Informal Education. A Resource List. Published by Mothering Magazine July-August 2005

Compiled by Emily Robin Jackson

Here's a brief list of educational resources for your family to explore.

AUTHORS AND LEADERS

Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)
Hard Times (1854)
Dickens’s novel involves, among other things, an attack on the prevailing educational philosophy of his day, the cramming of factual information into children, the deadening routine of the classroom, including abuse and humiliation, and the lack of interest in the imaginative life of the child. Dickens’s novel opens as follows:

‘NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!’ The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a school-room.

Dennison, George
The Lives of Children: The Story of the First Street School (1969)
An experiment involving schooling children in a New York ghetto demonstrated that the teacher, in responding to a student, never just mediates facts but demonstrates concern with the life of the child. Dennison’s book is just one example of many studies done in the 1960s and early 1970s that emphasized a holistic approach to learning.

Dewey, John (1859–1952)
In School and Society (1889), Dewey wrote: “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.” Active in philosophy, psychology, education, politics, and social thought, Dewey found many schools to be oppressive, and he sought to implement progressive reforms. He believed learning in school was a function of living within a social community and should help develop citizens in a democracy. He saw early academic learning as potentially cramping and deadening; observing American interest in the Prussian model of efficiency in schooling, Dewey was not convinced it would take hold in America. Dewey’s works include Schools of Tomorrow (1915), Democracy and Education (1916), and On Education (1940; essays published separately, 1897–1933). Online, see “My Pedagogic Creed” and the Center for Dewey Studies. Dewey and his wife also established an experimental school at the University of Chicago. For information, see Ida DePencier’s The History of the Laboratory School: The University of Chicago, 1896–1965 (1967).

Farenga, Patrick
Farenga worked closely with the author and teacher John Holt until Holt’s death in 1985. He is now president of Holt Associates Inc. The website provides information about Farenga’s speaking schedule, conferences, and numerous writings, including a revised and updated edition of Holt’s Teach Your Own (Delacorte 1981; rev. Perseus 2003). Farenga also provides business and personal consultations.

Ferrer y Guardia, Francisco (1859–1909)
Ferrer y Guardia was a freethinker, anarchist, and founder of the alternative Modern School in Spain. He also wrote The Origin and Ideals of the Modern School (1913). His execution stimulated the development of Modern Schools in Europe and the United States.

Freire, Paolo (1921–1997)
Freire was an influential Brazilian thinker in the field of education who emphasized dialogue and a concern for the oppressed. Mark K. Smith’s critical essay is a good starting point for learning more about Freire’s work. It is followed by a bibliography and links. Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1972) is summarized at http://www.sonoma.edu/users/d/daniels/Freire_summary.html

Froebel, Friedrich Wilhelm August (1782–1852)
On the Education of Man (1826)
Froebel, a German thinker in the field of early education, in 1837 originated the idea of the kindergarten as a transition between home and school—a place for children to learn through independent creative play and social interaction.

Gordon, Thomas
Parent Effectiveness Training (1970)
Teacher Effectiveness Training (1974)
These books discuss issues of discipline and communication within families and in schools. The approach manifests a true respect for children and demonstrates in practical terms how to achieve effective communication. Additional information is available from Gordon Training International, 800.628.1197, info@gordontraining.com

Johnson, Marietta (1864-1938)
Marietta Johnson’s School for Organic Education was established in Fairhope, Alabama, in 1907 (Fairhope itself was founded as a utopian community in 1894). The school received praise from John Dewey in his Schools of Tomorrow and is still in operation, having recently restored its high school program. It bases its work on the view that “education is not preparation for life; education is life.” Johnson’s works Youth in a World of Men (1929) and Thirty Years with an Idea (1974) are now available in one volume, Teaching without Failure (1996). See www.mariettajohnson.org and www.school oforganiceducation.org for further information.

Kamii, Constance
Constance Kamii applies Piaget’s thinking to mathematics pedagogy. Her work is useful for homeschooling parents, as well as teachers, in developing mathematics problems for young children. Kamii shows that an awareness of the stages of learning, and the ways in which children come to intellectual awareness as a result of their own experiences, can be used in school to stimulate learning. She stresses that autonomy is the goal of teaching. Her work includes Number in Preschool and Kindergarten: Educational Implications of Piaget’s Theory (1982), Teaching Place Value and Double-Column Addition (with Linda Joseph) (1988), and Young Children Reinvent Arithmetic (with Leslie Baker Housman) (1999).

