GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING 30

Since GWS #29 went to press, I have spoken at large and enthusiastic meetings of home schoolers in Tempe AZ, Denver CO, Norfolk VA, and Columbia MD.  Thanks very much, respectively, to Brian Evans, Nancy Dumke, Theo Giesy, and Manfred Smith, and their many energetic and efficient friends and helpers.

The Maryland meeting was perhaps the largest meeting of home schoolers I have yet attended, 300 or more people and their children.  It might have been bigger yet, but for a small miscalculation.  Since even a week before the meeting so many people had said they were coming that it looked as if the hall would be filled to capacity, the organizers were turning away applicants during the last week.  As always happens, some of those who said they were coming didn’t make it, so there was room for more.  Moral of the story - don’t turn people away.  You can always make room, and it somehow adds extra excitement to a meeting if the room is a bit crowded.

My trip to Italy was very short, so short that I can hardly believe I was really there, but also very interesting.  I found to my surprise that once I was there, my Italian, which I didn’t speak very well on my last visit twenty-six years ago, came back to me in a most surprising way.  As I was eating dinner with my hosts the first night there, I suddenly found myself remembering  the words for all kinds of things connected with food and eating, including the word for spoon (cucchiaio), which a week earlier in Boston I couldn’t have remembered to save me.  When people asked questions in Italian during my meetings, if they didn’t speak too fast I could understand most of what they were saying.  A fascinating experience, to feel all kinds of things rising up out of memory that you didn’t even know were there.

On this short trip I heard or saw many interesting and perhaps useful things:

1) My host, the Director of the conference, Connie Miller, told me that the Italian laws on education allow for home schooling.  I’ve asked her to send me as soon as she can a copy (with translation) of this particular part of the law.

2) A Dutch friend I met there, Dick Willems, told me that under Dutch law (as in Denmark) groups of parents can start their own schools and then after five years, during which they must get a provisional permit each year, can get a permanent charter and government financial support.  He added that under this provision more than 500 hundred small schools have been started (in Denmark the number is only about 40).  Whether many or any of these are free schools in our sense of the word, he did not know.

3) A new monthly magazine has just appeared in Italy, called Bimbo-sapiens (”bimbo” is one of the many charming Italian words for babies and small children).  In the way it feels and talks about children, it is very close in spirit to GWS, Mothering, and other such North American publications.  We may be able to find some allies there.  Their address is Viale Bligny 29, Milano. - John Holt

JOHN’S COMING SCHEDULE

April 31, 1983: Sixth Massachusetts Area La Leche Conference, Walsh Middle School, Framingham MA 01938.

May 3, 1983 : International Reading Association, Anaheim CA.

Aug 1-2, 1983 : Child Development Symposium, Association for Research & Enlightenment, Virginia Beach VA 23451.

OPEN HOUSE

Now that we have enough room in our office to move around and to entertain friends, we are going to make use of it by having every month an office open house.  These will be from (roughly) 6 to 8 PM, the second Thursday of each month, starting Jan. 13, 1983.  (During the summer, we may make plans to meet outdoors, in the Public Garden or at the edge of the river, and use the office in case of bad weather.)

Everyone, of all ages, from all states or countries, is welcome - home schoolers, former home schoolers, would-be home schoolers, or anyone who is interested in learning more about it and meeting some of the parents and children doing it.  If you want, you can bring a picnic supper to eat here.  We will supply juice or cider.  If anyone wants to bring some cookies or similar goodies to share, they would be welcome.

A nice time to meet other home schooling families, get some questions answered, browse around among our books, hear some of our cassettes, or whatever.  We are willing to show our film on the Ny Lille Skole if there’s interest.  No need to tell us you are coming, just drop in.  We’re looking forward to seeing you. - JH

NOTES FROM DONNA

With this issue we reach a small milestone; #30 marks the completion of five full years of publishing GWS.  As I look around our spacious new office, it feels good to see how we’ve grown, and especially to see the fat bundles of mail coming in - mostly Christmas book orders.  Quite a few of those orders are from the 2700 “Prospective Customers” you sent us; I’ll try to remember to let you know how that project turns out.

Merritt C. (Richford VT 05476) writes, “We have now published my investigative report “LEARNING DISABILITIES: What the Publicity Doesn’t Tell” in book form, at $3.00.  I was losing $1.50 per copy selling photocopies, and your announcement several years ago [GWS #18] is still bringing an order a week.”

By the time you get this, Rachael Solem will have finished the index to GWS #1-30.  We’ll sell it here for $2.50.

A special end-of-the-year thank-you to the many volunteers who have helped us this year.  We are grateful to the following Boston-area friends who have helped us in the office or in their homes: Mary Maher, Wanda Rezac, Scott Layson, Connie Bernhardt, Reba Korban, Dawn Reger, Audrey Hodges, Mary Silva, Barbara Rosen, Susanna Darling, Mary Steele, Marilyn and Mary Pelrine, Kamal Ahmad, Rachael Solem, Linda Estrada, Terry Burch, Mario Pagnoni, Grace Andreacchi, Ed and Pam Mitchell, Maggie LeBlanc.  Many of these people’s children were also a real help which we appreciate as well.

Out-of-state volunteers who helped in their homes include: Lenora Alexander, Shelley Dameron, Bonnie Spear, Marie Hartwell, Sandy Hansley, Nancy Plent, Gary Floam, June and Allan Conley, Kate Gilday, Susan Rhodes, Cathy Earle, Nanda Hills, Cheryl Richardson, Debbie Khaljani, Liz Buell, Brian Evans, Linda Rieken, Jill Bastian, Keith Hallquist.

If I’ve left anyone out, please forgive me.  There were a number of families, such as the Coxes of Michigan and the Johnsons of New Jersey, who lent a hand in the office when they were visiting Boston.  To all of them, thanks again! - Donna Richoux

HELPING VETS AT 12

Frank Conley (LA) writes:

…I wanted to tell you about how I followed your advice in finding work (GWS #6).

I am presently taking a veterinary medicine course at LSU (This course is being given for “Gifted and Talented” junior high and high school students - I had no trouble registering as a home-schooler.)  I became interested in learning more about it and decided to ask a local veterinarian if I could help out at his clinic in return for the experience of watching them work.

It has been very worthwhile.  The three vets who work there have been very kind and helpful to me.  They explain everything they do and not only allow me to watch but actually let me perform certain duties.  They say I’m “indispensable.”

So far some of the most interesting things I’ve done are: watch an autopsy on a cat, learn to draw blood from animals and prepare slides, take temperatures and fecals, watch surgery performed and go along on emergency calls.

I go to the clinic nearly every day now, for several hours a day.  I plan to take an animal science course next.

I recommend this way of learning to everyone.  At first I was afraid no one would want my help, since I’m only 12, but the people I talked to were happy to have free help…

GROWN UNSCHOOLER

From Allen Fannin, Westdale NY 13483:

…I am one of the very few people of my acquaintance of the pre-WWII generation to escape with little or no schooling.  I was out of school completely during the latter part of grade school and never went to high school for a full five-day week during all of four years.  At the end of high school, I decided that schooling and I were mutually unsuited to one another.  I have always believed that school is not a good place for people to learn in and have argued this point for the past thirty years.  Not until I came across a copy of GWS did I realize that there were other people who feel the same way.

…When I encounter a worried mother who asks what will become of her kids if they don’t have a diploma, I tell her that in thirty years of working for myself, no one has ever asked how I learned what I know.  They only ask how much it will cost for a piece of that knowledge.

…My wife and I have been in the small scale textile production business for eighteen years and nothing we presently do would have to be learned in school.  This has been true for everything I have ever done for a living…

LOCAL NEWS

ARIZONA: Sherri Pitman (GWS #28) writes, “I have finally finished my book on the new home school law in Arizona … We have formed a group of home schoolers called THE PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS…”

CONNECTICUT: Attorney Frank Cochran writes, “The State Department of Education, which has little or no statutory authority but has often shown good common sense, has published a new set of ’suggested procedures’… They suggest compromises on the testing issue and make clear that parents need only cover mandatory subjects and need not provide identical or ’social’ programs…”  Frank also sent us a copy of a letter he wrote to the Commissioner of Education about those guidelines, which in some respects resemble the “Mass. Memo.”  In his letter he pointed out that, unlike Massachusetts law, Connecticut statutes cannot be read to require prior approval before a child is educated elsewhere than at a public school.

FLORIDA: Ann Mordes of FLASH tells us that truancy charges against Linda and Richard Rousay of Panama City have been dropped.  The Rousays had registered their home as a private school with the state, and were meeting all the requirements for private schools.  An article in their local paper, written while charges were pending, said, “A news team from the ABC show 20/20 is considering interviewing the family… Mrs. Rousay added that the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has selected her as a test case in support of home schooling in Florida.  ‘At first they said they didn’t take educational issues, but then said they would take my case to represent all others in the state…’”

On the other hand, the FLASH newsletter reports, “The Steiners of Sarasota were a Scientologist family seeking to teach their own children on religious grounds.  They were not registered as a private school.  A truant officer took them to court and the judge ruled against them.  Their court-appointed defender tried to stand on Constitutionally guaranteed rights of freedom of religion; however, the judge stated that their rights were not being violated.  They were threatened with jail and having their children taken away from them… After much anguish they put their children back into school…”

INDIANA: From Carol Bridges: “You may be interested  to know that it is a part of our religion (the Church of the Earth Nation is non-profit tax-exempt) to teach our children at home.  Our church was created, in part, to provide protection for those who believe strongly enough in their right to educate their own children that it is indeed their ‘religion.’”

MICHIGAN: From the newsletter of the NATIONAL COALITION OF ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS: “Nick Dennany, father of five children, chose to educate his children at home without the state required certificated teacher.  Last March the Kalamazoo Schools filed suit against Nick in criminal court.  Nick compiled a 300+ page brief containing more than 20 different issues on home schooling.  He spent five months researching it at the library, put it into brief form, typed it on legal size paper and presented it to the judge in advance of the appointed date.  (Nick himself has a ninth grade education.  He did all of the legal work by himself.)

“The judge praised the brief as one of the most thorough and precise he’d seen in a long time.  After reading it, the judge told Nick that there would be no further proceedings; he had the schools drop their suit and bade Nick to continue educating his children just as he’d been doing - no certificated teacher needed…”

MINNESOTA: Sharon Hillestad writes, “The MINNESOTA NETWORK OF HOME SCHOOLERS is meeting monthly.  Carmelle Pommepey  has taken over the leadership of the organization…  She had almost no trouble getting permission from the Minneapolis school system to teach her young son…  People have come as far as 200 miles to meet like-thinking people…  Carmelle and I are going to hit the radio talk-shows.  Next summer we hope to have a symposium…”

NEW JERSEY: Ann Bodine writes, “The Commissioner of Education’s letter [GWS #26] has really made things easy for us in New Jersey.  A new home-schooling family recently wrote their principal of their intentions and a few days later he called and read them the letter!  Said he understood the situation and wanted them to understand all their rights.  What a change!…”

OHIO: Linda Cox and Beth Burns have started up the OCEAN newsletter again.  Beth says, “In July, Rich and I held a picnic for homeschoolers (present and future) at our farm.  We gathered together 18 adults and 37 children by inviting everyone listed in the GWS directory that lived within 60 miles…”

PUERTO RICO: From Patricia de Fernos: “There is now a family in Dorado, a town near us, home-schooling their three children, and another two families in San Juan home-schooling besides ourselves…  We have all been so busy, we haven’t had another P.R. HOME SCHOOLERS ASSOCIATION get-together, though there have been requests it be held…”

TEXAS: Harold Baer of HALVI SCHOOLS writes, “In July and August this year we received a dozen more home-schooling enrollments…  Parents appear to be enthusiastic about our flexible arrangement…  We’re still maintaining our $25/year tuition…”

WASHINGTON: Debra Stewart of the STILLAGUAMISH LEARNING EXCHANGE says, “Our Urban group is growing so fast we can’t keep up with it.  We now have three urban centers, 55 families with 73 children among them…  We now have 11 centers state-wide and three more pending.  We are approaching 150 students…”

WISCONSIN: John Ellis of FAITH ACADEMY writes, “We now have 66 families in Wisconsin who have joined Faith Academy, Inc., and are now operating subsidiary schools, or as we call them, one-family private schools.  Also, we have a mailing list of over 300 persons in Wisconsin who support the home school movement…”

ADS IN GWS

Beginning with GWS #31, we are going to start carrying advertising in GWS.  We probably should have done it sooner, but I feared that the money we could get from advertising would not be worth the work needed to get it, and in any case I hoped we might be able to do without it.  Well, we can’t do without it - we badly need another source of income.  And the experience of Mothering shows that, even for small publications like ours, advertising can earn a significant amount of money.  With some luck and much hard work, advertising may soon help put GWS on a much sounder financial footing, and even in time enable us to put out a larger and better magazine.  Note that both Homesteaders News and Co-Evolution Quarterly have begun carrying ads, and for the same reason that we feel we must.

We will carry two types of advertising: classified ads, which we will set up in the same typeface we use for the Directory, and display ads, in which the advertisers send us photo-ready copy.

Our rates for classified ads - or perhaps “unclassified,” since at first we will not try to arrange them under group headings - will be $5 per line (47 spaces per line).  People can save space and money by using abbreviations, or perhaps joining words.  Thus we might write our own city address as BostonMA02116.  Readers will have to decide how much abbbreviating and word-joining they can use and still keep their meaning clear.  We will run your ads exactly as you send them to us.  (Payment must be in advance.  Deadline for submitting ads for GWS #31 is Jan. 15; for GWS #32, March 15.)

If you would like to run a display ad, please ask us for our rate card.  GWS as you see it has been reduced in size from the pages on which we lay it out.  On those original pages each of our columns is four inches wide, which means that a display ad designed to use half the width of an 8 1/2 ” page (as in Mothering and many standard magazines) will just fit one of our regular columns.

Readers can use ads (display or classified) to advertise home businesses, to sell anything they want to sell (making GWS a kind of permanent garage sale), to look for things that they want to buy, or for places to live or visit, or people to live with or visit them, or transportation for long journeys, or other people with special knowledge or skills, or pen pals, or people interested in swapping skills or houses or (temporarily) children - in other words, the kind of ads you see in many small magazines.

Like all advertisers, we reserve the right to decline to run an ad if for any reason it does not seem appropriate.

There is one hitch to all this.  If we carry ads we can no longer use the “Special Fourth Class” mailing rates which we use on our larger group subscriptions, so we are going to apply for a Second Class mail permit.  In order to qualify, we will have to change our group rates somewhat (see chart on last page).  As of Jan. 1, 1983, all new group subs and renewals must pay these rates.  We’re sorry for this increase; we hope that the extra money we get from advertising will enable us to keep GWS prices at the present level for some time to come.

Readers can, if they wish, help us in this ad campaign.  Some may be able to persuade business firms (their own or other people’s) to advertise in GWS as a way of contributing to us, as it would be a tax-deductible business expense.  Some people may be willing to help us solicit regular commercial ads.  This will involve letter-writing, which people can do in their own homes and on their own schedules.  Just as Mothering gets a great deal of advertising from firms which make many kinds of baby materials, so we may in time get much advertising from publishers of books and other educational materials.  But, as I say, this will require more letter writing than we are likely to be able to do in or from the office, and it will be a great help if some readers would do some of this for us. - JH

HANDICAPPED PARENT

A reader writes:

…Although you have many homeschooling people writing in, I’ve not seen many handicapped or chronically ill parents mentioned.  We have the problems and concerns other people have and more.

I have Multiple Sclerosis.  For those who don’t know what that means, it’s a degenerative neuro-muscular disease for which there is no cure.  I can still walk but it is very hard and takes much effort.  I can’t run or skate or dance and I get very tired, fall down, trip or stagger often.  Yet my husband and I are home-schooling our children.  Our oldest is first grade age and our youngest is preschool age.  I want people in my position to know it is possible, sometimes easier, to home school than to send your children to school.  You have them around to help you when necessary and you don’t have to rush around on a strict time schedule or get to a PTA or board meeting.

Last year I took the kids to museums, zoos, to parks, shopping, the beach, library and many other places, often.  Sometimes I got tired, but so do young children.  Whenever I was too tired the kids were about ready to pack it in too.  I want people to know it’s not always the amount of energy you can put into home-schooling, but more how much you like being with your kids and like learning with them and responding to their questions.  We also don’t give kids enough credit.  Even when my youngest was two he understood that when I was tired I was to be left alone for a while.  He seemed to know that when I got up from my rest I’d spend time with him and be in a much better mood.  He would play, usually happily, by himself or with his brother for a while.

…This letter is anonymous because we fear that the school may use my illness as proof that I am unable to home school my children (my husband works long hours away from home).  Please don’t even print what state this is from…

SUCCESSFUL ADOPTION

From Elizabeth LaCava (IN):

…To adopt our fifth child, we applied through the Indiana Welfare Department wondering what problems we might encounter as home schoolers.  We didn’t mention the fact that we were until they brought Sarah for a trial visit.  The social worker asked if the older children were taking a day off from school.  Her face constricted when I mentioned that my children studied at home.  She asked a few typical questions and then moved off the subject.

Several days later we asked when we would see Sarah again; the social worker replied, “Tomorrow.”  Calling the next day, however, we were suddenly informed that our home study was not complete, and we would not be able to see the child.

Two weeks later a new social worker arrived at our house and grilled us thoroughly on home schooling.  At the end of the interview, we were sure she would not place the child with us and probably would cause trouble about our schooling.  We were wrong!  After a silent week, the social worker called and said Sarah was ours.

Later the social worker admitted that they almost did not place the child with us because our children did not attend a formal school.  We are obviously pleased that the state welfare office accepted us as home schoolers.  [See also “Adoption Resources,” GWS #26]…

COLLEGE CREDIT

From Kathi Kearney in Vermont:

…Finally, you can list me as a certified teacher willing to help people wishing to teach their children at home.  I finished my teaching certificate (K-12, art) last spring…  Johnson State College has been very good - very self-directed learning - and supportive of my efforts to do more work with home schoolers.  Last year as part of my field study project in Maine, they approved some of my work with a home-schooling family for credit…

“DOING NOTHING”

Anna Myers writes from Ontario:

…Everything’s going so smoothly!  We’re still getting calls regularly from people who need reassurance to take the next step, but I make sure they do everything themselves now, so it doesn’t seem so easy.  We’ve found that people fight a much better battle with the authorities if they are not spoon-fed…  They should really want to home-school enough to be prepared if there’s a hassle.

