Welcome,

For over 25 years I have enjoyed helping people succeed at learning outside of school by applying John Holt's ideas, often referred to as unschooling, to their situations. A goal of this site is to show you ways to overcome obstacles to learning besides more intensive conventional schooling. The received wisdom of our time is that school is the best place for children to be for social, academic, and political reasons. I question this conventional wisdom by offering other ways and means for children and adults to learn and grow in our society.

I will also update this site with material from my Teach Your Own seminars, as well as from other sources, so please check back regularly and tell your friends to visit here too!

Best wishes,

Pat Farenga

PS: I offer private consultations about homeschooling by telephone and occasionally in person when possible.

Feb. 6, 2009: What’s going on with unschooling?

Times change and definitions change with them. For instance the phrase “The Gay 90s” has a totally different meaning to us in 2009 than it did for someone in 1909. But the meaning of the word “unschooling,” invented by John Holt in 1977, has changed so rapidly and is now, for the first time, being used and measured by the Department of Education that I want to comment on it. “Unschooling” was John Holt’s attempt to create a better word to describe learning outside of school than “homeschooling” or “deschooling”; he was not trying to name a grand theory of education or parenting. I have refused to act as the supreme authority on unschooling and cast judgment so some may be called “good unschoolers” because of my respect for Holt’s intent behind his creation of the word “unschooling.” Holt used “unschooling” as an inclusive term that sent the signal that families do not have to duplicate school in their home in order to help their children learn and grow, not as an attempt to create a band of followers... Click here to continue