Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29161 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 435 pages

Amazon.com
You won't find this book on a school library shelf--it's pure teenage anarchy. While many homeschooling authors hem and haw that learning at home isn't for everyone, this manifesto practically tells kids they're losers if they do otherwise. With the exception of a forwarding note to parents, this book is written entirely for teenagers, and the first 75 pages explain why school is a waste of time. Grace Llewellyn insists that people learn better when they are self-motivated and not confined by school walls. Instead of homeschooling, which connotes setting up a school at home, Llewellyn prefers "unschooling," a learning method with no structure or formal curriculum. There are tips here you won't hear from a school guidance counselor. Llewellyn urges kids to take a vacation--at least for a week--after quitting school to purge its influence. "Throw darts at a picture of your school" or "Make a bonfire of old worksheets," she advises. She spends an entire chapter on the gentle art of persuading parents that this is a good idea. Then she gets serious. Llewellyn urges teens to turn off the TV, get outside, and turn to their local libraries, museums, the Internet, and other resources for information. She devotes many chapters to books and suggestions for teaching yourself science, math, social sciences, English, foreign languages, and the arts. She also includes advice on jobs and getting into college, assuring teens that, contrary to what they've been told in school, they won't be flipping burgers for the rest of their days if they drop out.

Llewellyn is a former middle-school English teacher, and she knows her audience well. Her formula for making the transition from traditional school to unschooling is accompanied by quotes on freedom and free thought from radical thinkers such as Steve Biko and Ralph Waldo Emerson. And Llewellyn is not above using slang. She capitalizes words to add emphasis, as in the "Mainstream American Suburbia-Think" she blames most schools for perpetuating. Some of her attempts to appeal to young minds ring a bit corny. She weaves through several chapters an allegory about a baby whose enthusiasm is squashed by a sterile, unnatural environment, and tells readers to "learn to be a human bean and not a mashed potato." But her underlying theme--think for yourself--should appeal to many teenagers. --Jodi Mailander Farrell

Midwest Book Review
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How To Quite School And Get A Real Life And Education is for everyone who has ever gone to school or is interested in the current national debate over educational reforms, but it is especially relevant for teenagers and the parents or caregivers of teens. The Teenage Liberation Handbook presents some good reasons to think about quitting school, how to reclaim a natural ability to learn and become self-taught, how to get parental support and stay out of legal trouble, how to design a personalized education worth getting excited about, how to go to college without first going to highschool, how to find volunteer positions and/or apprenticeships and/or other work opportunities, and what other unschooled teens do with their time. As with most things in life, there's a right way and a wrong way -- The Teenage Liberation Handbook is a blueprint for the best way!

In2Print Magazine, Fall 1997
The TLH is more than a book. It’s a map . . Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always thought provoking...

Customer Reviews

good resource
Read this book with the idea that whether or not you agree with everything, it will provide many opportunities for reflection. The author seems out-of-touch, a bit, with the current generation. Her ideals and opinions about "school" sometimes come off as flaky. For example, she's disappointed that someone would leave public school for another way to meet school requirements. Even though that person is just fine with that, her disappointment is over not choosing her definition of "unschooling"--as if they still don't get how brain washed they are.
Bottom line, if one has reservations about the public/traditional education offered, this book might be just the needed inspiration to seek an alternative. The second part is especially useful. Use it as a resource, but don't overlook others. If you are seeking validation to challenging the institution of school, there are other better written books.

AUTHOR NEEDS TO GROW UP A BIT...
This is not an educator calling for change, this is a self-centered child that wants licentiousness, not liberty. She thinks all kids are able to be free. She forgets the debt they owe to the past. Everything we have today, material and otherwise, is due to the efforts of our ancestors, for better or for worse. When we are infants, we are helpless, so our parents feed us and take care of us. Because of these facts, we should not grow up, as the author suggests, to do anything we want. Instead, we should learn so that we can claim the liberty to contribute to society in the manner we choose, without being subserviant to any person, idea, or substance. This is a different concept, entirely. The author justs wants to say, "to hell with everything, it is all about me." This is immature. Take the experimentation with drugs, for example. That is not freedom. When you become addicted, then you are still a slave. The author wants freedom (licentiousness), BUT SHE NEGLECTS HER RESPONSIBILITIES AND OBLIGATIONS that we ALL owe as a debt to the past. This is the difference - being free to do what you want, versus being free to satisfy obligations and responsibilities in you own way, not the way dictated by someone else, such as a governmental bureaucrat.

I agree that the school system is beyond fixing. I believe in educating yourself. However, due to inexperience, you need the guidance of a mentor. A good mentor will give you access to the best thinking of the past, while still allowing you to do the work of educating yourself. No man is an island unto himself, but this author would have everyone running around doing whatever they wanted. As I said, we owe a debt to the past, and that debt is satisfied by having the liberty to reach your fullest potential in a manner of your choosing, not to experiment with drugs and become a burden on society. If education were of the mentor type, we might have less people dependent on welfare and government for their needs.

This author's writings suggest a child-like being who is self-centered, irresponsible, immature, and without character. Therefore, she has no business telling other children how to live their lives. I am all for freedom, but only if one is adult enough to know that our ancestors gave us that freedom, so we must use it to become self-reliant, productive, and decent people who are indeed able to think for themselves. They would not be slaves to anybody or anything (like drugs).

Excellent!! Truly Excellent!!
I love this book! I unschool my two children - ages 14 & 11. The author has fabulous ideas and speaks in a voice that rings true at my house! I have read many sections aloud to the kids and have seen both of them reading bits and pieces themselves. The Teenage Liberation Handbook is inspiring and life affirming -- I highly recommend it!