Page Three
KITCHEN SCHOOL
A friend wrote:
…From Nov. 1 to Jan. 1 our school system was on strike. Nov. 14 I received a call from a frantic mother remembering my skills as a substitute. Would I teach her two kids and a few others a couple days a week until the strike ended? At first I said "no."…Finally I took six kids (3 fourth grade boys, 3 fifth grade girls) Tuesdays and Thursdys, 9-11:30 AM. I was paid $10 every morning by every parent - please believe these parents were desperate. They didn’t care what I did as long as I "stimulated their minds."
The first morning, two boys literally wrestled with one another as they came up the steps to meet me… Fortunately I have learned a lot from you and also some techniques from Sid Simon about making children feel good about themselves so they don’t put down one another. The seven of us sat down on the kitchen floor and I just started talking. I told them this would not be a typical school set-up and we would do a lot of things differently. The only rule I had while we were together is that we would try to get along with one another and help one another and not hurt one another in the usual ways.
I can’t possibly tell you what a wonderful six weeks this turned out to be for me and apparently for the six kids. I got a lot of ideas from them about what they wanted to do here and we used that as our base. I had a lot of ideas for science experiments using their own bodies (breathing, pulse, hand folding, etc, etc, etc) which we did with a stopwatch and how they loved it! One day we did our finger prints. It was wild. We tried to categorize them to find out what types we had. Then we switched sets and like detectives, tried to find out whose set we had.
…We did creative writing. Two kids couldn’t put pencil to paper at first. I said, "Line up the alphabet down your paper and think of a word or words for as many letters as you can that tell us things you like to do or to eat or whatever." One boy couldn’t think of one thing. I said, "Look over at Brian’s paper. If you see something he likes that you like, put it down." He looked at me like I was crazy. He asked me to tell him that again. I did. He said, "Isn’t that copying?" I said, "No, it is sharing." He couldn’t do it. I said, "Get up and walk around like I’m doing and read off everybody’s paper and take a word from anybody." He practically croaked. Then he got up and followed me around the table. Naturally once he got started, he began to think of his own words and came up with a good list. I had scraps of paper all over just to print out the spelling of any word, if anybody asked for it.
Another day we started to play the math game of Buzz on threes (1 - 2 - Buzz - 4 - 5 - Buzz). When one little boy made the first mistake saying 6 instead of Buzz he practically freaked out, he was so scared and embarrassed. I immediately sensed that this game was not going to be fun for him and said so, and said we would instantly switch to something that makes everybody feel good and happy. The next time they came, the rest of the kids wanted to try it again. I had helped Adam write out some old fashioned times tables on one of my 5 x 7 cards which he seemed to enjoy. You know, 1 x 3 = 3 2 x 3 = 6 3 x 3 = 9 4 x 3 = 12 etc.I thought perhaps he could play this time with the answers written down so he could follow along. Well, first round, he missed! He nearly flipped out. This time I quickly and cheerfully said, "Adam, come cuddle next to me, and every time it is your turn I’ll whisper you the answer." He looked at me like he was hearing things but he snuggled in next to me. We played for probably half an hour, buzzed on 3’s and 4’s. Others made mistakes. No one drops out when they make a mistake - we just start again. It was very exciting, the kids loved it. Adam never made one mistake, naturally, and "he" loved it. Later one of the boys asked me, "If you give Adam all the answers, what does he learn?" I said, "If I don’t give Adam the answers, what does he learn?" He thought about that and smiled. "This place sure isn’t like school," he said. And yet we were somewhat structured because we usually did everything together. We never had time for everything… The kids wanted to come five days a week. That came from them and so it made me feel good to know it was something they enjoyed and not had to do because