…Sacha Pope’s mom took her out of school a year and a half ago and had her “achievement tested” so that she would know the level to which the schools had brought her.  She tested at 4.0 in English and math - exactly where she was supposed to be, as she was just finishing grade 3.  She played all year only doing what she wanted to do.  The family saw a big change in her personality.  She started to have a direction in her life.  In the spring she decided to try out for the Canadian National Ballet School.  They auditioned 800 children and chose 100 for further auditioning in the summer school.  She was chosen to attend summer school and while there was tested academically.  She scored in the grade 6 level in Math and English!  She did two grades in one year by “doing nothing”!  Anyway, 30 children were selected to attend the boarding school in September and she was one of them!  We’re all wishing her luck and fun in her chosen career.

There’s not much new with our kids.  I’ve even stopped watching to see if they’re “choosing” educational activities…  They just seem to be growing older and taller and smarter!…  The other day I was niggling at Drew to clean up his mess when he said, “Mom, don’t talk at me now, I have a picture in my mind and I’m looking for a piece of paper quickly so I can get it down.”  Well! a picture in a mind is so much more important than a mess!…

GOOD TIMES, AWFUL TIMES

From Gretchen Spicer (MI):

…All the kids are growing and progressing marvelously.  The current 1-yr-old, Esau, is sitting on the table, “helping” me write.  I was very amused by the verse out of the song on the Lesters’ UNIVERSAL MUSICAL FAMILY tape  [GWS #28] - “He’s a lot of trouble because he’s little and new, but he’ll be a brother in a year or two.”  That’s certainly the stage we’re at.  Isaac (4) and his pals can’t see any use for Esau unless they need something to close up in a box.  They have absolutely no patience with Esau messing up their games and he just wants to be part of everything.  Unfortunately, he does have a habit of sitting right in the middle of the town it took the boys two hours to build.  The day I tried to sew with him sitting on top of my sewing machine, I did have sympathy with their impatience.

Just now I had to fetch Esau down from a shelf about 5′ high that he was tottering on.  It’s such a busy age with so much to learn.  This is the age where freedom matters so much, but it becomes almost a full time job for one adult, to allow them to explore to their hearts’ content and yet remain free from harm.  Not to mention keeping them clean, warm and fed.  You really have to learn to do things five minutes at a time.

The older kids are able to care for themselves, which is delightful.  They are eager to learn anything and lots of fun to talk to.  Jacob (11) spends most of his time traveling.  After spending the summer in Michigan with a friend (I just dragged Esau out of the oatmeal), he’s off to Grandma’s in Iowa for a while.  Seth (9) and Jessica (7) and friends just came in; they spend all day going from house to house.  Sometimes it seems like we play musical beds every night.  It’s a little disconcerting to the adults, but the kids love it.

Isaac and friends want to make cookies but I don’t, so they are trying to persuade the older kids to help.  In general, the kids can cook anything they want as long as they don’t waste food and do clean up.  Isaac likes to cook when no one’s in the house.  One day he made “jello” with 3/4 of a jar of molasses, 1/2 a box of gelatin and about 2 cups of sugar.  It sat in the refrigerator for about two weeks because no one could eat it and we didn’t have the heart to throw it away.  I think the two things you need most in living with children are tact and a sense of humor.  Heaven knows there are many days when I forget that I have either.

Which brings me to another point.  As I look back on this letter I just wrote, it sounds so cheerful and encouraging, like I’m really on top of things…  We have plenty of AWFUL days around here.  Sometimes we are all yelling at each other, at least half of us (usually me) are in tears, the house is filthy, all we have for lunch is cold rice and tomatoes, the phone rings 30 times, everything gets spilled, the car breaks down, the fire goes out and I go lie in bed and swear that I would sell my soul for a house in town with running water, central heat, a maid, a shelf full of Campbell’s soup and white bread and a freezer full of TV dinners, the three older kids heading off to school in clean clothes (washed by the maid) just before I drop the little ones off at the best day care center in town and head over to the health club for a swim and sauna before my music and dancing lessons.  There are even days when I think the kids would be better in public school, when Tom and I spend the whole day arguing.

Overall, I am really glad we keep the kids at home and are poor and live on a farm and drive old cars; in the final analysis, the good outweighs the bad.  I’m just afraid that if all of us, especially those of us that are older and have weathered a few more years of life’s stormy times, don’t be really honest and talk about some of those really awful times and how we survived them, it might be pretty disillusioning to the young folks just starting out, when they hit some rough spots.  Being around your kids 24 hours a day, 365 days a year is just not always easy, no matter how much you care about them.  Having chosen to care for our kids in a certain way, and often living in rural isolated areas, many of us have found that the only person we feel able to entrust the children to, is the other parent.  It’s difficult for a young family when there is no way for both parents to have relief from child-care at the same time.  I don’t have any good answers.  I’m just leary of painting rosy pictures when I know that’s not how it always is…

CARING FOR 2-YEAR-OLD

A Texas parent writes:

…Jason (10) spends a lot of his time doing things that would not be considered scholastic in the usual sense; playing with his Star Wars men, reading the Great Brain series by Fitzgerald over and over again, writing to other homeschoolers and playing with a little two-year-old that I care for during the day.

By the way, having taken in Chris has helped our situation in a couple of ways.  Besides just being a joy to have around, he takes the edge off Jason’s loneliness during the day.  That was a major concern in considering home schooling for us.  Being the only child in our family, Jason has sometimes felt he was missing something terrific.  On the whole, he’s adjusted just fine to his loneliness, but when I see them together, even with the big difference in their ages, I see that Chris is filling a deep hole in Jason.  Chris’s mother gives me $50 a week to take care of him, and that, plus making cheesecakes to sell to restaurants, has enabled me to stay home with Jason.  So many obstacles that had stood in the way of home schooling have neatly taken care of themselves…

SWAPPING SERVICES

A New Jersey reader wrote:

…A wonderful thing has happened.  Miriam Halliday [”Turned in to Welfare,” GWS #24] and her two children, Ian (8) and Inge (5), have moved to New Jersey…   Miriam got a job at the George Street Co-op, where I am an active member.  We were introduced by another co-op member, who knew we would be interested in meeting.

Since then things have blossomed into a number of co-op members exchanging services.  Miriam needs to work (so she can get off welfare, which has been one big hassle for her), so Ian and Inge come to my home four days a week.  In exchange Miriam is going to give my son music lessons.

We don’t live close to each other so there was a problem of how to get them to and from my home.  The problem was solved by Betsy (I babysit her 2-year-old Ella four days a week).  Betsy lives around the corner from Miriam, so it works great.  She picks up and brings home Ian and Inge.  In exchange, Miriam stays with Ella two nights a week, while Betsy teaches.  Miriam also feeds them supper, which Betsy cooks.

Another co-op member and homeschooler picks Ian and Inge up in exchange for something, I’m not sure what.  We would do this without an exchange if necessary, as Inge and Ian are nice playmates for our children.

I just received a call from a mother who is very concerned about her six-year-old daughter…who hates school and begs not to go…  I suggested she send her here once a week as a break from school (an idea I got from a letter in GWS); she liked that idea and is coming for a visit to discuss it further.  We are also going to talk about exchanging services, as she is not in a very good financial situation right now…

Tomorrow we go to Sesame Park with friends from New Jersey Schools Association.  We try to go on as many trips as possible.  So far this year we went to the Museum of Natural History twice.  My son especially loves the dinosaur section and knows more about dinosaurs than I do.  We also went to the Planetarium, the New York Aquarium, and Catskill Game Farm, where they have a huge petting zoo with hundreds of llamas, sheep, goats, deer and pigs to pet and feed.  They even had bottles of warm milk that you could feed to the baby animals.  They also had a baby elephant that kept on knocking off everybody’s hats.

We really don’t do much school work around here.  At the most we work two hours, three times a week, mostly on math, writing and spelling.  We use our Speak and Spell often.  It helps a lot in spelling words that can’t be sounded out.

In math I usually make up problems, but I also use workbooks when I’m too busy.  My son isn’t thrilled about workbooks but does them, mostly to please me.  Inge and Ian love to do them and beg for more.

Reading is no problem.  We have hundreds of books and they read many every day.  Plus there are all the books I read to them.  My son learned to read with the Dr. Seuss books.  They were his favorite for years.  Right now he likes to read the “Little Miss and Mr.” books.  I recently purchased a lot of Ladybird books from England.  They are excellent.  My son especially likes the Robin Hood series.  Another thing he likes is his Little Thinker Tapes.  He spends hours listening to them…

I asked my son if there was anything he would like to add to this letter.  He said to tell you the reason he likes to homeschool is because when you go to school you have to sit at a desk most of the day and listen to some teacher go “Blah, blah, blah” all day.  Ian says to tell you he thinks school is very boring…

MORE FROM THE MOUNTAINS

From Laurie Fishel-Lingemann (”In The Mountains,” GWS #26):

…The girls (Star, 13; Deva, almost 6) have been going visiting a woman who lives 20 miles from here.  This woman invited two other girls of similar ages to share four days with her; she expects them to cook and care for themselves and help her with her gardening and other projects.  She is a talented artist with fabric and crochet and plans to share her skills with them.  Star brought her wool, etc., and was very excited…

Star is working as a volunteer at the library one day a week.  She loves books, so you can imagine that she is in ecstasy doing this…

Star was very involved with horses (more in imagery than reality, although she had her own pony for several years) and thought she would become more involved when we moved.  But as she has grown she finds craft work, reading and gardening much more appealing to her than working with animals.  She had a hard time letting go of her “images,” even felt guilty that she didn’t want to own a horse (as though she were betraying herself!).  After much tearfulness, she gave away her six geese and their goslings when she realized the inefficient set-up she had and that she was not really that interested or attentive to them.  She has been much relieved and happy now that they are gone and has put much energy into her garden, which is thriving.

Deva is alert and cheerful most of the time.  She doesn’t seem to be focused on any one interest, but enjoys doing things with me or Papa.  She especially likes herb walks and gathering plants and having stories read to her.  She spends a lot of time alone playing with dolls, looking at books, watching the new kittens, etc.

I am also realizing how in the past, because I was and am a homeschooler, I wanted my kids to be “super kids” to prove what a “good” job I was doing, to prove that home schooling works, to insure that authorities would leave us alone, to prove to my parents and critical friends that it was OK, etc.  In the last few years, something has been released in me, and my own inner authority is strong enough so that these pressures do not feel real or threatening.  Our inner and outer development as human beings, healthy, kind, open, exploring, vibrant, caring, calm, happy - this is what is important.  Frankly, I think that anybody who is happy, relaxed and calm can learn anything they want to in very little time and anything they feel they have to.

We bought a typewriter at a used store for $10 and a typing textbook for 25 cents at a yard sale.  Star types about 20 minutes every day (more or less) and is progressing right along…

Jesse, 19 months, is talking, shouting, running - a lot.  He is a real terror and drives poor Deva crazy, messing up her projects and pestering her.  He is frustrated in his baby body, always trying to use heavy adult tools or picking up enormous items.  One of his first words and still the most frequent is “guck” (stuck), as he is always trying to do something he is not physically capable of handling.  He is not too interested in toys and only plays with them for short periods of time.  He tries to take them apart (much to Deva’s misery, as he decapitates and dismembers her Barbie dolls) or throw them.  If I am cutting soft fruit, I can give him some and a knife and safely turn my back.  He much prefers real things to toys, even if he can’t manipulate them at all.  He’d rather look at or climb on our caterpillar tractor than play with his toy tractor.  He can abstract amazingly well and loves pictures in books.

On a trip we just took to Death Valley, I got to observe families interacting with each other (in campgrounds, museums, etc.), and most of the time it was very depressing.  I was apppalled at the consistent lack of respect most adults had toward their own children.  I observed one very well-meaning and intelligent couple so consistently manipulate their 4-year-old that she was always on the verge of tears or anger.  I finally confronted them via an abstract conversation on child rearing - and! - they agreed with everything I said.  These were well-educated, professional people, but they were totally unconscious of their manipulations…

I wanted to add some thoughts on gardening.  When Star was young (and I was a newcomer to gardening myself), I was fairly insistent that she “help” in the garden work.  As she wasn’t always very interested, this often led to conflict.  In fact, as I look back, I am amazed that in spite of some of those terrible energies, Star enjoys gardening so much now.  Several years ago I read an interesting item in Organic Gardening, the gist of which was to enjoy your gardening and create in it spaces of delight for your children - strawberry patches, flower gardens, bean tipis and so on.  Let them wander freely in the garden and enjoy the tastes, smells and good vibes.  This is the “work” they need to do to develop a positive feeling about the garden.  If they are allowed to drink in this atmosphere, they will want to create this same space in the future.  That piece of advice sure opened up a space for me, and I hope it’s helpful for someone else…

Deva has been taking a ballet class.  I originally saw it as a social interaction for her, but now I see this is the smallest part of it.  She has a real flair for dancing, and she is very pleased with her accomplishment on her own outside of the family.  She is also learning to interact directly with a strange adult and to share affection with her (she has always been very shy).

Both girls plan to enter the County Fair with flowers and vegetables they have grown and arts and crafts they have been working on.  They have been picking out the proper entries from the Fair book, filling out the forms and tags.  This is a chance for them to experience competition in a mild sort of way…

IN THE MAIL

…Since we’ve seriously decided to unschool, our attitude toward the kids (ages 2 and 1) has changed.  We haven’t had a real babysitter in weeks - seems the more time we spend with the kids teaching, exploring - the less we feel the need to get away from them!  In fact, on our last half-dozen “Hot Date Nights” we’ve taken the kids along, and purposely chose outings they’d enjoy.  I never thought this would happen to me! — Leslie Westrum (IN).

…As my attitude has changed to one of being here for my children, for my family, so has the quality of our life together.  We do more together, are not so rushed, enjoy each other more.  There’s no more important skill to learn than that of living harmoniously with others, which comes from being comfortable and at peace with yourself.  We’re all working on that…

…My six-year-old started first grade here - his request.  He is very happy with his choice.  I am taking refuge in the fact that he, the learner, has sought out what he needs.  I was hoping he’d be an unschooler, but perhaps he’ll choose that later…

DEVELOPING NEW ATTITUDES

From an Ohio parent:

…We received the first 27 issues of GWS.  After reading them through, I feel like I’ve entered an ongoing conversation and would like to add my “2 cents worth.”  …One thing is for sure - even if we decide to stay with the public schools, GWS has been worth every penny.  We are developing new attitudes that ought to make life easier for our children, no matter how we finally decide to handle the situation.

…I have been timidly bringing up the subject of home school to various people recently.  The response has been astonishing!  Not one person has indicated in any way that they consider the idea crazy, weird, or stupid!  One woman said wistfully, “If you decide to do this, will you take my children, too?”

…I’ve been thinking about your statement that most adults dislike and distrust children.  Could this be in part at least because we are seeing traits that we were taught to dislike and distrust in ourselves as children?  For example, children are constantly being told not to be so loud, noisy, etc.  How can they possibly grow up without the idea that they are less attractive or loved when they are noisy?…  I’ve noticed that the traits that bother me most in my own children are the ones that I considered to be my own worst faults as a child.  We want our own children to be perfect in every way and it makes us angry at them when they aren’t, especially when they have the same imperfections that we’ve hated in ourselves for years.

…My oldest daughter’s approach to a new concept sometimes reminds me of the family dog faced with a kitten in the middle of the living room floor.  She ccircles the idea suspiciously, says, “I can’t do that,” or “I can’t get it.”  At home, I can say, “Let’s put it away till later (or tomorrow).”  Two days later, something has clicked in her mind; it has become easy.  (The dog is now asleep curled up next to the kitten.)  Unfortunately, at school she isn’t given that rest period for things to click into place.

…Over the last few weeks I’ve been learning to loosen up and let the children do more and more for themselves and without my supervision.  If it’s something I just can’t stand to watch because of messiness, I turn my back or go into the other room.  It’s been a quiet joy for me to see how creative they can be when turned loose on their own…

WEAVING CLASS AT 5

Robin Leidhecker (PA) writes:

…Our local community college offers Adult Education classes.  I signed up for weaving and asked if my son could attend also.  They said, certainly, as long as he could pay attention.  It never occurred to me to mention that he was 5.  We shocked a few people, but he stayed and had a good time.  There were times he was bored and didn’t want to listen - but he said later he stayed to be polite (don’t we all?).  Once the teacher and other students got over their hangups about age and so forth, things went smoothly.  Not being able to write, Josh took no notes.  I was amazed at how much he has retained.  Also he asked a lot of basic questions that the others wouldn’t ask because they were “dumb.”  A good learning experience for all…

WORKING AT CO-OP

From Lynn Kapplow (MA):

…About kids working in a food co-op [GWS #27, page 11].  Ours have been doing it from the age of three.  At that age they did little, but whatever they did was appreciated by the staff and workers.  Today at 7 1/2 and 10 years, they are skilled workers.  They cut, weigh, price, package and stock cheese.  They price and stock various other foods.  The other week they bagged and priced chicken.  The older girl checks in people at the reception desk.  She looks up their membership cards, sees if they’ve fulfilled their work hours, okays their checks and answers the phone.  They help unload the delivery truck (heavy stuff).  They’ve learned a tremendous number of skills and they’re treated as any adult would be…

EXPERTS ON FARMING

From “Warning: Do Not Read First” by Kenneth H. Calvert in Learning, Nov. 1981:

…”These students can’t talk, much less read,” lamented the third grade teacher from a remote rural school in the South.  “They’re almost nonverbal.”  The teacher was at her wit’s end to come up with an instructional idea to motivate her students - 90 percent of whom were from low-income families, had never traveled outside their county, had never seen a shopping center, and would not have known what an escalator was.  In fact, they seemed to know so little about so many things, their teacher was at a complete loss to know how to begin to inspire them to learn.

As a visiting consultant, it was up to me to find the answer for this teacher and for the others like her who had gathered for an in-service meeting…

I began with the assumption that all students can talk about something they have experienced firsthand…

Most of the students in the third grade were from families engaged in tobacco farming; in fact, many of them were part of the work force…

I began the demonstration by saying to the students, “I am new to this area.  Pretend that I have bought a farm and want to learn how to grow tobacco.”  I really did know nothing about tobacco farming.  “Tell me what I would have to do first, then next, and so on.”

Those “nonverbal” students suddenly became so verbal that I had to interrupt to establish some order in their telling.  Vocabulary was no problem.  In fact, as they debated the steps to take and the details involved, they used some highly specialized vocabulary.  You can imagine their delight when I had to ask them for a definition of priming.

