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GWS 32 continued from previous page. This is page 6 of 13.
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I do have an ally or two on campus, the more outstanding one being my Ed Psych professor: a marvelously sensitive and courageous psychologist ... As much as is possible within university regulations, his classes are student-oriented, with no tests, contract grading (the closest they'll let him come to eliminating grades altogether), and individualized learning projects ... But he has found that the strongest resistance to his methods, at least in recent years, comes from the students themselves. Even after all his talk about the evils of testing and grading, around midterm every semester at least one student asks, "When are we going to have a test?" Many of my classmates were still puzzling over the vaguely structured assignments in the final weeks of the semester and asking me, "Do you understand what he wants from us? I don't know what we're supposed to do." And on the final "feedback card" most of them indicate that they themselves still plan to use heavy testing and the traditional grading scale in their future classrooms.
...The other subversive professor I've met practices many of the same classroom, methods, but he's carried them a step farther. He himself enrolls in courses on campus, and he tells the profs at the outset why he's there, what he wants to learn, and how he'll go about it, refusing to take any tests or to do any assignments he doesn't care about. So far, no one's objected, but I'm sure the fact that he's a tenured, 52-year-old Ph.D. has a lot to do with that ...
Learning about this man's experiences has helped me face my biggest worry, in my training: student teaching. I've felt like a conscientious objector facing combat just thinking about it, but I see now that I had been envisioning myself at the beck and call of a supervising teacher, locked into her peculiar classroom structure. But I'm the one who's paying tuition for this experience and I'm the one who knows what I want to learn from it, Se I plan to follow my prof-friend's example and tell my supervisor that I don't plan to be a traditional classroom teacher and have no interest in planning lessons and writing measurable objectives and devising tests, but that I'll be glad to spend time with individual students or in small groups, wherever extra attention is most needed. I'm not banking on getting a cooperative teacher. But I know that my chances of enduring the experience will be much greater if I can begin with such a firm-but-friendly, clear-cut attitude. I've got about 10 months to get my confidence built up in preparation ...
The big question for me right now is, what happens after graduation? I have so many ideas about things I could do, but very little knowledge of how to go about it. I'm fascinated by the idea of a community learning center, where kids could come to find people who share their interests, where all kinds of people could offer their skills or seek out teachers, and where young unschoolers could be under supervision when their parents were at work or school. But how to begin? Where on earth would the money come from, and how could I simultaneously bring in a livable personal income?... I can hardly imagine how a person goes about creating his own occupation, especially without a lot of financial backing! I'd appreciate any thoughts on this idea.
IMPROVING ED. COURSE
Sue also sent us a copy of a letter she wrote to her college faculty:
... As a student and prospective teacher, I am very concerned about the inclusion of a manuscript handwriting proficiency test as a requirement of the course. This requirement and the way in which it is approached in the classroom contradict many of my beliefs about children and education in general (as well as many of those commonly espoused in our classrooms), and it presents me with the painful situation of participating in what I consider to be a destructive activity in order to pass the course.
Written communication is a marvelous tool of mankind; to be able to convey thoughts, ideas, and feelings by merely scratching out a series of symbols on paper is little short of magical. But to squeeze that magic into an arbitrary, rigid system of instruction transforms it quickly into drudgery. Rather than encouraging a child to feel that writing is a part of himself, an expressive extension of his own personality, such a system discourages creativity and individuality, and by placing an undue stress on cumbersome rules and precision, distorts the very purpose of handwriting. The message it communicates is subordinated to the form of the letters. Such is the concern of a calligrapher, whose form is an art in its own right; but for the first grade child, such an emphasis imposes unnecessary stress upon the simple task of writing his name.
Perhaps a more serious consequence of a strict adherence to a manuscript system is the message it conveys: that there is a "correct" way to write, and any deviations are therefore "wrong." As I understand it from the orientation to the Zaner-Bloser system in this course, this notion of correctness is advanced in the interest of "consistency" so that the child will not be confused by any irregularity in letter shapes. But is it really consistent to contradict what the child can see for himself in the world around him - in his story books, on the TV screen, on traffic signs, on food packages - that the world of print is a veritable carnival of variation, and that communication is effectively achieved (indeed, often enhanced) even when the letter forms deviate wildly from the Zaner-Bloser norms?
I also take issue with the implied assumption that children cannot learn from or will be distressed by anything that isn't uniform or consistent. Our spoken language, with its regional and personal accents and idioms, is far from uniform, and yet the vast majority of children are able to master it without noticeable anxiety at an incredibly tender age, despite the lack of systematic or "consistent" instruction. It is only after children are taught a concept of regularity that they become confused or distressed by the variations they encounter in reality.
