Patrick Farenga; leading advocate of the modern homeschooling movement. See Growing Without Schooling:
"Rowe’s book is a call for parents to deschool themselves, ... Rowe doesn’t present many stories about children and learning, but instead focuses on our psychological and cultural assumptions about schooling and learning. Rowe explores how people learned before schooling became the only place for children to be during business hours, and how parents can use this knowledge to support self-taught or personally tutored learners today."
Olga T; Pedagogical Consultant:
"If you're looking for a read, search no more. Here's one that will you make your head spin and destabilize your core scheme regarding education."
Marc P; Teacher, Alternative Education advocate:
"I have really enjoyed reading M. Rowe’s book for many reasons. For those who are new to self-directed learning, unschooling and democratic schools, the book challenges many strongly held assumptions about schools and education in general. For those who have been involved in the movement around self-directed learning for many years, her book presents a new perspective from which to look at education and schooling. Indeed, over the years, many have written books on the topic from the perspectives of teachers and researchers, and to some extent, more recently, from the perspective of learners and not many have done it from the perspective of a parent. In that line of thought, Rowe revisits many topics that are of concerns to people involved in alternative education from her point of view as both a mother and an educational activist. In the book, she also delves into issues that, up until recently, had been less explored in the self-directed learning literature, such as the notion of learned helplessness, for instance. Moreover, many of her chapters help readers to rethink the consequences of different educational approaches for both society and children’s mental health. Her arguments are supported not only by her experience as a radical unschooling mother, her observations, but also by many studies and statistics that relates to both traditional schooling and self-directed learning."
