Grace's newest book coaches parents who want to support kids (preschool through 18 and beyond) in meaningful learning. It also helps youth better understand their own needs and draw out support from adults. It's especially helpful for  people not yet familiar with radical education ideas. And, it shows concerned parents how to work within the school system rather than telling them the only option is to homeschool.

Amy Silver is a truly exemplary parent who has raised a bunch of humans--foster kids, step-kids, her own kids. They've unschooled, public schooled, Waldorf schooled, and co-op schooled.  She's also a top-notch parenting skills teacher. 

For Grace's bio, click here.

To buy online, or to buy but not online, click here.
For reviews, click here. 
For a short excerpt, click here.
For the back cover copy, click here.

Reviews

A new school year is a lot like New Year's Day; it offers the chance to wipe the slate clean and make a fresh start, the chance to move ahead in new and productive ways and the chance to work harder and do better than you did the year before. If you've made a new school year "resolution" to help your child succeed in school this fall, you'll need to some homework. Here is a new book to put in your backpack before the first bell rings....In Guerilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School, Grace Llewellyn and Amy Silver focus on homeschooling, or education outside the traditional classroom, but they too contend that when adults embrace life with wonder and excitement, the children observing them as role models will be more likely to as well. Guerilla Learning means "taking responsibility for your own education" and supporting your children as they learn to do the same." 

-BookPage, August 2001

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Useful for parents and teachers alike, this valuable book closely examines how young people learn and illuminates its practical advice with many stories that make for both insightful and enjoyable learning. Whatever schooling venue parents choose, this book will help them instill a lifelong love of learning in their children. 

-Library Journal, September 2001

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Empowers [parents] with skillful tools to help their kids develop their natural genius and engage in learning at its best: through inquiry, enthusiasm, and passionate engagement with self, others, and the world!

-Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., author of 
Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, Awakening Your Child's Natural Genius, In Their Own Way, and The Myth of the A.D.D. Child. 

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A big-hearted book of important ideas. Be prepared to have your eyes opened to secrets the classroom hasn't learned!

-John Taylor Gatto, New York State Teacher of the Year, 1991, 
New York City Teacher of the Year, 1989-1991, 
author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling 
and The Underground History of American Education 

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One of the most important books yet written on education and our current school-child crisis.

-Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of Magical Child.  

From Guerrilla Learning:

Then again, in our developing post-industrial, entrepreneurial society, Guerrilla Learners just might outperform those conventional winners in the long run. In fact, a recent study exploded the time-honored myth that going to an Ivy League school instead of an ordinary college gets you more money and a better job in the end. The authors concluded, in part, that "students who attend elite colleges would probably end up with greater earnings capacity regardless of where they attend school," because successful applicants tend to have more discipline, ambition, imagination, maturity, and other characteristics that are rewarded with financial success. In other words, students create their success and make the schools look good. Students with similar characteristics who went to ordinary colleges do just as well in life, probably because at most colleges, students can get a good education if they try. "Companies prefer the competent  from Podunk to the incompetent from Princeton," writes Robert Samuelson in the Washington Post, reporting on the study.  

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Guerrilla Learning is telling your son it's okay for him to focus on physics (or history, or engine repair) class, even if that means letting history (or physics, or engine repair) slide. It's staying up till midnight helping your kids care for an orphaned bird. It's asking your neighbors if they'd let your daughter play their piano a few hours each week. It's telling your stressed-out son that there's no rush; he doesn't need to start college right after graduating from high school (or learn to read by the end of first grade, or keep up with his friends' computer expertise, or learn to drive next summer). Or allowing your sixteen-year-old daughter to start college now, if she feels she's ready. Or letting her ride her bicycle from Virginia to a summer camp in Oregon. It's trusting your kids, trusting the universe: the sky will not fall if your son doesn't take Advanced Placement courses or if your daughter doesn't belong to the National Honor Society. And Guerrilla Learning is relaxing--knowing that you've made a lot of mistakes as a parent (and an educator) and that you'll make a lot more, and that that's okay--your kids are resilient; it's not all up to you, and life will provide.

In a nutshell, Guerrilla Learning means taking responsibility for your own education. For young people, that includes thinking clearly and seriously about one's own goals, interests, and values--then acting accordingly. For parents, it means supporting your child in doing so. It might mean giving your child a kind of freedom that may seem risky or even crazy at first. And it also means continuing your own involvement in the world of ideas and culture, continuing to read, to think, to discuss, and to create--and being a walking, talking invitation to your kids to do the same. In this chapter we'll begin to describe conditions that can help learners to take responsibility for their own educations. 

 

the back cover says:

GUERRILLA LEARNING IS CREATING A HOME ENVIRONMENT THAT FILLS YOUR CHILD WITH THE JOY OF LEARNING

Let your daughter read her library books instead of finishing her homework  Ask your eleven-year-old's beloved third grade teacher to comment on his poetry. Invite a massage therapist to dinner because your daughter wants to go to massage school instead of college. Give your child the freedom to pursue his interests, develop her strengths, cultivate self-discipline, and discover the joy of learning throughout life.

If you've ever felt that your child wasn't flourishing in school or simply needs something the professionals aren't supplying, you're ready to become a "guerrilla educator." Revolutionary and inspiring, Guerrilla Learning explains what's wrong (and what's useful) about our traditional schools and shows you how to take charge of your family's education to raise thinking, creative young people despite the constraints of traditional schooling.

Filled with fun and exciting exercises and projects to do with children of all ages, this remarkable approach to childhood, education, and life will help you release your child's innate abilities and empower him or her in the wider world that awaits beyond the school walls.