Pat farenga

Patrick Farenga is a writer, publisher, and education activist who worked closely with the late author and teacher John Holt and continues his work today as the president of HoltGWS LLC. After Holt died, Pat published Growing Without Schooling magazine (GWS) from 1985 until it stopped in 2001. GWS is the first periodical about learning without going to school, started by Holt in 1977. The Farenga unschooled their daughters, now aged 37, 34, and 30. 

Pat speaks as a homeschooling expert at education conferences around the world, as well as on commercial radio and television talk shows. He co-authored Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling and many articles about homeschooling and essays about unschooling in a number of publications, including the entries about homeschooling for the International Encyclopedia of Education, 3rd Edition (Elsevier, 2010) and the online edition of Encyclopedia Britannica (2012). His most recent work includes reprinting all 141 issues of Growing Without Schooling magazine (Volume 5 is due to come out in October 2023) and a new, revised edition of Teach Your Own (Hachette, 2021).

Other books I’ve written and published:

• The Legacy of John Holt: A Man Who Genuinely Understood, Trusted, and Respected Children (HoltGWS, 2013)
• Reporting Unschooling to School Officials (HoltGWS, 2015)

These books, my blog and articles, and all the articles and  books by John Holt that HoltGWS published after he died, are available on my website.

 I also have a Growing Without Schooling Facebook page.