Growing Without Schooling 78
Screna Gtrggold ls among thosc who urrltc for thls lssuc's Focus.
About Other
Inside This Issue News & Reports p.3-4 News from Spaln, Getting Permlsslon to Joln School Team, Counilng Homeschoolers
IFatchlng a Chlld Teach Eerself p. 5-6 Observlng Wlthout Interferlng orJudgtng p.7-a Challenges & Concerns p.9-12 Soclallzation, TWo-Career Famtlles, Recoverlng from School,
Children with Dlsabllltles
Book Revlews p. l3-f 6 FOCUS: Learnlng About Oplnlons p. 17-19
Other
Rethlnklng uathematlcs: Intervlew wlth Wllltam glgglnson p. 19-21 EnJoylng Math p.2r-23
Watchlng Chlldren Learn p.23-26 Uslng Other Teachers, Flndlng An Internshlp, Muslc, Htstory, WrtUng Group, Ballet
1991 Dlrectory of Famllles & Organlzatlons p. 2Z -38
Some people accuse homeschoolers of shelterlng their chtldren and allowlng them access only to the vtews and optnlons of thelr parents. These crltlcs say that homeschoolers will nwer get a chance to hearabout differtng oplnlons, much less form some of thelrown. Of course, thls @uldbe true. Llke so many of the criUcisms of homeschoollng, lt would have some \alldlty lf homeschooltng meant keeplng klds ln the house all day, noses ln thelr workbooks, unaware of the outslde world. But any ktnd of closer look at what homeschooltng really lnvolves shows how lnaccurate thls plcture l,s. When we asked several homeschooled children and teenagers to tell us what they thought of ttris critlclsm. and to defend themselves agalnst tt by descrlbing ho$' they get to hear about and fcrm optnlons that dlffer from thetr parents', what was most conslstent in thelr replies was their lndignatlon at the question. 'It makes me angry,'writes Amber Clifford,'when people who actually know nothing about homeschooling ,rssume that I rely only on what my parents tell me. The truth ts that I am more aware of dllferent oplntons now than I ever was tn public school.' Jeremlah Gtngold echoed that feeltng when he wrote, "I thlnk that the questlon ltself... ts totally absurd." Whenever we want to address crlUclsms of homeschooling, I always enjoy gotng stratght to the young people themselves for Ernswers, because tlelr responses do such a good Job of laylng the concerns to rest. If parents were wrltlrg about how they made sure thelr children knew about other oplnlons, lt would be less persuaslve than hearlng the conllrmation from the young people themselves, although tt would also be good to hear. It seems to me that there is nothtng as strong as the kids speaking to the lssue dtrectly and clearly. Thetr surprlse at the questlon because lt seems so obvious to them that they hear all sorts of oplnions - and the many examples they offer, go farther than any parent's defense could go. Reading these letters, I was struck by how much a part of life other people's oplntons really are. The thiregs the llds described - readtng newspapers arrd magazlnes, hearlng relatlves or frlends of the famlly discuss current lssues, meetlng other people through groups and communlty acttvlUes - are so much a part of ordtnary llfe that tt's not as lf homeschoolers have to go to great lengths to set up situatlons ln whlch theywlll hear a vartety of oplnlons. Of course, some ldds do make a speclllc point of seeldng out thls lnformaUon, but agAh, what struck me was how tntegral to regular daily Me tn a communlty most of thetr examples were. It shows how limlted ls the notlon that without school, young people wlll bâ‚Ź deprtved of a variety of vlews. It would be more accurate to say that without a community of other people, and perhaps wlthout access to books, magazines, and newspapers, such deprlvatlon could result. Or, perhaps even more central, wlthout the sense of oneself as a peron capable of havlng oplnlons and thlnking lndependently. This. more than anythlng else, ls what these young people tell us they have. It's tnteresttng to thlnk about how they managed to get lt. Susannah Sheffer
-
Wheneverwe r€cefirc adonadon, nrc put the money lnto a glft eubscrlpdon fund
+t * John Taybr Gatto vlslthg our ofrcc.
Office News
& Announcements ISS:I We welcome lbtherlne Dooltttle to our shipptng department. l(atherlne's farnlly are the creators of the Hlbnaster, the gadget that helps ctrlldren pracflce baseball hndng (avallable through our
catalog). By now many ofyou have probably seen the artlcle about homeschooltng ln the November tssue offlarpels. I hope sorrrc of you who saw lt and ltked tturote to say so. ?ffnenagazlne also publtshed a shorter and lese comprehenstve artlcle ln Its lO/2219O lssue and ran letters from Pat Farenga and GWS reader.Ian Hunt ln
the
lll12
tssue.
As you can see by the photo, New
York
Ctty Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto, whose speech we quoted from ln GWS #76, vlslted ouroffIce when he was ln the area (speaktng to a 4!oup of homescholers, among other thlngs). Gatto ls very supportive of homeschoollng and of brlndng ctrlldren lnto the workplac=. Chlld's Wotk by Nancy Wallace, and A I$e Wofthlhbg, the book of .Iohn Holfs letters, are olf to gr€at starts, and we thank those of you who hare already helped us publlclze these booke by asldng your local bookstores to carry them or by ollertng to revlew them for local newspap€rs ormagazlnes. We hope otherreaders
wtll follow thts
ercample.
Mbhfgan reader Terl Jtll Mullen
urrltes, Your last lssue of GWS [#72 tnsplred rne to help som@ne. It had an lntervlenr wtth a honrschooler who galned accese to a btologr lab. I am acqualnted wlth a homeschooler who is lnterested tn chemlstry, and I harrc a good Hend who ls a chemlst. I asked my frtend f she would allow an I l-year-old boy toJust hang around whlle sheuprked. She asked her boss, who was oncc a college professor. He uras uery lnlerested and now thls I l-yearold honreschooler has acteaa not only to a chemlstry lab, but to arrcry educated, frtendly chemtst. Certalnly a boy hts age tn schml urould not 8nd tlme forJust hanglng
around and watctrlng someone work.' We lone hearlng these storles, and hope that Terl's enmple wlll lnsplre others ofyou to thfnk about connectlons thatyou canhelp sct up beturcenadults and chtldren. You don t need to llnd an apprenflceshtp program: Just thlnk about people you know and the work they do.
wtrtch allows us to offer GWS eubecrlpttons to people who wouldn't otheru/t8e be able to alford them. Ttrts fund l,e getHng low though, so we askyou to constder helptng us rnalrc these dft subscrlpflons arallable. Even addt4g on an extra $6 or $ lO when you place abook orderorrenewyour subscrtpilon wtll help. Thanke rrcry much. We are beglnntng to collect materlal for trlo booklets that urc are onslderlng brlngfng out dudng f99 1. For one, we are tntereeted ln wrfdng by horcchoollng chlldren about thelr slbllnge. We know that horrrschoollng atbltngl are often closer than urc tradtdonally erpect elb[ngs to be, and that they spend a lot of flrrr together and eo get to learn from each other and uratch each othcr grow. We d ltke to hear storles about this frrom t}le Hds
themselves.
