
ISBN
978-0-920118-23-8
PDF digital format only,
optimized for e-book readers but easily read on a variety of
platforms
$14.95

Click here to
read the references for this book. |
Beyond School:
Living As If School Doesn't Exist
by Wendy Priesnitz
This
is homeschooling pioneer Wendy Priesnitz's fourth book about life learning (also known as
unschooling, radical unschooling, whole life unschooling, or
self-education). Beyond School is a collection of seventeen essays about how families and
individuals can live and learn without coercion or struggle, and
with trust, respect, dignity...as if school doesn't exist. Together,
they create an impassioned but well reasoned case for a different
way of helping children and young people learn about today's world
while becoming equipped to live in tomorrow's world.
Priesnitz is a calm, clear, voice of advocacy and support for
life learning, which is based on respecting the everyday experiences
that enable children to understand and to interact with the world
and their culture. She writes with a wisdom and certainty born of
forty years of observation of the damage done by schooling, and from
her own experience and that of other families living without
coercion. Making the radical seem obvious, she shows that
school is not only unnecessary, but can get in the way, as it turns
children from active to passive learners, shuts down their
curiosity, removes their autonomy, and damages their creativity and
ability to think clearly. She provides insight, inspiration, and
information about helping children learn what are considered
academics as well as life skills while living from day to day,
pursuing their interests and passions.
This book holds high the beacon of respect for and trust in children
– not only to learn what they need when they need it, but to fully
participate in the lives of their communities and to take their
places in a democratic society. At the same time, it reassures
homeschooling parents (as well as those other adults in their lives
who haven't yet realized there are possibilities for education
beyond school) that their chosen path is the inevitable way forward.
Essay Titles:
- Introduction
- The Words We Use
- Learning in the Real World
- Lazy Learning
- What Children Need
- Risking to Learn
- Freedom or Control
- Power to Control
- Questioning Socialization
|
- Restless? Go Climb a Tree
- The Art of Inspiration
- How Do They Know That?
- Go Look It Up
- Will Computers Warp Their Brains?
- Education Inspired by Nature
- Ready For A Changing World
- Finding Success
- No Such Thing As Unschooling Failure
|
About the Author:
Wendy Priesnitz
and her husband helped their two daughters learn as if school didn't
exist, beginning in the 1970s, when it was almost unheard of. In 1979, she
founded one of the earliest unschooling support organizations and
continues to share her experience and long-term perspective through
workshops, speeches, articles, blog posts, and books. She has authored
twelve other books,
including Challenging Assumptions in Education: From
Institutionalized Education to a Learning Society, about the
dangerous misconceptions people have about public school and how
home-based learning (aka unschooling or life learning) is the key to
a prosperous, peaceful future; School Free, a bestselling
homeschooling start-up guide; and Life Learning: Lessons from
the Educational Frontier, which she edited. She is also an award winning
writer and edits
four magazines, including
Life Learning Magazine and
Natural Life Magazine.
|