Holt/Growing Without Schooling

10/15/2026

Homeschoolers, unschoolers, and alternative schoolers have been put down for many decades over the charge that their educations are not as worthwhile as those who march through the conventional school curriculum. This criticism persists even as literacy and math scores in our schools keep falling. Fortunately, families can still make decisions about their children’s education, and choosing homeschooling is not an irreversible choice.

How Schools Swallow Change and Stay the Same

10/06/2026

David Cayley interviewed teacher/authors Frank Smith, John Taylor Gatto, and John Holt over the years on his CBC show IDEAS. Growing Without Schooling published excerpts from these interviews in 1999. It's remarkable that all their criticisms are still valid, and no wonder that homeschooling continues to grow.

Frank Smith, John Gatto, and John Holt talk with David Cayley about what's really wrong with schooling, and it's not the students.

09/22/2026

My latest article is now up on Substack.

How Communities Find Their Way Back Together

09/10/2026

North Star is not an alternative high school but an independent resource center that helps teens find direction, friends, apprenticeships, and work worth doing for 30 years now. I speak with Ken Danford about how unschooling energizes his work with teenagers.

An interview with co-founder Ken Danford upon North Star’s 30th Anniversary

09/04/2026

Wendell Berry died this week, but his work about farming, community, and life in general will live on.

08/26/2026

NXT ERA Homeschool Solutions is offering a unique, hands-on business course for teenagers. If anyone uses this program I’m interested in knowing what you think, because it looks promising. Rather than making you dependent on classroom approximations of the real world, it gives teens “skin in the game” to earn money for their services. From their website:��“Freedom 15 is an online business class integrated with real-world tasks that walks high school students through starting and operating a service-based business. It follows the model of Education + Implementation = Mastery. It’s the only online class of its kind that walks high school students through building their own business.

Students will be able to:

Work with successful mentors
Compete for $10k in awards
Make money as they learn

As students progress through the program, they will go out and perform services in the real world, applying every concept. During this time, business owners who have scaled past seven figures will mentor these students.

Feel free to share the course with high school students in your sphere. We offer a referral fee for every student. We are also now an approved Step-Up provider for Florida students.

Click the link to learn more:

Freedom 15 is a 6-month online business class integrated with real world tasks that walks high school students through starting and operating a service-based business. It follows the model of Education + Implementation = Mastery.

08/26/2026

"About a year ago, we started to feel that it was time for him to see for himself what school was like, partly because he was concerned about not knowing enough, partly because kids were always telling him how much fun it was to be with friends all day, partly because it seemed to me that a well-rounded education would include knowing what school was really like. I have always been an articulate advocate of the joys and advantages of homeschooling, and now we both felt that only by his experiencing school for himself could he continue to decide whether homeschooling or going to school would be best for him. So we set up for him to attend eighth grade for a day with a friend ...."

The second of two articles about homeschooled children trying school.

08/21/2026

Mickey Revenaugh has posted short video interviews with the students, parents, teachers, entrepreneurs and researchers featured in her new book, School’s Out: Why Families are Choosing Unconventional Education. It’s a lively mix of topics and perspectives about learning outside of conventional schooling. https://www.youtube.com/

08/21/2026

As a new school year approaches I want to share some first-hand experiences from homeschoolers who decided to try school. I start this two-part series with a mother’s description of how her son decided to try school when he was 14 due to his interest in basketball. She summarizes her interactions with school personnel and their common answer to her questions about their school’s practices: “The conversations I’ve had with every one of these professional educators—from principals to office secretaries—have followed the same line. What my son is doing with his life today only has value as far as where it will place him four years from now—and in their school and state statistics. It’s difficult to communicate with these people who don’t appreciate the need for dignity and depth in young people’s day to day lives. It reveals a profound disrespect for their very existence.” The mom’s letter is followed by her son’s description of what school was like for him. https://patrickfarenga.substack.com/p/enrolling-to-play-on-the-basketball?r=ve95b&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

If your homeschooled child decided to attend school how did it go?

08/12/2026

I review this new book about today's changing educational landscape.

Why Families Are Choosing Unconventional Education