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Grace Llewellyn

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education Paperback – September 1, 1998

by Grace Llewellyn (Author)

143 ratings

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An estimated 700,000 American children are now taught at home. This book tells teens how to take control of their lives and get a "real life." Young people can reclaim their natural ability to teach themselves and design a personalized education program. Grace Llewellyn explains the entire process, from making the decision to quit school, to discovering the learning opportunities available.

Print length

435 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Lowry House Pub
Publication date

September 1, 1998
Grade level

10 - 12
Dimensions

6 x 1 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0962959170
ISBN-13

978-0962959172
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

You won't find this book on a school library shelf--it's pure teenage anarchy. While many homeschooling authors hem and haw that learning at home isn't for everyone, this manifesto practically tells kids they're losers if they do otherwise. With the exception of a forwarding note to parents, this book is written entirely for teenagers, and the first 75 pages explain why school is a waste of time. Grace Llewellyn insists that people learn better when they are self-motivated and not confined by school walls. Instead of homeschooling, which connotes setting up a school at home, Llewellyn prefers "unschooling," a learning method with no structure or formal curriculum. There are tips here you won't hear from a school guidance counselor. Llewellyn urges kids to take a vacation--at least for a week--after quitting school to purge its influence. "Throw darts at a picture of your school" or "Make a bonfire of old worksheets," she advises. She spends an entire chapter on the gentle art of persuading parents that this is a good idea. Then she gets serious. Llewellyn urges teens to turn off the TV, get outside, and turn to their local libraries, museums, the Internet, and other resources for information. She devotes many chapters to books and suggestions for teaching yourself science, math, social sciences, English, foreign languages, and the arts. She also includes advice on jobs and getting into college, assuring teens that, contrary to what they've been told in school, they won't be flipping burgers for the rest of their days if they drop out.

Llewellyn is a former middle-school English teacher, and she knows her audience well. Her formula for making the transition from traditional school to unschooling is accompanied by quotes on freedom and free thought from radical thinkers such as Steve Biko and Ralph Waldo Emerson. And Llewellyn is not above using slang. She capitalizes words to add emphasis, as in the "Mainstream American Suburbia-Think" she blames most schools for perpetuating. Some of her attempts to appeal to young minds ring a bit corny. She weaves through several chapters an allegory about a baby whose enthusiasm is squashed by a sterile, unnatural environment, and tells readers to "learn to be a human bean and not a mashed potato." But her underlying theme--think for yourself--should appeal to many teenagers. --Jodi Mailander Farrell

Review

"Bursting with ... wise guidance .... the sole inspiration for ... an endeavor we thought was out of the question." -- The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog

The TLH is more than a book. Its a map . . Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always thought provoking... -- In2Print Magazine, Fall 1997

The single essential book for those who value learning but not school... a complete tool kit. . . -- LUNO (Learning Unlimited Network of Oregon), April 1992

Will . . . embolden homeschoolers to be courageously creative . . . and will encourage parents to trust their childrens choices. -- Clonlara Home Based Education Program

[Llewellyns] enthusiasm. . ., great faith in kids, and... wonderful educational possibilities she presents will make her book tantalizing reading.... --Booklist, October 15, 1991

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lowry House Pub; Rev Exp edition (September 1, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 435 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0962959170
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0962959172
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 10 - 12
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #493,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #81 in Teen & Young Adult School & Education
- #720 in Parenting & Family Reference

Customer Reviews:
143 ratings

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Grace Llewellyn

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Grace Llewellyn taught school for three years before leaving and writing The Teenage Liberation Handbook, which was first published in 1991. In 1996 she founded Not Back to School Camp, a gathering for unschooled teenagers, which continues to bring joy, inspiration, community, and interesting challenges to her life. Along the way there’ve been three other books, two self-directed education centers—and plentiful failures, surprises, mistakes, mysteries, adventures, and life lessons. Grace loves every kind of dance, especially Argentine tango. She lives in Eugene, Oregon with her favorite son and their timid cat.

Customer reviews

5 star		69%
4 star		17%
3 star		9%
2 star		1%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Gwen

Perfect chance to decide if you want to homeschool

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2015

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This is a super book if you are starting to think about homeschooling! We homeschooled our now-grown youngest son years ago when it was a really iffy, courageous thing to do (according to those who know nothing). It was the best possible choice for us and he has turned out terrifically and has a GREAT career that he loves! I shudder to think about this particular boy (we have two older) having to deal with regular school (we tried both public and private). He was above regular "gifted" and simply felt so shackled that it was miserable. When we gave him his freedom, he made great use of it. See his personal story in "Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who don't Go to School." Same author compiled and edited Real Lives.

26 people found this helpful

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stacey mclendon craft

This book gave us the courage to homeschool and we are so THANKFUL for that

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2015

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The information on homeschooling listed above has changed dramatically in the past few years. Homeschooling has gone mainstream- In the U.S. as many children are homeschooled as there are charter school students (2.5 million) THIS BOOK IS AMAZING.This book gave my family the courage to homeschool and find alternative education models for our kids. We have never regretted this decision for a moment. Read Teenage Liberation and then go online and connect with the homeschooling groups in your town or region. As a former P.T.A. president who became a home-schooling mom three years ago, I can tell you why our children exited public school when they were in fourth and eighth grade: Their innate love of learning was being extinguished by a flawed system dominated by standardized testing and adherence to federally mandated curriculum standards.Now, our children enjoy deep, meaningful, child-focused learning experiences each day. They are happy, stress-free, socialized and well educated.