Kohl, Herbert R.
Known for the open classroom idea of the 1960s and 1970s, Kohl has sought to put Dewey’s ideas into action over many years of teaching. His books on teaching and learning include 36 Children (1967); Math, Writing, and Games in the Open Classroom (1974); On Teaching (1976); Growing Minds: On Becoming a Teacher (1984); I Won’t Learn From You: The Role of Assent in Learning (1991); Should We Burn Babar? Essays on Children’s Literature and the Power of Stories (1995); The Question Is College: Guiding Your Child to the Right Choices After High School (1989); and Stupidity and Tears: Teaching and Learning in Troubled Times (2004).

Kohn, Alfie
Kohn’s Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes (1993) critiques the problematic but long-accepted view that rewards help children develop. Kohn’s other works include The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards” (1999); The Case against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools (2000); and What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated? (2004). The Alfie Kohn Organization offers a variety of lectures online on subjects such as bribing, competition, and testing.

Liedloff, Jean
The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost (reprinted 1986)
Liedloff’s widely acclaimed book describes what she learned about children’s development and sociability during her two years with Indians in the South American jungle. The Liedloff Continuum Network website contains a number of related articles such as “Who’s in Control? The Unhappy Consequences of Being Child-Centered” (Mothering, Winter 1994). The Liedloff Continuum Network is a worldwide network of people striving to live by continuum principles. Its Internet discussion list deals with a wide range of issues involving child-raising in contemporary Western culture, without coercion on the one hand, and without falling into excessive child-centeredness on the other.

Lifton, Betty Jean
The King of Children: The Life and Death of Janusz Korczak (reprinted 1997)
Lifton explains: “It was Janusz Korczak who introduced progressive orphanages designed as just communities into Poland, founded the first national children’s newspaper, trained teachers in what we now call moral education, and worked in juvenile courts defending children's rights. His books How to Love a Child and The Child’s Right to Respect gave parents and teachers new insights into child psychology. Generations of young people have grown up on his books, especially the classic King Matt the First, which tells of the adventures and tribulations of a boy king who aspires to bring reforms to his subjects.”

McGhee, Alison
McGhee’s Homeschooling Our Children, Unschooling Ourselves (2002) contains an appendix of contemporary websites, newsletters, and special resources for teens. From Homeschool to College and Work: Turning Your Homeschool Experience into a College Job Portfolio (1998) helps parents who want to write a college transcript based on the unschooling experience.

Miller, Alice
Miller’s books include Prisoners of Childhood: The Drama of the Gifted Child (1981) and Thou Shalt Not Be Aware (1984). She stresses that abuse and humiliation in parenting have profound and inevitable effects on the development of the child. For Your Own Good (1983) deals with the childhood of Adolf Hitler, among others, showing the relationship between an abusive childhood and violence in adulthood. Miller’s books are listed and summarized at www.alice-miller.com and www.naturalchild.com/alice_miller/booklist.html

Montessori, Maria (1870–1952)
Montessori initially attempted to teach apparently “uneducable” children to read and write. She emphasized the role of the senses in learning and developed a set of learning materials. For specifics on training, Montessori schools, publications, and conferences, visit the Association Montessori Internationale website at www.montessori-ami.org/ami.htm. See also Montessori online at www.montessori.org/ for journals and magazines, a directory of schools, a lengthy bibliography, classified ads, Montessori in the news, a calendar of events, Montessori education, and Montessori suppliers. For more information, visit http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-mont.htm

Owen, Robert (1801-1877)
A social reformer, Owen founded a communistic colony at New Harmony, Indiana, in 1825. The town included the nation's first kindergarten, first free public school, first free library, and first school with equal education for boys and girls. Owen’s work and ideas are documented in A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society 1814–1824 (1975) and J. F. C. Harrison, Robert Owen and the Owenite Movement in Britain and America: The Quest for the New Moral World (1969).