their parents made them. Every day when they left, I felt in all good conscience that I had not done any kid any harm. They came to me like battered little children. More than anything else I spent time making them feel safe, encouraging each, building their confidence….It turned out the little boy, Adam, hated math, hated school, and hated his teacher. He wrote me a beautiful creative story and that is how I found out… I spoke to his parents after the strike ended… His parents went to school that week (very timid mother) and told the teacher to stop humiliating their son and to be patient and kind, etc. Believe it or not, Adam writes me a letter every week or two which I immediately answer. He told me, "My teacher is beginning to understand me. She is not making me feel bad any more." So perhaps this dear child will end up not dreading school so much…
MISPLACED ANGER
From Jenny Wright (NH):…I’ve been thinking about anger lately. I think sometimes anger is constructive, but often it is negative and destructive… One example of a time I’ve felt angry at kids that comes to mind is from 13 years ago when I last had a teacher’s job. I took kids on hikes at a school camp. Sound like fun? It was awful. I had all these rules that it was part of my job to enforce. Don’t run, stay on the path, don’t wade in the stream, don’t climb trees, stay together, discuss certain subjects to be quizzed on later back in school. I hated these rules. I loved the woods myself partly because they were free of all these awful rules. So on the job I was angry at the rules. Every time a kid quite naturally wanted to do something against the rules, and I had to stop it, I felt angrier. The anger came out on the kids. Very unfair. I knew something was wrong and got out of that situation. But I had started to doubt that I enjoyed being with kids after all. I can still remember my surprise hearing myself sound like the worst teacher I could remember…
SKEPTICAL HUSBAND
A reader wrote:…I wonder if you know just how close the philosophy of La Leche League [GWS #18] is to that of GWS. It is a fantastic organization. The only experts are the people who belong to it, and women are encouraged to make their own choices based on what is best for their own families. My husband has been very supportive of my beliefs up to this point. He is a wonderful, involved father who is willing to include his children in as much of his life as possible. He supported me with the home birth of our third child, although he had some deep reservations. However, when it comes to school, he does not agree with me at all. As a result, our six-year-old son is in public kindergarten. My husband is a public school teacher… There must be other people in my situation where one parent is a confirmed unschooler and the other is not. I certainly do not want to destroy our family life over this, but it cannot help but affect us. If you know how others have worked out this problem, I would appreciate hearing about it…
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I wrote in reply:…I do indeed know how close the philosophy of La Leche League is to that of GWS. I think of LLL as a rich source of very valuable allies, and hope that many of those mothers who bore their children naturally and nursed them wil later decide they want them to learn at home. It seems a natural consequence of what they have already been doing. Also, I feel that mothers who are closely bonded to their children will be unwilling, as you are, to allow the kind of mental and spiritual destruction that goes on in too many schools.
But I don’t know what to say about husbands who do not agree. When both parents are together, home schooling simply doesn’t and can’t work unless they both agree to it. I don’t know how openªminded your husband is on the subject. Would he be willing to read GWS, or parts of it, from time to time? Would he be willing, now and then, to see some other families who are teaching their own children, to see what their children are like? If so, it’s possible that in time he might change his mind. By the way, I know some home schooling families in which one parent is a working public school teacher. That might interest your husband. He may feel that if you taught your children at home, it might threaten his job - and in these times, that would be a real concern.
