Pat Farenga

Patrick Farenga (born in New York) is a leading contemporary advocate of the modern homeschooling movement. He worked closely with John Holt, one of the most renowned founders of both the modern homeschooling and unschooling movement and assisted in the publication of Growing Without Schooling magazine (GWS) from 1985 until its terminus in 2001.

How to Get an Education at Home (1991)

 * ["The Exhausted School" Presented by Patrick Farenga at Carnegie Hall, New York City, on October 25, 1991]


 * Homeschooling works because schooling is not the same thing as education. School is not the only place to learn, to grow up. Universities and colleges recognize this fact whenever they admit homeschoolers who have never attended school.


 * Homeschooling is not a panacea to all our educational problems, but it is part of the answer. It is a proven option for any of you who wish to try it.

A Brief History of Homeschooling (2002)

 * "A Brief History of Homeschooling" (2002), Homeschool Base


 * "Homeschooling is radical, in the root sense of the word: in Latin, radicus means root. Compulsory schooling (forced attendance), and now, in the twenty-first century, compulsory education (forced learning) are very recent petals and offshoots of the root way humankind has historically nurtured its young into responsible adults and active citizens. Family, community, religious institutions, and work were all integrated into the daily lives and upbringing of children... The concept of universal compulsory schooling is a very recent idea, one that is not even two hundred years old, yet we act as if it is an ancient, sure-fire way to make sure our children 'learn something.' "

On Unschooling, Parenting, and Video Addiction (2011)

 * "On Unschooling, Parenting, and Video Addiction" (March 14, 2011), JOHN HOLT GWS


 * "Unschooling is first and foremost an educational approach. Unschooling was not created by Holt, nor propagated by my colleagues and me since Holt’s death in 1985, to be an ideological parenting method, though I think unschooling certainly informs one’s parenting. Just as we trust children to discover and learn things in their own way, so, too, can parents be trusted to figure out how unschooling will work in their family and adapt it to their relationships with each of their children."