Growing Without Schooling 32 by Patrick Farenga

GROWING

WITHOUT SCHOOLING

32 An unusuaL amounE of legal infor-

mation in this issue. For a whiLe it seemed as if every day brought news of another farnily in court or anoEher

St, Farmingdale NJ 01727; 20f-9382473.

June 24: Center for Innovation in Education, Saratoga CA. Contact: Susan Iwamoto, CIE, L9225 Vineyard Ln, Saratoga CA 95070. June 28-30: 7th AnnuaL KepharE Memorial Child Study Center Symposium, Univ. of Northern Colorado, Aspen/Snowmass , CO. Contacc : Dr. RoberE Reinert, KMCSC, tlNC, Greeley c0 80639; 303-35r-2691. Aug. l-2: Child Development Symposium, Assoc. [or Research & Enl ightenmenr, Virginia Beach, VA. Contact: RoberE W1EE, PO Box 595, Va. Bch. 23451t 804-428-3588.

Anyone who wanEs Eo coordinate oCher meetings or lectures around chese times and locations shouLd con-

tact

direcEly. - Peg

Durkee

IiHEREAS, our Compulsory Attendance Law has served weLL the educa-

EitonaL goals of the Commonwealth and an overwhelming majoriEy of its famj-

lies I and WHEREAS, there are children who are more receptive Eo the educational Drocess in the environmenr of their L^-^^. ^,.^-l WHEREAS, iE is appropriate and desirable that families who believe that home instrucEion is beEter for their children be allowed to educate rl.!6m .ts hnmo. rnrt WHEREAS. Ehe CommonweaLth is responsible for Ehe delicate Eask of ensuring educaEionaL opportunity for children and encouraging the healthy growth of the family unit; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED by Ehe Senate, the House of DelegaEes concurring, Ehat the EducaEion and HealEh CommitEee of Ehe Senate and Ehe EducaEion Commit-

SELF-TAUGHT COMPUTER DESIGNER Eee of Ehe House of DelegaEes are legislaEure acting against homerequesEed to creaEe a joint subcommiEFrom Barb Parshley (NH): schooLers. You'11 find many of John fee on home education. The joint subHolt's thoughEs on how to deal with commiEtee is requesEed Eo esEablish ...I wanted Eo send Ehis as I these situations inside. guidelines whereby parenEs may qualiread in Cl^lS #29 what Ehe physicist Our friend and co-worker Tim fy to educate their own children in said about peopLe learning science Chapman is leaving us after t\^/o years Ehe i-r ordn home . and not through college l"Becoming to work in a compleEely dilferent The ioinE subcommiEtee shall confield. John thought that Tim's experi- Experts" by David Deutschl. sist of five members: Ewo members of ...T am presenrly apprenticing ence is such a good example of learnEhe Education and HeaLth ComrnicEee of in the mosr positive sense of Ehe ing from the world instead of Ehrough formal schooLing that he asked him Eo word, under someone who designs compu- the senate to be appoinEed by Ehe commiEtee on Privileges and EleeEions of Eers. I have a love for science but write about iE, and you'll find Tim's have never sEudied anything about com- the Senate, and Ehree members of the leEEer in this issue. We welcome to puEers. Jim began by showing me how Education CommitEee of Ehe House of our staff Mark Pierce who is now to wire the boards inside and I laEer DelegaEes to be appoinced by Ehe learning to handle book orders and becan learninp fo read and draw Ehe Chairman thereof. subscri pt ions . The joint subcommittee shall subBeginning in March, John had a schematic diagrams. All the time I'm learnlng about how these Ehings are miE it.s recommendaEions Eo the 1984 series of radio interviews, arranged (publishers put together, all on-the-job trainSession of the General Assembly. by DelacorEe of TEACH The cost of this sEudv shall not ing. I stood in awe of Ehe knowLedge YOUR OWN and the revised editions of exceed $4,000. this man has. HOW CHILDREN FAIL and HOW CHILDREN One day, as I expressed rny LEARN). John was on the air in regret to him for my noE having gone WinsEon-Salem, Muncie, Nashville, and Eo college for a degree in this field St. Louis, AElanEa, Cincinnati, IJH: ] This is someEhing that homeschoolers in many states could Des Moines. He also wenE to Philadelso I could work better for him, I probably fairly easily persuade their phia for a Live TV show, and to WesE asked him what his degree was in. He legislaEors to do. In any case, we Virginia for a speaking engagement at chuckled and said he didn'E have one, hope readers wiLl tell as many legisGlenville SEate CoIlege. Next week he Being sure he misunderstood my queslators as possible about Ehis. leaves for a series of home-schooling Eion, and also sure he musE be progressing toward his docEorate, I remeetings in northern California and a lecture in Chico. staEed my question, He said once again thaE he didn't have a degree, In early February I went Eo SINGLE MOTHER'S ARRANGEMENTS not even on a high school level. In Arizona to visiE family and friends From VaLerie Vaughan (MA), who fact, he never went past 8Eh gradel in Ehe Phoenix area, so I suggested wrote 'rMom & Son Travel," GWS #25: He is self-taughE, and is designing Eo Brian Evans of Ehe ARIZONA HOME computers for companies boch here and EDUCATION ASSOCIATION EhaE it would ...After sending my son Gabe (alabroad. be nice to neeE some of Ehe homeThis man has been a great inspir- mosE 5 ) co a preschool for Ehe last schooling families there. The Associaation to me as I home-school my child- year because I'm a singLe working cion invited me to a meecing where I mother, and having seen his spirit ren (l Eake all my work home) and answered ouestions for an hour abouE dampened, I was getEing more and more realize that they couLd do quiEe well home-schooling and the work of HolE ih 4 ki-h1,, ts^^h-ia-l fialrl iF tharr r! LL,s/ concerned. I felt urlder a terrible r" d ,,!61'!J/ c,u' AssociaEes, and lacer in the week I emotional and financial struggle, and choose to, Learning on Eheir own, as had lunch and dinner with various GWS Jim did... then your Issues #25-30 arrived and I readers. A most pleasant visiE. sEayed up Eo 3 AM reading and regain--- Donna Richoux ing hope and deEerminaEion Eo "go for" whaE I really want for my son. RESOLUTION IN VIRGINIA With Ehe helo of another G[JS homeJOHN'S COMING SCHEDULE schooler, Djine Landis, and a little Jim O'Toole writes, "RecenEly Apr. 30, 1983: 6Eh Mass. Area La t.he Virginia LegislaEure passed Ehe extra driving every week, Gabe will following resolution. It is designed be aE others' homes whiLe I work, and Leche League Conf., Walsh Middle will only be one afternoon ac preSchool, Framingham MA. ConEacE: Rober- Eo study Ehe conditions, if any, ta JalberE, 8 Brown St, Ipswich MA under which parents may pursue school- school per week (which I'Il change if I can find anoEher arraneementl 01938;617-356-7345. ing of their children aE home. If you The di fference in his mood and May 3: InternaEional Reading reside in Virginia and wish to become my relief from a desErucEive guilt is part of the commiLtee's work, pLease Assoc. meeting, Anaheim CA. ContacEs: Carole Vinograd-Bausell, 807 Beavercontact me at Box 256, King George VA so uplifEing. GWS, I want Eo thank you for saving Ehis situaEion. It was bank Cir., Towson MD 21204, or Jack 22485; 7O3-775-4867." really Ehe inspiration and push I Cassidy, PO Box 55, Kemblesville PA The resolution reads: needed co get the chro of us ouE of L9347 ; 2L5-255-4058. Ehe DiEs. I think one of Ehe ktorst l4ay 4: Sky Mountain Life School, . . .WHEREAS. Darents are tradiforml of self-negaEion is fo believe t ionally and rj ghtfully ctre primary Escondido CA, ConEacE Dean Donald F. so Eotally in one thing and Eo feel HanLey, 1084 NosEalgia Pl, VisEa CA educaEors of their children and have (financiallv or otherwise) forced to 92083; 619-726-7OL6. a fundamenEal responsibiLity pare Eheir chi ldren for the ^Lt i -^ do ehe opposite. May 5: SacramenEo area homeI send ouE this message for ochEions of laEer lifel and schooling meeuing. ConEact Jane I,iHEREAS, ic i s the joint responer single working mothers - don't Williams, 824I E Hidden Lakes Dr, give up - the convenience of a daily sibility of parents and the state Eo Roseville CA 95678. pre-school or other schooL is a decepprovide children wiEh educational May 14-I5: N,J, Homeschoolers Eive illusion, and Ehe price is the opporCunities; and meeting. ConEact Nancy Plent, 2 Smith )

wearing away of the living drive and spirit of not just your child, buc your ov,/n selfl Hold the image sCrong that Ehere is another wav. and Ehe anshTer l.hiq

will-6ppear. I hai Lo

ennrroh

ihrts

its

^^"ll

want

h-^^^n

GOOD NEWS FROM SESSIONS LJH: j Un Jan,

Jr,

tJOD 5eSSlOnS

wrote us an encouraging letter about

latesE developmenEs in his case in Iowa. For those new readers of GWS who may noc have read TEACH YOUR OWN and for whom the name Sessions may noE mean anything, leE me sum up very briefly whaE Ehis is all abouE. Five years or so ago Bob and Linda Sessions began to teach their son at home. The local Superintendent (\rho retired IasE Dec. ) was adamantly opposed Eo Ehis and took the Sessions Co courE, They losE, appealed to DisCrict Court, and \ron there in a ruling which we quote in TEACH YOUR Ot^lN. Later on, when another Iowa family appealed a weak FirsE Amendment case to the state Supreme Court and LosE there, the Decorah school district saw their chance to go afEer Ehe Sessions family again, and it is about this second case that Bob is wriEing. What has happened is that Ehe Sessions and their lawyer have prepared such a sErong case that the sEaEe DPI (DeDartment of Public InsErucEion) is reluctant to press the suit against them, for fear that Ehe Sessions may win and so set a strong home schooling precedent for Lhe whole sEaEe. Also, some members of the local school board are themselves beginning to wonder whether Ehi s sui E i s worEh going on r^/i th , parEicularly since the superincendenE who felE so sErongly abouE it is gone. So the famity, Ehe DPI, and Ehe local board are Erying to find a soluEion acceDcabLe to all of Ehem. The DPI is no- longer opposed in principle Eo home schooling or determined EhaE it shall only be done by cerEified teachers, buE they do want the sLate Eo retain some conErol over itl no more in Iowa than anywhere else are Ehey willing to give an absolutely blank check Eo home schoolers. I wrote to Bob that Ehere were parEs of his second paragraph thaE I couldn't understand. In his reply he admitted thaE it was unclear. What the DPI is scruggling Eo do is to find a definition of che words "equivalent instruction by a cercificated Eeacher" (which come fron the staEutes) EhaE will not enable Ehe Sessions or any oEher home schoolers Eo show in court that these same requirements are nowhere meE by the staters own schools - an argumenE which, as I have said elsewhere in Ehis issue. should be extremely effective in many or most courEs, including Ehe Federal courE s . In his letter Bob wrote, in parE: ...We had our DPI hearing lasE week. IE was quite inceresEing: We won't know Ehe official ouEcome for a month or two, but some things are clear now. The DPI officials (same ones we meE wiEh five years ago) would like to side wiEh us, they would like Eo rule us ilequivalentr" if for no orher reason chan to stop our move toward a clear court decision in our favor. They told us Ehey continue to have no probLem finding our program equivaIent... Furthermore, Ehey made it cLear Ehey hoped thac their vague rrcertified instruction equivalent Eo that in public schools" statement of

five years ago would suffice as a general policy across Ehe state. Theyrre now clear that saying "equivalent means equival ent" doesn' t real Iy seLtie anything, and they spent much time in the hearing trying to figure out sorne grounds for saying homeschools musE have X hours per week of certified insEruction... And Ehey're finally facing Ehe whole issue of qual i ty. The hearing will help us a loE in court if we have to go back there... And if che DPI-is willins to admit, for the public record, EhaE i L is very difficult to find a decision procedure to deEermine equivalency, Ehe judge will surely wonder how Ehey can justify harrassing us for five years. . . . IE became aDDarent to the local prlncipals thit we might be up to something acceptable; i.e., for Ehe first t ime, perhaps, some Iocal o[ficials are beginning to see that nonschooL educaEioh could be LegitimaEe, ...Our best hooe is that Ehe DPI wtl!5Ul'ldwdy

,,Li^L

.,i11

set reasonabLe sEandards for all homeschoolers in Iowa. Possibly they v,/iIl send iE back to the locals with instructions to be reasonable and talk to us. And if they do seL some policy we can't live with (four or five hours per day with a cerCified teacher), we should have a good chance to rdin in court. We're noE anxious to return to court, buE we're cerEainly not terribLy fearful, given what we experienced at our hearing. We'lL be Dresenters at a workshop in Iowa City for school superintendents this summer on Ehe Eopic of homeschoolinâ&#x201A;Źi. Our lawyer and the DPI lawyer also will be feaEured. Clearly Ehe educational folks in this state are moving in the direccion you take in your Seppe! arEicle...

Cion should be inEegrated one wiEh Lhe oEher." However, freedom of reli-

gion as an issue in Ehis case was noE considered in the court's decision. In findino Fnr fho naronla Uictrict Courl Judge Edmund Kase focused primarily upon the wording of the stafuce invoLved, where if states in part

"a private school means a school ofFerine Droerams of instruction not under the control, supervision or management of a local school board excLusive of home instruction by the parent, guardian, or one having custody of Ehe sEudent." The state education statule did noE exclude all home instruction only home inEFruction by a parent or guardian, which defense atEorney Neil Mertz said "lacked any reasonable relaEionship Co power within the staEe to regulate." The ruling judge agreed, saying EhaE clause "doesn't make sense" by leaving j C open for an aunt or grandparent - in shorE, anyone oLhei tha; the parenE or guaiilian - to instruct children at home. . . .The disErict court's ruling has been appealed by the State... If it is upheld (as is LikeIy) by Ehe appelaEe courE, deputy di strict attorney Charles Noland has indicated the State will ask the New Mexico Suoreme Court to review the natCer. If Che Suoreme CourE chooses not to review the case or upholds the district r'loci cinn ho crid rhon tho ^^,,rire legislature will probabLy be asked to rewrite Ehe statute (asain).., From Ehe Quincy, Mass. Patriot Leoger, | | r6l6J: ...Craig Bialick of Cedarville

can Eeach his 7-year-old son at

home

without fear of being dragged off to jail or fined for making Ehe boy a CruanE. FAMILIES WIN IN COURT The school committee voLed unaniFrom Ehe latest issue of Tidbits mously Last night Eo accepE Bialick's (PO Box 2823, Santa Fe NM 8750TlT-home educaEion plan for his son, Isaiah. who was pulled out of school ...In August,1982, Don and 2L monihs ago by'his parents. Paula EdgingEon of Socorro, New Mexi...BiaLick's brush with lhe co, won the right co teach their school departmenE came to a head two children at home wiLhouc enrolling weeks ago when he r^tas arrested at his 46 Sharps Drive home for failing co them in a state-recognized school. bring his son co school. The arrest The couple had been found guilty in came the night after Bialick and his February of the peEEy misdemeanor wife, Mary Lou, asked the school comcharge of not complying wi Eh state mittee for permission to teach their Law by failing to send their two son at home, minor children to a state-recognized ...Bialick appeared in Plymouth school or adhering to an approved home study course. On appeal, Ehe dis- DisEricE Court IasE week on the misdemeanor charge of "failing to send trict court reversed !heir conviction, declarinf-tfiEE portion of the a chiLd to school." His case was continued to tomorroiv to sive him time sLate law which allegedly excludes parents I'is from teaching their children Eo work ouE his differEnces with the aE home unreasonable, arbiErary, school deparEmenf. and does not resE upon some ground of Bialick's home education Dlan difference having a fair and substan- consists of the basic subieccs reof the quired by sEaEe law - reading, Eial relation to the obiects Publ ic SchooI Code" , . . writing and maEhematics... The BiaPaula, who has a degree in educa- licks aLso have lined up help from an tion, is teaching cheir children at aunt who worked for 33 years as a pubIin cnhnnI ro..har rnrl r FrniIrr home as a satellite school of che ChrisEian LiberEy Academy, based in friend who has worked as an arE IIlinois. The defense attorney teacher. claimed Ewo constitutional violations ...The Bialicks have asreed to provide school officials wiEh a portin che matEer: denial of equal protection and denial of due process of folio of their son's educaEional law. In his defense he also presented accomplishments, and have agreed to periodic Eesting,. tesEimony thaE freedom of religion was denied Ehe Edgingtons, stating "I don't mind the EesEs. I'd family was like Eo know how he's doing, anyway," that under the staEuEe the being denied their choice of educasaid Mrs. Bialick. "Not to puc him up againsE a bunch of oEher kids, buE to tional formaE based, in part, upon find ouE what he knows and what he Eheir belief 'tthat a child's relisious insErucEion and secular instruc- needs to know." The Bialicks are former commune Eion should be inEegrated one with now

GROt'lING W]THOUT SCHOOLiNG #32

members who

Lived and worked on

vegetarian cooperative in

"The board of education is responsible for making a factual deEerminaEion in each case,rr said local Distri cL Attorney Cenera I Cuy Dorson, "I don't think the school board has vi s i ted the homes and they haven'E made a determination of the curriculrrm be ing tarrghc, " Dotson sa.id an opjnion hc rc-

Tennessee caLled, simply, The Farm. They aLso Iived in GuaEemaLa. Mr, Bialick

taughc the Mayan Indians and Mrs. Bialick assisEed midwives at birth...

Nancy Coomes (TN) sent us a ser ies of articies from Tennessee newspapers about Ewo home-schooling families in Murfreesboro who were Eaken to court. The final story reads: ...Two Local children can conEinue attending school at home while Che county school board i nvest igates the quality of cducat ion thei r paronlc

,ro

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fhpm

ha Fnra

nrncncrrf

i no

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ludr!Ly

''".'

?ducation.

County school s Supcr nLendenc

A General Sessions Court case against the parents - CharLes and Linda Law and Natale and Geraldine Fai lLa - was cont inued indefini tely today after the schooL board was ordered to invesEi€iace the home i nclrrr.l

fr^m

WiLLiam Leech suggested that it is the school board's responsi bi I i ty to deEermine whether the children are

WIN: Dorothv and Charles Mrr,

FILING SUIT AGAINST DISTRICT:

Daveffiev,

Nancy added, "I talked with Gerri Failla today. She said that her atcorney and the CounEy DistricE Artorney reached an agreement. They

man, RoberE & Sandra Trower, all of

inrioFiniro

nnctsn^nomanl

CHRISTIAN PARENTING BOOKS ORDER

ANOTHER

LOrr or 5eL1gman,

FACING COURT ACTION: The Charles BergmEi-6-6f-NEu-fi e-Tif,---IM ; Mr . and Mrs. Don Hole of Willow Shade, KY;

The D.A. assured chcm char they would

parenfs...

MORE HOME.SCHOOLERS IN COURT

Carl Buckner said he is not sur:e whelher I hn school svstem wi I i even nrrrslre an invesricafion into Lhe home schooling. . .

aoraod

fhtr

not be hassled by che superintendenE or school board. It seems thaE the schooling both families were doing was never investigated or evaluated, The D.A, was a bit embarrassed about rhi c and rhp i,,r'loa renri mrndpd rhn superintendent for it..."

BY I-IAIL !!!!!

home-schoolers incorporated under FajLh Academy in Wisconsjn; Edwin & Cheryl BurwelI, Richard & Karen Helle-

Angleton, Texas. APPEALING A

LOSS:

Lynne & Erwin

the of Kansas Ci ry, Kansas I and Zamber of San Antonio, LCTIEL

pson,

(lH i

Sawyers MarLha

Dave HaigLer).

CONFUSION IN CALIFORNIA

To DISCIPLINE...DT, Janes Dobson..'.$ 3.50 In February, a dozen or more CalHoIts GRoWN KIDS,..,..Dr, Ralmond Moore...$ 9.95 PREP. FoR ADOLESCEN.'Dr. James Dobson..,.9 3.50 3.95 i forni a home-school ers phoned, wroLe, ANSWERS YoUR QUEST...Dr, Janes Dobson...,$13.95 A MOTHERTS HEART,....Jean F1ening........$ or sent clippings about new dcvelopWAY BABIES ARE MADE..Larry Christenson...$ 6.95 HoW/REALLY/LoVE CHILD..Dr, Ross Canpbell.$ 4.95 menEs out there, It all besan when TEACH/CHILD ABOUT GOD..Wes Haystead.....,$ 8.95 A MoTHERTS CHOICE,...P. Meier/L. Burnett.$ 5.95 Roberi Ponce Ass i cfanf Srrner i nronBATTLE FoR THE FMILY..Tin LaHaye...,,...S 9.95 HOI{/REALLY/LOVE TEEN...Dr. Ross Canpbe11.$ 4.95 of Ehe California DeparCment of .SI5.95 BI,UEPRINT/M]SING CHILD..MiKE Phi11iPS...$ 4.95 dent READ ALOIJD BIBLE STORIES VOl,/Il.. EducaIion, senf a mcmo, dated Jan, THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY..Larry Christenson. '$ 3.95 CHILDREN ARE l4'ET CEMENT..Anne Ortlund...,S 8.95 2l to Dj ected stri ct Supcrlntcn"Sel , How/DEvELoP CHILD TEMP...Beverly LaHaye..S 3.95 FAMILY HoUR FUN BooK..Souter & o'Brosky,.$ 4,50 denEs oI Schoo I s" whj ch read i n part : /11 NATIONAI BESTSET,1,ER,....THE SECRET KINCDoM..,Pat Robertson...$11.95 HoME SPUN

ScHooLS...,Dr, Raynond Moore...$ 8,95

DARE

write for conplete listlng of other fine Christian books that are also available. Please send a list of ritle(s) and quanities needed along with your check o! noney order to: A'-LOW

WEEKS FOR DELIVERY ! !

LIE PAY ALL POSTAGE CHARCES ! ! .'HELPING CHRISTIANS CROW'

THE CROSSIIALK CHRISTIAN

soRRY, N0 COD ORDERS ACCEPTED

!!!

BOOKSTORE

1O4O EASTDALE MALL MONTGOMERY, A],ABAMA 361I7

ATTN:

6ood worK

"rn

HOME SCHOOL DEPT.

only bc acco.p lishrd t i{h JooJ too ls

ThinK o$ rll tho ro-called'fool rrtr'that ane sold fon ehildrcrr. Would yo,r uta thcra ? O9 cou.re nof i Ho- do you ruDpos'q childnen fail abcut toolr aid

ihrir,rrc

thcv havr to let.n f.o^ thrse <hear "Lrhrninititionr ? In our opinion, rcqarJ-t and denqr-us

lc:r o* ''fhr acr of the rcrDc.* forl:hc iurlify "rlr. ri lenirJ to ihe juil;ty' o! o'rri wo. k"is di rretly onc'l f cc [t. ol ?Vle \zve sc lectrd and assenblcd a bari< srt o$ hiqh- cuality tools fot chl ldrrn. Thesc tools qarr/ a.'rncon'diiionr I li$c-time qurrrntcc, Vrite €cr {rm dcseripfive broc.hrrc. P.o. BoX 173, DE?T. !1, Olf,XglNrOll {{o?+

mDsE003s BOOKS M,

Vol. 6 lio. 2. Pub'lished bj-monthly by Holt Associates, T29 Boylston Street, Boston MA 021,l6, at $15/yr. Date of Issue, Apri I I, 1983. Appl ication to l'4ail at Second-Class Postage Rates pending at Boston MA. P0STMASTER: Send address chanoes to '|6. G|,.IS, 729 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02'| ADVERTISERS: Deadline is 15 days before publi-

...It has come to our attencion that there are one or more households within your district aCtendance boundaries in which parents are providing private home instruction. The purpose of this letter is to teLl you Ehat private home insEruction by persons not fully credentialed in the staEe of California has been decLared an :rr^^^r ^^r r..i--. -,-ce I952. The cwo Landmark courE cases which have considered this have unecuivocaLLv conclrrded fhar nrivafe home insCruction is not exempt from the compulsory att6n-dance laws... (PeopLe- v. Turner. Peoole v. Shinn) The mere fact that a school has filed a I982 "Private SchooI AffidaviE" with the Department of Educa---J__

Eion, pursuant to Education Code Section 33190 does not make home instruction a Drlvate sdE6o1... The affidavi r

i .

f^-

^61.,

.F-ts

i <f i.al

ron.ri

ino

purposes.

..,We suggesE EhaC you conducE an investigation inEo thesc apparenE violations of the comoulsorv aEEendance laws. Enclosed is a list

of addresses of parents within your school attendance boundaries who we feel may be conducCing private home instruction irithout being fuIly credentialed to do so...

GR0l^llNG t^llTHOUT SCH00LING,

cation date.

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more consecutive

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issues.

ads run in three or Send

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Illustrated Catalo8,2tC

FamiIy Pastires (GS),RR 4, Perth, ontario, Canada GROI,'JING t^IITHOUT SCHOOLlNG #32

n* ffee CATaaas {t, tb<arc -dtirVilt aT 1/?,q- . s7.

(t'th iu.!;1,1{;,,Tfflfa^,r, I nu s ltal u, 9 lgfi ,rf,n! 5 . V5 E'././) 4t.?.') I ;r/;i'i':V, e

K7H]C5

GA<Ba<nLL€

IDR: I Several home-schooling families EoLd us of reccivine letteis from the'ir local districts or unannounced visits from Eruant officers after this memo was issued, The San Francisco Examiner ran an articlE-6n the situation Fcb.20, "State Ccts Tough on One-FamiIy Schools," which was picked up by the LIPI wire service and reprinted around the sCaCe. One home.schooler has particuiar1y indignant because jt was Robert Ponce himself who had told her some f imn

.on

fhrr

law by fiLing davi t I

cha

r.'^r,ll

a private

--t

i.f,, I 5ry

rh^ Lils

school affi-

Jane l^iilliams, who has started the CALIFORNIA HOME EDUCATI0N CLEARINGHOUSE (824L E Hidden Lakes Dr, Roseville CA 95678) was in Eouch with Ehe state Dept. of Ed. early in February and told us: ...Ponce has sEaEed that his letter was senl in error... lE was never meanE to go out as iE did. I have talked wiEh Ponce myself and also Janet McCormick, who is considered the sEaEe deDartmentrs official liaison Eo non-oublic schoo1s.., McCormick sEates 6ne of her immediate iobs is fo determine the need for a IeEter in resDonse !o Poncers... - ...Ms. McCormick suated Ehe law is unclear as to what constituEes a private school... The courE cases, Shinn (1961) and Turner (1953) were adjudicated prior to Ehe sEate law allowing for regisLration of private schools through means of the Private School AffidaviE form. (Ms. McCormick was guessing the year EhaE became law; she Ehought L967). Because of this, Ms. McCormick, although not an attorney, says she does not feel the sEaEe department can fall back on Ehe court cases of Turner or Shinn to disqualify parents' use of the PrivaLe School Affidavit...

nia Home-Schoolers NeEwork. ...One of the concerns of districts is the loss of funds each home-schooLed child represents. One California district Ehat has solved ean T"nn thic nrnhlam ic iha tin.' Ridge Union District in Nevada CiEy, where 36 students are now homeschooled at nc loss co the disErict. In that program, which operates under 1977 legislation that allows for independenE learning arrangements, home-schooling families work ouE individual learning plans with the disErict, which monitors and supports their work. Similar independent learning programs are operating in Placer County, according Eo county superinEendent Ken Lonergan. . .

provide a stimulating, creaEive, and challenging educational environment for Eheir children. They should have that choice. However, I also feel that we must make sure Ehat all children receive instruction in safe surroundjngs. SEate Iaw with respect Co nonpublic schooling requires EhaE faciliEies meec fire safety, health and sanitation sEandards, The Law also sets forth requirernents with respect Eo pupil records and teacher qualificat ions . I be I i eve thaE Ehese provi sions are necessary and desirable. If you and your colleagues sponsor legislation to clarify home schooling as an option, I will give iE my careful consideration. I am confidenc Ehat we can maintain home school ing as a viable alternaEive, and still make sure that all chiLdren are in safe, secure, and challenging

IlR: ] rn mid-March, Jane WilHOME educationaL seEt ings , . . CENTERED LEARNING ( 34 Katrina Lane, San Anselmo CA 94960) sent us a copy of the memo written by Janet McCorLEGISLATIVE NEWS mick. dated March I (sent out under CEORGIA: The SEaEe Board of Eduthe name James R. Smith, Deputy Superintendent for Programs) ^"., --;--;;; cy for privaEe schools (requiring a minimum of l5 students, a school ...SUBJECT: Memo from Robert building, and a teacher wiEh a colPonce re Private Home Instruction... lege degree), which uas posEponed LasE month you received the inonce to March 17 (GWS #3I), was postabove referenced memorandum which poned again, this time indefiniEely, IDR: ] There was not always agree- cluded a listing of certain smal I priapparenEly under Lhe governor's inIluvate schools in your disErict. There menE among IocaI school officials ence. Meanwhile, opponents of the have been numerous questions and conabout what to do. From some arEicLes regulaEions introduced several bills cerns regarding the StaEe DeparEment in the local Tuolumne County papers into the legislature. The House of Educationrs intent in disEributing sent by Pat TennanE (CA): passed a bill Ehat would require che this Listing, as well as Ehe legal effect of the accompanying memorandum' Board of Education to fall under the .,.ALmost all Ehe suDerinEenAdminisEraEive Procedures Act (and so First, this Iisting identifies, denEs Iin the county] agrbe wich I i mi c i ts abi l i Ly Eo make such regul aaccording to our current records, all superintendent Larry Naegeli of rhe Eions), and the Senate passed a bill Drivate schools in vour disErict with Soulsbyville Elementary School DisEhat would remove Ehe regulation of in enroLlment of foirr or fewer stuErict... "There are one million private schooLs from Ehe Boardrs dents. The Iisting was provided merethings ChaE have to be done aE once 1,, Franrrpni rp-^ d^ -^-,,1r authority. The legislaEive session ry d> righE now, and home schools are not ^F rha ended before any compromise could be ouests we have received from disaE Ehe top of my lisE." reached, so the matter awaits Lhe iricts for this information. Jack Price, a parE-Eime aEtenI984 session. Next, Ehe "legal effect" of the dance consul!ant for Stanislaus and IN'DIANA: Jean Laffertv senE us a memo musc be addressed. The memo is Tuolumne counties... sErongly discopy otr-f,6tEe BiLl I447, introduced noE a declaration from the deparEmenc agrees. "A superintendent's primary by Rep. Wilson, which would specify thac these schools are operaEing in duties ate to see EhaE all of the rrhome instructionil as an alternative violation of the law. The department children in his district, not just Eo oublic school atEtendance. The does not have the information or Ehe those in his school, are geEcing a bili would require parents to "furauthority Eo make thaE judgemenE. Legal education." nish Ehe superinEendenf wich an educahave regarded Ehe memo Some districts ...Norm Wiley, superintendent of tional plan, including curriculum and as a "directivett or "mandatet'from BeLleview School echoed commenEs of the quaLificaEions of the parenE who Ehe DeparCmenE of Education to Eake several oEher school officials when instrucEionr" and it legal accion against Ehe persons LisE- is providing,The he said the staEe has put an unfair burden shall be on also says, ed. This is not the case. The legal burden on locaL schooLs by asking the DarenE to show Ehat the instrucresoonsibilitv is invested in locaL Ehem to enforce vague private school cion is equivalenE to that given in schbol discriccs and governing boards requiremenEs. "I think it's up to the Ehe public schools," Eo take acEion at their discretion in sEaEe to define chis better," he LOUISIANA: Kathv Reves writes. these matters. betEer Ehings Eo do said. "I've goE We understand that this issue is "CITIZENS FOR HOME EDUCATION urges with my Eime, r'. . . a very complex and sensitive one, and aLL GWS subscribers who are Louisiana residenEs Eo write Eo La. staEe legisapologize for any confusion caused by orior DeoarEment of EducaEion communi- lators Eo requesE chac they vote Iln: ] From an article by Diane asainst a repeal of Act 828 of 1980' cations.'lf you have further quesDivoky, "Home-Teaching Supporters fa.-s private school deregulation and tions, please conEact Janet McCorMobiLize" Ehat appeared in the Sacrahorne study law. Rep. Woody Jenkins, mick, Liaison, Non-Public Schools at mento Bee Feb. 24: auEhor of che law, expects an even 916-323-0547 . . . Eougher fighE this year... The Board ...When sEate superinEendenc of ElemenEary and Secondary EducaBiII Honig learned of Ponce's memo fDR: I So that's where the matter Eion... decided to ask Attorney GenerafEer Ehe fact, he canceled the al William Guste to deEermine whether standi aE presenE. As we go to press directive and asked JaneE Mccormick, home study violated the inEent of we have not heard what the effect of the department's liaison for private Eraditional laws requi ri ng every this second memo has been on any schools, to draft a new policy stateschool districrs rhat started investi- school age child Eo atEend school," menE on home schooling. MARYLAND: A noEe from Manfred gaEions or prosecutions following the That directive is expecEed fo Smjth:-nEverything's quiet in Md. The firsE memo. continue California' s Laissez-faire sEate j s re-writing bylaws and a new A final posEscriPt: Pam Pacula approach Eo home schooling, Ieaving public hearing will follow (ApriIreceived this Letter from Gary K. the matEer up to local school boards. May? ) t'le will resi st Ehem as forcefuLHarE. Chairman of che Calif. Senate ...As a resulc of the flap, the ly'as we did the oLd ones IGWS #3f]." Commiccee on Education, dated March 2: home-schooling communi ty is mobi lizMISSOURI: Rebecca Osterhage, who ing to push for state legislaEion on ,.^ l^^^^1., ^^-^^i rs rruw d ruu5Eay 5dy5 Lrrcrg ...Thank you for your thoughtful Ehe issue. aEed group" of 39 home-schooling familecter regarding home schooIing... I Sacramento home schooLers have lies in St. Charles County, sent us a agree that home schooling ought co be begun meeting among themselves and copy of House BilL 645, which' Like an oDtion in California. There are wiEh those from El Dorado, Placer, the Indiana bjLl, would put onto Ehe many talented parents, some of whom and Solano counties Eo establish a parents the burden of proving thaC are credenLiaLed teachers. who can statewide supporE group' the Califorliams and also Pamela Pacula of

GROI,{ING t,lITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

home

instrucEion is "substantial ly

equivalenErr to pubLic educaEion. LaEer she learned EhaE Rep. WhitehalI

of Ballwin added several amendments favorable to home-schooLers, such as aLLowing them to use school libraries and texEs. The bill Ehen died in committee. MONTANA: From Ehe MONTANA HOMESCHOOTER-S-FSSOC. NEI^ISLETTER ( PO Box

1008, Belgrade MT 597I4; $8/yr):

"House BiLL 49 came before the House EducaEion Committee a couole of weeks

ago in favor of homeschooling. Many homeschooLers vrere there to speak in

support of the bill...

