The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [111]
Hayes, Charles D. Beyond the American Dream: Lifelong Learning and the Search for Meaning in a Postmodern World. Autodidactic, 1998.
Hayes urges lifelong learning and thinking as a means of transforming individuals and society.
Hern, Matt, ed. Deschooling Our Lives. New Society, 1996.
If you’d like a solid and readable overview of alternatives to conventional education, this anthology should do the trick: articles by John Holt, John Taylor Gatto, Susannah Sheffer, Ivan Illich, Donna Nichols-White, and many others.
Illich, Ivan. Deschooling Society. Harper & Row, 1970.
This classic critique of conventional schooling is somewhat dated, but still interesting and thought-provoking.
Leach, Penelope. Children First: What Society Must Do—and Is Not Doing—for Children Today. Vintage, 1994.
Leach, author of the popular Your Baby and Child, argues that our laws, social policies, and culture ignore children’s needs; Leach gives specific recommendations for making our society more humane.
Louv, Richard. Childhood’s Future. Anchor/ Doubleday, 1990.
A comprehensive look at what children’s lives are really like today and at the consequences for the future.
Males, Mike A. The Scapegoat Generation: America’s War on Adolescents. Common Courage, 1996.
Males examines the huge gulf between the way American society views teenagers and the reality of their lives.
Miller, Ron. Educational Freedom for a Democratic Society: A Critique of National Goals, Standards, and Curriculum. Resource Center for Redesigning Education, 1995.
This anthology questions current education reform efforts and offers alternatives.
Nasow, David. Schooled to Order: A Social History of Public Schooling in the United States. Oxford University Press, 1979.
Nasow covers the common school movement and the rise of mandatory school attendance laws, the development of the modern high school, and changes in the function and purpose of college education.
Perelman, Lewis J. School’s Out: Hyperlearning, the New Technology, and the End of Education. Morrow, 1992.
Perelman’s look at the possibly drastic changes new computer technology could make in traditional schooling is full of interesting ideas and great fun to read, if a bit far-fetched here and there.
Sommerville, C. John. The Rise and Fall of Childhood. Vintage, 1990.
This history of how children have been treated by the societies they live in, from ancient times to the present, makes clear that much of what we “know” about children is determined by where and when we live.
Van Galen, Jane, and Mary Anne Pitman. Home Schooling: Political, Historical, and Pedagogical Perspectives. Ablex, 1991.
Much of the material in this anthology of academic research into homeschooling—demographics, legal issues, teaching styles, and so on—will seem fairly irrelevant to readers who are homeschoolers.
Whitehead, John W., and Alexis Irene Crow. Home Education: Rights and Reasons. Crossway, 1993.
This is the most comprehensive work now available on legal issues concerning homeschooling; particularly good on constitutional issues. Essential background for anyone interested in homeschooling statutes and case law.
Learning Theory and Philosophy of Education
Armstrong, Thomas. In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child’s Personal Learning Style. Tarcher, 1987.
Armstrong includes practical advice for discovering and working with your child’s learning styles; concrete suggestions are based on Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.
Baldwin, Rahima. You Are Your Child’s First Teacher. Celestial Arts, 1989.
Baldwin’s Waldorf-inspired view of child development is one of the more readily available books on Rudolf Steiner’s approach to teaching children.
Coles, Gerald. Reading Lessons: The Debate Over Literacy. Hill & Wang, 1998.
Coles argues that both phonics and whole-language approaches to teaching reading ignore some crucial basics of the process, most notably that children are not passive recipients of curriculum presented to them.
Deci, Edward L. Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation.