A Million Dollars to Create Self-Organized Learning Environments

Autodidact, Homeschooling Current Issues, Learner-centered curricula, Learning and TeachingPatrick FarengaMarch 4, 2013Sugata Mitra, self-directed learningComment

School Vacation Week Advice: Do Nothing!

Homeschooling Current Issues, Parenting, UnschoolingPatrick FarengaFebruary 25, 2013Dr. Peggy Drexler, school vacation, sense of self, children's independenceComment

Education Should Not Be A Race

Homeschooling Current Issues, Public School Issues, Jobs and CredentialsPatrick FarengaFebruary 14, 2013Education, Race, President ObamaComment

Wes Beach On At-Risk Students, Gifted Children, and Homeschooling

My interview with Wes Beach concludes with a discussion about his experiences and solutions working with at-risk students and gifted children in school for many years and how Wes helps homeschooling work for them.

How Homeschoolers Make A High School Transcript: Wes Beach Interview, Part 2

Part two of my interview with Wes Beach, teen advisor for students who need options to conventional high school. In this part, Wes details how to create and customize a high school transcript so homeschoolers/unschoolers can gain access to college or work.

Wes Beach on Forging Paths: Beyond Traditional Schooling

Pat Farenga interviews Wes Beach about how his work in school led to his strong support for homeschooling; little-known ways that homeschoolers and other nontraditional learners use to gain access to community college courses; gifted children; and many stories about how Wes helped overcome educational peevishness about people’s learning.

Homeschooling In The News

Public School Issues, Homeschooling Current IssuesPatrick FarengaJanuary 23, 2013homeschooling, mary pride, new york times, Forbes Comments

The Price For Speaking Your Mind About School

Lisa Nielsen, director of digital literacy and citizenship for NYC schools, co-author of Teaching Generation Text: Using Cellphones to Enhance Learning, is unfairly criticized by the NY Post for her support of homeschooling and other heresies against the religion of school. I chose that language because the label attached to the photo here, copied from the Post online, calls this photo "heretic1." Who will be the Post's heretic 2?

Better Than College: An Interview with Blake Boles

Blake Boles is the author of books, articles, and web projects about learning and finding good, meaningful work without going to college whose work I have followed for some time. His most recent book is Better Than College, which we discuss, as well as how he came to support the world of homeschooling and unschooling so energetically even though he, himself, was never homeschooled. This is the first part of a three-part interview.