How to get a real life and education

So this book I just finished reading, The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to quit school and get a real life and education, was published in 1991, but better late than never right? Man would my parents have been in trouble if I found this book as a teen. Actually no! They would have been much better off I think. I probably wouldn't have had near as many behavior and drug problems and would have become extremely focused on what I would have found out I loved (as I finally did later in my college life). Oh well. I'm thankful that I found it [this book] now, before I started trying to "teach" my kids too much, lol.

Although some of the book is obviously out of date (a computer is seen as quite hard to get and GWS - Growing Without Schooling - is no longer published), most of the book is still very much current.

When I decided to quit working and stay at home with my kids, I didn't know too much about homeschooling. All I knew was that the homeschooled kids who participated in my programs at the public library were so so so very pleasant to be around. I started researching different methods, following blogs, joining this large homeschooling community online. I was always very confused about the term "unschooling." I read many unschooling blogs but everyone was doing different things and no one was giving a similar definition of what it was that was going on. In comparison, if you follow montessori or waldorf blogs, everything is very similar and it is easy to see and understand what it is they are trying to do. Anyway, as I tried different ways of doing things, this idea of unschooling, whatever it was, kept drawing me back. Then I came across this book! ...and everything became so clear. Yay!

The book is written for teens. The author starts off explaining why school sucks (which I already knew but it is important to know not to recreate this schoollike atmosphere at home). Then the book goes on to explain how to quit school, and then how to go about unschooling yourself in different subjects. The book explains how to get into college (if that is something one wants),  how to get an apprenticeship, where and why to volunteer, travel, starting your own business, activism, etc. There are many, many examples given of unschooled teenagers and what great things they are doing. I think this book would not only be an inspiring read for you or your pre-teen / teenager, but it may also be inspiring for the non-believers in our lives. Maybe your family members or friends who look at you like you're crazy when you tell them you don't "do school."

Some quotes from The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn

"Mainly, I felt flooded by a sense of loss and bitterness - all the time I'd wasted sitting and staring out windows when I could have been out traveling, learning, growing, living."

"It was perfectly fair, I thought, to expect people to behave wonderfully in any situation they chose freely to be a part of."

"In the long run, pressure is an ineffective substitute for curiosity and freedom to pursue those things you love, because people only remember and think about things they use or care about."

"Good grades are often equally as dangerous [as bad grades]. They encourage you to forsake everything worthwhile that you might love, just to keep getting them. When schoolpeople give you good grades, you give them your unquestioning loyalty in return...We are not talking here about fair bargains; we are talking about manipulation and colossal rip-off."

"Young or old, anyone can in fact become an expert in a field they love, if they are not restrained and occupied by the petty nonsense of school or meaningless work."

"Ridiculous as it seems, schoolpeople would rather keep your head and mouth empty and uncontroversial than risk their jobs by giving teachers free rein."

"In the end, the secret to learning is so simple: forget about it. Think only about whatever you love. Follow it, do it, dream about it."

"Adolescence is a time of dreaming, adventure, risk, sweet wildness, and intensity. It's the time for you to 'find yourself,' or at least go looking. The sun is rising on your life. Your body is breaking out of its cocoon and ready to try wings. But you have to stay in - for such a long time - and keep your pencils sharpened. School is bad for your spirit." 

"When adults get turned loose after college, lots of them go to bookstores and buy self-help books. These books help them unlearn the lessons of school. Slow down, they say. Concentrate only on the important things. Don't give yourself guilt trips for not doing everything. Live your life the way you want to live it. If you quit school now, maybe you can reclaim this childhood wisdom before you sprout wrinkles, and save $30 or so in self-help books."

"'We are always getting ready to live, but never living,' wrote Emerson. Don't let the schoolpeople write that on your tombstone."

"If you plan to have a peon job all your life, then yes, school will break your spirit ahead of time so you don't fight when you get nothing wonderful out of adulthood...School does not, however, prepare you to identify your own dreams and make them come true."

 "My older children continually reinforce my belief that when a child has an interest in something, they have a real need to plunge much deeper into the subject than a normal school curriculum ever allows."

"Adults, too, hide from the chance to direct their own lives and minds which is why a lot of them stay in 'safe' jobs they detest all their lives, idly fantasizing about the career risk they will take when the kids are grown, or the adventures they will seek once they retire. Yes, when we live in dreams, we can imagine our 'futures' in tissue-wrapped perfection. When we get out of dreams into the present, we find no such perfection. Instead, we find life. It's scary stuff. But it's real. Acknowledge your fear, but don't give into it. Dance bravely and brightly. Learn to be a human bean and not instant mashed potatoes."