FAMLY BOOKS & JOURNALS

Carol Kent also sent us a long lovely description about her son Robert’s fascination witn trains (both real and model trains), which we intend to run in a future GWS. She told us lt was from the “family book,” and when we asked her to tell us more about chat, she replied:

…Our family book is basically a story book, written by David and me. These stories are about the important events in the history of our family, written at the time they happened. I have also written some stories about my own childhood as I am reminded of them by what happens to my own children. These are personal, and not written for anyone in parcicular. There is no regularity about it, so it is not reallv a journal. Although we have our scrap-books, books of drawings, and photo albums, the family book is something else, a collective autobiography of our family, which the children can add to when they begin to write stories of their own…

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Also, Norm Lee (NY) wrote:

…Enclosed is an article, “How to Write a Homestead Journal” that we put in Homesteaders News a year or so ago… You might suggest it for home schoolers.

A daily informal journal about things associated with the learning things that occured during that day … may help home-schooling people glue things together. At a minimum it aids in focussing on what’s important during the day, putting events in perspective, perhaps even learning from them, and - oh, yes - improving writing by the only method known to work: by writing.       TV can’t compete with a journal read three or four years later to the children, either. My own boys would sit enthralled as I read my journal  -_ sometimes about events that didn’t involve them, sometimes about things that did - an occasion that triggered discussion, renewal of forgotten projects, or hysterical laughter. But warning: a journal is great for the health - but terribly habit-forming. I’ve been hooked for many years.

[From Norm’s article:] …The journal records feelings, moods, joys, fears, events, views, and reactions to people, books, work, weather, everything. It’s not a secret diary, but an open letter to oneself - an open door for people to know you better. (The bonus is discovering that you know yourself better.)  Use a separate notebook, and a new page for each day - but don’t number the pages ahead. When you really warm up to a subject you won’t want to feel cramped for space. At first keep talking and let her roll. Choose the most outstanding feature or event of the day and talk about it as if writing to a friend. If it helps, write, “Dear ____ …

I do my writing during the peace and freshness of early morning. Others like to look back over the day and commune with pen and notebook in the hush of evening. A homestead journal can change your pace, change your views, and change your life…

CREDENTIAL THROUGH TV

From Iowa:

… We have not taken the “big step” yet, but are moving closer to it all the time. At present I am taking a course, the first of two I will need in order to renew my teaching certificate. This is a TV course two half-hour programs per week for 15 weeks; a study guide and child psychology text; plus three objective tests - a very painless and convenient means to an end for my situation.

Our son is in first grade now and is going through many of the things other GWS letters have mentioned. He taught himself to read before kindergarten (I mean completely - we had nothing to do with it directly, and it was real reading with understanding, not just recognizing a few words.) But now he’s convinced that he “learned to read” in school! There was no provision made for his needs in kindergarten or first grade until we finally went to the school and pleaded with them to at least try something different… He was given a dozen busywork pages each day (which the teacher admitted were only to keep the children busy while she worked with other groups) and getting into trouble because he didn’t get his work done… He’s the type of person who likes to have everything “just right.” His handwriting is beautiful - and he’d rather spend time making it look nice than rush through to get everything done. I can’t bring myself to tell him, “You must do sloppy work to get it all done and make them happy.”…

OFFERING SHELTER

An interesting offer from Ann Bodine (83 Knollwood Dr, New Providence NJ 07974):

…If you ever hear of any children who are in danger of being forced into school by local authorities, and if the parents would rather send the children away for a few weeks or months while they get the problem ironed out than to have the children go to school while the issue is being settled, I would be happy to take those children. I don’t really believe it will ever come to that for anyone, but if it did, or if the authorities were using the threat of taking children away until the plan was approved, it would get the parents out of hot water to be able to say that the children had moved out of state.  The real problem would be for a child too young to leave the parents. I wondered what I would do if they had told me to put Jonathan in school until they approved the plan. He is too little to be away from us, except for one or two nights with very good friends. I might have had to enroll him in the least offensive private school I could find and then keep him home as much as possible as sick…

MAVERICK L.D. EXPERT

Jennifer Seip (21 New Rd, North Hampton NH 03862) wrote in 1978:

…I have worked in education for the past seven years, since I got out of college. I had a B.A. in Sociology but was very interested in teaching “special” children, particularly emotionally disturbed. I was an educational counselor in a special camp, and a teacher’s assistant in a school for the emotionally disturbed. Then I moved to New Hampshire and worked as an aide in a “Learning Disabilities” classroom. 5 1/2 years ago I was hired as a Title I Director/Learning Disabilities specialist. I became certified in elementary education and learning disabilities.

…I have given you this (perhaps boring) background because I want you to know where I’m coming from and what experiences I base my statements on. I am probably the only L.D. specialist who despises the field of learning disabilities.

…I am supposed to test, label and correct children - make them better. My principal considers me a failure at this.  I will not test, I will not label, and I will not say there is something wrong with a child. I will not absolve the educational system of its guilt. I will not patch up its ever-increasing leaks.

I know a great deal about perceptual strengths and weaknesses and the falsity of these tests and the programs that are supposed to work. And I know this knowledge is worthless in teaching - except to help you find out that it’s worthless.

…I know even more about the teaching of reading - all the skills and latest remedial methods - and I know that all this knowledge too is useless. It’s great for wasting time with kids and making yourself feel like you’re doing something and “the kid must really have a problem if he still can’t learn.” I find that if I don’t garble my tutors’ minds with reading skills and “training” and just tell them to use their own intuition, that they are far better “teachers” than any reading specialist. And once they get over their lack of confidence from not being a trained professional, I think they come to see it’s true!

…A 12-year-old girl I worked with last year was many years below grade level, and nobody could teach reading to her. She had gotten stuck in the cycle of failure. After I stopped trying hard to teach her basic reading “skills,” we read from  a book of her choosing that was “too hard” for her. We took turns reading and when she got to words she didn’t know (there were many), I told her to simply ask me if she wanted to be told the word. It was sometimes very hard for me not to slip some teaching in - not to have her sound it out etc. We went on like that for perhaps a month. One day she came to me, obviously feeling very good about herself. We talked about the good things that had happened to her that day and how powerful she felt. We opened the book and she read the entire page correctly! I could see her lips moving to sound out words, her eyes moving ahead to get context clues - all on her own initiative. She exhibited all the reading skills that tests said she didn’t have. She didn’t need to be taught, she didn’t need to learn skills or how to apply them. She could read! All she needed to do was to do it…

You mention many times in GWS your interest in telling the truth about learning disabilities. I can help with this, and also with helping parents see how capable they already are of teaching their own children. I’m interested in being a resource person for such parents…
___

Jennifer’s letter turned up recently in a pile of old papers, and Donna wrote asking how things were going now. Jennifer answered:

…It was wonderful to get your letter. I had wondered what had ever happened to my letter John said he was going to quote from… It pleases me so much to watch the home schooling movement grow over these years. I can’t think of a better reason to have my letter overlooked!

…Yes, you can still put me down as a resource person for learning disabilities, and you no longer need to keep my name confidential. You see, I no longer work in education. I quit my job as Title I Director two years ago. And I will never work in a school again.

…Learning is one of the most beautiful parts of living and the schools are destroying it. How can that not be one of the most emotional issues to someone who sees that?? Especially when I made it my life’s work, when I spent eight years learning how to do it better, learning how people learn, and learning how I can help people who think they can’t learn see that they can. And then as my own personal values integrated with what I realized was happening in education, I had suddenly “idealized” myself out of a life’s work…

People don’t understand why I don’t just set up a better school - some friends of mine with money have even asked me to. But I know I would only be compromising - I would not be happy. They don’t see that the very premises behind setting up a school are against my values about learning. They believe kids won’t learn “enough” unless compelled to learn in a certain place at a certain time from certain people…

I tried private tutoring of kids with learning problems, but it was extremely frustrating. The kids and parents were still locked into the beliefs and value systems of the school. I’m not going to settle for less any more. I believe that when you settle for less (because you don’t think you can get what you want), you greatly decrease your opportunities for getting what you_ want.

…So right now I am waitressing. It gives me money to live on flexible hours, my days off!, and exercise - which teaching certainly doesn’t. So it isn’t too bad. But I want very much to do something with my expertise in learning. I believe there is some way it can be of value without my compromising. I just know I don’t want to fight people, to persuade them to my way of thinking. I want to be around people who already feel similar to me about learning or who are open and curious. Teachers are not open and curious! They are closed and scared and getting more scared all the time!

…When I was a teacher’s aide in a Cambridge private pre-school, we were supposed to go home at night and think up “learning activities” for kids. Now, I am a very creative person when it comes to formulating ideas and figuring out how to do things better, but I hated thinking up these activities - it just didn’t flow inside me. I loved watching the kids do what they thought up, and interacting with them. A part of me knew consciously that I was right but I had no support, and I was just out of college so I couldn’t go anywhere with it yet (or didn’t think I could).

I am learning a wonderful new skill this year - gardening! It’s so incredibly satisfying and enjoyable. Earlier this spring I read books over and over, relishing the way the experts disagreed and seeing how all the answers are tied to fundamental truths about nature and growth. I planted seeds indoors and now I am watching everything grow outside - it’s different every day. I have never been a hard-core nature person but sometimes I think that all the important truths, all the important knowledge to be gained is right here within nature. The school doesn’t cost a thing. Neither do the teachers.

I am amazed at how much I have learned about gardening in such a short time. I have had the opportunity before but this was the right time. It was all up to me - there was no one to lean on and that’s what has made the satisfaction so deep. This is also the first spring since I started school at age five that I have been free to be outside each and every day. Last year I had a daytime inside job and the 25 years before that I was either a teacher or a student!

I am also learning skills which have been frustrating to me all my life - mechanical (male) skills. I now understand the basics of my car and can do simple maintenance such as oil changes. I am learning to fix things around the house - even a plumbing probLem we had this winter! Each time something goes wrong with the house, I am finding that it can be seen as an annoying frustration or an opportunity to learn something new. We had a carpenter-ant problem and I did enough informal research to beat any term paper I ever did in school! I have found that in no time, I can know more than many of the people do who I used to consider “experts”!

…What I learned when I was teaching was that the most effective way is the simplest way. And what I always know was that no one is dumb - no one is learning disabled any more than anyone else (except for specific brain damage). We all have our strengths and weaknesses; we have just labeled certain skills as intellectual, as elitist.

For example, I had a first grader who was having a great deal of trouble learning to blend sounds together. Her teacher asked me to find out what was wrong. I gave her sounds to blend and she had a great deal of difficulty. I then told her not to say a word, to just listen - that I would give the answers this time. After about six words she was eagerly piping in with the correct answers! I kidded and played with her and told her that she couldn’t answer. We had great fun and soon (a 45-minute session) she could blend.

I had a delightful 3rd grader who would make all kinds of mistakes when she read and would just go on and not stop to correct herself. Her teacher and Title I tutor were having a terrible time trying to correct her at every mistake. Well, I enjoy being with this child a whole lot and know how smart she really is - she also loves to play games (mind games) with adults. So I sat down with her and told her to read to me. I didn’t look at the book or stop her when she made a mistake - I just listened. She loved it and in no time (one or two sessions) her mistakes dropped off. Her tutor did the same thing and also really started to enjoy her…

The kids I worked with (bottom of the class) weren’t dumb or disabled - they were just scared!

…Please let me know how I can help you and/or all the home-schoolers out there. I feel so good about my decision to not work in schools again but I am frustrated to be completely cut off from using the expertise and values I have to help others. I would like so much to be actively involved in some way. It is definitely a missing piece in my life.

[From a later letter:] …What I want is simply for people to respond who are touched in some way by my letters. Maybe that’s it, just encourage people to write to me, to tell me their thoughts as they read it. Their letters will trigger off ideas in me and I’ll begin to get a picture of the need out there and if it’s a need I can respond to… I think that if I try to be specific too soon I’ll shut doors that I don’t know exist…

SKEPTICAL HUSBAND - 2

[DR:] When Mary Maher (GWS #21, “Success Stories”) came into the office a while ago to pick up some volunteer work, she told us that her husband, Tom, who is a public school teacher, was against the idea of home schooling at first. Mary had asked him if she did al] the research, checking into the legalities, who’s doing it, etc, would he at least keep an open mind? He agreed.          Mary got some issues of GWS and Tom looked through them. She contacted some of the people in the Directory, and one family came over for an evening. Tom was impressed - they seemed to be nice people, not kooks. The home-schooling family gave the Mahers some advice on how to get approval from the school board, stressing that they shouldn’t try to antagonize anyone, that they should be as nice as they possibly could be.

Tom agreed to try home-schooling saying they could always change their minds. Both he and Mary had begun to feel that it was school that made their son Scott so cranky, fighting all the time - he wasn’t like that on vacations. Sundays were the worst; as soon as Scott woke up he began thinking “School tomorrow” and fought all day long. So both parents felt that if taking Scott out of school would clear up that problem, it was worth the try.        Mary said that now Tom thinks it’s terrific that Scott is home. She says that in the first few days, when she was discouraged because she couldn’t understand what some of the textbooks wanted, Tom was the one who said don’t give up, it was going to be worth it.  Tom works for a different school district than the one Scott was enrolled in, and he’s hardly told any one at work about the unschooling. But one fellow-teacher he did tell said, “Boy, you must have a lot of guts…”

IN THE MAIL

From several readers:

…We live in a small community where the kids go to school until they are in the 8th grade. Then they are shipped off to a big school in a nearby town. Everyone seems to do pretty well here, but when they reach the big school, they’re labelled as trash, trouble-makers, etc. In the end that’s what they become. In the past two years I’ve seen probably 5 kids out of 200 graduate. The rest drop out before even lOth grade…

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…Your newsletter brings pleasure, ideas, and the knowledge that we are not as eccentric as we sometimes imagine - or, at least, that there are lots of others out there who are equally odd. I hold dialogues with you in my head all the time telling you of our remarkable and wonderful 4 1/2-year-old, explaining the school situation here, arguing a fine point. Too busy (read, lazy) to write, I admire those who do and enjoy reading their letters in GWS.  I will content myself with this, and maybe someday I’ll write the epic, and ever-growing, letter in myhead…

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…A short story about Christopher (4) - The other day I brought home a used bike for him. He’s been waiting for us to find one for him for a while and had been given a horn by a friend for the bike. As soon as we got home, he wanted to put on the horn but I had to get supper started. Before I knew it, he announced that the horn was attached - he had gotten the screwdriver, taken apart the band that holds the horn, and put it on the bike. We’ve always let him use tools (he sews also) and so now he’s very comfortable doing tasks on his own. It’s so much fun to watch it happen!…

LIVING WITH J.P.

From Kathy Mingl (IL):

…l thought I’d better get this letter typed before it turns into a book… Have you ever heard of the Procrastinators Club? I keep meaning to get in touch with them…

J.P. has been blossoming lately (a tiger-lily, I think). I always figured that most of his problems had to do with resisting being a baby, but I assumed that he’d get easier to deal with as he got older. Well, I haven’t abandoned hope on that, but it hasn’t_happened yet. What he has gotten is stronger, smarter, louder, and harder to help. The only help he’ll accept is to be shown how to do something for himself. He’s much more difficult to divert from anything he’s decided to do, and talking him out of something you think he’s too little to be messing with is practically a lost cause. All I can do is insist that he not hurt himself - I tell him that I’m allergic to emergencies. He really is good about that (as a concession to his mother’s nerves - he doesn’t care), and I admit that I’ve emphasized that angle a bit, in the name of diplomacy.

Another bit of strategy I’ve engineered (in the interests of peace, order, and getting the upper hand) is threatening to pick up after J.P. I don’t know if it would work for anyone else but I tell my errant offspring that if he’s old enough to have something, he’s old enough to take care of it and if he expects me to be responsible for his stuff, I put it where I think it should go, including up in the attic until he’s older. I admit that this is fighting dirty, and I wouldn’t care to have that sort of tactics used on me, but J.P. seems to find the logic acceptable. I never specify how long I intend to keep it from him… And of course, I do help him, providing he shows good intentions. The help he generally needs is to be told where to start, what to do next, and where to put it. He loves to be praised for finishing things (even if I had to fight him tooth and toenail to get him to do it)., so I think it’s not responsibility that he lacks, so much as organization. Well, I can certainly sympathize with that.

You know, you can’t imagine how interesting it is to be able to say, “J.P., you come and pick up this puzzle, or Mama will do it for you!” in a tone of dire threat, and have your child come running, bellowing outrage all the way. Considering I’ve hardly ever had to follow through on that, I think the thing that really makes him mad is the idea of not letting him do something for himself.

Actually, J.P. is shaping up to be a pretty nice person. I may be biased, but on the whole, I rather like him. He gets crazy now and then, and hard to live with, but that’s usually when he needs a nap (he’s beginning to see that for himself, now, too - some adults should have that much insight). He’s quick to catch on to things - even jokes, if they’re translated to terms he’s familiar with. He doesn’t “turn off” on things he doesn’t understand, and he doesn’t hold it against things if he happens to have hurt himself with them. It’s hard to pinpoint, but I find most kids his age sort of wispy and tentative in comparison. As a matter of fact, J.P.’s main trouble with objects is that he uses too much force on them, which makes them unwieldy and makes him mad.

…I read ESCAPE FROM CHILDHOOD recently, and I had it on my mind that people talk very differently to adults than to children. Just then, J.P. went off somewhere with his daddy, and I called to him, “You be a good boy, now,” and J.P. answered very seriously, “I will, and you be a good mommy.” I said I’d try. Let me tell you, this twerp keeps me honest (I call him Twerp, and he calls me Mommy-Twerp.) He’s very proud of me, and praises me when I do things all by myself… The fact of the matter is, this child doesn’t seem to have grasped the essential parent-child relationship - and neither have I.

…It embarrasses me to have so much control over someone else who wants so much to be able to do things without my help. Until GWS, I just assumed I was a bad mother, and didn’t say much about it. For one thing, shameful as it is to admit, I don’t like babies. I mean they’re cute and all that, but I just don’t find the infant personality attractive. (Fortunately, they improve quickly.) I don’t think babies like anyone, even themselves - they just want what they want, when they want it. I never expected to be a mother, really, but then, I never expected to get married, so I guess one is just as explainable as the other. I am not patient, and I am not the least bit saintly, and a solid stretch in the company of no one but a butterfly-brained boy can drive me to desperation. I don’t believe in violence toward children, but when I read about these terrible parents who throw their poor little babies out of the window and things like that, I think I can at least imagine what drove them to do it…

I have this cartoon, cut from a magazine many years ago. Two serious, worried-looking, middle-class, solid citizens are confronted by a school-principal type character, who is telling them, very seriously, “I’m glad to have this opportunity to talk to you, because I wonder if you have any idea of how disruptive it can be when a child comes to school determined to learn everything.”…

INSTEAD OF KINDERGARTEN

A mother wrote two years ago:

…We decided to keep our 5 year old out of kindergarten this year, after one year of pre-school, which he didn’t like, evidenced by dawdling in the mornings, asking the teacher every day when he could go home, and finally, flat out refusing to go at all. That was the beginning of my new understanding of him. Something clicked in my brain, and I suddenly saw there was no reason to push him out into this artificial experience in order for him to “develop his potential,” and that, in fact, this early schooling was preventing him from doing just that by taking up so much of his time and energy. His free time was then spent recovering from the overstimulation he got in school. I was highly criticized for keeping him home this year (most of my friends being in some form of education), but I stubbornly stuck to my convictions that he knew best what he needed.

I have given him lots of “space” this year, allowing him plenty of time to “do nothing.” In this “do nothing” time he’s gone through periods of boredom and loneliness, but usually comes out on the other side of that into discovering new interests or “bents.” It’s really neat to see him find something meaningful to him all by himself without anyone guiding, interpreting, or pressuring, him.

One great advantage of staying home has been a maximum amount of contact with his father, who is self-employed, and often takes him with him in the various facets of his work. He is learning a certain poise and confidence around strangers by going out with his dad, and also is developing a clear idea of how the  family is supported and what goes on out there “in the real world” - not to mention his deepening relationship with his dad.

I dread first grade. I’ve seen what first grade did to my first son and am very reluctant to see that happen to my second. What I have been doing to soften the impact of school for #1 son is to send him to the best private school I could find (one that especially appealed to him) and then make a standing policy that he could stay home whenever he wanted, which the school doesn’t seem to object to. This is the best I’ve come up with so far, but it’s far from satisfactory. I guess I’m not quite ready to buck the system, and yet I see it off on the horizon…

[DR:] The mother has just written us that they kept the second son out of school by being out of town a lot, and by keeping a low profile when home. The family is looking for a new home in a state more favorable to unschooling.

ON A MOUNTAINTOP

From Vicki Meyer (WV):

…When I wrote to you a couple of years ago, the local school board had denied our home schooling proposal for Jeremiah on the illicit grounds that it would “set a bad precedent.” We took him out of school anyway as we planned to leave the area, but we finally found a farm we could afford to buy and stayed. Jeremiah didn’t go to school at all last year. We did not keep a low profile; if it was a school day and we needed to go into town, he went with us. Any neighbor who asked why he wasn’t in school was told the truth. We don’t believe in teaching children to lie. Most of our neighbors were supportive; it seems they too, had troubles with the school system. They might not grasp that I didn’t see a need for schools at all, but they could share a concern with the things the kids were being taught.

For the first part of the year, Jeremiah read and re-read mysteries and comics, helped around the house, and played with his little brother and sister. He helped Ed take a roof off a house and sometimes cooked dinner. Eventually, though, he began to worry that he was “behind” other kids his age academically, and since he’s always been proud of being “smart,” he asked me start having “school” with him. We got out some workbooks and textbooks, which he basically breezed through. In fact, he got through the fourth grade books too last year without much effort on his part. (He spent about an hour and a half a day on “schoolwork.”) At first I felt like I should spend the time at least hovering over him, but the other kids wanted to have “school” too and pretty soon my time got preempted by them; they needed the attention and he didn’t really want me to help him. He was doing fine. After the boy across the street came home from school, they played together. We also often had other kids stay overnight and he had friends at church he spent time with. All in all, I’d say that socially he didn’t suffer - in comparison with public school, that is - and we do live in the country and didn’t really go out of our way to provide him with playmates.

Last summer, he went to church_camp for a week, helped Ed build our house, and joined some other kids in a weekly group adventure which an ex-teacher friend of ours initiated. There were several boys about his age involved; they would go swimming, climb a mountain, or sometimes just mess around the farm where our friend lives, for a day. Then all of them would go to one of the boys’ houses and sleep out, then back to our friend’s farm for another day. They “paid” for this by doing a share of the farm chores. Wish it could have gone on all year!

About two days before public school was due to open, Jeremiah decided he wanted to go back to school. I was kind of surprised, but agreed to enroll him. I think the fact that one of his summer companions would be at the same school influenced him. (They remain close friends.)

