I read this book as a teenager! I was too inhibited to drop out and unschool, but I found the stories of other teenagers to be inspiring, and agreed with the analysis of conventional schooling posited in the book. ( )

I was hoping for more practical ideas and suggestions, but this was mostly essay style writing from the author's perspective from her teaching days. Not as helpful as I would have liked. ( )

Read it about 10 years ago. Thought it was great! ( )

Useful stuff in here, though the tone is pretty dated. I especially liked her concept of generalists as people who can draw connections between things. ( )

The Teenage Liberation Handbook is not for teenagers, nor is it a handbook. It cries out for an editor with a stack of red pens and/or a delete key. There are probably some good ideas and potentially some practical advice for teens and parents who are dissatisfied with their school experience and are looking for another answer--but these are buried in chapters and pages of unsubstantiated accusations, dismissive assessments of traditional schooling, and dozens of anecdotes from kids who love their new-found freedom.

The author claims she is writing for teenagers, but in fact, one of the problems with this 400+ page book is that its form and content are not targeted clearly enough. Very few readers, let alone teenagers, will wade through the first 120 densely-written and obviously unedited pages which essentially comprise a rant against public schools and traditional educational systems.

A handbook should have, IMHO, a clearly organized series of chapters with step-by-step helps for families who want to make an educational change. It should be clear, concise, and mostly unemotional. "Handbook" implies "how-to"--and yes, there are how-to's in this book; but its just not worth wading through the propaganda to get to it. ( )