Another justification given for the manuscript instruction is the fact that so many public school districts make use of such a system. That is indeed a good reason for acquainting student teachers with the method; but it is a poor reason in itself for actually promoting the method and requiring its mastery for completion of the course. The university does not/should not exist for the purpose of perpetuating public school tradition but should serve as a source of innovation and creative challenge. By gearing its curriculum, to the demands of the public schools, it forfeits its role as a leader in the search for more effective educational techniques and alternatives and becomes instead a mere vocational training school, committed to the mediocrity and rigidity which is causing so much concern over the country's educational system.
In light of these arguments, I would like to seriously challenge the department and the developers of the curriculum to reconsider the mandatory proficiency requirement in a prescribed manuscript handwriting style ... _____
Sue added, "I gave this letter to the man who designed the methods course and to the instructor of my class. The latter more or less ignored it, but the former took it quite seriously, sharing it with the department chairman and other colleagues, and presenting my views at a meeting of the grad students who are in charge of that aspect of the course. I'm quite sure that the requirement won't be eliminated, but he did ask my opinion about some possible changes, such as emphasizing the fact that the Z-B system is only one of many, that communication value is the highest priority in handwriting, and giving students the choice between several systems in which to seek proficiency. Certainly an improvement, maybe as much as I could hope for from a college. I was glad to have made the effort anyway."
TIM ON WORD PROCESSORS
Tim Chapman (see p. 1) wrote:
... Today is the last day I will be doing my paid work for Holt Associates/GWS. I am starting a new job, in less than two weeks, as a sales representative for Brookline Office Equipment in Brookline MA. I will be selling electronic typewriters and extensions made by Olympia, a German-based company. In popular jargon, machines such as Olympia's electronic typewriter with its visual display system and disk drive are known as word-processors. In six months, I am told, I will also be selling Olympia's soon-to-be-announced computers. In the meantime, I'll be sticking to Olympia's word processors, copiers, calculators, and other office supplies. I can't wait to begin!
I'm writing because John asked me to tell how I came to be qualified for my new job. I also want to say farewell. I can't imagine working for two nicer people than John and Peggy, and I will always stay in touch with the whole atmosphere of Growing Without Schooling.
I was first introduced to electric typewriters in the llth grade. I was in Journalism I, which meant I wrote for the paper but didn't have much to say about how it looked. Needing typists, the editors, three 12th grade girls from Journalism II, taught me to use an electric IBM typewriter. A year later, I was one of two editors, responsible for putting out a 6-8 page paper every other week. By that time I typed longer blocks of text than anyone else on the newspaper staff. (To make a long block, all lines had to end flush with an imaginary right hand margin line.) Without knowing it, I was hooked to the typed word.
During my four years at college and the following two years, I had simple opportunity to type, as an English major who had to write ten to fifteen stories 10-20 pages long every ten weeks and, later, as a community organizer who wrote 20- to 50-page fund-raising and grant proposals. But it wasn't until a little over two years ago, when I began volunteering at GWS, that I met my first word processor, the Olivetti TES 401. My early assignments on the word processor were very routine, printing out personalized form letters. I only had to type in the person's name; the rest of the letter printed onto paper with the touch of a single key. I was soon back to the IBM Selectric, typing letters that John had dictated onto cassettes.
A month or so after I graduated from volunteer to employee, I decided to see if there was more to the word processor than printing out form letters. There was! In just four hours with Olivetti's training manual, I discovered I didn't even have to print onto paper a single word I typed. Everything I typed stayed in the typewriter until I was ready to run it off on paper. I could type a letter, fill out some new GWS subscriptions, saunter back to the word processor, hit a couple of keys, and watch my letter emerge from the machine's memory. I was hooked again, this time to the wonderful world of word processing.
Over the next year and a half, I didn't progress beyond the 15 character viewing screen on the Olivetti. I had seen electronic typewriters with separate TV screens that let you see 24 lines of type, but I never used one. Six months ago, I was hired as a two-day-a-week secretary for a small law office. The four attorneys who worked there created a mountain of handwritten documents every day and it was my job to turn them into typed script. After one month on the job, I'd had enough. I felt like a robot on an assembly line. Something had to change, and since I needed the job to survive, I decided to change how I did the job. The law office was planning to move within five months and was taking out a loan to cover the cost. One of the attorneys had been thinking about getting a word processor for over a year and soon the office decided to use part of the loan to get one.
With the attorneys' blessings, I took charge of locating a machine they could use. I immediately lined up meetings with ten different word-processing companies. Sometimes I went to their offices to test their machines, and sometimes their salespeople brought their machines to us. After several weeks of research, I decided on the Olympia ES 105 electronic typewriter with its 24-lined screen and the ability to remember 35 typed pages and store them on removable diskettes. Two companies were trying to sell us these machines so I played one against the other, drove a hard bargain, and brought the price down $1400.
In the following months I began designing a way to learn to use the Olympia word processor that put the new user in control of it in just one hour. To discuss this training method, I met with the Director of Sales and Services for Brookline Office Equipment, the company from whom our Law firm bought the word processor. After he had shown me every electronic machine in the office, he handed me an application form for the position of sales representative. Two weeks later, I was formally offered the job, and took it. Farewell and best wishes to all.
