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GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING 73
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Ernma Roberts ls lnteMcwed about her lovc of theatcr wtth lntensc lntcrests, issue's Focus on
ln this
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: News &
Reports p.3-4
Homeschoollng in Flance, Meeting wlth Admlntstrators, Driver's Llcense I-aw
The Intenentlon [fuestlon: Is helplng other parents generous or ofrenslve? p.4-5 Challenges & Concerns p.6-7 Struggltng as a Stngle Parent, RelaxingAbout Readlng, Are We ExpecttngToo Much? Snubbed by Peers, Looking for Feminist
Homeschoolers
Watchlng Chlldren Learn p. 7-ll When Math ts Boring, WhatWeThinkAbout
Children's Wrlting, Stud5ring Shakespeare, Graphic Deslgn, Reading FOCUS: Young People
Wlth Intense
Interests p.17-22 Famllles Wrltlng Together: Intervlew wlth PeterStlllman p.22-23 Older Homeschoolers p. 23 Complete Llsts of certified teachers, helpful lawyers, professors, psychologists, school districts, and resource people p.25-27
Many of us have told reporters or curious friends that one advantage of home education ls that it can allour a chlld to become lntensely tnvolved tn a pa.rticular lnterest. Children at home have the ttme and the opportunlty to pursue an lnterest sertous\r and, often, to become highly slidlled at it. Desptte the prtde with whlch we often talk about tttts' lt seems to me that we are also confused about children who choose to devote themselves fatrly slnglemlndedly to one thtng. Have they ln fact chosen to be so dedicated, or are they respondtng to subtle or overt pressures from the adults around them? Is It normal for children to work so hard? Don't they wlsh they had more tlme for other thlngs? Instead of speculating about answers to these questions, for tltls issue of GWS we have talked directly to nine children who are ln various ways committed to an tntense pursutt. We wanted to flnd out.;from thern what such a life ls like. I want to make clear, rlght up front, that tn tntervtewtn$ these young people and presenung thelr vlews ln GWS we are not holding them up as the only ctrildren in the GWS readership who have lntense tnterests - there are surely a great many more, and perhaps they will write ln response to what they read here. Nor nre we suggestlng that betng lntensely commltted to a parttcular thlng ts better than havtng a vadet5r of loves and lnterests. It is slmply one of the paths that children who are allowed to make cholces about their lives can take. Because it ls one such path and, as well, a path about whlch it ls easy to have mlstaken notlons, we are devottnS some space to lt here. In llstenlng to these young people talk about their declsion to work so hard, I found tt lnteresttng to think about what they had ln common with one anottrer and what was different. Their lnterests were certainly varled: muslc, tce skating, horses and blologl, computer programmlng, dancln$' art, theater, and books and readlng. Some of these lnterests take up more tlme simply in terms of logistlcs - travellng to and from the skating dnk, for example - than do others. Some tnvolve a certaln amount of pracUce tlme stmply to keep ln physlcal shape. But I was lnterested tn how, despite the dlfferences between skattng and programmlng, or danclng and blologr, these chtldren kept echotng each other as they talked about why they were comfortable havlng such an lntense lnterest, and as they tnststed that they had chosen lt themselves. It ls also worth listenlng to these children because they show us that young people can and do choose hard work' and that' at the same tlme, thetr work does not have to be separate from their play. Amella Cor<, whose love ts horses and blologr, says' 'You dont thtnk of lthe work] as a hardshlp tf you're enjoylng tt.' Slmilarty, Rachel Barton, who spends the equlvalent of an adult work-week on the violtn, says, "Violin is my pleasure and career and hobby and whatever else all together.' Rachel also told us that she resents lt when some people, asklng about the time she spends on the vlolin, lmply that she practlces only because she is made to. The question, she says, makes it sound as if "I want to play the vtoltn but I don't want to do the work" Rachel knows that wantlng to play the vloltn means wanthg to do the work involved. She knows that work and pleasure can go together. This understandtng ls what she and the other young people ln ttris lssue can Susannah Shelfer offer us.
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