It’s also just barely possible that your children might be among the very few who thrive in school and even benefit from it. You should not rule out that possibility. And as long as your children are going to school, it might be better not tell them how you feel about it. Let them make up their own minds. As I say, they might like it (for good reasons, not bad) and do well at it. Or they might come to dislike it, and for such good reasons that your husband would in time have to agree with them. After all, I don’t think he will put up with the schools actually being cruel to the children, which they too often are. And perhaps in time he will see with his own eyes that school is making your children into less nice, less intelligent, and less capable people…
TEACHER/HOME-SCHOOLER
From Art Horovitch (Alberta):…We presently are home-schooling our oldest daughter, Vivian, age 11. The change from an uptight, angry young girl to one who is much more at ease and self-confident has been remarkable in the five months of being out of school. We have had excellent coªoperation from the superintendent and local school principal. The school board was not keen on the idea, but generally went along with the superintendent’s recommendation that it be tried for one year. One thing which we did agree to was standardized testing in core subjects (math and communications skills). In the first set of tests last June, when Vivian had been out of school for three months, she had a score at or higher than grade level. Two things I would like to stress about these tests: (1) Get a statement of objectives outlining what is expected to be known and (2) Accompany the child to the testing situation and STAY WITH THEM during the test. It is too easy for a child to be intimidated by the situation and make mistakes or forget to do something. One problem that I have had with the whole question of home schooling is my own role as (a) a high school teacher (mathematics) and (b) parent of a child who is home schooling. I find that I get the most negative comments from teachers on my own staff. Their chief comment is "How can you work in a system if you don’t believe in it?" I also come under a great deal of criticism when I talk about the futility of counter-productive methods such as punishment and ridicule of students. I find it very hard to tolerate the constant putdowns the students in our school are subjected to, yet when I suggest changes, I’m told they will never work. The most positive comments about the home schooling come from some of the students themselves. We have gotten into some extremely interesting discussions and it is obvious that students are aware they are being manipulated by the system "right from grade one" to do things they don’t want to do. I wonder if there are any other home schooling parents who are also teachers in their local school system and how they cope with the stress generated from the problems I mentioned above. I’m really anxious to hear what they have to say about their position in the school system. Perhaps by a mutual exploring of ideas we can relieve some of the stresses which many of us in this position must feel..
WHY SCHOOLS WON’T CHANGE
I’d like to take a little GWS space to answer very briefly a question I am asked all the time: "Why aren’t you working to improve the schools?" or, as it often comes out, "Why have you given up on the schools?" The answer is, in essence, because the schools have given up on themselves. I was recently invited to be on a Boston TV show with many school people - teachers, officials of teacher’s unions, superintendents, the state Commissioner of Education, a university president, and others. All sang the same song, the song I hear sung at school meetings all over the country: "There’s nothing wrong with the schools, we’re doing a better job than ever, and any problems that may exist are not our fault." Society. TV. Politicians. Voters. Above all, uncooperative and uncaring parents. The schools have a very special definition of "cooperative and caring parent." To be called that, you must meet these conditions: 1) You must not doubt, question, or challenge anything done by the schools, or make any suggestions for changes or improvements - all these, however small or specific, are lumped under the name of "criticism." 2) You must believe everything the school says about your children, and even yourselves. 3) You must make your children do everything the school tells them to do, and punish them if they don’t. 4) In any dispute between the school and your children, you must strongly and without reservation take the school’s side -school people talk longingly about the good old days when "a child knew that if he got in trouble in school, he would get in trouble at home." So, say the schools, if all parents would follow these rules,and if the public and the politicians would just shut up, stop criticizing, and give the schools all the money they ask for, everything would be fine. Say those words to a meeting of school people, and you are a friend; say anything else, and you are an enemy. The schools, in short, have shut themselves up in a fortress which cuts them off, not only from any new and useful ideas from outside, but even from their own experience. They do not say to each other, "Let’s forget those ignorant outsiders, but let’s discuss privately, among ourselves, how we can do our work better." No; since they insist they are doing their work perfectly, and all problems are the fault of someone else, there is no need and no way to talk about how to do their work better. All there is to talk about is how to hold off all those enemies surrounding them. As long as the schools remain in this present frame of mind, they "cannot" improve, and except for a few unusual schools and teachers here and there, there is no more constructive way to work with them than to help dissatisfied people to find some alternative - which is what we here are doing.
