part of a carlng communlty wtth other teenagers and adults. For our se<ond daughter Hannah, thls has meant that she gets to be the oldest ldd forachange, whtch has helped her tn terms of talrdng rnore responslbiltty tn the famtly and getung moreacademlc attendon from me. The same holds trre to some extent for Jesse, ouryoungest. For me, the experlence has really conltrrned my trrst ln Ada's excellent abtllty to rnake good cholccs. I have beenamazed at howeasytfs beento send her out lnto the world, and I thtnk ln rnanyways the ease has been because I spent ttme wtth her when she was young - I feel ready to let go because she and I have had our ttme of dependencc together. My husband Ed has missed her more, and we thlnk that may be partly because he hasn t had the tlme wtth her that I had. In ary case, I feel glad to hear from herandwe enJoyed having herhome for thanksglvlng and look foruard to havt-r:l1g her here for Chrtstmas, but I see her more and more as a god ftend who ls not my especial responslblltty. I think that frlendshlp may be enhanced by notdealtngwtth heron adatl5r basts. I harrc had many reports from Quaker frlends who rpent to boardtng schools that it greatly promoted a sense of frlendstrtp with

thetrparents.

I thtnk that for many teenagers, the home settlngrntglrtbecomeless and less the most approprlate place to learn and grou/. At some poart along the llne, lt s€ems best for them to branch out lnto the world, to explore peer reliaflonstrlps, to learn from other adults.

There are manyvrays to do that, fuecludtng attendtng local schools, ltvtng wtth other farnllles, getdng trvolved tn apprenflceshlps, GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #55

and otherposslblltdes near home. For myself, I amdelighted to knowthatAdalsin a unlque school, where the students and adultswork together to make a communlt5r

based on guakerprocesses suchas a communl$r meeting for business, and the use of "clearness commlttees" rather than

punldve acdon when anyone (adult or student) breaks school agreements. I am pleased to see her at a place where she can choose to go on an and-nuke dernonstradon as a school field trlp, Where she can take pingpong and trilang filr grm cr€dlts. Where the classes are small (3-8 students) and the reports are nanrafl\E and based ona cr€dit/no credlt system. I ltke lorowing that Ada ts livlng worldng playlng and experlenclng conJllctswlth the 3o-odd people there, almost halfofwhom are adults. I appreciate the farnily-style lMng arrangements where the teachers, thelrchlldren, and students ofboth sexes hveln households together.

I was parflcularly dckled when we vtstted there for a parents weekend to have many of the teachers asktng how they could attract more homeschoolers to the school, because they are delighted wlth Ada's lndependerrce and sense of responsibillty. So not only has the school been good forAda and the rest of us, but our homeschoollngAda has been gmd for the school. It ls avery satisfting way to end my "career" as her "teacher."

Ifanyone ls lnterested ln more lnformatlon aboutThe Meettng School, lts address lsThornas Rd, Rtndge NH O3,16l. The school real$umrks hard to make sure that peoplewho want to come get scholarshtps tf they can'taltrord full tuitlon, so lt lsworth lnvestgadng even lf you feel you couldn't posstbly allord a prlvate school.

Califomi,a map, followlngour trtp up Higlrway Sand locattngall the trlglwayswe crossed.

3. He spent qulte a lot of flme reading to Curds, his younger brother, often the same

bookoverand over.

Ttrings hegot to watch: l. The desert and ahuge anthillwhich was very acflve. Also marry types ofbugs.

2,Thezoo.

3. A htgh dtvlng

demonstration at Magic

Mountaln.

4. The desert vs. the mountain vs. the Iiarmland. He was constantly asklng about or potndng out the dilferenc.es in the land and

environment.

Questions he asked, and what it led to: l. What makes my ears pop?Well, whatis alr pressure and why does it change?

2. Wtrat is the equator? (from a book he

wasreadlng) 3. Do ants have a queen like bees do?

4. How much can they carry?

5. How long is a mlle?Tell me whenwe have gone a mile - lO miles - 20 miles.

6. Why ls arestroom calleda restroom?

7. Why ls our roof rack shaped like it is?

(aerodynamtcsl) 8. Many quesdons on what water can go throug!, e. g., Can water go through metal afterltlsvery old?

9.What is smog and why is lt there? lO. Whatts the longest muscle lnyour body? What are muscles made oF I I . Why don't polar bears like the sun?

Where are koala bears from, and do they like the sun? Why is a polson arow frog called

that?

12.

Whatkind ofrockls this? (Grantte, I

thtnk.) It has lots of different lidnds of rocks tn tt.

LEART{ING DURING TRIP JIlIbrc (CN urote: ...T ^stvreekend, I spoke to agroup of deltghtful momsinEscondido, CA who are lnterested ln homeschooling thelrldds, Many

of them urcre already us€d to urorldng

with

thetr lidds ustng the Doman method. The polnt I made was to try to relax and let the lidds lnfluence and lead their own educadon.

Although I thlnk I made an tmpression, I could see the amountofworrv and conoern about their children not miss-lng arrything and about being able to prepare the materials to teach them higher levels of science, math,

I 3. What is the sun made oP flhls entered lvrto a big discussion of stars and the sun, and he wouldn t believe us that the sun was astarundl he sawit hlmselfin the encyclopedial) Ard atso, he saved hls bucket from the zoo so he cbuld draw the animals on lt in the car. He pracdced his rhythms on thebottom of it and entertatned uswlth aJaz version of Thrinkle, complete with drummf ng.

He wrote a letter to the corporate ofllces of Carl Jr. Restaunants, tnforming them he had recetved a monkeywlth only three legs, and cruld theyplease send htmonewithall lts legs. . ..And this ts only what I could remember

alter ffve daysl

etc.

On the way home, my filend Gail and I started rnaldng a [st ofwhat "educafion" had occurred for Paul (6) who was with us. I had not putone speckofattention on malidng the trlp educa.tional or an5rthing but a nic.e rela:dngvacatlon. I surprised even myself when I looked at howwide a range of quesdons he askedl I dectded to write lt up to send to the moms I met and I'rrc enclosed a c.opy foryou. (And I ruorry about not clverlng any scienc.el) MaJor accomplishments:

l. Paul had a lot of opportunity to swlm and his strength, confidencc, and sldll tncreased greatly, 2. Paul leamed to read a rnap beaudfull5r.

He became tnterested in the pictorial map of our motel and used it to ffnd the ice machine, pool rooms, etc. Then after vre went to Magic Mountaln, he studied the map there (also pictorial) and found all the plac.es urc had been. Then on our ride home. he read the

NEVER BORED FtnmSusanRiclmon(PN: Jesse, now 9, was being inteMewed by our frlend Norm ke (editorof Flovnesteaders Neurs) about how he felt about homeschooling. At one point Norm mentloned to Jesse that many schooled lidds he knew ofben felt bored when theywere home onvacation, orwhen theweatherwas lousy, and he wondered whatJesse did during tirneswhen he felt bored at home, when there was nothing to do. Jesse, who had been answerlng Norm's prevlous quesfl ons right out with

uOtlG ,r'GttR qrU3A Ho*lEsc,ooLe'(S ?

"2rAN tN G CorVfACf " t 4 alfrt oA/lL NErWOK,K .F ont.ts ..tHa aRE ' sise' A :, io ao, 74, t4 rD Prrti'.c A ?!rt.ls ,^ftE(E9fED

tt

12 little hesltadon, now faltered. Silence, "Bored? Nothtrg to do?" More silence. Flinall5r Jesse brtglrtened and sald, "Oh, you mean when there bre so manU thtngs to do, tt s sometimes hard to choosewtrich to do? Oh yes, sometlmes that happens to me." Itwas clear thatrJesseJust dldn't comprehend the quesilon, or erren the fdea, that a lrdd rniglrt actual$ be faccd wlth a situadon when there

s€em€d tobenothtngworthwhtle to do. It seemed to me llke one of the best promodonal

statements about homeschoolingyou can hane: T{omorebored ldds - try homeschoollngl" rJesse and Jacob lrdeed ahrays have some proJect gotng, some work to do, some play to do, some new tdea theywant to try out, some book to read, somethtng they want to talk about - they nerrcr are bored around here.

Jessedid confess to borcdom recently when thlngs were gettlng slow at an adult recorder muslc part5r vre were attendir4;. When I mendoned to him thatseveralpeoplethere had said thev had never s€en such'\lrellbehaved chiidren at an adult party," he laughed and satd, "Oh, you meanbeingborcd looks well-behaved?" He dtd say though that hewas glad he'd come, was glad hewas there

rather tlran at home wlth a sltter or somethlng, and he'd reallyenJoyed thts ffrst tlme ever to see and tql out a real harpstchord, so even ln the middle of that 'boredom" he'd achrally enJoyed hlmself abtt (and he thought the food was great).

Now, I can't tmaglne most schooled klds

werbelng unsure what Norm's'bored" quesUonwas about Itwas so refreshtng to hear Jesse's complete

mtsundertandhgl

LI]VIITING SOCIAL LIIIE F'twrl. Dlo.no B a.*mo.n (PN :

...I feel tt lsvery tmportant to think of the consequences of the envlnonment and the people you albw to lnteractwlth your ctrtldren. I have neverencouraged and have sometlrrrcs dlscouraged my daughters from

playlngwtth netghborhood chtldren. At worst these relaflonshlps harrc caused my ctrlldren to want to roam the netghborhood unattended ard cause trouble. Atbest I havebecomean unpald babysltter and we have not had erough familyand homeschoollng dme. My daughters have complatned that thcy can't go outslde wlthout feeling obligated to play with the nelghbors' clrildren, whether theyvrant to or not, and that tlre other children lnterfere wlth thelr usual play and pretendtr:g.

These conlllcts don' t occur when we lrrvite frtends to our house or when we vlsit them. In those cases par€nts are present and speclflc ttme ltmlts are set. The troublewith ndghborhood friendshtps ls that the chtldren comeeverydayand want to stay tndeffnfte!.

Often thery come back half an hour after they a.re sent home. We are gotng througlr this sltuaEonagaln since anew 5-year-old gtrl moved ln next dmr. This glrl often says she wlshes she could live wlth us. She ls a nlce llttle glrl froma stngle-pa.rent famlly. We all like her and her mother and wlsh they had a better slhraHon, but how far must we go fu:t sharlngour home (and our homeschoolln$

wlth heir? Chtldren are oftenrrcryattracted to homeschoolers. We do lots of lnterestlng thlngs. Rather tlran paytng attenilon to children by tncluding them tn farnily work, marry panentswork alone and send thelr ctild€n outtur the netghborhmd to look for

entertatnment.

OIMa(8) has somedmeswlshed thata close friend lived nextdoor. I have told her that even !f that were to happen, I would not want them to always be together. Farnllies need plenty oftlme alone to develop astrong tdenilty, a sense ofhistory, and thelr own homeschooling path. A good book on thls subJect ts Tfalts oJaHealtlV Fantlg by DoloresCurran.

When homeschooltng frlends have lived nearus I have had to guard against the temptadon to spend too much time together.

As Gretchen McPherson said about reading tn GWS #52, lt ls easler for parents as well as children to spend tlme soc{allzing than to lrrvolve themselves in proJects. Thesevlsits are good ln moderaflon for soclal derrelopment and to pre'vent par€ntbum-out, but I flnd that too muchsoctalizingleaves [ttle tl.me to ttrtnk of proJects and to do

"nothing " a very lmportant component of creatire play and learning.

PARENTS DISPUTE

SOCIALIZATION homTiaGrcr-e(BC): Here is the letter I sent to the superlntendent (and my ex-husband) when the supt. suggested I put Noah back undl tJre tssue was set-

tled between my ex and me. Maybe there will be somethlng in them that someone else can use. I focused mostly on soclallzadon, as that's the lssue my ex focused on. For now, I've heard though the grapevlne that no actionwillbe taken until the end ofthevear.

DearDr. Marfln, Thts ls to lnformyou ln answertoyour letterofJanuary 20 thatl will contlnue to teach Noah at home unUl such time as the lssue ls resolrred between myself and Noah's father. I don't thlnk tt would be fafr to Noah to bounce hlm back and forth between school and honrschool. Thts lssue will probably take some dme to resolve. and ln the meantlme, I wish Noah to have the beneflts of homeschoollngforas longas posslble. He is also enrolled tn swlmmtnglessons two rnomlngs perweek, and I prefer not to wlthdraw htm from tlrose, since he ls doingwell.

I havewatched close$ Noah's prlogress through ldndergarten, grade one, and part of grade two. I have watched him change from a curious little boy, lnterested tn learnlng about

theurorld around htm, to aboywho t]rlnks that learntng ts always difflcult, not rpould everwant everwant to do sometldnga sometlrlng a person'would unless forced to. InJust two weeks of homeschooling, I hive watched a great deal of that bad atfltude r€versle, From hls ffrst day of homeschooling he began to r€ad for pleasure,

dwouring large quanfldes ofwritten material, much of itwell above hls grade lerrel.

My reading shows thatthere ls atleast frombrain spectaltsts and psychologists ln farrcrofmuch later school entry. Noah does not printwell yet, and llnds prlntlng to be an arduous chore. I am convinced that his srnall rnotor control ls stmply notderreloped enough to allowhlmto prtnt wtth any lidnd of ease . If doing lots of prinUngurcre gotng to tunprove his prlndng sktll, thenwhy ls hls printlngworse now tttan ttwas in grade one?There ls no reason why he can't continue to do trts leaming orall5land on theword processoruntil hls some support

newous system catches up. Obviously that wouldn't be practical in a classroom situadon, but lt ls perfectly feasible at home.

It is this indMdualized instrucdon thatl consider to be so valuable to a chlld Noah's ace.

I amunwilling to use correspondence (courses) in Noah's instmction for turo r,easons. The first is the amount of paperwork and writing which would be involved. This is Justwhatl'm trying to get Noah away fromfor the timebeing. The second is lackof flexibility. I would be unable to lndividuali"e the curriculum for Noah ln any truly

meaningfulway.

Conc'erning Noah's social development, I fail to see why so many people think that schools are the only place that can fcster tJrat development. In fact, my belief is that school contributes in a negadve wEry to a child's social development. Ifbefurg exposed to brtense peer pressure ls a good way for children to leam to resist such pressure, I have yet to lind much evidence of that resistanc'e in the local elementary and high schools. I believe that the younger a child is exposed to that kind of pressure, the more he will be inlluenced bv it.

Noah plays soreral tlmes aweekwlth small groups ofchildren ofvarying ages. He plays happily at various tlmes with each of them, regardless ofage or sex. Ttris almost nwer happens at school, and when lt does, the children are generally teased for dotng it. In homeschoolers I have nodced a genuine concern foryor.rngerchildren and a great furterestfur the activitles of theolderones. At school, I havewltnessed more often cruelt5r to younger chlldrenand fearofolder ones.

Noah has no problemdealtrgwith rules thatdiffer frrom place to place. He knows that he must followthe rules oftris soccerteamor be ldcked olf. He must obe5r the pool rules at hts swtmmtng lesson or be lidcked out, The n:les at each oftrts frlends' houses are at least somewhat dtfferent than at home. He has no trouble with ar5r of that. He certainly doesn't need school to teachhim howto dealwith these dilferences.

I uras

talkingto ayounggtrl todaywho At 13, she is

has always been homeschooled.

potsed, conffdent, self-motivated and eastly able to relate to both childrenand adults.

When I asked herlf she everfelt she had mlssed outon anythlngby not attending school, she said that the social life was the main thing shewas glad shewas n{ssirxg, especially at the high school level.

I am not concerned that Noah wtll have dtftcultytn returning to the school systemat a laterdate, In theirbook SctwtCanWai4 Dr. Raymond and DorotlryMoore statethat the research evidence overwhelrningly favors later entrance for rnost chlldren. In thelr own research they found that "rehrms fromover 3OO correspondents who have entered schools at age 8 or later indicate, . . average youngsters canquickly progress and catch up.lheyoften surpass - ln motlvaflon, achievement, behavlor, sociability, and leaderstrip - those who started school severalyears earlier..."

FLASH As wc go to

Fess, we have learrcd ofyet

anoth€r state lrwolved In lcglsladon, Perrny Fo:< of thc WESTMRGINIA HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATIONsays thegroup has drafted abill that would speciS that the privatc school option, 'ExempdonK," applies tohome schools (sce GWS #5f -53). Shc orpects the btll to bc ffled ln thc House and Scnstc by the ffrstweek ln Fcbruary.

CROWING WTTIIOUT SCHOOLING #55

JOHN HOLT'S BOOKAND MUSIC STORE NEW THE PLUG-IN DRUG

FOUR ARGT'MENTS r.OR THE ELIMINATION OF TEI,EVISION

ffi

by MarieWinn ($6.95)

BOOKS In the l97Os. in a letter to Nat Hentoff, John Holt likened school reformers to people trying to pumpwater out of a boat. "At some point," he wrote, "l have to start asking myself, maybe we are \ring to pump out a boat that has holes in it... Or maybe it is more than just holes...

