Growing Without Schooling Volume 2

Growing Without Schooling: The Complete Collection

Vol. 2, 1981 – 1982

John C. Holt, editor and founder

Series Edited by Patrick Farenga and Carlo Ricci

Growing Without Schooling: The Complete Collection

Vol. 2, 1981 – 1982

John C. Holt, editor (1977 to 1985) and founder

Series edited by Patrick Farenga and Carlo Ricci

Cover design by Stephen Tedesco

Book layout and design by Patrick Farenga

Copyright © 2018 HoltGWS LLC

All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Growing Without Schooling 20

Growing Without Schooling 21

Growing Without Schooling 22

Growing Without Schooling 23

Growing Without Schooling 24

Growing Without Schooling 25

Growing Without Schooling 26

Growing Without Schooling 27

Growing Without Schooling 28

Growing Without Schooling 29

Growing Without Schooling 30

About John Holt

Acknowledgments

This collection—just like the original issues of GWS—would not be possible without the volunteer efforts of many people. The following people helped scan, retype, edit, and layout each of the 141 issues of GWS; we are very grateful for your help and diligence to see this massive project (over 6,000 pages!) to completion.

Hafidha Acuay, Tane Akamatsu, C. Tane Akamatsu, Qubsa Ali, Amy Andrews, Ellen Behm, Christine Behnen, Anne Bolger, Joey Breiannis, Courtney Anne Brewer, Jeff Brinson, Sarah Brooks, Shannon Butler, Jeff Cappleman, Amanda Carvalho, Jess Clausen, Michelle Cloutier, Jason Corcoran, Oliver & Teresa Costes, Jesse Cull, Malcolm Dow, Angie Drake, Emma Draper, Nate Dvorak, Amy Edwards, Meghan Edwards, Sheila Etches, Dawn Evans, Nada Fakhro, Michelle Feather, Aaron Fewkes, Donna Garstin, Maddie Gillespie, Emily Gonyer, Harman Singh Goraya, Elaine Greenwood, Sandra Gurton, Tracy Hall, Cindy Harasen, Brooke Haugh, Renée Herbert, Amanda Hewitt, Adrian Hill, Dagmar Hoffmeier, Emma Howitt, Viola Huang, Greg Huneault, Chris Hunt, Laura Johnson, Kirsten Jork, Deborah Joyce, Janine Kam-Lal, Juliet Kemp, Barbara Klapperich Senn, Heidi Klein, Dr. Marianne Kuzujanakis, Friedmund Labmann, Oleg Legusov, Rob Lennox, Jane Levicki, Karen MacKay, Natasha Mansouri, Gabrielle Martell, Tara McGoey, Amy Milstein, Kristan Morrison, Kristiina Myllymäki, Kathyann Natkie, Karugia Ndirangu, Katherine Norman, Jean Nunnally, Jessica Nurmsoo, Deb O’Rourke, Mercedes Oli, Dana Pelletier, Krista Tucker Petrick, Hussam Qasem, Stephanie Quigley, Colleen Raja, Marian S. Remple, Rocco Ricci, Gina Riley, PhD, Babette Rossj, Pabloi Sepulveda Rosso, Aleksandra Serebrenik, Thérèse Shere, Francesca Silvester, Melissa Silvestri, Tatiana Yvette Smith, Robin Stevens, Nina Sutcliffe, Kathryn Szrodecki, Dr. Gudrun Taresch, Dagmar Tatomir, Jennifer G. Taus, Stephen Tedesco, Karen Thiel, Tosh Tipler, Tracey Verney, Chun Wah Chiu, Anna Maria Wesener.

Introduction

By Patrick Farenga

When I first arrived at Growing Without Schooling (GWS) magazine in 1981 I thought it would be a steppingstone for me to another job in the magazine industry; instead, it became a focus of my life’s work. Being around people who not only criticized school methods but actually took action to help their children learn and grow in ways that schools will not or cannot proved exciting to me. From kindergarten to college, every educational precept I knew was challenged and alternatives presented and I eventually realized that John Holt was creating something new and different in the world of education that I wanted to be part of. Unlike most schools and corporations, John did not want or encourage slavish devotion to an institutional mission as the primary purpose of one’s life. John encouraged everyone, including me, to focus on our interests and concerns that engaged us, no matter how big or small, rather than to always put our own development aside in favor of proving to school officials that we can focus on their interests and concerns.

In formatting and editing these issues for digital readers I realized what an incredible individual and group effort GWS was and still is. John Holt almost single-handedly wrote many of the first ten issues and much of his thinking generated some incredibly thoughtful and brave responses. I say brave because simply saying you were homeschooling in those days often led to severe personal and public criticism or a court appearance, as you can readily read in this volume. You can see a grassroots movement developing its reach, finding allies and resources, defending its right to exist in the face of bigger, more organized, and well-funded opposition, and celebrating the unique power to learn and grow that is in each of us

I had a lot of misgivings about doing this project at first. Accurately collecting, editing, and formatting the more than six thousand pages of the original, single-spaced GWS articles is an enormous undertaking that I long avoided due to the amount of time and effort it required not just by me, but by anyone who joined. I am grateful that Carlo is persistent and over the course of several conversations he showed me that volunteers, good will, and using some of the graduate students at the school where he teaches, Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario, were good, low-tech ways to tame the thousands of pages printed during GWS’ 24 years. The manual labor involved was enormous—every issue was retyped—and I am grateful to every typist, proofreader, and copyeditor who helped us create this collection.

This is the first of many volumes of Growing Without Schooling; I look forward to sharing them all and hearing back about what you think about parents and children directing their own learning without conventional schooling. Homeschooling has grown tremendously since Holt published GWS #1 in August, 1977; Holt estimated there may have been perhaps 25,000 children being homeschooled in the late 1970s; there are now over 2 million children being taught outside of school and in their local communities by their parents. How did this wild growth happen? The answer is right in your hands.

