GG WITFIOTJT
May{une
CFIOOLIN Issue 99
NewWV Law
Difficult Times Shy Children
Quitting Activities: When is it OK?
Alternatives to College
Young Volunteers-See
p. lo
1994
Quitting fascinates me.
&rtuzfri News & Reports p. 3-5
H.R. 6 Update, Alternatives to Testing in WV, Speaking to Teachers
Difficult Times DoingAnything -When p.6-7
a Child Doesn't Seem to Be
Interpreting for Our Children p.
8-9
Helping children communicate with teachers outside the family Young Volunteers p. 10-f
l
Stories about young children doing volunteer work Challenges & Concerns p. 12-17 Responses to the letter shy 6 year old
in GWS #98 about
a
HowAdults Learn p. 18-19 Watching Children Learn p.20-23
Deciding to Work on Math, Top Ten Reasons, Healthier Socialization, Marine Biology Focus: Quitting Activities p. 2rt'29
Alternatives to College p. 30-35 Stories and reflections from grown-up homeschoolers
The Wrong Solution p. 36
If high school is unbearable, are anti-depressant drugs the answer?
gw8
Issur #99
Mav{uxr
1994
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HorI S() roor.rN(] t$9, V(r.. I 7, No. 2. ISSN #0475-5305. P{rBl-rsHED By H(r.l Ars(x)ATES. A\r:., CANlsrruc! N{-\ 02140. $25/n, D,rTr: or rss!{:JuN. I, 1994. SE.oNrEr.rss f(,srALE BosroN, MA lltr lr roonrll,u. \tdtr.tr_c off(it:s. P()STtrI-{STER: St:xD sr)Rlrss CHAN(;!:s ro GWS, 2269 Mrs- AvE, C^vrRux:!:. l\L{ 02140 ADVERTISERS: Dr:lDl.lNrs ARE THtr I l) il t ()F oDDN L,MaEREo urxrss. W*rrl xx xl r ls. 2269 pllD
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When a parent says to me, "My child is thinking of quitting music lessons" or "Mv son used to spend a lot of time drawing but now he doesn't anymore,"
I'm
always intrigued. There are so many things these words could mean, so many things the
situation might truly be about. On the one hand, the teacher might be bad, or the child might be feeling bad about himself - fiustrated, stuck, unable to reach his goals. On the other hand, quitting might mean the child has a clearer sense of what kind of teacher she wants or how she wants to use her time and energy, So how can we tell what's going on? Does "I want to quit" mean "I want a break" or "I'm facing a challenge I
don't know how to overcome by myself'or "I norv understand what I really want" or "My interests have changed"? The answer, of course, is to ask the young people and to listen closely to their answers, or to help them figure out the answers listening to them. For this issue's Focus, "7k young people write about why they chose to quit activities and why they sometimes chose to resume them. Their answers remind me of the Focus we did in GWS #94, on making changes in homeschooling. There, the dominant theme seemed to be that kids develop strength and insight when they see that they can evaluate their situation and modify it when necessary. Here, a similar theme emerges. In the case of the writers in this issue, "I'm a quitter" means "I think about what I want, how I feel, what I'm focusing on at this point in my life." I'm struck by the realization that most kids aren't allowed to quit when they want to and thus don't develop the self-reflective abilities that help them know when it's time to quit. But kids who aren't forced to stay with a particular teacher can evaluate whether that teaching works for them. Kids who know they can take a break from something have a chance to learn when taking a break is helpful. Several of the kids in this issue rerurned to the activity after their break, and the time away left them refreshed and gave them a new perspective. Because their parents trust their kids' instincts and let them quit when they feel they need to, their quitting doesn't feel like a defeat. It's an indication that they're in control of their Iives, able to act on what they know about themselves. So the conventional notion that quitting is bad turns out not
to apply. This issue of GWS seems to be full of challenges to conventional notions (as most of our issues arel). In "Young Volunteers," two stories challenge the idea that volunteer work is only for older kids and adults. In the "Alternatives to College" section, we have stories about homeschoolers moving out into the world as adults through routes other than college. And in the "Challenges and Concerns" section, the huge outpouring of responses to Andryea Natkin's letter in GWS #98 about her shy 6 year old shows that shyness isn't necessarily a liability. GWS readers don't take conventional wisdom for granted, and we're grateful to you for that! Susannah Sheffer
-
GnowNc Wrruour Scsoor.rN(; #99
.
