Undiscovered Country
Dateline: 7/15/99
By Ann Zeise
You might be interested in a fairly new book I just finished
reading. While its not supposed to be an "unschooling book,"
it is unusual. The link is to the Amazon.com store, if you'd
like to read it.
The
Undiscovered Country, by Samantha Gillison. June 1999 Paperback.
ISBN 0805061983.
Story takes place in New
Guinea, where the Campbell family - Peter, June, and 7 year
old daughter Taylor - have gone so dad can work on studying some
disease. His grant denied, they go using June's inheritance money.
They wind up in the remote fictional villiage of Abini. While
they purchase a curriculum for Taylor, she refuses to have anything
to do with it, preferring to be off in the jungle with her new
found native friends, doing goodness knows what. But she winds
up learning the language faster than her parents and she knows
where to find food in the jungle. It takes quite awhile before
the New Guinea mamas can figure out how to tell June she really
shouldn't let Taylor go off in the bushes with bigger boys! It's
also a novel about the strains of marriage and the clash of cultures.
You might call it an unschooling family's nightmare. A bit dark
at times, but I couldn't put it down.
Here's a passage. Taylor has broken out in some itchy rash
from something she ate or came into contact with in the jungle.
They have left Abini to get treatment at a distant settlement.....
"Things are going to be different in Abini
from now on, " June said. "You have to stay with me
and Daddy during the day."
"Why?" Taylor asked and put the cup on the nightstand.
"Tayie," she said, "you are an American girl,
not a New Guinean. The bumps are allergies, they're allergies
to this place, from being too close to it."
"Oh," Taylor said. "But I like to play with
Tavitai and Entibe."
"I know," June said. "But you have to play
closer to the house. Or we'll all have to leave."
Taylor was silent.
"We're going to do school, too," she said. "We're
going to do a correspondence course. Or else when you get back
to Boston, all your friends will know more than you."
Taylor looked up at her mother. She seemed startled, and June
thought she would say something. But Taylor's expression changed;
it was as if she left the room or turned away, but she was still
in front of June. What was upsetting her, June wondered. Couldn't
she remember Boston?
At that moment June was revolted by her daughter. She thought
about Taylor in Abini, how she came home every day covered with
dirt, her mouth full of the glottal stops and quick clicks of
the native language, and the long worms coiled and curled in
her large intestine that they had to flush out every two months
with Mebendazole. She and Peter had to hold on to her and keep
her from running into the mountains.
You might have fun thinking about why Taylor seemed startled.
I've no doubt Taylor dimly remembered Boston, but I think she
felt she knew a whole lot more than her old friends at home.
But here, the price of freedom is too dear, as you shall come
to realize as the drama unfolds.
 The
Undiscovered Country, by Samantha Gillison. June 1999 Paperback.
ISBN 0805061983.
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