CURING THE INCURABLE
From an article by Ellen Frank in the "Boston Phoenix", 2/3/81:…There are seven Salem Children’s Villages in the western world; three in West Germany, one each in Switzerland, Israel, Maryland, and New Hampshire. They care for foster children, generally abused and neglected in the extreme… The Salem concept is simple, highly non-institutional, and three-fold: the children are treated as individuals within a family structure; they are fed an all-natural-foods diet, with no sugar or additives; they live in a rural environment and they engage in physical activities, such as horseback riding and, later, trade apprenticeships, that increase the child’s sense of self-control and self-esteem. In each of the Salem villages, children live in households of up to eight children with two "houseparents" or a "housemother," professionals trained in the care of neglected and abused children, many of whom have been labeled as "retarded, hyperactive, emotionally disturbed, or psychotic". The children relate to the houseparents, and to one another, as family. Older people, filling the role of grandparents, live in the Village in their own "Grandparents’ House." In some cases, they are retired tradespeople who take on the children as apprentices….Behavioral problems at Salem are further reduced by an emphasis on physical touch; children are given back rubs before they go to sleep, and hugs are frequent. Physical contact is a reassurance to the 11 children now at Salem in New Hampshire (there are plans to take in 24 more). Most of them have spent their lives since infancy in institutions, or in a shuffle from one foster home to the next. Psychiatric facilities and group homes are a common experience, and the children achingly desire familial normality: they make a point of referring to their "brothers" and "sisters," and call their houseparents "Mom" and "Dad." Karen Price, 27, one of Salem’s houseparents, explained the system of discipline this way: "We do something called ‘logical consequences.’ Say a kid who can’t swim goes down to the lake without telling me - then she or he isn’t allowed to go there for three days. Three days is the standard. It seems to be exactly the right time and it’s a very, very long time to a child. We have a point system leading to the status of ‘mule,’ ‘pony,’ and ‘thoroughbred,’ which signify their ability to deal with the outside world, rather than punishment. The status indicates whether or how often they can do things like leaving the grounds, or going to the movies, or roller skating. "We never hit them", and if they hit another child, or an animal, they have to do an hour of work -the worst work we can find, like shoveling manure or mud. "You must realize that most of these children are highly disturbed when they come here, and they have a lot of anger. We’ll talk about it in family meetings. I have four children, two boys and two girls, between 11 and 15. Physical activities are the best way to get that anger out. We do a lot of hiking, horseback riding, and canoeing. And what they’re really big on is yelling - outside." According to all that I observed, read, or was told, the Salem system has scored remarkable successes with extremely difficult children. The case of 12-year-old Sally… is graphically typical.Sally was removed from her parents at the age of three, because of severe abuse. A younger sibling had recently died of starvation. She was hospitalized and then sent through a long series of foster homes and institutions. She was diagnosed as hyperactive and possibly retarded, and placed on Ritalin to control her behavior. When Sally arrived at Salem, last year, she still had her baby teeth, was unusually small for her age, and couldn’t do normal exercises such as running or swimming. She was totally illiterate. State authorities informed Salem that she could not be managed without Ritalin or other drugs. Sally was taken off drugs the day she arrived at Salem and put on the natural-foods diet. The hyperactivity rapidly receded, and within a week she had settled to a level of activity normal for her age. Over the past year she has grown six inches, her adult teeth have come in, and she swims and runs competitively. Sally is in sixth grade at the local Rumney School and tests above her grade level…
[JH:] One way to describe Salem is to say that they do for and with children all the things that regular schools and teachers are not allowed or, more often, do not choose to do. They do not keep a "professional distance" between themselves and the children; quite the reverse. They give the children many legitimate ways to express, use, and burn off their anger. They give the children a great deal of physical affection and contact, something that will get teachers, especially men teachers, fired in most schools. They
teach the children useful skills and give them real work to do.Above all, they do not hit the children, which seems to me all the
argument that is needed against the many adults, teachers and otherwise, who say that they can’t control even "normal" children without hitting them. And, unlike the learning disability "experts" of the schools, the Salem adults do not assume that the children’s troubles, problems, and handicaps are incurable and permanent. In short, they treat the children as Jean Liedloff urged in THE CONTINUUM CONCEPT and as George Dennison described in THE LIVES OF CHILDREN. Under this kind of treatment the "retarded" and "illiterate" Sally (and presumably many others like her) not only became a "normal," active, healthy, and affectionate child, "but did six years worth of school work in one year". I think it is reasonable to assume, and this is my main reason for writing about the Salem Villages in GWS, that if these gentle and humane methods of dealing with children can, and in such a short time, make sick children well, the absence of these methods and they are absent in all but a few schools - can in just about an equally short time "make healthy children sick". If we want to find the root cause of all the anger and violence in our schools, here is the first place to look. Meanwhile, we all need to know much more about these people and their wonderful work.