When they eventually agreed upon the steps necessary to grow tobacco, we reviewed the sequence and I outlined it on the chalkboard.  Then I posed a second question, “What should I remember not to do if I want to be a good tobacco farmer?”  Again, their precise knowledge was evident, and their ability to articulate it phenomenal, as they came to an agreement on a priority list for me…

…The teachers…had been observing from the back of the room with “we-can’t-believe-what-we’re-hearing” expressions on their faces…

CANNOT BAR CHILDREN

The Oakland Tribune, 2/12/82

…The California Supreme Court decision that landlords cannot legally refuse rental units to adults with children answers a question that should never have been asked.

…The court held that children, like minorities, have a right under the Unruh Civil Rights Act to be treated as individuals.  Thus, they must not be barred from living in rentals just because landlords see them as members of a troublesome class.

The prohibition against discrimination based on grounds of color, race, religion, ancestry or national origin also extends to age, the court said.  To allow discrimination on the basis of age could encourage other forms of discrimination…

A threat to the decision also exists in the possibility of it being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.  That threat could be removed and the court’s decision reinforced if the state Senate passes a measure sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman Leo T. McCarthy of San Francisco.

Exempting senior citizen housing, mobile-home parks restricted by regulations to adults only, and student housing, Assembly Bill 256 prohibits discrimination against children in the rental of all single family houses and dwelling complexes with two or more units.

The bill provides an approach adopted by other states including Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, and Massachusetts.

Nothing in the law would prevent landlords from evicting or penalizing families that allow children to damage apartments and impose on neighbors…

POTENTIAL ALLY IN CALIF.

It is too soon to say whether any of the newly elected state Governors will prove to be sympathetic or friendly to home schooling.  But there is some reason to believe that in one very imporrtant state, California, we may have a potential ally.  The new Governor, George Deukmejian, when he was state Attorney General, instituted a lawsuit a year or two ago against the Los Angeles County School District, naming among the Defendants the Superintendent of the County Schools, the members of the Board and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and charging them with having failed to provide even a physically safe environment for their students in the Los Angeles County Schools.  How the suit was resolved, and whether it did anything to make the Los Angeles schools safer, I don’t know.  But it certainly suggests that Mr. Deukmejian does not stand in any great awe of school officials, particularly in Los Angeles County, where these same officials seem right now to be trying to make things as hard as they can for home schoolers.

It might therefore not be a bad idea at all for home schoolers in California, and particularly in Los Angeles County, to write Governor-elect Deukmejian, congratulating him on his election, taking note of and sharing his past concern for the safety of children in schools (where there is a good deal of moral as well as physical danger), telling him a little about home schooling both in their own home and in the state in general, and saying that there seems to be a growing campaign in some counties, particularly Los Angeles County, to stamp out home schooling, and asking him whether he might consider taking some steps to bring these anti-home schooling campaigns to a halt.  [See also page 17.]

A similar letter writing campaign, adjusted to fit local conditions, might be helpful in other states where new Governors have been elected, or even in states where the incumbent Governor remains in office, especially if in those states home schoolers are having any trouble with state authorities.

Needless to say, if any of you, in California or any other state, get any replies from your Governor’s office, we would like very much to hear about them. - JH

SCHOOL SUPT. CONFERENCE

[DR:]  As we mentioned in GWS #28, the Massachusetts school committees and school superintendents invited John to take part in a workshop on home-schooling at their annual conference November 4, but he had a fee-paying speaking engagement that morning in New York, so I went in his place.  There were two others on the panel, a Mass. Department of Education official and Dr. Frizzle, the superintendent of the Amherst schools (the defendant in the Perchemlides case!).  The meeting was brief (slightly over one hour) and somewhat disorganized, so in some ways very little was accomplished.  But I did come away feeling I had learned a lot about the point of view of the school people.

Early in the meeting I asked how many of those present were from school districts with home-schoolers.  About two-thirds raised their hands!  I was pleasantly surprised and asked them what districts they were from.  Another small shock - they named many districts that we here at GWS had never heard had home-schoolers (which suggests that their home-schoolers do not know about us, either).  So, instead of the meeting being general information about home-schooling, it turned into an opportunity for those who have already dealt with home-schoolers to air their problems and worries.

For example, one school committee member whose district had approved a home-schooler was concerned about what would happen twelve years down the road.  If the school officials approved the education each year, wasn’t the child entitled to a diploma?  Some people at the meeting said no, but others said that graduation requirements are set by each district, so if a district wanted to grant a diploma, they could.  This particular man thought the family should protect itself by getting something in writing on this question, since administrators and school board members come and go.

Someone else wanted to know if he should allow home-schooled kids to take part in school programs.  Again, some people at the meeting were immediately negative, implying that he couldn’t or shouldn’t.  But another man spoke up, saying his school district was glad to let home-schoolers participate, and others nodded in agreement.

One man asked whether the superintendent or school committee should make the decision to approve home-schoolers (Mass. law leaves it open).  Dr. Frizzle felt that the superintendent and school district staff, being professional educators, were more qualified to judge individual educational programs than were school committee members.

Questions about testing were raised - what should they do if a family refused to have their children tested, what if the child did not show any progress on the tests, etc.  (I answered that by reading the judge’s footnote in the Perchemlides case, “…It makes sense to remember that we do not remove our children from public school when they fail tests.”)

A couple of general observations about the tone of the meeting.  One, I was struck by how much energy these people were putting into the whole issue.  They felt that the education of each child in their town was their serious responsibility, and they seemed afraid that home-schooled children were going to be poorly educated unless watched very closely.  It seemed almost ludicrous for them to focus so much attention on so few - I am certain some of them knew more details about home-schooled children than they knew about most of the kids enrolled in their own schools!

Second, they were really looking for guidance.  They kept asking, “What should we do about…  How do we handle…  What do we do about…”  They were not always happy to hear that no one knew the solution to their problem, or that it was up to them to work something out.  Several times it was suggested that the State should formulate more guidelines, procedures, etc.  Some of these people had spent a lot of time negotiating various home-schooling arrangements, especially over the issues of testing and monitoring, and I think they were picturing future floods of home-schoolers demanding even more time, so they wanted a standard policy to remove this responsibility from their shoulders.  On the other hand, Dr. Frizzle and several others spoke up for the advantages of local control - they did not want the State looking over their shoulders and interfering on this or other educational matters, any more than necessary.

It’s clear to me that the experiences of the first home-schooling families in each town will affect how much control the officials exercise and what kind of policies they establish for future home-schoolers.  All the more reason for home-schoolers, in their initial proposals, to set up their home-schooling the way they want it to be.

LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL

[JH:]  Until now, home schoolers have not pursued a very active policy in the state legislatures, and with good reason; if the education laws as they stand, however unsatisfactory, make home schooling possible, why tinker with them?  Above all since, as Egon Tausch points out elsewhere in this issue, the education organizations have vastly more spending and lobbying power than we do.  Why thrust ourselves into such unequal contests?  Instead, we have contented ourselves with trying, on the whole fairly successfully, to prevent the legislatures from passing laws that would make home schooling difficult or impossible.

For a number of reasons I think it may now be time for us, at least in some states, to take a more active position.  Though the vagueness of the education laws has made it possible for home schoolers in all states to find ways to teach their own children, our position is still a bit precarious.  We face always the possibility that a single court decision, or even, as in some states, the ruling of an Attorney General, will so interpret the law as to cut the legal ground out from under our feet.  Of course, vague education laws that make home schooling possible are better than clear ones that make it impossible.  But best of all would be laws that state specifically and unambiguously that parents may, without undue restrictions or interference, teach their own children.  Until fairly recently I would have said that there was so little chance of getting such laws passed that it was hardly worthwhile making the effort.  Now I am not so sure.

For one thing, we have the example of the Louisiana and Arizona legislatures, which within the past year or two have passed the most explicitly pro-home schooling laws that we have anywhere in the country.  The Arizona experience is particularly significant and hopeful.  In Louisiana some of the legislators, in voting in favor of home schooling, may to some degree have been influenced by their opposition to city-wide busing plans, but as far as I know, in Arizona this was not an issue.  The Arizona law, again at least as far as I know, was not introduced primarily because of a large amount of organized home schooling activity around the state.  There had in fact not been a great deal of such activity - though of course there is much more now.  When the bill was introduced, the Arizona home schoolers who wrote us about it said that they did not think it had much chance to pass.  It was strongly opposed by all the major newspapers in the state, and by all the teachers’ and other educational organizations and lobbies.  Yet it became law.  If it can happen there, why not in other states?  Perhaps we have been a litttle more timid than we actually need or ought to be.

All these thoughts came to a boil in my mind when, not long ago, I received a call from some home schoolers in a mid-Western state (which I won’t name just yet), in which there has not been up till now much home schooling activity.  The caller said that a prominent legislator had expressed great interest in introducing a pro-home schooling bill, and what is even more surprising and encouraging, that the Governor had said that he approved of the idea of such a bill and would sign it.  What should they do next?  What kind of bill should they try to get?

So I began to think about, and soon to try to draft, the kind of bill we might like to have if we could have everything we wanted.  By the time I finished the draft, I was convinced, and have been ever since, that such a model of legislation might be very useful to us in a number of ways.  Of course, we can’t expect any legislature to pass it in exactly this form.  But one of the things that lobbyists do for legislators is draft bills, on the principle that you are more likely to get what you want in the final bill if you begin with the bill you want.  It is better to give the legislators a completely drafted bill to work from than a blank sheet of paper.

There may be other advantages, as well.  We’ve said often, and will say again, that it is a very good idea for as many home schooling families as possible, with their children, to meet their own state representatives.  If such meetings are friendly, they are likely to end with the legislator saying, “What would you like me to do?”  Asking them to try to prevent anti-home-schooling laws from being passed is a fairly weak answer, not least of all becuase that kind of law is not likely to bear that kind of label.  A much stronger answer would be to say, “Here is the kind of law we would someday like to see in this state.  Anything that you can do that you think might help get such a law introduced and passed would be a great help to us.”  How much or what the legislators may want to do about this will be up to them to decide.  But at least we will have a specific proposal to talk about.

Since most people think that talking about real laws is more practical and interesting than just talking about ideas, having such a law to talk about may help us get more of all kinds of publicity.  Finally, it will give us something about which we can talk to school people themselves.  We can say to them, “This law will help rather than hurt the schools; how can we work with you to get it introduced and passed.”  Such a specific proposal is much more likely to lead to useful conversations than vague wonderings or arguings about whether or not home schooling is a good thing.

Here, then, is the  proposed draft of model home schooling legislation, along with some brief explanatory comments, that I sent to our friends in the Mid-west.  We are eager to hear what you think of the draft, what use you make of it, what responses you get to it.

_______________________________

PRELIMINARY DRAFT OF PROPOSED HOME SCHOOLING LEGISLATION

I.    It shall be the intent and purpose of the education laws and regulations of this state to give full encouragement and support to those parents and families who wish for whatever reasons to teach their children, in their homes, and in such other places, and by such other means, as shall seem to them useful and appropriate, and nothing in the school attendance or other laws and regulations of this state shall be construed so as (1) to deny, or severely or unduly restrict, the right of such parents and families so to teach their children, or (2) to give the state and its agencies, or any school district or districts within the state, the right to impose on these home-educated or otherwise privately instructed children a uniform curriculum or method or methods of instruction or evaluation.
II.    Nor shall these laws and regulations be construed so as to deny to schools the right (1) to carry such home educated students on their pupil rolls, designating them as taking part in programs of Special Education or Independent Study or such other title as may seem appropriate, and (2) to receive for them such state, federal, or other per-pupil financial and other assistance as the schools may receive for all those pupils whose instruction is generally or mainly carried on within the actual buildings of the school.
III.    Nor shall such laws and regulations be construed so as to deny to such home-educated children the right to use, during school hours and subject only to reasonable restrictions, the school buildings and their personnel, facilities, resources, classes, and activities, at such times and in such ways as they may choose (i.e., by using a library or shop or laboratory, enrolling in a particular class, singing in a chorus, playing in an orchestra or band, taking part in sports, etc.), or, if they request, to receive from the schools whatever textbooks and other curricular materials the schools ordinarily supply to their students.
IV.    The state and/or the school districts and schools shall have the right to require those parents or families wishing to educate their children at home to submit for examination and approval, either to the school districts or schools or to a designated person or agency within the state government, a written educational plan, stating in general and wherever possible specific terms what subjects or materials they intend to teach or present to their children, how they intend to teach them or assist the children to learn them, and how they intend to observe and evaluate this learning.
V.    In monitoring and evaluating this learning the parents and schools may use, but shall not be compelled to use or restricted to using, such standardized achievement tests and other commercially published tests as are generally used in schools.  But other possible and permissible means of evaluation shall include such things as a daily, weekly, or other regular description of the child’s work and activities, including where possible actual samples of such work, or essays written by the children in response to questions or on subjects of their own choosing, or work done in and for other correspondence schools.
VI.    If the state, or local school districts or schools, do not approve a home education plan submitted to them, they shall state in as specific terms as possible their resons for disapproving of this plan, and in addition, all those changes in the plan which, if made, would make it acceptable.  In all such disputes over the merits of an educational plan, the state and local school districts or schools shall accord to the parents or families involved full rights of due process; i.e., the parents or families shall be entitled to a hearing to hear objections to their plan and to defend its merits, shall be entitled to representation by counsel or other persons of their own choosing, shall have the right to examine and question witnesses testifying against them, to present expert witnesses on their own behalf, and so on.
VII.    In all cases where, after such hearings, the local school districts or schools have refused to approve the parents’ or families’ educational plan, and before any action may be taken in the courts against these parents or families, they shall have the right to appeal the decision of the local school districts or schools to an appropriate and designated agency of the state.
VIII.    In all such cases of disagreement or dispute, the burden of proof shall be on the state or local school districts or schools to show that the educational plan submitted by the parents or family is inadequate, and to show further that, for any requirements of time, place, teaching personnel, curriculum, method, evaluation, etc. that they may wish to impose on the parents or family there is a compelling need for such requirements, i.e. that there is beyond reasonable doubt a strong probability that in the absence of such requirements the children so taught will receive an education significantly inferior to that received by the majority of children regularly attending the public schools.
IX.    In all such cases of disagreement or dispute, the state or local school districts or schools shall not use charges of child abuse or neglect, or the threat of such charges, to compel the parents or family to accept its requirements.

______________________________________________

[JH:]  This proposed legislation, if passed, will (1) Clarify beyond possibility of doubt the legal status of home education (2) Satisfy several of the schools’ chief objections to it (3) Enact in legislation several principles already established in many rulings of federal and state courts (4) Protect the Constitutional rights of home schooling parents and families (5) Establish in law a pattern of mutually beneficial cooperation between schools and home educating families that already exists in some school districts and that we may hope will soon exist in all (6) Relieve the courts of the burden of much needless litigation.

Section I states so clearly the intent of the legislature with respect to home schooling that no schools, administrative agencies, or courts will have any need or reason to guess about them.  Section I, 2) only states what the U. S. Supreme Court stated almost sixty years ago in Pierce v. Society of Sisters and in Farrington v. Tokushige.

Section II is an essential part of this legislation, since under it schools need no longer fear that every increase in home schooling can only mean a corresponding decrease in their budgets and a threat to their jobs.

Section III establishes in law the sound and just principle that people whose taxes support the schools should be entitled to use them as much or as little as they please.  Nothing in law, logic, or equity supports the idea that children must be in school full time or not at all.  This section also meets schools’ worries about home educated children’s “social life.”  Children who can go to school when they wish will be able to get as much of its social life as they want and need.

Section IV protects both children and the state from the possibility that indifferent or incompetent parents might, under the guise of home schooling, neglect, exploit, or otherwise injure their children.  Such parents could not satisfy the requirements of this section and most of them would almost certainly not even try.

Since many educators now seriously doubt the validity of standardized tests, Section V allows for other methods of evaluation, some already in use.

Section VI only says what has been said on numerous occasions by the courts.

Section VII sets forth a procedure now used in several states, which reduces the possibility that overburdened courts will have to deal with questions often better dealt with at an administrative level.

Section VIII underscores the principle of the Assumption of Innocence that lies at the heart of our legal system and that has often been upheld by the courts.

Section IX, again, only says what has already been said by several state courts.

It would be very encouraging and helpful, to put it mildly, if in some states we could get laws passed that one way or another embodied all nine sections of this draft.  But it would be almost as good if we could get into law any one or combination of the first three sections.  And any one of the other sections, even if it alone was added to existing law, would greatly improve our position.  So we can think of ourselves as trying to get passed, not just this law as a whole, but any part of it, particularly sections I - III.  This gives us something to fall back on.  If a legislator says, “You’ve got too much in here,” we can always say, “OK, try to get us the first three, or if that seems too much, just the first two.”

It will probably be very helpful if we say to the public that since this proposed legislation meets the most serious objections of most educators to home schooling, and since there is nothing in it for schools to fear, there is no reason why educators of all kinds should not support it, and that we are eager to get as many as possible to do so.  Such a bill can and should begin a period of very fruitful cooperation between schools and home schoolers, from which all stand to gain.

UNCERTIFIED IN TOP SCHOOLS

[JH:]  To Richard Moore, an attorney who is defending a number of home and/or private schooling families in Nebraska, I made a suggestion that might be useful to other families whose right to teach their own children is being challenged on the grounds that they do not hold teacher’s certificates:

…For a listing of some of the country’s top ranked independent elementary and secondary schools, you could wirte the National Association of Independent Schools, 18 Tremont St., Boston.  Some names of famous and outstanding schools are Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH; Philips Academy, Andover MA; Deerfield Academy, Deerfield MA; Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville NJ; St. Paul’s School, Concord NH; Groton School, Groton MA; Hotchkiss School, Lakeville CT; Choate School, Wallingford CT; Hill School, Pottstown PA; Milton Academy, Milton MA.  You could of course add many other names to this list, but these will probably be enough to establish the point, that the “best” schools in the country, the schools to which the richest and most powerful people send their children (if they can get in), the schools which consistently send the highest proportion of their students to the top-ranked colleges, do not hire teachers with education degrees - with the possible and very rare exceptions of people who hold additional degrees in what I would call “real” subjects - English, mathematics, physics, German, etc.  And the same would of course be true for our leading private and state universities…

LEGAL STRATEGIES

[JH:]  To the letter to Mr. Moore I added these legal suggestions, which we have mentioned before in GWS in one form or another, but which are worth mentioning again:

…Where a possible infringement of a Constitutionally protected right is concerned, it is not enough for the state to claim, as of course it will, that it has reasons for doing what it does, or for demanding - in this case, of parents - what it demands.  It must show that those reasons are good and indeed necessary reasons, that there is in fact what many courts have called a “compelling need” for them.  And it must show that the ends it wishes to serve through its regulations, in this case protecting the quality of children’s education, are not only constitutionally permissible ends, but that they cannot be served in some other way which infringes less on the parents’ rights.

