The civic center proposed for the Pennsauken Mart site will be the subject of a public debate to be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 12 at the Pennsauken High School auditorium on Hylton Road in Pennsauken.

Mart's time is over

The Pennsauken Mart is outdated, outmoded, and has seen better times. Now, Camden County wants to put a state-of-the-art civic center in its place. This is a slam dunk for Pennsauken, Camden County and the South Jersey area as a whole. I understand that the mart merchants are upset but continuing legal battles will only drive the cost of the center up. The merchants should stop listening to politicians who will do anything to get their name in the paper. They don't care what happens to the mart.

The Pennsauken Mart has been offered for sale for the last five years. If a developer had purchased the mart, merchants would have been given notice and told to leave. Now, Camden County comes in and essentially does the same thing, except they will give assistance to the merchants - something that would not have happened if the property was sold.

The civic center is good for Pennsauken. Let's get the ball rolling!

Matthew J. McDevitt

Pennsauken

Homeschooling's pros

When my daughter-in-law and my son announced their intentions to homeschool their three children rather than send them to public school, I had my misgivings. I envisioned their removal from the education mainstream and them being isolated from Real World 101 where children frolic, argue and learn to deal with problems that arise at all levels of growing up. I was somewhat concerned that, cooped away in the safety of their home and insulated from the slings and arrows of the outside world, they would be ill-prepared when the time came for them to venture out to test the waters of a frequently hostile society.

I needn't have wasted my time worrying. Now, 10 years later, my three grandchildren could be poster children for homeschooling. Bright, effusive and mannerly, they show no signs of having been overprotected or spoiled. To the contrary, there's no doubt in their household about who rules the roost.

As I became more amenable to this form of education, I was surprised at the number of families engaged in homeschooling. My daughter-in-law and my son are part of a well-organized group of homeschoolers who meet regularly to exchange views and go on field trips. And as far as the eternal question asked by nonhomeschoolers - "What about socialization?" - homeschool children have much more time to play with their friends because they get their work done in a few hours a day as compared to the long public-school day plus time needed to do homework.

Homeschooled kids make friends that are less age/sex dependent and learn to interact with people of all ages - from the very young to the very old - more realistically than they could by playing and interacting only with their peers. Homeschoolers are taught to think for themselves and are not used to being spoon-fed information. They ask questions and get answers, and often go out into the community as volunteers, apprentices or observers - to help, to learn or to investigate their interests.

Karen, like other at-home teachers, has found that homeschoolers do not have the inclination to pick on kids who have learning or other differences. Over the last few years, she has seen more parents of middle and high school students decide on homeschooling to remove their children from a negative environment where they have to deal with peer-pressure issues such as the game-playing of "fitting in with the crowd" or "dating just to be cool," activities that are a waste of time and energy when there are so many really great things teens can do.

Another thing Karen hears from people is, "I could never homeschool. I can't even get my children to do their homework." In general, homeschoolers choose to work on what interests them. Kids learn more easily when they are interested. More and more activities are available for homeschoolers, from correspondence courses to community-sponsored volleyball, bowling, gymnastics, science, zoo classes, orchestra and choir.

A big plus is that homeschoolers learn what their parents, especially their mothers, do all day. Students at home are also responsible for doing chores as part of their education, and they learn what it takes to raise younger siblings, run a household, and prioritize family needs - valuable lessons they could never learn otherwise. In turn, parents really get to know their children's strengths, weaknesses and needs. Even the best teachers are unable to meet the needs of 25 to 30 students all of the time. Kids on both ends of the learning curve, and those who have any kind of difficulty, fall through the cracks every day. Karen has gotten calls from desperate parents whose school has failed to meet their child's needs or protect him or her from harassment - or has labeled a child because the student has trouble functioning in a traditional paper/pencil/desk setting.

Homeschooling doesn't benefit only the students. I have found the homeschooling parent to be articulate, knowledgeable, aware, clearly goal-oriented, and free of the emotional and physical stress caused by trying to juggle child-rearing and "career fulfillment" out in the business community.

Homeschooling, while aimed primarily at the children, is an intellectual gold mine for the teaching parent, opening up new horizons with each subject. When I read about school budget cutbacks that include reduction of field trips, cuts in busing, basketball, library, and needed technology, I'm gratified to know that homeschoolers, if not immune to budget crises, are at least better equipped to deal with them.

Sidney B. Kurtz

Pennsauken