Maybe thewhole design iswrong." MarieWinn andJerryMaider are to the croid of peop6 arguing about what ought and ought not to be on television whatJohn Holt was to ihe crowd aqguing about what ought and ought not to be taught in schools. In criticizingTv, both Winn and Mander are in separate ways proposing the same thing: maybe the whole design iswrong. Maybe the mediumis unsaveable.

To Winn in The Pltg-InDnrgt, the issue ls television's effect on the family, and specifically what it means to spend an average of six hours a day during one's formative years sitting in front of the set. The fact of doing that, says Winn, is more signilicant than which particular images may be flickering across the screen. She writes:

Universally, concem about television and its dangers centers on the programs people watch: too violeht. too shallow. too sexist, too foolish. I believe, however, that by focusing our attenbon so completely on the contents of television programs, we have long ignored the more profound influence of television - of the mere act of watching, and of the availability of this experience as a time-ftller - on child development, on the ways parents bring up their children, and on family life. A look at television from this unusual angle may help us to recognize that the way to deal with the problems it presents is not to work for better programs for that ls not untke dealing with alcohohsm by striving to replace cheap whiskey with Chivas Regal but to work at better control.

Winn goes on to examine the experience of television viewing ire detail, concentrating on the "deceptively simple fact: one is always usatching teleuision when one ls watching television nather than having any other experience." And while watching, Winn says, one enters into what can only be described as a "changed state of consciousness," having many of the physlological and psychological qualitiesof a trance. What's worse, watching television can become addictive. Writes Winn: Not unlike drugs or alcohol, the television experience allows the participant to blot out the real world and enter into a pleasurable and passive mental state... AndJust as alcpholics are only vaguely aware of their addiction, feeling that they control their drinking more than they really do ("1 can cut it out any time I want - IJust hte to hlave three or fourdrinkibefore dinner'), people similarly overestimate their control over television watching. Even as they put offother activities to spend houf after hour watching television, thev feel thev could easifu resume livinAin adifferent, lesi passive-style. But so-mehow or oth6r, while the television set is present in their homes, the click doesn't sound.

byJerryMander ($7.95

)

One sectionofTHEPLUG-IN DRUG looks at families who have chosen to do withoutTV. either

temporarily - as an experiment - orpermanently. Below, one'mothei writes about the effect oituming offthe family's set for two months: The lirstweekwas hard forall of us, especially the kids and me. They sort of hung around and didn't knowwhat to do with themselves. I suggested reading, which we did a lot of, but still time was long sometimes.

After the first week it began getting easier and easier all of us. Bv the end of the first month we reallv didn't miss

TVataf.

Homeschooling families who have had to wean themselves from school may see similarides in the pa.ttern of withdrawal from television. Families experimenting with no TV found their children feeling "disoriented and weird" at lirst, but gradually coming to enjoy "more interactionwith adults," "a more peaceful atmosphere in the home," "a Ereater feeling of closeness in the family," "more help by Ehildren in th"e household," "more outd-oor play," " piaylingl together more" - advantages which sound remarkably like those cited bv new homeschoolers.

Mand-er, ln Four Arguments, declares television capable of onlv dtstortion. The idea that it can inform pebple of the t?uth or help them to assimilate facts in useful ways is illusion, according to this former advertising executive who is very sensitive to subtle but insidious forms

ofpersuasion: The argl-rment goes that television is merely awindow or csnduit through which any perception, any

aqgument or reality may pa.ss. It therefore has the potential to be enlightening to people who watch it and is potenflally useful to the democratic process... these assumptions about television, as about other technologies, are totally wrong... Far from belng "neutral," televislon ttself predetermines who shall use it, how they will use it, what effects it will have on their individual lives, and, if itcontnues to be wldely used, what sorts of political forms will inevitably emerge.

Mander's four argluments, quickly summarlzed, are: l)Television mediates o<perience - instead of direct contact. it allows only artiflcial, disconnected perception, able to be influenced bv whatever biases and dl,stortions its transmttters desire. 2)-Television "colontzes" e:<perience that is, it is controlled by a corporate minodty. 3) Television produces negative neuro-physiological responses in

the pe6pb who watih it, renderiirg-them-confused and often submissive. 4) Certain content and style works better on television, so that violence is preferable to non-violence, superliciality is easier than depth, conflict is preferable to resolution, and so on.

Briefly presented, Mander's arguments may seem unnecessarily fearful, but in his book they are calmly detailed and substantially supported. While Winn (Conttnued on next page, Column 2)

Boston, MA02I 16

scrutinlzes televlsion's ellecton the individual famih, Mander argues that its harm to societlr as a whole g6es even deeper, and its place theretn is more immutable. Fie writes: In the threeyears thts book was ln preparadon, at least one hundred people must have coine up to me at parties or in cafes, ana after expressing theii support for a book wlrtch deals harshlv with televiision wbuld

ask, "Are you really going to advocate its eltminadon?"

'Yes," I wuld say. "once you really pay attention to it,,you see that tt's a totally horrible technologr, irred6emable: we'd all be mJch better offwithoft it."

"I couldn't agree with you more," would be the invariable response, 'but you don't really expect to o

o o o

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Television ls about as lixed ln the American consciousness as it is possible for something to be - but then again, so is school. People who have found the effects of school on thelr lfues so unfavorable that thev see no choice but to do without lt have managed thisnonconformity: perhaps people who want to live without television can manage it on thls individual level as well.

- Susannah Sheffer

includes postage)

GadgetS

We have found a stethoscope to be great to have around, for the children and for us. It's so lnteresting to be able to actually hear heartbeats and breathing. I think children are especially fascinated by the ldea that there's actually a lot going on inside our boldes that we're not usuallvaware of.

Ttiis stethoscope is not a toy - it's the kind nurses use. Nurses must have gotten tired of using standard black

stethoscopes because they're now available in awide variety ofcolors.

A stethoscope can be great fun forchildren and adults - to come a little more in contact with themselves (and theirfriends).

-MarvVanDoren

GTIIDE TO HOME ENERGY ). ?his boolc u:rrs odgtrully rcvieusedtnGws #18. Nour ur

by Mother Earth News ($3.95

think tt desenns afresh lcr:,k by us, slx later.

yars

The energl crisls ts not a "hot" media issue this year, due to the temporary gas glut. But thls ts all the more reason for individuals to explore the subJect on thelr own.

The government has more pressing issues to think about, and companies, large and small, can'tafford to develop alternattues while gas ts so cheap. So those who teach themselves about energr alternaHves, the 'back-yard ttnkerers," will have knowledge and skills very much in demand the nort time the pendulum swlngs back - which lt will: the limitations and problems of oil, nuclearpower, coal, and big hydroelectric plants are not gofng to go away Just because we ignore them.

This I 7S-page volume that we have been selling for several years ls still a great bargain and a wonderful starting place for learnlng the basics about alternaflve energr. In stmple and engagtng terms, it explains what a beglnner needs to know about dozens oftoplcs such as: o

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r House designs with passive solar heat, earth sheltered, or rammed earth (Continued on next page, Column

l)

byRuthsawyer. ($S.es) Ttris was among my mother's large

colection of books frofi h6r childhood tEat was passed on to me when I was growing up (one of the beneftts of lnvesting in hardbacks - they lastl). Itwas a favorite of hers and riine, and I was pleaied when I learned that itwas now available in pa.perlrack as part of PuIIin Books series of Newberv Award winners.

LuiindaWyman is an impulsive lO-year-old tomboy in I 89O's Manhattan. ROLLER SKATES tells of a year of her lifewhen herparentswere abroad. She narrowly escapes staytngwith a stuffu aunt and ltves lnstead tn aboardlng horlselwhere she quickly makes friends with the other residents aswell as people she meets as she skates around

the ctty - a patrolman, a cab drtuer, a fruit stand boy, a ragsand-bottles man. A favorite uncle begins to read Shakespeare to her, and a maJor part of Lucinda's year revolves around a puppet production of 'TheTempest' that she puts on for her friends.

Lucinda keeps aJournal ofher adventures, and each chaptercloseswith several excerpts. What makes ROLLER SI(ATES special is the nature of Lucinda's observations clearly she's determined to make the most of heryear of freedom and she is very much awake to what ts golng on around her. She's blunt and sometlmes puts her foot ln her mouth, but some of her phrases have stuck in my mind for years. Abook thatwell

des"**

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John Holt's

729 Bovlston Street o

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Mother Earth News specializes ln giving instmctlons for do-tt-yourself proJects, often with saluaged materials (oldwaterheatersbelnga favorite component). I have no experience worlicng with metal, so I'm a little in awe of thisewho can cutTroles in the shrllandlotn pieces together as if they were paper, fabric or wood. But barring that, I was able to understand the direcHons for all the projects in the book except the most technical; and after all, welding and

solderingcan'tbe that hard to mastersince so many people knowhow to do them.

I was partlcularly tmpressed by the tntervtewswith people working tn the forefront of alternadve energf. ivtother Ea*h News described most of them as seiFtaught which, tndeed, they had to be. There's no school you can go to learn somethirqg that has never been lnvft:flt

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OI'RVAI{ISHING LIINDSCAPE

by Erlc Sloane ($6.95.). This book u.us first revieutd itr GWS * 27.

As I re-read this book I was struck, as before, by the pracHcality and beauty of earlyAmerican structures - the bridges, mills, canals, walls, etc., thatwere typical. But what I caught so clearly this time was a sense of change.

Yes, the earlyAmerlcan landscape has allbutvanished; but the establishment of that landscape had caused the prevlous one to vanish. And so we feel the flow of change with growth and sometimeswtth loss.

What is parflcularly interesting to me about the perid Eric Sloane captures so clearlywith his comments and with tris wonderful sketches is the way people used thelr tngenuity and built skills to manage dillicult situations, to solve problems, to get theJob done, often in an eleganfly simple way and octasionally in a destructive way: some of the old roads were made with charcoal, which required huge amounts of timber that were stripped without thought of consequences to the landscape or to the land.

Eric Sloane, and many of us, regret the passing of the earlyAmerican landscape and of a simplerway of life, and feel that we can learn something real from il about the past and about our own ttme. He says in his intrcduction:

llth,a'fuF,f(eest :la-fra7Eeisd / ^.t(.r /froath t lo8

. . .This book ls the sort of thing referred to as a "mirror of the past," and will have done ttsJob well only if it first reflects the present, as a mlrror really does. When a man has lost stght of his pa.st, he loses his ability to

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look forward lntelligently. Wtth this thought in mind, I hope that my sketches in word and drawlng will amount to more than drippy nostalgta.

-MarvVanDoren

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LEAVENOFMALICE

by Robertson Davies ($a.SS) Who can imaglne a sleepy Canadian college

townand mahe uscare forand laughwith (and sometimes at) its ondlnary citizens and rather mundane love affairs, scandals, and gossip? Perhaps someone who grew up and later ran lris own newspaper in such a town, then left it to become an actor, Dramaturg for SirTlrrone Guthrie, a playwright, a writer of ffctlon, a professor at a large Canadian UnfuersitSr - ln short, someone like Robertson Davles.

IVebeenafanof Davies since I read his DEPTFORD TRILOGY a cpuple ofyears ago. In those books he takes tris maln characters througlr all sorts of fantastic, sometimes almost surreal, sttuadohs in the attempt to show the reader whataworld ofwonderswe hve in ifwe onlyopen ourselves and our eyes to what ts golng on beneath our noses; when I turvesflgated hls earlierwrtttng I found thls same theme, but tn mlnlature. Ustng the flny town of Salterton as hls focus, Davies takes the practlcalJoke of an erroneouswedding arnouncement printed fn the local pa.perasway to reveal the emotional depths of Salterton's good citizens (well, not all of them are good).

The malice here would seem to ontv alllict those who ane announc€d to be wedded: Solomon Bridgetower, aJunior professorat the local university, and Pearl Vambrance, ttre mousey daugfrter of an overbearing tenured Professor at the same unlversitv. However ProfessorVambranca can't bear the thought of his daughter being, as he puts tt, "coupled tn the public mouth," to Bridgetower; Bridgetower's deceased fatherwas an academic rival of tds. Vambrance's huge ego and bigger mouth put him in the position of sulng the newspa.per. Gloster Ridley is the paper's &litor{n-

Chief, who uses all his nesources to locate the person who placed the ad and to fight the volatile Vambrarrce. As the legal light and search for the practical Joker continues we get to know many of Salterton's inhabitants, like the

lrrepressible and often tipsy Humphrey Cobblea the church organlst; Simon Shilito, the obsequeious elder lpporterwho spe-cializes in'Witty qpercus " lamenting the demise of thewalkingstick; Edith Little, Ridley's housekeeper, secret admlrer, and devoted reader of his newspaper. D-avies reveals them to us througlr their lively dialogue and his omniscient narrator's generous and playful descriptions of theirlives and work. _ Davies plrts us,on intimate terms with a large number of people by the end of this book. It is amazing that the look is only 262 pages - it has the humor, warmth-, depth, and earnestness of a much longer novel - yet his wlse, concise narration never seems rushed or hurried.

Davies creates an utterl5r believable world: you get the feeling that Salterton reilly does odst - or at leaJt ought to.

Davies seems to care for his creations a great deal; thls is evident by his habitof bringing characters from earlier works back for closer examination. Characters from a previous novel, TEMPBST-TOST, appear in LEAVEN OF

MALICE but, rather than merely strutdng thetr stuffagain but in different situaflons. he reveals neuifacets of theF behavior and personalities that are enttrely consistent with what we knew of them before but which is entirelv new and revealing to us nour. However lt is not at all neces6ary to read the previous book to appreciate and catch all the nuances Davles puts in this book it is a self-contalned gem.

The reason we are adding this novel ftrst rather than the others I mention by Davtes i6 that tt is the funniest it won the Stephen kacock Award for Humor when it was

Ilrst published. Read it and weep - with laughter.

- Patrick Farenga

BUMPER STICKERS $1.50 each + postage (see order form for postage info).

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OWNGWIHOUTSCHOOlffG ...and doing Great!

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To GROW! Growing Without Schooling 729 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass.

Edifing, Layout, and Design: PatrickFarenga

L7

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS F-tom an articl.e that

lame s clwle

r

Nicky Hardenbrgtt (MN wroteJor tle Bryn Mawr alumnimagazine: . ..I fully recognize the importance f9r my -their getting together with other children of children and groups of children on a regular basis. We rapidly discovered that linding pla5rmates certainly gets dillicultwhen agemates' time, thoughts, and actMties center

more and more on school.

A promising solution to this problem, and on'e which l*have only begun lo explore, may be tojoin an after-school program at a

local private school. After-school programs have many adrrantages: children can attend for as llttle as one day per week' they are placed in mixed age grouPs, and the emphasis is seneralV on plav. As I overheard one child e*flain to anothei "lt's like school but

withoutthework."

We had agreatopportunit5r to find out about an after-school program first-hand when I was asked to fill in as an assistant teacherwhile a permanent assistant was being hired. A good friend who has the responsibility for the program at her children's school told me, "Ofcourseyou can brinE vour children." So off we went at 2 :3O everllay for one week. We all enjoyed the .*p..i..,... I was most impressed with the excitment generated by having a 'job." As Holt says in his "Children and Work" chapter lTeochYow Owril, "Children show me agaln and again ttrat they love to be really useful, to fecl that they make a differcnce. " Our son Forrester probablv would have continued to Ao play and make-friends afterourjob was 6vir trad the school not had the policy of including only regularly enrolled students in

their program...

MAKING FRIENDS IN PARK F-rottt Stzarute AleJ andre (Sp

airl

:

ke

...Whenwe tell people that Niko and have learned Spantsh in the park, often they respond by saying, "How lucky you ar€ to go so often to the park," or "How luclgr that you Iive so close to the park." Itwas trre in Germany that we lived very close to the park ( I /2 block away) but goingihere as often as we did and as often aswedo here in Spainwas all quite

conscious and not at all bv accident. And, it was not Niko and Lee's idia at first - as if Rich and I iust tagged along. Rich and I accepted the respohsibilityof having thrownNiko and ke into a new envimnment. We knew t}at the easiest way for Niko and I-ee to ada,pt in Germany ind also tn Spain (and wherever else we move to)

would be to play with other

kids. We purposely took them to the park in Germany at the same dme ofday (so that they mightencounter the same children)' - And here in Barcelonawe searched fora nlce park - when we lived on Diagonal the nearist "parks" were stretches ofblacktop between trvo lanes of carsl Everyweekend we went for awalk or a bus-ride, much to Niko and ke's chagrin. They dreaded those uralks because itwas all so unfamiliarand often for naught - the parkwe had spotted on the map was worse than the blacktop "park" near the apartment. Butwe continued and we found Ti.rro Park - an oasis that also has a very friendlv feelins, lots of regulars [both ctrldnin and idults) and a bonus of many foreign children (German, French, British' GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #55

Danish, etc.) - we consciouslwent there often. Ofcourse, it didn't take long for Niko and L.ee to see the same children and make friends. Once they did, we a€Feed to stay at the park a long time so that they could play - stx hours somletimes. The park is like our backvard.