The bill

is on hold for Ehe mornenE, but it isnrt dead yeE. " The newsletter g,oes on to say, ".,.The Board of Public Education is currenEly puCEing Eogether a proposal Eo be oresented in bill form to the '83 IeeislaEure... Eo reguLaEe all private institutions (non-public schools)... One of the alternatives that i s bei ng froncally attacked by this bill is the home school opEion... Home schooLing was an opEion specifically allowed in lhe Montana School laws from 1903 until l97l _when specific reference to ic was oroPPeo... NEVADA: Marian Sorensen (702752-3566J-ent us regul at ions proposed by Ehe Scate Board of Education Ehat would require home-schooling parents to hold a teaching credentiaL. The LaEest news, from Kathy Erickson in Las Vegas (702-363-L849 ) is Ehac Ehe EducaEion CommiEtee of the SLafe Assembly is to hold a hearing on the quesEion in Carso n City March 29, and home-schoolers wi LI be Ehere. NEW YORK: A reader saw Ehe nF Fdrrnaii nn s taceTS-t66frTss io nor Gordon Ambach, on TV urging the compulsory school ag e be lowered Eo age 4. She hopes New York home-schooLers IetEers voicing wilL "deluge him with ll Eheir opinions on FLi Lrrrr ^ ^-^^^-^l PLwPUsdr. . A i SOUTH DAKOTA ^^^-l omaha-T6?TillFE??f d article (lL/21/82) -6prffiEea-Tn tEe trome Educator's NewslelEer, "A bi 11 cifTTn-[-Tor tEErepeaT of a l98L sEaEe law allowing educaEion at home has been reouesEed by SEate Sen. Don Peterson, RYankton." We are Erying Eo find out more about the 1981 law, as \,/ell as Petersonrs bill. TENNESSEE: Yet another state tryi ng to-!Es3-?6stricEive regul at ions for Drivate schooLs. SenaEe BiLl ll36 and iiouse Bill lO33 would reouire orivaEe schools Eo have aE leasf 20 studenEs, be elsewhere Ehan a home, and have teachers with college degrees. Wolf Nemeth of Dry Creek CommuniEy School (Dowelltown TN 37059; 6f5536-5287 ) is organizing opposition. TdASHINGTON: Debra SEewart of the UNSCH0O-IER-S-PR-OJECT wri t e s, "We have up before the legislature this session no less than Ehree home-schooling bil1s, none of which will pass, ic seems, and several really bad bills in both the House and Senate.,. When Ehe hearings came up I made abouE l5 phone caIls to aIl the reps in our organizaEional disEricts, and the communication commitEee chairmen iN EhC STILLAGUAMISH LEARNING EXCHANGE, and the v/ord got ouE. Each group was urged Eo call five people and commit each of lhose five oeoole to calling one other person, ahd bn and on. Some of the groups conEacEed many more than EhaE. Several of those contacted were churches with hundreds of members, licensed teachers, and many olher unexpected supporEers. Surprisingly enough, Iicensed Eeachers were againsE the HB 492 which would exEend Ehe school age from 8-15 Eo GROW]NG l^lITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

6-18. Thev said thev didnrt want older kids i; their clbsses who didn't wanE to be there because they would be largely disruptive. WeL1, the network really seemed to work. I got calls from people wanting Eo know rhe text and numbers of the bilLs, wanting Co get a newsletter... Many were shocked Eo Learn how government works. BuE Ehey got involved by calling the toll-free hotline and leaving messages for Chei r 'l egi slators and the educaEion committee. " Debra continued, rrNow the word is thaE Ehe truancy and extended age bills look like Ehey won't pass... I always telL people EhaE they should noE leE themselves feel helpLess, rhorr rra L qeLuu!r) ..r,,'l FL^..,.ill :.,^F Lrlcy wr r r lu5L

iI fI l rr rror., vgiy ^^..'^-f"l rur Pvwsr ^^11r f ri- rr dL ^ts FL^ -l-LF Ld L'rs l rELrL

Eime.,. This week the home-schooling bills are coming up for a hearing. We are sending down a group to testify, like we did for the other hearinss... Even if they don'r pass, the legislators know we are here now! and even though they hope we are a passing fad, we know that we are notl..." - DR ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS NATIONAL: Two address changes Cathy-Tergrnan and the Home EduciEor's NewsleEEer have moved Eo PA-Box-24?-71

I---Ta-udâ&#x201A;Ź-;daIe FL 33303 , phone 30 5525-6014; and Raymond and Dorothy

of Ehe HEWITT RESEARCH CENTER are ac PO Box 9, Washougal WA 9867f. The folks at HORIZONS SCHOOL in Georgia have started a publicacion, Alternative Schooling NewslerEer, 229 fonce de Leon Av, Atlanca UA JUJUd; $5/yr (4 issues ) . CANADA: Wendy Priesnitz, now aE 3859-75Eh--St, #5, Edmonton, Alberta T6K 2P9, $rriEes, "I am stilL the nationaL coordinator of the CANADIAN ALLIANCE 0F HOMESCHOOLERS.,. The A11iance sells an information package for $4 (recently updated) which provides legal and contacE information for home schooling in Canada. I receive many orders for these and they seem to be of great help to people. I still maintain a network of provinMooTe

^i ^l

^^nt^^ts-

F^* rur

o ^^^nl PswPrL

Lrri ro

Far

specific regional information, . . " And from Terry Faubert (3033 Cedar Hill Rd, Victoria, British Co1umbia V8T 3J2): "We now have about a dozen interested families in Ehe Victoria area. nine of whom accended our last support meeting. We decided to hoLd meeEings about once every Ewo months... Our next meeEing will deal with local resources of use Eo homeschoolers, with everyone coming prepared to share Eheir knowLedge, books, and favorite places Eo go... CONNECTICUT: There will be a home-Fdh6-o-fTillicnic May 7th ; concact Laura Pritchard, 634-07L4. FLORIDA: Bread for ChiLdren (PO box ruL/! Arcaola tL JJ6l l; btJ494-62L4\ will hold its second Home School Seminar April 7-8. LOUISIANA: Judy Maranto (PO Box 368, Ro?G=;E-tA 71069 ; 3L8-223-434L) has sEarted a local newsletEer. MARYLAND: A support group has lormed in Ehe wesEern parE of che state; conEact Linda Morgan, 350 tlelsh HiIl, Frostburg MD 21532; 689-8760. NEBRASKA: Beth Zuehlke of the NEBRAStrA_trOFIE SCHOOLING EXCHANGE ( Box 96, RockviLle NE 68871) has starEed a newletter; $5/5 issues or $1.25 for a sample.

OHIO: Lynne Leffel and Beth KirchFEiSen have taken charge of the group OCEAN (0HIO COALITION FOR EDUCATIONAL ALTERNATIVES NOW): new address

is PO Box 094, Thompson OH 44086. And ElizabeEh Burns and Linda Cox have started

CHRISTIAN HOMESCHOOLERS OF

OHIO, P0 Box 302, Cuyahoga Falls

4422L. Elizabeth says, "July 29-31, we are having a campouE \reekend at our farm in Ashland. FamiLies are welcome to bring campers, tents, or jusE

for a day.rl Laurie Huffman of the UTAH HOME EDO-EATION ASSOCIATION (PO BOX 6338, SalE Lake CiEy UT 84106) informed us of the exceLlent TV, radio, come

UTAH:

and newspaper coverage Utah home-

schoolers are geEEing, and said, "Ken and I keep busy fighting fires as fam-

iLies all over the state come to grips wiEh their district officials who attempE to impose Eighter restricEions than the law aLlows. We feel, however, thar UEahrs adminisEraEors are generally good with genuine concern for the welfare of children. They are easy Lo converse with, for the mosf parE, and even seem to welcome our explanations of the statutes. WhaE an unusual position we have found ourselves in. buE r"rhat fun we are having at the same time!" WYOMING: Kasev Michaels (Pioneer Acadefr-y-13T7 N LintoLn, Casper WY 82601-) and Cynthia NeiLson (Box 1386, Lyman WY 82937; 307-787-6728) ate organizing a home-schooling group for the state. - DR IDEAS FROM LOCAL GROUPS [DR: ] Here are some good ideas

from local and regional home-school-

ing groups that others may wanE

adapt in Eheir own area. FirsE, in

the FalI r82 Maine

Home EducaEion

leEter, eilTE6?T6-iTiEmElTE a list us in the Directory Issue of Maine Home EducaEion." This was folTor,reilTt-Ilnes Tor parenEs' names, address, phone number, childrenrs names, ages, and interesrs; and below thaE, Ehese remarks: "Use Ehe remaining space for mentioning anyEhing abouE yourself EhaE you'd like Eo see in Ehe Maine directory, such as a wish for a local group, the facE thaE you need someone Eo come in and work trith Ehe family on a parEicular subject fieId, skiIls thaE you have that you are willing Eo share liith other families, eEc..." Tha olarron ranl iac nrinfod in the nexc issue made fascinaEing reading, giving a vivid picture of each family. A simple way for disEant families Eo become acquainted and find ouE rrhat they would like to do news

form wiEh Ehe heading, "Yes, please

EoseEher.

A lisc on Ehe front page of the Western Pa. Homeschoolers news Letter : WESTERN

THATffiol-

PA.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

SCN-E.ITTS;N0RTH HILLS, SOUTH WEST BUTLER, PITTSBURGH PUBLIC SCHOOLS,

TITUSVILLE,

WOODLAND

HILLS,

STRONG, JEFFERSON-MORGAN,

KISKI.

Next.

some

activities

ARMSHALER,

of the

NEW

JERSEY FAMILY SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION ( Pres . , Carol Skidmore, 201-647-3506 )

At Ehe March General Meeting, according Eo Che newsletter, "David O'Hearn wiLl speak on 'What Kids Can Do t^liEh a ComouEer.' David is L3 years old and has been working with compucers since he was ten or eleven, so he is well qualified to speak on Ehis Eopic. Last summer David founded

his own smalL buE growing

company,

Telecom CommunicaE ion. " Some of the Een "AcEivity Daysrl scheduled for March and Aoril inclu-

ded: hiking and feeding ducks aE Loantaka Park; a tour of Edmund Scienqr^ro'Fialdrracts iifi.

Frrm

ahaon

Shearing, which would have wood

and

iron crafters, Scottish dancers and music, shearers, spinners, and weavers; and a lecture and tour of the l9Eh century Cooper GrisE Mi11. Lastly, Nancy Plent (NJ) has been sending us Ehe monthly 'rLibrary BuIleEin" of the

UNSCHOOLERS NETWORK.

As she says in one of them, 'rour monthly open house starEed as a home

schooling supporE group. GeEting together regularly made iE possible to starE thinking about our food co-op, which is now one year old. Recycling bottles and newspapers to pay the expenses of the open house is our laEesE project. l{e also have a small but growing library of books about aLternatives and have a learn-

ing exchange,

Ery to approach all

projecEs in the least complicaLed, least expensive, most stress-free

way

devisel l,ie wanE our netr^/orking Eo be a pleasure, not a chore.rl Last year when these open houses (called Library Days) began, I asked Nancy to Eell us more abouE them, She hre can

rdroc e

...The Library day, believe it or noE, is a well-EhoughE-out plan to simplify parE of my 1ife... Having + commiLced myself to having a getcogether on a regular basis, I automaticaLly follow Ehrough on things Ehat have Eo ready by meeEing daEes. Before, I was jusE spinning my wheels. . . After the iniEial work of pLanning what the'day was for and gLtcing Ehe books together and caEalogued, the library day itself requires very little work. There are two of us who do mosE of the preparations and planning. We Ealked for four months before we decided what we wanted Eo do. We wanEed regular concact with oEher 'Like-minded peopLe, but noc in a meecing atmosphere. I'n dismayed at Ehe business-meeEing cone EhaE so many groups Eake... I suppose that if you are fighting Ehe sEate, some of EhaE is necessary, but just social contact and an opportuniEy to meec people and swap ideas on lnyEhing seemed like what was needed. We had one I'inEroductory meeEing" in August which I advertised to the public, for the benefic of people who mighc noL know they didn't have to send their kids Eo school in September. Since then, we just get Eogether, sit and talk or picnic in the back yard, see a film, bring things in to show others (one member brought in an Animal Toi^rn game and I was impressed with the quality of the oieces. Stuff like I remember in games when I was a kid). We usually have no more than l0 people who show up. There's a regular core, buE lhere's also always somebody new who hrants to know more about home schooling. I guess "laid back" is the way you might describe the day. ...Several people have come and met others who lived not far from them, and a couple of new friendships have formed. There's a licEle more communify feeling than there was in che pasE. Thc film nart is no problem, after we found ouE whaE was available and how fo geE it. KaEhy Shoshin is my parEner in craziness. ., She Iives

neAr A

i hrarw

fher

l pnric

nr^ ia.r^rc

but has boring films. I live near a library with neaE films but no projecEors. It's a perfect parEnershin

nrdpr

nnrrnlo

mnnrhc

ahead and just pick up the films. Wetve starEed dividing Ehe year into

"areasttto focus on. This cuarter is food, nuEriEion, and health. So we ordered "Diet for a Small PlaneErras Fi l6 .n/l .-nn L r rrr, orru ^,1r ^^n.anrr.tsino Putting up flyers to get new co-op members. NexE quarter will be on pregnancy , birth and infant nurturi ng. . . . ..The onlv oroblem with all of this (which is,-airer all, only one day a month, basically) is Ehat we can think of more Eo do than we have time for and we shoot down more ideas than we follow through on. We've learned not to exDect too much of ourselves or Eoo much of a response from others, And things that we've wanted to get into for years are slowly happening. Kachy and I both make decisions on the food co-op and both are Erying to bujld it up, but Kathy handles al1 the oaoer work. It's her main project.. A- friend nearby has waEched our meetings from the sidelines for months and finally decided she would offer a crafts workshoo once or Ewice a month ac the Local community center. We've talked about that for years, too. Irm helping her find people and naEerials, buE she's going Lo handle aLl of the details... [,Je're hoping that more people will offer Eo do things that we can incorporaEe into Ehe net\rork of acEivities r,,iithout having to become one bulky organizacion or have anybody overloaded. Which is just simply neEvrorking, ...Back co Ehe food co-op for a minute. We think we have solved a Lot of Lhe problems that are a Persistent parf of most co-ops and Irve been meaning to write out our guidelines Eo share with people. A lot of people won't like the premises we're based on, but-TFey are working. We've accepted the facE that a small handful of people wind up doing the work in any group, so we donrt try co involve anybody else in the planning... Everybody seems happy wiEh the service so far, though new members still go through a period where Ehey think we should be having lots of membership meetings or something... n^F

^--^ni

-i6-

ABOUT ADDRESS CHANGES We have always gotEen

letters like the folLowing, but laEely they seem to be coming more often: "Dear GWS - I havenrE received an issue since #27, and I know I subscribed for Ehree years. Could you please send me the issues I am missing? Oh, by Ehe way, I moved last year; my new address is. . . . " As we have said a number of times. the Dost office does noE forrrard ihird ind FourLh class mail (the rates we have been using), which is whv we have asked vou to send address chinges promptly. The Post Office doesntt return the issues to us, either; iE throlvs them away. In Ehe pasE, we replaced Ehe missing issues for free, but we can no longer afford to do this. Our policy now is thaE if you are missing back issues because of a change in address, you wiII have to replace them at your own expense. If we get your address change at leasE three $Jeeks before the next issueffi Ei-ce-#-T-Tff',-cortre comDuEer in time. For example, CWS #33 iuitt be mailed

I el_a

lrrno

chenoac

ranoirrod

mid-June or later will be too late. Fnr

Aili r i ^-^1 1., ..,d rrovL rnnl i Lu ar.l nuurLrurrarry ePPrr , wL h.\r6 narmi r fnr Qoan^i lildrr, ^l ---^{ 1 -Lrd5J

the rate for publicaEions. Secondclass mail is noc forwarded eiEher, wiEh this exception: you may have noticed thaE the posE office's changeof-address form asks if you are willing to pay to have periodicals forwarded. If you mark rrYesrtt Secondclass mail (as we hope GIJS wiLl be) will reach you for a small charge. (If you do not mark "Yesr" and our Iabel scill has your old address, Ehe post office will Ehrow away your GWS.) So to avoid extra exDense and unnecessary f,rusEraEion, please, please send us your ner^, address as soon as you know it. Thanks. - DR FROM REVISED'LEARN"

The revised edition of

HOW CHILD-

is now available here ($7.15 + post). As with Ehe revised edition of HOW CHILDREN FAIL, John has lefc Ehe original EexE intacE, interspersed wiEh new material (indented and marked with a line runnine aLong the lefc margin). Here are som6 excerpts from Ehe new secEions: . ..All I am saying in this book can be summed up in Cwo words - TrusE Children. Nothing could be rnore simple - or more difficult. DifficulE, because Eo trusE children we musE trust ourselves - and most of us were taught as children that ne could not be Erusted. ...IE is even possible that some kinds of mencal acEiviEy may be largely cenEered in some parEs of the brain, and other kinds in others. Bur it would be simpLe-minded and silly Eo say that aIl Ehe complicaEed varieties of EhoughE, of menfal experience, can be neaEly separated inco two kinds and that one of these can be exclusively assigned to Ehe left side of the brain, Ehe oEher to Ehe right. When I say that I am someEimes surprised by whaE my mind Eells me, I am talking abouE a very common experience. BuE where in my brain is Ehe "my mind'r who does the Eelling, where Ehe "me" who is surDrised? ...What of the facE Ehat ofEen, while Ehinking of something else, I will find thaE rrmerl "my mindil has suddenly presented wiLh a complete sentence, sometimes even cwo or three, which "I" like so much that I rush to write them down before I forget Ehem?rrlrrhave certainly not produced those sentences in the way I am now producing these sentences on the typewriter, thinking about what words Eo use or where to put them. On which side of my brain is Ehe producer of Ehese sentences, on which side Ehe observer, critic, editor who judges Ehem to be good? ...I8 is hardly ever possible to seDarate what we think about someching from how we feeL abouL it.,. This notion, now very popular in leading universiEies, that organisms, including human beings, are noEhing but machines, is for me one of uhe most misEaken, foolish, harmful, and dangerous of all Ehe many bad ideas at large in Ehe world today. If an idea can be eviL, Ehis one surely is. REN LEARN

...It is only in the presence of loving, respectful, Erusting adulEs like Millicent Shinn or Glenda Bissex that chiLdren wiLL learn all they are capable of learning, or reveal to us what they are learning... Of Ewo ways GRO}IING t^lITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

of lookins aE chiLdren now growing in fashion -"seeing Ehem as moisters"of evil who must be beaten into submission, or as liEtle two-legged walking computers whom we can program into geniuses, it is hard Eo know which is htorse, and will do more harm. I write Ehis book to oppose Lhem boEh.

...How much people can learn aE any moment depends on how Ehey feel at thaE mornenE about the task and their abiliEv Eo do the Eask. When we feel powerfui and competent, we leap

aE difficulE tasks. The difficulty does noE discourage us; we think, "Sooner or later, I'm going Eo get this.'t At other Eimes, we can only

think, rrlrlL never get this, iErs Eoo hard for me, I'm never any good at this kind of thing, why do I have to do it," etc. ParE of the art of teaching is being able to sense which of

learners are in. ...The only good reason for playing games with babies is because we Iove Ehem, and delight in playing these games with Ehem and in sharing their delight in playing - noE because we wanE someday to get Chem into college. IE is our dellghc in che baby and the games Ehat make Ehe games fun, and worEhwhile and useful for the baby. Take away the delight, and puE in its place some coldhearted calculaEion about fuEure I.Q, and SAT scores, and we kill Ehe game, for ourselves and Ehe baby. ...The DoinE is that if iE Eakes a long time to develop a good habit, it wiII take just as long Eo develop a bad one. The idea Ehat we musE r,rork hundreds of hours Eo make a good habit, buE can make a bad one in a few seconds, is nonsense. And Ehe point of this to us as Eeachers is that we don'E always have to be in such a big hurry to correcf childrenrs misEakes. We can afford to give them Cime Eo noEice and correcE Ehem themselves. And the more they do this, the beEter Ehey will become aE doing it, and the less they will need and depend on us to do iE for Ehem. ...In this chapfer I will say something very simple, EhaE may noE often have been said before. Children use fantasy not to get ouE of, but Eo get inuo, Ehe real world. ...It is a serious misEake to say chaE, in order to learn, children musE first be able Eo "deIay gratification," i,e., must be wilLing Eo learn useless and meaningless Ehings on the faint chance that laEer they may be able to make use of some of them. IE is their desire and determination Eo do real Ehings, noE in Ehe fluEure but right now, thaE gives children the curiosity, energy, deEermination, and paEience to learn all they learn. . . . I would now add DerhaDs even more important reasons why ceicing at least, unasked-for tesEing done by oEhers - destroys Iearning. The first reason has co do wiEh che maEter of hunches, When vre consEanELy ask children quesEions to find out whether or not they know someching (or prove Eo ourselves thaE they don'E), we almosE always cut short Ehe slow process by which, tesEing their hunches againsE experience, Chey turn Ehem into secure knowLedge. ..,Every unasked-for tesf is above all else a sEatement of no confidence in the learner. ThaE I check Ehese moods

GROWING I^IITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

up at all on what you have learned proves Ehat I fear you have nou real-

er I still love him when Irm mad aE him - and those are Ehe easy ques-

Ehese repeated voEes

wiEh is really startling, like "If Ehere was a hole under our house,

ly learned it. For young children, of no confidence can be devastating, . . . It may be Erue enough Ehat in Iearning purely physical skills, such as sporEs... we generally have co learn easv movements before we Learn hard ones. That is how the body v,/orks. BUE it is not how the mind works... What makes Ehings easy or hard for our minds has verv little to do with how little or how iruch information they may conEain, and everything Eo do with how interesting they are and, Eo say it once again, how much sense they make, how connected Ehey seem to reality. .,.This book did not change, as I hoped it might, Ehe way schools deal wiEh children. I said, Erust them to Learn. The schools would not trusE Ehem, and even if they had wanEed to, Ehe great majority of the public would not have let them. Their reasons boil down Eo these: (1) Children are no good; they wonrt learn unless we make them. (2) The worLd is no good; children must be broken to iE. (3) I had Eo puE up wiEh it; why shouldnrt they? To people who think this way, I don't know whac co say. Telling them about Ehe real learning of real children only makes them cling to their Cheories about the badness and stuDidiEv of children more stubbornly and anlrily than ever. Why do they do this? Because it gives Ehem a license Lo act like Eyrants and to feel like saints. ...What is lovely abouE children is EhaE Ehey can make such a producEion, such a big deal, out of everything., or nothing... AII thaE energy and fooLishness, alL that curiosiEy, nuesrionq- rFlk- nl l Ehose fierce passions, inconsolable sorrows, immoderaEe joys, seem Eo many a nuisance to be endured, if not a disease to be cured. To me they are a national asset, a treasure beyond price, more necessary to our health and our very survival chan any oil or uranium or name whaE you will...

tionsl

Some

of the sEuff he comes

up why

the wouldnrt iE fall all Ehe way Eo other side of the world?" and rrwhy can't you make a car thac runs on hydrogen?" (He musE have heard someu6dy Eatt<ing ab6it-that sometime, buE the way iE came up, we had been looking up whaE makes balLoons rise, and he had asked whar made cars go, a fe\^7 days before.) Sometimes the quesEions he asks sound strange, because hers thinking abouE Ehings he doesnrE have Ehe words for yet, like the other day: "How do cats know Eo be a cat, when they just eat and arenrt there?" I chink thaE means, "How is a specifiE-Toilv form created and mainEained without- an inEelligence in residence, directing Ehe process?rrI had a impulse ro jusE say, "God does craven T irl-rF t,-^,., its il hilF T f^].1 him instead - let him read about Eheology vs. evolution for himself. Reading has aE lasc cLicked for J.P. It's hard to pinpoint jusE lrhen it happened, but iE was fairly sudden, as all these new steps seem to be. One day it nas just an interescing oddiEy Ehat he could figure out lrhat stop-signs said, and so on, and Ehe next day, the world was filLed with messages for him. He's learned a lot about spelling just from having jokes explained to him - many jokes, especially the ones wiEhin his range of humor, depend on words EhaE sound the same but are spelled differentl-y, and Ehere are some incorrigible punsters in this familv.,. A while back, ivhen he was wanting to use my paints and solvenEs, I had promised him I'd leE him have Ehem when he could read and undersEand the warning labels on Ehem. He'd been sounding out words lately, so I Eried him out on the "Keeo ouE of reach of children" panel, and wit.h a Iittle encouragemenE, he made ouE the whole thing! (Then we cleared all the new r4rords, jusE to rnake sure he knew whaE iE meant), Since he'd kept his parE of tEE-6Ergain, I've given him a job sEaining rocking horses for me, $l per horse, and is he ever excitedl... I 'd say Ehat J . P. ' s main interesE, right now, is money - which I J.P. AT FOUR suppose is understandable, considerFrom Kathy Mingl (IL): ing that's what he hears adults talking about the most around here. He ...J.P. is a "bjg bov." now collecEs iE, hoards it, counEs iE, he'II be 5 in Aprill-Te's-sti11 fasleaves it all over Ehe house, finds cinaEed by all kinds of machinery, it again (aLways a big deaL - lost but his scope has increased. His big Creasure and all thaE, you know), and drive has always been to be able to bugs Ehe life out of his poor daddy do anyEhing a grohrnup can do, and I to drive him to the sEore Eo sDend think he's come to a Doint where he it. He's intrigued with Ehe idba of can see that wjthin his reach, and making Chings and selling them, but that's a great relief to him, (I he's still a bit confused about exacEdon't know what you think of reincarly how EhaE works - yesterday he made nation, buE I've always had this pica "coat rack" (well, that what he ture of a really big, capable, force- said it was), Eo sel1 for $6,000.06. ful, no-nonsense sorE of person who F-eeven made a price Eag for it. He suddenly finds himself in this tiny, discovered Ehe dollar-sign key on the helpless body, feeling totally deEype$/riEer last nighE - boy, what an oraAaA frrrcfraraJ iarri Fi od cnd acquisiEionl He covered mosL of a ridiculous, all at the same time). He sheeL of paper with dollar signs, and really had a bad time of iE Ehere, wouldn'E give me my eyperdriter back. for a while, poor guy, but. he's AnoEher thing he's confused calmed down a lot, now. He's usually about is change - he thinks itrs a willing to $/aiE for direcEions, these wav vou qet monev. I'm afraid thaE days, rather than Erying Eo conErol milfrt rraG-been 6ur f auLt, because Ehings by beaEing Ehem down by main several times he's gone to Ehe dime force - he knows, you see, that he store wiEh a dollar, and come back can make the thing behave iEself, vriEh a $3 toy and some change. Itve Even if he doesn'L have che decails Eold Tony he's going to have to starE of how he's going Eo do it worked ouE being hard-hearted about that, or Ehe yet. kid's going Eo get some very strange ...He wants to know abouE death. ideas abouE arithmeEic. and where babies come from. and wheth...LasE fall. we went out to

sales, and J.P. asked if could go to one wlth toys, because he wanted to buy a spaceship. I had hin look through the list in the paper !,riEh ne, and mark the ones Chat said t-o-y-s. Then I showed him how to find the sEreet name on Ehe alohabeElcal map direcEory, and chen find the area from the dlrectorv code. We followed Ehe streeC sign s6guences with the map, and told Daddy which rday to turn. I had J.P, compare Ehe street sign with the name in the paper when vJe came Eo lE, and then we counted the house numbers unEil we found the one with rrhisrr garage sale. Guess what he found when we got there? The very spaceship he wanted, for 10{ (it was a neaE one, Eoo when you put batceries in it and turn It on, it blinks and burnbles all over the floor. It was missing a piece of the mechanism, but it happened to be the very part that we had saved from one of J.P.rs former toys, and Tony and J.P. fi-xed it uD iust f ine). Tonv hadn't really believed before that a useful inforrnaEion, kld could learntrpurposefully sEudied" comparable to stuff, just from doing ordinary things, but that garage sale worked out so perfectly that he had to be imoressed. ' J.P. is very inEerested in gardening and llving things. Did you know that if you Eake a few scale divisions off a lily bulb before you plant it, and put Ehem in a plastic bag with a liEtle semi-noist peat moss, Eheyrll make tiny new lily bulbs, rlghE in your kitchen? J.P. was fascinated with mine, so we made him a rrnursery potrr of his own, with hls very own rrlily-babies" in it (once chey were big enough to leave Eheir I'monnies"). I gave him all the ones that grer.i a leaf , and to make iE more interesEing, I cut some picEures out of an old catalog of che flowers theyrll have and sEapled them on plastlc markers, to put nexE Eo each bulb. J.P. mixes uD 'rsecret formula" fertilizers for thbm out of mud, bone mea1, egg-shelIs, rock phosphate' and whaEever else he can scrounge in thegreenhouse, and feeds it to them r^rith a turkey baster (I just have to keep him from drowning them). The very flrst word Ehat J.P. ever spelled on his own r4ras rrlily.rt He wrote it ouE on an extra seed catalog order form Ird given him. I wasntt paying much attention when he told me he was sending for some 1ily-babies, buE rhere iE r1ras, clear as anyEhing. J.P. has had his heart seE on having a Venus FLy Trap, ever slnce he saw one on TV eat a frog (yech) ' Park Seed Co. has a very atEractive, informative catalog, and when I made ouE my order, I let J.P. send for a Venus Fly Trap bulb. I had him look iE up in the alphabetical index, count Ehe numbers Eo Ehe right page' and read ne the catalog numbet and the price so I could wrlte it down. ,..Therers something about a bulb chat's really neaE - theyrre nice just Eo have, you know? They're fil-led with secret surprises' all round and heavy and alive, noE Einy and dead-looking, like seeds. I gave J.P. all my gladiolus bulbs to grow last sunmer, and they make babies in a very satlsfying and prolific way, too - J.P. is very proud of his flower garoen. .,.J.P, has picked uo a loE of interests from my-dad, intluding a broad perspective on languages, and an appreclaEion for music. Many years ago, my father made a recording from an old 78 of Basil RaEhbone narraEing "Peter and the I'lolf ,r' and J.P. has some garage

r^re

always loved iE, asking to hear iE over and over again. Hers been gtadually learning to hum and whistle al1 of the musical themes of the storv I Ehink he has Peter, the cat, Eh6

wolf, and the hunters, now... You hear him off by himself, playing, or sEaring ouE of the car window, humning those tricky chromatic changes Eo himself, searching for the right, elusive half-Eone. Hers getting them dohrn pretty darned wel1. I had to stop here, and help J.P. sew a I'pet" (I Chink it's supposed to be sorne kind of squirrel, or maybe a beaver. J.P. says his name is rrBrownie Pink-Nose.") J.P, does quiEe well with sewing - he doesn't stab hlmself nearly as ofEen as I do myse1f, and he catches on quickly to anything you show him (he always has had an affinity for sharp objects). I let him have the extra biEs of fur from the rocking horses, and he has a big cookie-tin for hls sewing supplies. Irve found thaE heavy thread and large needles are easiest for him to handle (though he astonished me by being able to Ehread a regular-sized needle, when he was a lot litEler Ehan he is now), because button-andcarpet thread doesn'E tangle quite as enEhusiastically as ordinary t.hread,,. IJH:] A wonderful picture of a four-year-old human being doing what all hurnan beings of that age (and other ages) do - though no Ewo of them do it the same hray: exploring Ehe world around him. creatinp knohrlecige ouc oi his own-qET6it, thoughts, and experiences. All children do this, as rre see when we pay a liEtLe thoughtful aEEentlon to rrhat Ehey do.

