586: Pat Farenga - The Evolution of Unschooling

Pat Farenga is a leading unschooling advocate, and the father of three adult unschooled children. He worked closely with unschooling pioneer John Holt on the Growing Without Schooling Magazine, and in the mid-1980s he took over as publisher of GWS and the president of Holt Associates. Today Pat runs the website JohnHoltGWS.com, which archives all the issues of the magazine, plus a variety of unschooling books and resources. He joins me to discuss the history of unschooling (the idea and the movement), his experiences as an unschooling parent, his relationship with John Holt and the language we use to convey our ideas. Pat Discusses The Impact of John Taylor Gatto He met John in 1991 and they became friends. John spoke at several of Pat's conferences. Pat's Personal History of Unschooling He and his wife raised three girls, and while embracing the unschooling philosophy, they left the door into and out school open for them. The embrace was a very gradual process, from idealism about teaching to John Holt's impact on his ideas about learning. The importance of avoiding the creation of an adversarial relationship with school in the minds of children. A Mindset For Unschooling - slowing down, living consciously - The Legend of Zelda teaches reading - appreciation of choice - trying school The Language of Unschooling - We discuss the words we use in relation to branding and outreach. - My discomforting revelation about the low volume of searches for unschooling and deschooling. - John Holt's issue with the words "education" and "educator" - The interesting etymology of the word "Education" and how the meaning was changed The Professional Rejection of John Holt's Ideas - Holt: learning is not the result of teaching; it's the result of the activity of the learners; teaching can be helpful, but the prerequisite is the intrinsic motivation of the learner - Gatto: "professional interest is served by making what is easy to do seem hard" - Escape From Childhood (1974)- advocacy needs and rights of children and the ephebiphobic (fear of young people) response Other Episodes On Unschooling The Relationship Benefits of Unschooling – With Pam Laricchia [PODCAST #557] [PODCAST] #550: Unschool Adventures – Blake Boles (Part 1) [PODCAST] #101: Unschooling Liberty – The Halldorsons and the Unschool Bus Please Support School Sucks We do cool things! Thanks to your support. School Sucks is one of the longest running liberty-minded podcasts on the web, and the only one completely devoted to the issue of education (versus public school and college). Your support keeps the show going and growing, which keeps us at the top of the options for education podcasts and leads to new people discovering our work. Please help us continue to spread this important message further! Thanks for visiting this page. Before you do anything, please bookmark and use this link for your Amazon shopping: Shop With Us One-Time Donation Options: Paypal/Venmo; Donate DASH Donate ETHEREUM Donate LITECOIN Donate BITCOIN Donate BITCOIN CASH Donate ZCASH Recurring Options: Support Us On PATREON Help incentivize our production! Pledge $1 per content item and access dozens of Patron only audios and videos. Join the A/V Club If you're looking for more School Sucks content, the A/V Club option grants you access to a bonus content section with 400+ hours of exclusive audio and video. If you are a regular consumer of our media, please consider making a monthly commitment by selecting the best option for you... A/V Club - Basic Access - $8.00/Month A/V Club - "Advanced" Access - $12.00/Month Sigma Sigma Pi - "Privileged" Access - $16.00/Month   Crypto Addresses: DASH; XcZfPP6GZGVo9VKViNBVJZja5JVxZDB229 ETHEREUM; 0x3c5504CE3401C028832173506fa30BD4db4b7D35 LITECOIN; LKNp24f5wwvZ2QzeDbvxXgBxyVwi1yXnu2 BITCOIN; 1KhwY836cfSGCK5aaGFv8Q7PHMgghFJn1U BITCOIN CASH 1AmqLVxjw3Lp9KT5ckfvsqfN2Hn3B1hCWS ZCASH; t1by1ZGJ63LoLSjXy27ooJtipf4wMr7qbu4