Feople have implied also that the

"friends;that Niko and Ir€ have in the park are not really friends - and it made me think, whatis a friend? For me itis someoneyou

share with. Niko and ke may not visit these children in their houses norvice versa (we live abouta 20-25 minutewalk fromT\rro Park) buttheycertainly share their timeand Aames with those children and they spend Iong periods of time in the "backyard" with

theml

I love the park as much as Niko and l.ee (I was writing this while sitdng in-the park). I Auess that iswhy I can slt here forhours on End. And, I guess it ls also why itworks to, , come so oftdn. If I resented coming it wouldn't work. Even when ke and Nlko can handle walking to and from the park alone' they'll still lind me sitting here from Ume to tirne Just like I like to sit ln backyards and-think' [<nit, write, orlustvegetate. A degree of idleness is producdve now and then...

LIVING WITH HOUSEMATES F-romJnlieLoAd(CN: We have a housemate living downstair; a science teacher and co-worker of my

husband's. Her teenage daughter comes weekends and spends-most olher time fooling around on the computerordrivingup and down our dirt road ln the VW, both with Charlie (3) as eager audience and participant.

Other friends have moved lnto our driveway in their campe4 they've got a I -year-old girl who thinks Charlie ls the lasturcrd in wisdom. (He'snot.)

We adults havebeen underabitofa straln. We're all very different, and all the goodwill we share ls not enough to make iommunal lMng trouble-free. But because we're all determined to live constructively toEether, if s working out weII. - The kids, I thin[, are reallybene{ltdng from lMng closelywith nine people of dilferent ages and lifes$les. Even Peter (4 mos.) has i pretty tndividual way of interacting with his housemates. I thlnk our kids especialV, slnce we're so isolated here on the ranch, neid people besides family to play

wlth, talkwlth, arguewtth, andwatch. After

two and ahalfyears of parenttngin lsolatlon, ifs occasionally hard for me to watch different sgles being used on my kids --more toyst morecandyt more supervisionl - but evtn when I pensonally wouldn't do what I sec bein€ done, i1 seems worth it. I ffgure my ldds have-their own lives to live and if they need to come back to mom, they will (and indeed they do).

COMPUTER AS USEFTJL TOOL ID Ri] Wten p opb asked J ofu t HoIt abut tle use oJ omputers inleamtug, he unuld' e ryre s s g reat skeptbism abut most edtrcatlonalclaims and sag thotatbst a computer is iust a tool like a bicgcle or a ta{te recoder. I ltke this bilJrom ftanksmith's book Insult to Intelligence (see artircle elsewhere lnthis fssueJ baause {t shou:s gowg popb usirtg tle amputer as atal to do unrtfuhile unrlc Magfu it uill trtspire

others: ...At kdngton Hlgh School in Massachusetts, Alan Novemberhas a class called "Computers and Societ5r." Itls acourse with scarcely arry coursework or academlc pressure, and no homework, althouglr itudents often stay after school voluntartl5r.

The students use computers toworkon proJects that benefft the communi$r or.to buisue theirown lnterests' They have listed ill the services available for children in the town of L€)dngton, the scholarships avail,able to lrxlngton s-tudents, and the sedces of more than ahundred agencies for handicapped people tn the greaterBoston area. fhiry havecirmpiled a-fileof afterschool lob opportunides, and they have survey-ed wh&lchair access to help the town apply-for funds to build stdewalk ramps.

S'tucients have designed a computerlzed order form foran after-school buslnCss and created a svstem for ranking professional football plalvers. They use tliesame ldnds ofword processing spreadsheet, database and sraphics softwar€ that are used in the world 6utiide school, and they have also designed theirown software.

The instructor says he feels more llke a tralfic cop than a teacheras he tries to ensure that the students get acc.ess to tJ..e equlpment thattheywant, but that doesn tmatter. The important ttring is that the students help each other. "One student is our gyaphing expert.

Another specializes in form letters. Each student iiexpected to lend his or her experdse to anyonewho needs l!" says November...

CONTROLLING COMPUTER F-rom M ilcell Blllo/rel (OnL ),

"Farnilg Neusletter

-

wlp turcte

OnConputef' btGWS

*51: Scpt. '86: We've had an Apple computer

as

partofour family for twoyears nowand I

cari c.ertainly iaentiSrwtttr s6me of the feelings that Mary Maher expresses in GWS #52. At times I have Glt that ituras taking over our children's llves, esPecially Noah's (2.

When hts ttme is up at the computer, he can Ilnd pleasure inlust sitdng and starlng at the blank screenl ...1 would like to share some of the ruleswe have enforccd inourhome that have lessened the omnlpresent elfects Mary

mentions.

Flrst, the children have always had to askbefore theywere allowed useof the

computer. This waywe can keep trackofhow much fime they spend here. They've come to accept the facfthattheywillbe allowed to playwith the computeronly two orthree times a day at most. (Of course, some days they don't-ask at all and good weather has a lot io do with this.) We aEo Urnit time to about half an hour at one sltttrg as we are concemed with eye strain.

Ourchildren also have copies ofsomeof

the mindless games Mary mentions (somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 or 5O) and they soonbegan to preferplayingwlth these ratherthan the "educadorral" oneswe had purchased forthem. Thtswasn texactly what Llovd and I had ln mlnd whenwe envisionld our children uslng a comPuter, so we ffnally came up wtth a cumpromtse that seems to beworlidng forus' We told the ldds that theycould play any programs theywanted to on one day each weck and the rest of the week, tf theywanted to play the c'omPuter, they had to use prograrirs they call "t-he good

18 ones."

They chose Mondays as computerjunk food day... WeVe had some discussions on what was considered acceptable forT\resday to Sundayand c-ompromises bave been made to allow games like chess, black jack, crazy eightsand Othello, whlch',ve Glthad some

redeemingvalue.

Thls system has been ln ellect several weeks now and there have been few

complaints. Occaslonally when friends are

visitng, they've had to explain the "house

rules, " but these have been met v/ith the nonchalance often typtcal of ldds.

Tire positive elfect bas been arenewed interest in some ofthe really good programs we have, "Songwriter" by Scarborough Systems has beenoneof the most used programs lately. It's a great way to introduce youngchildrcn to muslcal concepts and ts broad enough in scope to be used by

experienced musiclans. Itallows children to compose their own songs and to gain an understanding of the components of musical

composluons.

Another program getdng a lot of attendon thesedays is'The Body Transparenf' by Deslgnware. It teaches anatomy through a series of entertaining games that have children putting skeletons together and identi$ring internal organs, The ldds love ttand have leamed an

amount ln a short tlme. I have to smile as I hear them later, in their play, talking about their carpals or tarsals, A Gw of the others we recommend are "Crypto Cube" (Designrvare), "In Search of the Most AmazingThlng" {Spinnaker), "Story Tree" (Scholasflc), and 'TIc Tac Shod' (Advanced ldeas)... WeVe found thatthe ldds will playwith one ortnm fora fewdays or weeks and then move on to others, but they do retum to the betterones afteratime...

Jan. r87: To updateyou on our system for keeptng control overwhatourchildren do wlth the computen yes, lt's stillworldngl There haven t been any maJor complalnts about only uslng "approved" software for most

oftheweek.

We have made one change, at the lidds' request. We now let them play whatever they llke onweekends. This ls the timewhen most of their frlends vlsit and they llke to play the nanr games they bring over. Still we've found thatoften theirfriendswlll ask to playthe bettereducadonal games we have - like "SnooperTlroops" by Spinnaker, or erren wlth 'The Nervsroom" (Springboard), which is the

programwe use to put togetherourfamily newsletter.

Programs like these two irrvite oooperadon among the ldds and they ultimately flnd them more satls[ringthan waiflng their turn at the "arcade-grpe" games... The idea aboutcompeuu\re vs. cooperaflve ganres is very tmportant, I think.

Itls one ofthe mostdisflng;uishing

characterlsflcs ofgood software - thatit provides opportunities forchildren to stop and contemplate theiracdons and decislons.

The acflon ln much software tsJust too f+st-

pacd and encourages aggression...

PUTS ART ON SAME LEVEL FromSherlClemen (OR): When we received our Maclntosh (purchased by my husband's employer forhis work), the most wonderful ttring happened. At

the tlrrr our elder daughter, Taylor, then 6, was strugglingwith her personal expectations of perfection in all her artwork and wanted her level of art to be somewhat dillerent than whatitwas at that point. Whenwe all started becoming acquainted wlth our computer and the art software Macpa.int everyone started on the same level. Parents and children alike experienced similar difficulties and tnrly, one could not tell apicturedrawnbyan adult from one drawn by a child. Itwas remarkable.

asyou've wdtten it.

One of its rnost tnteresdng feafures is a piano keyboardwithyour score above it (see

diagrambelow).

I feel certain that foronce mydaughterc'ould see that every artlstic thing done by Mom and

Dad (or arry other adult) was not perfect and thatwe all were learning together (allour attempts to talk about this during art sessions at home hadn'tbeen successful so far). After produchg dozens of c.omputer pictures herself, lt seemed likeTaylor then could settle down and feel comfortable with her crayons, paints, pencils, etc, that she ordinarily used to do artwork. And now she also had arrother fine tool for manufacturing artumrk - a fun

computer.

MUSIC CONSTRUCTION SET A lO-year-old boynamed Devin had hls saxophone lessonJust before mlne; describlng him so platurly does trlm noJustlce since he is an irrepresslble, activeyoungster.

About three minutes into mv lessonhewould inevitably knock bn the dooi to tell somethingto our teacher, John Payne.

Usually he left somethtlgin the roomafter his lesson and he was always coming back to get it. Once John opened the door and Derdn stood there holding a crayon drawinS he had done ofa saxophone with the words: CAllf'IONt JATZZONE printed around lt.

Devin beamed with pride when John tnmediately taped it to hls door.

One flmemy lesson couldn'tget started because Devin wouldn't leave.

"Play that." he comrnandedJohn;

Devin potnted to a bunch of notes he had wrlttenon music paper. John put the alto sax to his lips and played what Devin wrote.

'Thafs all now." saidJohn.

'Wait. Justone more," I watched Derdn wrlte a bunch of notes coverlngan entire stalf from left to right.

"Play thatl" he said toJohn. John pl,ayed exactly what Devin wrote erren though theywerejust random notes. 'Vow," sald Devin to us, "I wrote tlntl" Malling the connectron between the printed word and the spoken wond is a great moment for us: when one rnakes that same connecilon between prlnted music arrd played muslc, lt lsJust as great a thrtll. I've been using a computer program for the last year that helps one vlsually and aurally make the musical connections Devln made, and qulte frequently I've caugfrt myself saying'Wow, I wrote that" when I hear the four Macintosh voices singa songljustc.omposed on my cumputer. This is accomplished bya program called the DELTD(E MUSIC CONSTRUCTION SETby Electronic Arts (a less feature-fllled version ls called MUSIC CONSTRUCTION SETfor the Apple, Commodore, Atari & IBM.

It turns your computer into a music laboratory,/studio, allowingyou to manlpulate forty co mputer- generated instnrments, create and prlnt professlonal looking sheet music, use full score-reading markings and music symbols [you can even add lyrics arrd guitarchords), and listen to your nrachjne play it all back to you, exactly

You select any note on the keyboard and itwillbe properly treserted lnyour score, Strike an E on the kevboard and an E wtll appear in the score. 6hange the value of the E froma quarter note to awhole note Ar the score and whenyou play itback the note not on\rsoundslonger, butthe piano shows the note being depressed longer on the keyboard screen. Plck out a piece kr four-pa.rt harmony, set the lnstn:mentsyouwant to play the notes, then listen to the Mac boogie.

For those who, ltke myself, are sdll tyros atwriting and reading music, this program aids yourabillty to manipulate the s5rmbolsof music; the prlntouts fromourdot matrlx printerarebeautlfuland make me feel conftdentwhen I share my musicwith others to read slnce I will have eipressed myself accurately to thern on paper - ifyou put too manvnotes in ameasule t]le ones that start to add [oo much time turn gr€y to remindyou of your error. I don't like to spend much time writing muslct neat copylng and fluent transpostngare slidlls I'm sdll laboriously adding to my repertoire. NowI can copy, transpose, and do all sorts ofworrderfi.rl things itwould take me days to do ln a single session. &en those who have never tried to write muslc will be able to lmprovise, playback, and print-out anythtng they can hack away on the keyboard. Wtth repeated listening, experimenting, and rerrision you can create a listenable song that ls quite sophisticated even though you never attended a College of Musical Knowledge. Ihowtng what notes the lines and spaces represent helps alot stnce the manual does not pretend to teachyou music, buttlris programis so open-ended anyone can makeall sortsof sounds and rhythms, and immediatelysee them represented knowing nothing about music. Since the software includes a number of classical and popular songs as models to play and alterasyouwlsh ltis also a sort of superplayer-pl,ano. This is oneofthose rare computer prograrns that goes bqrond common business and games appltcatlons without enslaving them to lnstrucdon manuals, keyboard comrnands, and contrived mles; tt acfually empowers lts users. For anyone with acomputer, musicalinterest, and $32 to spare, thls is a lot of fun. - -- Patrick Farenga

Corrcctlon In GWS #54, a line in Madalene Murphv's 'Visiting Possible Schools" reads: ".

-it

gave her an ldea to lrrvesdgate an old

oil-ftlled wellon our property."The llne shord4 have read: ".

..it gave her an idea to lnvestigate an old

Illled:in well on our property."

-

We aooloplze to Madalene fior the mlstakel GROWING WTn{OUT SCHOOLING #55

FAMILIES TELL STORIES F}vnPanelof}o,su;elll(CN: Before I began what ts now an ongoing serlal adventure, I felt somewhat as you descrtbed in GWS #53 - notvery confident about maklng up a story by myself. However, I am nour anrazd at how easy lt realV ts, and slncewe all enJoy lt so muctu I wtsh I had tried tt long ago.

A few months ago, my 3-year-old asked me to tell him a story. It was our pracflc€ to cuddle together after lunch for a few minutes wtrlle the older children cleaned the ldtchen.

These speclal times always began with hfm

stating

"I

wantto tellyou aboutTangle."

Tan$e was/is hts tmagrnary friend. He uould tell wonderirl, interestlng storles about the thlngs Tangle and trls farrdly and frtends did.

So, when he asked ne to tell a story, I must havebeeninsptred by hls creaflvtty and began teUing him about a little boy on an island 0 admit IVe done a lot ofborroMng for my stories). As the olderchildrencame lnto the room and wanted to knowwhat we were tal-ldng about, more chlldren were added to tbls storyuntil therewereflve alone onthis island (three on one slde and tnlo on the other).

The ffrstadventurewas how they all found eachother. The easy partbeganvery shortly as my chtldren began asklng quesflons. The trst one was, "Is lt tn-re?' to wtrlch I answered, 'Uust keep listening, then you dectde." Otherquestions followed -'Were there Indtans there? Were there elephants?

Were they scared? How did they get there?' - so many tlut I couldn't keep up, and each quesdongave me moreand rnore ideas of whtch dlrecflon to take the story, where to fiIl fur

gaps, wtrlch areas needed clarlflcadon, and

howmuchdetall theywanted to hear.

Essendally, the children are the ones who constnrct ttre framework, and I Just flnd my

uray along tL So the story belongs to all of us.

I thlnk all except the baby know or suspect to var5dng degrees tlrat the children in the story are magnlfied verslons of themselves. Howener, none ofus dlscusses

thls reladonship, preferrlng to matntaln the aura of mystery. The story has gone baclnvard as well as forward . When I tell a pordon to one of the chtldren (wtrtle waidng for the doctor, for lnstance), that one ls eager to llll the others ln onwhaf s happened so far. We hope to get Dad trrvotrred tn the story too, as he comes up with hts tdeas.

Storytelling ts one of the best farrdly acdvides (notJust for familtes though) becauseyou're face-to-face, you experience a lot ofidea exchange, get to know each other better, and tt costs nothlng but time.

Ftom Altsqt Clene

rt

(ON :

I find the idea of completely malrdng up a story lntlmidatlng, although I still try it someflmes. My daughteris 3. We've been readtreg Gromes (byWil Huygen and recommended by John ln cWS) and at night I make up stories about my daughter the gnome, and her herolc adventures. Having a formalready provided makes lteasler although I sflll flounder - and I suppose that pracHc.e will maks l[ eastsl sttllMost of the tlme, I tell her stories about when she was bom or when she was a baby, storles about herfatherwhen hewas a'\dld baby" (we have awhole series about that] or about my mother's childhood on the farm and all the antmals she llved with. Alotof nights

GROWINC WTTTIOUT SCHOOLING #55

I've gotten so caught up ln the story thatl don t realize thatCharlotte is sleepingbeside me until she starts snoring. Some of the stuffl make up, things about her grandmotheror her father, things I don't know. Some are wildly, obvtously fictton, but most of the storles are fact, as I recall tt an5ruray, a ldnd of oral history, For the month before her baby brotherwas born, Charlotte wanted to hear about herownbirth. We've relived that birth dozens and dozens offf.mes bv now - she never gets tired of hearir4labout it iand lt seemed to help her resol've, or at least to org:rnize, some ofher feelings about the upcomingblrth drama and her brother, as well as her own place inourfamily.