By Carlo Ricci

First, I need to thank all of the volunteers, which includes technical experts who created solutions for us, since they all helped make this enormous project possible. Although, republishing all of the issues of Growing Without Schooling seems simple enough, the task required thousands and thousands of human hours and some ingenious technical mastery. I will spare you the details, but suffice it to say that a lot of the work was tedious, time consuming, and took a whole team of us (including over 100 volunteers) over 5 years, so far, to get to where we are today.

For many of us GWS remains one of the most inspirational and important windows into unschooling, self-determination, and willed learning. The insights gleaned by reading GWS are seminal. Years after it was last published, the legend of GWS remains ubiquitous. I believe that GWS is still the turning point for many. For this reason, I hoped that reprinting the issues in volumes to make it accessible would be a great service. So in 2011, I emailed Pat Farenga to ask if he is interested in republishing GWS. Of course, he was. However, he warned me that they tried to do this before, and after putting out one volume containing 12 of the 141 issues, they realized that the task was enormous and required too many people hours to complete.

With the good fortune and hope in newer technology to assist us, we decided to move forward. Initially, Pat, Stephen Tedesco (without his technical expertise, I am not sure if we could have pulled this off. Early into the project Stephen had to leave and we were sad to see him go), and I thought we would tackle this project. It quickly became clear that if it was left to the three of us, this project could not be completed. The hours required to do what needed to be done were far too many for three people, no matter how committed, to complete. In short, the first step required that we either retype every single issue, or that we follow Stephen’s technical solution which converted a hard copy of the document into a digital document so that we could manipulate the text. We decided to follow Stephen’s solution. Regardless, because of the format of the original issues, converting the issues into a digital document was still very time-consuming, and required heavy proofreading and editing, since the conversion resulted in an error-filled document.

It became clear very quickly that if we were going to do this we required help, and lots of it. In life, I believe that meeting and having great people in your life that you know personally is a great fortune. Another great fortune is to be a part of a larger community of people that you might not know personally, but that are nonetheless a part of your world. And if you are really lucky, you will have both personal friends and belong to a strong community. Fortunately, I am really, really lucky. So when I suggested to Pat and Stephen that we try and tap into our networks to see if we can get a few volunteers to help, we were hopeful that we might get a few people.

In fact, seconds after we put out the call asking for volunteers, offers came flooding in, for which we remain thankful and humbled. I like to think that they agreed to volunteer because, of course they are special people, and also because they believe in the value of sharing GWS with the world as much as we do. I also believe that Holt remains such a beacon of hope and inspiration that people want to be a part of what his legend and work continues to offer. Holt still brings people and communities together, as this project attests.

GWS is interesting as a historical document, but much more than that. It is as relevant for people today as it was when it was first published. I believe Holt felt the same. When people would subscribe to GWS they would start with receiving issue 1 regardless of when they subscribed. This indicates to me that it was not written for a particular time, but it was meant to be a record for future readers where all of the information in all of the issues is timeless. In fact in issue 5, Holt writes, "Some people, now or in the future, who read GWS …" This quote makes clear to me that GWS was meant to be timeless. It was written with present and future readers in mind.

GWS, in part, is about how we learn best. It offers clear examples and narratives from people who are learning through unschooling. There are lots and lots of examples of how people successfully learn naturally. GWS shares tips about what people are doing to learn and how and what they are learning. It also offers powerful insights into how to get credentialed by going to school less.

GWS is the best way to learn about learning. It’s great because it’s not just theory, but it is what people are actually doing. Again, the tips and insights are just as helpful and relevant today, maybe even more so.

In part, GWS connects people with each other; informs people about friendly post-secondary options, which is helpful for both unschoolers and mainstream schoolers, and it connects and informs people about alternative possibilities and even friendly schools.

GWS is useful for everyone to read since all of us learn. There are also narratives of people in mainstream schools who see understanding learning as a high priority, who report in GWS that what is written in GWS is helpful to them as mainstream schoolers. They report finding it worthwhile, and clearly provocative.

It is clear that GWS helped and continues to help many. It contributed to normalizing homeschooling and to bringing and organizing the homeschooling community. GWS connected people with each other, gave people the information they needed to navigate and challenge the laws, and gave people the confidence and ideas about what it means to learn as an unschooler. Of course, it continues to do this for everyone who takes the time to read the issues of this seminal magazine.

In GWS #19 Tom Wesley writes: "When I first wrote GWS I was too insecure to use my name. Now I feel safe enough after four years of tolerant, helpful teachers and school board members to come out of the unschooling closet." The security felt by Tom Wesley was made possible, in part, by the pages of GWS. Like Tom, many more of us can now feel safe and confident.

I am extremely proud and happy to have such a great social circle and to be a part of such a wonderful project and community, and I sincerely hope that GWS will live on and be a source of peace, love, and inspiration well into the future.

Editorial Note

We want to preserve the original tone and context of the original issues as much as possible in this collection, but we have discovered that some conventions from the printed issues do not carry over well to the digital realm, particularly Growing Without Schooling’s use of ellipses.

John Holt and Donna Richoux, the editors for these issues, made meticulous deletions to the original letters in order to squeeze the text into a few printed pages. In editing these volumes, we have edited out many of the ellipses in readers’ letters and found doing so does not change the meaning of the letter and removes a lot of visual clutter from the page, making it easier to read. We have not removed ellipses from quoted materials or where they are needed for comprehension.

