Grace Llewellyn on The Teenage Liberation Handbook, 3rd Edition

Off-Trail Learning

Grace Llewellyn is the author of The Teenage Liberation Handbook, the founder of Not Back to School Camp, a one-time middle school English teacher, and a luminary in the unschooling movement. In this episode we discuss the third (and final) edition of The Teenage Liberation Handbook, released in late 2021. Grace talks about writing the original book in 1991, how it became an underground classic, how her views on education (and her relationship to her 26-year-old voice) evolved over three decades, and how the book was updated for the 21st century. I had the pleasure and honor of serving as Grace’s editor for this project, and we also discuss our differing visions for the re-write. (Spoiler alert: hers won!) Find a copy of The Teenage Liberation Handbook wherever books are sold or by requesting one from your local library (make sure to ask for the third edition). Grace is also the author of Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School (2001, with Amy Silver), Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don't Go to School Tell Their Own Stories (2005), and Freedom Challenge: African American Homeschoolers (1996).