Growing Without Schooling, Volume 1, 1977–1981
John Holt (1983–1985) is the author of How Children Learn and How Children Fail, which together have sold over a million and a half copies, and eight other books about children and learning. His work has been translated into more than 40 languages. Once a leading figure in school reform, John Holt became increasingly interested in how children learn outside of school. The magazine he founded, Growing Without Schooling (GWS), reflects his philosophy, which he called unschooling. GWS was published from 1977 to 2001 and is the first magazine devoted to homeschooling and self-directed education.
Each GWS volume contains the complete text of each issue, reformatted to be easy to read, without the advertisements, Family Directory, and book sale catalogs from those issues.
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Available In Additional Formats
Extra Points
The complete contents of GWS issues 1 to 19 in a searchable, easy to read pdf (portable document format).
Hundreds of stories about dealing with skeptics, school officials, and self-doubt in the earliest days of the modern homeschooling movement.
Resources, book reviews, and advice from John Holt about how to live and learn with children that will surprise you if you're not familiar with his work, and if you are, you will really enjoy reading a lot of John's writing that is not printed anywhere else but here.
Lively exchanges among readers and Holt on a variety of topics that illustrate the richness and diversity of homeschooling in its early years.
A primary document for homeschooling and unschooling history.
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After years of working to change schools from within—testifying before Congress and addressing audiences around the world about how to make schools better places for children—John Holt founded Growing Without Schooling magazine in 1977 to support self-directed education and learning outside of school. Each issue is a lively exchange among readers and Holt, packed with useful advice, resource recommendations, and all sorts of legal, pedagogical, and parenting ideas from people who pioneered what we now call homeschooling.
John Holt (1923–1985) is the author of How Children Learn and How Children Fail, which together have sold over a million and a half copies, and eight other books about children and learning. His work has been translated into more than 40 languages. Once a leading figure in school reform, John Holt became increasingly interested in how children learn outside of school. The magazine he founded, Growing Without Schooling (GWS), reflects his philosophy, which he called unschooling. GWS was published from 1977 to 2001 and is the first magazine devoted to homeschooling and self-directed education.
Read selected stories from volume 1 on this site and on Facebook.