A note about GWS issue dates and style: John Holt didn’t want to date the issues of GWS because he felt they contained much timeless material about children and learning, so he decided that a simple number system—GWS #1, GWS #2, etc.—was more useful. When we reached a certain number of subscribers the postal service required us to print the date of publication in each issue, so starting with GWS #31 there are accurate publication dates. But we can only guess at the dates of some of the early issues based on the references we see and the fact that Holt only published when he had enough material, not because it was a certain date. It wasn’t until editor Donna Richoux joined GWS (see GWS #11) that it maintained a steady bimonthly publishing schedule.

Starting with GWS #27, one can see the expansion of the GWS Resource Lists to include the following categories that were updated in all future issues: Certified Teachers (willing to help homeschoolers); Homeschooling Groups (by state); other organizations that support self-reliance, child-raising, and educational issues as homeschooling allies or help; Friendly Lawyers, Professors and others allies willing to help homeschooler develop curriculum, evaluate progress, or in other ways; Correspondence Schools and Books; Helpful Private Schools that enrol or help home study students; Friendly School Districts; the Directory of Families willing to network with others and be contacted by people interested in learning more about homeschooling. From this issue forward, the Resource Lists took up the last pages of each issue of GWS. We chose not to reproduce those lists as this information is quite dated, but they were a vital tool used by many homeschoolers, whether subscribers and nonsubscribers, until the advent of the internet.

While we wanted to make this as easy to read as possible by using standard spelling conventions, the abbreviations and other shorthand John used to write and comment in the issues is preserved. We feel it helps give you a sense of all the excitement about the ideas Holt and others were sharing in those days.

Growing Without Schooling 20

April 1981

In GWS #17 we said that Mother Earth News had accepted Ishmael Wallace’s article about how he and his father built a raft. The other day we got our March/April Issue of Mother Earth News (#68). Not only is the story in there, with a very nice photo of Ishmael and his sister Vita sailing on the raft, but an artist’s rendition of the two children on the raft is on the magazine cover—and also on a big promotional poster for TMEN that will probably be posted on the wall in many stores and other public places. We’re delighted.

Official publication date for Teach Your Own is August 3. The cover price of the book will be $13.95; we will sell it here for $12.50 + postage (75¢ for 1, 2, or 3 copies). You may order the book from us in advance, and we’ll send out copies as soon as they become available in August. Also, since sales people work hardest to sell what they think will sell best, the more advance orders of Teach Your Own the Delacorte people get, the more effort they will make for this book.

I was a guest on a TV show in Toronto called Speaking Out the other night—one of the best shows that I have ever been on. The host, Harry Brown, had read and understood our materials and asked many friendly but thoughtful and probing questions. The people who called in by phone (including two homeschooled children) also asked good questions. As is their usual custom, the show ran a poll of its audience, asking them to vote by phone on the quest on, Do you think that our public schools are doing a good job? When I left the studio that night, the No’s were leading by about four-to-one. And more than a thousand people had called wanting to ask a question on the air. Since we were competing with the Ontario election returns, my hosts were very pleased about this.

The Calendar TV show (WCVB-TV Channel 5, Boston) will have a story on homeschooling May 29 at 8 PM; they taped a short interview with me, as well as with three Massachusetts families: the Kimballs, the Mahoneys, and the Mulcahys of Yarmouth.

There was a good homeschooling story in the Home section of the February 26 New York Times, and a shorter story in the February Next magazine. Also, a syndicated story on homeschooling by Ken Franklin has been appearing in newspapers around the country—a number of people have sent us clippings of it.

Paula Allmaras in North Dakota writes that a bill saying that anyone can teach their children or send them to non-certified schools has passed the N.D. Senate and is in the House.

Robin Smith, a senior at Smith College who is doing a research paper on homeschooling (and who, by the way, is engaged to Dean Schneider, another GWS reader) came by the office and we had a nice visit. She asked us to pass along her thanks to the many families in the Directory who have given her such friendly cooperation.

—John Holt

Coming Schedule

April 24, 1981: Music Educators National Conference, Arena, Minneapolis MN. 11 AM mtg., Minneapolis Convention Hall. Contact Gene Morlan, 1902 Assoc. Dr., Reston VA 22091.

May 2: New England Philosophy of Education Society, Framingham State College, 11 AM. Contact Richard Lyons, 617-452-5000 ext. 2450.

May 9: Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation Conference, Airport Holiday Inn, Toronto, Ontario. Contact Bob Morrow, 416-627-3685.

June 11–14: 6th International Congress, Yoga and Holistic Living, Himalayan Institute. New York Statler Hotel, New York City. Contact Ms. Dale Colton, RD l Box 88, Homesdale PA 18431, 717-253-5551.

August 30–Sept 2: Australian Reading Conference, Darwin, Australia. Contact Bob Counahan, PO Box 38221, Winnellie NT 5789; Ph 84 4277 ext. 40.

(We hope to arrange other engagements for John from August 16–30 in California, Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia.)

11-Year-Old Helper

From Paula King (CA):

This month our family is taking a vacation. We’ve brought Shannon, our 11-year-old friend with us. She’s taking a month out of school to come on our trip. She is responsible for Lindy, our one-year-old. For this she gets room and board, $10/day plus ski equipment and lift tickets paid for when she skis. She is learning to ski on this trip (and doing great). She brought schoolwork with her and I assist her if necessary. It takes very little time. We play games, mainly Pente, a game requiring logic, patience, the ability to look ahead, and the ability to see many situations developing at one time.

I’ve introduced her to The Chronicles Of Narnia and Madeline L’Engle’s book A Wrinkle In Time, which she read in two days. She, in turn, is teaching me to play the flute. I’m excited to finally get my hands on an instrument. We are good teachers for each other because we have a close, loving relationship.