For tlre other booklet, lrte are looklng for storles about ways that chfldren have eamed thelr ovm nnn€y, and thetr thougtrts about earntng npn€y and the opportunldes (or lack thereof that young people harrc ln thie regard. We're especlally tnterestea h storles from chlldren under 13, becauee we're thtnldng of offerlng thls booklet as a companlon to the Tenoge Elthepretlcul, s Gude tlat we already sell. We'reJust ln the very early stages of conslderlng whether theee proJects are feastble, ao even lfyou don't have flme to wrlte us somethtng rtght away, drop us a note and let us knort lf you thtnk you wlll want to wrtte eorrethlng (or be tntervtewed) later on. ThtE u/t[ help us gauge how much tnterest and potenttal materlal ls out there.
In Memoriarn: James Herndon We onbr recently leamed the sad news OratJarxres Herndon dled thls past January. Hemdon was the author of Tte Wag It Spzd to Be and Hout to Surultn hYour Nattn lard" srcd hke John Holt he had the abl[ty to see through to what uras really golr4 on tn the classrcom. Here ls a passage konn Hou to Surufile ht YourNatfise Landthat shows thls well. Hemdon and another teacher had devtsed a spectal class, called Creatlrrc Arts, forJunlor high school etudents. They planned to flll the class wtth all sorts of creatlve proJects, and to ellmtnate the restrlcdons of grades and compulsory attendanc.e, bsulng Pernranent Hall Passes so that anyone could leave the class at any tlrrrc. To thelr dtsmay, the ldds weren't tnterested ln doing the creaflve proJects that shrdcnts ln thelr regular classes te prevtous years had apparently enJoyed. All thesc ldds seemed to want to do was use thelr Hall Fasses to urander ln and out of the classroom:
"[Als a lesson plan, there ts nothlng I can recommend qutte so htghly as a Permanent Hall Pass. After a wtrlle, Ftank and I, on the edge of complete despatr' began to flgure out what uras wrong wtth the tdeas that had rvorked so well ln our regular classes. It was rrcry stmple. Why dld the ktds ln regular class ltlre to do all that tnrrcnttrre stull? Why, only because lt uras better than the regular stull If you vrnote a fake Journal pretendfng to be Tlrtankhamen's favorlte embalmer' lt uras better than readtng the dull Text, anewerlng Queetlons on dltto sheets, DlscussIng, rnahng Reports, or taktng Teets. Sure lt was b€tter - not only that but you knenr the teacher ltked tt better lior some tnsane neason wtrtch you dldn't have to understand and you uould get better grades for tt than you were us€d to gettlng tn soctal studtes or Engltsh. But that only applied to a regular class where lt was clearyou had to (l) stay there all pertod and (2) you had to be dolng somethlng or you mtght get an F. Take arvay those two ltems, as Frank and I had done, and you get a brlef vlslon of the truth."
And laten "A farnous rat peychologtet has been trytng for some )rcars to conduct elgerlrnents whlch would show hlm how to ratse the IQ of rats. One mlght wonder why he uranted to do that constderlng that them rats uaould stlll be funcflonal r€tardates no matter how srnart they got. Neverthless he persevered and set up lab
sltuatlon after lab slhratlon and educattonal envlronrnent after educaflonal envlrronrrrent and the rats never seemed to get arry srnarter. Flnally, and qutte recently, he lssued the statement that the only thfng he could dl,sclver tn ten years wtrtch made rats any srnarter uralt 'to allow them to roam at random ln a
spacloue and vartegated envlronment,'"
Growlng Wlthout Schoollng #78
News
& Reports
News from Spain A gear
q4
lr. Ct{4S *7 2, EIsa Haas
unote a&rontt horrc*Mlry lrt Spaln Esa pu4lshes tIE Sprilsh-lairyuqe rnslorr ot Gl{4S (se 'Organlznflons orfts&dc U.S.'at
tle fukolthls
agaln
Issue).
Renfly sle unob
I\rc sold somenrhere around 7OO or 8OO coplea [of the ffrgt edtdon of Aprenda Stn Escuetal, rmstly at alterzrathrc falrs (wtrtch lnclude thlngs ltke natural food, rccyc[n& handtcrafts, etc.) At a falr tn Allcantc I nrag lnvlted, along wtth Waldorf school pcople and otlrers, to parttclpate ln a roundtable dlscusslon on 'educatlon basod on rcspecf (respect for chlldren, lt wae understood). At a falr ln Castellon I gave a threeday uorkshop on deschoollng, and they errcn patd nrc for tL T\rclve-flfteen people carne each day. One day, I hardly bad to apeak because a urornn who had horneechooled tcro of her ctrtldren showed up and told me and the others about her errperlences. I've also sold a farr number of coples through the bulletln of the Asocla$on Andpatrtarchal, an organlzadon ln fanor ofthe rtglrts ofrnlnors. I enclose a copy of the rnost recent ardcle IVe wrttten for the bullettn, ln wtrlch I crtflclzed a propsed reform of the educaHon system wtrlch would, annng other thtngs, ralse the compulsory schoollng age llmlt from 14 to 16 0 still tnalntatn that the law really fs not very char about whether lfs schoollng, spect8cally, or etmply educadon, thafs compulsory). The total of knounr homeechooltng famllles fn Spaln wlth chlldren of school age: fhrc. Another farnt$ has two ctrlldren
who are sltshtly orrerl4 but who only went to ech@l rrcry brtefly rnany years ago. None of tlreee familfes has had legal problems. IVe heard about serrcral other famtlles, but haven't gotten tn touch wlth them dlrcctly or conirrned that they really are homeschoohng, One of the fathere told rne that htg farnlly has good reladong wtth the teachere ln the area. but t}tat when he trted to get a crrtaln school ollcial to allow trlg daughters acc=gs to an exam so they can get a dlplorna of sonrc l{nd, the ollctal told hlm not to rnake trouble. He satd that he uns wtlllng to look the other nray about the fact that the glrls aren't ln school, but not lf he gsts any publtctty about lt or has to
put anythtng In wrtdng. The parents tn the horncschooUng farntlles I knour of make thelr lMnge
through cerarnlca, psychoanalysls, transla$ons, teachlng tn language achools, and urcrklng a.E an ernergerrgr-vetrtcle dlspatcher, anro4g other thlngs. One of the parents le from Austrra and another !s from lreland. One famlb ltrrcs tn a mtddleelzed clty, onc ln a ennll ctty, three tn tovns, and one ln the country. ln all of thls. I'm not tncludtng the fantltes, mostly squattera lMng ln abandoned vtlages tn the mountalns, who are eo tsolated that the gonernrrentJust sends a teachera fw tlrnes ayear to gtrrc the ldda erems. These people are not necesaarll5l horreschoolers by cholce, and sorc are looldng for other
Gron'lng Wthout Schmllng #78
famlltea wtth ctrlldren oo they can get together a group of etgfrt, apparently the mlntmum needed for the gorcmnrnt to oPen a school. One of the horcctnollng mtlrers told rc that a prteet carc to her houee )'eal€ ago to askwhether lrcr Hds u'ere out of school for lack of urcney. When ehe sald that thcdr homeschoollng was by cholce, he urcnt auray, Thc fact tbat there isn't much persecuflon of horcchoolers her€ may make them less motlvatcd to get organlzed. Also, slnce the law doesnt speclflcally permtt alternattrrcs to school, fh6 famlllee rnlr6 homgchool harrc to go out on a llmb, and 8o tend to be fndepenrdent t5rpeowho may not feel much need for a ncwsletter. The fact that most rellgloue people tn Spaln are Cat}oltc and there are plenty of Cathollc scholg meana that people who decl& on horechoollng do eo br secular reaaona.
