Growing Without Schooling 81
Justin Pfeifer is among those who wrlte for this lssue's Fmus,
Wthln the
Inside This fssue News &
Reports
p. z-s
Importance of Parental Warmth, Access to School Ltbrary, Homeschooling Cooperatlve
Homeschoolers and College p. +-s
In the World of Work p.5-7 Stories about Young People Doing Volunteer and Pald Jobs
Challenges & Concerns p.8-lo Blind Mother Homeschools. Son with Cerebral Palsy, Shyness, Homeschooling with Toddlers, No Support from Family
Watchlng Chlldren Learn p. I l-14, 28 l,ovlng the Mechanlcal World, Overcomtng Negative Attltude, trarning German, Math, Reading, ArL Music
BookRevlews p. 15-18 Flndtng Prlvacy Wlthln the Famlly p. t9-22
Flndlng the Rtght Teacher p.23-24 Flndlng One's Work p.24-25
Letter to a School Offlclal p.26-27 Addltlons to Dlrectory
p. 28-30
Occaslonally someone, asking us about homeschooling, wonders whether having their parents so involved tn their education gives such children less privary within the family than they would have if they went to school. After all, parents whose children go to school don't see everlrthtng that happens durlng the day or know how their chlld did on every asslgnment. In partlcular, the need to keep records about children's activities to saUsff homeschooling laws sometimes means that parents have to watch their children more closely than either would like. We knew this was an lssue for some familles because we had printed letters about the subJect tn the past. For this issue of GWS, we decided to raise the question agaln and ask several young readers whether they felt they had enough privary within their famtlles and how homeschooling allected this. We were lnterested in diflerent kids of privary: physical privacy, such as the ability to spend time alone or to know for sure that a private diary would not be read by others, and then something we might call emotlonal or intellectual privacy - the ability to read a book or do a project without your parents knowing all about it, and the opportunity to make friends that are not necessarily friends of the entire family. People's needs for privary, in all these forms, vary, of course, so some of the young people who responded to our questlon were more concerned about finding ways to satis$r the need tltan were others. But the general feeling seems to be that homeschoolers are not finding privacy to be a big problem. Most sald they had as much as they needed, and knew they could get it if they asked for tt. Several believed they had more privary at home than they would have ln school simply because thelr parents respected their need for it, and because school's physical set-up makes it harder to do things
privately. Several of the writers mentioned that they liked having their parents lnvolved in their activities, and liked talking about books they were reading and things they were doing. It seems to me that chtldren who know they can have privacy when they want lt are also more llkely to open thelr lives willlngly to the adults in thelr lives. We only have to guard our privary flercely if we are afraid lt wtll be violated. When the young people who wrote to us did complain that privacy was hard to come by, the lssue usually seemed to be less a homeschooling lssue than slmply a condition of living tn a family. The lidds talked about wanting to do things without their siblings, sometimes, or wanting to talk on the phone Mthout others listening. A couple of writers did talk about how the need to keep records allects privacy, though. Coltn Roch wrote that he doesn't like knowing that hls mother will want a written proJect out of everything he happens to "mess around with," even though he understands that this ts often necessary. It does seem as though familtes in states with fewer record-keeping requirements are freer of this problem. Shart Bromfield and Maggie Adams mentioned one solution, which is for the kids to keep their own records, and indeed we are hearing of more and more homeschoolers dolng thts. Even when physical limitations or record-keeping requirements infringe on homeschoolers'prlvacy, the bottom line seems to be that if families consider privacy a legitimate need, things can be worked out successfully. As Simon Gauthier put tt, 'We don't have a problem wlth privacy because we try hard to respect each other's privacy.' Susannah Sheffer
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