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A Swirl of ActivityBy Ken Danford, Executive Director

This fall and winter have brought a wave of new members to North Star, and we currently have nearly sixty teens involved with the program.

Every day is a swirl of activity inside the building. Amidst the excitement, I have the pleasure of working with new families, discussing with each one the possibilities offered by homeschooling and North Star.

My conversations include some philosophy, some references to my own teaching experiences, and many, many anecdotes of current

and former teens we’ve worked with at North Star. I listen to the stories of each incoming family, and consider which North Star member’s trajectory might be most useful for the parents and teens to hear about.

The writings of Ilana Wilson and Carol Hetrick included in this issue tell stories that I find myself referring to frequently.

Ilana describes her frustrations with schooling, her unique health issues, and how homeschooling has allowed her to develop her own rhythm and schedule.

Carol Hetrick, the mother of North Star alumnus Ben Rosser, has written up a story that would seem like a fairy tale if it weren’t true. The moral of her story, to me, is that teens who develop strong identities and confidence in their passions are quite able to address their weaknesses or vulnerabilities when they decide the time has come to do so.

Both of these stories offer important insights into how we present the ideas and opportunities of self-directed learning to families daunted by the prospect. Enjoy them!

Mid-year here at North Star finds us busting at the seams. The phone has been ringing off the hook!

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Ilana’s time at North Star is somewhat limited compared to some other members, but her involvement is central to her vision for homeschooling. She is very connected to the community here, both with teens and adults. Her initiative contributes to various projects and classes, and she is a welcoming presence in the common room. Neither Ilana nor North Star would be the same without each other. - Ken Danford

My parents had a lot of experience with homeschooling before I went to North Star. My older sister Rebecca had gone to North Star back when it was still Pathfinder in Amherst. When my younger siblings and I became old enough to go to school, we were given a choice whether to try school or not. For many years, we all chose homeschooling.

When I was thirteen, my younger siblings wanted to try school; I was left by myself at home most of the time. Feeling as though I had nothing to do in my life, I decided to enroll into Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School (PVPA) for the following year, grade nine.

The experience was awesome. I loved the teachers; the students were crazy and outgoing. Hardly anyone I met there had many complaints about the school. I was at the top of my academic classes. I loved the performing arts, and kept trying new things.

What I began to notice about school in general, not PVPA specifically, was how it seemed so different from the rest of the world. The kids who went to school didn’t know anything else. It was like they were in a little bubble and they didn’t even realize it. Small arguments or conflicts were always such a big deal to my peers, but to me most of it seemed like miscommunication and stupidity. I watched them in fascination and found it very hard to participate in the teenage drama. I felt like a totally different species.

About halfway through the school year I started to notice that I wasn’t feeling well. I didn’t know whether or not I would be making a big deal out of nothing, so I didn’t mention it to anyone. My sister Becca said that I seemed to be losing weight. Months after the problem started, we went to see a doctor. In February 2008 I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease.

With everything that was going on for me, I felt that school was pointless and completely taking over my life. I was bored and lonely, just as I had been homeschooling. I hadn’t really made any friends and I missed the ones that I had outside of PVPA. In my Language Arts class all of the work I did felt unreal and unnatural; I knew I was doing it just to pass the class. Knowing that I could keep up my good grades anyway, I started going to school only three days a week.

By the end of that school year, June 2008, I knew I wasn’t going to go back the next year. I wanted to be able to learn what I was really passionate about. I wanted to be able to read at all hours, for days on end, or write a whole novel in only a few weeks. My parents told me that they had no time to give me rides and no money for classes if I were to homeschool again, but I had made up my mind. Becca and my friend Elana Davidson were very supportive. I researched and found out more about North Star, and made plans to go there the following year.

North Star has been a good compromise between learning by myself and going to school. I have a place to go and learn with other teens and I don’t have to be there all the time or go to every class. My family isn’t able to pay the full tuition, but North Star does not turn anyone away and I feel very welcome there. I love participating in the writing workshop, and I even tried out leading one of my own last summer. Susannah, who teaches North Star’s workshop, is always there to support my writing, as is the whole writing workshop.

There were many classes that I went to once or twice

Making spacefor getting betterBy Ilana Wilson

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(Ilana cont.) just on impulse last year. In my opinion that option is really great. By sampling classes I got a clearer picture of what I wanted to do with my life. I had never really thought about that extensively before. Also, at North Star it is really easy to have fun. I play games like Apples to Apples, Scrabble, and Taboo with really awesome people. When I want to try something new—like the Fiction Freaks class—all I have to do is ask Ken or Catherine. North Star gives me a place to go while I am dealing with a rough time in my life.

