ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605060016
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-22 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: FLOYD
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE
Alan Robinson first stepped into a classroom last year at the age of 17 and immediately questioned it.
"Why should I just accept what this person is saying?"
For a boy used to seeking out his own knowledge in a rural world, a classroom "isn't the same feeling as when I decide this is the most crucial thing I should know - not what they think is the crucial thing."
Alan is a special student at Virginia Tech, making A's in two subjects he'd never formally studied before - biology and psychology.
He grew up in the heart of Floyd County, where the nearest neighbor was a half-mile away. He never worked with any set curriculum. He never had a bedtime, for that matter.
His overseer and father, Howard Robinson, theorized such freedom would stir a desire, rather than force an obligation, to learn.
"We didn't start out with the idea that we had to bring public schools home. ... We have told Alan early on that we would give him the best advice we can, but it was his job to learn it," he said.
Howard Robinson, who worked in construction before staying at home full time, never liked school because he felt it pushes a "one-size-fits-all" model that doesn't nurture most children. Robinson, who did not go to college, took over teaching when his wife, Barbara, took a job at Virginia Tech. Alan was 5.
The couple read Mark Twain and science fiction to Alan until he asked to learn how to read, at about age 7. Rather than forcing Alan to learn multiplication tables as a child, Howard Robinson said, he would come up with elaborate, but realistic, problems for his son to solve, thereby proving the need to learn.
Rather than worry about high test scores, Howard Robinson said, Alan could concentrate on "on how things work and fit together in the world."
Alan developed much of his curriculum based chiefly on his interests. For the past few years, that interest has been computer science, a field he thinks he'll major in once he enters college full time.
Growing up, Alan sometimes played with cousins or another home-schooled friend. More often, he'd spend time outdoors, hiking in the woods and telling himself stories.
As for girls, he said that is an "unexplored tangent in my personality."
When asked whether he feels more mature than other 17-year-olds, Alan said maybe.
"I imagine I'm more mature in some ways. But [other kids] don't understand life's goals. They don't understand that school is for learning and not socializing."
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Alan Kim staff. Alan Robinson, 17, of Floyd is takingby CNBtwo classes in subjects he's neve formally studied before - biology
and psychology - at Virginia Tech. So far he's making A's in both.