Mer4u^'.n 1994
lbttt
6,ftlepora
and other similar programs designed to assess performance, particularly of special needs students; perhaps an assessment by interview in certain situations, etc. Martha adds in n lctter to GWS:
As we said in our last issue, H.R. 6,
also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, passed in the House without the Miller amendment (the one that caused all the controversy) and with the Armey amend-
ment and the Ford-Kildee amendment
full description of these amendments). Now the bill is before the Senate. The Senate's version is called S. 1513, and as we write the bill is in subcommittee conference. The full conference committee will then continue to work out the (see GWS #98
for
a
differences between the House's and the Senate's versions, and a vote on the Senate Bill will be scheduled. By the tirne you receive this issue of CWS, it's likely that the vote will already have been taken. We expect to bring you
further news in GWS #100. Because of the response to H.R.
6,
general public. Many articles about H.R. 6 have been published in newspapers and in other periodicals, and some of them identi$ homeschooling, and homeschoolers, solely with the conseryative Christian, right-wing perspective, For example, an article in t}ae Congressional Quarterly, 2 / 26 / 94, says: "Thousands of angry religious conseryatives, convinced that the House was about to require homeschooling parents to be government certified, besieged members with phone calls, letters, and faxes for over a week, browbeating them into killing a mandate actually aimed only at public school teachers." Also, the National Education Association's newsletter, NEA Today, ran this headline about H.R. 6 in their April issue: "Religious Right Runs Amuck." We know that not all homeschoolers want homeschooling to be identifred sole\with one political or religious perspective, and these headlines suggest that it is important to make WrrHorrr Scuoot.r^-c; #99
neusletter about these two a,lternatiues:
have any mutual friends or other
and others realize that homeschooling is not a monolithic movement.
New WV Law Allows Alternatives to Testing It's alzuays good news when a laat thu,t hod preuiously required .standard,ized testing of homeschoolers gets t:hanged so that more options are aaailable. West Virgirur, homeschoolers recently succeeded in mahing this change to their state's lau, and we hope their experience will be helpful to othen in states that don't cunently olfer these alte:natiues. The new law adds more tests to the List of acceptabk standardized tests homeschool' ers can use, stipulates tfutt if a child's score filk belou the 40th penenlile, the parents haue two lears the scores
homeschoolers are now more visible to legislators and perhaps also to the
GnowrN<;
in uhich to remediate (bring up), and proaides two alternatiaes to standardized testing: a portfolio reuiew and altetnatiue assessment. Mattha Mishoe unote in the April 1994 issue of the West Virginia Home Educators Association
We were fortunate to have a professional lobbyist among the ranks of homeschoolers here. He was not able to be visibly active during our campaign, but he directed us from behind the scenes. At the beginning, his advice was that we should identi$' homeschoolers who knew members of the education committee on a fiiendly basis. When I asked him what arguments we could give to the chairman of the education committee to win him over, he said the most reasonable arguments will not necessarily win legislatively. Rather, he said, our biggest need was to find somebody of influence to listen without prejudice to what we had to say. In our case, one mother was a personal friend of the House Minoriry Leader, and I had gone to school with him. He knew we were reasonable, responsible people rather than kooks. We found other people who knew other legislators. You need to know your legislators personally before you need them professionally. If you don't
sure legislators, newspaper reporters,
H.R. 6 Update
. Mev,{uNn
A portfolio of samples of the child's work will not be turned in to anyone; it will simply be reviewed by a certified teacher or other person mutually agreed upon by the parent and county superintendent, who will then certifr that the child's academic progress for the year is in accordance with the child's abilities (if that is indeed the case!). "Alternative Assessment" covers a host of other possibilities. It says you must provide "evidence of an alternative academic assessment of the child's
proficiency mutually agreed upon by the parent ... and the county superintendent. " Possibilities include grades and evaluations from correspondence
and/or recognized homeschool curriculum courses; an assessment from a specialized program such as the Autism Training Center, Marshall University's HELP program,
schools
1994
natural ways of meeting, attend "Meet the Candidates" sessions or campaign for someone in whom you have confidence. Ifyou know someone who knows someone, use their credibility to establish your own. I knew that one senator we needed to contact knew my father, so I introduced myself as my father's daughter and the senator was immediately friendly and open to what
I had to
say.