LEARNING COMPASSION

King (MI): ...I had lrritten earlier about the challenge of homeschooling with a joyful Eoddler grabblng the pencils and sitEing on the paper. You asked if I would write back about any successful arrangemenEs that I might have worked out, ldell, I thought abouE it and couldnit come up wiEh a onel Oh yes, Lre do the classics like Eake advantage of toddler napEime, but I think what is important is decidins Ehat comDassion is a valid and va luaEle asoEcT^i-F-e-illcac ion f or t he older sibllngs. So perhaps they will sacrifice Ehe terrible efficiency of Ehe system that lumps similar ages together and marches Ehern right along aE supposedly the most rapid learning raEe, in exchange for an undersEanding Ehat Life and learning are not linear and involve dealing with baby broEher's urgent desire to scribble on the paper we're pracEicing letEers on - and to deal compassionately! So, sorly, no concrete tips here - but if I come up with some, I'11 be sure co leE you know!... From Catherine

DINOSAURS FROM REAL BOOKS

Susan Richman (PA) r^7rote

Unsctroolers Network #14:

in the

...Recently I scrounged through boooks aE a library book sale. My son Jesse is 44, and I-thought that ierhaps it would be good to have a few around. I found a copy of a first grade science text used locally. I Ehumbed through. The illustrations were pedestrian and uninspired.

TEXTS

The text was minimal or non-exiscent, trying vainly to keep within standard

word Lists, Irm sure. When I got to the unit on dinosaurs, my decision was clenched... the book would stay

on Ehe table.

You see, Lwo pages were all Ehat were given to the ancient reptlles. No names, no descripEions, no informa-

Eion. Just a half-dozen of the most dinosaurs dotted about Ehe page, no flora or fauna, no drama, A guestion at Ehe boEtom asked, "How do we know about the past?rr (I could hear some publisher's fantasy of a Eeacher intoning this in perfect sing-song). I closed the book and thought of my Jesse and what resources he has available already for extendlng his knowledge of dlnosaurs. We own probably two dozen varied books abouE dinosaurs and orehisEorlc 1ife. Werve plcked most up second hand or aE museums. Itrs been especially fascinating to see how the books disasree rdith each other, giving JeEsE-tEal feel for the rrguess-iness'r of our scientific thinking about other Eimes. Hets already aware of the conflicting Eheories about hot-blooded or coldblooded dinosaurs, realizes EhaE ideas about the duckbillsr cresEs have changed, notes how some books describe Dimetrodonts "sail" as a strange mistake, vrhile others present it as the first solar heating and cooling unit. Our seE of Eoy dinosaurs is groiring all the tine (including some wooden ones designed by Jesse) and they are used Eo act out incredible reptile dramas. Jesse ls aware of excinction, and really grappling with a sense of time and history. Early questions were, "Well, did the first Indians see the dinosaurs?r' Now his internal time-line is stretching, and hets even aware of which dinosaurs were around firsE, next, and Last, ...Jesse revels in pretending to be a museum scientisE, tries his hand aE putElng Eogether turkey bones and sheep skeleEons, arranges "exhibiEs" of his toy dinosaurs afEer "excavaEing" them and dragging them back with bulldozers and dumo trucks. We've watched Ehe scaffblding raised beside Brontosaurus so Ehat his bones could be cleaned, we've touched Tyrannosaurus Rex's teeth. We've imagined, pondered, wondered, fron "Do dinosaurs have birthdays? I bet the plant-eating dinosaurs just ate plants on their birEhdays, and the meaE-eaEers. just ate meat... They didn't get Eo eat good food on their birEhdays...'r to tiying to figuiE-itt his own possibilities for why the greaE creaEures disappeared... No, hre don't have any need for these official textbooks. . . We'Ll Eake real books, real life, real thinking, chank you... common

LOW COST RESOURCE

From Kathy Kearney (GWS #30): . . . I rve just discovered the wonders of ERIC, the computer database rrEduca-

for educatlon... ERIC is the tional Resources InformaEion Centerrl of Lhe National InsEiEute of EducaEion of che US DepartmenE of Educat ion. ...Basically, ERIC works Like Ehis: You go Eo a Local library (most college libraries should have Ehe caEalogs, as well as sEate libraries and and besome larger local libraries), gin looking at the catalogs. When you GROI,IING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

find a document that interests your vou writc down the "Lll)" number and t''tai nurl-cr of |.rgt s of that I.rrf icuIar documcnl, on thc order blank. You aLso have lo decide:rt that point if you wan[ to order i t in microfiche or paper copy - microfichc is much cheaper if vorr have accr.ss fo a ni crofichc reader, :rnd you can aIways hlvc paper copy printcd from thc fiche. i f you need it. Then you figrrrc out thc. c()st from the number of pagcs, following directi0ns on the order blank, and send in rhc order-. ll'Lo 4i0 p;rges, i f ordereci on microIiche as i] si ngle entry, is only 974 plus postage. Thcy are very slow. I h:rvc h.rcl an order out fora a month now ancl iL i sn't here yet . However, I a I so just found out that thc Vcrmont Dcpt. of [:ducatlon has the cr]tire ERIC colLection in MontpeLier, and Verm()nt teachcrs gef up to 50 [iche per yoar free. After that, and for aLL othcr Verrnontt-.rs, Ehe cost is l5qi per fichc or paper cop,v ! so it' s actual 1y a bit ch('apcr th.in send j ng f u f hc V i rg in i.r headrluartc.rs. I u,ou1d assume some other Dept.'s of Ed, or state I ibrarics eLsewherc in the country woulcl:lLso have a similar: service, ancl i t wotrLd certainly be worthwhlle to ask. I am .rlso goinq to.rsk if I c.:n q,)ul) L,' Montpelicr to preview some of this stuff beFor€ I pLlrch.rse the fiche copres, Cetting stuff into ERI(l is also quite e zrsy. You ru'ouT?-TompLetc the "reprodrrction relclse" form ;rnd send it in with the docrrmcnt (adclr:css. ['() Box 190, Arl ington VA 222 1.0; 703,f4l-1212). Ilrc only thing to rLnen.hcr is thaf once il's in ERIC. it's avaiLabLe to pcopLe for alnost no nonev, and evidontLy no money comcs back fcr you for having entered it. So it wouldn't be a good idea to cnLcr books into ERIC that vou wanted lo carn monc.y From selling, for instance. I1y hcad i s just spinni ng from cverything I just l ooked at. liverything imaginable is in therc.. The [)efense [)ep.rrtment inclucles ;r11 its foreign I anguagc materials r so i t' s irosslblc to Learn Fre'nch. Cc.rman, Pcr s ian, Al banian. ancl a host of other I ilnguages . 'Ihere arc tcxLbo()ks, song books, storybooks, teacher's guides, anci everythi ng yorr can imagi nc, i ncludinq a conpLete c()Llrse on nuclcar pow cr technologyl Bcst of all. i t costs verv, vL.ry little on Fiche, Therc are manyr manv samplc. cur ri culirm and scope and -sequence. charts from alL over the country which woulcl be heLpful for parL'nts who had to prrt together a curricrrlrjm to sati sfy school officials. I h()i)e alL thjs proves hclptul Lo the home-schoolc'rs out thcrc - it Iooks I ikc :r perlcct Ly marvel ctus resourcc, though of course somc maferiaLs iriLl be beLter than othcrs. . . PHI DELTA MPPAN ARTICLE

llH:l the neb. '83 issLLc of phj l)eLta Kappan) a niltion:rI magazine-T5r c(lLrcators, published an article by ne called "SchooLs anrl Home Schoolers: r\ Fruitful I)arLnership." irle have reprints avaiLable here for I 5e ( SASIi rcquired for singlc copy). Sonrc cxcerpts Irom the irrt icLe: ... I confend that it koulcl be in ihe best inl-erests of schools erverywhere, even in thc nrosf n:rrrowly conco; vcd Icrms - budgets, jobs, etc. co foLLow the examplc of thc llarnstable School District in coopcrating ftrLly wl th home schooLing fami I ies GROI]NG }IITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

rather than trying to oppose them. First of all, Jt is simpLy not realisLic for school departments anci districts Io pcrceive home schoo].ing, as il.rnv seenr Lo, as sonrc kind of shctrtrLrn or cvc'n long-run fhreat. It is true that the nunbt.r of homc schoolr'ng familics has grown rapldly in rocent yc:rrs and, i f the Icgal situation docs rot chtrngc for thc worse. i s l i ke. l y to cont i nuc tro Earow, But thc numbcr of familics who, having the opfi()n fo send chi Ldren LO school, huvc choscn not fo scncl them, is at tho moment harclLy more than ten or fiitccn thousancl. Even aL prcsent rltes o1- gr:owth, i t seems mosL LrnlikeI y that hy ;r generaI i on f rom n.]w mor€l than five'or perhups ten pL.rccnt of f amili e.s i n tiris colrnf rv wi l l bc .hoosing t.' lereh Iht ir oun .hildr-rr. llosf chi lciren rrill remain in schools, pubLic or private, for as far into the futurc as any o[' us can or dare tr; Look. . . . School s worrl ci be Lui sc nof mr-.re1v lo rcf rain Irom opposi ng homc schoolcrs l)ut to cLroperate h'ith thein ;rs FuLLy as possiblc. For onc thing, such coopcration might well bring schools sonc good prrblici ty. al-rd that rrould be ir weLconrc. change. . . . fichool s arc bllrde ne.d br, a set ,l a\sL:ml\Lir:rs: f irst. rs:rrn1'1.^ns about chj lrlr:en, seconcl, aborrt learning; ancl IinaIly, about teaching an<l the relarLionship bctween tcaching ancl Lcarning.'l'hese assumptions shape erverything schools tio. and I bt-Iieve thern tc) bc a root c:rusc of Lho schools' IrusErations ancl fai Lrrres. Schr>ols Cen(l t() assume LhaL childrcn:lrc not mrLch intercsfcd in I t-arni ng, are not rnrrch good it t i t , and arc. Lrnl ikeLv to I earn anvth ing usefrrl rnd importanr unLess rclrrl ti tel I thtm rdhat to lcarn, tel L them when ancl how to learn it. chcck rrp on them to m;rke sure thcv are lcarning j t, ancl rcward or pcnalize ( "rcj n force" ) thcm accorcl j ng to whcLhcr thcv sccnr to be lcarning or not... 'lhcse rissumplions rbout chi lclrcn are noI sL]l)p()rte<l bv rcscarch or cxpericnce r LruI irre rooIcd in popUl ar Calvjnist /lssLrmptions ilbout thc inherent baciness of chj lclren lnd i n tho deep need of mrrny adrLlts to crcdi L themse.Lvcs l-rrr anything good thnt chiLdrcn may clo. No onr' with cycs ::ncl ears open itncl :r mind i n working ortier can long rcrnlin in thc conpany of babies ()r \roung chi Ldren h,i thout obscrVing that thc), are in fact vorac i orrs , t i reLess , ancl skj l l fuI l carners ancl they Lhey crcate learning out oF their r:xperienccs in much the samc way th.rt scienfisLs creaLe it ()ut of Lheir:s. . . .(lne seri ous c()nse.luL'nce ot the prevalt-nce oi thcse assUrnptions, grounclcci more in folklore thitn in cxperienco or rescarch, is thiil, they can sc;rrce:l y be testcd with a l itrge enough popuLation alrd over e long cnough pcriod to proclrrce ire ani ngluL rcsuLts. I'lanv smal L-scale oxpc'rl cnces, i n homes anrl i n school s, havc shown thaL, when chi Lclren rrc a [] owecl to dec i cic whe n tl-rcv wi I I beg i n the excj ting t:rsk oi li:arning to rcad and are allon'cd to work ouL for lhemselves tho problc.ms of doing so 1r,iLh ncr nore hclp or che.cking than they ask for) , the grcat majori ty of them lcarn to read much more qulcl<1y, cnthus;asticallv, and e-ffici cntly than m.st chi Ldren i n convcnt i onal school s. llrrt not in the forsceable fLrfure can we expcct a school dis f rict 1,, ,lrrPl i.:rf c rhi< ox1'..ai1psp with morc than a tiny .l.fr;rcti()n ol its pupils - .i I any at a]. Sjmil.rrl\'. m.fnv expe-i('nccs in homes and school s cven in the penal

rrrstitution Ior boys dcscribed by Danie'L Fadcr in "llookcd on Books") have shoun that. !!hen children qho can rcad at least a littLe are given rccess to a L:rrgc rncl var.i ecl seLect ion of bcrLrks, Lold to re.ad what they like, ;rnd given pLL.nty of tinre withollt intcrrLlption. checking, tcsting, or compet i t ive gracli ng, not onLy does their rcrcling ski I I improve' bul they . \ ln L ] il e r' rrl ir', . !6'1 r VCn those rchnol s fhrrc have t ri cd such prograrns on a smal I scale ancl t-ound them suc. cssIul h;rvc rare) y ,rppl ied thcm rore nidely. A number of schools in various parts of the t'.S. have bc€aun Co (levole a short time cach day to "sustaine.l sile-nt reacling," but cven these schools rarely al low more Lhan 10 minrrtos a day for this work. To give evcn as much iis a sinElLe hour per day to silent reading {thus taking time:rway irom reading instructionl worrLcl strikc most edLlcators as a clangerously raclical experimenL. Not in the forcseeabLe future can we imagj ne a schooL di stri ct saying to i ts studcnts, "You can read ;rnythi ng v()u Like, and as much :rs you llke. ancl we arcn't going to grade you on i t . " 0r, "Yor.r can studv what cver you want, and Lrc don't care what grade vou're in.." t)r, "If you're riorking on some projcct, take as mrrch Iime as volr necd to Iinish it." If edlrcdt iona L experi monts such as these arc cver to be r.rnclcrtake n on a l arge scaLe. {as they shorrld be), it is not I ikelv to be in scltools as we know them. Nor are we I ikeLy to see largescaLe and long-tcrrr research conduc!cd to find out whcther ofher methods ol'evalu;rting Iear:ring might not be hctfer than the standardized testing noi,r alnosI universa] I v used. We are , qua 1 I y 'rnl i kcl v t,r rcsearch 'b. .'ny Jny LhaI qrrostiJns or r'x.rmincs other standar(l assumptions and practices in cducaLion. Thcre is oniy one pLace where []ris kind of resc.:rrch js likely Eo be carric-d ou[ on a large enough scale lnd for a Iong cnorrgh time to yield significant results.'Ihat pl:rce is in Ihe honres of familie.s who arc teaching their own chi Ldren. This is the main reason hrhy thc home-schooling mo\rement is so inl)orf.lnf to schools. It i s in eFfect, though cerfainly not by clesign - :r laboratory for the i ntens i vc and long-ranqe study of childrtn's learning and of the ways in ru.hich friendjy and concernccl a<lults can help thcm 1earn. It is a research 1:roject, done at nO cost, of ir kind ior which nci ther the public school s nor the government cor.rLd afford to pay. [vcn i F our pLrbLic instiLutions cotrLd affor(l such research. it wouLd not bc as good as thilt now taking plarce in homes.. because of the flexi bi L i tv r>f curri ctrlum and scheduLe , and above all the closeness, fhe intimrcy , the' c-not ional warnLh, and the sL.curity of fhosc homes i n which parenfs 0l ect to t..ach their own c hi ldren . The absencc o[ "professional dist:rnce" nakes t-hose' homes effective environnrcnt s not or'rlv f or chi ldren' s ln.rrrrinH i.'rt also lJr lhe rraining of thr' rrarc,rt /Leaeh.rs themscl vc:, ALI teachers rvho learn to teach wel 1 Learn to do so n'ostlv from their stu,1ent s, who show hy thel r responses rihcn toaching hirs hccn helpful and Lrhen i t has not. BLrt even the most attentive. perceptive, and thoughtful cLassroom reachers could never elicit from their stuclents the amount and inrensit v of fnerl-h:ck f haL homcsthooljng parenfs typicalJy geC from fhoir

.h;lrlron

hnnrr'-^

^--^-r-qrrr Pdr

r'-^''

and understand their children so much

better. ...So far, the home-schooling movemenE may noE have generated sEaEistically impressive numbers of success stories, buE, if iE is noc legally prevented from growing, it is sure to do so. Meanwhile, as it grows, it gives more and more encouragement and support to Ehose people within the schools who are trying to nake fundamental changes. BuE the home-schooling movement provides more than just encouragement to Ehose who seek change in schools; it also provides much useful informaEion. There is a great deal of inEerna1 communication within the homeschooling movemenE. As people who teach their own chiLdren discover new ways to help Eheir children learn (sometirnes finding thaE the children don't need help at all), they tell this to oEhers. When home schoolers have problems, Ehey ask ocher home schoolers for help; when they soLve their own problems, Ehey share Eheir solutions. If they live near enough Eo each oEher, they usually meeE informally, sometimes as often as once a monEh. At these gaEherings, home schoolers and Eheir children get acquainted, share ideas and experiences, and often plan and carry out group projecEs. Since the bond betr4reen them is a strong one, many home schoolers become close friends; indeed, many people in the homeschooling movement liken it to being a member of a very large but cLose fanilv. Much of this communication beElreen friends arid colleagues is printed in the magazine GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING. AdmiEtedly, some of thls information is of interest mainly to parents, buE much of it could be of immediaEe use Eo classroom teachers and others working in schools. . . As far as I know, Ehere is nothing in public educaEion thaE is comparable to this network. Certainly a great number of educational magazines exist, but none that I have seen are ooen forums in which Eeachers can raik freely to one another, especially about their problems and failures. NoLhing would do more to lmDrove the morale of teachers and raise the quality of their teaching Ehan the creaEion of many such forums. EveryEhing I learned about Eeaching I learned from my students, from rny own experiences as a learner, and from talking, without fear of censure, to other teachers who were as ouzzLed and frusEraEed as I was. It is ironic EhaE hardly anyone in Ehe still small home-schooling movement feels as isolated as do many of the Eeachers and others working in our sianE svstem of public educaEion, ffhatevei educatoi-s may think of the content of Ehe home-schooling publicaEions, they do offer a rough model of a kind of neEwork of communication and mutual support chat, once esEabLished, could prove very useful to the public sysEem. One can easily imagine a school disErict newsletter in which administraEors, teachers, sLudents, parenEs, and the general public share Eheir ideas abouE the schools, . .

[JH: ] r rhink iE mighE be useful for Local home schooling groups to send copies of this articLe, perhaps along wiEh copies of our proposed legislaEion (GWS #30), to as many as possible school officials, scate and national legislators, governors, oth-

er pol icicalLy influential people, and the media. We must make iE as clear as we can thaE we are trying to live in cooperation and harmony wiEh Ehe schools, and thaE if there is conflicE it is of their making, not ours.

prospecEive Eeachers who Eook California's firsE minimum competency test failed Eo meet Ehe most basic skilL requirements. ( 5 ) Notes Dan ALexander, president

of rhe Mobile Councy, Ala., school board: "If Ehe currenE test-failure rate is, say, 20%, then you have to figure Ehat 207. of the people who "WHATS WRONG WITH TEACHERS?' would have failed in Ehe DasE are stiII Eeaching in Ehe system." (6) [.fH: ] fne cover story of IJS News and World ReporE , 3l14/83', is En:One of the worst effects of the #' ciEled s Wrons With Our Teachcrisis is the Lowering of Eeachers' morale. A L98l survey... found thaE ers?" Since now in lome states and perhaps soon in many more, home 24% of the teachers poLled "probably schoolers are combating aEfempts to wouLd noE" choose teaching as a carmake it difficult or imoossible for eer again... WhaE has happened over Ehem Eo teach their own'chiLdrcn, we the pasE two decades Eo make Eeaching are going Eo have Eo make a point of so unpopular? (7) colleccing aLl we can find of sEories ...Low pay is Ehe top comlike these, about the incompetence of 'olaint... (8) poor qualificathe very 29% schools and of the teachers surveved in Texas last year had outside jo-bs, up Eions of many of Eheir teachers. Here fron 22"L in 1980, The experience can are some significant quotes from the four-page article (the numbers in par- be humiliating. A SalE Lake City entheses refer to my commenEs later Eeacher finds his job aE a gas stain this story): Eion makes him the target of sEudenE ridicule: rrsEudenEs chat I had bring ...0n Ehe one hand, too many in their cars and ask for a dollar's classrooms are burdened with teachers worth of gas. They enjoy taunting me as their teacher who now has Eo r,,iait improperly prepared for their work. on Ehem." (9) 0n the oEher, thousands of competent ...Many areas... have had to use insErucEors are being lured from teachers certified in oEher subject Eheir jobs by more rewarding work areas to teach math and science. In elsewhere. ( I ) Paciflc Coast sEates, 847. of Ehe new . . , Increasingly, leading scholmath and science leachers were ars insist that reform of the trained in oEher fields. (10) nation's schools - crucial to mainOther reasons for leaving I che taining Americars Eechnological leadershio - must start wiEh teachers. In teaching profession] include problems of discioline in overcrowded classa majbr sEudy of the American teachrooms thaE are filled with handier to be released in mid-March by a panel of top educaEors, projecE direc- capped youngsters, chiLdren who speak I'The Little English, and Ehe producEs of Eor Emily Feistritzer concludes: broken homes. real crisis in Eeaching today is in (2) profession." ..,Teachers in manv urban schooL who is enEering the districcs live wit.h Ehe fear of vioFewer than 57" of the freshmen 1ence,.. ln Dade County, FLa,, public entering college last fall said they schools reoorted 84 sEudenE assaults oLanned to become teachers - down ;. on school personnel during the firsc trom nearlv 22"/" in I966, Their low half of Ehe past school year. (ll) numbers were matched only by their ...By 1985, half of the 50 Iow academic performances. The 1982 sfaEes will reouire new teachers to SAT scores for sgudenEs enlering edutake a basic-sliills test before Ehev cation were 80 ooinEs belolr the can operaEe in a classroom. The tests national averagi: in maEh and verbal screen out incomDeEent Eeachers and skills - a combined score of 813 out help pinpoint weak teacher-preparaof a possible 1,600. FuEure Eeachers ranked 26Eh in 29 academic fields sur- tion programs. (12) .,.Imorovements also are underveyed, ( 3 ) way in many of the 1,340 colleges Educators say many of the proboffering Eeacher-educarion programs Lems are traceable Eo a surge in public-school enrollment in the early only 534 of which are approved by the National Council for AccrediEaEion of '60's thaE put pressure on colleges Teacher Education. Concern has generof education to crain thousands of ally focused on Ehe teaching-meEhods Eeachers quickly. The boom also courses that critics say are boring caused many states Eo certify new who were noE adequately and are driving away many bright, instrucEors ambitious students. (13) prepared. rrThey were jusE Erying Eo get ...Secretary of Educacion TerreL Bell favors creating a position warm bodies inEo Ehe classroom," recalled "master teacher," which would calls Samuel Sava, executive director of the NaEional Association of Elemen- command a saLary several thousand doLlars higher than a regular Eeacht.ary SchooL Principals, errs pay. Tennnessee Governor Lamar ,..Many young women have decided Alexander has proposed such a program EhaE the teaching profession, for EhaE would pay master teachers an decades one of the best iobs availaverage salary of $26,873, which is able to Ehem, did noE haie enough presEige and chose other careers. 607" more than the salary of a regular teacher. ( 14) The result has been an aLarming While such a program would decline in the qualiEy of teachers reward excellence, many adminisEraentering many classrooms. . . A sEudv conducted for the NaEion- tors say any Eype of merit-pay sysEem would be hard to adminisEer and might aI Institut-e of Education, which prove divisive... (15) looked at college graduates who entered Eeaching in the late 70rs, found thaE those wiEh Ehe highest academic ability were much more likeIJH: J Some observations about ly Eo leave their jobs than those who the above quoEes: (1) This condiEion has been true were Iower achievers, Among highrhrough all Ehe EhirEy years I have achieving sEudents, only 26% intended been involved in education, to teach at age 30, as compared wiEh (2) One of the first books abouE approximateLy 60% of Ehose with the modern educaEion (whose Eitle I forlowest academic abiliEy. (4) ...One third of the nearly 7,000 get) vras r^tricten by Joseph tJood GROWING |,JITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

ll Krutch ln .le carLy 1950's. ln i t lre quoted an extensivc' stucly showing that of aLl col 1 c.ge students entcrir)g graduate schooi s, thc only ones whosc' grades were 1on,cr than those going into education Lrere those going jnto physical educat i on. In thc years sincc then I havc reaci a number of art icLes, reporfs, news sfories, ctc., on this qucstion, :rnd I clo not rcmember one th.t dicl noi in eflcct say lhe same thing. (3) "...80 points below the nat ional averagc , . . " But that averagc is thc lowest wc have had in i tself manv years. As a former secondarv schooL teacher I can assure yoLr that a student tn,hosc conbincd math and vcrbaL scores are barel v :rborre 800 i s a vc.r)/ poor strrclent indeed. The chances are that of aLl thc stLrclents taking thc SAT tests, oniv:r very smalL pcr ce.ntage had a toLal score of Less than 813, and of these, almost alL wcnt to schooLs of cclrrcaLion. In other worcls, thc ervcrage score of f utLLre teache rs wIFT6u*6r than r he scores of almost.lny scores of peoplcr going into othcr Tl?lds. Imporfant Lo notc thaL the or-rIy I iclds ranke cj I owc.r than Education wcre Home [conomi cs, Ethnic Sturlies, ancl Trade ancl Vocat iona I . (4) What this tc11s us is that the average oF thc SAl scores of thc pcopLe who stavecl for a long tl;E--l;

il-(---IifiooTi@ coLSTdeT;ETy

lowcr than the math +

vcrbaL f igrrrc of ll13 qrLoted abovc, It uould be intcrcst ing, and peopLe wi th acccss to tbe figLLrcs should Iinc] i t not too cl i f f i cLrl t. to f incl out- how much lower i t was. Inclcecl, i f we aro r-'ver torcecl to take':l case into thc high Feder:rI coLrrts, ric ought to makc a p()int of gefting that figure. [3eyond that. I havc known a number oi verl bright pcoplc. who, thi nking thiit t:hev rvantcd to tcach. wenf co scho()ls r,l bducar j on. brrf roln chrngcd Lo orlrcr fields bcci,rrrse. thc materiaL thcy haci to stLLcly in c:<l schooL was so bori ng and stupi c1 . I t seenrs vcrv 1 i ke1 1r lhat school s of cciucation I ose a nuilbcr of their bost stLrdenIs for thi s reason, which norrld, of courseJ loHCr sc')ror (f l-urtltrr thr'.tv(rJgL still thosc rema j ni ng. entltLe(l to ill We:1rc ccrtitinlv rssumc that thc- pcopLc h'ho we nt i nt(,1 Lcaching in Clal i f ornia l-.efore thi s lcst was establ i shcd clicl no bcttcr rrnd if 's rvorth noljnEa further that thc (lal j fornia school s have I ong hacl thc rcplrtation of bcing one of our bc'st statc systL.nrs. Home schooLcrs i n (la L i fornl a who a rc f ight i ng fhe rerlrii rement th.rt thcy nrrst be sf ate ccr rified in orclcr to teach thcir or^,n children shorrld makc rrsc of thi s i niornat i on . I 6 ) For thc rcasOn given i n ir4, Lh.lt most of thc bost pt'ople clui t carly, we havc to ;lssume that mirnv nore Eh:ln 207, ol Lhosc now in ETi6st. --------n ) Sec // 1 ;rnd #2 , Teach i ng w:r-< "unprrpuL:rr" for a Iong time bcforc that. (8) This is r rrery common. ancl :.'sLlr risfnk{'r) jrrgrnpnI l]r 11, f irst pl.rce . j t hls lreen truc for ir long time and st i 1l i s true. that orl thc whoLe pri rrafc schooLs. cven i n the inner city, achieve nllch bettor resuLts th:rn pLrblic schools in thr: s;lme area, in spitc. oI the fact th3t rhcypryrlr@

ffiirrci

i-ace to facc or bv lcLfcr, from nirny hrindreds of forncr tt'achcrs {irany of hjhom now tc:rch thc. i r on'n chi ldren a t home ) , anri rre ry f c,r^' have e ver s:r id that moncy hrils an i mportant reasoir GR014lNG i,,llTH0uT