She is puzzled by the fact that I know so httle about my own birth. (So am I, for that matter.) Yesterday uras my birthday and, at her request, I went over the few known facts of my mother's labor and delfuery again and she sald,'Tell me about you, whenyou were my age." I liked thatvery much. I told a story aboutjumptngon beds and about clirnbing walls, aboutbackyard barbecues and being afraid ofgoing tojail (a fear she shares), about being spanked for bathlngourkittens ln gasoline. Good forme to recollectbeing3 and good for her to see that I was a child too, and that she will be like me someday: a gtown-up, remembering being a child. She fell asleep with her arm around her brother and me.

Charlotte is very interested in death right now, and frtghtened by it. I tell her my beltef in reincarnadon and her father tells her that hebelieveswebecome trees and flowers, and she listens tatently, although susplcious that we are holding out, that we know more than we say. 'Tell me really, " she says and I think, "Howdoes she already knowabout adult evasiveness?"Wewent round and round about it - alter all, how do you resolve it? I talked about the leaves falling off the trees in autumn and coming back again tn sprlng and that made her happy forawhile. Then I counted to 90 (an optimtstic number, butwhy not?) to show herwhat a long, long Umewe have to live. (I dtdn't tell her how quick! those numbers go by.)That satisfied her for several months and then it came up agah. "Is Captaln Kangaroo gotng to die? I don'twant to diel" Hnally, I told herthat I had adreamone night about death and that ever since, I

haventbeenafraid of itand, ofcourse, I told hermydream. Iwon'tgolnto that here, but she was very happy about it. That

night she

satd, "I'mgoing to ask my dreamabout

dyrng..."

F\omCatJVtude(CN: On storytelling: I used to ahpays take along several children's books pracdcally weqnvhere I went: doctors' olfic.es, restaurants, the post oflicc. If my children and I had a longwait, I used books to chase away the fussies. But I rare$ take books now on such errands. I am tired ofcarqrlng around the extrau,eight, and I have learned that games, storytelllng, and simple coil/ersaflon can usually keep fusstng to a rnlnlmum, too.

I constantly flnd myself "personal2tng" famtliar storv llneswlth the names and personallue; of my chtldren and thetr fdends. Otherways I make up origlnal stories lnclude "foretellingl' an eagerly-anUctpated event (llke our next Halloween party or a farnily trtp) - I relate all ldnds ofevents and conversatlons as ifthey have already happened, and I incorporate my clrtldren s latest lnterest in a familiar sccnario. For

example, recently my children have beenvery lnterested involcanoes. So IVe told several stories aboutvolcanoes, startingwith the familiar'bnce upon a dme" and endingwith a

happily-resolved problem.

Somedmes I askmychildren (ages 2 and

Surpristngly, they both ahuays decllne and demand another from me.

(Although my olderdaugfiter does sometimes dlctate stories to me at home.) But I have occaslonally overheard one ofthe girls telling a story to the other. Do you think they fee I 4) to tell me a story.

they "can't compete"with my stories?

F}om Elaine Kaplan oJ

Calfomia.

...I don'tJust say I'm goturg to tell the children a story. I say, "kf s ma}e up a story.

Who wants to start it?" One of us starts a perfectly preposterous story. Aftera few

sentenc€s, the next person takes over. Ifs hard to say the story gets any crazier - lt's usually very wild from the startl We laugh at eachother's few lines undlwe're all laughing so hard we almost forget to flnish the story.

Somedrnes oneof us suddenlyends the story, surprtsing the rest of us. More lauglrter. Often we do three or four of these composite stories beforewe tire of them. There seems no end to ourability to pull ideas out ofourheads and strlngthem lnto a story thatentertains us all. ...Occasionally, in a pinch situation, I will actually make up astoryand tell itto my children. I ahvays make the story have childrenin itabout mychildren's ages and with similar names, and the topic is about whaterrer situadon we are reallv in. For example, whlle watttng to get a-pair of shoes in a shoe store, I made up a story about a little boy and girlwho bought enormous blue shoes one day. I've noticed that the endings that bring smiles and saUsfaction to the children are those that show thernas triumphingover the problems, as opposed to Mommy coming out and telling them how to solve sornething...

homNancgWallace(NY): Your little piece about sto4rtelling in GWS #53 brought back some old memories thatl hadn t thoughtofinyears, Donna. I grew up ln a house with hardly any books. If s always seemed odd because my fatherwas a college professor and my mother r€ad for at least four or fue hours errery day (and sflll does). But my father himself (the first intellectual to emerge in the family) had grourn up with fewbooks and maybe hejust couldn't imagine famtly life any otherway.

I can't remember anyone reading to me.

Sdll, I wasn't totally neglected. Foryears, my father told rrrc stories. Unfll I was about lO he told me the tales of "Goldie and lvoryTooth" while I brushed my teeth, and then once I was ln bed he told me, ln story form (and ttris took years), the whole history of the Unlted States.

Being a poliflcal sctentist as well as a born lecturerhewas ln hisbest formwhenhe told these stories - happy because he was free to make all of the moral points he chose; frec to tell history as he saw it. And I rvas happy because he made such an exclflng tale out of the whole thing. In my mind, hls characters bore no relaflon to the ctraracters that I learned about ln hlstory classes.

Vitaand Ishmael, ofcourse, have grown up literally surrounded bybooks. The thingis that for us books have ner.er been simp! preprinted entertalnment that don't require thought. Quite the opposite. Books (and by

20 that I mean good books - there are hundreds of realy great ldds' books) tnspire thought and demand lmaglnaflon. Even whenwe are sharlng a book - when I am readlng to Ishmael and Vtta - we are constantly creattng our own lmagps from the bare uords.

All along Vtta and Ishmael made frlends wtth the books tlreyloved. Thebooks becarrr thelr own, so much so that they felt free to copy them (that ls how Ishrnael learned to wrlte), to tncorporate the language they found tn books lnto theirown speech, to tmttate characters, plots and language tn theirown writing and finally, to tell storles, never hesttating to take liberties when they forgot certalndetalls or to change thlngs lnorderto add excitement or whatever, Over the years Vtta and Ishmael have become habttual stor5rtellers - not ln order to escape books but stmply because they have been tnspired by

them.

Every day, mornlng, noon and nigfrt (thanks to the dendstwho has lnsptred trt them a horror of "plaque') they tell each other storles as tlreybmshtlrelr teeth, And every day they tell eachother storlesas they talre thelr afternoon walk. I tlrink that these rituals started because, except forwhen they played wtth dolls whiich involved a dtllerent ldnd of storytelling, teeth-brushing and walldngwere the only times each day when tlrry were totally alone together. Inwanflng to catch up wlth each other's "news" they found themselves more often than not catctrlng up wtth each otlrer's interesting reading. In addidon, tlrere must have been the obvlous urge to be entertatntng - to be tn the spotlight ttrat came wtth their lrrvolvement in the theater. And so , as time went on, Ishmael didn'tJust tell Vita the bare bones plotof the latest book he uras reading, he felt that he had to be entertaining as well. If he sawVita's tnterest flagging it must bave seemed to trlm that the obvtous solufionn as to change tlre plot. Anything to entertain her.

Perhaps lt ts in the car, though, that their storytelllng really blossoms. On long trtps they get slck trying to read in the bumpy back seatand tt seems IIke theonly thtngs to pass the tlme are peanut butter sandwlches and storles. These storles, though, have to go on and on and as a result they almost always hrrn lnto aJotrrt efiort stecc neitherVita nor Ishmael know how to be qulet for long. And so, althouglr Ishmael may start out with a convenflonal SnowWhite (actually, recently thdve been borrowtng from The Arabia.n Nbhts), it qutckly changes as Vita lntermpts wlth, "I don't thlnk Snow White's mother could have died. I'm prett5r sure that the witch lidlled her -and maybewenthe kingknew about iL " '"\Mell, maybe so, " Ishmael might say, 'but I don't think the ldngwas bad.

Almost surely he vrasJust trSdng to protect SnowWhlte. You see, when shewas bom.,."

And so on. Things gBt very lively and tlme mlraculousl5r passesl

M

atM,

Slnndfh

urcte tn the Winler' 87

MARYIAND HOME EDUCATION ASS@IATION neus sletter :

Ou{ stories began slxyears ago wlth a sdclc Not any old sflck, but rather a maglc sdcklYou see, Jarnie had found a "maglc" sflck when she was about 3 years old whtle taklng awalk as we so often do. For several vears Jamle's stick took us from one fantastic idventure to another. The incantaflon for adventurewas, "magtc sflc[ magic stick, take Jamte - home, toacave, totlrbeach, etc' -

qutck, qulck, qutckl" And prestol there she would be. Our storles became longer and more lnvolved. Wewould weave ln new experlences, btts and pieccs ofstories frombooks, movle characters like Darth Vader, and the stories became serles thatwould continue nlght after

ntgll

Etlrtcs and morals became partofthe storles, too. We often elaborated on stories we had read. We'd stmplyborrowthe story's framework and a few of its characters, and take them on new adventure s. IfJamie did not llke the way a story unfolded, she never hesttated to tell her version lnstead. Some of Jamle's closest frlends tncluded Ellle the Elephant, Eagle, Blaclde the Horse, Happy DarthVader (.Jamte's lrrvendon), the Gray Wolf, and varlous other chan:racters, Books ar€ awonderful technologlbut, llke all technolog;ies, they can become oppresslve. It's lmportant to take a break, as Itwere, and strlke out onyour own at dmes. A good tlme to do ttrls ls afterone has read a story or two. Then lfs dme to get to the "real storles." In our stortes Jamlewas usually the central character. She was usually fearless, always klnd, helpful, and clerrer, and managed to do all lidnds of dilllcult tasks.

Therewere dmeswhenJamle was in a dtllcult posldon; a trap, perhaps. That's when someone - a ldnd adult or another ctrild, an animal or btrd would come to the rescue. It was all very exctdngl I loved to create these stodesandbecame more successful at lt the more I did tt (surprtse?).

The biggest obstacle to creating one's own storles lf one is not a natuml stor5rteller is the act ofcondnually fabrtcaflng new lnformatlonas the storyprogresses. The trick for me ls to use our erreryday experiences (or the framework ofother stories) as the backdrop to the story, which keeps me ln farniltar terrltory. From there it's reladvely easy to create a serles ofadventur€s as you tell the story. At firstifs allttle awkqrard; after all, weare notus€d to cr€athgour stories but rather reading (consuming) stories created by others. But ln no tlrne at all you will get the hangofttand oneadventure leads lnto even gir€ater ones. Incldentally, Jamle has vivid rec.ollecflons of the storles about her "adventures" - much more so than of stories ttratwere read to herorthat she has read. It s Just more real and tmportant to her. And Jamte ts pretty good atcreatlngherown

stories, too.

I have found that storytelltng creates a close bond between parent and chtld. Like

homeschooling, storytelling provides an opportunity to lndtvtdualize and tallor stories to each chtld. I very much regret that for some reason I had notdoneas much storvtellinswlth mv sonJesse, 5, but lust the

othir

dav Fe had iri hts hand h1s favorlte pebbb. fhat eventng I took my regfets ffrrnly tn hand and told Jesse lrts first story about 'Uesse and the maglc pebble." Itwas a lovely tale about flndtng the smooth, black pebble at Rehoboth Beach this summer, howhe dlscovered its magtcal properfles and the adventures he had.

FROM TELLING TO WRITING F)omDlanaBaseman(PN: ...Myhusband Ronnieis a terriflc

stoqrteller. He has gradually evolved some basic characters and story llnes over the years.

One of his everchangingand growing stories ls'TheThree E}ables." lnwhich our 7-

month-old son and two other adult-like babies have adventures with adults who behave llke chlldren. Otherfavorites are: - The "GangsterGoldilocks" and "GangsterRed Ridirg Hood" stories, inwhich these two famous characters harass the three bear:s and others and are then reformed into good little girls.

-The "Ronald Reagan" stories inwhich varlous storybook characters advise the president on current political matters.

-'TheThree Artichokes," i:rwhich the vegetables take overthe local Shop'nSave.

He began by telling sliglrtly altered versions of old favorites like'The Three Bears, " gradually changing them to suit himselfand the children. After awbile he gained enough conlldence to begin tellinghis orvn origlnal stories, weavingtn thingswhtch interest him, like current events. Ronnle says he has been helped by anactingcourse he took

lncollege.

Olivia (8) is onafirstgrade readinglevel.

I think being a late reader has given her opportunlfles and lots of time to dwelop her llsteni:rg slidlls, spealdng skills, and to rememberwhat is read to her since she can't read the sort of books she most enjoys. She and Delta (4) arebeginning to tell good stories like their daddy, and just recently Olivia has begun towritethemdown in homemade books using her ovrn invented spelling. This is reallyexc{tingbecause sheused to refuse to write anything but her rrame. She always said she had nothing to write abouL Itwas only after months of telltng her own storles that she decided to write some of them down because she found herselfforgettingtherrr Of course I had long ago told her that this was why books carne into being, but I guess it's true that ocperience is the best teacher.

homKorenGreenbry0D: Gator's (4) favorite activi$ on a regular basls is storytelling. Afterseeing the film 'Willie Wonka," I began telling stories about the Oompa Immpas. (In the movie, the Oompa Loompas areWillie's wise and small orange-fac.ed helpers.) In afewdays, Gator began to tell the stories. Through Gator, the Oompa Loompas evolved lnto adventurous, rabbit-like creatures. He tells dilferent stories about thesecharacters wery day.

During the past couple of months, we have lllustrated the Oompa Loompas' adventures on large pieces ofpaperand in comic-strip form. Gator even designed a book containlng a handfu l of Oompa Loompa episodes (e.g. 'The Oompa Loompas on the Amazon," 'The Oompa. Ioompas in China.")

From Susan Rlchman (PA): Jesse (9) is acflng as a sort of"curator" for his flavorite storyrteller friend Ronnie Baseman, the homeschooling father in Diana Baseman's piece. (Jesse and their daughter OlMa have been very, very good friends since they were 2). Ronnie spins out amazing stories that delight all the kids, and Jesse loves trytng to retell themto me later. One day he decided to trywritingdown oneofthe stories, one I'd never heard before, a story of"How the Vegetables Took Over the USA." My first reactioh to this ideawas negaflve. It seemed rather like "copying," not coming up with his own idea. But then I looked at it ln another way. I thought of all the many authors, especial$ children s authors, whose chosen work ls to retell, and GROWING WITITOUT SCHOOLING #55

write down, older folk tales that are part of an oral tradilion. Theirgoal is to catch the Ilavorofastory that mightbe lost forever because no onewrote itdown. Thatwas the wayJesse felt about his idea, that he'd be

sauing Ronnie's stories bywriting them. We thought ofWandaG'ag, Paul Galdone, the Grimm Brothers. even Hans Christian Andersen.Jesse, and soonI, could seethis translation of the oral tradifion into saveable

print as avalid \vriting form.

Jesse went to this urcrk with great energy, quickly setting himself the goal of writing two full paps a day (big pages, small print). He was having wonderful fun, just felt thewords and ideas surging out onto paper. Also uras interesting that he often found himself adding newdetails to the story, new images Ronnie hadn't brought up. This gave us further things to discuss aboutwritingand authorship - how each good writerwould of course find his own unique ideas slipping into a

re-telling.

I feel that my initial inward negative

reaction to Jesse's plan was tempered with respect for tl e fact that this re-telling project was his own idea. In the process Jesse wrote tris longest pieceyet, Ronnie's delightful story is saved, and we were able to explore authorship in awhole newway. Ronnie, by theway, was delighted to hearabout thewhole proJect, taking it as the sincere compliment to tris storytelltng that tt was.

READING AT 10 Frcm Claudia B arbr

including two chapters of Whiteg Takes a ?)-rp. He spends an

houror

so a day on it, and

I

don't encourage him to do more, partly because it's his business, partly because I want him to stay enthused, and partly because I want to avoid anyvision problems. When he's read too long, I suddenly notice that he's asking me to tell him almost all the words, including ones he'd been reading easily only a page before. But he is absolutely delighted, so proud of himself, and can't wait to read all the books he's wanted to ficryears.

ANOTHER OLDER READER homGretchenSpber

NVD:

..."Late ReaderTests High" (GWS #5O) - we also had a late reader. Sethwas almost lO when he taught himself to read entire$ on his own initiative from the Ttr:r-TIn books. Mv ear$ attempts to "teach" Seth to read had ended ln frustration for both of us. Fkrally, I gotbrave and left himalone. TheyearSeth was I O, tris father order€d tu/o 'I'in-Tin books for him, and he spent hours poring over them.

Tivo months later hewas readlnganything and everything. At l3 he is a skilled arrd voracious reader.

SIMPLE METHOD FromMottaClark(I(Y):

(Ge

mund

:

On late readers - David lsJust lO andjust begtnning to realty read - as opposed to asking me nine out of ten words - and to enJoy it. His older brother taught hdmself to read, somehow; when hewas 5 I /2, we discovered that he could read a second grade reader (though he only read one story in it, preferring more interesdng stufl) . Ifwe hadn't had Daniels teachinghimselfas proof that ldds can do it. and tfwe hadn't had all those reassurlng accounts oflate readers in GWS to read and reread, I'msurewewould havedone what many parents do: panic. We might have put David in school and demanded special help forhim. At theveryleast, wewould have hlred a reading teacher for him. And how long would ithave been flll he'd havebeen labeled LD, especially since he reverses letterswhen

hewrites?

