Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?: the case for helping them leave, chart their own paths, and prepare for adulthood at their own pace

by Blake Boles

Overview

For some kids, school offers a positive and engaging experience. For others, it's a boring, stressful, and frustrating waste of time. If your child is in the second category, why keep tormenting them? Instead, why not help them find an educational environment where they feel genuinely motivated, excited, and empowered?

In this eye-opening book, Blake Boles makes the case for leaving conventional school and taking one of the many alternative paths through K-12 that exist today. He addresses parents' major concerns about unconventional education -- Can my kids still go to college? Will they still be employable? How will they learn to work hard? -- while highlighting the hidden benefits of self-directed learning, such as improved parent-child relationships, a more balanced decision-making process regarding college, and a heightened sense of autonomy and connection.

Drawing upon 15 years of work as a mentor and guide for adolescents in alternative and experiential learning environments -- as well as his own unconventional life path -- Boles weaves together narrative, theory, and research to build a powerful argument for granting children unusual levels of freedom and responsibility.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780986011979
Publisher:	Tells Peak Press
Publication date:	05/07/2020
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Blake Boles is a writer, speaker, adventurer, and advocate for self-directed learning. He has spent more than a decade working with unconventionally educated teenagers through the trip-leading company he founded, Unschool Adventures. Originally from California, Blake has lived and traveled across the world. His previous books include The Art of Self-Directed Learning, Better Than College, and College Without High School, and his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Psychology Today, Fox Business, USA Today, NPR affiliate radio, and the blogs of Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He was born in 1982. Visit blakeboles.com to follow Blake's work and adventures.

Table of Contents

An Invitation to Connect

Introduction

• Where We'll Go in This Book
• A Note About Privilege
• Why Do Schools Exist
• Fellow Travelers
• We, the Barbarians
• Notes

1: High-quality Alternatives Exist

• A Few Brief Stories
• Defining Conventionality
• Engagement, Boredom, and Stress
• Progressive and Experiential Schools
• Virtual and Hybrid Schools
• Homeschooling
• Defining Unconventionality
• Sudbury, Agile Learning Centers, and Liberated Learners
• Unschooling
• Making the Leap
• Notes

2: They Still Go to College and Get Good Jobs

• "But Does it Work?"
• How They Do in College
• How They Get into College
• How They Get into Highly Selective Colleges
• How They Find Economic Security
• Notes

3: They Still Learn to Work Hard

• Must We Do Work We Hate?
• To Play Forever and Ever
• To Work Forever and Ever
• Worthless Kids
• The Double Bind
• A Portrait of the Author as a Young Gamer
• The Work of Gaming
• The Magic of Intrinsic Motivation
• How to Engage a Teenager
• Notes

4: You Have Less Control Than You Think

• Welcome to the Minefield
• Parenting in the Twenty-First Century
• Meet Judith Rich Harris
• The Nurture Assumption
• Picking Peers
• Browsing and Hanging Out, Reconsidered
• Eyes on the Prize
• Notes

5: You Can Afford to Relax About College

• Our Secular Religion
• What a Degree is Really Worth
• How to Give Up $35,000 a Year
• The Inestimable Value of College
• Putting it All Together
• Self-Directed Signaling
• Notes

6: All They Want is Connection

• What I Learned at Not Back to School Camp
• The Kids Aren't Alright
• Meet Johann Hari
• Six Connections
• In the End
• Notes

Coda

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

"This amazing book will give you the courage to think seriously about giving your child a more authentic, playful, and joyful learning journey. It cracked my imagination wide open and convinced me that something radically different is not only possible, it's necessary. Everything you need to create a better future for your child, by making every day better right now, is inside these pages."
-Jane McGonigal, New York Times bestselling author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World

"Blake Boles is back with another provocative challenge to parents and guardians. If mainstream schooling isn't working for your child, maybe it's time to consider the alternatives. Yes, your kids can still go to college, And, yes, they can have a conventionally successful career. However, once families step out of the traditional education box, they never know where the path might lead."
-Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of Drive, When, and A Whole New Mind

"There is so much goodness is this powerful, game-changing book! The message (like the title) is bold, and yet Blake's writing is always thoughtful and nuanced. He offers heaps of friendly guidance and lays out the relevant research with clarity and discernment. Without stooping to hyperbole or manipulation, Blake will have parents wondering why, indeed, they are still sending their kids to school. Better yet, he'll help them drop unnecessary stress and worry-and help their kids find meaningful, engaged, and joyful paths through life."
-Grace Llewellyn, author of The Teenage Liberation Handbook

"Blake's new book is a major contribution to the growing understanding of Self-Directed Education. It addresses, straight on, in thoughtful, respectful, and compelling ways the major concerns parents have when they think about the possibility of this approach to education for their children. If you care about children and the future, read this!"
-Peter Gray, Research Professor at Boston College and author of Free to Learn

"This book will push you, provoke you, and quite possibly inspire you to rethink every core assumption you hold about education. Be prepared to open your eyes to radically different ways of preparing kids for radically different forms of 'success.'"
-Ted Dintersmith, author of What School Could Be and producer of Most Likely to Succeed

"A thoughtful, powerful look at the generous act of trusting your kids enough to let them find their own educational rhythm. School and learning are different, and what we need for our future is a focus on more learning and less test-taking."
-Seth Godin, author of Stop Stealing Dreams

"Kids don't need school; they need space to explore and time to think. This book will show you how to give your kids a real education by encouraging them to discover their interests instead of merely following someone else's directions."
-Penelope Trunk, serial entrepreneur and writer @ penelopetrunk.com

"Blake Boles offers a stimulating and important perspective on improving the well-being of young people everywhere."
-Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections

From the Publisher