One of the main things I think Shannon is gaining from this experience is that she is doing useful work in the real world. She’s exchanging her ability (she’s a good mother for Lindy) for money—that’s part of the real world. She’s giving me a break which allows me to be a better mother and improves our total family relationship. We’re having fun and I see lots of learning going on.

From a later letter:

On our ski trip we treated Shannon as we would have treated any adult. She went to bed when she wanted, got up when she wanted, fixed herself a meal if cooking wasn’t going on when she was hungry, and so on. As a result, she responded to us as an adult and was really fun to be with. When I say as an adult, I mean she didn’t try to manipulate us or whine or fuss if things weren’t going her way. There were times when I know she would rather have gone with us instead of babysitting but she never mentioned it. I feel we were all fair with each other and Shannon responded to that.

Our agreement was that Shannon would take care of the baby any time during the day when we didn’t feel like it. We always took care of Lindy at night and got up with her in the morning. Shannon took complete control of feeding Lindy, including food preparation, changing diapers and clothing, keeping her safe as she explored the house, and seeing that she got sleep when she was ready for it. That is a full-time job and physically very tiring. She never lapsed. Lindy was safe the whole time and I could leave knowing that Shannon was totally responsible. Knowing this let me have a good vacation.

Workers Needed

From Kathleen Meyers in Utah:

A couple of years ago we called you when we took our son Brian out of public school. I put him on the line and your comment, I see you’re not in school today—thank goodness! was a turning point in his life. I guess it’s difficult for adults to appreciate what it must be like to go about one’s business absorbing steady comments like, What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in school? As if your very existence is a violation requiring stern disapproval.

It’s such a delight to read in GWS of family after family discovering the same basic truths in so many different ways. My particular axe is the denial of society to allow children to make meaningful contribution of their labor. Whether for trade or money, the next generation should be eased into this essential part of life naturally as their interest and ability increases. Instead we force them to stand by the sidelines as spectators until 16 years of age, then wonder why we have dropouts from society!

My ideas on how to include children and teenagers in the adult working world were greeted generally with suspicion or yawns. So I am doing something about this situation myself. Our family has a company which designs and assembles a family management system. It’s called Goldentime because I developed it originally to have more of the stuff life is really made of—golden moments with our family. We have eight children and the time crunch is very real. After a year of backbreaking work involving everyone, we are going retail this month, which brings me to my soapbox: I Have Work Available For Children!

I was astounded at the results when I put my own children (ranging from 4 to 17) to work assembling packets of one dozen forms each. The four-year-old spreads hers out on the bed, One, two, three. and never makes a mistake! She’s paid 2¢ each, just like big brother. Big brother, who doesn’t play the piano like His big brother has found a remarkable talent: he can pick up a form packet and tell you if it is short by one! Of course, he is now Quality Control Manager. and how his self-esteem has grown. He is a very fast counter having developed his own speedy system; he averages $3.60 per hour and is eleven. Each of our children shows an interest in some area of the business: accounting, form design, marketing, etc.

When we started this I realized it would be the end of homeschool as we’d previously known it. Most teaching moments would have to be on the firing line doing what needed to be done. After one year I thought, I think I’ll give them a written assignment like before, just to see what’s been going on. I still can’t believe it. With no formal grammar, punctuation, or spelling lessons for one whole year, my former slow English student produced a beautiful paper! It had correct indentation, proper paragraphing, correct spelling, and even good penmanship. Was it all that reading? Was it the business letters? Was it being left alone finally and not pressured?

Anyone who would like work, please contact me at Goldentime, PO Box 194, Pleasant Grove UT 84062. We pay 2¢ for loading packets and1¢ for stapling the tops. Your staples, our bags and tops. We ask that you pay postage both ways.

Success Stories

From Marti Mikl (AZ):

Things have worked out great. We wrote a letter to the Deer Valley District School Board requesting a meeting to make the necessary arrangements to officially remove our son Darris from the public school system and educate him at home. We also sent letters to the school principal and 5th grade teacher informing them that Darris would be absent from school pending a meeting with the Board.

For our meeting with the board, we prepared a written statement as to our reasons for removing Darris from public school. Some of our thoughts were borrowed from the Kendricks’ letter (GWS #12). After a grueling (though friendly) inquisition, the Board granted us permission to educate Darris at home. It was difficult not to shout Hallelujah!

We had expected the District to wash their hands of us regarding curriculum. We were pleasantly surprised and grateful that they were willing, even anxious, to have the Superintendent of Curriculum work with us. I met with him shortly after and, in effect, he simply approved of the way I was handling Darris’ studies and told me to keep up the good work. They are allowing us to continue using Darris’ books from school and have even supplied us with all of the corresponding teacher’s books.

The Board is requiring that Darris take standardized achievement tests. Since ours is almost a landmark case in Arizona, we feel this is a small price to pay in exchange for the approval. We will test him at home. Actually, we feel testing may be helpful in knowing the areas where he needs extra help.

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From David and Ellen Dombek (PA):

Last summer we placed a desperate call to your office trying to find a way to teach our eight-year-old daughter at home again this year as we had been doing in the past. Donna gave us the name of Mr. Boelhouwer in Harrisburg (See GWS #16, page 6). He was most encouraging and said to have our superintendent call him and he would recommend that we be granted permission to teach under the Pa. tutoring law. This we did. Within a few days we had tentative permission pending our submission of a curriculum which would assure the authorities that we would include all subjects required by law. We are very grateful for Donna’s help and for the letters we received from several others in Pennsylvania who are also teaching their children at home.

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From California:

It is interesting to hear that you favor teaching children at home; this is what we have been doing for years with our daughters, ages 10 and 8. They both taught themselves to read and each read at least 7 thick books every week. The teaching here has been bordering on no teaching at all for the past year, but since they are unusually happy, healthy, creative, curious, and self-confident we feel comfortable with what we are doing (or not doing!) Because our house is very isolated, they often spend weeks playing only with each other. When they do see other children they are friendly and generous, behaving as well-adjusted human beings.