…There is, I believe, a very strong case to be made, in taking these matters to the Federal courts, for trying to get the narrowest possible ruling that will serve your clients’ interests, rather than seeking for a very broad one.  For even if you get a favorable ruling from a lower Federal court, if it is too broad the state educational authorities will surely appeal it to the Supreme Court, and in these matters I am very uneasy about that court.  In conflicts between the power of the state and the rights of individual citizens they tend to come down on the side of the state - they are strongly and consistently anti-libertarian.  Also a clear majority of the Court is for various reasons strongly committed to the existence of public schools, and are very unlikely to make any ruling which they feel (as the schools are sure to claim) may seriously threaten the existence of public schools as such.

What I would hope for would be to win in a lower Federal court, but on narrow enough grounds so that the Supreme Court would not feel the case was important enough to consider.  Thus, while the Supreme Court will surely not deny to the states the right to exercise some control over private schools, it may be willing to rule, or let stand the ruling of a lower court, that wherever such control infringes on parental rights the state must show a compelling need for doing so.  To take a more specific example, the Supreme Court would almost surely reaffirm Pierce in saying that the states had the right to assure themselves in one way or another of the quality of teachers.  But they might say, first, that requiring teachers to be certified did not in fact meet this need, and that even if it did, the same need could be met in other ways that infringed less on parents’ rights…

ON RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS

From John Eidsmoe, one of our “Friendly Lawyers” (GWS #27):

…On page 14 of GWS #28, the question was raised as to whether one can form a religious private school if he does not belong to an established religion.  The real question is not whether one can establish a religious private school, but whether one may use the First Amendment religious liberty Constitutional defense if one is charged with violating the state compulsory attendance laws.

I know of no case directly on point, but one which might be helpful is State of Ohio ex rel. Nagle vs. Olin, 415 N.E. 2d 279, decided by the Supreme Court of Ohio on December 30, 1980.  Olin called himself a “born again” Christian, but he did not belong to any organized religious denomination.  He wanted to send his daughter to an Amish school, but the state refused to allow this, claiming that only the Amish were exempt from compulsory attendance laws under the Yoder decision.  The lower court convicted him and refused to recognize a free exercise of religion defense, arguing that his beliefs could not be considered “religious” because he was not affiliated with a denomination.  But the Supreme Court of Ohio disagreed, saying:

The fact that his beliefs are not in total conformity with those of the Amish or any other organized religion does not make them any less religious, or his sincerity in them any less real.  Olin’s beliefs are rooted in the Bible and his interpretation of it; not in secular consideration.  It was not contended that Olin’s profession or belief was a sham or subterfuge adopted in order to avoid the obligation of sending Jennifer to a state-charted school.  Despite the delicacy of the question whether particular beliefs are “religious,” the only finding justified on this record is that Olin’s beliefs grow out of deep religious conviction, are truly held, and are entitled to the protection of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

It is, of course, necessary to clearly demonstrate a religious basis for one’s objection to public education by citing religious authorities, such as the Bible…

LEGAL MANUALS
Ann Bodine (NJ) writes:

…I have found a very good resource for those with legal problems.  It’s one of the Citizens Legal Manual series published by HALT, ‘An Organization of Americans for Legal Reform,’ (Suite 319, 201 Mass. Av NE, Washington DC 20002).  The title is USING A LAW LIBRARY and it gives detailed and easy-to-follow instructions for doing legal research…
___________________________

[DR:]  We sent for HALT’s literature, and found that the group is promoting such interesting and needed legal reforms as “plain language legislation” and mediation as an alternative to courtrooms.  Members ($15/year) receive a newsletter and five manuals, which besides the one Anne mentions include “Shopping for a Lawyer,” “Real Estate,” “Small Claims Court,” and “Probate.”  HALT is also developing a “legal assistance referral network.”

Looks like a good opportunity for GWS readers not only to educate themselves in order to get approval for home-schooling, but also to learn about many other legal issues and possibly become involved in improving the entire system.

SUCCESS IN N.H.

Pearlene Gavlik (NH) writes:

…We moved to Winchester on May 15th and hid out for the remainder of the school year.  On July 2nd, I mailed out a 60-page typewritten home-study application…

Three weeks later, the assistant superintendent called me.  He was very impressed with my report.  He said I was the first ever to apply in Winchester, so he wasn’t too sure of the regulations.  He said the board would have to make the decision.  The meeting wouldn’t be until September 16th.  He asked if that would cause me any problems.  I hesitated at this point….  He caught the pause, and said that of course he would not insist I send my children to school in the meantime.  So, I said there would be no problem.

The board meeting came, and we attended it.  The assistant superintendent introduced our case to the board in private executive session.  He explained the basic guidelines for approving home-study programs and that we had submitted a very detailed application to him.  He said that any possible question they could think to ask was already answered in my report.

They still wanted to know what our “manifest educational hardship” was.  I gave them a brief summary of some of the more important points, e.g., Sherry’s learning disability and the boys being able to progress at a faster rate at home at their own pace according to their interests.  The board also wanted to know how the children’s “social” life was going to be satisfied.  I told them that they played with friends after school, met people at their Mineralogy Club and went on field trips with other home schoolers in the area.

Seeing that their attitude seemed to be responsive, I asked what their opinion would be in offering my children selected subjects, such as welding, that interest them.  They were very open to this idea, saying they were looking for the best possible education for my children.  The meeting ended with the superintendent asking the board to read my report before making their decision, highly recommending they approve it.

About six days later, the superintendent called me, informing me the board had approved it and that an annual evaluation would be necessary along with my portfolio.  Then he asked me if that would be all right; I did expect it, didn’t I?  I told him that would be fine and thanked him.

Three cheers for Winchester!!  I can’t believe the humble, cooperative attitude the people have here…  If anyone is looking for a receptive place to move to get away from bureaucrats, I would highly recommend Winchester, Keene, and Gilsum.  There are a lot of home schoolers here and the people are so warm and friendly.  The Keene superintendent even supported home-study openly on the radio…

LISTING RESOURCE PEOPLE

From the successful home-schooling proposal of Kate Gilday of Montague, Mass., which drew heavily on the Kendricks’ letter [GWS #12]:

…To encourage true learning we will provide a calm, positive atmosphere, learning materials appropriate to Suzanne’s needs, and access to friends, teachers and community resources…  We have…been fortunate to have the following people offer their time and assistance in adding to Suzanne’s home-schooling experience:

1.  Lawrence and Helen Wheeler both have Native American ancestry and have lived on Chestnut Hill most of their lives.  Their information and perceptions of the past fifty years are valuable and important in Suzanne’s understanding of the history of our town, state, and country.  The richness and knowledge these folks have to share are very special resources.

2.  Marna Bunce will be our resource person for reading and language skills.

3.  Kathy Burbank, R.N., is a praticing nurse for the University Health Care Facility at the University of Massachusetts.  She will share her knowledge of Health and Nutrition and well-being during the year.

4.  Anne Williamson, former director of the Greenfield Library and curator of the Special Collections of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost and others at the Jones Library of Amherst, will be sharing her assistance and knowledge in poetry and language arts as well as guiding us to the realization of the fullness of the library as a resource center.

5.  Nancy Darmstader of the Hitchcock Center in Amherst will be our Natural Science resource person for the year.  Her knowledge plus that of my own in this field, which I have gained through the past two years of researching and leading workshops in Science and Nature for early childhood educators in western Mass., will be shared through the seasons.

6.  John Hayman will guide us through any math problems we may meet.

There are many other folks with skills and resources who have offered to be available to Suzanne if and when she needs them, among them a film-maker, food cooperative manager, computer technician, potter, and farmer…

BUSY IN ITHACA

From Nancy Wallace (NY):

…The kids now go to school on Fridays.  They hate to be teased about this, but I can’t help making cracks as they bound cheerfully into their classroom without even saying good-bye.  Actually, what they are doing is spending two hours a week in a delightful art room, run by a friend of ours, Carolyn Fellman.  The room is just cluttered with art materials and busy children - everybody is happy except the janitor, who is going crazy with clay on the walls, paper scraps all over the floor, etc.  The kids are so happy in Carolyn’s room that she has to physically push them back into their regular classrooms when it is time.  Vita and Ishmael have been making all kinds of things - pots on the potter’s wheel, masks, paintings, sculptures, and so on.  Yet despite all their pleasure, I  don’t think I would send them to school for more than two hours a week…  Carolyn’s room is like an oasis - a haven from the “real world” of school - and so far, neither Vita nor Ishmael have needed “havens” in their lives - the whole world that they experience has been a thing of wonder…

The kids are also taking a German class with a German lady who was a language teacher in junior high, and who now teaches outside of school in order to experiment with ways of exciting children’s interest in foreign language.  This class that she is teaching has about 6 kids in it, ranging in age from 7 to 12, and they play German games, recite poetry, have tea parties, and generally have a great time - all in German.  I’m really surprised at how much Vita and Ishmael are learning - after only two classes, they can say all sorts of things in German, and they are always asking, “How many more days until German?”

Ishmael, meanwhile, is studying music composition with a recent composition graduate from Cornell.  Ishmael adores him, although I have grave reservations because he gives Ishmael so much homework that he has hardly any time to compose.  In any case they are analyzing music from Gregorian chants to Debussy to Ravi Shankar, and Ishmael is getting a full scale graduate course in melody and harmony.  Mostly, I have no idea what they are doing, with their sequences, modulations and chordal structures, but Ishmael seems extremely happy during lessons.  He also takes music theory lessons from a woman up the street and she is teaching him “solfege,” among other things…  She has organized a girls’ chorus which Vita has joined, and that seems to be a lot of fun, too.

Vita has joined a “beginning reading” orchestra which meets on Saturdays and is full of kids about her age or older who are just beginning to read music.  They all sound quite good, considering, and Vita just loves sitting behind a music stand.  Boy, does she feel important!  She has been working awfully hard on the violin, and it really shows…

The other day, Vita measured the width of one piano key, and then she measured the length of the entire keyboard, saying to herself, “If one key is __ of an inch and the entire keyboard is __ inches, how many keys are there altogether?”  Just how wide the keys are, or how long the keyboard is, I don’t know, and even whether Vita solved the problem, I don’t know, because I tuned her out (terrible me!) - I really wasn’t interested.  A couple of years ago I would have felt guilty at missing an opportunity for a good math lesson, but more and more I’ve come to see that if Vita’s interested in something, she’ll pursue it; she doesn’t need me.  And if I’m interested in something, she’ll either share my interest or not.  (Actually, she often shares my interests, or Bob’s, just because she enjoys doing things with us, as does Ishmael.)  But back to math - yesterday at lunch we had a cottage cheese carton on the table and she read, “Serving size…1/2 cup; servings per container…4.”  Then after a moment, she exclaimed, “There are two cups of cottage cheese in this carton!”
I guess my point is that for a long time I thought that math was different from language in that while words were everywhere, numbers were only in certain rare places.  Obviously that isn’t true, since Vita can manage to find numbers to puzzle over almost anywhere…

At Ishmael’s piano lessons with his new teacher, the two of them practically jump around in excitement - she, hopping up and down to show Ishmael all her favorite pieces and Ishmael edging her aside so that he can try and play them.  Right now they are working on a Mozart Sonata, some Chopin Preludes, some Schubert dances, a Grieg piece and some Bartok pieces from the Mikrokosmos Album No. 4.  What a new world of music.
Which reminds me.  Many GWS parents seem to be teaching their kids piano and I think they’d be glad to know about the Mikrokosmos series, especially since it is “graded” - Bartok wrote the books specifically as instructional material for children (and adults) and the first book seems like an ideal beginner’s book - I don’t know why more teachers don’t use it…

LEARNING IN THE GARDEN

From a column by Peg Boyles in the New Hampshire Times, 8/30/82:

…Molly (6) practically grew up in the garden.  She paid her first visit there when only a couple of hours old, and spent countless hours there her first summer, tucked snugly into a front baby carrier while I weeded, hoed and harvested.  Every year since, her knowledge of the world at large deepens through her connection to this small productive space.  And there is no doubt in her mind that her own contributions are important to the entire household’s well-being - every day of the year we eat food that she has helped to plant, tend, harvest, preserve and prepare.

For example she knows the name of nearly every food plant that will grow in New Hampshire, and most of the local wild plants, too.  She can identify almost all of them at any stage of their development or by blossom, leaf or seed alone.  She can harvest any fruit or vegetable crop we grow at its perfect peak of ripeness, yet carefully, to avoid injury to the rest of the plant.  She knows about how far apart various kinds of plants must stand from each in beds or rows in order to yield well (for these and other ordinary tasks, she has learned to use a tape measure and also to judge distances by eye).

She can recognize about 15 different insects, both friends and foes, and knows most of their life cycles.  The sight of an unknown species brings her running for the field guide “so we can look it up.”  She knows that soil is made from weathered rock and the remains of once-living matter, and that plants draw up minerals and water to help convert sunlight in their green leaves to make food.  She already has learned more about human nutrition than most adults.  (”No, mom, I don’t need any yogurt for supper.  I had scrambled eggs for protein and ate cooked broccoli and a lot of blackberries for calcium - remember you said the cabbage family and blackberries contain a lot of calcium?”)

Molly’s questions about foods that don’t grow around here - bananas, oranges, rice - have led quite naturally to explorations of atlases and globes (and one hilarious conversation about the solar system, which sent me running around the kitchen using a variety of reasonably round fruits to explain planetary motion, night and day, and the progression of the seasons).  We’ve recently begun raiding public libraries for more information on other cultures to explain how the same features of climate and geography that cause various foods to grow in a region also influence the people’s dress, architecture and customs…

AT HOME IN OHIO…

Judy Ann Stevenson (OH) wrote:

…My main problem at first was managing my housework, canning, freezing, sewing, bread baking, time for me, and 1 1/2 hours of school.  After the first two weeks of a pre-ulcer stomach, I delegated more work to each child that rotates daily.  They each already had daily chores and rooms to keep reasonable.  I bought a spray bottle of cleaner.  I poured two-thirds out and diluted the rest with water…  They don’t mind cleaning the bath, kitchen, splattered walls, floors and messes.  I don’t mind if they do either!  Also vacuuming, dusting and some ironing are done by them.  On the days I clean (whenever I get to it), they have the day off.

Our school starts at 10 a.m.  Most of the time the kids have completed half their work before that, but I am unavailable.  I do my own chores.  For 1 1/2 hours I am in constant use for their educational needs.  Then Matthew usually fixes lunch, but the others are beginning to do that, too.  Sometimes after lunch we have discussions about science, health, electronics or motors.  On the latter the boys talk, I listen.  They are the teachers, and I try to grasp their unknown-to-me vocabulary of such topics.  Each evening I am their TV.  Carl says I am better than TV, because his imagination creates the scenes I have read.  Yes, I read 2 to 3 hours almost nightly.  Don’t tell the kids about the education they are receiving without their knowledge!  I love to read aloud and must say that is one talent I have that school didn’t destroy…

Three other families have received permission in this county to teach their children at home, all for religious reasons…  Two more that I know of will apply next year.  I was first and the others saw it in the papers…

…AND B.C.

From Terry Faubert (B.C.):

…One of the neatest things I’ve found about home “teaching” is how much I’ve learned about the world and how it functions.  Jody’s curiosity and probing have awakened questions in me that have long remained unanswered.  Just how exactly does a zipper work?  And what is a comet?!  And why don’t spiders stick to their own webs?!  Three months ago I couldn’t answer any of those, but now I can, and so much more.  My knowledge seems to be increasing so that it’s really a joke to say that I’m teaching him at home.  We’re learning together - as much outside our home as in it.

Once a week we try to go swimming, or biking, or skating.  Jody has a two hour introduction to music class once a week in which he gets to use the recorder and ukelele.  I “teach” kindergym one morning a week, and Jody spends one or two mornings per week doing gym, art, or drama at an alternative school here (Sundance) which is very supportive of home “teaching.”

All of that more than fills up our time.  It’s so nice to have the flexibility to drop everything and go kite-flying when the weather is right and to be able to take advantage of the many resources available.  The Art Gallery has fantastic “hands-on” kids days, the nature center has microscopes available for use, the museum here is excellent and free, and of course, what would we do without the library?

Sundance School has been helpful too - Jody enjoys the activities he does there, they’ve provided us with some good books, we’ve met interesting people, plus, of course, they provide us with a legal cover (I’m not sure how necessary that is, but I feel a bit vulnerable since the government supplements my income).  Sundance is your basic ungraded, non-competitive free school.  The children are in “family groupings” of twenty kids, aged five to twelve, and choose which of five “offerings” they want to go to each hour.  But somehow the social life is very destructive.  That surprises and baffles me.  I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps the mere fact of having 100 children together in one place is unnatural and causes negative behaviour.  Whatever the reason, Jody has had more children do “mean things” to him there than in the many and varied contacts he’s had previously with children of all ages.  While I don’t think one morning a week will have too much impact, I would like to convince Jody to spend that time elsewhere.  Right now he’s really into it; after Christmas, or rather during the holidays, I intend to raise it again.

Jody has already wiped out any fears I had that he might not learn things on his own.  Several weeks ago he asked me to show him how to print small letters (he could read them but had only formed capitals).  I was in the middle of something, so I printed the alphabet on his blackboard and went back to it.  A good half-hour later, Jody called me to see what he had done.  I was astounded - he had copied the whole thing, every letter perfectly done!  Then, for about a week and a half, he seemed to have some sort of inner need to write out the alphabet five or so times a day.  He would sometimes sit and copy it three times, using a different color for each alphabet, add his name and a kiss and a hug, fold it all up, put it in an envelope, put on his mailman’s hat and deliver it to me.  I marvelled at how different his approach was to that of someone forced to practice their printing.

Science is something else Jody loves.  Playing with magnets, using a magnifying glass, doing experiments, are some of his favorite activities.  This past summer we were privileged to have a tiger swallowtail butterfly emerge from a found chrysallis, to watch a tent caterpillar spin a cocoon and emerge a moth, and to have at one time, two newts, a treefrog, a toad, and a frog stay at our house.  All were carefully cared for a few weeks and released in a sanctuary.

