Pat Farenga

About this Speaker

Patrick Farenga worked closely with the author and teacher John Holt until Holt’s death in 1985. He is the President of Holt Associates Inc. and was the Publisher of Growing Without Schooling magazine (GWS) from 1985 until it stopped publishing in Nov. 2001. GWS was the nation’s first periodical about homeschooling, started by Holt in 1977.

Farenga and his wife learn at home with their three girls, now ages 26, 23, and 19. In addition to writing for GWS for twenty years, Farenga has written many articles and book chapters about homeschooling for publications as diverse as Mothering magazine, Paths of Learning magazine, Home Education Magazine, The Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society, The Encyclopedia of School Administration and The International Encyclopaedia of Education, 3rd edition, 2010 .

Farenga has written Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling (Perseus) and The Beginner’s Guide to Homeschooling (Holt Associates); articles about homeschooling and democratic education (Encounter Magazine, Summer 2011); and essays about unschooling in a number of publications such as Un Mundo Por Aprender (University of Colombia, Bogota, 2011), and the entries about homeschooling for the International Encyclopedia of Education, 3rd Edition (Elsevier, 2010) and the online edition of Encyclopedia Britannica (2012, forthcoming).

Farenga also appears on local and national television and radio shows as a homeschooling expert; he has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox and Friends, Dr. Drew Pinsky, The Voice of America, NPR's The Merrow Report, Fox Across America, Geraldo-At-Large, and CNN's Parenting Today. Farenga has been quoted as an expert on homeschooling and unschooling many times in the national media. Farenga addresses audiences about homeschooling, unschooling and the work of John Holt throughout the United States, Ireland, Canada, Colombia, England, and Italy.