When I enrolled Jeremiah in school I said he was in the fourth grade, which corresponded to his age and not necessarily his achievement level. Under “previous school” I wrote, “studied at home.” The principal said nothing at the time. The next week I was sent an ominous little note requesting my presence to discuss Jeremiah’s placement with the superintendent and the principal. With all sorts of angry speeches well-rehearsed, I went in. Well, a friend of mine says usually if you expect a fight, you don’t get one. She was right this time. They stated their opposition to home-schooling, I told them I didn’t agree with them, and they said that according to Jeremiah’s teacher, he was performing fine at a fourth grade level. I said I would have been very surprised to hear differently. I’ve had no further trouble with them. What they put on his school records I’ve no idea.

We still plan to teach any of our other kids at home as they wish. Elisha, who is five, wanted to go to kindergarten next year, and we were prepared to (reluctantly) let him go, but he’s decided against it. Instead, a friend and I plan to start some sort of school, for the sake of getting some of these kids together regularly. Elisha is really excited about that, as he wants to share his bug-catching skills with some other kids. (His younger sister, Fairlight, will look for them and call him when she finds something good, but she won’t pick them up.) We’re pleased, of course, that he’s chosen not to go to school. Elisha has a strong interest in nature, knows how to look up plants, insects, etc., in identification books, though he then must bring them to an adult to find out the name given in the book. I suspect that one day he will learn to read in order to read the names for himself. He also helped Ed build the house last year and is a pretty competent layer of small scraps of cement block. Most of his time is spent doing very good art-work, especially primitive masks.

Elisha has learned to write by a rather interesting method, which Fairlight is now beginning to use also. At first, when he was three and a half, he often asked us how to spell things, but when told, of course he did not know what shapes to make the letters. At first we wrote the words for him to copy, but he wasn’t satisfied with this, plus he would often have to wait while I finished the dishes or Ed got out from under a car or off a roof. So we invented a kind of “picture description” of each letter, such as “A is a tepee with a line through it,” “B is a snowman  with a line next to it,” “C is a circle with a bit out of one side,” etc. Of course, this was accompanied by showing him the letter once or twice, too, and his first attempts were pretty unrecognizable. We usually didn’t correct his errors; he did that himself. Now, at five, he can write in upper case well, and occasionally attempts lower case. Until lately his words went backwards and forwards interchangeably, but recently he seems to have acquired some sense of direction. For someone who shows little interest in learning to read (Jeremiah was in the Oz books by this age), he sure is competent in other areas. This is of course part of our reason for not wanting him to go to a conventional school, where his other abilities would be ignored in favor of academic progress.

We are, however, worried that our children’s need to be with other kids their age will lead them to seek out public school. This happened, of course, with Jeremiah. With a five year age gap between him and Elisha he was hungry for baseball, board games, etc., to an extent that we couldn’t satisfy. He also is strongly competitive and values the kinds of rewards given in conventional schools - participation in the math fair, playing basketball, etc…

We live far out in the country on top of a mountain. No unschoolers live near us. The nearest towns are 45 minutes away. We go to church on Sunday, work at the co-op once a month, and have sporadically been involved in a playgroup. Yet our experiences as adults have convinced us that close friendships, so necessary to all of us, are formed with day-to-day contact in which people share their lives and work together. That has led us to seek out some way in which they can be together with other kids more often, at least as they get older. To this end, and to satisfy the legal requirements without a lot of trouble, a friend and I have found a usable building which we plan to fix up for a resource and meeting place for children. Legally we hope to satisfy on paper the requirements for a private school, so that more parents will feel free to involve their kids in this. We want to have a credentialed teacher (the same friend who sponsored Jeremiah’s summer adventures last year) be the “paper teacher” and several adults have volunteered their time as supervising/resource people to be there when they’re needed without actually “teaching.” I don’t know how many kids will come, and we’ll probably have to work out the financial side as we go along. None of us have much money, but we don’t feel like we need a lot of what money can buy in order to do this…

SUCCESS STORIES

From Oregon:

… I’ll enclose the letter I sent to the school district here in Portland. We were approved for home schooling, but my daughter has to take standardized achievement tests in May along with other 4th graders. I insisted we choose the environs of the test-taking and they were agreeable. It will be one-to-one and not with an intimidating crowd of other kids.

…I accept her unschooling as a positive force in our lives. I’m ready for any necessary changes even career, lifestyle (that, I’m sure of!), etc. How can I nurture and guide and teach my child from birth to 7 and then give her over to strangers, to the state really, until she is 18? I can’t. I won’t. And I’m not anymore … until and unless I see that it might work, or she desires to return.

…I have so many ideas and desires in envisioning this process - but I’m leaving it open-ended to be ready for any course change in midstream. I don’t wane to be too static. For now I’m going to let her have a healing period and play and relax and adjust to being free…

—

Another letter from Oregon:

…We established a “home school” two years ago, and one year ago we incorporated into our own private school. This was our eventual goal and to realize it was a dream come true.

…We had a very supportive lawyer in our area of the Willamette Valley who has assisted several home schoolers. We simply paid incorporation fees (approximately $350); there was a lot of red tape in the form of letters from the lawyer to the Incorporation Commissioner to us - all very unthreatening, “for the record” stuff - and basically that was it. Then at tax time we were sent a tax declaration form by the state which our lawyer sent back stating we weren’t declaring any exemptions which the state acknowledged with another form letter. So far, so tidy.  [We know of] several home schools in Oregon. Though they (ourselves included) do lie low, There seem to be few problems. The National Parents League is very active and supportive here…

—

From Lynne Thunderstorm (BC):

…We have had no trouble here, and have not used the provincial correspondence course at all. We have a letter from the superintendent stating that while he has approved our plan, he hasn’t monitored us. It frees him from responsibility, and leaves us free as well. It could alter Leaf’s grade standing but since we don’t intend to take part in that anyway, we don’t care. Should she decide a campus might be able to teach her more than the whole world of mountains, farm, river, friends, and family, she’ll simply have to take some tests…

—

An Iowa reader writes:

…As we approach our third year of unschooling, all I can really say is that it has, without a doubt, been the most wonderful experience imaginable, which is really saying a great deal, huh? The first year was a struggle, especially for me, as I had to really change my thinking, and get away from traditional thought, busywork, and all that unpleasantness that lingered on from public and private school days. this past year, we got away from correspondence schools altogether, ordered our own texts (for math only), and really got unschooled.

My daughter (13) now studies totally independently, with only occasional help in algebra, or help with a Spanish conversation. Her progress is really astounding, too. She reads _more than ever, and does about three times the work that she did in regular school - by choice. I guess that once we eliminated all the busywork she discovered how much fun learning can really be. She is once again eager, sees her own schedule, and still manages to get so much done that it is truly astonishing. The changes in her have also been very beneficial because, as she controls and uses her own time, it has matured her and made her very responsible and sensible…

—

And from California:

…News of our home school is that we have abandoned the curriculum we were using, and are now using the worksheets at whatever time and rate Matthew decides he wants. It looks to me like he’s learning just as much on his own initiative as he did before with far less trouble and effort just like you said. I guess I was the one who had to learn. I sure am glad to be rid of those regular lessons - what a burden!  I now am the address for a joint subscription which is stimulating new friendships and creating a growing circle of like-minded acquaintances…

SISTERS AT HOME

A parent writes:

…The first two months at home were horrible. Amy (9) went from being lively and outgoing to a depression, sleeping round the clock. She was used to someone parceling out her time and couldn’t seem to find her own way. Though my husband and I are both at home, we seemed to be involved in our own work, neither of us giving her the attention she needed. She was justified in feeling bored and unhappy. I seemed not to understand then how we could be together and still find our individual time to work.  Toward the end of the first two months, Dorothy (6 1/2) dropped out too. She seemed to bring the fun back into the house that we were all looking for. Right from the beginning, Amy refused to have me teach her or to do standard school work. They had always been avid students, beyond other kids their age. Dorothy, of course, copied her sister’s refusal, so I dropped the whole idea of teaching! The first remarkable thing I should mention is that Dorothy had suffered an intestinal problem and colds from Day One of school. On Monday I told her she never had to go to school again. On Tuesday the intestinal problem and colds ended and have never returned.  These kids spent the next few months in endless play. Their fantasy mirrored life around them or from the eight to ten books they read each week. They took off on the most amazing journeys (in the living room of course), sometimes lasting for days. It was exciting to watch them in this play.  Dorothy and I began playing little math games with her fancy colored chalk and board. I’d make the problems and she’d solve them and beg for more. That opened me to think of other games. I showed them how to play “hangman.” They never tire of this spelling game. Another word game they love is making small words from large words. We played the picture graph suggested in GWS #17, and also did the multiplication grid. Both were big hits.       We’ve recently bought workbooks and they now enjoy them. They pick the books themselves and are free to work at their own pace. When they finish they can buy another. But what they like best are the pages of math geometry, and beginning algebra I create myself, much of it done in metrics which I know nothing about. I simply try to reason out problems by saying to myself, “How can I divide this triangle in three equal parts? How would I write an equation for this?” etc. I make these pages artistic and create similar problems but geared to their different ages. The amazing thing is that I try reading math books and don’t understand them yet this seems to work. How? Who knows.

Aside from the ABC’s, they’ve become nice children again, leaving their vicious teasing and cruelty in their old schools. The one thing lacking is peer friendships, and we’re working on that.

…Amy has become very interested in theater. I was able to get her an audition for a musical at a local college. She got the part and during the early rehearsals Dorothy was also placed in the show. It turned out to be an extremely positive experience for them. They got to work in a professional way, taking something from the beginning to end, seeing it develop from rehearsal jeans into beautiful costumes. They learned discipline, that others depended on them and their work. They gained patience from continuous staging and corrections. The college kids were wonderful toward the children. And Dorothy, who only seemed to hear bass sounds and had trouble reproducing pitches, can now sing in the soprano range and on pitch.  Dorothy’s reading zoomed way ahead in her desire to learn the entire script. Each day she read it aloud. Now she can read novels with a little larger print. Within the first week Amy memorized all the parts and songs, and Dorothy did the same a few weeks later. We’re presently looking for more opportunities in theater arts for them…

PENSACOLA SCHOOL

A mother writes:

…My husband is in the military and we are stationed in Germany. The Army does provide schools for the dependent children but … we were displeased with the classroom conditions here and the violent children in the school itself.

We are planning to enroll our oldest son in kindergarten (which is required by the military) but we will be teaching him at home. We will meet our legal obligations because he will be a student at Pensacola Christian Correspondence School (5409 Rawson Ln, Pensacola FL 32503). PCCS offers a complete Christian study program at home. Their regular school has been in operation since 1954 and has an enrollment of over 2500. The correspondence school began in 1975 and has an enrollment of over 900. I think this program was designed for the children of missionaries and people living outside the U.S. but it also offers a legal alternative for stateside people whose choices are limited.

The cost may be hard for some to swing. Kindergarten is $225 a year and Grades 1-6 are $285 a year. Actually, that averages 525-32 a month for 9 months. The problem is that it must be paid in advance. After 6th grade it goes up considerably.

…I just knew that school never did me any favors and that most of what I’ve remembered was what my parents taught me as I learned myself. I wane something better and less frightening for my own kids. Some of my most vivid memories of school are being scared to death of not being able to do the work. I’m not slow, I was a B student and I tested in the top 15% of my statewide exams, but I was still always scared. It’s not fair to do that to kids. I had ulcers in high school because of the pressure…

UNSCHOOLED TEEN-AGERS

A parent wrote:

…We live in a rural commune with five children, ages 9-16. “Children” is hardly the word, however especially for the older ones. They are simply community members. Two have learned to drive this summer. All the four teenagers participate in our community industry and substantially earn their own way. (The nine year-old is welcome to do so, but doesn’t work at it much.)… We expect our teenagers to take the high school equivalency examinations when and if they are interested in college or other opportunities requiring credentials.

We have had at least one child functioning under this arrangement since 1972. Ours is absolutely free-form education, entirely at the learner’s option. There are no “classes.” At this point the oldest girl (16) comes to me about twice a week for tutoring in Latin. We are studying together from a first-year Latin text for college classes. (I had a couple of years of Latin in junior high school forty years ago - and boned up on it about twenty-five years ago for a Ph.D. exam. So I am relearning as we go with the present text.) But the tutorial is entirely at her initiative and pacing. Similarly, the older people are available for instruction when the younger ones ask for it, but they don’t often do so. Mostly they read, play games, work, rearrange their rooms, watch TV, listen to records, tapes, the radio, go to movies, and, generally, manage their lives as the rest of us do. They live in a building away from their parents, room together or separately as they please (and they keep shifting around!) They do their own laundry, buy their own clothes, etc. (mostly at the Goodwill or Union Mission), get most of their own meals, and often (in teams or individually) cook for the community, which consists of six adults besides themselves.

I go through all manner of guilt trips and fears about their education, thinking, always, they should be doing more, should be more creative, more inquisitive, more involved. But the truth is that I don’t really know much about what they are learning, any more than I know what the other adults here are learning. Everyone always seems very busy. Lots of that is visible, physical busy-ness - much having to do with our craft industry, but also the garden, the animals, maintenance of house and machinery, care of the land, and, so forth. But also people will say they are busy when they are reading, playing a musical instrument, having a conversation, or doing other private things. The children are not noticeably different from the adults in these respects, except that they are relatively less involved in the industry and the garden. When I say I think they should be doing more, I have to remind myself that I think the same of the adults and of myself. They no doubt think the same of me. As a group we seem to be remarkably active and productive, our days too full, our time too short. We always fall short of our ideals and always generate enough ideals to keep us dissatisfied with what we actually accomplish. I believe that is called  the human condition.  The major thing I notice about  our young ones, in contrast to people of their age I see elsewhere or who visit here, is their maturity independence, their sense of dignity and self-worth. School children generally seem silly to me. Childish. Ours don’t. I don’t always adore or admire them, as I don’t always adore and admire the adults who live here, but we deal with one another as peers, and the children sometimes seem more mature than the adults.

I hate to put it this way, but the kids out there beyond the mailbox aren’t good enough for them. Our chief worry is what that means when they begin developing relationships, including mating, with others who come from more conventional backgrounds. Sometimes we take our gang into the small-town roller rink - and cringe as we see them relate (or, more often, fail to relate) to the locals. They do not yet seem much interested in pursuing relationships off the farm. Some go to a Unitarian youth group in a nearby city, but not much as developed in terms of relationships beyond the group meetings.

I don’t know of any other communes with teenagers, or any that have children out of school. Where are the counterparts of our children, the other young people with whom they can comfortably relate and contemplate making their lives? I think of starting a network, via correspondence, with other adolescents around the country, if they can be located.  Then I recognize this as another of my arrangements, my way of solving their problems. Maybe they don’t have problems. They aren’t complaining.  (They are in general very happy people.) I know they don’t go in for expressing themselves much in writing (though a couple of them write poetry: the nine-year-old has had two poems accepted by a new magazine of children’s poetry GWS readers might want to know about: Tigers and Lambs 2041 E. Waverly, Tucson AZ 85719.) I guess they’ll figure out how to find others when they feel the need. We’ll help - as best we can - but will try not to do so before our help is sought.

I have two recurring bad dreams,  dreams that leave me sometimes tossing sleepless in the night. One has to do with professional failure. Having left the conventional world, with its set of stresses and rewards, I dream I am missing out. I am always missing planes and meetings or finding myself professionally embarrassed, having to fake it, squirming  failure. The other dream has to do with failing the children, especially about not having done enough about their education. I should take more time with them. I should teach them  more.  By day these dreams resolve. I know that I do not want that professional life I left behind. I had good reasons for getting out, and the rewards of my present life are vivid and strong. This life feels like health; the memory of the other seems like sickness. And I believe the other dream is of the same category. When I think, by day, of actually taking one or more of the kids aside and saying, however subtly, “Well, let’s do some math today. Or some science. Or some Literature,” I feel suddenly foolish. When they want to do math or science or literature with me, they’ll let me know - and I would be as impertinent suggesting it to them before that as I would be in suggesting it to one of the adults sharing my life. By day I know this is right. I have faith in the need of people to develop themselves, to make-full use of their lives, and I know deeply the evils of unwarranted intervention. But the insecurities hang on and the dreams return.  I remember the summer of my adolescence when I read Ben Hur, mostly lying on my mother’s bed, which seemed the coolest place in the house. I girthed my loins with a scarf, my head with another for a turban. Sometimes I was Sabu, the Elephant Boy. I dropped huge purple grapes into my mouth, one-by-one, fantasizing life in ancient Palestine. I used a cardboard box for a stationary chariot, whipping my steeds on desperately, the tail of my turban flying (in the breeze from an  Our kids play Star Trek. They have mock control panels and computers in their rooms. They toss around electronic mumbo-jumbo. They will not be like me - and the hardest part of love is letting that happen…

“BAD” PARENTS
Janet Williams (PA) wrote:

…As I get more involved with other unschooling families, I have difficulty in accepting the diverse directions that families are headed in. There has been no difficulty in dealing gracefully with those who are not of like mind. I bite my tongue a lot… It is not my place to make judgements about other people - just as I don’t want them judging me.  But I have a memory that keeps resurfacing - acting like a bothersome fly buzzing around. Many years ago I was involved in Sunday School … One girl complained about having to come to church and Sunday School. I said that she could always stay home and have her parents do the work with her instead. She was HORRIFIED and insisted I not say a word to her father. Going one on one with him would be infinitely worse than coming to the class.

I am concerned that I might be making life harder for some kids by telling their parents how to keep them home. Have you seen this? Or am I being overly concerned? Does parental concern always provide the best atmosphere for the child?

…Since children do not yet have the right to self-determination, there is the chance for victimization. Do we just go with the odds? Do we put our money on the side of the parents rather than the state? Is that the best we can do at this point in time? Take our chances with the lesser evil?  Oh, that sounds horrid - describing parents as a lesser evil. But I hope you know what I mean.  I can learn to live with the risk involved, if I am sure I have to. I always want things in such nice neat little packages so I will try to find some way to gather up the dangling ribbons. ‘

…Maybe it’s just like having a baby - you never expect any problems but you know they are possible - and decide that the chance is worth it to bring forth new life…

John wrote back:

…Thanks for your good letter. People often ask me if there might not be some parents who, by keeping their children at home, would do them even more harm than the schools. I can only reply, sure, it’s possible but it’s not very likely. The kind of parents who might do such harm, whether because of too much ambition and pressure or simply too much harshness and cruelty, are very unlikely to take their children out of school in the first place - they don’t like or enjoy or trust them that much. And even if they did take them out, the work of teaching them at home would soon become so unpleasant, for the adults as well as the children, and the results so bad, that they would soon quit.  In other words, I think the activity of home schooling will tend to be both self-selecting and self-correcting. The people who choose to do it are likely to be the ones best fitted to do it; once doing it, they will tend either to get better at it or to give it up.

Is there any guarantee of this, any way to make sure that only “good” parents teach their children at home? No, none at all. You ask “Do we just go with the odds? Do we put our money on the side of the parents rather than the state?” Yes is my answer, and it would be my answer even if the state was doing a ten or a hundred times better job than it is doing.  As in your good example of the baby, we have to run the risk, trust our judgement, take the leap of faith. The schools, like most modern institutions, don’t believe in judgement or faith, and it is their pathetic attempts to put in their place some kind of fake “scientific” certainty that has done so much to make most of them the kind of places they are…

PRAISE JUNKIES
To a teacher who wrote that she thought it was important to praise students as encouragement, John wrote:

…I feel strongly on this issue, because my first elementary school teaching was at a school that believed in supporting children with lots of praise, for exactly the reasons you cite - and the result was that all but a few of the children by the time I came to know them in fifth grade, were so totally dependent on continued adult approval that they were terrified of not getting it, terrified of making mistakes. The practice of the school - and since then I have seen many others like it - had exactly the opposite results from those intended. Every teacher in that school would have agreed with what you said about nurturing, but despite their intentions, they had had an extremely destructive effect on most of the children, who, despite being affluent, high-IQ, and favored in all possible ways, were pathetically lacking in self-confidence. _

I have seen a great many adults working with children, in school and other teacher settings, and l would say that something like 99% of the praise I have observed was more harmful than helpful. I think of countless teenagers I have known who hated themselves despite having been praised all their lives. They say, “People just praised me to get me to do what they wanted.” The ten-year olds I knew were both cynical about praise and dependent on it, the worst possible mixture…

INDIAN WAY OF LEARNING

The Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald, 2/7/80:

…The North American education system conflicts with the Indian style of learning, [according to] Dr. Art Blue, director of native studies at the University of Brandon…

Indians learn in three steps. The first step is the observation phase. Blue said North American natives score higher than any other racial group in the world on tests in visual discrimination… The second step is supervised participation. It involves participating in an active meaningful process under the watchful eye of “someone who knows.” The student is given hints to help, not diminish confidence, said Blue. Skill mastery is the third step… The native way is to perform in private with little testing… Failures are not seen by others.

Modern-day education is highly influenced by the idea that a person learns by making mistakes in front of fellow students, said Blue. Students are given no opportunity to practice skills before performing before others.

Blue said Indian culture differs from the remainder of society’s methods of choosing teachers. Indian leaders (teachers) are chosen only after they have proven themselves before their people.

He said everyone is encouraged to participate in the decision-making process. Even children are given their say at tribe meetings “but are judged by what they say.” He said Indians who display intelligence when speaking are thought of as leaders no matter what their age. “But if you show that you have not thought your ideas through, others judge you superficial.”

In today’s education system, professors are chosen by an external group far removed from the classroom, said Blue. “Is it surprising that Indian people often decide not to follow the direction of the professor?”

Blue said the differences between Indian culture and the education system create a conflict between Indian students and teachers - “a conflict the teachers invariably win because of their power to enforce their will on students.”

The no-win situation faced by students violates the basic tenet of Indian philosophy, that no one should ever impose his beliefs on another person. Indians believe such control forces an individual to see the world through someone else, ending independence…

FAMILY OFFICE

From Patti Rowe (IA):

…My husband is a chiropractor with a literal “family practice” - we all have been part of the practice from the beginning. I act as assistant, bookkeeper, janitor, etc., baby in tow and little ones trailing behind. We have a playroom for the children, but they come and go freely through most of the office. It has developed a unique kind of practice, to say the least, and attracts a unique portion of the population namely, people who are children oriented. To those who complain “That’s no way to run a doctor’s office,” the reply is, “There are plenty of conventional doctors available!”…

PEOPLE/PLACES WANTED

…I’m an unschooling single parent with a 13-year-old daughter; we need room and board in exchange for doing gardening, teaching, babysitting, etc., for an unschooling family. Our interests include free-lance writing, gymnastics, swimming, martial arts, foreign languages, reading, nature, yoga, holistic health astronomy, you name it. We are healthy, versatile, and together. Would prefer to be located somewhere within driving distance of Chicago, either city or country. Please write to W.S.M.P. in care of GWS…

—

From Elizabeth Gravelos and Arthur Harvey (address, Weare NH 03281), who organize the apple-picking crews that one GWS reader wrote about in “Growing With Trees,” GWS #8:

…We would like to hear from would-be (and experienced) apple-pickers. We pick apples each fall in Maine with a group of about 15 friends. The season is Sept. 12 - October 20… We set aside 20% of the crew’s earnings for charitable and social reform work, and we also collectively pay for our rent, food, transportation, equipment, and medical costs. New members are carefully trained, and all members are subject to the crew’s quality-control system. No one is hired as an individual; we function in all ways as a cooperative.  We have definite ways of living and working together. Some of our traditions are: no alcohol, drugs, pets, or non-marital sex, no smoking indoors; each member works at least 45 hours per week. We welcome families with children. If you are interested, come for an interview, and write ahead to arrange it. Incidentally, we also have crews which harvest wild blueberries in July and August, and prune apple trees January - April…

HOME BUSINESSES

In the last few weeks, several GWS readers have told us about home-businesses they have started. For example, David Sowd (PO Box 9431, Canton OH 44711 ) has started a proofreading, copy-editing, and typing service; Wendy Pfaff (751 Cleveland Av, Dubuque IA 52001) is now running a small mail-order stamp dealership; Steve and Bobbie McCay (Rt 1 Box 488A, Lebanon VA 24266) sent us their catalog of “Olde Timey” wooden toys.