I have found many ways to deal with my Crohn’s, and a combination of them all is what finally worked. For a while I kept losing weight, at one point getting down to only seventy-six pounds, but now I have reached a normal weight and I am only getting healthier. I don’t eat gluten anymore, and at first that was very hard for me. I got used to it. I have to go to the hospital and get IV infusions every couple months, yet even though I once hated the hospital, regular visits are a small price to pay for feeling great. The part of my life where Crohn’s was a big deal and forced me to do less with my life feels like it was a strange dream that I can hardly remember. I am glad it is behind me.

Outside of North Star I read all the time, sometimes more than one book each day. I work with my sister Becca (she has a house cleaning business) and at Sirius Community, where I have lived almost my whole life. The novel I wrote last November was about a girl who drowned. It was something I

chose because it was easy to write—it was based off aspects of my life—and it was especially easy to end. The book that I have been working on for about a year and only finished just recently is a fantasy novel, which is more commonly what I write.

This year I have already accomplished so many things. I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.com) and wrote a 50,000-word book in three weeks, which for me is an amazing achievement. I am going to North Star at least once a week and I am also starting courses at Greenfield Community College. The ones I am taking this semester are Dance History, Language and Prose, Oceanography, and Drawing. Soon I will be transferring from there to a four-year college, probably in another state. Something I am looking forward to quite a bit in my life is traveling. I want to see the world—pretty much all of it -- have adventures, meet new people, and learn from places totally different from here. My goal is to enjoy every second of my life as it happens, or I might miss something amazing. I figure it out as I go along, find out what I want and to go for it.

One of my favorite quotes is: “Dream as if you'll live forever.  Live as if you'll die today.” 

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STAFF APPRECIATIONNorth Star Associate Director Catherine Gobron manages the staff and the calendar, a full-time job in itself. The scope of her task became clear at our staff appreciation event in December, when we recognized 37 people who were involved at North Star on a regular basis during the fall. Every month seems more incredible than the one before it.

As of February, new and recent courses include Sociology, Design and Build (woodworking), Fiction Freaks, Biology (with a textbook, taught by a medical doctor!), Independent Art, Rock Ensemble, Constitutional Law (taught by a lawyer!), Movement, Short Stories, and Buff-itis (teen-led analysis of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Workshops include Skiing (four weeks), Skating (a favorite), Bellydancing, Survival Skills, Climate Education, Charcoal Drawing, Improv, Yoga, and more. Look on our website to see the full schedule! And that doesn’t even show all the individual tutorials that go on in the course of a month.

NEW CHILDREN’S LEARNING COMMUNITYThis winter both Ken and North Star member Jonah Meyer have been working with a new program in Hadley called the Children’s Learning Community. The mission is to create something similar to North Star for elementary school-age children. The founder, Julie Rosenshein, is

recruiting North Star teens to volunteer at her program, and Jonah has taken the lead in organizing this effort. The program begins in February, and we are looking forward to its first semester.

6TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING BRUNCHOn Sunday, April 11th, North Star will hold its sixth annual Celebration of Self-Directed Learning at The Log Cabin in Holyoke. This event is North Star largest and most inspirational fundraiser of the year. Please contact Ken or Sarah immediately if you would like to host a table of your friends and acquaintances who might be moved to learn more about and contribute to North Star.

NO APPEAL LETTER!Speaking of contributions, many of you who receive this newsletter make annual donations to North Star. We normally send you a “Time to Renew Your Support for North Star” appeal under separate cover in early December. This year we did not do so. If you have not already done so, please use the card on the back of this newsletter to make your annual gift for 2010 at this time. As you know, North Star maintains a commitment to work with all interested families, and it is because of our supporters’ generosity that we continue this mission.

NEWS AND NOTES

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Dear North Star,

I just want to let you, and all the staff, know how much we appreciate all the work you do each and every day.  Drew is really happy this year and has made great strides in his commitment and maturity.  Thanks to all of you for encouraging him to involve himself in classes and discussions.  

While we were away last year we both realized how very important North Star is to us!  Drew missed the interaction with other students and other teachers besides his parents.  I missed the support system of North Star staff and other homeschooling parents!

A special thanks to you, Catherine, for getting Drew to teach his own class and stretch himself that way.  Sorry that we missed the appreciation dinner, but it was not due to any lack of appreciation!!

