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.'
American activist
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.
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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.