We find this all very exciting, and hope to hear more about the work that GWS readers do, especially about those who earn money in ways that they enjoy and that fit in well with their family life and unschooling (see following questionnaire.) Being self-employed, working out of your  home or close to it, certainly would make home schooling easier and better than having one parent away from home all day earning money while the other parent looks after the children, or both parents working while someone looks after the children.  For the time being we’ll be happy to print the addresses of such businesses in GWS, as long as they have some kind of widespread (not just local) appeal. Maybe this will get some money circulating among GWS readers. - DR

QUESTIONS ON WORK

Here are some of the questions we have about the work that you and the others in your family do. We hope that many GWS readers - and
not just those who are self-employed - will take the time to share their responses to these questions with us. You can answer these
questions briefly if you like, or use them as the starting point to tell us more about yourself and your work.
What kind of work do you do? Do you find it satisfying?
Do you live in the country? Small town? Suburbs? City?
Are you self-employed? Do you work at home - part time or full time? Who works ln this business one adult? two adults? Children?
If you have children, what is the relationship between them and your work?
How did you learn to do what you do?
How did you get your job or start your business?
Do you have some kind of mail-order service you would like to let GWS readers know about?
Are there any ways that other GWS readers (adults or children) could help you? Learn from you? Visit and watch? Work for you in their
homes?

SELF-TAUGHT ASTRONOMERS

From Debbie Schiffer in Georgia:

…I’m writing in reference to “Astronomy Without School,” GWS #19. I am a self-taught amateur astronomer using Astronomy magazine, the Astronomy Book Club, and most of all, the library. I’m 22 years old, a high school graduate, and oldest of five children. The three youngest are currently being unschooled. My brothers (ages 6 and 7) are as interested in astronomy as I am. They know all about the night sky and what’s “out there.” The 7-year-old is just out of first grade and all year he couldn’t believe his teacher didn’t care about astronomy (or any other branch of science). I’m so relieved he doesn’t have to go back next year…

Another good magazine for astronomers is Sky and Telescope (49-51 Bay State Rd, Cambridge MA 02138)…

[From a later letter:] …I have terrific news about something absolutely free! There’s a man in North Carolina who also is an amateur astronomer and he studies and plots the paths of asteroids. He then draws a chart of the asteroid’s path for the month and sends them FREE to anyone who sends a self-addressed stamped envelope. What he does has been called a “Labor of Love.”

I read an interview with him in the June issue of Astronomy. I immediately wrote and got my first issue, _which he personalized with a little note welcoming me to his publication. What can I say? What better gift than free information about something you wane to know?

The publication is called Tonight’s Asteroids. The man’s name is Dr. Jay U. Gunter, 1411 N. Mangum St., Durham NC 27701. He does all the plotting of asteroids, bookkeeping, stuffing envelopes, etc., because he just wants others to know the joys of “asteroiding.” He has really given me enthusiasm!

Recently he had a great honor bestowed on him - an asteroid was named JUGTA (His initials, and “T.A.” for “Tonight’s Asteroids.”)

Anyone who is interested can send a SASE and he will send a copy. In fact he would love knowing so many people are interested! Enclosed is a sample copy of T.A….

—

[DR:] The following article, written by Dr. Gunter, appeared in the May-June ‘81 Tonight’s Asteroids that Debbie sent us:

I celebrate myself and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
- Walt Whitman

This is a very personal account, and so you will forgive me for writing about myself. It is the story of my efforts to share with other amateurs my keen enthusiasm for the asteroids. It begins with my first serious exposure to astronomy in the spring of 1968, when my wife Elizabeth and I enrolled in a fun course called “Introduction to Astronomy” at Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill. Our text was The Observer’s Handbook - 1968, published by the Royal Astronomy Society of Canada. In its store of information were finder charts for the Big Four asteroids. CERES was in season, and bright enough for binoculars, and I found it with no trouble at all. Tracking it for several nights, I became fascinated by its motion against the background of the stars. Another chart showed Uranus in the same constellation, and it too was easy to find.

So I was inspired to prepare a simple chart as a handout for the 30 or so other novices in our class. The chart plotted the path of CERES through a pattern of stars in Virgo, and the brief text explained how to find it. The position of Uranus was also shown. Our instructors thought this was great, and so did my classmates, several of whom reported success in finding these objects.

During subsequent months, Sky and Telescope published several charts for bright asteroids, and I enjoyed finding and tracking each of them… About this time there were some bright comets: Honda, Abe, Bennett, and Tago-Sato-Kosaka. I was much impressed by the dynamic nature of these objects - their changing position among the stars and their varying magnitude. But there just weren’t enough comets to keep me occupied, so for me the asteroids became the poor man’s comets.

In 1969, during a more advanced course at the Planetarium called “Observational Astronomy,” came my second attempt to popularize asteroids. I prepared a handout sheet to show the path of 9 METIS through Leo’s sickle. It illustrated how the combination of naked-eye, binoculars, and telescope enable one to find an  asteroid easily, and track it from night to night. Again several classmates reported success in finding this object, and nearly all of the class saw METIS at one of our star parties.

By 1970, my desire to find more asteroids exceeded the information available to me, so I acquired Ephemerides of Minor Planets. This volume, published annually by the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Leningrad, has ephemerides for all asteroids at opposition during the year. Most of them are too faint for amateurs, but many are within reach of small telescopes…

In Tonight’s Asteroids I have attempted to emphasize the benefits and pleasures of observing asteroids: 1. The satisfaction that comes from positive identification of a unit of the solar system only a 100 miles in diameter more or less, and a 100 million or so miles away. 2. A rapid improvement in one’s observing skills. 3. A rapid increase in one’s knowledge of the sky. 4. The fascination of the Earth Grazers as they fly past us at a distance of only a few million miles. 5. The thrilling close appulses of asteroids with each other, and with bright stars. 6. The magnitude fluctuations on which rotational periods and orientation are based. 7. The occasional occultation of a star with the potential of contributing valuable data toward accurate determination of size and shape, and the possibility of detecting satellites of asteroids. d. One final joy in asteroiding is the incentive it affords for getting out each night and having a look at the splendor of the sky. This may reward you, as it did me, with a rare spectacle like Nova Cygni 1975 on all three nights of its maximum brilliance. As I began, so I will close with some lines from Walt Whitman:

… I wandered off by myself,
In the mystical moist night air,
and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

WRITING ON NUCLEAR WAR

Mabel Dennison passed along this flyer from the CHILDREN’S CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, Box 550 RD 1, Plainfield VT 05667:

…We are children who fear for the future of our world. The United States and the Soviet Union are building more and more human-killing weapons, and every day the threat of nuclear war becomes greater.

…The Children’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament asks children to write letters to President Reagan opposing the nuclear arms race… We will take these letters to the White House on October 17 and read them out loud in public, then try to present them personally to President Reagan. We hope to have hundreds, maybe thousands, of letters. Each one is important.

Most kids think they can do nothing about nuclear war. Each letter to President Reagan calling for nuclear disarmament can help make a difference. So write yours now, send it to us soon! Thank you…

—
Also, from Pat Farren, 2161 Mass. Ave, Cambridge MA 02140:

…What will it take to prevent nuclear war? I am asking thousands of people that question this summer, seeking a mix of responses that may add a new dimension to society’s understanding of this complex and central issue of human survival. Responses are solicited through November 1. They will be edited and a representative selection will be published in a book… Responses should not exceed 300 words, or the equivalent of one page. Contributions may be prose, poetry, photograph, line drawing or other form of expression. Contributors should include a one-sentence biographical note… There will be a special section of responses from children…

KIDS’ CONSUMER MAGAZINE

We have just received a copy of the magazine Penny Power, “A Consumer Reports Publication for Young People,” and John & I think it looks quite good. The writing is clear and lively without being too cute, and the magazine presents lots of useful information. This particular issue has an article on savings accounts, including on how to open one by yourself, and a long look at 10-speed bikes - who should get one, how they work, what features to look for, plus a chart rating the performance of 26 different models. There’s a piece on how different families handle allowances and a survey asking readers to tell their opinions on the subject; a rating of frozen pizzas; letters on the “Question of the Month” concerning TV commercials; a comic strip; some puzzles, etc.

The center section, an 8-page “Teaching Guide,” has workbook-type activities, suggested discussions, and mach problems. Although this is definitely written for the benefit of classroom teachers, and hence is a bit strained and artificial, some kids might like reading, thinking about, and doing these pages if they knew that - unlike in school - they didn’t have to.

Subscriptions are $7.50 for 6 issues per year, $8.50 in Canada. “Schools” can get a group sub of 10 or more issues at $4.50 per sub. A single issue costs $1.50. Write to PO Box 1906, Marion OH 43302. - DR

MADISON REVIEW OF BOOKS

Chris Wagner of BASIC CHOICES sent this reprint from the Capital Times of Madison, Wisc., 5/1/80:

…The long-dead literary critic who called his art “the most highly evolved evidence of culture” would turn over in his grave (or at least turn up his nose) at the operation of the Madison Review of Books.

The very idea. Everyone - even those without credentials, even children who are just learning how to read - reviewing new books without so much as a by-your-leave… That was the attack John Ohliger took when he started the Madison Review of Books three years ago. The idea of giving everyday people the opportunity to critique books, then keep the books they review, is “just one tiny step” in establishing the kind of society Ohliger believes in: a society in which there are no “stars,” no elite. Each person would contribute to the whole - each person would have a sense of self-worth.

And the only special “qualifications” reviewers need to have is the_desire to give their own opinion. And who doesn’t have that?  Reviewing is one way of getting involved; delivering the reviews to a larger audience is another. Some are taped and used in a weekly radio program on listener-sponsored WORT-FM, some video-taped for an hour-long television show on Public Access Cable 4. Engineering those ventures gets even more people involved in supposedly specialized pursuits.  One night a member of the Review staff called volunteer April Hoffman and asked if she could come down and work the camera. Hoffman begged off. “Well, can Suzanne (Hoffman’s 10 year-old daughter) come then? She’s tall enough to work the camera.” Suzanne went.

Hoffman’s 8-year-old son Langston even has reviewed two adult books on baseball “because he wanted them so much.”

…The books pour in - more than a dozen a day from about 400 publishers across the country, large and small. To get the project started, Ohliger wrote several small and alternative presses to ask for review copies. As the group gathered momentum, more publishers were contacted. Now the Review is receiving books on virtually every subject: health, the occult, children’s fiction, science, sociology, women’s issues, poetry, art.

…The Review provides a list of questions to serve as a guide to beginning reviewers, but there are no length or style requirements for the reviews. “Short ones work the best because they can be adapted for so many uses,” says Hank Luttrell, a longtime volunteer. “Personal rather than academic review seem to interest the audience more, so no one should be reluctant to react to a book in a subjective way.”…

—

[DR:] The address of the Madison Review of Books is 1121 University Av, Madison WI 53715, phone 608-256-1946. That is also the address of the organization BASIC CHOICES, and its journal Second Thoughts ($10/yr), which, as Chris Wagner says, “attempts to provide a forum for those who oppose mandatory continuing education and the extension of the ‘global classroom’ to everybody. Madison Review of Books is still in existence, but in a period of reorganization at a more modest level. It works best at a local level, but we’d be glad to send anyone who writes a sample issue of the MRB newsletter, the reviewer’s guidelines, and suggestions about how to start a community book review. A contribution to defray expenses would be helpful but is not necessary.”

MORE ON “FREE WRITING”

…John Holt mentioned in WHAT DO I DO MONDAY? a writing exercise in which the student writes for some period of time without care for spelling or punctuation [See GWS #21, “Free Writing At Home.”] Almost every day Jess (8) and Leah (10) write for fifteen minutes or so in a Daily Book which is a real treasure of poems, dreams, drawings, as well as spelling words and other school work.

When I first asked them to “free” write, they groaned until I told them it didn’t matter what they wrote - it could be the same word over and over if that’s what they wanted. Jess did just that and wrote the word NO, filling a complete page! Then she began playing with the sound and the rhythm of words, and continues to develop this idea. Here are some examples:

Look how fat the little pig is.
Look how fat
the little pig
the little pig
the little pig
the little pig is.
yes yes yes
Oh, no
don’t make him go
yes yes yes
Oh, no
don’t make him go.

cat dog pig
bog hog frog
six one
me oh my
I am hot
I am hot
Like red hot.
doo da doo da
me oh my
I am hot red hot

The Cat
meyou meyou
meyou goes the cat
meyou goes the funny cat
Oh no here comes a baby
Oh no here comes one more.
Oh no here comes one more.
Yeah for Kitty!

me you
me you
me you
me you
me you
Put it all together and what do you get
me-you
meyou
meyou

…She has also experimented with writing words without spaces between and then circling the various words which are created by the crowding together.

Her stories get longer and longer, sometimes running to six pages though she has totally abandoned, at times, the lines printed on the page. I asked her if she would prefer unlined paper and she replied that that wouldn’t make any difference…

PS - In response to one parent’s query about TV. We got rid of ours the same day we decided to homeschool. It’s a great freedom, for we’ve read to each other and also have all become more creative - drawing, making music, and writing in our “free” time…

READING & LIVING

From Rachel Solem (MA):

…Briana (almost 4) “read” a word on a menu that quite surprised me. It was simply - burgers. She said, “I want one of those.” I said, “What is it?” “Hamburger,” she told me. However did she know that? The only thing I can figure out is that Burger King must have a picture of a hamburger next to its name - somewhere she’s picked it up.
She has been learning to read some names of her friends since her father made her a little phone book. He put a friend’s name in block letters and the phone number right under it, each one on a separate small card. She dials the phone herself and has learned phone etiquette for both calling and receiving calls. In order to call the friend she wants, she has to know either the name or the number by sight…

—

From Frauke Buelow, who is German and living in Wales

…My brother, who is ten years older than me, learned to read all by himself when he was three and a half. At that time there were matchboxes with flags and the names of their countries. So by the sound of the words he found out how letters form words….

—

And from Kathy Johnson (NJ):

…My son is just turning five and he is reading and doing a lot more than other children we know that are his age. It may be because whenever he asks a question I take the time to answer him as best I can. I love taking him places and “showing and telling.” And his reading - I’ve been in the habit of reading him a book during meals since he was about one year old. He still loves it! It has given him a love of reading, the urge to read and no mealtime hassles!…

RECORDED BOOKS

From Mil Duncan (KY):

…I have been meaning for some time to recommend the CAEDMON recordings. They have excellent stories for children on records and tapes, and we find our kids will listen and relisten to them until they are reciting WIND IN THE WILLOWS, WILD THINGS or BABAR by heart. They are expensive (up to $6), but beautifully done with fine music and sound effects. Grandparents could be sent the catalog, anyway! We are non-TV folks, but big fans of Caedmon. The address is 1995 Broadway, NY NY 10023. The catalog is free…

EQUIPMENT, CHEAP

From Deirdre Purdy (WV):

…We finally bought a tape deck for us and the children. Through friends we found a mail-order house which promises to beat any price. They have a toll-free phone number, are willing to give advice and recommend models (and not the most expensive in your price range either). Their price on the one we bought was $150 less than the identical model in Charleston WV. You can order their flyer from: STEREO CORP. OF AMERICA, 1629 Flatbush Av, Brooklyn NY 11210.

We are using ours for, among other things, taping “Spider’s Web,” a marvelous children’s show on National Public Radio. Right now they’ve been reading WINNIE THE POOH and Milne poems all week and we have it all on tape, marvelously well read too. This prompted Jed (6) to read all of NOW WE ARE SIX to Hannah (4)…

GIVING THEM CHANCES

From Dawn Whitehead, 45 Tefft Av, Elgin IL 60120:

…I have two boys, Michael, 6, _and Andy, 2, and I do agree with you that they would be better off learning at home. Unfortunately, my husband doesn’t agree and so my oldest son attends school. He doesn’t like to go (except days when they have parties, puppet shows, etc.) but for now I’m unable to do much about it.

…Michael has many interests. He is very excited about animals, especially insects. From the time he was about eighteen months old he was fascinated with them. He would spend practically all his time outside looking under rocks and logs and around the yard for them.

He enjoyed being read stories six or more at a time. So we have quite a collection of books from stores and garage sales. Well, one day when he was about 2 1/2, he came running in, got out his pocket guide to insects, went back outside, and was looking up the pictures of the bugs he had found! He now has many books on insects and knows quite a bit about them. He really enjoys finding caterpillars and sometimes cocoons, and leaves them in jars to watch them become monarchs or moths.

Both Michael and Andy enjoy painting; they have used watercolors, tempera paints, and home-made soap paint, which they help make. The soap paint is made with two capfuls of liquid dish soap, about a cup of water, three tablespoons of cornstarch, and one egg. They mix it all together with an egg beater, then pour it into cups and add different food coloring to each. They get very pretty colors and enjoy the sudsy pictures. Their art work is hung in their own special places, but only the pictures we like the best are later put in a folder to be kept forever.

Another thing they like to make is their own play dough. To make it you mix four cups of flour with one cup of salt, then add 1 1/2 cups of water a little at a time, then knead it until doughy. They mix food coloring into it, or they shape it, bake it in a 350-degree oven for about one hour and then paint it. It’s a lot of fun for them.

Andy likes music and loves to listen to the radio or records and dance or sing his own version of the song. We have an organ and Michael and Andy like to play with the keys and tabs and see what music they can come up with. I had put tape on the keys with the notes and then made up cards with songs on them like “Yankee Doodle” and “Merrily We Roll Along.” Michael seemed to enjoy it for a while and could almost play “Kumbaya” without the cards, but then he lost interest.

Michael has his own tools down in the basement, which he shares with Andy. We found most of his tools at garage sales for cheap. He now has hammers, screwdrivers, saws, wrenches, and a disc sander that he received as a gift for his last birthday. I also let him use my electric drill if he needs it. He has made helicopters, airplanes, boats, and bridges with his tools. Michael shares his tools with Andy and assists him when he needs help nailing or sawing. They have never had any injuries except for hammered thumbs, but I do that myself sometimes.

We live near a large park that has ponds, a creek, ducks, deer, a small museum, and lots of space. Frequently, we go for long walks. As a result, we have learned many things about nature. Aside from the insects,  we’ve also checked out books from the library on wild flowers. Many of these flowers we have picked, dried, or pressed.

I’ve found that when Michael has trouble understanding something, if I look it up in the dictionary or encyclopedia and then demonstrate the word or concept with clay or blocks he can understand it better. For instance, I wasn’t sure Michael knew adding and subtracting, so we demonstrated them several times with clay and blocks and now I’m sure he knows what it’s all about.

…I guess one of the most important things I’ve noticed with my sons is not to assume that they can’t do something. No matter what it is, if you’ll give them the chance to try  - they will usually succeed at it. Andy loves to help wash dishes, fold laundry, and help put it in the correct drawers! Michael likes to help when I’m working on some project of my own like latch-hooking a rug or sanding an old rocking chair.  They both enjoy cooking and baking. It seems like whenever I’m in the kitchen, they’re right there ready to help. They like to measure, mix, and pour. Michael knew how to make French toast and scrambled eggs when he was about three just from watching me! They both like making muffins from a mix. Michael measures the milk and cracks the egg into the mix, and Andy uses the egg beater. They then scoop it into paper cupcake cups and bake. I always stay near by when the stove or oven are on to prevent any possible burns…

J.P. & TOYS

More from Kathy Mingl:

…Other than cars and trucks, J.P. prefers “grown-up toys.” We’ve hit the garage sales for things like kitchen utensils and plastic dishes (good for sand); an aluminum teakettle; an impressive, self-inking, adjustable office stamp (with food-color ink); art paints; a portable artist’s case; brushes; paper; shells, tools, a typewriter, a real telephone; broken cameras, radios, clocks, etc. for taking apart; and any number of other odds and ends that only J.P. knows the use of. Many things at garage sales are within a little boy’s price range, so he can bring along his personal hoard of sticky pennies and scrounged change, and make his own choices. At the “dime” (ha!) store, practically all he can afford is bubble gum. Best of all, even if I buy something for him, at garage-sale prices I don’t much care what he does with the stuff, as long as he picks the pieces up afterwards.

I’ve bought J.P. lots of cute toys - I have a weakness for Fisher-Price things - but it’s the junk that he treasures and plays with. (He also retrieves cancelled bills from the garbage, and “pays” them with voided checks. He collects “records” to keep in his “files,” too - I can’t imagine why he enjoys that! Do you think he could learn how to make out tax forms?) I always preferred raw materials to manufactured toys, myself, and I think that’s more or less true for most kids I’ve known. Finished toys are just that - finished. All the possibilities have been used up already, and about all a kid can do with it now is take it apart, which is hard on grownups.

When you invest a lot of thought and money into a toy for a child it’s actually hard to give it up, and you tend to feel bad if he doesn’t take care of it the way you think he should. The kid knows it doesn’t really belong to him, and he feels bad too… Whenever J.P. has gotten something like that - especially if he thought it was the one thing in the world he wanted and threw a big fuss over it, he’s gone crazy, had tantrums all over the place, and promptly ruined the thing. He just can’t take it, I guess. Now, if I wane to gee him something like a radio-controlled car, I tell him it’s for all of us to play with, and the thing isn’t so overwhelming.

Maybe the responsibility is too much for them - like the joke about having to fill out adoption papers before they’ll let you buy one of those do-everything dolls…

If I buy a toy because I like it, I have every right to insist that J.P. play nicely with it. I don’t quibble - it’s mine, and I’m willing to share it with him as long as he treats it right. I don’t nag J.P. about taking care of his own stuff - I might mention that toys often break if they’re hit with a hammer (just in case he didn’t want that to happen) or I might make him pick them up if company is coming, but otherwise they’re his.