Every month we focus on a country - finding it on the globe, cooking some of its food, visiting a restaurant, getting out a couple of books on it from the library, and doing anything else that seems relevant.  What an enjoyable way to learn!

There are about a half-dozen home schooling families that I’m aware of in Victoria.  I’m trying to pull together a meeting for mid-November - a support group would sure be nice, for kids as well as parents.  I’ll let you know what happens…

READING VS. DOING

Kyle Shumate (VA) wrote:

…Unfortunately, my husband and I don’t see eye to eye on the homeschooling issue.  We began talking one evening about the upcoming school year.  My husband started going on and on about how our daughter (5 1/2) just “isn’t doing anything.  She should be reading,” and so on.  For the hundredth time, I tried to explain my views on what “learning” is, but to no avail.  Her accomplishments at her tender age should be listed as: she says a most beautiful blessing at every meal, she’s open and honest, she’s loving and sensitive, she shows such love and patience with her “terrific two’s” sister.  They share a relationship that’s almost unbelievable.  At least it is to my schooling friends.

I tried to explain that her achievements should not be how well she can read or memorize, following everyone else, raising her hand; “book learning,” so to speak.  The discussion became hot and heavy, and I decided it was time to change the subject.

“Let’s talk about our dream house that we want to build,” I said.  I suggested that we go to the library and begin learning all about building a house, solar heating, organic gardening, etc., etc.  “Oh, Kyle!” he said in exasperation.  “We just can’t get much from reading books.  You have to get out there and do it!”  I smiled as I saw the light bulb click over his head!…

ON QUESTIONS

Christine Hilston (OH) sent this quote from editor Robert Rodale in Organic Gardening, 10/82:

…When you are in school, you are asked the questions, and are expected to be able to find the answers.  Presumably, when you are sufficiently filled up with correct answers, you are educated, and then released.

I now believe, though, that real learning occurs when you become able to ask important questions.  Then you are on the doorstep of wisdom, because by asking important questions you project your mind into the exploration of new territory.  In my experience, very few people have learned how important is the asking of good questions, and even fewer have made a habit of asking them.  Even in my own case, I had to wait until I’d almost totally forgotten the experience of schooling to be able to switch my mind into the asking as well as the answering mode…

FROM REVISED “FAIL”

Some more quotes from the revised HOW CHILDREN FAIL (See GWS #27; available here for $5.35 + postage):

…It is just as true of intelligence as it has always been true of school subjects that teaching - “I know something you should know and I’m going to try to make you learn it” - is above all else what prevents learning.  We don’t have to make human beings smart.  They are born smart.  All we have to do is stop doing the things that make them stupid.

…I now realize that when we keep trying to find out what our students understand we are more likely than not to destroy whatever understanding they may have.  Not until people get very secure in their knowledge and very skillful in talking about it - which rules out almost all young children - is there much point in asking them to talk about what they know, and how they know they know it.  The closest we can come to finding out what children really know - and it’s not very close - is to watch what they do when they are free to do what interests them most.

…If the schools could only learn to recognize, to value, and to foster courage in children, a great many of their most serious problems, not just of learning but also of discipline, would be well on the road toward a solution…

NATURAL PRAISE

To a mother who was concerned about her daughter’s addiction to schoolwork and praise, Donna wrote:

…If she likes to work out of workbooks, let her, and answer her questions if she has them, but leave it at that.  As long as she’s enjoying herself, great.  If she really likes stars, stickers, etc, and she asks you for them, well, they don’t cost very much, and they are kind of cute, so let her buy them with her own money, and stick them on herself.  I think she’ll get tired of them before long.

…When she first tried to walk or talk, you didn’t worry about how much praise or encouragement to give her.  You were excited about it, and that is natural praise, and she could see the results, which are more effective than anybody’s praise.

So my advice on the praise question is, just be honest.  If you like something, say so.  If you don’t like it, well, maybe say so, or wait for a good time to make a suggestion about it, or forget the whole thing and let time take its course…

TALKING TO YOURSELF

From “Go Ahead and Talk to Yourself,” an article in the N.J. Unschoolers Network newsletter, issue #12:

…Under the pressure of trying to add a column of figures or find a phone number quickly, lots of people start talking to themselves.  Family Weekly magazine recently ran a piece about a psychology professor who videotaped 38 pre-schoolers while they were putting a jigsaw puzzle together.  The professor found that the children who talked to themselves did the puzzle faster than the others.

She believes that their mutterings as they work helped them to reinforce thoughts that they already had, but that weren’t fully formed.  She also added that this useful tool for thinking through a problem is trained out of children at school age;  they’re told not to talk while they work…

A MOTHER EXPLORES

Kate Kerman (MI) wrote in Mothering Magazine, Spring, ‘82:

…I work on my own projects in and out of school times.  Over the past two years I have felt a surge in my own creative forces and have happily explored things I never dared try before - drawing, poetry, songwriting, Tai Chi - and some I’ve wanted to try for years - playing the hammer dulcimer, typesetting and printing, and developing photographs.  Often the kids join me as I learn new skills, but whether they participate directly or not, the important point is that I create space and time to keep my mind and body alive and learning so they can see learning as a lifelong engagement.  In turn, as I live with my children I have at the same time been humbled and freed by their joyful curiosity and intense emotions as they reach out to establish themselves as increasingly competent human beings…

OUTDOOR EDUCATION

We have learned about several outdoor education programs that some GWS readers might want to take part in.  Each of these, though different in structure, emphasizes learning from experience, as well as learning self-reliance and group co-operation.

GREEN MOUNTAIN WILDERNESS SCHOOL, RR 1 Box 137, Starksboro VT 95487.  Courses: Weekends, 4, 7, and 20 days.  Backpacking, wilderness skills.  Mixed ages.

AUDUBON EXPEDITION INSTITUTE, 950 Third Av, New York NY 10022.  Groups of 8-10.  3 week van trips, various parts of U.S.  Camping, hiking, nature study, folklore.  One trip is for 11-14 year olds.

RITES OF PASSAGE, 857 DeLong Av, Novato CA 94947; 415-892-5371.  1-2 weeks in wilderness.  Some trips include several days in solitude.  Separate programs for adult and youth.  Draws on Native American traditions.

We’re sure there must be other such programs - please tell us about any others you know of.  We would particularly like to hear about any first-hand experiences you may have had with such programs.

And by the way, readers on the East Coast should also find out about the APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB, 5 Joy St, Boston MA 02108.  Its bulletin offers hundreds of events, many free or low-cost, including local afternoon hikes, bike trips, skiing, canoeing, and mountain climbing.  I’ve gone on several of their hikes, and I think that even families with very young children would enjoy some of the outings. - DR.

IN THE PARK
Deb Martin (IL) wrote in the 7/82 House Door:

…Until this summer, I never realized what terrific places parks are…  My boys have had the opportunity to play with children of all ages and children who speak other languages.  They have petted and played with other people’s dogs, seen birds and squirrels and other wildlife.  They have watched other people play volleyball, baseball and other games and learned the rules.  They have watched older children do gymnastics on the parallel bars and other equipment.  They have seen people who use funny machines to find money in the grass.  Once a week our park has performances of a musical group.

In frequent returns to the park our boys have gotten to know and see some of the same children over again, and they have made some good friends.

As a parent you may be wondering, how do you find the time to be there with your kids?  I bring the writing and the reading I need to do, and I enjoy getting it done outside while they are playing.

During the last week of school many of the schools brought their kids to the park for an end-of-year school picnic.  On one of those days a class of deaf children descended on the merry-go-round my two boys were on.  Asher and Bryn saw for the first time that sign language is actually used, not just as something to be demonstrated (as on Sesame Street).  Asher now really uses the sign for “Stop.”  That day my children were able to see how very different groups of children behave.  The deaf children were quiet, both in sound and movement…

ON CAR TRIPS
From an article by Barbara Miller in the N.J. Unschoolers Network, issue #13:

LEARNING ON A LONG CAR TRIP:

…Before the trip, I obtain the pertinent maps.  Travel clubs such as AAA offer them free to members, and I get lots so we can feel free to write on them.  The kids often act as navigators for me.  Last year I asked them to select the route to Colorado.  They were entirely in charge of the maps on the trip.  They got us there.  Our only mishap was a crazy road which dwindled to nothing in the wilds of West Virginia in a blizzard.  Although it was plenty scary, we’ll treasure that experience for a long time.

While we’re driving, the job of map marking rotates among the kids.  We all watch the magic marker make progress across the state as the miles go by.  And then at a meal stop, comes the astounding experience of inking in our tracks on the national map.  A trip takes on a new perspective when compared to our vast country.

…We often study the map to see who can most accurately predict our arrival time at various points.  Using a watch with a second hand, kids can perform some experiments involving the relationship between time, speed, and distance.  For instance, with the driver maintaining 55 mph, they can see how long it takes to cover the distance from one mile marker to the next.

A good game we play uses a national map and allows one child to be quizmaster.  Our quizmaster selects each contestant and poses a question, such as “What state is south of Georgia?” or “Name the states that border Nevada.”

We also enjoy the old “States and their Capitals” game or taking turns naming the states to see if we can get all fifty.  We have a running map game we’ve played for over a year.  We keep a small U.S. map in the car and color in each state as we spot the license plate.  So far we’ve gotten all but seven states…

The kids keep expense records for me and this is important when you have to travel cheaply.  On our recent trip to Florida, the boys calculated we spent $104.60 to travel the 1087 miles…  They kept track of our gas mileage, and found that using the air conditioning lowered our mileage by about .25 mpg.

…The kids love learning songs like “Dixie” when we’re in the South, and “Mississippi Mud” as we cross that river, etc…  Recently my seven-year-old told me an involved dream plot which lasted non-stop from Washington, D.C., to the Jersey border.  We had a wonderful time and of course we would never have had the time to indulge in that experience at home.  One of the nice things about being sealed together for hours in a car is that you have lots of time to communicate with each other…

PROBLEM SOLVING

From an article “How to Teach Problem Solving” by Marilyn Burns, (the author of THE I HATE MATHEMATICS! book) in Arithmetic Teacher, 2/82:

…Making proficiency at doing arithmetic with paper and pencil the major concern of elementary mathematics is absurd.  As the priority, it makes no sense in terms of our responsibility of preparing children for adult life.

…When do you use arithmetic in your daily life, outside of classroom responsibilities that stem from teaching computation?  When teachers attending workshops are asked to answer this question, their responses usually include the following situations: when I balance my checkbook; when I am in the supermarket keeping note of how much I am spending; when I need to know how much wallpaper, or carpet, or floor covering I need; when I am figuring the tip to give in a restaurant; when I want to know what mileage I’m getting with my car; and when deciding how long I need to bake a roast or turkey.  When asked to list all the different methods for doing arithmetic, these same respondents give answers that usually fall in these categories: with a calculator, with paper and pencil, mentally, using some manipulative.  Finally, when these teachers review their first responses and note the method they usually use to do the arithmetic in each of the instances, the answers again show a consistency.  Using a calculator or doing arithmetic mentally are the two most consistently used methods; paper and pencil are not usually resorted to.  Why then should children be spending the major portion of their mathematical time in school practicing what will be of little use to them as adults?

…What are the problem-solving skills that we need to be teaching?  A look at problems as they appear in real life helps in considering that question.  In real-life problems, you are rarely given all the information you need in one tidy package; you usually have to collect the data, and often from a variety of sources.  Only rarely is there only one possible method or only one plausible solution that emerges from real-life problems; usually you choose one from several viable possibilities.  You don’t always know for sure if the solution you choose is the “right” or “best” one; it may be only later that you can evaluate your choice.  Sometimes you never find out for sure; life has no answer book.

…The brain is an active organ, seeking to glean understanding from the information it receives, often from complicated and chaotic information.  The brain is not a sponge-like, passive organ.  Nor does it learn in predetermined sequences as stimulus-response psychology suggests.  As explained by Leslie Hart in his book HOW THE BRAIN WORKS, what the brain does is extract meaning out of confusion by looking for and recognizing patterns in the confusion.  This process does not have to be taught; this is what the brain does, naturally and aggressively.

…Putting this all together seems to prescribe a particular kind of classroom setting: one where children are working together, encouraged to share their ideas with each other and with you, and dealing with concrete materials from which conceptual understandings can be created…[JH: In many school systems there are few if any such classrooms - which is another compelling reason for teaching children at home.]

ON MATH

Quote from homeschooling mother Carol Everett in the Anchorage Daily News, 10/4/82:

“…One of the most exciting parts of teaching the kids is being able to capture the moment when Toby or Katy (who’s 5) catch on.  We can stop everything else and just build on that,” says Carol.

“Katy learned odd and even numbers that way.  We had gone over odd and even in the workbook and she had parroted answers back to me.  But she really learned at lunch when she was making peanut butter and cracker sandwiches.

“She paired up all the crackers and there was one left.  I asked her to count up the crackers by twos, and the ninth one which was left over, she said, was the odd one.  She was excited and ran through numbers up to 100 telling me which was odd and which was even,” Carol recalls.

“The excitement was there.  When it clicks we build on it.  You can’t always program those times…”
______

Margaret Viola (CA) wrote:

…My seven-year-old last week was adding some two-column addition.  I had never seen him do this before, and all his answers were right, so I asked him how he was doing it.  He explained, for example, to add 27 + 25, just count by tens from 27, to 37, to 47, then add 5 to 47 to get 52.  I have no idea where he learned to count by tens.  Today, however, he was adding some larger numbers and having difficulty.  I mentioned casually that I could show him another way, if he wanted.  He agreed, and I showed him two-column addition, explaining tens and ones with the use of some Montessori equipment I’ve had stored in the closet (just in case anyone ever asks for my help!)  He finished up perfectly, saying, “Thanks.  It’s much easier now that you showed me another way.”…

[JH:  When I have to add two 2-digit numbers, I always add the tens first.]
______

Cathy Earle (CA) wrote:

…A family I know just got an Apple computer.  The parents bought a math drill program - one that presents math problems and waits for the student to put in the answer.  The younger boy, age 7, was using the computer…  The program presented this problem: 6 + 2 = ___.

Cory put his finger on the “6″ key, then counted right 2, then pressed that key (which, of course, was the “8″ key).  Cory used this method to solve each addition problem, and the same method, counting left, to solve subtraction problems.

At first Cory’s dad said, “Hey, that’s cheating.”  But then he said, “Oh, well, Cory’s got to be pretty smart to have realized his method would work..”  Yes, Cory is smart.  He also understands what addition and subtraction really mean!…
______

From another California reader:

…When Zane (6) counted to 500 last summer, we went to the bank and got 500 new, shiny pennies as a reward.  That has been one of the best investments in toys ever.  There are so many things you can do with imagination and 500 pennies…  Great for math, of course, and drawing pictures.  And so much fun to walk on and listen to, shuffle, etc…

STARTING TO READ

Kathy Mingl (IL) wrote:

…J.P. has just learned lately (day before yesterday, actually) that he can read.  He’s not sure just what to do with it, yet, but he’s intrigued with the idea that he can sound out and decode those baffling squiggles that are all over the place, that grownups somehow come up with stories and other interesting stuff from.  He only recently became able to write, too - I don’t say he learned, exactly.  He’s been scribbling and making uncertain letter-shapes up till now, sometimes backwards, sometimes right, sometimes remarkably Hebraic-looking, but suddenly one day I told him to write some labels for his toy-shelf boxes, and spelled out the words for him, (as I have been all along), and he printed them right out, perfectly.  There you are…
______

And from Denise Hodges (IL):

…As far as I know, Lucas has not read anything since we took him out of school in April.  He looks at books.  I don’t know if he reads them.  I once asked him to read to me, but he declined.  A few days ago, he discovered with great excitement that he could record things on his tape recorder (not just play tapes).  He sat down and read aloud a comic about Smokey the Bear - about grade level 3 - with no trouble at all!  I was beaming all day and congratulating myself for my successful struggle against pushing him to read more…

BACKWARD LETTERS

From Jeanne Gaetano (MD):

…Shortly after my first child was born, I was given a used port-a-crib which had previously belonged to my niece (now 5 1/2).  I placed my child in it for the first time and was startled to notice that the “crib toys” (plastic letters suspended on a metal wire between the bars on one side of the crib) read A-B-C.  Which could only mean that on the inside - where my son was - they read: backwards C, backwards B, backwards A!  I snapped the wire and removed the letters and thought no more about it, except to note to my husband that baby furniture is designed for parents, not babies.

That was more than two years ago.  The other night, I was visiting a friend and her new baby.  The baby was in a similar port-a-crib and it, too, had the backwards alphabet on the child’s side!  When I questioned my friend about it, she said that she hadn’t noticed that before; the crib was a hand-me-down from her six-year-old cousin.

How many “dyslexics” do you think will be starting first grade this fall?  How many of them spent their first year looking at a backwards alphabet?…

BUYING SECOND-HAND

From Jane Williams (CA):

…Katie is just 22 months, but I have been preparing myself and our home to be her learning center for more than a year now…

…This past summer I have spent a great deal of time at flea markets, second-hand shops and garage sales.  In a few short weeks I have amassed a great deal of material which will be available to Katie if and when she needs or wants it.

For me, the biggest treasures are books.  Often I find books for 25 cents for hardback and 10 cents for paper.  Some of the books I have found: The Harvard Classics, The Library of Entertainment (between them they contain just about every major classical writer one might want).  These 27 books coming from both volumes cost me $2.70.  I have also found some of the Little House books; Newberry and Caldecott award winners; The Children’s Dictionary; books on science experiments to do in the home; National Geographic magazines (sometimes for free); Cricket magazine (10 cents each); How and Why books; and the list goes on.  If Katie is interested, the material is there, if not, there is no great monetary loss…

In addition, I have found hats for make-believe play (Indian headdresses, firefighter hats, cowboy hats, etc.).  Games are available for a quarter or fifty cents each.  I have found magnifying glasses, tissue slides of blood and plants for the microscope, magnets, and toys.  I have found paints (acrylics and water colors), pastels, easels, canvasses, crayons, craft supplies, etc.

From Creative Playthings I found for 10 cents an entire leather kit on constructing gears.  For 50 cents I picked up an electronic circuit board.

In all this shopping and browsing Katie accompanies me.  And together we have a marvelous time…

BARGAINS IN ELECTRONICS

One of the best places to shop for a number of different kinds of equipment, including cameras, small computers, and portable stereo tape recorders, is the entertainment section of the Thursday editions of the New York Times.  Here a number of the largest discount stores in New York City advertise their sales, and their prices are lower than I have been able to find anywhere else.