Pestalozzi, Heinrich (1746–1827)
A follower of Rousseau, Pestalozzi is known as the father of modern pedagogy because of his emphasis on democratic education, knowledge as based on sense experience, and nurturing. Robert B. Downs’s Heinrich Pestalozzi: Father of Modern Pedagogy (1975) is a readable introduction to his life and work. Pestalozzi’s influence extended throughout Europe and North America, where he inspired the creation of alternative schools, such as the New Harmony School in Indiana.

Scheffer, Susannah
Scheffer is a former editor of Growing Without Schooling magazine. Her works include The Beginner’s Guide to Homeschooling (2000), A Life Worth Living: Selected Letters of John Holt (1990), Writing Because We Love To: Homeschoolers At Work (1992), and A Sense of Self: Listening to Homeschooled Adolescent Girls (1995).

Shaw, George Bernard (1856–1950)
“A Treatise on Parents and Children” (1910)
Shaw’s piece, written as a preface to his play Misalliance, is a witty and courageous critique of schooling and its social function. Shaw insists that the most productive and useful function of schooling is to keep children from being a nuisance to their parents. The text is readily available in collections of Shaw’s plays as well as online: www.zona-pellucida.com/texts/shaw1.html

Vygotsky, Lev (1896–1934)
Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist whose most famous work, Thought and Language (1934) anticipated Piaget. Many of his works are available in English translation at the Vygotsky Archive, together with further reading suggestions. He contributed a wealth of ideas to early childhood education and wrote: “A child’s greatest achievements are possible in play, achievements that tomorrow will become her basic level of real action.”

ORGANIZATIONS, MAGAZINES, AND WEBSITES

American Homeschool Association
AHA, created in 1995 and sponsored in part by the publishers of Home Education magazine, strives to create a network of homeschoolers on a national level. Its website includes an online discussion list; a list of online, print, and newsletter publications; and a list of homeschooling support groups and organizations.

Alternative Education Resource Organization
This site includes a free e-newsletter, information about the quarterly Education Revolution magazine, a listserv and information for people who want to start alternative schools, job listings for teachers looking for alternative schools and alternative schools looking for teachers, a library, consulting information, an extensive list of individuals who have been inspirational in the field of alternative education, conference information, and a list of colleges that support alternative approaches to education, among other links and resources.

Charter Schools
http://www.uscharterschools.org
This site offers a guide to successful charter schools, as well as information about how to start one. It also contains information about federal grant programs, the No Child Left Behind Act and related legislation, and how charter schools can meet accountability requirements.

ENCOUNTER: Education for Meaning and Social Justice
www.great-ideas.org/enc.htm
Edited by Ron Miller, this magazine covers an array of education–oriented topics, with a progressive and conscious slant.

Growing Without Schooling
GWS (1977–2001) documented John Holt’s work with early homeschoolers. Readers were sometimes widely dispersed geographically, but they formed a support group and a community of values through this magazine, now unfortunately no longer in publication. Back issues are available through F.U.N. Books and sometimes on eBay.

Home Education and Family Services
www.homeeducator.com
Designed to help families with homeschooling, HEFS operates full-time and is staffed with consultants and administrators. It offers information on testing, workshops, conferences, curriculum resources, speech therapy, and gifted education. It also runs an alternative school. The group’s founder, Shirley Minster, provides testing and portfolio reviews, helps with curriculum design, and offers expert court testimony in homeschool cases.

Informal Education Encyclopaedia
www.infed.org/index.htm
This website, based in Great Britain, is an excellent scholarly source for information about the history of informal education. It also contains detailed and well-written articles about contemporary education issues in Great Britain;

Institute of HeartMath
www.heartmath.org
This nonprofit research and education organization aims “to facilitate people in finding the balance between mind and heart in life’s decisions.” The organization focuses on the relationship between emotions and performance. It has received government funds for a project involving reducing test anxiety.

Life Learning Magazine
www.lifelearningmagazine.com
This magazine is specially designed for those interested in unschooling and offers support and resources for unschoolers. The magazine includes articles on self-directed learning and natural parenting. It is edited by Wendy Priesnitz, a public speaker, writer, editor, and founder of the Canadian Alliance of Homeschoolers. She is available to present workshops, seminars, and speeches on homeschooling and alternative education topics wendy@life.ca

National Home Education Network
www.nhen.org
An organization interested in changing the public perception of homeschooling, NHEN offers information cutting across political agendas and religious affiliations. The group also provides networking opportunities, newsletters, and support for public relations work in the homeschooling community.