Getting Permission to
Join School Team l)om @etclrln Spfur
oJ W{sons{ru
Our daughterJesste has been taklng gymnastlcs slnce she was 5. ln our communtty they have a young chlldren's grmnaetlcs club that He tnto the htgh school grmnastlce tearn, so tlrat when ktds reach hfgh school age there ls no longer a prlvate club avallable - all that's avallable l,e the school teant" .Jessle hced ttrls sthratlon turo years ap, and had to declde what to do. We thought of drtvlnf, her to lessons fn Madtson, but ltwould harrc been much rnore expcnslve. We're a low-lncome famfly and Jessle had always pald for her o*m grmnasflcs lessons by babysttflng, but tf she vrent to Madtson the cost would go from $2O a rnonth to I 18 a urcek We called the Wtsconsln Interscholasdc Athletlc Associaflon and asked them lf there urcre any posslblltty of a horneschooler compeflng on the hlgh school team. They were very short and unpleasant wlthus. At theend I thought thatperhape they Just dldn't understand homeschooltng; so I asked them lf they had 6rer gotten a call about thls before, and they safd they get about ten calls aweek. It rvas clear that theyJust dldn't nrant to deal wtth horneschoolers. At the tlrrrc I dldn't know of any other homcschoolers who had been able to play on a schol team ln Wsconstn. Jessle flnally dectded to go to school full-ume for ntnth grade, solely so she could be on the gymnastics team. They uranted her on the team, so there was no problem wtth getdng her enrolled tn the school - they rolled out the red carpct for us. She dtd qulteurcll thatyear, both academlcally and soctally. But when lt carne tlrne to go back ttrls year, she began to bc neluctant. Ttrts surprlsed us, because all summerlongurc had thouglrtthat she vrculd go back for tenth grade, but about a ureek before school atarted she told us about thc doubts she'd been havlng. She sald she had thought she could Just tlg to school for grmnasttcs and be
detached fr,om errcrthtng else, but she found that that uras lrnposslble. She knevr lntellechrally that lt rvas stupld to care about thlngr lrke tests and grades, but she found that she ended up x/orrylng about them anyqray. She also satd she felt that she was no longer part of our farntly, and we had felt that too. We urere alurays enthuslastlc about hergrnrnasflce, butwe found thatwe dlstanced ourselves from her schooltng
because, forenmple, we couldn't getall excilted about hergood grades becausethat to ue would lmply that we should get upset about bad grades, and we stmply dtdn't belleve ln that, We dtdn't urant to be criUcal of her sctrooltng, but wlthout meanlng to rr,E became altenated from her.
Her thlrd rea,eon for not wantlng to go back uns that she'a nery lnvolved tn professlonal classtcal theater, ballet, and muslc, and she wasn't havtng ttme for those thlrgs. Durlng the school year she had to drop pLano lessons, and was onl1r able to go to ballet onc.e a week lnstead of trpo
or thrcc. The ntght before school was to start
t}llsyear, she dectded not to go. Wthln one ureek she got a call from the gymnasflcs coach, pressurtng her to go baclc Thts was \rcry upsettlng to her. We setup a meedng dth hfr& wtth all of us presenL She felt that he hadn't e4pected her parents to be there, and that f she had gone ln alone he
unuld have trled to tndmldate her, but wtth all of us there he becarne wllfng to look at other alternatlnes, especlally when tt becarne clear that she wouldn't go back. Also, the asslstant coach wa,s extremel5l favorable to homeschoollng, and kept saytng, -Now, why can't sheJust be on the
team?' We started rneettng wtth tlre superlntendent, looktng turto all the posslbllldes. One ldea was to have her be a home-bound student tn the dtstrlcL but WIAA wouldn't go for that. They safd ttnt tn order to be on the team shed harrc to b€ In phystcal attendancr at the school twent5r hours a rrcek They do rnalrc cxcepflons for Hds
enrolled tn techntcal school, but they umuldn t gtve us the sarne status. Then nrc subrrdtted our homeschool plan to WIA.{. Eachyear the ctdldren and I dtsctrss our goals and urlte them down, so that's what u/e g1arrc. After they saw lt they were wtlltng to conslder us a school, to conslder that our methods of waluatlon uaould meet thelr rcqulrements. Another problem had bccn thatyou have to have a crrtaln Grade Potnt Average to parflctpate ln team sports, and they dtdn't know how that could apply to us, but flnally they sald they would conslder us as havlng a program that could meet thetr requlrements. They flnally made an ofer whtch we GROWING WIIHOUT SCHOOLING #78. vol. 13. No. 6. ISSI{ #O74$5905. Publlshcd bl-monthly by Flolt Aaooclata, 2269 MasEachurctts Avc, Cambrldgc MAtnl40.$25lyt. Datc of Issuc: f,lcccmbcr I, lgSO. Scc.ord-class posrage pald at Bcton, MrL PGSTMAS'IER Scod addrcss chargcs to GWS. 2269 Massachusctts Ave. Cambrtdge MA 02140. ADVEI(IISERS: Elcadltrcs ar€ thc l5th of oddnumbcrcd months. Contact Patrlck Farcnga for retca.