SCH00LING'32

for their leaving, or n reason at 1 . Most left bccarrsc they were <lcnlcd any real control over thcir own ruork, and/or bcc:rrrse thcy coul d not sLand to r''ork in places where so manv of their cc1 lcagrrcs so obviously ancL sc strongl r, dj sl rustcd and di sI i ke d chi ldrt n. lJortl.t nLrt i ng, too , that in the Scanclinatriarr schools, rihcrc pa-u- is relaL ivcly highcr and only thc besl stuclents, insteaci of thc worst, are aclmittc(l to Leacher's co1 1 eges, Lhe school s are also in scr:ious crjsis and gotting worse, and toachcr moral e i s :tl so vcry Low. (9) l'his is ;r s;rcl and indeed a clisgusting storv. llrrt ile have to asl< ourselves. what kinci of atrnosphere ci id that lcachcr crciltc in thirt c l:rss, n'hat klncl of value's ciid he and hi s f eLlow ter:rchr:rs communicate LL) ihcir students rhat k'ould Leitd them t.) act in suclr a shrmr'l rrl way. Eve n morc Io the pc,int, hrh.it can i\ie say aborrt the "soci:rl I i ic" of a schooL that would tLrrn oLrL sLLrclents with :rl

srLch valLres'l

( 10 ) Thi s says a good <1ea1 :rbouL of certjsupposed qiralific:rtions teachers. llomc schooling famiin both Cali f rrrnia and !,/ashingshould nakc f irL l usc of thi s i n f ormat i on. 11an1, ()r m()st courts woLILcl agrec. that for thc school s to imposc upon p.rrents re.luircnrcnrs which they lhcmselves do not cvon come closc to me,eting is to clcnv tircm equ:rl trcal mcnt before tho law. (11 ) 'fhesr: concli tions, whlch h:rvc nade c lassrooms i ntolerable for more :rnd more tc;lchers, make up the vcrv same "sociaI I i fc" which ecluca tori sa1' rs so goocl and.indeed csscnt i a L tor ch i lclren. !,Jhcn T was belng intcrvier.ecl lrv a Floriria redio stat ion, and a nothcr ca I l cd in to s;ry that she had taltcn hcr young chi Ld out of schooL br.cnrrsc hc was b€ratcn up alnost daily bv othcr i:irildren, a nla Ic teacher phonccl i n to stty that thi s mothcr w:rs toiichirg her chilcl "to run awav from problens." In rcpLy, I askc.cl hinr whcn was thc Lilst t i nrc some.rne h;rci punchocl hlm in t he face. If viole'ncc in schoofis bacl f or teachers. ls u,c rtl I :rgrce if is ! thcn it i s Len, a hrrncl rccl times liorsc for chllclren. ancl p;rrcnts havc cvr-'rv more L right to protccl and r,i 1-hclraii fheir r:hiiclrcn fron it. if ahev c:rn. (i2 t l^lclL, brit v"hrt good tr,il l this do if thc.rc ilrc not cnough teacherrs rvho 9jI p:rss thc tcsts to fill up ;l I I the ne c.rss.lr), c lassrooms? FLrrf hcrnore , thc slmc' wr.c.k, Ncwswee k rarpor[ ,,1. "l ik srVr r;rl ,'t hir:-?-ll-irs. Horts ton row reclrLi rc.s pLilrl ic-school te:rcha.rs to b€r testc(l L() assc'ss their compctcncc, l.ast r.c'ck morc- than 3,000 te'achers took fhc tost, irn(l nanv of l-hc'n openlv chcirtc(1 . Sone i:reelv e.xchangccl ansrrcrs. S()nrc passcd thci r tcst bool(Lets arorrnrl . Othe rs saLrntere(l in ancl orrt cri- thc room h,iih irnsh'crr sheets.. . lL uppoars thart tho IlrLgrant crjbbi]rg wils at least in part a protcst rgainsI tl]r- tcst. 14irny of thcm thoLrght thc bas i c-ski ll s €'xrnr rvas beneath Lhcir proIcssional digniI v. Sone were conccrnccl about flunki ng. though school srrpcri ntenrlent 13iLlv Reag:rn assrrrccl c\icryclne Ihi]t thc !est worrLd bo Lrsccl nerelv Io 'n,, rlc.' r-,', tr lirr u.rLry..' 'l'.tri.[ tc.rchcrs who cl iri yr6ep1),... No onc' has Laken the n.ln(.s o1'thc cheraters." (13) Bur iI is not going to be rrny casier to gcr ricl of tlre many incompetcnt profr':;sor-s of cducaLion rvho teach thesc boring corLrses Ih,rn i t i s to get ri d of i ncompetent foachcrs. Mosf of f hc.sc prof cssors of cclrrcilt i on havc f cnrrrc. , ln<l nany of thcm .re presi(i€'nts. <1crrns. and heads o{

thc ficcl l ics tt--n

dcpartments in schooLs of education. llow are we to get out from r.rnder them? ( 14) This is noL a new iclea at al1 - many schooLs dtrring the '60's had "master teachcrs," arrd most of thcs0 uer€ 1n fact parid nore. But this scheme did not improve the qualitv of teaching and clicl not get to the bottom of what nac wr()ng with schools. (15) 'Ihere is no reason whatever to beLieve that it woulti reward excel1 cnce, since mosI of thc people who wotrLd decide who was or was not "cxcel lent" woulcl bc :rdministrators who wr:re themsel.vcs i ndi fferent teachors jf indeed they h:rd ever been tcachers at a1l. "Excel Lence" in most school s has mostly to clo not with rcsuLts but with keeping your stuclrnts quiet and cloing whatever the fells you. James Hernadministration cion' s THE WAY IT SPOZI:I) TO BE is a good and all too typical story of lrhat reaLly happens to excellent tcachers, teachers who get resuLts, in the average school. SURVIVING ED. SCHOOL SLre Radosti (1526 jrd St, Charleston IL 61920 ) wrote to John:

. .. I'm taking my second shot at col legc after a 3 ycar absence, strugg I i ng LhroLrgh Cho ( I cmcnta rv ed. prog,r.rrr hore . . . Sch,,,,l h.rs r lrays been a brc.cze for me, but I've huted aIl the supcrf lcl ai teachj ng/lcarning games. If was a major disappointment to me lo <1i scover that coLLcgt: was only nrorc of the samc, which was why I .lLri t after my first two vears. But cluring mv three vcirrs ouC, I decided I w:rnted t-o do somethi ng to make i t possibLe tor kicls to Icarn wiLhout bcing stuffcd into rigld schedules rrncl Lesson pLans. As I reacl through vorrr books, my goal s shi Ited from \.,rkinp, hiLhin fhc sv'rtnr. to gorting involved in altern.rtive schooLing, to hr'1 ping sustain the homc-schooling/unschooling "movemenr," ,..I feel that I'Ll be a 1ot frcer to bc of service Lo rrnschooLers in a v:rriety of ways i i mv cerfification base is covered. lcechcr I.d. prngrams arc certainly everything you've claimed. if not h,L)rsc. I spencl a lot of time with my morLth hanging op(in i n ilm.izenent over Lhc issues raisod in class, I'm learni ng Lo be a 1i tt lc. bol dcr wi th nry ,'h jcct jon.. but il 's ;rn ('verwhelning task sometines when an cntire lecture Irrcsentation i s pcrmc.ated hith Learni ng myths and ch i I cl s Lcreotypes . . ., I'vc discovcrcrl first-hand sone of the probLcms involved in trylng to change the thinl<ing of the trrditional edLrcators, a major one being the nature of oclrrcationaL rcscarch. I'm in a goncraL methods coLrrse. this scmostcr (primarily focrrscd on - what c] se? - classroom mirnirgemcnt). ancl onc oI the coursc ro(luirements is proIicie:ncy in thc Zaner-Bloscr manrrscrj pt handwri tjng system (uncioubtedly thc ugliest \!rifing st)'Le I'vc evcr seenl). [^Je h'('re glven assignncnts to be wri tten jn Lhe Z-B stvle s,hich werc corrected bv :r gracl assistant irncl rcturned to rrs u'i th the nore i mpcrfcct letters clr:signatcd for cxtra practice. It took manv of us'l or 4 weeks to become proficicnt - ancl vet no onc ovL.r mentioned in class the obviorls i ronv fhat thi s systcm !ras Loo di ffi cult even for aclrrits r,,iro h;rvc been wri ti ng with c;rsc for ycars I ...AnyLrrrv, I spent a grcat dcal of time in poring ovcr [:RIC tho library, irl)st racts and searchi ng Education l)igcst for somc scrap of-TEEd-FdF to

\2 qrlnnnrr

l)nlinF

ihrl

rioid

cvclpm

of handwriting isn't necets:ry for Learning to write. What I founcl was that a lot of study has bcen clevoted fo conparing lrns syster wi fh Jnafhpr. hrrf no aflnnnt has hecn macie LL\compare a sysLem ruith a lack oI i] sysiem. Sillv me - r,hy sFouTd I cxpict educators Eo undermine thcir own purpose by disproving the necessi ty for sysLemaf i ze'd insL rucL iL\n'. I(\ (1il^Le one article I came across: "For a pr:oschool to moclel i ts instruction:rL gram aIter l.hc kirrd n[ [rcc l/ nrninp. nrrni I c dn nn f he ir orin urrL trI s.'huoI is to abandon mosL of its spccial vaLue as a school , most of i ts vorv reason For exiscence. " Indeed. I do have an ally or two on campus, thc morc uilLsLJnding onc lrcing my Ed Psych professor; a marvclously scnsitivc ancl cnrrragcous ;rryr hrtlogi.st. . . As mrLch :.ts is poss i ble' iri thin reguLations, hls classes university with no tesIs. are student-oricnted, contract grilding (ihe closest thev'11 grades Let him come to eliminating -rF^^^FL--, --r i-rividrral izctl l,,rrn_ But he has founcl that ing projects... Fhe stronpcsf r.sisrancc lo his n. lh ods, at Least in recent years! comes from the students themseLvcs. llvcn of afrerfficvils F^-F i-- a"u -^r 5L.r\rrLLF' ^-...ti-., LcJLr"5 ar..ln(l midtCrr every semester at least onc studellt asks, "hlhen rrr: krc going to havc a test?" I'1any of my cLassmatcs wcre st.ilI puzzlirg ovcr the rrgrr, Jv rtrJ!trrred assicnmonrs in Iht. I inr,l s, ckr of the scmester and asking me, "[)o you understand tdhat he wants from lts? I don't know what we're supi)os.'d Io do." And on thc FinaI "fcctlback card" most of them jndicate fh:]t they then plar to usc hci]\,v testselves still gr:rcli ng scale ing and the traditional in their future c Lassrooms . ...The oth!-r subversivc ltrof c-ssor I've met practices manv Of the same classroom mcthods, but he''s car Hc hinself ried them a stL.p farther. enrolLs in corrrses on campus, rtncl he tells the profs at the outsct why he's therc, rvhat he (lrants Io loiirn, and how he'11 go abouf it, refLrsing to take any !€'sts or to clo irr'ty assignments he doesn't care about . So far, no one' s ob jcctcd, but I 'n sttre'. Lhe fact that hc's a tenured, 52-ycar:-oIc1 Ph.D. has a Lot to do wiLh that... Learni ng about thi s man' s e'xPr:ri ences has hel pecl ne face my biggcst stLr(lcnl Ici]chworry in my training: ing. I've [elt like a consciontiorrs objector facing conrbat -iust thinking aboutr it. but I sce now that I had been envisioning mysclf at thc bcck and calL oF a sLrpervising Lcacht:r, Locked lnEo hcr peculiar cl assroon BrrL I'n the one who's prvstructure. ing tui tion for-TEi s expcri oncc an(l I 'm the onc who knot',s lvhaL I rdant Lo '[EZrn f rom i t. So I plan to l-o1] on' mv prof -f ri end' s cxample and tc I I m-v supervisor thirt I don't plan r() be a cl assroom teachcr anci traditional have no inCcre-'st i n planning lcssons and wri ting monsurabLe objc'ct i vc's ancl devising Lcsts, brrt that I' L I lto glad to spend tjmc wi th indivldLi:tl sIrr dents or in smal I grorrps, wh{'rc-ver extra aLtention is most ncc'clocl. I'nt not banking on gettlng a c()oP('rittive teacher. but I knou, thett mv clrittrct's of endrrrinc rhc cxDericn( c \ il I I'c mrrch greatcr i f t can begln wi Lh such clear- cut i]tti a firm-but-[riondLy, tude. I'vc got abotrt LO mouths to get my conficlencc bLrilt up rin Pr('P.lration... The bi g (luestion f or nrc ri ghL now is, whlt happcns af ter gr;tclLt:t j t on? I havt' so many iclL':ts .rl)otlt things I coulcl clo, but verv l itLle

knowledgc of how to go about it. I'm f ascinatccl by thc itlt':r of a comnLlni ty learning centcr, whr:ro kids corrld conre to find people who share their intcrcsts, wherc elL kinds of pcoplr ct)ul(i of f er thei r ski lI s or seek ()Lrl tc;ichors. and wherc yorrng tinschoo L ors colr I cl bc. under :iupt'rv i s i on wh€n L hc i r parcr.rts were af r.;ork or school. Ilrrt how Lo begin?'Whcrc. on carth uoul(l thc moncv come from, and how corrlcl i simrrLt;rneously bring in a liver:rblc f)ers()naL income'i.., I can hard]y inragine how a porson goes about crcirtlng his own occLrpation, especially tr'ithoLrt a lot of finirncial backingl I'd :lppreciat€r .lnv thoLrghts on this r clLrit .

IMPBOVING ED. COURSE Srre a I so serrr Lrs a copy ol- a I t:t

fcr sho wrote to hcr col I ege facLrl tv:

. . .As a sfudent end prospcct ive teachcr, I am v.rrv conccrned aborrt tho inclrrsion of a manuscript hanclwri ting proficicncy tcst as a rcrlui rcreqLlirenr.'nl nent of Lhe cotrrsc.'lhis ;rnil the. way in which it is approachccl in thc classroom contraclict many ol my bcLiat's aboLrt chilclre'n and eclrtcittion in general (as wclL as manv oi tfrosc conmonlv espoustci in our cltrss roomsl, :rnd it pres.'nts me h'ith thc in painfrrI situation of part icipating rvhrt J consldc'r to bo a clestrllct i\'(' in ordcr Io l)ass fhe coUrs('. activily l,Jritten communication is a mitrvclous tool of nrankincl i to b€r ablc. to convev Ltroughts, iclo;ts. and fcel ings bv nrorely scratching orrf a serics oI svmbcLs on paper j s 1 i ttLe short Of mirilic;rl, But ro s.lLrocze'that magjc ri gi d svsten i)f i ntr) an arbi trarv, instruction transfornrs it qtrickJrr inLo <lrutigery. Rathcr than encoLrr:rging ir chi 1cl to f ccl that wrj ting, i s il l,irrt ,'t himsclf . rtrt "^l'ross jv, cxLcnsion of his oln porsonillitv, srrclr a svsf en di scOr-rrrgcs creat ivi ty rrncl by placing arr ancl jndiviclualfty, unclrrc stress on cumbL'rsome rrtl cs :tntl prccision, dist()rts thc very pLrrl)osL' lhc mcss:lge -it cLrmmrrnof hanrlirriting. icalr's i s suborclinarc.cl to the f ornr oI thc lc'tLers. Sucrh i s the concern oI rt whosc Iorm is a]t arL in cailigraPher, its ()wn right; bLrt Ic>r Lhe first, grrclr: child, srrch ln omphasis impt-.scs Unnoccssarv sfress upon the sinplc tlsk of h'ri ting h i s nume. l',5h1p< 1 n'r1, q' ri("lc C,n.-Cto ll nl;lllquencc of a strict;tclhcrcnce irscril)t svstem is tlrc Dessage iI cr)uvcys: tlrat thcrr: i s ir "correct" r',;iv arcr to wri f e, ancl any (lcvirtions thcrcforo "wrong. " As I Lrnderst.n(l i t f rom Llrc. orientaI ion to the' ZilnorIllosc'r svstem in lhis colrrse, this not i on of correctnoss i s adrrancccl i tt thc intercst of "consisLt'ncy" so Lhlt thc. chi1cl n,i LI not bc citnlusecl bv ;mv irrr.gLrlarity in IoLtcr slttPes' I-lut is it rcalLy cLrnsjstcrlt trl contradict in what f hr, chiLd can sc(. for hinst'lf rhc world arouncl him - in his slory boc>ks, on the f'V scroc.n, on trrfl-ic that th.l s i gns. on fooci yrackages n'orlcl of print is rt vot-i[:tblo crlrnival oi- \'ariation, rtnrl Ihat crtlrmttnicrtrtchievecl (in<le't-'tl , ti()n is offectlvclv rritt n cnhanced I cvt'n rhon the lottcr lrom thc ZitnL'ri: orms <lt'r,i:tLe wi lcl lv IlIoscr normsl th€ I rtlso takc lssur'\dith i nrpl i ccl assumJrt i on Lhrtt clri ldren citnnof lc'irrr1 f rom or wil I bc cl istrcssc'cl by anvLhing that isn't rtniform ,tr conOur spoke'n lirtgtt:ige , rvith s jstont. i ts rogional ancl pcrsonrl acccnts rn(l icl io:rs, is far fr,rm rrr-riforn. and vct of chilclren arr thL- \'irst mrjorifv

able to masL€.r 1t h'i thoUt noticeable anxiety at an incredi bLy tender age, despi tc tlrc I ack of systomat ic or insfruction. lt is only "consistcnt" after chi ldren are tirught .r concept of reguLarity that they become confused or distrcssed by thc virriatjons they encounter in reality. givc.n for Another justificrti()n i s the the manirscri pf instructi()n fact that so many publ i c schooL d istricts makc'use of such.r systcn. That i s j rrclcccl :r good rc:lson f c.r acqLraintjng student teachors with the mtlherl : \rrt it i:,r luor r\.]rsnn in itsell for actually pronr()ting the ricth.d rnd t-c.iuiriilg it\ -rirsLL rr irr compLeLion oi Ihc course.. Ihc rrniver si Lv cl()cs not/should nor cxi st for the purposc of perpetLrat i ng publ ic schooL trlcli tion brrt shoirlcl scrve as :r soLlrcc of innovation ancl crcirtive challcngc. By geari ng i ts crtrriculum to the de.mands oi the pLrbl ic schools. it forIcits its role as a ]cacler in the sea rch fcr more e f Icc L i vo educationaL tcchniclues :tnci altcrnet jves and becomes instead a mcrc vocaLiL)nal training school., conmi tcc(l to the which is mcdiocrity ancl rigidity causing so much conccrn ovcr the coLlnLry's erlrrcational sysf ent. In I ight of thesc arglrfirc.nls, T nouLd Iike to seriously chaJ lc'ngt' thc departntnt anci the clevelopcrs of the curri cu1 LLm to reconsidcr thc nandarory proficicncy requlroncnt in a prescriberl m;rnuscri pt hanclrvri t ing styLe. . . sil.;r(l(lL'(1. 'l g.rvc rlris LtLcr to the mrrr who clc.si gnecl thc mcthod-c c!)urse an<i to the i nstruct()r ()l nrv class, Thc I irtter rnore or lcss i gnorccl j t, ilLrt the: f ormcr took j t quitc scriorrslv, sharing it witrh the doparLmcrf cha irman ancl r-rtircr col Leaguc.s, an(l prcsenti n€a my vi ows at a mceting of tht: grad strrclcnts who arc in chargc of Lh:it aspect oi thc corlrsc. I'm clLrite surc that tho reqLiiraomcnt u'on't bc el imi:ratcci, brrt he dld ask my opinion :tbout sonc' possiblc chlngcs, such as e.mJrh;rsizing the fact that the Z-B svst.'ilr i s onLy one of many. tlrat commun j cltI ion vaILtc is the highcsL priority in h:rnclwrit ing, ancl gj ving studorts Ihc choi ce between scrrc,ral systems i n which to seek proficr'cncy. Certainly itn improvcmcnt, maybc as mrrch as I coulcl hopre fcr f rom tr coll ege. I tas g,lad to have m;rclc Lhc effort rnyu'av." TIM ON WORD PROCESSORS

Tin Chrpnirn (scc p. I

)

...Toclly i s the Last (lay I wilL H,'lt Ass ', ihc ,loinq nv 1,.rid e,'1k i, .1te-/L,w:. I fn clirIl;,tg ir notv -^h in lcss lhan tr.,o riceks, as ir srlcs reprcs(.ntafive ior RrookLlne O1-ficc I-quipment in Ilrookline IlA. I irill bc seIL-Lng eLccf ronic typewri tcrs :,tncl erxten(icrnan-based sions marlc lry olyppla,;t companv, lr.t poJrrrLar -]argcn. nri)chi nes srrch as olvmpia's elecf rorlic typch'ri Ler h'i tlr i ts vi sua I cj i splirv svste m ancl cii sk clri vc are knonn irs n'orcl procL.ssors. In six non[hs. I irnr toJcl , I u'1Ll alsr> bc scl ling ()lynrPil's s.ronto b€r annorLncccl computcrs. I n thc nc'antimr., I'Ll bc sticking f o olym yria's word procossors, crrpic'rs, calcrt lators, :rncl othcr officr. slrpplics, I can,L waif l. bc.ginl I'm wrif ing becarrsc' .lohn asked mc to LclI hon I came to hc rlrraliIied ior mv nr:w job, I :,rLso h'ant to say f arewel i I can' r i maginc hrr)rki ng i.rr trio nicer pcopJe than -lohn ancl Peggy. GROI,IING IdITHOUT SCHOOLING

i32

rnd I wilL alwavs stay jn touch with thc whole atmosphcre of (irowing Without School i ng , Tirst i ntroduced to e Lectric typewriters it.t the 11fh €arade. i --T-was was in Journallsm I, which meant I wrote for the paper but clicln't haver mrrch fo say about how it looked. Needi ng typi sEs , thL. cdi fors . three 1 2th gradc girls from .lournali sm Il, taughc me to Lrsc.rn electric IBi'1 typcwritcr. A year latcr, I was one of two edi tors J responsi ble for putt ing ollt a 6-8 pagc paper overy other week. By that Cimc I typcd Longer hlocks of text thtrn anyonc else on (To make a long thc newspaper staff. block, alI Ilnes had to end fLush uirh an imaginrrv righl. htncl rargin line. ) l,Jithout knowing it, I n:as hooked to the typcd word. I)uring my four years at college lnd the folLowing two ycars, I hacl ample oppor[unicy to typc. as an EngI ish major who had to write ten to fi fteen stc.ri es 10-20 pages Long ervery tc.n weeks and, Iater, as a com' L wrotc 20- Lo ,,,u,'r L y urSd,Lr ,{)-p;rgu Iund - rr i s i rrg irnd granf p r, rlrn sals. But 1t r"'asn'C until a little over two years ago, when I began voluntL-ering at CWS, fhat I met mv Ijrst riorcl processor, the Olivetti TES 401. lly carly assignmcnts on the r.'ord processor uere verv routinc, printing ,'ut p<rsondiiz,ci fLrrr l.ttcrc. I , nJy' hiid to type in the porson'a.umni tharesL of the Lett€r printed onto paper wi th the Couch c) f a s i ngle key, L w:rs soon back to thc lllM SeLectric, Cypi ng letters that John had dictated onto cassettes. A mcrnth or so a f le.r I graduatccl from volunteer to cnployee. I decidecl [() see iF Ehere was more to the wrrrd I)roccssor fh3n nr i nt Lng out fnrn I cf ters. There wasi In just forrr hours with ()liveEti's training manuaL. I cli scovered I dicln'I e ven have tct prinl onto paper a singLe word I typecl, Everything I tvped stayed in Ihe fype!driter unti ] I was ready tcr run it off on paper. t couLd type a Iettcr, fill out sonte new ChtS subscriptions, saunter back to the word processor, hit a couple of kel's, 311 iratch my 1L-tter: crnerge from the machine's memor;. I rvas hooked again, thi s t ime to the u,onclerf ul world ofworrl processir.rg. a)ver the next ycar and a haLf, I (lidn't progress bcyond the 15 charac tor vi ewing scrr:cn on the 01 ivett i . I hacl seen eLectrtrni c typewri ters wi th separate TV scrccns that let you sec 24 I ines ol rv[)e. brrt I never used one. Six months ago, 1 was hired irs ii th'(,.-clay-a-weck secrctary for a smal l l.ru, .rf tice. Thc iour attorneys wh() irorked Iherc crcatecl a mounfain oI h;rnclwri tten docLrment s ev€ry dav and i f kzls tn), job to Irrrn ttrem into tvpi-(1 scri pt. Af ter ,rne' ilonEh on thc -joh, I 'd had enough. I 1-el t L ike a rob()tl ()n an asscmbl1, line . Somefhing h;td to changt--, and si ncc. I needed the job to survive, I deciclccJ to change how I clid the job,'l'he law office was p1;rnning to move wi thin f ivc months air,.l r!,ils t:lking out a Ioar-r Io cover the c()st. One of thc attornevs had been fhinkirrg ab'rrt A.rLinH a uord pr,'e.'.sor for ovcr a yc:ir anci soon thc c'ffice. decidecl fo use part oI the Ioan Io get one. l,Jith the .lrt()rnoys' blessings. i tr>ok charge of l octrt ing a machine they couLd use. J immerciiatelv lined up meet ings wi th ten rii fferent wor<l[)rocessinEi con]parlies. sometimes I went to their ofiiccs to test their machines, and sLrnetirnes fheir salcspcopl e br:oughi thc i r machi nes to tls . After scvera I wooks of rcsearch, I GROI.I I

THOUT

SC HOOL I

NG # 32

dcci rlcd on the Olvmpia l--S 105 eLccLronic tvpewritcr wirh jts 24-linccl scrcon and the abi I i tv to remember 35 typcd pages anrl sLorc Lhcm on removcl ;rhle 'l'sk, tL. s. lu , ..'q'1;11ries h('r'i trying to scll us tlrr.:ro m;rchr'nes so I plrvcd one aga i rst Lhc othcr, drovc a h:ird bargain, .rnd br()ught the price

down S1400.

In thr. f ol I orii rtg months I bcgtrn clcsigning a way l() Ic:rrn to use the olympia u'ord proccss()l: th.rt prrL thc nc!! user in confrol of iL in -lusI onc hLrLrr:. To discuss fhis training method, I met with thc' [)i rccfor of Sal cs an<l Se'rvices for Ilrookline Oifice lrqrri pment , the conrl;rrrry f rom whon oLrr Iaw firm boright thc worcl processor. After: he had shoun if.'cvery eLcctronjc machine in thc oi-fice, he hancie'<1 nre nn applicatii)n fornr f or f he posi t i on of sales rt prcsontat i ve. fwo (,ils u'ecks Later, I l ornra I ly oif erecl thr. job, and tool{ i t. Fareu'el L :rncj bcst wishes Io ;rl]. APPRENTICES IN GERMANY

From a cLrLrrmn hv l{iL1i;rm Rasphr:rrv jn the Washington l)ost, ll /l2l:z:

...FLrlly haI t',rI Ce.r-manv's voung Leave frrl I c ime school bv iigc L6 to begin thrcc vcar a[)prenticr. ships in their choscn l-racles. ..."Both 6ovcrnn0nt and unions irvor- this lvolirnfary] approach," s:lv .,rrLhor\ ul dn Linrprocht irnd lllv!s :r rL icle in thc Harvtircl llusiness Rcv i er^' I . " be c a u s c.-iE-FE[r-:is -Tdtl?EGGTh c p-ioFl em of voullr Lrne'mployment by provicling teen-agcrs s'itlr r rnarker;lblc' Er;rde. and good discipline... Industrv I ikes thc- sVStcn l,cc;tiise it brriLds ir work Force tnat i s hi gh1 v skillcd , c-spccialLv in thc high tochnolog_v indrrstries that rrro crLrciaL to tho (,'e'rnran econLrmv - as u'clL as notivated and responsiblo. "When yorLng pc.oplc rro trainccl by industry, not by thc state, and ilre glven considc'r:ablc, work experionce ;rncl responsi bi I i tv at an e ar:ly agc, Lhey becone v{.'rv attracLive to fr.rtLrre cnplovcrs. lhcsc ernplovers arc n'i ll irrg to f rrrni:;h wh;tti've r re training is necessarv bccarrse thev ha\re forrnci, throrLgh I ong 1'x1-.g1iq.nce.. lirili al)pre.ntices aclaPt n,r'l I to diiferent Lvo rk envi ronment: s . " 'lhe (lernln svsl.em, in cther \\'or.ls, is prodrrcing voung workers with preciseLv tho skills our exporls say wiIL be in incrc;rsinglv short sLrpplv here in thc comirrg )cars... pe.opLL.

