I wish I had read this when I was a teenager, May 24, 2000
Reviewer: idiot-savant from Seattle, WA USA
As a drop-out of the educational system, it was very hard for me to adjust to the embarassmemt or the feeling of being an outcast. Structured school never held my attention, and I was often bored during the advanced classes and near drooling during the regular courses. Needless to say I was able to learn on my own and succeed in the areas that I pursued, but I wish I had had this book as a reference back then so that I could have known about other people and forms of alternative education and not struggled on my own so much.

The author does a great job at encouraging the reader about the decision to take on the task of self education, but she sometimes goes a little too overboard and negative toward the public school system. That attitude is understandable, though, in a culture where a certificate that says you’ve finished some classes is actually worth more than a body of work. But that was the only downside to this excellent manual on how to successfully remove yourself from the school system and excel in your studies, including how to cope with the negative stereotype of a ‘drop-out’.

She covers several learning/teaching styles and references various home schooling and unschooling publications and organizations that provide all sorts of means for which to learn the things that interest you, as well as learn productive habits for self learning that will last a lifetime. I can’t recommend this enough, especially for people who have completed high school or college and are suddenly thrown into the workforce and are struggling to learn in unstructured environments. This books provides the methods for creating a structure that works for you and steps towards success. It really opened my eyes.

Great Book!, March 7, 2000
Reviewer: A reader from USA
This is my favorite book by my favorite author. It explains how to quit school and teach yourself. It answered every single one of my questions about unschooling. It explains about legal troubles convincing parents, and SO much more.

Ideas that most people just can’t bring themselves to think., February 16, 2000
Reviewer: villainess (see more about me) from Ithaca, NY United States
Most people were miserable in school. Most people have been convinced that school was good, even necessary for them. The unfortunate result is that many people believe that being miserable was good for them and will be good for their children. This is far from a healthy attitude.

This book presents evidence that even the most ardent defender of the status quo will be hard-pressed to dismiss out of hand; the unschoolers who went to Harvard, the youthful acheivers in every field from theatre to animal science, the testimonials of parents who report that their ‘dropout’ kids are now happier, more relaxed, less sullen, and brighter.

Though the author’s tone is often that of the impassioned hippie lady, it adds to rather than detract from this essentially idealistic and hopeful book.

This book is for all the teenagers, and all the adults who still have the spine to think that just maybe they didn’t deserve to be miserable as kids.

Amazing what a single book can do…, January 26, 2000
Reviewer: Dana Hardwick (see more about me) from Phoenix, Arizona USA
The Teenage Liberation Handbook has led one of my sisters to drop out and educate herself and another to consider dropping out. My sister-in-law is using our copy to explain to her parents why she’s quitting school at the end of the school year and why, as an unschooler, she’ll be more likely to be accepted at top universities. Because of their influence, I took a semester off college to rediscover my own childlike fascination with learning. For the first time, I feel genuinely happy to be in school and I’m earning A’s in all my classes, even though I’m taking the same classes I failed my way through before my unschooling break. There is no suitable way to thank the author for saving our young spirits from certain death in government schools.

Teenage Liberation, December 13, 1999 Reviewer: Tristan Lear from Toledo, Ohio This book has expressed the thoughts that have been hidden in everyones mind for a century because of being supressed and considered stupid.

Calling all teens!, November 10, 1999
Reviewer: An Amazon.com Customer
I loved this book. I really don’t enjoy reading that much, but this book is encouraging and inspiring. I really enjoyed it! I give it 5 stars and 2 thumbs up! Please read this book! If you don’t have the money to buy it, go to your local library! I also run a club for un-schoolers. It includes a newsletter based on this book. E-mail me me to subscribe. Please read this book!

An excellent resouce for un-schoolers!, March 28, 1999
Reviewer: goff@techline.com from Olyimpia, Wa
This book will guide you through all of your questions and decisions of where your schooling/unschooling activities will happen.She explains what schooling was meant to be and why education is easy without school. From the point of dcision to unschool; she then proceeds step by step. Addressing the legal issues. How to get where you will need to go. Where resources are to be found in your community. What activities you might do for various subjects. She gives numerous examples of what people have done from letters she has recieved. The last part of the book she has included appendices to let you springboard off of. This book is a must-have if your at all upset with your present schooling situation or just launching off on your own.

The Bible of Autodidactics Everywhere, November 15, 1998
Reviewer: An Amazon.com Customer
This book provides the strength of self confidence to all those who feel insecure or unsure of taking control of their own or their childrens education.

I particularly recommend chapters 12 and 7. I abhore compulsory or forced things in educational systems but if there was to be one thing that I wouldn’t mind is the reading of this book being compulsory for everyone. The parents who I now try to help, who want to do what is best for their children but don’t have the courage, I tell them to read this book first before they decide anything.

I asked my 13 year old nephew to read the book for a review of it from a teenage public schoolers perspective. He hated reading, but he struggled through 2 paragraphs. (It seemed to get easier for him by the second paragraph.) Then he noticed another heading and ASKED if he could keep reading it to that part, what could I say… 2 days later, I caught him sneaking it into the bathroom to read. He didn’t want anyone to know he was enjoying it and that he wanted to read it. Now at 15 1/2 he’s been homeschooling for 2 1/2 years and is a real person with his own character and personality. He’s a human being! not just a peer dependent cog. Thanks to Grace and this wonderful and inspiring book, we have had the courage to do what we feel is right for our children and ourselves.

liberating in the best sense of the word, to kids & parents, November 6, 1998 Reviewer: dbarnes45 from Upper Sandusky, Ohio Makes you wonder why you never came to these conclusions before, if you really wanted to see an "educated" public, hence a happy, common sensed, and open, public. It reaffirms what Jefferson and Locke and Aristotle saw in "Freedom" as the ultimate goal in personal and public happiness.

an update/explanation on the 3 editions, October 28, 1998
Reviewer: An Amazon.com Customer
Here’s some clarification about the 3 editions of my book. The 1998 edition is the complete, international, revised and expanded new edition. It’s the one I recommend. Unless you are buying it for someone who doesn’t like to read much, in which case you should get the cheaper condensed 1997 edition, which contains about 1/3 of the complete edition. I don’t know why anyone would want the original 1991 edition at this point, and it will be unavailable soon anyway. Whichever edition you buy, it’s best enjoyed in the middle of a bad lecture in history class. Have fun and lots of great adventures!