They are a particularly good place to shop for small radios and tape recorders of the kind that the Sony Walkman made famous.  Of these the best I have seen and heard are the ones made by Aiwa, which in design and quality of sound seem to me well ahead of the competition.  Their latest model is the HS-JO2, which combines an AM/FM radio with a stereo cassette player and recorder.  The quality of the sound, both on FM and when playing cassettes, is remarkably good, and the small stereo microphone, which can be attached to the tape recorder itself or detached and clipped to a pocket, collar, etc. is also good, excellent for speech and not bad even for music.  It is by far the cheapest and most compact complete music system one could find.  Its list price is something over $200, but the ad for CAMERA WORLD AND SOUND (104 W. 32 St. NYC 10016 - Mail Order Dept. at G.P.O. Box 2223, NYC 10016) offered it for $140, plus shipping cost (around $5).  At that price it is a real bargain.  Any comparable music system, large or small, that was significantly better would cost at least twice as much.  And it has the advantage of being portable - it can run for quite a number of hours on only two AA batteries.  As I have perhaps said before, for people learning a musical instrument it is very helpful to tape much of their own playing, so that they can hear what they are really doing and not just what they think or hope they are doing (the difference is sometimes a little discouraging, as I have found many times).  This Aiwa machine is by far the cheapest way I know to do this and still get reasonably accurate sound.

Also advertised in that sale were a number of the small computers, at very low prices; an Olivetti Lexikon 83 Electric Typewriter for $200, the lowest price I have ever seen for a typewriter using a ball element, which has the great advantage that little children can’t get the keys tangled up if they hit more than one key at a time; and an electronic typewriter with a 16-space automatic correction for $360, again much the lowest price I have seen.

Two other companies advertising much of this same equipment, as well as cameras, at very low prices are STEREO WAREHOUSE and GRAND CENTRAL CAMERAS.  As I said, the Thursday New York Times, if you can get it, is well worth looking at if you are in the market for such equipment. - JH

FREEBEES

From Michele Sokoloff:

…I work for an educational magazine.  One of my tasks is to locate “valuable” freebees for teachers and parents…  The response to these materials have been terrific with many people finding them quite useful.

…Some examples include: using the newspaper for learning, free books offered by publishers, a solar data bank, free documentary films on American lifestyles and other topics, materials on the preservation of the sea, free slide show, and many more.

I would like to share descriptions and addresses of these ever-growing free resources with home schoolers.  Please send $3.50 to cover xeroxing and postage to me at: 502 Woodside Av., Narberth PA 19072; …

MUSEUM CATALOGS

From Anne MacLeod in Nova Scotia:

…Museum shops put out gorgeous catalogues and they are a treasure trove of learning resources.  There are generally quite a few items that appeal to children in the line of books, games, puzzles, kits, and more that are well made, aesthetically pleasing, and custom-made to instill wonder and help bring about learning.  The areas and subjects covered have a very wide scope, and the prices are nearly always reasonable.  The following places will send you a catalogue: METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, 255 Gracie Station, New York NY 10028; THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION, Preservation Shops, Dept. D, 1600 H Street NW, Washington DC 20006; THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, Box 1220, Radio City Station, New York NY 10019 ; THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, PO Box 2456, Washington DC 20013; THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDENS, Bronx NY 10458 …

HIS OWN MAGAZINE

From Craig Conley (2248 Cherrydale, Baton Rouge LA 70808), a 15-year-old homeschooler now at Louisiana State University:

…I first got interested in writing newspapers five years ago when I was present at the collapse of an historic old hotel in Joplin, Missouri.  I wrote an article about the history of the hotel and how it collapsed, trapping four men under the rubble.  I added other articles about what my family was doing, and what was going on in town.  Soon I had a whole newspaper.

At first the paper was written by hand and sent to my grandparents.  Then I made a really good issue, typed it, and sent copies to relatives and friends.  So many people subscribed that Craig’s Times became a monthly newsletter.

Now my paper is read by 40 families, in fifteen different states.  It is called Craig’s Quarterly and each issue ranges from twelve to thirty pages.  It contains book reviews, news articles, art work and stories.  Subscribers send in articles they have written.

Each issue covers a wide area of interest, ranging from computers, dance, music, film and theatre, to pets and travel.

I think writing a paper is an excellent way to keep in touch with people.  Since our family has moved a lot, this is important to us.

Reporting on activities also is good training for life.  It makes me more observant and analytical.  I try to look at people I know and new people I meet as possible subjects for an interview and sometimes this leads me to ask questions I might never ask otherwise.  The most fascinating people are really in your own backyard.

Now that Craig’s Quarterly has a much broader readership, I try to write articles that will be of interest to everyone.  Each issue contains many contributions from all types of people, on all sorts of subjects.  For instance, a ten-year-old reader in Joplin, Mo., sends in articles about baseball, and a subscriber in Eugene, OR, who enjoys gourmet cooking, contributes a “Good Food” page.

I’m interested in all aspects of theater, of film making, writing, art, dance and music.  The common denominator seems to be communication.  Craig’s Quarterly is my party-line to as many people as I can find who want to communicate their interests, too.

If you would like to contribute anything, John, or if any of your readers would, please let me know.  As time goes on, the writing of Craig’s Quarterly becomes more important to me and I think I will continue publishing it for quite a while…

THE BERGMANS AT HOME

From an article written by Craig, published in the Baton Rouge State Times, 9/7/82:

…Cathy Bergman, president of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOME EDUCATORS and editor of the Home Educator Newsletter, was taught at home for three years, along with eight other children in her family.  She entered college at the age of 14 and was teaching college classes when she was 19.

“Thirteen years ago, when my mother decided to take us out of public school, we thought she was nuts.  We are conditioned to believe that the only place you will learn anything is in a school situation.  We children agreed with my mother that we would go ahead and try school at home.  We hoped that she would change her mind in a few months so that we could go back to school and not be illiterate.  We didn’t really like going to school, but we liked to learn.  So we embarked on our home schooling experiment.

“The neighbors and school board also thought my mother was crazy,” Bergman continued, “because at the time no one else that we knew of was into home educating.

“In the middle of the school year we went on a three-week trip to Mount Rushmore, and we couldn’t have done that if we had been in school.  We found there were many advantages in staying at home and being with your family.

“Many teen-agers think they wouldn’t want to spend time with their sisters and brothers.  They don’t get to know their siblings.  They might find out that they share interests.

“When I started home schooling,” she said, “I was 11 and my brother was 8.  We really didn’t know anything about each other and fought all the time.  It took us a while to get to know each other and for me to find out that he was a really neat person.  Now my brother is one of my best friends.”

Bergman went on to say, “So many times when you’re in high school you’re required to take classes that will not do anything for you.  In a home school situation you can follow your own ambitions and get so far ahead at what you want to do because you have the time.”

…Bergman said that as a teenager her goal in life was to be a ballerina.  “I had to practice six hours a day in order to be a ballerina, which I couldn’t do if I was in school.  In a home school I could put all my energies into dance.  That doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything else.  You are inspired when you have so much free time to learn and grow.  Your interest will lead to another interest.  My ballet led to reading about ballet, and that reading gave me history.  Reading that history led me to study great figures in art.”

She noted that all her brother wanted to do was build gazebos.  In order to do that he had to learn math to measure, fractions and angles in order to bevel a board, and construction so that once he had it built, it wouldn’t fall into the river…

FROM ENGLISH UNSCHOOLERS

A letter from Julie Duff in Gloucestershire, England, in H.O.U.S.E. Door:

…We recently had the wonderful opportunity of having Deb and Tim Martin (IL) stay with us for a short while here in Gloucestershire…  It was really exciting for us, as quite besides the pleasure of getting to know Deb and Tim, it also gave us the marvelous opportunity of finding out about home-schoolers in the States.

…I am quite sure that Debbie and Tim will forgive me if I tell you that our meeting also provided a basis for a lot of good-natured laughter over cultural differences.  Not only did we discover that Americans really do eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - but Debbie and Tim actually brought a large tub with them in their suitcase!  My two children thoroughly enjoyed them, by the way!  On the other hand, Debbie was much amused by my fridge.  I think it’s quite big!  However, I was assured that it was unbelieveably tiny!  Debbie really wondered how I coped!  This led to a discussion on sizes of food packages.  Malcolm and I find it impossible to imagine buying a gallon container of milk - we buy one or two pints!  Then there were the church bells - but that’s another story.  So you see it was all “home education” - in the truest sense, “people education.”

To be more serious for a moment - it is, I believe, very valuable for all countries with “alternative education” to link up in some way as, obviously, world-wide organizations carry a lot of weight and impact, including great moral support.  Exchanges of views in newsletters is one way - and if any of you would like to write for our EDUCATION OTHERWISE magazine, send it to me here in England (Hasfield Court, Hasfield, Gloucestershire).  I know our members will be delighted to write for H.O.U.S.E and, of course, lots of us take GWS.

Now about home education here in Britain…  Each county has a local Education Authority…  Each L.E.A. ensures that every child in its area is “educated.”

…Although current court cases seem to prove that “no timetable,” “no curriculum” and free learning are all acceptable, if your kids cannot read and write you come up against a lot of trouble.  So “free” learning is OK as long as the children show an inclination to read and write!  Don’t forget our children start school at four and a half to five years and are taught to read at once - so here the area of battle for home-schoolers who wish to let kids go at their own pace begins!

Fortunately, lack of funds prevents L.E.A.’s in some cases from doing too much about us - but some are bloody and give our members a lot of flack…  We have about 750 member families in EDUCATION OTHERWISE…

COLLEGE BOARD EXAMS

From an article by Jean Shaffer in the May, 1982 Cruising World:

…Many colleges require an SAT score for entrance.  A correspondence school graduate will not have taken this test in the course of his studies.  We found, however, that information about where and when these tests are to be given, as well as application forms, can be obtained at any high school.  One needs only to mail in the form and fee to receive an entrance ticket, then be present at the appointed time and place to take the test…  The tests are given several times a year at selected locations, usually in larger cities…

BILINGUAL FAMILY

Jane Merril Filstrup, a freelance writer, and her husband have been attempting to teach their children to be bilingual in French and English.  Jane sent us an article she wrote about the family in Wellesley Magazine, Summer ‘81, and tells us, “My children are now four, and, at that level, functionally bilingual…”  From her article:

…Chris’s and my desire to rear our children to be bilingual stemmed from admiration for the language flexibility of students at the Tehran International School where we had taught in 1969-71.  Half of the students even negotiated a dual curriculum in Persian and English, with, apparently, little strain and lots of personal and family satisfaction…

With the twins at the babbling stage, it seemed too soon.  Then in conjunction with an article I was researching for Parents Magazine I visited several bilingual families.  I learned that maintaining the “recessive” language required an artful blend of relaxation and self-discipline on the part of the adult speaker, but was greatly rewarding.  The most exotic situation was a Japanese mother and Yiddish-speaking Jewish-American father.  They interested me particularly because their trilingualism was deliberately constructed, as ours would be.

The father, although he had spoken Yiddish since childhood, had no connections with other Yiddish speakers.  Mr. Schwartzman put me on the spot: If I was seriously attracted to bringing up our children in plural languages, what was I waiting for?  I bemoaned my inadequate vocabulary, barren in the area of the concrete and household words where small children operate.  He shoved aside my doubt: “I keep a dictionary by my bed.  You can do the same.”

From then on I did.  How silly at first, speaking a “foreign language” to toddlers, but in a few months the children were answering me in French, and the reverse would have seemed odd.  In a few months more, Emma and Burton were mastering some new words I took from the dictionary faster than I was, and were reinforcing my vocabulary from time to time.  At three, they greatly favor English, yet their understanding of French equals their passive English.  Their speech is a porphyry of English mass encrusted with French words and phrases.  When given the definite article for an object, they respond with its French name.  We are proud of our children’s bilingual skills, which they are achieving naturally to date.  Yet we know it is an extra demand we place on them, and will modify our experiment if they show signs of stress.

…Mme. Genevieve Moesle, recently from Normandy, conducts a cooking lesson in my kitchen every Sunday noon.  While the others are making “oeufs en niege,” or “poulet chasseur,” I bring her my dozen or so translation problems of the week.

…Despairing last year of the immigration problem and cost of bringing over an au pair from France, I placed a classified in both France-Amerique and a Montreal daily for a francophonic mother’s helper for any duration.  Chantal, the vivacious Quebecoise who joined us, gives us an average of two hours a day of French babysitting.

Possessing both a sense of adventure and a fondness for children, she is like a sister to Emma and Burton, while, outside the home, she profits from the chance to see the world and improve her English.  Chantal, as much as possible, emphasizes standard French with us, though, of course, her accent has French-Canadian overtones.  Since it will be much easier for our family to spend time later in Quebec than in France, we are very pleased to have Emma and Burton exposed to a French-Canadian.  If a Professor Higgins detects this souvenir in their speech at some future date, so much the better.

They like dictionaries no matter how small the pictures and are more apt to pore over them for many minutes than any other type of book.  THE CAT IN THE HAT DICTIONARY IN FRENCH (Random House, 1964), Rene Guillot’s IMAGES ET MOTS (Larousse, 1970) and MON LAROUSSE EN IMAGES (Larousse, 1956) are all excellently bound and printed and “grow with” a child.  Flipping to any page of any one of the three a child will find an object, action, or event represented that is apropos of his or her life at the moment.

…French children start on “bandes dessinees” (comics) at a younger age than do Americans.  Emma and Burton have memorized their favorite among the lower-grade books, Walt Disney’s Oncle donald et ses neveux (Deux Coqs d’Or), whence Burton became Oncle Donald for Hallowe’en…

We have a number of Babar adventures.  Babar is so popular in the American nursery that the Babar books are the one segment of Emma’s and Burton’s French cultural experience that is continually and specifically reinforced in their surroundings.  We stop to wave hello to the stuffed Babar in the shop window and receive Babar-motif greeting cards from grandma.

…Certain select titles for pre-schoolers, mostly dictionaries and Babars, are imported and kept in stock in the United States by international book dealers like Rizzoli’s at 712 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and the Continental Book Company at 11-03 46th Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101.  But to acquire other French books is a bother, an expense, and a time-consuming process…

Fortunately, there are exciting developments in picture-books closer at hand, in French Canada.  Serving as a guide are Notable Canadian Children’s Books 1976 and its 1978 Supplement, prepared and distributed by the National Library of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A0N4.  One can also join the Communication-Jeunesse, 445 Rue St. Francois-Xavier, Montreal 028, Quebec H2Y2T1 and receive Lurela, their journal on Quebec’s children’s literature…  From a French bookseller in Toronto, Editions Champlain, 107 Church St., Toronto M5C2G5, we blanket-order anything new and good for preschoolers.

For familiar songs we like the Folkways’ Chantons en francais in two volumes, and Sing Children Sing, Songs of France from Caedmon…  Our happiest musical discovery is the six-volume, wildly fanciful Chante les mots (RCA, A. Colin Bourrelier)…

AN OREGON FAMILY

From Lezlie Long (OR):

…In the on-going saga of the Knife [GWS #25, 28], may I inject my two cents’ worth?  Ken and I have always expected our children to be civilized human beings and this includes not interrupting conversations.  At the dinner table or at restaurants, from the age of about two years, the kids are expected to cut up their own food and pour their own drink from the water pitcher.  I’ve been pregnant or nursing for the last six years (by the time you read this I’ll have four kids), and I simply am not Wonder Woman!  The kids do things for themselves or they don’t get done.

…You have discussed artists’ supplies in detail, which is good, and the use of sharp knives, which are much safer than dull or semi-dull.  May I point out (and possibly throw out!) that time-honored piece of equipment, the “Children’s Scissors”?  …A good sharp pair of four-inch Fiskars (these have rounded tips) are much safer and tidier and less frustrating than those dull, difficult-to-open-and-shut “Children’s Scissors.”  My three- and five-year-olds have never had their hands get in the way of their scissors when using the Fiskars as they were continually doing when using “Children’s Scissors.”  I gave some simple instructions on how to use the full length of the scissors when cutting to keep them from getting dull, how to walk with scissors, hand them to others and keep them out of the baby’s reach, and now I do not have to hover over the kids when they cut.  The only bad experience I’ve had was when Robert (5) cut 3-year-old Rebecca’s hair to pixie length.  Since he doesn’t want to lose his scissors forever he has agreed to leave Rebecca’s hair alone.

…Living with Robert has been such a fascinating experience…  Do you know what the insides of a nine-volt battery look like?  I do.  Robert showed me.  He has showed me the innards of a lot of things that I didn’t even know had innards.  Robert went with me when he was two to help deliver a baby (an emergency).  He can give you a detailed description of the event now even though he was four and a half the first time we even talked about it.

Robert’s dad does electrical work, plumbing, carpentry, welding, wood working, masonry, auto mechanics, refrigeration, gunsmithing, and more.  He has six big tool boxes stuffed with tools.  Robert can tell you the tools and what they are used for even though his dad has never sat down and talked about them.

Robert is the go-getter in the family.  When he was two he took off to the store to get some eggs because I mentioned we were out.  That was when I started taking him all over town so if he left at least he could find his way home (that only helped my nerves a little bit, a two-year-old is still a two-year-old).

Robert has been jumping off things since before he could walk.  Last summer he was going to jump off the 13-foot-high chicken coop.  I asked him to please don’t because it was nothing but rocks below and I didn’t want him hurt.  He found something taller to jump off.  He also likes to bail out of swings (shudder) and run the fastest and the strongest.

He’s extremely proud of the scar he has from the stitches used to mend his arm where he fell off and subsequently got run over by the three-wheel motorcycle.  The poor emergency room nurse had to tell him what every piece of equipment was and how it was used and what the charts meant and how to run the radio, etc.  And he looks forward to his next trip!

I get blow-by-blow accounts of what happened at church and what the lesson was about and who slugged who, etc.  Sometimes I feel like locking myself in the bathroom for some peace and quiet except there is no door, so that avenue of escape is gone.