CHILD IN FOOD CO-OP

Iiror.liLl

liasf i:rn ii![i;

...I havc g()Ltc'n br:tverJ rPccrtf Iv, and t:rken Hcrtther i7) tLr thc foocl co-op with mo, whr 1c I work my 2-hour sf int oncer ;r month. I shop whilc I 'm thc're, , . I wasn'l sure. what wrruld i.t:rppen. Of ten nothcr-s bring sma11 chi ldren and e-xpt'ct them ttr plav confcntccl iv for tvo hoLrrs i n a smtrl l car p(.fcd arc:r with tovs. BLrf the li ttle .rr.s invariablV stert g.'tting into evcrVthing el se nitme'ly the fi-,ori lrir\ ktgc c .n Lho sht'lv,'s. l{eathe r: pLiiv('(! f or a whi 1e, the i'irst time, bv hcrst:1 f. Then she asked if :;hc coulcl hel p me. I package hc'rbs in I-2 oz. ilmounfs. Itrs messv .rld v. rv LxACt inq unrk. A l t h"'igh I 'r not nornaLlv v.,rv piit ient, I dccicle'cl to lef her help a little. I have tr) corrnt l6 b:regi es ancl t i e s lor e'ach herb. rrrita and st ick c,'n a sm;rlI

labcl , and, of coursc. spcron and wc'1gh the herbs from a big bag into

Lhc smal I baggics. lhc wcights arc in grams and musr bc plrf on one side of thc scale with twcezc'rs so as not to got oiL from your hands on them. H('.lthcr- counted h.rg5:,i, s Jnd t ios. affixed labels. th'istccl ties, put on r,t:ights. and cvcn \!;rs allowed to mcJsurc some of c.ach hcrb into a bag /it rcaLIy is verv mcssy even for an :rduIt and must l)c vcr_I exact to come ()ut in L6 equal am6iiTs). I was real1v proud of her anci f e.Lt good about he'r helping. This Iast monfh, she found a vcry voung chj Ld to pLay wi th, and i t was i nterest i ng to watch their i nter.rction. Latcr wh('r'r \hr,,sked to help me, I wasnrt very patient, as I was tirccl and in a hurrv Lo get the last batch done. She hacl plei,ecl most of tlrc. time with the volrng chlLd, even '.. 1r,,n the .hild Irrrstrrtctl her by mcssing up :lrrangemencs of bLocks Heather hacj br-ri lt. She i s vcrv :rt ease, lhor:gh, at the co-op: washing her lr;rr-rls very Lh('roilrhlv bnforc helping mc, golng arouncl asking other aduLts u,hat they are doi ng k i thout interfering, and even pal/irg for a snack at the cashier in the front of the store. L;rst time I asl<cd if I couLd switch jobs. The marlager had others available, so next month I will Iearn to p.rckage othcr thi ngs. lf I 'm ever: ruble to inventory, I'nr sure HeaEher wor-rld Like to heLp. I've told several oI thc women about Hcather's homeschooling, and have had several calLs irs a resuLt of Leaving a notjce on tht (aLL thaf persons interested in lrome-schooLing couid call me,.. ANOTHER VET HELPER

From Ruth Mc(lr,rtchcn

{KY )

...After roading CWS #30, ALison 'l ir was inspirc,d to hcgin voluntcer uork at both the Library and our vetor'lnarian's oIfice. She cnjoys bot]r but favors t he vc t . I)u ri ng her f j rs t u'eck she saw a dog spayed and our two L0-nronth o1d kittcns neutered. She described il to Lls in glorious detail and n'e aIl f ounci i t iaiclnETTilg. She nasn't Eazed by any of it. The vef ' s fan i L y seem to appre ciate her calmness and efficiency. 1'hcy have school-agc children and are cons i deri ng tryi ng honc--school ing. . . TEENS AT HOME

From Chri stopher DeRoos

( CA

)

. . . I have bccn hone-taught and t\do years ago when I was 14, my m()thcr starte(l taki ng me to si t in on u.lLdge courscs. I am at Holy Names Collcge in Oaklancl, whe.re a friend a l so attends. HL' st.rrted there when hc nas 15. His monl h()nre-taught aLL forir of her chi ldren. I am in comprrter sc.iences and cconomics. I'm going t' l.o fakinq an arrL(. r'ng.inecring class. Mv Favori to conrpLrters are Apple II and III:rnd Heurlett Packard HP9OCf0. . . I am se'rvi ng on a Plann i ng (lommittee, Commission - Sr'gn reviewing the Alameda C()unty sign ordinaltces. . Nly motto is from Auntie llame, a banquet anil most of yoLl "l.ife's poor suckers are st;trving to death." llcing home taLlghL h;rs becn the best I ,..The most-asked quesfion was aboLlt my social ization. Having exchange students in our home heLpecl bccause the strrclents from Europe :grted that American schools over-

stress thc social rather than tho academic... I could never undcrstancl why aLl 5-year olds, etc, wero sttick together: when we each progress at lJsuaLly whcn you rates... diffcrent gef oLrt 1n the work force you'rc with a i L agcs . Home school ing he J pccl prt pare nre for the RtiAl, wor] d. . , From Vanessa Keith 1n N.lJ.

home ,schooler- f or

.,.I'm 14. I've never been Lo schooL (except one dav with ny cousin ) . I have been tracling rvi tir nei ghbors f or ti.'o years . I tr-aclc babvwashing dishcs, and moncy sitting, for lessons. I have four lessons rr week: sewi ng, weaving, botan;2, irncl piano. It works great if you h:ivc f ri nnrl I v

nn i ohh,rr<

I an away from home ilpproxin)atu1y Iour: months of the year pickjng apples in the faL1. and pruning applc crees in the winter and visjLing my father who lives in Phi lac1clphia. I started picking apples of rny owrt accord when I was five, I starte.d reaLIy picking a lot when I h,as Icn. I haven't lost my enthusiasm fLrr it yet. I earn money doing these things. I have to buy my own cloth€s. I lravc to pay for-t.hr.isrmas prnscnts. f,'orl , rent , and LrJnslort ef i un wh i l,' p i. king irpplcs and pruninB. I [ | w:rrtt l,' go to a movie, restauranl, concert ) etc, I also have to pay nysc'1 f. . . A parent in Brooklyn wrotL': five years ago, I took gradc, keeping her out of the sevcnth ancl eighth gradc too. . . She's attenciing high school now, a snalL privatc school. ...Regarding the years my darrghter sCayed at home: they rvere rcal LV hard. We were both very isolatcrl antl the only reason she didn't go back to school was that(L-school was worsc th:tn ,,.tldn'I ^F-..:-- L^^.. lL,[ mc JLdlrL't3 tutor her and she wouldn't do aI I the educaEional things I had pLarnnecl. like go co muscums and stuff. She hung around in her bathrobe and cirew pictures alL day. For nearLy thrcc years. Summers, too. l,,Jel1, you shuld see her ar! wctrk today. Fantastici ...Staying home was hard for my daughter but we both think it was necessary, if only to recuper:rLc fronr thc previous six years of schooling... ...About

my daughter out of the sixth

ON CORRESPONDENCE COURSES IJH: ] t haPpenccl to sce in thc

llS Air magazine a Vc]:y i ntere:iting .iitidfe bv xate i:lnni s abouf corresponcle.nce courscs . I f sa icl in p:rrt :

From Sarah O'Keefe in Ctrl i forni a: ...I do Sylvia }{are's Abilitics rch Assoc i lt es \chool i ng progr;rnr (I lovc it). I'm taking this program becarrsc I hate school - that doesn'f mean I hate schoolu'ork, I like schoolwork. I do Sylvia's courses and expancl then,., By cxpand I nean inrlependr'nt work I chought up... Right now I'm reading rrchacology. tgvptulogv rnd about Jupiter's L2th moon - whatever. ...'Ihe other thing I love about indepcndernt courses is I'IL work on Saturday rnd thcn on fuesday tilkc .fl and go to an open rock concert 1:)r: a beach. You can't do that in school I .. Rescn

Tammy

...I

MiIls

(TX) wrote last

fal L:

am a teenage home-

school er. , . Thi s year woul d be

nry

first year in high schooL, so I'm feolins sorl oF is,)laled. I'vc lcc'r r

a lmost two vears rnd h-ir'L nirr,l.d rrnlil n.'u. AII -ry Iri ends hcre t;r 1k abouf \dl]at a "blast" high school is, and that I'm real 1y missing olrt on somothing. But I fecl fhat odLlcaLion is more fhan having thc best fooIbal ] t(,.am or thc prctt i t'st ctrecrleaders, l-lclrrcation shotrld l>c 1c'rrning things uorth learning in l grrocl atnospherc, and should be made intcrcsting. Hone e.ciucaticn is aIl LrI thc above. Education is 11ot soneone y()rr doit't knolv te-i lirg you nrhere t. be qhen an<l - (ll- clsc. Irdrrcation is some one who lovcs voir its ll person, p:rticntlv helplng vou whcre vou neecl irelp, encouragi ng you tro learn f or yourself. In th()sc six hr:rrrs a day, I can read, play thc piano. help one ot the younger oncs wj th thci r malh, or cook, or rvhatcver c l se. I m:ry f c.el I iker dojng aL the timo. I have g()tfcn in touch with scveraI other pcoplc nry agc whosc addre sses I IoLrncl i n ther (]htS di rectorv, becoming "pcn paLs" with each. If is verv intercsIing to hear about di ffr.rent ways of l i fe in clifIerent parts cf thc countrv. And vei nost crF these pcople havc. rcturncd to the pub Iic schcoL. Brrf r.vcry one of them who h;rs, has stated cloarlv that they nere ni)t going track for the. cduc:rt i on. that in Fact , thcy hlcl Loved homc-schoo1jr1g, excopt For One fact Lhev nri sse.d thci r J ri oncl s. . . I feel very gr-,ocl tor'rards homc schooLing, bec:rirse of my pen paLs, wtro make mr: i. ce i t hat a I t hough I ma1' l>e j soLated from Lhc, pLrbl ic school group. I have .l ri e nds eve:rytn,hcre who c.rre about me and fhc home-schooLing novenent. I norrl d I ovc to get lett€rs from any other hornc-schoc,.lers w'ho f eel this r.'ay, ancl wi I I enswer aLl I e iters., ,

...For .-Iovce (lorig, the idea of bcing an i11[erir]r clccoratLrr- was mLrre than a carcer goaJ . ll- w.ls an ob)ses sion... The problom uirs shc had neithcr Lhe time nor nronev to continue her educaf ion, fhen, urhilc bror''sing thr,,rrslr a 1f,p:tz in^ .;rll .l IC0l Doc.rrting Ideas, shc canc acrosi-ilF?tsf ('necl to he t h. 1r)sw( l : curt-nspundence courses . Eight nronths l atc.r, after conpJ eting a comprehensivc. course through the mail, she sIi]rtcd hcr own inferior-clesign busrlness, :mcl todirv is read)' to hirc. hcr own fulL time sccret ary. . . ...LvnelL Scafl... fivc years a€lo was working as l cicrk at a snall electronics f irm iit Pcnnsylvania. tlnable to support hersclf and go to school at the same t i mc., she i nvested in a three-year I InLr.rnationai Ccrrespondence SchooLsl nrogram to earn .l bachelor's degre:c in accoLrnfing. Today, a1- age 23 . sho' s carni ng $25,000 a year as a rcgion;tl accoLrn L:lnt for the I!1ci)(rnalci's 0orporation... 'l hese c1avs . ilrorc ancl more peoplcI i kc Ge r j g arc Ii rrcl r'ng srrccc:ss thrLrugh the tl .S. nrails,:rncl corresporl dcnce -qchool s ;lrc c,arning rhe re!jpect of educatlrs and bus i nc'ss pcopi :r. f Jfl : i'lore tiran can be salci f or n:any publ ic schools - s(re "(lradrtafes Lack SkiiLs," CWS x31. l l^lhile collegc enroll menLs cont inlle tc airop, corresponclencc school :rdmis;sions er<' incr-t.irsing bv approxi-

matcly 251every year. l,llryl l'or one thing, correspondence school s soilct i mr's knorvn as "prcrpri eta ry" schc)o1 s - Lrl-for ilitny courses than lrrt:n't avirj lirblc' erLsewhcre, occilsiolaJ ly ;rL cxcepLional ly Low priccs. At lirst count) ovcr 1500 sub-jects rvcrc br.ing of f orc<i in such nontrildi f r onir I homr. sLrr<ly arcrs as wine apprccielic>n, sIock-market science, pi]ralegal treining. llnclscape design, gen appr-;ris;rl, anci cvon robot-buiLding. At least slx ol Lhe country' s proprietai!--iEll?frTi ln

.," ..; -"" , '',';' "ntRnmlr)t. .lrlrt ;=:;; hrr),(' Ln(..,, rAV r r-iF='uEFTtrF

nrr''

il.

poinLs is its fLexibility. Stuclr,nts can Lake sr:vcral years to comJ>lctr: .l corrrsc. putting 1n as littLc as Lwo horrrs tr wcek f or study. . . l:'or :r f rce copy of Ehe Nat i ona Homc Sttrclv ClorrnciI's I)irccIory of Acc r',',lj | .'rl H-rre Study >cho"l s, w- i L. Io N;rt i on:rL Home Study Counci ] , 1 601 18th St. N.ti., !'lashington I)C 20009... L

iJH:] i.Je print lhis articl. fr)r two reiis()ns. One is that sont' r>f our rcadcrs might h'ant to use sL)no of fhcse corrcspondence courscs. l hc. otlrcr, anci more inport:]nt ()nc. i s th.,t Ih, 'n-v aYi\i.nCC oI thcs. corrrscs , ancl the fact that the i r crcclcnI iirls arc honored bv btLsinc.sscs ancl Lhirt lhcir: and othcr- institutions gracluaIes are denonstrably compe.tc.nt fields, is cortclrrsivc' in thejr ch()sen proof th:iL thc confention thirL wc c.,1rl onl v I errn i mportant things by spenrJing many hours in a place clesr'gnatcc.l lus ir "schooL" and in the lace-to face prcsc'ncr. of soneone dr:si gnate <1 as it "cr:rti fii:d teacher," is r,hol11, unLrLrc 'l'his i s inportant to honc school ers from a legal polnL of v.i ch' bec;rLrsc i t gives us srrong grouncls f or- saving in court (if we. arc' prrshecl t hr-'re. ) th:rt .1ny rccluirement o f sclrools and/or legisJ:rf r.rrc.s that only pooplc wi th teechers' certi Iicate-.s shall bo al Lr>wed to teach chi ldron i s unre.;rsonabLc ancl a deniaL of orrr FclLr-tecnfh AnrcndmenC right to erqrLaL trc.atmcnt rrnder the Larv. It is clr:arJy absurd [() sr]y that I can gct a bnchclor's clegree for nyseli wiLhoLlf sptncling a singl o minule in schooL bui l di ngs or i n thc presence oF a ccrt j fied teachcr, but that my chi Icl can'f 1e:irrn ruithout a certified Leachcr. lirrrthcrmorc., rhc gooci track rccord oi corrcspondcncc schools concLUsivcl y relLrtL's thc schools' argunenL that thc higher wc go in the gradcs, the morc necessary it is for ccrLi fiorl Lu-rihcrs Iu r('ach us. 'l'hi s argume'nt can be very irsc.f rrl . nr>[ -jLrs I becalrse i t could carry considcrable weight righf now in nany stilLe and Federal courts, buL r-'von norc bcc:tusc., since it does noI clepend on Picrce or Tokushige . i t ivi I I lose stitl carry weight tm-iT-rvc thesc vuluabLe precedents ( sec p l7) HOW MANY ARE WE?

,.lH:l I :rskcd ,rrrr f riend ;rrr,l c. leaguc, l)r. Raymond Moore, of ther HIff^lI1"f R1'ISEARUf{ CENTER) fo rvrifc rLS a l eLLcr c:xplaining or defencling hi s cstinraLc Lhat there are 5110,000 r.rr morc homc schooLers in the coLintry. I in Cl^/S rvhat hc hacl sa i d I wouLd print to say about this question, and that j f hc convinccd ne I wouLrl s.ry so, :rnd i I he ciitln't I would sav k'hy n()[. Out, of his l>rrsy schedlile hc. tor)k Iin]e l o wri to , sayi ng i n part ( I have num-. br.rc'cl tlrc excerpted paragraphs for I

GROWII\G l,]ITHOUT SCHOOT ING

i32

t5 re ference )

...(1) John, I could not live with my conscience if I ignored the handicapped children and migrant youngsEers as home schoolers, When I was with the U.S. Office of Education, some of fhe Ieading Spanish officials were former migrant children. Why should we exciude these pre, cious chi Ldren? .,.(2t I first picked up my figures from Ehe tIaLI SEreeC Journal wh i ch ha s f i guiE s--i n-Exc:lEE5F-o-F300,000, and then wenE Eo the U.S. Census and Labor DeDartment and deterrnined Ehac there were close Eo 5,000,000 children in areas of handicapped, migranc, and normal children who are at home or at Least away from school. Then we did some brief facloring in a Cown or two and concluded that at least five to ten percent of these youngsEers were gecEing some kind of instruction aE home. This would give a net figure of aE least a quarter to half a million youngsEers who are receiving some kind of home insLruction. And bear in mind that Ehis does not include the famiLy schools in which parents have their children going to institutional schools and coming home to study and work with them parE of the day, And Ehere are many Amish, Mennonite and oEher families who are doing exacEly thac. ...(3) IE may be that such writers as John Naisbitt are Ehinking in terms of Ehe gross figure of aII students who are studying at home, when Ehey give Ehe figure of 1,000,000 or so, and chey may very well be righc, although I do not normally quote them. In any event, Bill Cothard, who is the leading marriage and fam.ily counselor in the nation, wiEh seminars up to 15,000 or 20,000 people, has repeatedLy told me thaE there must be at least 100,000 new families per year now going into this movement. He has gathered his daEa from his seminars. And he is now making the family school the center of his entire famiLy and marriage counselinâ&#x201A;Źi minisEry. ... (4) ALmosC every day we get a new Letter Ehat Eells us how they feLc they were the only home schooLers around and shortly found that there were 30 in their local town, or others who calLed meeEings, as recently in Sacramento, and found several Eimes as many showed up as expected. This was our experience noE long ago in Vancouver where we were CoLd that we might have 30 or 40 people, and we had over 200. ...(5) I sLiLl stick by my figrrrp of c!rarfcr ro a half miLl ion at least, ind che figures probably range higher than chat now, This does not include those children who are gioing to school as well as studying at home. ...(6) Alf I know is that when I inquire of the University of Nebraska I find that they have more than 10,000 home school students of a1l kinds, Missouri more than 5,000, Home Study InstituEe more than 8,000, and so on and on and on unEiL we sot Fi-^i ralenhnnino all w| L r r'll ^-.i ^F rr*irin^ these people to obtain information that way. Chri st i an Li berty Academy has 6,000 sEudents itself, according Co the last statement thaE Ehey gave to us a year or so ago. Such flgures as these put the figure of 10,000 to 15,000 totally ouE of the piccure, it seems to me. ...(7) The facts are that there are probably Ehousands of families who have starEed Eheir own DrivaEe schools in the norEhern California GROt^iING I^lITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

area, I wouLd tend to believe Ehat there are a very smalL number of those who actuaLLy have registered

wiEh Ehe sEate compared wiEh Fhar

av^

.^F"^l

home,

l' y '

l^inoI r,6 uu

Ehose

tpa.hino

,l-

.,.(8) You say that you do not know of a staEe thaE has as many as 1,000 home school families by your

definiEion. Of course you deIini tion

may be more Limiting than my definicion, but we have far more than 1,000 home school records on California in our files. Now maybe some of these

have gone ouE of business or whatever, for we have noE made checks, but I would suggest that there are probably many thousands of home

schoolers in CaLifornia. I do not

know what Ehe figure is in tTEah, buE it i s considerable. ...(9) And Ehe other night when I was in Ehe Minneaoolis suburb of

Minnetonka, on a very, very bad night weaEherwise and I thoueht we wouLd be fortunate if we had 40-or 50 people,

there turned out 400. ... (10) In Louisiana, my informaEion from Woody Jenkins is that Lhings are growing, not declining. There is a growth of opposiEion from Ehe NEA and oEher vested interests, ^f I aoi

.^"-ca <l rirrra

h"r fn

r.,hon malre

thorr qomp

namo hrr chnnooc

rha i n

l,Joody's law, 2,000 people showed up on Ehe capiEol steps fo oppose chem. ...(11) I don'E think we should use high figures to make impressions l-."F

i f

rhnco

Fi orrra<

,ro

not going to worry a bi t i f they alarm the opposit ion. . .

accurate I

I In reply, I wroce: Dear Ray - Thanks very much for vour good Letter. I remain unconvinced by your figures, For reasons I wilL give, but Irm sure our discussion wil I clariIy some important issues and will be very useful to all who read it. First of all. our numbers disagree because we are using Ehe words "home schoolersrr or "home schooled chi.Idren" to mean very di fferent things. There's noEhi ng wrong wi Eh FLj1^-FL^ hoar ----^^1a L'rr r, d5 LUr'5 ds L"E P<uPrs ",ha these words know what we mean by them. When people ask ilE, as they always do, how many home schooling i

JH:

f rmi I i ac nr'l acc

rl-rara rrTher

rro T n^,., c.\' dananrl c nf cnlrea

what you mean by those words. If

mean, how many families are there whose chi Idren do not go to school, perhaps because they are handicapped, perhaps becausc thev are migrant work-

ers, perhaps for other reasons,

Eiet a very large number, If we mean, how many famiLies are there in which some

instrucEion is done in rhe

mean

families who, having a choice of ng t he i r ch i ld;en-G---ali-odf;--

home,

we geE anoEher very Large number. I use the words 'home schooLersr to

che naEional average of 2+ children' A guess of Ehree children per home schooled family would give us a

tota1, by my definition, of somewhere thirty and sixEy thousand chi Idren. By the nay, I shouLd say Ehat in his latesE lecter !o me Ed Nagel guesses that the number of home schooling families, which I Ehink he defines much as I do, is beEween thirty and fifcy Ehousand. I will ask him, as I did you, Eo wriEe me explaining or defending this figure but Ehis will have Eo wait for a later issue of GWS. Let me now commenf on the paragraphs of your letter as I have numbered them. L) I donrt want to ignore Ehese children, eiEher. I don'E include them in my estimates of home schoolers, firsE, because that is not the question EhaE people wanE answered, and secondly, because the overwhelming majoriEy of Ehese people r,rould send the i r thi I dren to' scirool-Tf-They ca-nTivil Liberties Union has noE been much inEerested in helping us; they are far more inEerested in making ic possible for those parents who r^/ant to send Eheir children to school, Eo be able t.o send them, a position with which I agree. Of course this is an importanE issue; I only say it is an issue which oughE not to be confused with ours. 2) This doesn'E help me aE all. t^lhere did the Wall SEreet Journal pet r tc ir olrac z t niF-ii- - _ naroly an area in which they have experEise. In aII probabi Lity, Ehey are simply using someone elsers wild guess. But a wild guess remains a wild guess, no maEter how many cimes iE is passed from hand to hand. As for Ehe Census figures, I don'E know what their definitions are or how those figures were obtained. If Eheir definiEion of home schooled children is the same as yours, Ehen itrs noE clear to me why you don'E use !heir figure, If the definitions are different, chen what is Ehe difbeEween

ference? Unless we know what

Ehe

definitions are, Ehe numbers, even if accuraEe (which is questionable), are meaningless.

3) I have the

same DrobLem hrith

these oeoole. WhaE does i,,iaisbitt ( author oi uEcetnElDS ) mean by home schooLers, and where does he get his ficrrres? Same orresfion for Bi ll Gothard. And how does he "gather this data" from a seminar of 15,000 people? tJhaE questions does he ask Ehem? I[ you have an address for him, perhaps I can ask him directly. 4) WelI, we've gotEen Ietcers Iike that, too, But if I got a letEer every day for a year from someone say# ing thad she or he had turned up 3O home schoolers, that would add up to a IiEtle over 10,000, not a miIIion. As for aEEendance at neeEings, Ehat

EeIls us only how many people are inter.ested in the idea of home schooling, not how many are doing it. At i Id_ such meetlngs I almost always ask how many are doing it, how many are serioiusly thinking about doing it, and mrhis qlnno fh.f infarocrc nannla I ihon how many are interesEed in Ehe idea say that my best guess, the guess I as such. The number actuaLly doing iE am most comlortable with, the guess is never more than a fairly small perfor which I can find aE least some centage of the meeEing, aE the outhard support, is somewhere between side 20%. ten and fifteen thousand families, 5) and 6) These figures are perhaps going as high as ciEncl thouimpressive, but again we come back to sand. The number of home schooled definitions. How many of the people children would of course be larger using tJniversity of Nebraska, MisEFEi--fETs, dependinEi on the ,reiage souri, etc. courses, are using Ehem size of Ehe families. My guess here Eo supplement regular school work, wouLd be that the averape home school- and,--:. how many of them are using them ing fami)y is somewhat larger than instead of regular school work? send i

Almost cerEainly, the universities, Home Study InstituEe, etc. do no!

sLate, and have all 100 Eurn up at a hearing, than say we have 10,000 and know, because this is noE a question have only 100 turn up, Meanwhile, I they have asked or have any reason Eo insist thaE iE doesn't make good tacask. Beyond that, hon many of Ehe peo- Eical or poliEical sense to throw Ehe ple using Ehese courses are beyond schools inCo unnecessary panic. compulsory school age, which would Well, so much for all of that. remove them from my definition of My mind remains open (more or less) home schoolers? Probably a large peron this ouesEion. I would rather centage, maybe a large majority. How believe that Chere are many home many of these students are outside schoolers Chan EhaC there are few, Ehe United States? Unless we know, and will welcome any and all hard eviEhe numbers Eell us nothins about the dence to supporE Ehat idea, so any number of home schoolers wlthin the time you get some new information u.5. ^L^..F ^r1 ^c tsL:be graLeful ''11 t'The 7) facEs are Ehat there are if you'11 send iE along for us to probably..." If it's a "fact," then share wich our readers. iErs not "probably." The facE is thaE Meanwhile, thanks for aLl your good work, enjoy your new home in the Ehis isnrE a facf, buE a surmise, a guess, maybe a reasonable. guess, but sEaEe of Washington, and keep in a guess none the less. What I need to touch. know is, on Ehe basis of what evidence can we make such a guess, Why would only a very small number of FREEDOM IN FLORIDA home schoolers have regisEered with Ehe scate, when to do so was easy, Melanie Darst (FL) wriEes: cosE noEhing, and, at least until recently, seemed a sure way of sEay...Ann Mordes heloed me when we ing ouE of trouble? Do we know of a goc started, At that time there were community in which the number of unsome bad signs for homeschoolers in registered home schoolers is much Florida. So she suggested that I larger than the number of registered? regisEer RusseLl (6) aC CrassrooEs I don'8. private school aE a special rate for 8) We are indeed back a! the homeschoolers. I did and che cosE was maEter of definiCions. You soeak of $90 for the whole year. The director is inEeresEed in and suooorts home"far more Ehan 1,000 home school records on our files,rr Does this mean schooLing, Once a month'i turn in you have letEers from far more than three sheeEs which record Ehe amount 1,000 California families saying thaE of time we have soent in three subjecc areas. GrassrooEs does noE inEerthey are not sending cheir children fere wiEh our homeschooling in any Eo school buE are Eeaching Lhem aE way. ISee "Helpful Schools," GWS #30. ] home? Or does ir mean someEhing else, perhaps LhaE more Ehan 1,000 families ..,When I undertook this experimenE I had one main objective - to are using some kind of home teaching take all the pressure of Learning maEerials? California home schoolers ouE. I wanted Russell Eo relax, enjoy have not unEil recently been very much organized, buE Ehose few communi- himself, and feel that he had some power and responsibility in his own Eies which have acEive organizaLions Iife. Therefore I could not insEiruce have noE reported any such large numbers. The UEah people are exceptional- another regime wiEh graded sheeEs and him reading aloud, e!c. I decided to and well organized, nith ly active go compleEely to a non-struccured very good inEernal communicacions, yet they do noE claim much more than learning si EuaEion. In fact, che only two hundred or so home schooling fami- activity which I planned to do daily was read, which I was doing anyway, Iies. 9) See my earlier remarks abouc buE read more. I have always let Russell and Lighrsey (4) pick out the home schoolers and meeEings. A1so, iE is surely as Erue for you as for me books. It was difficult at first Eo be Ehat when Ehe word geEs out ChaE you passive - not Eo ask questions, Eest, are going Eo be speaking somewhere, and worry. The hardest task to not people come from a long distance Eo worry about is reading. I have asked near. 10) I quite agree; my informaRussell severaL times if he wanEs Eo practice aloud or if he hrants me to Eion is Ehe same. BUE no one I know teach him. Each cime he has said he in Louisiana has claimed much over would rather do it himself and just two hundred home schooling families. If there are more, nobody knows about ask me a word when necessary. So I do noE know aE this moment how well he them, which puts us back into wild reads, but I do see him srudying guesses. As for those 2,000, we don't know how many lvere acEual home school- books and he does ask about certain words. ers; there were many education bilLs I am self-employed as a boEaniup before Ehe legislature, all of cal arcist and am parE-owner of a them bad, and many of Ehese people native plants nursery. I am able to may have been Ehere Eo oppose some of work almost entirely at home and rhis them chaE had noEhing Eo do with home is ideal, buE we could not have our schooling. Say even Ehat chey are home-school without the supporC of poEential home schoolers; I wouldn't Paul's full-time job. However, I have disagree wiEh you for a minuEe that very little time to "teach. " I estithere may well be a million or more people in Ehe country who are qqrlouq- maEe fhaC Russel I and Lightsey get about 11 hours of undivided attention iy bonsidering home ichool ing.-TilI-and help per school day. how many are dojng it righr now is I love our freedom from caranother matter. pooling, school hours, and organized 11) I enEirely agree; if we have schooL acriviEies. We can do a proaccurate figures, let us by all means jecE when we want to, for hours if use them. But i[ we are guessing, as necessary. Russell is more confident we are. Ehen if makes more sense co guess conservaEively. TR righcly and is very self-motivaEed about what he finds interesting. He has studied said, "Speak softly, and carry a big stick." WhaE use for us to soeak loud- hisEory and geography mostly. [,Je have ly if in a pinch iE Eurns out that read abouE Eopics thaE I never studied such as the Mongol invasjons, all we are carrying is a litEle twig. Russian folklore, Indian folklore, I would rather say Eo a IegislaEor Ehe origin of Japan, Confucius, and that we have 100 home schoolers in a

other things. He has a portfolio of far. All this is greaE but there is one problem. Russell says he is ready go to back co school next year. I think chere are several reasons. First, he misses the children he got to know during his kindergarten year. Second, he liked the independence of being out on his own, however nerve..-^^!.J-- TLi-r '*hink he feels he is missing something which the other kids share. When asked about homeschooLing, he says he Iikes iE. LighEsey says she wants to go Eo kindergarten, too. I have already Eold Ehem that if nexE summer thev still want to go to school, they cin. I have also said EhaE if laEer (the folLowing year) they wanted to go back to homeschoolinqr we would,,. i From a-i acer Iecter: I . . .The kids are currently not leaning Eoward going to public school. I try noE to poll them abouE it, but I think they are hearing more negative Ehings about it from schoolchildren thev play with. trte'I I see. . , arEwork about three inches thick so

FROM COSTA RICA TO U.S.

From WaLter Marschner (LA):

...Our lefter about adopEing our two boys, ages 14 and 12, from Costa Rica was published in CWS S26, and we EhoughE readers may like to know how our boys are doing since their arrival in May '82. We are home-schooLing the boys, as well as our 17-year-oId daughcer, LJp Co

this time, I have not wanted

ask the boys how they like schooL here as compared Eo schools in CosEa Rica (which are Hispanic versions of schools in the US - enough said). I felt it was too manipulative a quescron.