Actually, I find that having a little boy is a great cover. You can do all sorts of things that you thought you had lost out on forever when you “grew up” - wading in mud puddles, playing in sand, building things with blocks - and everyone assumes it was the kid’s idea. Children and adults really make a perfect team - grownups supply the expertise, and kids the excuse.

…Do you know, I have a very realistic frog sitting on the edge of the bathroom sink, right now. Everyone assumes it’s J.P.’s, but he doesn’t even like it. It’s one of those squishy rubber ones, and I bought it long before J.P. was born, but I kept it out of sight. I like frogs.

J.P. and I are presently in the process of making “eleventeen” robots. I would never have thought of it on my own, but it seems that I’ve been saving robot parts for years - only I thought they were gears, washers, clock and music-box movements, and sewing machine parts. The ones we’ve made are really neat, and just about everyone who’s seen them has gotten interested in the project too. Tony made a good one - it was a double-computer switch for a face, and he made up a little flasher circuit for it so that it winks one eye when you push the top of its head. J.P.’s names for them so far are “Habrio,” “Hay-doo,” “Peeto,” “HanobiHan,” “Aeno,” “Ernio,” “Kikku,” and “St. Charles.” He thinks ‘em up and I spell ‘em…

HIS OWN GARDEN

From Diane Dondero (CA):

…When Amedeo was 2 and 3, I encouraged him to plant with me in the garden, pull weeds and share the experience of eating all the fresh food from the vine. He loved it, of course. When he was 4, we staked out his little garden (4′ x 4′) and I helped him plant the seeds “properly.” He did okay but I was doing most of the work. The following couple of years we did the same and he was _joined by his growing sister who is now 5. However, he lacked enthusiasm. He’d go days without watering and plants died. Something was not right. I refused to help him because he wasn’t doing anything.  We got the book WILLIE’S GARDEN by Myra McGee (Rodale Press) to encourage him. This spring he was all excited about growing his garden. Said he wanted to stake it out himself. So, I lee him have complete control over it. He chose the spot, staked it out, and began cultivating the ground. He was anxious to plant so in went radishes and lettuce. I felt good about what he was doing so I helped him weed and water when he couldn’t be there. Then one day he moved the stakes and made it bigger. This became a regular occurrence. He planted onions and spinach, carrots and flowers. When we put in the brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.) he asked for one of each. Now he is waiting for a tomato plant.  My point here is that I did not tell him how to plant anything. When he wanted to know when and to what vegetable he should apply ashes, he asked. When he was unsure of how much compost he needed for what, he asked. When he wanted to enlarge, we discussed in which direction he could grow.  For him it is his garden and he’s very proud of it, loves it and cares for it a great deal. For me, I have learned how to help him without being in control of the situation (keeping it neat and organized). I feel good about sharing in the care of his garden because I know he appreciates my help. And in turn he shares more in the family garden - weeding the flower beds and helping to plant and water…

I know so many mothers who do what I did with their children’s gardens and as a result the garden is more their little project than the child’s…

ACRYLICS AT TWO

From Marie Baker (WI):

…After reading the letters about acrylics in GWS, I got some for Sarah a couple of months ago when she was 26 months old. She really loves them. At first the fascination was with squeezing the tubes, then with adding water (too much), then with using right from the tube, then with using it for finger paint, then with mixing what seemed like yucky colors.

A few times after I got her cleaned up, she’d get smeared up again with what was on the table and her painting. The doll and floor and wall got it a few times, too. After these last episodes, I ended up screaming, and she crying. Acrylics are water base, but if you don’t wash them up right away, they do stain. Fortunately, our house is not finished yet. The floor is concrete and the walls are not painted, so eventually all her experiments will be covered. Anyway, I figure, even professional artists usually have studios with paine spatters all over the floor, so why shouldn’t a child too?

The paine isn’t as expensive as I at first thought it might be since it’s so concentrated. With a little water, a little goes a long way. The color and texture is far superior to poster paint which fades after being exposed to the light for a while.

I love the paintings Sarah’s been making. I have them covering two whole walls. I agree with Picasso’s statement that children should teach adults to paine, rather than the reverse. In my first year at the Art Institute of Chicago, an instructor said we should now try to unlearn all the “art” taught to us since kindergarten, and recapture the spontaneity and freedom we had as children before adults got to us.

…The paper I’m writing on is what Sarah paints on. It came in a huge 3-foot wide roll from a suburban newspaper office for $5.00. It will probably last at least a year, though we use it all the time. It takes the acrylic paints very well.  Sarah sometimes likes finger paints, too. We use the dull side of wet freezer paper for that.  We get paper off the big roll by letting it stand on end, then folding the amount we need. A table knife can then cut along the fold very easily. I then fold the big piece in half and cut it again so I have two large pieces. Sarah paints on a small kids’ table while standing. We haven’t made her an easel since some of the paine drips on the paper when it’s vertical. We may make her a larger table, though…

CRAY-PAS ART

From Penny Nesbit (IN):

…I want to tell you how much Peterson has enjoyed the Cray-pas crayons. He has an entire wall in the family-room covered with his bright and imaginative creations. Someone should make a study of the comparisons between schoolers’ and unschoolers’ art work. When I remember the drawings in the halls of Peterson’s former public school, I shudder. Always the same assigned subject, the same dull colors, the same lack of originality. An artist friend of our oldest son was visiting this past weekend and she asked Peterson if she could pick out a few of his drawings to put up on the walls of her studio. He was delighted!…

[DR: See GWS #16 for more about Cray-pas. We’ve had to raise the price to $1.75 for a box of 12, because of the hike in U.S. postal rates. By the way, we’ve sold over 225 boxes in the last ten months!]

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #24 

Many exciting things have happened since the last issue. As many of you know, on Oct. 28 Brigitta and Peter Van Daam (RI) and their three children, and Joyce and Dick Kinmont (UT) and their seven children appeared with me on the Donahue show. Also on the show were a number of Chicago area home schooling families who had managed to get in the studio audience. All the families spoke eloquently and convincingly about home schooling, and the older children, Andrea Kinmont and Julia Van Daam, were the strongest argument of all; they certainly disposed of the notion that home schooled children would somehow be out of place in the "Real World." What with the show itself, and spending a night in a big hotel, riding up and down in the glass-sided elevators, eating meals in the room, and seeing Chicago after the show, it was an exciting and happy occasion for the families. After the show, I taped a one-hour radio show on WFMT with my old friend Studs Terkel, whose program is heard all over the country.

On Sept. 30, Eileen and Spencer Trombly (CT), their daughter Sarah, and I appeared on the nation-wide TV show "Good Morning, America." The format of the show only gave us about seven or eight minutes to speak our piece. Nevertheless, I heard later from my publishers that our segment created the largest response (phone and mail) that "Good Morning, America" has ever received.

Then on Nov. 3, 12-year-old Holly Hillestad (MN) and I taped the CBS-TV news show, "Up To The Minute," with two other guests taking the opposing side and Harry Reasoner as host. One of our "opponents," former U.W. Commissioner of Education Ernest Boyer, said that he thought that families who wanted to teach their own children should be allowed to do so - an important concession.

Later that same week a writer and a photographer from People magazine came to the office to do an interview with me and, the next day, with the Maher family in Wakefield. The writer, who was very sympathetic and well-informed, taped at least eight hours of talk, and for the magazine’s editors to boil all this down to a People-length story will take some time.

Meanwhile, the December ‘81 issue of Yankee magazine has a very good article about me by my friend Mel Allen. One of the nicest things in it is a wonderful photo, taken by another friend, Ed Braverman (who took the cover photo for NEVER TOO LATE), of six-year-old Vita Wallace and me playing violin and cello.

 Along with all this I have done live telephone radio interviews with stations in Oklahoma City, Washington, Toronto, Grand Rapids, Boston, San Francisco, and Detroit. Most of these shows were excellent. These shows give other home school organizations a chance to make themselves known - for example, Pat Montgomery called in to the Detroit show to tell about her Home Based Education Program. There are thousands of these radio shows around the country; let’s use them as much as we can.

 And we had a third visitor to the office from Japan - Miss Kaoru Chikamochi, a kindergarten teacher. While in the U.S., she visited many kindergarten classes around the country; she was surprised and disappointed to find that so few children looked happy. She said that pressure in Japanese schools did not begin until later, around junior high school. Most Japanese feel strongly that it is very important that little children, whether out of school or in, be happy. I said that I feared that many Americans did not put a very high value on the happiness of our children. All in all, we had a most pleasant visit.

 Busy times! — John Holt

ENJOYING PUBLICITY

Those of you who saw the recent Donahue show may remember the energetic woman near the front of the audience who shared her enthusiasm about home-schooling - that was Sue McGartland (IL), who was there with her husband Mark (GWS #21) and children Dawn and Nathan. After the show, Mark wrote us:

…Before going to Chicago I phoned the local superintendent to let him know about the program, as our policy has always been to avoid surprises. I inquired if he had received any negative feedback from anyone in the one and a half years we have been home educating. He responded that we have been so low-key that probably very few people knew about us.

However, the situation is changing rapidly since the show, as many saw us on TV, two newspapers have asked to do stories, and the show will be broadcast again in our town Nov. 18 on a different channel. Of all the people who have told us they saw us on TV, none has been negative, contrary to audience response during the show.

What I like best so far is the attitude of the principal and superintendent, which is "local family makes the big time." Far from being threatened, they are enjoying our exercise in cooperation between the school and our family…

"VICTORY" VICTORY"

A reader sent this letter from the Catholic correspondence school, OUR LADY OF VICTORY (PO Box 5181, Mission Hills CA 91345) :

…The state of Ohio has been a tough state in which to establish a private school, much less a correspondence program. We are pleased to announce that two families in the Home Study Program of Our Lady of Victory School have insisted on their God-given rights to educate their children at home, AND THEY WON!

…In April, two of our parents in Northfield, Ohio, went to court and proved to the judge that they were right in keeping their son at home. In addition, they convinced the judge that their son was getting a better education through our Home Study Program than he could get in the local public school.

Within a couple of weeks of that great court victory, one of our families in Warren, Ohio, was told by the local superintendent that their son and daughter had to attend the local public school. Just prior to going to court, that official reviewed our lesson plans and now accepts our program in his area…

ALLY IN LOUISIANA

 Woody Jenkins, the member of the Louisiana House of Representatives who sponsored the legislation making it easier to call one’s home a private school (GWS #18), wrote to homeschoolers in the state:

…Since the passage of Act 828, nearly 200 new private schools have been established in Louisiana. The largest of these schools has an enrollment approaching 1,000. But some have an enrollment of only one pupil!

…Some parents who wanted to participate in a home study program realized that the regulations on home study adopted by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) were far, far more restrictive than permitted by Act 828… BESE has absolutely no legal authority to do what it has done through its rule-making powers - control teaching materials, restrict who may provide instruction, and require periodic testing of pupils engaged in home study programs. As a result, those parents who desired to be free of regulation by BESE and were aware of their options under Act 828 simply started private schools in their own homes.

At the urging of a parent, I requested an Attorney General’s opinion on the question of whether it is, in fact, legal under Act 828 to establish a private school with only one student and with the school located in the student’s home. As expected, on Sept. 22, 1981, the Attorney General ruled that such a school is legally a "school" for purposes of compliance with the compulsory attendance law.

…During the 1981 session of the Louisiana legislature, a bill was introduced to repeal most of Act 828, restore regulation of private schools in Louisiana, and abolish the authorization of home study. This bill had the endorsement of all 64 parish superintendents of schools in Louisiana.

Why? It’s really not difficult to understand. The reason some public educators would like to regulate and even destroy private schools and home education programs is, quite simply, money! Parish school boards receive more than $1,000 per year from the State of Louisiana for each child actually enrolled in their public schools… Here in East Baton Rouge Parish, where more than 4,000 students left the public schools this year, the local school board should lose $4 million in state funds…

I was able to kill the legislation to repeal Act 828 during the 1981 session. However, I expect the public education establishment to make a very strong effort to repeal Act 828 during the 1982 session…

There is really only one way to preserve the legal rights which you have acquired with the passage of Act 828. Quite simply, you must seek out your natural allies - other parents who educate their children at home - and work to develop an effective organization capable of lobbying in the legislature… At present, there are 66 families in the state who have been approved for home study by BESE. In addition, there are many others who have established private schools in their homes. This letter is being sent to everyone I can locate in those two groups.

…I am especially interested in knowing whether you would be willing to join a new organization which I am hoping we can put together for the purpose of promoting home study and home schools [in Louisiana]. The name of this organization would be PARENTS FOR HOME EDUCATION… [Woody Jenkins’ address is 1 American P1, Baton Rouge LA 70825; phone 504-383-6226 or 357-9674.]

TEACHER PROTECTION BILL

 Ellen Loegering (MN) wrote:

…Here is a copy of House File 1459 presently before the Education Committee in the Minn. House of Representatives. This bill was written in the Dept. of Education… The House will convene Jan. 12, 1982, and we need opposition to this bill…

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We asked Ellen if she could tell GWS readers in the Directory about the legislation. John also wrote the following:

…The intent of the act is clear - to make it illegal for anyone to teach children except certified teachers, and so to wipe out virtually all home schools and private religious schools within the state. This is, in short, a Job Protection Act.

Readers should write to the Chairman and as many members as possible of the House Committee on Education, urging them not to report out the bill. It would probably be a good idea to point out that a similar law was struck down by the courts in Kentucky (see GWS #12, 15), on the grounds that the state could produce no evidence that certified teachers could teach better than uncertified, and therefore could not show a need for teacher certification compelling enough to justify their restricting in this way the right of parents to have their children taught as they wished.

It might also be useful to send to members of the Education Committee and others a copy of the statement on the Constitutional position on home schooling that I prepared for a recent meeting at the Massachusetts legislature. [See this issue; copies of full statement available here for $2]. Also, try to bring these matters to the attention of as many newspaper editors and TV and radio commentators as possible. Point out that this bill not only infringes on the Constitutional rights of parents, but will also burden the already overloaded courts of the state with a flood of cases, many or most of which the state will lose.

Be sure, too, to write the Governor about this. One reader told us earlier, when this bill was first being discussed, that the Governor had indicated that if it were passed he would veto it. To whatever extent this may be true, he should know about popular opposition to this bill.

Please let us know what responses you get from legislators, media people, and so on. Home and private schoolers have blocked similar bills in a number of other states, and with plenty of work and a little luck should be able to do so in Minnesota, which in matters of personal liberty has always been one of our more enlightened states (Another point worth making)…

NEWS FROM ALL OVER

Laurie Huffman of the UTAH HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATION phoned to let us know of a mistake in GWS #23. We reprinted a newspaper article from Price, Utah, that quoted Stephen Stone as saying Utah law does not require permission from local school boards to form home schools. Laurie said that is not true; "Utah districts are reasonable and cooperative," she says, "but they do have jurisdiction over home schools. Stephen Stone wrote that statement four or five years ago, and didn’t fully know the law at that time."

While we’re doing corrections - Ed Wilhelm (VA) just told us that contrary to the chart we reprinted in GWS #23, the compulsory schooling age in Virginia is 6.

The October issue of the H.O.U.S.E Door newsletter says, "Good news for Chicago residents - the reporter Rosalind Rossi, who did the Chicago Sun-Times article on homeschooling, talked to Superintendent Dr. Ruth Love about home schooling. Dr. Love said parents have the choice to teach their children at home. She thinks it is a mistake to do so, but they have the choice!"

PAT’S BUSY

 Pat Montgomery (MI) writes:

…I gave the October address to the HOUSE group in Chicago last week on my swing back from Los Angeles where I did the "Alive and Well" show on USA Network (no broadcast dates yet.) The interviewer did a series of ten shows, ten minutes long each, to be shown each day for two weeks… It promises to be a much more enlightening series than any other I’ve been involved in.

…As of October ‘81, we have 60 families enrolled in HOME BASED EDUCATION PROGRAM - 136 children altogether - in 35 states… HBEP is becoming the true lifesaver, financially, for Clonlara School.

The NCACS (National Coalition for Alternative Community Schools) Board of Directors met October 17 and planned their spring conference for the middle of April 1982 in Chicago… I am always conscious of your warnings about devoting too much administrative time to organizations and I use this as my guiding light in dealing with both NCACS and HBEP…

The NCACS 1981-82 directory of alternative schools, "There Ought to Be Free Choice," is now available (Clonlara Publications, 1289 Jewett St, Ann Arbor MI 48104; $5)…

SUCCESS BEFORE JUDGE

 More from Brenda Cowell in Ohio ("Learning With Her Son," GWS #23):

…We have had a very trying year as my ex-husband filed for a change in the custody of our son based primarily on the fact that Kale had not attended school last year. My ex-husband had originally agreed to Kale’s non-schooling but later changed his mind.

At the hearing, he attempted to prove that I am an incompetent teacher and mother. Plus he testified that Kale was not growing emotionally because he had little interaction with his peers as children do in school.

During the hearing, two psychological reports were presented. Both pointed out how bright and competent our son is and neither found signs of Kale having any abnormal psychological disturbances or of being emotionally immature for his age. My ex-husband’s testimony also pointed out how well-liked Kale is by his neighborhood friends and that they frequently play together during Kale’s visits with his dad.

The judge himself was impressed with Kale as he asked Kale to read to him out of one of his law books. He did. And quite well, too! (Kale is 8.) The judge’s comment was that he didn’t see why there was all this fuss about Kale not being in school. No custody change was made, no recommendation was given concerning Kale’s future education, and I feel exuberant…

A UTAH FAMILY

 From Donna Brock (UT) :

Aug 16: …We took our children out of public schools in March of this year. We have four boys, ages 13, 10, 7, and 5. We have felt very much alone and isolated until yesterday when we attended a convention of home-schoolers in Salt Lake City where Mr. Holt was the guest speaker [GWS #23]. We now feel so much more sure of ourselves and encouraged.

Our three oldest sons were in public schools in Florida before we moved out here, and we were very happy with the education they were receiving. It was the kind of school where all the third graders weren’t lumped in a room together - they might have sixth grade readers and second grade math… Our kids went skipping out the door to school every morning, came home in the afternoon excited and anxious to share their day at school with us.

…Then we moved to an area where school is somewhere you go to play ball until you’re old enough to go to work in the coal mines. Our boys went through one entire school year and almost through a second before we heard about home schools. It was the most awful time in their young lives…

Our five year old would have started kindergarten this coming term and has talked about it and looked forward to it for a whole year. So, even after all the problems his brothers had in school, I took him to register for kindergarten. He met the teachers, visited the rooms, saw the books they were using, and whispered in my ear, "If it’s all right with you, I’ll just keep going to our home school." Smart kid!

 Of course, the principal told me that my son didn’t want to go to kindergarten because he was just like other kids that age. "He’ll cry and hang on to your skirts the first few days you leave him at school, but after that he’ll be just fine." My son who loves for Mom to go out of town with Dad for a couple of days so he can go stay with friends, and is so busy playing when we leave him that he can’t take time out to tell us goodbye, and when we pick him up wonders why we’re back so soon, is going to hang onto my skirts and cry? I guess I have a maladjusted five-year-old. He’s very comfortable with other people and other surroundings.

…For our family, teaching our own children feels right. I don’t want to push it on someone else because for them it might not fit. I don’t work outside of the home, and with my husband’s work we can spend a lot of time together as a family. I know that for a lot of families this would be impossible. But for us it is possible and it feels good…

Aug. 29: …When a reporter interviewed my husband about a security job he was going to be doing for the city, we just had to get a plug in about home school. She was interested and made an appointment to come back and talk to us about it. We sent her in several different directions and the enclosed newspaper series is the result.

I called Reed Benson at Brigham Young University about coming down here and talking about his dissertation "The Development of a Home School"… We have sent special invitations to attend the meeting to school principals, school board members, mayors, council people, etc. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Please feel free to use anything from me in GWS. We feel very strongly about home school, and will do anything we can to be of help to others who feel as we do. We are in constant touch with Ken and Laurie Huffman in Salt Lake City who are organizing the Utah Home Education Association [GWS #23], and we will be heading the group in our area of the state…

Sept. 6: I had a very interesting comment made to me this morning about Daniel, my five-year-old… His Sunday School teacher said she was concerned about him. She was afraid that he wasn’t getting the socialization he needed with us keeping him at home rather than having him go to school with other children his age. Her reason for concern was that Daniel is very quiet in class and she doesn’t have the discipline problems with him that she has with the rest of the class! In fact, she said she usually has him sit between the two worst ones to keep them separated! She doesn’t feel it’s normal for a boy his age to act that way. I guess she would feel better about him socially if he were loud and ill-mannered.

 And then in the same breath she tells me that Daniel is the only child in the class she can call on to give an opening or closing prayer that she doesn’t have to help and tell what to say. I can’t understand a teacher that worries about a child who is well-mannered and behaves as he’s been taught to in church. Why doesn’t she go to the other parents and tell them she’s concerned about their children?…

Sept. 21: This past week I received all my back issues of GWS. I could hardly wait to dig in. Well, the next day I started having some problems with a kidney infection, so I’ve spent most of the past week in bed. I’ve had lots of time to read and ponder.

We have a king-sized water bed, and it’s a wonderful place for family discussions. All four boys pile in with me (and usually Dad), and we talk and laugh and have a wonderful learning time. The two youngest, Jared (7) and Daniel (5), have helped to "keep Mommy happy and make her feel better" by lying in bed with me and reading me stories. Lynn (13), who loves to cook, has been at the height of his glory. He made an apple pie from scratch, crust and all, for Sunday dinner, and he made three loaves of banana nut bread that have about made me decide that won’t be my specialty any more. Richard (10), along with Daniel, has taken it upon himself to be sure I consume enough liquids. It seems like every five minutes he or Daniel is walking through the bedroom door with a glass of something for me to drink. And if I don’t drink every drop, boy, do I get told about it!

 All the boys have taken on extra responsibilities to help my husband keep the house in order, and they’ve had a ball doing the grocery shopping without Mom along. It’s really been a pretty good week.

…Since the articles in our local paper about us teaching our children at home, a lot of people recognize us when we’re out somewhere during "school" hours. People approach us in the grocery store, restaurants, etc., and they’re very anxious to talk to us and find out about what we’re doing. Most of their comments are of a very positive nature… We’re very matter-of-fact about what we’re doing; if someone doesn’t agree with us that’s fine, but we don’t back down.

We have a very un-school-like school. We go up in the mountains and ride our motorcycle. My husband (who got his expert pin for marksmanship when he was a policeman) takes the boys out to shoot guns - this also includes safety rules for handling them, cleaning them properly, etc… We go camping (my favorite because the guys do all the work while Mom relaxes). We go to the circus. We go to barbershop quartet festivals. We go and listen to the symphony orchestra.