This might sound somewhat negative - "It's all in who you know" but when you consider how many people are trying to influence legislation, you begin to understand legislators' need to sort out the kooks from the people they can trust. I believe it is also helpful to establish visibiliry and credibiliry as a
group. In West Virginia, we have an annual Homeschoolers' Day at the legislature. On this day, homeschoolers serve as pages in the House
.f.
and Senate, families deliver packets of information and personal letters to each legislator, we set up displays and demonstrations of homeschoolers' work around the capitol rotunda, and the hallways are filled with families instead of paid lobbyists. We make a lasting impression. One capitol worker came out this year to see the displays and said that Homeschoolers' Day is her favorite day ofthe year! Another item of importance was unity among homeschoolers. In West Virginia, as in many other states (have we gotten to the point thatit's all other states?), there are two state organizations. One is strictly a service organization while the other describes itself as a ministry. For this legislative effort we were totally united and we worked very closely with each other. Two years ago, when we tried to change our law in a similar way, someone from the other group quietly suggested to an important legislator that "we really don't want this." That was all it took - we didn't get it. The Senate Education Committee Chairwoman commented to someone that if homeschool legislation was considered this year, the homeschoolers would be
fighting with each other over it. So we made sure when we met with her that there was someone from each organization present. We made our unity very clear.
Martha included afact sheet with argtments the homeschool,ns used in trying to persuade legislators to change the
law.
From that fact sheet:
The law
as
it currently stands
permits only one means of assessing achievement - standardized testing. However, current educational literature is full of articles supporting the use of assessments other than stan-
dardized testing. Additionally, requiring standardized testing of allhomeschoolers denies children with special needs and handicaps the right to this educational alternative, since for many of these children standardized testing is inappropriate or impossible. ... These alternative means of assessment ... would provide options, making accurate assessments of
achievement possible in all cases. For instance, a child whose test scores 4
NSWS
&
RrpOnrS .i.
never accurately reflect his level of achievement because of the stress involved could present a portfolio of his work for review, or a blind child, who could not take one of the ... tests under standardized conditions and who might not have a portfolio of materials to be reviewed could be assessed by means of an inter.yiew.
Speaking to Teachers and
Administrators Judith Schaaf (NY)
zarites:
This March, five adult and two pre-teen members of the New York City Home Educators Alliance were featured guests at a seminar for private school teachers and administrators, held at Teachers College, Columbia University. We had been asked to submit in advance material fbr the participants to read, and we chose articles by Susan Evans, David Guterson, Becky Rrpp, and Earl Stevens. Because these articles so thoroughly covered the basic ideas about home education that we wanted to share, we didn't make our own presentation, but spent all of our allotted hour answering questions. The seminar participants were delighted that our panel included young people (Mona and Isaac Weiner, ages 12 and l0), and they directed several of the first questions to them. "What is a typical day like for you?" 'What do you feel are the advantages of homeschooling?" "Is there any aspect of school you would like to be able to take part in?" About a quarter of the participants knew or had worked with homeschoolers (we asked some queslions ourselves), and some seemed to take for granted that homeschooling has many benehts. One woman even asked what suggestions we had for making education in a classroom setting more like home education. A few were more skeptical ofour approach and questioned how much learning really happens without lesson plans and daily doses of nose-to-the-grindstone drill. (These, as it turned out, were mostly male science and mathematics teachers.)
A number of questions addressed the possible conflict of our "teacher-
student" roles with our "parent-child" roles. "\Arhat happens when you're mad at each other?" one of the participants asked. I hope we were able to convey that we do not see ourselves as teachers in the school sense but rather as question answerers and resource finders, and also that we see the interactions of daily life as an important part of the learning in our families. There was sometimes a feeling of conflict in the air: since we are reject-
ing theil system. we are, in a sense. implicitly criticizing it and,/or them. But there was often a sense of camaraderie, too: we're all colleagues in that we do a lot of thinking about children and learning. \Alhen the seminar was officially stopped by the clock, many of the participants were interested enough to remain in the room for small group discussions.
Calendar IUIy_8-9._1_994: National Association of Catholic Home Educators conference in Manassas, VA. For info: Bill and Lisanne Bales. 70&349-43134. July-3Q: Catholic Home Educators regional conference in Pasadena, CA.
