"If you've picked up this book, you may be struggling with the same questions I once had, as someone who decided to pursue unschooling with her two children many years ago. Now that you've decided that your child(ren) will be leaving the traditional school setting, you may be asking yourself some pretty deep questions. What, if any, curriculum should you apply? You may be asking yourself, "Am I qualified to be their primary educator? What if I don't do a good job of preparing them for life because I overlooked what they needed in their formative education years? What is the healthiest approach to education? How does self-education work and how do I know if it is the right approach for my child?"Let us first look at some points around the natural development of a child. For the moment, I would like you to go back to the time when your child or children were very young, and were just starting to reach certain milestones, like crawling or babbling. Do you recall when they first pulled themselves up to a standing position? What about when they sat for the very first time? Do you remember when they took those first steps by themselves, and the look on their face when they did? You probably witnessed, as I did, their pure wonder and self-accomplishment radiating from the inside out. It was all over their face. Pride in oneself is an amazing thing. It's ownership of a job well-done. "Mom, Dad, look at me! I did it!" Hopefully, we didn't miss it as we ran from room to room removing all the low hanging lamps, vases, and costly collectibles." Allyson McQuinn, The author If you're looking for further justification for taking the plunge into self-education, world schooling or unschooling, look no further. You hold in your hands a book that will satisfy your need for a history of education, a rich philosophy, a take on health as it pertains to self-education and how you're in fact laying the bricks for autonomy and even human freedom for your child. "By picking up this book, you are helping to think beyond a model of indoctrination that operates against the individual, one which actively works against our mental health, sense of self and social justice, which in turn, manages to completely extinguish the learner's natural love of learning. By adapting the concepts of self education you are working against the narrow, ageist, classist, ableist, sexist and racist version of 'education' that the current system and world at large supports. By picking up this book, you are starting to transform your own ideas surrounding the social construct we call "education" and start to focus on the value of "learning" instead." Lainie Liberti"Ally, I am going through it all several times and each time I hear myself saying "Yes!" to SO much here; it's blowing my mind and satisfying something so fundamental within me that it's like reaching the summit of a sheer rock face cliff climb when you get to put two feet on the ground and REALLY feel them there! Planted. Solid ground under my feet; and damn it feels good!" Lesley Breen, DMH, DynPh, Live & Layered Blood Cell Microscopy, MEd."I'm enjoying this book immensely. Thank you for sending it my way. And for reminding me that keeping my kids home with me and out of the school system and IN the world is an act of love, a tending and a caring for, not a test or challenge or egoic kind of practice. I love how you're connecting disease with not only compulsory learning, but the waning and stifling of those organic questions, the questions that become our dreams, really, our ambitions. I've read a lot of deschooling/unschooling texts and have never (I don't think) seen that blatant connection. I believe it." Amy Robertson, Unschooling Mom