In "Sensible Phonics," GWS #7, you talk about vowels and consonants and perhaps making the vowels one color and the consonants another. Some time back I cut 100 3 x 5" cards in half and began to write the letters of the alphabet on them, the consonants one color, the vowels another. With the most frequently used letters I made several of each. I did one set that was all capitals. They’re useful for all kinds of wonderful games. Daniel likes to spread them out all over the table, get the dictionary out (his own), pick a word at random, and then find the letters to spell it… A fun one for the whole family is for everyone to pick a letter at random, then we try to put them together to form a word. The most fun is trying to pronounce some of the words. And yes, they know that the red ones are vowels and the blue ones are consonants, but none of us know why, so we don’t worry about it. We just have fun playing our games.

Another of our favorite activities is to play "Triominoes." On the box it says for ages 8 to adult, but we’ve always tended to ignore ages on game boxes…. We’ve been playing Triominoes with our children since our seven-year-old was three. Everyone is responsible for keeping their own score. The younger boys love it because it’s a game they can play without an adult helping them. "Uno" is another favorite for the same reason…

We learn history by reading biographies out loud. We usually sprawl out all over the living room floor and take turns reading.

…In reading GWS #10 I became very interested in what a mother had written about balking at the idea of her son having a toy gun to play with see also GWS #12, 21]. I know there are a lot of people who feel this way. In our family it’s never been a problem, but I can see how this would be very controversial. None of our boys have ever expressed much interest in toy guns… maybe it’s because they’re always been exposed to the real thing. Having a father who was a policeman in Florida and who will shortly be doing the same here, they have no false illusions about guns and what they are capable of doing…

They’re all pretty good shots, but they seem to have no desire whatever to shoot at anything other than cans. They love animals of all kinds and the thought of hunting is repulsive to them. Yet if the time ever came that they needed to use a gun for purposes of defense, they would know how to use it wisely… I guess I just feel that toy guns are intriguing because children don’t know what guns are really all about. They see the TV heroes and try to emulate all the neat things they do…

 Sept 30: Our boys had a very nice experience today. They accompanied my husband and me to the judge’s chambers to see their father sworn in as a police officer (during "school hours.") The judge was very cordial to them - shook hands with each of them, asked names, ages, interests, etc. He also extended a special invitation to them to attend court whenever they liked. He said the courtroom would always be open to them. They met several city officials today and I feel they made a very favorable impression on everyone…

RE-LEARNING INDEPENDENCE

 Cathi Edward (LA) writes:

 …The first day of school for our family as well as the public school was just four days ago. School is a big deal in terms of media hype, school supplies - the whole build up… Because Daniel has had two years in public school, I think he may have gotten caught up in the hype and he began to feel he might be missing something. He was the kind of student teachers like. He was cooperative and obedient. He was motivated to stay out of trouble. Consequently, he was "rewarded" for his good behavior. I’ve wondered how he will react not receiving those strokes for conformity.

The first day of school right after breakfast, Daniel said, "OK, Mom, start teaching me." I knew then that our expectations were not jibing. He has very specific ideas of what school is or what he thinks it should be. On weekends and during summer Daniel does things freely and on his own. But his notion of what school involves is being told what to do. He is not convinced that his weekends and his summertime are full of learning. I don’t think he feels he’s learning at home now. A couple of times during the first week he kept saying that he just didn’t feel like he was in school. I told him that was because he wasn’t in school. I’m trying to be patient with him and share with him some ways people learn things different from school’s way. At the same time I felt like he needed, at least in the beginning, more guidance than I had anticipated.

So for a couple of days I gave him things to do - work in workbooks, review of arithmetic and various assigned tasks. We also did other things including garden work, yoga, playing records and games. Jason, who has no previous school influence, had no problem going on about his business as usual. But Daniel kept coming to me to be told what to do. To be honest, this was beginning to undermine my confidence a bit. I was afraid he’d decide to go back to school.

After about a week, however, I gave Daniel some pages in an arithmetic workbook to do. He clearly was not interested in doing it. It was a short time later, after he completed one page, that he went to the playroom and went to work on his own. He could have gone in there and done a headstand and I wouldn’t have cared. I was just relieved that he went and did something on his own. As time goes by he is doing more on his own. But he says he feels like he is on a big holiday. He does not feel like he is doing anything worthwhile in terms of "school."

Another thing he asks is "how long before the kids will be home from school?" Our boys and our neighbors’ boys play together almost daily. What Daniel doesn’t realize is that he wouldn’t get to play with them while at school. But I think he is adjusting to not being around kids all day long.

This adjustment process that we are going through has lowered my self confidence some. This morning I got all the back issues of GWS and started reading them again. It really helped. I firmly believe that home schooling is right for us but I’m finding that I need more support than I thought. Something that uplifted me was a section in GWS #1 in which you talk about social change. We too feel that in just about all areas of our life, we are in a minority. But to put into practice what we believe, to teach our sons at home, is to challenge not only a big and powerful institution, but the beliefs and feelings of our family and friends…

[From a later letter:] Although we are all still adjusting, I feel less anxious, much better and more confident than I did at the beginning of the school year. Reasons: (1) Daniel is more involved, settled in, and active. He is becoming accustomed to not being constantly told what to do; and (2) Jason is really enjoying the situation and has blossomed, attempting things and initiating things he never did before.

…NBC News interviewed us and filmed our activities. They turned the film over to the "Today" show. They have no idea when or if it will be aired. We came away feeling good afterwards. The crew was friendly and open…

BIKE STORE

 From Illinois:

…It’s been almost three years since the kids quit school. The first year we crashed. We bought the Calvert home study course, but really didn’t use it much.

Into the second year, we started the family business. We sell and repair bicycles. We also sell all accessories associated with bicycling. The kids and I manage the store while Dad works his full-time job as a carpenter. (Unless you are very rich, outside income is necessary the first years in business.) He has an active role in the store evenings and weekends. Our 15-year-old son, who has the bike knowledge (from books and other places) manages the repair department, doing all repairs (training dad), keeping stock of parts and working with customers. Our 16-year-old daughter is the family organizer, keeps us clean a orderly, manages the store, selling and keeping up with the accessory inventory. Mom’s (that’s me!) main job is to keep the office going, books, etc… Sounds simple? It’s not. But somehow it all works!

We built this business together and we work it together. No one is left in the dark about anything. We all can do each other’s job, including the kids being able to pay bills and run the office. And me, finally knowing bicycles! (Boy, is there a lot to know!) We are professional and proud of what we have achieved. Our store is the best school our children could have. Considering all that comes with running a successful business, they have lost nothing and gained a great deal, as we all have…

ON WORK

Here are some of the responses to "Questions on Work," GWS #22. Thanks to everyone who has answered, and if you haven’t yet, we’re interested in hearing from you at any time.

 From Marie Baker (WI):

…Dave has been a self-employed carpenter for about three years. He finds it far more satisfying than working for other people, though if he had his choice, he’d rather be designing and making unusual furniture.

He left a job as exhibit designer in the city six years ago when we moved to the country. The job choices here are very limited, which make self-employment even more desirable. For the past three years we’ve been house-sitting for my parents for six months every winter in a Chicago suburb while they go south. There are plenty of carpentry jobs there so he works pretty steadily during this period; then during the six months in the country when the jobs are usually more scarce he can have more time to be with Sarah, cut firewood, garden, work the fields, fix the vehicles and equipment, and continue building our house. He has also done painting, electrical work, mechanical work, plumbing, concrete work, etc.

He often takes Sarah (2 1/2) with him when he goes to see and estimate a job. Within a year he hopes to take her along while he’s doing the actual labor, letting her help in many small ways. She’s always been fascinated with all his tools and activities and loves to help in any way allowed. She occasionally hauls out her own tool box of small real tools and has Dave show her how each is used.

When people ask Dave how he learned carpentry, he just says his father was a carpenter, which seems satisfy them. Actually, he’s learned most of it by reading everything he gets his hands on plus a good degree of common sense.

It would be possible for other GWS readers to learn from Dave through visiting and watching or helping, as long as his work wasn’t slowed down too much by this…

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 Kathy Johnson (NJ) writes:

…About a year ago I was looking through the help wanted ads of my local paper. I noticed an ad stating "Adults Wanted for Newspaper Delivery." Well, to make a long story short, I am enjoying it. The best part is, I can take Billy (age five) with me! He has come to enjoy the job, too. He helps deliver the newspapers and he shares in the profits. He keeps all the tip money (about $8.00-$10.00 a week) He spends half and saves the other half. He is really serious about his job and is not afraid of work. While I’m at the newspaper dock he often hops onto one of the delivery vans and helps the drivers load up. When the vending machine man comes once a week, he goes along with him to fill up the machines in the lunch room of the newspaper. The education he is getting and the people he is meeting are just one of the benefits of our job.

On rainy, cold days he doesn’t get out of the car to make deliveries. Instead, we bring along his "library books of the week" and he reads to me! It is such a pleasure to be able to have Billy with me on my job. And another interesting point is that driving my car is not "Shadow Work" (Ivan Illich) any more. With each mile I drive we are earning more money and Billy is getting an education every day. Another added benefit is that very often people we meet will say to Billy, "What, no school today?" He is proud to say "I am a home schooler!" Some people just smile and don’t say anything. But, at least one out of every ten are interested and ask for our phone number!

All newspapers usually need adult delivery people to cover areas that paper girls and boys can’t cover. A simple call to the circulation department of a newspaper will put you in touch with a possible job you will enjoy…

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 From Peggy Buchanan (UT)

…I am training to be a lay midwife attending home births. I decided I wanted to be a midwife during our pregnancy with our second daughter, Rohanna, who was born at home 2 1/2 years ago. I am enjoying learning about prenatal care, the birth process, and holistic medicine.

Shep is an economist with the Forest Service. He enjoys being a part of the planning process for the forests and likes his work. It is nice for all of us that he has somewhat flexible scheduling so that we can share the child-care responsibilities for Rohanna and Melissa, 6.

We live on the outskirts of a town of 50,000 about an hour south of Salt Lake City. We have been able to combine having some land with living in an urban area. As we will soon be moving, we hope to settle in a more rural area.

Although neither of us is self-employed at the time, it is our goal, but in separate occupations. Shep would like to do consulting work. When I start practicing on my own next year I will be holding the prenatal clinics and childbirth classes in our home. Although I would like to work in conjunction with other midwives so we could cover for each other when we take vacations, I would be self-employed.

Shep cannot include Melissa and Rohanna directly in his work. But he does some traveling as he works for three forests and has meetings out of town, and as we are having school at home, we often all go and explore the different areas. In addition to doing a lot of hiking, we’ve had the opportunity to see museums, national parks and a planetarium. And we just made arrangements for Melissa to attend the John Holt Learning Center a couple of times a month when Shep works in Salt Lake City. In comparison, school-based learning seems very limiting. Not only would the girls miss out on these experiences, they also wouldn’t see their dad nearly as much.

Melissa and Rohanna are more directly involved in my work and I hope to include them more in the future. We all look at my birthing books together and they seem very interested. Soon I will begin putting together a film and slideshow presentation to share with the people who will attend births, including children. I want them to help me figure out what people need to know and what questions they have about birth. Melissa has had some experience in this as she attended the birth of her sister when she was 3 1/2. I’m sure that as we get more involved, more opportunities will present themselves for the girls to participate.

The way I am learning to be a midwife is helping to further my understanding of what "education" really is. After studying to be a teacher I dropped out of college in my senior year, extremely frustrated. I had never wanted to teach in the public schools but my goal of starting a private school seemed unrealistic and the classes I was taking had no relevance to what I thought I would eventually do. Now I have very few classes and most of what I do is "hands on" learning. I am anxious to learn what is taught in the classes because I know that I will use it directly. But most of what I learn would be impossible to teach in a classroom…

CREATING A JOB

 A letter from California:

 …Early in school, my husband was identified as "hyper-active." His mother, with good sense, refused to allow him to be medicated. He was not hyper-active, merely bored. His high school career was almost non-existent, as he spent most days at home, reading.

He is presently employed as an apprentice landscape architect. He found the position by offering to work part-time for little money. In a period of only three months he has managed to make it a full-time position which pays enough to allow me to stay at home with our son and to concentrate on my writing ambitions…

HELPING THE HUNGRY

 From Karen Holguin (NV):

..In the winter of 1979 Arturo and I took jobs as community organizers with an agency that had received funds to set up a food bank network modeled after Second Harvest in Phoenix, Arizona… Arturo and I were prepared to set up a network in rural northwest Washington State. The area is economically depressed. Most employment is seasonal leaving a lot of hungry people in the winter.

…I received a phone call from a woman with three children who were hungry. They had had no income for 2 1/2 months. The local Salvation Army and St. Vincent DePaul had already been contacted and since they limited their aid to three days, they had long ago been exhausted (though what they offered was little better than nothing). Anyway, Kathy had three children who were hungry for protein and MILK!!!

I began calling around. I located a box of canned goods through the Senior Citizens there, then began calling small markets that sold fresh meat. I pointed out to one owner that because he was such a small business he probably had to take a loss on his spoiled meat. Washington State had a Good Samaritan Law which provides retailers with protection from lawsuit involving donated food (spoilage, etc.) It also provides a tax break - a retailer can take his cost plus 50% of his shelf costs off his taxes. So he makes more on an item donated than sold! That afternoon I picked up 25 lbs. of meat and 3 gallons of milk for Kathy’s family. That was the beginning of the Granite Falls Food Bank.

…I enlisted Kathy in my cause and we got one other worker and went to work. We contacted every market, distributor, fisherman, and person we could think of asking for donations to our Christmas program. The local schools held a food drive, with children bringing in cans for ten days. At the end of ten days the room with the most cans won an ice cream. (This is the same school mentioned in GWS #20 as being helpful to home schoolers. A really fine man heads those schools!) We placed jars around the town at the local businesses asking for donations. At the end of those five hectic weeks we had managed to accumulate close to 5,000 pounds of food. We took all of our children to the Granite Falls Community Center and spent two days sorting and preparing those foods for distribution. Two days before Christmas we provided 75 families with a turkey, trimmings, two boxes of canned goods, and four toys for each child. The looks on those people’s faces told the story. It was fantastic. We were even able to find a used stove which we provided to a family who had had theirs repossessed!

…What we learned from this experience was just how much food goes to waste each day in this country. It’s sad. But if people organize and get out there and get the food, it isn’t wasted. The Granite Falls effort was shadowed by hassles with the local agencies and their desire to take the credit and the food operation over. But the community didn’t let that happen.

…Food banking creates work for children and adults as well. Most is volunteer but the rewards are great. Gleaning (going out and cleaning the fields after the pickers are through) is great - a lot of fruit is left in the fields. If it is picked up, distributed, and canned, then it is not lost.

The programs dealing with hunger in this country are just too few… The truth is that this winter many more people than last will be forced to choose between food and fuel. Many on fixed income or welfare will have little of either… For every hungry person I saw in Washington there was still another just down the street…

Food bank operations always need donations of food and most of all, volunteers. Volunteers to locate resources, pick up food, deliver food, and to work in their distribution centers sorting food, disposing of damaged cans, and packing nutritious boxes for delivery. In Washington our children worked right beside us… Because these endeavors are meaningful work I found that the children are deeply motivated by being able to help someone.

…I am including a list of resources… Other resources include the churches, who have done a lot of work in this area, and the Yellow Pages - look under Social Services. The Salvation Army, Red Cross, and United Way can all offer some information.

…GWS is made up of a lot of good, caring people - if even one is inspired to join the battle on hunger this letter has served a purpose. It is real and it is terrible.

For more information: SECOND HARVEST, 1001 N Central #303, Phoenix AZ 85004. CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, 1312 Mass. Av. NW, Wash. DC 20005. WORKING GROUP ON DOMESTIC HUNGER & POVERTY, 475 Riverside Dr. Rm 572, NY NY 10015 (pamphlet "Hunger Action Agenda," $1). WORLD HUNGER EDUCATION SERVICE, 2000 P St NW, Wash. DC 20036 (guide "Who’s Involved with Hunger," $3.) WORLD HUNGER YEAR (magazine) 350 Broadway Ste 209, NY NY 10013.

[DR: To which list I would add THE HUNGER PROJECT, 2015 Steiner St, San Francisco CA 94115. Karen also sent an excellent article on how to start a food bank - for a copy, send us a self-addressed stamped envelope.]

RESPONSIBLE AT 6

 Nancy Wallace (NY) wrote:

…A few days ago, we were expecting rather formidable company, and I was bustling about cooking and cleaning. When I was washing windows, Vita wanted to wash windows too, but she spilt the Windex all over the dining room table. When I was making a dessert, she wanted to beat the egg whites, but instead spilt them on the kitchen floor. And when I was sweeping one of the bedrooms, she got out her broom and swept too, but she ended up dumping all the dust from the dustpan onto the floor again.

My first impulse in each of these cases was to rant and rave, but I held myself back. After all, Vita is only 6 and her little mishaps were accidents. My next impulse was to growl and clean up the messes myself, but I knew that that would make Vita feel more guilty than ever and begin to cry, in which case I’d have a mess and an unhappy child to deal with. Pragmatically, then, I told Vita to clean up the messes herself, and she did so with relief, expunging all the guilt and frustration she felt. A couple of times I told her to redo her cleaning job until it was perfect, but that didn’t faze her a bit. After all, I was treating her like a responsible person and she was glad to be doing real work…

AVON REPRESENTATIVE

 From Eileen Trobly (CT):

…Amy was interviewed and accepted and jumped into the Avon world with both feet… She has done a good deal of baby-sitting and house cleaning at the rate of $1.00 and $1.50 in recent months. She has been in great demand due to her reliability and dependable qualities. Her duties as sitter expanded over the years and she was called upon by parents of newborns as well as older children. During the summer months she even went on family sailboat cruises to Block Island, Newport, etc… Alas, burn-out at age 15 set in and wages became insufficient for an ambitious ballerina who went through toe shoes faster than she could pay for them.

…Her first five days as an Avon representative were highly successful and she grossed a personal income of $100 within that time. Additional calculating indicates that she is working approximately two hours daily (at her convenience) and earning $7.50 an hour. Not bad for a 15-year-old. If she chooses to work more hours, she’ll make more - it’s her choice. We’re excited for her, and she is feeling very good about it. Most of her customers are older people and are impressed by her confidence. In figuring out her finances even further she finds she is able to take additional ballet lessons, as well as save…

RECYCLING ALUMINUM

 George Levenson wrote in the Santa Cruz Home-school Experience Exchange (see North Calif. Dir.):

…My children are fascinated by money (a fact which no longer dismays me). Actually, their handling of it has been a natural avenue for developing skills in (worldly) mathematics. I’ve been looking for ways to find work for them without creating too much routine - finding a balance between supporting their participation in the world and maintaining the feeling of play. Recycling seems to be a very promising possibility for children and adults working together. It’s ecologically sound and even profitable, though at times a bit messy. The aluminum can is worth around 1 1/2¢. Jacob (7) and I view it as the inflated penny. There are several recycling centers in Santa Cruz (see yellow pages) which pay between 27 and 31 cents a pound… A good resource book is Kids and Cash by Ken Davis, Bantam, $2.95 (or 200 aluminum cans)…

MOTIVATED STUDENTS

 A reader writes:

…I am an art instructor at a community college… I recently allowed some friends’ children to attend my classes. I had one 8-year-old in design, a 10-year-old in photography, two 12-year-olds in painting, and an 8- and 6-year-old in ceramics. All of them behaved well, took care of the equipment, obtained their own materials, and paid attention in class. They were all there because they wanted to learn what I was teaching and were thus self-motivated. Unfortunately, the dean of instruction discovered that there were kids on campus and immediately sent out a bulletin announcing the school policy that no one under 18 is allowed in classrooms during instructional periods. Thus, all my self-motivated students could no longer come, only those who "had" to get an "education"…

JOINING IN RACQUETBALL

 From Susan Price (FL):

…Today I played tennis with Matt against the backboard ["Tennis Tip," GWS #21]. Beside us were four guys playing racquetball. One of them had a little boy there with him who looked about 3 years old. The father would halfheartedly tell him to go play in the park, but he liked hanging around them instead. One time I looked over and to my surprise and delight noticed that he had found a twig on the ground and was pretending it was his racquet and he had "joined" the game. He was staying about two feet behind the men, moving with them, and doing exactly what they were doing - crouching sometimes, running and hopping at other times. He even made grunts when he swung his "racquet." When they moved up, he moved up, too, right behind them, and when they moved back, he did likewise. I was even more delighted when they noticed what he was doing but didn’t tell him to go away. I tried not to watch too much and only when they were playing - I didn’t want to think I was criticizing the father for letting his son be there. Perhaps, though, it would have been better to have commented on it to him and said how neat I thought it was…

KIDS IN THE NEWS

 From Today’s Child, 4/81:

 …Forty pound, 6-year-old Michael Cogswell is the youngest hiker to tramp the length of the Appalachian Trail, a 2,106 mile trek that would faze the most dedicated walker. With a backpack of schoolwork and his parents as companions, the Miami first-grader covered as much as 26 miles a day…

 —————–

 An article from Popular Computing, reprinted in Infoworld, 9/28/81:

…What were you doing when you were 11 years old? Steve Grimm and Nikolai Weaver of Los Gatos, California, started their own software company, Plum Software.

Steve wrote Plum’s first software offering, Filewriter, on his mother’s Apple II computer. Filewriter went on sale this moth for $19.95. It allows Apple II users to enter and change records, read files, and obtain printouts of their files.

Nikolai’s mother introduced her son to microcomputing, but the new software company is run entirely by the two boys.

Nikolai’s first computer terminal was hooked into the computer at Tymshare in Cupertino where his mother works. "One of the benefits of Tymshare is that you get a free terminal at home," Nikolai said. "When my mother brought it home, she got me a book on how to program in BASIC." After that, he learned FORTRAN, Pascal, and LISP, a high-level math-programming language.

…Steve’s mother, a teacher, brought home an Apple when he was seven, but took it away after a few days. "I really didn’t know what to do with it the first time," Steve said. After he read a BASIC manual from cover to cover, Steve was ready to try programming again.

Steve got his own Apple at age 7 1/2, and he’s been adding on to it ever since. Today he has a disk drive, a real-time clock, a printer and Applesoft at his disposal.

Like most kids, Steve likes to play games on his computer. "But when I’m by myself, I write a lot of programs," he said. In addition to Filewriter, Steve wrote a series of games he calls the Square 9 Trilogy, which includes a tic-tac-toe game and two games based on repeating musical tones. Plum Software may also sell the Square 9 Trilogy.

..Nikolai wrote an educational game in which players identify countries on a global map. His seven-year-old sister acts as unofficial test-player for this future Plum product… [The address of Plum Software is 23492 Belaire Ct., Los Gatos CA 95030.]

 —————–

 From the Boston Globe, 3/10/81:

…Concerts by the Civic Symphony Orchestra of Boston take place in Jordan Hall in Boston, but the musical scores come out of the Needham basement bedroom of Bruce Roberts, 14. All the 90 members of the orchestra depend on Roberts to have their folders of music marked with the correct dynamics, fingering, and bowing… Roberts also has to see that scores are in good repair and in the right order each week for rehearsals and performances.