David had insisted ficr a long time that he wanted to read and wanted us to help him learn, butwheneverwe tried itwas useless.

Patience is not my strcng suit, and I would sometimes yell, screarn, hit, give up in disgust not actions desdned to build up someone's selfconfidence.

But two weeks ago, I told htm I knew he was ready and I wanted htm to start reading.

He worked alone on it offand on, but said it was too hard. Then Sunday, on a hunch, I told him ttrat itdidn't matter howwell hls brother Dan read and how poorly he did, or that Dan read at 5 and he at lO, that theyweren't competing for anything, that when he grerv up and needed to read things, howwell Dan read would have nothhg to do with howwell he read, that when and how he learned to read, howwell he read, and how much he enjoyed it

wereallup to him.

He read seven books that davl And read themwell, needingto be told onlyafewwords in each. Six were "easy readers," maybe ffrst grade level. The other was A House is a llouse FbrMe. Since then, he's read several more, GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOLING #55

Elena (fl is reading fluently now. The "method" (which I realize may notwork for everyone, as theway Elenawas toilet-trained did not work for her brother Benedict) was simplicigr itself. She read aloud and I supplied thewords shedidn'tknow. At ffrst thatwas almost all of them. Now it ls almost none. Onlv a few tlmes did I make her sound out wondior say, 'You should know that one by now." I think that is important, because it made reading more fun for her, instead of a chore she had to perform for me. And she did learn the words eventuallv. But I must stress that tt took a lot of time foiboth of us (though not nearl5r as much time as she would have spent learning to read in school. ' A lot of time" means three or four hours a week, maybe.) I didn'tjust tell herwhat "doll" was once and then she had lt forever. I had to tell her many times. Gradually, the most common words stuck, and then she used shortwords to build the longer ones, and now she uses phonics and thewords she already knows to figure out newwords. Phonics is a someflme thing for us because there are too many exceptions for me to tell her in good faith that there are rules. Some words she leamed because of their pecuharity, such as "have" and "give" and 'beautiful." Right now she is reading Nancy Drew books and l,iltle Women I don't know how she would test. but it wouldn'tbe too low.

for the BALL-STICK-BIRD books. Actuallv it was quite expensive for me to begln with ;nd when I received word that my check didn't cover expenses, I declded to retum the books

and my money was promptly refunded. Dr. F\ller certainly does provide wonderful seMce, but I did learn a lesson in that I should LOOK before I buy.

As far as Horizon Blue not yet reading, as often as I can, IJust close my ears to all the nonsense about how he "should" be reading at his age. Asfaras I'mconcerned heJusttsn't interested enough to botherwlth reading - and I love the comment in GWS #44 that John Holt said he made to parents whose ctrildren were notyet reading: 'The chances ofyour ctrild growingup iltterate areabout the same as the chances ofheror him turninginto a crocodile."

STARTING VIOLIN AT 31 PanRos*ttl(MA) ruote: Youasked me to tellabout myexperienc€ wtth taldng violin lessons. I am 3 I and have taken lessons errery ottrerweek since June'86.

I took acrordion foroneyearas actrild and also took piano lessons at age 25 for about oneye€rr, so I knew the notes already. To ever dream of takingviolin atSowould never enter my mlnd unUl I readJohn Holt's experienceswlth music ata laterageand also became a believer ln homeschooling.

I haveateacherwho knowsthatl take it for my enJoyment and not her e)cpectadons, so lt is great fun. I have three boys (6, 5, and 4) and one new one on the way (adopted), so I don t get to pracdc.e awhole lot. My teacher is pleased with my playlng and said that after

for t he

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NOT YET READING AT 8 FromTootsie Weier (WI): I

thought it interesting thatJane Reid

{MA) found the BALL-STICK-BIRD to be

wonderful (GWS #54). I also sent for the books afterreadingabout them ln GWS#51, and I had exactly the opposite opinion. Having an 8year-old who is not yet reading, a husband who lsworried aboutlt. and a mother-in-law who is sick about it, gave me reason to send

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22 rrnnths I played aswell as two girls she knew that have played for two years. She said that technically I didn't play as well, i.e. knowing notes, etc., but I played with such emotion and enthusiasm that I made up for two

theotherlack.

I

amhr, far, farfromPerlman, butl

have a great tirrr, I love to feel the vibrafion on my fingers and ears when I play a good note. One day I was pla5dng a song I had

practiced forweeks and I played it thebestl had errer played lt. Well, I got up and went to put theviolin away. My husband said, "Hey, thatwas real good." I said,'Yeah, I know, and

I'mputting thevioltn awayrlght nowbefore I hitawrongnotel" I would IIke to find someonewho plays on mylevel sowecan play together.

QT.JERTES Here are some questlorts un lapeour readers willrespordto. We rr.lllprbrrttle most hteresting a nsuws and,Jonuad. all replies to tlase askttg tlv questions.

Weare tnterested in learningfrom other homeschooling liamllies who are also farnily farmers how they manage - ttme-wise - to meet the needs of their children and operate the farmat the same time... Often therejust doesn't seem to be enougtr hours ln aday. - N.

I thlnk thereurcre a number of reasons for this: l) David had trouble learning English (his first language). At 4, his father and I could barely understand hnm. At lO, he isjust beginning to read, despite being "identiffed" as "gifted" sixyears ago. 2) When he was a small child in the US, I usual$ used German when I had to correct his behavior, feeling that itwas more prlvate and so less embarrasslng fcr hirn It may have been, but it also tended to make hlm dislike the language. 3) At school, he qutckly figured out that he could get out of a lot of thirqgs by not understandtng, or pretendLng not to understand. 4) He was placed in a c}ass where all the children were ayear or two younger, so the play was less verbal and he could get by with a few words and many gestures.

But reading John's comment made me realize thatDavid neverhad anyneed to learn German because his teacher spoke excellent Enâ&#x201A;Źlish. The schoolandwe felt thiswas important, so that he could communtcate and

be communicated with, but it certalnly

removed manyof the practlcal reasons for learning a language. Now that he's out of school he needsGerman to understand hls judo instructors, buy things at the bicycle shop and grocery, etc., and he's dolng liairly well at it. Maybe people who arc trying to raise bilingual lidds should seek out or try to create situadons inwlrtch the kdds ned to use the se,cond language.

&I(F.

SINGING TOGETHER Ftom Nancy Goods on (AI) : ...Re: SingingWtth Ctrildren (GWS #5 l). husband handles the Htlme rttual, whlch consists of songs and stories. One of the current favorites ofWendy (6) and Derek (3) is 'The Star-spangled nanriet'i t asked my husband why he chose that pardcular song and he satd tts one of the fewhe knows all the words tolTheylove lt - bigwords and all.

Ivly

Wendy knows all the words and can even carqr the tune prettywell. Derek, ofcourse, has his ownversion. Otherfavorites are 'Yankee Doodle Dandy," "Dide," Davy Crockett" (the theme from the old TV show), "I'm Looldng Over a Four-kaf Clover, " and 'You Are My Sunstrlne. " They love "Hddte" songs, too - actually they love any kind of songl

MANY WAYS TO DIVIDE IDR/ In GflaS

Is

can't seem to find any books that have a limited numberofwords and remain fun.

Interesflngbooks have so marrywords that I

they overwhelm my son. Ttre tradlflonal beginnlng readers are ridiculous. - J.P. Does anyone lceow anythlng about the abacus - perhaps how to make them, and how to use them, what books are available? - K,P. Do any ofyou knowwhere I can buy assorted beads forJewelry maldng? Wooden, goulamine, clay, or any "earthy" type. My children have really taken offwithjewelrymaking and have found an outlet to sell thetr creaflons. But we llve ln small town and have NONE of this arcund.

-

I.B.

My greatest stumbltreg block ls other people's chlldren. When kids are in my home being unbearably obnoxious, IJump on their case. Ttrls embarrasses my son, humiliates the guest, and after I cool down, makes me feel

notonly guiltybut foolish... Are there any good books that mtghtbeable to help mecope wlth these aruroyances in a more construcdve rnanner? - LK

NEEDING A SECOND LANGUAGE Clatdia

faraway cousins. Our Christrnas tape, with Crtsty narning the relndeer in 'AVisit From St. Nlcholas" and slngtng trl/o or three songs with only minor malapropisms, tops her Grandma's list of favodte ltstentng...

B arbr

uas stmck by John's statement (GWS #51) that a child leams his own language for a hundred pracdcal reasons. When David, Just 9 I

in

Germany, we were told by the prlncipal and the teacher that all ctrildren learn another language very qutckly and that Davld would have no problems. Theywerewtong. Even though he already understood avery little Gennan, itv,ras nlne months before he really started ustng ttwtth tris friends, saSrir4lmore thanthe fewwords he had to to getby.

att that there

prcblen and tlnt paple In d{ferent cotuttus are taghttotailg d{fferent

fury\ Singer u:rote h PA Homeschoolers, Winie r 86 -87 :

trchnQue s. Suzantne AbJardre (Spabl

Every Dec.ember my rnotherwould knit a lap robe for some older person who would appreclate lts warmth on cold wtnter evenings. We ctrildrenwould sit, fasctnated, and watch her knit. Then, one by one, we

In a class at Berlltz last month I had the same experlence because of the dtlferent systems of divislon. We were dlscusslng

would getourchance to knltarow, herhands

guidlngours. Later, wewereallorryed to lmlta row or two by ourselves. We felt so tnportant

knttdnga realgrown-up proJect.

Years later I was gutdlng my own daughter's hands as we knltted together.

Remembertng howwe enJoyed knitung a real to be

item, and notJustpracdce squares, I started Falth on kntttlng real thlngs. Yes, ttrey were still garter sdtch squares and rectan$es, but we called them by the name of thelr errentual use: baby doll skirts, dollblankets, headbands, belts. Ifs tnrly amazing the things you can make wlth one knitted square

orrectanglle. I haveawhole listofldeas for future proJects: capes, ponchos, coasters, hot pads, nrgs, placr mats,..

TAPES AS GIFTS

(Gennatry) w rite s :

at the time, started at school here

KNITTING REAL THINGS

# 49, I potntd

rc sltgle right wag to do ary afitlvltic

Arcaderwrites: ...One use fortape recorders is formaldng gifts. We copted some conunerctal songs and stories {crCristy's (4) best frtend :rs a thankvou surprlse, When we ran out of material we ihougtrt she'd like, we had lots of tapâ&#x201A;Ź left.

Nature and Crtsty both abhor a vacutun, so we dectded to 0U it wlth her favorlte songs and recitatlons. Talk about Greatest Hits: Jennlfer plays hertape errcry night (tuto months after recciving lt) and Crtsty is very proud to have made somethlng thatan 8months-older friend lorrcs so much. Thls ls also the perfect gift for grandparents and

rcs patded wtth thls e ta nple :

somethlng invohdng wetght" and I found myself quickly dMdtng the number of grams in a pound by sixteen (I wanted to flnd out how many grams urere ln a pound - I on$r remembered tlee pound-gram reladonshtp).

The student forgot allwe hadbeen talklng about and asked me what on earth I was dolng, so I shourcd hlm, To me, my e:<planationwas qulte loglcal, but for htmtt was lnferlor. So, I asked htm to show me how

hedtvfied - he scrlbbleddownsonr numbers wlth no explanation. I asked hdm to tell me what he was thinldng as he wrote, but he looked at me as if I were dumbl I got now'here and decided to droplt and goback to the ounce - gyam discusslon.

CASTING OUT NINES Now and then I am surprlsed to realtze how few people know the marvelous system for checHng arithmedc called "Casdng out Nines." I guess lt's rarely shown tn textbooks; ifyou know it, it tends to be because someone who loeew it showed tt to you. I have found it incredibly valuable througlrout my Me ln double-checlidng my calculadons, and I wonder how anybody gets along wlthout lL I would attempta short orplanation here for anyonewho ls interested.

So, I thought

lef s startwtth arrcry stmpleaddittron problem thatyou'veuprked and want to check: t20 +31

l5l

GROWING WIITTOUT SCHOOLING #55

You begln the check by adding up the diglts, across, lneach ofthe numbers.

Starungwtth l2o, youwould thtnk, "l+2 ts 3,

plus zero is 3. " Write tlnt down (see example below). Moveonthethe 31. "3+l ls 4," andyou

writedown4, Now, thepotntof the systemis, whenyou add up those turc numbers you wrote down, 3+4=7, you should arrlve at thesame number

And so on.

Soyou look forall the nines and combirradons addingup to nine thatyou can, andyoucan literal\rcross themout. Then it's much faster to add what remalns:

120 3r+

3

If the two check-numbers don t match, eitheryou didn t do the original problem correctly, or (and t}Is ls espectally likely when you're sflll leamtng thls system), you didn't do the Casflng Out Nines check

correctlv.

Lef s take another oample, uslng slfghtly larger numbers:

76

a7r 947

The general nrle ls, whenyouareaddlng up the dtgfts across, each fl.meyou get a twodlgtt number ( lO or more), add up those dlgits across. So you wlll ahrays wlnd up wtth a slngle

dlgtanswer.

In this etample, 7+6=13, which ls two dt$ts, so add up the I and 3, whlch rnakes 4.

Wrltethatdown.

Movingon to 871: 8+7=L5, but thaf s two dtgtts, so beforeyou continueyou add l+5 to get 6. Add that 6 to the remaintng I and you get 7,

wtdchyouwrite down Nodce thattt

would come out exactly the same fyou added them up rtght-to-left - I +7=8, plus I i:s 16;

l+6=7. Infact, tfyouadd 8+7+l alltogether and then reduce lt to a single number, you'll

sdllgetT. Next, add together those two dlgtts you wrote down, 4+7 ls I I , whtch you reduce to the

sin$edtgtt2.

Thaf s the number that should rnatch the sum of the dtgfts of the answer. Does lt?

9+4= 13, whtch ts two dtgfts so l+3=4, and then add the rematnln 97 . 4+7=l I , which 5delds the slngle dlgit 2 (Alternadvely, 9+4+7=20 and

2#2.)

76+ '7 ,4?@ T.@ 871 -

In one sense, tlrat's all there is to this method - with what I've outllned so liar, you can check any addtHon problern of any slze.

But if thatwas truly the whole system, it would be an lnteresdng oddity but not nearly as useful as lt proves to be . What's mlsslng is a maJor shortcut, and thls shortcut relates to why the system is called "Casdng Out Nines."

Lefs look at what happens when you add up dt$ts across when tlrere are nines lrrvolved. Say, 98. 9+8= 17, which, becauseyou must reduce lt to a stngle digit, leads to I +7=8.

Look at 94. 9+4= 13, and l+3=4.

So nowyou know werythingyou need to put thls system lnto practlce. As you work

withit, youwllldwelop

speed and conlidence.

A few ofyou rnay be bursflng to ask. "But why does this work?" Alas, there ls no easy answerto ttra! I had to leam fair$ advanced algebra before I could convlnce myself as to a proof. But maybe if s enough to say that it has to dowith the fact thatour number systemls based on lO, and so 9, beir:rgexact$one less than lO, ls spectal.

means i:s, whenyou'readdingup digfts across, you can lgnore nines crompletely.

GROWING WTIIIOUT SCHOOLING #55

conseryadon. Among them are Defenders of

Wlldlife, NationalAudubon Society, Naflonal Wlldlife Federatlon, Wildlife Conservation Intemational, and World Wildlife Fund.

There are also many smallerorganrzations thatare concernedwith onlyone ldnd of animal - fromwtld sheep and desert tortoises to cranes andwhales. Youcan leam the names and addresses oforganizaflons big and small from sources atyour local lbrary.

You can also help animals by discoumging their individual abuse,

Almost the ldenflcal systemworks for multiplication, with one simple but signilicant change. Ifyou play around with some muldplicadon problemsyou mightbe able to flgure out foryourselfwhat this is. I'll showyou in another GWS. - DR

HELPING ANIMALS dumn ojf Animal Kingdom -gear-dd asked. Fow she crluld. help endongerd. oilnds SWges tfonsjrorn ttve wMllfe ond za oubtals : In the b tters

(1

/

87), on

1 1

includinguseof BB guns, toad stomping, and other forms ofcruelgr. And flnally, don't buy exotic ardmals as pets; many are endangpred, especially parrots and macaws. Sdckwith anlmals capflve-bred in this country, such as dogs, cats, flnches, and budgies...

...Begin by learning as much as you can about animals. Invourschool orcommunitv libraryyou'll find riranybooks about the

animal ldngdomwritten for children as well as adults, Scan your local newspaper for ar$cles about animals and threats to wildlife ln your area (dwelopers may be clearing land to build houses or stores arrd by doing so destroylng the habitats ofrare species). Che<k your local television schedule for progyams on naturâ&#x201A;Ź; publlc televlslon stadons in pardcular broadcast excellentwildlife shows.

And inqulre about memberstdp and educatlonal programs atyour local zoo, aquarlum, or natuml history museum.