Math is Robert’s great love, but if you ask him any questions he plays dumb.  It’s like numbers are his own very private thing and you may keep out please!  We scrounged some brand new textbooks (K-4th grade, in math, spelling, reading, English, social studies, science) from the trash at school - Robert climbed in the dumpsters for me.  He then sat down to read a wordless kindergarten math book to Richard (2) and Rebecca.  Some of the concepts he was telling them were second grade level and yet I never would have known he knew them if I hadn’t eaves-dropped on the conversation…

LITTLE KIDS & HOUSEWORK

By Susan Richman in the Western PA Homeschoolers newsletter (Fall ‘82):

…Our 2-year-old Jacob is generally in on everything, often quite literally on top of me or my 5-year-old Jesse.  Sometimes this can be quite frustrating, but usually we do find ways to manage, with his enthusiastic presence.  We’re also certainly known for taking advantage of Jacob’s naps for special projects, quiet activities, things we’re sure we don’t want messed up.  Mostly I’m amazed at how much Jacob is absorbing about what we’re doing.  He’s fully involved in Jesse’s current aluminum can recycling project, often being the first to point out a can tossed somewhere, saying, “Maybe that can be ‘luminum, maybe that can not be rusty.”  He knows about acrylic paints (and that he now owns all our tempera!) and seed mosaics, spouts names of dinosaurs appropriately, loves the characters in DR. DOOLITTLE (our current bedtime book), helped out with a recent papier-mache pinata, always is in on breadmaking, etc., etc.  I think these young siblings gain enormously from being able to participate with the older ones, difficult as their passionate presence (and Jacob is VERY passionate!) can sometimes be.  Jesse has also become adept at sometimes solving Jacob-dilemmas himself… seeing solutions I wouldn’t have thought of.  Perhaps that’s a real life skill that is more important than most of the paper-and-pencil tasks that schools set for children.  I don’t think having toddlers about is an insurmountable problem, but it does require full measures of our creativity…

As for housekeeping (my  years’ and years’ nemesis…), I think it’s most important to involve the children in upkeep.  Participating with them in daily jobs seems to me more positive and effective than nagging, yelling, or assigning jobs.  Probably most home schoolers do NOT have neat, showplace homes, though.  Our homes are our work areas, our space to use and live in.  I’ve always thought the most fascinating homes were those with great evidence of full living going on - half-completed projects in process, musical instruments about, art materials set out (translation: play-dough in the rug), books everywhere, new block buildings gracing living room rugs, etc., etc.  The more boring homes, to me (and I don’t think it’s just that I’m jealous…), are those of some acquaintances who work full-time and send their kids out to baby-sitters - who literally never LIVE in their own homes.  I think it’s important perhaps to keep this perspective, remember where our values are, and aren’t.  We’ve chosen to have our children about with us most of the time, and it’s not fair to then turn and act as if we wished our homes looked like no child’s foot ever crossed our thresholds.

Also I do think children can be helped to see the need for places for things, the need for cleanup, so that more or different projects can then be started, or so prized collections of butterflies or postage stamps don’t get wantonly ground into the flooring.  Kids can be helped to organize their things meaningfully so that they’re accessible (and no toy box does that, even if stashing everything in sight into one of the things does clear the floor a bit)…

Jesse now times me with a sand egg timer for my new whirlwind bathroom cleanup that I try to do every other day.  It’s fun for him, he’s learning about timing devices, I zoom about with his encouragement and cheers.  He’s even beginning to notice when the bathroom isn’t neat…

We sometimes play spur-of-the-moment games to clean up a particularly messy room.  I might write down all the needed jobs on slips of paper, shuffle them in a basket, then Jesse and I get to pick slips to see which jobs we’ll do.  Often Jesse can read these simple directions if I use words he knows and keep the format the same each time (e.g. “Put away the books,” “Put away the dinosaurs”).  So I suppose I could say these are actually “reading lessons” (though we don’t, we’re just trying to see the floor again).  Or sometimes we see if we can neaten a room by the time a favorite record is over (our “music appreciation” lesson slips in…).  Sometimes we even sweep while listening to the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and laugh over the toys that our broom tries to gobble up - Jesse must race frantically to put them away first.  “I Spy” becomes a cleanup game - “I spy something red, metal, with 4 wheels and a hitch,” and Jesse or Jacob scurry to vroom a tractor back to its garage.  I can sometimes manage this while simultaneously washing dishes.  Speaking of dishes, Jacob’s current favorite helping method there is to sit directly on the drainboard, feet in the sink, gleefully pouring and rinsing and soaping - keeps the floor a lot drier, and even seems a touch safer than him standing on a progressively more slippery high-chair next to me.

I’m sure all families have found many other ways to involve children in housework fairly happily - please share your thoughts with all of us!…

AFRICAN “DISCIPLINE”

From CONTACT: THE FIRST FOUR MINUTES by Leonard Zunin, M.D. (Nash Publishing, Los Angeles, 1972):

…When a person (among the Babemba tribes of southern Africa) acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered.  All work ceases, and every man, woman and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual.  Then each person in the tribe, regardless of age, begins to talk out loud to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his life time.  Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted.  All his positive attributes, good deeds, kindnesses and strengths are recited carefully and at length.  No one is permitted to fabricate, exaggerate or be facetious about his accomplishments or the positive affect of his personality.

The tribal ceremony often lasts several days and does not cease until everyone is drained of every positive comment he can muster about the person in question.  At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person symbolically and literally is welcomed back into the tribe.  I repeat, not a word of criticism about him or his irresponsible, anti-social deed is allowed.  The person in the center, we can only suppose, experiences a variety of feelings about his misdeed, having been flooded with the charitable warmth of his acquaintances, friends and loved ones.  Perhaps this overwhelming positive bombardment not only strengthens his positive self-image, but also helps him choose to live up to the expectations of his tribe…

REVERSING TURNER

As GWS readers know, California is one of the states in which people have found it easy to teach their children at home by registering their own homes as private schools.  On my latest trip there I was told that a recent state survey showed there were over 600 private schools with six students or less.  It’s a safe bet that many or most of these are home schools.

But recently home schoolers have reported that school districts in Los Angeles and San Diego counties have been threatening to prosecute, and in at least one case actually prosecuting, these home schooling families, claiming that under California law their schools do not qualify as private schools, and in support of this claim citing the 1953 case of People v. Turner (121 C.A. 2d Supp 861; 203 P.2d 685), about which we wrote in GWS 29.  In this case the Superior Court of Los Angeles said that the Turner family could not teach their children at home because they did not qualify as a private school and because, not having teaching certificates, they could not qualify as private tutors.

We have no idea why, given the existence of Turner, the California State Department of Education and many school districts in the state have in the past five or ten years allowed so many parents to register their homes as private schools.  And we have no idea whether these recent attacks on home schooling in Los Angeles and San Diego counties will be ignored, or followed by school districts in other parts of the state; in short, whether we are seeing the beginnings of a state-wide campaign against home schooling.  Whether or not this is the case, we are going to have to find a way to overcome Turner.  One way to do this would be to get the legislature to pass some law or resolution explicitly favoring home schooling (see article on this subject elsewhere in this issue).  Another way is to prepare and take to courts a case which can reverse Turner.  I think there is a very good chance that this latter can be done.

We should note to begin with that in Turner the court did not think of itself as attempting to write new law or overturn old.  Their ruling was what is often called “strict constructionist,” that is, an attempt to guess the legislature’s intention, in this case, what they had in mind about home schooling when they wrote the school attendance laws.  The anti-Turner argument I put forward here is based on the claim, first that they guessed badly, and second, that they ought not to have guessed at all.

In saying that they should not have guessed at all I draw on or appeal to a fundamental principle of Anglo-American law, one older and deeper than the Constitution and on which the Constitution itself rests, namely, that the law allows what it does not clearly forbid.  In a free system of law and government we do not have to ask the government for permission to do everything we want to do.  If the law does not say we can’t, then we can.  The California statutes, like those of most states, do not explicitly allow home schooling, but they do not explicitly forbid it either.  These statutes were designed to make sure that children were educated, not to prevent their parents from educating them.  If, therefore, parents can find a way of educating their children at home which is not specifically forbidden by the statutes, they have a legal right to do so.  It is not the proper business of the courts to deny such a right, and I think a strong case can be made that in doing so the Turner court made a serious error.

This argument becomes all the stronger when we consider the fact that for the past ten years people in all parts of California have been teaching their own children by registering their homes as private schools.  This has not been some kind of well kept secret.  On the contrary, these families have been widely publicized in all the media, and beyond that have received the full cooperation of the State Department of Education itself.  For at least the past three or four years it must have been well known to the legislators of California that home schooling under the private school provisions of the law was widely practiced in the state.  Yet they said nothing.  We can only assume that they were willing to allow it to happen.  To the argument that they have not specifically said that home schooling was legal, our proper answer is that they did not have to say so.  All they had to do was not say it was illegal.  Their silence gave consent.

The correct position for the Turner court to have taken was that taken by the court in the Giesy case in Virginia [GWS #11].  Private schools being virtually unregulated in that state, the Giesy family was teaching their children at home by registering their home as a private school.  The local school district took them to court, saying that their home was not really a school at all, but only a way of avoiding the compulsory school attendance laws.  The court ruled in the Giesys’ favor, saying that since the legislature had not said anything about what was or was not a private school, it was not the proper business of the court to take it upon itself to do so.  But the Turner court chose instead to try to guess what the California legislature had had in mind about home schooling when it wrote the school laws, and its guess was that the legislature meant to say that families could not teach their children at home unless they had teacher’s certificates.  How did the court come to such a conclusion?

The California statutes say that children between the ages of six and sixteen shall attend public schools, with three exceptions: 1) “Children who are being instructed in a private full-time day school by persons capable of teaching…” 2) “Children who are mentally gifted…” (an exception that does not concern us here) 3) “Children not attending a private full-time day school and who are being instructed in study and recitation… by a private tutor or other person… [who] shall hold a valid State credential for the grade taught…”  The Turner family claimed that their children fell under the first exception.  The court ruled, on the contrary, that they fell under the third exception, and that the family could not teach their own children because they did not have the required State certificates.  In so ruling the court argued that the legislature must have meant that parents wanting to teach their own children came under the third category, because why else would they have brought it up, who else could they possibly have had in mind?

The answer is that the legislature could very well have had in mind all those persons who earned money and in many cases made their living by teaching the children of other families, privately, and usually in the families’ own homes.  This was what the word “tutor” was generally understood to mean when the statutes were written.  It had that meaning during all the years (1930-45) in which I was growing up; when my friends got jobs as tutors, as many did, it meant that they earned money by privately teaching the children of other people.  Since this was an established business, a way in which many people earned their living, it is reasonable that the legislature should have wanted to bring it under some kind of regulation, to protect the public from the possibility of being victimized by incompetent teachers.  So the Turner court’s argument that in naming exception #3 the legislature could only have had would-be home schooling families in mind is clearly not necessarily true, and since the entire ruling rests on this argument, a strong case can be made that the ruling is in error.

In saying as it did that if people wanted to teach their own children they had to have valid State certificates for all the ages of all the children, the court was clearly imposing a requirement which was in the highest degree onerous and unreasonable.  I do not know how many different certificates a person or family in California would have to have to teach a child from age six up to age sixteen, or how long it would take to acquire these certificates.  For most parents to get such certificates would require not only that they pay the costs of attending some teacher’s college for as much time as would be required, but also that they give up much or all of the money that they might otherwise be earning.  This would add up to a sum of money that the vast majority of people could not possibly afford.  And this requirement is all the more unreasonable and unfair since neither the legislature nor the Turner court itself said or implied in any way that only persons holding state certificates were competent to teach.

In their defense the Turner family said that it was unreasonable for the state to say that people not holding state certificates could teach in private schools but could not teach their own children.  To this very sensible claim the court presented two arguments.  The first was that since people teaching in a private school would have other people - parents of students, administrators, other teachers, trustees, etc. - concerning themselves with their competence, the state could safely leave it up to them; in short, since others are watching to be sure nothing goes wrong, we don’t have to watch.  The other argument was the one we spoke of in our short article on this case in GWS 29, namely, that to satisfy itself that many individual parents were doing a good job of teaching their own children would put a difficult and unreasonable burden on the state.  To these arguments there are several answers.  One is that although private schools in general have a better track record than public schools, their mechanisms of control do not guarantee either competent teaching nor effective learning; plenty of bad teachers teach in private schools, and plenty of children fail to learn there.  As Judge Greaney pointed out in Perchemlides, when children fail in public schools the state does not pull them out; the same is true of California private schools.  The state, in short, accepts a certain amount of risk and failure in schools private or public.  Why should it hold home schoolers to a higher standard?

Beyond this, we can make two other points.  Home schooling is no longer the unknown quantity that it may have appeared to the Turner court in the early 1950’s.  By now it has a track record, and a good one.  The state has little reason, if any at all, to fear that children who learn at home are likely to grow up uneducated; the odds are that they will be better educated than most of the children who have come up through the state schools.  Nor is it true any more that people who want to teach their own children are going to be flying blind and alone, having to invent or discover every educational wheel for themselves.  As every issue of GWS and many other home schooling publications clearly shows, there is a very large and growing network of resources and support growing up within the home schooling movement.  Indeed, any family teaching their own children, if they run into problems, can call on far wider sources of advice, support, and help than are available to all but a few teachers in schools, public or private.  The quality control mechanisms of the home schooling movement, if we want to look at them that way, are at least as effective as anything existing in the schools.  So there is no reason for a zealous court, like the Turner court, to protect the state from what the legislature itself has never considered, and certainly does not now consider, a danger.

These are the arguments from which can be constructed a case which I believe will be able to overcome Turner.  But I don’t think we need to or ought to wait to put them forward until we are actually brought into court.  Let’s use them, if we can, to stay out of court, by showing them to any school authorities with whom we may be having trouble. - JH

FROM TEXAS LAWYER

Egon Tausch [GWS #27], one of our most active friendly lawyers, writes from Texas:

…The compulsory attendance law in Texas states merely that a child between certain ages must go to public school a certain number of days per year unless he or she is “in attendance at a private or parochial school” with a course in good citizenship.  There is absolutely no definition of “private school.”  There is no requirement that such schools be “licensed” or “accredited” in any way.  There is no requirement that the teachers of a private school be “certified” in any way.  In fact, there are no regulations at all for private schools in Texas, unless they are also day-care centers or similar business facilities open to the public, in which case other, unrelated, laws apply.  There are no Texas cases that by any stretch of the imagination apply to what is or is not a private school, or what one should be like…

Of course, the public-school establishment disapproves of home schools, and is always seeking to prosecute.  Such cases have never gone high enough in the Texas court structure to set a precedent.  Often the home-schooling defendants win in Justice Court (J.P.’s).  Sometimes the parents lose in Justice Court, then give in and send their children to public school.  Sometimes they pay a fine, continue their home school, and the school district forgets about them.  Occasionally the Defendants lose in Justice Court, appeal to County Court, and the case is dismissed there by the district attorney.  The most recent case, other than ours, was in Dallas, where a J.P. declared the law unconstitutional due to vagueness and acquitted the family.

In the case of our first family, two years ago, the Defendants lost.  The family appealed, and we got the charges dismissed by the D.A. on the county level.  That family continues to teach its children at home without interference.

Our second family was prosecuted six months ago, but the prosecutor was unable to provide any evidence at all as to whether the child was or was not in any school - home, accredited, parochial, or otherwise.  Therefore, we did not have to put up a defense and we won without one.  The family will probably be prosecuted again in the fall.  If so, we’ll appeal any possible adverse decision to County Court.

Strategies in school cases differ.  In J.P. cases, we have decided, first, to force the prosecutor to prove a prima facie case, by saying nothing ourselves, at first.  If he can’t show where the child is, he can’t prove the child is not in school somewhere.  He must bear the burden of proof in a criminal case.  He cannot force us to give him evidence for his case (unless the judge permits violation of the 5th Amendment).

If the prosecutor can show, without our cooperation, that the child is in a home school, he must also provide evidence that a home school is not a “private school”…  Then we must rebut by showing that our home school is a school, and a good one.  We have decided not to put on expert witnesses, or constitutional arguments, on the J.P. court level.  We let the prosecutor bring out his entire case, rebut briefly, if necessary, and, if we lose, appeal to a court of record, County Court, where, according to Texas law, we have a complete new trial and anything that went on before is inadmissible.  If we win at County Court, we will be well on our way to establishing precedent in our favor.  That is why we are welcoming an appeal to County Court.

Please note that in all our steps above, we are seeking to establish that we are in compliance with the law.  We believe that challenging the law constitutionally (vagueness or First Amendment) is the hardest way to go, however valid; it will also, if successful, result in a new law which might forbid home schooling.  The education establishment is working on such a bill now.

Nevertheless, when we go into County Court we shall include motions raising the constitutional issues (vagueness and 1st Amendment) as a last resort.

Others in the movement have suggested that we forget these cases and work on legislative reform.  As an attorney, it is my duty to defend my clients whenever they are prosecuted, whatever else I might work on.  Also, if we lose a serious case, it will influence the legislature deeply and negatively.  I think that a massive campaign to educate the legislature would be necessary on our part, and we don’t have time; the public-school lobbies are way ahead of us.  Besides, we are in compliance with the law as written.  Texas has one of the safest laws.  If we try to change it and fail, every judge will interpret that as proof that the law was intended to forbid home schooling…

SCHOOLS WEREN’T “EQUALIZERS”

[JH:]  Home schoolers may find themselves accused now and then of weakening or destroying the public schools which are supposedly the only hope for the children of the poor.  Since this accusation may cost us some public support, and even more important, since it may carry some weight if a specific home schooling case ever goes to the upper Federal courts, it is worth our while to refute it whenever we can.  For this purpose readers may find interesting these words written by Colin Greer in his book THE SOLUTION AS PART OF THE PROBLEM, published in the early 1970’s by Harper and Row:

…For at least a century now, socio-economic class, as signified by employment rates and levels, has determined scholastic achievement, as measured by dropout and failure rates…  The American school system, so the legend goes, took the backward, ragged, ill-prepared immigrants who crowded into the cities, educated and Americanized them, and pushed them into the homogeneous productive middle class that is America’s strength and pride.  It is a lovely legend, but it is a legend…

A brief look at the actual performance of the public schools about 100 years ago shows that more children failed in urban public schools than succeeded, both in absolute and in relative numbers.  Among the school systems which had large numbers of immigrant and poor pupils - Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, and Minneapolis - failure rates were so high that in no one of those systems did the so-called normal group exceed 60 percent, while in several instances it fell even lower, to 49 percent in Pittsburgh and to 35 percent in Minneapolis.