Roberts literally grew up with music. His mother, Janet, who plays piano and viola, and is general manager of the orchestra, used to take him to rehearsals when he was a youngster instead of leaving him with a sitter.

…Max Hobart, music director and conductor of the Civic Symphony, says: "Bruce has taken on an adult’s job, a very big job, and he does it very well. He is well liked by every one in the orchestra and he stands on his own feet."

 …The 9th grader … spends three or four days marking new music for 90 players or making copies of lost scores before Monday night rehearsals, arranging rides for musicians without transportation, and keeping the peace among gifted players who are known to be somewhat temperamental.

"Everyone can be yelling at once, but Bruce doesn’t turn a hair," says Cynthia [his sister and first desk violinist.] "They don’t treat him like a kid, either. He seems to have a way of getting along with older people and with younger ones, too. When little kids want to find out how his computer works, he treats them like colleagues."…

"When the neighbors need mechanical repairs they often call Bruce," says Janet Roberts. "He likes to fix things, like taking apart his collection of clocks. He put up a post trail fence at our small cottage in Marshfield and he’s a fanatic about fixing up the place."…

HIDING FROM SCHOOL

 From a mother in New England:

January 20: …The kids AREN’T GOING TO SCHOOL, and it seems so nice! So relaxed and free… We told the people at their old schools we were moving out of state, so the kids didn’t go back after Christmas. We moved in here with my parents, and we have just kept "low key." The kids don’t go out during school hours, which would attract attention. They tell their friends here "We are only visiting, and have schoolwork to do," letting others assume it comes from their old school.

…Now that we have a large library to go to, we’ve been making use of this. On the forms the kids had to fill out for a card, it asks AGE, GRADE, SCHOOL. Everyone is so school-minded! I put on "John Holt Learning Center" - maybe, if anyone notices, they will just think it’s a new hippie school!

We’ve been having such a good time not going to school. The kids get interested in something, even at 11:00 at night, and get going on it, like giving each other spelling tests. They each have books from my collection and a notebook, and are doing "basics" every day, just to have something in case we’re questioned. They do this at their own rate, though. We discovered a book HOW TO STUDY FOR THE HIGH SCHOOL EQUIVALENCY TEST at the library and it is very interesting and almost fun to do.

…Even with us living here, with my elderly parents, we are having a good time with learning. At night we often play games like "I’m thinking of something that starts with ‘(letter)’ ". I swear, our 6 year old learned how to sound out words and read because of this game! She plays it with us, and is just as good. Our 12 year old liked school when he first started going. After that, you could see him "die" and not try anymore. Now, he is getting back to wanting to DO things such as read, figure out a grocery list, etc. He’s HAPPY.

…A lot of people ask me how I can stand having all my kids around all day (we have seven in all, the baby is nine months.) They LOVE having their kids gone at school all day. But, our kids help around the house, get interested in DOING THINGS, and manage their own time fairly well. It does take a great deal of time, just answering questions and making suggestions (I have them do things themselves as much as I can, such as looking things up in the phone book or dictionary), but it all seems to fit in during the day…

 September 15: …In GWS #22, the question of "problems with home schooling" was brought up, and I thought I’d write in about this. I think most of us are so involved with what we’re doing, we just take "problems" in stride and don’t actually stop to pinpoint them. At least in day-to-day life.

…The 18 month old toddler is INTO EVERYTHING. I find it impossible to do anything with the three others, such as crafts, or even sit and read to them. The toddler climbs up and tries to take the book - or, if I make ‘flour dough’ and we have it all over the table, he insists on climbing up and sitting right in the middle of it. He isn’t content to sit by himself, in a play-pen or high chair, and have his "own" dough. He wants to be included - or lets everyone know about it in no uncertain terms! Of course, the others can do such crafts, painting, etc, alone without me, but we find it fun to all do it together. (I don’t tell them HOW to do it, we all do our own!) I have to either try including myself holding a crying baby (who wants to get into it, too!) or else take him into another room, and leave them on their own. (The children then tease me to come back with them.) The toddler is also always getting into their things, pulling their notebooks apart, and walking off with their markers at any chance. (Of course, I can understand his side of it - he wants to "learn" too, and do what the big kids do!)

On top of this is the paperwork. I’m supposed to keep a chart of monthly work - a space for every day, every subject, and HOW MANY MINUTES were spent on each. This is for Clonlara to have on file in case someone checks - they can show we did the same amount of work as public schools do. I find this very difficult. It takes up almost all my time, keeping track of how many minutes EACH of four children do for each subject! Sometimes they draw all morning, and then later on in the evening, get onto another "art" subject. And, how do you add in things like "3 minutes to write the grocery list" - "writing," "spelling," or maybe just "language arts"? Our whole idea is based on "learning through living and doing all the time." I gave the two older kids their own charts to keep, but that still leaves me with two for the little kids. I’m tempted just to fake it, and every night write down "40 minutes" for each subject, which the school calls each "period." If we did 40 minutes of each subject, we’d cover the whole school year in a few month

I’m also in the process of writing a "curriculum," which is hard for me, because I’m not into such things as "set subjects" and it goes against all I believe in for unschooling. As an honest person, I feel I must write what we plan to do (at least somewhat) and then do (somewhat) what I wrote we planned. We’re getting bogged down in curriculum, and paperwork, and leaving no time at all for just "living"! I find myself telling the kids, "You can’t go outside (after 2:30) until you do one chapter in each of your books, and write something down from it in your notebooks."

Another problem - they are like prisoners in our home. These warm days of fall, they sit inside and keep asking, "Can we go out now?"… Last year, we said "We’re only visiting from another state." But everyone knows they’ve been living here eight months now.

Of course, if we had applied to the state to have permission to keep them out of school, we’d solve this problem. But, I’m very wary of asking permission - because this gives them the chance to say no. And even if they say yes, they’d be looking over our shoulders all the time…

Another problem is keeping up with materials. Our four can go through a set of water colors in one sitting… We try to use home-made things like flour-salt-and-water clay. But just keeping up with the amount of paper they use is a problem. I like to have enough things on hand to use without limits. When they’re in the mood to draw or paint, they can keep at it for hours.

Our oldest son, 17, is boarding in another state due to his girlfriend being there… We’re kind of concerned about him. He left school at 16 with our blessings… He’s been at loose ends, hasn’t been able to get a job. He started studying the G.E.D. book, got bogged down, and found out in that state he had to apply for the G.E.D. through the high school up to age 18. The guidance counselor was always after him to come back to school, and didn’t give him any help applying for the G.E.D. test. In fact, all he has gotten from everyone is how stupid he was to quit school… (He’s still glad he did.)

…When he applies for jobs, they tell him he’s not a high school graduate. He went to school for 10 grades I don’t think it prepared him to do anything in later life, and I can’t believe that going to school two more years would have magically added anything to this! I can’t blame unschooling for his life now, because he only left school at age 16, and is a product of it for the ten years he went. We’re hoping that in time, he’ll get interested in something…

Yesterday on a talk show, a school psychologist advised a mother whose child was physically sick mornings and cried not to go to school, to PUSH HER OUT, not to let her stay home for anything, because it only postpones and avoids the real problem, something she didn’t want to face at junior high. He said he had had the same problem with his own son, and solved it the same way! Maybe it’s just because my thinking has been turned around, but it was just plain CRUEL advice. I’ve gotten myself into a state of thinking "them against me": the sane, real world of us loving our children and keeping them safe against them, who are only out to harm them. All we want is to be LEFT ALONE, to love and nurture our family, and raise them in freedom…

 Sept. 24: Dear John and GWS - I wanted to let you know, all of a sudden we find ourselves "legal" with the school department! (And the state, I guess!)

…I’d been dreading confronting THEM for so long, and we’d been here since January with the kids not in school. Every time the phone would ring, I’d wonder, "Is this IT?" This year, we have the kids enrolled in Clonlara, and I kept their name and number right by the phone to refer any threatening calls to Pat Montgomery to handle! (As she told me to.)

Monday morning at 8:45, the "Attendance Officer" called. He talked to my mother first (he had been told her name, our name, and the fact that we have four school age children not in school. We have six children with us, so someone was familiar with who was "school age.") My mother passed the phone on to me… I said "They’re enrolled in a private school." He acted the whole time as if he was sorry to bother me with this matter, but it was his job. He said he had to check, because every child in the city was in the computer, and they knew which ones went to the public schools, and then HAD TO ACCOUNT FOR ALL THE REST.

He asked the name of the private school. I told him, "Clonlara." (I thought maybe we could avoid the "at home" sound of "Home Based Education Program." He said, "Where is that?" I said "Ann Arbor, Michigan - they’re enrolled as home-study students in their correspondence course." He said oh, all right, or something, and "Sorry to trouble you."

About 15 minutes later, he called back, said he had called a HIGHER office "for a ruling," and I was ALL RIGHT, except … I had neglected to register the children with the school. And, AT OUR CONVENIENCE, we were to come to his office and give their names and birthdates. (At first he said bring birth certificates, but then said, "Oh, you probably KNOW their birthdates!") He said, "I’m sorry to trouble you." I said, "I don’t want any TROUBLE." He said, "Well, it’s MY office that would be giving you trouble, and I don’t anticipate any problems." He asked me, "Don’t you want them going to our schools?" I said, "We have moved here from out of state and are planning to move again. Due to my husband being a painter, we move around a lot to find work." (I just said this, I didn’t realize it was the whole key to the solution of our school problem!)

Yesterday morning we went to the high school and I found his office and gave him the kids’ names and birthdates, and Clonlara’s address, etc. (He didn’t ask for that - I guess I was a little "over prepared"!) He was very nice and informal. Half of me kept thinking "Just give the names and get the heck out of there," and the other half wanted to find out all I could while I was there (as to giving the school district name to GWS as a "friendly district" or such.)

I had been wondering if I should try asking him, "We’re curious to know who called you. Do we have an enemy who might try to do other things, or was it just someone really concerned, or what?" Anyway, he said, "Someone turned you in, you know." He didn’t know who, but seemed quite disgusted with it - plus the fact she wouldn’t give her name. He said normally he hangs up on anonymous callers, but this time, when she said "Four children," he thought maybe they were sick, like measles, and he could offer to send a home teacher out… He said, "Probably some old busy-body on your street." Well, it backfired, and she really did us a favor. Now, anyone who wants to can call and reports us! (We’re still not going to let our kids out playing during school hours…

He asked me how I got interested in home schooling, and I told him about you and GWS… I told him I thought our children did more concentrated work at home, and he said, "Oh, do you think so? I don’t." I asked him if he felt this district could be called "favorable to home schooling," and he said "NO SCHOOL DISTRICT IS FAVORABLE TO HOME SCHOOLING." He said wasn’t for it, but the Supreme Court had given us, the parents, the right to choose this, and the school HAD to accept it "in mitigating circumstances" (if our kids had some reason they couldn’t attend school.) And our kids did, due to the nature of my husband’s work. So, we didn’t even go under "applying for permission for home education" at all!…

He asked me several questions (just curious, himself) like "Are the kids happy with this?" I said, "Yes - you ought to know how much kids like school," and he laughed and agreed with me… He seemed kind of amazed at the whole thing. He said, "Most parents try to get their kids out of their hair as much as possible!"

…I feel so much better, like we can be free to live at our own pace…

FIRE INSPECTION

 A North Carolina reader writes:

…We anticipated problems in getting a residence approved as a school by the local Zoning Commission, since the construction materials are not in conformance with the National Fire Protection Association Code for schools - these codes specify fire-resistant wall construction, sprinkler systems, and other requirements…

The day the first Zoning inspector made his visit, he told my wife that he could not approve the school, since we did not meet the building codes. My wife (as previously agreed) asked the inspector if he would be willing to discuss this matter with me, to which he agreed. My wife called me at work, then put the inspector on the phone.

After the inspector explained to me that our classroom could not meet the codes, I agreed with him that I knew that it could not. I explained that I was familiar with the fire codes and I felt that our school should be granted an exception to the code. He then asked on what basis, to which I responded "Low occupancy." I asked him very tactfully, "Are you trying to say that the house is safe enough for the children to live in, eat in, play in, but not safe enough to go into the classroom a few hours a day for classes?" He replied, "This is not what I say but what the state says. I would like to help, but I don’t know how." Reading my cue, I suggested that he write a letter to go in his file, stating that he had granted our school an exception to the fire codes, since our total student occupancy was so low. The inspector promised to help by studying the rules to find out how we could get approval from Zoning for our school.

This kind man later called me and suggested that instead of asking Zoning for approval of a school building, to ask another way. He said Zoning could approve a change-of-use permit from "residence" to "residence/home occupation (school)…

TURNED IN TO "WELFARE"

 From Miriam Halliday (MO):

…I am still a little numb and nauseous - but will explain what happened. We received a summons on the 5th of September which reads as follows: "WE HAVE RECEIVED A HOTLINE REFERRAL REGARDING YOUR PLANS FOR THE EDUCATION OF IAN. PLEASE CALL THIS OFFICE TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT SO THAT A DETERMINATION CAN BE MADE REGARDING THIS REFERRAL. YOUR COOPERATION IS NEEDED IN THIS MATTER. THANK YOU." I replied immediately to the Director of Welfare. Seven days later we received in the mail another letter saying that I hadn’t cooperated in any way (not true, I had replied immediately; however, the director of welfare showed no one the letter, I guess) and they would turn it over to the juvenile court if I didn’t CALL them immediately…

The children’s father insisted I go down and talk to them and he went with me even though he disagrees with everything about deschooling. I felt really sick sitting down in the humiliating welfare waiting room, watching women kowtow to the officious paper-carrying careerists. I had a tape recorder in my purse and turned it on as soon as they yelled "Halliday."

When I talked to the social worker assigned to us, we told her we came because we had been told that the children could be taken away from us because of "substandard housing," and it was horrible living with such an arbitrary cultural contingency. She explained that different workers do different things, that she would not do such a thing unless the children were unattended, malnourished, and in danger from freezing or fire or starvation or sickness… She said she would have to see Ian because an "emergency hot-line referral" was called in on the manner of his education. She said the nature of my offense, the cause of accusation, and the witness against me were all unknown, but the call had been made and they MUST follow through. I told her it was unconstitutional and denied due process. She was astonished at the obvious truth of this and then said that anything was permissible that would lessen child abuse. She said the legislation has existed since the early 1970’s… "No society in the world allows child abuse," she said… She was fine as long as you didn’t snag her with the wrong sentence, very modern in opinion but elitist and a little "Big Sister-y." She said it would be best to interview Ian and me about our methods of education at our home since we would be more comfortable there.

I said, "What do you look for in the home?" She said, no holes in the floors and no electrical wires exposed, no fecal matter on the floors, plenty of food, no garbage on the floors, healthy children, heat, no rats, insects, lice etc, etc. Oh boy - I said we live in an old cabin - we are building sleeping lofts and a masonry chimney now - we just ripped out the stovepipe because it’s so dangerous - we have a hydrant outside. She said she lives not far from us in the country too and would not be prejudiced against "non-refinement." I could tell looking into her eyes that she was open to people doing things in their own way and that I could get his whole business off of us if I could get a proper report written by her that would impress the folks at the court that I was going to stand my ground and that we were serious and that they could not prove that Ian was not being educated.

So the children’s father cleaned the lot and continued work on the lofts. Home-schooling friends helped me haul away yucky drywall ripped out and bags of grey attic insulation no longer needed. I CLEANED the damn cabin so it looked real Amish-y, and luckily the studying is always done.

We received this lady at 9 AM on Monday and she could see Ian’s desk, all his books with their evidence of passionate use. She asked how we worked what he had accomplished. She talked to us two hours… I gave her Marilyn Ferguson’s review of TEACH YOUR OWN [Leading Edge Bulletin] and the last two GWS’s, with which she was much impressed, and many of the Nagel newsletters [Tidbits] with the wonderfully inclusive sources he has… She said as far as she was concerned, she was going to write a report that stated that she felt the state had no right interfering in our lives, that she had no right to interpret whether Ian was being educated or not (she would not test him, and he offered to read to her but she refused). She said for six months she would call down any hot lines against us as unfounded. However, after six months the state removes her from the case and we could be harassed again. I sent the enclosed letters to Ian’s former school as I believe these are the people who phoned us in…

INDIANA PRIVATE SCHOOLS

 An Indiana parent writes:

…The State Attendance Officer, Dr. Kenneth Reber, sent us a booklet entitled, "Guidelines for Attendance Work with Nonpublic Schools in Indiana," when we called to the State Department of Public Instruction for information on what was required to establish a school. Incidentally, as best we could determine, NOTHING is required - no incorporation, no affidavit, no forms, no certified teachers, no required courses, only instruction in the English language. There is a form to be filled out noting the creation of a new nonpublic school, but it is to be completed by the local attendance officer "when the attendance worker is made aware of (the) existence … of newly established schools and parents or others educating at home." The quotation is from the booklet, as is the following:

Meeting Legal Requirements: The attendance officer and the superintendent of each school corporation in Indiana have the statutory responsibility to enforce the compulsory attendance law by obtaining information from nonpublic schools and parents educating their children at home. The statutory responsibilities are as follows:

 1. To insure that nonpublic schools are in session for the number of days public schools are in session.

 2. To insure that an accurate daily attendance record is kept by each nonpublic school teacher and to inspect this record.

 3. To request a list of names, addresses, and ages of all minors attending a nonpublic school.

 4. To insure immediate notification when a pupil withdraws from a nonpublic school.

 5. To insure reports (referrals) on students who are absent from school without a lawful excuse.

These legal requirements are what our local school corporation superintendent referred to in his letter to us when he said that "The State of Indiana expects the local public school officials to work with parents in home instruction settings to ensure that certain basic requirements of time and term of instruction are met."…

CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS

 [JH:] I was invited to be on a panel before a meeting of legislators and educators at the Massachusetts State House October 29 to discuss alternatives in education. For the meeting I prepared a statement about the Constitutional basis for home schooling, which I gave to many there and have since sent to many others around the country who are interested in the issue. If you would like a photocopy of the complete statement, send us $2. Here is the covering summary of the report:

 1. The U.S. Constitution, under the First, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments, protects the rights of parents to get for their children the kind of education they want.

 2. The Supreme Court, in Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) and Farrington v. Tokushige (1927), in upholding this right, said that the states could not, either through laws or regulations, impose a uniform system of education on all children.

 3. Where the Supreme Court has upheld the right of the states to regulate the education of children, it has done so on this ground alone, that the states have a right to protect themselves against the danger that uneducated children might grow up so ignorant as to be unemployable and a burden to the state.

 4. Where state regulations conflict with parents’ right to educate their children as they wish, the state must show a compelling need for these regulations, i.e., must show that without them there is a clear danger that children may grow up a burden to the state.

 5. The states have no Constitutional mandate to spread good ideas or stamp out bad ones, or to provide children with some kind of social life, or to carry out any other purposes except the very limited one stated in #3 above.

 6. The Constitutional right of parents, and the right of the states, to control the education of children are not equal. The rights of parents are much broader than those of the state.

 7. The states have a right to assure themselves that home schooling parents are indeed doing something to educate their children, and that what they are doing is not manifestly harmful. They will in fact be far more able to do this if they cooperate with and support home schooling families, rather than oppose them.

 8. Since any laws making home schooling difficult or impossible will be un-Constitutional and will be struck down by the courts, the legislature would do well not to pass such laws. It might even be helpful to make clear, by resolution or by amendment to the existing education statutes, that the intent of the Massachusetts Compulsory Education laws is not to empower the state or the several school districts to impose a uniform system of education on all parents.

DONAHUE SAMPLER

 Some of the first responses to John’s recent appearance on Donahue:

…How I wish I had heard what you had to say on that show 25 years ago when my son (then 4 and reading well) could have benefited from it instead of suffering from twelve years of what was, at best, total boredom and, during the worst times, sheer misery. My other two kids turned off early in school and had no more interest in anything associated with learning. I have some friends who are young parents and interested in alternatives to public schools. Please send me your literature and information, particularly on how to subscribe to your newsletter…

 ——————

…My husband and I have discussed teaching our 12 year old daughter for some time but we didn’t think we were educated enough to do this. But now we are pretty sure we would like to give it a try. We are from a small town in Oklahoma but my daughter has been jumped at school by other kids and the school principal and police won’t do anything about it. My daughter has gotten to the point that she doesn’t even want to go to school… When she gets out of school she has to wait until all the kids have left, then she has to walk up through town to get home safely…

 ——————

…Our youngest child is brain injured. She attended a special education school for two years, from age 6 to 8. It was one problem after another - long bus rides, seizures, medication, I could go on and on. She was unhappy and so was I…

I took her out of school when she was almost 8 and she is now 14… Many wonderful volunteers have helped in our home program… She is very relaxed, no seizures, on very little medication, and most of all, happy.

The school district is now phoning, after six years. They want her tested and back in a special education program. They say it is a law. I am not sure of our rights in regards to this. I cannot put Lindy, or my family, through this again…

 —————–

…My son has been hurt badly by other children who like to hit and kick and shove others down. He has been called sissy because he is gentle and kind. He has had his pride hurt many times by teachers talking in front of others about the way he doesn’t do as well as the others. His grades get worse instead of better. He said the teachers won’t help (explain or go over things he didn’t understand.) I spend a lot of time trying to help him at home and he seems to understand things better when I go over them with him.

I’m listening to educators now saying they are working on more discipline in the schools. They have drug and alcohol problems. Could it be from unhappy children in school??? I really don’t want my child exposed to the children who are on drugs and alcohol. I’m very worried…

 ————–

…My daughter has 50% hearing - she is deaf in one ear. I have taken her to her doctor and to audiologists who said that until she gets older the teachers should position her where her good ear is facing the teacher. Both my husband and I have fought to get the majority of teachers to do this.

I am not a high school graduate, but I have taught my children things, explained things to them that could have been done in the school. My oldest son is in 8th grade and has an algebra teacher who would rather give an F than to help. Thanks to me and my husband sitting down with him, he does really well in algebra…

RESOURCE NAMES

[DR:] We would like to be able to put people who have experience with certain issues in touch with others who have questions about those issues. For example, one month we’ll get a letter from a family that has traveled around the country in a van, and the next month someone will ask, "We’re thinking of selling everything and traveling around the country in a van - do you know anyone who has done this?" It’s frustrating because by then we can’t lay our hands on the name and address of the person who had that experience.

Another question that has come up lately is adoption. Some readers have told us they have adopted children. Others have said they are considering adopting kids, but they’d like to know how it works, whether the fact that the family home-schooling affects the adoption, and so on.

What I suggest is that if you have experience on either of these topics, and are willing to correspond with others who have questions, send us your name and address and we will publish it in GWS. Every now and then we would reprint and update the lists. We might start other categories as need arises.

So if you’d like to be on the "Travel Resource List" or "Adoption Resource List," drop us a note. (We’d also like to keep these lists accurate, so if you move please remind us you’re on one of these lists.)