But in letters to their former

houseparents in Cosca Rica Iast week, Joseph, our I2-year-oId, said, "Thank God we don'E go Eo Chese

schools.

go to school at home." I then felt free Eo ask him why he liked school a! home. His response was, t'Because I do so much betterl i did much worse there,rr which is very true. In five years of schooling, Joe could noE wriEe cursive, knew absolutely no math (could not even add 2 + I in his

head wiEhouc councing on his fingers). ALso, though he had a desire to communicate with others, he had great trouble expressing this EhoughEs, parts i ^..1 ^-r le had been labeled "perhaps learning djsabLed." After severaL months of home schooLing, Joe now knows all his Eables Ehrough the l0's, can do complicated addi tion, subtraction, and mul Ei pl i caEion, general ly without counting on his fingers or using stick figures any more. He wriles a beautiful cursive hand, MosE encouraging of all, he now sits down and writes his own leEters to friends without help - that is, he can now express the thoughts that are in his head in his own words on paper. Of ha no-dc lnrc ^F h^l^,'iFh wr L'r spelling and punctuaiion,"<rP but iE is l:-LF L^^ ^1-^^F ^^ l a ^ L-:^LF u, r6"L a !6,,1 ud5 l^^uss,' Eurned on in his head.,. He is also asking many good quest i ons and devel opi ng I i sEen i ng habits. which he did not have before. He has asked, just over the pasE several days, "Who invented airpl.anes?" "Who invented ki Ees?" "Who was Hitler?r' And he asked lhe very good quesEion one day, "Why is the U,S. such a rich country and CosEa Rica so poor?" IeadGRO!.IING |^lITHOUT SCHOOTING #32

ing us into a historicaL and religious analysis. We combine our answers Eo Ehe boys' quesEions with Erips Eo the pubLic library for picture books which helo to show what we are talkrng aDouc. As for the older boy, Saul, 14, we can't keep up with him! NeiEher ( hnv hrrl ovar rar-l,' ) nnanoi a book for oLeasure in Eheir lives before. Now, Saul has devoured the several dozen books we brought back wiCh us from CosEa Rica and we are searching for oEher Spanish language books for him. (WhiIe the boys are Learning EngLish, we don't wanE Ehem Eo forget Spanish... ) Saul likes boEh ficEion and biographies, and has been fascinated Eo learn about Benjamin FrankIin, Marquis de LafayetEe, and other figures jn American history. One of his favoriEe books was a biography of Isaac NewEon. The great parc of this is - as you and readers of GLIS know Ehat such omniverous reading Ieads one inEo learning about so many things ...Saul was always a good athlete, but Joe had never done anything physical in his life before. Now he noE only rides a bike, does karate and exercises and running, buE is making goals for his soccer Eeaml He had somehow been led to think, in Ehe pasE, thaL he could never do ggy-

in Ehe alien environment of their school, the superincendenE marvelouslv' agreed to allow me to Eest D.N. i-. mvseLf ' l,Je had a wonclerf ul workout wi th those tests and I hope that D.N.rs Fears of achievement testing have been forever allayed. The !est rn/as sent out to be eraded with locaL fifEh grade tesis and will be returned with a prinEouE advising his :

strengEhs and vJeaknesses.

...[^le are using materials from

ConsEitutionaliEv of

Home EducaEion:

The Role of the i'arent, the State and Ehe Child," by Brendan StocklinEnright. It was pubLished in Ehe FaLl

'82 Willamette Law Review (Willamette UnlverslEV. ba-Lem uK v/JUrr. rnls article I6oks especially useful for home-schoolers, as ir is vrriEten from the point of view of arguing a case before the US Supreme Court, and has

useful cornparisons among Ehe requiremenEs of the differenE sEates. - DR

CHRISTIAN LIGHT PLIBLICATIONS, PO Box

I126, Harrisonburg VA, an individuali zed-study curriculum, ...Mornings at our house center around math, language arts, science, social studies, and Bible study. Any daily assignment not compleced by noon is considered "homework.rr Afternoons are for the extra-curricular activities such as signing, Cerman, creafivity, music, workskills, "home ec,," composiEion, memory work, and practicing parts to be given aE church on Sunday mornings. lnle Eake the chi ldren on a f ield lrip each monEh and also seek out the skilLs of oEher "Eeachers." Right now $Je are learning how to make stocking caps on a homemade circular loom made of plywood and 46 golf tees. . ,

OUR LEGAL SITUATION At present, home

schoolers stand

on a piece of legal and constituEional ground which, though narrow, is

firm enough Eo support our weight and almost always does so; for aIl our Ealk of courE cases, and our naEural worry over Ehem, the fact is EhaE for every family now threatened wiEh

court there are hundreds Ceaching their children at home wiEhouE legal problems or worry. My own fairLy conservaEive esEimaEe of Ehe fiumber of families who have chosen to teach their children aC home is somewhere in the range of cen to fifEeen thousand, perhaps even twenty chousand (see article elsewhere in this issue on "How Many Are We?"), and of these far less Ehan a hundred are now chine. . . facing courE action. AT HOME UNTIL 10 We read in English together In the draft of model home every day. The boys are learning, From Georgeanne Poe (ME): schooling legislaEion we printed in Ehough they donrE understand everyCt"lS #30, I outlined, in effect, the thing as yeE. We also read in Spanish , . . [.Je don't plan to send our legal and constiEuEional basis for (I read to Ehem) aE nighc before Ehey 4-year-old Rosie Eo school for a home schooling. Let me sum iE up (and go Eo bed. Their my) greaE favor- while. I Ehoughc Ird share with you again here. The ConsEiEuCion iEself iEes are the C.S, Lewis "Narnia Chron- my personal experiences wiEh my first is silent on the matter of educaEion, icles" in Spanish. . . child, Annalee, who is now L8, Whether the framers of Ehe ConstituBecause we moved Eo a very rural comtion said noLhing about education mune in northern Vermont when she was because they meant to leave iE up Eo first-grade age, we had Ehe ideal sit- Ehe staues or because Ehey wanted to MORE SUCCESS STORIES uation Eo keep her at home wiLh no leave iE up Eo individual parenfs, we From a Georgia mother: Legal hassles. We really didn'E T6Ihave no way of knowing. When, a cenlow any program, but, as I look at fury or so later, Ehe sEaEes began Eo ...We home-schooled in Tennessee your booklist for young children, I enacE compulsory school attendance for a year, during which cime we were see that we had literallv laws, a number of people went into everv book summoned to court twice. The Last on it. and Annie read ali 6-f-Efi'em Ehe courts claiming thaE these laws courE appearance resulted in aIl untiL their covers wilted. r,vere unconstituEional. In everv case charges being dropped, buE wiEh a As things Eurned out, by age 10, Che U.S. Supreme Court turned them warning from the court that they Annie EhoughE she'd like Eo go to down, saying over and over again that would continue Eo harrass us. So, we school. The school tested her and under Ehe police powers reserved Eo boughE a farm in Georgia and moved to placed her - along wiEh aIL the oEher the sEaces by the ConsEiEuEion, they friendlier Eerritory, . . 9- and lO-year-olds - in Ehe 4lh had the righE, by enacting compulsory ...The boys and I are thrivi.ng grade. She was slightly deficienE in schooling laws, to protect themselves on Ehe farm. I know when I say "The maEh, buE off the charts in reading. againsE Ehe possibility Ehaf without world is our classroom'r that ic School gave her a band and fLute such schooling children might grow up sounds hokey, but it is so true. In lessons, and a championship basketso ignorant as to be a burden on and Ehe last few monEhs Ehe boys and I ball team, Ewo Ehings I could never danger to Ehe sEaEe. Many honesE and have soLd our house, our car, bought provided. given have We had her a sincere home schoolers devoutlv wish a farm, learned to drive a sEandard very strong sense of family and supEhaE Ehis were noC so and have- taken port and a good jdea of personal shifE (I couldn'E have done iE withtheir wish,for a facE, BuE it is noc ouE the kids' supporE: rrHey, Mom, hrorth. By her junior year in high a fact. Compulsory school aEcendance you're still in secondl"), learned Lo school, she was aEtending NorEhfield laws are not on the face of Lhem unsplit wood and build a fire (our farm- ME. Hermon School and was, lasE consEitucionaL; quite the reverse. house is heated by woodsEove and fireaucumn, accepted a! Bowdoin with a What Ehe U.S. Supreme CourE did place), mended fence, Iearned Eo use very generous scholarship. She chose sav. first in Pierce v. SocieCv of power Eools, eEc., eCc. And in spite to wait a year Eo enter, and is 5rsEers. was EnaE Che sCaCes could of aLl Ehis learning we've had to do, presenEly crewing and cooking on char- noEEablish whaE we might call an we stiLl found time Eo read TO KILL A ter boats in the Caribbean. educaEional monopoly, more specificalMOCKINGBIRD, and ANIMAL FARM, and . . . I Ehink that having home eduly, EhaE Ehey could noE deny to priSLAPSTICK by Kurt VonneguE ( Ehe boys' caEion, as well as public and private vate schools Ehe righE to exisE, or favorite), learn long division the school, has been a plus for Annie and require through laws thaE Ehey be in fun way (wiEhout pressure), visiE the I hope we can be as successful with effecE idenEical Eo'the public library once a week, write Co pen Rosie.., schools, since this would deny parpals, etc, etc. Sometimes we get so ents Eheir constitutional right, busy with rretc., etc.rt Ehat we don't expressed here expliciEly for the have time Eo waEch TV!... firsE Cime, Eo geE for their children LAW REVIEW ARTICLES an educaCion generally in harmony Two of our rrFriendlv Lawvers" wiEh Eheir own principles and be(see tist in GWS #31) have senr us From Gwen ilim]r tpnt: liefs. The court said, in effect, law review arEicles Ehey've written Ehat parents should have a righE of ...VJerre two monEhs inEo our about home education. The firsE is by choice among schooLs; iE did not second year of home-schoolinâ&#x201A;Źi: Ehis James W. Tobak and Perry A, Zi,rkeL, specifically include among Eheir year withouE any hassle, after agree- 'rHome InsEruccion: An Analysis of the choices thaE of Eeaching Eheir childing Eo allow our fifth grader to be Statuces and Case Law," appearing in ren aE home. Since Ehen a growing numEesEed with Ehe local school's CTBS Ehe Fall 1982 Universitv of Davton ber of sEaEe courts have later extendachievement test. Af cer a discussion Law Review (300-Ao-ITE?E-Ta?F,--6atEon ed the meaning of Pierce to include of Ehe abnormality of Eesting our son 0tr-4-566-q=000l). The olher is "The Ehis additional poss-i6TTity, locaE ing I

GROI,JING I.IITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

this righc of parents in Ehe First, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments, though, as I said before, it is noE specifically wriEten in any of these. A few years IaEer, in FarringEon v. Tokushisb. che couri estA6-fi;6e-a+-furElier Ehat the sEates could not impose by regulaEions "unreasonable restricEions" on privaEe schools. This, then, is our ConsEiEutionaI ground. Yes, say the courEs, the staces may regulate the education of children, including the right of parenEs to Eeach their own. BuE, Ehe courts Ehen say, if the states or Eheir schools say No Eo these parents, they musE have strong reasons for saying so, Ehey must say what those reasons are, and they musE give Ehe parenEs the right Eo challenge, examine, and answer Ehese reasons in formal hearings, according them full rights of due process. I think it very likely thaE, through Ehe kind of legislation we have talked abouE, Ehrough the home education plans thaE we oersuade school districEs Eo accbpc, and now and Ehen, if pushed that far, Ehrough court cases at the local and state leveL, rre can gradually reduce the requiremenEs that schooL authoriEies can imDose on home schooling parenEs. Thus in a number of cases we have already overcome and removed the requirement thac parents musE have teacherrs certificates, and I think in time we will be able to do away r^riEh other requiremenEs concerning curriculum, standardized tests, etc. But Ehis is a slow process, and one Ehat requires us to keep talking to school auEhoriEies about the education of our chiLdren. Many people are for one reason or another imDatient wiEh Ehis process and unwilling to talk to school auEhorities at all. They feel sorely cramped by the smallness of Ehe constiEutional Lurf on which we sEand, and want to push its boundaries ouE past Ehe horizon. They want Ehe courcs Eo hand home schoolers what is in effect a blank check, t.hat is, to say EhaE if people want to teach their own children, above al1 if Eheir reasons for lvanting co do so are primarily reLigious, Ehen it is none of Ehe staters business and it musE leave Ehem alone, To these imDatient home schoolers I have said many times why I don't think there is a chance in a billion'that Ehe present U,S. Supreme CourE wilL say any such thing. On the contrary, if we take such a brief thaE far, the courE will almost certainly cut out from under our feeE mosE of the constituEionaL sround on which we are now sEandingl Specifically, I fear thac they will say fhat Pierce vras only abouu privaEe schooS-fr6t about home schooling; thaE whether or not people can Eeach Eheir own children is not a constiEuEional question but something for the state legislatures Eo decide as they wish; and finally, thaE Ehe states do not have Eo show any compelling neeQ for whatever laws and regulations Ehey may $tant Eo establish. Let me take a few words Eo say why I feel so cerEain that the present Supreme Court will rule this way. In his short buE very interesting and important book, THE NATURE OF THE JUDICIAL PROCESS, former Suprerne Court JusEice Benjamin Cardozo, explaining to law sLudents (to whom these lectures were originally given) how judges arrive at their decisions, said that Ehere were essentially four ways in which judges could and did look at cases. In the rrPhilosophical" approach,

Ehey examine them in Eerms of basic

leqal nrineinlec --d-_ rthe Constitution

Fnrrnd narha-c in itsel f. nprhanc in

the Anglo-Su*o., co*rJi-i"il- irlfi""tli'.t' the Constitution arose, perhaps in even older and more fundamenEal orinci ples of right and just i ce. Such judges ask Ehemselves, in effecE, what is the righL, the fair, the jusE thing to do in Ehis case, Most peopLe not familiar with Ehe law, and not long ago I hras cerEainly one of them, would have assumed as I did thaE all judges thoughr this way aIl che time. But for many and often very good reasons, this is not aLways so. Another way of looking at cases, called by Cardozo the "HisEorical" approach, is to ask what the law iEself has said about similar cases 6\/pr l-ho \raare Hi crnri nal l rr-minr]od judges want to preserve, as far as they can, the unity and internal consistency of the law, so that as far as possible people will be able to predicE, from what the courts have said in the past, whaE Chey will be likely to say in the future, In making their rulings they cannot to some degree avoid making new law, bu! Ehey want this new law Co disturb Ehe existing body of law as little as possible. If the law must change, as it cannot avoid changing, to take account of ne\,v problems and conditions, they prefer iE Eo change by gradual steps, not by sudden announcements of nelr Dositions or sudden reversals of 6ta ones. In this frame of mind judges are much influenced by precedents, which tend to make Ehe 1aw oredicEable. Still another kind of judge - I forget Cardozo 's name for these - is what has elsewhere been called "stricE constructionists. rr When facing a dispute over the meaning or application of a parEicular 1aw, such judges ask, whaE did Ehe Iawmakers, when they wrote Ehis law, intend to have happen, how would cheT-EEid writren it if they had, known about the case now before us, In People v. Turner. o.[ which we wroce ii--eW-S-29--5i?I30, tfre court was thinking primarily in this way. Finally we have what Cardozo called the "Sociological" approach to Ehe law. In this, judges facing a case ask themselves, whaE wilL be the social consequences of our ruling Ehis way or EhaE? How must we rule in order Eo make haooen what we wanE to have happen, or Lb prevent from happening what we don'E want to have happen? In this frame of mind judges act primarily as if .they were Legislacors. The judges who have so far refused to award damages Eo parents whose children the schools had compleEely failed Co educate thoughE in Ehis way; they said, in effecE, if we start awarding money damages against schools for failing Eo teach, our courtrooms will soon be bursting with complaining parents and the schools will soon be broke. neither of which we want. So, in spiEe of the righcs of the parents and the seriousness of the injuries which may have been done !o Ehem and their chiLdren, these judges have not awarded damages, and in my judgemenE are not likely to do The present Burger court is, from the DoinE of view of home schoolers, probhbly the wors! kind \.de could have. Like the Warren court of Ehe '50's, Ehey are a very sociologicalIy-minded and legislative courc, but unlike the Warren courc. thev are a very anEi-liberEarian one. They feel that in general Ehe state has lost far Eoo much of its oower and

^.,FL^-i

l Ly

vvsr

i +-

-^-^

^-J

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determined to restore Ehem. In any

confLict

beEween

the power of the

staEe and the liberties, and in Ehe case of aEomic energy even the physic-

al safety oI its citizens, they almosE always come down sErongly on the side of the state. Beyond that, rhFv t6n.l f^ ha.^ncffi,.fi^nicfc preferring to interfere as IittLe as poss i bl e wi th whaEever I egi s I aE i ve bodies want to do. Finally, chey are very worried (and rightly) about the increasing overcrowdedness of our .^,,rrc cn mrrnh c^ th.ts i f tharr had no other reasons for saying tha! home schooling was the business of the legislatures rather than the courts, they would find this reason enough. Some of t.he home schoolers who want to Eake broad constitutional cases up through the Federal courts claim that in [,lisconsin v. Yoder a ma jority of thE-li3tTtEE-!?EEEiEly on the Supreme Court said, in effect, "if your religious convictions forbid your sendinâ&#x201A;Źi your children to school , then Ehey don't have Eo go.r' The fact is that the Court went to great trouble to make cLear that this is not what Ehey were saying, They FE?essed instead chaE-thE Amisir were a long-established secE; EhaE Ehe prohibition against sending their children to school pasE eighth grade was iEseLf long-esEabLished and was uniformly observed through Eheir church; thac they had shown over many years that the ir chi ldren, despi te Ehei r abbreviated schooling, grew up to be producEive and uselul citizens, and no burden or danger to Ehe sEaEe; and final ly, thaE thi s exemption granted co the Amish was not to be considered as applying co anf-Tndividual who might for whaEever personal reasons wan! to avoid Ehe requiremenfs of compulsory schooling. Indeed, three of rh6 i,leii.6c in a ar opln-.. - -Jncurrrng j^h Fh^F i a ^r'4n rho Amich --ji right not to instead of claiming the send their children Eo school afEer eighth grade, had claimed the righE not to send Ehem at aIl, they might well have ruled Ehe other way - as rhpv ntlr it. rhp riifference between eighE years of school and ten is probably not very great, in this case noE enough co jusEify Erampling on the Amish's religious convicEions. This very cautious and heavily cjrcumscribed ruLing is a long way from some of the optimi sEic j nEerpreEations of Yoder presently circulaEing in the home schooting movement. For all of these reasons I have been trying f or some t ime now, in G[^JS and through personal conversaEions and correspondence, to dissuade people from bringing broad cases inEo the Federal courts. hlheEher I was right or wrong in this, I have to recognize that the effort is [ailing. Many people acEive and prominenE in the movement are continuing publicly to urge aggressive action in the courts, and indeed at least four cases seem already to have started on their way, Ehree of them damage suiEs against Ehe schools, and one what we might call a Leave-Us-Alone suir. Before long these'will probably be followed by nany oEhers. WhaE will happen to Lhem in the lower courts, and how long iE wiII Eake them fo work Eheir way, if any do, into the Suoreme Court. I don't know, But I have started !o accept i.E as a facE I i â&#x201A;Ź^ ,,--^ ^ 6 rrle, ^-l ^ts! to accePE oL anc urge OLners iE, that wiEhin a few years we will see a Supreme Court ruling saying, first, that Ehere is no generalized constitutional right of parents to escape, for whatever reasons, the comGROI.IING I^IITHOUT SCHOOLiNG #32

unconstiEuEional but because it didn't make sense and hence was bad law. Since his argument does not resE primarily on the 0.S. conscitilTTon, it will remain avaiLable as a useful defense for home schoolers even if our constitutional defenses should be losE . ( Copy of the ruI i ng ava i lable from NALSAS, Box 2823, Santa Fe NM 87501, for $1 and a business-size cLaim Ehey are not. Or, which amounts self-addressed and sEamped enveLope. ) to Ehe same thing, we wiLl get such a Please do not take me to be saYruLing from a lower Federal courE and ine Ehat Ehere are no kinds of cases the SuDreme Court will refuse to hear thlr we can win in FEderal courEs. On an appbal from iE. This may not hapthe contrary, I chink that we may be pen for trro or Ehree years, buE I able Eo wjn there, (after first going think we should be prepared for it. Ehrough the sraEe courcs) whenever we If and when iE happens, we don't want can show EhaE a ParEicular famiLy has Ehe phones here Eo sEart ringing day been either (l) denied the right of and night with people saying, "Help! due process, in short, that in proseHelp! The Supreme CourE has jusE cuting the family the state failed to ruled againsE home schooling, what do foIlow iEs own requjred IegaI procewe do now?tt dures, or (2\ denied equal EreatmenE One thins to do now is to realunder the Iaw, that is, has been f,orize EhaE. Ehough such a ruling would bidden to do whaE other ciEizens are be a very serious seEback, it would Fraa ra rla anA / nr rpnrr i rad l-n do not be the end of home schooling. As what other citizens are free noE Eo we know, Ehere are active and growing do; stiLI more specifically, has been horne schooLing movements in Canada required to obey laws and regulations and Great BriEain, yeE neiEher of which the state's own schools widely these councries have consf iEutions ignore or disobey. I think we may like ours. under which the courts can also be able to win aE least some si mply sErike down legislation writcases in which we can show thaf the ten by ParliamenE. When home school,,h-F Fh^,, t^.^rrrr thar^ --., effect of the staters education laws Jdy , wrrdL Lrrs) is noE thaE Ehe Law is unconstifution- on a parLicular familY is less Eo L,.ts FL^F +L^., l F^^^Li FLî hold the parents and chiLdren up co ^ | -r LildL Lus) rrrLEdL,,r -iltt Lilsr r the minimum standards of Ehe sEAte own children, are in fact obeying it, schools than Eo hold them down Eo meeting its requirements and satisfyEhem. To philosophical ;ud[E3-we can ing iEs true intent. There is no reasay thaE this is unfair and unjust; son why home schoolers in Ehis counjudges - and we should Eo political cry could not, iF they had to, fight know which kind we have to deal with and win many such cases in sEaEe courEs, and in Ehis and later issues - wF cAn sav fhaf if is noE in the best interests of sociery, which i.s of GWS we wiLl discuss how we mighE on Ehe contrary best served by allowsuch cases. DreDare ' ing and encouraging aLl parenEs, not The case of the Edgingtons in just rich ones, to geE the best educaNew Mexico, described elsewhere in tion for their children Ehat they Ehis issue, is an example of how the iF -^î k^ f^f thpm_ uc , il41'ino ilrdRr r16 if law works, changes, and grows. If Ewo parEies are in dispute under a parEic- selves. Since these are the kinds of ular law, they both try to get the arguments that we wiLl have to make courts co interprer the law in their : c | :r'^r " we Iose our conf ! t ar 5Es'r's rrNsrl, Favor; if Ehe courts disappoinE one rh^_ uJ nF rha n'rtioc 4e Fh^., sfiflrfionAl srrnnorf. we sltould SLarC LL'Ey -,,-F making Ehem righE now, both in the LhaE party goes back Eo the legislaeducational oroposals we make to Cure Eo try to get a more favorable schools and in the legal briefs we law, As long as the schools see home draw up if and when we are forced schoolers as a serious EhreaE, Ehis qame oF colrrr-ro-lepislature-to-court into courE. The advantage of cases is coinp ro conrinrre. It's unrealiswon by such arguments js that, unlike consti Eutionally based cases, these tic for us to Ehink thaE we can! so Due Process and/or Equal Treatment Eo speak, end the game while rre are cases will still sEand as heloful ahead. The only r4ray to end t-he game is to end the conflict, which is what precedenEs no matEer how bad i future Supreme CourE ruling may be. we here at GWS wanE Eo find ways to D..F FL^ -^... -înE of this arti_ do, cle is EhaC we must now greatly inNote Ehat in chis ruling Judge crease our efforEs, first, to geE Kase was thinking like (in Cardozo's good home schoo)ing laws passed in terms) a philosophical judge. In sayfhp lpoicl:trrroe uJ t rnd -^^^-i1,, ing Ehat the sEaEuEe in quesfion made urru achi eve cooperaLive rel ationships no sense, he was cal ling on an old wiEh as many as possibLe of Ehe local. Roman maxim of law (I forget the schools. In any staCes which pass Latin). "The law is not an ass." Such judges feel that a fundamental reIegislaEion saying in one form or quirement of any law, one much older another something reasonably close to than the ConSEituEion iEself, is thaE what we put into our model IegisLaiE make sense, and noE be self-contra- cion (CIJS #30), parents would not have to worry much about what the dictory or absurd. t^le would probably courts mi€tht or mi€thE not say. And do welL, as \re continue our struggles the sErongest position of all wiLl in the courts, to rake note and keep be, as it is righE now, to have a track of such philosophical judges, really friendly, undersEanding, and since, if we prepare our cases wel1, cooperative local school district. If we have a much better chance of winthe local district noE jusE ning in their courts. grudgingly buE warmly approves the Meanwhi I e, Ehi s case is imporidea of your teaching your own chjldEant For just the reason given in the I h^ts in €i-iino for ihp nnrren and wanEs to help as much as it sLeryr !rUur,.6 can and in whatever wavs suit vou enEs Judge Kase "focused primarily best, then you don't hive Eo worry upon the wording of Ehe statuCe inabout ei ther legi slatures or courts; volved," rather than on any FirsE Amendment or other constitufional vriEh that much school support, you He threw out Ehe law (which a will easily find a legal way to home righEs. rrstrict consEructionistrr judge would school So our most urgent task, now more so than ever, is Lo persuade our never have done) not because it was

Dulsory education laws of the several itatesl secondly, EhaE education is the consEi.tuEional province of the srates and that in this area Ehey may make whatever regulaEions they $rish; and finalLy, that no burden of Proof will rest on the states to show that these regulations are reasonable and necessary, but only on those who

GROWING l}llTHOUT SCHOOLING #32

local school people, and beyond Ehem authoriEies, Ehat home schooling is noE a threaE Eo their existence and that their best interesCs will be served by working with it instead of fighting it. To convince Ehem of Ehis is noE an easy job and will not be accomplished in a year or Ewo. ALI Ehe more reason to gec to work on it as soon as we can. One wav Eo do this will be Eo esEabLish more effecEive local organization and lines of communication. AnoEher way may be to give the widest possible circulation to our legislative proposal and to my articLe from Phi Delta Kappan (see excernl-s Ehe scaEe

LN INIS

ISSUC,,.

- JH

MINNESOTA VS. TOLLEFSRUD STATE OF MINNESOTA, COUNTY OF HOUSTON COUNTY COURT, CRIMINAL DIVISION

State of Minnesota PLainEiff, vs. - Tollefsrud, Defendant The above-entitled matter came on for hearing on the l9Eh day of January, 1983 before the Honorable Robert E. Lee, CounEy Judge, .., IT IS ORDERED: l. That as applied to this defendanE, MSA f20.10 and MSA 120.L2 are unconsticuEional intrusions on Ehe FirsE and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the defendanE. 2. ThaE the motion of the defendant is granted. 3. That the complaint is dismissed. Dated: February 9, 1983. Thomas

MEMORANDUM

This prosecuEion is concerned with the constituEionaliEy of imposing criminal penalties upon the Tollefsruds for their religiously based refusal Eo compel cheir children Eo aEtend a public school. The SEate of Minnesota is seeking to brand these parenEs as criminals for following their religious beliefs. This CourE does not recognize that the SEaEe of Minnesota can consfitutionallv do so. The FirsE AmendmenE to the United SEaEes Constitution staces, "Coflgress shall make no law respecting an estabLishmenE of religion or prohibiCing the free exercise thereof.rl Thettfree exercise" clause was made applicable co the respecEive Sfates Ehrough the concept of'rliberty" as embodied and defined in the FourEeenEh AmendmenE... The analvsis or test of the conceDt of "free exercise" has a broad applicacion (Uniced Scqce,s v:. Bgilard, 322 uS 78 IgTEJand Ehe Court has indicaEed that a proper inquiry is limited to whether or noE Ehe party charged with the offense was sincere in his (or her) belief s. The CourE has noLed that nontraditional beliefs, including secular humanism and aEheism are all "religions" for the purpose oI the Ifree exercisetr analysis. (Fowler vs. Rhode Island, 345 US' 67 , f 953.TTEE-eorluit--TETd-Ehar iE was "no business of che Courts to say thaE what is a religious practice or acEivi ty for one group is not a religion thac comes wiEhin the proCecEion of the First Amendment. rl The free exercise of one's religious beliefs prohibits Ehe invasions or inErusions of civiL authoriEy, and it is incumbent for one in such a case Eo show Ehe coercive effecE of a legislative enactment as iE operaEes agains! him in Ehe pracfice of his rel igion. (School Dist. of Abinston vs. bcnemysp, JL4 u5 luj. )

