It is all too easy, particularly in election years, to forget that homeschooling is a wide-ranging social movement, not a party-specific political movement . . .

Alternative schooling, Community, Homeschooling Current Issues, Learning and Teaching, Parenting, School reformPatrick FarengaApril 22, 2016Homeschooling, Social Movement, FBI, Prevent Progam UK, WI Parents Association Comment

Schooling is Not the Same as Education

My thoughts on an article in the Journal of Philosophy of Education that discusses, among other interesting things, the uneasy relationships between homeschooling and mainstream schooling.

Homeschooling Current Issues, Homeschooling research, School reform, UK homeschoolingPatrick FarengaFebruary 22, 2016Harriet Pattison, Home Education as a Heterotopia, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Ken Danford Comments

Education Disruptors on Two Continents: Shilpa and Manish Jain

Shilpa and Manish Jain are grassroots education activists located in the United States and India, respectively. This spring each is putting on a unique event that approaches vast educational change at a personal, empowering level . . .

Community, Homeschooling Current Issues, Learner-centered curricula, Learning and Teaching, School reformPatrick FarengaJanuary 26, 2016Shilpa Jain, Manish Jain, Shikshantar, Hack the Education System Fellowship, YES! Education Jam Comment

Parents' Concerns about Their Children's Futures

The questions from parents that Blake responded to at his talk are the same ones myself and others in homeschooling for the past 30+ years also asked when we started—childrearing issues don't differ from previous generations as much as our external circumstances do—and I feel obligated to pass those answers forward . . .

Homeschooling Current Issues, Learning and Teaching, Parenting, Technology and Education, videogamesPatrick FarengaDecember 15, 2015Blake Boles, Parenting, homeschooling, unschooling Comments

Homeschooled Teens

This new book surveys 75 former and current teenage homeschoolers about their feelings, thoughts, and experiences about not going to high school. The range of responses and the variety of educational experiences outside of conventional school that they describe will give heart to any parent wondering if homeschooling during the teen years is a smart move.

Book Review, high school, Grown-up Homeschoolers, Homeschooling Current Issues, ParentingPatrick FarengaDecember 2, 2015Homeschooled Teens, Sue Patterson, Unschooling teenagers, High School, Opportunities after high school Comment

The Rights of Children Gets an Airing

Children's rights are not a conversation starter in most circles, but this recent interview I did goes there in-depth.

Children's Rights, Homeschooling Current Issues, Learner-centered curricula, Legal Issues, Public School Issues, Parenting, UnschoolingPatrick FarengaOctober 28, 2015Escape From Childhood, Children's rights, Pat Farenga, New books in education, Trevor MatteaComment

Not-Back-to-School Support

Getting into the Ivy League is not a good reason to homeschool—there's no guarantee you will gain admission and why put all that pressure on a young child? But following your children's interests and developing their character are good reasons to homeschool, as these stories show.

College, Homeschooling Current Issues, Homeschooling Films, Media Appearances, VideoPatrick FarengaAugust 31, 2015not-back-to-school, Homeschooling in America, homeschooling movie, self-directed learning, Blake Boles, Jeremy Stuart, Boston magazineComment

Choosing Home: 20 Mothers Celebrate Staying Home, Raising Children, and Changing the World

"Insisting that both women and men must work in equally high paying and prestigious jobs to attain gender equality explicitly assumes that high paying jobs reflect the pinnacle of success and importance. We disagree. When mothers (and increasingly fathers) stay home—whether they earn a paycheck never, now, or in the future—they change the world for the better by raising and prioritizing children, cultivating family and community, and investing in the future . . ."

Book Review, Parenting, Homeschooling Current IssuesPatrick FarengaJune 23, 2015Choosing Home, Kerry McDonald, Rachel Chaney, Parenting Comment

John Gatto and Starting to Homeschool Webinar Updates

John Gatto wants to answer your questions, and Pat Farenga is moving the Starting to Homeschool Webinar to a new date.