Natural Child Project
www.naturalchild.com
This website has a fairly extensive list of books; articles by a number of different authors, including Peggy O’Mara, Tina Thevenin (The Family Bed), Naomi Aldort, and Jan Hunt; and excerpts on attachment parenting, nurturing, and stay-at-home mothering. It also contains an Attachment Parenting Family Directory with national and international references.

Paths of Learning
www.pathsoflearning.net/magazine.cfm
During its publication, this magazine aimed to promote “caring communities; a sense of place; values of peace, human rights, and sustainability; and a deep respect for each learner’s own passions, hopes, and quest for connection and meaning.” Although the magazine ceased publication in 2004, the website offers access to the magazine archives, a directory of support organizations, and guides for community action.

Rudolf Steiner Archive
www.rsarchive.org/
According to the website, the archive “is our gift to Anthroposophy, the world-wide Anthroposophical Movement in general, and to the Spiritual Community of Man. Here, we offer summaries of Rudolf Steiner’s books translated from the original German to English, a catalogue of Steiner’s holdings, a chronological listing of Steiner’s lectures (over 6000), and a few of his books and lectures for interested readers to contemplate. If nothing else, the topics covered should make you think—and that is good. This is an ongoing project—there will always be new information presented here.”

Stelton Modern School
www.talkinghistory.org/stelton/stelton.html
This site provides information about the Stelton Modern School, founded in 1911 in Greenwich Village. The organizers were the Francisco Ferrer Association, formed in 1910 by anarchist leaders Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Leonard Abbott, and Harry Kelly. In addition to teaching children, the school ran a publishing house, an adult education center, and a community center. Later it moved to Stelton, New Jersey. See www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/modern_school/modern.shtml for more information.

Sudbury Valley School
www.sudval.org
The Sudbury Valley School was a free school founded in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 1968. It served as an inspiration for many others of its kind, often now called Sudbury Valley model schools. The official school website sells books and audiotapes published by the Sudbury Valley Press. Many free texts are also available there, as well as a listing of similar schools worldwide. Not officially connected to the school, discuss-sudbury-model@sudval.org offers an e-mail discussion of democratic schools in general. A another directory of democratic schools is available at
http://dmoz.org/Reference/Education/K_through_12/Private_Schools/Sudbury_Valley_Model/

Summerhill
www.summerhillschool.co.uk
Summerhill School was founded in 1921 in Dresden, Germany, but soon moved to its present location in Suffolk, England. Summerhill recently won a court battle to continue in operation as a school with noncompulsory lessons. Books by and about the school’s founder A. S. Neill and his work include Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing (1960), Inside Summerhill (1970), Neill! Neill! Orange Peel! (1972), and Record of a Friendship: The Correspondence of Wilhelm Reich and A. S. Neill, 1936–1957 (1981). Among the fascinating aspects of this school are its legal struggle to survive, the differences between Summerhill and the Sudbury Valley model, and Neill’s work with children, including his use of psychoanalysis and the teachings of Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich.

Unschooling
As used by John Holt, the term originally meant homeschooling. It now refers to the practice of permitting the student to learn independently, as opposed to following an established curriculum or any kind of strict parental guidance. In practice, unschooling parents take a wide range of approaches, and many “do school” at home using a variety of curricular programs. Several resources offer support to parents who believe that the child learns best on his or her own initiative. The website www.fun-books.com has books for sale and copies of Growing Without Schooling magazine; www.unschooling.com is a great place to find book lists, essays, networking, supports groups, stories from experienced unschoolers, newsletter and message boards, and information on math, special needs students, and state laws. The website quotes Helen Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan:

I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience.

Waldorf Education
This holistic method, formulated initially by Rudolf Steiner and associated with anthroposophy, emphasizes the arts as a primary means of learning and the importance of play and imaginative activity in young children. The site www.waldorfworld.net/ lists jobs in Waldorf education, among other things. For national and international school listings, extensive FAQs, and related links, go to www.awsna.org/index.html.