4 have acrcepted: they are wtltng to conslder her a transfer student. She can transfer to the school one week befor€ the ffrst meet, take turen$r hours of elecdves, and thereby be there for the ttnrc needed to be allowed to play on the team. She doesn t have to take cor€ subJects, and she can arrange tt any way she wants - three full days a week, or four hours a day, ffve days a ureek. She'll contlnue tlds tlrroqh tlre gymnastlcs season and then learrc, and for non/, she can go to practlces wtthout gofng to school at all. At ffrst we were angry about thts. It seemed ridlculous for her to have to spend all that tlme there dotng thtngs that have nothing to do wlth belng on tlre gymnasflcs team. But she feels OK about lt for now, because tfs better than golrg full-time, and she'll take some thlngs she wants, llke an art class and drlver's ed, and she can take
study halls. We're not nnfshed llghung
ttrts, but for the ttme belng we can llve wlth thls compromlse.
Speaking to Groups about Homeschooling Tom Berry oJ lllbtots urltes:
Thls letter ts prompted by a recent panel dlscusston that I chalred at our church. Thls ts the thlrd ttme that I have parHctpated tn a panel dlscusslon whose toplc was homeschoollng. The llrst one was at our local publtc ltbrary. It was a nrarm-up exerclse because although the dlscusslon was open to the publtc, the bulk of our audlence nras made up of other achral and prospectlve homeschoolers. the second dlscusslon that I parttctpated tn was at ala L€che kague areaconference. Ttrts was a rewardlng dlscusslon. Each panel member spolc about an aspect o[ homeschoollng that was Lnportant to hlm or her, The quesflon-and-answer poruon was the most rewardlng because of the lnterest ln homeschoolng tlnt the questtons tmplied. (As an astde, a wnman who had attended thls dlscussion sought out my wlfe at thls year's IIL conference to tell her that our panel dlscusslon had gfven her the confldence to start homeschooltng.) At this rnost r€cent dlscusslon. at one of the Sunday momlng Adult Forums at our Unltarlan church, my wife and I assembled a panel of three Moms who attend our church and homeschool thelr
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(301)243-6030 FAX(301)366-0674 Dept. GWS12, Tuscmy Rd., Baltimore, MD 21210
ctrtldren, and myself. I knwwemuld be facing a soptrlsflcated audience that would be made up of many teachers and admlnlstrators ln our local school systems. All of us preparrd well. I started thturgs offby spendlng about elght mlnutes olfertng some general demo-
graphlc and stattsttcal lnformatlon and dtscusslng some of t}re ld.ao and phllosoplrtee of John HolL I concluded my tntro' ducflon by reading excerpts fromJohn Taylor Gatto's New York Clty Teacher of theYear acccptancc speech. The other panel members followed up by dlscusstng thelr personal perspecflves and o<perlences. We tlrenopened the rernahfng half hour to quesdons. The results that I observed from thts dlscusston wene vrery graUfylng. As urc rnoved tnto the quesdon-and-ans\rr€r sesslon, the mood of our audlencc ranged from relaflvely posltlve on the part of one womanwho attended because she lg consldertng homeschoollr4l, to tolerant but neutral wtrlch was the stance of the maJortty of the audlence, to rrdldly negatlve and agitated as was a school librartan. By the end, we had found some surPrlsing alltes, lncludln! a retired schoolteacher who made the obsenadon, 'Most liamllles who send thelr chlldren to school spend lots of ttme undoing the undestrable behavlors that thelr ctrlldren learn at school.' Even the school librarlan commented, 'The publtc schools never dld anythfng very great for my daughters... I am confused." t'm ollering thts descripdon of my experienc=s to glve others an ldea of what they may expect tf they elect to go lnto thea communltles to dlscuss the bene8ts of homeschooling. I hope the posldve expertences I have had will encourage others to lntttrate and parttctpate ln public dlscusslons concernlng homeschoollng.
TN Registration Deadline lsn't So Firm After All Shcnron Storcg
oJ
Tentesse tultes:
InGWS #77, youdtscussed the homeschooltng law ln Tennessee and said that parents who missed the August I registratlon deadltne had to elther enroll thelr chlldren ln school or homeschool lllegally. Ttrts ls not strlctly true. I know, because I nrtssed the deadllne oneyear (l mlsunderstood the rule). The man tn chaqge of homeschmllng tn our coun$l sard that I could sfl.ll homeschool lf I reglstered as a satelllte school of a rellglous school. I called the state bur€aucrat ln charge of homeschoollng, and whlle she uras lnlledble about the deadllne, she dtd adrrdt that I could be a satelllte ofa Chrlstian school. I was able to arrante thls wlth a Chrtsttan school, and whlle the arrangement nras not very satisfactory, lt dtd allow us to homeschool that year. A frtend of mine who moved from one count5l to another also mtss€d the deadllne, but as tt was partly because her matl dtdn't get forwarded, the coun$l onerlooked her mtsstng tt by a few days. I'rrc also been told by my county's schml bureaucrats tlrat tf my chtld wanted to tr5r school, I could reglster blm for homeschool before August I, put htm tn
school, and then wtthdraw trim later school dtdn't work out for hlm.
tf
State News For arlA.esses o;f state rrnd'lrr,al organtzatbns, sae o,tr Elontrschoolbg Resonrce Lfst, prtntd' ln thts lssue. Tte Ust ts updatd.tlwonglodthe year and sdd sepantelUJar $2.5O. - Conacctlcuh The State Board of Educatlon on November Tth unanimously
approved new state gutdellnes for home educatton, accordteg to Jan llomts of the CONNECTICT,.IT HOME EDUCAf,OR'S ASSOCIATION. The board doesnt have the pourer to lssue r€gulauons, butJan told us that most local supertntendents follow the gutdeltnes as though they were regulaflons. Under these new gulde[nes, homeschoolers file an annual notlce of lntent and chlldren wtll be consldered truant lf thelr parents have not llled the notlce. The state b requfred to not$ parents who have not Illed of the requlrement, and the parents then have ten days ln whlch to IIle. Under the old gutdelines, Parents had to submit a currlculum tn addttton to the notice of lntent, so Jan says that homeschoolers conslder the new guldellnes an funProvement ln this respect. The gutdelines also say that parents wtU rrntntaln a portfollo of the chlld's work throug;hout the year, and will meet onoe a year wtth the local superintendent (or someone from that ofllce), who will rs'lew the portfolio and determine whether educaUon ts taldng place. Nothtng ts spectlled about what wlll happen lf the superlntendent does not thlnk educaflon ls
taldng place.