Homeschooling Current Issues, Learning and TeachingPatrick FarengaApril 22, 2015John Taylor Gatto, starting to homeschoolComment

The Self-Directed Learning Award

North Star celebrates self-directed learning in its local community with an annual award that goes to a publicly nominated person who did not complete high school (though they may hold a GED) and who “lives as a model of successful self-directed learning . . ."

Autodidact, College, Community, Homeschooling Current Issues, Jobs and Credentials, Learner-centered curriculaPatrick FarengaApril 6, 2015self-directed learning, North Star, graduationComment

Escaping the Education Caste System

Some Indian parents help their children cheat on exams to get ahead, and treat children harshly to make them study, in what they perceive as a dog-eat-dog world of education. Is conventional schooling the only way to help people learn and grow into good citizens?

Homeschooling Current Issues, Learning and Teaching, Parenting, Public School Issues, School reformPatrick FarengaApril 2, 2015School cheating, Schooling the World, education caste, Standardized testingComment

Homeschooling the Elementary School Years

Homeschooling Current Issues, Learner-centered curricula, Legal Issues, Public School Issues, Religion, UnschoolingPatrick FarengaMarch 22, 2015starting to homeschool, unschooling webinar, Homeschooling in AmericaComment

Volunteers Needed for GWS Proofreading Project

Join our team and help proofread over 4,400 pages about homeschooling history, unschooling's rise, and the moving personal stories that populate each issue of John Holt's Growing Without Schooling magazine.

Homeschooling Current Issues, Homeschooling History, New HoltGWS BooksPatrick FarengaMarch 20, 2015Growing Without Schooling, Volunteer, proofreadComment

John Taylor Gatto Back in Business

John Taylor Gatto continues to improve from his stroke and has just revised his website . . .

Homeschooling Current Issues, Learner-centered curricula, Learning and Teaching, Public School Issues, School reformPatrick FarengaFebruary 10, 2015John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down, Underground History of American Education Comment

In Memory of Elsa Haas: An Individual Who Helped Many Homeschoolers

Elsa Haas was not a well-known figure in homeschooling/ unschooling circles, but she was a model of the power of the individual to affect large social changes . . .

Homeschooling Current Issues, Spain, Unschooling, ObituaryPatrick FarengaJanuary 2, 2015Elsa Haas, New York Homeschooling Comments

John Taylor Gatto Update

John Gatto's website is temporarily down, but he's doing well . . .

Homeschooling Current Issues, Learning and Teaching, Public School Issues, School reformPatrick FarengaOctober 6, 2014John Taylor Gatto, Underground History of American Education Comment

Prior Learning Assessments for High School and College

Prior learning assessments (PLAs) are gaining more acceptance as the costs of higher education rise and alternatives to conventional schooling proliferate . . .

College, Jobs and Credentials, Homeschooling Current IssuesPatrick FarengaSeptember 30, 2014PLA, prior learning assessment, Colleges that admit homeschoolersComment

The Education Jargon Generator

From the creator: "My inspiration comes from the College Board's new AP Chemistry framework that includes this gem—'The student can connect phenomena and models across spatial and temporal scales.'"

Alternative schooling, Homeschooling Current Issues, Learner-centered curricula, Parenting, UnschoolingPatrick FarengaJuly 25, 2014Education, report to school, school jargonComment

Grown-Up Homeschoolers

Audio, video, blogs, and research about grown homeschoolers is updated and a new page about them is added to the site.

Homeschooling research, Homeschooling Current Issues, Grown-up HomeschoolersPatrick FarengaMay 2, 2014unschooling, homeschoolingComment

Towards a Different Kind of Teacher

The role of the teacher is different when the child decides when, where, how, and from whom to learn, and the context and purposes of teaching are radically different in this configuration . . .

Alternative schooling, Homeschooling Current Issues, Learner-centered curricula, Learning and TeachingPatrick FarengaApril 30, 2014Teaching, self-directed learning, Ivan Illich, John Holt, Sugata MitraComment

John Holt GWS