As many former and current students of the public school system in the U.S. (and, I suspect, worldwide) have discovered, compulsory schooling too often destroys the curiosity and passion for learning which each child is born with. If you are dissatisfied with the education you are recieving from an institution, I would like to encourage you to research homeschooling. Home education, in varying degrees, is currently a legal option in every U.S. state, thanks to the activists who dedicated their lives to this cause which has transformed my life. Unfortunately, unschooling especially has a relatively small online community. Thus, I cannot offer a fully comprehensive directory on this subject. However, please check out the links I do have. I hope you find at least some valuable information on the subject. Above all, I cannot overemphasise the importance of Grace Llewellyn's book, The Teenage Liberation Handbook. It saved me, a former straight-A student of the public school system, from having my mind completely molded to conformity, and awakened a sense of happiness and responsibility I would not have discovered without unschooling. In fact, if I had never read that book, this website would not have been possible. I invite you to explore the idea that success by public school standards (measured by grades and social and intellectual conformity) is not necessarily success by human standards. If you are unhappy recieving your education passively, only to forget all you have "learned" after the next exam, you may be a future self-educated student of life. Homeschooling is not just for radical fundamentalist Christians who want to protect their children from evolutionary theories and pledges of alliegence to the flag (although that is a legitamite path as well). Even if you decide that you are completely satisfied with the public school system and your place in it, I sincerely hope your research will dispell certain myths about homeschooling, and give you new perspective on the possibilites of self-education. It is never too late to rediscover your love of learning.
Avy's Abode - Main Page |
Section Two Index |
This Page Last Updated on November 21, 1999.