HIGH SCHOOL GRAD AT 15
From southern California:…Almost four months ago, I took the California High School Proficiency test which is equivalent to being a high school graduate. I am now a 15-year-old high school graduate. I am going to Los Angeles Valley Junior College - I couldn’t afford to go to a university. I go at night and work part-time in the mornings as a tutor for retarded teenagers (they call them exceptional children). In the afternoon, I tutor 1st and 2nd graders at the local elementary school. Each job pays $300 a month so I end up with a decent salary when you consider I am only supporting myself….What I am doing is taking classes that sound interesting. I have no plans to get an A.A. or B.A. or whatever. I’m still living at home and probably will for a while so I don’t have to worry about income. I’m still doing some writing. The Santa Monica "Evening Outlook" printed a short story I wrote, and another will be in my college’s pamphlet on how to write, for which I am being paid $50…
10-YEAR-OLD WORKER
From Colorado:…I was commissioned to build a playground for a Head Start program in Colorado. The money was fairly good and I stayed at a friend’s house to cut costs. Trell, an old student of mine when I taught at an alternative school (now disbanded for lack of funds) asked if he could come to Colorado with me. He was 10. He hashelped build playgrounds in Kansas City, Mo. After I consulted his mother and communicated to Trell the hard work and long hours involved, we set off together. The flight to Colorado was the beginning of a month of working together. Trell slept in a sleeping bag on the floor of the room in which I slept, ate with me (paid for by his mother) and worked with me all day. Trell called home 2 times a week. When he became tired of cutting wood, banging in nails, and lifting tires, Trell joined one of the Head Start classes or went into the office to work on an art project, study his math, or work at his reading and writing books. Sometimes he would write home. With the bilingual, bicultural program, he danced Mexican dances, learned some Spanish, helped with painting, reading, and field trips….Many of the skills I myself use frequently today were learned outside of school. My skills needed to construct the Head Start playground were not learned at school. Neither were the dancing and carpentry skills I use to teach classes, the interªpersonal skills needed, my abilities in writing and photography… I acquired most of these through apprenticeship programs of the Society of Brothers. This communal organization requires young people - from about 8 years old - to work for part of the day within the community - the woodshop, gardening, children’s house, publishing, etc…
PROGRAMMERS
The Boston "Ledger, 2/13/81:…According to the staffer at the Boston Computer Society booth at the Microcomputer Fair, bright 11-year-old schoolboys are earning $8,000 or $9,000 a year in their spare time, free-lancing simple programs…
VET WORK
From Rosalie Megli (IL):…New opportunities are opening up for Lora, our 13-year-old daughter. She has made arrangements to begin part-time work at the local veterinary clinic, feeding animals and cleaning cages. She has also been made welcome to accompany the vets on farm runs and with office work. Since Lora loves animals and may be interested in veterinary science as a vocation, we are delighted with her arrangements. Lora got her work permit from the superintendent of schools with "no" stipulations regarding working hours… Lora also has a small craft business (she makes herb-filled potholder mits) and is going to buy a microscope with proceeds from pre-Christmas sales…
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS
Rick Cohen (OR) writes:…We moved to this small town on the Oregon coast a year and a half ago. We realized that we would probably not be able to keep a low profile and we didn’t want to start out here alienating ourselves from the community unnecessarily, so we enrolled in a home study course for our three school-age kids. We chose the Home Study Institute with the idea that its being run by a Christian group might make it easier for the kids’ father to accept… Surprisingly the school board was not familiar with HSI, though there are some people using it here. They were more familiar with Calvert. Everything has worked out fine, though. We have to make a formal request each year and the kids have to take the same yearly evaluation tests that the rest of the kids in the district have to take. Their first exam was a few weeks after beginning to work on their program - they did fine! Following the program can be pretty demanding, until you figure out what is important and what is not. It’s hardly nonªschooling but the kids do have most of their time to themselves. When they’re not reading or doing household chores they are usually playing together. The boys, especially, have generally preferred playing together over playing with most other kids. Recently the three readers have read TOILET TRAINING IN LESS THAN