Home school experiment

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 19

Home school experiment

“The Harris Experiment,” to be screened on Sunday at 7 p.m. on One is the story of an extraordinary family and their experiment in home schooling. When the middle child, Seamus, became increasingly unhappy and disturbed after starting school his parents were forced to look for an alternative. Eventually they decided to keep him at home. His mother, Jean Harris was an educational failure in the conventional sense but soon showed an exceptional ability as an educator. Seamus’s interests and abilities developed rapidly. He reached an educational level well beyond his peers. At the age of seven he began attending extension - courses at university. Seamus’s sister, Sinead, decided that she too would prefer to learn at home after trying the school system even though she was a more outgoing child then her brother.

Part of Jean Harris’s philosophy is that children’s obsessions should be en-

couraged. Sinead’s obsession is teddy bears. At the age of five she began writing about the adventures of her own bears. These have developed into a series of books, each 16 chapters long.

This development increased Jean’s confidence in the experiment. She believes it could not have happened if Sinead had been processed through the normal school system. Jean Harris does not advocate home schooling for everyone. It requires a commitment that is not possible

for most people. But in her case the rewards have made it well worth while. In the last three or four years a growing number of parents in New Zealand have decided to educate their children at home for a variety of reasons. The movement is strongest in Auckland where the Education Board has been more sympathetic thin most to granting exemptions from school. Throughout history children’s education has been largely the responsibility of parents. It is only in the last 100 years that the State has taken over. Jean Harris believes that the dwindling role of parents has often been at the cost of stifling children’s individuality and imagination. State-controlled education has been more concerned with ironing out the differences than encouraging each child’s potential. In her opinion New Zealanders regard being different as a crime. Her ex-

periment is as much a reaction to that attitude as it is about education. The 50-minute documentary- is introduced by James McNeish, who is also the interviewer, but the story is told largely by Jean Harris. Much of it observes the family and shows the experiment in action. It follows one of the projects that arose out of the children’s interests — King Arthur — from the bookstudying stage to a family banquet in the style of Arthur’s time and the acting out of the death of Arthur. “The Harris Experiment”

also raises the doubts expressed by many people about the children’s social development. It shows their contacts with other home schoolers, the children’s enthusiasm for learning, and their delight in the imaginative world fostered by the experiment. A book called “Putting the Joy Back into Egypt,” in which Jean Harris describes the evolution of the experiment, is being published to coincide with the film.

“The Harris Experiment” was produced by Bill Saunders for Television New Zealand.