USING TRAVEL DIRECTORY We corlrtitue to hear storlas such as this

orefiomShedCbnen(ON:

. . .We ltsted our family with the GI{AS Trarr;l DIretory long ago. F'Inally, last fall I received a call fromJill Boone of California

("Life at Home," GWS #5 l) asking if their family might spend a rdght on theway to Expo in Canada. Well, after',pondering howit would allwork out, we discorrered a "kindred Iiamily" on ourdoorsteps a fewdays later, The visltwas as tfthese were peoplewhomwe'd

You can also leamaboutanlrnalsbv dtrect study - watclhg them tn nature --ana that can be easler than you mtght tnagtne. birdsand tnsects,

OUR Christopher Became A Math Whiz And YOUR CHILD Can Too!! with

NUMBER MASTER@

THE HOME SCHOOL

. . . the

. . . . . .

Orlookat29. 2+9=l I, l+l=2.

Do you see what's happening?

Whenyou're addtngup dtgits across, and oneofthemls anine, the numberyouwind up withlsthe sameasif the 9wasn'tthere atall.

9Syields 8,94yields 4, 29ytelds 2. Whatthis

Try to help nature along. You can do so in your own backyard with properly designed, inerpensive bind-nesting boxes, feeders, and birdbaths. Small bats, too, may take up residenc.e in roostingboxes; they'll help control the local lnsect population, nahrrally.

If there is awildlife rehabilitaflon center or a nature center near your home, ask ifyou can volunteer to help . The naturalist may know of a nature club you can join. Sorre places harre "adopt-an-animal" programs: a small annual c,ontribution helps cover the cost of food and care for a favorite critter.

Anyone interested in anim1ls canjoin one of the large nadonal or inte'matronal orgâ&#x201A;Źrnizadons that support wildltfe

ty'.r -45 fCii ff.o't \v tA G)

righl

r'to6

weregrowlngup.

lr' iol

aswhenyou add up the digtts of the answer. l+5+ l=7; yes, the Ts match. Soyou know you've done the problem

maybe found inyourownbac$ard orln local parks. Find abird orinsectnestand observe it for a while every day, taking notes on what you see. (Ci$ dwellers with keen eyes can spot nests tucked into building crevices.)

You can learn about parental care, growth rates, deGnses. Many fannous nahrralists gatned knowledgp injust this way as they

F\rrthermore, you can ignore - "r.ast ouf' anycombinadon ofnumbers that add up to g.

637 tsJust going toyield 7. 45 I will giveyou l.

kr#

CL'iil"Pt|.

ultimate whole number arithmetic learning system

For Apple ll. IBM PC. Tandy 1OO0 and Compatibles.

For Ages 4 to Adult Remedia Easy to Use. Help Windows and Flashcards.

Permanent Records and Printed Problem Sets.

30 Day Money Back Guaranlee.

Order todayll THE HOME SCHOOL. 3611 Boundary Street San Diego, CA 92104 (61 9) 284-9769

$69.95

Add $3.50 shipping Califo.nia residents add $4.20 lax

2,1 known for along tlme but hadn't seen for some tlme - and boy, dtd we have some

catchtngup to dolWehad awonderful s(perlenc€ - our ctrlldren's ages seerrrd wellmeshed, ttrry shared slmilar lnterests, and we all stayed up late tallidng abouterrerythlng under the sun. We regretted seclng them depart the followlng morntrg but they lnvlted us to campwlth themalong thewayon thelr E:cpo trlp and have trMted us to shar€ their home tn Palo Alto when we get down that way.

To get a

apg

oJ

the GWS Travel Dtrrectory,

sertd$z plus alorg S'\9EwIth2 stamps to Dlck Gallteru Rt 2,

454-3 1 26, To

Wltorc MN 55987; plore

b

llsted as a host send Dl*(flease, not usJ gournarne, acldress, cl'rlldted s na ne s atd. blrtMate s, phote, ard 5O7

se{de scldpfion (lntere sts, pre;fercnces, etc.)

rcup afr rrrts,

HISTORICAL POSTERS An tdeafiom Maty Prdde's Big Book of ,whlchls apailabbJor $ 17.5O + $ 1 shtppltg Jtom HOME uFE. rc tux

Home Learrrlng

16202,CWtm.MO631O5:

...Whataflndl BuckHill's catalog llsts orrcr 6O0 posters,

handbills, broadsldes, prlnts, and adnerdsements fromArnertca s past" Theseauthenflc reproducflons trace the pollflcaland soctal tristory ofAmerica from tts beghurings to the recent past...

Mostofthe reproducflons are printed in black tnk on wtrtte paper, as the orlgtnals were. Some posters ale lncrolororoncolored paper, and are so descrlbed tnthe catalog...

Howunuld you lke a copy of Geoqge

Washtngton

s

recruttlng poster... early

Americantavemrules ('no more thanfue to sleep tn one bed, no dogs allowed tn the ldtchen 1... Ltncoln's campaiggr poster... and morel On the darker slde of our countw's hlstory, there are posters offering "Negirees for sale" orre$rards forthecaphrre of runanray shves... showbtlls, ads for patent

medlctnes, "\ilanted" posters for desperate crtmlnals tke Butch Casstdy and Jesse ctames. Most posters are under $ l.

Dlme novels that oncc costJustone thin dlme are at Buck Hill for$ 1.25 each, wlrtch ls not bad for an authentlc reproducflon. [The Buck HtllCatalogcosts $ll address is 129 Gamet Lake Rrl, Johnsburg NY l284.3.l

VOCATIONAL COURSES In GWS #5 l, Susan Felicl,ano CfN) asked lfanlone lorov of apprentrceship programs tnurcldtng oragrtcultur:al mechantcs, for her teena€p sorr. \ile harrc notyet heard ofany referral networks for vocaEonal appr€nflc€shtps, but l.aura Prftchard (OR) did suggest that she lnvesugate the correspondence courses [sted in the NATIONAL HOME STUDYCOUNCILbooklet.

Thts brochure llsts dozens of@urses, matnly vocaflonal, olfered by about I OO correspondence schools.

Forcources ln agytculture, the brochule recommends: FARI\,!I.AT.ID INDUSTRIES TRAINING CENTER. PO Box 7305, DepL 23, Kansas Ctty

MO614l16 GRANTONINSTITUTEOF TECHNOIOGY, 26{} Adelaide St W, Toronto,

OnL,CanadaMSH lY3 Forweldlng thebrochure lists Granton,

and also HEMPHILLSCHOOLS, 1543 W Olymptc Blvd, Suite 226, L.A. CA9OOIS Courses in the brochure related to these areAgplbusiness, Automotlve Mechanics, and Dlesel Mechanlcs.

The NHSC pamphlet ls available free from l@l lSthStNW, Wash. DC 2oOO9. - DR

WORK OPTIONS [DR] In GWS #46, ure Ltsted sernral

oryanlzntions that atpport "oltematfirc opt&ons, " srlch

uwk

asjob shoulttg atd unkhg dt

twne. It hrrts outtlatore oJthese, FDCUS.

AUIFnttarWe WORKPATTERNS, nutily help s fn te *afre are a" tla ugh X dre s sell aJew pubticallo'ts abutJob shafirq, I asked Narcy Intll of FIOCIJS lf ste could.

pple

gbn us tle nanes oJother strchreglonal grortps, She reptie&

Theonlyorganizatlons I would feel comfortable about dtscusstng in a newsletter for publtc consumption would be tlrese:

$5.95.

THE NEW ENTREPRENEURS: WOMEN WORKING FROM HOME. Untverse Books (38 I ParkAvS, I{YI{Y rOO16), 1980. $7.25.

MAIL ART NETWORK JUIIe Logd 63OO StqLens Ranch VenteCA9l75O, writes:

Rd"

Ia

Something we've recently discovered is the mail art network. Ardsts and gossips fiike me) around the world send samples oftheir work to other artists, or just correspond with each other. Afriend gave me an address once; I sent a drawing and an autobtography and in a few months I had a friendship wtth that person and a couple dozen newaddresses.

There are several children in the networktoo. butas most ofthemdon t speak English they tend toJust send artwork. If any GWS readers want to try lt, I'll forq/"ard thetr address and art to someone on my list,

CENTER Fr)R FLE)(IBLE EMPI.OYMENT,

CarolZetterberg, PO Box 1O54, I-anglrorne PA

t9047.

WORK OPTIONS RESOURCE CENTER" LotsLibby, Mtch. DepL oflabor, Tl5OHarrts Dr, Box 3OO 15, Lansrng MI 218909.

APTP/WASHINGTON CHAPTEft Flow General Btrtlding, 7655 Old Springhouse Rd, McCIean VA 22 lO2 (Barbara Cook).

WOMEN'S EMPI,OYMENT ADVOCACY PROGRAM, Ausdn Women's Center, 27OO S

lst, Austturfi 7A7M.

NEWWAYSTO WORK, I 49 gth, San Franclsco CA 94 lO3 ; 4 I 5-552- IOOO. WORKWELL, #52 I -620 Vtew St, Vlctoria BCCANADAVSW 1J6 RESOURCE: CAREERS, Cathy Irwis, 1258 Eucltd Av, Cleveland OH 441 15.

PHOENX INSTITUTE, Fanaye T\rrner, I 8OO SW Temple, Ste 2 I I , Salt I-alre City UT

84115.

INancy Inul conunues: I A couple of suggesdons. People should be encour:aged to contactonlywhoeverls closest to them. None ofus has the stalTorresources to copewith lots of requests, and there ls nothing as discouragireg whenyou have llmlted coping abiltttes, as r€cetvinggeneral requests for info whlch are clearly belng sent out to more tlran one of us . [Dk IJ Wu do wlte Jor irdo, enclose alrrgSASE,/ These organizadons vary gyeatly in

their

emphases and tlrelr servlces. Butwe share a common commltment to tr1dng to make vartablework schedules possible and

equltable.

Attadred ts a list of books I think would be helpful - perhaps they could provide general background lnformadon for people close to, aswell as removed from, these centers: THE JOB SHARING IIANDBOOI( Ten Speed Pr,ess, 1983.

A PARTTIME CAREER FI)R A FULL TIME YOU. Houghton Mtlllin, 1982.

PARTTIME PROFESSIONAL. Acropolts Books (2ulOO lTth St NW Wash DC 2OOO9), 1985. $8.95 +$1.

PARITIME JOBS. Ballantlne, 1982.

OF CRADLES AND CAREERS. In Holt Assoclates catalog $l 1.95 + postage.

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: A GUIDE TO HOME BA.SED CAREERS. Betterway Publlcaflons (lvhite HallvA 22982, 1982.

KIDS' BOOK CLUB Flom N atalie LeVasseur lilM; SCHoIASTIC BOOKCLUBS (293 I E McCarty St, PO Box 75O3, Jefferson City MO 651O2) offers fourchildren's paperback book clubsatvery reasonable prlces. Manyof these are cla"sics. Others are currently popular books such as the Reading Ratnbow selections. Cost ofbooks ranges from @ cents to severaldollars,

witl mostbooks costing

$1.25. There is no postag;e or handling. An

ordermust include

a

minimum

of ten

paid

books, and bonus points forfreebooks accrue at the rate ofone per dollar paid. Scholasdc Book Clubs are a service for schools, so be prepared to gfve the name ofyour school when contacdng them. I collect orders each month from neighbors, filends, and homeschmlers, gMng me enoug;h to meet the minimum on

eachclub.

QUESTIONS FOR SKEPTICS ISS;/ An Ohio reader *nt us tle

Jdlotutg qrcstions uhbh

she sr.rggests

la neschnlers ask thetr skepticalJriends or rrort adr,teofutg gefring itrto aryutnerts wtthJrierd.s and. rclathns; rather, X sems to nv that whot the* questbns do is

relrrtftb s.Wd re

ittuitc listeners to exanirle thetr otu.n

e:qerbnce atd" perhaps lnlightoJtlds, gaina futter mderstatdlng oJ Vour blieJs otd, nD/thldlbns.

l. How many frtends do you stlll have from K- 12? (I graduated with 9OO others and can say I keep ln cnntactwith one.)

2. Whenyou learn somethArg, ls lt easier dolng tt by yourself or with someone looklng overyour shoulder (and theirJob depends on r0?

3. Doyou learn more easlly from handson experience orfrom abool€ 4. Have you learned more in or out ofa schoolbutldtng?

5. Would you like to sit at a desk without getdngup to stretchwhen youwould like? lSS: EwnhJatuTg rcstrictirc otftces, urrrrkers can usually stretch wlentheglilce, orleatp tle twrrm witlnnt lutsbg to erylaf n whg. l 6. How many ofyour teachers really

GROWING WIIITOUT SCHOOLING #55

25 seemd to enjoy teaching? outof 42ll

(I

can count

ten -

Ar:ri te ache r Mike Smith u:rcte in tIle Spokane FLEx newsletter, 5 / 86, onwhg home

*hrcbrs

ltove

to

pag to ta ue tlvir

clildrentested:

USEFUL CATALOG A month or two ago, I bought a copy The EssentialWhde furthCatalq - the

of

- and lmrnediatelyfound recommendations for several dozcn intriguing books and organizations which I will investigate for possible GWS stories.

Meanwhile, I wanted to suggest the catalog itself as a terriic starting place foryoung people (or any age, realty) who are looking for workworth doing. In a single volume, the catalogis acomplete suwey ofwho is doing what, and who knows what, about all kind of important areas such as nature, conservatlon, alternatlve agriculture, appropriate technologr, self-reliance, crafts, home business, medlcal self-care, and learntng through experience .The Es se ntlal

latest, l9S6version

Whole E artla

Catalq

is avai}ab le

ln

bookstores or for$ 15 plus $3 handling from WHOLE EARTH ACCESS, 299O Seventh St, Berkeley CA947lO. --- DR

HOW TO FIND TESTS People oftenwant to knowhow they can standardized tests at home,

get copies of real

either forpractice or actual u*. TleColorado H ome schating Netuork Neu;slettar rep orts that the Iowa Standard AchievementTest is available throu dn Ctvis tirrn Iib rtV Academg,"Illre$2O fee includes postage and evaluation. For more information or order forms, write CIA, 5O2 W Euclid Av, Arlinggon Hts IL 60004, or call Mike McCue, 3 12-2598736.

QUALIFIED TESTERS? Richard klnbk urrote ur the ARI(ANSAS CHRISTIAN HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIA?ION Update,

5/8&

..This writer had the opportunity to observe the recent testing of homeschooled children in Pulaski countJr. In particular, I wanted to seewhatwas so dillicultabout administering a test that required spec'ial training and qualilications of the test administrator. Several points came to mind: First, I want to say thanks to those teachers and counselorswho agreed to

...The purpose of the standardized test is primarily to collect data relevant to

curriculum planning and textbook revision.

In other words, the publtshing compantes put these tests out to determine howwell their textbooks are teaching the skills that the tests

cover. ...The publlshers of these tests rely entirely on what ls known as "controls" (that is, the eltmination ofvarlables, except for what is being tested). Thts rneans that werythtng is done ln the sarrre way wherever the testis admlnistered. One of these controls ls the requlrement that the test be administered by a "qualllled person."

Nullification of the test results will follow if the publisher's rules are not adhered to. A case in point is what happened inArlzonawhen some homeschoolers admlnistered the test witJrout supeMsion and the familywas accused ofcheatlng on the test. The results were embarrassing, if nothing else. In most cases, families probablywould not cheat, but there ls no sense in giving ammunition to thosewho have agun polnted atyou.

consisted of reading the instructions

verbatim from the test book, making sure the children completed the sample problems correctly, and timing the tests. No mllegelevel sliills were involved here. Certainlv such a thing ls notbeyond theability oian adultwho has already been teaching his child allyear.

Some of the counselorswhowere unable to come one week had trained other teachers to take their places. Some of these substitute administrators were not certified counselors, butapparently had no dilliculty giving the tests.

GROWING WTIHOUT SCHOOUNG #55

AndJrunWendgBanrch: For our flrstyear of homeschooling I methodically, wlthas much plea,sure as

possible, coerc-ed Shane tnto fflling out four cursive workbooks. F-inally I gave up. He completed themall, and someu/er€ ggod, some reflected hls "I could care less about this" attitude. The polntis that he ffIed tnal those pages and still neverclalmed any knowledge ofcursive. He never used it, wouldn't t4r reading tt, and I felt at aloss. I decided thatwhen hewanted to leam tthe would, when he needed tt for bls ourn liG. Recently he opened a bank account. The woman behind the desk said, "Signyour narne here." When he printed his name she gave it back to trimand said ithad to be stgned in cursive. He Iooked at me tn shock (he really wanted this account), muttered something about not knowing how to do cursive, and then did itl It was a great moment for me. His cursive was very legible. One letter after the other went down on the card undl hf whole namewas there.

WRITING NOTES TO KIDS WHICH TESTS ARE BEST? A recent query from Linda Hugdahl of Wisconsin, aslidng ifwe knew which tests otherstates usewith homeschoolers and if some standard?ed tests are better than others, reminded us that this would be useful inlicrmation forus to have on hand.

Homeschoolers who are negotiating on the legislative levelorwith an individual school district might be willing to subsdtute one standardized test for another, if they were familiarwith the differences betureen them.