The stated religious beliefs

cause Eheir children to attend school

tucky) seems headed in EhaE direcCion, that court will almost certaincise of religion, noE their chiLdly say Ehe same Ehing. Like many thaf musE determine the avowed determination of the school oEhers, Judge Lee seems to have read I s power Eo impose criminal penState authorities to prosecule them, into Yoder a meaninq almost the exact alties on the parent" (Hisconsin vs. convlcE them of criminal offenses, opposite of what the Supreme CourE Yoder), and seek Ehe adjudicaEion of the inEended. His auote of the remark --the prosecution makes no claim Courts Eo sentence Ehem Eo jail, about people replacing educational EhaE Ehe health or safety of the ToIimpose monetary fines, or both. requirements wiEh their own idiosynlefsrud children is at sEake, or is The leading case on the proposicratic views is parEicularly ironic. tion confronting Ehis Court is l,Jiscon- in any way jeopardized by the re fusal These words come from Ehe concurring of the Darents to send their chi Idren sin vs. Yoder (406 US 205, I972-3T3 opinion of Justice White, who of all ro the bublic school. crTtzST:the Justices is perhaps the most In conclusion, this CourE is The sinceriEy of Ehe religious hard-nosed and unyielding supporEer eminently satisfied Ehat che Tollefsbeliefs and convictions of the Tolof compulsory public schools for ruds sincerely believe, profess, and lefsruds is not challenged. The proeveryone, and the sures! to vote live their religious convictions. secution has filed no affidavits disagainst home schoolers in any case . .. IE i s urged by defendants puting Ehe contentions of Ehe ToLlefsEhat may come up. that MSA 120.f0 is unconscituEionaLI would like to know more about ruds Ehat as staEed in their joint ly vague. Since Ehis Court has deEer- why the county decided not to appeal. affidaviE "co send a child to a sysmined EhaE the presenE action should tem of educaEion which does noc cenIt may have been a wise decision; it be dismissed as against these defenis not ter around the Bible and which does always a good idea, and indeed , -- +,._i 'ic .iahrc rh6 a^"ri n^i riicnncad tn is noE Eeach faith in Jesus ChrisE, is often a bad idea, co appeal a losE make any further determination as Eo case to a higher court, because you to endanger the eEernal destiny of thaE issue; since it is not criticaL can noE add anyEhing Eo your ori.ginal Ehat chlld and Eo bring Cod's judgto the issue of the First and Fourargument. It may ofEen be betCer Eo ment uDon one's self as weLl." prepare a stronger case the nexE N-or is it contended by the prose- Eeenth Amendment rights of these defendant s . time. The news clips, and the ruling cuEion thac the parents (Tollefsruds) icself, give Ehe impression that the are aEtempEing to replace state educaschools thought they had an easy win tional requirements rdiEh Eheir own teLl us News clippings in this case and did not work very idiosyncraEic views of whaE a child IJH:l does not county aEEorney Ehat Ehe prohard preparing it. They may well be needs to know to be useful and (See the superinEenplan to appeaL; Ehat Wisconlooking for a more favorable case, ducEive in our society. dent of Ehe disErict says thac the sin vs. Yoder) oerhaos one in which Ehe children are ------T6-eTfefsruds affirm that they result will affect 17 or 18 sEudenEs noE tLsEing very well on achievement being educated at home in the distests. Or perhaps they are waiting are regularly using maEerials suptrict, and may cost Ehe district plied by the Christian LiberEy Acauntil they can Lobby Ehrough the legislaEure laws which will make it demy and chat the children are Eested $23,000+ in state aid and possibly a teacher in the schools; and that a easier Eo prosecute home schoolers. annirally using the lowa Tests of similar case in anoEher councy was Basic SkiIls, The orosecurion has Another questjon in my mind. decided against the parenEs. flled no affidaviE's challenging or According to one news story, the (nmoiimac ac hora fhoca.a<ac disputing the effectiveness of these Tollefsruds offered to show Ehe win; sometimes Ehey lose. News cl ips effectiveness of their home education education resources. and letters senc from around the coun- by comparing Eheir children's stanIE is concended by the prosecu(perhaps false) tion in this case that Ehe Yoder case try have given me the dardized test results wiEh those of children in the district. but the is disEinguished, since in Yo-dE?, the impression that Ehey lose more than Ehey win. ln the last year or so I school "belittled the test,rr Might iE Amish children were requireif-T6\.{roEe Ehe Christian Liberty Academy, not have been possibLe for the TolaEtend the public schools from grades they asking roughly how many cases lefsruds and their atEornev l-o use one to eight. A careful reading of were winning and how many losing, buE what is called the "discoverv" orothac case compels this CourE to conMoore says Ray received no reply, cess Eo compeL che di strlct to ieveal clude chat che issue of the age of tha! in the First Amendment cases Ehe tesC scores of students within the studenE was not decided by Ehe the been associaEed which he has with its schools? In Ehe discovery part of U,S. Suoreme Court' a-ah r.l icnrrra parents have won mosE of the cases. I - F'i-l Lv rho ...As appears from the affidavit ^.rtsr'L) f. Pdr to send ne, persuade him to am trying they can submit to the other a list of Tollefsruds, submiEted by the questions which the other must anssincerely accepE Ehe fundamental con- or publish in his own newsleccer, a lis! of cases won and losE. It would wer. Whether this process i s availaviction Ehat their children are a be extremely vaLuable information to ble in alI staEes, in whaE sorts of special gifE of God, and Ehat they home schoolers; the longer the Iist trials iC can and can not be used, are accountable to God, as parents, of successful cases that we can show and whaE kinds of questions can or for the Life of thaE child, from its school disEricts, che greater Ehe can noE be asked, is something we first day on earEh. chance thar they will decide against need Eo know more about. Werll be A considerable oortion of the prosecuc j on. But , what wi th movi ng very grateful for any information Yoder case is devoEed to a hisEorical his home and office, and tnith all his that any of our readers who may be a-iAlsis of the Amish religion and other work, he has noE yet had time Iawyers can give us, the unique life-style fundamental to to make such a List. We must keep the Amish communicies, The US Supreme after this. The same goes for all GWS CourE was vitally concerned with the readers - please let us know aboui possible consequences to the Amish LOSING STATE AID MONEY beliefs and traditions if their child- any home school court cases you hear about, wheEher the parenEs win or If we are interesEed! as we ren were required Eo aEEend secondary should be, in making a friendly and schools. That feaEure is not necessar- lose. Send news clips if you can; if the the daEe of oossible. send cooperative working relaEionship with ily involved wiEh Ehe Tollefsruds, ruling, ihe name of the court, name the schools, instead of jusE Erying but iE is of critial importance thaE judge, lacking Meanwhile, of eEc, formal seconof to run lhem out of business, we have Ehe Amish rejection hard evidence to the conErary, I tend to take seriously the concern of dary education is rooEed in a Iiteral to continue to believe that Ehis SuperinEendent Le$/is in the TollefsBiblical contexE. It is the decision basic FirsE Amendment argument is noE rud case, and many others like him, of this Court thac Ehe Tollefsruds strong enough and, though it may win that home schooling might cosf school musE be afforded the same guarantees' when iE meecs a friendly judge like districEs so much in state aid that even though they are noE involved in Judge Lee, it loses more ofEen than they might have to fire one or more a community of believers, as are che roanhorc i c should . some programs, Amish, and even Ehough Ehey aLso re^r ^1rr ^rrl In any evenE, Ehis argument has ject formal elementary education. and (the corolLary argument) Ehat this Loss of Eeachers and programs in It is also suggested by the Pro- to my knowledge lost tt,rice in state Suoreme Courts (Nebraska and Iowa) already crowded school sysfems mighC secution EhaE the StaEe's inEeresE in and has noE yec won aE Ehat level. In make the schooLs worse for manv more Ehe compulsory school aEEendance of the Nebraska case. as a resulc of chi ldren Ehan whatever number was bethe ToLlefsrud children is paramounE which a Christian minister running a ing helped by home schooling. to chaE of the parenEs and Ehat the jajl, to private been sent school has We should meet and answer this children's inEerests musE be recogpeople that in effect t-he court said argument, not just because it has nized. laws they out of obeying couldn't Eiet meri t on I Cs own and i n anv case mav This argument was rejected in didnrE Like just by saying thac it carry much weighE wich many legislaYoder. The children are noc parties beliefs. reLigious went againsE their tors and other people whose supporE rvrr ! r r L rSaL If such a case reaches the U.S. we need, but most of all because we "It is che parenEs who are subreally do have an answer for Ehe probSupreme Court, and one ( from Kenject Eo prosecuEion for failing to and convictions of Ehe Tollefsruds are on a collision course with the

and it is Eheir righE of free exer-

GROl^lING

llITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

desired resulEs; and win or Lose, I think Ehese suiEs wilL make it much harder Eo do what we must eventuallv do, and the sooner che becter - perl suade Ehe schools to suDDort and cooperaEe with home schooiers. More specifically, my argumencs are Ehese: I ) The Eamilies are not going to be able Eo make a convincing argument in courE. The one family whose case has been much discussed- in other pubIications cerEainly has not done so; unless the opposing school officials hire a fool for a lawyer, they will easi ly demol i sh Ehe fami I y's argument. Since most of Ehese damage suit cases are likely Eo be modeLed after rhis Firqr nna rhp srmo l-hino iq Likely Eo be true for all of them. procedure named above. 2) Even if the families are No doubt. some superinEendenEs lucky enough to find themselves will continue to oppose home schoolopposed by incompetent lawyers, Ehe ing for other reasons. In this case, courEs are unlikely to award damages as we have said before, we should against the schools, for the reasons that they have already several times begin immediaEely Eo talk, or beCter yeE wriEe, to the school board itrefused to do so: they fear iE wouLd self, saying as we did to the SupercrippLe Ehe schools, and would flood intendent that we do not want our the courts with similar cases. home schooling Eo erorsen the already 3) In the (to me) verv unlikelv difficult financial DosiEion of the evenE EhaE a court did award damagei schools, and EhaE we are convinced agajnsC a school sysEem, iE seems unEhat with the schools' suooort there likely that the damages wouLd be is a way Eo avoid this. lf'Ehe idea enough to have the deterrenE effect of coLLecting aid for studenEs no! sought by the home schoolers. The physically present in the building school business, as we can't too makes the schooL people nervous, vJe ofEen remind ourselves. is a 100+ bilcould consider such oossibLe remedies lion dollar a year operation. If, EEas having the fami I y' actually fi II some cIaim, the managers oI this busiouE school atEendance slips, or whaEness are for malicious and unorincipled reasons deEermined to use the ever else may seem to help deal wiEh problem, Ehe If we keep making this Chreat of prosecution Co frighten peooffer to Ehe SuperinEendenE and the ple ouE of exercising their legal SchooL Board, though here and there right to ceach Lheir own chi Ldren, some diehards will conEinue fo oDDose then Ehey will not be deterred from us no matter what, we should Ue ibfe this by Ehe kinds of damages courts Eo r.rin over a much larger number for are likely Eo aviard, if indeed chey whom, except for money, home schooLaward anv. To Dut this a little difing does not 6eem to presenE a probferenEty, if the managers of this lem. And we can offer stiLl another giant business realIy believe that strong reason for schools Eo carry the home schooling movement is so home schooled children on Eheir rolls greaE a Ehreat to Eheir very existence Chat they musf in self-defense - noE only wiLl they conEinue to collect sEate aid for Ehem, but Ehey use the law as a weapon against iE, can irnprove Eheir schools' Eest Ehey will cheerfully pay, as a kind scores by averaging in Ehe (in mosE of insurance, whatever occasional damcases much higher) scores of the home ages the courfs may award against schooled students. - JH Ehem, jusE as large indusErial firms find it easier and cheaper to pay whatever fines Ehey must pay for dumping Eheir poisons inEo our rivers DAMAGE SUITS BAD IDEA than Eo find some other wav of disoosA number of home schooling famiing of them. lies have eiEher filed or are geEting 4) In the (Eo me) extremelv unready to file damage suits in the Fed- IikeIy evenE thaL a lower courE-did eral courEs againsE their local award damages real1y large enough to school suoerinEendents and other edu- hurt and worry the schools, they caEion and law enforcement officials. wouLd surely appeal this all the way They are claiming thaE Ehese offico the Supreme Court, which for reacials have acEed to deprive them of sons discussed elsewhere in this their consEituEional righEs by refus- issue, is virtually certain Eo rule ing co allow them to home-school in their favor. Eheir children, and Ehey are asking 5) In che enormously improbable for monetary compensation. Furtherevent Ehat the Supreme Court did leC more, several people acEive and prosEand lower courE rulings awarding minent in Ehe home schooling movemenE heavy damages against schooL sysEems, are urging home schoolers all over the schools across the countrv would Ehe country to file such suits whensoon find eFIective countermeisures ever school authorities Eake them Eo againsE Ehis danger. WiEhouE spending court for violaEing truancy laws. much time on it, I have already I feel I now have Eo say publicthought of four. Iy what I have for some cime bben sayThis talk abouE damase suiEs has ing to some of these people privaEemuch of Ehe same unreal ciaiiEv-ttreas a ly, namely, that I am strongly lot of Ehe Ealk we hear ibout arms race - as if alL'we had to do opposed Eo Ehese suits and strongly advise families against fiLing them, was find some new legaL super-weapon in order Eo bring Ehe schools to no matEer how much Erouble Ehe schools may be making for them, and Eheir knees, In the early '70s one EhaC I will not supporE such suits in book said, and for a whiLe I helped spread tlris idea, Chat a1l yotr had to any way. do to get your chi lclrt-r. out of pt:t I 'c Simply stated, my reasons are these: I donrE think the families can school was to say Ehat vou were going win such suiEs; even if Ehey did win, to send Ehem to DrivaEe schooL - and I don't Ehink it would bring the then noE send Chbm. It didn'E Eake lem. In our legislative proposaL (GWS #30), we suggesEed that the schools continue to register home schooLed pupils, lisE Ehem (which noEhing in the law forbids) as being parE of a Special lndependent Study Program, and continue Eo collect for them (which, again, nothing in the law forbids) whatever sEace and other aid Ehey get for their "regular" pupils. In fact, when families first begin to discuss home schooling with Eheir local schools, Ehey would probabLy be wise to say: "We know that you are concerned that this may cost you badly needed stace aid, but we feel certain Chat with your supporE we can work ouE Eogether a way of doing home educacion thaE will not cost you any staEe aid,rr this bein[-The

GROl^lING IAIITHOUT SCHOOLiNG #32

rhe public schools long to find an answer for EhaE. Then all we had to do was enroll our children in a distant school and call our homes a branch of ChaE schooll or in many states, simply declare our own home a school. After a while the public schools began to find their answer to that. Now people talk as if some lega1 equivalenE of the MX rnissile or the Trident submarine or whatever would finally scop the schools in Eheir tracks. IE's a dream; as long as the schools feel they are in a fight for Eheir lives, for every legal weapon we invenE Ehey are going Eo invenE a councerweapon - and they have vastly greaEer resources to spend on Ehis Chan we do. It makes no sense for us to continue escalating Ehis batEle. Of course, it wiII not be easy to persuade the schools as a whole to work with home schoolers. and of course. if in Ehe meanwhile we are forced into court, we musE make Ehe strongest defense we can. But our orincioal task musE be noE to Ehink bf newbr and beEter legal weapons buc to f ind hrays Eo end the v,/ar, In terms of this cask Ehese damage suits even if now and Ehen thev win - seem to me a big step backwari. - JH ADULT LEARNS TO READ

Narrcy

Plent (NJ) wroEe in the

Unschoolers NeEwork #14:

...I heard a touching sEory from a family thaE came to one of our meeEings here. The faEher never learned Eo read. School was a traumatic exDerience for him, and he's determinedEhaE his 8-month-old son won'c go. So hers started from scratch wiEh his sonrs baby books. He reads to his son every day. His wife says he often has Eears in his eyes when he finds thaE he doesn't know a word in one of these books. She reassures him that their son doesn't know the difference right now if he misses a word, and EhaE herll learn iE alL as he goes along... UN.TAUGHT READING

a long article by JeannetEe in the San Dieso Reader. LO/i182, about John B5sc6i--fCAi teaching his son Sean at home: ...The Ewo began by siEting down at the family's dining cable firsE thing every morning Eo r4rork on such subjecCs as spelling, mathematics, and readins. ...[.l6nn Boston] had Ehoughc Ehe secret of enEicing Sean into reading would be simple: he wouLd give Sean books thaE weren't boring. From the booksEore he brought home piles of Hardy Boys and other adventure stories; aE Ehe Library he searched for entertaining reading maEerial perEaining to flying, one of Sean's interesEs. BuE he was soon forced to ask himself, 'rWhat if Sean dislikes Ehe act of reading itself?'r As the weeks rolled by, Boston watched his son more and more relucEantLy sit down to the tabLe, and then stare out Ehe window, his atEenEion wandering. When Boston cried to review maEerialhe had covered with Sean only days before, he found "it was as if he had never seen iE in the firsE olace.rl Gradually he and Sean began-shorEening. or skipping the sessions alEoFrom

DeWyze

â&#x201A;Źie

ner

...BosEon changed tacEics.

Even

as a preschooler, Seants obvious

forte was mechanics. "He was interested in machinery and bulldozers and windshield wipers and anything you can name. Machines and I donrE --rrL..+ set rL^ ^ 1 ^-^ ^F drr ^ I I r lr rdyr ^^,,^ aL arurrB LrrE F^FL^with Sean iErs different. He makes machines talk." Since school hadn't destroyed fhac interest, Boston decided to let Sean turn his full aECencion to machines and to anything else that interesEed the lad, If the father no longer was taking an active role Eeaching, he saw a new role for himself in consEantly being aLert for things and people wiEh which Sean might want Eo be in conEacE in order to learn. ,..When Sean acquired a small Honda motorcycle and began rinkering wifh it, his faEher asked if the boy would Like a service manual for it, to which Sean eagerly assenEed. ,.He has become a regular reader of a few aviaEion magazines such as ModeI AviaEion and Bicyclins. which are-"E oted-td some--6-f-h-iE-Fobbi e s . In facE, his father says this year he adminisEered Eo Sean a "guick assessment" reading EesE Boston obtained from a San Diego reading specialist. BosEon says it indicated that Sean has improved co where he's now reading at roughly a sevenEh-grade Ievel, abouE the same as other children his a8e. rrBut does he ever simolv read for oLeasure?" I asked Boston the first cime we talked. I'Not really. They really turned him off and I dontt know how to turn him back on againr" Boston replied sadly. But then he remembered something chat had momentarily slipped his mind. A few weeks before, Sean had discovered an adventure story series in which the reader has a choice of reading a number of differenE endings for the various dramas. "That was the first time in two and e half years he ever asked me to buy him someEhing to read," BosEon amended himself. Lacer! when I asked Sean himself if he thoughE chat he would ever return Eo reading, I didn't tell him whaE his father had Eold me about the book, and the boy answered my quesEion with a note of pride. I'I already do read." He \tenE and pulled ouE the volume, THE CURSE OF THE SUNKEN TREASURE bY R.G. Austin,ttIEts and explained how Ehe stories a series,t' he EoId me. work. rrI'd like to get all of them..." READING TOGETHER...

Susan Richman eJrote in the Winter '83 l,Jestern Pa. Homeschoolers: ..,

I remember wondering,

whi

pregnanE with my second child, how I'd ever be able Eo read Eo my older Jesse with a new baby around. I figured the early few months might go

all right, as-I could read-iElfenursing Ehe baby, but I really worried abouE whaE would happen as our little one began grabbing books from us - would he eat or rip them, or generally make a muddle of our good sharing Eimes? Would the children be too far apart in age to ever enjoy the same stories at Che same Eime? I've been delighted wiEh what's actually happened. The early monEhs r^7ere very easy for reading aloud to J66e, l,Je'd all snuggle in bed together wiEh a book, LoEs of nursing, and werd alL feel relaxed, I think my 'rreading voice'r was lulling to Jacob in Ehe same way as a crooning singing voicel I was ofEen amazed to find

both boys would drift off to sleep at Ehe same time after our readings. As Jacob grew, he began fo open hic awoc a hit ac Trd rarrl nlni l c dilating with delight while Jesse and I would laugh over some delicious passage. Jacob began laughing with us arraf-"^-i f^ irr<t f^ choro in ^^rFPdI LJ JUJL our fun, began peeking away from the breasE co see the picEures, began patEing pages. We weren't reading co himl br-for himl we weren't tryiig to give our-6E'by a "boost" in reading abilicy by exposing him Eo print at a properly early age. It's just that as a part of our family, Jacob was always there, and Eook parE as best he could at every stage. He did ac times make very loud noises while we read, he did sometimes throw our books on the floor, buE generally that just meanE the ciming hras wrong, noE Ehat- Jacob was destroying our readins time. ...ny a year, he'd fallen in love with GOODNIGHT MOON, laughing as we'd touch the "hot" fire, pointing ecsEatically to the real moon outside. We somehow passed over mosE of Ehe cardboard baby books - Jacob seemed to be catching on so quickly to genEle handLing of books since they were always about everywhere, and- obvi ous 1y [:rea sured:-Ee-?I soseemed to orefer real stories to mere "ooint it out" books. ffeFound our reading choices move towards Jacob's new favorites - we musE have read and pored over the "Angus" and "Ask Mr. Bear" books by Marjorie Flack a thousand times Ehe month Jacob was l5 months old, It was our delight co rediscover Jesse's oLd Ereasures and share them anew with Jacob. Jesse seemed to enjoy Ehese simp)esE tales immensely, too... lE wasn't .a borin5i exoerience for him to hear THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF a hundred Eimes _ he loved acting it ouE wiEh his little brother, and also would see these Eimeless stories from his new older DersDective... I remember Jesse musing, "Well, I think they should have sent the Big Billy CoaE Gruff over Ehe bridgtTirsE, Ehen Lhe Iictlest one iiouTTilE have had Eo be so scared by the EroII, Ehe big one could have gotten rid of thac troll right away." ..,Jesse also beqan to learn Jacob's favoriEes by Feart. I remember him at 4l "reading" all of the LITTLE FUR FAMILY by MargareE l^lise Brown Lo Jacob, with engaging inflection and proper pauses Eo ask Jacob litEle questions. ...Jacob rlsually seems Eo grasP the main characters of our books, and so can Follow and par!icipaEe in Jesse's play-acting versions (everyEhins seems to set acEed out in our housei ) Shared stories have become a cemenE Eo their friendship, a vehicle for Ehem to enjoy PIay Eogether' as they both know and love Ehe common themes of the stories woven through their days... The years ahead look exciting and rich, and now we're wondering how next summer's bhby-to-be #3 will enjoy it all... -

...AND WRITING TOGETHER

And a leEEer from Suzanne Erion in the same issue: ...My 3L-year-old son Matthew said to me one cold falt morning, "Mommy, I want to learn to $rriEe my name. " I thoughE, rrWhat an opporEuniEy." I got my big lined chart paper and with Matthew on my lap, he hraEched me prinE his name. Knowing

aLl his leEters, he named Ehe leEEers in his name one by one, I prinEed iE again tt/o more Eimes. The next time he said, "I wanE Eo make the T's," and he did so well, I was surprised how legible and neat. MaEthew actempced the "Hil along with the two T's nbxc time aid finallv he included the "W." t{e printed his name Een times, each time he made the T, H, and W. My 18-monEh-old son Philip waEched eagerly behind my shoulder, tugging on Matthewrs shirE indicating he wanted a turn. MatEhew said, "OK, Philipr )our turn." Phi I ip sat on my 1ap and he watched me print each LetEer in his name as I said them. After printing i t a coupLe of times, unexpectedly Philip Eurned his head, touched my cheek wiEh his little hand and kissed me as if saying trThanks for taking the time Eo print my name lviEh me." I could have iust melEed... LETTERS ON COMPUTERS

From Christine Hilston (OH):

...[,le recentLv ourchased a Texas are teaching ourselves programming. We hope to come up with some rather unique programs that may bring in a Iittle income, BuE for right now we are having fun Learning. We boughc a couple of educacional software cartridges (and a game cartridge, Eoo), and jE's amazing how weII our boys are doing. They not only are learning Ehe material presenEed, buE also how to operate the computer. And they look on it as "learning" Ehey donr!rrWe want to plav "EarIv Learninq sav. Fuir, " or "Number FIEETc , " eti. ...It is interesting to observe how Erik (6) and BrenE (3) react differently to their computerized learning. Erik seems Eo wanE us waEching every problem on the screen and giving our approval before he types in Ehe answer and gets the programmed aoproval. He doesn't want to make a m-i-stake ! . . . Brent, on the other hand, is happy using the compuEer by himself and geCs very excited over a correct answer. Age may play a parE too, since BrenE is 3. BuE he doesn'E always want or need to get the answer correct. He sometimes says, 'rI wanE to see whaE happens if I geE iC Inscruments Tf99/44 home computer and

wronq. . . "

From Wendy Baruch

...We have Ehe

in Cambridge:

Commodore VIC-20

comDuter which comes with 4K of memory. For an extra $I00, we bought 16K extra memory. Commodore sells a program called "VIC TypewriEer" (word processor) for $I2. Itrs a powerful word processing sysEem for Ehe money. We bought Ehe VIC I5I5 printer for $350, so including Ehe $75 for the cassetre Eape machine, our word processing sysEem cost us $837 (VIC icself was $300). The price of the VIC has gone down a hundred dollars since hre boughE our model so Ehis package could be bought for $737. IDR: NoE including TV. I Our son Shane (8) is very capable of using this sysEem. For a while he was actively corresponding !0iEh my younger sisEer (10) who lives in Florji^ The ooint is it's an economical and practlcal system and Irve never run out of memory since we bought the l6K expander. I use Ehe system all the time as I am using iE now. There are a number of good editing features and a small conv6nienE handbook of GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

able co her including printing her instruct ions . name, dialing a Eouch-Eone Eelephone, The VIC-20's l5l5 prinEer is not and building wiEh geomeLric shapes. as efficient as I wouLd like. OccaBetween lhe Ewo of us, we have sionally iE repeats a word (of ils 20 years experience in data processown choosing) and someEimes the print ing and are availabLe to consulE with head sticks and needs a push manualIy. If I had to do iE ovbr again, I homeschoolers. . . would have spenE a hundred dollars more and bought a different brand, better-quality princer, MORE ELECTRONIC BARGAINS .,.Also, if any home schooLers In "Bargains In Electronics, have Ehe VIC-20, I wouLd highly recom(CWS +31 p. 14), I said that a good mend invesEing an exEra $40 to buy place Eo shop for cameras and various the Turtle Graphics cartridge. This kinds of electronic ecuiDmenE was Ehe changes Ehe compuEer language from Basic to TurtLe. TurEIe uses very sim- Thursday New York Times.'Since then I have f ound-Tha-E-Ei-EiE-n be L ter D L ac e ole commands EhaL make Ehe cursor is the second half of che main news icalled the TurEIe) crawL across the section of the Sundav Times. where screen and Leave various colored trails. This interesEing form of com- the same comDanies cend--E6-run even puter art (you can program sound inEo larger ads. Thus in a recent ad for 47TH your picEure too) is an excellent STREET PHOTO (36 E. 19 St., New York introduction to programming... NY 10003) we find, among other Ehings, the Olivetti Praxis 35 Electronic Typewri ter, an offi ce-sized, From Sheryl Schuff (8156 Lieber dai sy wheel type$iri ter, ori gi nall y Rd, IndianapoLis IN 46260; 3L7priced at $750 and nov,/ sold for $350. 259-4778): The Aiwa HS-JO2 walkman-sized radio ...In GLJS $31 you asked for and Eape recorder I described in GWS in.tormaEion concerning Ehe cheapesE #30 is offered for $130. (S & W ELECTRONICS, 187 Ross St., Brooklyn NY lray to run LOGO. I hope the following 1727L, seLLs it for $120.) At such thoughts will be helpful. h-F^rin nrieac it iq e rom'rL.hl^ First, the prices you quoted in your article are "manufacturer's sug- 47th St. Photo offers the Timexgested list prices. " Substantial disSinclair computer, listed at $100, counts are available from discount for $55; Ehe VIC 20, lisced at $200, (Childrenrs Palace and Service for $140, and so on. stores ,and Merchandise are two) from many If you are buying a computer for mail-order firms. These firms adverthe firsE Eime, and if there is a com* Eise in Bvte masazine and The 99'er Duter sEore near vou-ihere Ehe saLes( publ i sh63-Ty TExas I nsErufr;iT;-E;frpubeople are both welL informed and , Eer users ) heliful, not an easy Ehing to find . ..You said that you read EhaE according Lo the computer magazines, you needed a disk drive before you iE may make sense Eo buy from them, could run L0GO. While this may be the even if it costs a liEtle more, just preferred setup, iE is noc necessary. so EhaE you can get advice and help A oortable cassette recorder can be when you need it. But if there is no crrch crnro nr i f vn,r harra usbd instead. The rrgame" you mentioned in other sources of help you can go to, which different size and color obor if you aLready know a loE about jects can be moved abouE the screen compuEers, the Sunday Times, and also is actually a hardware feature of Ehe fne compuEer magazlnes Ehemsel ves, TI 9914A called SpriEes. As far as are very good places to shop. - JH the "limiEed memoryr" Ehere is a newer version of LOGO calLed LOGO II which has tr.{ice as much memory avaiLa- ARTS AND CRAFTS ble to Ehe user. It also has music capabilities of up to Ehree simulEaneFrom Suzanne Alejandre (Ger. ): ous tones which can be olaved across a five-octave range. April'82:. ,..I once wrote the .....#r!^^1 For a good discussion of LOGO suggesEion LGWS #23J thaL people buying art supplies should only buy red, and its implementaEion on various hlrra rrpl l nw uhi ra anr] hla.L n.inr machines, 8182. Some of Ehe .i ieeis ,4'Byte, inlormation out of date now... and that they could then mix for all Last October, we implemenced other colors. My oLd paint tubes were LOGO on Ehe TI 99/4A wilh the followone Ehing I eliminated in packing ing equipment: when we moved to Germany. So, I took my own advicel Having just the priTI 9914A with RF modulacors; after mary coLors has been great because in painting with them the boys are dis$100 rebate: $200 LOGO: $90 covering what colors Ehey can create. Peripheral expansion box: $220 As wiEh most of their discovery exper32K memory expansion card: $250 iences I try to keep my mouth shuE. CasseEce cable: $I5 They've made some great discoveries. Because Lee tends Eo mix everything I For a monifor, we used a coLor someEimes leave out black as one of TV already in our home. For a castheir colors. but otherwi se the idea sette recorder, we purchased a Sears \tas souno. model on sale aE $44 for a total cost ...I wrote a while back IGWS of $819. #281 about Niko wanting to knit. ...We could have used a casseEEe Since thaE letfer werve had three recorder we aLready owned (purchased more sessions. Each time he resumed for $25) with an adaotor avaiLable the work as if he'd never stopped. (I for $6 through mail-brder. still hold the needles while he works ,..Prices for the ecuiomenE have rho r,,rh I tr.^h ts i m6 '. ^ l,-^rrrLi ts h^ -^F 'r< EeLJ progressiveLy fasEer. Right now come down in the Iast severil monEhs. we so the system shouLd now be abLe to can kniE togeEher as fast as I can be put together f or less: r,rhile the knit alonel The fact Ehat Niko didn't forget $100 rebace is sEiII in elfect, for reminded me of my piano learning ex$656. . . LOGO is used primarily by our perience. When I was teaching myself ^: --^ FL^ 'L'.^^^ r '.earned I didn't 3-year-old daughter. My husband and I Pld'lU, aLso wriEe procedures which are avail- forget, even though I miElht have GROWING t,lllTHOUT SCHOOLING #32

weeks in berween playing. I remember thinking at the Eime how I had often been told as a chiLd or studenE thaE I musc do someEhinq and conEinue do-

in[-TE or I would nforget." I feel we only "forget" whaE we didn'E "learn" in the first placel Once you learn to ride a bike (or roller skaEe, etc. you never forgeE. . . Dec, '82: ..'Niko is sEilL knitare very long cing 5ut-TE?-inEervals in beEween - a rrknitting Eeacher'l would be very frusErated by now, buE because Niko only knits when he realLy has Ehe urge, we both enjoy iE. Lee (3) said he wantThe other- nisht. .i oh, no, I'Il ed Eo kniE. YI Ehought, -. time Eo myself! never have kniEting is quice boring Niko, it But, as with for Lee but he enjoys it for the little Eirne he devoEes to iE... As wiEh Niko, I worked the needles as he did the yarn, He continually wenE around wrong and had to try again. He ended up doing five rows before Eiring... It will be interesting to see Lee's retention when we have a )

second session.

...Niko lras looking Ehrough all sEuff (I have loads of scraps, patEerns, fabric, etc, ecc) and he came across a cross-stitch kiE which Rjch's brother had given me as a gift. I let him open it and he was intrigued by all the rhings - thread, needle, grid-canvas. He wanEed Eo try it but Ehe grid was so tiny I told him we'd buy a larger one.., I spenE over an hour transferring the drawi -^ ^^1 ^- ^^r i -- r F as Niko Iooked on... By the time I was finished he'd losE mosc of his interesE. He did try about 3 stitches - had a Eerrible Eime and we puE iE away. AbouE one monCh Later, he found it and wanLed TL^F Fime he did a Lv Lry dEdlr! whole row and could do one crossstitch alone. I hadn't realized that he had even caughE on to Che concepE but he had. . . Jan. '83: I wrote once abouE havin[--i--I5t-of lef tover arE supplies f rom college, In among them $rere t\^ro pen holders with a large assortmenE of tios,.. Niko found a feauher one day and sEarEed Eelling me EhaE "o1d time pens" were made from feaEhers (who knows where he learned thaE). So I boughc some ink, Rich Erimmed the feather end, and Niko had a quill pen. He was so inErigued EhaE I vraited over a week before I got ouE the other Dens. Actuallv it worked ouE well because Lee had been too rough on his feather - the Den suiEed him beEtE?. We've ali had-greaE fun - Lee and I each use a holder and share the Eips lrhile Niko uses his feather my

pen. . .