Idgho: Reader Llz Cannon-Hubbell wrltes that her dlstrlct, Boundary County, fuetroduced and adopted a restrlcflve homeschooling poltry at [he start of thls school year. The poliry requlr,es Parents to submit a wrltten rcquest for exempdon from the compulsory attendance law to the board of tnrstees, wtrtch lists, tn addttlon to basic lnformafion about the farnily, the names of the textbooks and materlals to be used, the schedule of tnstructton'by hour, day,
and ureek,'and the methods 'bywlrtch actrlerrement will be measured.' Llz wrote' 'As of yet, we have no ldea how they tntend to enforce thfs pollcy or even how they'll let lndtvtduals know lt's ln effect. One woman on the school board has changed her mlnd about the supposed benellts of ttrts pollcy stnce talking to some of the homeschoolers here. As she says, none ol the board knew anythtng about homeschooling really, and thls ldea sounded OK so they passed lL Now they're havtng second thoughts (a few of them anyuray). I don't know lf lfs too Late or f maybe they'll dectde to get some tnput from
homeschoolers.'
Nort! Datota: Some Publtc school admlnlstrators have lmposed requir€ments on homeschoolers that are not actuallv ln the home school law, accordlng to the September/October lssue of the NORT}I DAI(OTA HOME SCHOOL ASSOCLATION neursletter. For e:ample, the law
reoulres that publtc school olBclals rr-lrutor home schools for an average of one hour a weck, but doesn't sPeclry when or where lt wtU be done: the monitor and the parent must negoUate thts. The NDHSA
Growlng Wthout Schoollng *7 I
has heard of one monltor arrMng at a home unannounced. Ttre law also requlres that horneschoolers elgn an alfldavlt agreelng to be ln s€oslon for four hours a day, 175 days ayear, but does notrequlre that horneschoolers submlt a school calendar to the count5r superlntendent {as prtvate schools do). The NDHSA reportg that'at least one admlntstrator has demanded that a homeschooler submlt a school calendar to the publlc school.' Ohlo: Fbom the Noverriber newsletter of the HOME EDUCATION LEAGUE OF PERRY'ISBLJRG:'Under the gplse of toncem'that horrr educated chlldren may not be receMng the 'htghest advantages ln educatlon,'the Ohlo PIA ts recommendlng that the State Board of Educatlon rcqulr,e rrcnttorlng to assure that state rcqutrenrents are being rrrt. Itwould tnclude semlannual honre vtslts by a truant offlcer over a two-year pertd. The propo.sed resoludon was scheduled for a note at the Otdo PTA convenflon on October 2l-23. 'ln a letter to Patrtcla Mttchell, Presldent of the Otrlo PTA Horne Education Acdon Counc{l of Otrlo's Executlve Dlnector, Dlana Fessler, states: 'Slnc.e the proposed obsenradon ts to detertntne lf state requhernents are belng met, such bbsenraflon is a'search'as deflned by the Untted States Consfltuflon. The Fourth Amendment of the ConstltuUon prohlbtts unreasonable searches and s€lzures. Accordtngly, before tnrradlng the sancttty of the honre, government workers must Ilrst satts$ the Court that there ts 'probable cause'to beltwe that a statute cr properly enacted regul,aflon ts not betrng met. Accordfn$y, Lake County's resoluUon urglng the State Board to requle
\rnannounced seml-annual observailon' ls a recommendaUon for the Board to take acdon that ls forbtdden by the U.S.
Constltutlon."
Orcgon! Klm Gordon of the OREGON HOME EDUCAf,ORS ASSOCI^|$ION wrltes: "In response to fear that Oregon's School Cholce Inttladve wtll pass, the state Board of Educatlon fs dghtenlng horneschoollng regulauons. Tte new rules wlll ralse the standard for'satisliactory progress' for homeschoolers (dghten t$ting requtrements), shorten tlrrr llncs, and for homeschoolers wtth dlsabtltttes, expand thc school dtstrtct's lnvolvemenL" Contact
OHEA for more lnformadon.
Where Do You Go To School? A
Calfibrrnrr reader utrltes:
We recent$ ran acrloss a couple we had not seen stnce our oldest chtld, now 8, was Just crawllng. He is a retlrcd laniyer, and to them educatlon nrcans attendtng the most prestlgfous schools from preschool
through post-post-gnduate lerrel. Almost the flrst toplc of conversatlon was addressed to the chlldren thus: 'kfs see, some ofyou mustbe ln school now.' Our Syear old promptly ptped up, 'We homeschool.' Mrs. B responded, The Wee Horne School. I harrcn't heard of that one before. It must be sorneqrhere close to where you
llve...?' Growlng ${thout Schoollng #78
Watching a Child Teach Herself Sue Radostt MJ unltes:
I harrc tr,ouble explatntng to people other honreschoolers - that I don't feel a need to teach Adrtanna (almoet 4) the baslc 'preschool sldlls.' In the flrst placc, we hane a 4-month-old daughter now also, and frankly, lfs all I can do to get Adrterren
anna dressed and fed nrcst days, let alone rvorry about teachlng her the alphabet. She ls also a typtcal 3 year old, resl,stlng any adult help that she doesn't ffrst request so arry ellorts on my part to lnstruct her ar€ met wtth lndtgnadon (at bestl). Sornetlmes I try to explatn thlngs that we encounter ln our readlng or tn the urorld, Juet because I thlnk she mtght be tnterested or to clear up sorne obvlous oonfuston ln her mlnd, and she usually ac.cepts that as a rnatter of oourse. Butwhen lt comes to academlc-type slidlls, the only teachlng I do ls to answer her quesUons, bastcally because she doesn't need me to teach herwhen she ls teachrlng herself more rapfdly than I can keep track ofl Adrranna pracUcally llved ln our bookstore for her flrst two years, and there's no denlring the lnlluence that has had on her dorelopment, ln terms of her vocabulary and her sentence patterns. Ifs been easy to hear the manyways she imltates and leams from the books we read her, but lt all seems to flow so naturally. We don't read to her because we want her to have a precoclous vocabula4l. We read to herbecause we ltke to read and she llkes to llsten, and sometlmes for the rrcry pracflcal neason thatwe need to be farnillar with the books on our store shelvesl We also ltke to talk, so she's been surrounded bywords, words, words from blrth. I won't tr5r to pretend she's not a brlght chtld, but I thtnk that only speeds a pnooess that she would be engaged ln an)rqray: fltdng tnto her envlronment. It makes me sad when I try to erylaln thts to people, and all they can see ls that they should be rcadtng to thelr chtldren more. They usually say It wtth a ltttle stgh of reslgFatlon, as though they are tnmHng of lt as a duty they are ne$ec$ng. Even when I tell them that Van and I almost n6rer lnldate our readlng ttmes wtth Adrtanna, they don't s€em to understand that lt tsn't an 'acdvlty' we engage ln, any more than we sct aside ttme to lsten to the muslc that ts always playlng ln our home. I'm also confounded by an arttllclal approach to 'skllls' llke color and shape recognltlon. Personally, I can thtnk of very few flmes tn my ltG when lt was tunportant to me to know ttrat a trlan$e ls called a trtangle. so I have tntendonally avolded teachlng shape concepts to Adrtanna, but she has ptcked them up any$ray from the toys and EFrnes glven to her by a grandmother who bellevee that all toys should be'educadonal,' bless her rvell-meanlng hearL As for colors, Adrtanna leamed these qulte easlly from normal day-today erposure to them, through conversatlon. her arturorh and
storles ute read. She urcnt through a pertod when lturas otxrlous that she understood that dilferent colors had narnee, and unnted to knorrwhat theywere, and she nrculd askaboutthemas sheused her crayorrs. Itwould harrc taken a much mre onsclous elfort on my Part to sbp her from learnlr4 them than to teach theml But of course when she could tdenU$ hrquoise at age 2, people would alurays say, You can sure tell that you rvork wtth her at horne.' Wtrlch brlngp to mtnd another funny thlnghrc nodccd. We get the mostPr€ssure frompeople to put her tn preschool whenghe ls dernonstradng that she has no need of tt. If she already knows about turqullse' whyurculd urc send her somewhere to be drlled ln the recognlflon of red and blue and green? Yet we have frequently been told,lShe's so brtght, she really should be ln preschool.' My response ts usua$r somefttng bdllrant [ke, 'oh,' stmply because I can't llgure out how on earth to exolatn somethln{ that seems so obvlous to me. And tf the Ipeaker has chlldren of hls or her own tn preschool, lt s€errrs so arrogant to say that Adrtanna doesn't need
tt.
These past slx rnonths, Adrlanna has been learntng how wrltten language rvorks. and lt's been fun to nratch her. I was busy belng pregnant when she started comlng to me wtih scraps of paper wtth ctude letters
prtnted on them and asklng what they
ipelled, and I dtdn't really thlnk about how she got started wrtttng. She has an
alphibet p"zle and rnagneflc letters on the refrtgerator (both from Grandma, of
course) but we'd never worked wtth her
wtth thern- Agatn, I had purposely fgrored
thern
So I'm not sure how or even when the
wrlttng bug struck her. Her narne was the flrst rvord she expressed lnterest ln' so A was the llrst letter I remember her trytng to wrtte, but then sheJuet seerned to ptck the ones that were easlest to draw: H, E, n T' L. I - the ones wlth Just stralght ltnes. 0 love
the uray she still rnakeg her E s. She adds as many bars as she wants, so that tt often looks llke half of a centlpede when she's donet And yet, when she asks how to rnake an F, and I respond that lfs an E wlthout the bottom bar, she knows Just what I mean and draws a perfect F.) I had read whatJohn safd h laan{ng NI tle ?Irne about 'readlng' the strlr4;s of
letters that ctrlldren wrlte, so I would do rny best to pronounce the words Adrlanna brought to rne on her scraps ofpaper. One day when we were packtng clothes for our rrprre, Adrlanna wanted to label the bo:<es for me. She would wrlte some letters and then ask what they sald. One 'word'uras 'HHR}I,' and when I trted to say lt wlthout
tnsertlng vourcl sounds, her response was' 'Oh, lt says treathe't' Slmllarly, when I pronounced'BRR' for her, she crted' 'Oh' It sayo'cold'l' It took me a rnorncnt to llgure out that she uras stmply assoclatlng the sounds wtth famlltar words. dolng her best to make sense out ofnonsensc. I dldn't comment, and nowJust 0rrc rrpnths later
6 she has progressed to where she's sa5rlng thtngs llke, 'P ls for Peter, and E ls for
eater.' If she can't thlnk of a word that beglras wtth a sound that ts ltke the pronunclatlon of a letter, she makes one up: 'R ls for arter.' Needless to say, she's a ways from understandlng that E can dso be for elephanL but the tmportant thfng to me ls that she ls explorlng and experlmentlng and sharlng her ldeas wlth no arilffcfal nodons of 'leamfr4.' What ts lnteresdng to me ln uratchtng these proc.esses ts that there lsn't necEssarlly an orderly progresston of skllls. Adrtanna can nowwrlte her name, and she loves to slt on rry lap when I'm typfng and let me dtctate the letters I need (whtchwas deflnftely her tdea - lt's not my ldea of a good tlrne, taktng ten mlnutes to t5rpe one sentenc€), but she can't r€ctte the alphabet correctl5l. Strnilarly, she can read numbers well enough to dlal the telephone but lo Itkely to mlx up the names of the numbers. Whlchbrtngs us to numbers and counting and addtng. Grandrna proudly taught Adrtanna to count to lO when she was only l8 or 19 months old, not noflclng or carlng that the worde were only so much gibberish to her and that she couldn't really count anythfng. Ifs only ben ln the past four months or so Orat she has had a llrm grasp of the idea of one-to-one correspondence, but once she understood that, she qutckly began playlng udth addidon, saylng tldngs llke, 'There are four people ln our famtly. When Daddy goes to work, there are only three, butwhen he crmes home, there are four agal4l' She comes to me often to ask how marry ffnger:s she ts holdtng up. She was thrllled when I