APPRENTICES IN GERMANY
From a column by William Raspberry in the Washington Post, 11/12/82:
... Fully half of Germany's young people leave full-time school by age 16 to begin three-year apprenticeships in their chosen trades.
..."Both government and unions favor this [voluntary] approach," say Limprecht and Hayes [authors of an article in the Harvard Business Review], "because it helps address the problem of youth unemployment by providing teenagers with a marketable trade and good discipline ... Industry likes the system because it builds a work force that is highly skilled - especially in the high-technology industries that are crucial to the German economy - as well as motivated and responsible.
"When young people are trained by industry, not by the state, and are given considerable work experience and responsibility at an early age, they become very attractive to future employers. These employers are willing to furnish whatever retraining is necessary because they have found, through long experience, that apprentices adapt well to different work environments."
The German system, in other words, is producing young workers with precisely the skills our experts say will be in increasingly short supply here in the coming years ...
CHILD IN FOOD CO-OP
From Jill Bastian (MI):
... I have gotten braver, recently, and taken Heather (7) to the food co-op with me, while I work my 2-hour stint once a month. I shop while I'm there ... I wasn't sure what would happen. Often mothers bring small children and expect them to play contentedly for two hours in a small carpeted area with toys. But the little ones invariably start getting into everything else - namely the food packages on the shelves.
Heather played for a while, the first time, by herself. Then she asked if she could help me. I package herbs in 1-2 oz. amounts. It's messy and very exacting work. Although I'm not normally very patient, I decided to let her help a little. I have to count 16 baggies and ties for each herb, write and stick on a small label, and, of course, spoon and weigh the herbs from a big bag into the small baggies. The weights are in grams and must be put on one side of the scale with tweezers so as not to get oil from your hands on them. Heather counted baggies and ties, affixed labels, twisted ties, put on weights, and even was allowed to measure some of each herb into a bag (it really is very messy even for an adult and must be very exact to come out in 16 equal amounts). I was really proud of her and felt good about her helping.
This last month, she found a very young child to play with, and it was interesting to watch their interaction. Later when she asked to help me, I wasn't very patient, as I was tired and in a hurry to get the last batch done. She had played most of the time with the young child, even when the child frustrated her by messing up arrangements of blocks Heather had built. She is very at ease, though, at the co-op: washing her hands very thoroughly before helping me, going around asking other adults what they are doing without interfering, and even paying for a snack at the cashier in the front of the store.
Last time I asked if I could switch jobs. The manager had others available, so next month I will learn to package other things. If I'm ever able to inventory, I'm sure Heather would like to help. I've told several of the women about Heather's homeschooling, and have had several calls as a result of leaving a notice on the wall that persons interested in home-schooling could call me ...
ANOTHER VET HELPER
From Ruth McCutchen (KY):
... After reading GWS #30, Alison (13) was inspired to begin volunteer work at both the library and our veterinarian's office. She enjoys both but favors the vet. During her first week she saw a dog spayed and our two 10-month-old kittens neutered. She described it to us in glorious detail and we all found it fascinating. She wasn't fazed by any of it.
The vet's family seem to appreciate her calmness and efficiency. They have school-age children and are considering trying home-schooling ...
From Christopher DeRoos (CA):
... I have been home-taught and two years ago when I was 14, my mother started taking me to sit in on college courses. I am at Holy Names College in Oakland, where a friend also attends. He started there when he was 15. His mom home-taught all four of her children. I am in computer sciences and economics. I'm going to be taking an auto engineering class. My favorite computers are Apple II and III and Hewlett Packard HP9000... I am serving on a Planning Commission - Sign Committee, reviewing the Alameda County sign ordinances..
My motto is from Auntie Mame, "Life's a banquet and most of you poor suckers are starving to death." Being home taught has been the best.
... The most-asked question was about my socialization. Having exchange students in our home helped - because the students from Europe agreed that American schools over-stress the social rather than the academic... I could never understand why all 5-year-olds, etc, were stuck together when we each progress at different rates... Usually when you get out in the work force, you're with all ages. Home schooling helped prepare me for the REAL world... _____
From Vanessa Keith in N.H.
...I'm 14. I've never been to school (except one day with my cousin). I have been trading with neighbors for two years. I trade baby-sitting, washing dishes, and money for lessons. I have four lessons a week: sewing, weaving, botany and piano. It works great if you have friendly neighbors.
I am away from home approximately four months of the year picking apples in the fall and pruning apple trees in the winter and visiting my father who lives in Philadelphia. I started picking apples of my own accord when I was five. I started really picking a lot when I was ten. I haven't lost my enthusiasm for it yet.
I earn money doing these things. I have to buy my own clothes. I have to pay for Christmas presents, food, rent, and transportation while picking apples an pruning. If I want to go to a movie, restaurant, concert, etc., I also have to pay myself... (continued on next page)
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