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From Elaine Murchison, Glassville, New Brunswick E0J 1L0:

I have a seven-year-old son, Jonah, whom I am teaching at home. We sent him to public school for the first month of grade 1 and then decided to keep him home. Our reasons were mainly that we just didn’t approve of the way public schools operate. I felt that I could do a much better job and that Jonah would grow naturally in a natural environment.

We have had our visit with the Director of Elementary School Programs and received a letter from the Minister of Education, stating that he is willing to approve Jonah’s exemption from school, for the current school year. If we wish to continue homeschooling next year, which we do, we have to approach the Minister again, before the next year begins. They are being very helpful, giving advice and recommending materials. The School Supervisor of our district, who has also been a teacher for 20 years, has offered his help whenever needed. He is an understanding, kind man, who believes very strongly in the family and its functions. We are satisfied and happy with the outcome.

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A reader writes:

When I moved to a rural setting and began to have children of my own in the early seventies, I planned to set up an alternative or free school. Instead, and because of the variety of laws set up to restrict the physical plant, I have been teaching my children at home. Michigan laws allow a person to teach their own child if they hold a valid Mich. teaching certificate. A child also does not have to attend a public school if they are enrolled in a regular course of instruction in a private school or under the direct supervision of a person holding a valid Mich. teaching certificate. Since my certificate is still valid until June 1981, our local school board did not argue with our decision (made jointly by parents and child) and has offered us instructional materials and assistance in setting up a regular program.

The greatest difficulty I face in teaching my children (ages 5 and 7) is finding time for instruction on a regular basis. Although we try to use the time between morning chores and my leaving for work at 11:00, other things have a way of cropping up and being given priority. Perhaps other subscribers could suggest ways they set up their programs on a regular basis.

We try to involve our children in every activity we engage in. As a librarian, I often bring my children to work with me. My husband is self-employed as a cabinetmaker and teaches them woodworking and measurement skills. We feel that life is an education and no part of it should be ignored when teaching children.

Bill in WA State

Julie Titus (Rt 1 Box 386, Eastsound, WA 98245) sent us a clipping from the Seattle Times:

A bill that would allow private schools to operate without getting state approval has a good chance of passing the House, the chairman of the House Education Committee said yesterday.

Representative Renn Taylor, Spokane Republican, made the assessment after private school interests testified Thursday on House Bill 196, sponsored by William H. Ellis, Seattle Republican.

The measure, backed by the Washington Federation of Independent Schools (PO Box 1098, Olympia WA 98507) would allow private and church schools to have noncertified teachers. A certified staff is one of the requirements for present state approval by the state Board of Education.

On the other hand, the bill provides for standardized achievement testing of students, Taylor said, and continues to require that all schools meet certain health and safety standards.

Taylor noted that in several states, courts have upheld the right of parents who do not want their children in schools that are subject to state approval. The fear is that if the state’s approval procedure goes to court, it will be thrown out, Taylor said. He sees quite a bit of support among fellow state representatives for the bill.

The state attorney general’s office says students in nonapproved schools are truant, with parents subject to be fined $25 a day for each day a child isn’t in an approved school.

Prosecutors in Benton and Franklin Counties have said they would await the legislative outcome before prosecuting cases involving schools in their jurisdiction.

The bill is opposed by the powerful Washington Education Association, the Washington Association of School Administrators, the state School Directors Association, and other public school groups.

Don Johnson, the W.E.A.’s assistant executive director for governmental relations, said the association has many reservations about the bill, but a chief concern is the loss of certified teachers in such schools, because qualified teachers are an important ingredient in maintaining quality education.

——————

Julie adds, Opinions on this matter can be expressed by calling a toll-free legislative hot line and indicating your opinion and residential area. The toll-free number is: 1-800-562-6000. Even more effective would be contacting your representative directly by phone or letter. I am hoping you will help me reach other deschoolers in the State of Washington. If we can get enough letters and phone calls into our representatives in Olympia perhaps we can help the unschooling movement along in the state.

Helping School—NJ

From Ann Morris, School Of The Arts; PO Box 114, Stillwater, NJ 07875:

Ed Nagel (GWS #8) mentioned the Santa Fe Community School, which gave me an idea about using our incorporated School of the Arts as a vehicle/shelter for easing pressure on home teaching parents. Dick and I incorporated our school in 1953, eight years after we began teaching our children.

We continued teaching our seven children until in 1958 we decided to enlarge our school family on a farm in rural New Jersey to the number of 16-18. We all lived as a big family, rebuilt the old farmhouse, tended the cows, goats, sheep, chickens, horses, raised a huge garden, baked our own bread, cakes, pies, cleaned our home/school. Studies had to do with our immediate life interests, which we enlarged by extensive travels in our small buses, camping, cooking over the fire, visiting industries, unique environments, talking with people. We believed, all of us, teachers/students, should involve our Selves with life on this earth.

After 30 years, without good cohorts any more, I’ve had to seek alternatives, which I’m developing in the form of advisory outlines for parents wishing to teach their own children. As you describe time and again, education is around us everywhere, waiting to be discovered.

Any parents who would like to enroll their child/ren in an incorporated school could write to me at the address above. Incidentally, our School of the Arts name refers to liberal arts, which we believe essential to all learning. Our services would be free, except for the paper-work cost.