told her tlrat she could llgur€ lt out herself by counUng them all together, and so now she comes to announce, 'You knowwhat, Mom? Tbo llngers plus llrre ffngers rnakes scrrcn ffngprsl' Nour she nrants rne to add numhrs fn ry head for her entertalnrnent 'Whafa 2 plua 2? Then what's 4 plus 4?Thenwhat's 8 plus €fl'and so on, doubllng the equaflon each tlrre. I tnstst on qultflngwhen the numberg get so bU that I can't rercmber the one IVeJust r€ctted, usually around 32,OOO or sornethlng. I wonderwhat her mlnd malree of those huge numbersl Agar$ here sheiE playhg wlth addlflon ard subtracflon, and yet she can'tcount to 20. I rccently sharcd a lot of these expertences wlth a frlend who aslcd about horneschooltng and after I had talked and talked, ehe sflll fnsistcd, 'But thenyou really are teachlng her.' I dont know how to make the dtsttncflon clear to euch people. IVe secf,r Adrtanna gFow \rcry qutet and res€ntfiilwhen a gchool-t aahlng aunt trles to malc a nlce leeson out of errcry game they play together, unfll she f,nally tunes out entlrely, and I lorow the same would happen tf I trted to teach her about addtng ffngers. Parflctpattng ln a conversadon about numbers ls so dlfferent from
lnstructtngl
The ready answer lve llnally come up wlth when deallng wlth horne educaflon vs. preschool ts to explaln that Adrtanna lorrcs to dance and ls so free and spontaneous about lt - quallfles that I fear could be
deetroyed by formal dance lessons. Most people understand that, and so I go on to say that she takes the sarne open, Joyous
and that I rvould ltkewlse not want to make her s€lf-consclous about lt by enrolllng her ln preschool - or even by formallzlng our horne learntng envlnonrnent The arguments don't necessar$r end therc, but I feel sattsffed that hre expr€ssed the essence of what home educatlon ls all about for us. A funny story: Once last sprlng, when Adrlanna nras Just orrcr 3, I saw her trSrlng to cut wtth a palr of ctrtld-slze sclssors. She was holdlng them very awkwardly and wasn't havlng much suctess wlth her taslq so I satd sonrethtng to the effect that she dght nnd lt easler to hold them thus (demnstraflng!, and uralked away. A few mtnutee later, she called out to me, 'Momny, ts tt OK lf I hold them n5r own funny rvalr?' She tsnt alnrays so poltte about tt now. Yesterday she was urfung her name on a thankyou card wewere preparlng to matl to a frlend, and I could see that she u/as gofng to bedn too near the center of the page and would run out of spac= before compleflng her nanne. I rnenfloned that fact, and she stghed wlth exasperaflon and sad, 'fll do tt my way and you can do tt your way.' She dtd tndeed run out of space after only four letters, but lt dldn't seem to uiorry her. SheJust started over agaln. The pnocrsx] seemed much more tmportant to her than the result, so while I was cringtng oner the 'rness' she was maktng of the card, she was qulte sattslled wtth tt. It rnade me reallze, asharnedly, that I had been thfnldng more about tmpresslngl our frtend wtth her wrltlng abtlt$r than about tlre actual purpose ofthe thankyou card. Ktds can humbleyou so deftlyl
approach to aII of her leamtng and dolng,
cLoDLr;.R.cl sckrool Home Based Education Program Crealu your own home school currlculum wllh the holp of Clonlara SchoolFlome Basocl Educallon Program, lhe well.balanced home $chool program offorlng flexible or slandard approach. "C--lunlala sllesses nranipulative leatrring tuols and real.llfe experlences In place o.f endless wor.lboolery....You creale ygur own individualized program wilh lhe help of the Clonlara curriculum.
The clonlara slaff ls avallable to answer quos$ons over lhe phone or by mall. Any concorns famlller have whlch rolalo lo home oducaflng can be addressrid.
Clonlara graduates rocelvo our prlvalo school dlploma and tull kans.ctlplo. Clonlara graduales have gone lo colleger ahd unlversltlec, to mllltary 8oMco, lo the nrlnlslry and lnlo lhe work force. Clonlara atlonds to all of the admlnlslratlve dutles aisoclaled wlth homo educatlnq wlth and for our enrolloec. We know lho rogulallons In overy stato and counlry. wo handlo conlacts befryeen school ofllclals and our 0nroll6ot. Thal leavas parenls fiee lo atlond lo thdlr home educallng.
'Mary
Pride's
Bis Book of lloma Learnins
l2E9 Jewctt Ann Arbor, Mlchlgan 4810{
Pat Montgomcry, Ph.D. (313) 769-{5r5
Dlrector Growlng Wthout Schooltng #78
Observing Without Interfering or Judging Finding Things Out Wendg Marl,yno. oJ Col{ornla senl us *tool fuprirt- she'd unllten at tle end oJ tle gean $ne ererpts:
the "Hone
We often play what urc call 'The Quesdon Game,' where one of us poses a
quesflon (usually of central ptrtlosophtcal tmportance) that the others each get to answer ln any way they ltke. Examples: "What ls bart}r?' "Why do people not know that the Earth fs allve, and hurt her?' 'What t8 tlnre?'The other day, 7-yearold Mlles' question uras. 'What ts srnart?' and our ansurers reflected a deep sens€ that knorvledge ts only part of srnartnesa. Br5m (lO) satd that some people thtnk smart ls knowtng lots of thtngs, ltke tlrtngs you memorlze or leam ln school. We all agreed
that gmartis knowlnghowto ind out things, and knowtngwhatyou do not know, and belng wlllfng to not know I recently read pa.rts of a book by Rtchard Saul Wurman, It{omtattort Al'L{rtA, wtdch assesses the overwhelrnlng quaUty of the lnformaflon ure are oonfronted wtth dally, and deflnes 'InformaHon Arudety' as the gap betureen what rpe know and what ure thlnk urc should knonr. He says hts father taught htm not that he should know erreqthing tn the encyclopedta, but that he should lsrow how to flnd tt. When I observe Bqm'a and Miles'learnlng prooess, I see no an:de$r about what they do not know (except ln the momentaqr fmstratlon of tr5dng to solve an tmmedl,ate problem before thern), and I s€e great sktll h llndfng out what thcy need or urant to know. I also see an lntense commltment to leanrtng, and an lndtufdual sense of flmtng that gutdes thern Miles can spend an hour or more lmmersed tn readtng a TInTLn adventure book, and not errcn hear gs calllng trlrn" The next day, he may spend that same lntense hour expertrrrndq;wlth a mylar danclng rlbbon on a stlck,
watchtng and controlltng the many pattems and rnoflons lt can make (and telllng me about tt as he does). Both of them follow thetr heart when lt comes to leamlng - wtrtch may mean\rantlng to do a math urorkbook fn the can on Sunday when we're drtvlng somewhere. You nerrer know What you can count on ls that they are dolng, most of the tlrne, what thry urant to be dotng, for thelr own reasons, and findfng meaning - a sense of tnternal purpose - ln dotng lt.