MUSIC IN THE FAMILY

An article by Marion Pears in Australian home-schooling newsleEEer, Otherways: ..,Music just happened in our family. Or, rather, iE grew, I had no musicil Eraining mysel fl-Tilt once Arnold could walk we played rhyEhmic music for him on our cheao record player, and he loved Co dance Co it. Later, we gave thal record player to the children, along with a collection of their own records to use when they liked. CIassical music appealed to me, emoEionally, and I used Eo Listen Eo iC on the ABC radio scacions. as I worked. Arnold IisCened, Eoo. IE was just there, in the environmenE. l.dhen Arnold was about five I Che

124 I

I I

decided to try to teach myself to play Ehe recorder. I'd always wanted to play an instrumenE, and Ehe recorder seemed Ehe most realistic and approachable insrrument. So I boughE one, and a rrhow tot' book, and goE

music. I think Arnold musE have played Ein Klein Natchmusick a thousand cimes, and Bryn musE have played the New World Symphony Ehe same. In self-defense we bought earphones. ArnoLd became interested in medieval music, bought recordings, and we wenc fo hear Ehe Ars Nova group play a number of times. Final1., h.-h"i1f tho n-ti;^ x.-^ anrl rr ic ,rdrP, drru planning to make further instruments

could make their own, and thaE Ehey did a loE of speaking before Ehey did any reading and writing. He also realized that children hrant verv much to do what they see the adulEs around them do, From Ehese sound insights he started. Arnold wanEed Eo learn to developed his method. II a Japanese play, too. So I boughE him a recordfamily wanted Eheir child to sCudy er, and Eogether ne made slow proviolin by this method, when the child gress. At the same time I bought a was stil1 a baby they would begin to collecElon of percussion instrumenEs; play aE home, every day if possible, we had Bryn as well, by Ehis time, himse L f . and many Eimes each day, recordings played by experE players of some of and we used to have wonderful times Meanwhile, we had discovered EogeEher just experimenting with thaE we had aLl become good enoupih to the simple violin tunes Ehat the ttcat sound, making music,rr or "Erain play Eogether. I,,lendy arranged several child would laEer learn to play. Soon musicr" or imitaEing birds. pieces for us of a classical nature, che child would come to know the At Chis time we became interesttunes and fhink of them as his or and we play Eogether as a bush band ed in the Gilbert and Sullivan operet- with the boys on Eheir violins, and hers, (Later experiments have shown Eas, largely because there was a G & that babies six-months-old or younger Omi and I on our recorders. Omi and I S Company formed in Melbourne, and iE can learn Eunes liell enoueh Eo recan play duets on our recorders. We rras producing several a year. we spond happily when they h6ar them can all play simple duets on the sEarEed going dohrn for Ehe producpl ayed . ) piano; Arnold and Bryn can play vioEions, bought full length recordings, When the child was abouE Ehree lin dueEs; and we can play togefher and libretEos. At one sEage Arnold as a quarteE - tr^to violins, piano and or four one of Ehe parencs, usually knew most of Ehe G & S ooerettas bv the mother, would begin taking violin recoroer. iinl-aracla.l heart from sEarc Eo finiih, He couid lessons with a Suzuki Eeacher. brins,.. R*.'ut ttt i D h^^^mino ucgvrrrr.rs sing you every aria, knew each piece in jazz trumpet . . . Omi i s pl ayi ng ine her child wiEh her. Ac che Eeac6of dialogue, memorized and sang the would give Pavarott i' s Greatest Hits. . . @r patter songs wiEh greaE delighE, Looking back, it all seems to Ehe parenE a violin, show her how to The two families whom lde nere hold it, ecc. and then would play one have happened so simply and naEuralvery close to when we lived in Benly, and this is Erue. of the tunes that the child already dlgo were very musical. BoEh the knew. Then the Eeacher would show the IE's also Erue Ehat music was passionately interesting to me, and mother how to play the rune - since faEhers of Ehese families !{ere music it was the first, it would be simple Eeachers, and aLI Eheir chiLdren was therefore available in the envirenough so that she could learn co played instruments. Arnold badLy wanE- onmenE all Ehe Eime. There was the play iC quickly. AfEer the lesson the ed to learn Eo play Ehe violin, Never- examole of our comDeEent musical teacher would tell Mother Eo Dractice friends who couLd play beauti fully, Eheless, this wasn't possible until a EhaE litEle Eune aE home uncii the few years later, when we came Eo Meland of me, happily messing around nexE lesson. This would go on for a teaching myself to play things. bourne, and were lucky enough Eo find few lessons, the child always going There was the fact thaE whaE a wonderful, gentle, understanding with the mother to Ehe lesson, Then they were interested in, I encourteacher. AfEer one year of Arnold aged. There was the fact that they bein perhaps Ehe Ehird or fourth leslearning, Bryn wanted to learn the son, if the child was still really lieved they could teach Ehemselves violin, Eoo, and so he aLso sEarted. interested - for Suzuki insisted Ehat Bv this Eime we were involved these Ehings (which helps a lot). You he would noE force children to play don't always need "experts" Eo Eeach wich Mllvern CommuniEy School, which the teacher would mysteriously proyou, Ehough they may be helpful. had an old piano. I loved to experiduce from somewhere a tiny childAnd mosE of all, there was Ehe ment around with it, so boughE myself sized violin, asking the child, facE Ehat we have always had a loE of a beginneris book and starEed trying F,,n ,.,i rh m,,- i ^ .-J r^ra i I t^ws pwnl L^Hrvl nred to Eeach myself a felv Ehings. Before "[r]ould you Like to try it?'r Yes, indeedl So Ehe mother and child wouLd gecner, , , Long, Bryn, Omi and I were arriving go home logether with their violins, at school earLy each morning so thar and would practice aE home togeEher we could do our "piano lessons" the litELe tune they both knew. After before school starEed, Bryn never be- SUZUKI BOOKS AVAILABLE HERE a while the mother, Ehough she was came good aE the piano, buE still sEi1l expected Eo Listen to the child Ioves Eo pick ouE tunes. For Omi, iE SUZLIKI PIANO SCHOOL, Vo1. I and play and required Eo come with him to SUZtrKffi.65 became her great love and the instruEhe lessons, could iI she uished sEop menE she eventually learned Eo play @rreaders playing herself - by Ehis time, the have chiLdren who are taking some Ehe besE. BoEh Bryn and Omi had kind of Suzuki music instruction, and chiLd couLd go on alone. As time h'ent learned the recorder from me, too. (I'd eventually become reasonably com- many oEhers are interested in music on, he would learn other tunes, and along with his individual lessons pecent.) I goE a proper teacher for and ways to open the worLd of music to rheir children. so we have decided would play in groups with other childOmi, and bought a piano, ren, discovering with dei ight that Bryn and Arnold were at this to add to our list Ehe first volumes they, Eoo, knew the same tunes. time playing in a small chamber group of Ehe Suzuki Violin and Piano MethTh fh^ n*icinnl maihnJ vrrr) run by their music teacher. It sLarE- ods. If readers seem interested, we r nnlrr after a child gained considerabLe fluwill add other volumes of these sered Eo become obvious Ehat Bryn had a ency on the violin, and could play ies, and also branch ouE inEo Ehe good ear. He would whistle the cello parE from I'Ein Klein NaEchmusick," cello, flute, and viola series, (Suzu- fairly complicated tunes, was he introduced to the written notes for ki Euba is noE yet available. and could play lots of things by ear rhe tunes thaE he already could pLay. Before I say why I like these on violin and piano. He wanted Eo Not for still some time, I'm noc sure books, let me say a few words about learn Ehe Erumpet. tJendy, the music how 1ong, would he start Learning new how I came to know abouE Suzuki and teacher aE ERA, agreed Eo help him, tunes from written notes insEead of whaE I now feel is good, or not so and so we boughE a cheap trumpet. by ear. good, about Suzuki insErucEion proEvery insErumenE you learn makes each So much for the basic meEhod, grams as I undersEand them. new instrumenE easier to play. He which seemed to me Ehen as iE does I first read about Dr. Suzuki's could already read music, so with the now in good accord vJith all I know work in Japan from an articLe in the aid of some "how to" books, a tape, about children's learning. The Times New York Times years ago. It said and a few lessons from Wendy, he article wenr on Eo say t6at chiTd?Ei that one day it occurred to him that Largely Eaught himself Eo play. were encouraged to experimenE with since all .linenese children accomOmi was sEarting to become interEheir instruments, Eo make sounds pl ish the di fficult Eask of learning ested in the guitar, aE Ehis fime, to speak Japanese, if Ehey had the in- both fast and slow, high and low - I Eoo, and has had lessons off and on. While a1l Ehis was happening, telligence and skill to do Ehis, they remember it said children were asked to make sounds "like an elephant" or could, if they wanted to, Iearn Eo our knowledge of music was broadenplay the vioLin (Suzuki's own instrurng, our Ilnances rmProvlng, our "like a littLe mouse." It Ehen said Eha! all over Japan, hundreds of ment) in the same uay. Since he berecord collection growing. We became ahitl f^"-fitrarnri ci Jl^_j/Edl lieved that childrenrs lives would be interested in opera, and bought sea^1/ ren taught by these meEhods gathered much enriched by music, as his own son EickeEs for one season. IE was to play music by Vivaldi, Handel, and had been, he set out Eo devise a way wonderfuL, and v,reIl $rorthwhile. We Bach. sLill try to go Eo one opera each sea- of learning the violin as close as A few years LaEer, when a group possible Eo the method children use son. We bought a hi-fi, and good of these children came to the New Engfo Learn their own language. He realrecordings of our favoriEe operas. land Conservatory on a Eour of the ized that children had to hear a lot People sEarced developing a spenF nihor nonnl o'c cnoanh hafnro fharr U.S,, I vJas chere to hear them, along cial interest in a sDeciaL Diece of )

GROt.lING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

children (or Eheir parents) can teLl by looking at them where Lhe fingers are supposed to go. This is musicaL n^t ' ir ic ^rrr eyes, rhac are suppoF6d-to tell us ahi I dron mi oht ho firra in ei v: T nnur where to puc our fingers. 3) The children become members think Ehey may have been perhaps a year or two older. Dr. Suzuki and a of a musical community. In a performyoung assistant checked the tuning of ing arE, like music, Ehe uniform curriculum for which the schooLs so misthe children's violins. We waited in takenly scrive in oEher areas actualgreat suspense. ldhat v,/ould they play? ly makes sense. Wherever a Suzuki Perhaos some of the sLower and easier child goes, she will find thaE other tunes of Vivaldi, Handel, or Bach. Suzuki children at about her level of Dr. Suzuki gave the downbeaE, and skill know the same pieces she does, away they went - playing noE some so thev can plav them tosether. which easy tune but the Bach Double Cont^m^^ .orf^ Lv, i n nFrFa.i rrt-^ --.1 rs lun Ior Ene cnrloren ano Deyono o"u !L/ t LErlPvr that is one of Ehe chief joys of rhythm, and wiEh great energy and i F.. rF .,^^ A-^^FLF^l.i-^ ^^1 ,,1), music. Learning a musical insErument, sdL"Ld^r'16' -..^l aE least until you got good enough Eo hair-raising. ' I could not have been play in a band or orchestra, used Eo more astonished if the children had be a rather lonely business for childfloaEed up to Lhe ceiling. Rarely in ren. Now it doesnrt have to be. Not my life have I seen and heard anyonly do the Suzuki teachers in a comthing so far beyond the bounds of munity have their pupiLs play togef,hwhat I would have thought possible. r.|rrrino fha nrreclinn nprind Drer every week or so, but Ehere are in addition even larger gatherings of Suzuki Eold us (through his young iniornrotor) lher lha Tenanacp chi 1richildren, often hundreds of them, at various Suzuki conferences. These can ren we had heard were unusual in only be enormously exciting to the childEwo resDects: their families could ren. The actual classes and rrorkshops afford to pay For this Erip to the may or may not be interesting, buE in U.S., and their mothers could go with becween Ehem the children can rush them. But there Inrere apparently many around and play with other children hundreds or even Ehousands of childall the music they know. One mother ren in Japan who couLd play as well. of two very Ealented children, who I have to emphasize before sayhas gone to several of chese big geting any more abouE Suzuki in this togethers, says Ehat the best things country that all I know about Suzuki that happen Ehere, as far as the instruction in JaDan came from Ehe anthem. The organizaEion and Ehe meth- children are concerned, are the Time: story and a couple-of others, things thaf are noE planned - informandJrom whaE I I earned f rom Ehi s od are certainly doing some good things, but much less than Ehey appar- al, sponEaneous music-making ltith ochshort meeEing. lt is possible that er children. For me this is a very enEly once did in Japan, and what is Ehe picEure of Suzuki insErucEion imporcanE asseE, and one which ouEmore to the poinc, much less than Ehat I made in my mind out of these weighs any objections I have to fhe they could do here if they realIy brief materials was far from accurprogrem. practiced whaE Ehey preach - thaE is, ate. What actually happened Ehen, or So I think Ehat the Suzuki materheloed chiLdren to learn music in the happens now, in Suzuki cLasses in ials and organization can be a very same way that they once learned Japan, I don't know. What I can say useful resource - one of manv - for I anguage . with cercainty is chaE from all I ch i J dren I earning fru---c l-ai-il-the ir What Chen is so good abouE Suzuhave seen, heard, and read of iE, parents (perhaps also Iearning ki maEerials and meEhods, and why are Suzuki inscruccion in Ehe U.S. today music). The trick is to make use of we adding Ehem to our lisE and recomis very far from my idea of what it those materials, but noE resEricE was, Ehe one I have jusE described Eo mending them Eo parents? yourself to them. Branch ouE: encour1) Their musicaL selections are you, and even further from che meEhod age Ehe children co improvise freely, very good. They are playable - noE by which children Iearn to speak Eo rnake up tunes, Eo write dohrn too hard and noE Eoo easy. They are t.heir olvn language. Suzuki instruccunes, Eo wriEe composicions for each fun Eo play, and whaE is just as Eion today is in fact very much like other Eo play, to begin as soon as imDorEanE for Ehe Darencs who will most school instruction. The maEerial possible to play real chamber music, have uo hear them over and over to be learned is broken down into which so far does not play a very big many very small pieces; each one is again, they are fun (or ac the very DarE in formal Suzuki instruction worst, at leasE Eolerable) to hear. supposed to be done perfectly before though Ehis may be changing, as it The children are very soon playing the next one is atfempted; mistakes should and as I hope iE is. are correcEed insEanElv. from the ouc- pieces wriEEen by the great masEers. In short, puE back into learning Some have objected thaE what the side, by Ehe Eeacher or the parent; music Ehe exploration, Ehe discovery, pressure put on children play are simplified versions there is considerable rrpracEice"; the adventure, and above aLI Ehe joy and children of whaE Ehese composers wrote, but I children to and excitement Ehat is properly a see no objection co chat. A child I are given litEle room or encourageparE of it, and that Eoo formal and know well has already moved from a ment, if any at all, to improvise and simplified version of a Bach piece Eo rigid inscruction can only kill. - JH experiment with Ehe insErument. one much closer to the real thing. It Some of the reasons for this doesn't cause her any problems and I probably have to do with differences don'C see why iE should. She just beEween Japanese and American family SUZUKI RECORDS HERE Ehinks Ehat a piece she already liked life and culture. JaDanese rdomen are VIOLIN VARIETIES aNd RECITAL interesting. likely home with has become even more much more Eo be at fAVUKlItsS (Slr eaCn + posrage: /)9 2 ) There are recordings ( see Ehe Eheir children, and Japanese parenEs, T6?T-T[ for 2\. These two recordreview following this one) available if Eold by an expert that they musE ings incLude the music from the first play recordings of simple violin of good performances of the music two books of the Suzuki violin and that Ehe children wiLl be playing. I tunes for several hours a day for suspect tha! most parenEs don't play years on end, are perhaps more likely ffino instrucEion series, The same company makes severaL oEher recordthese as much as Ehey might or to do it. To some extent, Dr. Suzuki ings in each series, Co go wiEh Ehe surely had to modify his method, what- should; sE i II , with these recordings laEer Suzuki books; if there is ever it was, Eo Eake into accounE dif- you can do Suzuki as it was supposed l^ ho .l^na fh.t i nan malro ir enough interest, we will add the ferences in American family life, in later -^^^pFr recordings, along with Ehe possible for your children to really American adults' ideas about how to later books, to our IisE. treac chiLdren (we are generally much know Ehese tunes before they sEarE A similar seE of recordings has trying to play Eh66;-=6 that, as in more severe with them than the Japanbeen produced in Japan, and is disIearning Eo taIk, they can correcE ese), and in American music teachers' tributed here by Summy-Birchard, who Eheir own misEakes rather Ehan have ideas about how music had Eo be oublish Ehe wrircen music. But a1l to have DarenEs or teachers do this Eaught. the Suzuki people I know feel Ehat for rhem. One of Ehe things American It is also importanc Eo noEe to me a Ehe recordings produced in this counSuzuki Eeachers do EhaE seems that noE all Suzuki Eeachers are Ery are guife a bit beEter - as well complete misEake is to put liEEle alike, any more than are aLl Montesas somewhat cheaDer - so these are Dieces of Eape on the violin (or sori teachers, or any kind of teachthe ones we have-chosen. ers. Some are more invenEive and flex- viola or celio) finserboard so EhaE

with severaL hundred others, many of Ehem music Eeachers. The children, perhaps twenty of them, came onstage, healthy, energetic, and happy. AE the time I thought the average age of Lhe

GROIdING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

ible Ehan ochers; indeed, as happened with Montessori. some Suzuki teachers have already broken off from Ehe raEher rigid American organi-zaEion and call themselves independent Suzuki teachers, to give Ehemselves the freedom, if they wi sh, Eo rnodify the sErict meEhods handed down from above, If I ever reach strjng playing Eo adults and/or children, as someday I hope to, I r,rill certainly use Suzuki materials, but much of lhe time I will use Chem in my own way, The only way to find out whaE Suzuki instruction is like in your Cown is co see the peopLe doing it. I have seen some astonishingly bad teaching done under the name of Suzuki, and also some very good Eeaching. See and decide for yourseLf. On the whole, though, it is safe to say that Suzuki instruction in this counEry has become very rigid. And whether because of lhis or for nihor rorennc i r .orra inl rr i q nnf producing the kind of resuLts that we were told iE once produced in JaPan. Some very fine sEring players are coming ouE of Suzuki training, no question about if. But Ehere are very few 6- to 8-year-oLd American children who can play Ehe Bach Double Concerr. ..^.. L^^r ^--e numbers of Suzu_ ra!5 trcor Jvu ki children playing in this counEry, what you are more likely co hear are simple variations of tTwinkle, Twinkle, LitELe SEar," which (for good enough musical reasons) has become a kind of Suzuki national

As far as I know, Ehe company has not yeE produced any recordings Eo go niEh Ehe cello, viola, or flute \4/riften music, buE perhaps these will be avaiLable soon. hle wiII let you know if we find out. -

first pubLished in 1949, is one of the greaE cLassics of ecology - a ,.--r .-vented more than wuru t L.. uy rL^ LLrs ..^-. wdy r !rr a hundred years ago. lE is among other things a book about a kind of bio1 ru6y

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it now even more desoeratelv than when Leopold wrote, Joseph Wood Krutch, himself a ora^r rat1tfi licr rnd L,rilar LucheEti-T$ZIl5F-?-lo-Ei I . Thi s i s one oE the mosE unusual, beauEiful, infor- made a very interesting and important macive, and thoughE provoking books distinction in speaking about biology.He spoke of the difference beabout history Ehat I have ever seen, rrincidarr il^,,F-ii^rl 4n, ruroon hi^l^-., a book abouE what I call True HisurvrvEy drru tory, as opposed co the textbook hisbiology. "Inside" biology, the kind tory Ehat I, and I suppose mosE chiLd- no$/ very much in fashion, consists in ren, sEudied and scill study in exploring, \diEh eLecEronic microschool, A BriEish hisEorian once scopes and oEher exoEic tools, Ehe said, very aptly,rrHisEory is the innermosE parEs, Ehe very cells and propaganda of the victors." We could genes of living creatures, to find as well say thaE it is Che study of out how chese Darts work and how Eo What The Big Shots Did. Reading it, make them work- differentlv - Dresumone would hardly Ehink there had ever ably better. "OuEside" bi6logy conlived anyone excepU kings, generals, sists oF crying to observe living and an occasional religious leader or Ehings as they appear in nature, disrrrrhino rham ac lifflo ec nnccihlo Ernro. What ordinary people di d, how they worked, how they Lived their to find out how they relate to each Lives, above a1l how they felt about other, and we to all of them. their lives, is something we almosE "Inside" biology seeks to understand never find ouE. nature so that we may change and conThis is as true of the history trol it; oucside biology seeks ro of our own l,Jest as of the kinedoms undersEand it so that vJe mav live harand emoires of Eurooe, The teitbook moniously wiEhin iE, history of our t^lest'is almost entireI had feared that Che inside bioly the hisEory of men engaged in logists, whose doings are in the headromantic and dangerous occupations 1 ines every week or so, had won Ehe and exploits - explorers, soldiers, batEle, and thaL outside biology was gold-seekers, gunfighters, sheriffs, no longer a respectable science or cowboys, miners. This, Ehough true perhaps even an acEive one af a1l. So enough, is only a small parE of the I was greatly encouraged to read in cruth. Most of the true history of the New York Review of Books of the WesE is a hisEory of work, cruel1/20@rofessor ly hard work done in a biEt.er and hos- of Biology and Zoology it Harvard named R. C. Lewontin. Reviewine the Eile environment, and much of Ehis work was done by women. In this book, bOOKS AGAINST BIOLOGiCAL DETERMINISM and TOWARDS A LIBERATORY BIOLOGY, afEer a very interesting general des(boEh of which I plan to read, if cripEion of Ehe lives of pioneer women, ire meet eleven of Ehose lvomen, they are noE Eoo Eechnjcal), he and through Eheir diaries, journals, wri tes : and letters, hear the story of Eheir lives own ,..What is surelv Ehe most Dower- Ehe sEory of Ehe LitEle House books as they might have been fuI and influenCial- metaphor-becomeif Laura IngalLs tJilder's mother, the real in Western civilizaEion was gentle and shadowy Caroline, had wricprovided in 1637 by Rene Desten them. cartes.., It is the organism as ala-Fh^ taYl in !LJLr! ircal F wrLrr machine, . . '.'itk , rrr ^rvrr6 fascinaEing, are reproductions of l,Jhat has happened since 1637 is about a hundred phoEographs taken at that, in the minds of naturaL scienthe time. With a few wonderful exceoEtists and a large fracEion of ions - Ewo women galloping on horsel social scientists as well, the back at top speed, two little girls world has ceased to be like a machine. buc instead is-3EEn as if whispering and giggling to each oEher i t \,Jere a machine. CarEesian reducat school - Ehe phoEographs are moscly sEiff and formal portraiEs of tionism, which regards the entire women or Eheir families, usually in world of things as, in fact, a very fronE of the Einy sod or dugouE complicated elecEro-mechanical dehouses or log cabins Ehei lived in. vice, is noE simply Ehe dominant mode of thought in naEural science, Somehow Ehese photos, in their many shades of black and gray, and Eheir but Ehe onlv mode to enter the consciousness of fhe vasf majoriEy of absence of moEion, convey more of the hardharshness of Ehe landscape and modern scientists. It is no exaggerness of the life than modern color ation to say that mosE scientists could do. simply do nbu know how Eo Ehink ohotos TexE and photos are beautifully abouE Ehe world exceot as a laid out and printed in a book which, machine. . . just as a book, is a work of the The naturaL hisEorical aooroach to understanding the world ibnsists Drinter's art. I know it is a more expensive book uhan many individuaL r5 Lw -?construcE rr Ehe causes of evenEs from observing sysfamiLies will feel thev can buv. But tems in Eheir normal state of famllies who geE EogeEher very-o.ften, as more and more home schoolers do, moEion or stasis, The experimental could join together Eo buy it for approach, on Ehe other handr ruSâ&#x201A;Źs perturbation as its primary tool. their joinE use. I hope they will do The objecE under study is pushed, so, and also will try to geE their picked, and nicked, biEs and pieces Iocal public libraries to buy it. This beautiful book is one that are removed, foreign agents added should be widely known and read, and and the normal working of the syskept alive for future generations of tem generally disturbed in the hope that its response to these alEerachildren to read, tions wiLl reveal iEs inner workA SAND COUNTY ALMANAC. bv Aldo ings. The CarEesian reducEionist view confuses the naEure of Ehe oerLeopo@is book, OTHER BOOKS AVAILABLE HERE t,lOMEN OF THE WEST. bv - Cathv

turbation iEself wiEh Ehe "cause" oE the sysEem's normal funcEioning. A Russian story tells of the psychoLogisE who proves that flehshear with Eheir legs by training them t.o jump on command, and then observing that they no Longer respond when their legs are ampu-

taled,

As Ehe term is defined in this elegant comparison, Aldo Leopold was

a natural hisEorian. He liked Eo observe Iiving Ehings - planEs, frees. hirds- fich animals - in their naEural sEaEe, disturbing them (except for some occasional fly fishinp) as I i rfle as nossible. As a result of a lifetime of Ehis kind of genELe and respectful observation, he was able Eo see what the inside biologist, lhe experimenfer, the perturber, the tinkerer, never sees, which is Ehe enormous number of inEerconnections beEween living things, and Che many ways in which a small and supposedLy unimportant change in one place may laEer, perhaps much LaEer, bring about an imporEant change in anocner. Because he could see thaE tinkering wit.h nature was risky and could lead to unexpected, unwanted, and irreversible resuLEs, but even more because he Loved Ehe varietv and beauF., FL^ 1:,,i-^ ^f ^l I v JrE creatures he saw. Leopold ac fhe end of his book called fbr land eEhic," which, as "a r!^L--^^L^ -..F jF the roLe of Homo saDiens from conoueror of the larxlcommunitv to Dlain member and ciEizen ir ri imhriac racnoef Fnr -t.1, rr"PrrLJ ^F his felLow members, and also respect for the communiEy as such." Later he writes: "It is inconceivable to me thaE an ethical relaEion to land can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land, and a high regard for its value. By vaLue I of course mean something far broader Ehan mere economic value; I mean value in Ehe phi Iosphical sense," AImost forty years later we still do noE have a land eEhic, though we perhaps have more peopLe who see the need for.one, One of the imporEanE reasons we don't have it is Ehat most people, r,rithout being scientists, have absorbed through Ehe skin or Learned in school the supposedly scienEific noEion Ehat everyfhing, including every living Ehing, is jusE some kind of a machine. How can one, and more imporEanE, whv should one. Iove a machine? Mach+' ines are for us Eo use for our own benefic, aren'E Ehey? What else would they be for? But I run che risk of giving Ehe impression Ehat Ehe book is a collection of sermons abouE ecology. IE is not, though Ehere are sermons in it. Mostly, if is a book of descripEions. For a while we look Ehrough the keen, informed, and loving eyes of Leopold at many differenC parEs of our country, including Ehe "barren" Sand CounEy in Wisconsin, which most of us would otherwise consider uninteresting and not worth looking aE. Because Leopold sees so much, and enjoys so much what he sees, and learns so much from iE, we who read him will in our fuEure contacts with naEure see and learn and enjoy more than we did Defore. The book has many illustrations of plants and animals, mostly in pencil, some in ink, by Charles Schwartz. They are so accuraCe,

detailed, and full of life EhaE we can easily imagine Ehat we are seeing these drawings in color. My goodness, if I could draw like Ehat I would never be without a pencil in my hand,

GROWING l.lITHOUT SCHOOLING #32

GENERALLY SPEAKINC

renL@ #'

How

Child-

Macaulay ($9.95 + post ). This is very short - Ehe texC is only 61

pages long - very perceptive, inter-

750 for l, add 250 for each additional. 0verseas surface majl: I , 2, or 3 items, $);-11.

moF4-50-aj-Dei-] . Mass. residents, add 5% sales tax. Make check (US bank)

money

choose when we \rish to soeak.

the abilicy to produce and understand utEerances \re have never heard before. For example, iE is unlikely thaE anyone wilL have heard Ehe foLlowing sentence DreviousLv: "Karl Marx was playin! bridge with ebraham Lincoln, [,linston Churchill, and Mary Queen of ScoEs when Tarzan waLked Instead

vre have

1n.

AE this biE of dry ScoEEish wic I began to feel thac I h?as going Eo have Eo have this book for our list. This is also a very scholarLy book bv an exDerc in the field - Dr. Macauliy has iong been a Professor of --r !rr"- the back of his , drrq book he has Listed almost six pages, in vcrv fine nrinl. of references Eo oEher experts like himself. Since he is saying, as I have for years, that children Learn to speak not by some combination of roEe learning and blind imitacion, but by the mosE careful listening and creacive Ehinking, his book can be very valuable to many DarenLs who do not r^ranf Eheir children subjecfed Co Ehe blind roEe learning that is the norm in so many school s . lrlhen I say that chi Idren, in their explorations of the world of language, act Like very capable scientists. most educators find it easy to dismiss the idea as the work of a non-expert and a ttromantictt - if not an outright nut. It will noE be so easy for Ehem so to dismiss Dr. Macaulay. The book can be useful to parenEs in a number of ways. To Ehose who have not observed ac firsc hand Ehe Drocess bv which children masEer Ianguage, or who never gave much EhoughE Eo the process going on under Eheir noses, iE will make clearer Eo them the meaning of what their child is doing, and so enable them fo share in this grea! human advenEure. To all of them iE will show what many, but not aII, know by instinct - how importanE iE is Eo listen to whaf liEtle children say, to make every efforE Eo undersEand them, co answer their quesEions as far as we can. And to parents v,/anfing to teach Eheir own children, and preparing for Ehe schools a staEement of their educaEional ideas and plans, ic will furnish many valuable quotes, such as -^^^ r .it is obvious ! v,'r PdSs '-^that the child does not learn lansuage like a parroE by memorizing whole -; utEerances." Or rhis- from nape I

r'"ipi"l-,-"i'ii; ;;;;i.; ii";;T;-

tic' competencel means creaEing a situation in which Ehe child can be his or her naEural self: happy, curious, and talkative." - JH

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WAS

THE LAST CoMPLETE DIRECToRY

IN GWS #30. Our Directory

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0utstanding HALVI

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SHS is a non-profit school which offers an edu- DeR00S-TCfiiTFEopher 15) ASS0CIATI0N FOR PRlcational alternat'ive for elementary school aged VATE EDUCATI0N, 8467 Deervale Rd, Dubl'in 94568 --- Elizabeth & Michael HAMlLL (Harrison 3, children. We also enroll children who are be'ing educated at home and provide home-schooling Finnegan 1\ 2214 Grant St, Berkeley 94703 --.|7099 families with any help they need. For riore Judith KOVACS (Aaron 'l3, Hannah l0) information, contact: Liz Prohaska, Sunset Hil l China Flats Rd, Nevada City 95959 (change) --School, 6250 l.l. Sunset Rd., Tucson, AZ 85743 Cherilyn & Larry LARSEN (Leah 2) & Chris LANING, 526 0este Dr, Davis .l4, 95616 --- Kurt &

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oomi

5rng

le tatner, wrth

chr ldren

LUCKIE

preferred, to

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49.

56H7K7

Ab.ILI I 115 KL5LAKLH A)>ULIAI L5

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esting, wise, and witEy book. I had books, records, tapes, and reprints payable to met Dr. Macaulay in Nov. '82 when I H0LT ASS0CIATtS, INC. Payment for subscripspoke aE PiEzer CoLLege, in Claretions, ads, or back issues of GWS should be mont, Calif., of which he was Ehen made out separately to GR0t,llNG t,JITH0UT acting Dean. We enjoyed each oEher's SCHOOLING. company, he was interested in and symlje wi'll still pay $2 (preferably in patheEic to whaC I had Eo say abouE credit) for copies of THE t^iAY II SP0ZED T0 BE home schooling, and as I left he gave in qood condition. me a copy of his book. On page 2 | found this: As adulEs we do not have a set of ready-made uEEerances from which Eo

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Wi I

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