SELF-TAUGHT READER

 From a Michigan reader:

…My husband was pushed through school without ever learning to read or write. Since we gave up television three years ago, he has been reading a lot, mostly books put out by Rodale Press (the editors of Organic Gardening.) He said story books were dull until I started reading THE HOBBIT to him. He read the whole trilogy of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. He really enjoyed it. …My husband told me that in his grade school years, they would put him through these tests to see what was wrong. They gave up and just kept pushing him through since he didn’t cause any trouble…

TEACHING READING BY READING

 More from Susan Price (FL):

…After I read GWS #13 I finally understood how the kids who teach themselves to read do it and why my kids hadn’t been able to do so. The articles "A Reader’s Memories" and "Learning to Read" did it. I realized that I hadn’t read stories over and over enough times to my kids. I had decided a year before that since I didn’t like reading their "boring" little kids’ stories over and over to them that I would stop doing it much and would instead read books like CHARLOTTE’S WEB and the Little House books. I thought that we would both enjoy them more. They did enjoy them, of course, but I hadn’t realized that they also wanted me to read their other little storybooks a lot, too, not because they like the stories better than other books, but because they wanted to learn to read. They wanted me to read them so that they could learn them by heart.

I was very excited about my discovery and since it was Matt’s birthday, I decided to get them some new books for my new way of helping them learn to read. I got four Golden Books: "Hansel and Gretel" because I knew they loved that story, "The Three Bears," "The Three Little Pigs," and "The Little Red Hen," because they knew those stories fairly well already and because they repeat themselves a lot… We already had those stories in an anthology, but I thought it would be helpful to get the Golden Books, not only because they had so many more pictures, which the kids like, but also because there were many fewer words per page. The kids could read awhile and then say, "Wow, I’ve just read five pages!" instead of one or two out of the anthology.

When I got the books home, the kids, of course, asked me to read them. The especially liked "Hansel and Gretel." Right after I was done reading it, I asked them if they would want me to read it again. If I hadn’t asked, they might have assumed that I wouldn’t, since before I rarely had… During the next two or three days, I must have read that book 20 times. I didn’t find it boring at all - now that I understood why they liked me to.

Some times after I had read it a lot of times to them, I explained to Faith how she could learn to read it. I told her she could go along, "reading" it by remembering it and if she got mixed up I would help her. She decided to try it and the first time was slow going. After one page, I suggested that she stop and I read it instead, from the beginning, which she agreed to. But she kept trying it herself other times and each time did better on it.

I began to think, however, that it would have been better if I had read it more times to her before I suggested that she try to read it. So, for a while, whenever she asked me to listen to her read it, I asked her if she would like me to read it to her instead. She often took me up on it. For several days, I only read to her (not just "Hansel and Gretel"). Then she started wanting to try again.

One time I was reading it to her and had just finished a page when she excitedly told me to stop reading, that she could read the next page, she thought (the first few words of the page had obviously jumped out at her as words that she knew). And she started reading from there and got almost all the words right on the page and the next day read the whole book.

She was a real stickler for reading it perfectly. She would get upset with me if she found out that she had said a word wrong and I hadn’t told her that she had. I didn’t like to correct her, but since she told me to, I tried to do it. I would try to do it as unobtrusively as possible… I decided that perhaps if I simply told her that I thought if would be better not to correct her, that she would agree. I told her that I hated to stop her when she was reading, that I thought it mixed her up, and that you had said that kids don’t need to be corrected, that they can often figure things out themselves later. She was interested in my opinion and said, OK, don’t stop me then. She still often wanted to know, though, at the end of a page, if she had said anything wrong on the page or not. One day she read one page six times until she had said it perfectly.

One time, soon after she had started trying to read, she told me that she wasn’t really reading, that she was just remembering. I told her that, yes, at first that’s what she was doing, but after she had done it a lot of times, she would know the words for real. One time later I was starting to play Christmas carols and she came over to the piano to sing them with me. She looked at the page I was on and happened to notice the word "poor" and said that she thought it was "poor." I told her it was and that she had learned it from reading "Hansel and Gretel."

…After I started reading so much to them, Matt became much happier and talkative… I think that he was very relieved to feel he would be learning to read soon. Also, of course, he was helped by the increased physical closeness to me…

I did not expect my new method of teaching to have nearly as fast results with Matt as it had. I expected it to be quite a while before he would read out loud again… I couldn’t believe it when he actually read out loud - in the living room while I was in the kitchen, but so loud that I could hear him - a whole book we had just gotten out of the library… Matt was not trying to read word by word and often didn’t say it exactly right. But the enjoyment he was having in reading it, remembering how I had said it, was obvious. He took the book over to his father to show him it and tell him as well as he could what the pages said. He wasn’t doing it to be able to read, but to share with David what a marvelous book it was…

ARITHMETIC IN 1825

[JH:] Alison Stallibrass, the author of THE SELF-RESPECTING CHILD (see our booklist), sent us this lovely quote from the British essayist William Cobbett. He was one of the true characters of English literature, first of all a countryman and farmer, but also a journalist and pamphleteer, and a fearless opponent of corruption and a defender of political liberty in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when liberty was a risky thing to defend. At one point he was jailed for his writings, and while he was in jail, his children, none of them older than sixteen or so, ran his large farm very competently, keeping him fully informed about its doings in the letters they sent him along with baskets of food.

Cobbett was a wonderfully opinionated and outspoken man. Two things above all others could rouse him to passion. One was potatoes, which were then coming very much into fashion and which he felt were a terrible crop. The other was Shakespeare. People who had an overdose of Shakespeare in their schooling will get much pleasure out of what Cobbett had to say about him.

So here is some of what Cobbett wrote about education in his book RURAL RIDES (1825). A nice reminder that home and parent education is not a new idea:

…Richard and I have done something el

se besides ride, and hunt, and course, and stare about us, during this month. He was eleven years old last March, and it was now time for him to begin to know something about letters and figures. He has learned to work in the garden, and having been a good deal in the country, knows a great deal about farming affairs… When he and I went from home, I had business at Reigate. It was a very wet morning, and we went off long before daylight in a post-chaise, intending to have our horses brought after us.

…He had learned from mere play to read, being first set to work of his own accord to find out what was said about Thurtell, when all the world was talking and reading about Thurtell. That had induced us to give him Robinson Crusoe; and that had made him a passable reader. Then he had scrawled down letters and words upon paper, and had written letters to me in the strangest way imaginable. His knowledge of figures he had acquired from the necessity of knowing the several numbers upon the barrels of seeds brought from America, and the numbers upon the doors of houses.

…I began with a pretty long lecture on the utility of arithmetic; the absolute necessity of it, in order for us to make out our accounts of the trees and seeds that we should have to sell in the winter, and the utter impossibility of our getting paid for our pains unless we were able to make out our accounts… Having thus made him understand the utility of the thing, and given him a very strong instance in the case of our nursery affairs, I proceeded to explain to him the meaning of the word arithmetic, the power of figures, according to the place they occupied. I then, for it was still dark, taught him to add a few figures together, I naming the figures one after another, while he, at the mention of each new figure said the amount, and if incorrectly, he was corrected by me. When we had got a sum of about 24, I said now there is another line of figures on the left of this, and therefore you are to put down the 4 and carry 2. "What is carrying?" said he. I then explained to him the why and the wherefore of this, and he perfectly understood me at once. We then did several other little sums; and by the time we got to Sutton, it becoming daylight, I took a pencil and set him a little sum upon paper, which, after making a mistake or two, he did very well.

By the time we got to Reigate he had done several more, and at last a pretty long one, with very few errors. We had business all day, and thought no more of our scholarship until we went to bed, and then we did, in our post-chaise fashion, a great many lines in arithmetic before we went to sleep. Thus we went on mixing our riding and hunting with our arithmetic, until we quitted Godalming, when he did a sum very nicely in multiplication of money, falling a little short of what I had laid out, which was to make him learn the four rules in whole numbers first, and then in money, before I got home.

 …Now when there is so much talk about education, let me ask how many pounds it generally cost parents to have a boy taught this much of arithmetic; how much time it costs also; and, which is a far more serious consideration, how much mortification, and very often how much loss of health, it costs the poor scolded broken-hearted child, who becomes dunder-headed and dull for all this life-time, merely because that has been imposed upon him as a task which he ought to regard as an object of pleasant pursuit. I never even once desired him to stay a moment from any other thing that he had a mind to go at. I just wrote the sums down upon paper, laid them upon the table, and left him to tackle them when he pleased.

In the case of the multiplication table, the learning of which is something of a job, and which it is absolutely necessary to learn perfectly, I advised him to go up into his bedroom and read it twenty times over out loud every morning before he went a hunting, and ten times over every night after he came back, till it all came as pat upon his lips as the names of persons that he knew. He did this, and at the end of about a week he was ready to set on upon multiplication. It is the irksomeness of the thing which is the great bar to learning of every sort. I took care not to suffer irksomeness to seize his mind for a moment, and the consequence was that which I have described…

…I look upon my boy as being like other boys in general. Their fathers can teach arithmetic as well as I; and if they have not a mind to pursue my method, they must pursue their own. Let them apply to the outside of the head and to the back, if they like; let them bargain for thumps and the birch rod; it is their affair and not mine. I never yet saw in my house a child that was afraid; that was in any fear whatever; that was ever for a moment under any sort of apprehension, on account of the learning of anything; and I never in my life gave a command, an order, a request, or even advice, to look into any book; and I am quite satisfied that the way to make children dunces, to make them detest books, and justify the detestation, is to tease them and bother them upon the subject.

As to the age at which children ought to begin to be taught, it is very curious that, while I was at a friend’s house during my ride, I looked into, by mere accident, a little child’s abridgment of the History of England… The historian had introduced the circumstance of Alfred’s father, who, "through a mistaken notion of kindness to his son, had suffered him to live to the age of twelve years without any attempt being made to give him education." How came this writer to know that it was a mistaken notion? Ought he not rather, when he looked at the result, when he considered the astonishing knowledge and great deeds of Alfred - ought he not to have hesitated before he thus criticized the notions of the father?… I am satisfied that if they had begun to thump the head of Alfred when he was a child, we should not at this day heard talk of Alfred the Great…

MULTIPLYING LARGE NUMBERS

Our ways of multiplying multiplace numbers, i.e. 24 x 57, or 132 x 853; etc., all depend on a simple fact about numbers. We could say it like this: if two numbers, let’s say 3 and 5, add up to another number, in this case 8, then 2 times 8 is equal to 2 times 3 added to 2 times 5.

 We can write this:

 2 x 8 = (2 x 3) + (2 x 5).

But some people are puzzled about why this should be so. Or maybe they can see that it is so for small numbers…

 2 x 8 = (2 x 3) + (2 x 5)

 = 6 + 10

 = 16

 3 x 14 = (3 x 10) + (3 x 4)

 = 30 + 12

 = 42

…but they aren’t convinced that it is so for all numbers.

Some math books answer the question, "Why are the above statements true?" by saying that multiplication is distributive over addition. To most people, this won’t be very helpful. In any case, it is not an explanation, just the same fact said in other words.

Perhaps if we see clearly enough that what I have been writing about is just a fact of nature, we may not need an "explanation." As I said in GWS #4, 3 + 4 = 7 is just a way of writing down a fact about the number 7, which is that it can be split up into a group of 3 and a group of 4. You can see for yourself that’s so:

 *** ****

The question "Why is it so?" does not make any sense here. Why can we split a group of 7 objects into a group of 3 objects and a group of 4 objects? Because that’s what happens. There isn’t some other deeper truth hiding behind that truth.

Well, to return to our fact about multiplying, one way of seeing that it is true, and is always true, and must be true, is by realizing that when we double a recipe we have to double everything in the recipe. If a recipe calls for two eggs, and we want to double it, we have to use four eggs. If it calls for a cup of flour, and we want to double it, we have to have two cups of flour. Even people who are afraid of numbers and arithmetic will see and feel sure that this is true.

And we can see that it is true that if one group of 7 objects can be made into a group of 3 objects and another group of 4 objects, then two groups of 7 objects can be made into two groups of 3 and two groups of 4,

 *** ****

 *** ****

and that three 7’s can be made into three 3’s and three 4’s,

 *** ****

 *** ****

 *** ****

and so on.

Again, we can see that this is so. There isn’t any answer to the question, "Why is it so?" It just is. If one group of 7 will make one group of 3 and one group of 4, then 78 groups of 7 will make 78 groups of 3 and 78 groups of 4.

This is handy for multiplication, because if we didn’t know this was so, and wanted to multiply 67 times 8, we would have to write down eight 67’s and add them up. But instead of that we say that 67 = 60 + 7,-so all we have to do is multiply 60 x 8 (which is 480), and 7 x 8 (which is 56), then add 480 + 56, which equals 536. We could write this:

 67 x 8 = (60 x 8) + (7 x 8)

 = 480 + 56

 = 536

From this it is only an easy step or two to the "rule" or trick or procedure or (as mathematicians call it) the "algorithm" for multiplying multi-place numbers by multi-place numbers - the multiplication we learned in school. I won’t go through it here; it is in ARITHMETIC MADE SIMPLE (see our list) and would be in any other arithmetic text.

About this procedure or algorithm I would only say that I wouldn’t be in too big a hurry to move children from the longer way of doing multiplication, in which they understand all the steps, to the shorter way approved in school. After all, it isn’t that much shorter - all it saves us is writing a few extra zeroes. This is not worth the confusion we get when we push children too quickly into it.

Thus, if we had 562 x 74, we might just as well write 562 x 70 and then 562 x 4, then figure out those products and add them together to get our final answer. There certainly is no point in drilling children for weeks or months, as in school, to learn a slightly shorter but to many confusing way to do a calculation that in real life they will rarely if ever have to do. - JH

LESSONS EARLY?

 From Linda Olson Peebles (VA):

…When I asked my 4-year-old if she wanted piano lessons, she said, "I already play the piano." and I realized she does make beautiful music, with a style and technique that is steadily developing and evolving. And she has the natural self-confidence of the creator, totally self-directed and pleasing only herself.

And yet, all around me are people who agree with many of our unschooling ideas, but subscribe to programs to teach their children violin, French, math, etc., before age 5. Am I, as they would say, depriving my kids of an adequate stimulation? I know they are bright enough for anything I would want to teach them. But I really want them to make the decisions, do the learning.

 I feel the need of your ideas on this, and maybe those of other GWS readers…

 —————–

 John wrote back:

…If your daughter is having fun with the piano I wouldn’t worry about lessons. Sooner or later she is going to discover that there is a body of music, some of it perhaps more interesting and beautiful than any she can make up by herself, and she may want to learn how to play it. Or, she may not, and may move further in the direction of free improvising. Either way seems OK to me. And as I have written, improvising seems to me a very important part of "classical" training anyway.

I also know children who are taking music lessons and having a wonderful time with them. Perhaps the best thing you can do is make it possible for your daughter to hear - and see - a lot of different kinds of music, including piano. The more she knows about what is possible and available in the world of music, the better she will be able to decide what kind of music she wants for herself…

ESPERANTO

 From Maire Mullarner, The Mill House, Whitechurch Rd, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14, Ireland:

…When my eldest grandson was on holiday here a few months ago I started him on Esperanto, in just the way I had offered Latin (eagerly grabbed) to his eldest uncle. The grandson was seven; he loved Esperanto. We cut out words and (the very few) endings for plurals and accusative, wrote nouns one color, verbs another, etc. I warmly recommend Esperanto, the international language, to home learners. No need for a teacher. It is completely regular, makes students aware of language, so that they know better what they are doing in English, gives a proven perfect foundation for other languages, and is used worldwide to an extent you’d never believe until you get into it. Learners of any age can begin to correspond with "samideanoj" in any country in the world (including Outer Mongolia) within months, or they may be content just to keep in touch with a different world through reading.

By coincidence, my post this morning brought, along with GWS, a copy of Science for the People, and the first thing I saw when I opened it was a notice saying "Many progressive people have heard about Esperanto, the international language, but not so many people are aware of the fact that several science oriented periodicals are being published in that language." It lists reviews of medicine, health, astronomy, etc. The note says that all are available from ESPERANTO LANGUAGE SERVICES (452 Aldine, Apt. 501, Chicago IL 60657) and also gives the address of the ESPERANTO LEAGUE OF NORTH AMERICA (PO Box 1129, El Cerrito CA 94530). The British Esperanto Association has a set of 10 lessons for a free postal course; these were the basis for my own lessons with Ivan…

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[DR:] Michael Jones (TX) sent us the free pamphlet, "Esperanto - Lesson One," available from the California address Maire mentions, or from the CANADIAN ESPERANTO ASSOCIATION, PO Box 2159, Sidney BC V8L 3S3 (they ask for a SASE.)

AT HOME IN MICHIGAN

From Judith Clark (MI):

…We have three daughters - Kelly, 12, Jennifer, 10, and Stacy, 9 - who have been home-schoolers for about seven months now. I can’t begin to tell you how rewarding this has been for everyone. We follow no particular curriculum and the children are free to explore any subject that interests them.

Stacy, our youngest, disliked having home schooling at first because of her lack of concentration. She had no study habits and she thought the words school and recess were synonymous. Now she is ahead of her class in school and even gets up early to finish something like math or spelling. She is really becoming a concerned person because we are able to teach ecology, gardening, animal husbandry, and many other subjects that public schools have no time for.

As for my other girls, their adjustment was much easier. Kelly and Jennifer are very easy to teach and they also work well together… Kelly will help Jenny with math or Jenny will spell with Stacy. Because of home schooling together, they seem to have become very close friends and their arguments almost non-existent.

…They have corresponded with many other home-schoolers and in doing this they have found many new and interesting friends, not to mention learning about letter writing, sentence structure, and spelling.

…Neither my husband nor I have teaching credentials. We have enrolled our daughters in the Home Based Education Program at Clonlara School (MI). We have found Dr. Pat Montgomery to be one of the few fine teachers left in teaching. For a nominal tuition, around $200 per school year for all my children, Pat becomes our certified teacher. She is terrific - and always ready to give us advice on materials and teaching situations.

…We have found the current poor economical climate here in Michigan to be a blessing for us home-schooling parents. Even though “they” know what we are doing, they are unable to fight us in court because of the cost…

J.P.’S GROWING

From Kathy Mingl (IL):

…I do try to remember that other people feel a certain delicacy about discussing some subjects, but I’m afraid I forget once in a while, and do violence to their social sensibilities. I noticed that just the other day, when I stopped in next door, to talk to J.P’s 2-year-old friend Matty’s mommy. Matty was showing me a doll, and we were chatting amiably away about the fact that the baby had no diaper on, and you have to watch out for babies, because of the things they tend to get all over you if you’re not careful. Matty thought it was all very hilarious, because of course that sort of thing hits right in the area of a 2-year-old’s main interests in life, but I looked up to catch a very odd expression on his mother’s face.

…I really wasn’t aware of how much I’ve taken for granted since I’ve been an adult until my son started asking me all these tricky questions. Being a parent makes you think of things like, “What kind of a world is this that my child is growing up in, and how can I teach him to cope with it?” Scientology data has been valuable to me with that, because of the practical applications it has to daily life. One thing I can think of that I’ve been able to help J.P. with lately is handling a confusion, like picking up all his Tinker Toys - by picking out one piece as the one that needs to be dealt with first, and putting that away, and proceeding from there. I got that bit from THE PROBLEMS OF WORK by L. Ron Hubbard.

Another thing that’s been useful to J.P. is a colored chart I bought and taped to the refrigerator, with the emotional tone scale all laid out in order on it, represented by a funny little guy for each one. When J.P. runs into trouble with somebody, I have him show me where he was and where he thinks the other person was, and what would have been a better thing to have done to handle the situation, all by the pictures on the chart. A good book about the Tone Scale and how to use it is HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR PEOPLE by Ruth Munshull - she’s funny.

…I have to tell you - J.P. has taught himself how to ride a two-wheeled bike! His daddy brought a small one home for him from an auction a couple of months back, and the first thing J.P. did was to get a crescent wrench and take off the training wheels. I showed him how to keep from falling down, by putting his foot down whenever he tipped, and he’s been practicing nearly every day. The other day he called me out to see how he was doing, and he just zipped off down the sidewalk - I couldn’t believe it! He’s only 3 1/2 years old, too…

CHRISTIANITY & CHILDREN

In the Fall ‘81 issue of The Last ? Resort (977 Keeler Av, Berkely CA 94807; $10/yr), a quarterly about corporal punishment in schools, Helen Fox, some of whose letters we have printed in GWS, reviews a book called WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT CHILD TRAINING, by J. R. Fugate. According to Helen, Mr. Fugate thinks the Bible tells us that “the child is naturally sinful and totally self-centered. His inherent nature is to lie and steal, to be lazy and gluttonous, to willfully set himself up as master of himself, his parents and society. Because of his wicked nature, he must be controlled by his parents, absolutely and unconditionally. At six months [!]… His mother applies a small switch to his legs as he tries to wriggle away while being diapered. At two, the small switch is exchanged for a ‘willow or peach branch’…”

Helen Fox strongly disagrees with these harsh and cruel ideas, as we do here at GWS. Mr. Fugate and the many who agree with him are of course free to believe what they like. But they are on shaky ground when they call their beliefs “Christian.” What Christ said about children is clear and plain. “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” By “suffer” he did not mean make them suffer; he meant endure them, put up with them, be patient with them. By “of such is the Kingdom of Heaven” Christ meant not that little children were perfect angels but that they saw the world as if it were newly made, a beautiful and miraculous place, and lived in it with the kind of intensity and joy that we might all hope to feel in Heaven. At any rate, it certainly is clear that Christ did not say that children were naturally evil and should have the evil beaten out of them.

Some will no doubt point to this or that quote from the Old Testament as support for their beliefs. But the Old Testament is not Christianity. It is the history of what led up to Christianity, the history of the society in which Christ grew up, and which in the most profound and radical ways he was trying to change. It is easy to forget the awkward fact that what he was crucified for was challenging the authorities, being a troublemaker - and the society he was troubling was precisely the society that had produced the Old Testament.

In any case, when it comes to raising children, what we expect turns out to be, sooner or later, what we get. If we assume that children are naturally bad, stupid, cruel, rebellious, and treat them that way, we are soon very likely to have on our hands just that kind of children. But if, as Helen Fox pointed out in her article, we treat children as if, inexperienced and passionate though they are, they basically want and mean to do right, we will soon find that we have that kind of children, helpful to us, kind and generous to younger brothers and sisters. The Chinese do not treat their little children as if they were basically bad, and the happy result is that the kinds of bad behavior which are common among American children of five or six are virtually unknown there. From a purely “practical” point of view, leaving out the ethical (which is in fact rarely a practical thing to do), the trouble with the child-haters and child-beaters is that they produce more and more of exactly what they are trying to prevent. Countless studies have shown that our most violent criminals were almost without exception the victims of violence in their own childhood, and it is an unhappy fact that those parts of our society that are the most violent are also the most violent with their children. I don’t know how to break these vicious cycles; perhaps for the time being there is no way. But at least let’s not call this way of treating children “Christian.” - JH

TRIP TO PACIFIC

This is my first chance to tell about my Pacific trip, since I had no time to write about it for GWS #23. I left Boston on August 13 and took part in the home-schooling conferences in Salt Lake City and Fullerton, California [GWS 23]. From there I flew to Hawaii, landing on the very beautiful big island, which I had not seen before. In a little over a day I was driven over most of the island, went swimming at the loveliest beach (public, too) I have ever seen, and spoke to three different home schooling meetings attended by more than two hundred families, most of whom had young children and seemed very interested in the idea of teaching them at home.