List Of Materials

Meg Johnson, who started the Home Education Resource Center (GWS#18), now has available a very good list of where to get textbooks and educational materials. It includes addresses (and some description) of several major publishers, the Cuisenaire Company, McGuffey’s Readers, Neinhuis Montessori, art prints suppliers, children’s magazines, and more. Many people ask us where they can get books and materials to help with their homeschooling; usually we tell them that they’ll find a lot of ideas about that in the back issues of GWS, and of course we also send them a copy of our own booklist. But for quick general reference, Meg’s list looks very useful.

We suggest that if you want this list, send $1 and a SASE to her at 337 Downs St, Ridgewood NJ 07450. Meg also has a lot of other good information available, and tells us, I usually figure if people send $10 they are covering the costs of all the materials I currently send out. But I don’t want people to think they can’t get the materials for less if they can’t afford so much. I am doing okay on donations.—Donna Richoux

Comfi Carrier Offer

From Metta Brown in Texas:

As an eventual homeschooling parent (children presently ages 3 and 6 mo.) and as an interested subscriber, I would like to make an offer that I hope might, in some small way, help you to keep up with your often not-so-small business expenses.

I am a regional sales representative for Comfi Baby Products, Inc. Comfi makes a lightweight, easy-to-use, and comfortable baby carrier. It is a front carrier, designed to permit child and mother to remain together, in close physical contact, throughout the mother’s normal daily activities. I would like to know whether you might be interested in offering such a product through your mail-order booklist.

Through your own experience and your familiarity with The Continuum Concept you are aware of how important it is for an infant to be in close physical contact with its parents and for children to be included in the work and play activities of adults. I have used the Comfi carrier with both of my children and have found it to be of inestimable value.

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DR: We know about and like the Comfi carrier; John believes it to be a very good product. However, we’re not sure how many people who read GWS are in the market to buy a baby carrier, so we don’t want to get into this in any big way.

So what we’ve arranged is this: we will offer the Comfi carrier for a limited time at a price of $20 (this price includes postage; allow six weeks for delivery.) If you would like one of these carriers, send us a check payable to Holt Associates, Inc., by May 31, 1981. You’ll be paying $3 less than you would in a store for the same item, and GWS gets $7 for each carrier sold.

If you’d like more information first, we can send you a brochure. We’d also like to hear from anyone who doesn’t want to buy one now but thinks they might later, if we continued to offer them.

Psychologist

From Andy Peterson, 25 Rose Hill, Smethport PA 16749:

In GWS #9 you asked that sympathetic professionals might let GWS readers know of support services for prospective and current homeschoolers. The professional credentials I have earned are a Pennsylvania license for clinical psychology and a Pennsylvania certificate for school psychology. My primary service would be to help parents negotiate with the educational bureaucracy to gain and maintain approval of a homeschooling plan with as much freedom as possible.

In Pennsylvania, a homeschooling program is approved and supervised at the local school district level by the superintendent. The parent must be seen as a properly qualified tutor. I think an official psycho-educational evaluation and recommendation from a psychologist would be helpful in convincing the superintendent of the merit of this educational approach for a particular child and family.

The GWS network would be a good format for informing parents of the assistance I propose. I would request those interested to send a description of their situation and a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Due to space and time limitations, my personal evaluation or consultation with family and school district is probably limited to Pennsylvania and western New York (we are about four hours by car from Pittsburgh). As I have two little ones and an old house to remodel, l will probably determine a suggested fee for a personal consultation which would be negotiable pending individual family financial circumstances. But, I would respond in writing to anyone about these issues and will be putting together an information packet (legal, administrative, philosophical items) to be made available for a few dollars.

Helper in Me

I have a Master’s in Ed. and have had a Maine teacher’s certificate. My 5-year-old is home and probably will be staying home. My 10-year-old may be home next year when we move to another part of Maine. We have plans to start a small private school in our own home. I would also like to help other homeschoolers, say, if having a certified teacher check in once a week or so would help satisfy local authorities in those situations where the families are homeschooling by arranging with local school authorities. At this stage of the game, I would appreciate it if you would not print our name and address. You said that people could write us c/o GWS.

Action in N.J.

From Ann Bodine (NJ):

You ask what we do in our NJ groups? Most of us consider ourselves a very loose association with focal points, rather than an organization with a hierarchy. Of the various focal points, I only know about the several in my vicinity.

Norma Ritter organized a book-buying co-op so that people can buy the English Ladybird series of beginning readers at considerably less than the bookstore price. Norma also worked with Sue Pregger in organizing weekly field trips for homeschooled children. The trips continued through fall and early winter until Norma’s baby (her 3rd) was born and the snows fell.

Sue Pregger and her 7-year-old daughter Becky also edit and print Elsewhere News, a children’s newsletter.

One woman calls school boards and school principals, pretends to be someone who is moving into that town, and discusses the law with them, even to reading them sections of court interpretations favorable to homeschoolers, trying to put them in a receptive frame of mind in case they ever discover the homeschoolers.

Meryl Feinsod and Jenny Nepon have organized a weekly activity day.

It’s held in rotation in the homes of the seven member-children. They have hired a teacher to conduct the program and each child pays $4 per day for the teacher.

You already know about Nancy Plene’s newsletter, Meg Johnson’s resource center, and my school/activity center. Meg also had a visit from Raymond Moore to which she invited many of the focal point people from central and northern NJ.

There have been many support group meetings, public talks, newspaper interviews, and articles. A talk at the YWCA resulted in the most inquiries, but a talk to La Leche League leaders resulted in actual homeschooled kids.

Groups: Colo. & Conn.

From Helene Van Manen, PO Box 43, Beulah CO 81023:

On Saturday evening my husband David and I had a meeting in Pueblo for persons interested in homeschooling. It was the first meeting of its kind in the area and we had 13 adults and 13 children (ranging from 6 weeks to 6 years old) attend. Take note that we did no advertising—this was solely on word-of-mouth. Dave and I gave an introduction and before long the place was really buzzing (any room with 13 small children does BUZZ!!) It was very exciting for us all and we’ve decided to start a monthly support group and expand as needed.