Sincerely,Patricia Van Order

FAN MAILis nice to get

Ken Lieberman teaches Constitutional Law at North Star when he’s not busy practicing law. His group of 7-8 dedicated North Star members meets each Friday morning to discuss major Supreme Court cases, legal logic, and the current state of the Constitution.  

He found North Star because he loves to work with kids, and he finds our members incredibly insightful and full of thoughtful questions.

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Marianne Radke started working at North Star this fall, helping some of the kids with seedlings, transplants, and cuttings using some of her experience from working on an organic Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in central Massachusetts right after high school.  When not at North Star, Marianne is a senior at UMASS- Amherst studying English and Education, looking to some day combine the two.  

Otherwise, you might just find her in the woods, walking the dog.

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Our Wish List

• quality furniture• IT assistance• flat-screen

monitor• vacuum cleaner• floor refinishing• art supplies• nice, big, dark rug• polaroid camera• video camera• audio recorder• framing services• indoor plants• wooden bookcases• come in and paint

walls

If you have or know of how to get any of these items, please contact Catherine Gobron at (413) 582-0193 or catherine@northstarteens.org

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 Carol’s son, Ben, was a member of North Star for six years, one of the longer tenures in our history. Carol has contributed in many ways to North Star over the years, and she continues to be full of gifts, suggestions, and enthusiasm. Here, she shares perhaps her most meaningful story relating to her journey as a parent of a long-term homeschooler.. -Ken Danford

When our son Ben was two years old, I stumbled upon a book entitled I Learn Better By Teaching Myself, by Agnes Leistico. It opened my eyes to something that had never even occurred to me. I wasn't even half way through the book when I was entirely committed to homeschooling, or 'unschooling' as the author called it. I remember how excited I was. At the decisive moment, I literally leapt out of my chair and tore into the living room where my husband Ed was practicing the piano. I interrupted him abruptly and enthusiastically asked him to hear me out. He somehow managed to shift his attention with what appeared at first to be polite endurance. I talked non-stop for at least five minutes. After a pregnant silence, to my great surprise and delight Ed nodded pensively and simply said, “Let's do it.” Thus began one of the most wonderful journeys of my life. Even though Ben was only two, unschooling began immediately. It proceeded quite naturally from what we were already doing; it just became much more conscious and intentional – accepting and loving Ben just as he was, trusting him as an inherent learner with wisdom buried deep within, and allowing him to find his own way. In the early years this was very easy. We were blessed with my being able to be at home with Ben full time and I adored every minute of it, including the hard stuff. Ben and I did all sorts of

wonderful things together, from arts and crafts to cooking, baking and mud fights; from lots and lots of outings to time hanging around the house; tons of play dates with friends of all ages; no TV. There were natural toys, a plethora of storybooks, and abundant time outdoors in all kinds of weather. Ben was allowed to explore anything he wanted as long as it was safe. Our idea of safe, however, was quite different from that of other folks. Ben learned to hammer nails accurately and safely when he was two and he was highly skilled at climbing trees twenty feet up off the ground by the time he was four. I admit I sometimes had to make myself let him trust himself. I managed to do so purely because of what I believed deep in my heart. All along I knew I hadn't merely “stumbled” on that book when Ben was two. It was a signpost. It pointed the way and gave me the courage to trust my deepest knowing. At the onset of kindergarten, to our great disappointment circumstances dictated that we had to send Ben to school. After lengthy and painful deliberations we finally settled on Waldorf education, largely due to Rudolf Steiner's overall philosophy. I was drawn to certain aspects of the philosophy while I was quite troubled by other things, but I had to let these go. At the time Ben was 10, we decided to move from Lexington to Leverett, a rural town in Western Massachusetts. Conveniently, there wasn't room for another fourth grader at the local Waldorf School. Reluctantly, Ben agreed to homeschool. He spent nearly the entire first year doing Legos. This made me crazy! I was ready to tear my hair out! This wasn't homeschooling! He wasn't learning a thing! In spite of three years of school, Ben still hadn't really learned to read. I started to push and he began to resist. Control issues of mine began to surface big time. It became very difficult for me to trust my inner knowing. Close friends tried earnestly to dissuade me from homeschooling. Other homeschooling parents, however, insisted that it was totally normal for kids who leave school to need time to chill, sometimes as much as year, and very common that they might even seem lost at first or bored with life. Over and over they assured me that I could trust it was temporary. Then one day that year, Ben discovered Calvin and Hobbes. He began to ask incessantly to be read entire books of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. Ed and I couldn't keep up. I guess Ben got frustrated. I began noticing that he was spending a lot of time on the couch just looking at those books. Soon he began asking what ____ spelled. Before long he asked what such-and-such a word meant. He spent hours looking at those books. Then he asked for more Calvin and Hobbes books. We realized he was reading! We bought him every Calvin and Hobbes book he wanted. If you've ever read Calvin and Hobbes you know what I mean when I say