21 people found this helpful

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Kathryn Kline

A Must Read for Every Young Person In The World

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2012

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This review was originally posted at [...]
I read this book when I was nineteen - I'd already finished high school, and had even spent a year at university. That I hadn't read it earlier broke my heart.

Some kids do just fine in school. I don't mean in terms of grades, I mean emotionally. They are ok with sitting still all day every day in an authoritarian environment. They believe adults who say "there is no use complaining, school is a reality, if you can't fit in there is something wrong with you, etc".

I'm sure that these kids exist.

Most of us, however, have recurring nightmares about pop quizzes for the rest of our lives. If we are lucky enough to rediscover our creativity, our freedom of spirit, then we must grieve those things in order to reclaim them in our lives. We regret the years of our youth lost to 'learning', and wonder why we couldn't have spent our precious time doing the important stuff.

No matter your age, this book will be a liberating experience. If you are still in school, or know someone who is, this book will also be a thoroughly helpful guide to taking control of their lives.

This book ought to get ten stars out of five. It is absolutely brilliant, it's honest, it's helpful, it's inspirational.

32 people found this helpful

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Jeannette

Give this book to every school kid you know...all they have to lose is boredom.

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2007

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The most essential principles that school children learn from regimented institutionalized schooling are 1.) that they are incapable of teaching and directing themselves 2.) that their time does not belong to them and 3.) that hatred of the unbearable present is a natural part of human existence.

This conditioning follows most of us into our adult lives, as we exchange one domineering form of authority for yet another and never learn intellectual/mental independence. We enter the workplace to sell our time to bosses and fulfill alienating, drone-like work positions, without ever really figuring out what is important to us or fully understanding the vital concept of self-direction.

The spoon-feed cycle spills over into all aspects of our lives, as we look to media talking head "specialists" and "experts" to tell us what we should know and point us to information they deem important.

Worst of all, we are constantly living for the promise of a utopian future that never arrives. School children are waiting for recess, the 3 o'clock bell and summer, while adults are waiting for lunch, the 5 o'lock hour and vacation. Our lives basically become an abstract mosaic of past and future. The present loses all meaning and becomes irrelevant, yet the idea that present misery is necessary for future happiness/comfort has been driven into our psyche since the day we entered the schooling regiment.

Llewellyn passionately encourages kids to cast off these lies and take their minds and futures into their own hands, rather than buying into the empty abstractions and false promises of a institutionalized education system that kills off innate human spontaneous curiosity and love of learning.

I won't reiterate what other reviewers have stated, but my favorite part about this book is Llewellyn's argument that true learning/intellect is born out of lived experience, not regurgitated facts memorized sans meaningful context and later forgotten. She shatters a slew of myths associated with institutionalized schooling, particularly the idea that the school setting provides a child with "friends." (Any meaningful friendships that occur within the age-segregated, institutionalized school environment truly occur accidentally, despite school authorities' best efforts to prevent "unauthorized" interaction!) Or that conventional schooling is a prerequisite for college and a "good job" later on in life. None of these myths bear a spark of truth, but what they are designed to do is prevent children from harnessing their unique potential as individuals and realizing the world of possibility that exists outside of the four walls of One-Size-Fits-All Junior High. And if they starting thinking along these lines, who knows where such radical thinking might lead?

Give this book to every school kid you know. At the very least, it might provoke a shift of consciousness that just might save their intellectual life during their time in the schooling machine.

34 people found this helpful

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Annette

Time-tested & Most Inspirational Perspective on Alternative Education

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2012

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I started home-educating before there was even a trend--back in the 1980's. Though I am most likely not an example of the demographics that Grace wrote about, I benefited greatly by the freedom that the book availed. Why not lean to a teen's bent and form their educational experience around it? I have seen the benefits of this type of non-traditional approach to learning and it is a valid model for many.
This book is interesting and well written; I highly recommend it. For any book to stick with a person for years like it did with me (I've read tons of books on educating, I'd say it is a valuable voice which should be heard. It is definitely worth your time and it will expand your mind to new possibilities--as a student, parent, or one in the business/calling of education.

9 people found this helpful

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Bill Baehr

Liberation For Any Age

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2020

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This book is awesome. It will liberate you from the evils of schooling.

2 people found this helpful

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Nimbuzz

Old but Good

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2020

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This book was revised over 20 years ago but the concepts still apply. Look for more recent topics in the AERO bookstore.

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Top reviews from other countries

Miriam

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 2, 2015

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This is truly a liberating book ;) Will hopefully be reading it again with my daughter soon.

Hope

Home Education ~ the way of the future

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2010

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As the author of Life Without School: the quiet revolution, I was thrilled to come across this genius book. It should be required reading, not just for teens, but for parents, teachers and every human in western society. We need to wake up to the impact 'education' in institutions is having on us as a species. This book has so many useful resources. I really can't recommend it enough. Simply brilliant. I'm giving this to all my friends who want to take the leap into unschooling.

12 people found this helpful

Ritu Bhattacharya

Five Stars

Reviewed in India on February 6, 2017

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Great book, in decent condition

Jewel

Teenage Lib Handbook

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2014

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I think the seller could have cleaned up the book cover a bit.
I don't mind used but this was slightly "grotty".

One person found this helpful

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