When school is not just like being at home —it is home

Press, 30 August 1986, Page 21

When school is not just like being at home —it is home

By

ASHLEY CAMPBELL

The .lounge had that live-ln look. Half-completed Leggo houses, and all the accompanying bits and pieces, were strewn over a corner of the floor. Seven (almost eight)-year-old Joshua Zyderveld proudly showed me the Leggo cabin he was building, together with his completed “automatic alligator.” His six-year-old sister Corrie asked me if I could go outside and see something. Then, with all the skill she could muster, she showed me how she could balance while walking along a narrow concrete curb.

It was a week day during term time, but neither of the Zyderveld children were “at school” — because their school is their home. They are two of the 24 children in Canterbury and the West Coast who are educated at home. Most New Zealanders think they have to send their children to school when they turn five. This impression is wrong on two counts. First, the age in question is six, not five. Second, it is possible to be exempted from this requirement. Certificates of exemption can be granted for two reasons. They are: “That the child is elsewhere under instruction as regular and as efficient as in a registered school” or “That the child is unable to attend school regularly or is unable to be educated by reason of phsyical or mental handicap.” It is the first of these grounds which offers choice to most parents. But what is meant by the words “as regular and as efficient” is not defined in the Education Act.

It is up to the local primary or secondary inspector to interpret those words. Les Crammond, the Education Department’s district senior inspector of primary schools for Canterbury, says it

does not simply mean that children are being taught to read, write, add, subtract, and multiply-

These days, an official definition of “the basics” would also include music, art, craft, sport, and interpersonal relationships, to name a few. Parents have to convince the inspector, who visits them once a year, that their children are not missing out on any aspect of their education. “One of the reasons school works. I suppose, is that it’s regular, consistent and efficient,” Les Crammond says. “But it’s not easy to be regular and consistent as a parent.”

Joshua and Corrie have about two hours of formal, sit-down learning every day. The rest of the time, their mother Kaye says, it’s a case of "education by environment.” Family outings

turn into field trips and shopping becomes an exercise in calculation and comparison. “In some ways ‘learning reflects their interests, and what’s happening,” she says. For example, the day they visited Cooper’s Creek. The trip was not planned, but it spawned a study of geography and earthquakes. “We keep an eye on our environment,” Kaye Zyderveld says. “When children get a question in their mind, they want to know what it means. But if they are, for instance, in school, they are learning what the teacher is ready to teach.”

Les Crammond says there are a number of reasons why parents want to educate their children at home. “Some are just parents who have a strong interest in their children, particularly when they are younger. Some people of varying religious faiths want to have a major influence on their children’s attitudes and values. My experience of this is that most people are very genuine, and usually very well informed.”

Several years ago Kaye Zyderveld met a woman who was teaching her two children at home. “I thought ‘she’s a mug! When kids get to school age, you pack them off to school.” But she had been teaching Joshua while he was still a preschooler, and as he approached five she realised he was not ready for school because of a health problem. Then she discovered a book in her husband’s library. “Better Late Than Early” advocated keeping children at home until they were about nine years old. So Kaye and her husband, Jim, applied for an exemption to keep Joshua at-home, and since then

neither of the children have been to school.

“When Josh was four, I intended to keep him at home until he was five and a bit,” Kaye says. "When he was five, I decided I would apply for an exemption and teach him until he was seven.” Now he has passed seven and the probable deadline has been extended again. Kids retain the option “When he’s 21, then we’ll be in trouble,” Jim says. Very few parents try to educate secondary school children at home. There is at present only one case south of Nelson and Marlborough. Kaye and Jim Zyderveld are quick to point out that it is the children’s opinions that matter the most.

“It’s a continuous assessment,” Kaye says. “If I was getting a lot of negative reaction, if I was getting a lot of ‘I want to be with my friends,’ then the kids are welcome to take the option to go to school.”

“Josh may come home sometime and say ‘Dad, I really want to go to school,” Jim says. When that day arrives, he will be sent to school.

Mr Crammond is also quick to point out that the child’s interests must be paramount. “It’s not uncommon to find that the children are not coping well with school. In some cases they are isolates, or just can’t handle a large school. There is a place for that. “It’s obvious that there will be some children who, at times, will develop more in the security of their own home. Usually these children have eventually all moved back into the school system. They need to be taken out of school for the right reason. I would say that the right reason was for the personal development of that little kiddie — not that they (the parents) are frustrated or annoyed with the State system of education.” Kaye and Jim Zyderveld realise they are providing a very protective environment for their two children. “That’s the idea of it,” Kaye says. She likens keeping the children at home to raising a fragile plant in a sheltered environment. “The idea is to make the thing stronger before it’s exposed to everything.”

The children’s interests are always borne in mind when the inspector visits to make sure all is well. “If the inspector was very unhappy, he Or she could we'll recommend that the exemption be discontinued,” Les says. Even before the exemption is

granted, the parents have to make themselves familiar with the syllabus, and prepare a programme they intend to follow. “Where the inspector was not happy about the content of the programme and the value of the programme, or even if he or she suspected that the parent or parents were . not capable of carrying it out, then the exemption would not be granted.” When the inspectors check up on the child, it is not only academic progress they look for. During one visit, the inspector went out the back and played soccer wjth Joshua, to see if his co-ordination was all it should be.

Jim and Kaye are very aware that they need to develop all their children’s abilities, not just their academic ones. Joshua and Corrie both go to gym classes. But they are getting a bit tired of that, so they might try trampolining next term. Jim also takes the children to adventure playgrounds, and gets them used to the great outdoors by taking them camping. He plays the guitar and is beginning to think seriously about how he is going to teach the children music.

The big question this issue raises in everyone’s mind is that of socialisation. Won’t the children become withdrawn arid miss out on learning how to interact with other children?

This was the question Jinr Zyderveld raised when his wife first suggested educating their children at home. They think that Joshua and Corrie have many opportunities to interact with other children. There are gym classes and swimming lessons. Jim is a pastor with the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and the children regularly go to Sabbath School. They also go on church camps several times a year. Normal social situation Then there are all the children they stay with for a night, or have to stay with them, during the school holidays. One Saturday morning eight children were at the Zyderveld household — all painting pictures. “I deliberately make opportunities for my kids to have others around,” Kaye says.

This is an area that does not worry Les. “They are usuall in a social situation, with family and’ friends and other people. It’s not as though the kiddies are going to be shut up in a room for 365 days.”

Kaye does most of the formal teaching in the Zyderveld household. She has no formal qualifi-

cations as a teacher, but has taught children in Sabbath School, and has taken adult Bible classes. It is something, her husband says, for which she has a flair. :

“You don’t need a great deal of expertise, just a commitment to the idea,” she says. She is learning all the time because the children often want to know about things she does not have the answers to. Then she learns with the children. Kaye and Jim are quick to point out that educating the children at home is not all roses. There are days when they wonder why they do it. > • “It’s like parenting,” Kaye says. “You think, ‘Great, I’ll have kids.’But then sometimes you think ‘Why did I have the'silly things.” She does not want people to think she has anything against schools. “Just because I believe in home schooling, I don’t think everybody should do it I am sure that 95 per cent of the population are perfectly happy to send their kids off to school. But I’m glad the option is there.” The option has not been followed without a few sacrifices. The biggest, Jim Zyderveld says, has been made by his wife, who cannot continue with her career while teaching the children.

But Kaye adds that doesn’t worry her right now. “I belieye in this more.”