One Parent’s Journeythrough un/schoolingBy Carol Hetrick

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(Carol cont.) Ben acquired quite a vocabulary. A month later, the first Harry Potter book came out. Ben sat curled up on the couch and read the entire book by himself, cover to cover. It took him three days. Once again I was sold on homeschooling.That summer Legos gave way to K’nex, then to a renewed interest in former passions and a keen interest in new ones. Ben learned to play Chess and Go, and began drawing pages and pages of elaborate mazes, maps of enchanted kingdoms, and sophisticated architectural designs of his ideal home. Then he wanted to build a tree house, so we signed on a neighbor down the road, a professional carpenter who took Ben seriously. Ben's friend Evan joined the team and it took them two summers to finish the project. The completed tree house now sits twelve up in a tall white pine overlooking the creek below. It's rock solid and looks professionally done. Ben's adolescence was spent at North Star, heaven for homeschooled teenagers. He thrived there. In addition to all the wonderful classes he chose to attend on his own volition, he had an apprenticeship with an Audubon Society photographer and then one with a well-known local jeweler. He spent a year in a local computer repair shop as an intern. He learned blade-smithing from a blacksmith. At sixteen he shot his first wedding as the photographer and made the couple's wedding rings. He went on all the North Star international trips and always came back having grown up a lot. I could write on and on about Ben's experience at North Star and how fortunate we are to have lived nearby. There is one story I would like to share which sums up my entire experience of homeschooling and the profound impact it has had on my life. When Ben was 13, he still couldn't do math. As I saw it, he seemed to understand the basic concepts but he could do very little on paper. He certainly didn't know his multiplication tables or how to do long division. He also had no interest in learning it any further. This concerned me very much. I gave in to my doubt again and we had a heart heart-to-heart talk. Reluctantly he agreed to sit down every day and do math. It wasn't long before this became problematic. Ben began resisting and I had to nag him daily to do it. This was a real drag. Finally, Ken Danford, North Star’s Executive Director, persuaded me to let it go. He said, “Carol, when he wants to learn math he'll learn it.” Well, Ben may have learned to read on his own but this was too much. It took all my inner strength to indulge in this experiment. My husband Ed agreed with Ken and urged me to give in. I did. Three years went by and still no interest in math. Finally, at 16, Ben and his girlfriend decided they wanted to take an advanced photography course at a Holyoke Community College. Because he didn't have a high school diploma, he had to take the placement tests as entrance exams. He aced the language exam and flunked the math test with a 20. This being the first test he'd ever taken, he was hardly fazed by the score. He would just take the test again. Well, it fazed me a lot. I knew how much he wanted to take the photography class and I couldn't bear the thought of him flunking the test again. The school would give

him only one more chance to succeed before the semester started. I must admit that having been a great test taker all my life, my pride was also at stake. There went my control issues again. It was late November, and the weeks were passing. I tried so hard not to remind Ben that he had to study and to simply just let this be his experience. No way. I couldn't bear it. Early December arrived and I began reminding him that time was getting short. Finally, he snapped back at me one day with great impatience, not his usual style. “Mom! I'll pass it!” Yikes. Next thing I knew he decided to go on a ski trip with his best friend over the Christmas holiday. Oh man. The test date was January 7. There was nothing I could do. As fate would have it, Ben's friend's father Bill, who was taking them on the ski trip, is an MIT graduate with a strong background in math. By prior arrangement, he brought a math book on the ski trip. Every day for five days, Ben and Bill did math together in the ski lodge for an hour and a half over lunch. When Ben returned home from the ski trip and I heard this story, I thought to myself with sarcasm, “Sure!”, as if seven and a half hours were gona make any difference! The following week I drove Ben to Holyoke Community College and held my breath throughout the entire exam. I felt so uncomfortable. Ben emerged from the test, calm cool as a

