Unschooling Links     Libertarian Links Unschooling and Anti-(state) schooling Links Can a Christian be an Unschooler?, by Patrick Farenga. Who Controls the Children An article by Carl Watner for The Voluntaryist. First part is on John Singer, the Mormon whose execution shows "all State law, no matter how petty, has as its final punishment your death." The supremacy of the state over parents is the subject for the rest of the piece. Article on a homeschooling family of potters. Second page is here. Unschooling Unchristian You don't have to be an atheist to unschool. Nurturing Children's Natural Love of Learning By Jan Hunt. Before Jan, before John Holt, before compulsory public education, Quintilian the grammarian realized children naturally want to learn and if they don't, it's because we've suppressed this natural drive. Don't Listen To Miranda, by John Leo US News report on using a toucan named Miranda in health curricula at state schools to persuade students to tattle on their parents. Grandfather Education Reform Report. A series of reports; one on the 71% decline in schools' productivity over the last 35 years. Family Unschoolers Network Sample and premiere issue of their newsletter. Articles include: What is Unschooling?, Quality in Education, Shari Henry'sHearbeat, The Real World, & Homeschooling: A Piece of Cake. Features include: Story-telling and school resources for the home educator and readers' comments. William Trench State Education Fails the Test, from the Freedom Party of Ontario. Cato Institute Debate on Vouchers and Educational Freedom Unschooling Undefined, by Eric Anderson Institute for Learning Sciences Somewhere on the site is the Student Bill of Rights. Why the State Took Control of Education, by Sheldon Richman The Education Liberator The Op-ed Forum No specific agenda in these education issue opeds. For the latest in official usurpation of parental responsibilities and other inanities, pointed out by the Separation of School and State Alliance, see my notebook. Did You Know? The New School (Delaware) --like Sudbury School. Diablo Valley School Another Sudbury-based school. Big on democracy as an organizational principle, but studies are up to the individual student. Answer to WAS? My acronym for the perennial What About Socialization? J. Lindsay's site, includes concise reviews, notes on educational absurdities, useful links. Public School Parents Surrender Parental Rights Ludus Sanae Mentis my homeschooling page w/links to articles by: John Taylor Gatto (former New York State Teacher of the Year) N.S. Gill Karl Bunday Patrick Farenga (via Home Education Magazine) Susannah Sheffer (via Home Education Magazine) Essays on general homeschooling and school related issues

Q16. Why are home-based educators suddenly so assertive about their rights? A16. Home education is becoming more widely recognized in our society and there is more understanding of it in the popular media. Better communication among the various groups in our own counties and across the province, have led to a legal examination of our rights and to an unwillingness to tolerate past misunderstandings. [no longer available] http://www.flora.org/oftp/l-g-ltr.html Ontario federation of parent educators responses to local school board

The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills. --October 1776 [no longer available] http://pages.prodigy.com/J/E/S/jefferson_quotes/jeff1350.htm Thomas Jefferson

Libertarian Sites Separation of School & State Alliance Vin Suprynowicz' index of libertarian columns TJ's Talk Radio Rants Canadian Drug Policy Articles The (Libertarian) Oceania Project Reason Magazine Libertarian Sites. A tour: includes links to secular humanism, arguments against libertarianism and atheism. Salmoneus' SOAPBOX Health Care is Not a Right

Excerpt from "The Childhood Pattern of Genius" by Harold G. McCurdy, professor of psychology, Univ. of North Carolina (published by the Smithsonian Institution and elsewhere): "In summary, the present survey of biographical information on a sample of twenty men of genius suggests that the typical development pattern includes as important aspects: (1) a high degree of attention focused upon the child by parents and other adults, expressed in intensive educational measures and usually, abundant love; (2)isolation from other children, especially outside the family; (3)a rich efflorescence of fantasy [i.e. creativity] as a reaction to the preceding conditions. It might be remarked that the mass education of our public school system is, in its way, a vast experiment on the effect of reducing all three factors to a minimum; accordingly, it should tend to suppress the occurrence of genius." GRADE LEVELS BRING PEER DEPENDENCE: "Education," Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974, Macropedia Vol. 6 p. 414 "Adolescent peer groups serve very real functions in society. They provide a way in which children can learn to become independent of family authority. In modern society, maturity is equated with independence.....In order for peer groups to serve these important functions, the child must get outside of the family and interact freely with children of his own age. The school is ideal for this purpose.... In addition, schools provide an environment in which boy-girl relationships and understanding may develop. This mixing of the sexes in youth performs a valuable function in Western society." See also Adler essay on cliques.