We hope that any ofyou who have experience or information in this area will wrlte us. - SS

LEARNING CURSIVE

.

administer the tests. Certainly theywere paid for their tirne, but it still cluttered up tJreir Saturday. And nobody could require them to do it. They all seemed pohte and cordial, and interested in the children.

Next, it is not my intent to discourage the additional schooling and training they have taken inorder to become counselors.

However, thejob of administering the test

when I'm leaming something new. "

Flo m Laurel Fantis (II) : Once every few months Dan (4) will print fewwords. He writes nothing in between.

Each time the printing looks better. He wrote "Fantls" as small and neat as an adult would last week, though he copied the letters from a big scrawl his olderbrotherDavid had produced for trim.

Likewise, every so often Davtd (Z would write aword in cursive. He first saw cursfue on ablackboand at schoolwhen he uas newfu a

6 and wanted to learn curstve then. He didn'i pay any attentlon when I offered to get a

practice book. Lastyear he took pleasure ln reading the curive paragraphs in the McGuf$ ReaderOne. Thisyear he produced words in cursive infrequentl5r. t ^stThursday hewrote halfapage in a compositionbook in cursive. Finished the page on Friday. He wrote some cursive on scraps ofpaper on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday hewrote thirty lines ln his narrow-ruled c€mposifion book.

His comments were: "I'm going to write cursive some morebutl don'twantany help until I'vewritten the pictures in my mind...

They teach you wrong ln school. I can teach mvself cursive when I want wlthout anvone teiling mewhat to do... Thiscursive talies a lot ofconcentraUon and my hand gets tted.

At home I can take a break when I want

Ftom M oty Arn Cde man (N. B,) :

Just an idea for parentswho wish thetr ctrlldren did more writing. Ieave notes to the chlldren around the house. Such ltems as "I

love you, "'What should rre eat for lunch?" and "Do you want to gq swimrntng tomorrou/?"

usually eltclt awrltten response. In fact, I often receive awhole serles on aglven topic. It is espectally fun forthe child lf they know that invented speling is A-OK,

HOW TO GET STARTED Hcre arc somewaysyou can Rnd out thc legal situatlon in your statc.

I ) Look up thc law yourself, ln a publlc library or law librar5r (courthousc, la$' school, ctc.) Laws are tndcxed; Ey "school attcndance" or'bducadon. compulsory." l8 states have revls€d theirhomc educatlon lanrs st:ce 1982 so check the reccnt statute chang€s. Wc have plnted orsummarlzed thesc neu/ laws tn otrr back lssues.

2l Ask the state department ofeducadon for any laws or rqulations pertaining to homeschooling and/or stardng a prtvatc school. In some states (particularly C.{" L, lN, I(Y) there are

HELP WANTED

Weavers' Assistant for small weaving mill. No experience needed. Must be 18 years or older. Must be primarily home schooled. Must be quick of mind and hand and show wide aptitude range. Opportunity to learn weavers' trade and ultimately supervise others. Must make long term commitment after 6 months trial. Rural location near small towns. 315124512887.

26 _ few regulations conceming private schools and so you can call your home ilchool. . I{ you are concerned about revealing your name and addrcss to the state, do this througlr a friend.

3) Contact state or local homesch6ohng groups. This list was last printed in GWS #5?, and is updated sold separately for gl as part of our -and ''Homeschooling Resource List." Some groups have prepared handbooks or guidelines on lEeal matters.

4) Contact other families listed in our Dilgctory. How.ever, they !lay suggest you do some or ule aDove steps yoursell.

5) In general,-it is not u/ise to start by asking your local school districh they usually dori't tnori the law elther. Better to lathir the faits ffrst on your own. - DR

Children wanting pen-pall should contact those listed below, To be listed, send narne, age, address, and l-3 words on interests === Sarah BRYSON (8) 278-llthAv, San Francisco CA 94f 18; art, music, science === PADNUK, 2380 Iqy Av, Ft Myers FL 33907: $ran (8) chemistry, flute, tae-kwon-do; Bethany (5) grmnastics, art, ponies === Catherine REESER (9) RO S Box 2O3, New Berlin NY l34l l; books, dells, sfigksls === FAHEY, RD 2, Oxford NY 13830: Guadaluoe (IO) gardening, animals, sewing; Ihteri (li) crafts, flowers, penpals === SMI'Ill, 6 Center Rd, Kirksville MO 63501: Sarah (lO) reading, singing, cats; Seth (16) cycling, drums, drawirrg,=== ryg_Lq, Rt I Box 42O, Callaway VA 24O67: Rachel (7) bears, art, parakeets; Jennifer (1O) animals, plano, reading === Jesse MEYEROWTIZ (8) Box 321, Ocate NM letters, tree-climbing, rock-climbing

=== LESTER PO Box 2O3, JoshuaTree CA 92252: Damian (8) maps, countries, soccer; cabe (6) blkes, ATCs, soccer === August

WHEELER (lO) 25318 Cherry Cv. RdI Monroe OR97456; biking, n-rnning, soccer === BERRY, PO Box 55, Johnstown NE 69214: Emily (8) Ietters, Cabbage-Patch, stickers; nussell (S) reading, playrng, building === Qalhsrins DICKEY (LO) 427 S Maple St, Adamsville TN 3831O; anlmals, swimmlng, drawing === Sharesa BOSWELL (lO) 3541r Rd 196, Woodlake CA 93286; reading, horses, dolls =-- Jesse DAVIS (8) 60l Kewadin, Mt pleasant MI 48859; nahtre conservation, art === Annie LEON (8) 627 S 7t}r St, I ^s Vegas NV 89lol; writing, stickers, Care-Bears === IIARPER, 217 N Hill Dr, Spartansburg SC 29303: Rebecca (l l) reading, electronics, cooking; Andrea (7) reading, pretending, dolls ===Josh STEADMANJERSEY (9) 4185 Dallas Av, Holt MI48842; fantasy, science, Sames === LonnySeth SOLOMON (8) 526 Country Way, Scituate MA O2066; computer, sports, chemistry

CLEARANCE SALE We have a

fw

remainlqg ltems on hand that fmm our catalog and we would like to clear out, so we are offering them for sale at much reduced prices: we have discontinued

KOISTEIN'S CELLO ROSIN. Was $6.95.

$+.oo. g'uanttty: 5.

nos

FIRST HOMESCHOOL CAIALOG. Ist Ediflon.

Was $lO, now $5.oo Qty: 6.

GARRETT WADE TOOL CATAI,OG. 1986 Edition. Was $3, now $LOO. gty: g.

STEADY STATE ECONOMICS. Was $9.95.

now $5.9e. gry: z.

TREASURE ISIAND. Was $1.5O, now 75C.

Oty:8.

nos $z.oo gty: z.

Montgomery 361O9

AI( === Nancte & Karl ELUS (Anika/84) pO Box 277 , Kasilof 996 I O := Suzarme & Don MARKLE (Kathleen/82, David/86) 334 E Sccond Cr, Anchoragc 995O1 AZ === Rick & Becky LAURITZEN (Jed/29, BeqJamin/8l, Reina/86) 8719 W Charleston Av, Peoria 85345 === Charles & Julie STANLEY (Brooke /8O, Rayna/8a) 16430 N26th St, Phoenix For postage or UPS charge, see center insert of 45032 this lssue. lf we n:n out of the itern you order, we will CA NORTII (Zlp.94OOO & up) === return your check if it ls made out separately, or we Martha BRYSON-SOIIOMON (Sarah/78, Adam/Ss) will issue a cedtt slip if you have combi::cd it vrith 278-llth Av, San Franclsco 941 18 === Davld other ltems.

BUTLER & Esther BARUCH (Michael/8l, Daniel/85) PO Box 65O, Boonville 95415 (change) === CALIFORNL{ HOME ED. CLEARINGHOUSE, PO Box lol4, Placerville 95667 (changc) === Sol DAY, DAYSTAR EDUCATIOI{AL EXCFIANGE, A copy ofor:r latcst eomplete catalog appeared 18603 Hrvy l, #121, Ft Bragg 95437 =- FCLq, in GWS #53. To obtain a separatc copy, send a long NORTTI CA SPICE GROUP, 3812 Holloray In, SASE wtth two stamps.

Carmichael 956Oa === Elizabeth & Michael We will pay $2 in credtt for used coples (tr: HAMILL (Harrtson/8O, Ftnnegan/82) NORTHERN good condition) of John Holt's ll4rat Do I Do CALIFORNIA HOMESCHOOLERS ASSOC, 2214 Monday?

Grant St, Berkeley 947oB === Margaret & Juergen On requcst, we will photocopy and mail the PASTORINO (Gustav/8O, Derek/a3) 222 }tamilton GWS revlew of any item in our catalog. Send 50+ Av, Mountain View 94043 =: Ljmne SARTY & Jon plus a SASE for l: add 250 for each additional.

I{AFSTROM tIFa/82) 45O Redmond Rd, Er:reka LP RECORD: NEW MORMNG FOR THE WORLD (text by Martin Luther King), Aw EASTMAN OVERTURE, and LINCOLN PORTRAIT. Was $8.98, now $5.oo. gty: +.

45 RECoRD: JOHN PAYNE OUARTET & SAx CHOIR. Was $3, now $l.OO. ety: 2.

CATALOG INFORMATION

PEN PALS WANTED

877 34:

LP RECORD: SUZUKI CELLO SCHOOL. Was

$12,

95501

ADDITIONS TO RESOURCES Certiffed Teachers Willino to Help Home Schoolers: Jeanne Bourquin, HC 2 Box 378O, Ely MN 55731 --- Sharon Greene. PO Box 52, Carlotta CA 95528 --- Sandra Gucnther, 2923 Sunset Dr, Golden CO 8O4Ol --- Linda Hugdahl, 60227 Sun Valley Pkwy, Oregon WI 53575 Frtendlv School District: Anderson Valley School Distrlct, Anderson Valley Way, Boonville CA 954f 5. Phillip Thomas, Elementar5r kincipal.

These popLe han:e exprlence wilh tl@JoVowtttg

subjects, and are uilling to conespnduith others uho are interested: Bltndness: Alison McKee, 5745 Bittersweet Place, Madison WI 53705 Physical Handicaos: Jarura Books, Box 3O9-B, Route 2, Santa Fe NM 875Os Traveling Families: Joseph Ciano, Rt 5 Box l2O. Ava MO 656O8

ADDITIONS TO DIRECTORY Here are the additions and changes to the Directory we have received st:ce the last lssue. GWS #54 has the complete 1987 Directory.

Our Directory is not a llst of all subscribers, but only of those uho ask to fu Usted-. so tlnt other GWS readers, or other lnterested pcople, may get in touch with them. If you would like to be included, please send the entr5r form or a 3:<5 card (one family per card).

Wc prtnt birthgears of children, not ages. If we made a mlstake when convertlng your child's age to birthyear, plcase let us know.

Please tell us ifyou would rather have your phone number and town listed rhstead of your

mailing address.

If a namc ln a GWS story is followed by an abbrcvtatton in parerrtheses, that person ls in the Directory (check here and in #54).

We are happy to forward mail to those whose addresses are not in the Dlrectory. Mark the outs{de of the envelope with name/descdptlon, issue, and page number.

When you send us arr address change for a subscrlptlon, please remlnd us if you are in the Directory, so \ile can charrge it here, too.

AL === James & Lavonne TIART (Sâ&#x201A;Źth/79, Micah/84) AIABAIVIA HOME EDUCATORS MONTGOMERY AREA, 819 Jor5me Dr,

CA SOUIII lZlpt to 94ooo) === FCLI{ SOUTH CA SPICE CROUP, PO Box gl2. El Toro 92630 === Paula & Jack KING (Lindy/80,

Joshua/83, Robyn/83) 22575 Cottowood Circle, El Toro 92630 (change) =- Patty & Emery LOCKWOOD (Mclissa/80, Melianie/83) 15185 C Marquette St, Moorpark 93021 === PARENTSFOR HOME DEVELPMENI, 1O368 Kenyon Ct, Rlverslde 92505 === Btll & Sally PECK Dalttd/T7, Sarah/78, Jonathan/8o, Amy/83, I^aura/85) phone 619-485-OGa2, Poway {change) =: Noelle SICKELS & Vtctor PARRA (Jwde/791 3fl;27 Femwood Av, Los Arrgeles 9AO27 := Kay STONER

& Richard BOLIN (Benjarnln/79,i[.{arrl Beth/82) 396O Falcon Av, Inng Beach 9O8O7 === Jonathm TABOR (I-ara/79) 22701,a, Cresta Rd, El Cajon 92O2r (change) CO === Caroline & David HILLIGOSS (Molly /78,Hannah/ar, Etta/8l, Ethan/84) 828 N Monroe, Loveland 80537 === ElDabcth & William MERRITI-HICKLING, PO Box 54O6, c/o Stone & Webster Eng, Denver 80217 (chaqge) CT =-- Chris DURMNG, EMANUELHOMESTEAD, PO Box 355, S Woodstock O6267 (change) FL === Paul &Jere BARKAII)W (ha/80, Kai/83) 3696 Tallulah Rd, I,antana 33462 === Don

& Ihthy CLJRRY (Bcn/8r. Nathan/84) 5574Lake Genwa Dr, r ^ke Worth 33461 Ken & Marlee -= Rd, WESTMAN (Scott/83) 2742Floral Lantana 33462

HJ === Sharon CHUNG (Kerrin/67, Tanya/69,

Nicla/771Gen Del, Hilo 9672O-99(F (cha4ge) IL:= Jtm & l,cslie BREIT (Emily/79, David/ 8O, Jorrathan/8l, l<ayla/B2, Michael/84, Nathaniel/86) BRIGHT WAY CHRISTIAN ACAT,EMY, 41 8 Sheridan St. Rockford 6ll0g === Roes & Candace

STADLER (Amanda/79, Adam/8r) 2l W 2OO Coronet Rd. Lornbard 6O148 IN === creg & Jane BAILEY (Jocelyn/75, Joshua/76, Adrea /78'l 329 S Cullen St, Rensselaer 4797a:= Mtchael &Judl BROWN Dusttre/76,

Alrl,ful7g, Heathcr/8lt) lO7 E 2nd, N Manchester 46962 === FCIA IN SPICE GROUP, 7262 l^akeside flr, Indianapolts 46278 === WE CAN, INC., 601 Brandywlne Dr, Goshen 46526 (change) IA === Art & Mildrcd MoELLERS (Cathy/72) Rt 2 Box l9 I , Fayette 52142 === Rlch & Dorura SCOTI @mily/78, Eric/8o, Vlrgirrial 82, l<aty /851 RR I, Woodburn 50275-9801 (chargel KY === Mark & Linda CLIFION Uoshua/78, Rachel/79, Joel/B2) 197 Breckinrtdge Sq, Louisville 4O22O === Mark & Cathy MORGAN (Andrew/78, Adam/8O, cage/8s) Rt 2 Box 21 1, Mt Olivet 41064 (change)

GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLINC #55

27 ME === Xen & Becky SAYWARD (Nathan/8O, Caleb,/82) RR I Box 37O-B, Ra5mond O4O7l === Valerte VAUGFIAN (Gabriell78, Scan/85) Box 35, Liberty 04949 (change) === Ron & MaTtyWAGNER (Heather/ 73, Aaron / 7 9, Nicholas/ 82) 33 Pleasant St,

Topshm

O4O86

MD === Brent & Kathy BUSEY (Emily/8O, /8 I, Daniel/83, BcnJ amin/ 85) 344a Albmtowrre Way. Edgewood 2lO4O === HOME SCHOOL GAZETIE, PO Box 359, Burtowille 2Oa66 === Edwlna MOLDOVER (Davld/72, Rachel/74, Jomti}:n/Z6, Matthew/8o) 1518 BaylorAv, Rockville 20850 MA=: W. FLEMING (Nigel/76) 39â&#x201A;Źf Stone St, Walpole O2O8l === Stanley & Carrte SMITH (Michael/64, Jernfer/ 66, Matthew/68. Ammmda/72, Rebecca/74, Jesslca/77, Jcremey/8o) 30 Franklin St, Revere O2l5l === Srean & Mark YEAGER (Halina /81, Morgm/84) 7 T\:cker St, #73, Pepperell 01463 MN === Michael & Harriet IRWIN (Alec/69, Michelle/72, Darriel/82, Christopher/85) Rt 3 Box 11O, Northffeld 55O57 MS === Dave & Sue TRAIIUE (Abigail/7g, Jason/8l, Justin/84) RR 8, 3O8 Dedeaux Rd, Gulfoort 39503-3143 MO === Ron & Terry DELONEY (John/8o, Jason/83) l2O5 Blairshire Dr, Ballv'in 630l l === FAMILIES FOR HOME EDUCATION, I 525 W kxington, Independence 64052 (change) NH === NEW ITTAMPSHIRE HOMESCHOOLERS NEWSLETTER, PO Box 97, Ctr T\rftonboro 03816 (charge) NJ:= Jeanne & Demetri ARQUETTE (Greg/a2, Chrlsttna/85) PO Box 251, 2 Shaw Dr, Kingston 08528 === Renee & Ron DETOFSI(Y (Etur/77, Jonah/8l, BenJamin/85) 3O Cedarhill Dr, Sicklervtlle O8O8l (chaqge) === Howald & Dtana UMANSKY (Chad/8r) 167 Winooska Tr, Medford Lakes O8O55 === Krlstlana & Robcrt VERVOORDT (Joshua/a4) 632 Bloomfleld St, Hobokm O7O3o NM := Ellm BECI(ER (Jcsse l7a,Luke/atl PO Box 5851, Santa Fe 87502 (chaqge) === Vtu1s6nt & Janna BOOKS [reha/8O, Chelsea/84) Rt 2 Box 309-8. Santa Fe 875O5 === John & Irri ODHNER (Lukas /8 I, Chara/83, Mtcah/8s) 4OO9 Montgomery NE L-4, Albuquerque 871O9 IYY === Janet HOFFMAN (Jocelyn/82) 44 BaileyAv, Patchogue 11772 === LONG ISLAND HOMESCHOOLERS NEWS. 884 Wilson Blvd, Central Islip 11722 === Vivian MARTIN, LONG ISIAND FAMTLY EDUCATORS, PO BOX 283, Sayville 11782 === Rich & Trlcla STOMTSCH (Jesslca/8o, Kenny/8l, Kevin /82, Kristofer/84) BROOKWOOD PARK, Rt 9N Box 94, Hag;ue Rd, Ttconderoga 12883 NC === Pada rrATI nY, PO Box 173.

