Organizations

Applied Research Center is a public policy, educational and research institute whose work emphasizes issues of race and social change. Two ARC projects include: 1) The Action Education Initiative, a national program which works with community organizations to integrate popular education into their community organizing practice in order to enhance their capacity to engage in strategic analysis, alliances and action to promote social justice. 2) The ERASE Initiative, a national program which challenges racism in public schools and promotes racial justice and academic excellence for all students.

Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) is a non-profit organization founded in 1989 to advance learner-centered approaches to education. AERO is considered by many to be the primary hub of communications for educational alternatives around the world. The site includes job and internship postings, message boards, searchable databases, links to many other important sites. http://www.educationrevolution.org/

Autodidactic Press is the publisher of books including "Self-University: The Price of Tuition is the Desire to Learn. Your Degree is a Better life." This site is packed with everything from info about Self University Week celebrations to a bookstore of relevant reading, a "books that change lives" list, distance learning and online training links, and a self-educator profiles section. You can also sign up for their life long learners newsletter.

Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of afterschool programs and advocating for quality, affordable programs for all children. It is supported by a group of public, private and nonprofit organizations that share the Alliance's vision of ensuring that all children have access to afterschool programs by 2010. The Alliance was created to conduct public awareness and advocacy work and to serve as a national voice for Afterschool programs. afterschoolaliance.org

Albany Free School is a truly unique place for learning. They say, "There are not any tests or grades either, because we have discovered by trial and error over the years that learning happens best when it happens for its own sake. Again and again, our experience has confirmed that a child's innate desire to learn is a far more powerful motivating force than any external reward - or threat." The Albany Free School / 8 Elm Street / Albany, NY 12202 (518) 434-3072 / http://www.albanyfreeschool.com/

All City is a network of student and youth run alternative institutions and educational communities which use the method of popular education.
Popular education is simply education for the people. It is based in the ideas of reflection, to understand the world, and action, to change it. It starts with the experiences of the participants– to give us a voice. Through collectively analyzing and exploring our situation, we can understand and get at the root cause of the problems we face. Most importantly, this is a process which can help us to organize our ideas so we can act upon the world to change it.
Our goal is to create a community and environment of people and programs that empower people to create and take control of their lives. Building these spaces is a step towards creating our own autonomous institutions which actually serve students and youth in the city– and the oppressed communities of NYC for which real education is denied. allcitynyc.org

Brooklyn Free School is a grassroots movement formed in the summer and early fall of 2003 with the goal of offering a true educational alternative to the traditional orthodoxy of education now dominant in most public and private schools in this city, the Brooklyn Free School is composed entirely of parents, educators and others who believe that freedom and democracy are not just textbook concepts, but a way of living and learning—for our children as well as ourselves. The Brooklyn Free School is dedicated to the belief that all students must be free to develop naturally as human beings in a non-coercive educational environment and empowered to make decisions affecting their everyday lives and that of their community. For general information or information regarding admissions, call Alan Berger at (917) 715-7157 or e-mail

Urban Word ignited to youth spoken word and poetry scene in New York City when it was established in partnership with Teachers & Writers Collaborative in 1999. Since then, Urban Word NYC has provided thousands of New York City teenagers with free, safe, ongoing, and uncensored writing and performance opportunities including hip-hop poetry workshops, journalism opportunities, and an annual teen poetry slam. http://www.urbanwordnyc.org/

Books and Zines

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get A Real Life and Education by Grace Llewellyn
Grace Llewellyn was an English teacher who go tired of all the standards and tests she had to put her students through, so she quit her job and wrote this book about home schooling, or what she calls “unschooling”. The book starts with ways to make the transition from school to self-education, including talking to your parents, sorting out legalities, and the question of college. It then offers tons of creative hands-on suggestions for piecing together your own personalized education, covering writing, literature, the art, math, science, anthropology, and more. This book is highly recommended for anyone who loves to learn but hates sitting in a classroom all day.

Freedom Challenge: African American Homeschoolers by Grace Llewellyn
This book has essays by parents, teachers, and children discussing how parents can be allies in their children’s education, how kids can direct their own learning, and numerous other topics. This book is full of ideas on how families – Black families in particular – can take control over their education by doing everything from growing plants to building robots.

Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution by Derrick Jensen
Derrick Jensen presents a piercing criticism of American “industrial” education. Hey says that the term education comes from the Latin word meaning “to draw out” and discusses how he tries to draw out the potential and individuality of his students, whether they are inmates or college students.

Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks
Bell hooks is a brilliant black feminist thinker who also writes about education, asking difficult questions such as “What do we do about teachers who do not want to teach, and students who so not want to learn? How should we deal with racism and sexism in the classroom?” This book is intellectual, but clearly written and free of jargon. Also check out Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope, and anything else she’s written.

The Self-Directed Learning Handbook by Maurice Gibbons
While this book was technically written for teachers and principals, there’s no reason why students and youth can’t use it too. The idea is to give students as much control as possible over how and what they learn though independent studies, projects, artistic presentations, community fieldwork, and apprenticeships. Besides coming up with a learning plan, students figure out how they will evaluate their work. This is an interesting and practical book with lots of appendices and resources in the back.

This Way Out: How to Get out of School and on with Your Life is a zine written by Self Education Foundation board members Emily Nepon and Sara Zia Ebrahimi in 1999. The zine is still relevant today, featuring interviews with successful self-educators who don't fit the traditional homeschooling model and answers to some common concerns about quitting school (this section can be found online.). This Way Out is now being distributed by the fabulous Jessica Champion of Arcade Distro, who only seeks a couple of stamps as payment and will send free to prisoners.