...Both the ctrlldren ltke to have assl6pments when tlrey ask for ttrenL or
when I olfer them and they agree. They do not reslst structur€ or erraluaflon, but rather are free to enJoy tts pleasures, because lt cornes purely, wtthout strtngs, When I made up a worksheet for them - one on TtnTIn books, one on Madeletne LEn$e - they couldn't uratt Ull they urere printed olf the computer to start on them, .,.Whenrrc areuratedng the garden, weedtng the strauberrtes, bernoanlng the gophers'holes, studylng the rebtrth and unfoldtng of a calla ltly, t ,e are often taken afleld (or 'agarden') lnto other dlscusslons or experlments. And nrc end up learntng
crowlng Wthout Schooltng #28
qulte a blt, leamfng
h
away that mtght
take us back tnto a book. or a drawlng. But that uras not the polnt, or errerr tlre purpose. The polnt rvas to urater the garden, or \rleed
the straxberrtee. ltre leamtng, ultlmately,
ls not extractable from thc unfoldlng of the CIrpertenc€, so that to tell about tt 18 dtfferent than tt ung. But to tell about lt tn theae otherways also carrles a tnrth - tt te a
tnrth that
belonts to reflectlon aftenaards (ae when one, at 38, comea to undcratand tn qulte a dtfferent uray what one was dotng at l9).
Thts iB why *! dont hcar our*lvee eaylng, '\[Iell, now we are havlrg a legson ln physlcs'wlth that'Irt'8 tun to chapter 3. tone of'nolce, but rather find oursehyeg lookfng well lnto the learntng ltself, a8 tt emerges out of the trrth of the rnornent. Loohng back and reflecdng on tt the lesson may *ell harrc much beyond physlcs tn tt - what mlght bc call€d ltteratue, and phtlosophy, and btologr, and much more. That doesn't mean that the children - or Btll or I - wouldn't hear oursehyes saylng (ln wonder, sometlmes, orJust aa a comment on the sltuatton), 'Well, here nrc are talktng about geography nowl'But lt wouldn't be that snealry Hnd of creeptng up and pounclng on'the teachable moment,' stlll assumlng that learntng needs to take a specllled form and be caught tn the act before lt can be satd to have occurred. In fact, the phrase'the teachable moment' s€erns to fmply that sornc rpments ar€ not teachablel or worse, that teachtng ts sornethtng that needs to be dAe4l to tIrc rnornent, rather than dlscovered wlthln tt. ,..Fletenflon. Comprehenslon. Thes€ thlngs becorne natural byproducts ofthe kfnd of learning they expertence. I was readlng a book aloud to both of them, and Miles had read to hlmself another of the books ln that serles. I had unndered tf that book was too dlfflcrrlt for hlm to read, but he sat and read lt rtght through. I wondered lf he had retalned tt, but I found out wtthout asklng or testtng, As I r€ad the other book aloud, he conttnually told ug all that had happened to cach ofthos€ characterg ln the other book, and hte oplnlon on what had happened. And Bryn r€counts plots ln compelltng ways, when she ls done wlth or erren mldway through her boks. And Miles ts the rnaster of TlnTtn de+atl - lf we play '21 Sluesflons' about a TtrrTln facl Mlles ls the acknowledg€d nraster of us all. TlnTln remlnds rne of somethlng
that's also fundarrrntally tmportant to our homeschooltng proccss. That ls the role that Btll and I play, as teachers and leamers and parents and companlons. A mlx of roles that dters accordlng to rnood and context, but that reduces down to a deep sensewe both have thatwe ane prMleged to all be on ttrls Joumey together. When I found myself yrondertng what Mtles wa"s seetng tn thesc rnany TtnTln books, what was absorbtng htm so, and found also that I uras nrorrted about the racial stereot5rpes tn the boks and the ocraslonal use of vlolence, I dtd sorne research. Ofcourse, we talked about the raclal stereot5rpes and that became a chancc to recognlze themwhen they occur,
espec{ally ln subtle forrn" and tn trtstortcal contexL But tlrere was more I wanted to knorr, that he was not lntereeted tn explatntng (rohg he llked them was not
interesttng to hnm at the tlme, only tlut he Itked them). ln the llbrary reference room I looked up the author and xeroxed pages of btographtcal trformadon, and then found about twent5r pages ofcrlttcal essays ooncrmlng ThTfn h the Book Revbut Index In readtng these, I learned a lot, and what I leamed deepened my understandtng of the
mythic qualfty of the TlnTln adrrcnture, and helped to ansurcr rrqr quesdons, to sttmulate my reflectlons, not Mlles'. It was to sattsS my need to know, not trls. Becauseurc try to keep that vlew ln mfnd - that tt ts our questions and our leamtng that are also lnvolved ln homeschoolrng, rrc help ourselves avotd the trap of Gelfng selfsacrtllclrg, gtven the enornx)us comrnltrnent rcqutred. We try to keep the sense of prlvllege allve. It ls the sarne as wlth belng parents - culflvatlng not a sense that we are 'dolnS all thls for you,'or errcn the oppostte, that they are dokrg tt all for us, that we are only anrcd wltnesses of the rnagtc that cl'rlldren offer, It ls, rather, somethtng lntegrated, somethlng tnseparable. Flom a laterletter Werdg lurtote us: You asked me to tell you exactly what the 'Horne School Report' was uirltten for. Our Independent Home Study Program ts alltltated wtth the Loma heta School Dlstrlct. They requlrc that urc submlt monthly or quarterly r€ports, and these need to lnclude the things the ctrlldren have been doing or worldng on tn sclence, rnath, language, etc. I have alnays llsted errents and acdvldes tn a long llst under each category (alurays struggltng to recrnstnrct what I should have kept more careful track o0, and then felt so much vras
mlsslng from that kfnd of r€porL So, last June, I was worldng wlth some nirtflng I uras dolng about our llrrcs, and decfded to submlt that along q'tth tlre ltsts. Ttds report, then, was submttted as an offlctal r€port, and ocrurred ln response to that asetgnrnenl But lt went beyond the bounds of the asslgnment and was tnrly done for nre.
U
PATNNAS RESOURCE CENIIER a lamilyodenled educal'nnal r€source oonter HOME SCHOOUNG
I
IRAVEL OPPORruNM
ES
CRENVEWORKSI{OP
EUJCAIIOMI ATRf{AIIVES nondscrlmlnqtory cE to rcFe, rellglon, sax, or nol'tond orlgln
Sondro M. Hurst. Director RD.. GLENMOORE, PA 19343 (215) 45&5138