I wish you could have seen all the truly beautiful children there. They all interacted so well and enjoyed each second. It occurred to me on the way home how each child was so unique and at his/her own stage of development. There were five children all ·around the same age (2), and I reflected on how we would never try to put them all in a situation and try to teach them all the same thing. What then gives us the right to do that at age 6?

We used the booklists and GWS handouts you sent to us plus other papers we had run off. Five families are getting together for a group subscription and are excited about receiving GWS. I’m sure there will be more families also in the future.

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From a Connecticut paper:

A Haddam mother who wrested permission from school officials to school her daughter at home is organizing a statewide organization to help other parents interested in at-home instruction.

Roberta Perkins and her husband John were granted permission by the Regional School District 17 Board of Education to teach their 10-year-old daughter Lisa at home. The couple withdrew Lisa from fifth grade at the Burr District Elementary School because schoolmates harassed her for an unexplained reason and school officials could not resolve the problem. The parents. will enroll her in a Maryland-based correspondence school, the Calvert school.

Roberta Perkins said her interest in creating the Connecticut Association of Home Educators began as a result of her personal experience in securing permission to teach her only child at home. Publicity has prompted numerous inquiries from other parents who were already involved in at-home education or interested in pursuing this educational alternative, she said.

The group will enable parents to exchange ideas and information. Guest lecturers who are experts in education will be invited to attend the group meetings, which will start next month.

Another group objective will be to provide legal references, textbooks, and instructional materials suitable for teaching children at home, she said.

The group will work with the State Department of Education to clarify guidelines governing at-home education. (The Perkins’ address is PO Box 337, Moodus, CT 06469, phone 203-345-8888.)

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JH: We’re always glad to hear about readers starting homeschooling groups in their communities. But after much thought I’d like to ask that in naming such a group you not use the words Growing Without Schooling, but instead call it the Jonesville Association of Homeschoolers, or the Home Educators of Jonesville, or whatever else seems best. We want to keep GWS out of these local names because we don’t want to give the impression that we have given a franchise or some kind of official approval to any of them. We don’t want to be, or even seem to be, in the business of deciding who is worthy, or best suited, to lead or represent the homeschooling movement in any community. We would rather keep GWS just as the name of the magazine, and let readers and other unschoolers start any kind of local groups they want. If some people in a community for any reason don’t like whatever homeschooling groups may be there, they can start another of their own. The more the merrier.

Starting a Support Group

Nancy Plent (2 Smith St, Farmingdale NJ 07727) wrote down some thoughts for people who want to start homeschooling support groups. We quote some of her tips here; you can get a copy of the complete memo by sending her a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Do a lot of reading first. Know the laws. Make lists of addresses and other resources. You’ll be asked a lot of questions. Your proposed group will be more helpful if you know at least some of the answers.

Pick a place large enough for meetings. Even the largest living room can get crowded by the time you’ve reached your second or third meeting. Check out parks or the community rooms in large shopping malls.

It helps to plan a series of three meetings. If people have to miss the first one, they won’t just dismiss the idea of seeing what your group is about. They’ll catch your second or third meetings. Saves postage on announcements, too.

Advertise by putting flyers on bulletin boards in supermarkets, health food stores, college bookstores, etc. Send press releases to every newspaper within two hours (or more) traveling distance for the first meetings. Send postcards to people or groups you know. People are willing to travel for this information. They can start their own support group closer to home after meeting with your group.

You can ask your librarian for the book which gives addresses of all the newspapers in the state. Check their deadlines. A sample press release can read something like this:

Press Release

The Smithburg Chapter of Homeschoolers will hold a series of three meetings. The first, entitled Educating Your Child At Home Legally, will be held March 25 in Plattstown. The second will be April 5 in Bloomsdale. It will be concerned with How Your Child Learns At Home. The third, Community Resources and Your Child’s Curriculum, will be held April 30, location to be announced.

The Smithburg Homeschoolers is a support group for parents educating their children at home or considering doing so. Meetings are informal and children are welcome. For further information call Jane Doe at 302-555-3758. For written information about homeschooling, send a SASE to Jane Smith, 4 Clark Rd, Sunnyvale NJ 08356.

You can mail the above to all the newspapers you’re interested in without explanation. Most of them will call if they intend to print it.

At least one paper which gets a press release will probably call you for an interview. Newspaper stories help you to find other families. After the first one, you won’t be nervous that you’ll say something dumb or not know how to answer a question. After the third one, you’ll know all of the questions they’re going to ask anyway, and you’ll have sharpened your answers so that they satisfy you. N.J. hasn’t had a single unfriendly homeschooling story. I don’t know of any state that has, come to think of it. You won’t always be quoted accurately, but it doesn’t matter. People will know that homeschooling is possible, and where to reach you.

Have some materials to give out at meetings, but plan on mostly talking. Most potential homeschoolers have felt isolated in their beliefs and want to talk about it. Having the basic legal stuff on paper will save you from answering the same questions for the same people a couple of weeks later.

It works well to go around the room and ask each person to introduce themselves. They can also talk about their reasons for interest in homeschooling. This is a good way to get to know each other. It also helps people with similar interests (starting a school, a playgroup, etc.,) get together.

You might want to switch to social events or some format other than introductory meetings. This way you aren’t stuck with spending every meeting discussing the law for newcomers. New people can get their information while they swim, skate, camp, or picnic with your group.

In N.J. we haven’t formed an organization. There are no officers, group decisions, etc. We all live too far from each other to continue as one group. A few people started groups close to home. Each group does something different. A single organization could get very cumbersome, especially in a large state.