Bamardsville 287O9 OH === Blair & Barbara CHIRDON (Fleather/ 73, Jeanne / 76, Tfmothy/8O, Rebecca/83, Peter/86) 1557 Wyandotte Av, l^akewood 44107 === Susan & F.achel

Bob RATNER (Joshua/76, Shana/79, Micah/8l, Dcna/83) 176 Cedarbrook Dr, Loveland 45140 (charrge) === c. REGHET1,527 Center St E, Wmen 44481 =- Kari & Robert SEGER (Robert/ 81, Danlel/82. David/83, Amy/85) 493 S River Rd, Waterville 43566 === Ian & Carole WILSON (Ross/ 8O, Stephante/82, Natalie/85) 2746 Shady Ridge Dr,

Columbus 43229 OK === Jarnes & Esther ROSEN (Joshua/75, Adnan / 7 7, Ntcholas/a2) 6 I 24 SW Park Avc, Lawton 73505 (change) === FCLA OR SPICE GROUP, 8016 Yank Gulch Rd, Talent 97540 === Marq, & Debbie FIEALY (Andy/8O) Rt 4 Box 333, Sherwood 97140 PA === Ronald & Diana BASEMAN (Olivia/78, Delia/82, cabrtcl/86) lOO3 Arborwood Dr, Gibsonia 15O44 (change) === Steven & Carol BUSH (Heather/

& Kim JEFFERY (Nathan/75, Adam/77,Blythe/8o, Jotdn/82, Anne/85) 229 Olin Av, Girard 16417 === Lorraine & Eric SCHEIMREIF (Shaun/8o, Kevin/86) 519 Mahoning St, Milton 17447 TN === 11stht I4CALPINE (Nathaniel/78) 37Ol Benham Av, Nashville 37215 (change) TX === Robert & Martha DEGNER (Sarah/77, Luke/79, Jacob/82, Abigail/86) 2520 Burning Tree, Irving 7S62 === Vicki DENMS (Matthcw/7g, Andrw/a4) IOSOO CreekView Dr, Austln 7a74A-22OG (change)

UT === FCL{ U[AI] SPICE GROUP, r5lo W N. Provo 846O1 VT === Jacqie & Larry LAMB (Alexandcr/8o) Beaver Pond Rd, Waterbury Ctr 05677 VA:= Russ & Reglna CALIAFIAN {Genea/79, Ryan/80) 25Ol S Hayes St, Arlington 22202=== Nick & Gwcn JONES (Adam/82, Xwin/85, Christine/86) gtrs 277OC MCDEC, Quantico 22134 === Marcia & Kevin KOLB (Jennifer /77, R.achel/79, Aar on/83) Rt I Box 42O, Callaway 24O67 === payg 6.

Jeanne ROSS (Becca/8o, Sara/84) 2415 Popkir:s Ln, Alexandria 22306 === Mary Ellen & Mark TEDROW, HOME INSTRUCTION SUPPOKT GROUP. 2 I 7 WiIIow Terr, Sterling 2217O === Michael & Deborah WHITE 0rah/79, Laura/8l) 5OO3 Eastchester Cir, Alexandria 2231O WA === Meldon & Amelia ACHESON flalitha / 7 I, Eleadan / 7 41 728 Taccardo Rd, Sequim 983829607 (change) === Gisela & Ken BECI(ER (DaJt/67, Anika/69, Wayne/72, Catherine/86) 79f 2 Spartan Ct, Olympta 98503 === Barbaa & Mark DRAKE (Andrw/77, John/a2, Margo/85) 6812 Lk Washington Blvd SE, Renton 98056-fol2 (change) === FCI^A EASTWA SPICE GROUP, 5O6 Butterffeld Rd. Yakima 9a9ot === FCIA WEST WA SPICE GROUP. HCR 63 Box 713, Naselle 98638 === l.lylene SCHOELLHORN & ccorge PLIFIA (Forest/821 2342B Cavanaugh Rd, Mt Vcrnon 98273 WV === Paul & Kathy NEETZ (Joshua/78, Caleb/8O, Naomi/84) Rt I Box 216, Buckhannon 26201 (change) === Jill & J.W. RONE (Flappy,r8o) Rt 3 Box l9l, Berkelcy Springs 2541 I WI === HOME (MADISON CHAPTER) 5745 Bittersweet Pl, Madison 53705 5OO

Waterloo (change) aIlE =: Kim & Vince DUFORT (Claire/8l, Abrahm/84) 214 Petit Coteau, Vercheres JOL 2RO

OTIIER LOCATIONS === ACCELER/ITED CHRISTLAN EDUCATION, PO Box lO, Strathpine, Qld., Australia === Kelvin & Noeline BARKIA (Elizabeth/8o, Jane/83) l7 Mcrcmere Rd, RD 12, Hawera, New Zealand === Jean & Rayrnond BURLD (RJ. / 7 2, E,dut xd / 7 4, Patrick /7 6) Lao Fc AVSCOM, APO SF CA 96301-0066 (4qrsd (chmge) === Linda HOLZBAUR & Kemy RITTER (Grace/8l, Nathmiel/ 84, Anna/86) Knockranny, Moycullen, Co. Galway, Irclmd (change) === John & Kathy SZYMANSKI

(John/7a, Mark/8l, Maryl83) CARITAS, Casa dc

Cmillos, Apdo 31, Avda. Libertador, Barquisimeto, Venezucla (change)

WANT ADS Rates:

CANADA BC === Brucc & Ltnda BURROWS F<y1e/76, Carmen/66) Box 166, SointulaVON 3EO === Jan & Marcr:s HUNT (Jason/8l) 4 Ethos Placc, Victoria VgA 7A3 (change) NB === Sharon & Sam GREENIAW (Casa/73, Jana/8o, Kift/A2, Megan/85) North Head, Grand

MmanEOG 2MO

ONT:=

Cllvc & Glenda KNOWLES (Andrea/

75, Marn/76, Mlchael/84) 6O8 Pine Island Cres.,

GROWING WTTHOUT SCHOOLING #55

these folks vou saw the ad in GWS.

NEW- SHORTAND SWEET, complete prcgram agcs NEW-ART PROGRAM agas 4-12. TEACHING GUIDES that support fami\r values. MORE3-51

standadizd test prep, WOFJGOOKS K-12lemere can use on thelr own. FREE CATAITG. Sample Guide $2.95. LEARNING AT HOME Box 27O-G55

llonaunau HI 96726 REWARD YOUR KIDS Florida Disncy Condo for rent Sleeps six, washer/dryer, pml, tennis court, special rates (314) 487-Of84.

CREATME LEARNING MAGAZINE ISNT ABOI.]T home-schooling, it tS homechooltngt Only home education publicatlon offering wer 25 original features at reasonable rates. Practical acfivitv md learning ideas help families learn togcther. I yrlS9.

Sanple/$l. CLIvl, lst Flr, Box 957. Wrightstom NJ o8s62-0957

LIVING HERITAGE ACADEMY: K-12. Teach your child at home. Diagnostically prescribed, self contained, self instructional, contlnuous progress cuniculum, high achievement results, pemanent records kept, diploma issued, low tuition rates.

LIVING HERJTAGE ACADEMY, Dcpt. Gl, PO Box 610589, D/Fw Airport, TX 75261-0589 ARTS IN RESIDENCE: Monthly art newsletter: artlst's biogs, tlme line, projects. Sub-$15 yr. Anne Canpbell, 235 Pasadena, Ti:stin CA 92680 PATFIWAYS

IO PROSPERITY: We share alternative.

1ENTRY FORM FOR DIRECTORY If you would like to be includcd in the Directory md have not yet told us, send in .Lhis form, or a postcard or 3x5 cad (only one family pei card).

u*

Adults: Organizatlon (only if address is same as family): Children, Nmes

/Birthyem:

Address:

73, Randall/7s, Matthew/76) I 52 I Perrnsylvania Av, Paoli l93ol === l!ta{6n & Jelhey COHEN (Marielle/ 69. Artn/73, B.tet/7g, Devin/8s) 22O3 Spn:ce St, Philadelphia l9l03 === Linda & Ed F1NLEY (Jolene/79,

Collene/8l, Terralee/84) 783 N Hokendauqua Dr, Bath l8ol4-9487 (change) === Wendy FLANDERS (Emily/8s) PO Box 7a54, Reading 1960g === David

7ot/word. $l/word boldface. $5 minimum.

Plem tell

Have been in Directory before: Yes

_

No

_

If this !s address change, rrhat was previous state:

_

28 NwAgelnrsbrcss opporhDtfles. Tkough

Thc numbcr that ls underlined tn the example tells the number of the ffnal lssue for the subscrlpdon. TheJones' sub e(plr€swlth Issue #56, the ner<t lssue. But ifwe werc to recdve their reneqral bcfore we sent our ffnal account changes to the matllng housc (early April) , they would qualifr for

nctwotldqgltls posslblc to create fuianclal lndcpcr dcnce. Ftom yourown home. With no sclllng. Honestly, Contact: Dr. Stcphen & Rebecca Convln, 86 Grecnrroods Rd. Norfolk CTO6O58. 2O3542-5181.

thc ftrecbonr:sissue.

br

FIORREIrT r&la mo. S9t!6/no. r4c 3 br 3 169 ec. Avdlo/e 4l V AZ.Wdt, M+ horrc+

Rcnewal rates ar€ thc same as fornew subecrlpttorrs: $2O for 6 lssucs, $36 for I 2 issues, $48 for lStssues.

duclr, ctc. ({l?6ag-9o94.

nrral land co-operatlvc near MadtsonWl. Asupporflve envlronment for adults & chlldrcn to slu c uort. play, homeschoolfrg & homestcadtg. SASE to BakerJamlcson, 8O4 Wc arc starflnga

WHEN YOU WRME US Pleasc - (l) Prrt scparatc ttems ofbr.rsincss on scparatc sheets ofpaper. (2) Putyor:rrrame and address at the top ofeach letter. (3) Ifyou ask questlons, enclose a self-addressed stamped crn'elopc, (4) Tell us ifit's OK to publish your letter, andwhethcrto uscyournamewlth the story. We edit letters for spa.ce and clarlty.

Wcllner, Napervllle IL 6054O (Kuchne-Wcsterman) TEACHYOUR CITID TO READ W/PHONICS Complcte home manual. Rrles orplalned/word lists.

S5.75. Randall. POB 1423-cWS, Corvallts, Or€gon 973€t9.

I ycar O&s.

lx 920 $36 $( s48 2X zD(

Work cxpericrrcc - orrr famlly nursery (mostly hcds) nccds sprtorg prcducdon help. Start soon, lndtvtduals orfamftes\rclcome. (6f O 268-933f TRATr'ELUNG SCHOOL (WESTERN US) - Creatlve

classcsbrouglrt toyor:rhome: muslc, arts & crafts, dancc, larguages, crcafl\rc writln/g, calltgraphy, & mord Info & schcdule: SASE to Box I l 58i! Eugene

7)L 8X. etc: $12 p€rp€rson per)rcar.

Gmt:lng WtiroutSch@brg.

Forclgn pa,yments must be either monc5r orders ln US funds or checks drawn on US banks.

We can'tafford to accept pcrsonalchecks on Canadl,an accounts, wen tf thcy have'US funds" wrltten on them. Outslde ofNorthAmerica. add$lO peryear fc airmail (otherwtsc, allow 2-3 months for

surhcemall).

BrcL l0ucr: We strongly urge you to get the back lssues of GWS, especlally lfyou plan to take yourchildrn outofsdrool. Manyof the articles are as useful and lrnportant as whcn theywere prlnted, andwe do notplan to repcat the lnformatlontn thcm, All back tssues are kept ln prlnt, Ourrates forback lssues: any combinaflon of back lssues, mailed at one tlrne to one add!e!s, cost $l per lssue. plus $2 per order. For example, GWS # l 54 would cct $56. these rates are for subscrlbers onV ; non-subscrtbers pay $3.5O pcr lssue, lrrdcr to cws #l -3o: $2.5o: to #31-4o, $l; to #4f -5O, $l ,5O. Specl,al: all thrce lndexes, $4.O0. These prtces lncludc postage.

Blndcnarc arrailablewlth rods thathold GWS wlthout obscurlngany text. Gold lett€rs on cov6.

RENEWALS At thebottom of thl,s page is aform you can rxte to rtrrcnryoursubecrlpflon. Please help usby

rcnodngcady.

Horr can 1ou tell when your *fiscripdon crcptrcs? Look at thls sample label:

12345 JIMANDMARYJONES

270t 56

NY OlIIf

$6() $rr2 $70 $r30 $za $re

$4e $9o $126 $156

Subscrlptions startwlth the next lssue pubtshed. Ourcurr€ntrates are $2O for 6tssues, $36 for 12 issues. $48 for 18lssues. GWSis publtshed cvery other month. A single lssue costs $3.50.

Stmggling to ft'ec sclf & toddlcr fr,om abusfi/e rdadonship. Looldng to relocate with other single parent or famlly. Please respond. PO 7854, Rcadlng PA l960it, 2 I 5-779-6860.

pcrsorrallzed correspondence school -- the least orpcrrstrrc and most effcctlvc. Write Daystar, I 86Os Hq,lf I, Suitc l2l, FortBraggcAgszlt|7.

$36 $64 $90

3yrs.

lgigg.

5X

For all subs or ordens ofCWS (not books), please send checkormoney oders pa,yable to

DAYSIIAR ls a non-denomlna0onal, baslcs-c,entered.

2yrs.

12 iss.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

OR974/fO.

I6MAINST PlAltrlVIIrE

Bindercanhold cWS #1-26 ($lO) or lSlater fssues {$9.5O). Spectal: 3 blnders wtth rods tohold cWS #I-60, $26.Add UPScharges forallbtnders {see centerpagps).

Addrcr Chengcr: lfyou're movlrrg, letus knouryournor addlesn as sd)n alr possible. Please encla* arrecent label (orcopy ofone). Issues mlsscd becausc ofa change fn addrcss may be replaced for $2 cach. The post olffce destrqrsyourmissed lssues arrd charges us a rrtiffcation fee. so ue can't afford to replace them wlthout charge.

Group Subrcrlptloil: all coptes are mailed to one addrcss, Here arc the cr:rr€ntgrouprates (lX mealur you get one copy of each lssue, 2Xmeans you get 2 copics ofeach issue, 3Xmeans 3 copies, etc.)

6X

$r80 $2r6

Please send ln the names and addressesof rnernber:s ofyour group sub, so that we can kcep ln

touch wlth them. Tharrks.

GWS was founded hr 1977 by John Holt.

Editor - ftorrrra Richor:x Mar:agtrg Eclltor - Pat Farcnga Subscriptlons & Books - Werdy Bamch &ElsaHaas Associate Editor - Susannah Sheffer Of Fce.dssistant - Mary Van f loren klitortal Asslstant - Mary Maher I 987 Holt Associates.

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ST'BSCRIPTION AND RENEIITAL FORM UscthtsformtosubscrlbcorrerEw

toGROWINGWITHOUTSCHOOLING.Forrerrcwals.placethelabelfrom

arccrntls$rcbelow,lfpo*slblc.Ifnot,prlntthetnfo. Clipandsendwlthyourcheckormon€yordcrinUS frrrds. Or,you maynof, subscrlb€ orrcrrew\r phone with Mastercard orVlsa; call6lT-437- 15&1. Thanks.

Gift subscrlptlon to be sertt to name shoqrn.

-Nonsubscrlpflon -Renewal Account Number (fior renewals) :

-

Namc:

oon lqo a>= 2AO

Expratlon Addrcas

=!-

qoq Clty.

ilup

"rrU, tt ls OK to

-

- *lt

tssues,

coples of

$-

(see

chart)

my namc and address to othcr oqgarrizations,

-

GROWING WTIIIOUT SCHOOLING #55