Susannah Sheffer is an author, editor, and activist, focusing on issues of

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

s, and the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

. She is a leader in the

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 ...

deschooling Deschooling is a term invented by Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich. The word is mainly used by homeschoolers, especially unschoolers, to refer to the transition process that children and parents go through when they leave the school system in ord ...

, and

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 ...

movement. She served on the board of Holt Associates, edited the newsletter ''

Growing Without Schooling ''Growing Without Schooling'' (''GWS'') was a homeschooling newsletter focused primarily on unschooling and deschooling. It was founded in 1977 by educator John Holt,Scheffer, Susannah. "Doing something very different: Growing without schooling ...

'' (''GWS'') for many years, and edited the book A Life Worth Living: Selected Letters of John Holt. She is currently a staff member of North Star, an alternative to middle school and high school in

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. Her books include ''A Sense of Self: Listening to Homeschooled Adolescent Girls'', ''Writing Because We Love To: Homeschoolers at Work'', ''In a Dark Time: A Prisoner's Struggle for Healing and Change'', and ''Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experiences of Capital Defense Attorneys''. She has also published numerous articles, essays, and book chapters on related issues.

External links

Personal websiteSusannah Sheffer
on

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheffer, Susannah Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American education writers American activists