Welcome to the site about John Holt, a teacher and writer who advocated more humane classrooms and then, when he sensed such school reform was not really wanted by most people, became one of the founders of the homeschooling movement, which Holt originally called "unschooling." Unschooling—learning that doesn't look like school nor has to happen at home—is an effective way to work with, not on, young children and teenagers to help them learn.
Unschooling is also documented in the pages of the magazine Holt founded, Growing Without Schooling (GWS). All of its issues, covering the years 1977 to 2001, are available to read here, as are articles, audio, and video recordings of Holt and other pioneers of learning without schooling.
You will also find information, research, and support for learning outside of school, self-directed learning, unschooling, homeschooling and the work of John Holt.
—Pat Farenga
"John Holt’s Escape from Childhood: The Needs and Rights of Children, is as fresh and thought-provoking today as it was when it was first published 39 years ago."—Dr. Peter Gray, Author of Free to Learn (Basic Books, 2013)
Pat Farenga's Blog
Recordings of the four speeches featured at the Alternatives to Compulsory Education Conference on April 27, 2013, at Harvard University. Speakers Cevin Soling, Pat Farenga, Peter Gray, and Peter Bergson gave powerful talks about the competence of children and offer solutions to the control and predict mentality of compulsory education.
