The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education

by Grace Llewellyn

First published in 1991; revised, expanded, and internationalized in 1998. (Element Books also published a condensed edition in 1997, but Element is no longer in business and that edition is now out of print.)  

ISBN 0-9629591-7-0, $20, 448 pages, 6"x9" paperback, 1998. Lindexes, appendices. 

Your life, time, and brain should belong to you, not an institution. This Handbook is for everyone who has ever gone to school, but it is especially a book for teenagers and people with teenagers in their lives. You'll read

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For media reviews, click here.
For readers' comments (teenagers, adults, parents, educators), click here.
For excerpts (three full chapters), click here.
For the Table of Contents, click here.
For a bio of Grace Llewellyn, click here.

reviews

"This is a very dangerous book. It contradicts all the conventional wisdom about dropouts and the importance of a formal education. It is funny and inspiring. Do not, under any circumstances, share this book with a bright, frustrated high-schooler being ground into mind fudge by the school system. This writer cannot be responsible for the happiness and sense of personal responsibility that might [result]."

-Bloomsbury Review

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"Sooner or later you're going to realize that you've been cheated out of a real life by missing a real education--when that time comes Grace Llewellyn's Handbook will save you a thousand hours of frustration, false starts and missed opportunities. Anyone who follows this clear blueprint is certain to meet the future with courage, enthusiasm, resourcefulness and the abundant love of life that the author has. She demonstrates brilliantly that school and education are two very different things, defining the latter precisely and with such a wonderful zest the reader is left dazzled with his own rich possibilities. Get this book now so it will be on hand for the great emergency when you wake up."                                                        

-John Taylor Gatto, New York State Teacher of the Year, 1991, 
New York City Teacher of the Year, 1989-1991, 
author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling 
and The Underground History of American Education 

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"Every teenager, schooled or not--and every parent of a teenager--should get a chance to read The Teenage Liberation Handbook. It is a real eye-opener to many of life's possibilities, as well as a celebration of the personal freedoms homeschoolers enjoy . . . Llewellyn's dream, it seems, is to set every teenager free to think and explore for herself, to make her world what she wants it to be . . . Even as an adult she's affected my life and encouraged me to new heights. She understands well what it's like to be a teenager, and she has anticipated every question and every argument that teenagers are likely to bring up . . . Give copies to kids having problems, anxious parents, everyone you can think of. Do your part to liberate teenagers everywhere!

-Northern California Homeschool Association newsletter

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"Bursting with clever strategies, valuable resources and wise guidance on how to design an interest-driven self-education. It was the sole inspiration for our family to take on an endeavor we thought was out of the question."

-The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog

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"This is the classic book that changed all of our lives. If you don't get what we're doing, it's because you haven't read this book."

-Self-Education Foundation

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"Packed with information for young people who want more than schools can offer . . . an invaluable and unique resource . . . Llewellyn presents a credible and appealing case for becoming self-taught . . . This is a fascinating, frightening, and exhilarating book that is sure to prove controversial among parents and teachers. At the very least it will open eyes and minds. At the most it might open whole new worlds of possibilities for its young readers."

-Voice of Youth Advocates Magazine (VOYA)

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"The TLH is more than a book. It's a map . . . well written and entertaining. Shall I beg you to read it? If I must . . . Please? Please read this book . . . it'll help! It's not like other books, this one is only looking out for your best interests . . . Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always thought provoking, the TLH is for anyone who wakes up with pains in their stomach at  the thought of another day of rote memorization and pointless busywork."

-In 2 Print.

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"Uh-oh. State schools keep turning out partially literate drones, despite twenty years of varying levels of panic in the mainstream media . . . I have found the single essential book for those who value learning but not school and want to slap society to its senses. The Teenage Liberation Handbook is a complete tool kit for aspiring human beings. . . This review cannot convey to you the loopy daring and wonder of Grace Llewellyn's prose, the sheer megatonnage of shock value in her suppositions . . . Get this book. Order many copies and infiltrate them into school libraries, leave them at bus stops and in plain view of the neighbor's kids and in the Education Department of your local university . . . I'd lend you my copy, but there is a fair queue of people waiting for it.”

-LUNO (Learning Unlimited Network of Oregon)

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"This book could foment revolution . . . I have only good things to say about [it]. Brilliant and wise, it's brimming with insight, information and humor . . . The Teenage Liberation Handbook should be required reading (for those who believe in required reading) or simply pleasure reading for anyone who's ever wondered what they’re doing in school."

-Merlyn's Pen

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"Inspiring and very practical . . . Llewellyn helps her readers think about what they can do by giving them examples of what actual teenagers have done, so her book is grounded in concrete experience. She answers all of the common questions about learning outside of school and helps teenagers see that they can take control of their lives and make adolescence, instead of the stereotypical period of boredom, alienation, and rebellion that we are accustomed to, a time of interesting discoveries, real learning, and meaningful work."

-Susannah Sheffer, editor of Growing Without Schooling magazine,
author of Writing Because We Love To: Homeschoolers at Work,
and A Sense of Self: Homeschooled Adolescent Girls

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"What a wonderful book! I sat down with it intending to glance through it now and give it more attention later--only to find myself unable to put it down. Everything is there--not only do you have many wise and on-target things to say to the teenagers you wrote the book for, but you've succeeded in putting together a great sourcebook for homeschoolers as well as the best book on education that I've come across in a long, long time . . . How good it would be if every teacher, every school administrator, and, of course, schoolchild, who knows that there must be a better way, had a copy of this book.

-David Colfax, author of Homeschooling for Excellence
and Hard Times in Paradise, father of three homeschooled Harvard graduates

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"This book will inspire formal school students to leave school and take control of their time; will embolden homeschoolers to be courageously creative about their educations; and will encourage parents to trust their children's choices. Gives gentle guidance for those who are uncertain about how to make autodidactism a glorious reality. Packed with unschooling philosophy and a wealth of resources."

-Clonlara Home Based Education Program

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"[Llewellyn's] enthusiasm for learning, her great faith in kids, and the wonderful educational possibilities she presents will make her book tantalizing reading for teens who can't make it in school but have the discipline and the passion to learn on their own."

-American Library Association Booklist

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"Every autodidact should get down on their knees in gratitude to Grace Llewellyn for her commitment to education in the true sense of the word. Every house that has a teenager should also have a copy of The Teenage Liberation Handbook . . . important and magical."

-Kendall Hailey, author of The Day I Became an Autodidact

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"An irreverent and thought-provoking guide . . . very thorough and highly entertaining."

-Home Education Magazine