This book challenges common assumptions about the nature of education and the need for formal schooling and provides an overview of promising alternatives to compulsory education. Following a foreword by Ivan Illich, four sections cover the philosophical roots of opposition to compulsory public education, current analyses of the public school environment and the ways it discourages thought and intellectual development, perspectives on homeschooling, and descriptions of alternative schools. Chapters are: (1) "Kids, Community, and Self-Design: An Introduction" (Matt Hern); (2) "On Education" (Leo Tolstoy); (3) "The Intimate and the Ultimate" (Vinoba Bhave); (4) "Deschooling Society" (Ivan Illich); (5) "Instead of Education" (John Holt); (6) "Sweet Land of Liberty" (Grace Llewellyn); (7) "The Public School Nightmare: Why Fix a System Designed To Destroy Individual Thought?" (John Taylor Gatto); (8) "Challenging the Popular Wisdom: What Can Families Do?" (Geraldine Lyn-Piluso, Gus Lyn-Piluso, Duncan Clarke); (9) "Losing an Eye: Some Thoughts on Real Safety" (Matt Hern); (10) "Learning? Yes, of Course. Education? No, Thanks" (Aaron Falbel); (11) "Dinosaur Homeschool" (Donna Nichols-White); (12) "Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense" (David Guterson); (13) "Doing Something Very Different: Growing without Schooling" (Susannah Sheffer); (14) "Thinking about Play, Practice, and the Deschooling of Music" (Mark Douglas); (15) "Homeschooling As a Single Parent" (Heather Knox); (16) "Learning As a Lifestyle" (Heidi Priesnitz); (17) "Deschooling and Parent Involvement in Education: AllPIE--A Learning Network" (Seth Rockmuller, Katharine Houk); (18) "Summerhill School" (Zoe Readhead); (19) "A History of the Albany Free School and Community" (Chris Mercogliano); (20) "A School for Today" (Sudbury Valley School, Massachusetts) (Mimsy Sadofsky); (21) "A Wonder Story Told by a Young Tree" (Wondertree, British Columbia) (ilana cameron); (22) "Windsor House" (British Columbia) (Meghan Hughes, Jim Carrico); and (23) "Liberating Education" (the Small School, England) (Satish Kumar). A resource section lists 65 books, 6 readings on deschooling in music, 14 periodicals, and 23 networks and associations. (SV)