For info: 878-441-7 7 14. Aug. 12-14: "Family: The Heart of Education" conference sponsored by the Alliance for Parental Involvement in Education at SUNYBrockport,
Brockport, NY. Speakers include Pat Farenga andJohn Taylor Gatto. For info:A]IPIE, PO Box 59, E Chatham NY 1 2060; 518-392-6900. Aug. 27: "Homeschooling'94" Toronto area conference with David and Micki Colfax,Jane Hoflman, Wendy Priesnitz. Contact Colin
Singleton, 1-800-669-0724 or 905-8281684.
Sept. 30-Oct. 2: National Homeschool Association annual conference at Camp Ernst, Kentucky. For info: NHA, PO Box 157290, Cincinnati OH 4521 5-7 290; 513-7 7 2-9580. We are huppy to print announce-
ments about major homeschooling events, but we need plenty of notice. Deadline for GWS #100 (events in September or later) isJuly 10. Deadline for GWS #101 (events in Novem-
ber or later) is September 10.
Gn<lwrN<;
WrrHoul SorooLrN<; #99 . M.ry/luxs 1994
*
Office News [SS:] On May 14th we had our fburth annual Holt Associates/GWS conference in Lexington, Mass. We
had a panel of three homeschooling teeangers who spoke about their experiences and offered their thoughts, stressing the importance of trusting young people and not thinking that homeschooling has to be just like school. Pat Farenga gave a talk about how homeschooling is running counter to many national trends in education, including the America 2000 plan. We also had workshops, discussions, and time for nenvorking. We are now selling tapes of Pat's talk, the teen panel, and the workshop on homeschooling 9-12 year olds, given by experienced homeschooling parents Wanda Rezac and Susan Ostberg. The tapes are $6 each. See our Spring catalog for more info. In late February Pat Farenga spoke to the Ohio Valley Area Library Assocation about homeschoolers and library use, drawing in large part on the responses to the survey that we
News & fu:,p<xrs
{' our mailing list, or portions thereof,
published in GWS. Pat says that the librarians were senerally very responsive and interested in helping homeschoolers. By the time you gel this issue Pat will have also spoken at the NewJersey Unschoolers Network conference and the Califbrnia Coali-
since December 1, 1993, are as f<rllows: Home Education Magazine, North
Country School, Smart StufT & Good Ideas, Creative Learning Systems, Learning Link, Boomerang Magazine,
tion - PALS conf'erence. OnJune 1Ith he'll be at the Homeschool Associates - NewJersey couf'erence, and onJune 22nd he'll be at the Homeschool Associates - Detroit conference. In late April I met with editors at Heinemann-Boynton Cook to discuss bringing back into print a series of education classics - solne ofJohn Holt's books and books byJames Herndon, Daniel Fader, and others. I'm excited to have the chance to be the series editor for this project and to bring these important books back into circulation. It looks as though we'll begin with two of Holt's books, mostly likely Wat Do I Do Monday? and Freedom and Beytnd, and two by other people. We'll keep you posted as the production schedule becomes firm. For your inforrnation, the groups or companies to which we have rented
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Greathall Productions. We no longer have good addresses for the following homeschooling organizations: Alaska Homeschool Association; Arizona Families for Home Education; Southern Indiana Support Group; Family Learning Connection (OK) ; Wyoming Homeschoolers. If you live in one of these states, please let us know if the group is still running and what its current address is. lf the group is no longer operating. has another group taken its place? We are always huppy to fbr-ward letters to people rvhose writing has appeared in GWS, but we need You to include a stamped envelope so that we are not paFng for the postage. If you want us to consider printing it, send us another copy, in addition to the one you want forwarded.