The upward mobility of the white lower classes was never as rapid nor as sure as it has become traditional to believe.  The 1920 census, for example, showed that even the favored English and Welsh migrants found half their number tied to the terrifyingly vulnerable unskilled labor occupations, and school dropout rates for all groups, including blacks, were in direct proportion to rates of adult employment…  A large proportion of immigrants never made it into middle-class society.  Millions more are just now eking their way out of the lower working class.  The great majority of the Italians and Irish are only just beginning to attend college; once there they sustain failure rates which are at least equal to the rates they and other minority groups, including blacks, sustained in the public school system…

The legend that our schools have been effective agents of social change persists and supports the illusion that they can now, in like manner, address the problems we so fervently wish would go away.  The truth is the public schools have never done what they are now expected to do…

WHY THEY DID IT

[JH:]  The 10/18/82 issue of the New Hampshire Times carried a long and very sympathetic and well-informed story about home schooling.  The article quotes at length one home schooling parent, Sally Wellborn, and what she says is so well said and so much to the point that I want to quote some of it here:

…School seemed to us to be essentially a factory geared to programming children into average contributing members of an industrialized bureaucracy.  I did not want my children’s enthusiasm for learning increasingly complex manual and intellectual skills, their delight in discovering the interrelatedness of all things, their down-to-earth sense of social responsibility, their ingenuity and self-reliance, to be muddled by the school’s unavoidable compartmentalization of such matter, classroom discipline and busywork.  I did not want my children to be forced to accept, until they were old enough to confront, certain exploitative attitudes that cause grown-up people to fight wars and destroy the environment.

[A third-grade text used in local schools says] “We are quickly using up coal, oil, and other minerals…  The land may become truly a desert of waste.  But in the ocean there are enough minerals to supply our needs.”  I wanted to spare my children the confusion they would experience when encountering teaching materials so appallingly antithetical to the values cherished by our family.

[With home education] the learning that takes place is very amorphous, organic.  Children learn by connection; everything is correlated to everything else.  We would often start off with books from the public library - during the winter the boys read hundreds of books, not many in the summer - but it is impossible to predict or to program where a book or an experience would take them.  The boys would often pursue something they were interested in at a breakneck pace, but when I would try to organize or program their learning, they were apt to resist and walk off…

[After the boys decided to go back to school, to see more of their friends:]  We have always found the boys’ public school teachers to be genuinely concerned for our children’s intellectual growth… and we have enjoyed a reasonable and mutually respectful dialogue with school administrators.  But these pleasant relationships make a frail bridge indeed across the chasm which separates my understanding of what constitutes useful, permanent learning from the system of education used in public schools…
______

[JH]:  In the same article, another home schooling parent, Barb Parshley, talks about some of the reasons she took up home schooling:

…Last year, I had two children in school.  It was rush, rush, rush.  Rush the children up, into their clothes and through breakfast; hurry them into bed at night so they could get up in time for school.  Recesses at school were so short and hectic, I felt it was important for the children to have time for extended, imaginative play with their friends on weekends.  As a result, we had no family time, no quality time.  The only time I was with my children, we were all rushing around.  They saw their father intermittently, since he works a rotating shift and many weekends.

The boys were cranky and overtired; they were anxious; they suffered from frequent leg and stomach cramps and headaches.  And their social behavior was deteriorating badly.  I saw my children becoming more and more negative and aggressive towards each other and their friends.  I felt so helpless, since I couldn’t be around to see what was precipitating this behavior.

When they were in school, the children also simply had no time for exploring in depth the subjects that had once really excited them.  They were simply too worn out.  And Sean was becoming so spoon-fed that he had lost his motivation to learn on his own.  If it is important to learn to read, write, and compute, and if we want children to sustain a love of learning throughout life, why not let them learn what interests them?…

SUMMARY OF REASONS
From the H.O.U.S.E. newsletter in Illinois, 1/82:

…Why Would A Parent Make The Decision To Home School?
…1) We can give our children a more challenging curriculum.
2) We can give them one-to-one time and thus have less wasted school time.
3) Children can be more free to follow their individual interests.
4) We can provide a more controlled spiritual, mental and physical environment.
5) We can protect our children from the meanness and competitiveness of the schools.
6) We can allow our children more daytime access to the community at large.
7) We can develop more independent learning attitudes on the part of the children.
8) We can go on field trips where they would not have provisions to accomodate an entire regular school classroom      of  kids.
9) We can maintain the continuity of family relationships, allowing more time to be together…

NEW TAPES HERE

TAPIOLA CHILDREN’S CHOIR (90 min. cassette).  This is an on-location recording I made of a recent concert of one of the most remarkable musical organizations of the world, the Tapiola Children’s Choir, from the city of Tapiola, in Finland.  They are a group of about 40 young people, eight to ten of them boys, the rest girls, average age about 14 (the boys are mostly younger), who sing and also play instruments (mostly strings), and very well, as you will hear.  The chorus was started as the ordinary school choir of the Tapiola Secondary School, in 1963, by Erkki Pohjola, who was a music teacher there and has been their teacher and conductor ever since.  In a few years they had won international choral competitions and had become world famous, as they have deservedly remained.  By the way, the notes on the back of one of the choir’s records say that Mr. Pohjola, though in other respects an accomplished string player and musician, is self-taught as a choir master and has never sung in a choir.

I already knew their work through two of their recordings, and when I heard they were going to be in this area, I jumped at the chance to hear them.  As I went to their concert, in the back of my mind was the thought, “They can’t possibly be quite as good as they have seemed to be.”  After all, records can be and are put together out of many “takes,” so that the mistakes and rough spots of live performances can be ironed out.  And microphones and other gadgets can make people sound somewhat better than they really are.  So I was ready to hear something just a little short of perfection.

Perfection, however, was what I heard.  It only took them two or three notes to convince me and all of us that they were every bit as wonderful as we had hoped.  The perfection of their intonation, the purity of their tone, the clarity of their diction, and their rhythmic flexibility, precision of ensemble, and control of dynamics and of tonal color, were hardly to be believed.  One song, a modern Swedish work about a magic curse to make your enemy mute, is one of the most difficult choral pieces I have ever heard.  And though these young musicians were coming to the end of what had been a long and hard cross-country tour, they showed almost no signs of the fatigue they might have been expected to feel.  When at the end of their concert they sang “Finlandia” and “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child,” there was not a dry eye in the house.

They have made four commercial recordings that I know of.  One is on DG (Deutsch Grammophon 2530812), a very large international company, and so may be fairly readily available.  Of the others, two are on a small Swedish label called BIS, and one on the Finnish label Finlandia.  I plan to add one or more of these records to our list - we will announce titles and prices in a later issue.  But though some of the songs they sang at this concert will be on some of those records, none will have the American songs they learned especially for this trip, or will give quite the same sense of a live concert.

At one point in the tape you will hear a touching little mini-drama.  In the seat right in front of me a little girl of about 5 was sitting with her mother.  She began to get very fidgety and restless, and when her mother showed by signs that she was to be quiet and still, the child began to look defiant and angry, and seemed to be working herself up to some test of strength.  Finally her rightly exasperated mother gave the child’s hand a hard squeeze.  Perhaps she squeezed harder than she meant to, for the little girl gave a gasp of surprise and pain, and began to cry - but very softly.  As the choir sings one song, itself sad, you can hear all this going on in front of you.

We will soon add to our list more of the music of this astonishing group.  Meanwhile, here is a chance to get to know them.

JOHN HOLT’S SPEECH IN ITALY (Vols. 1, 2.  This is a tape of a talk that I gave at a center for Tibetan Buddhism in Pomaia, Italy (not far from Pisa).  What is unusual about this tape, as about the meeting itself, was that since many of those attending were Italian and spoke little or no English, my talk had to be translated.  Instead of using simultaneous translation, which aside from being very expensive makes it impossible for people to hear anything but the translator, they used sequential translation, which meant that I would say a sentence or part of a sentence, the translator would translate, I would say another sentence, the translator would translate again, and so on.  This stop-and-go talking was a very odd experience, all the more so since I was listening to the translator to see how much of her excellent but very rapid Italian I could pick up.

So if you want to get the feel of what was a very interesting meeting, or simply want a chance to hear some Italian spoken very clearly but at rapid conversational speed, you may enjoy these tapes.  By the way, I began my talk by saying a few words about all the trouble I had getting to  the meeting place, which to my surprise and pleasure they all found absolutely hilarious, and so got us off to a nice friendly start.

NEW BOOKS AVAILABLE HERE

THE BEAR THAT WASN’T, by Frank Tashlin.  Many children of around six or seven, and perhaps younger (or older), will enjoy reading this little book or having it read to them, for just the reasons Gareth Matthews speaks of in his book PHILOSOPHY AND THE YOUNG CHILD (also on our list), namely, that in its very light-hearted way, it raises the kind of deep and difficult philosophical questions that young children are often very interested in.  In this case these are questions about appearances, identity, and reality - how do we know (or do we know) we are what we think we are, and how could we prove it if we had to?

The plot is simple; a bear goes to sleep for the winter, and when he wakes he finds that a huge factory complex has been built all around him.  Nobody he meets believes he could possibly be a real bear, and eventually the poor bear has his own doubts.

I suddenly remember that as a child I was fascinated with the whole idea of amnesia, a total loss of memory.  Indeed I remember, at the age of about ten, being completely absorbed by an adult detective story called TWO O’CLOCK COURAGE, by Gelett Burgess (who wrote the poem about the Purple Cow), which was about a man who after being knocked out by a blow on the head finds himself lying beside the body of a murder victim, with his memory completely gone, so that in order to clear himself of the crime he has to discover who he was and what happened to him.  I loved the story, which I read when my parents, whose book it was and who didn’t know I was reading it, were out of the house.  I suspect that with quite a few children parents will spend a lot more time talking about THE BEAR THAT WASN’T than just in reading it. - JH

THE RIVER  AT GREENE KNOWE, by L.M. Boston.  This is actually the third book in the Green Knowe series; I should have added it after TREASURE and before STRANGER.  In this book our friend Tolly and his great-grandmother are away for the summer, and the house has been rented to two middle-aged English ladies.  One of them invites her niece, Ida, and two refugee children, Oskar from Poland and Ping from an unnamed country in Asia, to spend the summer with them.  The three children are given a canoe and the run of the river and pretty much turned loose.  The book is about their explorations and adventures.  Like so many English books  for children, this one is full of the writer’s love of the countryside and the many things and creatures in it.  The book is about the three children, who though very different become close friends, and about their adventures and discoveries on the river, which include meeting a real giant.  Another fine story in this lovely series. - JH

AN ENEMY AT GREEN KNOWE, by L.M. Boston.  In this, the last of the Green Knowe books - and I hate to think of there not being any more - an enemy, powerful, dangerous, and ruthless, comes to Green Knowe, looking for an old piece of magic that she believes has been hidden in the house for centuries.  How she tries to steal this dark treasure, and how Tolly, his friend Ping - for they are now together in one story - and Mrs. Oldknow try to fend her off with some good magic of their own, makes up the story of this very scary book.

Clearly L.M. Boston, like me, was a great fan of M.R. James, whose ghost stories are on our list.  In fact, many of her ideas and magical devices are so clearly taken from James’s stories that I can spot the story they came from.  No matter; James’s ghosts are not any the less grim or frightening for having been seen before, and to whatever she may have borrowed from the Old Master, L.M. Boston has added plenty of terrifying inventions of her own, that James himself would have approved of.  No more than James himself is this a book to read alone in an empty house on a dark night!  An exciting end to a wonderful group of stories that have given me much pleasure and that I look forward to reading many times again. - JH

THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH, by Norton Juster.  For many years my friend Tony Kallet, who edits the magazine Outlook from which we quote from time to time, has been telling me that I ought to read this book.  Well, I finally did, and he was right.  Like ALICE IN WONDERLAND, it is a delightful fantasy, and like ALICE (and very few other children’s books), it explores quite deeply in its lighthearted way the subtle relations between objects, words, and meanings.

A bored little boy, not interested in much of anything, finds himself in a magical world where he visits (among other places) the cities of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, and meets such creatures as Tock the Watch Dog, the Spelling Bee, and the Awful Dynne.  Like THE BEAR THAT WASN’T, it is a book full of philosophy.  Lewis Carroll, who loved playing with words, would have enjoyed it, and so will children of around nine or ten, which is time that most of them begin to discover the pleasures of irony and wit.  The many amusing pen and ink drawings by Jules Feiffer are just right. - JH

THE GREY KING, by Susan Cooper.  This is the fourth book in the “Dark is Rising” series (OVER SEA, UNDER STONE was the first) about the struggle of a group of children and a few adult friends against a great Evil threatening to overwhelm England.  In THE GREY KING, we find the boy Will Stanton, whom we met in THE DARK IS RISING and GREENWITCH, visiting in Wales after a long illness.  There he tries to uncover the meaning of a secret and very important message he has been told to remember.  In the bare mountains of Wales he meets men and women who are on the side of the light, and one man who has made himself a servant of the Dark.  At the end, and with the help of his spell, Will meets and overcomes even the dreadful magic of the Grey King himself.  Another exciting story in this splendid series. - JH

SELF-PORTRAIT: TRINA SCHART HYMAN.  This delightful book, by a leading illustrator of children’s books, is a brief story of her own life, with her own illustrations (in color) - one of a series of autobiographies of artists.  I enjoyed it very much.  Ms. Hyman had an interesting life and tells about it well, and the many colorful pictures are full of life and humor, much more personal and real than most photographs, which in comparison seem stiff and posed.

Most of all, I like the book because it answers so well a question that most children - for whom the book is intended - would often like to ask the adults they know, but usually don’t quite dare: “How did you come to do what you are doing?”  In this case, “How did you get to be a painter and an illustrator of books?”  Nothing is more interesting to children than such real-life stories of adults, and this one is just right- not too long, with interesting detail but not too much, and as I say, brought vividly to life by the illustrations.

I suspect that this series is a bit of a gamble for the publishers, since I don’t think anything like this has been done before.  If our readers like this first offering, we’ll add others in the series to our list. - JH

THE MAN WHO PLANTED HOPE AND GREW HAPPINESS, by Jean Giono.  This tiny book, which for some time I have wanted to add to our list, is one of the most hopeful and encouraging true stories I have ever heard, and I am very greatful to the Friends of Nature for keeping it alive.

It is about a poor and unschooled shepherd, Elezard Bouffier, who when past fifty, finding himself in a desolate, drought-stricken region of France, had decided that the land was dying for want of trees, and that, “having no very pressing business of his own,” he would plant them himself.  When Giono first met him, in 1913, Bouffier had been planting oak trees for three years, making a small hole in the ground with a short iron bar he carried, and putting into each hole an acorn.  In that time he had planted 100,000 acorns, of which 20,000 had sprouted and of which he expected about 10,000 to survive.

When Giono next saw him, six years later, the trees were taller than the men, “a sort of greyish mist that covered the mountain tops like a carpet.”  The forest that this one man had planted was by now about seven miles long and as much as two miles wide.  Already water was flowing in brooks that had been dry for as long as people could remember.

Bouffier was 87 years old when Giono last saw him, in 1945.  Giono writes, “It has taken only the eight years since then for the whole countryside to glow with health and prosperity.  On the site of the ruins I had seen in 1913 now stand neat farms…  The old streams, fed by the rains and snows that the forest conserves, are flowing again…  The villages have been rebuilt…  Counting the former population…more than 10,000 people owe their happiness to Elezard Bouffier.”
I hope that before too long a great many people may read this little book.  It shows that individual human beings are not helpless and powerless, even now. - JH

NOMADIC FURNITURE by James Hennessey and Victor Papanek .  A fascinating collection of chairs, tables, beds, storage units, lights, etc, that you can buy for very little money, or even better, make for yourself for almost no money at all.  Best of all, if you have to move, you can take this furniture apart into pieces that store in very little space, and take them with you (hence the title).  An ideal book for people with very little money, or who would rather make their own things than buy them, or who (like me) are interested in beautiful and practical design. - JH

BEST LOVED SONGS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, Denise Agay.  This fat collection has words and music to almost 200 classsic songs spanning the time from colonial days up to this century, and including ballads, folk songs, spirituals, show tunes, songs from the frontier, the Civil War, the Gay Nineties, and more.  It is the perfect collection for families that want to gather around the piano and sing.

It would be impossible to list all the titles, but here are a few: Froggie Went A-Courtin’, Barbara Allen, The Girl I Left Behind Me, Home Sweet Home, Amazing Grace, Turkey in the Straw, Buffalo Gals, Little Brown Jug, The Erie Canal, My Old Kentucky Home, Dixie, Grandfather’s Clock, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Red River Valley, Clementine, Maple Leaf Rag, A Bird in a Gilded Cage, My Wild Irish Rose, Give My Regards to Broadway, Tea for Two, Stardust, and We Shall Overcome.  Of course, any collection is bound to leave out some of your favorites, and to include many others you’ve never heard of.  But on the whole, this book is satisfyingly balanced and complete.

Many of these songs are part of our social and political heritage.  Our ancestors sang them as they worked, travelled, and played.  Literature is full of references to these songs; all my life, I’ve read countless song titles in books, songs I didn’t know well enough to sing all the way through, or even to whistle the first line.  Unless we learn these songs today in our homes, we are not apt to learn them anywhere, for popular music keeps churning out new “hits,” and the old songs are overlooked.

We chose this particular collection over some others for several reasons, besides the selection of titles.  For one, it has sturdy spiral binding, so it will lie flat without having to be held or weighed down.  The printing is large and readable.  Almost every song is on one page or on two facing pages, so you don’t have to flip back and forth for different verses.  The piano arrangement is simple and straightforward, and the chords are written in above the melody for those who play guitar or who want to improvise their own arrangements, in the style of HOW TO PLAY THE PIANO DESPITE YEARS OF LESSONS.

There are several pages of text before each section, giving the background of the era.  And at the end of the book are notes on the history of each song.  Two or three of the songs use the word “darky”; as the introduction of the book apologizes, “It was felt that the omission of these songs would misrepresent the continuity of American musical history and make this song panorama deficient.”  I suggest that you substitute another word or omit it altogether; the song will make just as much sense.

A good collection like this is as essential a reference book as a dictionary or atlas, something no home should be without.  What fun for a beginning piano student to learn a “real” song that others can join in with, instead of a made-up exercise.  Children who grew up learning the songs in this book would acquire a musical literacy that would serve them well no matter whether their tastes lead them to specialize in classical music, jazz, theater, folk music, or any other kind.  Above all, this book is a source of endless hours of family entertainment. - DR

Editors - John Holt & Donna Richoux
Managing Editor - Peg Durkee
Editorial Assistant - Patrick Farenga
Subscriptions & Books - Tim Chapman
Office Assistant - Mary Van Doren