Ask for a SASE in any bulletins you send out. The postage adds up quickly, and you may feel you’re always out of envelopes and stationery. Try not to get into explaining things on the phone that you can send in printed form. Some of us had the experience of having our child fall asleep by us with bedtime storybook in hand, waiting for us to get off the phone. It only takes once to get your priorities straight!

Stay flexible about what you want to accomplish by having a support group. One group made an amiable decision to split into two when it became apparent that there was a structured segment and an unstructured segment.

Curriculum Guide

The Educational Services Department of Worldbook-Childcraft International (Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago IL 60654) offers a 15¢ pamphlet Typical Course of Study, Kindergarten through Grade 12 that GWS readers may find helpful. It lists topics for each year in school under such categories as Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, Health and Safety, and Mathematics. Would-be homeschoolers who need to submit a curriculum to school authorities could borrow heavily from this pamphlet, using it as a general outline, or perhaps even copying it word for word.

A note of caution though—don’t take this booklet too literally. There are many more topics listed under each category than typical classrooms ever have time to cover. And I’ve never heard of some of the topics being taught in schools at all—who talks about Chemotherapy in 7th grade Health class, for example?

But anyway, a number of GWS readers have asked for some kind of help in putting together a curriculum on paper, and this booklet looks like it would be useful for that.—DR

Changing Attitudes

On Jan. 20 I appeared on a Springfield MA talk show called Night Talk. There was a live audience in the studio, to whom the host now and then asked questions. A couple of nearby homeschooling families, with whom I had had dinner before the show, were sitting in the front row, where the host could easily talk to them. In spite of the usual kind of loaded questions— Don’t you miss your friends? —the kids were very cool and gave sensible and convincing answers.

Early in the show the host asked the audience, which was not stacked in favor of homeschooling and indeed contained a number of teachers, how many of them thought that the idea of people taking their children out of school to teach them at home was a bad idea. Out of the 40 to 50 people there, only about four or five raised their hands. He then asked how many thought it was a good idea, and about half raised their hands. I was surprised and pleased; until quite recently the hands would probably have gone the other way.

The station had only planned to do a half-hour live show, but it went so well and the audience was so lively and interested that, when the first half-hour was over, the host asked them if they would be willing to stay longer and tape another half-hour show for later release. Everyone was willing, and we did so. In the second segment the host—a different one—asked the same question about how many thought that homeschooling was a bad idea, and this time got even fewer hands.

On February 2, I did a similar talk show, People Are Talking, in Baltimore.

It was raining hard, which the staff said usually meant a very small studio audience, but more people turned up than they had room for. Again, the show went very well. There were a number of black women in the audience, and I feared that I might hear the usual argument that instead of helping rich white people take their children out of school I should be working to improve the schools where poor black children had to go, etc. But no one said any such thing. Since most of the time I was looking at the hosts or into a camera, I could only take occasional glances at the audience, but a homeschooler and GWS reader in the audience later told me that as I talked these black women, and many others as well, were nodding their heads in agreement.

One woman, who did not appear to be rich or college-educated, got up and said that she had taught her little girl at home before the child went to school, and that when she reached school and was given the usual tests, she tested in the 97th percentile. Since I had already said, as I do every chance I get, that teaching is not a mystery and that anyone who likes children and is interested in them can teach them, was delighted to have this mother’s testimony to back me up. Two other mothers spoke about their success in teaching their children. After the show was over I spent at least another hour in the studio lobby talking to members of the studio audience. Since then we have had quite a few requests for information, and some subscriptions, from people in that area.

From these experiences, and from many letters people send us, I get a strong impression that much of the newness and strangeness of the idea of homeschooling is wearing off, and that more and more people are able to hear and talk about it without the anger and fear I used to hear. They may not all or always agree with it, but they can talk about it in a calm, matter-of-fact way. This seems a good sign.—JH

Isolated

We have received several letters lately like this one:

I was wondering if you or the readers of GWS would have any suggestions for us. We have a son just over one year old, so unschooling is not an immediate problem for us yet. But I am anticipating one thing if we keep Luke out of school; we live rather isolated and so there won’t be a lot of chances for social contact with other kids. We have one family for a neighbor, who may also unschool, but no other neighbors for a few miles.

Already Luke seems to need to be around other kids and he enjoys it. So far I’ve been trying to take him to visit people with children maybe once a week, as well as to church on Sunday. Once he’s of school age, I’d like to have a good relationship with the local schools so he can participate in activities there. Transportation will be a problem—taking Luke (as well as our other future children) often to places where other kids are.

How have other people handled this so their kids are happy and socially well-adjusted? What advantages and disadvantages have other rural, isolated families found in their children’s lack of contact with other kids?

Experiment in WA

From Jerod Rosman, Monte Cristo, Box 737, Granite Falls, WA 98252:

We live 36 miles from the nearest school—26 miles from the end of the school bus line. Deep snow isolates us for 4 to 5 months each year, and it is 12 miles to the start of a plowed road.

For two years we tried to commute our three kids to school. During good weather we drove 104 miles a day to and from the bus. In the wintertime we either boarded the kids out, moved into town, or tried to use snowmobiles to commute them. It didn’t work! We were always dead tired; we used horrendous quantities of gas; and the kids suffered physically and educationally.

As the price of gas skyrocketed, and our confusion, exhaustion, and concern increased, we realized we had to do something. Either we had to move closer to town and bus line, or we had to figure out a way to teach the kids at home. The District compensated us up to 30 miles a day, maximum, and the cost of gas for the 104 miles we traveled was wiping us out.

Last winter, we arranged to work with the children’s teachers and carry out their plans and lesson guides. What a disaster! First, the teachers didn’t like the idea, because it took time they were not being paid for. We didn’t like