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Gnolrxi; Wrrrrout ScHoor-tNc #99 r M,*y']u^-t 1994
GlonlEna School
(8r8) 789.{515
T_
Difficult Times
feel guilty about. ... I'll quote something to illustrate this further. There's a wonderful new
when a child Doesn't Seem to be Doing Anything
I
bout
a year ago, Lynne
lLThunderstorm
(BC), a long-
time reader of GWS, wrote to
say
that
she was having some difficult times as a homeschooling mother. She was
going through those doubts that so many parents feel, wondering if her daughter Raven, then almost 13, was doing enough. I (Susannah Sheffer) suggested that both Raven and Lynne write to me so that I could hear both perspectives before I tried to reply, and they responded by sending a tape in which they talked with one another about the problems they we re expeliencing. The tape covered many topics, but the one that Raven, Lynne, and I want to share with GWS readers had to do with Lynne's concern about Raven's not doing enough activities that showed an obvious product. On the tape, Raven said that when it seemed as though she was just staring into space, she was realll, thinking, and she wished her parents would realize that. (I'm summarizing a long conversation here, but I think this will feel familiar to many readers.) I responded to this part of the tape by writing: I was struck by the eloquence in Raven's description of what she wants - how she wants to be able to be creative on her terms, and how she
wants it understood that she's thinking
about important things, notjust spacing out, when it looks on the surface like she isn't doing anything. To me, this is a big part of what's going on: if Raven doesnlt feel fully appreciated or recosnized, it's protrably hard for her to be willing to do certain things that would assuage your anxieties, Lynne. In other words, if she often has the nagging feelins that even when she's allowed to choose what to do, the choices she makes aren't the choices you'd really like her to make, that can undermine the whole purpose of letting her be self: directed, and I believe it can make your relationship more strained than 6
-
book out called fual Llue.s, which is a collection of essays by teenagers who are homeschooling, and I recornmend it highly. One of the essays is by a boy
vou'd like it to be. (See 'A Mother Learns to Understand Her Child" in GWS #92 for some thoughts on this dynamic.) Please understand here that I really do sympathize with the fears and anxieties that have led to all this. You folks are doing a new and experimental thing by letting Raven learn outside of school and direct her own learning, and I know you don't have a lot of support for that choice, so it's bound to be difficult sometimes. ... I wonder,
though, if it would be possible for Raven to do what .rhe feels is creative or worthwhile - at least for a time, as she said, like maybe fbr this coming year, as an experiment - rather than focusing on what she knows you want to see her do. Can her homeschooling be thought of in a way that will
recognize her temperament and her strengths (as she said, "in a way that lets me be me"), rather than in a way that makes her feel as if she's chafing at an expectation that she be something different? OK, so what does all that mean in practice? Well, one thing has to do with your differing expectations of what it means to have something to show for your time. What I'm wondering is, how can Raven's periods of introspection, of figuring things out and thinking about important things, count, so to speak? How can you both make il such that that activiry -
thinking, wondering, figuring - which
Raven does so much
oi
maybe be-
cause that's simply the kind of person she is, and maybe especially because at her time ol lil-e, such introspection
becomes particularly important - how can you make it such that that activity is seen as what Ra,aen did today, atleast in part? You know what I mean? I'm
thinking of a sort of revolution in your thinking which would turn starins intcr space and figuring things out into a meaningful, valid way to spend time, rather than something that Lynne would worry about or Raven would
named Patrick Meehan, who went to school for most of his life (having miserable experiences there) and then left at 13. He's now 16. Here he's writing about his first year out of school: 'Another thing that bugged my mother was that I'd sometimes sit around and look off into soace fbr what seemed hours on .ni. Sh. would accuse me o[wasting time. "But I was not wasting time. No. There is no such thing as wasting tirne. Whether in art or math or philosophy, important thoughts do not pop, fully formed, into one's mind. One must develop them bit by bit. I'm sure all the great thinkers have appeared to others to be wasting time." There have been other stories like this in GWS, but Patrick's comes immediately to my mind. I also recommend Wanda Rezac's letter in GWS #93 in which she talks about how importan t just plain convcrsations have been in her family, how much her kids have learned from them. \A4rat I'm saying, in all of this, is that if a large part of Raven's personality - again, maybe just in general, maybe especially now, at this age - is that of a dreamer, philosopher, etc., my wish for your family would be to find a way to value that unequivocally and even see it as a big advantage of homeschooling that that can be nourished (because, as you know, in school it very likely wouldn't be). See homeschooling as serving this characteristic, which seems to be so central to who Raven is, rather than as always struggling against it, and I think many things will feel a lot easier. Now. what about having something to show? Well, there's potentially a lot to say about this, but I'll try to be brief. One idea, of course, is to relax your concern about this, but another (which will probably be more useful) is to broaden your interpretation of what it means to have something to show. When parents have to keep records for the school officials or to satisry the law, I often suggest that
