The 30th Anniversary of The Teenage Liberation Handbook

A new, updated, third edition of The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education came out in 2021 and I’m so glad to be able to read it now. Family and health issues have slowed me down in recent years and I’ve got a pile of books and magazines that keeps growing as a result. However, when I go through that pile I discover some gems and the 30th anniversary edition of Teen Lib is one.

If you have a teenage homeschooler or unschooler and you want to know what opportunities and resources and options are available for them, put this book in their hands. If you have a teen who is floundering in high school, put this book in their hands. If you have parents and adults questioning your sanity for allowing your teen to quit school for independent studies, put this book in their hands. If you haven’t read this book and you have or work with teenagers who don’t enjoy school, get this book.

Grace Llewellyn enlisted the editing help of Blake Boles (author of several books about unschooled teens and higher education—and who will be speaking in MA at the Macomber Center on Monday, Jan. 23 at 5pm), and they refreshed the book with new writing and updates to it’s considerable resource recommendations.

I’m also struck by Grace’s openness about her own growth in this edition. It is very interesting to read how her opinions about school have been tempered over the years from the many people who corresponded or connected with her through her work with self-directed education. She writes:

… in 1991 I felt that the unschooling movement was a tiny, brave David to the Goliath of the System. When I first set out to write The Teenage Liberation Handbook, there was absolutely no one in my life who shared my perspective. I thought I needed to shout to be heard, and shout I did. … … Unschooling is still a tiny movement compared to schooling, but that reality no longer fuels my perspective. At this point I’d rather be part of the Michelle Obama club, doing my best to go high rather than low. Self-righteousness can be alienating and life-sapping, and parts of this book originally leaned in that direction. That said, I know there were readers who, themselves young and powerless, felt affirmed and even comforted by the angsty, punkish flavor to the older editions. In toning down some of my language, I certainly haven’t meant to withdraw support. I hope it’s still obvious that I’m in your corner if you’re stuck in school when you yearn to be doing something else with your precious time.

I think this new edition of The Teenage Liberation Handbook will inspire another generation of teenagers to seek their own ways to use or forgo conventional school, find work worth doing, and create lives worth living. You can get the book at Amazon and other retailers.