From Hawaii I flew to Honolulu on Oahu, where I talked about school reform (and incidentally home schooling) to a number of forums and university meetings. At one of these I met State Senator Neil Abercrombie, who seemed very interested in and sympathetic to home schooling. There is a good chance that Hawaiian home schoolers may find in him a helpful ally.

From Honolulu I flew to Auckland, New Zealand, where I spent a busy two days, talking at a conference at an alternative school, being interviewed by newspaper, radio, and TV people, and winding up with a big meeting at the university there.

Then on to Melbourne, Australia, for more of the same - a talk at a local teacher’s college, a meeting of several hundred people at the University, and radio, TV, and newspaper interviews. The local home schooling group had arranged that when I came back to Melbourne in a week, after my travels around the country, I would talk to a meeting of area home schoolers in a meeting room at the Zoo. Geoff Maslen, who interviewed me for the Melbourne paper, The Age, put in his interview the phone number of the local home schooling group. About two days after the article appeared, one of the members called me in Darwin saying that they had been so swamped with phone calls about the Zoo meeting that they could not possibly take care of all the people who wanted to go, and asking if I would speak to another home schooling meeting the evening I returned. I said I would; more on this later.

From Melbourne I flew with Helen Modra, who had been our first Australian contact and had got me all the meetings in the Southeast, to Wagga Wagga (pronounced “wogga”), just west of the mountains. Spent a very pleasant day there, talking to several meetings at Riverina College. From Wagga Wagga I flew to Brisbane and another meeting of families interested in home schooling. Though the meeting had been called on quite short notice, there were thirty to forty people there, many of whom expressed strong interest.

Next day to Darwin in the far north, for the big Australian reading conference that had first invited me to their country. Darwin is closer to the equator than any part of the U.S., so that even in the Australian winter it was very warm. I spent a delightful three days with the conference. These Australian teachers seemed somewhat more open to unconventional ways of teaching than is usually the case here. At any rate, everywhere I went I was treated with the greatest kindness, friendliness, and hospitality.

From Darwin I flew to Perth at the Southwestern corner of the country, for another reading conference at Claremont College. Again, I had a most delightful visit there.

Then back to Melbourne for the special home schooling meeting. We met in a room at the YWCA, and despite a $4.50 admission fee, more than four hundred people attended. A very exciting occasion. Many home schoolers the local group had never heard of turned up. Next day, a successful conference at the Zoo (very handy location, for while the adults talk, the children can look at the animals). During lunchtime, while being guided through the Zoo by one of the curators, I picked up and held a number of animals, including a big boa constrictor and a wombat.

Early next morning flew to Sydney for a rather small but very productive all day and evening home-schooling discussion group. There seemed potential for much activity there. Next morning I flew back to Los Angeles - a nineteen hour flight - and thence to Boston.

All in all, a most pleasant, interesting, and productive trip. Everywhere I went people urged me to come back, which I hope to do. Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia all seem fertile soil for home schooling. In Australia the laws of at least a number of states are more favorable to alternative schools than ours; subject to what some feel are rather crippling restrictions, they can even get government funding. So there’s every reason to hope that within a few years there will be many home schoolers there. - JH

MINDSTORMS

Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas, by Seymour Papert ($11.65 + 75¢ post.) This is a most important book, for two reasons. One is the reason the author intended: it is a book about the way in which we could and perhaps soon may use computers, in schools or at home, to make the culture and language of computers, mathematics, technology, and science - all a closed book to many people - more accessible, understandable, meaningful, and above all enjoyable for children.

The other reason the book is important is one that Papert did not intend (but might not object to): it is a very powerful argument for home schoolers against the ways in which almost all schools teach mathematics (and indeed everything else). What he says about the errors of current education is not very different from what I have been saying for years, in books and in GWS. But since he is a Professor of both Education and Mathematics at M.I.T., probably the leading scientific university in the U.S. if not the world, his words will give our arguments much greater weight.

A number of home schooling families have prepared very good statements of educational plans and purposes for their school authorities. Some of these, which have won the approval of the schools or the courts, we have printed in GWS and/or TEACH YOUR OWN. But in all such statements, above all where families are dealing with hostile school authorities, it might be helpful to make an even stronger objection to the educational philosophies and methods of the schools than most families have made. These should of course be made as statements of educational philosophy, as a considered difference of opinion, rather than a furious attack. MINDSTORMS gives us a great deal of material for such statements.

In GWS #21 we quoted some of what Papert wrote about his childhood love affair with gears. It is a very powerful argument against the idea that how we think about things can be separated from how we feel about them, or that we can decide in advance along what paths children will explore the world.

Here is more useful ammunition from MINDSTORMS:

(p. 7) …Children seem to be innately gifted learners, acquiring long before they go to school a vast quantity of knowledge by a process I call “Piagetian learning,” or “learning without being taught.”

(p. 30) …We consider an activity which may not occur to most people when they think of computers and children: the use of the computer as a writing instrument… For most children rewriting a text is so laborious that the first draft is the final copy, and the skill of rereading with a critical eye is never acquired… The image of children using the computer as a writing instrument is a particularly good example of my general thesis that what is good for professionals is good for children. … But [in schools] the computer is seen as a teaching instrument. It gives children practice in distinguishing between verbs and nouns, in spelling, and in answering multiple choice questions…

(p. 31) …I believe that the computer as writing instrument offers children an opportunity to become more like adults, indeed like advanced professionals, in their relationship to their intellectual products and to themselves. In doing so, it comes into headlong collision with the many aspects of schools whose effect, if not whose intention, is to “infantilize” the child…

(p. 40) Children begin their lives as eager and competent learners. They have to learn to have trouble with learning in general and mathematics in particular…

I was amused by a remark on p. 41:

…People have lived with children for a long time. The fact that we had to wait for Piaget to tell us how children think … is so remarkable…

Who waited? Most of what I wrote in HOW CHILDREN LEARN about young children’s thinking, I wrote before I had read a word of Piaget. And much of what Piaget, Papert, and I have had to say about children as eager and skillful learners was said very eloquently in 1900 by Millicent Shinn in her wonderful book THE BIOGRAPHY OF A BABY, which I hope someday to be able to reprint here.

More from Seymour Papert:

(p. 41) …Already in the preschool years every child first constructs one or more preadult theorizations of the world and then moves toward more adultlike views. [JH - we can observe this process most clearly in children learning to talk.] And all this is done through… a learning process the schools should envy: It is effective (all the children get there), it is inexpensive (it seems to require neither teacher nor curriculum development), and it is humane (the children seem to do it in a carefree spirit without explicit external rewards and punishments).

…And unknown but certainly significant proportion of the population has almost completely given up on learning. These people seldom, if ever, engage in deliberate learning and see themselves as neither competent at it nor likely to enjoy it. The social and personal costs are enormous…

(p. 47) …Our educational culture gives mathematics learners scarce resources for making sense of what they are learning. As a result our children are forced to follow the very worst model for learning mathematics. This is the model of rote learning, where material is treated as meaningless; it is a dissociated model.

That was very true in 1958 when I first taught fifth grade and started writing HOW CHILDREN FAIL, and is much more true now.

(p. 48) One day Jenny [a thirteen year old average student who had been sent by her school to work with Papert and computers] came in very excited. She had made a discovery. “Now I know why we have nouns and verbs,” she said. For many years in school Jenny had been drilled in grammatical categories. She had never understood the difference between nouns and verbs and adverbs. But now it was apparent that her difficulty with grammar was not due to an inability to work with logical categories. It was something else. She had simply seen no purpose in the enterprise. She had not been able to make any sense of what it might be for. And when she had asked what it was for, the explanations that her teachers gave seemed manifestly dishonest. Therefore she learned to approach grammar with resentment. And, as is the case for most of us, resentment guaranteed failure…

…[When Jenny went back to school after her work with computers] her previously low and average grades became “straight A’s” for her remaining years of school. She learned that she could be “a brain” after all.

(p. 50) …It is easy to understand why math and grammar fail to make sense to children when they fail to make sense to everyone around them and why helping children to make sense of them requires more than a teacher making the right speech or putting the right diagram on the board. I have asked many teachers and parents what they thought mathematics to be and why it was important to learn it. Few held a view of mathematics that was sufficiently coherent to justify devoting several thousand hours of a child’s life to learning it, and children sense this. When a teacher tells a student that the reason for those many hours of arithmetic is to be able to check the change at the supermarket, the teacher is simply not believed. Children see such “reasons” as one more example of adult double talk. [They] can see perfectly well that the teacher does not like math any more than they do and that the reason for doing it is simply that it has been inscribed into the curriculum. All of this erodes children’s confidence in the adult world and the process of education. And I think it introduces a deep element of dishonesty into the educational relationship… The child’s perception is fundamentally correct. The kind of mathematics foisted on children in school is not meaningful, fun, or even very useful…

(p. 52) …A living language is learned by speaking and does not need a teacher to verify and grade each sentence. A dead language requires constant “feedback” from a teacher. The activity known as “sums” performs this feedback function in school math. These absurd little repetitive exercises have only one merit: They are easy to grade.And as

I have said for years, teachers or parents would be wiser to give children answer sheets and let them correct their own papers

(p. 63) Turtle geometry… was designed to help children develop the learning strategy: In order to learn something, first make sense of it.

(p. 65) …Turtle geometry… gives the child a model of learning very different from the dissociated one a fifth-grade boy, Bill, described as the way to learn multiplication tables in school: “You learn stuff like that by making your mind a blank and saying it over and over until you know it.”

For most children, that doesn’t work. For a more non-dissociated, i.e., meaningful way to look at multiplication tables, see GWS #17, 18.

(p. 115) …The instructor and a child were on the floor watching… As they puzzled together the child had a revelation: “Do you mean,” he said, “that you really don’t know how to fix it?”… The incident is poignant. It speaks of all the times this child entered into teachers’ games of “let’s do this together” all the while knowing that the collaboration was a fiction. Discovery cannot be a setup; invention cannot be scheduled.

(p. 132) …As children, we learned how to build and use theories only because we were allowed to hold “deviant” views about [the world] for many years. Children do not follow a learning path that goes from on “true position” to another, more advanced “true position.” Their natural learning paths include “false theories” that teach as much about theory building as true ones. But in school false theories are no longer tolerated. Our educational system rejects the “false theories” of children, thereby rejecting the was children really learn…

With these quotes I have only scratched the surface. There are many more powerful insights into children’s learning, and learning of mathematics in particular, than I have room to quote here. And I have said nothing about Turtle or Logo geometry, the particular way of using computers that this book is all about. Please don’t assume that because of all of these quotes you don’t need to read the rest of the book; without Papert’s specific examples, you can only catch a part of the force and truth of what he is saying.

I should add that since Papert wrote this book, and as of the time I write this, two of the major companies making home computers, Texas Instruments and Apple, have designed and produced programs that will enable you to do Turtle geometry on their machines. Whether any other companies have done so, I don’t know. Whether these programs will enable you to do all the things Papert writes about in his book, or how satisfied he is with them, I don’t know either.

Meanwhile, let me urge you once again very strongly to get this book and make use of it not just in home teaching but in any dealings you may have with uncooperative schools. It is very powerful ammunition, not just for home schoolers, but also for all people working for change within schools. - JH

GNYS AT WRK

GNYS AT WRK by Glenda Bissex ($17.50 + post.) This delightful and revealing book is the detailed and loving account of how the author’s so Paul did what Seymour Papert talked about in MINDSTORMS, that is, learned without being taught. He built for himself his own at first crude models of written English, and constantly refined them until they finally matched the written English of the world around him. It is also a splendid account and example of the ways in which a sympathetic and trusting teacher can be of use to a learner, not by deciding what he is to learn but by encouraging and helping him to learn what he is already busy learning. The book is expensive, but it’s well worth the money. Like MINDSTORMS, it gives powerful ammunition both to parents who are trying to deal with the school systems and/or to teachers and others who are trying to change them. And I have to add that since the book is published by Harvard University Press, there is little chance that it will come out in an inexpensive paperback.

Paul Bissex began his writing at age 5 with an indignant note to his mother, who, busy talking with friends, had not noticed that the child was trying to ask her something. After trying a few times to get her attention he went away, and returned soon with this message printed on a piece of paper: RUDF. Luckily for him, his mother (with whom I had a pleasant visit not long ago here in the office) was perceptive enough to decode the note (”Are you deaf?”), understand its importance, and quickly give the boy the attention he had been asking for.

As the boy began to explore written English, his mother paid steady attention to the ways in which he was doing it. In her preface, Mrs. Bissex writes:

…When I began taking notes about my infant son’s development, I did not know I was gathering “data” for research; I was a mother with a propensity for writing things down… When Paul started spelling, I was amazed and fascinated. Only somewhat later did I learn of Charles Read’s research on children’s invented spelling. Excited by his work, I started seeing my notes as “data.”…

What I hope this study offers, rather than generalizations to be “applied” to other children, is encouragement to look at individuals in the act of learning. And I do mean act, with all that implies of drama and action…

…A case study this detailed and extended over time would have been unmanageable were I not a parent..

This was one of the points I made in the last chapter of TEACH YOUR OWN, in which I list a number of reasons why schools would be wise, in terms of their own interests, to cooperate with home schooling families. For such families, keeping notes of their own work, sending them to GWS, or in some cases putting them into articles or books of their own, of which we have already had some and will surely have many more, are doing a kind of long-term educational research which neither the schools nor the schools of education could possibly do themselves. This extremely valuable information about children’s ways and styles of learning, which the schools could never afford to pay for, they can have for nothing from the home schoolers and their many communication networks, including GWS.

In the preface, Mrs. Bissex describes how Paul felt about her research:

At the beginning, Paul was an unconscious subject, unaware of the significance of my tape recorder and notebook. When he first became aware, at about age six, he was pleased by my interest and attention. By seven, he had become an observer of his own progress. When I … had Paul’s early writings spread out on my desk, he loved to look at them with me and try to read them… Paul observed me writing down a question he had asked about spelling, and I inquired how he felt about writing it down. “Then I know that when I’m older I can see the stuff I asked when I was little,” he commented.

At eight he was self-conscious enough to object to obvious observation and note-taking, which I then stopped… He still brought his writings to me, sharing my sense of their importance. At nine he became a participant in the research, interested in thinking about why he had written or read things as he once had…

The study has become a special bond between us, an interest we share in each other’s work, a mutual enjoyment of Paul’s early childhood and of his growing up. I have come to appreciate certain qualities in my son that I might not have seen except through the eyes of this study…

When I was teaching fifth grade with Bill Hull, and beginning to watch and listen carefully to what children said and did in the class, I used to write down notes, in handwriting so tiny they couldn’t easily read it. They knew I was writing about them, and at first said, a little suspiciously, “What are you writing?” But as time went on and they began to understand that I did not see them as strange laboratory animals, but liked and respected them and was trying to see how the world of school looked through their eyes, they felt better about my note taking - though it would probably have been better if I had told them more specifically what I was trying to learn from their work. In other words, I could have made them more conscious partners in my research.

Many GWS readers will remember Ann Kauble’s letter in GWS #12 about her little daughter’s angry dinnertime note, saying that she would no eat her “FICH” but would instead eat all the “CUCEZ.” Many children - I have no idea how many - seem to go more from writing to reading than the other way around. GNYS AT WRK is by no means the first work I have read about children’s invented spellings. Many years ago I read, I forget where, a most interesting article on the same subject by Carole Chomsky, who has done much good work in this area. One thing about her article I remember very vividly. She reported that many children spelled words beginning in TR - tree, train, etc. - either with a CH or an H at the beginning. For a second this baffled me. But by this time I had learned to look for reason in children’s “mistakes.” I began to say “tree, train, etc.” listening carefully to what sounds I was making, and found to my astonishment that what I was actually saying sounded very much like “chree” and “chrain.”

Worth noting that neither Glenda Bissex nor Ann Kauble nor the parents of many other children who learned to write English in their own invented spelling, had taught them “phonics,” or taught them to write, or even much encouraged them to write (except perhaps by their own example). They had been told and helped to learn the names of letters. From these they had figured out for themselves which consonants made which sounds. Like Paul Bissex, they began by leaving vowels out of their words altogether, producing a writing much like the Speed-writing that many adults later struggle and pay to learn.

As Mrs. Bissex makes clear in example after example, Paul did not “learn to write,” learn what schools would call the skills of writing, so that later he could use them to write something. From the beginning he wrote because he had something he wanted to say, often to himself, sometimes to others.

I plan to say much more about his wonderful book in the next GWS. Meanwhile, let me give Mrs. Bissex the final word:

…Paul, like his parents, wrote (and read and talked) because what he was writing (or reading and saying) had meaning to him as an individual and as a cultural being. We humans are meaning-making creatures, and language - spoken and written - is an important means for making and sharing meanings.

OTHER NEW BOOKS HERE

THE SILVER CHAIR and THE HORSE AND HIS BOY by C. S. Lewis ($1.75 each + post.) Two more books in the wonderful Narnia series. In THE SILVER CHAIR, two children (whom we have not met before in the Narnia books) find themselves suddenly in Narnia, and there, at Aslan’s bidding, and in the company of a strange but brave and stubborn creature, go on a long and dangerous journey to a sinister underground world to rescue a Narnia prince kept captive by witchcraft. In THE HORSE AND HIS BOY, a poor boy, to escape being sold into slavery to a cruel nobleman who visits his master, flees with the nobleman’s horse. It turns out to be a Narnia horse, and therefore, able to talk, but obliged until now, in this strange and hostile land, to keep its power of speech a secret. After many adventures they make their way to Narnia and there help to save a good king and his kingdom from a treacherous attack. - JH

HOW TO PLAY THE PIANO DESPITE YEARS OF LESSONS, by Ward Cannel & Fred Marx ($11.65 + post.) We are delighted to be able to offer this book now. You may remember I wrote about it in GWS #21, but at that time it was only available to people who signed up for a special course. Out of the blue, last month the publishers sent us a dozen copies - no word on why they changed their minds.

I won’t repeat everything I said in #21. I will only say that this book has been the biggest encouragement to my playing songs, creating music, and getting satisfaction our of music-making of anything I can think of. Finding this book plus NEVER TOO LATE several years ago inspired me to get my own piano, and I’ve been having a great time ever since, letting go of the old fears and patterns instilled by childhood lessons, learning to trust my own ability and judgment. $11.65 is a small price to pay for a lifetime of enjoyment (and I hope you’ll get the book fast, before the publishers change their minds again!) - DR

OH, BOY! BABIES by Alison Herzig and Jane Mali ($5.35 + post.) This very amusing and touching book is the record of an important educational experiment. A private school for boys decided to offer a six week elective course in infant care. Only in this course the boys would not just read about babies; they would have real babies, to look at, play with, comfort, dress and undress, feed, diaper, and clean. In a text which is almost entirely the words of the boys themselves, and with delightful black and white pictures on almost every page, this book show what happened. It is a very good companion to BEFORE YOU WERE THREE, and a wonderful book for children (perhaps especially boys) of any age.

Two things about the book struck me very strongly. The first was how strange the babies were to the boys. They might have come from Mars. The ten-year-olds had completely forgotten about that part of their lives. The other was how quickly the boys came to understand the babies and to enjoy them and love them. They were very sad when the course ended. Many boys wanted to take the course - next to Computers it was the most popular elective in the school - and as there was a limited supply of babies, no one could take it twice.

It wouldn’t be stretching the truth at all to say that these boys needed these babies, as indeed I think we all do. Seeing babies and little children puts us in touch with a very important part of ourselves, which we may otherwise very easily lose. As I have said many times, from being with babies and infants I have learned an immense amount about human learning, including my own. And it occurs to me that many people, especially upper middle-class ones like these boys, must grow to adulthood and even to the point of having babies of their own without the slightest idea of what babies are like.

It reminds me once again what a bad arrangement for growing up the single-age peer group is. In such groups children are cut off from their own past, in the person of younger children, and from their own future, in the person of older children and adults.

This experiment, of putting ten-year-olds into close contact with babies, is one that many other schools could and should repeat. It might solve a number of important problems at once; children could get the contact with babies that they need, and some mothers, at least, would be able to get much needed help in caring for their children. Of course, people would have to have great confidence in a school, and know it for a gentle and kindly place, to entrust their babies to it. Children who have had this kind of training and experience with babies would be welcome in many families as baby-sitters, and would themselves probably be glad of a chance to do such work. And when we think of all the babies and very young children who suffer terribly from the want of human contact and loving care, we can’t but feel that in most places we should be able to find ways to bring children and babies together. Certainly the home schooling movement, as it grows, should find it easier to do this.

After the last class session in the book, one boy says, “I’m going to beg and beg them to let me take the class again. I’m going to sign up again even if I have to get down on my knees. I just love babies. I mean, I’m going to get down on my knees and beg them.” A lovely book. - JH

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR CHILDREN, by Howard Cohen ($4.50 + post.) This is a very carefully thought out, tightly organized, and clearly written argument in favor or (as I proposed in ESCAPE FROM CHILDHOOD) making available to children the legal rights and responsibilities of adults. Cohen deals in a masterful way with all the conventional arguments against this. His book will not convince haters and fearers of children, but it will greatly strengthen those who believe as a matter of justice that children should be treated as human beings, not as pets and slaves, and it may convince some whose hearts yearn in that direction but whose uncertain and troubled minds hold them back.

Since the idea of giving children legal and political rights is not a live issue and, given the present public temper, is not likely to become one for a long time, one might ask what’s the point of this book, why is it worth reading, what difference could it possibly make. Well, in the overall society it may not make any difference, but it could make a great difference in the homes of unschoolers, and in the small but growing communities that home schoolers are making. In this miniature society, this country within a country, this ancestor (I hope) of a very different larger society some of us may someday see, the question of how children should be treated and what rights they should have is a very live one. There are those in the home schooling movement who say that, except for the right to food, clothing, shelter, and health care, children have only duties and obligations, and no rights at all. This book is a powerful argument in favor of going as far as we can in the direction of treating children, despite their youth and inexperience, like sensible, well-meaning, and responsible people, and why doing so will make stronger and better families as it will someday make a stronger and better society. - JH

Editors - John Holt & Donna Richoux

Managing Editor - Peg Durkee

Subscriptions & Books Manager - Tim Chapman

Copyright 1977 Holt Associates, Inc.

This archive is presented as a service to the homeschooling community by the editors of Home Education Magazine © 2006 and is reprinted with permission of Holt Associates, Inc., © 2006. (All rights reserved)