Peter Kowalke (born February 6, 1979) is an American

unschooling Unschooling is a practice of self-driven informal learning characterized by a lesson-free and curriculum-free implementation of homeschooling. Unschooling encourages exploration of activities initiated by the children themselves, under th ...

advocate best known for his work on grown homeschoolers and the lasting influence of

homeschooling Homeschooling or home schooling (American English), also known as home education or elective home education (EHE) (British English), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted ...

. He was one of the first authors to explore the lasting influence that homeschooling has on a person in terms of identity, and produced a large body of work on the topic from 1994 until 2013, after which he stepped back from the homeschooling community to focus on contextualizing the Indian Advaita Vedanta philosophy for American culture. During his years as a homeschooling advocate, Kowalke was a columnist and writer on grown homeschooler issues for
Home Education Magazine
' (1997-2002),
Life Learning magazine
' (2004-2008) and
Home Educator’s Family Times
' (2004-2006). He spoke regularly at homeschooling conferences in the U.S. and abroad, and later started The Unschooler Experiment (2010-2013), a web magazine and podcast for unschoolers, by unschoolers. Kowalke also worked for pioneering homeschooling umbrella school, Clonlara (2003-2004), and Indian homeschooling advocates, Shikshantar Andolan (2004-2005). He himself was homeschooled until college. His most notable work in the homeschooling community was his 2001 documentary, '' Grown Without Schooling'' (2001), the first documentary about grown homeschoolers and only the second documentary ever made about homeschooling (the first being Inventing a Girl. The documentary was roundly praised in the homeschooling community for its accurate but sometimes unvarnished look at what it means to grow up outside of the school system. The documentary drew strong praise from many of the leading home education personalities of the day, including Teenage Liberation Handbook author, Grace Llewellyn, prolific education author, Linda Dobson, and former Growing Without Schooling magazine editor, Susannah Sheffer. Former publisher Holt Associates publisher and homeschooling speaker,

Pat Farenga Patrick Farenga is an American writer and educational activist. He is known as a leading advocate of the modern homeschooling movement which started in the 1970s. Life Born in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), i ...

, used clips from the documentary in his talks for many years after the film made its debut. Major media outlets such as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'',

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

, and

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

have interviewed Kowalke for his work on homeschooling.

Notes

External links

Home Education Magazine

Home Educator's Family Times

Grown Without Schooling Documentary

Life Learning Magazine
*
Shikshantar Andolan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kowalke, Peter 1979 births Living people Homeschooling advocates American education writers Advocates of unschooling and homeschooling Writers from New York City