cucumber. He looked me in the eye with a very sweet smile and said, “I got a hundred. I'm good at math.” My mouth dropped wide open. Little did I know how much math Ben had internalized over the years - Legos, K’nex, baking (fractions!), the tree house, the metric system and absolutely perfect measurement required by the jeweler, learning computers inside out, a keen sense of proportion as part of blade-smithing and his sense of rhythm and timing as a musician. All he had to do was learn how to translate it to paper. I haven't been the same since. At 19, Ben is absolutely clear where he’s headed in life. He wants to be a professional portrait photographer. He takes beautiful candid photographs of people, and has become a wiz at all the mathematical aspects of lens work and the computer manipulation of digital photography. He is devoting his life to something he feels passionate about and seems to possess an aura of confidence about knowing his purpose in life. Ben has learned to trust his inner compass, or, as I once heard his friend Oliver describe it, he has found his north star. I watch him trust it every day. For me, it is among the most important gifts I could have given him. Having chosen to be a homeschooling parent, I learned from the inside out what it means to trust the human spirit to find its own way and to even find it's own way to excellence, if that's where it wants to go. 

One of my favorite quotes: “You can't get a plant to grow by tugging on its leaves.”

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Among education writers, John Holt is among the best known. His books How Children Fail and How Children Learn have sold over a million and a half copies combined, making them two of the most popular books on education of all time.  He began as a conventional fifth grade classroom teacher with no particular ideas about changing schools.  Team teaching (he and another teacher shared one classroom) allowed him to spend much of his time observing children from the sidelines, which gave him a view unavailable to teachers at the front of the room.  He was able to pay close attention to the children’s actual experience in the classroom.  Comparing this with what he observed of young children’s learning outside the classroom led him to the belief that children are inherently curious and intelligent, but that traditional schooling does more harm than good to a child's ability and desire to truly learn. These beliefs became the cornerstones of his educational philosophy. For years, Holt's writings helped fuel the school reform debate and Holt himself was an integral member of the school reform movement. Over the years, as Holt's ideas on education progressed, he became disillusioned with the concept of schooling altogether. In a December 1981 issue

of Yankee magazine, Holt said, "It's a nutty notion that we can have a place where nothing but learning happens, cut off from the rest of life." As he moved away from the school reform movement that he helped to create, he started to embrace home education. Holt's Teach Your Own and the magazine he founded, Growing Without Schooling, have encouraged and supported thousand of families in making the decision to choose alternative methods of education for their children.  His straightforward writing style, grounded in real-life observations and experiences,

conveys his deep respect, trust, and love for children on every page, making his ideas difficult to ignore.  In 1981, Holt published Teach Your Own, which included the following paragraph: "In some ways, the country clubs that rich folks belong to are a much better model of what we want than a school. Take away the eighteen-hole golf courses, the elaborate tennis courts and other facilities, the palatial clubhouse, and what's left is very close in spirit to what we are after. You don't have to play golf just because you go the golf

club. You don't have to do anything. There are certain kinds of resources there for you to use, if you want, but you can spend the day there sitting in a chair and looking at the sky. Why not an inexpensive version of the same thing? A country club without the country - or perhaps a different kind of country, just a little patch of field or woods or whatever is handy. If we can keep the idea of a family club in mind, we will probably make more sensible choices and decisions." At the time Teach Your Own was published with this paragraph, Ken Danford, who would later become co-founder of North Star, was 16 years old.  Today, nearly 30 years later, North Star is making this concept a reality. North Star is built on the foundation of ideals laid down by John Holt and others who questioned the value of schooling itself.  These ideals encouraged more freedom and self direction for children. North Star's model revolves around these and many other shared philosophies. By expanding upon these ideas, putting them into practice, and making them accessible, North Star is putting Holt's ideas to the test and the impact on so many kids’ lives is tremendous.

North Star’s Philosophical Heritageby Jonah Meyer, 15current member

North Star would like to thank the Pilates Center of Western Massachusetts in Hadley and the Rendezvous in Turners Falls for hosting benefit nights on our behalf this past November.

Not only did we raise money and meet new friends, but our very own Sara Rose (pictured at left) rocked the house at the Rendezvous. She was awesome.

Jonah has been reading a lot of books about educational philosophy in recent months and exploring these philosophies with various NS staff members. Here he shares a brief look at North Star’s philosophical heritage. -KD

HELP SUPPORT NORTH STARNorth Star membership changes lives, and we are committed to our policy of making membership available to any family, regardless of their ability to pay our full fee.  North Star receives NO state or institutional funding.  We rely on donations to help us keep our doors open to anyone.  Please help us continue to make North Star possible for any teen who wants us!

North Star is a project of Learning Alternatives, Inc., a non-profit corporation under Massachusetts Law and Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions to North Star are tax-deductible.

Thank you for your generosity!

Please mail your donation to:North Star 135 Russell St.Hadley, MA 01035

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