Issue 131, July/August 2005 First Published in Mothering Magazine)

• Posted at Sunday, January 3, 2010 05:03 PM
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Dutch Court takes baby

A Dutch court put a 4-month old baby in foster care to ensure absolute clarity about its background. According to the article in ThaiIndian News the Dutch court took the baby away from its young adoptive parents because the sale "violates international adoption laws."  If you follow the link to International Adoption Laws you come to Smarter, a comparison shopping website. However, there is reference there to the Hague Convention which seems to have been designed to make sure that no two people or organizations can enter into any agreement of any kind whatsoever without getting a validating stamp from a central authority. The story came out ... (read more)

• Posted at Sunday, August 30, 2009 09:33 AM
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13-year old seafaring Dutch girl wants to travel solo

According to Time Magazine, a 13-year old Dutch girl with seafaring experience wants to travel around the world solo, but the Dutch Court has taken her into so-called "protective custody" because her parents signed off on the venture. The article discusses in detail the issue of whether a 13-year old is equipped for such an undertaking and whether she might miss out on important "social experiences" during this time period. The article doesn't mention the issue of whether a Dutch court or any court has a right to take her away from her parents into so-called "protective custody." This is one of those instances in which supposedly ... (read more)

• Posted at Sunday, August 30, 2009 09:02 AM
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Virginia homeschooling

A May 14, 2009 article shows homeschooling on the rise in Virginia. Interesting statistics are as follows: According to the article, there are now 23,000 home-schoolers in Virginia, a number that has increased 37% in the last six years. Alexandria has 86 home-schoolers, five times more than in 2003, and the following numbers are given for several counties: "More and more Virginia parents are opting for home-schooling. According to the Virginia Department of Education, the number of home-schoolers last year jumped 9 percent statewide. For example, home-schoolers increased by 44 percent, to 1,049 students, in Loudoun County; by 35 percent, to 470 ... (read more)

• Posted at Thursday, July 23, 2009 04:00 PM
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Sweden proposes ban on homeschooling for religious or philosophical reasons

Rohus (or Sweden's homeschool organization) has announced the June, 2009 proposal to ban homeschooling in Sweden! At the same time, on June 30, 2009, the UK announced drastic changes to its homeschooling laws -- laws which have been reasonably favorable in the past, at least compared to Germany and the Netherlands. This might seem to be coincidental, but probably it is not so. The US is under pressure to ratify the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Obama is putting the pressure on to do so. Sweden has indicated that bringing its policies under international protocol is what these changes are all ... (read more)

• Posted at Thursday, July 16, 2009 08:43 PM
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Neubronner Trial & Media attention

The following notes describe the recent -- and second -- trial of Dagmar and Tilman Neubronner -- homeschoolers -- in Germany. Although they lost their case this time, they are pleased to see the media attention to the issue. Most of the media attention is also quite positive as regards the issue of homeschooling. Germany is still the only country in Europe that does not admit homeschooling as a legal option. The plan is to appeal to the Constitutional Court and to the European Court. They can be reached at info@genius-verlag.de. They were not reimbursed for their legal costs, so their legal activity is deepening their debt load. They welcome support, media ... (read more)

• Posted at Wednesday, February 4, 2009 09:01 AM
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Child Labor 1912

The Child that Toileth Not. The Story of a Government Investigation that was Suppressed With one hundred and twenty-one illustrations by Thomas Robinson Dawley, Jr. Former Special Agent, Bureau of Labor, Department of Commerce and Labor, Washington D.C. New York: Gracia Publishers, 1913 (Second Edition). A review that is somewhat belated, being 95 years after publication: This book was uncovered recently in a old building in Birmingham, Alabama, one of many subject to severe moisture damage and possibly the object of a mouse's interest since a quarter-sized chunk has been eaten out of the spine. The book is hardly in condition to be sold, although the ... (read more)

• Posted at Monday, September 22, 2008 04:48 PM
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The Orphan Perspective: A Critique of Education and Society

The Orphan Perspective: A Critique of Society and Education   How many classic children’s stories tell the story of an abandoned, orphaned or outcast child! There is Peter Pan, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Jane Eyre, Mary in The Secret Garden, Sara in The Little Princess, Anne of Greene Gables, Heidi, Louisa May Alcott’s Rose or Fanny, or Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, to name only a few. Orphans are prevalent in folktales and fairy tales, in popular literature (Harry Potter), cartoons (Little Orphan Annie) and movies (Star Wars).  Why do orphans dominate children’s literature to such an extent? Recent ... (read more)

• Posted at Saturday, March 8, 2008 10:45 AM
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