"Homeschooling," "deschooling," and "unschooling" are commonly used terms in the alternative-education world, but each lacks specificity. In this article, the author describes what he discovered during several visits to North Star. Known officially as North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens, it is not as…

Examines the educational beliefs of John Gatto, a former award-winning teacher, now author and lecturer, whose classroom experiences convinced him that public schools must go. He believes that public education dumbs down students, makes them morally incomplete, and extends childhood far beyond natural bounds. Gatto recommends that families take…

Describes the first college for home-schooled students, which requires that students adhere to a strict social code (including attendance at daily chapel services, a ban on alcohol, and limits on casual dating). An apprenticeship program during the junior and senior years revolves around writing policy papers on issues raised by politicians.…

Presents the story of how institutionalized racism prompted one African American couple to home school their three sons, who 10 years later, found themselves at Ivy League schools. The move to home schooling came after the boys were expelled from a mostly white, private school for what the parents insisted were racial reasons, asserting that skin…

Now a growing number of Texas homeschoolers want to send their children off to class, if only a few hours a day. But as in other states, not all educators in the Lone Star State think students should be able to select just a course or two. A bill that would have encouraged schools to offer classes on an a la carte basis failed for the third time…

This article profiles author and activist Grace Llewellyn and her cult classic book, "The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education." Llewellyn's book, which she published in 1991, created a controversy as it teaches kids everything from how to convince parents to let them leave school to how to…