Four Inspiring Authors of Child-rearing and Homeschooling Books
and their books
Often, people ask me what my favourite books on home education are. It varies depending on what I am reading, but after looking closely through my collection, I can definitely say these are my favourite authors.
Julie Bogart
Julie Bogart is a veteran home educating mum of five children. Along the way, she created the language arts curriculum called Brave Writer and a podcast supporting the home education community. Later, she wrote the book, The Brave Learner.
In her book, Bogart shares lessons she learned through her personal experiences, both brilliant days and challenging days too. Her tone is casual and confident, and her words are always uplifting. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, frustrated, or uncertain, I grab a cuppa and open The Brave Learner.
John Holt
John Holt was a former teacher turned author, school reform advocate, and finally home education advocate. The books of his I’ve read provide insight into some of the experiences children have. Nearly all classrooms and some homes steal from children their autonomy. Their innate desire to learn and do meaningful work is thwarted. Especially when there is high focus on external reward systems.
The four books that I would start with are How Children Fail, How Children Learn, Learning All the Time, and Teach Your Own. Read in that order. Holt’s ideas, thoughts, and conclusions evolved over time. Jumping straight into his later works without a foundation of where he started can be abrupt and startling.
I go back to Holt’s works when I find myself regularly butting heads with my daughter. Overcoming my own indoctrination acquired through my own schooling is an ongoing process. I am working to name my old beliefs and habits when they surface and replace them with healthier beliefs and behaviours.
Peter Gray
Peter Gray is a research professor in Psychology, childhood advocate, and author of the book Free to Learn. In his book, Gray takes the reader along the timeline of child-rearing throughout the ages. Children had autonomy, learned through observation (of adults) and play-acting, and there was little interference from adults. Now, in many western countries, it is a time of adult-directed and activities, few opportunities for freedom of choice, little time spent with peers of all ages, and high levels of anxiety and mental illness. We are doing it wrong. Truly.
But Gray also offers a call-to-action list of improvements IF we are willing to embrace the changes he suggests — befriending all of our neighbours to build community, facing our unsupported fears around safety, freeing our children to enjoy self-directed play away from our ever-watchful eyes, and supporting their self-led learning through either democratic schools or home education.
Gray gives us the science that backs up Holt’s observations and conclusions.
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott is best known as the author of Little Women and its follow-up Good Wives. Many fans don’t know about the other two books in that set. They are Jo’s Boys and Little Men which feature characters based on the real-life students she and her husband housed and taught in the school they established. This school and the way it was run are what earned Alcott a spot in this article.
Jo was essentially home educating the students who attended her school in an eclectic style. She blended the academics of a Classical Education style with the freedoms and autonomy of the unschooling style, a term coined by John Holt.
You, reader, may be thinking, “So what? It is a book of fiction.” That is true, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take inspiration from it, which I do.
Alcott describes the notebooks Jo kept on each of her students, their individual projects, her observations of their varied group play. She recorded the big ones looking out for the little ones, the little ones being inspired by the big ones, and so much more. This type of play with ages mingled is denied to many of our children due to the regulation of their play by schools, athletic associations, and even social clubs.
One of my favourite activities at park day meet-ups is to casually observe my daughter and all the children as they progress from large group play into small group play. Later they come back together into large group play, and once again into small group play. The groups change as the play changes.
I would recommend these books to anyone who asked.
What are your go-to books on child-rearing and/or home education? Let’s discuss them in the comments.
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The authors mentioned in this article and links to their works.
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Originally published at https://letstalkabout.com.au on August 28, 2021.
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