A DAY to help with their little brother. Before we moved here they each became successful entrepreneurs and craftsfolk. It started with Aaron’s desire to make some money, about five years ago. Every Saturday he would set up his little display of hotpads next to his mother’s craft booth. Somehow he started drawing pictures with felt pens. Initially he was heavily influenced by his mother’s designs. Later, she borrowed at least one idea from him! To sell his pictures, he packaged them as cards with envelopes (with some assistance from his mother). He soon found this endeavor much easier and more lucrative than the hotpads so he discontinued that line. His sister and brother soon joined in and were also doing well. One by one they got tired of producing and they already had more money than they needed - so much more that we could no longer "bribe" them to do odd jobs at low pay. I don’t want to leave the mistaken impression that they just turned out pictures. They sometimes did, but Aaron received a couple of commissions from a former art student; and one of the local artists, who is pretty successful, was so intrigued by Aaron’s work that he borrowed one of his designs - with credit given. Their money and number consciousness was raised considerably by their business experience also. I remember Thorr’s teacher remarking how he seemed to have a mathematical intuition which was far more complex than his formal knowledge would suggest. They don’t seem to be doing much with their art these days, although a recent present of pipecleaners did spark up a creative
effort resulting in a beautiful bird sculpture, equipped with an opening for the eggs to fall out and a small entourage of chicks.
Our youngest daughter, Raven (5), has really enjoyed playing with pipecleaners. Initially all the kids were making self-styled "eyeglasses." Later, Raven discovered that she could make letters and numbers out of them. She enjoys being "tested," up to a point. We also play letter games with the SPEAK & SPELL that arrived recently. This game has something for everyone; I enjoy trying to find the mystery word. Oftentimes Raven will ask me to tell her how to write a letter to someone. She writes many letters, but they usually get lost… All of the kids have a good deal of interest in births and pregnancies, especially since two of their siblings were born at home. They’ve also attended a friend’s birth since Angela has been involved in midwifery…
UNSCHOOLING VALLEY
From Harold Dunn (OR):…Here’s a check for $168 for an 11X sub to GWS for 6 years… Actually I haven’t found anyone else with the cash to pay their share yet, though I’m confident I will, in time. My estimate is that there are about 30 families in this rural valley who are keeping or have kept their kids out of school. In just five minutes, Bunny and I thought of 13 such families, and guess we could come up with several more if we had time to think. And we certainly don’t know most of the families around here! Besides that there are three free schools here now, and there were four. And I hope to finally get a "kid center" going next summer, as an alternative to school - just a place kids can be together without adults. I’m donating one of these subs to our local library, and another to the library at our free clinic here in the valley…
A BRIEF TRIAL
From Pat Tennnant (CA: GWS #17):…I thought you might like hearing about Ginger’s experience with the local high school. Ginger has always been the one with a need for others to relate to and she began to feel, this summer, that a school was the answer. So, because we have faith that our children know what experiences they need to get where they are headed, we told her we would enroll her. She attended three weeks before deciding that the school had nothing to offer her. We knew it wasn’t working before that but she had gotten the part she wanted in the high school’s production of "Music Man" and we thought she would stick it out for that. But she didn’t feel good about how they approach drama either. Anyway, she didn’t tell us she was quitting - she wanted to handle that herself - so she went to school that day and started telling each teacher as she went to class that she wouldn’t be back and asked if they needed anything from her (to turn in books, etc.)But it didn’t take long for her to realize that wasn’t working. The teachers couldn’t accept "her" decision to quit (that is, transfer to our school). After one teacher took her aside, sat her down and wanted her to list all the pros and cons, and after she was taken from her class to meet with the school psychiatrist, she changed her approach. The rest of the day she told everyone her parents were transferring her to a private school. That they could accept! That whole thing took a lot of energy on our part - dealing with the school - but as we saw the change it made in her and listened to her tell us about it, we recognized that what she had was a short course in sociology. For those who need it, she also supplied some proof that she is