GnowrNc
Wrrnour Sr;soor,rNr; #99 . M,rv/luNri 1994
thev record intangible things, too write down summaries of interesting conversations you had, questions kids asked, etc. Now, I know this can have its own difficultics, because it can get awkward or intrusive to be that selfconscious all the time, always noting down what was said or discussed. But I guess what I'm really saying is that
when you, Lynne, find yourself thinking back to what happened this week, or this month, if you allow yourself to count the intangible things, too, I predict you'll feel a lot better about how Raven has spent her time. You were talking about wanting to see progress. If you allow yourself to think in terms of progress of one's thinking, or one's intellectual or emotional growth, I'm hoping that that might broaden the definition enough to allow you to see progress where before it had been difficult to recognize. One thing that might help with this, incidentally, is Gareth Matthews's work; his two books are Philosophy and the Young Childand Dialogues With Children. The first book is about kids younger than Raven; the kids in the second book are closer to her age. But in both cases he's describing kids' conversations or just plain wondering, and he knows how to recognize the signficance of such things - and, even more important for you, maybe, he helps you to understand how to recognize growth in these areas over time. Llnne responded: leel encouraged to go back to the way we used to do things around here and before we moved to this place where unschooling is unheard ofbut where everyone
J I
homachools. Since Leaf lRaven's older sisterl was always busily doing some-
thing, it was easy to see how selfdirected learning benefited her. With Raven, my learning has been slow. In particular, your pointing out to me how conversations are valuable products, as it were, has been the most startling observation. Of course! It makes sense! What a talker Raven is. People of all ages find her interesting, and even yesterday, when I was discussing, with difficulty, a philo-
sophical approach to living with a friend of mine. Raven articulated a GnowrNc
Wrrnour
ScHoor.rNr;
#99
.
flaw in both our reasonings so well she got us on to a more productive track.
I
wrote again:
J'm glad that the notion of I conversations as a valuable product helped. I see it in tlvo ways: first. and ol course most important. conversations really are valuable in real life. Second, if one is thinking in schoolish terms, think about how kids in school at Raven's age are supposed to be having discussions in class. Yes, we know that those discussions are often stilted and artificial, which is why the real-life ones are better, but the point is that a teacher's lesson plan might very well say something like, "Have a discussion about _", so in that sense it can count as a schoolish thing when you do it, too. Not that that's a primary reason to have conversations in a family, of course, but you see what I
mean....
derstanding, and offers suggestions for improved clarity. I appreciate that and I trust her judgment. Maybe she doesn't have the store of information and knowledge that many schoolchil-
dren have. Butwhat she does have is an ability to notice what's going on, ask questions, apply her intelligence, and figure things out. This isn't to say that all our problems have been solved. ... Nevertheless, with the pressure off in the academic sphere, we have both been able to relax and allow Raven's life to unfold. One new adventure is her friendship with an older girl who also
has rneant a lot to hrfor off, to ease up the presnne,
It l"y
rc to
to accept her spokm uords ds zamh she has completed. in the same way ue Taould haue accepted a
urittm FaFer.
And Lynne twote seueral months later: he decision to legitimize
conversation as a product has been a good one for us. It has increased Raven's self-esteem. She has always believed her contributions were worth somethins, and has resisted our unwise criticisms concerning her "not doing anything." Nevertheless, it has meant a lot to her for us to lay off, to ease up the pressure, to accept her spoken words as work she has com-
pleted in the same way we would have accepted a written paper. I wonder why I never thought of it before. Raven is thinking about things all the time and is always ready to talk, whenever there is someone who will listen. I find I can bounce ideas off her
better than anyone around here. That is what she is ready for! For instance, I am leading a workshop this week on racism, and it is a touchy, scary topic. Raven has listened to my notes for the talk with complete attention and has given wonderful advice whenever I have needed it. She understands nuances, recognizes possible sources of misun-
Mev/TuNr: 1994
homeschools and who also has a dislike for structured academics. Together they plan to write and produce a play for the neighborhood homeschoolers to perform at the school in town. They also discuss plans for craft projects and a theme party in the spring. I now realize that it doesn't matter whether any of these plans make it off the drawing board. \Arhat does matter in these brainstorming sessions is the feeling of camaraderie, of possibility, of power to shape her
life. Something else Raven has done is housesitting for two neighbors who are away. It entails walking or skiing four and a half miles each trip to the two houses, keeping the fires going and the animals milked and cared for, and making sure the temperatures in the root cellars don't get too low. Some days she has had to make the trip twice. She feels good knowing people are relying on her to do this work.