learning - with learning defined by school standards, you understand. She qualified for Honors English with a 98 and 99 on the tests, and also made the highest grade in the class on the Geography test… At any rate, things are back to normal and she feels really good bout being here. We are spending quite a bit of time at the theater because that still supplies experiences the kids are wanting. Ginger is still performing and this coming year our family is in charge of the props, which means we get to attend every performance and be in on what’s happening. Joe and Doug just finished building a special flat (had an arch in it) and the founders of the theater said they couldn’t have done it better themselves. They tend to stand in awe of Doug’s carpentering ability but when he is building is when he is the happiest. I guess that’s why theater is such a good resource for us because you are constantly building, then tearing down and building again. We just spent a day inventorying the props and Ginger took hold on this. She organized the whole process and did all the paper work so we got to thinking that maybe she would like office work. We asked and the woman in the office is eager to teach her the office procedures in exchange for Ginger’s help and Ginger is excited about that. Also coming up this Saturday is a chance for Doug to work in the light-booth at the theater. They are redoing all the wiring and "he" is excited about "that"…
REASONS FOR SCHOOL
From Marlene Bumgarner (CA):…Upon being told that she was being skipped another grade and being recommended for the "mentally gifted minors" program at our local zoo (large school), my daughter, Dona Ana, 7-1/2, who has been in a two-room country school for the last six months, and home schooled before that, announced that she’d much rather stay home -there were so many more interesting things to do. So my husband John and I have just worked out a plan for the fall which will have him working with her in the morning on whatever he’s doing - he runs a computer systems business from our home - and me working with her in the afternoon….Dona Ana told us at Christmas that she wanted to go to public school "to learn how to jump rope, play jacks and do hopscotch." Well, she’s learned what she went for, which is, I suppose, why she’s not interested in going next year!… ` `
Patti Lawrence (OH) wrote:…Rich and I have been reading GWS for over a year now and have been involved with our first child coming up against public school. She insisted that she wanted to go so we allowed her to start. Four days into first grade and she decided home was better!…When we asked Rachael why she wanted to go to school, her response was that she wanted to use her new lunch box and she hoped there would be lots of recess…
AT HOME IN TEXAS
From Rose Ann Burkel (TX):…We enjoy GWS very much. It gave us the final incentive to keep our children home from school this year. We discussed our reasons with our superintendent and he was supportive. He knows us and he believed us when we told him we were doing this for us, our family. We said this was no protest against the school as we think the school was the best one our children have attended. He was satisfied with our correspondence schools and said he considered them to be private schools. I’m sure he doesn’t agree with our decision but does uphold our rights as parents to do what we believe to be in the best interest of our family. I am still in the PTA because I am still interested in all children. We don’t have a television but I still care about the content of TV. Two teachers at the school said the school couldn’t meet our children’s needs. We tried to convince them that this was not our reason for keeping them at home. All in all, they thought staying home and learning was a great idea… One woman said we were making a mistake because our daughter needed to be at school with youngsters her own age. She said she wouldn’t and couldn’t develop properly and she wouldn’t know how to cope and live in this world because she wasn’t in school. She also said Susan was a leader and could influence others, and she was right, there. But we had considered all these things. Basically she implied that we were being selfish and hiding from the world. Of course we feel that our family is a number one priority. It made no difference to this friend that we are active in church. Our daughter visits with her friends, does volunteer work and is learning to live and get along in a family. (As you well know, getting along with those you love most is much more difficult than being nice to strangers!) I mention this friend because I got nowhere explaining and I myself was exhausted and "never" intend to go through that again. Some people can only see one side….We can enjoy our nights and weekends without the "school thing" hanging over our heads. Our kids used to start feeling grumpy and sad about 6 o’clock on Sunday evenings. We can take trips or visit late in the evenings and never think of school hanging like a black cloud over us…